Spend the first day of the year (if you can get out of bed after last night!) at the 32nd New Years Day Reading Marathon.
Over 130 artists and authors from all corners of the New York art world are coming together to celebrate the New Year with an assortment of poetry, performance, dance and music.
Artists include: Anne Waldman, Penny Arcade, Steve Earle, Philip Glass, Taylor Mead and Lenny Kaye to name a few.
Date: Sunday, January 1st 2006 Time: 3.00pm Location: St. Mark's Church, 131 E. 10th St. and Third Ave Cost: $7
Mo Pitkins continues to bring the free comedy shows to the plate. Chicks and Giggles, is an all female comedy show hosted by Laugh Factory's Carolyn Castiglia. Nice spot to laugh away the cold.
Date: Tuesday, January 3rd Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm Location: Mo Pitkins (34 Avenue A) Cost: Free
FreeNYC just got back from a non-stop snowboarding trip to Vermont, and we thought we were tough. But these two have us beat by a long shot. DJ Ge-ology and Rich Medina will be traveling to 8 or more countries in less than 3 weeks, but first they are gonna put in an appearnace at Opus 22. Expect house, hip-hop and soul, oh and an open vodka bar from 10 to 11.
Date: Tuesday, January 3rd Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Opus 22, 559 West 22nd at 11th Cost: Free Open Bar: 10 to 11 open vodka
Drunken, slutty, hipster madness continues at this Happy Ending weekly. Last week we pounded whistky with the Hasids. This week the only religion on tap is hedonism as the boys fill the space with "porno, lights and a maze of crap." 1/2 price drinks from 10-11 brings things down to an almost tolerable bar tab and a $6 "PBR and rot gut whisky" special keeps you going all night.
Date: Tuesday, January 3rd Time: 10:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome bet Forsyth and Eldridge) Cost: Free
Soulpusher's June D. and TKomri take to the tables tonight at Fat Baby. There is also free vodka from 11-12 which makes this a worthy cure for the post-holiday spending blues.
Date: Tuesday, February 3rd Time: 11:00pm Location:Fat Baby (112 Rivington between Essex and Ludlow) Cost: Free Open Bar: Vodka, 11-12
Dorkbot is "a monthly meeting of artists sound/image/movement/whatever), designers, engineers, students and other interested parties from the new york area who are involved in the creation of electronic art (in the broadest sense of the term.)" And today's topic of conversation is Mikey Sklar: Chipped. Basically to sum it up, this dude, Mikey Sklar, will explain the process he used to install a RFID tag in his hand. He will discuss why he did this, the necessary materials, different tag options, and what people have been doing with these tag implants. 2006 is totally the future.
My relationship with religion is ever-changing and a little volitile. But one thing I know for sure is there is a ton to be learned on the subject and important concepts to be taken away from each. The Interdependence Project is working on educating the public on issues relvant to Buddism and meditation in the 21st century. "Unfortunately, the Buddha never taught a sutra called 'How to Practice Compassion in The Age of Multinational Capitalism.' No ancient Indian meditator tried to be mindful while sending a text message. No nun in a Tibetan monastery had to learn loving-kindness while being bombarded 24/7 by ads constructed to undermine her self-esteem." If these are things you ponder about as well, you may want to check out their lecture tonight.
Date: Wednesday, January 4th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Lila Yoga and Dharma Center, 302 Bowery Buzzer #2 Cost: Free
Here's a weekly party dedicated to the unearthing of rare musical treats (think soul, funk, etc.) Of course, their online radio is not working out for me so I can't give you any more info. If anyone heads down, drop me a line and let me know what you think.
Date: Wednesday, January 4th Time: 8:00pm - 1:00am Location:Sutra Lounge (16 1st ave between 1st and 2nd streets) Cost: Free
Continuing the mind expanding events for the day, Sten Hostfalt will perform microtonal guitar sonorities tonight. Hostfalt's octave consists of 72 pitch bending tones derived from the theories of Joe Maneri (who, for all you hippies out there, also tought John Medeski), these sounds are, at times, hard on my ears but I find their academic value is limitless. Check it out youself to be the judge. (audio samples here)
Date: Wednesday, January 4th Time: 9:00pm - 10:00pm Location:Lucky Cat (245 Grand St. between Roebling & Driggs, Williamsburg) Cost: Free
Bang! is back in the new year with a change of venue to the more apropriate Beauty Bar. Now my Williamsburg ass has no reason not to hop the L for a little midweek action. Expect the same sweaty good time fueled by $2 Svedka cocktails and music from Josh Madden. Will I ever get to rest from New Year's?
Date: Wednesday, January 4th Time: 10:00pm Location: Beauty Bar (231 East 14th Street at 3rd Ave) Cost: Free
Josh MacPhee's Paper Politics Printmaking show opens in Brooklyn tonight and runs until February 19th. Be prepared for much political stimulation with 180 artists showcasing social justice and global equity themed prints.
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 5:00pm to 8:00pm Location: 5+5 Gallery, 111 Front Street, Suite 210 Cost: Free
In Second Nature, a collection of Mary Mattingly digitaly enhanced photographs, she "looks at the distant future of the human race. After the fall of post-industrial civilization, nomads wear their homes on their backs like snails, using patched-together machines to gather resources from the ravaged environment. Forced to be self-sufficient, this new breed of human is detached from its fellow wanderers, isolated in austere but beautiful landscapes, preoccupied with the need for survival. Mattingly tempers her bleak outlook with a caustic sense of humor, making signposts for industrial conglomerates one of the few remaining traces of 20th-century culture." Continues through February 25th.
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location:Robert Mann Gallery (210 11th Street) Cost: Free
If you're like me, you ate way too much over the holidays. If you are not like me, you constantly wonder how the rich and famous stay stick thing. Well, tonight Dr. Jana Klauer, M.D., one of New York's premier weight control doctors, discusses the diet secrets of the high society at this Borders instore to hype her new book How The Rich Get Thin. It may just be the info you were looking for. I bet one of the tips is "do not to eat leftover Christmas cake for breakfast for 3 days straight..." Maybe that's why I will never make the high society.
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 6:30pm Location: Borders (461 Park Avenue) - map it Cost: Free
If you are tired of discussing this week's episode of Lost around the water cooler all day and are looking for topics with a lil more meat and substance, head over to First Thursday at Iona Bar. Essentially its a loose collective of designers and artisist who get together, grab a beer and discuss relevent topics of interest. Anyone with an interest in design is welcome. Think of it as a crit for post-college grads who find themselves lacking valuable criticism in their workplace.
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 7:00pm Location: Iona Bar, 180 Grand St. btw Bedford & Driggs Cost: Free
The Pop-Up shop we love to hate is at it again. This time they are teaming up with the boys from InSound for a music triva and free PBR night. Prizes will be awarded and there will be an unofficial FreeNYC prize to the person who sends us the photo of the best PBR can sculpture from the night.
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 7:00 - 9:00pm Location: Pop-Up Shop (140 W. Broadway btwn Duane & Thomas) Cost: Free Open Bar: PBR (7:00pm - 9:00pm)
Tonight stop by Barnes and Noble on Astor Place for Wonkette blogger, Ana Marie Cox, reading from her debut novel Dog Days. Dog Days is described as "is a wry and sexy story of the young movers and shakers in D.C." Sexy movers and shakers in D.C., I totally smell scandal in this one!
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble, 4 Astor Place Cost: Free
Eddie Stats and Max Glazer return tonight with their reggae monthly. These boys know there history and their crates run deep. If you are into dub, dancehall, reggae, or simply the three hour open redstripe bar then this is your spot tonight. I think this is too good to be correct but it's totally worth checking in on. [source]
"Just to let you know, there was no heavyweight event planned for January 5th, as listed on your website." - White Rabbit
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 8:00pm Location: White Rabbit (145 East Houston Street at Eldridge) Cost: Free
Here's another weekly party for you... Busted brings everything from afrobeat to dancehall to house at this village weekly. Its a tiny, intimate spot so the people bring the vibe. An open bar sweetens the deal.
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 10:00pm Location: Leopard Lounge, Sin Sin (248 East 5th at 2nd Ave) Cost: Free Open Bar: Unknown, 10:00pm - 11:00pm
Yup... that's right... go drink free booze at Suede. Other then that, I see no reason for you to go to this release party for a certain movie that I don't want to see and did not pay me to want to see it. And its loot ($10) for the boys after 11pm anyway. Cover and no free booze after 11? Who are these promoters anyway. Yo, holler at us and we'll make your event jump off next time!
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 10:00pm Location: Suede (161 West 23rd Street) Cost: Free before 11 Open Bar: Vodka, 10:00pm - 11:00pm
Stop by Cosmo Baker & Scott Melker's weekly throw down before Comso embarkes on his North American tour for the rest of the month. Expect 80s R&B, New Jack Swing, Hip-hop and more at this staple weekly. Ladies drink for 1/2 off until midnight. Always a good time.
Also! Catch Comso on a special Edition of "The Let Out" on East Village Radio tomorrow (Friday) from 6pm - 8pm... perfect for getting your pregame on.
Date: Thursday, January 5th Time: 10:00pm Location: Plan B, 339 E. 10th St. @ Avenue B Cost: Free
"Carcinogenic society: unnatural food additives; blasphemous compounds, pills, and quick fixes. Fertilizers, hormones, microwaves … Prepackaged readymade phosphorescence..." These are just a few of the topics explored by the sculptures and bas-reliefs of the Synthetic Aesthetic show. This group exhibit "focusing on the use of tangible synthetic new media such as plastics, epoxies, and the like to create an abstracted and futuristic art that stylistically draws on many sources; from current industrial design to modernism in general."
Date: Friday January 6th Time: 6:30pm - 9:00pm Location:The Roger Smith Lab Gallery (corner of 47th and Lexington) Cost: Free
In More Object, sculptor Mai Braun draws "on everyday materials—house paint, cardboard, lumber and papier-mâché—to make objects that are diverse in form and color but always characterized by a sense of the hand-built and homemade" to create largely improvised structures which combine organic and sythentic shapes. "Her work attempts to locate a balance between humor and gravity, precision and irregularity, order and entropy." Continues through February 5th.
I am going to let the press release speak for itself on this video installation opening tonight... "The art-destroying stuntman hijinks of Tim Folland spring from the cartoon antics of Wile E. Coyote. At the center of his video installation, Death-defying Dervish Gangbuster Rebel is the stupendously resourceful, maniacal idiot Goldhead, who, in his oversized helmet mask with hooked little nose, bears a striking resemblance to Richard Nixon. This video is a tightly edited well-paced and highly entertaining spectacle, a cross between a standup routine and a sports highlights video. Buster Keaton meets Evel Knievel."
Date: Friday, January 6th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location:Jack the Pelican (487 Driggs Avenue, Williamsburg) Cost: Free
The people responsible for the "I (heart) sweatshop labor" stencils around the city are putting on a party tonight. There is a two hour open bar so you can try and stomach a whole bottle of bacardi in an evening and if your lucky you can pick yourself up a free t-shirt as well!
