(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings February 14–20, 2020
MUSIC
Rise & Shrines
It’s electronica gone green!
A Bedford-Stuyvesant musician will add electronic
beats and blips to the traditional ballads
of the Emerald Isle, at a Williamsburg concert
next week. Shrines — the
solo project of singer Carrie
Erving — said that
the show at National Sawdust
on Feb. 19 will showcase
tunes from her debut
album “Release,” which
uses synthesizers, cellos,
and electronic drums to
accompany her powerful
voice.
“I think it’s going to be a really great night
for folks, with music that is combining the influence
of traditional folk music with modern
music, with electronic beats, with synths,” said
Erving.
Her debut release was heavily inspired by
Sean-nos, she said, a traditional Irish style of a
capella singing. The self-written album mixes
that style with influences from more modern
vocalists such as Bjork, she said.
“It is sort of following those influences, but
also thinking about music that I like to listen
to that is emotionally powerful and draws you
in,” Erving said.
The artist will also offer a sneak peek at songs
from her next album, which she describes as
“my version of traditional Irish songs,” that she
plans to release sometime in the fall.
Erving, who is of Irish descent, was first drawn
to traditional Irish music while on a trip to the
land of her ancestors. She was impressed by the
storytelling in those songs, which often describe
the experience of love, of immigration, and of
everyday personal life — topics which are still
relatable, she said, even though the songs may
be centuries old.
“I also feel like they’re hauntingly beautiful
songs that have been passed down through
the years that help me feel connected to earlier
generations and to a spiritual realm,” Erving
said. “There’s also a lot of songs about
connecting to the natural world that I find really
beautiful.”
During the show, Erving will sing and play the
synthesizer, and will be joined by an electronic
drummer, a cellist, and a team of dancers from
the group CreateArt. Adding dancers is a new
experiment, she said, but one that felt right for
National Sawdust’s innovative stage.
“It’s really exciting for me to be in the National
Sawdust space. I feel like they encourage
experimentation and I feel like it is a chance
for me to add some visual elements that bring a
new aspect to the work,” she said.
Shrines at National Sawdust (80 N. Sixth
Street at Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, www.
nationalsawdust.org/event/shrines). Feb. 19 at 8
pm. $18. — Jessica Parks
Dino-mite!: A new show at Barclays Center will bring the menacing dinosaurs from “Jurassic Park” to life. Photo by Feld Entertainment
Dinos roar! Family-friendly, live ‘Jurassic World’ show stomps into Barclays
By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
This show has T-Rex appeal!
An extravagant new show inspired
by the beloved movie “Jurassic Park”
will transform Barclays Center into a prehistoric
playground from Feb. 20 to 23. “Jurassic
World Live” introduces a new story
set in the Jurassic cinematic universe, and
will feature more than 20 life-size dinosaur
puppets, according to the show’s tour
coordinator.
“The T-Rex is 42 feet long,” said Adrien
Baez. “Imagine the size of a school bus —
that’s her size.”
The story, which takes place between
the first and second “Jurassic World” movies,
SPECTACLE
stars a team of scientists trying to save
Jeanie, the world’s smartest troodon, from
a group of evil conspirators who want to
use her as a weapon.
The performance will use projections
and scenery to reproduce the jungles of
Isla Nublar, Jurassic World’s home base,
inside the sports arena. It will also feature
a rich diversity of dinosaurs who look just
like their on-screen counterparts, including
Blue the Velociraptor, the Tyrannosaurus
Rex, a triceratops, and several flying
pteranodons, Baez said.
Some dinosaurs will be played by actors
carrying 120-pound costumes, while
others are fully animatronic, controlled
remotely by puppeteers who determine
their movement, expressions, and breathing
from the sidelines. The dinos are so
big that the tour company has to employ
dozens of trucks to move them from city
to city, Baez said.
“The T-Rex we have to transport in two
trucks that are used to transport Nascar
cars,” he explained. “It takes two days to
load the dinosaurs.”
The dinosaurs are not only accurate to
their antediluvian originals, but they also
reflect details from the movies. The T-Rex
figure, for example, still has injuries from
her battle with the Indominus Rex in “Jurassic
World,” Baez noted.
“She even has scratch marks from that
fight,” he said.
The enormous thunder lizards are a hit
with kids, but the live tour has something
for everyone, said Baez, including genuinely
touching moments between Jeanie
the dinosaur and her creator.
“It has action, it has a very cool storyline,
it has dinosaurs,” he said. “There’s
that connection between Jeannie and Dr.
Kate Walker, and you’re at the edge of your
seat tearing up.”
BOOKS
Reading picks
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“American Lucifers,” by Jeremy Zallen
This book goes from
the tallow candles that lit
the colonies, to the whale
oil lamps, and then coalpowered
electricity that
allowed for the aroundthe
clock labor (particularly
by children and the
enslaved) through which
a new nation grew. Jeremy
Zallen’s history of
artificial light in America
threads histories of
labor, ecology and technology
into an incisive narrative spanning two
centuries of war, industry, and radical cultural
change.
