Chapel Hill
Greenolicious: And the Dragon Goes Ding
Gerrard Hall, UNC CampusIf hybrid cars are the way of the future, then what about hybrid performance? New York-based performance artist Torkwase Dyson premieres an environmentally themed “multimedia, hybrid performance creation” that combines sculptures, video, photographs, drawings, screen-projected images and stage performance as part of UNC’s Process Series of new works. Greenolicious follows Marquita Blackman, a Chicagoan, and her Nigerian-born partner Pi Wu, in their quest to create a black-identified Chinese New Year parade. The end result transforms the stage into a gallery that audience members can walk into once the performance is complete. In addition, Dyson will participate in post-show discussions with the audience to gauge reaction to her still-unfolding work. The performances will take place Feb. 6-7 at 8 p.m. in Gerrard Hall off Cameron Avenue. For more information, visit uncnews.unc.edu. Zack Smith

Durham
David Krakauer, Matt Haimovitz, DJ SoCalled
Page Auditorium, Duke CampusWhile a prisoner-of-war in Poland in 1941, composer Oliver Messiaen created a piece that stared at the apocalypse. In Stalag VIII-A, where he was held as a French soldier, he wrote music in a freezing cell, ultimately performing it for fellow prisoners and their captors. And while “Quartet for the End of Time” holds powerful, moving strength, it doesn’t rely on bombast or eruptions. Instead, it carries an emotional weight via the deft, delicate movements of piano, clarinet, violin and cello.

After World War II, Messiaen became a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, where his students included Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. He inspired many others in serial music, particularly through the modessubsets of the typical chromatic scale of 12 noteshis rhythmically complex music often used.

This evening features a full performance of the original prison piece, “Quartet for the End of Time,” by collaborators David Krakauer, clarinet, and Matt Haimovitz, cello. The music has a lasting quality and elasticity, allowing tonight’s performers to reinterpret and expand on its overarching themes. Indeed, the performance is bookended by two original compositions”Akoka” by Krakauer and “Meanwhile: A Messiaen Remix” by their collaborator, DJ SoCalled. From that frigid jail cell to the present, Messiaen’s work breathes revitalizing air again. The show starts at 8 p.m. in Page Auditorium on Duke’s campus. Tickets range from $5 for students to $34. Chris Toenes

Raleigh
Reservoir Dogs
Colony TheatreThe first two weeks of this year’s Cool Classics series starts with a double installment of films from the master of ironic grind, Quentin Tarantino. Fully deserving of the season headline slot, Tarantino’s debut Reservoir Dogs hit screen-goers in the early ’90s, and the decade never really recovered. The film, a skewed vision of a bungled crime and philosophical tough guys gabbing over coffee and cigarettes, ripped off a half-dozen movies (including The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, see Friday), defined Tarantino’s signature style of violent pastiche and launched him into the superstar phase of his career. As Tarantino once stated, “Reservoir Dogs is a small film, and part of its charm was that it was a small film.” Less small, but also “charming,” his follow-up, Pulp Fiction, will be the offering next week. The show starts at midnight for $5. Kathy Justice