Published: January 21st, 2009 06:12 PM
Last Modified: January 21st, 2009 06:20 PM
Performance artist Kristina Wong presents her wacky "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" this weekend at Out North.
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humor
Performer takes jabs with knitting nuttiness
San Francisco performance artist Kristina Wong has flown into our arctic asylum to present "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." In this wacky one-woman show she jokes, jabs and jangles politically correct nerve endings in a quirky, subversive exploration of the high incidence of mental illness among Asian-American women.
Wong make serious points about life's absurdities by mixing humor, offbeat artistic activism and knitting metaphors. Honest, we're not needling you. Patrons are invited to knit during the show. In fact, if you show your knitting hooks or sticks at the door you'll receive a free skein of yarn to knit with during the performance.
"Wong Flew" can be seen at 7 p.m. today and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at Out North, 3800 DeBarr Road. Tickets are $20 at the door or $18 online at www.outnorth.org, or call 279-3800.
Wong will present a master class at 11 a.m. Saturday. Register before noon today by e-mailing schatzie@outnorth.org or calling 279-8099.
-- Mike Dunham
music
Independent triumph catches fire
When New York mom Simone Dinnerstein couldn't get a recording studio to take her seriously as a classical pianist, she paid to make her own recording. For others, this would amount to a desperate grasp, particularly since she recorded Bach's "Goldberg Variations," a complex, intellectual number for which there are already several recordings that border on legend.
But her self-produced CD caught the attention of major producer Telarc and went on to become a best-seller, cited by The New York Times as one of the best classical recordings of 2007. In her latest recording, she revisits Bach, performing his French Suite No. 5, which she'll play live here when the Anchorage Concert Association presents her at 4 p.m. on Sunday in the Discovery Theatre.
Dinnerstein's Anchorage program includes Schubert's Impromptus, Schumann's "Kreisleriana" and Webern's "Variations for Piano."
A Web review on slate.com compared her to "such high priestesses of music as Wanda Landowska" and advised readers living in towns where she appears to "Go hear her and get religion."
Tickets are $40, $34 for youth, available at CenterTix.net.
-- Mike Dunham
art
Installation makes tracks to nowhere
"Making Connections: Train Sets and Switches in Time" is the title of the latest installation by British artist Alan Turner. Turner, a returning visitor to Alaska, has set it up at the Kimura Gallery in the UAA Arts Building. Sticking my head in last week, I saw sections of model train tracks sitting on the floor and one tub filled with rag. Turner is mute on what it means but told us the installation would change throughout the show, so a return trip may help bring things closer to the aesthetic destination.
There will be a reception at 5:30 p.m. Monday followed by a lecture by the artist at 7 in Room 117. The show is a short one, coming down Feb. 6.
Don Decker will have thoughts on the installation coming up this Sunday in Life & Arts.
-- Mike Dunham
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