MONDAY 3/15: Elif Batuman and Keith Gessen in conversation. Batuman’s pieces—for n+1, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and the London Review of Books— have made her one of the most sought-after and admired writers of her generation. In The Possessed, her latest work of non-fiction, Batuman investigates a possible murder at Tolstoy’s ancestral estate, retraces Pushkin’s wanderings in the Caucasus, and shows us why Old Uzbek has one hundred different words for crying. McNally Jackson. 7:00pm.

Marcel Dzama, an artist known for his dark, fantastical and delicate paintings, drawings and films will be at Book Court. Buy books and have them signed. 7:00pm.

Writing on Human Rights. Join The Daily Beast’s Dana Goldstein, the Nation Institute Investigative Fund’s Gabriel Thompson, and Mother Jones’ Mac McClelland for Writing on Human Rights, a reading, discussion, and Q&A about the crucialness and challenges of human rights coverage. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. 7:00pm.

TUESDAY 3/16: The All-Around Reduced Personality, aka Redupers. Helke Sander, 16mm, 1977, 98 min. Introduced by Yvonne Rainer, this film presented by Light Industry is a politically astute portrait of a woman, Edda, and of a city, Berlin. The resulting show is a disturbing vision of a city sub-divided by political and economic inequities. Light Industry. 177 Livingston St. $7. 7:00pm.

Sam Lipsyte reads from The Ask. McNally Jackson. 7:00pm.

Rae Armantrout and Norman Fischer at the Poetry Project. 7:00pm.

WEDNESDAY 3/17: A Guernica Reading: Mac McClelland of Mother Jones reads from her debut For Us Surrender is Out of the Question… about Burma. “You know what I’d like to do this St. Patrick’s Day? Learn more about the experience of Southeast Asian ethnic and political exiles. Ohmigosh look! Lolitas!” Lolita Bar. 266 Broome Street. 7:00pm.

Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suss. The infamous film Jew Suss (1940), directed by Veit Harlan, and produced under Joseph Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda, was the Nazis’ most vicious anti-Semitic film. At the war’s end, the filmmaker was prosecuted for crimes against humanity, but acquitted. Today, his children and grandchildren consider his legacy and the hard questions it continues to pose. Some have changed their name and left Germany. Others claim he was forced to direct the film and deride it as loathsome, crudely-made propaganda. Film Forum.

THURSDAY 3/18: The Moth Story Slam. Theme: Green. 10 stories, 3 teams of judges, 1 winner. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. $7. 7:00pm. (Arrive early, this show always sells out).

Mary Gaitskill presents Why We Read. Gaitskill, author of Don’t Cry, is one of the many renowned authors asked by the Center for Fiction to examine our fundamental need to create, share and experience fiction. Center for Fiction. 17 E. 47th St. 7:00pm.

Todd Zuniga’s Literary Death Match is back in NYC for another knockdown, dragout literary non-snore-athon that will feature a wonderful cast of judges, including Soft Skull editor Denise Oswald, comedian Eddie Sarfaty and Piper Weiss of My Mom the Style Icon. They’ll take turns judging an excellent foursome of fierce pen-and-ink combatants, including Tin House co-founder and author of Use Me, Elissa Schappell, H.O.W. Journal’s Alexios Moore, hilarity genius Jason Roeder (author of Oh, The Humanity!) and Union Station’s Syreeta McFadden.

The Nose. This opera based on the absurd short story by Gogol in which a Major’s loss of his nose causes an upset in the social hierarchy of nineteenth century St. Petersburg. The production is artfully and cinematically rendered by William Kentridge. If you can’t make it Thursday, there are two more performances left. [Also, see the Kentridge retrospective at MOMA, below] The Metropolitan Opera. 8:00pm.

Joanna Newsom performs with special guest. Town Hall. 8:00pm.

FRIDAY 3/19: A Behanding in Spokane. In keeping with the sudden proliferation on New York stages of narratives involving the search for body parts mysteriously missing, in this play, Martin McDonagh’s first set in America, Carmichael (Christopher Walken) has been searching for his missing left hand for almost half a century. Enter two bickering lovebirds (Anthony Mackie and Zoe Kazan) with a hand to sell, and a hotel clerk (Sam Rockwell) with an aversion to gunfire. Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.

SATURDAY 3/20: Atlas Obscura, A Compendium of the World’s Wonders, Curiosities and Esoterica invites you to join their international celebration of wondrous, curious and esoteric places. Depending on where in the world you’ll be on Saturday, you’ll have different options open to you. In New York, you can drop in to the Private Radio Guy Museum, take a backroom tour of the Vanderbilt Museum, go underground in the Atlantic Avenue tunnel or explore dead horse bay.

SUNDAY 3/21: Melville House authors read at KGB. Join Lore Segal, Tao Lin and Zachary German who will read from their respective contributions to the acclaimed Contemporary Art of the Novella Series. Lore Segal will read from Lucinella, Tao Lin will read from Shoplifting from American Apparel and Zachary German will read from Eat When You Feel Sad. KGB Bar. 85 E. 4th St. 7:00pm.

Ghost Town (2008, China). Directed by Zhao Dayong, this tremendously rewarding film illuminates the alienation and marginalization of the denizens of one of China’s countless remote villages. Divided into three parts, this epic documentary takes an intimate look at its varied cast of characters, bringing audiences face to face with people who were unceremoniously left behind by China’s new economy. MOMA. 12:30 pm.

ART: William Kentridge Retrospective at MOMA. This large-scale exhibition surveys nearly three decades of work by William Kentridge (b. 1955, South Africa), a remarkably versatile artist whose work combines the political with the poetic. Dealing with subjects as sobering as apartheid, colonialism, and totalitarianism, his work is often imbued with dreamy, lyrical undertones or comedic bits of self-deprecation that render his powerful messages both alluring and ambivalent. Best known for animated films based on charcoal drawings, he also works in prints, books, collage, sculpture, and the performing arts.

