Join Teresa Heinz, Noeleen Heyzer of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), and Jehmu Greene, president of Rock the Vote, for an afternoon dedicated to financial issues currently facing women in the workplace and in their homes. Organized by the National Council for Research on Women
On a certain floor, in a certain building at Parsons School of Design, there is a shiny silver door with a portal window. Behind that door is the mysterious Design and Technology department where, in our fantasies at least, art geeks and tech geeks get together to change the future. Tonight, the D+T department brings James Paul Gee in to lecture us about the importance of Nintendo, Atari, and Playstation on our learning processes. In his most recent work, Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul, Gee "offers 36 reasons why good video games produce better learning conditions than many of today's schools."
I suggest that you continue your education at our latest bar obsession, Barcade, afterwards
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Venue: Parsons School of Design (65 West 11th Street 5th Floor) Cost: Free
Julian Schnabel is kind of a jack-of-all-trades in the art/media world. He first broke into the art world in the 80's during the "neo-expressionist" movement which was an emotional reaction to the saturation of minimalism in the art world., Schnabel then went on to produce two full length feature films, "Basquiat" and "Before Night Falls." Tonight he lectures on what he knows best... himself.
Big names from "back in the day" gather in the park to educate on the days when hip-hop was about love, unity, and respect. "The heart of the Hip-Hop culture has always been the community and we feel Hot 97, the supposed place "Where Hip-Hop Lives", has lost its respect and responsibility to the community a long time ago and it is about time for the community to step forward and take it back." (full info here)
Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Venue: Union Square Park (14th Street side)
Cost: Free
Voices of Latin American Leaders is "a series of in-depth discussions with prominent Latin Americans on issues facing the Americas and the world. Moderated by Jorge Castañeda, Global Distinguished Professor of Political and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU and the former Foreign Minister of Mexico, the series will probe economic, social, historical and political dimensions of Latin America's relations with the U.S. and the world community."
Tonight, former Foreign Minister of Mexico Jorge Castañeda talks with Leonel Fernández, President of the Dominican Republic , about Latin America's relations with the U.S. and its place within the global community. RSVP Require
Time: 4:00pm Venue: Silver Center for Arts and Sciences (100 Washington Square East between Washington and Waverly Pls, Hemmerdinger Hall) Cost: Free
“It is evident that many wars are fought over resources which are now becoming increasingly scarce. If we conserved our resources better, fighting over them would not then occur…so, protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace…those of us who understand the complex concept of the environment have the burden to act. We must not tire, we must not give up, we must persist.”
Professor Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, gives her first public lecture in New York City tonight. Copies will be available for sale and Maathai will be signing. Come early as space is limited
Date: Tuesday, March 8th
Time: 7:15pm
Venue: Cooper Union (7 East 7th Street at Cooper Square)
Cost: Free
Sure you think your over priced hole-in-the-wall apartment in Brooklyn is kinda third world, and all your Manhattan friends think your "slumin' it", but truth of the matter is folks, we got it good. "According to the United Nations, more than one billion people now live in the slums...From the sprawling barricades of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, even economic growth." Tonight, head up to City College to hear Mike Davis lecture on the shantytowns of the world, and how they have been "exiled from the formal world economy." The lecture is presented by the School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture but is open to the public.
Date: Wednesday, March 16th Time: 6pm Location: City College Great Hall, Convent Ave and 138th St Cost: Free
**I apologize for the last minute warning on this one**
Knot master Brian Matthews invades the Flux Factory to to teach you "how to tie knots like a sailor, like a pirate, like a mad husband, like a person who knows how to tie knots."
Date: Sunday, March 20th Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm Venue:Flux Factory (38-38 43rd Street, Long Island City) Cost: Free
Prominant hip-hop editors, reporters, and artist gather for a panel discussion on how women can "take back hip hop." Expected to speak are local heros such as Jean Grae and DJ Beverly Bond along with industry bigwigs like Karen Hunter and Akiba Solomon. Register online here.
Date: Tuesday, March 27th Venue: FIT, Katie Murphy Amphitheatre (27th street and 7th Ave) Time: 6:30 - 8:00pm Cost: Free
Corporate Media Ownership and Its Threat to Democracy
"The current climate of American journalism is fraught with incestuous relations between government and a handful of Fortune 500 corporations that own and operate news organizations. From News Corporation’s Fox News, General Electric’s NBC, Viacom’s CBS, Disney’s ABC, and Time Warner’s CNN to Clear Channel’s massive radio empire, what the mainstream media present as "news" has become largely a "paid political announcement" born of favor trading, conflict of interest, and self-serving, bottom-line corporate logic. As a result of such accommodationism, American viewers receive a homogenized, censored version of reality and the watchdog of American democracy, the press, has become a docile instrument of governmental authority and big money."
Arthur Kent, Danny Schechter, Pete Tridish, and Mark Cooper, contributors to Prometheus Book's newly-published News Incorporated, are joined by journalists Mark Crispin Miller, Greg Palast, and Kristina Borjesson, in a panel discussion on Corporate Media Ownership and Its Threat to Democracy, led by the editor of News Incorporated, Elliot Cohen.
Date: Thursday, March 24th
Time: 6:00pm
Venue:Small Press Center at The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Library (22 West 44th Street)
Cost: Free
Chiaki Wantanabe hosts the first of 3 lectures at Flux Factory dealing with the medium of video and how it is applied to artistic expression. This particular lecture deals with "visual music" and using video as an instument. With guest speakers Giles Hendrix,Chris Jordan, and Chiaki Wantanabe.
Fashion, Accessory, and Product designers teach us how to make money doing what we love at this Parsons lecture entitled Mind Your Own Business: Developing a Business Plan. Priority to alumni and students so if you are then RSVP here, else show up early.
Date: Monday, March 28th
Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Venue: Parsons (66 west 11th Street, Wollman Hall)
Cost: Free
"Streaming audio and MP3s are transforming pop music, from indie-rock to hip hop. But what about those newly minted Web zines, blogs, and alt glossies poking into every nook and cranny of the music world? While the mainstream seems content to leaf through Rolling Stone and channel surf from MTV to VH1, these do-it-yourself publishing channels are busy creating a bewildering amount of chatter about music and contemporary culture."
The National Arts Journalism program at Columbia host this panel discussion on the changing face of the music industry in the wake of blogs, ezines, bitTorrent, and all other online goodies. The panel is moderated by NY Times pop music critic Sasha Frere Jones, and features the likes of TV on The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, Knox Robinson from the Fader, and fellow blogger Amy Phillips. Offical release after the fold.
Date: Tuesday, March 29th Time: 6:30pm Venue: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Lecture Hall, Third Floor (116th Street and Broadway) Cost: Free
Noise from Underground:
Pop Criticism and Cred in the Era of MP3s, Zines, and Blogs
March 29, 2005; 6:30 pm
Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism Lecture Hall, Third Floor
116th Street and Broadway
Admission free
Streaming audio and MP3s are transforming pop music, from indie-rock to hip hop. But what about those newly minted Web zines, blogs, and alt glossies poking into every nook and cranny of the music world? While the mainstream seems content to leaf through Rolling Stone and channel surf from MTV to VH1, these do-it-yourself publishing channels are busy creating a bewildering amount of chatter about music and contemporary culture.
These days, every aspiring pop critic can create his or her own soapbox. The resulting atmosphere is as fragmented as it is high-speed: A blogger shows up at a club, orders a beer, and reviews a show in real time. New trends break at a faster clip than ever before. How can anyone keep up? And which critical voice do you trust?
For the independent publisher, the zinester, the online gawker, the vintage vinyl collector, or the unknown turntablist, credibility remains the coin of the realm. Cred, after all, is what makes the underground so underground. But do these new voices ever permeate the mainstream? Are they gunning to take over? Are they speaking a new language of pop criticism? Or merely talking among themselves?
Bringing together writers, editors, and musicians, “Noise from Underground” is a welcome conversation about the present-day pop criticism whirlwind -- and whether cred is even cool anymore.
Moderator: Sasha Frere Jones, pop music critic, The New Yorker
Panelists: Watch for details on panel makeup, which will include critics, ‘zine editors, bloggers, musicians and observers both underground and mainstream.
