On The Market

Get involved in the Market Hotel project.

Since cops shut down the Bushwick venue last month, proprietor Todd Patrick, pictured at left fixing the sound system before a set, has launched a new initiative to create a sustainable, all ages, open-to-the-community, 7-nights-a-week home for independent music and art.

The next project meeting is tonight at 8 pm at the space (957 Broadway at Myrtle Avenue).

More about the project:

"Market Hotel has existed for over two years and in that time has hosted countless legendary events and drawn huge international notice... all of this under the constraints of operating completely underground and with no budget. Now the time has come to channel that momentum and create a fully realized space that serves the whole community, that will help define the NYC / Brooklyn scene into the future.

MARKET HOTEL PROJECT is a new not-for-profit organisation dedicated to swiftly reopening and improving the Market Hotel space, by making the venue more viable, comfortable, safe, and better able to weather legal attention. Especially in these days of ever-encroaching commercialism and corporatism in "indie rock," we envision a space that is a non-commercial "spiritual home" for independent rock music and indie art - but also is sustainable and sanctioned enough to expand indie horizons and open our doors to music and art from the rest of our diverse Bushwick community."

Have ideas? E-mail markethotelproject@gmail.com, or head to the meeting.

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Prom redux

This night is sure to be epic.

On May 22, your prom gets a do-over with The Epic Prom, a 1950s-themed dinner party in Williamsburg that is all about reliving your prom the way it should have been.

That means swing music from the Harlem James Gang (pictured) and vinyl spun by DJ Matt Mikas — with some slow dances to be thrown in for good measure (and bad memories!).

Kicking things off, will be a “grand march” a la Soul Train, with guests dancing down the line before making their way into the prom’s location — a gymnasium, of course — for a cocktail hour created by mixologist Cervantes.

On the food front, Brooklyn culinary personalities Theo Peck and Nick Suarez — of the culinary competition The Food Experiments — will be creating a cafeteria-themed feast, featuring a typical school menu but with a twist, for your discernible adult palate (take, for instance, the chicken confit “McNuggets,” or the Pulled Pork Sloppy Joe’s).

This being prom and all, the main concern is what to wear, and organizers Adam Aleksander and Brian Quinn recommend thinking “Grease” and Footloose” — 1950s-themed dress to go along with the theme. Think pastel-colored, solid-color suits for the gents and waist-pinching dresses with full skirts for the ladies.

“The whole idea is to give adults a chance to relive one of the most vital experiences in their lives, their prom,” said Aleksander. “Whether they had a good time or bad time, went or didn’t go, this is their chance to do it the way they’ve been imagining for many years.”

At this epic event, you’re not so much reliving prom, you’re reinventing it.

The Epic Prom is on May 22 at a secret Catholic school gymnasium in Williamsburg (location announced the day before to paid guests), from 9 pm to midnight. Tickets $75, including dinner, drinks and dancing. For info, visit www.epicprom.com.

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It's party time at 3rd Ward

By Aaron Short

3rd Ward is turning 4-years-old this month and throwing one heck of a hootenanny.

The Morgan Avenue arts organization, home to gallery exhibits, art classes, and late-night warehouse revelry, is putting out all the stops for its birthday on May 22, with live bands, free workshops and lots of barbecue.

Founder Jason Goodman is opening his space to the public by helping the community blow off some steam just before summer starts while recognizing some of its hard-working member artists.

“With the economy in such bad shape, we weren’t sure how our members, most of whom are creative freelancers, would fare. It turned out they needed us more than ever,” said Goodman.

Last year, Sen. Chuck Schumer crashed the party and participated in a synchronized cycling workshop, while The Meat Hook’s Tom Mylan butchered and grilled up a whole pig.

There’ll be more surprises this year.

So far, the arts center confirmed the participation of Bushwick Mobile/Synchronized Cycling, which will attempt to dance on BMX bikes and a new food venture launched just for the occasion.