***

News about notable happenings in New York can be sent to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net

Original Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba

While it is now one month later, we’d like to thank everyone who came out for ONE YEAR LATER, the Rumpus anniversary party co-presented by The Rumpus and sister-mag HTMLGIANT at Broadway East, a charming place where Chinatown meets the Lower East Side. The party featured readings by Justin Taylor, Tao Lin, Stephen Elliott, Rivka Galchen and Deb Olin Unferth, musical guests Diane Louvel, Alina Simone and Jeffrey Lewis, DJ author Lincoln Michel and Special Guest DJ Khaela Maricich. While this celebration was not an all-out concert like the Rumpus is accustomed to having, it had an intimate, engaging and artful vibe, which I rarely experience. Following is a photographic exhibit of the night.

Listen to Jeffrey Lewis’s “Don’t Be Upset” while you browse

Before the performances began, writer Lincoln Michel DJ’d.

First off, Stephen Elliott was in New York for the event, which was special because he lives on the West Coast. I was so glad he was there. While he has so much energy, he is always very relaxed and makes everything seem easy.

Stephen got everyone to sit on the floor. I don’t know how he did it. He waved his hands and everyone sat.

Justin Taylor read first from his collection (which debuted this month) Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever. The New York Times praised the book. Justin also said some nice things about HTML GIANT and The Rumpus being sisters.

Tao Lin read next. He read from Richard Yates, which is due out from Melville House in September 2010. It might have been the first time he had read from Richard Yates, but he didn’t say. With the paper he held, he covered his face a little.

Stephen read next from The Adderall Diaries. He had recently finished a 33-city tour for the book. His book was named the Best Book of the Year by Time Out New York. The cozy feel of the space must have resembled somewhat the spaces Stephen had read in on his tour, because he didn’t do readings in bookstores but arranged to have other people host small parties for him across the country, in their living rooms.

Diane Louvel performed some beautiful songs she had written. Also, she played several Neko Case covers and is known in New York for her covers of Neko Case songs. Behind Diane you can see the “live wall.”

Jeffrey Lewis sketched Diane Louvel as she performed.

The break between sets was longish because Khaela Maricich, also known as The Blow, was our Special Guest DJ and we didn’t want her to stop playing.

A table was set up on which things were sold.

Monofonus, a multimedia organization, provided a video installation that consisted of a reel of experimental videos. Some videos had abstract geometric shapes and one had four men doing calisthenics in primary-colored outfits with headbands.

Guests enjoyed themselves.

Tao Lin, Alina Smone and Stephen Elliott surprised us before the beginning of the second set with an impromptu theatrical performance, the script being a printout of a live Facebook chat Alina had had once with a complete stranger.

Deb Olin Unferth read next. It was agreed by all that she was very good and very funny. She also had on great leg warmers.

Rivka Galchen read next.

Alina Simone did a unique performance that involved a drum and a cool looking instrument. I asked if it was a psaltery, like Hildegard von Bingen used to play in the twelfth century. Alina said that no, it was an autoharp.

Stickers covered every surface of Jeffrey Lewis’s guitar. I wonder if that orange halo is Jeffrey Lewis’s aura. Or his guardian angel. Whichever it is, that night, Jeffrey Lewis “rocked the house.”

Here he is singing a badass song, a cappella with cards, about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Many people stayed around afterward and continued to talk and drink, including Jeffrey Lewis and Jonathan Ames.

The party did go on.

***

For a complete set of the night’s photos see the Facebook album. You can also see a nice write-up of the event by Caitlin Colford at Scallywag & Vagabond. The comic books “Fuff” and “Guff” are by Jeffrey Lewis. Photos by Flear Vaknin.

This week in New York, white tents are set up behind the New York Public Library in Bryant Park. It is called Fashion Week because it is a celebration of fashion of the sartorial kind. While that is happening in the park, we’ll be devoting space in the blog each day this week to two of our best-loved literary fashionables.

The term “fashionable,” here used as a collective noun that seemingly suggests something like “of or pertaining to persons of fashion,” will mean something slightly different this week. This week we’ll explore writers who were not necessarily fashionable in the sense commonly understood, but internally fashionable for having developed distinct literary personas.

We begin our series with two writers with very unique literary personas: Samuel Beckett and Gertrude Stein.

THE ABSURDIST

As a writer who sought to dissolve “that terrible arbitrary materiality of the word’s surface,” Beckett seems the least likely of writers to be considered fashionable. His was a lifelong struggle to separate words from their inescapable signification, to express meaninglessness with words that convey meaning. Though his native tongue was English, Beckett, who was born in 1906, chose to write his later work in French because in French it was easier for him to write “without style.” Waiting for Godot (1948-49), or En Attendant Godot (in French), his most famous work, was written in French and translated, by him, into English. The trilogy of novels—Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable (1946-50)—were also written in French. In French they were called Molloy, Malone Meurt and L’Innommable.

Because in his work his characters are often made to act in repetitive meaningless ways, and terribly tragic things happen to them but in a way that is often funny, Beckett is associated with the theater of the absurd. But though his characters are most often miserable and live meaningless dismal lives, Beckett’s life was full of meaningful relationships and he was even an accomplished sportsman. For his excellence at cricket, which he played left-handed at Dublin University, Beckett was entered into an important book called the Wisden Cricketer’s Almanac, and became the only Nobel Laureate to claim that distinction. He was also an avid fan of tennis, and married tennis pro Suzanne Decheveaux-Dumesnil whom he chose over Peggy Guggenheim, the American art collector and heiress with whom he had a brief affair. But he only got Suzanne’s attention when he was stabbed by the pimp Prudent in 1938 when refusing Prudent’s offer. Luckily James Joyce was there to take care of him. In Paris, Beckett played chess with Dada artist Marcel Duchamp and was often seen in cafés in the Left Bank. Along with insanity, chess became a major theme in Beckett’s writing.

Beckett joined the French resistance in 1940, when Germany occupied France, and he and Suzanne slept in haystacks in Roussilon, in French Catalonia. For his bravery, Beckett was awarded the Croix de Guerre. His plays are still performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and elsewhere, and celebrated in Paris. His writing is very often talked about by other great writers like Lydia Davis. For all these reasons Samuel Beckett is a most fashionable writer.

