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FRIDAY-SUNDAY
Get Higher, Baby
If you took a lucky wrong turn along a small canal in the Netherlands, you might find such a thing. If you cautiously got to know certain people in underground East Berlin, there's a possibility you could wrangle an invitation
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to something similar. There's an off chance you'd encounter it in London, a better shot in Scandanavia-but there's no need for overpriced Euro-travel in this case-High Mayhem is providing all the immersion into contemporary sound and art culture your Theramin-throbbing heart could possibly long for. Take three days of performance by a literal A to Z of musicians-from the Audible Whispering Half Quartet to ZIYA-working from the epicenter of emerging music, combined with fire dancing by Ojo Fuego, performative film projection from Basement Films and add 22 visual artists courtesy of Bang! and an interactive installation of more than 60 giant steel instruments that you can play, all hosted by High Mayhem and Wise Fool…and you've got history in the making. Ignore it at your peril. (
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SATURDAY-SUNDAY
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West is East
At first gander, northern New Mexico might seem an odd choice to host a Mideast-themed film festival. But we share not only desert climate but also an historically at-odds multicultural salsa/masala. The Middle East Community Cultural Alliance kicks off the Santa Fe portion of its second film festival with four documentaries to open eyes and minds. NYU prof and producer Mona Mikhail will introduce
Live on Stage: A Century and a Half of
Theatre in Egypt
, delving into the region's rich dramatic history, interviewing directors,
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playwrights, actors and critics (and examining hot topics like the role of women); it's followed with an Omar-Sharif narrated celebration of famous female singer Umm "The Voice of Egypt" Kulthum, the Arab world's lush answer to Ella Fitzgerald. On Sunday activist Jess Ghannam presents his
Until When...
, set in a refugee camp near Bethlehem and following the Intifada-induced struggles of four Palestinian families. And saving the best for last: In the poignant
My Terrorist
, Israeli airline hostess turned filmmaker Yulie Cohen-Gerstel documents her journey from PFLO attack in 1978 to forgiveness for the man who nearly took her life-and becomes a spokeswoman for peace, calling on both sides to end the bloodshed. (
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SATURDAY
Worldly Birds
The women's movement-or at least the movement of women who refuse to be stopped by anything-is alive and well and dwelling in places like New Zealand, Iran, India and Cuba. Travel writer Holly Morris tests this assertion over a span of years and countries, collecting her accounts into a volume of travel lit quite unlike any previous iteration of the genre. Morris trawls the globe and turns up small jewels in the most unlikely
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places: A feminist painter and rice farmer living in Iran, an exiled Black Panther in Cuba, a Maori pop star, New Delhi's chief of police. Between encounters with like-minded lady luminaries, Morris hunts headhunters in Borneo, climbs the Matterhorn and crosses the Sahara on camelback. Her book-launched this weekend at Garcia Street Books-is a call to adventure for readers, a fresh testament to the familiar sentiment that adventure is in all of us, that one ought never to hold back and the best revelations are found in the concurrent states of exotic and pedestrian. (
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TUESDAY
Reality Rights
There's the real deal, and then there's the
real
deal. As in, there's the real deal Green Day and the
real
deal The Vibrators. While the former were busy toddling around in swaddling clothes or gestating in their mommy's tummy, The Vibrators were opening for the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop and the
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Stranglers-in other words, becoming an integral part of the punk rock revolution circa 1976 (you know, when it meant something). The Vibrators released a number of singles-including the classic "Baby Baby"-and a couple dozen albums and have been touring in their original form since 1982. Could it be any other way? One look at their promo pic and it's clear: There's nothing-
nothing
-they could do except play genuine punk rock. And maybe teach us all a thing or two along the way. (
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