Gambit Pick, Gambit

Graae's Anatomy

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:00:00 -0600

Song-and-dance man Jason Graae comes to Le Chat Noir. Jan. 7-9 Singing and dancing cabaret star Jason Graae brings his one-man show Graae's Anatomy to Le Chat Noir for the weekend.…

Jon Cleary

Photo by Rick Olivier — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:00:00 -0600

The funkmeister general takes over the piano at Chickie Wah Wah on Monday nights. by Photo by Rick Olivier Jan. 10th Chickie Wah Wah got a new piano for Christmas, and Jon Cleary has kindly volunteered to break it in.…

The Ricky Graham Show

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:00:00 -0600

The venerable funnyman welcomes 2011. Jan. 10 Ricky Graham ushers his cast of New Orleans notables onstage for a couple of Monday night performances (Jan. 10 and 17).…

Noise Night

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:00:00 -0600

Fringe musicians at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center. Jan. 6th For those who've already abandoned New Year's resolutions, Zeitgeist presents a night of decidedly unresolved art.…

George Porter Jr.'s Birthday Bash

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 04:00:00 -0600

Dec. 26 Original Meter and bass of spades George Porter Jr. may be busier in his 60s than he was in his 20s.…

PhotoNOLA 2010

D. Eric Bookhardt — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:00:00 -0600

Photography exhibits of all kinds. by D. Eric Bookhardt The fifth annual PhotoNOLA may be officially over, but most of its more than 50 exhibitions are still open. The diversity is mind-boggling, but many of the Uptown venues share a related theme in the form of the Southern landscape and its people.…

Trombone Shorty's Funky X—mas Jam

Noah Bonaparte Pais — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:00:00 -0600

Holidays in brass at House of Blues. by Noah Bonaparte Pais The strongest winds to hit Louisiana this year didn't occur between June and November. They came weeks earlier, in the fierce gusts that launched Trombone Shorty's May LP Backatown (Verve Forecast) like an uprooted Robert Plant wailing the opening to "Immigrant Song" through a brass mouthpiece.…

The Santaland Diaries

Will Coviello — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:00:00 -0600

David Sedaris' modern classic at Le Chat Noir. by Will Coviello Advent calendars don't start on the post-Thanksgiving kickoff of holiday shopping that has become known as "Black Friday," but they should. The best account of the roller-coaster ride between the highest hopes of capturing Christmas magic and the unholy battling in the trenches of shopping, holiday crowds and visits with department store Santas is David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries.…

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Will Coviello — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:00:00 -0600

He knows if you've been bad or good. Especially bad. by Will Coviello The image of Santa as a jolly and eternally generous fellow is the most popular conception of the holiday figure, but there have been other accounts of his character and intentions. The Finnish film Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale revives a folk image of him not as a spirit that rewards good behavior but as a wicked old man who spies on children and seeks to punish those on the naughty list.…

Funked Up

Noah Bonaparte Pais — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:00:00 -0600

Doves will cry at DJ Soul Sister's Right-On '80s Dance Party. by Noah Bonaparte Pais The twisted history of funk is perhaps fraught with higher highs and lower lows than any other musical genre, from George Clinton and Maceo Parker to brown-chicken-brown-cow porn licks and inoculated jam bands. In New Orleans, where Earl Palmer gets credit for coining the term, the standard-bearer of classic funk isn't a musician at all: Melissa Weber, aka DJ Soul Sister, whose all-night, rare-groove dance parties are like pagan rituals to the downbeat.…

Spamalot

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:00:00 -0600

The full Monty (Python) at the Mahalia. Dec. 14-19 It's hard to live up to either the cult or popular fame of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), a film in which almost every other line has been immortalized.…

Black White + Gray

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

When Mapplethorpe met Wagstaff ... and Patti Smith. Dec. 7 Black White + Gray chronicles the personal and professional relationships between photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (pictured) and curator Sam Wagstaff — and third wheel Patti Smith.…

Robert Earl Keen

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

The man behind "Merry Christmas from the Family." Dec. 11 If your holiday shopping list includes "... a can of bean dip and some Diet Rites, a box of tampons and some Marlboro Lights," then you're probably a fan of Robert Earl Keen, who will never live down his Tex-Mex holiday classic "Merry Christmas from the Family." Make him sing it twice.…

Vox and the Hound

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

Leo DeJesus' newest band at the Circle Bar. Dec. 11 A former utility infielder for MyNameIsJohnMichael and current energetic concierge for Empress Hotel, multi-instrumentalist Leo DeJesus displays a deft songwriting touch with Vox and the Hound, a City Life sequel formed in February.…