Date: Friday, December 6th Time: 9:00pm Location: Happy Endings (302 Broome Street at Eldridge) Cost: Free Open Bar: Bacardi, 9:00pm - 11:00pm
The crew from the Ad Lib are starting a new bi-weekly down on the LES with some pretty serious residents. Cat from Fannypack, Jayson from the Panthers, and The Vet from The Ad Lib all take the tables inna rock and roll style. $2 jack shots and $3 PBRs take care of your bar tab. If you go, holler at us and let us know how it is.
"It's scary how good the music feels. Join Names You Can Trust DJs Oneman and E's E for their most regular event in local BK. Classic dance and early house, Underground hiphop and funk sample lore, cheap licks, cheat tricks, cheeky hippies 'n freeky hippoe toed beatnicks all under one roof that burns afire - casual atire haaaaa-recomended."
Date: Friday, January 6th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Last Exit Bar (136 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn) Cost: Free
Bouncing back from a Hoolgian Hipsters Gone Wild NYE Party, Cut/Dirty Down is ready to welcome the new year with another party. Tonight at Lit D.D. brings DJ Blair upstairs and downstairs will be Prince Language and The Captain (of Cut). Now in case anyone else was a little confused, let me clairify, Prince Language is actually DJ Language. Oh, and as usual from 12 to 1 you got an open Vodka and Red Bull Bar, but you must ask your friendly bouncer at the door for the spider stamp.
Date: Friday, January 6th Time: 11:00pm - 4:00am Location: Lit, 93 Second Ave Cost: Free
Ahh, nothing like a good old fashioned MulchFest to brighten your weekend. Parks & Recreation invites you to the tenth annual MulchFest this weekend. Bring your holiday tree to a designated City park to be recycled into mulch. The mulch will nourish plantings across the five boroughs. Click here for a list of designated parks for tree drop offs.
Date: Saturday, January 7th and Sunday, January 8th Time: 10:00am - 2:00pm Location:Various City Parks Cost: Free
Directions to reach the Presbyterian Church at 85 S. Oxford St. in Brooklyn
Arrive at the C train stop at Lafayette Ave. The C train runs along the A line so people taking the A into Brooklyn will get off at Jay Street/Boro Hall and take the C two more stops—the church is essentially at the end of the block of the station; It is also possible to take the G to Fulton Street, walk two blocks north from the stop to the church.
I know at this point we have really pounded the idea of the Brooklyn Museum's First Saturday into your heads, but here is a refresher course. If you cross over the East River, living in the shadows of other more popular and well known art museums, you will find the Brooklyn Museum. With 560,000 square feet on its side, and minus the heavy foot traffic that most Manhattan Museums tend to get from tourists, this museum has a lot going for it. Every first Saturday of the month admission is free in the afternoon (thanks to big name corporate sponsorship, but we dont have to talk about that), and there are a slew of events for the whole fam. This month check out the Burtynsky exhibit. Click here for the day's line up.
The Kitchen "is pleased to present the first New York solo exhibition by Walid Raad, titled The Dead Weight of a Quarrel Hangs: Documents from The Atlas Group Archive. The exhibition includes video projections, digital prints, and two performance-lectures, which are all components of the artist’s ongoing venture, The Atlas Group. As the name of both a project and a foundation, The Atlas Group researches and documents the contemporary history of Lebanon, with a particular emphasis both on the wars from 1975 to 1991, and on the consequences of war more broadly on life in cities such as Beirut, New York, Madrid, London, and Baghdad. Presenting a collection of photographic and video documents on subjects as varied as car bombs, horse racing, and captivity, The Atlas Group explores the ways that experiences of violence are formed, represented, and remembered."
Date: Saturday, January 7th Time: 5:00pm - 8:00pm Location: The kitchen, 512 West 19th Cost: Free
Exene Cervenka, of punk band X, showcases her first New York exhibition which opens tonight at DCKT. Over three decades of her journals will be displayed along with song lyrics, photographs, drawings and collages reflecting her career and experiences on the road.
Date: Saturday, January 7th Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm Location:DCKT Gallery (552 West 24th Street) Cost: Free
The Jonathan Levine gallery astounds me once again by opening two fantastic shows in one night. On the one hand you have Subderma, the first solo show by Chris Mars. Here, Mars presents a collection of haunting canvases about social injustice largly influenced by the artist's frequent visits as a young boy to the mental hospital where his sixteen-year-old brother was treated for schizophrenia.
And in the other gallery is Sweet Victory, a solo exhibit of single edition digital prints by Ray Caesar. In Sweet Victory, Caesar continues to push the boundries of the digital canvas. His portraits are provocative, disturbing, beautiful and haunting all at once. Both shows continue through February 4th
Date: Saturday, January 7th Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location:Jonathan Levine Gallery (529 West 20th Street, 9E) Cost: Free
Galapagos Art Space has been bringing the good people of Williamsburg art and music for 8 years now. Tonight in honor of the renewal of the 8-year-old art space's lease, the reopening of their backroom, and the launch of a new high-profile theater series, they venue will hold The First Annual Galapagos Staff Show Off Festival. The show will be packed with music, theater, dance, performance and visual art, all of it created and performed by members of the staff.
"Hosted by comedianne/performance artist Desiree Burch, the evening includes a reading of an original play by Barbara Hammond, a piano piece by John Moran, new dance from Ori Lenkinski, an oscilloscope piece from Ray Sweeten, art installations by Max Jones and Bryan A. Moore, video installation by Katja Loher, plus performances from the bands R.U.O.K., Afrofunk Massive, Pal Secam, Electric Lights, The Family Cave, and The Feel It Hards (a side project of The Fabulous Entourage)."
Date: Saturday, December 7th Time: 7:00pm Location: Galapagos, 70 N 6th St., W'burg Cost: Free Open Bar: Free X-Rated Brand Vodka at somepoint
"The Studio Visit features the work of over 160 national and international artists who were invited to create a short video on the subject of their workspace. This exhibition reveals an intimate look at how artists perceive the studio. The works will be presented as projections and on single channel monitors throughout the gallery." Continues through January 28th
Date: Saturday, January 7th Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Exit Art (475 Tenth Ave) Cost: Free
I suck at pool, and I mean really, really suck. Numerous people have tried to teach me, and it just dont work. I get the geometry factor and the rules, but I just cant make the ball go in the hole. But I know that some of you really enjoy it. So tonight, rather than just playing pool, how 'bout you play pool and listen to Anthony Molinaof Mercury Rev spin a set at Corner Billiards Bar.
Date: Saturday, January 7th Time: 9:00pm - 1:00am Location: Corner Billiards Bar, 110 East 11th, btw 3rd and 4th Cost: Free, no cover to get into the bar, but I'm sure playing pool will cost ya
Sadly, the Williamsburg staple I have come to know and love is calling it quits tonight to - like Teany - regroup for a new plan of attack. Come out and shed a tear for the boys from AllDisco as they spend one last night tearing up Williamsburg local Capone's. Free Pizza as always.
Date: Saturday, January 7th Time: 10:00pm Location: Capone's (221 N 9th between Roebling and Driggs, Williamsburg) Cost: Free
You know all those old cell phones and computers you have laying around... well, they have toxic chemicals in them. SO, rather than tossing htem in a dumpster in hopes that some diver will fish them out, bring them to the Lower East Side Ecology Center's electronics collection station. Computer parts, TVs, cell phones, all will be recycled and disposed of in an environmental manner.
Date: Sunday, January 8th Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm Location: Union Square Park North Cost: Free
Ahh, nothing like a good old fashioned MulchFest to brighten your weekend. Parks & Recreation invites you to the tenth annual MulchFest this weekend. Bring your holiday tree to a designated City park to be recycled into mulch. The mulch will nourish plantings across the five boroughs. Click here for a list of designated parks for tree drop offs.
Date: Saturday, January 7th and Sunday, January 8th Time: 10:00am - 2:00pm Location:Various City Parks Cost: Free
Some people draw on walls, some people paint on canvas, some people take pictures and some people... well... some people build micro-museums of "computer and voice driven kinetic sculpture, sound, and viewer-manipulated virtual zooarium(s) of imaginary life forms." Enter Mikon, an ever expanding exhibition of visitor manipulated sculture and installation. The exhibition light, sound, and form to create their etherial, inflatable garden. "Parents, children, and infants welcome."
Date: Sunday, January 8th Time: 12:00pm - 6:00pm Location:Collective Unconscious (279 Church Street at White Street) Cost: $5 (free if you bring a functioning back massager)
In 2005 21 people died riding bikes on the streets of the 5 boroughs. Today, pick up your bike and take part in The Memorial Bike Ride. Today at 1pm rides will leave from 5 places in the Bronx, Queens, East Brooklyn, South Brooklyn and Staten Island. Each rides "to various fatality sites, holding mini-memorials, riding and hooking up with other groups until they all come together in the city and put up a ghost bike for the 10 Unnamed Bikers (we only have info on 11 of the 21 bikers who died)." Check out the link above for further details on the event.
Date: Sunday January 8th Time: 1:00pm Location: Various Cost: Free
If you have been keeping up with the news in NYC lately, I'm sure you have heard about the city's new crack down on graffiti. Well Blade here has been gettin' up on the city's walls for some time now and has a solo show opening today at the historical New York Mercantile Exchange building. The show will be up until February 3rd.
Date: Monday, January 9th Time: viewing available weekdays 9:00am - 5:00pm Location: New York Mercantile Exchange - World Financial Center, 1 North End Ave Cost: Free
"This exhibition examines interiors, furniture, graphics, fashion & illustration produced in NYC between 1974 -1984, a period in which downtown artists, musicians, playwrights & designers created some of the most avant-garde work produced in America during the last century. This period was a time of anxiety & uncertainty in NYC. It was also a time of unprecedented creativity, marked by the birth of Punk, both as a style & a form of music; the rise of fashion designers such as Patricia Field, Stephen Sprouse, & Betsy Johnson; & a movement toward industrial austerity in interior & graphic design, as practiced by designers such as Massimo & Lella Vignelli." Continues through April 2nd.
Date: Monday, January 9th Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Parsons (66 Fifth Ave.) Cost: Free
The Downtown Show opens tonight and is a retrospective of the legendary New York art scene of the '70s and early '80s.
Make sure you go and check out the art by legends like Basquiat, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Cindy Sherman that made downtown New York so cool.
Date: Monday, January 9th Time: 6:00pm Location: Grey Art Gallery, 100 Washington Square East Cost: Free
The Williamsburg spelling bee 2006 starts tonight is open for all with a chance to qualify for the grand final where cash prizes will be up for grabs. The evening will be hosted by burlesque star the World Famous Bob.
Date: Monday, January 9th Time: 7:00pm to sign up, games begin at 7:30pm Location: Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg Cost: Free
If your wanting to get a little party tonight, Sway is the way to go. DJ Ayers and JD will be there to celebrate the release of their new album Houston For Dummies.
Listen to Houston For Dummies here.
Date: Monday, January 9th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Sway, 305 Spring St Cost: Free
Chris Annibell, the man behind the monthly Afrokinetic parties, teams up with Qool DJ Marv and OBaH tonight for a free weekly party at Sin Sin. Think world rhythm inspired hip hop with (most likely) some funk thrown in for good measure.
