Free Invite - Rayito on Friday, March 16

Please RSVP to sofia@casanaranja.com

News from NYRemezcla.com

The 411 on undiscovered talent from another of Casa Naranja's fave sites, NYRemezcla.com

Sun. 3/11 & Mon. 3/12
Zoé
D'Antigua & SOB's
The best band to come out of Mexico (según nosotros... and many others) is performing FOR FREE at D'Antigua on Sunday night and SOB's on Monday. Just be sure to print out your "tickets" from the Jack Daniels website

Sunday night Brazilian dance party at Black Betty

NIGHTLIFE

Sounds of Brazil

The long-running Sunday night Brazilian dance party at Black Betty gets some competition this weekend, from within its own Moroccan-themed walls. The Carnaval vs. Mardi Gras battle will pit the bossa nova, samba and South American 70s funk of the regular DJs against their Big Easy cajun sounds of their counterparts. Will the loser have to doff their clothes and don some beads? You’re already in the neighborhood; boogie on by and see.
9 p.m., Black Betty, 366 Metropolitan Avenue (Havemeyer Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (718), 599-0243; free.

Martín Ramírez

MediaFebruary 21, 2007
Martín Ramírez by Brooke Davis Anderson
Published by: Marquand Books, in association with the American Folk Art Museum

A Mexican immigrant who fell on hard times during the Depression, Martín Ramírez spent his last 32 years in Californian mental institutions before dying at DeWitt State Hospital in 1963. While hospitalized, he drew on scraps of paper, which he often pasted together to form larger works, repeating variations on favorite subjects such as riders on horseback, trains in tunnels, Madonnas confronting the viewer, and detailed surrealist landscapes. In the early '50s, Tarmo Pasto, a professor of psychology and art at Sacramento State College, met Ramírez and immediately recognized his talent. Pasto encouraged the self-taught artist and arranged acclaimed exhibitions — in 1968, Pasto sold nearly 300 of Ramírez's works to dealer Phyllis Kind and artists Jim Nutt and Gladys Nilsson, after Nutt discovered the drawings while teaching at Sacramento State. Over time, Kind brought Ramírez to the attention of the art world, showing his drawings at her galleries in Chicago and New York. This scholarly book, which accompanies a remarkable traveling exhibition, examines the artist's work, his family history, his artistic development in seclusion, the myths about his life, his cultural identity, and the debate over whether he should be recognized as an outsider or modern artist.
-PL

Martín Ramírez is on view at the American Folk Art Museum in New York through April 29 and opens at the Milwaukee Art Museum on October 6.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema

Aside from the fact that I am a francophile I truly believe all romance languages are one, so..... I present to you a French Film Festival.

FILM: Festival
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema
when:Wed 2.28 - Sun 3.11 (schedule)
where:Walter Reade Theater (70 Lincoln Center Plaza, 212.496.3809) map
price:$12
links:Event Info

Gallic film has undergone such a rejuvenation over the last five years that Lincoln Center's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema has ripened into one of New York's elite showcases. This year's program proves no exception, opening with La Vie en Rose, director Olivier Dahan's portrait of the ever-fascinating Édith Piaf, which set tongues a-flapping this month at the Berlin Film Festival. Gérard Depardieu sheds his romantic-comedy veneers in The Singer. Francis Veber, who helmed 2001's The Closet, returns to the festival with The Valet, his comment on the cult of celebrity, European-style. Other selections not to be missed: The Untouchable and Blame It on Fidel. (LR)

The City Is Their Canvas

It seems like we have a weekly country theme and this week's turn is all things Brazil!

Hot off the Gen Art presses:

If you can't jet set to South America, head over to the Ruas de Sao Paulo: A Survey of Brazilian Street Art

Beginning on February 17th, you can check out Ruas de Sao Paulo, a landmark exhibition of street and mural art from eight contemporary Brazilian artists at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York. (This is the first time most of these artists are showing in the United States—many of them have never left Brazil.)

The exhibition was inspired by Jonathan LeVine's visit to the art-filled streets of Sao Paulo, where he met Baixo and Mariana Ribeiro, owners of Choque Cultural Gallery. The group had a lot of "good conversations about life, music, art and artists," and as a result, decided to collaborate on Ruas de Sao Paulo."It was easy to choose a group that synthesized the true energy of Brazilian street art for this exhibition," explains Baxio."South America is so rich with popular art, which is recognized by common people, but despised by the scholar. Street art explores this social issue. These artists choose to touch anyone rather than to be understood by a few people."

The raw, uninhibited graffiti scene captured by Ruas de Sao Paulo might bring you back to pre-Giuliani New York, when urban artists transformed the city into a reflection of contemporary political and social issues. (Remnants of this movement can still be seen on your way to Queens on the 7 train.) Our favorite artist in the show, Fefe, creates monsters from letters cut out of street posters.

The Ribeiros hope that New York will embrace this new generation of contemporary art that is brewing in Sao Paulo. As Baxio explains: "The public aspects of graffiti art puts the artists in contact with everyday people, who are their simplest critics—it's very important for the artists to have that dialogue." We couldn't agree more. Go to the exhibition and let us know what you think.

-Barbara Roan

Forro in the Dark

Album Review

February 1, 2007
Forro in the Dark

Bonfires of São João

Nublu

Forro is a jumpy, accordion-driven, polka-like style that emerged in the hills of northeastern Brazil, so there's something appealingly incongruous about revamping the genre into a soundtrack for urban scenesters. The New York six-piece Forro in the Dark, led by singer/percussionist Mauro Refosco, leave the accordion out and open the sound up a bit (it's usually played by trios, not sextets). They write good songs, too, which helps. "Que Que Tu Fez" sounds like a wedding dance in progress; opener "Indios dos Norte" jumps up to get down like prime Balkan gypsy music. Guest vocal spots by David Byrne, Bebel Gilberto, and Miho Hatori make sense on an album with such world appeal, but they're mere icing on the party cake.