Though the Full Frame Festival is months away, some of last year’s best documentaries are returning to Durham for a second lap.
The Beaches of Agnes will kick off the short series and screen tonight at 7 p.m. at Bay 7 of the American Tobacco Campus . The documentary, about an aging French artist looking back on her life, originally screened at last year’s festival and has just been shortlisted by the Academy as a possible best documentary nominee. The Cove (Feb. 10) and Food, Inc. (March 10), two other Full Frame alums, also appeared on the list of 15 potentials and will screen in the coming months.
The Nasher is kicking off the semester with a big one. Art critic and cultural theorist Dave Hickey, author of Air Guitar and The Invisible Dragon. As the Nasher’s Wendy Hower Livingston puts it, Hickey “was practically born cool”: his resume includes a tenure as executive editor at Art in America, he spent time around the Factory and he has a MacArthur grant to his name.
Hickey is speaking at the museum tomorrow, Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. This is one not to be missed.
The Duke Coffeehouse returns to regular business hours tomorrow at 6 p.m. Some early dates are up on its Web site which you can check out below.
Jan. 21 – Muslim Student Association Spoken Word Event, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., Free
Jan. 23 – Benefit for Girls Rock NC with Scientific Superstar, Princess and the Criminals and Heart of Glass, 8 p.m., $5 suggested donation
Jan. 28 – Andrea Gibson (spoken word artist), price TBA
Jan. 29 – Max Indian, Ryan Gustafson, Light Pines, $5
Feb. 10 – Marco Benevento Trio, Nathan Moore, $10
Feb. 20 – Screaming Females, Jeff the Brotherhood, $5
Feb. 25 – Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited (Presented by Duke Performances)
UPDATE: Vivian Girls will play at the Coffeehouse March 26 with Wet Dog and Happy Birthday.
With 2010 finally in full swing, a few recent news postings are suggesting a promising year. Some highlights below:
- Bull City Rising is reporting that the farmers’ market pie lady, Phoebe Lawless, is to set up a permanent shop at 111 Orange Street, a location which will appear in the forthcoming Main Street and also the former site of Branch Outpost
- Joanna Newsom is coming to the Carolina Theater March 25
- The already solid Cat’s Cradle offerings for the coming months have become even stronger. See: the amazing Beach House and Washed Out, May 1. (Add that to Yeasayer April 4, The xx and jj March 25, the Big Pink April 2 and more)
Any discussion about Contra, Vampire Weekend’s sophomore effort, has to begin with its album cover. Then it’s got to touch on why their music is just as classical as it is tribal, the album as party and Ezra Koenig as David Byrne. But first off, that girl.
What adorns the sleeve of the vinyl, or gazes out from the CD case, or peers up at you from a diminutive iPod screen, is a picture. Her expression is blank, her yellow Polo collar floppily half-popped, her lips slightly parted. The photograph is clearly old, aged; it screams “prep,” the 80s lifestyle buzzword that’s been slapped on Vampire Weekend to the point of meaninglessness. The image is striking, vivid, alive. It’s art, a genuinely stylish example of what was recognized as emblematic beauty in a bygone era. If you want to kneecap the photo’s value because of an issue with the girl’s aesthetic, than you’re exactly the type of person that Ezra Koenig and co. have no time for.
Hell, a significant bunch of the consumers of Contra will probably never see its cover, considering the manner in which most music is consumed today, but that’s not how it’s meant to be.
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