Johnny Recommends

Johnny shares his most influential albums and inspiring films, all available to listen/watch online during quarantine.

Kidd Pivot, The Tempest Replica(2011) 

Kidd Pivot is an award-winning contemporary dance theatre company based in Vancouver, Canada. The company is led by its founder and artistic director, Crystal Pite.

Crystal Pite has choreographed over 50 works, many of which have been nominated for and won several awards. Currently,  she is also an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London, an Associate Choreographer with Nederlands Dans Theatre, and an Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre.

Ólafur Arnald

Ólafur Arnalds is an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. He mixes strings and piano with loops and beats, a sound ranging from ambient/electronic to atmospheric pop. He is also the former drummer for hardcore / metal bands Fighting Shit, Celestine, and others. Find out more here

Trisha Brown Dance Company, Set and Reset (1983) 

Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset, a collaboration with Robert Rauschenberg and Laurie Anderson had its US premiere as part of BAM’s inaugural Next Wave Festival in 1983. The piece marked a transitional moment in Brown’s career – creating more and large scale works for the proscenium stage. The seductively fluid quality of the movement in this Trisha Brown masterpiece, juxtaposed with the unpredictable geometric style has become the hallmark of Ms. Brown’s work. Performed to a driving score by Laurie Anderson, the exploration of visibility and invisibility is reflected in the translucent costumes and set by Robert Rauschenberg.

Choreographer and dancer Stephen Petronio—who performed in the world premiere of Set and Reset at BAM—reflects on the Trisha Brown Dance Company’s 50th anniversary with Aaron Mattocks, director of programming at the Joyce Theater.

Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World. The gay male world today is characterized by seductive beauty, artful creativity, flamboyant sexuality, and, encouragingly, unprecedented acceptability in society. Yet despite the progress of the recent past, gay men still find themselves asking, “Are we really better off?” The inevitable byproduct of growing up gay in a straight world continues to be the internalization of shame. Drawing on contemporary psychological research, the author’s own journey to be free of anger and of shame, as well as the stories of many of his friends and clients, The Velvet Rage outlines the three distinct stages to emotional well-being for gay men. The Velvet Rage is an empowering book that will influence the public discourse on gay culture, and positively change the lives of gay men who read it.

Alan Downs, Ph.D. is a coach, clinical psychologist and the bestselling author of seven books. His work is acclaimed internationally and has been published in over 27 languages. He is a sought-after conference speaker, workshop leader, and frequent media commentator on the psychology of gay men.

Marina Abramović is a Serbian American performance artist, philanthropist and art filmmaker. Her work explores body art, endurance art and feminist art, the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. Being active for over four decades, Abramović refers to herself as the “grandmother of performance art”. She pioneered a new notion of identity by bringing in the participation of observers, focusing on “confronting pain, blood, and physical limits of the body”.

A documentary follows the Serbian performance artist as she prepares for a retrospective of her work at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012)