Notable New York, This Week 11/2 - 11/8

This week in New York, Performa 09 festival of performing arts inspired by Futurist film, music and literature opens, Bomb throws a Fall Issue Launch Party, Books & Quiche Reading Series is back with Yiyun Li and Salvatore Scibona, Light Industry and Triple Canopy team up to bring you a 14-hour film installation, Robert Wilson’s Quartett opens at BAM, Agriculture Reader has a reading, and Tao Lin reads at Bookthugnation.

MONDAY 11/2 –Without Sun: Brody Condon. Part of Performa 09, “Condon’s “Without Sun” (2006), is an edited collection of ‘found performances’ – online videos of individuals who recorded themselves while having a psychedelic experience. The 15 minute video will be followed by a performative re-creation featuring the dancer Linda Austin and actor Russell Edge. MOMA. 11 W. 53rd St.

Best Music Writing Panel with Greil Marcus, Carrie Brownstein and More. 7:00-9:00pm. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. 126 Crosby Street.

Screening of Gregory La Cava’s Gabriel Over the White House followed by a conversation with cultural historian Morris Dickstein. Walter Huston stars in this political satire as a corrupt president who is transformed into a crusader on a mission to save his country. Dickstein will sign copies of his new book, Dancing in the Dark. 7:00pm. Film Society of Lincoln Center.

TUESDAY 11/3 – BOMB Magazine Fall Issue Reading and Launch Party with readings by Christopher Sorrentino and Victoria Redel. Book Court. 163 Court St. (bet. Pacific & Dean). Brooklyn. 7:00pm.

Turandot – Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot opens at the Metropolitan Opera. This is a particularly good peformance if you’re new to opera as it’s one of the more accessible operas, and is directed by Franco Zeffirelli. You can get tickets in the balcony for $20. Lincoln Center. 8:00pm – 11:00pm.

WEDNESDAY 11/4 – Legendary theater director Robert Wilson presents Quartett at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. This play, by Heiner Muller, which is an adaptation of the 18th century novel, Les Liaisons Dangereux, stars French actress Isabelle Huppert.

Al Gore reads from Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. Barnes and Noble. 555 5th Ave. at 46th St. 12:00 Noon.

Wang Bing: Crude Oil. Light Industry and Triple Canopy present the East Coast premiere of this 14-hour film installation which tracks a full day of crude-oil extractors in northwest China. The film will run for 5 days in its entirety, beginning Wednesday ending Sunday. Come for a full run, or drop in for as long as it’s comfortable. 220 36th St., 5th Fl. Brooklyn, NY.

THURSDAY 11/5 – Performa 09: Art History with Benefits: The Bruce High Quality Foundation. ““Art History with Benefits” is a half-hour presentation examining the romance, figuratively and literally, between cultural funding and sex. Drawn from such diverse sources as environmental psychologist Paco Underhill’s “Why We Buy,” George Buchner’s “Danton’s Death,” and congressional records concerning the NEA debates of the late 80s, “Art History with Benefits” relentlessly upturns expected notions of how and why culture happens.” X Initiative. 548 W. 22nd St. 6:00pm.

Director Richard Kelly’s The Box, another sci-fi/horror hybrid starring Cameron Diaz and Frank Langella. The director of Donnie Darko will be in conversation after the screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. 8:00pm.

Books & Quiche Reading Series – The Books & Quiche Reading Series is back with readings by Yiyun Li and Salvatore Scibona. Li’s debut collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, PEN/Hemingway Award, Guardian First Book Award, and California Book Award for first fiction. Salvatore Scibona’s first book, The End, was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Whiting Writers’ Award. As always, there will be a Q&A, wine and homemade quiche. The International Center. 50 West 23rd St., 7th Fl.

FRIDAY 11/6 – Agriculture Reader editors Justin Taylor and Jeremy Schmall host this presentation of readings by some of the great writers in Issue No. 3 of their anthology including Diane Williams, Joshua Cohen and Matthew Rohrer. NYU’s Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House 7:00pm. Free.

Speed Shrinking Party – Susan Shapiro, author of Speed Shrinking: A Comic Novel hosts this unique event where 16 writing gurus will help you through the personal struggles that have prevented you from being a success. On hand will be top psychotherapists, editors, an astrologist, some agents and a sex therapist–whether you’re looking for a quick mental-health fix or just some out of the ordinary cocktail conversation; cupcakes included. New School Lang Student Center – 55 W. 13th st. – 2nd fl. Free.

SATURDAY 11/7 – Tao Lin, Brenda Iijima and others read at Bookthugnation. 100 N. 3rd St., Brooklyn. 8:00pm.

Performa 09: The Lust Weekend. Various locations on the LES, Saturday and Sunday. Avant-garde dances, sensual songs, mysterious avatars, and intimate confessions: Performa pays tribute to Futurist poet and dancer Valentine de Saint-Point, author of the “Manifesto of Lust”

Actions Propaganda. “Performa teams up with Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, on a workshop laboratory inspired by Actions: What You Can Do With the City, a CCA exhibition with 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Led by design team from Project Projects, the session will use poster and newspaper templates and with a poster intervention where participants will be encouraged to distribute their work in the city.” 41 Cooper Sq. 11:00am.

Tracy Emin reads from “Those who Suffer Love,” and “Strangeland,” as part of Lust Weekend at Performa 09. “Tracy Emin came to prominence in the 1990’s as part of the group the YBA’s (Young British Artists). Working across media in painting, video, and installation, her practice explores various conceptions of femininity, the tension between private and public in sexual politics, and the contemporary culture of voyeurism.” Performance Project at University Settlement. 184 Eldridge. 3:00pm.

Terence Koh. SAAQIU. Performa 09. Brooklyn Museum. 200 Eastern Parkway. 9:30pm.

SUNDAY 11/8 – Performa 09: The Universe Will Be Our Vocabulary: Futurist Music, Film and Literature. Two mini-lectures by two experts in the Futurist avant-garde–composer, performer, and musicologist Luciano Chessa, who is a leading intonarumori (Futurist noise machine) scholar, and York University professor John Picchione, who has extensive knowledge of Futurist film, literature and poetry. These two mini-lectures will be followed by a brief discussion between these two luminaries, with an introduction for the entire event provided by Performa Director RoseLee Goldberg. Performa Hub. 41 Cooper Sq. 4:00pm.

ART: Leandro Erlich: Swimming Pool at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. Through Mar. 1.