Mann Up
The title may be brash, but Aimee Mann’s most recent full-length album, 2008’s @#%&*! Smilers, is so good it’s almost certain to put a @#%&*! smile on your face. At least that’s what SPIN magazine says, calling one particular track “simple and catchy and scarily true.” We also associate the word “simple” with Mann, from the starkness of her style to her unfussy melodies and clear, true voice. See (and hear) for yourself when Mann stops by the Emelin Theatre on January 15.
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Cotton Field Rows by Winfred Rembert - Advertisement -
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Leather Man
rtist Winfred Rembert doesn’t paint on canvas like many artists. Instead, he adds color to leather, which he hand-tools, stretches, stains, and etches himself. Unfortunately, working with leather is a skill he picked up while unjustly imprisoned after a civil-rights march. Now, the self-taught artist uses his experiences growing up in the South, working in a cotton field, and participating in the Civil Rights Movement in his work, the first major museum exhibition of which will be presented by the Hudson River Museum from January 21 through May 5. Winfred Rembert: Amazing Grace also includes historical photos, a documentary on the artist by filmmaker Vivian Ducat, and recordings of traditional gospel music. Be sure to check the schedule often, since Rembert may appear to perform his gospel music in person.
Modern Marvels
Who needs the Museum of Modern Art? If you want to see works by Willem de Kooning, we’ve got some of them right here—and his contemporaries’, too. (Besides, MoMA’s de Kooning retrospective ends January 9.) The Neuberger Museum of Art brings together more than 60 works by these modern-art heavyweights in its new exhibition: American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, and Their Circle, 1927-1942. The exhibition runs from January 29 to April 28.
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Tom Brokaw |
Going for Brokaw
Broadcasting icon Tom Brokaw has conducted some high-profile interviews in his day, grilling everyone from the members of “The Greatest Generation” to Mikhail Gorbachev. Now, it’s your turn to interview him. He’ll be at the Stamford Center for the Arts on January 10, where he will have a conversation about America with Fortune’s Geoff Colvin. Afterward, tables will turn and Colvin and Brokaw will take questions from the audience. The event is a fundraiser for Stamford Dollars for Scholars, which provides scholarships to students.
Mean Girl
She may not smoke a cigar or wear a bowtie on stage, but don’t let her looks deceive you: comic Lisa Lampanelli is no sweetheart, and she can give any other insult comic a run for his money. (Watch out, Don Rickles.) They don’t call her the “Queen of Mean” for nothing. If you haven’t seen her stand-up special, Tough Love, which aired on Comedy Central last year, you may not know what you’re in for. Still, brace yourself and head to the Tarrytown Music Hall. There, Lampanelli will do her raunchy, edgy stand-up on January 20.
