HubArts.com

James Taylor, Carole King add Tanglewood show

That's right. James Taylor and Carole King have added a third Tanglewood show on July 5, since the July 3 and 4 shows have already sold out. It's both a more pleasant venue and, in some cases anyway, a cheaper ticket than their two shows at TD Garden. Lawn tix for the July 5 show, on sale now, are just $24 at www.tanglewood.org  or 617-266-1200 or 888-266-1200. But if you want to sit in the shed and actually see them, you have to click to Taylor's web site for more info.

Coolidge Corner to honor Jonathan Demme

The Coolidge Corner Theatre will honor director Jonathan Demme with the 2010 Coolidge Award.  Demme will visit  Brookline for the festivities on March 1-2, and the theater will screen a bunch of his films,  including "The Silence of the Lambs," for which he won the Oscar. Demme's other works include the Talking Heads concert film "Stop Making Sense," the recent "Rachel Getting Married" (which offered a great role to 2010 Hasty Pudding gal Anne Hathaway) and the new "Neil Young Trunk Show." Programs during his time here include screenings of "NYTS" and his great early "Melvin and Howard," with Demme (and cast members of the latter) on hand for q&a, as well as a benefit screening of his 2003 "The Agronomist" for Haitian relief.

In addition to all this high-minded stuff, the Coolidge will host midnight screenings of two beauts from Demme's days working for Roger Corman, "Crazy Mama" and "Caged Heat." Advance tickets to all Coolidge Award events and retrospective screenings can be purchased online at www.coolidge.org/awardnews  or at the box office.  For more information, hit the web site or call 617/734-2501, ext. 113.

New England Art Awards are what's Cookin'

If Leno can do a Super Bowl ad with Letterman, than I can certainly do this: Kudos to Greg Cook of The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research on tonight's second annual new England Art Awards. I was one of the 1,880 people who voted - if the Boston Police Department wins a public art award for busting Shepard Fairey on the way into his gala, I'll feel satisfied. The festivities are at the Burren tonight, and, well, here's what Greg says in inviting you:

More than 1,880 people have voted in the 2009 New England Art Awards. Now the winners will be announced at the New England Art Awards Ball at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, 2010, at the Burren, 247 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts. As if that weren’t enticing enough, the terrific Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band  of Cambridge, Massachusetts, will open the ceremony. And you are invited! Admission is free and all are welcome. Creative attire is encouraged. As are giant foam hand cheering mitts.

Robert Pinsky: The jazzman's signifying

Former U.S. poet laureate and Boston University Professor Robert Pinsky seems to be really getting into this jazz thing, not to put too fine a point on it. Monday he'll join singer, saxophonist and flutist Stan Strickland with John Lockwood on bass, and Rob Moses on drums in an unusual performance of the Stan Strickland Quartet. According to Strickland, "We will be weaving Robert's poetry with melodies from the great masters and rhythms, roots at the heart of all jazz.”  Doors open at 7:00pm, show starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15, or $10 for Arsenal members and students with valid ID. Click arsenalarts.org or call 617-923-8487.

And at Regattabar on March 5, he'll be featured in "Poetry & Jazz & Sagov & Pinsky," at 7:30 and 10, reading his poems with accompaniment by pianist/bandleader Stanley Sagov and the Remembering The Future Jazz Band.  Tickets are $24 for the early show and $22.00 for the late show. Tix at www.regattabarjazz.com or at 617-395-7757.

Photo: © Jared C. Benedict licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Kurt Vonnegut's letter home after Dresden

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. briefly ran a Saab dealership on Cape Cod and once lived in Northampton, and his son Mark is a pedatrician here, so I guess that's enough Massachusetts content to say this qualifies as HubArts. But mostly I just loved his writing. Once at a fancy publicity dinner in Hollywood, a couple of friends and I sneaked into the dining room and switched place cards so we were at Vonnegut's table, just for the chance to listen to his stories. So, I share this: A web site called "Letters of Note" has published the actual typescript of Vonnegut's first letter home after the end of World War II, briefly describing the experiences as a POW that he later used in "Slaughterhouse-Five." It's something. You can even hear his later writing rhythm here as he describes horrors and how many comrades died, "but not me."

Renee Fleming. At Harvard. For free.