Tunde Adebimpe, musician, TV on the Radio (Touch and Go Records)
Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor, Rolling Stone; executive editor, Tracks; editor of "Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture" and author of "Rocking My Life Away"
Amy Phillips, blogger, More in the Monitor
Knox Robinson, editor in chief, The Fader
Brandon Wall, editor in chief, Prefix
For further information, see www.najp.org, or contact the National Arts Journalism Program at 212-854-2549 or alc60@columbia.edu.
"Robert Bruegmann, a professor of architecture at UIC, will discuss his soon to be published book on urban sprawl. Most writers on the topic of sprawl have described it as a relatively recent, peculiarly American phenomenon. They also believe that it is inefficient, environmentally damaging, socially inequitable and aesthetically ugly and that it can be arrested by reforming poor public policies. In contrast, Bruegmann argues that sprawl has been a feature of urban development since the beginning of urban history and that it has been largely beneficial for most people which is why it is the dominant mode of settlement for affluent urbanites almost everywhere in the world today. He further argues that efforts to stop it are likely to be ineffective or produce unintended consequences worse than the sprawl itself. Robert Bruegmann is an historian of architecture, landscape, and the built environment who teaches at the University of Illinois, Chicago."
Date: Monday, April 4th Time: 6:15pm - 8:00pm Venue: Parsons (25 East 13th, glass corner) Cost: Free
"Get your creative juices flowing at the April 5th meeting of the New York Sony Vegas users group. Our Main Event will be our first-ever Creative Video Challenge Contest, a game that challenges you to construct a movie in only one hour from the media clips we'll supply. Bring your laptop running Vegas (or any editing program you like) and join the fun.
The meeting will also feature our first-ever Vegas Quickstart Tutorial for people who are new to Vegas (or to video editing) as well as a showcase for videos that you've created and a Tip Swap where you can get answers to your most pressing Vegas questions.
If you want to join the creative challenge, email Charles Dennis, info@charlesdennis.net just so we'll know how many people to expect. To submit work for the showcase portion of the meeting, contact Jay at jayvivid@yahoo.com. Please keep submissions to 5 minutes or less.
The pre-meeting will begin at 6:30 pm with the Quickstart Tutorial, then the main program begins at 7:00 pm. The new home for our meeting is B&H Photo at 33rd Street and 9th Avenue."
Date: Tuesday, April 5th Time: 6:30pm Venue: B & H Photo (33rd Street and 9th Ave) Cost: Free
For those who are tired of waiting for video projector prices to drop to what you may consider "affordable". Sabastien Santamaria teaches you how to make your own high end video projector for less than a tenth of the cost a part of the Flux Factory Technology Initiative
Date: Sunday, April 10th Time: 3:00pm - 6:00pm Venue: Flux Factory (click for directions) Cost: Free
Laurie Anderson is recognized worldwide for her innovative and groundbreaking work with technologically vanguard instruments in the arts. As an artist with a vast collection of work, she has published six books, produced numerous videos, films and radio pieces, and created orchestral work. She recently collaborated with Silicon Valley-based Interval Research Corporation to explore new creative tools including the Talking Stick, a wireless musical instrument that emits sound when touched.
Please join us for a very special evening of her work in retrospect, including a special screening of her latest media work, Hidden Inside Mountains.
Hidden Inside Mountains, commissioned by EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan, is a high definition film that debuted on March 25, 2005 in Japan at EXPO 2005 on the largest high definition Astrovision screen in the world. An original score has been created by Laurie Anderson and mastered in stereo in 5.1. Hidden Inside Mountains is a film of short stories about nature, artifice and dreams. Located in a fictitious world of theatrical spaces, the stories unfold through music, gesture, text and the poetry of visual images. The film’s haunting music features violins, bells, dog barks and melody as well as many electronic sounds. Both joy and loss are caught in this film in Japanese and English. Running time is 25 minutes.
Date: Tuesday, April 12th Venue: New School University, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street) Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Cost: Free, first come first served
Usually I am not one for a geeked out tech lecture, but Brazilian Girls are going to swing by the Apple store in SoHo tonight to "discuss their use of Apple hardware and Mac OS X compatible software in both the recording process and in live performance."
Date: Tuesday, June 7 Time: 7:00 p.m. Venue: Apple SoHo (103 Prince Street) Cost: Free
As we enter a new phase of housing development in New York City, what will the role of community-based development organizations, private sector developers and government play in the production of low and moderate-income housing? What can we learn from the work of the New York State Urban Development Corporation (1968–1975) and City and community-based development initiatives (1974–2005)? What role can and should the City and community-based development groups play in new private sector-focused housing development initiatives? All this and more will be discussed.
Date: Thursday, August 4th Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm (reception at 5:45) Venue:Center for Architecture (536 LaGuardia Place) Cost: Free with RSVP
Part 1: How We See Culture: "Impermanence may be the only permanent characteristic of the 21st century. New urban landscapes are rapidly evolving in response to tides of immigration; at the same time, new geographies are mapped everyday on the internet. How can we talk about these new cultures? This lecture considers what culture is, how it works, how we see it. Specifically, it will explore the ways in which objects and images take on value and negotiate between their social and aesthetic frameworks."
Date: Tuesday, September 13th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 W. 12th St.) Cost: Free
While the president claims the jury is still out on global warming, the rest of us are actually concered about how humans have impacted the environment and the atmosphere. This evening, Thomas H. Wysmuller, retired meteorologist (weather scientist) formerly with NASA, tells us what the really effects of global warming are and answers some of our questions. How will global warming cause the next ice age to occur in this century? How does global warming increase hurricanes'power and what can we do to stop it?
Date: Thursday, September 15th Time: 6:45 (pleasae arrive early) Venue: Friends Meeting House, 15 Rutherford Place (on 15th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) Cost: Free
"In conjunction with the announcement of the second annual A/L Light & Architecture Design Awards, please join the New York area award winners for a roundtable discussion on current issues in lighting design. The participants will include Paul Gregory from Focus Lighting, Francesca Bettridge and Steven Bernstein from Cline Bettridge Bernstein Lighting Design in New York City, and Paul Zaferiou and Keith Yancey from Lam Partners in Cambridge MA."
Date: Thursday, September 15th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Eugene Lang Student Center, New School (55 West 13th) Cost: Free
"Impermanence may be the only permanent characteristic of the 21st century. New urban landscapes are rapidly evolving in response to tides of immigration; at the same time, new geographies are mapped everyday on the internet. Goods, services, and images have become their own culture, transforming designers and artists into culture authors. How can we talk about these new cultures? Lectures by anthropologists, historians, and critics will establish a critical framework for case studies drawn from design and visual media."
If you're into either of the aformentioned phenomenona, join David Harvey of the American Museum of Natural History as he and his exhibition team share the inspiration, insight, and Apple technology used to create the popular new exhibition Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries. Remember kids: even dinos are mac-friendly.
This highly recommended lecture series on being a concious designer continues with a discussion on culture-centered web design. "Impermanence may be the only permanent characteristic of the 21st century. New urban landscapes are rapidly evolving in response to tides of immigration; at the same time, new geographies are mapped everyday on the internet. How can we talk about these new cultures? Lectures by anthropologists, historians, and critics will establish a critical framework for case studies drawn from design and visual media."
Date: Tuesday, September 27th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 W. 12th St.) Cost: Free
Doctors Without Borders in Niger North Korea, and Sudan: John Hockenberry, former NBC "Dateline" correspondent and award winning journalist joins Dr. Jean-Hervé Bradol, President of MSF in France, and Dr. Pauline Horrill, MSF emergency physician in a discussion on why "despite early warnings by many organizations, thousands have died as a result of severe acute malnutrition in Niger. Why was the international response to this epidemic so slow and why does it remain largely inadequate? What are the obstacles in delivering medical care to people starving as a result of economic policies in Niger, under the North Korean regime, and in the ongoing conflict in Sudan?"
Date: Tuesday, September 27th Time: Time: 6:00pm reception, 7:00pm discussion Location: FIT, Katie Murphy Amphitheater, Building D (7th Ave at 27th) Cost: Free. To reserve a seat call: (212) 847-3151
Paper Mag will house a roundtable discussion with panel of 25-and-under fashion designers, marketeers, promoters, and general "hipper than thou" participants. Cool if your into that thing.
Date: Thursday, September 29th Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Location: SVA Student Center (217 East 23rd Street) Cost: Free with RSVP
War, Occupation, and Democracy: American Strategy In The Middle East
Palestinian Member of Israeli Knesset since 1996, Leader of National Democratic Assembly, and Celebrated Writer and Intellectual Azmi Bishara speaks on the current state of America in the Middle east this evening. Introduction by Rashid Khalidi
Date: Wednesday, October 5th Time: 8:00pm Location: Barnard College, 304 Barnard Hall (3009 Broadway at 117th) Cost: Free (?)
Social Justice and Entrepreneurship in 19th century New York
Join Barbara Balliet (Rutgers University), Peter Buckley (The Cooper Union), Kenneth Jackson (Columbia University), and Sean Wilentz (Princeton University) tonight for a roundtable discussion on social justice and entrepreneurship in 19th century New York. "For almost 150 years, The Great Hall of The Cooper Union has served as a popular stage for educational lectures, political movements, campaigns for social reform and the creative arts. These meetings have embodied what Peter Cooper meant by “civic culture.” The impact of The Great Hall on American society has been immeasurable."
Date: Thursday, October 6th Time: 7:00pm Location: The Great Hall at Cooper Union (7 East 7th at 3rd Ave) Cost: Free
Youth Culture: The Art and Currency of Globalization
"Impermanence may be the only permanent characteristic of the 21st century. New urban landscapes are rapidly evolving in response to tides of immigration; at the same time, new geographies are mapped everyday on the internet. How can we talk about these new cultures?" The Global Issues in Design & Visuality lecture series continues with a look at the works of serveral heavy hitters in the street art game including Jameel Shabazz (NYC), Ryan McGinness (NYC), Shepard Fairey (LA), Os Gemenos (Brazil), Miguel Calderon (Mexico), Los Carpenteros (Cuba), As Four (NYC), Takashi Murakami (Japan), Malik Sadibe (Mali), Larry Clark (NYC/LA), Nick Waplington (UK), Surface to Air (France) and Nicky S. Lee (NYC).
Date: Tuesday, October 11th
Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street)
Cost: Free
At the Happy Ending Reading Series, "Raconteurs, poets, and other cultural phenoms present their work as they showcase their other talents. Each reader is required to take one public risk. Reading in public cannot be one of them. [This is the] only reading series of its kind to combine genres; this series has become the underground hotspot for writers and readers actively taking risks."
Date: Wednesday, October 12th Time: 8:00pm (doors 7:30) Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome Street) Cost: Free (I assume)
Who’s listening? Who’s talking? with Catherine McCoy
The Global Issues in Design & Visuality series continues with graphic design guru and personal hero Catherine McCoy. McCoy was one of t he founders of the American post-structuralism movement in the US as the head of the graphic design program at Cranbrook. "McCoy argues that designers need new strategies to navigate between their own culture and the heterogeneous audiences they serve. She examines the legacy of modernism in the context of corporate globalism and makes the case—not for abandoning the history and conventions of design—but for evolving what she calls “a more open architecture, to effectively incorporate cultural human factors that respond to diversity, multiplicity and flux.”
Date: Tuesday, October 18th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th St.) Cost: Free
The Imaginary Cultures of Online Multiplayer Video Games
The Global Issues in Design & Visuality lecture series continues. "This lecture will look at how video game players build imaginary cultures. Specially-selected examples will be analyzed as harbingers of new global communities in formation, offering new insights into the burgeoning world of virtual vernaculars."
Date: Tuesday, October 25th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 W. 12th St.) Cost: Free
Ok people, lets talk monkeys. I love monkeys, my neighbor who has a chimp which sits in his window 24/7 loves monkeys, and the world renowned primatologist, Jane Goodall also loves monkeys. She is actually best known for her decades of work with chimpanzees and baboons, but today she is droppin knowlegde not about the state of the animal kingdom, but of human society and the way we produce and consume in hopes of achieving a more sustainable world. In her latest book, Harvet For Hope, she outlines some of where western society has gone wrong and how we can creat positive change.
Date: Wednesday, October 26th Time: 12:30pm Venue: Barnes and Noble, Union Square and 17th Cost: Free
Ariele Eckstut and David Henry, authors of Putting Your Passion Into Print explain the ins and outs of pitching a conceise book idea at this Strand workshop. Select attendees will even get to pitch to real professionals and get critiqued. Some sort of party to follow.
Date: Wednesday, October 26th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm (party at 7:30) Location: Strand Book Store (828 Broadway) Cost: Free
Cooper Union teaches its students about the important things in life... like absinthe.
"Absinthe (the Green Fairy, la Fée Verte) has a romantic history like no other drink. This pale green alcoholic liqueur fueled and inspired the poets and artists of late 19th and early 20th century Europe. It is impossible to imagine painters like Toulouse Lautrec, Degas, Manet, and Van Gogh or writers like Verlaine, Rimbaud, Joyce, and Hemingway without the elaborate ritual that accompanied this beverage. No other drink has aroused such opposition as this wormwood-based beverage that was held responsible for all manner of crime, degeneration, sexual license and degeneracy. David Weir, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at The Cooper Union."
Date: Tuesday, November 1st Time: 6:30pm Venue: Wollman Auditorium, 51 Astor Place Cost: Free
Reading and writing about this one makes my brain hurt like it used to during education days at New School. But lets try this... Today, Jean Baudrillard will read from and sign copies of his new book The Conspiracy of Art after a conversation with Sylver Lotringer, founding publisher of Semiotext(e).
"In The Conspiracy of Art, Baudrillard questions the privilege attached to art by its practitioners. Art has lost all desire for illusion: feeding back endlessly into itself, it has turned its own vanishment into an art unto itself. Far from lamenting the ‘end of art,’ Baudrillard celebrates art’s new function within the process of insider-trading. Spiralling from aesthetic nullity to commercial frenzy, art has become transaesthetic, like the rest of society as a whole.
Conceived and edited by life-long Baudrillard collaborator Sylvère Lotringer, The Conspiracy of Art presents his writings on art in a complicitous dance with politics, economy and media. Culminating with “War Porn,” a scathing analysis of the spectacular images of Abu Ghraib prison as a new genre of reality TV, the book folds back on itself to question the very nature of radical thought."
Date: Wednesday, November 2nd
Time: 7pm
Venue: The Tilton Gallery, 8 East 76th St (at 5th Ave)
Cost: Free with RSVP
"Salman Rushdie will read from his book, 'Shalimar the Clown,' at Paula Cooper Gallery. Wish I knew more but Salman Rushdie rocks so go and hear him read because its a rare occurance.
Date: Friday, November 4th Time: 7:00pm Location: Paula Cooper Gallery (521 W. 21st St. bet. 10th and 11th) Cost: Free
The New York celebration of Ganzfeld four continues today with a conversation between Peter Saul, Jim Nutt, Dan Nadel, and David Sandlin. A special DJ performance by Paper Rad will follow.
Nutt and Saul will discuss their four-decade-long careers, influences, image-making, and the peculiar mix of humor, beauty and savagery that each calls their own. Friends and mutual admirers for decades, Nutt and Saul represent the satiric, wise-cracking, graphic side of contemporary art, making figurative work that is not afraid to go for the jugular. Between the two, Nutt and Saul have influenced scores of contemporary artists and illustrators, including Chris Ware, Mike Kelley, Gary Panter, Raymond Pettibon, and Carroll Dunham. This is the first time the two have spoken on the same stage. The conversation will be prefaced by a special musical performance by cult-favorite art collective Paper Rad.
Date: Sunday, October 6th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Lang Student Center, New School (55 West 13th Street) Cost: Free
For 15 years, Jonathan Lipkin has observed the phenomenon of digital photography as a photographer, writer, and educator. He is coauthor of In the Realm of the Circuit and his newest book, Photography Reborn: Image-Making in the Digital Age will be released by Harry N. Abrams in November 2005. From the publisher: "In this important companion to a new art form, author Jonathan Lipkin chronicles the rise of digital technology and explores its impact as well as the limits of its possibilities. Every kind of digital image from MRI scans to fine art is highlighted here, from an obscure scientific application, through its adaptation by pioneer computer artists, to its acceptance by the mainstream of the art world. This seminal text—coupled with fascinating images and examples by contemporary artists Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Pedro Meyer, Nancy Burson, and Loretta Lux—is uniquely appropriate for anyone interested in visual communications, photography, and culture." This event is free but I recommend contacting the department to see if they would like an RSVP if you plan on attending.
