NORTH ADAMS-Music and movies are back this summer at MASS MoCA. The 1932 film, Tarzan the Ape Man, will show on the large outdoor screen at MASS MoCA on Saturday, July 2, at 9 P.M. with live music by the genre-defying electronic musician and producer Mocean Worker.
MASS MoCA has commissioned Mocean Worker (aka Adam Dorn) to compose a brand new original score to the classic movie, which stars Maureen O’Sullivan and Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, and his live performance is sure to thrill and amaze.
Mocean Worker is no stranger to adding musical accompaniment to film screenings. In 2003, Dorn performed at MASS MoCA spinning to filmmaker Harry Smith’s Animated Dreams. Described as blending “jolts of jazz, chunks of funk and electronic music into a lively, refreshing, sophisticated sound†(Smoothjazz.com), Mocean Worker’s contribution is guaranteed to give an inventive, contemporary spin to the quintessential adventure film.
Tarzan the Ape Man was MGM's inaugural "Tarzan" film out of an astonishing series of twelve. For this film, MGM utilized scads of stock footage of the African jungle from a previous feature film, Trader Horn (1931). Aside from this resource, production costs for Tarzan the Ape Man still managed to reach over $1 million for the studio. This film, directed by W. S. Van Dyke based on a character created by novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, was also the first feature-length film in the Tarzan series to include talking.
W. S. Van Dyke’s film tells the story of a great English hunter, James Parker (C. Aubrey Smith), trudging through an African jungle in search of the legendary Elephant Graveyard. Accompanying Parker is his daughter, Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan), and her former beau, Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton). The expedition is continually interrupted by the apprehensive Tarzan, a white man who'd been lost in the jungle years earlier and raised by apes. Tarzan kidnaps Jane and whisks her away to the treetops, where she eventually overcomes her fear of him and teaches him to speak English. ("Tarzan...Jane", not "Me Tarzan...You Jane," as has often been misreported.)
The son of legendary producer Joel Dorn (Charles Mingus, Roberta Flack, John Coltrane, Leon Redbone), Mocean Worker/Adam Dorn began his career as an assistant to bassist/producer Marcus Miller (Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, David Sanborn). His credits also include remixing work for Tenacious D (Jack Black), Marcus Miller, Chaka Khan, Miles Davis, and the Neville Brothers, contributions to Bird Up:The Charlie Parker Remix Project, composing for Sundance favorite, The Doe Boy, as well as two documentaries for HBO. Today he’s a DJ/composer/producer who runs the venerable Label M, a label for reissues and rare live recordings of jazz music with his father. Recently Mocean Worker released his newest and fourth album, Enter the MoWo!
Seating will start at 8 P.M. Food and drink from Lickety Split and the MASS MoCA bar will be available before and during the event.
Tickets for Tarzan the Ape Man and Mocean Worker are $14 in advance or $17 the day of the show. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M. (closed Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.
In the case of inclement weather the event will be moved inside to the Hunter Center.
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Letter: Is the Select Board Listening to Dalton Voters?
Letter to the Editor
To the Editor:
A reasonable expectation by the people of a community is that their Select Board rises above personal preference and represents the collective interests of the community. On Tuesday night [Nov. 12], what occurred is reason for concern that might not be true in Dalton.
This all began when a Select Board member submitted his resignation effective Oct. 1 to the Town Clerk. Wishing to fill the vacated Select Board seat, in good faith I followed the state law, prepared a petition, and collected the required 200-plus signatures of which the Town Clerk certified 223. The Town Manager, who already had a copy of the Select Board member's resignation, was notified of the certified petitions the following day. All required steps had been completed.
Or had they? At the Oct. 9 Select Board meeting when Board members discussed the submitted petition, there was no mention about how they were informed of the petition or that they had not seen the resignation letter. Then a month later at the Nov. 12 Select Board meeting we learn that providing the resignation letter and certified petitions to the Town Manager was insufficient. However, by informing the Town Manager back in October the Select Board had been informed. Thus, the contentions raised at the Nov. 12 meeting by John Boyle seem like a thinly veiled attempt to delay a decision until the end of January deadline to have a special election has passed.
If this is happening with the Special Election, can we realistically hope that the present Board will listen to the call by residents to halt the rapid increases in spending and our taxes that have been occurring the last few years and pass a level-funded budget for next year, or to not harness the taxpayers in town with the majority of the cost for a new police station? I am sure these issues are of concern to many in town. However, to make a change many people need to speak up.
Please reach out to a Select Board member and let them know you are concerned and want the Special Election issue addressed and finalized at their Nov. 25 meeting.
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