Celebrated soprano Renée Fleming won Grammy numero tres on Sunday night, for classical vocal performance, for her album "Verismo Arias." And now you can see her at Harvard for free. OK, she's giving a master class, not a concert, but still. Fleming is coming to town to sing with James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra next week. And Harvard announced today that she'll give a master class with Harvard student vocalists in Paine Hall, at Harvard University’s Music Building, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge, on Tuesday (Feb. 9) at 3 p.m. Presumably she'll utter a trill or two by way of example, right? The event  is presented by Learning From Performers, a program of the Office for the Arts at Harvard, in association with the Harvard University Department of Music. Admission is free and open to the public (Tickets or RSVPs are not required). For more information, call 617.495.8676 or visit www.ofa.fas.harvard.edu.

Berklee alum Grammy list

I toldja this was coming. The press release:

Berklee Alumni Win Six Grammy Awards at the 52nd Annual Ceremony

Boston, MA, February 2, 2010 - Berklee alumni were honored with six Grammy Awards on music's biggest night for their outstanding contributions to some of last year's top releases. The winners were recognized for their work in varied categories and fields, including pop, rock, jazz, Latin, and Americana, performing, producing, and mixing/engineering. With last night's wins, Berklee alumni have now received a total of 182 Grammy Awards.

• Miles Walker '03 won in the Best Contemporary R&B Album category for mixing/engineering Beyoncé's I Am... Sasha Fierce.

• Diana Krall '83 won in the Best Classical Crossover Album category for performing on Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace.

• Vinnie Colaiuta '75 won in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual Or Group category for performing on Five Peace Band - Live, by Chick Corea & John McLaughlin Five Peace Band.

• The late Joe Zawinul '59 won in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category for The Zawinul Syndicate's 75.

• Omar Vivoni '03 won in the Best Latin Rock, Alternative Or Urban Album category for engineering Calle 13's Los De Atras Vienen Conmigo.

• Levon Helm, who attended Berklee for one semester in 1972, won in the Best Americana Album category for Electric Dirt.

Robert B. Parker still helping Community Servings

Got an email a little while ago that Community Servings and the family of the late Robert B. Parker family have created a special web page where Parker fans can share their remembrances and continue his support of the group's programs for the critically ill. Click to The Robert B. Parker Fund and Public Tributes Page to post a remembrance; "appropriate postings" will be included in the Robert B. Parker archives at Boston University. Gifts in his memory to the Robert B. Parker Fund can be made online or mailed to Community Servings. Parker, the author of the Spenser private eye novels and many others, died at his desk on Jan. 18. Parker and his wife Joan were early supporters of Community Servings, which provides home-delivered meals for the critically ill in New England, and began as a support program for people with HIV/AIDS. Joan was also active on the group's board.

MoCA-Buchel court festivities continue

A federal court last week ruled in favor of Swiss artist Christoph Buchel, overturning in lower court's ruling on two parts of the artist's beef with Mass. MoCA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston in Boston ruled that MoCA may have violated Buchel's rights by continuing to work on his massive "Training Ground for Democracy" installation in Building 5 without him, after the artist and the museum had begun squabbling over the scope and budget of the work. They sent the case back to a lower court for a decision on those grounds, which could affect future artist-museum relations. The decision and its implications are laid out in detail in an iBerkshires.com story. Greg Cook also has a shorter take here. Apparently neither court ruled on the issue of whether Buchel is kind of annoying.

BSO, Rounder win Grammys

Local winners in the Grammy Awards last night included James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s complete recording to Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, which won the Grammy for Best Orchestral Performance. Rounder Records also scored with Béla Fleck's win for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Throw Down Your Heart" from the Rounder album, "Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 - Africa Sessions." I expect we'll hear more later, including a list of Berklee-grad winners.

The BSO recording also featured featuring the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor, and was issued on the orchestra's own BSO Classics label. It was produced by Elizabeth Ostrow, with recording engineers from  Soundmirror in Boston. And in fact the BSO and Levine are scheduled to perform the work at Carnegie Hall tonight. Here's how it should look and sound - a sample of their performance of Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2:

Morning reading: Robots, James Levine, carny sideshows

My Stages column in the Globe this morning looks at a Fort Point theater company's love of the bizarre. ... Jeremy Eichler covers James Levine's return to the Symphony Hall podium. ... Up on the North Shore we've all been waiting for the debut of Rockport Music's glass-walled waterfront concert hall. Eichler also tells us about the schedule for the new venue, and there's a picture. ... Yesterday I told you about the robot art exhibit at Space 242. Today WBUR has a short story and a video featuring Boston artist Skunk, who I profiled a couple of years ago for the Globe when he had a solo show at 242. That's Skunk's "Sohil" at left, not James Levine.

