Ira Cohen
21 Dec 2007, 20:00
400 Carroll St between Bond and Nevins, Brooklyn, 11231
Cost :
Saturnalia and Table of the Elements presents: Sunday, January 28 Poetry Reading by Ira Cohen and films: The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda + Brain Damage Live scores by Sunburned Hand Of The Man + Mahasiddhi followed by Hubcap City Description: Ira Cohen & Sunburned Hand of the Man & Mahasiddhi - Poet, photographer, and traveller, Ira Cohen (New York, 1935) was part of the mythical counterculture generation. Besides photo portraits, poems, and a Hashish Cookbook, he gave us The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (1968), one of the Underground's best-kept secrets. This psychedelic ballet, with its fantasy creatures in smoke-filled sets, caught the essence of a hallucinatory time; it has recently been released on DVD with a new soundtrack by Sunburned Hand of the Man (USA), leading lights in the psychedelic / avant rock movement labelled as New Weird America by The Wire magazine. The band is known for its legendary, primitive concerts and its impressive discography. This evening orchestrated by Ira Cohen will feature Sunburned Hand of the Man performing a live score to The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda (European premiere of the restored version), a screening of Brain Damage (a new film created from outtakes for the DVD, European premiere) featuring Mahasiddhi performing a live score, and a reading by Ira Cohen. You emerge from its 20-minute vision perched full-lotus on a cloud of incense, chatting with a white rabbit and smoking a banana. (The Village Voice) www.iracohen.org www.sunburnedhandoftheman.com www.mahasiddhi.com THE INDEPENDENTS Issue Project Room is New York City's most unique and distinctive performance space. Artistic director Suzane Fiol in cooperation with Regina Greene, creative director of Tennessee-based Front Porch Productions, presents: THE INDEPENDENTS, a mammoth music festival that will showcase over fifty artists from seven of this nation's most prestigious independent record labels. Throughout the month of January, New York will reverberate with the sounds of epic minimalism (Tony Conrad, Rhys Chatham, Phill Niblock, Leif Inge), ecstatic clangor (Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Zeena Parkins, Gamelan Son of Lion), raw Americana (Sir Richard Bishop, Loren Connors, Peter Walker), free improv (Charles Gayle, Paul Flaherty, Bern Nix, No Neck Blues Band) and avant songsmithing (Christina Carter, Richard Bishop, Badgerlore, Lichens). Featuring an amazing array of improvised, minimal and outsider musics, as well as full programs of film and video (Henry Flynt, Ira Cohen, K. Curtis Lyle/Julius Hemphill among others), THE INDEPENDENTS promises to be an event of epic proportions, in an intimate setting.

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What an awesome line up they have, there.

[racehorse]

that's amazing

[Savage Clone]

That looks pretty incredible. Worth travelling for, perhaps.

I'm seriously thinking of visiting New York and go to that. It's one of the best line ups that I've ever seen in my entire life.

[jimbrim]

I still haven't watched The Invasion of Thundebolt Pagoda, it's meant to amazing. Has anyone here seen it?

Do you fancy making the trip? I'll fight off the sharks, if the plane falls into the ocean.

[racehorse]

flights to n.y.c aren't too expensive now are they?
how exciting a prospect.

The movie is beautiful, anyone who has even some vague interest in Ira Cohen should watch it. Trips to New York are fairly cheap, these days. Let's all go.