Watchmen: Hardcover Edition
By Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons (DC Comics)

Whenever a new comic book-inspired movie is a big hit, comic book stores report that sales of that hero’s books often spike. Which is why, this past summer, books by Batman, Iron Man, and The Hulk did brisk business. But so too did another comic, one that won’t be seen on the big screen until March of next year, but got a bump nonetheless when its trailer appeared both online and at the San Diego Comic Con: Watchmen, the groundbreaking 1986/86 graphic novel by writer Alan Moore (From Hell, V for Vendetta) and artist Dave Gibbons (Give Me Liberty, Captain America). Though this book has often been called “unfilmable,” and not just by Moore, the rather impressive trailer got enough fans so excited that the book started flying off store shelves.

The Other Israel Film Festival

Just as the vision of the Statue of Liberty once sent electrical shocks of joy through immigrants eying the emerald lady for the very first time, Zabar’s now exhilarates lox lovers on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

This unrivaled, landmark deli, with its hypnotic selection of cheeses, bagels, imported coffees, caviar, olive oil, blenders, and potholders, not unexpectedly has a queen. And as queens are wont to do, this feisty czarina of the rugelach has projects of her own that reside outside of her expected realm.

The critics were not kind to the new Broadway musical version of the Charles Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities. Reviews ranged from mixed (critics referring to the novel’s famous first lines in saying the musical wasn’t the best of shows, but wasn’t the worst either) to harsh. While Tale certainly recalls shows such as Les Miserables and does not break any new ground, for me, at least, it tells a great story in a compelling, atmospheric, and dramatic fashion. Some critics feel that the era of epic musicals is past. But if the audience is given a good production of a strong story, I don’t see any problem with that.

Like a deck of demented cards, Zombie Joe reveals his latest creation at The Players Theatre, masterfully tainting old MacDougal Street with all sorts of blood, guts, and gore. Whatever your secret nightmares may be, Zombie Joe’s Underground has something to unleash for your vicious fantasies.

Presented as a night of horrific scenes and personified fears, Urban Death was the perfect way to usher in the ghosts and demons of All Hallow’s Eve and remains relevant for the horror that the upcoming holiday season can bring.

Virtuosity comes with its own perils. Compound that with prodigy, and you're in some tricky waters. Too often flash substitutes for feeling, spectacle for connection, hoopla for art. Twenty-six-year-old Hungarian pianist Adam Gyorgy flirted with all of the above at his recent Carnegie Hall recital, but, happily, the marks of a true artist won out.

His chops are amazing, and we got fireworks galore, barn burners such as Liszt's Rhapsody No. 2 delivered with articulate aplomb.

Modernist thinking reaches new levels in the recent paintings of Ron Gorchov. Working within a time-tested format of the concave and rounded, saddle-shaped canvas, Gorchov paints and over paints until his uneven colors and curious shapes echo forward and back. In viewing these works, you may think you see a positive form, then the space around that object or thing moves forward and that original thought recedes like a mirage - it's a mental play between perception and pre-thought. And it is also about the structure behind the surface, where angled, curved stretchers pull the taut, frontally stapled linen tight like a drum -- a surface for the artist to work his colors, often to a very thin, drippy consistency.

Some movies unfurl slowly. The characters draw you in and then gradually reveal themselves, allowing the audience to see, feel, and breathe their world through their point of view, regardless of how ugly or boring it may be. The indie movie Eden (Liberation Entertainment) is one such movie.

Irish director Declan Recks expertly adapts writer Eugene O'Brien's award-winning play about a marriage teetering on the brink of extinction while exposing the tedium and underlying staleness that many couples experience after growing too comfortable with each other.

It’s been said that the 20th century belonged to the West, and particularly to the United States of America, while the 21st century will belong to Asia, particularly China. If this is indeed the case - and it seems likely - then we of the falling-off empire need to know more about the Eastern world on many levels. Art is certainly one window into these Asian cultures. Right now at BAM’s 2008 Next Wave Festival one can experience a stunning theatrical work from Taiwan, Meeting with Bodhisattva.

The U Theatre, directed by Liu Ruo-Yu, presents - through movement, drumming, vocal sounds, and ritual - a compelling 80-minute performance marked by commitment, discipline, and synchronization.

Enrico Pieranunzi at Birdland with Steve Swallow and Paul Motian
October 29, 2008

Enrico Pieranunzi, who will turn 59 in five weeks, is an Italian jazz pianist of formidable and varied talents. The Musica Jazz critic’s poll named him Musician of the Year in 1989 and 2003, and in 1997 he received the Django d’Or Award as best European jazz musician. But given the record industry’s lack of interest in jazz and Americans’ lack of interest in jazz artists from other countries, his career has not received the attention it deserves.

Icelandic theater director Gisli Orn Gardarsson has brought a very dark, very disturbing production of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck to BAM’s 2008 Next Wave Festival. Of course Woyzeck, written in German in 1836, assembled after the author’s death, published in 1879, and first staged in 1913, is a famously brooding work, considered by many the first truly modernist play. In 25 or so short scenes depicting a kind of everyman’s destruction, Büchner captured the abysmal state of poverty and powerlessness experienced by many in his time. But this weird, expressionistic narrative of dominance, cruelty, jealousy, and betrayal has continued to seem relevant.

Dandy in the Underworld
by Sebastian Horsely (Sceptre)

Some books make promises they fail to keep, drawing the reader into a disappointing experience that, like many affairs, should have been abandoned long before the bitter end. Sebastian Horsley has created such a piece of literary malpractice. Dandy in the Underworld begins like a more modern Naked Civil Servant, a book which it constantly references to the point of laziness and theft, but hasn't the intellect to better.

Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia
The Sound of Philadelphia: Gamble & Huff’s Greatest Hits
Conquer the World: The Lost Soul of Philadelphia International Records
Patti LaBelle: The Essential Patti LaBelle
Patti LaBelle: Live in Washington, D.C.
The O’Jays: The Essential O’Jays
The O’Jays: Back Stabbers
Teddy Pendergrass: Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass: Life Is a Song Worth Singing

“Tame!” - Bill Henson at Robert Miller Gallery

After Australian photographer Bill Henson’s recent show in his homeland in which images of naked adolescents were seized from the wall and the show was shut down, I was expecting a controversial reception here in New York. With our economy in shatters, no one put up a fuss. But why should they? This show is a beautiful, formal exhibit of powerful and pleasing images. There is nothing shocking or offensive. Instead it is a show of a mature artist presenting well-crafted and sensuous photographs.

When will we get it right? When will we allow for the discourse to set in? When will we see that the rules don't apply anymore? The world is vast but the internet is faster. And you can be at two places at one time; or three and four with Skype or iChat. I've been preaching for the past three years that podcasting has leveled the playing field with the media giants. Digital content is streaming everywhere. And if you have a grand idea, people will find your binary code and bring it to their laptop, desktop, or mobile device. Matt the "Dancing Guy" did it. Senator Obama did it with fundraising; the most successful presidential fundraiser ever. Ricky Gervais did it with his podcast, the most successful ever. And Culture Catch is doing it with our brand of Smart Culture.