Episode 10
Original Cablecast: December 24, 2008
- Reggae Roots: The Melodians were part of the 1960’s reggae revolution and sang By the Rivers of Babylon on The Harder They Come soundtrack. Recently, while cutting a new album, they came to BCAT to perform and tell their story.
- Amitav Ghosh: Based in Brooklyn and one of the world’s leading novelists, Ghosh talks about writing and history, particularly the 19th-century Opium Wars that form the background of his latest novel, Sea of Poppies.
- Guitar (Making) Hero: A visit to Roger Sadowsky’s DUMBO workshop, where he’s made guitars for practically everyone (Springsteen, Lou Reed, Prince) who’s anyone.
- Video Art: Cobble Hill artist Jordan Wolfson has shown his video art at the Whitney Biennial. We follow him as he sets up a solo-show installation at Manhattan’s Swiss Institute gallery.
Episode 9
Original Cablecast: November 26, 2008
- Our Very Own Opera! The Regina Opera Company takes us to Scotland by way of Italy and Dyker Heights as it gets ready to stage Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
- Only the Dead Know Brooklyn: Go out hunting for haunted spaces with Nathan Kensinger, who photographs Brooklyn’s abandoned industrial sites.
- Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens: Rehearsal in a church, a visit to Daptone Records, and a nightclub performance…plus R&B and religion, a blind pianist, and James Brown’s former bass player!
- Colorful is Hardly the Word: In the studio with Park Slope painter Baseera Khan, whose works in acrylic feel like the settings for your most vivid dreams.
- Block Head: Dennis McNett teaches printmaking at Pratt, designs graphics for skateboards and shoes, and turns wood blocks into some very surreal creatures
Episode 8
Original Cablecast: October 22, 2008
- Triangle Arts International Workshop: Every two years, a couple of dozen artists from across the globe are selected to spend two weeks making art and living together in DUMBO.
- Chicha Libre: At Barbes, in Park Slope, the sounds of the Peruvian Amazon mix with psychedelic pop and surf music (not to mention the occasional siren).
- A Marriage of Stage & Prose: David Herskovits, who directs the Target Margin Theater, goes Artist to Artist with his wife, acclaimed novelist Jennifer Egan, author of The Keep.
- Fashion for the Faithful: In Bed-Stuy, Nzinga Knight shows us her clothing line, designed for Muslim women.
- Fishermen of Sheepshead Bay: Photographer Christian Johnston and writer Shamar Hill take us to the piers where the subjects of their latest exhibit are waiting for the next bite.
Episode 7
Original Cablecast: September 24, 2008
- Enter the Dragon: At Celebrate Brooklyn, this Kung Fu classic was screened with a brand new score. You’ll see how it was written & performed by composer Karsh Kale and friends.
- It's OK, Don't Be Nervous: Yeah, right! Watch the auditions for Narrows Community Theater’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
- Trouble the Water: In our Artist to Artist segment, filmmakers Tia Lessin & Carl Deal discuss their acclaimed documentary about Katrina -- plus what it’s like to make movies while married to each other.
- A Painter's Pallette: Artist Simon Dinnerstein explains how he has conceived and executed his latest work.
- Father Goose: Delighting the kids as part of Dan Zanes & Friends – a profile of how this hardcore rapper switched from CD’s like Baddest DJ to singing the Hokey Pokey.
Episode 6
Original Cablecast: July 23, 2008
- Sakura Madams: a Brooklyn-based all-girl Japanese punk funk band, in rehearsal & performance
- Threads, by Khalil: off-beat and exotic clothing designs – plus some philosophy -- from this Bed-Stuy resident
- BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange): inside the rehearsal spaces of this Park Slope arts organization that offers a much sought-after Artist in Residency program.
- David Dixon is Dead: Dixon, a filmmaker and sculptor, talks about the role taxidermy plays in his documentary.
- First Saturday: the monthly arty-party at the Brooklyn Museum, a local tradition. It’s culture on the wall crossed with off-the-wall dancing.