Date: Monday, January 9th Time: 10:00pm – 3:00am Location: Sin Sin (corner of 5th Street and 2nd Ave) Cost: Free, classic hiphop + world rhythms
In case your keeping track lets add the following items to the list of things that FreeNYC loves... cheap maragritas, tacos and beer. So it looks like Taco Tuesday at Luke & Leroy is totally the way to go. You got $3 Margaritas, $10 Pitchers Margaritas, $3 Beer, and $1 Tacos (beef & veggie).
Date: Tuesday, January 10th Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Luke & Leroy, 21 7th Ave Cost: Free to get in, and cheep food and tacos
In the spirit of the Sunday night Share weeklies, DJ Shakey and Moldover are hosting Warper, a community digital performance and "jam session" dedicated to the use of Ableton Live software. In brief, Ableton Live is DJ/producer software that lets you multitrack samples and mix them live in real time. It has been changing the way big shots like Sasha DJ for the past few years by allowing them to built songs on the fly and mix between them seemlessly. Notable at tonight event is a sort of live / digital jam between Saturday Night Live drummer Shawn Pelton an dDave Hill Jr. Shakeyface, Moldover, and Unjust round out the night. Also notable is he space will be divided into a main area where guests can groove to the music of the scheduled performers and a quieter area for laptop users to interact. In this area power strips and tables can be found and Q&A with visiting artists can take place. Bring your own gear.
Date: Tuesday, January 10th Time: 8:00pm - 2:00am Location: Botanica Bar (437 East Houston between Mott and Mulberry) Cost: Free
This is the second listing at Happy Valley today (which either someone has their flyer mixed up or they are doing parties on both floors). Either way, tonight is the release party for Uppers and Downers magazine. Complimentary Becks Premier Light 9-10pm and I am sure some DJ of sorts.
Date: Tuesday, January 10th Time: 9:00pm
Location: Happy Valley (14 East 27th Street between 5th and Madison) Cost: Free with RSVP Open Bar: Becks Light, 9 - 10
It's time for me to convince you to go to Opus 22 again tonight. Of course, with Ge-Ology and Wajeed (Platinum Pied Pipers) on the tables, any true school hip hop kid is going to know that this is the spot to be. Oh, and any open bar superstar will be down with the free vodka. DJ Spam (APT bartender) holds down the guest spot so lets see if he can make beats as well as he makes drinks. [source: WUNY]
Date: Tuesday, January 10th Time: 10:00pm Location: Opus 22 (Corner of West 22nd St and 11th Ave) Cost: Free Open Bar: Vodka, 10-11
Morphine Gen, the fashion brand that is trying hard to make the popped polo collar look cool (and doing a pretty good job of it) are releasing a denim line. This, of course, is cause for celebration in a venue which sports a giant crotch and cages for women to dance in. It also sports (what I can only assume are free) "tropical drinks and filthy party action." Maybe this joint is not so bad on a Tuesday. You'll never find out if you don't go. [found on Sh*tparade]
Date: Tuesday, January 10th Time: 10:30pm - 1:00am Location: Happy Valley (14 East 27th Street between 5th and Madison) Cost: Free with RSVP Open Bar: looks like Bacardi and Finlandia... no promises
It's a new high (or new low depending on your perspective) for the Shit Hammered crew, tonight is Tampon Tuesdays with free tampon shots. Expect the usual sweaty, sultry, hipsters dancing it out to a full array of tunes from the Misfits to Blondie.
Date: Tuesday, January 10th Time: 10:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome Street at Forsyh & Eldrige) Cost: Free Open Bar: Vodka tampon shots 10:30-11:30
The Corduroy Appreciation Club is a club for people who... well... like corduroy. And seeing how the date 1|11 is visually similar to corduroy its a great date to have a meeting. Tonight will features a "performance from Late Night With Conan O’Brien’s very funny corduroy appreciator Brian McCann, AKA Raisin, Club Business—mission, handshakes, corduroy cocktails, Corduroy Correspondences, a (fun & fast) art historical analysis of Corduroy inspired art from a Whitney Museum guide and art historian, Corduroy Verse, Awards for Exemplary Usage of Corduroy and an open Corduroy Forum" There is a two drink minimum but how often do you come across an entire evening dedicated to corduroy. Oh, and you must wear two pieces of corduroy clothing so that means pants and... um... ur... socks?
Date: Wednesday, January 11th
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: The Dove Parlor (228 Thompson Street between Bleecker and West 3rd)
Cost: Free with RSVP
"Since January 2003, Keith Price, host, producer, and booker of the lavender laugh festival, continues to present the best and brightest comedians currently working today [at the Starlight Revue]. Comedians who appear regularly at Starlight have been seen on Comedy Central, HBO... [and] David Letterman. Performers scheduled to appear are Michelle Buteau, Michael Brill, Blanca Dominguez, Julie Goldman, and Damion Sammarco."
Date: Wednesday January 11th Time: 9:00pm - 12:00am Location: Starlight Bar and Lounge (167 Ave A, between 10th and 11th) Cost: Free Open Bar: unknown, 9 - 10
MaxiMal is back with another techno invasion. This week features live PA from Acid Tech-House producer Mark Verbos and Brooklyn Bass-freaker Samuel Kirkland as well as a DJ set from NYC fixture Prozac. 2 for 1 drinks before midnight.
"The Jenny Vaudeville Show is a free audience-participation variety show of comedy, sensationalism, music, contests, and geekery featuring Zeroboy (the human sound-effects man!), Musical comedy by Rachael Parenta, Ventriloquism by Carla Rhodes, Special musical guest The Two Man Gentlemen Band, Blockhead ettiquite lessons and topless glasswalking by the beautiful and deadly Pyrate Sisters. Plus, as always. prizes for audience-participation contests in trivia, math tricks, and 'guess the author.'"
Date: Wednesday January 11th Time: 10:00pm Location: Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer St., Williamsburg) Cost: Free
If you need a reason to hit up the Bang! party then just check out some photos from last weeks party. 'nuff said. Houston Bernard spins tonight and $2 Svedka drinks from 10-12 get you going.
Date: Wednesday, January 11th Time: 10:00pm Location: Beauty Bar (231 East 14th St. at 3rd Ave) Cost: Free
Seems that the boys over at MyOpenBar are getting a bit sophisticated these days. In their latest party installment, they are teaming up with Beaujolais wine for a wine, olive oil, and Hors D'Oeuvres after work event. This is a refreshing take from the usual drunken hooligan activity going on these days so I say don the blazer and pass it off as a cheap date. Get their early for goodie bags and make sure you RSVP by January 11th
Date: Thursday, January 12th Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Summers (49 Clinton Street between Rivington and Stanton) Cost: Free with RSVP by 1/11 Open Bar: Beaujolais Wine, 6-9
"Fabian Tejada proudly presents his most recent installation work 'Sessions,' a three-channel Audio/Video installation featuring motion studies of Juilliard dancers, in segmented repetition, each movement representing a drum pattern. The choreography becomes a visual representation of the sound loops composed for the project."
Date: Thursday, January 12 Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm. Location: Visual Arts Gallery (601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor) Cost: Free
European Grafitti artist TILT, who has done some amazing work with personal hero FAFI, is the latest in a long line to get down with Kidrobot's Dunny project. Tonight is a rare chance to meet the man as he signs his latest pieces in the store.
Date: Thursday, January 12th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Kidrobot (126 Prince Street) Cost: Free
I am a beer guy. Not in the "Budweiser and Levi's" kind of way but in the "tasty microbrewed goodness" way. So when Stone Brewery, one of my favorite west coast breweries, is setting up shop at Mugs, one of my favorite Brooklyn beer bars, I get excited. The Stone crew will be on hand tonight with some special rare kegs for tasting including their 7th Anniversary Ale and an oaked cask of personal favorite "Arrogant Bastard Ale" which some feel was named after me. No free beer here but some rare tasty brews.
Date: Thursday, January 12th Time: ???, evening Location:Mugs Ale House (125 Bedford at North 10th, Williamsburg) Cost: Free to enter
Tonight Deitch hosts the grand opening of its latest exhibition of video, sculpture and performance by Bec Stupak. Her installations are inspired by cult 1940s B movies and use costume, sculpture and light to create a sense of euphoria.
Date: Thursday, January 12th Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Deitch, 76 Grand Street Cost: Free
The top four festival films from Season One of the Haydenfilms Online Film Festival, a national open short film competition, will be screened tonight along with a Q & A with the filmmakers. One lucky filmaker will even go home with a $10,000 grand prize. You can check out all four films online but you have to register for free on the site.
Date: Thursday, January 12th Time: 8:00pm Location: DGA Theater (110 West 57th betwen 6th and 7th) Cost: Free
Auroville is an "immersive music and visual environment by nick hallett and seth kirby documenting the experiment in human unity and spirituality existing in india since 1968" From the flyer (above) it looks like some sort of indoor garden of non-specific spirituality to ease your soul into the new year. I am going with free on this one because it's art and art is free unless you want to own it. Looks like a good alternative this evening.
Date: Thursday, January 12th Time: 9:00pm Location: Secret Project Robot (210 Kent at Metropolitain, Williamsburg) Cost: Free
There is all sorts of art happeneing this weekend. And while I like art, maybe you have noticed that I have a limited vocabulary in which to describe it, thus, it's press release time...
"For his third exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, German photographer Juergen Teller presents a major new body of work entitled Nrnberg. The exhibition is an emotional panorama that draws on personal history, both new and old. It is a celebration of family and an investigation of the past, in private and public terms, as represented by the city of Nuremberg."
Date: Friday, January 13th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 540 West 26th Cost: Free
Too Art For TV is totally too cool for school. The Stay Gold Gallery has brought in the animated and painted works of 24 artists from 10 different animation studios around the city. Too Art for TV is a multimedia peek into the animated minds who have long been in demand but also repressed by television’s corporate ideals.
"Artists in the industry must be the best draftsmen and painters that art schools produce, yet their careers leave little time for individual creativity. 'Too Art for TV!' pools together the toys, prints, drawings, paintings, and comics of a talented workforce breaking free. Featuring the artists that bring to life beloved cartoons such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Fox Network), Code Name: Kids Next Door (Cartoon Network), Stanley (Disney TV), Venture Brothers (Adult Swim), Daria (MTV Animation), Blue's Clues (Nick JR), and more. Join Stay Gold and proclaim their first show of the year 'Too Art for TV!'"
Tonight is the opening, but the show will run through February 13th.
Date: Friday, January 13th Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Stay Gold Gallery, 451 Grand Street, W'burg Cost: Free
Another group exhibit at FreeNYC favorite, Riviera, featuring Julie Benoit, KC Collins, Rob Erickson,Cara Ober, and Travis Pack. "Hopes. Dreams. Wishes. You can't pretend to know what a person was thinking from looking at their art, but if you are moved, something is stirred. Is this a common unuttered hope? Schemes. Plans. Our clumsy attempts to coexist in this world occasionally yield a grace and charm that shortens the distance between dreams and plans. What connects KC's homesteads, Cara and Julie's conversation, Rob's icons of freedom and Travis's stories of stories? And will it reassure us that hopes and schemes occasionally can converge?""
Tonight a collaborative exhibition by Seen and Tristan Eaton opens at The Showroom. It is worth checking out the creative direction of the exhibition as Seen is from a bygone generation subway painters and today both artists receive high recognition as toy designers.
