This week, Chinua Achebe speaks, n+1 in conversation with Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat, Jonathan Lethem reads, composer/drummer Bobby Previte with Psychedelic Furs’ Knox Chandler, photographer Jeff Wall presents more urban decay, “junkyard bohos” Huggabroomstik play, CMJ Music Marathon begins and Renée Fleming sings at the Met.
MONDAY 10/19: Chinua Achebe, whose first book in 20 years, a collection of autobiographical essays The Education of a British Protected Child was released this month, will be in conversation with K. Anthony Appiah. 92nd Street Y. 8:00pm. $19//$10 for 35-and-under.
Arguably the top soprano singing today, Renée Fleming takes on the role of Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera. 7:30pm. Tickets still available for $15 and $20.
Film: Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum at Film Forum through 10/20. Where the Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book is in theaters (screenplay by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers).
TUESDAY 10/20: CMJ Music Marathon begins (10/20 – 10/24) by teaming up with The Believer to bring you an opening night presenting music by Cold Cave, The Golden Filter and Free Energy among many others.
n+1 in conversation with Reihan Salam and the New York Times’s Ross Douthat. The New School’s Tishman Auditorium. 66 W. 12th St. Free.
Brooklyn Vegan: London-based band Fanfarlo, The Antlers, Laura Marling, and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel perform at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Hosted by Dave Hill. 6:30pm doors, 7:30 show. $15.
Jonathan Lethem reads from Chronic City at Book Court. 7:00pm.
Punk Experimental band Ching Chong Song perform with Huggabroomstik, an experimental group 
that has been called “an audio clusterfuck” by Urban Folk, “Junkyard Bohos” by the Village Voice, and “rock ‘n’ roll” by Punk Planet at Sidewalk Cafe (courtesy Moffie Sez). 9:00pm.
Light Industry presents “Mouth Room,” a video program of “dysfunctional narrators and wayward voices,” curated by James Richards. These short videos present the voice as an “improvised or experimental tool for expression and communication.” 220 36th St., 5th Fl., Brooklyn. 7:30pm.
WEDNESDAY 10/21: Songs of Ascension – Part of the BAM 2009 Next Wave Festival, Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton use strings, voice and percussion to transform the BAM Harvey Theater into a “sanctuary of movement, music and video.” Brooklyn Academy of Music. 7:30pm.
In its Scary Movies 3 series, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presents: The Horror of Dracula – 4:10pm, and just added, Trick ‘R Treat– 8:30pm.
THURSDAY 10/22: Revered indie folk-rock Omaha label Saddle Creek presents a showcase with Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, UUVVWWZ, and Beep Beep at The Knitting Factory Brooklyn. 7:00pm. $10 advance/$12 day of show.
BAM 2009 Next Wave Festival presents an Artist Talk with Meredith Monk. Post Show. (The Show, Songs of Ascension is at 7:30).
E.L. Doctorow reads at NYU Kimmel Center. 8:00pm. Free.
Lore Segal, whose story collection Shakespeare’s Kitchen was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and whose novella Lucinella is being re-released by Melville House as part of its Art of the Novella series, reads at the Melville House Bookstore.
FRIDAY 10/23: Poet Mark Doty reads at KGB Bar. 7:00pm.
Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, midnight at the Independent Film Center.
SATURDAY 10/24: Renowned drummer-composer Bobby Previte presents “AMNIOTIC” a post-psychedelia trio with Jamie Saft (bass and keyboard) and Jen Shyu (vocalist) with the Psychedelic Furs’ Knox Chandler at Issue Project Room at The Old American Can Factory. 8:00pm.
ART:
Video artist Bill Viola’s Bodies of Light at James Cohan Gallery: Opens October 23.
Photographer Jeff Wall at Marian Goodman. 24 W. 57th Street. Through 10/30.
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Notable New York Illustration © André da Loba
Please send any news about notable events happening around New York to rozalia-AT-therumpus.net
