Howdy folks. Sorry I’ve been out of the Slog loop for a bit, but I spent last week running around New York, navigating a double-purpose trip that left little time for hunting down internet cafes. On one hand, I was there to see my fella Jake, who’s spending the year working in Manhattan. On the other, I was there to show my mom around on her premiere visit to NYC. Balancing a conjugal visit with a maternal field trip was a trip, but it all seemed to work out, and I got to see a ton of interesting art.

My mom is a theater-lover with a ready credit card, so I got to see a couple of the “big Broadway shows” I typically miss. Despite the (deservedly) mixed reviews, I was thrilled to see The Threepenny Opera, the Brecht/Weill classic remounted in a new translation by Wallace Shawn, featuring Alan Cumming, Ana Gasteyer, Cyndi Lauper, and Nellie McKay. The show was messy and far from satisfying, even in Brechtian terms, but a number of the individual performances were dazzling, particularly the two displaced (and brilliant) pop stars: Cyndi Lauper has a voice that elevates any song she lends it to, and her Threepenny numbers were the most impressive and moving of the night. As for Nellie McKay: As anyone who’s heard her records knows, the girl’s a freak, and her sweet, big-brained freakiness is showcased wonderfully in Threepenny. If only I could say the same for star Alan Cumming, who plays the nefarious Macheath, and who I always enjoy more as a good-natured dork (see Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion) than as a double-entendre-spewing homoerotic psychopath. (However, Cumming seems to be enjoying his own performance enough to make up for my lack of interest.)

Far less ambitious and far more satisfying than Threepenny was Bridge & Tunnel, the dozen-characters-at-a-poetry-slam solo show by Sarah Jones, who was yesterday awarded a special Tony for her virtuoso, Meryl Streep-approved performance. The show didn’t go anywhere you couldn’t have predicted from the plot synopsis, but Jones’ performance was amazing, and she deserves whatever awards anyone wants to give her.

On the scrappier end of the entertainment spectrum were the bootleg DVDs Jake and I picked up in the subway. I'd always avoided these $5 films-of-films, shot by undercover operatives at the cinema and sold on the street, because I figured the quality would be off-puttingly poor. I was wrong. Thanks to advanced technology and surreptitious tripod use, these bootlegs of films are perfectly watchable, if you don't mind the occasional shadow of someone heading to concessions fluttering across the screen. Our chosen bootleg delights: Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion and Mo'Nique's Phat Girlz, both of which were fascinating messes. Madea's Family Reunion is a family comedy/domestic drama/feel-good sister flick/hard-hitting morality tale starring a man in a dress and featuring earth-shakingly righteous monologues by both Cicely Tyson and Maya Angelou. (Film editor Annie Wagner wrote a great piece on the movie for The Stranger.) Phat Girlz is sassy comedy/inspirational chick flick/hardcore psychodrama featuring Mo'Nique and Eric Roberts. Both films share a fascinating everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style that suggests America's own version of Bollywood films, which I look forward to exploring further via Mo'Nique's Hair Show and the vast ouvre of Tyler Perry.

But the most impressive art I saw on the east coast was located at Dia: Beacon, the cracker-box-factory-turned-vast-installation-art-gallery an hour north of NYC. Best in show: Richard Serra's big, scary, and gorgeous Torqued Ellipses, picutred for you here: