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To Rome with Love
Woody Allen’s cinematic tour of Europe, having taken us to London, Barcelona and Paris, now sets down in Rome. There’s an obvious Fellini tribute in how the movie is framed, à la Roma, with a Roman traffic cop (a thankless job if ever there was one) delivering opening and closing paeans to the city. But the…
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Peace, Love & Misunderstanding
I enjoyed the Hudson Valley and Catskills settings of PEACE, LOVE & MISUNDERSTANDING, where I used to spend a lot of time, and which have a picturesque charm. They also seem a little frozen in time, even as they have become more crowded, with the ’60s living on in the iconography of Woodstock and a…
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Summer of Reisling
Since attending the SUMMER OF REISLING dinner at Corkbuzz on Monday evening I have stood corrected on the subject of Rieslings, which I have always regarded as a light, non-serious white, and usually a little too sweet, although refreshing enough as a summer accompaniment. Now I know courtesy of sommelier Laura Maniec and Reisling enthusiast…
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Tangolandó
We all know, or think we know, what tango is, and TANGOLANDÓ, just out as a digital release, has some of the best tango singing by one of the best New York based Argentinian artists, Sofía Tosello. Fewer of us know what landó is: it is a driving Afro-Peruvian rhythm that is instantly recognizable once…
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Spaghetti Western Festival
A Spaghetti Western Festival at Film Forum? I am SO in. I started with THE BIG GUNDOWN, which I had never seen, and that contains the memorable line: “In America being quick on the draw is more important than precise shooting,” and am looking forward to hour after hour of sweaty gunmen, ambiguous heroes, some…
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Damsels in Distress • Lola Versus
I have enjoyed Whit Stillman’s deadpan social satire over the years, and I think Greta Gerwig is just great, and I liked Analeigh Tipton a lot in this, and I love the insular charm of college campuses, and I wanted to like DAMSELS IN DISTRESS for all of those reasons, and, well, I didn’t quite,…
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Tutuma Social Club
The Tutuma Social Club has always been at the top of my list for out-of-town visitors and any in-towners who haven’t discovered it on their own yet, especially on a night when the house band was playing. If the Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet isn’t the best jazz band you’ve never heard of, then it may…
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Lara Bello
The Spanish singer Lara Bello is one of the more inventive artists I have encountered in New York. Her album Niña Pez was an amalgam of jazz, singer-songwriter folk, flamenco, alternative rock and Middle Eastern vocals. In the title figure she created a sort of alter ego for her own persona. Bello is a storyteller,…
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Nathalie Pires
The basement “tavern” in the Portuguese restaurant Alfama is the only place I know in New York where you can go on a weekly basis, Wednesdays at 8pm, to hear fado. I made a point of going on the occasion of the restaurant’s one-year anniversary at its current location. The distinctive lilting melodies, which have…
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Tango Conspiracy
On a late Wednesday night in the Malbec Room at Novecento, I listened for the first time to Tango Conspiracy, a band fronted by the guitarist-singer Jimena Fama whose music is self-described as “Electro Dub,” “Funk,” “Tango,” “Lounge,” and “Bassa Nova.” My prejudices for dancing tango bend toward the traditional repertory, but I must say…