CITYist

When Jim Jones, the lead singer and guitarist of the British band Jim Jones Revue, stepped up to immigration on his way to Austin, Texas to play the South by Southwest Music Festival, he didn’t get the usual inquiries of reason and length of stay. “Have you brought any Kool-Aid with you?” the customs officer asked instead.

An alien walks among us. She’s taken the form of a pop star (all the better to reach total world domination), though we’d be mistaken to assume she’s just another songstress on the scene with a serious voice. To know Janelle Monae’s music is to have her take you firmly by the hand and lead you into outer space. And though you may not have the foggiest idea where exactly you’re going, trust that she’s got it under control—and the ride will be sweet.

Few artists capture the imagination quite like filmmakers. Perhaps it’s the immediacy of the medium, but these men and women seem to have an uncanny ability to map the spirit of the times. As we enter the new decade, it’s an odd moment for movies. On one end of the spectrum, record-breaking crowds flock to blockbusters based on marketing campaigns (thanks, Michael Bay). On the other, your friend’s cousin is cutting his first flick at home on his laptop right now, and it could very well be a massive hit. Even in a saturated market, though, there will always be personalities who rise above the fray. Revealing a dedication to the authentic, an unwavering eye, and a willingness to get a little dirty along the way, the filmmakers profiled here are all paving the road for the next new wave.

ALEX HOLDRIDGE
Alex’s In Search of a Midnight Kiss received the John Cassavetes Award honoring films budgeted at less than $500,000 at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards


Photography: David Black

What is this moment in time like for you?
In Search of a Midnight Kiss was a dream come true. I’d made two other independent films and when they all kind of fell apart, I was in the midst of utter depression. Just literally not a dime to my name, nothing but credit card debt and going through a breakup. I was having these deep questions of, ‘Do I have the will to start over and do this again?’ Because every [film] kills you just a little bit. You feel guilty asking so much of the people [you’re working with]. On Midnight, people were very kind and generous because we’ve worked together over the past decade. I was determined to do one [more film] before I gave up on LA.

[ . . . read the rest of Alex Holdridge's interview along with five additional young American filmmakers . . . ]

From the ethereal costumes to the dynamic explosive moves of the Stephen Petronio Company dancers, Stephen Petronio has managed to not only cap a successful 25th season, but has also created another moving piece to add to his already impressive repertoire.

Petronio, choreographer for the Stephen Petronio Company, is well known for his edgy performance art-esq dance numbers that have shocked and moved audiences since 1984. He has received fellowships from Guggenheim, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts, as well as a New York Dance & Performance Award (Bessie) and grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, National Endowment of the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.

With a new sound (The Supremes meets The Animals), a new look (a little less grunge, a little more Swinging London) and two new members, Los Angeles-bred quartette The Like is poised for indie girl band domination. The two remaining original members, singer/ guitarist Z Berg (daughter of Geffen A&R man Tony Berg) and drummer Tennessee Thomas (daughter of Pete Thomas, drummer for Elvis Costello and The Attractions) favor retro tunes, thigh highs and saddle shoes. After a rollicking four-song set at Soho’s Downtown Studios last night, CITYist sat down with Z and Tennessee to discuss their upcoming Mark Ronson-produced record, singing into toilet bowls and how, like, they got the name The Like.

It’s a grey morning on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and Alison Goldfrapp needs a cup of tea. She apologizes in clipped British mumbles, and were it not for delicate blonde wisps dancing lightly atop a pair of Wayfarers worn indoors, you’d hardly guess you were in the company of an electro-pop icon. Waiting patiently on the couch — also in shades — is Will Gregory, her decade-long co-conspirator in the chart-topping electronic outfit known as Goldfrapp. Together they tuck into a streamlined couch at the Hotel on Rivington to discuss Head First, their self-produced fifth album. Reminiscent of a soundtrack to a forgotten 1980’s sci-fi film, it finds their music dramatically reinvented, evoking a neon-tinged wonderland of frothy, synthesized beats beamed digitally from a Xanadu paradise. Bold in their direct homage to the pioneers of electro past, the duo is careful not to assign their music to any particular genre. But upon first listen — and then obsessively on repeat — it’s easy to see that this might possibly be the second coming of disco.

