Jimmy Cliff performing a the Palace Theatre in Albany, October 3, 1989. Photo by Martin Benjamin.
The 25th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place tonight at NYC’s Waldorf Astoria. Yeah, I know – our invitations must have gotten lost in the mail, too. But you can watch the whole affair live on the Fuse cable channel beginning at 8:30pm.
ABBA will be inducted by the BeeGees’ Barry and Robin Gibb
Genesis will be inducted by Phish’s Trey Anastasio
Jimmy Cliff will be inducted by Wyclef Jean
The Hollies will be inducted by Steve Van Zandt
The Stooges will be inducted by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong
David Geffen will be inducted by Jackson Browne
Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone,Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell will be inducted by Carole King
And among the musicians scheduled to perform at tonight’s induction ceremony are Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael (of Maroon 5), Faith Hill, Chris Isaak, Ronnie Spector, Eric Burdon, Peter Wolf, Train’s Pat Monahan and Fefe Dobson.
We’ve been anxiously awaiting the debut of the new HBO series “Treme” for months now. Why?
1.) Co-creator of the series is David Simon, the man behind one of our all-time favorite television series, “The Wire.” His cohort on “Treme” is writer-producer Eric Overmyer (“St. Elsewhere,” “Homicide”).
2.) “Treme” is set in the troubled, post-Katrina times of New Orleans, one of our favorite cities.
3.) The series centers around the lives of jazz musicians and the Crescent City’s second-line culture, and well, you know how we feel about music – especially New Orleans music.
If you happen to find yourself at home on Sunday, you might want to check out a couple of marvelous music shows that are slated to be broadcast by WMHT-TV:
5pm Sunday: “Independent Lens: Young@Heart”
A delightful 2007 documentary about the Young@Heart Chorus, an inspiring vocal group of Western Massachusetts senior citizens, whose repertoire consists of such songs as James Brown’s “I Feel Good,” the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Sonic Youth’s “Schizophrenia.”
9pm Sunday: “Great Performances: Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday Celebration From Madison Square Garden”
A gala celebration and all-star concert honoring legendary folk singer Pete Seeger on his 90th birthday – May 3, 2009 – featuring Bruce Springsteen, Peggy Seeger, John Mellencamp, Roger McGuinn, Dave Matthews, Taj Mahal, Kris Kristofferson, Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, more. (The broadcast will be co-hosted by Nippertown’s own Michael Eck.)
NOTE: As a public service, we here at Nippertown.com would also like to warn you that in between those two fabulous shows, WMHT-TV will be broadcasting “Michael Bolton at Royal Albert Hall” at 7:30pm, providing you with the perfect opportunity to take some time off for a quiet Sunday dinner.
Personally, we think the idea of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is ridiculous. Rock and roll ain’t baseball, boys and girls. You can’t boil it down to statistics. It ain’t all about the hits.
Or at least, it shouldn’t be. I mean, really, if there were even a smidge of justice in the world, NRBQ would have been inducted years ago, right? Lenny Kaye? Don’t get me started…
But with this year’s induction ceremony looming on Monday night, we decided to take a look back at the Hall of Fame’s 25-year history, as encapsulated on the 9-DVD box set, “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live,” from Time Life Entertainment. There’s also a more general-consumer-friendly 3-DVD version, as well as an obsessive-only 14-DVD-and-book set (which still doesn’t include any of the omitted performances that are noted later in this story). We decided to take the middle ground.
The fine folks at Driving Rain Music have just released a video to accompany John Walker Black’s catchy little “Theme To Nippertown” that we unleashed on the world last week. Directed by Driving Rain head honcho TL Stone, this wistful and dreamlike love-letter-to-a-city is chock full of Albany landmarks and stars one of our very favorite dogs. And, in case you missed it, the song itself is available as a free download.
It’s a good week to be Nippertown actor-director-filmmaker Kevin Craig West.
On Wednesday night, he opened onstage in Capital Repertory Theatre’s wonderful production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (see review here) in the crucial role of the Reverend Sykes. As Michael Eck wrote in his review for The Times Union, “And the excellent Kevin Craig West is given perhaps the play’s most arresting line, when he instructs Scout to stand up – ‘your father’s passing.’”
On Thursday night, during the awards ceremony at Elda’s on Lark in Albany, West was named Best Actor by the Knickerbocker Film Festival for his performance in the short film, “The Greatest Man Alive,” which was screened by the fest at the Madison Theatre in Albany during a week-long run which concluded on Thursday.