THE WORD PORTRAITIST

Sometimes a writer’s line precedes her. In the case of Gertrude Stein, “A rose is a rose is a rose,” was known to me before Gertrude Stein was known to me. The line has symmetry and mathematical simplicity. Gertrude Stein was known for the way she assembled words. The new way she assembled words might have to do with the time she spent at Radcliffe College, 1893-1897, studying Normal Motor Automatism, or what happens when people split their attention between two intelligent activities like talking and writing. Later she would engage in experiments with automatic writing, writing that is not produced by conscious thought but is produced by the hand with the mind unawares of what the hand will produce.

In 1903, Stein wrote Q.E.D. (Quod Erat Demonstrandum) about a complicated love triangle with two other women. It is one of the earliest coming-out stories, which is a pretty big deal for a twenty-nine year old woman at that time.

Around 1904, with the funds of their trust, Stein and her brother Leo moved to Paris from the United States and started a modern art gallery. They collected paintings by Pierre Bonnard, Juan Gris, and Paul Cézanne. Saturday evenings, the Steins would invite artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse and poets like Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire to their apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus. Some say Tender Buttons, which Stein wrote in1914, was one of the great Modernist experiments in verse. It was a small book separated into three parts—food, objects and rooms. She also did word-portraits. These works were intended to induce the “excitingness of pure being.” Some called it verbal Cubism. Another thing that happened early on in Paris was that Stein met Alice B. Toklas who would be her life-long partner. She took Toklas to meet Picasso while he was painting Les Demoiselles D’Avignon. Though she was well-known for her salon, Stein became a best-selling writer in 1932 with the publication of her autobiography, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. She wrote it in an accessible way that many people could read and love, which was smart because she could now take trips with Alice to Tangiers. In 1968, a movie was made called I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, which starred Peter Sellers. I saw the movie before I knew who Alice B. Toklas was. Anyway, Gertrude Stein had already proven herself as a word-artist and visionary so she could now write like regular people and make money.

***

Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso

Related Posts:

Literary Fashionables #2: The Cultural Theorist and The Sportsman

Literary Fashionables #3: The Junky and The New Journalist

In this month’s paean, Kalman sorts the truths from the untruths about George Washington, takes us on a pictorial tour of his house, his books and his gardens and muses on Thomas Jefferson’s elusive object of pursuit: Happiness. Enthusiasts of the series do not fret. A collection of Kalman’s artful and searching NYT posts will be released as a book in October 2010.

This week in New York The New York Times’s Arts and Leisure Weekend features Natalie Portman, Jeff Bridges, and Jimmy Fallon, Sweetgrass opens at the Film Forum, Carol Sklenicka discusses Raymond Carver, the films of Joyce Weiland screen at Light Industry, and Lev Grossman gets critics to question the hoopla around Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. Looking ahead: tickets for Julian Casablancas’s shows at Terminal 5 on January 14/15 are on sale.

MONDAY 1/04:

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Marc Ribot but were Afraid to Ask. Guitar legend Marc Ribot in concert followed by a Q&A session. All concert-goers should come prepared with a question. Musicians may bring their instruments. The Stone. Ave. C @ East 2nd. $25. 8:00pm.

Carol Sklenicka reads from her biography Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life and then talks with Benjamin Percy. Barnes & Noble. 150 E. 86th St. 7:00pm.

TUESDAY 1/05: Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention at the Jewish Museum. Fifth Ave. @92nd St.

FADER Bowl returns for its first party of the decade with Real Estate, a psychedelic surf pop band hailing from New Jersey now rooted in Brooklyn, N.Y. and the Babies! Brooklyn Bowl. 61 Wythe Ave. Free. Doors 6:00pm. Show 8:00pm.

WEDNESDAY 1/06: Happy Ending Music and Reading Series: America Night. The reading series, hosted by Amanda Stern, that’s been singled out by the New York Times Magazine for helping to “keep downtown alive,” returns featuring Jonathan Dee, Rich Benjamin, Colum McCann and musical guest Jim White. $15. Joe’s Pub. 425 Lafayette St. 7:00pm.

“Making Facts Dance,” The Freerange Non-Fiction Reading Series returns with readings by Ben Yagoda (author of Memoir: A History, About Town, and The Art of Fact), Deenah Vollmer, and Ilana Garon among others. Downstairs at the Cornelia Street Cafe. $7 (includes a drink).

Light Industry Presents: Five Films by Joyce Weiland. Presented in collaboration with X-Initiative. Known first as a painter who explored themes of female existence in ways that were often controversially explicit, on her move to the US in the 60s, Joyce Weiland took up filmmaking. Working in Super-8 and 16mm, she became one of the circle of artists who defined the first generation of structural film. Films include Handtinting and Rat Life and Diet in North America. 7:30. Light Inustry. View location here.

THURSDAY 1/07: Vampire Weekend’s album release party with a table tennis competition for tickets to the sold out United Palace NYC show. Members of the band will be DJing. Plus there will be promos and giveaways. Free Williamsburg is also offering giveaways. RSVP @ contra@spin.com. Spin New York. 48 East 23rd Street. Bet. Park & Mad. 8:00pm – 12:00am. Open bar (8-9).

New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend begins with two events: Cirques Du Soleil Behind the Scenes–an insider’s perspective on the 25-year old entertainment company, (6:00pm-7:00pm). $30. The Times Center, 242 West 41st St.

Secrets of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol. Time magazine’s Lev Grossman leads a discussion with four writers who’ve subjected Dan Brown’s prose to intense scrutiny and are ready to share their insights and speculations on the author and his works and what the hoopla is all about. 92YTribeca. 200 Hudson St. $12. 7:00pm.

FRIDAY 1/08: New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend continues with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, who will give a talk with performance. 6:00-7:15pm. Jimmy Fallon, host of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” talks about what it’s like to follow Conan O’Brien, and his six years on Saturday Night Live. (8:00-9:00pm). $30/event. The Times Center, 242 West 41st St.

Sweetgrass: The Last Ride of the American Cowboy , a film by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, which opened at the Film Forum Tuesday, will screen with a Q&A with the filmmakers following the 7:50pm show. Ronnie Scheib in Variety describes the film as “a mad cross between Howard Hawks’s RED RIVER” and an anthropological account of vanishing nomadic traditions, with “a dash of Tex Avery’s DRAG-ALONG DROOPY.” Film Forum. 209 W. Houston. 7:50pm show.