This series fulfills the "I want to go back to school" urge that creeps up every few months. It's a sit in lecture as part of an amazing coarse taught at Parsons this year dealing with a variety of various social concerns applicable to facets of design. As for today's topic...
"The U.S. claims free-market capitalism as one of its main exports and consumer products often serve as the enticement to embrace its ideology. But as the worlds’ diverse cultures adopt and adapt this ideology, are we at risk of creating a corporate, global monoculture? This lecture presents critical product design practices that challenge market-driven orthodoxies and that re-frame design as a strategy for contesting a fully corporate future."
Date: Tuesday, November 8th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm (usually runs late, discussion to follow) Location: New School, Swayduck Auditorium (65 Fifth Ave.) Cost: Free
"PEN American Center presents its second State of Emergency event, a special evening of readings in opposition to current United States policies on the treatment of detainees in this country and abroad. A stellar group of writers will come together to read and bring national attention to abusive government policies including torture, arbitrary detention, and extraordinary rendition. With Edward Albee, Paul Auster, Sandra Cisneros, Don DeLillo, Dave Eggers, Martin Espada, Philip Gourevitch, Jessica Hagedorn, Heidi Julavits, Nicole Krauss, Rick Moody, Walter Mosley, Grace Paley, Emma Reverter, Salman Rushdie, and Colson Whitehead."
Date: Tuesday, November 8th Time: 7:00pm (doors at 6:30) Location: Cooper Union Great Hall (7 East 7th Street) Cost: Free (donations accepted)
Deidre Good, Qamar-al Huda, and Daniel Polish create an opportunity for religious examination by analyzing the role of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an in the modern context. Specifically to interpret if the way religious texts are quoted is legitimate.
Participants will be allowed to learn the commonly held interpretations of these texts in a small group setting with an opportunity for discussion.
"The Universal Zulu Nation returns to the Bronx Museum to celebrate the international culture of hip-hop. This marathon mix of panels, music, discussions, and martial arts from the founding fathers of hip-hop, is about information sharing, and learning more about hip-hop culture and the self empowerment. Please come early!" Click here to download the full program (pdf).
Date: Sunday, November 13th Time: 2:00pm - 7:00pm Location: Bronx Museum (1040 Grand Concourse at 165th St., Bronx) Cost: Free
Jack and Andrew Lawson, the wacky and entertaining inventors of the popular board games Imaginiff and Faces, will be at the Toys R Us in Times Square to talk about the growing trend of fun home based entertainment, describe what it takes to be a board game inventor, and, of course, play games with you!
Date: Monday, November 14th Time: 12:00pm - 3:00pm Location: Toys R Us, Times Square (44th and Broadway, I think) Cost: Free
Creative Responses to Race, Violence and Community: A Call for Peace
"Please join us in an event addressing the spate of hate crimes that plagued New York City neighborhoods this summer. Over the course of three months, gangs of primarily white youths attacked two African American men in two separate incidents in Brooklyn, and an African American man killed a white woman in White Plains. In each case, the attackers cited the victim's race as the reason for their violent actions. As Italian Americans, we are particularly concerned with the fact that each of these attacks involved Italian Americans. Join us for an evening of readings and performance, featuring writers, rappers, musicians, performers, and community activists who are committed to finding creative and collaborative ways to combat racism. Participants: Manifest, rapper BR, rapper Rosette Capotorto, poet Ronnie Mae Painter, visual artist/writer Edvige Giunta, essayist/poet Hiram Perez, writer/activist Stephanie Romeo, writer George De Stefano, essayist/author Phyllis Capello, poet/musician Cristogianni Borsella, poet Bob Viscusi, poet/novelist Chiara Montalto, actress/associate producer Salvatore Lumetta, writer/filmmaker Michela Musolino, singer/musician Organized by Kym Ragusa (filmmaker/writer), Jennifer Guglielmo (historian/writer), and Joseph Sciorra (folklorist)"
Date: Monday, November 14th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, NYU (24 West 12th Street) Cost: Free
Years after its release, The da Vinci Code is still raising questions about great artworks, religion, and their relationship. Tonight's slide lecture will cover works from Giotto through the High Renaissance in an aims of confirming or denouncing the facts of Dan Brown's novel.
Date: Monday, November 14th Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Location: Rockefeller University, Caspary Auditorium (1230 York Ave) Cost: Free
"The holiday season can be a time of peace and happiness. By recognizing that happiness comes from within, the challenges of the holiday season become opportunities to develop peaceful states of mind. Come join us at the Greenpoint YMCA (in the pre-school room) for this free talk."
Celebrate Loyal's 5 year anniversary and book release with some free music and free beers at this local Williamsburg bookseller. The book features work from over 20 artists, many of whom will be in attendance. Limited copies available tonight.
Date: Tuesday, November 15th Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Spoonbill and Sugartown (218 Bedford Ave, Williamsburg) Cost: Free
"David Cohen is an art critic of the New York Sun, publisher and editor of the online magazine, artcritical.com, and gallery director at the New York Studio School. As a newspaper critic and magazine editor, Cohen will address the relationship of individual taste and critical responsibility."
Okay, all my friends are hating on Christmas these days. Yeah, I think we get out of hand on spending for presents and yeah, it has been totally comodified by the Hallmarks of the world but I don't care. I get to eat lots of food, see my family, drink insane amount of egg nog (not store bought... gasp) and reflect on the year that past with a nice glass of port. Okay, maybe there is a lot of drinking involved as well but there is still food and family.
But if you are a hater, or know an Xmas hater, then this reading of The Worst Noel is for you. "With the holiday season fast approaching local New York authors help us to laugh, groan and commiserate about the horrible personal holiday stories that each of us has! Among them, Mike Albo (The Underminer) and his romantic Christmas-in-Paris dream, which turns into a nightmare after an accident leaves him with a bloodied cross on his forehead, and the festive car ride that Cynthia Kaplan (Why I'm Like This) takes, which goes astray when she hits a deer and “Donner is Dead” becomes her family’s holiday story. Also reading, Valeria Frankel (The Accidental Virgin) and John Marchese(Building the Magical Box)." Authors will personalize copies of The Worst Noel.
Not One More Mother's Child - Cindy Sheehan Talk/Signing
"Cindy Sheehan lost her son, Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan, in an ambush in Sadr City, Baghdad, on April 4, 2004. As information became available that the war in Iraq was based on lies and 'cooked intelligence,' she began speaking out and testifying in the halls of Congress. In August 2005, she went to Crawford, Texas, to confront President Bush, and the floodgates of a renewed American peace movement were opened. Cindy Sheehan is a moving writer and vibrant storyteller. In Not One More Mother’s Child, she chronicles her thoughts and actions, reflections on war and peace, truth and accountability, sharing for the first time in book form the story of her journey from grieving mom to effective activist. With a Foreword by Congressman John Conyers, Jr."
Date: Wednesday, November 30th Time: 6:30pm Location: Coliseum Books (11 West 42nd Street) Cost: Free
Sunday's are always the laziest day of the week for me. Getting up at one, wandering over to breakfast, wandering back home for a nap. Okay, that's in an ideal world but it sounded. Nice. If you are wandering the (Williamsburg/Bushwick) neighborhood today, however, you may want to swing by the Sunday Salon Series at Stain. Four New York City authors read stories and book excepts. Stained is a NY themed "arts lounge" that has a nice supply of local brews and wines, free internet, and a great vibe.
Date: Sunday, November 20th
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Stain Bar (766 Grand Street, Williamsburg)
Cost: Free
Lecture series continues... I have ranted enough about my love for this series so I won't bore you again. Tonight's topic... Zara:
"Zara, a retail company from Spain, is the world’s third largest clothing retailer with 638 stores in 47 countries around the world. They eschew conventional marketing strategies (based on buying patterns in different localities) for a consumer-based strategy mapped not by region but by technological/social networks. This lecture will use Zara as a case study to illustrate the changing paradigm of production and consumption, once mutually exclusive now interdependent."
Date: Tuesday, November 22nd Time: 6:00pm (sharp) Location: New School, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street) Cost: Free
"From the straight boulevards that "demolition artist" Haussmann smashed through rambling old Paris to the frenzied implosion of Las Vegas hotel towers, demolition has long played an ambiguous role in the architectural imagination. Author Jeff Byles surveys the evolution of unbuilding techniques, as old-school wreckers evolved into highly adept practitioners of "structural jujitsu." He covers pioneers like NYC’s Jacob Volk who crumbled skyscrapers in the Wall St area, the implosion of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St Louis + the profound impact the "disappearance" of tall buildings makes on the skyline & the urban psyche."