For the more do-it-yourself minded, though there will be several new workshops on bookbinding, silversmith, and woodworking with reclaimed lumber, while bands including Pink Noise, Stumblebum Brass Band and Hank & Cupcakes will entertain the crowds.

The highlight of the afternoon will be a film and music collaboration sponsored by Moviehouse, where four DJs will face off, interpreting live music to scenes of short films on screen behind them.

Moviehouse founder Chris Henderson said he owes nearly everything to 3rd Ward, which has helped the low-budget organization flourish by showing free film screenings in Williamsburg at its space for the past two years.

“They’re our home and biggest supporter. They do the majority of the marketing and they don’t get involved too much creatively, which means we can just do our show. We’ve grown in a large part because of our association with Third Ward. They’re awesome,” said Henderson.

Birthday BBQ at 3rd Ward [195 Morgan Ave. at Stagg Street in Bushwick, (718) 715-4961], May 22 at 2 pm. Free. For info, visit www.3rdward.com.

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That's folk, all! Brooklyn fest opens this Friday

By Stephen Witt

The Brooklyn Folk Festival has already gotten too big for its britches!

The second annual event not only features a slew of the borough’s best musicians at Jalopy on Columbia Street, but has added extra shows at Cabrini Urban Meadow Park on President Street between Columbia and Van Brunt streets.

You can thank banjo player and blues folklorist Eli Smith for the expansion of the May 21-23 event. As he did last year, Smith has beaten the bushes to find an eclectic mix of old-time music, blues, pre-blues, jug band music, New Orleans jazz folk songwriting, Greek, African and Mexican folk music.

“It’s not so much getting big acts for the festival, but about getting quality acts,” said Smith. “That’s why the Mexican folk band, Radio Jarocho, Gambian kora player Salieu Suso and American blues and folk musician Blind Boy Paxton are highlights of the festival.”

Other highlights include North Carolina banjo player and ballad singer Clifton Hicks, singer/songwriters Feral Foster and Mamie Minch, blues artist Ernie Vega, and Smith’s own Dust Busters Band.

String musicians looking to learn new folk techniques will find the blues guitar workshop with Bob Malenky and old-time banjo workshop with John Cohen helpful.

Beyond that, there will also be square dancing on May 23, when folk music aficionados and musicians alike can get to stepping.

“It will be called by Dave Harvey of the New York City Barn Dance,” said Smith. “He’s a very good caller and the dance will have special musical guests.”

Brooklyn Folk Festival at Jalopy [315 Columbia St. between Woodhull and Rapelye streets in Red Hook, (718) 395-3214], May 21-23. For info, visit www.brooklynfolkfest.com.

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Go to Southpaw to laugh at cancer

By Elizabeth Dana

Cancer is hilarious. At least, it is at Southpaw this month.

On May 20, the Park Slope bar hosts “Comedy for Cancer,” a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society that’s aimed at “people you don’t see at fundraisers,” said Garland Harwood (pictured at last year's event), a cancer survivor who’s organizing the night of comedy for the second year in a row. “It’s not a Bill Cosby crowd.”

This year’s benefit includes rising comedy star Sean Patton, who was recently featured on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Returning from last year’s show are Adam Newman, Trevor Williams and Nick Ross, a regular at Upright Citizen’s Brigade and on CollegeHumor.com.

Ross, a cancer survivor as well, doesn’t shy away from including his experiences in his routine; he even has a whole one-man show about going through cancer treatment called, “Highly Evolved Human” that’s toured the country.

“So, why do a show about cancer?” Ross shot out at the audience at last year’s benefit. “I don’t know. Maybe I just want to get it out of my system.”

Other bits of his routine explore what it’s like to tell your friends you have cancer when you’re in your mid-20s and the realities of dating when you’re about to go through eight months of chemotherapy.

“He doesn’t make light of cancer, but he makes light of all the hilarious things that happen to you when you have cancer,” said Harwood.