SATURDAY 1/09: New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend continues with Liev Schreiber, award-winning actor and director, who’s set to appear on Broadway in a revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.” 10:00-11:15am. “Precious: Lee Daniels and Gabourey Sidibe”: a talk with the director (Lee Daniels) and star (Gabourey Sidibe) of the award-winning new indie film Precious. 12:00-1:15pm. “Top Chef”: Frank Bruni talks to top chefs Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons and Eric Ripert (2:00-3:15pm). Natalie Portman, the Gotham 2009 Tribute Award winner talks about acting, writing and directing. (8:00-9:15pm). $30/event. The Times Center, 242 West 41st St.

Sweetgrass . If you missed the screening of this film by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, with a post-screening Q&A, you get another chance tonight. Don’t miss it! Film Forum. 7:50pm.

SUNDAY 1/10: New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend continues with “Pulitzer Playwrights”: Donald Margulies, John Patrick Shanley and Beth Henley talk and read from the new book “The Play that Changed My Life.” (2:00-3:15pm). “James McAvoy“: A talk with the Golden Globe Award-nominated actor (“Atonement,” “Wanted.”). Jeff Bridges, star of the new film Crazy Heart on his career in film, and his experiences in such memorable movies as “The Last Picture Show,” “The Big Lebowski,” and “The Fabulous Baker Boys.”

ART: A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy, an exhibit at the Morgan Library, includes first and early illustrated editions of Austen’s novels as well as drawings and prints depicting people, places, and events of biographical significance. A highlight of the exhibition is a specially commissioned film by Francesco Carrozzini, featuring interviews with artists and scholars such as Siri Hustvedt, Fran Lebowitz, Sandy Lerner, Colm Tóibín, Harriet Walter, and Cornel West (an excerpt of which is below). 225 Madision Ave. @36th St.

Fran Lebowitz: Reflections on Austen from The Morgan Library & Museum on Vimeo.

***

Original Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba

Other images in order of appearance: “The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows” (Man Ray, 1915-1916); Film still from Joyce Wieland’s Rat Life and Diet in North America, 1968.

News about notable happenings in New York can be sent to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net

MONDAY 12/21: The Modernist Book Group discusses Samuel Beckett’s Murphy, a man whose sole desire is to desire nothing. Community Book Store. 143 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn.

Guggenheim Holiday Concert: George Steel conducts the Vox Vocal Ensemble and the Graham Ashton Brass ensemble in this holiday tradition in the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda. Guggenheim Museum. 1071 Fifth Ave. (89th St.). Free. 6:00pm.

Amateur Ping-Pong Competition. The Bell House hosts a ping-pong tournament and ask only that you not be “some crazy pro or way too serious about it.” First place gets cash prize. 149 7th St. $5. 7:00pm.

Charlie for the Holidays: Beginning Monday, for three days the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present two Charlie Chaplin classics–City Lights and Modern Times–alternately throughout the day. $11 for single tickets, $15 for Double Feature Pass. Walter Reade Theater. 165 W. 65th St. Upper Level (bet. Broadway and Amsterdam).

Some impressive exhibits at the Gagosian Gallery are closing this week, 12/23, so catch them while you can. On the upper east side, Cy Twombly’s sculpture’s and Roger Ballen’s photographs. Ballen’s “Boarding House” collects black and white images of a three-story warehouse hidden among the gold mines of Johannesburg and inhabited by disenfranchised, impoverished families, fugitives and witch doctors. Gagsosian Gallery. 980 Madison Ave.

TUESDAY 12/22: Reel Pieces with Actor William Hurt. William Hurt will be in conversation after a screening of The Yellow Handkerchief (Director Udayan Prasad, 2009). 92Y. Lexington Ave. @ 92nd St. $40.00. 7:15pm.

Joao Erbetta. This Brazilian guitar player and composer mixes Twang with Frevo, Country with Latin and Jazz with Ciranda”Tico-tico no Fuba”, a classic Brazilian tune immortalized by Hollywood’s Carmen Miranda in the 40’s. Barbès. 376 9th Street. $10. 7:00pm.

WEDNESDAY 12/23: A Town Called Panic. In this Belgian film (the only stop-motion animated feature to have been shown in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival) Horse, Cowboy and Indian have a strange and wonderful ménage à trois. Animating generic plastic toys, these Belgian directors fashion an absurdist world that has plenty of room for friendship and love, birthday presents, online shopping, music lessons, and home improvements. Film Forum. 209 W. Houston. 6,8, and 10pm.

THURSDAY 12/24: Comedy Below Canal. The Twelfth Night of Chanukah with Sean Patton, Janeane Garofalo, Todd Barry, musical guest Rob Paravonian and more. 92Y Tribeca. 200 Hudson Street. $12. 9:00pm.

The Goldberg Variations. Maybe you’ve just read The Loser. Maybe you’re a Bach fan, or a Glenn Gould fan. Or maybe you’re a fan of pianist Steve Beck, graduate of the Juilliard School who has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and Miller Theater. Steve Beck will perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations in the floating chamber-music series, with complementary glass of eggnog and cookies. Bargemusic. Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn.

A Purely Coincidental night of Klezmer, Part II. This Christmas Eve Barbès hosts the second annual Klezmer party showcasing local groups such as Karen Waltuch (viola), Reuben Radding (bass), Ben Holmes (trumpet), and Uri Sharlin (accordion). Barbès. 376 9th Street. $10. 8:00pm and 10:00pm.

FRIDAY 12/25: Chinese and a Movie: A Mel Brooks Double Feature. Enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet of Chinese food and two Mel Brooks favorites, Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs. Doors at 2:00pm. Blazing Saddles (2:30pm) and Spaceballs (4:00pm). Food until it’s gone. $25 in advance. $30 at the door. 92Y Tribeca.

SATURDAY 12/26: Satyajit Ray’s classic film Pather Panjali screens at the “Back by Popular Demand” week at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. With their father, a Brahmin priest, often traveling and mother occupied by an elderly relative, Durga and Apu share a series of engaging adventures in a remote Bengali village. Yet, even in this idyllic world, tragedy threatens. The brilliant soundtrack is by Ravi Shankar. Walter Reade Theater. 5:40pm.