Variety at the Ogden

D. Eric Bookhardt — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

A variety of New Orleans-themed works on display at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. by D. Eric Bookhardt The Michael Brown and Linda Green Collection, one of the first major donations to the Ogden Museum after its inception, captures much of the spirit of New Orleans art from the 1960s through the 1990s. Many were emerging artists when computer entrepreneur Michael Brown and his spouse, Linda Green, discovered them, and this expo offers a glimpse into their slow-brew connoisseurship.…

HAMP Fest 2010

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

A Rolling Elvis wants to raise awareness of HIV through a musical project. Dec. 11 The 2009 brainchild of Dr. Mark Alain Dery (an infectious disease specialist and Rolling Elvis) the HIV Awareness Music Project seeks to increase its educational reach with an expanded lineup of entertainers.…

Butch Hancock

Ben Sandmel — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

Quirky humor, clever wordplay and a rootsy Texas sensibility (with a dash of politics). by Ben Sandmel Troubadour Butch Hancock hails from the Lubbock, Texas, music scene that also gave the world Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, his equally eclectic colleagues in the Flatlanders. His music suggests a merger of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.…

Four Lions

Will Coviello — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

A unflinching satire about ... terrorism. by Will Coviello If you think airport security screenings and TSA pat-downs are comically inept, get in line for Four Lions, a dangerously brilliant satire of Jihadi terrorism. The dark humor and underlying drama of Four Lions dives right into the heart of an Islamic terrorist cell in Britain — as if it were a spinoff of The Office.…

Intimate Stranger with Lovey Dovies

Noah Bonaparte Pais — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

Don't call 'em fusion. Just go see 'em. by Noah Bonaparte Pais When an international outfit's recipe calls for such far-flung ingredients as Chilean guitarists and a half-English, half-Croatian singer, one instinctively braces for a murky genre stew of hydra-headed adjectives or that single most-dreaded noun in food and music: fusion. So it's with some measure of relief that Intimate Stranger's second LP, the June release Under (Fringecore), is more consomme than gumbo, a simple expression of a single flavor — in this case, hyper-stylish, millennially repetitive New York rock a la the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Strokes — sieved to its very essence, concentrated and clear.…

Two Gates of Sleep

Will Coviello — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:00:00 -0600

A New Orleans-born filmmaker tells a sparse, evocative tale set along the Louisiana-Mississippi border. by Will Coviello Alistair Banks Griffin's Two Gates of Sleep takes place somewhere in the rural areas of the Louisiana-Mississippi border, where it was filmed. A sparse but composed film, it follows two brothers' attempts to honor their mother's final wishes.…

microGreens

Alex Woodward — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:00:00 -0600

Green and sustainable news briefs from around the city. by Alex Woodward and Jamie Carroll RSD Wins Green Award New Orleans' Recovery School District (RSD) has received the U.S. Green Building Council's 2010 Leadership Award, which recognizes the RSD for its "steadfast commitment to rebuilding healthy, high-performing schools for the New Orleans community."…

Los Po-Boy-Citos album release

Noah Bonaparte Pais — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:00:00 -0600

Latin soul meets New Orleans brass. by Noah Bonaparte Pais Dec. 4 A mashed-up bayou boogaloo of classic Latin soul and original New Orleans brass, Los Po-Boy-Citos make like Rebirth with Tito Puente at the reins and Richie Ray's "Jala Jala" replacing TLC's "Waterfalls" on the jukebox.…

Holidays Get the Green Light

Jamie Carroll — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:00:00 -0600

by Jamie Carroll Green stores have been popping up on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District, and several of the businesses formed the Green Light District, a merchant's association that encourages other businesses to go green and sell environmentally friendly products. To spread awareness about the association, the Green Light District hosts Holiday Shopping Night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.…

Feminist Art, Subverted

D. Eric Bookhardt — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:00:00 -0600

Like a Prayer at Barrister's Gallery. by D. Eric Bookhardt Feminism ain't what it used to be. Originally intended as a survey of recent feminist art, Like a Prayer (now at Barristers Gallery) morphed into something else once the artist submissions started to arrive.…

Dirt Daubers

Noah Bonaparte Pais — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:00:00 -0600

Appalachian sounds at the Circle Bar. by Noah Bonaparte Pais Dec. 6 When he's not busy slipping out of a psychobilly straitjacket, Legendary Shack Shaker Colonel JD Wilkes unplugs from the 21st century with wife Jessica and pal Mark Robertson as the Dirt Daubers, tracing Appalachian trails out of western Kentucky guided by bluegrass banjos, walking upright bass and teetering, rock-climbing guitars.…