Maybe laughter really is the best medicine.

Comedy for Cancer at Southpaw [125 Fifth Ave. at Sterling Place in Park Slope, (718) 230-0236], May 20 at 8 pm. Tickets $10 in advance, $15 at the door. For more, visit comedyforcancer.org.

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Wading though 'Robin Hood'

"Robin Hood"

Two stars

By Gary Buiso

“Robin Hood” is filmed competently and acted well, but the revisionist tale of the legendary archer ultimately can’t see the Sherwood Forest from the trees.

Director Ridley Scott (“Alien”) crafts a satisfying enough epic, but the film is unnecessarily muddy, wading through dense brush to tell a prequel that is devoid of both originality and merriment.

Russell Crowe plays Robin, the dashing figure of lore who plundered the rich to give to the poor. But Crowe is no dandy like Errol Flynn from the classic 1938 film.

In the 2010 version, Robin Longstride is a blood-soaked commoner fighting alongside the likes of King Richard the Lionheart, returning from the not-so-dandy Crusades. The king takes an arrow to the neck, and Robin is charged with returning his crown to England because the gent initially in charge of the crown, Sir. Robert Loxley, suffers the wrong end of a broadsword.

Loxley beseeches Robin to return his sword to his father, Walter (Max von Sydow), back in Nottingham. There, Robin will meet Loxley Jr.’s brassy widow, Marion (Cate Blanchett), and adopt the identity of her dead hubby, at the request of the elder Loxley, so his daughter-in-law can retain title to the land. She’s skeptical of Robin — “I sleep with a dagger” — but we know the archer will make her quiver soon enough.

Meanwhile, Nottingham is overtaxed by Richard’s successor, King John (Oscar Isaac), whose chancellor Godfrey (Mark Strong) is secretly plotting with the French to overrun the motherland. It’s up to Robin and an assembled band to fight for an ungrateful crown and stump for social justice along the way. “You build a county like you build a cathedral — from the ground up,” he says.

The film’s foil is the script, by Brian Helgeland (“Mystic River”), which is confusing and bogged down by palace politics and indistinguishable battle sequences.

Only in the last minutes of “Robin Hood” is the “legend” born. His cinematic rebirth could have been less painful.

“Robin Hood.” Rated PG-13 for violence including intense sequences of warfare, and some sexual content. 140 minutes. With Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Max von Sydow, Oscar Isaac and Danny Huston.

Playing in Brooklyn at Access Digital Theatres - Pavilion Cinema in Park Slope, Downtown at UA Court Street Stadium 12, UA Sheepshead Bay 14, Bay Ridge Alpine Cinemas, and Linden Boulevard Multiplex Cinemas in East New York.

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This bad idea sounds pretty damn sexy

Jonny Porkpie has a bad idea.

In a venue that already pushes the limits, the unofficial burlesque mayor of New York City is encouraging his burlesque beauties to do absolutely anything they want.

The show — “Bad Ideas” — comes to Coney Island’s Burlesque at the Beach this Thursday, with some of the best in the business bringing new cards to the stage.

There’ll be heartbreaker BB Heart; the vivacious Jo Boobs; Legs Malone, the girl with the 34-and-a-half-inch inseam; and Peekaboo Point (pictured), the fastest tassel-twirler from East to West.

“The first act will be a glorious showcase of the wonders of the modern burlesque, filled with beautiful women performing the brilliant acts which best exemplify their skill, humor and sexiness,” said Porkpie.

During the second act, the ladies will be given free reign, challenged by ringmaster Porkpie to bring to life their most-outrageous ideas.

“It will be a fantastic freakin’ trainwreck,” said Porkpie.

This bad idea just might turn out to be pretty great.

Jonny Porkpie’s Bad Ideas at Coney Island USA [1208 Surf Ave. at W. 12th Street in Coney Island], May 20 at 9 pm. Tickets $10. For info, visit www.jonnyporkpie.com.

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