SUNDAY 12/27: The Hurt Locker, winner of the New York Critics Circle Best Picture 2009, screens at the “Back by Popular Demand” week at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Walter Reade Theater. 7:45 pm.

ART: Mike Kelley’s first show devoted to painting. Gagosian Gallery. 555 W. 24th Street. Ends 12/23.

***

Original Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba

Other images in order of appearance: photograph from Roger Ballen’s show ”Boarding House”; film still from A Town Called Panic; untitled painting by Mike Kelley.

News about notable happenings in New York can be sent to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net

This week in New York, lit mags The Faster Times, The Rumpus, Gigantic and Open City throw holiday parties, James Gallery holds Pornography in the City panel, Nick Flynn and Joseph Fasano read at Projection, LDM holds Holiday Episode, Stephen Elliott discusses the making of memoir, the Bloodsugars perform, Quentin Tarantino talks, Gabriel Orozco gets retrospectivized at MOMA, and the Madcap Manhattan series screens at Film Forum.

MONDAY 12/14: Wall Street Jolly: The Faster Times, The Rumpus and Gigantic Holiday Party–Whether you prefer pinstripes or a silk-twill shift, put on your Wall Street inspired holiday best and come out and party like you just got a $3 mil. bonus. The Faster Times, The Rumpus and Gigantic invite you to celebrate another fun fiscally irresponsible year with champagne, music and random acts of talent (like Anthony Swofford juggling disco balls). Glasslands Gallery. 289 Kent Ave (between 1st and Grand), Brooklyn. Free. 7:00pm – 10:00pm.

Film Forum’s Madcap Manhattan series (all on 35mm prints) continues with Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take it With You classic Oscar-winning comedy starring Jimmy Stewart, Lionel Barrymore and Spring Byington. 9:55pm.

TUESDAY 12/15: Pornography in the City. In an afternoon of discussion, the Graduate Center’s James Gallery takes up the question posed by “Peeps” the Spring 2009 James Gallery exhibit on New York peep shows of the 60s and 70s and what they can tell us about now. Scholars, critics and artists will revisit the modes of spectatorship and social networks the peep arcades inadvertently spawned. James Gallery at the CUNY Graduate Center. 365 Fifth Avenue. Free and open to the public. 2:00pm – 6:00pm.

Open City Holiday Party: Join editor Thomas Beller and Joanna Yas in celebrating the launch of Open City #28 with readings by Jonathan Dee and Sam Lipsyte. The Hi-Fi Bar. 169 Avenue A (between 10th & 11th). 7:00pm – 9:00pm.

WEDNESDAY 12/16: Projection: A Reading Series–Nick Flynn (author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City), Joseph Fasano and Jason Schneiderman. This series features text projected next to the reader to produce “a unique sonic and visual experience of the literary arts.” Center for Performance Research. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. $5. 8:00pm.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann (the Stories of Hoffmann)–Inspired by Kafka, director Bart Sher describes his production of Offenbach’s psychological fantasy as “a magical journey in which the character works out different manifestations of his psyche.” Joseph Calleja sings the tour-de-force title role, opposite Anna Netrebko, one of opera’s biggest stars, as the tragic Antonia and Alan Held as the demonic four villains. James Levine conducts. Tix (very few) still available. Metrpolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. 8:00pm – 11:35pm.

Rumble–Brooklyn featuring Marianne, the Bloodsugars, She Keeps Bees, and Violent Soho. (Courtesy of Moffie Sez). Southpaw. 125 Fifth Avenue. Brooklyn.  8:30 – 12:00am.

Film Forum’s Madcap Manhattan series continues with Little Murders (1971, Alan Arkin) starring Eliott Gould. Screenwriter Jules Feiffer will appear with castmembers Elizabeth Wilson and John Korkes. 7:00pm.

THURSDAY 12/17: Literary Death Match Ep. #21. As a gift to the literary faithful, LDM’s holiday episode will be free (a gift to LDM fans), plus there will be a lightning round version of the event with a holiday-themed finale. Terese Svoboda and James Yeh compete. Ben Greenman judges. Bowery Poetry Club. 308 Bowery. 7:00pm – 10:00pm.

Screening of Inglorious Basterds followed by discussion with Quentin Tarantino. MOMA. 11 W. 53rd St. 8:00pm.

The Paris Review Salon: Colum McCann and Timothy Donnelly read. Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, 58 W. 10th St. (bet. 5&6 Ave.). 7:00pm – 9:00pm.

Andy Warhol’s The Chelsea Girls with Nico and Brigid Berlin. Anthology Film Archives. 7:00pm.

FRIDAY 12/18: On Creating the Adderall Diaries with Stephen Elliott. The Rumpus’s own Stephen Elliott uses his true crime memoir to open a discussion on memoir-writing. Word. 126 Franklin St. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. $23 (Admission includes a copy of the book). 6:30pm. Tickets.

SATURDAY 12/19: Gabriel Orozco. The artist once called “the leading conceptual and installation artist of his generation” by The New Yorker, and has dozens of works in the collections of MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Whitney, Mr. Orozco is having a mid-career retrospective.

Shorts Program, a program of short film which includes Beware of the Hot Dog People (2002), The Bearding of the President and Cargo of Lure (1974). Anthology Film Archives. 6:30pm.

SUNDAY 12/20: Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, & Rent Boys: Writers David Henry Sterry, Audacia Ray, Hawk Kinkaid, and Zoe Hansen read from stories of their experiences as sex workers in this collection, which has been called “an eye-opening, astonishing, brutally honest and frequently funny collection from those who really have lived on the edge in a parallel universe.” KGB Bar. 85 E. 4th. 7:00pm.

ART: Janaina Tschäpe is known for her multimedia works depicting female figures lavishly costumed with appendages of inflatable balloons, latex tubing, and organic matter. Tschäpe’s work is part of the exhibition “Dress Codes” – International Center of Photography’s Third Triennial of Photography and Video–among that of many great photographers including Cindy Sherman, Stan Douglas and Laurie Simmons.

***

Original Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba

Other images in order of appearance: Photo by Albert Steg; Gabriel Orozco’s Horses Running Endlessly (1995); and Janaina Tschäpe’s Lacrimacorpus (Zeitschneide) (2004).

