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Morning reading: Robots, James Levine, carny sideshows

My Stages column in the Globe this morning looks at a Fort Point theater company's love of the bizarre. ... Jeremy Eichler covers James Levine's return to the Symphony Hall podium. ... Up on the North Shore we've all been waiting for the debut of Rockport Music's glass-walled waterfront concert hall. Eichler also tells us about the schedule for the new venue, and there's a picture. ... Yesterday I told you about the robot art exhibit at Space 242. Today WBUR has a short story and a video featuring Boston artist Skunk, who I profiled a couple of years ago for the Globe when he had a solo show at 242. That's Skunk's "Sohil" at left, not James Levine.

Robots take over South End gallery

Robots are the draw at the South End's Space 242 gallery on Friday night for the opening of "I…YOU…WE…ROBOT!" The exhibit, subtitled "A Visual Homage To Our Inner Geek" offers works in all kinds of mediums from more than 70 artists. And as Space 242 is "Boston's low brow destination" you can count on quite a few of them being both funny and reasonably affordable. But you know, mostly I just like robots. The opening reception is 6-8 on Friday at the gallery, 242 E. Berkeley St., second floor. It's free and open to the public with RSVP at www.space242.com. On the left, that's  "Louie" by Tom Torrey. After the jump we have a few more very cool 'bots.Tom Servo would be proud.

James Taylor + Carole King add second Boston show

James Taylor and Carole King's Troubadour Reunion Tour sold out its June 19 stop at TD Garden, so a second show has been added on June 20. Tix go on sale Jan. 30 at 10 a.m. at the TD Garden Box Office, www.ticketmaster.com 800-745-3000, or www.livenation.com. They are, again, $39.50-$350.

ICA announces Foster Prize finalists

Like the Academy Awards, the ICA's Foster Prize is enlarging its list of nominees this year for reasons not entirely transparent. The Oscars jumped the Best Picture field from five to ten nominees. The Institute of Contemporary Arts/Boston announced this week that there are nine Foster Prize nominees this year, up from the usual four. "The Foster  Prize exhibition is an exciting opportunity for audiences in Boston and beyond to appreciate the artistic innovation happening here in our community," Jill Medvedow, director of the ICA said in the statement announcing the nominees. "This year's exhibition more than doubles the number of local artists participating in the program, bringing increased focus to the impressive work being created in Boston's vibrant art scene."

Properly called  the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the ICA's biennial award and exhibition program for Boston-area artiststhis year includes a wide range of work in sculpture and installation, film and video, painting, drawing and photography. The finalists will participate in an exhibition at the ICA that opens Sept. 22, 2010, and continues through Jan. 30, 2011. The winner of the $25,000 prize will be announced in January 2011. The Fosters are contemporary art devotees; James Foster is an ICA Trustee and Chairman, President and CEO of Charles River Laboratories.

And...drum roll please...the nominees are:  Robert de St. Phalle, Eirik Johnson, Fred Liang, Rebecca Meyers, Matthew Rich, Daniela Rivera, Evelyn Rydz, Amie Siegel and Steve Tourlentes. Their bios follow after the jump. And Greg Cook has some samples of their work here.

(Image: Peter Vanderwarker via ICA.)

Boston Book Fest 2: Save the date

The second annual Boston Book Festival has been announced for Oct. 16 in and around Copley Square. That's about all there is to report; the author lineup, exact times and locations will be announced by the summer. Organizers estimate 12,000 people attended the first event last fall, with speakers including Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, Richard Russo, Anita Diamant, John Hodgman, Dennis Lehane, Cornel West, Mary Gordon Michael Patrick MacDonald and gazillions more.

New England Americana Festival sets lineup

I'm not sure that making light sculptures with their smartphones is the most Americana-ish photo shoot move ever - seems kind of power pop to me - but Girls, Guns and Glory (left) are among the top billed bands at this year's fourth New England Americana Festival, Feb. 25-27, at Church, located at 69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston. Other top acts include Kingsley Flood (below) - posing in a dumpster is good, but tea? - Jimmy Ryan and Hayride! with Duke Levine, Billy Beard, and Andrew Mazzone, Brown Bird, Highway Ghosts and Three Day Threshold. The announcement describes various acts as "whiskey-soaked," "chamber folk" or "Kinks-influenced," and while I'd like to hold out for a band that's all three, it's a pretty good lineup, even if the photo ops ain't exackly Hank Williams. At least they're not Hank Jr., right?