Date: Friday, January 13th Time: 7:00pm to 11:00pm Location: The Showroom, 117 Second Ave, 2nd Floor Cost: Free
DJ Steve Aoki Kid Millionaire, owner of Dim Mak records, brother of Devin Aoki and all around rich kid, mans the tables alongside DJ Junior Sanchez and DJ Elhaam to set the hipsters into a whirl. Free Sparks gets you fired up!!
Date: Friday, January 13th Time: 10:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome between Eldridge and Forsythe) Cost: Free Open Bar: Sparks, 10-11
Love parade continues this week at FreeNYC fav, Fontana's. Tonight the Bangers invade the basement with their mix of promtastic hip-hop and 80's/early 90's jams. They are creepily infectious. It's all about the rock djs upstairs. $2 shots of Jack and $3 PBR make your drink decisions easy.
Date: Friday, January 13th Time: 10:00pm Location: Fontana's (105 Eldridge between Broome and Grand) Cost: Free
Come party tonight with Black Label DJs: Dr. Dirty Fruitbag, Stachemassacre, Porque Choppe. Plus a live performance by Signore Andersonico. Unless your face masked your not aloud in! So start getting creative.
Date: Friday, January 13th Time: 10:00pm Location: Wreck Room, 940 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn Cost: Free but you need a mask
Another Friday night Dirty Down party from the boys at Cut over at Lit. Tonights line up is Japanster upstairs and downstairs DJ's Caps & Jones and The Captain. And by now you shold know the drill, from 11 to 12 there is open sparks, but I'm pretty sure you still have to ask for the spider stamp from the door guy. Plus, I hear the big jump off is coming up in a couple weeks for The Captain's birthday, stay tuned for further details!
Date: Friday, January 13th Time: 11:00pm - 4:00am Location: Lit, 93 2nd Ave Cost: Free Open Bar: Sparks, 11-12
"Beginning January 14, 2006, the James Cohan Gallery will present an exhibition devoted to new work by sculptor Roxy Paine. The exhibition runs through February 25.
In his new work, the artist mirrors natural processes themselves, drawing increasingly on the tension between the organic and the built environment, between the human desire for order and nature’s drive to reproduce. As Steven Henry Madoff noted in The New York Times, Paine creates work in which 'the pastoral and the processed bump heads with dizzying force.'"
Date: Saturday, January 14th Time: 10:00am - 6:00pm Location: James Cohan Gallery, 533 W. 26th St. Cost: Free
School Days presents "a group exhibition of paintings, sculpture and video by 19 promising young artists culled from the top MFA programs on the East Coast. Representing the best of the graduate programs at Hunter, Yale, and Columbia, “School Days” artists come from a diversity of ethnic backgrounds and work in a wide range of mediums, while half of the artists represented are women."
Date: Saturday, January 14th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Jack Tilton Gallery (8 East 76th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues) Cost: Free
Yo don't be scurred! A couple zombies never really hurt anybody... uh ok well maybe they did. Either way stop by the MF Gallery tonight for opening of the Zombie Art Show. The zombie art comes to you courtesy of Martina Secondo, Frank Russo, Mike Machin, Jeff Gaither, David Brockie, Putrid, James Wrona, Johnny Crap, Joe Simko, Lawrence Van Abeema, Lauren Utter, Dennis Dread, Jake Karns, Drew Maillard, Jeff Zornow and More. Plus drinks by Zygo Vodka and Anheuser Busch and an all Heavy Metal soundtrack, including live performances.
What better way to fight the Subway Strike blues then with a a celebration of the 25th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska. Big names like Vernon Reid, Martha Wainwright and Dan Zanes take the stage for this evening of tribute and reinterpretation.
Tonight the glamorous Justine d (motherfucker, aktion) is the guest dj at the Glammit party for the New York Dolls “All Dolled Up” DVD release. Expect rock’n’roll, punk, glam and best of all New York Dolls give-aways!
Date: Saturday, January 14th Time: 10:00pm Location: RiFiFi, 332 East 11th Street Cost: Free
Tiswas is back and looking better than ever! With no cover for tonight only due to the venue change, Manchester boys The Longcut playing live and Mani (Primal Scream/Stone Roses) djing.
Note the ignore venue and cover charge on the flyer.
Date: Saturday, January 14th Time: 10:00pm Location: Hiro Ballroom, Maritime Hotel, 363 West 16th Street Cost: Free
Part two of A-List Events looks like it will be as hot as the first one, maybe even better as there will be no work to wake up for the next day! Check it out for lots of dj's and a select open bar between 10:00pm and 12:00am.
Date: Saturday, January 14th Time: 10:00pm Location: Supreme Trading Gallery, 213 N 8th Street, Brooklyn Cost: Free with RSVP
VinylConnect is celebrating the launch of their new website BoundlessNY.com with a little launch party. On the bill are two names that frequent FreeNYC posts DJs Synapse and Gravy. And something else that frequents the posts of FreeNYC, free beer from 11 to 12!
Date: Saturday, January 14th Time: 11:00pm - 4:00am Location: Galapagos, 70 N.6th St, W'burg Cost: Free Open Bar: Magic Hat 11:00pm - 12:00am
Since its beeen like 60 degrees outside all week (I may be one of like 5 people who are actually sad that its warm) you should spend MLK weekend in the park. There are special skating hours at the Wollman Rink, Quilts making to recognize the great contributions made by African Americans, Guest speakers on Environmental, Nature Crafts for the kids, and some discover tours through the park. Click here for more info and the full days schedule.
Date: Sunday, January 15th Time: varrying activities from 10:00am - 6:00pm Location: Prospect Park, Brooklyn Cost: Free
Explore Central Park this afternoon with this free walking tour where you will see a hidden bench that tells time, miniature boats powered by the wind and a drinking fountain for the city’s equine population. Hopefully the weather will hold out!
Date: Sunday, January 15th Time: 2:00pm to 3:00pm Location: Meet at Fifth Ave and East 72nd Street at the statue of Samuel F.B. Morse Cost: Free
Every Sunday, Bar Rio plays a double movie feature with free popcorn to munch on. This week there is a music theme with Wilco: I am Trying to Break Your Heart (6:30) and This is Spinal Tap (8:30). Nice way to ease into the work week.
Date: Sunday, January 15th Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm Location: Bar Rio (559 Broome Street) Cost: Free
In an alltime hip hop sell out move, Reverand Run has managed to get down with both MTV and KTU in the same night. Of course, for plastic swank tourist trap China Club, this is the best effort we have seen them make in years. It's new school vs. old school with host Rev Run, a live performance by club diva Nina Sky, and a live KTU broadcast by Vic Latino! Free before 11 and overpriced after that. This event is either exactly where you want to be tonight or will make you want to run and hide. Only you can be the judge.
Date: Sunday, January 15th Time: 10:00pm Location: China Club (268 West 47th Street bet Broadway & 8th) Cost: Free before 11 with RSVP (ladies free before 12), $15 after.
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.
So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"
- "I Have a Dream" by Dr. Martin Luther King. Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968
If you have turned on the news, read a newspaper, or walked to down the street lately, it is painfully obvious that neither in this country or the world at large have we reached Martin Luther King Jr's dream where people are "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." I know most of us use today for an extra day of rest and relaxation, but if you are looking for a peice of the Dream today head over to BAM and join BK Borough Present Marty Markowitz as he welcomes Dr. Carolyn Goodwin and Fannie Lee Chaney - mothers of slain Missisippi civil rights activists Andrew Goodman and James Chaney - along with Gwen Ifill - Senior Correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer - to Brooklyn's iconic BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Raul Midón and The Imani Singers of Medgar Evers College provide the soundtrack. Additionally, there is a screening of Standing on My Sister's Shoulders which will be preceded by a work-in-progress screening of the documentary Neshoba, introduced by director Tony Pagano (Micki Dickoff co-directed) at the BAM Rose Cinemas (1:30pm). Seating is first come, first served.
Date: Monday, January 16th Time: 10:30am Location: BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn Cost: Free
Today stop in and honor DR. King, Civil Rights and The Hip Hop Generation. A celebration of the Life and Times of Dr. Martin Luther King, featuring a keynote address by writer and activist, Kevin Powell. Jacque Reid will be the Mistress of Ceremonies, with musical director DJ Reborn and a special performance by vocalist Shannone Holt.
Date: Monday, January 16th Time: 12:00pm Location: Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church, 15 Hanson Pl. btw. Ashland and St. Felix in downtown Brooklyn Cost: Free
"Ricky Swallow leads a talk on his new exhibition in P.S.1’s galleries. Renowned for their basis in personal memory and pop iconography, Swallow’s wood sculptures bridge the gap between monumentality and the everyday, between tradition and disposability. His recent work focuses on themes at the heart of this exercise: the passage of time, (im)mortality, evolution, and survival. Curated by Klaus Biesenbach, the works on view at P.S.1 have been selected from Swallow’s exhibition at the Biennale Venezia in 2005, where he represented the Australian Pavilion."
Date: Monday, January 16th Time: 6:00pm Location: PS1 Cost: Free
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Communal Birthday Celebration
Join Jewish African-American Grammy-nominated gospel singer Joshua Nelson, The New York City Interdenominational Gospel Choir, and the Hazamir International Jewish High School Choir in this tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King's commitment to bringing together people of diverse backgrounds. Notable guests include Carolyn Goodman – mother of Andrew Goodman – one of the three civil rights workers killed in Mississippi in 1964 and Howard Dodson, Director at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Limited seating.
Project Matt is teaming with WESC to launch their travel guide. Grab a free copy of their take on globe trotting while getting down to the beats of NWA (Ninjas with Awesome), DJ Judah, and DJ Yamez along with a two hour open bar.
Date: Monday, January 16th Time: 10:00pm Location: Fat Baby (112 Rivington between Essex and Ludlow) Cost: Free with RSVP Open Bar: Bacardi, 10:00pm - 12:00am
It's time once again from the Re:Up boys to show you just how much they love their new home of NYC. Tonight FreeNYC is getting down with their issue release party which features hip-hop/funk/soul DJs Fort Knox Five along with our local friends Shakeyface and Six8. This is also Shakeyface's album release party so he is sure to dig deep into the black crack bag and spit out some serious records. Upstairs is Shakey's 45 Record Fair which is a combo record selling fair and party. Free Brahma beer gets you going and this promises to be a serious party all night long. Highly Recommended dispite the cover.
DV Store Opening w/ Nikki Van Pelt and The Bangers
DV, an new store in the LES, is having a store opening party tonight with paintings by Nikki Van Pelt and music by FreeNYC favs The Bangers. That's all I have for you.
Date: Tuesday, January 17th Time: 7:00pm - 11:00pm Location: DV (149 Ludlow Street between Stanton and Rivington) Cost: Free with RSVP
It's another Project Trade Show afterparty with Melting Pot stepping in on the Taco Tuesday weekly. Get strong drinks and $1 tacos at this perfect afterwork/aftershow jump off before you head over to APT tonight!
Date: Tuesday January 17th Time: 7:00pm Location: Luke & Leroy (21 Seventh Ave South on the corner of Leroy) Cost: Free
Douglas Rushkoff, author of semial raver classics such as Ecstacy Club and Club Zero-G, reads from his latest novel, Get Back in the Box, tonight. This work is a far cry from the later, as it deals with business models and company/client relations.