Each season, Claude Morais and Brian Wolk, the duo behind womenswear line Ruffian, design beautiful clothes for a very particular girl. Collection after collection consistently offering necessities like tailored blouses, sophisticated yet exciting short little dresses, and immaculately structured pants and jackets that always lead to complete cohesiveness. Whether she’s the bad boarding school girl of Fall 2008, les demoiselles de Ruffian of Spring 2010, or the girl caught in the cosmos at Fall 2010’s Big Bang show, she is always “subtly elegant,” as Wolk puts it. The women they design for, he explains, “are really educated and sophisticated. They’re worldly, they’re traveled, they’re usually from nice families.” But, just before that all starts to sound too perfect, he adds, “And sometimes they’re not. We have naughty girls that we hang out with, too.”

I just want to work,” explains actress Dominik Garcia-Lorido. “I think it’s very admirable when actors are able to work and not get caught up in the whole celebrity thing.”

It may seem a bit premature for an up-and-coming 26-year-old to worry about the pitfalls of celebrity so early in her career, yet most emerging actors don’t call Academy Award nominee Andy Garcia “Dad.” And in our current TMZ age, most of Hollywood’s golden children are more known for their escapades at Teddy’s and Les Deux than any sort of actual work ethic. Garcia-Lorido has been quietly bucking that trend, however, working steadily in small independent films over the past six years while also finding time to attend UCLA and snag one of the most coveted, albeit nepotistic, jobs in the industry: Miss Golden Globe. Her stint under the radar, however, is likely to change this year with her appearance in the new film City Island, co-starring none other than “Dad” himself, Andy Garcia.

After the jump, check out Dominik’s picks for the best spots in Los Angeles.

For both savvy marketers and anxious real estate agents, the pop-up shop phenomenon has most of the active ingredients of a retail panacea. It raises the pulse of an empty space, or obscure area, and provides the right infusion of goodwill to any particular product or entity. It is often with optimistic exclamations that one has learned to view its “now you see it, now you don’t” existence. That is, until something else takes foot.

About a month ago, CITY’s cultural historian Steven Mark Klein shot me an email simply containing a link to a MySpace page. I clicked and found myself looking at the photo of a stylish girl called either Smokey Chapman, Imogen Chapman, or Imogen and the Acoustics. I took a quick look at the “about” section and read a quote from an article that described this singer-songwriter’s sound as, “what Jose Gonzales may have sounded like if he was born a woman. Combine this thought with a sprinkling of Björk…” She’s Jose as a girl? I can get with that, I thought. I also quickly noticed that while most of the songs had the usual MySpace number of plays — 1-2,000 — one called “Green” had over 30,000 — a pretty respectable number for an unsigned artist. So I played it, and understood precisely where the writer of the snippet I read was coming from. It was a sort of quirky, angular, and offbeat acoustic piece with her voice unadorned but nuanced by occasional curious catches and breaks, and accompanied by a somewhat melancholy and unexpected acoustic guitar riff. In fact — if anything — it was a little too much like Gonzales and Guðmundsdóttir, but I’m inclined to ascribe that in a young artist more to not having yet moved beyond one’s inspirations than pure derivation.

David Bowie. Courtney Love. Marilyn Manson. Musicians and bold makeup choices go together like mascara and eyeliner. But no one has ever wed the two as perfectly as Sara Strand, the founder of POP Beauty cosmetics and indie rock diva.

For Sara’s picks on the best and brightest hot spots in LA, check in after the jump.

As the design world comes together in New York to celebrate ICFF (the International Contemporary Furniture Fair), SUITE New York, Manhattan’s foremost modern furniture showroom, is celebrating nearly four years of record growth and a move to a new location. Co-founders Kris Fuchs and Maria Sepulveda, best friends for 29 years since their first day of freshman year at college, consider this their biggest adventure yet.