News about notable happenings in New York can be sent to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net

Related posts:

1. Notable New York, This Week 10/19-10/25
2. Notable New York, This Week 12/21 – 12/27
3. Notable New York, This Week 10/5-10/11

MONDAY 12/7: If you weren’t able to make it out to the Wes Anderson/Noah Baumbach talk at the NYPL a few weeks ago, you can catch Wes Anderson tonight at the screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox at MOMA. He’ll be around for a Q&A afterward. 11 W. 53rd St. 8:00pm.

John Ashbery, Jeff Clark and Stuart Krimko read. 11th Street Bar. 510 E. 11th St. (bet. Aves. A & B). 7:00pm.

Tickets for the Bridge Project’s As You Like It, directed by Sam Mendes, go on sale. The Bridge Project, a unique three-year series of co-productions by BAM, The Old Vic, and Neal Street, is devoted to producing large-scale, classical theater for international audiences. This production, which opens January 12 will make its world premier at BAM.

TUESDAY 12/8: An unprecedented reunion of members of the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker, Doug Yule and David Fricke at the New York Public Library . For five years – 1965 to 1970 – singer-songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed, bassist and viola player John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Maureen Tucker, with the German vocalist Nico and bassist Doug Yule (who replaced Cale in 1968), broadcast the real life of their home town – the sex, drugs and art; the furious street energies, hidden pleasures and desperate romance – in an unprecedented pop music of vivid storytelling and transgressive excitement. New York Public Library. Celeste Bartos Forum. 5th Ave. & 42nd St. $25 general admission. $15 library donors, students and seniors with valid ID. While this event is sold out, standby tickets may become available at the door. 7:00pm.

n+1 presents Evangelicalism and the Contemporary Intellectual: A Panel Discussion with Malcolm Gladwell (with whom a Rumpus interview can be read here), James Wood, Christine Smallwood and Caleb Crain. The New School, Tishman Auditorium. 66 W. 12th St. Free. 8:00pm.

WEDNESDAY 12/9: The Maysles Cinema screens the documentary Jimi Hendrix in Concert. For two weeks, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the Maysles Cinema will be screening films that highlight the “rock-n-roll” sixties. For some screenings, directors will be present. The Maysles Institute. 343 Lenox Avenue. 7:30pm.

THURSDAY 12/10: Andy Warhol retrospective at Anthology Film Archives opens with Screen Test #1 (7:00pm). Thursday’s screening will be introduced by Andy Warhol scholar Callie Angell. 32 2nd Avenue. Screen Test #2 @ 9:00pm.

Anne Carson along with her artistic collaborator Robert Currie and guest performers present a new interactive performance piece at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House. 58 W. 10th St. Two performances 7:00pm and 8:15pm. Reservations recommended by email: ghostparts@gmail.com.

Next to the Last Poem. Part of the Voice 4 Vision Puppet Festival, this marionette show presents a day in the life of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa who lived from 1888 to 1935. Scholars say he invented numerous heteronyms (his word) who interacted with him and each other throughout Pessoa’s otherwise reclusive and lonely life. On a rainy night in March 1914 Pessoa wrote upwards of 36 poems in four distinct voices. This puppet theater show, which was first performed in St. Anns Puppet Lab, represents an imaginary day before that prolific night. Thru 12/13. Theater for the New City. 155 1st Ave. (9&10 Sts.) $15. 9:30pm.

Malcolm Gladwell reads from What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures, his new collection of essays. Barnes & Noble in the Flatiron district. 7:00pm.

FRIDAY 12/11: The Pushcart Press and The Writers Studio Reading Series present Marie Howe, Mark Doty, Kate Walbert and Dale Peck. Le Poisson Rouge. 7:00pm. 158 Bleecker (at Thomson).

Warhol Retrospective at Anthology Film Archives continues with Hedy (7:00pm), and Vinyl (9:00pm). 32 2nd Ave.

SATURDAY 12/12: 60 Writers/60 Places. This film by Luca Dipierro and Michael Kimball takes writers and places them in untraditional spaces to create “a living picture.” Writers featured include Tao Lin, Deb Olin Unferth, Gary Lutz, Eileen Myles, James Yeh and Leni Zumas. The films of Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro have at the forefront a concern with the way space is altered and engaged with when people enter the picture. When people enter the picture and sometimes say and do startling things. I enjoyed I Will Smash You, their first feature, and expect to enjoy this film as well, trailers for which you can see here. PPOW Gallery. 511 W. 25th St. 6:30pm.

Andy Warhol Retrospective at Anthology Film Archives continues with Kitchen (4:00pm), the Life of Juanita Castro (5:30pm), Horse (7:00pm) and Harlot (9:15pm).32 2nd Ave.

The Rapture (DJ set) with Justin Vandervolgen, Populette and James Friedman. Le Poisson Rouge. 11:00pm.

The Films of Joseph Cornell Program I and II. The films of collage-artist and a pioneer of the recycled image, Joseph Cornell’s films such as Cotillion, Midnight Party, and Children’s Party, are some of the first collage films made. The films, some of which  were made with experimental filmmakers Stan Brakhage and Rudy Burckhardt, are short and will be shown in two sets. Anthology Film Archives. Program I, 4:30pm. Program II, 6:30pm. 32 2nd Ave.

SUNDAY 12/13: Madison Smartt Bell and Robert Stone read. Bell reads from Devil’s Dreams and Stone reads from Bay of Souls. KGB. 7:00pm.

Puppet Art Attacks Slam – Short Works of Genius: Part of the Voice 4 Vision Puppet Festival, this puppetry slam is a fast paced evening of short works (3-8 min. long) featuring some of the most innovative emerging artists in the field of puppetry including Serra Hirsch, Howie Leifer and Spica Wobbe, among many others and includes among others a narrative based on the life of Salvador Dalí. Theater for the New City. 155 1st Ave. (9&10 Sts.) $15. 8:00pm.

Andy Warhol Retrospective continues at Anthology Film Archives with Space (starring Edie Sedgwick). 32 2nd Ave.

***

Original Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba

Other images in order of appearance: Lou Reed album cover, photo from Next to the Last Poem, photo of Luca Dipierro and Michael Kimball directing 60 Writers/60 Places, images from the Puppet Art Attacks Slam featuring a show based on the life of Salvador Dalí.