Date: Tuesday January 17th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes and Noble (675 6th Avenue) Cost: Free
"It's a record fair...no, it's a party, it's a record fair AND a party!" This fair takes place a few times a year with vendors selling all kinds of music including punk, techno, experimental, latin, club, rap, rock, house, jungle, reggae, as well as music related merchandise. Best of all there will be drink specials, contests, and Dj sets from notable record collectors.
Date: Tuesday, January 17th Time: 8:00pm Location: APT upstairs, 419 W. 13th Street Cost: Free
DK aka BollygirlNYC is back with another Avaaz party. In the tradition of Kollektiv and Basement Bhangra (although unique all unto itself) this is a rediculous get down to break, tablas, bhangra beats, bollywood rhythms, and more. tonight is extra special as DK is going to rock a live DJ + EFX set along side Mista.Cenzo on the keys, Sangeeta on the vocals, and Dimm Summer on the tables. Total next level. They are joined by 2 live sets from The Sunny Jain Collective, an indo inspired jazz collective. No free drinks but this one will go off. Highly Recommended.
After work stop by the opening for Reconstructing Photography "a group exhibition of work by current students from the BFA and MFA Fine Arts Departments, MFA Computer Art Department, BFA Graphic Design Department and BFA Photography Department.
Experimental in nature, the works in this exhibition literally deconstruct, reconstruct and question the role of photography in today's art world. Curated by Richard Brooks, SVA's assistant director of student galleries, the artists included are: Anita Eberhard, Koji Kakubari, Ilias Koen, Sho Ma and Ricky Sears." The show opens today and will run through February 11th.
Date: Wednesday, January 18th Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Location: Westside Gallery, 141 West 21 Street Cost: Free
My relationship with religion is ever-changing and a little volitile. But one thing I know for sure is there is a ton to be learned on the subject and important concepts to be taken away from each. The Interdependence Project is working on educating the public on issues relvant to Buddism and meditation in the 21st century. "Unfortunately, the Buddha never taught a sutra called 'How to Practice Compassion in The Age of Multinational Capitalism.' No ancient Indian meditator tried to be mindful while sending a text message. No nun in a Tibetan monastery had to learn loving-kindness while being bombarded 24/7 by ads constructed to undermine her self-esteem." If these are things you ponder about as well, you may want to check out their lecture tonight.
Date: Wednesday, January 18th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Lila Yoga and Dharma Center, 302 Bowery Buzzer #2 Cost: Free
In the Flesh "is a new monthly reading series held the third Wednesday of every month at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Future themed nights include fetishes, GLBT stories, true confessions and erotic memoirs."
Tonight, listen to the lustfull words of romance novelist Edith Layton (Gypsy Lover), fiction writer Danyel Smith (Bliss), and erotic storytellers Iris N. Schwartz (Stirring Up a Storm) and Rob Stephenson (Best Gay Erotica), along with a naughty tale from host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Also, free candy and erotic book door prizes! Honestly, free candy and erotic reading material, I'm totally going!
Date: Wednesaday, January 18th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending, 302 Broome St Cost: Free
Check out the SubTonic lounge tonight for their "weekly night of esoteric urban noise," which apprently means grime, breakcore, reggaeton, rap, crunk, dancehall, punk and everything in between. Resident DJs Criterion, Peter Gunn and Reaganomics are joined by FreeNYC favorite Drop The Lime (above) and DTL & Mathhead doing a tagteam DJ set dropping, Grime, ghettotech, baltimore club, and dubstep. If your looking for some booty shakin music on hump day, this is probably the way to go.
Date: Wednesday, January 18th Time: 8:30pm - Late Location: SubTonic Lounge at Tonic, 107 Norfolk St. Cost: Free
Philth-Y Presents: Battle of the Blogosphere - Fluxblog vs Stereogum II
When I hear Philth-y, I tend to think of parts of my home town. But tonight, Philth-y means "two of the most heralded and trend setting music blogs in the world will duke it out behind the decks" for a monthly get down at Luke & Leroy. Fluxblog.org is a pioneer of the mp3 blog movement, and Stereogum.com has been named Best Music Blog by a gazillion mags, and can boast about its 500,000 unique visitors a month who come to read about music and pop culture. The two will be pretty evenly matched in their head to head DJ battle. And just to make it interesting there will be drink specials, sneaker, clothing and skate deck giveaways.
Date: Wednesday, January 18th Time: 9:00pm Location: Luke and Leroy, 21 7th Ave South Cost: Free
Kingsize is known as a DJ hangout, the kind of place that DJ's go to be seen as DJ's that go out not to be seen. All that aside, the soundsystem is pretty tight and the space is inviting. Tonight they rock a weekly open vodka bar. Expect hip hop of some sort. [found on myopenbar.com]
Date: Wednesday, January 18th Time: 10:00pm Location: Kingsize (21 Essex St., btw. Hester and Canal ) Cost: Free Open Bar: Vodka, 10 - 11
It's Bang time again. You know the drill.. .this is the last Bang! for a few weeks so enjoy it now before the weather turns cold again and you run back indoors. some sort of Svedka special until midnight.
Date: Wednesday, January 18th Time: 10:00pm Location: Beauty Bar (231 East 14th at 3rd Ave) Cost: Free
For the last few weeks, we have been broadcasting a podcast radio station featuring our favorite DJs from NYC exclusively for our newsletter readers. We thought it was really important to let you all in on the sounds of Shakeyface, Dave Q, Cosmo Baker and more even if you have not been able to make it out to their parties. Well, things are now running stable enough for us to share with the rest of the site. If you are unfamiliar with podcasting (easy with iTunes) then you can click here to listen with our pop-up player. But we really suggest that you subscribe to the podcast as most podcasts are only online for a week or so. Directions after the Jump.
As part of their Martin Luther King Day celebration,BAM is presenting a photography exhibition documenting the history of black music. Artist include Salimah Ali, Anthony Barboza, Mark L. Blackshear, Spencer Anthony Burnett, Adger W. Cowans, Gerald Cyrus, June DeLairre, Collette Fournier, Russell K. Frederick, Wayne Lawrence, Herb Robinson, Radcliffe Roye, Jamel Shabazz, Ming Smith and Frank Stewart.
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: BAM, Natman Room at the Peter J. Sharp Building (click for directions) Cost: Free
You may know South African artist William Kentridge for his humanistic charcoal drawings animations. Or, you may know him from his paintings of workers in the PS1 staircases. Or, you may not know him at all (which is a shame). Regardless, tonight is a great opportunity to get reaquanted as he presents his adaptation of Mozart's Magic Flute. On hand will be over 50 working drawings and projections create for the piece. Also on hand is a preparatory theatre-in-miniature which incorporates projections and sound as a study for Black Box/Chambre Noir (now at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin). The show continues through February 25th.
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location:Marian Goodman Gallery (24 W 57th St, 4th Fl) Cost: Free
STRAPPED: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead
Usually I just dismiss book lectures because there are thousands of them every day but this one caught my attention because I think it really speaks to the FreeNYC reader... "As Tamara Draut [in her new book Strapped] explains, getting ahead is getting harder. A college degree is the new high school diploma--but it now costs a fortune to get that degree and students graduate with crippling debts. Good jobs are scarcer thanks to stagnant wages and disappearing benefits. And, the cost of everything--starter homes, health coverage, childcare--keeps going up and up. Budding families, even those with two incomes, struggle to pay the bills, while Visa and Mastercard have become the new safety net. Young adults are starting out behind the financial eight ball--borrowing their way into adulthood and wondering whatever happened to the American Dream."
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 6:30pm - 8:05pm Location:Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway, Second Floor Cost: Free
If electro rock is your thing check out this free, all ages, Femme Fatality show tonight at the Knitting Factory. Joining them will be Tiger City, Miss Fairchild and a DJ set by Chubby Cox.
In keeping with the issue release theme, Trace brings an impressive offering for the release of their Destination Jamaica issue. Elephant Man of Jook Gal fame brings the dancehall ruckus while it appears that Bacardi Coco brings a tropical vibe to the bar. (note: no promises on free booze although the logo is on the flyer as there is no direct mention). RSVP a must.
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 8:00pm - 11:00pm Location: PM (50 Gansevoort St at Greenwich St) Cost: Free with RSVP Open Bar: Bacardi Coco, maybe?
Last Call for Submissions is a party for the brewery's upcoming film contests (we assume). As long as they keep feeding us free tasty BK Lager then we are all good on this one. Big shout out to the boys (and girl) at myopenbar once again for pulling this info out of thin air. Lets do it up kids.
Date: Thurday, January 19th Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Brooklyn Brewery (79 North 11th St) Cost: Free Open Bar: Brooklyn Lager, 8-10
Head down to Fat Baby tonight, they not only have a wicked dj line up including Tyler (LCD Soundsystem!!) and Justin (DFA) but you can get in on We Are Scientists 'With Love And Squalor' giveaways! Arrive early to make the most of the happy hour from 7:00 to 9:00pm! ($3 well, $5 bottled and draft beer!)
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 8pm - 4am Location: Fat Baby, 112 Rivington Street Cost: Free
Jason Flores-Williams wrote about this event, stating "I've gotten together this event because I wanted to feature writers of our generation who actually have engaged in this dark time. This is going to be an intense gig." If your looking to hear what some current political writters have to say on the current state of affiars in this not so easy of times, drop by the upstairs lounge tonight at Mo Pitkins. Jason Flores-Williams, RNC protest organizer, former High Times political writer, reads from At The Crossroads, his first novel since the cult hit LastStand of Mr. America. Ted Hamm, founding editor of the Brooklyn Rail reads some of his new work and Dave Enders, last American journalist to enter Fallujah unembedded, reads from his new book, Baghdad Bulletin.
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 9:30pm Location: Mo Pitkins, 34 Avenue A Cost: Free
Still in the wake of their killer throw down last month, the Digging Deeper monthly continues this week as the boys from Bastard Jazz welcome FreeNYC Fav Shakeyface to the tables. If you missed his release party at APT on Tuesday then here is a great chance to check him out for free alongside equally enjoyable Bastard Jazz residents Sema4 and Paul Digs. If you are yet to take in this night of jazzy dance and dubby funk rhythems tonight is the night. Half price Coronas until mindnight. Highly Recommended.
Vapors mag is getting down wiith Pete Rock, D. Smith, and a crew of others tonight for their issue release party. No open bar but expect the usual Joe's Pub Hipster hip-hop crew in the house who always bring a good time. Judging by our last few attempts to hit up Joes, expect drama at the door.
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 11:00pm Location: Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette St. between 4th and Astor) Cost: Free with RSVP
I just have to start this off by saying I LOVE THIS! Last night I was having a discussion about how watching VH1 can help you win the Trival Pursuit Pop Culture edition. Now it seems just living in Williamsburg and doing "hipster" things can help you win games too. Tonight Galapagos hosts Hipster Feud, All questions will relate to Williamsburg and the audience members are the contestants. Better pick up a copy of 11211 right quick!