Want to see some of West’s considerable acting skills? Take a look at this reel of clips from some of his various performances:
Or better yet, get down to Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany and catch West’s performance in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The production runs through Sunday, March 28.
A year in the making, Ira Marcks’ Illustrative Score is a 45-minute music video with a single sliding frame. It’s a a 50-foot wide graphic novel. And it’s a breathtaking journey into an imaginary universe.
Witchknots creator (and Restys banjo-man) Marcks spent a year creating the piece that features music by The Few Moments. His vibrant drawings leap off the screen:
If you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check out the brand-spankin new video from power-popsters and viral music video pioneers (you remember the treadmill song, right?) OK Go for their catchy little tune “This Too Shall Pass”:
Folksinger-actor-civil rights activist Harry Belafonte celebrates his 83rd birthday today.
We here at Nippertown.com would like to add our own tip of the hat to Belafonte with this clip of “Don’t Stop the Carnival,” which was filmed for a 1968 season opener of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” but was excised from the broadcast by CBS-TV censors:
“The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler was first produced back in 1996, and there been thousands of productions since then.
At least three more are coming up around Nippertown within the next month:
You may know Rosanne Raneri better as a sublime singer-songwriter, but these days she seems to be focusing her considerable talents in the world of theater, rather than music. Raneri is directing a production of Eve Ensler’s perrenial “The Vagina Monologues” at Hudson Valley Communiy College’s Maureen Stapleton Theater in Troy at 8pm Friday and Saturday. Admission is $10 and all proceeds will benefit Unity House of Troy.
Next month, students at Albany Law School are also mounting a production of “The Vagina Monologues.” Performances at 7pm on Friday and Saturday, March 26-27 will benefit the Albany Law School Family Violence Litigation Clinic, as well as Equinox, the local nonprofit organization that provides domestic violence services. Performances will take place at the Albany Law School’s Dean Alexander Moot Courtroom on the fourth floor of 80 New Scotland Ave. in Albany. Tickets for either performance are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. For more information, or to reserve tickets, contact 518-445-3254 or mgoldberg@albanylaw.edu.
And Amanda Brinke will be directing a dinner theater production of “The Vagina Monologues” at Cafe 217 in Albany next month as well. The play will start at 7pm on Sunday-Tuesday, March 21-23, and a three-course dinner is included in the $35 admission charge. Call for reservations – and do it quick, ’cause this will definitely sell out – at 518.253.9821. Proceeds will benefit the Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood and the 2010 V-Day Spotlight: Women of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Singer-songwriter Erin Harkes performed a short excerpt from the play at the Bing Bamboo Room Burlesque show at Savannah’s in Albany on Monday night, and it was a hoot.
While “The Vagina Monologues” is far and away, Ensler’s best known and most produced work, she’s done plenty of other work as a playwright, author and actress.
The Women’s Building at 373 Central Ave. in Albany is hosting two more Ensler-related events next month, both of which will also benefit the Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood and the 2010 V-Day Spotlight: Women of the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a part of the monthly First Friday arts walk in Albany, the Women’s Building will be screening Ensler’s 2003 documentary film, “What I Want My Words to Do to You: Voices From Inside a Women’s Maximum Security Prison,” at 7pm on Friday, March 5. Admission is $7.
Here’s the trailer for the film:
And finally, Jeremy Ward is directing a production of Ensler’s play, “Any One of Us: Words From Prison,” at the Women’s Building at 7:30pm on Thursday-Saturday, March 11-13. There will be a talk-back session immediately following each performance. Admission is $10; students/seniors $8.
Selected from 40 submissions, the seven films are:
“Peches” by Copper Wright (running time: 9:51)
“Breaking Up” by Jeff Burns (time: 7:00)
“The Exam” by Eric Manning, Tyler Shaw, Andrew Duffey, Zak Ryan (time: 3:52)
“Shot Though the Heart” by Karen Christina Jones (time: 11:18)
“The Greatest Man Alive” by Mike Feurstein and Kevin Craig West (time: 6:00)
“The Future …of Coney Island” by Ben Schuman (time: 19:00)
“Making It” by Chau Mui (time: 19:03)
To give you a peek of what you’ll see on the big screen, here’s “The Exam,” filmed in 2008 by four students at Troy’s Tamarack High School. It earned an honorable mention at the 2008 Rod Serling Video Festival:
Read Irving DeJohn’s story about the origins of the film fest in The Albany Student Press.
Read Brandon Jeffs’ story in The Times Union to find more about the films and filmmakers.
NAME: Benita Zahn
Personally, we think the idea of 
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