Art by Zee

If you happen to be in NYC this week, stop by Bertrand Delacroix Gallery at 535 West 25th Street for a book signing of Don’t Hold Your Breath: The Art of Brian Ewing, the first collection of Ewing’s work.

New York based Ewing is a pop surrealist whose works have included posters, illustrations, an album covers for The New Yorker, Detective Comics, the Warped Tour, Metallica, and many more.

Bertrand Delacroix Gallery includes work by Ewing in its current exhibition, Printer’s Proof, a retrospective show of serigraph prints editioned over the past decade at Axelle Editions which includes studio proofs by some thirty select artists among the thousands of projects overseen by Master Printer Luther Davis who along with his staff collaborates with over 100 artists a year.

Brian Ewing will be on hand at the gallery on Thursday, January 27 from 6 to 8 pm to sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase. RSVP to info@bdgny.com if you’re interested in attending.

Normally I focus on the West Coast events here but I want to send a shout out to any Hey Marseilles fans who might happen to be reading and might be attending one of their six East Coast shows (August 1 in NYC; August 2 in Cambridge, MA; August 3 in Philadelphia; August 4 in DC; August 5 in Northampton, MA; and August 6 in Bangor) – the band’s got a nifty contest for their East Coast audiences.

Take photos at any of the above shows, upload them to a Flickr page linked on their website, and tag them with “hey, marseilles, super, contest”. The band will review all the photos posted and select two winners to get a fun prize pack that includes utographed CDs, vinyl, tote bags, stickers, t-shirts and maybe even more.

The last time The Golden Duo hit the road in North Americawas last year when they toured with The Presets; this year the “post-disco disco” duo is back with a new tour that includes The Hundred in the Hands.

They play NYC’s Mercury Lounge on Friday, May 14 and then commence touring in June, opening on the 4th at LA’s Spaceland before moving on to San Francisco and Mountain View and then moving eastward:

May 14 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
June 4 – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland
June 5 – San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine
June 6 – Mountain View, CA – BFD Festival
June 9 – Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
June 10 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
June 11 – Detroit, MI – Majestic
June 12 – Toronto, On – Wrongbar
June 17 – Boston, MA – Middle East
June 18 – Washington DC – DC9
June 19 – Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie

If I were going to be anywhere near NYC in late February or early March, I would totally go to the New York International Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF).

If it seems to you like children’s movies are inherently dumb, only appealing to the young and unsophisticated, then you probably only watch mainstream releases which are, indeed, by and large glurge churned out in the hopes of making a buck or a few million via merchandising. Consider what the major houses seem to think of adults’ level of intelligence and it’s no wonder that so many kids’ movies are written as if children are inherently stupid.

Ah, but there are plenty of excellent movies made for children, many of which have a genuine appeal for adults, too, and not just in that arrested development in which would-be hipsters co-opt childhood as a substitute for actual personality.

Michel Ocelot’s Kirikou and the Sorceress (France, 1998) retells an old African legend with stunning, wonder-inspiring imagery. Another French film, 1973′s Fantastic Planet has long been a cult classic among adults for its psychedelic artwork and complex, provocative storyline but is an entirely suitable film for tweens and teens as well.

The French are really good at animation; this is represented at NYICFF with a program of French short animation and several more shorts and features.

NYICFF also features shorts and full-length films from places other than France. Notable is In the Attic from Czech filmmaker Jiri Barta, a leading light in stop-motion animation who hasn’t made a movie in 20 years. Like any good fairy tale, his story about a doll and her toy friends is equal parts dark to the light.

Film production workshops help educate kids and their families to what it really takes to make a movie and, who knows, maybe influence them to make their own.