Date: Thursday, January 19th Time: 11:00pm Location: Galapagos Art Space, 70 North 6th St, W'burg Cost: Free
The Tastes Like Chicken Art Space celebrates local artist of East Williamsburg tonight at this annual show. This is a great chance to see what is going on behind closed doors in the creepy neighbor's apartment. Continues Through February 19th
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 8:00pm - 11:00pm Location: Tastes like Chicken Art Space (300 Morgan Ave at Metropolitan, Williamsburg) Cost: Free
With the Motherfucker crew behind it, this party will no doubt be a good one. Plus you can get free vodka and red bull or sparks from midnight till 1:00am.
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 10:00pm Location: Lit, 93 Second Ave cost: Free
DJ Sonny Ray of East Village Radio is running a marathon set of 6 straight hours (what?!?) at his Loreley monthly. Expect soul, disco, funk, and hip hop.
The indie dance party Mondo moves to its new home at nightlife mainstay Luke & Leroy tonight. Miss Modular, Dr. Maz, Kevington, and Michael Grace Jr. spin a freewheeling array of indie rock, outré pop, retro, punk and dance to satisfy the most discerning music geeks and casuals alike. Perfect if you don't want to deal with the massive ordeal that is Misshapes. 2 for 1 beers from 10 - 11.
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Luke & Leroy (21 7th Ave at Leroy) Cost: Free
House party is right. In that deep, funky, old school NYC house that keeps you dancing all night. This is one of the best spots to get down on the weekend without the mess, hassle, and door charge of the city's larger venues (and better music). Marlon D and Jellybean Benittez - who have been bringing deep house to NYC since the Paradise Garage and Studio 54 days - continue their aptly titled monthly. This monthly packs the Union Square Ballroom with people sweating from the rafters until sunrise.
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 10:00pm - 6:00am Location: Union Square Ballroom (27 Union Square West between 15th and 16th) Cost: Free with flyer before midnight, $10 after with flyer
Dub Warrior DaveQ is teaming up with I-Sound tonight to invade this tiny space with the sounds of Dubstep, roots reggae, and more. This is a highly recommended intimate Friday option and will be where the FreeNYC crew will be laying low tonight so roll through, buy us drinks and say what's up.
The crews from The Bangers and The Rapture mix it up at this hipster weekly. Tonight its Mattie Safer and Nik at Nite along side special guest Ben Brunnemer. Recommended if you like the folks that you see on Last Night's Party.
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome between Forsyth and Eldridge) Cost: Free
"It's scary how good the music feels. Join Names You Can Trust DJs Oneman and E's E for their most regular event in local BK. Classic dance and early house, Underground hiphop and funk sample lore, cheap licks, cheat tricks, cheeky hippies 'n freeky hippoe toed beatnicks all under one roof that burns afire - casual atire haaaaa-recomended."
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Last Exit Bar (136 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn) Cost: Free
The Direct Drive crew flips the script tonight as their Rock/Hip Hop party leaves the basement of Rothko and sets up shop at Munidal. There are bootleg vids on the TV tables and an open vodka bar to get your night started off right. A great jump off before you head over to Boxcar. If you see the promoters, tell the FreeNYC sent you!
Date: Friday, January 20th Time: 10:00pm Location: Mundial (505 E 12th Street betwee Ave A & B Cost: Free Open Bar: Vodka, 10-12
Celebrate the Bronx’s new state-of-the-art Library Center opening with two days of free music, dance, and theater. Happenings include free tours of the building, Ibrahim González Orchestra, The Valentinos, ice sculpting, stilt walking, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Maya & Miguel, percussionist Angel Rodriguez, Trio Sentimiento Latino and much more.
Date: Saturday, January 21st Time: 10:00am to 5:00pm Location: Bronx Library Center,310 East Kingsbridge Road Cost: Free
"Freecycle New York City, your online resource for giving (and getting) to reduce New York's waste brings you a Post-Holiday Re-Gifting FreeMeet! Bring unwanted gifts or other reusable items and see what is free for the taking. All items must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages and must be small enough for people to walk away with (i.e. no furniture or other large items). Please bring your donations early to ensure that they find new homes. We'll bring leftovers to local charities, but will ask you to drop them off yourself if you show up after 3pm."
Date: Saturday, January 21st Time: 11:00am - 4:00pm Location: Sixth Street Community Center, 638 East Sixth St. bet Aves B & C) Cost: Free
"If you need help and advice for your rowdy, energetic dog come to this free training clinic at Eva's Play Pups in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Dog Trainer Denise Herman, of Empire of the Dog in Brooklyn will give you cutting edge strategies for creating a calm, relaxed and respectful companion dog. This clinic is free to the public, dog professionals and anyone with unanswered questions about training dogs to be polite companions. However, we ask that you leave the pooches at home. Please RSVP."
Date: Saturday, January 21st Time: 11:00am Location: Eva's Play Pups (52 North 11th, Williamsburg) Cost: Free with RSVP
The Nearest Faraway Place, a solo show by Jack Long opens tonight. And on that note, its press release time folks. Usually I dont like doing this, but sometimes letting Giant Robot speak for themselves is best...
"Jack will be showcasing original paintings based on his most recent work. Hailing from West Chester, Pennsylvania, Jack Long began his formal art training at the Rhode Island School of Design studying illustration. Moving in a different direction from the Providence art scene, recognized for its use of bright colors, silkscreens, pop-culture reference, and humor, Jack nurtured his craft in oil painting with a more subtle, serious, and darker content.[...] Jack Long’s work unfolds a mystical, poetic, and suspenseful tale that captivates the viewer evoking the wonder of where this world stems." The show will run through Febuary 22nd.
Date: Saturday, January 21st Time: 6:30pm - 10:00pm Location: Giant Robot, 437 East 9th Cost: Free
If you are a NY house fan then this is your spot tonight. New Superclub Pacha opens its basement up to some series local DJs. Sleepy & Boo (Basic NYC), Justin R (EJC Collective), Eric Martinez / Deepspell / Kenneth L (People NYC), and Kane Juan (Subkulture) man the tables while Hector Romero handles the main floor upstairs. Expect superclub BS however (dress to impress, bring ladies, expensive drinks, etc.)
Date: Saturday, January 21st Time: 10:00pm - 6:00am Location: Pacha (618 W. 46th Street, btwn 11th & 12th Aves.) Cost: Free before 12 with RSVP
Celebrate the Bronx’s new state-of-the-art Library Center opening with a day of free music, dance, theater! On offer are free tours of the building and performing are the Drum Café NY, Retumba: A Caribbean Journey (Afro-Caribbean dance and percussion group), Ray Mantilla Quintet, The Valentinos, Stilt Walker, storytelling, the Ebony Hillbillies, Mariachi Real de Mexico.
Date: Sunday, January 22nd Time: 1:00pm to 5:00pm Location: Bronx Library Center,310 East Kingsbridge Road Cost: Free
Every Sunday, Bar Rio plays a double movie feature with free popcorn to munch on. This week there is an indie theme with Dummy (6:30) and personal favorite Ghost World (8:30). Nice way to ease into the work week.
Date: Sunday, January 22nd Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm Location: Bar Rio (559 Broome Street between 6th and Varick) Cost: Free
If you get a chance this is definitely worth checking out, it's an intimate documentary by Luis Fernandez de la Reguerra that chronicles the life of Michael Morra.
Better known as Rockets Redglare, Morra was an actor (in films including Stranger than Paradise, In the Soup, After Hours, Down By Law, Desperately Seeking Susan, Big, and Trees Lounge), stand-up comic, model (for Julian Schnabel), junkie, bodyguard and drug dealer to Sid Vicious, and con artist.
His life makes for very good watching in this touching documentary.
Date: Sunday, January 22nd Time: 7:30pm Location: Magnetic Field Cocktail Lounge, 97 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn Cost: Free
Restaurant Week 2006 kicks off today and runs through Friday. Now's the chance to grab a 3-course dinner for a mere $35 or a 3-course lunch for $24.07 at some of the swankiest (most swank?) spots in town. Make your reservations online and save me a seat at Nobu. Continues all week.
Date: Monday, January 23rd Time: lunch and dinner Location: Various Cost: $24.07, $35 (not including tip and drinks)
Esteemed author, Princeton professor, and winner of the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature, Joyce Carol Oates discusses her latest release, The Female of the Species, at this mystery-centric book store. In this collection of nine short stories, Oates brings classic murder and macabre to the upstate New York backdrop. The result is both relative and disturbing all at once.
Listen don't be salty your not from Philly, just go to this jawn and feel the Philly love. Tonight at Sway, Whut's Rilly Philly brings Low Budget of Hollertronix and Mighty Mi of High & Mighty to town. 215 Represent!
Date: Monday, January 23 Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Sway, 305 Spring St Cost: Free
Got a business that you are trying to jump off but slacked a bit on Microeconomics back in college, hit up this lecture to day at the New York Public Library as Ilise Benun, a marketing consultant to small business owners and author of 133 Tips for Presenting Yourself and Your Business and Marketing Online, gives a lecture on making it in the digital world.
Tonight is the reception for the second of three MFA student Special Projects exhibitions at the School of Visual Arts. This show appears to me a multi-medium demonstration of the schools finest. Continues through February 4th.
Date: Tuesday, January 24th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Visual Arts Gallery, SVA (601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor) Cost: Free
Come celebrate the end of this season's THE THING. As the digital art portion of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center's Swing Space, THE THING has long been known to house a who's who of the cutting edge. Tonight there will be works on view by Swing Space grantees Oscar Alzate, Aissa Deebi, Dave Eppley, Joshua Howard, Timothy Hutchings, Cynthia Lovett and Pamela Matsuda-Dunn along with this season's current residents, Daniel Pflumm, Jan Gerber,0100101110101101.org and, Luka Freli"
Date: Tuesday, January 24th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: 32 Avenue of the Americas (betw Canal and Walker) Cost: Free, RSVP Recommended
Surviving Justice is an attempt to expose a disgraceful situation that continues throughout our country—men and women sent to prison for someone else’s crime. It is a joint project of McSweeney’s and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. The publication of Surviving Justice coincides with the New Yorker Films release of Jessica Sanders’s and Marc Simon’s After Innocence, the winner of the Sundance Jury Prize in 2005."
Date: Tuesday, January 24 Time: 7:00pm Location: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby, btw Houston and Prince Cost: Free
"Relax Star Vibe School hosts a listening party for 3rd Party! Come chill out to 3rd Party's "Pressed For Time" and preview cuts from the upcoming release: "3rd Party: Separation of Powers" (due out February 24, 2006) as well as unreleased and live material. Two hours of music from Farbeon, Hired Gun, Rabbi D and the crew united!"
Date: Tuesday, January 24th Time: 8:00pm Location: M Bar (349 Broome Street between Bowery and Elizabeth) Cost: Free, please RSVP
Triple Crown's DJ Myles makes his way to the main island tonight to DJ an evening of hip-hop, soul, and dance classics alongside DJ Koga and Freedom Chicken of Jazzysport. This is a good chance to see why the boy's Williamsburg spot has been holding it down for a minute now without having to hop the L train (which probably would not be running anyway).