Date: Tuesday, November 22nd Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm Location: Center for Architecture (536 LaGuardia Place, between W 3rd and Bleecker Streets) Cost: Free
Martin Kellerman is the creator of Rocky, a daily comic strip about lazy cartoon pals and their neurotic, indignent girlfriends. Tonight is a meet and greet with the author. Official release after the fold.
Date: Wednesday, November 30th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Rocketship (208 Smith Street, Brooklyn) Cost: Free
"Martin Kellerman is the Jane Austen of 21st century twenty-something urban European slackers. Firmly in the tradition of Fritz the Cat, Hate, and Clerks, Rocky is his mostly autobiographical daily strip detailing the rudely hilarious travails of a young cartoonist and his circle of layabout pals and neurotic, indignant girlfriends. In this action-packed volume collecting the first year of the smash-hit strip, Rocky gets tossed out of his apartment, flies across the pond to visit a gay African-American pal (not realizing he lives in deepest Harlem); is ill-advisedly given the mission of euthanizing a friend's beloved pet rabbit ("Tom, give this job to Clemenza." "Yes, Godfather."); makes a spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to trade in his girlfriend for her younger, more buxom sister; gets a bowel inflammation and a colonoscopy; goes to a costume party dressed as Tinky Winky; tries to get laid while camping out at a rock festival - and basically drinks and fornicates (or tries to) his way through Stockholm and New York, with hangover following drunken binge and mortification following faux pas as night follows day. What will probably be amazing to American readers is how similar the day-to-day experiences of these Seinfeld-watching, Big Mac-eating, hip-hop-listening Swedes is to theirs. Rocky is a reminder as to how utterly global our culture has become - and a reminder that laughter is truly universal."
"The Eighteenth Independent and Small Press Book Fair will take place on Saturday, December 3 (10am to 6pm) and Sunday, December 4 (11am to 5pm) at the Small Press Center, The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, at 20 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) in Manhattan. Admission to the Book Fair is free and open to the public, and offers a great opportunity to purchase holiday gifts...Over 100 independent presses will be exhibiting in person, including The New Press, Akashic Books, Gingko Press, Soft Skull Press, Manic D Press, and Seven Stories Press. We are also hosting a diverse array of programs on topics such as graphic novels, crime fiction, and literary blogging." Full line up after the fold.
Date: Saturday, December 3rd and Sunday, December 4th Time: Sat. 10am - 6pm, Sun. 11am - 5pm Venue: Small Press Center, The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 20 West 44th Street Cost:
12:00 – An Illustrated Future: Graphic Art and Literature in the New Millenium
With Peter Kuper, Tania Del Rio and Paul Pope, moderated by Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly and PW Comics Week. Some of the most well-regarded figures in comics discuss the sudden popularity of their genre, small and big press publishing, manga, and the growth of comics and graphic novels in the book market.
1:00 – The Politics of Culture: the Role of City Government in Local Culture
What role does local government play in supporting and nurturing its writers and artists? Exploring this question and related issues will be progressive City Council Member Letitia James from Brooklyn; civil liberties stalwart and Public Advocate candidate Norman Siegel; and Johnny Temple, publisher of Akashic Books and Chairman of the Brooklyn Literary Council. The discussion will be moderated by Brooklyn Rail editor Ted Hamm.
Also at 1:00:
Putting Your Passion into Print: Getting Your Book Published Successfully
A workshop on how to become a successfully published author, with nuts and bolts advice from literary agent Arielle Eckstut and writer David Henry Sterry, co-authors of the recently published Putting Your Passion into Print. During their ninety-minute session, they will demystify the publishing process and cover all publishing bases, including: how to write a book proposal; how to approach a potential literary agent; royalty payments; book publicity and marketing; and how to find a publisher, large and small.
2:00 – The Left Is Right: The Rise of the Independent Media
A panel with Bill Scher, Danny Schecter, Eric Alterman, and Dan Simon, moderated by Danny Goldberg.
A discussion of how indie media have grown in a corporate-dominated environment.
3:00 – D.O.A. Tomorrow: The Future of Crime Fiction
Brooklyn literary kingpin Tim McLoughlin joins fellow hot-shot authors Maggie Estep and Jason Starr in a discussion about fresh currents in dark criminal fiction.
Also at 3:00:
Tips on How to Get a Literary Agent and Publisher
Jeff Herman, a leading New York literary agent and author of the invaluable resource, and best-selling book, the Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents will provide advice on navigating the complex world of book publishing. During his workshop, he will provide expert guidance on such useful topics as how to pitch a book, prepare a winning query and proposal, negotiate a contract, and much more.
4:00 – An Interview with Luc Sante by Charlotte Abbott
Charlotte Abbot, Book News Editor at Publishers Weekly, will interview writer Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, The Factory of Facts, and Evidence, among other books. He was the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award in 1989, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1992-93, and in 1997, a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
5:00 – Is Blogging Dead?
Four of the freshest literary bloggers explore the evolving landscape of e-literary culture. Has blogging lost its sexy edge? Hear the perspectives of bloggers: Dennis Loy Johnson, Maud Newton, Ron Hogan, and Sarah Weinman.
Sunday, December 4:
12:00 – Lost and FOUND – A FOUND Magazine Presentation
With Jason Bitner and other staff from FOUND Magazine. The cult favorite FOUND Magazine began when a strange and humorous note was mistakenly left on the editor’s windshield. The magazine is a collection of found objects from all over the country, each of which shed some kind of light on an otherwise unknown life.
1:00 – The U.S. in Iraq: A Discussion on Interventionism
New York Times editor Barry Gewen will moderate an in-depth discussion on U.S. interventionism in general, and Iraq in particular, between The Nation magazine's Christian Parenti and Commentary magazine's Gary Rosen.
2:00 – Zines: Independent Publications in a Corporate Media World
A panel with Ayun Halliday, Eleanor Whitney, Lauren Jade Martin, and moderated by Jenna Freedman.
What exactly are zines, and how do you go about creating your own? Four local zinemakers describe their experiences creating zines, including content, design graphics, how to copy and distribute, and networking with other zinesters. Join us to learn more about these unique and important publications and the role they can play in building a vibrant independent publishing community.
3:00 – Open Mic with Reverend Jen and Friends
Self-proclaimed art star Reverend Jen hosts an open mic event with some of her downtown compatriots.
4:00 – Captured: A Look at Lower East Side Film
With Penny Arcade, Jeremiah Newton, and Amos Poe, moderated by Clayton Patterson. A discussion of the origins and heyday of DIY and transgressive film from the Lower East Side, with the people who shaped it.
With Readings from Small Press Authors on Both Days
"The Eighteenth Independent and Small Press Book Fair will take place on Saturday, December 3 (10am to 6pm) and Sunday, December 4 (11am to 5pm) at the Small Press Center, The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, at 20 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) in Manhattan. Admission to the Book Fair is free and open to the public, and offers a great opportunity to purchase holiday gifts...Over 100 independent presses will be exhibiting in person, including The New Press, Akashic Books, Gingko Press, Soft Skull Press, Manic D Press, and Seven Stories Press. We are also hosting a diverse array of programs on topics such as graphic novels, crime fiction, and literary blogging." Full line up after the fold.
Date: Saturday, December 3rd and Sunday, December 4th Time: Sat. 10am - 6pm, Sun. 11am - 5pm Venue: Small Press Center, The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 20 West 44th Street Cost:
12:00 – An Illustrated Future: Graphic Art and Literature in the New Millenium
With Peter Kuper, Tania Del Rio and Paul Pope, moderated by Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly and PW Comics Week. Some of the most well-regarded figures in comics discuss the sudden popularity of their genre, small and big press publishing, manga, and the growth of comics and graphic novels in the book market.
1:00 – The Politics of Culture: the Role of City Government in Local Culture
What role does local government play in supporting and nurturing its writers and artists? Exploring this question and related issues will be progressive City Council Member Letitia James from Brooklyn; civil liberties stalwart and Public Advocate candidate Norman Siegel; and Johnny Temple, publisher of Akashic Books and Chairman of the Brooklyn Literary Council. The discussion will be moderated by Brooklyn Rail editor Ted Hamm.
