Jessica and I checked out “Cinema 16″ at Starr Space Friday night and we were both blown away. I’ve (shamefully) never been there before (I kept missing shows — like the Pizzas — last summer) and I hear that there was some pretty major renovation. Whatever the case, the space is absolutely gorgeous. So well re-done: beautiful hard wood floors, new windows (can you believe it?), and mod light fixtures I would basically kill for. The perfect setting for the giant crowd of artsters that filled the place. We had to sit up in front on the floor — it was a full house.

Cinema 16 is an (apparently monthly) night of silent film screenings with live music by the Veveritse Brass Band. This round featured teens-20s era stop-motion shorts by Ladislas Starevich. They were fantastically creepy — and really subversive and sarcastic. I don’t know why that surprised me. I guess that kind of sentiment feels very “current” to me, but it’s good to be reminded that humans have been subversive forever. The brass band was so, so good as well — they matched the tone of the films and added whimsical details (e.g. nonsense language and weird little sound effects). The event had some swank sponsors — Newcastle Brown Ale for all as well as artisan ice cream by Van Leeuwen, which will apparently be operating out of a super cool retro truck at some point.

We didn’t stick around for what I’m sure was a hott dance party with DJ Ivan but I’ll definitely be back for future screenings — and I would recommend it to pretty much anyone. A steal at $5.

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