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 [email protected]. 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. [email protected]. 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).
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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