The NEAF, formerly called the Alt Country Extravaganza, was founded by Mike MacDonald and the Widowmakers in 2007, but it was renamed this year by current hosts the Autumn Hollow Band. The NEAF will raise funds for Coalition for Courage (http://coalitionforcourage.org), which supports children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Concerts are 21+ and start times vary each night. Admission is $8 for February 25 and $10 for February 26-27. A combined three-day pass can be pre-purchased for $20 at www.churchofboston.com and www.newenglandamericanafestival.com. Complete schedule after the jump.

Juventas takes classical chops to the Middle East

"What do you get when you take classically trained composers and musicians, spice things up with stylistic influences from Folk to Funk, and drop them in three contrasting venues?" Hell if I know, but the Juventas New Music Ensemble is going to find out. The group dedicated to playing the music of composers under 35 will bring seven different works to back-to-back performances at the Boston Conservatory in Feb. 6 and at the Middle East - ! - on Feb. 7. It's Juventas' first-ever venture into the venerable Central Square rock club. They promise "fun foot-tapping fusion works that embrace elements of rock, blue-grass, western and dance music." The works include Matt Mendez's Riff Raff (2006), Piotr Szewczyk's First Coast Groove (2008), Dan Ruccia's Training Wheels (2007) and Piotr Szewczyk's Wild West Sketch (2002). A reprise is also set for March 4 at the Boston Athenaeum. Regular price tix are $15 at the Conservatory, $15 at the Middle East and free at the Athenaeum. Click here for more info.

Gardner Museum expansion drawings: Your thoughts?

Take a look at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop's drawings for the $118 million Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum expansion. Click each image for a slightly larger version. Tell me what you think in the comments.

The first one is from the north or Palace Road side; the structure at right is an apartment building and not part of the project. All images © RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP

 

More images after the jump.

Gardner Museum expansion reviews

I was supposed to be in Boston at  this morning for the unveiling of Renzo Piano's design for a controversial addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Something came up. It was the ground, actually, which came up at me very fast last night after I slipped on the ice. (Results are painful but not a big deal, I think.) So instead I am sitting here waiting for my doctor's appointment. But the mainstream media got the jump on this one anyway - the Gardner had the Globe and the Times fully briefed ahead. So you can read Geoff Edgers' story here, which says the $118M addition "will fundamentally change the way visitors experience the museum." Sebastian Smee's review says the addition "is bound to color the visitor’s experience in ways I don’t believe Gardner would have condoned." And in the Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff says the addition is necessary and beautiful, but he too will mourn the way it changes the visitor experience at Gardner's fantasy Venetian palazzo. When the press kit arrives in my in box, I'll post some pictures.

Fight Club in Brookline: I'm an ape man

"Fight Club" is the latest big-screen favorite to get the Science on Screen treatment at the Coolidge Corner, and given the resurgence of "I drive a truck" masculinity around these parts, the discussion could be even more interesting than first expected. Science on Screen is, of course, the series where the Coolidge taps our vast supply of local brainpower for experts to give pre-show talks about film favorites. Tod Machover talked "Theremin," for example, and a president emeritus of McLean Hospital tackled "Donnie Darko." On Feb. 8, a screening of the Brad Pitt/Ed Norton vehicle "Fight Club" will open with a talk by biological anthropologist and primatologist Richard Wrangham, a Harvard scientist and co-author of "Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence." The David Fincher film, based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, follows Norton's white-collar drone as he gets sucked into a cult of violence by Pitt's charismatic Tyler Durden. Wrangham however will relate how our close primate cousins jockey violently for status and power in ways that seem creepily familiar. The festivities begin at 7 p.m. Tix and info: www.coolidge.org.