Year Dispactké2004                                                           p. 3



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Cinéastes de Notre Temps: John Cassavetes
by André S. Labarthe and Hubert Knapp


This 1968 episode of the vanguard French television show “Cinéastes de notre temps” followed Cassavetes and his crew around LA as they plotted and struggled to make the seminal Faces. The show was recently unearthed and included with the new Criterion re-master of Faces. This lost piece of cinematic history shows Cassavetes as the acute, lucid visionary he was. As part of the amazing five-film box set of re-mastered Cassavetes films (Shadows, Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night, and A Woman Under the Influence also), it is an amazing document of a master discussing his craft and the world he lives in. Cassavetes was not only a creative revolutionary but a social one also, as these frank discussions with him at his house, in the studio, on whimsical drives through mid-60s LA and Paris make perfectly clear. There was once a different America, folks.


Velvet Valentine Designs
I scored one of Valentine’s intricately crafted vintage art ties at the WEAR collective’s holiday shindig in December. Velvet’s work is not only über hip but conceptually invigorating—full of calligraphic scrawls and re-contextualized materials. Performance art through patching and stitching. Actually makes one believe in that mirage called fashion.
The Corporation by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott & Joel Bakan
 
Devastating documentary about the philosophy behind and ramifications of “corporations” historically and in modern societies from the makers of the seminal Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and The Media. This may well be the most terrifying film I have ever viewed, I kid you not. I haven’t been this frightened, angry, and outright shocked by a film since that Henry Kissinger doc a couple of years back, and probably tenfold so here.

Restaurants Haunts (a la recession)
Snacky —my hideout on Grand St. in Williamsburg: a Japanese & Asian tapas, kitchy toy tricket, and Asian video paradise, with killer sake.

Oasis—I used to laugh at most places off the Bedford stop until I got hip to this Palestinian falafel spot. The kebabs—shawarma, grilled taouk chicken and the like, are superb, as are the traditional dishes like babaghanouj and mousakah eggplant. They have these vegetarian pita dishes (Zaater) spread with exotic herbs and whatnot that are killer too. Although they’ve slowly raised prices from being initially downright cheap to presently a little above the market norm Oasis is really so good there is no other place in New York that comes close to touching them from a food standpoint other than the equally superb Kebab House II on the Lower East Side.

Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches—this tiny shop in the East Village serves fresh Vietnamese sandwiches with the diced carrot, cucumber, jalapeño, and cilantro toppings, with either roasted chicken, Portobello mushroom, or vegetarian filling. And even though they make them for downtown Anglos the sandwiches are just as cheap and delicious as the ultra traditional Vietnamese spots in Chinatown.

Manna’s Soul Food & Salad Bar—is it cheating to speak of Manna’s again? In that they’ve opened one up on the Bushwick/Williamsburg border a hop, skip, and a jump from my loft and I’m always there I feel I must. Sometimes I roll in on Sunday evenings along with the post-church crowd dressed in their Sunday best. It is very un-vegetarian of me but I’m all about the tender beef and gravy, insanely flavorful turkey, and roasted salmon. Jamaican rice, collard greens, macaroni & cheese, spinach salad, sliced Mango. Aretha playing over the loudspeakers, soul heaven.

4 Course Vegan—thank god Chef Matteo Silverman has moved this dining extravaganza in his loft from every Sunday to Saturday nights. I ceased being able to attend on Sundays working Moto but intend to be back in the fold. Of course I am not vegetarian, but the vegan dishes Chef Matteo concocts are so inventive and sumptuous that one has to experience them. Each week a new group of individuals (and some regulars) gather for a four-course meal that is wonderful. The experience is always enlightening from a culinary perspective, and the company great.

Grand Café—Israeli café with a killer brunch (and I don’t do brunch): a Moroccan style egg dish (similar to huevos rancheros) with hummus and that thick, flaky grilled pita, Burekas sandwiches, and Malawah with fresh crushed tomatoes and spicy Zahug sauce. Very tasty cuisine that is intriguing in that I first encountered similar dishes at Middle Eastern restaurants though here unique interpretations, of what “indigenous” lineage who knows. Food knows no barriers, by nature multicultural.
Saved! by Brian Dannelly
Really good films about teenagers are hard to come by, as are films about religion. Dannelly’s independent film manages both, and though it reaches a silly climax, like studio films, it is moving nonetheless.

A Panther’s Prose @ Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe
In November “Nigerian Warrior” poet & dancer Yvonne O2 Etaghene presented a night of raw poetry with a little hip-hop and soul-folk music thrown in the mix: Project Lumens, Crystal Clarity (awesome), Akua from Arizona, and angel songstress Sparlha Swa. Real, eloquent, sweet, & raw.

The Internationalist by Anne Washburn
True, forward thinking theater by a talented team of dramaturges. The series of productions this collection of playwrights, dubbing themselves “13P,” have conceived over a 7 year period is probably one of the few models by which rich, compelling theater might be made these days. This production, 13P #1, used the basement space at the Bleeker Theater to imaginative effect. So-called “experimental” theater can indeed be entertaining and dramatically stimulating.
Los Angeles Plays Itself by Thom Andersen
An elegiac paean to a love of movies and both the physicality and spiritual architecture of the commonwealth of Los Angeles, as represented in film from the dawn of the medium.
Made me actually reconsider my opinion of the city and want to perhaps truly discover it.
Tall Buildings @ MoMA Qns
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Year Dispactké2004                                                           p. 3