Robots take over South End gallery

Robots are the draw at the South End's Space 242 gallery on Friday night for the opening of "I…YOU…WE…ROBOT!" The exhibit, subtitled "A Visual Homage To Our Inner Geek" offers works in all kinds of mediums from more than 70 artists. And as Space 242 is "Boston's low brow destination" you can count on quite a few of them being both funny and reasonably affordable. But you know, mostly I just like robots. The opening reception is 6-8 on Friday at the gallery, 242 E. Berkeley St., second floor. It's free and open to the public with RSVP at www.space242.com. On the left, that's  "Louie" by Tom Torrey. After the jump we have a few more very cool 'bots.Tom Servo would be proud.

James Taylor + Carole King add second Boston show

James Taylor and Carole King's Troubadour Reunion Tour sold out its June 19 stop at TD Garden, so a second show has been added on June 20. Tix go on sale Jan. 30 at 10 a.m. at the TD Garden Box Office, www.ticketmaster.com 800-745-3000, or www.livenation.com. They are, again, $39.50-$350.

ICA announces Foster Prize finalists

Like the Academy Awards, the ICA's Foster Prize is enlarging its list of nominees this year for reasons not entirely transparent. The Oscars jumped the Best Picture field from five to ten nominees. The Institute of Contemporary Arts/Boston announced this week that there are nine Foster Prize nominees this year, up from the usual four. "The Foster  Prize exhibition is an exciting opportunity for audiences in Boston and beyond to appreciate the artistic innovation happening here in our community," Jill Medvedow, director of the ICA said in the statement announcing the nominees. "This year's exhibition more than doubles the number of local artists participating in the program, bringing increased focus to the impressive work being created in Boston's vibrant art scene."

Properly called  the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the ICA's biennial award and exhibition program for Boston-area artiststhis year includes a wide range of work in sculpture and installation, film and video, painting, drawing and photography. The finalists will participate in an exhibition at the ICA that opens Sept. 22, 2010, and continues through Jan. 30, 2011. The winner of the $25,000 prize will be announced in January 2011. The Fosters are contemporary art devotees; James Foster is an ICA Trustee and Chairman, President and CEO of Charles River Laboratories.

And...drum roll please...the nominees are:  Robert de St. Phalle, Eirik Johnson, Fred Liang, Rebecca Meyers, Matthew Rich, Daniela Rivera, Evelyn Rydz, Amie Siegel and Steve Tourlentes. Their bios follow after the jump. And Greg Cook has some samples of their work here.

(Image: Peter Vanderwarker via ICA.)

Boston Book Fest 2: Save the date

The second annual Boston Book Festival has been announced for Oct. 16 in and around Copley Square. That's about all there is to report; the author lineup, exact times and locations will be announced by the summer. Organizers estimate 12,000 people attended the first event last fall, with speakers including Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, Richard Russo, Anita Diamant, John Hodgman, Dennis Lehane, Cornel West, Mary Gordon Michael Patrick MacDonald and gazillions more.

New England Americana Festival sets lineup

I'm not sure that making light sculptures with their smartphones is the most Americana-ish photo shoot move ever - seems kind of power pop to me - but Girls, Guns and Glory (left) are among the top billed bands at this year's fourth New England Americana Festival, Feb. 25-27, at Church, located at 69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston. Other top acts include Kingsley Flood (below) - posing in a dumpster is good, but tea? - Jimmy Ryan and Hayride! with Duke Levine, Billy Beard, and Andrew Mazzone, Brown Bird, Highway Ghosts and Three Day Threshold. The announcement describes various acts as "whiskey-soaked," "chamber folk" or "Kinks-influenced," and while I'd like to hold out for a band that's all three, it's a pretty good lineup, even if the photo ops ain't exackly Hank Williams. At least they're not Hank Jr., right?

The NEAF, formerly called the Alt Country Extravaganza, was founded by Mike MacDonald and the Widowmakers in 2007, but it was renamed this year by current hosts the Autumn Hollow Band. The NEAF will raise funds for Coalition for Courage (http://coalitionforcourage.org), which supports children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Concerts are 21+ and start times vary each night. Admission is $8 for February 25 and $10 for February 26-27. A combined three-day pass can be pre-purchased for $20 at www.churchofboston.com and www.newenglandamericanafestival.com. Complete schedule after the jump.