Date: Tuesday, January 24th Time: 10:00pm Location:Opus 22 (559 West 22nd Street) Cost: Free
While there is no open bar or special occasion, Motor City is a pretty tight spot to throw down for a little good old rock and soul tonight. "Iron Mike is gonna take you back through the raw sex infused roots of rock with rare blues, funk, soul, garage and KBD rock n' roll and Voltron Rock will bring the heat with a mix of 80's, metal, and other assorted goodness." $3 Beams and $4 Vodkas make you wonder what the normal prices are at a Lower East Side dive bar these days. Maybe the girlie will be dancing in the window for your enjoyment.
Date: Tuesday, January 24th Time: 10:00pm Location: Motor City (127 Ludlow between Delancey and Rivington) Cost: Free
The crew over at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre are at it again with 600:Redux, a free late night show which bosts "Several locations, all at the same time, improvised." Watch as the crew do what they do best, improvise, as a show late enough to keep the tourist crowd away.
Date: Tuesday, January 24th Time: 11:00pm Location: UCB Theatre (302 West 26th street) Cost: Free
Opus22, who has some serious billings this week, is having a combination New Museum Opening and minimal techno party with Dave Wallace. There is also free Robert Mondavi wine on hand (I assume until it runs out). In their words, "How better can it be?"
Date: Wednesday, January 25th Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm (reception at 6:00pm) Location: Opus22 (559 West 22nd @ 11th) Cost: Free
ICI, the roving celebration of front line visionaries blending fashion, design, media and the arts at a concious level, invades Libation tonight with a combination of art, dance, and society. DJ Ing (Learned Evolution) + Evil Genius spin. Definately worth checking into.
Date: Wednesday, January 25th Time: 7:00pm (DJs at 9) Location:Libation (137 Ludlow St. btw. Rivington and Stanton) Cost: Free with RSVP
The monthly meeting of The Onion Society For The Preservation Of Alcohol & Alcohol Traditions takes palce tonight in honor of good old Wild Turkey. Head up to the Blue Donkey Bar for some free bourbon drinks.
Date: Wednesday, January 25th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Blue Donkey Bar (487 Amsterdam Ave.) Cost: Free with RSVP
Tonight, The Fix will "present an evening of vintage experimental & visually arousing 8-mm & Super-8 films spanning the 1920's to the 1970's. This four hour program of obscure celluloid will feature too many titles to list but will include a wide spectrum of early animation, kooky comedies, Burly Q & glamour, pre-code curio's, coming attractions, TV commercials, and assorted featurettes." Free Popcorn.
Date: Wednesday, January 25th Time: 7:30 (runs continuously until midnight) Location: The Fix Cost: Free (110 Bedford Ave at North 11th, Williamsburg)
We like when people throw parties under the guise of literary refrences, because you will go to get some free booze but you may actually put some knowledge into that dome of yours. Tonight in honor of the birthday of Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, The L magazine throws a party with some free whisky and sampling of Scottish music and food.
Date: Wednesday, January 25th Time: 8:00pm Location: Iona, 180 Grand St, W'burg Cost: Free with RSVP
Our boy The Captain is guest DJing the Catsuit weekly at Climax tonight so if you are into the sound of Cut and the Dirty down then check him out at this hipper than usual spot.
Date: Wedenday, January 25th Time: ??? (10:00pm?) Location: Climax (14 Ave B between 1st and 2nd) Cost: Free
I think my high point of DaveQ's set at Boxcar last week was when some banker looking dude exclaimed to his friend "yeah, he was playing some reggae and now I don't know what this $#!# is." Such is the sound of Dubstep, the upcoming mix of Dub, Grime, Breaks and more that has been gaining recognition on the NYC underground. DaveQ has been the DJ of the minute here on FreeNYC and tonight he is joined by I-Sound at Pure Fire... a weekly that is quickly becoming a FreeNYC staple. This is a good chance to catch Dave if you can't make it to Dubwar on Friday.
Lion1Music label owner MKL is making a special appearance on the tables tonight at the always chill Opus 22. His style draws an obvious comparison to the more detailed side of NYC house (think Turntables on the Hudson, Body and Soul, Giant Step, etc) combining house beats, breaks, tribal percussion, dub poetry, and live instrumentation to create a warm and welcome sound that fairs as well relaxing in the lounge as it does on the dancefloor at two in the morning. He's joined by Go Kiryu tonight.
Date: Wednesday, January 25th Time: 10:00 - 3:00 Location: Opus 22, 559 West 22nd at 11th Cost: Free
Alexander Technique invades the Bang weekly tonight for one insane, sweaty night of scenester drinking and dancing. Expect the usual madness and Svedka drink special.
Date: Wednesday, January 25th Time: 10:00pm Location: Beauty Bar (231 East 14th St. at 3rd Ave) Cost: Free
"The Daily Noise exhibition coincides with the launch of the third volume of the vibrö cd-magazine, "The Citizen Band Issue", dedicated to home-made and experimental radio. Tenzin G. Wangchuk (Columbia University), Valérie Vivancos & Rodolphe Alexis (artists and editors of vibrofiles.com) are turning the white cube of the LeRoy Neiman gallery into a listening booth. A minimalist setup allows the audience to focus on the audio sensations and experience an inner shift of space triggered by the invisible flux. 12 sound artists and organizations have been asked to curate a daily 1 hour -looped- playlist to present the plural aspects contemporary audio works. More than 200 sound pieces are thus showcased in the ongoing stream."
Date: Thursday, January 26th Time: 5:00pm - 10:00pm Location: LeRoy Neiman Gallery, 310 Dodge Hall (2960 Broadway at 116 St.) Cost: Free
Oh, You Beautiful Doll opens today at the Andrea Meislin Gallery. Douglas F. Maxwell is a curator, writer, licensed psychoanalyst, and Adjunct Professor of Arts at NYU. This exhibit examines his "interest in the symbolic usage of dolls to express various aspects of, and dilemmas in, the human condition, and explores this unique relationship in Oh, You Beautiful Doll through the use of paintings, videos, photographs, and multi-media sculptural installations." The exhibition includes work by Donna Bassin, Corinne May Botz, Davis & Davis, Elena Dorfman, Julie Farstad, Stephen Roach, Elena Sisto, Sharon Switzer, Lydia Venieri, and Karen Yasinsky.
Date: Thursday, December 26th Time: 6:00pm - 8:30pm Location: Andrea Meislin Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 214 Cost: Free
Enjoy new work by artist/writer/graphic novelist Emily Nemens at this episod of Bar Rio's Thursday Introducing. The show includes new drawings on cardboard as well as a beautiful new triptych painting. There will be complimentary wine, beer and snacks for the first hour, and drink specials thoughout the night.
Date: Thursday, January 26th Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Bar Rio (558 Broome between Sixth Ave and Varick) Cost: Free
"As many people know, many great film makers of our day got their start in New York. And at their beginning, they cut their teeth in the industry by making short films. [The Teabag Film Workshop] will feature four emerging local film makers each week and have a Q&A for each filmmaker following each film. The venue is a unique space that has a stage, screen, bar and Internet café. Come and see the next Spike Lee, Scorsese or Ang Lee before they hit it big."
Date: Thursday, January 26th Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Silk Road Place (30 Mott Street) Cost: Free
Oh boy kids, this one is going to go off! It has been a minute since someone threw a serious grime party and this one is happening in a big way. If you like your bass big and nasty then this is your spot tonight. First up, you've got XLR8R magazine flying in UK Heavyhitters Plasticman, Jammer, and Skepta to show us what's making the bass bins rattle across the pond. Then, you have a CD release party for Drop the Lime and Syrup Girls new split CD Shotgun Wedding Vol. 4. And if that was not enough, NYC transplant Matt Shadetek is back behind the decks after his stint in Europe. Equally good locals The Captain, Mathhead, and Dev79 + Starkey hold the basement down. Damn... Oh, and did we mention that we are going to record all of the domestic beats live for rebroadcast on Radio FreeNYC? Whew... gonna be a long night... don't sleep on this one!
Date: Thursday, January 26th Time: 10:00pm - 3:00am Location: Rothko (188 Suffolk at Rivington) Cost: $7
Well kids in case your not down with a lil grime in your life, here is a second party option for your Thursday night debauchery. Funtime Party Team, Ballers Eve and Ozone Magazine are at it again with DJs Minski Walker, DJ DIRRTY, DJ Sabo, Project Matt, Sergio Vega and Kat Daddy Slim. There will be an open vodka bar from 10:30 - 11:30pm plus some give aways.
Date: Thurday, January 26th Time: 10:00pm Location: China 1, 50 Avenue B Cost: Free
Cosmo Baker, back in town of the XXXplosive Tour, and Scott Melker join forces tonight for a new evening of mashed up high school classics from your teen years. Drink special all night and school girl dancers keep you occupied.
Date: Thursday, January 26th Time: 10:00pm Location: Movida, (28 Seventh Ave between Leroy and Bedford) Cost: Free
Tonight there is another installment of the winter residency of TOTH. This evening they join forces with Trace magazine (I'm still a lil salty I couldn't get into Trace's party last week though)& AY PAPI productions for "Culture Clash". The theme being AFRICA vs. ARABIA and next months will be Brazil vs. Balkans.
Date: Thursday, January 26th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Cielo, 18 Little West 12th Cost: Free with RSVP
The NYC 3rd Annual Flower Market is "bursting with the colors and fragrances of auspicious plants and blossoms widely used decoratively by Chinese as symbols of prosperity, fortune and abundance. This year with the participation of the Alliance, the Flower Market reinvents tradition by incorporating performers and artists, who will contribute to the festive, family atmosphere."
Date: Friday, January 27th Time: 3:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Columbus Park, Mulberry St. btw Bayard and Worth Cost: Free
In Arsenal for Democracy; War Corporatism, Brooklyn based artist Alfredo Martinez presents "drawings and sculptures of prototypes of modified tactical military vehicles as well as explosive devices and large caliber firearms. The artist has compiled sketches and drawings over the past several years depicting invented assault rifles, tank-like mobiles, and robotic soldiers with fanatic obsession and childlike inquiry. Martinez’s art is rooted deep in America’s obsession with conflict, from it’s humble revolutionary beginnings to the infamous War on Terror."
Date: Friday, January 27th Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: The Canal Chapter (343 Canal Street) Cost: Free with RSVP
Alfredo Martinez presents us with sculptural composition directly representative of the aforementioned drawings. The drawings or diagrams ultimately act as a blueprint for the construction of weapons and vehicles made from found objects, metal and plastic parts, automotive detritus, and other adopted material. The work inspired by cinema, science fiction, the exploration of technology and folk traditions by this Brooklyn gun enthusiast brings our militarist inclines to the forefront. Direct critical commentary on our innate warlike tendencies and fascination with violence the artist taps into our inherent draw to destruction. The aggressive nature of the work is traced by an ingenuity and consideration of the materials used in its creation. This is New York outsider art directly affected by Americas historic roll in asymmetric war.
Tonight is another installment of Dub War, the grimey dub step party which is filling in nicely where Bangers and Mash left off last winter. This is a serious night of dubstep, grime, ragga, and more as UK heavy hitters Digital Mystikz and Baltimore'd Joe Nice take over the the Rothko soundsystem. Rounding out the night are locals Dave Q, Mathhead, Moldy, FreeNYC fav DropTheLime, and more. This is a serious night of bass and comes highly recommended regardless of the door charge. $3 draft beer all night.