News about notable happenings in New York can be sent to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net

Related posts:

1. Notable New York, This Week 12/14 – 12/20
2. Notable New York, This Week 10/19-10/25
3. Notable New York, This Week 2/1 – 2/7

On November 9, 2009, four days before the release of Fantastic Mr. Fox, an animated film by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, I attended a live “conversation” between the two directors at the New York Public Library. The event was part of NYPL LIVE, a program that presents lectures, conversations and “Cognitive Theater” related to literature, science and the arts that are “Irresistible,” “Ripe,” and “Salty,” according to the brochure. I was fortunate enough to attend not only this irresistible and salty event, but a ripe post-reading cocktail party as well. Here is a subjective account of my night.

Ballroom

A man in a red beanie hat and a light blue t-shirt put a strip of paper into my hand. It said, “Please join Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, and your fellow Young Lions for a reception directly following the event….” I walked into the ballroom. An interesting choice—the red hat, I thought.

Propped on a white clothed table were books on the making of Fantastic Mr. Fox, a film based on the classic children’s book by Roald Dahl and the first film Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach have collaborated on since the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. “What should I say?” I imagined Wes Anderson saying as he signed my book. “Do something with your life for f–k’s sake,” I’d say. But I’ve neither ever liked book signings nor stood in a book-signing line.

Sitting, I saw a red-hatted man lean down to a blond woman in a seat. She looked up, concerned. She turned to her friend who was also blond and concerned. I couldn’t hear what was said. The high glass-domed ceiling magnified the music and chatter. A red-hatted woman reached up and adjusted the speaker pole.

Conversation

Because there was no moderator, one of them had to speak spontaneous-like. “We’ll be catching up live,” said Noah Baumbach. He and Wes Anderson hadn’t seen each other in two years he said. That seemed unlikely, having made a film together. It was probably difficult to think of something grabbing with all that light on them. Considering breaches of ethics, I thought lying for the greater good is acceptable. But what constitutes the greater good? We weren’t in a flood. I concentrated on the low table before them with the vase of pink roses, a large pitcher of water, and two highball glasses.

“We were at dinner with Isabella Rossellini,” said Wes Anderson (who I could only see when I moved to the right). He and Noah Baumbach talked about how they had wanted to ask her if they could use a scene from Blue Velvet for a film. Wes Anderson said Isabella Rossellini said, What scene?

Noah Baumbach changed his voice to sound like Wes Anderson and said, “The scene where you’re naked on the porch and you say, He put his disease in me.” Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach laughed. People in the audience laughed very hard.

Noah Baumbach said he later saw David Lynch at another dinner and David Lynch said, “Yes. I lent you something of mine.” His voice was sticky. He lifted his large glass and drank water. He put it down.

Noah: “That began it—”

Wes: “That began it. Yes—”

Noah: “We wrote Life Aquatic at one table—”

Wes: “Yes. At Bar Pitti—”

Noah: “Yes.”

Related posts:

1. Jonathan Baumbach Superlink

This week in New York the Rumpus and Tin House present MORE THAN YOU EXPECTED with Rick Moody, Starlee Kine and Eugene Mirman followed by a meteor shower, Martin Amis and Chip Kidd celebrate Nabokov’s work with special exhibit of The Original of Laura, Pseudo-Futurist video game improvisation, a week of events centered on National Book Awards, Bob Dylan performs, artist Terence Koh talks at National Arts Club, Greil Marcus live in one-man show–Lipstick Traces, Cinema 16 presents Tom Smith’s masterpiece Solar System, along with PSA’s from the 60s with live musical accompaniment, and SCORE! Pop-Up Swap.

MONDAY 11/16: Celebrating Nabokov: Special one-night only exhibit. Join Martin Amis, Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd and designer Chip Kidd for a celebration of Vladimir Nabokov’s life and work. When Nabokov died in 1977, he left behind the fragments of an unfinished novel on 138 hand-written notecards. His son Dmitri has compiled them in a book under Nabokov’s original title—The Original of Laura.  92nd St. Y. $26. Exhibit opens at 6:30pm, event begins at 8:00pm.

5 Under 35–Celebrating the Next Generation of Fiction Writers with host, novelist and punk rock icon Richard Hell and special guest DJ, novelist Jonathan Lethem. The party and reading will present honorees Ceridwen Dovey, C.E. Morgan Lydia Peelle, Karen Russell and Josh Weil. While this is an invitation-only event, it kicks off the National Book Awards week and I include it here in the interest of keeping you abreast. Invitation Only. Powerhouse Arena.

Performa 09: Pseudo-Futurist Video Game Improvisation Extravaganza– Forget about museums, galleries and biennials, stay home and play video games. Synthetic Performances are online live gaming sessions inside the virtual world of Second Life, performed by Eva and Franco Mattes through their avatars. The actions are loosely inspired by well-known performance artworks from the last 100 years. Eva and Franco Mattes are the Italian artist-provocateurs behind the infamous website 0100101110101101.ORG. Among the pioneers of the Net Art movement, they are renowned for their masterful subversion of public media. If you don’t have a Second Life account you can sign up for free, but anyone can participate by clicking here http://slurl.com/secondlife/Odyssey/35/25/22/. Second Life. 5:00pm.

TUESDAY 11/17: MORE THAN YOU EXPECTED: A NIGHT AT THE HIGHLINE – Join The Rumpus and Tin House for an evening of music, literature and comedy. Rick Moody, Starlee Kine, Jonathan Ames will read, Todd Barry and Eugene Mirman will be funny, and Care Bears on Fire will blow you away with their musical prowess. Get tickets here. $10.00. Doors open at 6:00pm. Concert promptly at 7:00pm.

Leonid Meteor Shower: “We expect the Leonids to produce upwards of 500 meteors per hour,” said Bill Cooke of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “That’s a very strong display.” “The moon will not be an issue,” said somebody else. Check out this viewers guide for more info. 11:00pm – 4:00am.

Finalists Reading at the New School. All twenty of this year’s National Book Awards finalists will read. Hosted by Robert Polito, Director of the Writing Program at the New School and novelist Joshua Ferris (2007 National Book Award Finalist for Then We Came to the End) will emcee. Tickets available at the New School Box Office: (212) 229-5488 or via email boxoffice@newschool.edu. New School. 7:00pm. Interviews with the writers on the shortlist for the National Book Award were interviewed by a team of writers including the Believer’s Meehan Christ, which are available here.