For Kris and Maria’s suggestions on the best spots in New York, read on.

On the heels of his newest collaboration with Tasaki, the fine jewelry house out of Japan, designer of the moment Thakoon Panichgul continues to captivate us with his star turns as a designer and to carve out an enigmatic figure for himself, by eschewing conventions and re-setting the expectations of young American designers alike.

“I knew that I was always interested in fashion. I knew from a very early age. I just didn’t know that starting a collection was something I was going to do. I thought I was going to work for a company, thought the idea of having my own name on a label was intimidating,” the Thai-born, Omaha-raised designer, most recognized for his ebullient prints and lively color palette, says. Asked if the term “surfer samurai” aptly describes his spring 2010 collection, he declares: “I never have those kind of quick words, where I sum up a collection as simple as that. I always feel it’s such a mixture of different ideas.”

Véronique Nichanian, art director of menswear for Hermès, is charmingly coy when asked what treats await customers inside the house’s new men’s store, currently an alluring four-story tall Hermès gift box complete with embroidered ribbons. “Surprise!” she says. “You’ll have to wait!” We’re sitting upstairs in the current unisex store, directly across Madison Avenue from its brother-to-be, which occupies the lot on the north-east corner with 62nd Street. Mme. Nichanian’s reticence notwithstanding, one thing we know for sure is that we will find the storied French house’s trademark costly to-die-fors. And she does go on to allow that, naturellement, we will find all of the items of menswear and accessories — the sweaters, pants, belts, shoes and sundries — on display, as well as some special (and for now secret) features, which I predict to be the type of bespoke and grooming salons and lounges found in that other mecca of male elegance located just up the street, Tom Ford.

In just three shorts years, Croatian-born German menswear designer Damir Doma has made quite a name for himself in the fashion industry. After graduating magna cum laude from fashion school, he had the insight to head to fashion hot spot Antwerp, where he worked first for designer Dirk Schoenberger and then for Raf Simons.

It was his time spent assisting Simons that broadened and shaped Doma’s perception of fashion and the arts. Simons — a pioneer menswear designer who so eloquently mixes high fashion with street wear and did so with the precision of a master artisan — created a new genre of menswear like nothing we’d seen before. His atelier was the perfect place for Doma to not only fall in love with fashion, but to hone his craft.

Most bands toil in obscurity, dreaming of the day they may catch some small break. Then there is Passion Pit. Fronted by 22-year-old Michael Angelakos, the Cambridge-based group has watched their career explode in just over a year following the release of their first EP. They have gone from playing Boston area gigs to securing spots at festivals such as Bonaroo and Austin City Limits, touring with Girl Talk and Death Cab for Cutie, and lending their song to a national advertisement. It seems a “How To” guide might be their next logical step.

With her translucent skin and thick raven tresses it’s easy to see why Krysten Ritter has been cast in dark roles. Characters like drug addicts, vampires, and outcast black-sheep types make perfect sense — until she opens her mouth, and her bubbly personality shines through.

You can sense her small-town naivety in the sweetness of her demeanor; you want to coddle her and protect her from the cruel industry she has eagerly joined. And now — only now, does it make sense that she was cast in romantic comedies like Confessions of a Shopaholic and 27 Dresses.

Sometimes, the most successful businesses go big with simple-yet-smart products. For designers Brooke Bresnan and Christine Marchuska, it all started with a T-shirt. One of these sharp-as-a-tack entrepreneurs began early — Bresnan’s interest in fashion drove her to sell her own line of tees to her friends in middle school — while Marchuska started later in the game, founding a namesake line of unisex shirts and scarves with her brother in 2009. But cotton tops weren’t all the girls had in common; both had a knack for finance and a passion for giving back to the community. Meeting at a fundraiser for Safe Horizon, an assistance organization for victims of violence, the two hit it off and C. Marchuska was born. “We have the same type of style and the same backgrounds. We’re both very business-minded,” says Marchuska. Becoming equal partners in the company, Bresnan and Marchuska expanded the line from unisex styles to a versatile mix of fresh, modern frocks and separates, with a Fall/Winter collection debuting in February 2010 at Eco Fashion Week; an impressive feat, but no surprise considering the girls’ expertise in business.