Also at 1:00:
Putting Your Passion into Print: Getting Your Book Published Successfully
A workshop on how to become a successfully published author, with nuts and bolts advice from literary agent Arielle Eckstut and writer David Henry Sterry, co-authors of the recently published Putting Your Passion into Print. During their ninety-minute session, they will demystify the publishing process and cover all publishing bases, including: how to write a book proposal; how to approach a potential literary agent; royalty payments; book publicity and marketing; and how to find a publisher, large and small.
2:00 – The Left Is Right: The Rise of the Independent Media
A panel with Bill Scher, Danny Schecter, Eric Alterman, and Dan Simon, moderated by Danny Goldberg.
A discussion of how indie media have grown in a corporate-dominated environment.
3:00 – D.O.A. Tomorrow: The Future of Crime Fiction
Brooklyn literary kingpin Tim McLoughlin joins fellow hot-shot authors Maggie Estep and Jason Starr in a discussion about fresh currents in dark criminal fiction.
Also at 3:00:
Tips on How to Get a Literary Agent and Publisher
Jeff Herman, a leading New York literary agent and author of the invaluable resource, and best-selling book, the Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents will provide advice on navigating the complex world of book publishing. During his workshop, he will provide expert guidance on such useful topics as how to pitch a book, prepare a winning query and proposal, negotiate a contract, and much more.
4:00 – An Interview with Luc Sante by Charlotte Abbott
Charlotte Abbot, Book News Editor at Publishers Weekly, will interview writer Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York, The Factory of Facts, and Evidence, among other books. He was the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award in 1989, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1992-93, and in 1997, a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
5:00 – Is Blogging Dead?
Four of the freshest literary bloggers explore the evolving landscape of e-literary culture. Has blogging lost its sexy edge? Hear the perspectives of bloggers: Dennis Loy Johnson, Maud Newton, Ron Hogan, and Sarah Weinman.
Sunday, December 4:
12:00 – Lost and FOUND – A FOUND Magazine Presentation
With Jason Bitner and other staff from FOUND Magazine. The cult favorite FOUND Magazine began when a strange and humorous note was mistakenly left on the editor’s windshield. The magazine is a collection of found objects from all over the country, each of which shed some kind of light on an otherwise unknown life.
1:00 – The U.S. in Iraq: A Discussion on Interventionism
New York Times editor Barry Gewen will moderate an in-depth discussion on U.S. interventionism in general, and Iraq in particular, between The Nation magazine's Christian Parenti and Commentary magazine's Gary Rosen.
2:00 – Zines: Independent Publications in a Corporate Media World
A panel with Ayun Halliday, Eleanor Whitney, Lauren Jade Martin, and moderated by Jenna Freedman.
What exactly are zines, and how do you go about creating your own? Four local zinemakers describe their experiences creating zines, including content, design graphics, how to copy and distribute, and networking with other zinesters. Join us to learn more about these unique and important publications and the role they can play in building a vibrant independent publishing community.
3:00 – Open Mic with Reverend Jen and Friends
Self-proclaimed art star Reverend Jen hosts an open mic event with some of her downtown compatriots.
4:00 – Captured: A Look at Lower East Side Film
With Penny Arcade, Jeremiah Newton, and Amos Poe, moderated by Clayton Patterson. A discussion of the origins and heyday of DIY and transgressive film from the Lower East Side, with the people who shaped it.
With Readings from Small Press Authors on Both Days
Global Issues in Design & Visuality series continues today... "Impermanence may be the only permanent characteristic of the 21st century. New urban landscapes are rapidly evolving in response to tides of immigration; at the same time, new geographies are mapped everyday on the internet. How can we talk about these new cultures? This lecture examines the impulse toward sprawl as an aspect of American ideology, particularly in light of the new found political power of the exurbs whose votes were highly influential in the last Presidential election."
Date: Tuesday, December 6th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street) Cost: Free
All your favorite powerHouse book authors - including Martha Cooper, Jamel Shabazz, Tony Ward, and Peter Sutherland - will be on hand tonight signing copies of their books just in time for the perfect hipster holiday present. Free drinks on hand.
Date: Thursday, December 8th Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: powerHouse Bookstore & Gallery (68 Charlton Street between Varick and Hudson) Cost: Free with RSVP
"Shoot Them in the Cornfields!, a drama set in 1958, is a first-person account on the most notorious, criminal prisons of the Soviet Union, Butirka, to which an aging, free-spirited Jewish woman and her husband, caught for employing the mentally retarded, under Nikita Krushchev’s oppressive, anti-intellectual reign, are banished for ten years. This reading of global resonance features Ina Rosenthal, Howard Atlee, Brett Dykes, Heather Massie and Alexei Kostalevsky. A reception and short Q&A will follow. [note: there is no mention of this event on the Drama site so you may want to call ahead - 212.944.0595 - to confirm.]
Date: Monday, December 12th Time: 7:30pm Location:Drama Book Shop (250 West 40th Street between 7th and 8th) Cost: Free
In an effort to never let us forget The Gates, Cristo and Jeanne-Claude return to Strand Bookstore to personalize copies of their newest book on the subject (limited run of 5000). "Christo & Jeanne-Claude will personalize books and give a short introduction to this newest work. Wine will be served. Christo & Jeanne-Claude will receive no income from the sale of the book." If you have an art lover, or a Gates lover, on your list then this may be the perfect present to pick up.
Date: Wednesday, December 14th Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm Location:The Strand (828 Broadway at 12th St.) Cost: Free
"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. But if we want to understand the relevance of Buddhism here and now, then we have to learn how to do all of these things. "
Date: Wednesday, December 14th (and every Wednesday after) Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Lila Yoga and Dharma Center(302 Bowery at Houston, Buzzer #2) Cost: By donation
Not to be missed by any punk fans, rock photographer Bob Gruen discusses his new DVD “The New York Dolls – All Dolled Up.” The DVD is a documentary capturing the band in their early years and includes performances, TV shows and interviews over a three year period. Should be interesting as Gruen followed the band from early performances in NY and then on their tour of the west coast.
Date: Wednesday, December 14th Time: 7:00pm Location: Borders Bookstore (10 Columbus Circle - 57th St. & 8th Ave) Cost: Free
Any way you approach it, you can't go wrong with a thursday evening listening to authors and poets read their finest lesbian erotica. The Drunken! Careening! Writers! series is back at KGB tonight featuring the works of Eleen Myles, Anna Bishop, Skian McGuire and Zaedryn Meade.
Date: Thursday, December 15th Time: 7:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free
indieWIRE present some of it’s favourite film bloggers they will discuss various aspects of film making and their blogging. Those confirmed so far include: Karina Longworth (Cinematical), Scott Macaulay (Filmmaker Magazine Blog) and Alison Willmore (IFC News). The event will be moderated by indieWIRE Editor in Chief (and blogger) Eugene Hernandez.
Date: Friday, Decmeber 16th Time: 7.30pm – 9.00pm Location: Apple Store Soho 103 Prince Street btw Mercer and Greene Cost: Free
Joe Ryan has made posters for rock acts such as Sonic Youth and TV on the Radio. Tonight he will be discussing his new book: "100 Posters, 134 Squirrels, a Decade of Hot Dogs, Large Mammals, and Independent Rock: The Handcrafted Art of Jay Ryan."
Date: Sunday, December 18th Time: 7:00pm Location: Lit (93 Second Ave Between 9th and 10th) Cost: Free
Tonight Mary Gaitskill reads from her new novel ‘Veronica.’ A recommended NYT read and described as a ‘mesmerizingly dark novel.’ She is most well known for writing the short story the ‘Secretary’ that the 2002 film was based on. Noria Jablonski reads from her collection 'Human Oddities.'
Date: Sunday, December 18th Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free
From the aNYthing crew... "Walk, Skate, Bicycle, Flap Yer Wings, Or Take An Over-Priced Taxi.... Do Whatever You Have To Get Down To The LES & Get Yer Book Signed By Espo. Check The Website For The Exclusive Espo Drop! Plus, New Songs Added To Genre Now Radio! Check It, Check It! Official Tissue!"