WEDNESDAY 11/18: The 60th National Book Awards. Winners in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry and Young Poeple’s Literature to be announced. Gore Vidal and Dave Eggers receive Lifetime Achievement Awards. The winner of the Best of the National Book Award Fiction to be revealed. Winners will be posted on the homepage.

Bob Dylan and Dion perform. United Palace Theater. 4140 Broadway. (Also Thursday). 7:30.

Performa 09: K.62 Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Ari Benjamin Meyers- Inspired by Orson Welles’s unforgettable film version of “The Trial” (1962), “K.62″ is a musical mystery that involves an audience, an orchestra, a little bit of magic, and a lot of imagination. A dark comedy of missed connections, with a participatory element that will test the expectations of the audience when faced with the unknown, this new performance celebrates the angst and anxiety, courage and vision of downtown New York. Henri du Jour Playhouse. 466 Grand St. 7:30pm.

THURSDAY 11/19: Greil Marcus: Lipstick Traces, live one-man show. To mark the just-published 20th-anniversary edition of the book, Columbia University in partnership with the ARChive of Contemporary Music present Greil Marcus in a one-man performance of Lipstick Traces. With Lipstick Traces, Greil Marcus delved into the cross-currents, tangles, and whirlpools that made such vastly different movements as dada, lettrism, the Situationist International, and punk part of a single current. Altschul Auditorium at Columbia University. 417 International Affairs Building, 420 West 118th St. Free. 6:00pm.

Bob Dylan and Dion perform. United Palace Theater. 4140 Broadway.

Performa 09: Terence Koh presents a lecture at the National Arts Club on the history of art from 1642-2009. Following on the National Arts Club’s century-old tradition of salon-style intellectual discussions and as part of its ongoing PERFORM series, the Contemporary Art Department of The National Arts Club is pleased to present a special Lecture by artist Terence Koh (who is well-known for gold-plating and selling his feces to collectors for $500,000). Free but RSVP is essential. contemparts@thenationalartsclub.org. 8:00pm.

FRIDAY 11/20: The New Salon: Fiction Writers in Conversation presents National Book Award nominee Jayne Anne Phillips. Phillips will read from Lark and Termite, her latest novel. The New Salon is a program of NYU’s Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House. 58 W. 10th St. Free. 7:00pm.

Performa 09: Cinemagician: Yeondoo Jung’s new theater piece, Cinemagician, aims to recreate the tensions between the magician and audience that arise from watching the unfolding of an unknown event or trick. Inspired by the nineteenth-century French filmmaker George Melies, whose experiments as a magician and cabaret illusionist led him to play with special film effects such as the “stop trick” (stopping filming, substituting something in front of the camera for something else, and then resuming filming), multiple exposures, dissolves, and hand-painting colors on film, Cinemagician will present a live “happening” juxtaposed with a projected one. Asia Society. 725 Park Avenue. $20 get tix here. 8:00pm.

SATURDAY 11/21: New York Tyrant Book Release Party. Editor of literary journal New York Tyrant, Giancarlo DiTrapano celebrates the launch of Tyrant Books and its first publication, Baby Legs, Brian Evenson’s dismemberment narrative. Music by dead sparro, no reading and free drinks. Fontana’s. 105 Eldridge St. $10. 9:00pm.

SCORE! Pop-Up Swap. Get ready for everyone’s favorite pop-up swap. Bring your old Blondie records, penny loafers, Jane Fonda workout videos, and harmonica chord progression manuals…and score some new treasures. (Courtesy of Moffie Sez). 3rd Ward. 1:00pm – 7:00pm.

Show Us Your Zits – Sketch Klubb: “Described as a “knitting circle for men,” Sketch Klubb was founded in the summer of 2005 by J. Michael Stovall (illustrator for the New Yorker) Russell Etchen, Patrick Phipps, Seth Alverson and David Wang. It was established as a loose coalition of friends, whose purpose was merely to socialize and draw. It has met almost every other Saturday since. The work in this four year retrospective was influenced by horror movies, music, comics, the apocalypse and The Simpsons. Sketch Klubb scoffs at political correctness with work that offers no apologies, no excuses.” — Katie Geha, SOFA Gallery. Texas Firehouse Gallery and Performance Space.  36-29 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City. 8:00pm -12:00pm.

Cinema 16–presented by Myopenbar and Drambuie. Cinema 16 is a series which brings together the spirit of the silent film era with a quirky twist providing programs that pair obscure vintage films with live scores specially composed for each show. This edition includes 2 PSAs (including One Got Fat, which shows children in ape masks warning against the dangers of biking), and and one educational video from the 60s and 70s (Solar System: a masterpiece by Star Wars special effects maestro Tom Smith). Musical arrangement composed and performed by These Are Powers. Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main St. Free cocktails and entry, but must RSVP.

SUNDAY 11/22: Rachel Sherman reads from her debut novel, Living Room. KGB. 85 E. 4th St. 7:00pm.

Performa 09: 100 Years (Version #2). On the occasion of Performa 09, an exhibition drafting a short history of actions, events, situations, happenings, and performances beginning with the Futurist manifesto in 1909 and continuing to the present. “100 Years (Version #2)” represents an exciting collaboration between MoMA and P.S.1 with Performa in New York and the Julia Stoschek Foundation in Dusseldorf. P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City. Free with entry to P.S.1. Times vary.

ART: The Earth Room. This is a long term installation at the Walter De Maria gallery. I’ve seen it many times, and each time I think, This is the most ground above ground I’ve seen. Ever. 141 Wooster St. Second Floor. Free. See it! Wed-Sun 12:00-6:00pm. (Closed 3-3:30).

***

Original Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba

Other images in order of appearance: Image from an Eva and Franco Mattes online performance; “Heads & Stuff,” Cover of Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces, Illustration by J. Michael Stovall

News about notable happenings in New York can be sent to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net

Related posts:

1. Notable New York, This Week 11/2 – 11/8
2. Notable New York, This Week 10/26 – 11/1
3. Notable New York, This Week 11/9 – 11/15