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore 43
Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield
Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.
commu nityb ookst ore.net .
Word’s picks: “You’re Not Listening,”
by Kate Murphy
It feels like we live in
a disconnected time. Debates
quickly turn contentious,
friends have become
“followers,” and
hot takes are dished out
at the expense of genuine
conversation. In her
new book, journalist Kate
Murphy argues that not
listening is at the root of
a lot of our problems. She
interviews a wide array
of people to get to the bottom of what makes a
good listener, and gives advice on how to become
one (because odds are, you aren’t!). Equally informative,
helpful, and entertaining.
— Lorenzo Gerena, Word 126 Franklin St. at
Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096,
www.wordbookstores.com .
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“Weather,” by Jenny Offill
Jenny Offill uses pithy prose that recalls the
epigrammatic style of
post-modern masters of
the last century to create a
catalog of fragments that
feels especially suited to
depicting our contemporary
psyche. It has been
five years since her debut,
“Dept. of Speculation,”
and “Weather” is
more explicitly political,
perhaps necessarily so.
More importantly, Offill
is still a very funny
and charming writer; she
has one of the best senses of timing and rhythm
in the game.
— Matt Stowe, Greenlight Bookstore 686
Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland
Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200,
www.greenlightbookstore.com .
“Jurassic World Live” at Barclays Center
620 Atlantic Ave. at Flatbush Avenue
in Prospect Heights, (917) 618–6100,
www.barclayscenter.com. Feb. 20 at
7 pm; Feb. 21–22 at 11 am, 3 pm, and
7 pm; and Feb. 23 at noon and 4 pm.
$15–$100.
By Ben Verde
Brooklyn Paper
She’s really getting into the spirit
of things!
A Brooklyn comedy series that
uncovers the horrors of modern romance
has gone digital, reincarnated
as a three-episode online talk show
about “ghosting” — the phenomenon
of online dating wherein potential suitors
disappear without a trace.
“Ghost Town: the Series,” launched
online on Feb. 13, but it started more
than a year ago as the monthly live
show “Ghost Town Comedy,” harnessing
the comedic potential of what its
host calls an everyday experience for
anyone dating in the digital age.
“I’ve done it, we’ve all done it,” said
comedian Savannah DesOrmeaux.
“It’s kind of sad, but I think it’s hilarious.”
COMEDY
The frequent nature of ghosting
ensures that plenty of funny people
have a hilarious tale to share about
it, according to the Prospect Lefferts
Gardens comedian.
“Everyone has this wackadoo
story,” she said. “It’s always like, we
went on a date and had this amazing
time, and then we met up again and
confessed our love for each other, and
then he canceled on me and was never
to be seen or heard from again.”
DesOrmeaux started the series after
she experienced both being ghosted
and ghosting on other people. Her
friends’ similar stories about disappearing
dates made her want to create
a platform for comics to turn the
sometimes painful experience into
laughs, she said.
The live show, now running at
Friends and Lovers in Crown Heights,
alternates between traditional standup
sets and interview segments, in
which the comics share their ghosting
tales with DesOrmeaux.
The web show focuses solely on the
interview, with each roughly eightminute
episode featuring a different
guest. The episodes are jazzed up with
text overlays, sound effects, and fastpaced
emoji images that fly across the
screen. The latter images accent the
extremely-online nature of the show,
said DesOrmeaux — and they have
another advantage for a cash-strapped
comedian.
“First and foremost I’m broke and
emojis are public domain, so in many
ways it’s free and in many ways I’m
broke,” she said. “And it represents
the texting kind of digital world we
all live in.”
New online episodes of “Ghost
Town” will appear over the next week,
on the run-up to the next live show
on Feb. 25.
Ghost stories
Comedy show about ‘ghosting’
expands with online episodes
Photo by Mike Bryk
She’s got spirit: Savannah DesOrmeaux has taken her monthly live
comedy series “Ghost Town” online.
Watch “Ghost Town: the Series”
at www.savannahdesormeaux.
com/ghosttown. New episodes
on Feb. 16 and Feb. 23. “Ghost
Town Comedy” at Friends and
Lovers 641 Classon Ave. between
Pacifi c and Dean streets in Crown
Heights, (917) 979–3060, www.fnlbk.
com. Feb. 25 at 8 pm. Free.
Photo courtesy of Shrines
/www.fn-lbk.com
/shrines
/www.commu
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/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.barclayscenter.com
/www.savannahdesormeaux
/shrines
/www.fn-lbk.com
/www.fn-lbk.com
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/ore.net
/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.barclayscenter.com
/www.savannahdesormeaux