Date: Thursday, December 22nd Time: 5:30pm - 7:00pm Locaton: aNYthing (51 Hester St. btwn Ludlow & Essex) Cost: Free
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
"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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
The stylish, exuberant, and remarkably sweet confession of one of the most famous groupies of the 1960's and 70's is back in print in this new edition that includes an afterword on the author's last fifteen years of adventures. Event will feature celebrity guest readers, including actress Sandra Bernhard. Reading, Q&A, Signing, Reception.
Date: Saturday, January 4th Time: 6:00pm Location: Coliseum Books (11 W. 42nd St.) Cost: Free
Tales of the City: Design in Service of Cultural Mediation
A new semester means a new series of Global Issues in Design & Visuality lectures. This lectures series is part of the Parsons School of Design curriculum for new media students. Each week a different pressing global issues is addressed. The lectures are designed to span all facets of design (industrial, graphic, fashion, etc) and are a great way to keep the brain matter lit up now that you've graduated. Tonight's lecture, Tales of the City: Design in Service of Cultural Mediation, Brings Fred Dust of IDEO to the microphone. "IDEO, the largest design and engineering firm in the world, renowned for its multi-disciplinary design practice, has expanded the consulting service model to the realm of social organization. Dust will present case studies of IDEO’s work with clients ranging from Native American tribes to the Finnish government." IDEO also designed the first Apple mouse for the LISA computer.
Date: Tuesday, February 7th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm, Sharp Location: New School, Swayduck Auditorium (65 5th Ave) Cost: Free
Best selling author Jackie Collins, is reading from and signing her new book 'Lovers and Players.' Fans will be pleased to know the book meets her usual glamour-heavy Collins trashtastic style.
Patti Smith, seminal LES artist and punk rock originator, reads and signs her latest book of poetry Auguries of Innocence. "Patti Smith is a poet, artist, and musician. Her band, the Patti Smith Group helped to open up the New York musical scene, centered on the iconic rock venue CBGBs in the early 70s. Together the band produced four influential albums: Horses, Radio Ethiopia, Easter, and Wave. Patti is the author of Witt, Babel, Wool Gathering, The Coral Sea, and Complete, a catalog of lyrics, photographs, and reflections. Her drawings have been exhibited at the Robert Miller Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Auguries of Innocence is her first collection of poems since 1979." As this event is open to the public but created for students, we suggest early arrive as seating may be limited.
Date: Wednesday, February 8th Time: 6:30pm Location:Cooper Union, Great Hall (7 East 7th St at 3rd Ave) Cost: Free
The "Global Issues in Design and Visuality" lecture series continues to day with a discussion of national and post-national identities... "Modern Olympic Games are usually promoted as extravagant events that offer world-wide visibility to the host-city, while also strengthening the bonds of the local community. At the same time, the Olympics are often criticized as being representative of a rootless, ahistorical culture, 'a lexicon of deceit and self delusion' that takes the subject of 'shared humanity' as its pretext and distorts it to fit particular ideologies. This lecture examines the role of design in affirming established identities or configuring new ones. It questions whether the Olympic city and the design aspects involved, from the athletes’ uniforms to the stadia themselves, can be instrumental in the configuration of post-national identities in an era that nurtures social attachments that cut across national borders."
Aperture, Parsons and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics are teaming up for a panel discussion tonight exploring the qualities that make a photograph's impact last. In the end, we as if it is possible to predict which images will be deemed “great” or emblematic of our times. Moderated by Diana Edkins, Director of Exhibitions and Limited-Edition Photographs, Aperture.
Date: Wednesday, February 15h Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th St) Cost: Free, first come first server
I grew up on punk rock, 7", bad VFW hall shows and all the other facets of punk pre-Blink182. Hell, I even saw Billy Joe play with Pinhead Gunpoweder before Green Day (hows that for "punker then you" arrogance). So tonight is a special treat as Ian MacKaye - lead singer of seminal bands Minor Threat and Fugazi - steps it up to discuss the art of storytelling at NYU tonight. This event is for NYU kids only but the public can grab tickets starting at 12:30.
Date: Wednesday, February 15th Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm Location: NYU, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium @ NYU Kimmel Center (60 Washington Square South at Laguardia Place, 4th Floor) COST: FREE - "Tickets are available for FREE at NYU Ticket Central (566 Laguardia Place). Must have an NYU ID to pickup tickets in advance (limit 2 per ID). Tickets will be available to the general public beginning at 12:30 pm on the day of show."
"Bask in the post-Valentine’s Day afterglow with the hottest, sexiest words in the city! [...] 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." We here at FreeNYC really appreciate the written word, especially when they are dirty words! And seriously hot does this sound? Tonight's In The Flesh Erotic Reading Series features the work of M.J. Rose (Lip Service, The Delilah Complex), Carol Taylor(Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales, Brown Sugar series), Lauren Sanders (With or Without You, Kamikaze Lust), and two contributors to Wanderlust, Melvin E. Lewis and SekouWrites, along with a naughty tale from host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Plus there will be free candy!
Advertising, Culture and Globalization: Producing the Indian Consumer
"William Mazzarella is the author of Shoveling Smoke. Mazzarella’s lecture will draw on his ethnographic research on the advertising and marketing world of Mumbai in order to explore the manner in which the globalization of markets puts a premium on the reinvention of cultural difference. Mazzarella is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. The Stephan Weiss Memorial Lecture Series was launched to commemorate the life of the late artist & sculptor, Stephan Weiss, husband and business partner of fashion designer Donna Karan."
Date: Thursday, February 16th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Loation: New School, Wollman Hall (65 West 11th St, 5th Fl) Cost: Free, please RSVP
I'll be honest, I love to read, but these days I have the attention span of Blink 182 fan when it comes to my prose. That, and its really hard to hold a book with a beer in one hand and a shot of Jack in the other. Thankfully, Drunken! Careening! Writers! is back again this month at KGB Bar (a place where I - oddly enough - popped my 21 year old drinkers cherry). The premise is simple, each month the writers must read a piece which well written, under 15 minutes in length, and make you laugh at some point. Tonights reader/writers are Anne Elliot, boni joi, and Clem Paulsen. Bios after the jump.
Date: Thursday, February 16th Time: 7:00pm Location:KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free
Anne Elliott is a poet/ukulelist and publisher of Big Fat Press chapbooks. Her fiction appeared most recently in Pindeldyboz (web edition), and she blogs on writing, reading, handicrafts, and feral cat management at assbackwords.blogspot.com. She currently seeks a home for a first novel, THE GLORY HOLE, and a short story collection, LIGHT STREAMING FROM A HORSE'S ASS. Her excuse: she is a preacher's daughter.
boni joi has performed at numerous venues such as The Knitting Factory, Estrogenius, Dixon Place, Gecko's Night of the Living Divas & Chicks Cook, Jennifer Blowdryer's Smutfest, The Carmen Mofongo Show, and The Atomic Reading Series. She has performed in Mortified, a show where readers perform work from their teenage diaries. boni joi was part of Da Bips: Da Bowery Improv Poets, an improvisational poetry troupe directed by Galinsky. boni has read at Amanda Stern?s Happy Ending Reading where the readers are asked to warm up the crowd by performing 80?s cover songs, which she did, with her musical husband. Her poems have appeared in Arabella, Long Shot, Driver's Side Air Bag, Big Hammer, Mind Gorilla, Torch, The Brooklyn Rail and many others. She is author of The Jaw-harp Aphorisms and hasself-published the Matchbook poems, a series of succinct poems printed on matchbooks.
Clem Paulsen was trained as an architect and practiced architecture for over a decade. His notes from those years have grown into a sprawling comic novel, Drawing a Blank. He lives in Hastings-on-Hudson where, with medication and exercise, he has managed to keep his workaholism under control.
Did you ever write something and wonder whether it was actually good or whether you just thought it was actually good. (Chances are if you read this website you have seen instances of both! Ha!) Well this is a great oppritunity for you to both judge and be judged. The Raw Word Readings are up-and-coming actors cold-reading original screenplay excerpts by up-and-coming screenwriters. Click here to submit your screenplay.
Date: Thursday, February 16th Time: 8:00pm Location: Rock Candy, 35 East 21st Cost: Free
It takes quite a title for me to get excited about an event with no description. But that's exactly what this week's Global Issues in Design & Visuality lecture did when I learned the subject was "The Self versus the Fashion Industry." Something every designer deals with is trend, market, brand verses self, etc and having worked in fashion for years I can attest that compromises are made every day. It will be interesting to see how Van Dyk Lewis, Assistant Professor in the Department of Textiles and Apparel at Cornell University, approaches the subject. This is a college lecture but all are welcome (be on time or the teacher WILL yell at you).