Date: Friday, January 27th Time: 10:00pm - late Location: Rothko (Suffolk between Delancey and Rivington) Cost:$7 all night with FreeNYC RSVP $10 otherwise - RSVP CLOSED, SORRY
It's time for FreeNYC to get down with another feel good Sweat party at their new home, The Delancey. This time there is no cover, no list and no door drama! Party thrashers Chasekillz and Choimatic join forces like Voltron, as Robots in a Coma bring an anything goes set of hip hop, rock, classics, prom jams, exclusive remixes and at least a couple drops that will have you screaming "oh shiiiii...." EQ and Erminatti round out the upstairs lineup while Special Needs, Gabe Really Real and Erik the Red transform the downstairs basement into the always-twisted Skullfuckers lounge. I'm calling the sloppy hipster make-out session down there at around 2am. Free Heineken gets it going. Highly Recommended.
Date: Friday, January 27th Time: 10:00pm Location: The Delancey (168 Delancey between Clinton and Attorney) Cost: Free Open Bar: Heineken, 10:00pm - 11:00pm
In case you haven't noticed, its Friday! The weekend is here! Go out, stay up past your bed time and have fun, you gots 2 whole days of resting up til Monday. Tonight stop by Hush Hush Weekender at Happy Ending. This week you've got Olivier Spector aka Mr. Negative and everyones favorite hooligans Mattie & Druzzi of The Rapture.
Date: Friday, December 27th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Happy Ending, 302 Broom St Cost: Free
The NYC 3rd Annual Flower Market is "bursting with the colors and fragrances of auspicious plants and blossoms widely used decoratively by Chinese as symbols of prosperity, fortune and abundance. This year with the participation of the Alliance, the Flower Market reinvents tradition by incorporating performers and artists, who will contribute to the festive, family atmosphere."
Date: Saturday, January 28th Time: 10:00am - 6:00pm Location: Columbus Park, Mulberry St. btw Bayard and Worth Cost: Free
This weekend New York has its own Idiotarod but instead of yelping dogs towing sleds across Alaska, it involves people towing shopping carts from Brooklyn to Manhattan! Teams of five people will race each other five miles in this third annual absurd shopping cart race for cash prizes. It's one of those crazy events where anything goes and would only happen in New York. Click here to register in advance.
Date: Saturday, January 28th Time: 2:00pm Location: Begins at Fulton Ferry Brooklyn and finishes at Tompkins Square Park Cost: Free to watch $5 to enter
Learn all there is to know about the art of cutting limes and glasswear at this tasting for Cachaca, the tasty liquor behind the delicious caipirinha. I am sure they will give you at least one tasty beverage throughout the demonstration.
It's another evening of reggae and dub at FreeNYC favorite spot Studio BPM. Tonight the tag team duo of Dub Nomads and Dr. Israel take to the stage while DRM from Bastard Jazz takes to the turntables. This is our post-snowboarding spot where we skin up and fall into the bass. Highly Recommended despite the cover.
Date: Saturday, January 28th Time: 10:00pm Location: Studio BPM (237 Kent Avenue bet Grand & North 1st, Williamsburg) Cost: $8, (not really a) suggested donation
I have a tendency to go out hard on Friday nights and be exhausted the following day. My Saturday's usually consist of waking up late, going to brunch, coming home in a pancake coma for a nap, and then being too tired and unmotivated to get out of my jammies to go out that night. So my friends if you're at all like me, I have found a solution to our problems. A pajama party! Now all you gots to do is roll outta bed, jammies and all, throw on your slippers and head down to CoCo 66 for Chilly Willy. Get all cozy and listen to DJ Oil, Marc and the Netter Brothers.
Come ring in the Lunar New Year at Double Happiness with complimentary traditional Chinese New Year snacks and four dollar Tiger beer! Also have fun with free airbrush calligraphy tattooing and accupressure massage.
Date: Saturday, 28th January Time: 10:00pm Location: Double Happiness, 173 Mott Street Cost: Free
Freebird Books & Goods, is a general used bookstore, on the borders of Cobble Hill and Red Hook. Today they celebrate their two year anniversary. There will be a Raffle drawing for $30.00 gift certificate for books at 8pm. But most importantly is there is free corndogs all day!
Date: Sunday, January 29th Time: 10:00am - 10:00pm Location: Freebird Books & Goods, 123 Columbia St, Brooklyn Cost: Free
It's a war tinged theme this week at Bar Rio's weekly double feature. Only this week it's gone to a double double feature with four films: Battle of Algiers, Fog of War, Dr. Strangelove, and Jacob’s Ladder. Free popcorn to munch on as always.
Date: Sunday, January 29nd Time: 5:00pm - 8:30pm Location: Bar Rio (559 Broome Street between 6th and Varick) Cost: Free
Tax free week starts today so buy up all those kicks (under $110 of course) that you have been eyes san sales tax. The tax free shopping continues through February 5th.
Restaurant Week 2006 continues all this week. Now's the chance to grab a 3-course dinner for a mere $35 or a 3-course lunch for $24.07 at some of the swankiest (most swank?) spots in town. Make your reservations online and save me a seat at Nobu. Continues all week.
Date: Monday, January 30rd Time: lunch and dinner Location: Various Cost: $24.07, $35 (not including tip and drinks)
About Face: The Ethical Implications of Face Transplantations
So I think I can safely say that this is one of the strangest things I have ever written about. Apparently face transplants are now all the rage in the medical world and if this creeps anyone out, dont worry your not alone. Besides this seeming totally weird and sci-fi to me there are a whole crap load of people who think this Nick Cage procedure is totally uncalled for. Tonight medical experts from Mount Sinai, NYU, the Rogosin Institute and the Jewish Theological Seminary will discuss the ethical implications of face transplants.
This weekly comedy show continues this week with Jim Gaffin, Erin Foley, Eric Kirchberger, Wendy [the rapping] Ho, Liam McEneaney and a music performance by house band The Hazzards. This is a great way to break in the week with some of the best comedy talent in the city without the formality of the traditional comedy club (and without the tourists!)
Date: Monday, January 30th Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Lolita Bar (266 Broome Street & Allen) Cost: Free
Jim Gaffigan
Jim Gaffigan's Comedy Central one hour special airs January 29th. He has appeared on "The Late Show w/ David Letterman" eleven times, as well as "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," "Late, Late Show With Craig Kilborn", "Comedy Central Presents: Jim Gaffigan," and more movies and commercials and TV shows than you can shake a stick at.
Liam McEneaney
from Comedy Central's "Premium Blend," "Best Week Ever," and a writer for "Friday Night w/ Greg Giraldo"
Erin Foley
as seen on "Premium Blend," and in the movie "Almost Famous"
Eric Kirchberger
From "Premium Blend," and a ton of commercials
Wendy The Ho
The rapping ho.
The Hazzards
The Hazzards have appeared on Comedy Central's "Out on the Edge" hosted by Alan Cumming, and on Comedy Central's "The World Stands Up." Their video "Gay Boyfriend" was an Internet sensation, getting over one million downloads in its first three months live on the InterWeb; it was later remixed as a EuroPop Dance tune, and reached the UK charts at #67, ahead of some crap song by Seal. They played at the Kennedy Center Honors for Steve Martin, and Anne from The Hazzards sang the national anthem before a Red Sox game. They promise that this appearance marks the debut of a new song about boners.
DJ's Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance), James F!@#$%^ Friedman (Defend Music), and Ted Shred (San Francisco) provide the backdrop for the official Bicycle Film Festival party. While there will be no screenings at the party tonight, there will be a bike valet, free Brooklyn Lager and free copies of Anthem magazine.
Date: Monday, January 30th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Lit (93 2nd Ave at 5th St.) Cost: Free Open Bar: Brooklyn Lager, 10:30 - 11:30
Its Monday, so I'll give you one guess on what's happening tonight. And if you didn't guess Sway, you are so fired, you clearly have not been reading FreeNYC enough. Anyway, tonight two of our favorite local DJs Gravy and Synapse will be kickin it at Sway. Stop by, drink til the wee hours and forget your Monday blues.
Date: Monday, January 30th Time: 10:00pm - 4:00am Location: Sway, 305 Spring Cost: Free
Join political leaders, civil rights activists and community
members as they gather on the steps of City Hall to call on the City
Council to reintroduce and pass the Charge or Release Bill...
"Introduced during the last council session with strong support from the public and lawmakers, the Charge or Release Bill aims to correct a serious problem faced by thousands of New Yorkers each month: detainment by the police for excessive periods of time without access to a judge. The Charge or Release bill would restore the fundamental right to due process in our criminal justice system. Each month in New York City, the police detains thousands of New Yorkers for 30, 40, or even 50 hours without arraignment, which violates a 1991 Court of Appeals decision that individuals arrested in New York should be arraigned within 24 hours of arrest. Not surprisingly, African Americans and Latinos face the brunt of this injustice..."
Date: Tuesday, January 31st Time: 12:30pm Location: City Hall Cost: Free
The Charge or Release Bill has received strong support. Twenty-three
Council Members signed on as co-sponsors of the bill during the last
City Council session. The Council’s Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus
endorsed it unanimously. And dozens of legal, academic, and
community-based organizations have joined the effort in support of
the bill.
As the new City Council session kicks off, we must keep up the
momentum for this important civil rights bill. Come out during your
lunch break to show your support for the Charge or Release Bill.
Tell the City Council it’s time to protect the due process rights of
all New Yorkers!
Inequality Matters: A Public Forum with Paul Krugman
"At least eight million people live in each of the American mega-cities—New York, L.A., and Chicago to name a few. These cities and their surrounding suburbs are characterized by political fragmentation and racial and income segregation, impeding the efforts of low-income families to rise out of poverty and educate their children. This lecture will review the disparities that exist within a metropolis and discuss how a city and its suburbs negotiate these disparities."
Date: Tuesday, January 31st Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: New School, Wollman Hall (64 West 11th St, 5th Floor) Cost: Free
This goes on every week but the who cares! The Taco's are awesome ($1), the Margaritas are cheap ($3) and the vibe is always relaxed. This is dinner for me.
Date: Tuesday, January 31st Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm Location:Luke & Leroy's (21 Seventh Ave. at Leroy) Cost: Free
You've seen the films, bought the albums, collected the videos, and even sat through that damn Olympic opening ceremony just to gawk at her dress. Now its time to show that you are more Bjork then your fellow fanatic. Don your best Bjork-like outfit (FreeNYC award goes to anyone who dresses like a giant bear with a bjork in their belly) and head out to this celebration of all things Bjork at Williamsburg's only watering hole dedicated to NY state-produced libations.
Date: Tuesday, January 31st Time: 8:00pm Location: Stain Bar (766 Grand St, Williamsburg) Cost: Free
It's time for another addition of Shark Attack!, the Microcosm Music celebration of the grand depth on NYC's electronic music scene. The night will include ambient guitar abstractions, warm, textural techno, and left leaning drum and bass through tonight's performers, Craig Colorusso,Morgan Packard,DJ Clever and Microcosm Music owener Ezekiel Honig. Live visuals by Josh Ott and superDraw round out the evening.