Episode 5
Original Cablecast: June 25, 2008
- MGMT: behind the scenes with the Brooklyn-based psychedelic pop duo (one of Rolling Stone magazine’s top ten “Artists to Watch in 2008”) as they make their new video, directed by filmmaker Ray Tintori.
- They Call Him the Japanese Warhol: At the Brooklyn Museum, the largest retrospective ever of the playful and slightly insane work of Takashi Murakami.
- Chico MacMurtrie: MacMurtrie is Artistic Director of Amorphic Robot Works, a group of artists and engineers who work together on robotic art performances and installations.
- Artist to Artist…Tony Gerber & Britton Fisher: Brooklyn filmmaker Tony Gerber discusses his new project Full Battle Rattle with the film’s executive producer, arts patron Britton Fisher.
Episode 4
Original Cablecast: May 28, 2008
- First Saturday: the monthly arty-party at the Brooklyn Museum, a local tradition. It’s culture on the wall crossed with off-the-wall dancing.
- Vik Muniz: one of Brooklyn’s best-known artists talks about his photography-based works made with surprising media, from diamond dust to sugar to toy soldiers to chocolate syrup.
- Artist to Artist…Janine Avril & Ben Greenman: a conversation about fact versus fiction and other writers’ concerns. Avril’s memoir, Nightlight, deals with the loss of both of her parents, while Greenman, editor of The New Yorker’s Goings on About Town, has written several very funny books.
- Bay Ridge Drama: It’s all about passion without pay as the Narrows Community Theater (in its 37th year!) rehearses and performs Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.
Episode 3
Original Cablecast: April 23, 2008
- Splendor in the Grass: Serge Spitzer specializes in large conceptual artworks. We follow him from his Williamsburg studio to a meadow in Connecticut, where he’s carefully placing thousands – many thousands – of tennis balls!
- Ten Feet, One Vision: At BRICLab, Andrew J. Nemr and four members of his tap dance company, CPD Plus, prepare a new work set to Gershwin – an a cappella version of a piano prelude. Behind the scenes at rehearsal, step-by-step, heel to toe.
- Artist to Artist: Simon and Simone Dinnerstein: A Brooklyn father-and-daughter conversation, about his paintings and her piano-playing. What did it mean for her to grow up with an artist for a father? What’s it like to see your daughter’s career build to include the country’s number-one classical album?
- Room for Rent, Only Creative Types Need Apply: Who’s at work inside the Brooklyn Artists Gym, where artists can find studio and gallery space, equipment, storage – even constructive criticism!
Episode 2
Original Cablecast: March 26, 2008
- Erik Sanko/Jessica Grindstaff: Sanko, puppeteer and musician, works alongside his artist/designer wife to create charmingly blood-curdling puppet shows which deal with themes like “The Seven Deadly Sins.”
- Artist to Artist (Michael Christie/John Corigliano): Christie, Musical Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, talks about rehearsing and conducting the music of composer Corigliano, whose works were recently featured at BAM.
- "Brooklyn is Burning" at Glasslands Gallery: a 1970’s-style psychedelic happening in Williamsburg, featuring strobe lights and nude dancers – except for the body paint.
- Meta & the Cornerstones: live at a club and in rehearsal, meet Senegalese reggae singer Meta Dia and his band-from-everywhere, the Cornerstones.
Episode 1
Original Cablecast: February 26, 2008
Brooklyn Independent Television launches its new monthly arts and culture show with a profile on the Mark Morris Dance Group (including a behind-the-scenes peek at a rehearsal of their new work King Arthur); a feature on Tom Otterness, a Gowanus-based sculptor best known for his whimsical brass public sculptures on view in places like Metrotech, NY Botanical Gardens, and the 14th Street stop on the A/C/E subway lines; and, lastly, a conversation between Danny Simmons (creator of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam) and jazz photographer Fran Kaufman.