We’re really good at telling a designer’s story, so customers know something about this person that’s creating the beautiful piece that you’re going to wear every day. That’s the editorial side to what we do.

It’s evening in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The sun has just set on DeKalb Avenue near the park, and a group of neighborhood kids are playfully teasing each other, their shouts ringing out across the avenue. A car passes blasting shoddy bass, and in its wake the strains of an old Biggie track: “Spread love it’s the Brooklyn way…”

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: there’s so much music on the market now that it’s impossible to keep up. Thankfully, though, I did my homework and got to interview one of the more sought-after acts of the moment: London’s The xx. While The xx has gotten a lot of buzz in the UK, they’re still relatively unknown in the U.S. It was one faithful trip I made to Young Turk’s site (that’s their label) to check out a video by The Big Pink when my curiosity got the best of me and I watched the video for Crystalized. Midway through the first listen, I was hooked. The deep, breathy vocals (half male, half female) are soulful and sexy, and the music is melodic and mesmerizing, with perfectly mixed guitars, synthesizers, and ethereal bass lines countered by amazing uses of negative space that pull it all together perfectly.

’Im kind of sneaking away a bit,” says Rachel Comey, with a conspiratorial stage whisper.

Having just wrapped up her Spring 2010 show on a Chelsea rooftop with a performance by St. Vincent, the New York designer is preparing to head west to Zion National Park in Utah while her team travels to Paris for market. Though her voice betrays a twinge of guilt, the trip will be a necessary refuel and revamp as she shifts gears and begins thinking about her fall collection. The idea of trekking so far from the fashion world’s pulse points to find inspiration seems like a seamless fit for a designer who has made her name largely by following her instincts.

Mia Moretti bucks the recent trend of socialite / model DJs, somewhat. She doesn’t have a contract with a fashion house (yet), and she does actually spin vinyl (or at least did). As a matter of fact she learned her DJ chops hanging out with buddy Cut Chemist, king of the vinyl archeologists, dusty-groove specialist ne plus ultra. With that kind of pedigree, it’s not surprising that for her, job one isn’t being a cover girl — it’s moving butts. “Everyone who’s ever said to me they wanted to learn to DJ, I’ve just said ‘Well start listening to music’,” she explains. “It’s about creating the environment. You can be the best most technical DJ in the world, but if you can’t walk into a room and know what everyone wants to hear to have a good time . . . ”

Do clothes make the man? That is a question that artist Greg Lauren is very well qualified to answer. Fashion is in his genes; he is the nephew of Ralph Lauren and the son of Jerry, Ralph’s long-time business partner. And, as a former actor, style was always a design and creative issue. Now he is tackling the relationship between clothing and the wearer with innovative constructions — like an impeccable three-piece suit that reveals itself to be a straight-jacket from behind — in his new exhibition “Alteration”. All designed to scale and meticulously hand-sewn, the works beg to be worn — but that is impossible, for these garments are made out of paper.

Hunched over a Saul Steinberg book, Folkert Gorter and Atley Kasky analyze various components of the images before them — line, composition, color, etc. They discuss whether it jibes with their sensibilities, and they ask themselves one simple question: does it float?

Whether something floats refers to its ability to rise to the top, thus forming the argument for an image’s longevity and relevance. This query filters the good from the bad and determines which images Folkert and Atley will post to their design blog, butdoesitfloat.com. The blog runs on Cargo, one of Folkert’s side projects, which is being developed as a Twitter-like social network and publishing platform for creative people.

Elliot Aronow is the type of music wunderkind that will inevitably change the face of the recording industry. He has worked with more bands than most people can name, held stints at numerous print and online magazines, and currently serves as Creative Director for online site rcrd lbl (www.rcrdlbl.com). At 28 years old he has carved out a career that most are unable to achieve in a lifetime. Today, however, he faces a very different task —  finding someone to hang up his bedroom blinds.