Juventas takes classical chops to the Middle East

"What do you get when you take classically trained composers and musicians, spice things up with stylistic influences from Folk to Funk, and drop them in three contrasting venues?" Hell if I know, but the Juventas New Music Ensemble is going to find out. The group dedicated to playing the music of composers under 35 will bring seven different works to back-to-back performances at the Boston Conservatory in Feb. 6 and at the Middle East - ! - on Feb. 7. It's Juventas' first-ever venture into the venerable Central Square rock club. They promise "fun foot-tapping fusion works that embrace elements of rock, blue-grass, western and dance music." The works include Matt Mendez's Riff Raff (2006), Piotr Szewczyk's First Coast Groove (2008), Dan Ruccia's Training Wheels (2007) and Piotr Szewczyk's Wild West Sketch (2002). A reprise is also set for March 4 at the Boston Athenaeum. Regular price tix are $15 at the Conservatory, $15 at the Middle East and free at the Athenaeum. Click here for more info.

Gardner Museum expansion drawings: Your thoughts?

Take a look at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop's drawings for the $118 million Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum expansion. Click each image for a slightly larger version. Tell me what you think in the comments.

The first one is from the north or Palace Road side; the structure at right is an apartment building and not part of the project. All images © RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP

 

More images after the jump.

Gardner Museum expansion reviews

I was supposed to be in Boston at  this morning for the unveiling of Renzo Piano's design for a controversial addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Something came up. It was the ground, actually, which came up at me very fast last night after I slipped on the ice. (Results are painful but not a big deal, I think.) So instead I am sitting here waiting for my doctor's appointment. But the mainstream media got the jump on this one anyway - the Gardner had the Globe and the Times fully briefed ahead. So you can read Geoff Edgers' story here, which says the $118M addition "will fundamentally change the way visitors experience the museum." Sebastian Smee's review says the addition "is bound to color the visitor’s experience in ways I don’t believe Gardner would have condoned." And in the Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff says the addition is necessary and beautiful, but he too will mourn the way it changes the visitor experience at Gardner's fantasy Venetian palazzo. When the press kit arrives in my in box, I'll post some pictures.

Fight Club in Brookline: I'm an ape man

"Fight Club" is the latest big-screen favorite to get the Science on Screen treatment at the Coolidge Corner, and given the resurgence of "I drive a truck" masculinity around these parts, the discussion could be even more interesting than first expected. Science on Screen is, of course, the series where the Coolidge taps our vast supply of local brainpower for experts to give pre-show talks about film favorites. Tod Machover talked "Theremin," for example, and a president emeritus of McLean Hospital tackled "Donnie Darko." On Feb. 8, a screening of the Brad Pitt/Ed Norton vehicle "Fight Club" will open with a talk by biological anthropologist and primatologist Richard Wrangham, a Harvard scientist and co-author of "Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence." The David Fincher film, based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, follows Norton's white-collar drone as he gets sucked into a cult of violence by Pitt's charismatic Tyler Durden. Wrangham however will relate how our close primate cousins jockey violently for status and power in ways that seem creepily familiar. The festivities begin at 7 p.m. Tix and info: www.coolidge.org.

Jazz for Haiti on the North Shore

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a Globe story about the North Shore Jazz Project and their hopes of revitalizing the music on the North Shore, especially around the new music room at Chianti's in Beverly. Well, the kickoff show that weekend was a big success, and for their next Sunday afternoon gig, they're booking a double feature benefit for Haiti on Jan. 31. The Greta Bro Group (left) with Stan Strickland on sax and the Gerry Beaudoin Jazz Guitar Duo with Teddy Lavash will play two separate admission shows, at 1 and 4 p.m., at Chianti's Tuscan Restaurant, 285 Cabot St., Beverly. Tix: $17 online at www.northshorejazzproject.org/events.html and $20 at the door. "Funds will go directly to KONPAY, which works in conjunction with Haiti/Konbit Pou Ayiti, a Haitian controlled collaborative that works for solutions to environmental, social and economic problems in that island nation.  It will direct its donations to aiding the devastated city of Jacmel and its surrounding villages to the southeast."