Fluttr, Bryan Thomas

Boston-based Fluttr is a band composed of a cello, a MIDI marimba, guitar and drums, candy-coated with lead singer Kara Trott’s vocals. Fluttr were the U.S. winners of the prestigious Emergenza talent contest, which led to them performing in Germany in front of 20,000 people. The Germans loved them so much that the band has a tour scheduled there next year. People love them back here in the states, too. Douglas Sloan of Metronome says, “Collectively, these five gifted musicians dish out engaging music that will satisfy a wide range of listeners. Superb!”

New York City singer songwriter Earl Patrick was supposed to open for Fluttr, but he is still in recovery mode from an injury he suffered a couple months back during which he broke a vertebrate. Instead, his good friend and popular local performer Bryan Thomas will take the opening spot. Hopefully Patrick will be well enough to perform again shortly, but in the meantime, we can all think happy thoughts about him and wish him a speedy recovery.

Fluttr will perform at the Chapel + Cultural Center (2125 Burdett Ave., Troy) tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 1) at 8 PM. The show is free. For more information, call the Chapel + Cultural Center at 274-7793.

Merián Soto Dance Company

Merian Soto, a Bessie award-winning choreographer, co-created Pepatián in 1983 as an artists’ collective and umbrella organization for three programs: Bronx Artist Spotlight series (Jump It Up and Fall Into It), Merian Soto Dance & Performance, and Pepon Osorio Projects. Lately, Soto has been working on a new piece called La Maquina del Tiempo (the Time Machine), the third in a series of multidisciplinary dance-theater works celebrating salsa. Directed and choreographed by Soto, La Máquina del Tiempo features video by Irene Sosa; musical direction by Elio Villafranca; and a cast of five—three dancers (Pablo Amores, Marion Ramirez and Noemi Segarra) and two musicians (Elio Villafranca and Yunior Terry). According to the Web site, the dance’s choreography, video, visual design, and costumes in black-and-white-and-sepia reference early and contemporary Hollywood and Mexican musicals and dance documentaries.

The Merián Soto Dance Company will perform La Maquina del Tiempo (the Time Machine) at the Egg (Empire State Plaza, Albany) tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 1) at 8 PM. Tickets are $22, $18 for seniors and $11 for children. For more information, call the Egg at 473-1845.

The Corporation

This documentary does nothing less than attempt to consider the rise of that bastion of contemporary global capitalism, the corporation. In addition to a smattering of big-name talking heads (Noam Chomsky, Milton Friedman, Michael Moore, Howard Zinn), the film offers a smorgasbord of commentary and testimonials from CEOs, whistleblowers, “spies, players, pawns and pundits.”

The film has been a consistent crowd-pleaser on the festival circuit, not least for its cutting wit: Taking literally the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a corporation is a “person” before the law, they break out the psychoanalysis to examine some of the more typical corporate behaviors. (Hint: The “patient” isn’t very well-adjusted.)

Critic J. Hoberman described the film as a “leisurely, never boring, grimly amusing, and not entirely hopeless disquisition on the contemporary world’s ‘dominant institution.’ ” Roughly, this likely means the film lacks the rabble-rousing of the typical Michael Moore-style documentary, but still remains entertaining and informative. We could use more of that.

The Corporation will be screened Saturday (Oct. 2) at 8 PM at the Spencertown Academy (Route 203, Spencertown). Tickets are $5, $4 members. For more information, call 392-3693 or visit www.spencertown.org. The film also opens tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 1) at the Spectrum 8 Theatres (290 Delaware Ave., Albany). For showtimes call 449-8995, or visit www.spectrum8.com.