To celebrate Wales week in New York 2006 two free Dylan Thomas bus tours are taking place today. The tour talks about the life of the Welsh literacy legend and we will pass places that he visited, read at, and stayed at. His famous poems include Under Milk Wood and The Hunchback in the Park. Thomas died in New York in 1953 while on his third lecture tour - most likely from excessive drinking and an injection of morphine so expect the tour to visit various famous Greenwich pubs like Chumleys.
Date: Saturday, February 25th Time: First tour: 10.30am to 12.30pm Second tour: 1.30pm to 3.30pm Location: Meeting point (92nd Y Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street) Cost: Free with RSVP
"How have artists participated in their representation in the past? How do they work as co-curators and co-producers of their work today? This lecture examines how artists are participating in the production and the consumption of their work through the notion of branding. Historical examples, such as Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys, will be discussed as precedents to contemporary branded artists, such as Damien Hirst and Maurizio Cattelan who capitalize on the conflation of publishing, communications, art production and the market. Among the other artists to be discussed are: Takashi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Vanessa Beecroft, and Christian Philip Mueller." Part of the Global Issues in Design & Visuality series.
Tonight meet America's most kick ass radical cartoonist Stephanie McMillan and columnist Ted Rall as Stephanie reads from her new book Minimum Security.
Date: Monday, March 5th Time: 6:00pm Location: NYU, Bobst Library 10th floor (70 Washington Square South) Cost: Free Summary:Authors Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner discuss the effects of the chemical industry on our public health.
Whenever I jump the train back home to Philly, I get a lovely tour of numerous industrial sites in New Jersey. And as I pass by the fluorescent green puddles of "water", I wonder whose job it is to be making sure these plants aren't dumping toxic pollutants into the environment. And apparently I'm not the only person wondering about this.
"In this book Markowitz and Rosner discuss the chemical industry’s half-century campaign to deceive their workers, consumers, and the public about dangers of lead and the toxic chemical vinyl chloride used in plastic manufacturing. Based on documents that historians rarely use — internal company memos, meeting minutes, and technical reports that were gathered in the discovery phases of lawsuits against the Lead Industry Association, Manufactures Chemical Association, and a number of their member companies..."
If you are curious about how humans continue to destroy the environment around them check out this discussion with authors Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, two of America’s foremost historians of public health, as they talk about their new book Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution.
Date: Tuesday, March 7th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm, sharp Location: Parsons, Swayduck Auditorium Cost: Free Summary: Free-market capitalism and product design make for bedfellows at this week edition of the Global Issues in Design & Visuality lecture series.
"The U.S. claims free-market capitalism as one of its main exports and consumer products often serve as the enticement to embrace its ideology. But as the worlds’ diverse cultures adopt and adapt this ideology, are we at risk of creating a corporate, global monoculture? This lecture presents critical product design practices that challenge market-driven orthodoxies and that re-frame design as a strategy for contesting a fully corporate future."
Presented by: Jamer Hunt, Director, Graduate Program in Industrial Design, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia
Date: Wednesday, March 8th Time: 6:30pm Location: Coliseum Books (11 West 42nd Street, Btw 5th and 6th) Cost: Free Summary:Reading, KLEPTO is about two women's quest for fashion in 1980's New York
Since I write neither like a woman nor like I work for Paper Magazine, I figure I will just let the press release roll on this one... "The energetic and exceptionally amusing author Jenny Pollack will read excerpts from her debut novel, KLEPTO, the essentially true and only occasionally fictionalized novel about the author and her best friend’s felonious quest for fashion in 1980s New York. It’s a virtual tour of the city’s hottest shopping destinations for the teenaged Pollack with clothing stores like Bloomie’s, Sak’s, Canal Jeans and Betsey Johnson providing the source for designer jeans, vintage bowling shirts and fishnet stockings as well as the backdrop for a short, yet guilt-ridden crime spree."
Date: Thursday, March 9th Time: 10:00pm Location: Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery) Cost: Free Summary:New York's literary underground celebrates the greatness that is Charles Bukowski.
Today is the deathday of Charles Bukowski, so The Bowery Poetry Club is celebrating his long life and tremendous amount of writing. His work will be read tonight by Roger Bonair Agard, Steve Cannon, Steve Dalachinsky, Bonny Finberg, Galinsky, John S. Hall, Bob Holman, David Huberman, Tsaurah Litzky, Big Mike, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Danny Shot, Moonshine Shorey and Deanna Zandt. Open Reading follows so bring your own Bukowski to read!
Date: Monday, March 13th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes and Noble, Union Square (33 E 17th) Cost: Free Summary: Macaulay Culkin puts in some face time for his new book, Junior.
Say what you will be Mr. Macaulay Culkin has appeared in everything from Home Alone and My Girl to Saved and Party Monster. And now he shows us what a good writter he is by creating Junior, a fictional tale of the pitfalls of fame and an abusive father. Come check him out tonight at Barnes and Noble on Union Square.
The Imaginary Cultures of Online Multiplayer Video Games
Date: Tuesday, March 15th Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm Location: Parsons, Swayduck Auditorium (65 5th Ave) Cost: Free Summary: "Just as globalization has accelerated the mobility of people, images, and products, constantly reconfiguring the cultures associated with them, massively multiplayer online gaming has become a universe of identities (and geographies) constantly in the making..."
Just as globalization has accelerated the mobility of people, images, and products, constantly reconfiguring the cultures associated with them, massively multiplayer online gaming has become a universe of identities (and geographies) constantly in the making. Gamers represent themselves through virtual beings that are complex composites of character traits. In addition to assuming various roles and behaviors, players also shape the spaces where the games are played. ‘Spaces’ are translated into ‘places’ with features drawn from various archetypes: suburbs, inner city ghettos, medieval castles. Overlaid onto these spaces are cultural frameworks drawn from sources ranging from Japanese science fiction to American pop music. This lecture will look at how video game players build imaginary cultures. Part of the Global Issues in Design & Visuality series.
Date: Tuesday, March 14th Time: 6:30pm Location: Mo Pitkins (34 Avenue A) Cost: Free Summary: New York Times columnist Rob Walker reads from, discusses, and perhaps answers questions about his essay collection Letters From New Orleans, covering such topics as celebratory gunfire, urban decay, the relationship between people and places, and the pros and cons of masking. Free food at 6:30, reading at 7.
The 2006 Marshall McLuhan Lecture with Andy Borowitz
Date: Tuesday, March 21st Time: 6:30pm Location: Cantor Film Center, NYU (36 East 8th St between University and Greene) Cost: Free with RSVP Summary: Comedian, Satirist, and parody news writer Andy Borowitz of the Borowitz Report will deliver the "2006 Marshall McLuhan Lecture" at NYU today. Your guess is as good as mine as to what Borowitz has to say about visionary media theorist McLuhan but the press release states that... "the Marshall McLuhan Lecture celebrates the intellectual heritage of the Canadian media visionary who declared 'the medium is the message.'"
Date: Wednesday, March 22nd Time: 7:00pm Location: Parsons, Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th Street) Cost: Free Summary: Tonight different perspectives on photojournalism in the past 50 years are discussed in honor of the publication of They are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955. Speakers include historian and author Mary Panzer, New York Times director of photography Michele McNally, photojournalists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin and photographer Susan Meiselas.
Feminism/Post-Feminism on Film: Is the Women's Movement Still Necessary?
Date: Thursday, March 23rd Time: 6:00pm Location: Donnell Library (20 W. 53 Street 212-621-0609) Cost: Free Summary: Brush up on your feminism film world knowledge tonight with this free lecture to celebrate Women's History Month.
Liz Foley (filmaker and board member of CineWomen NY)joins "New York Women in Film and Television", "African-American Women in Cinema" and "Women Make Movies" to celebrate Women's History Month. This panel discussion will highlight the accomplishments of women filmakers working since the early 20th century and continuing onto today. Filmaker Joyce Chopra will present "Joyce at 34" and Therese Shecter will present "I was a Teenage Feminist."
Date: Thursday, March 23th Time: 7:00pm Location: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe (126 Crosby beteen Houston and Prince) Cost: Free (book donations welcome) Summary: Touré and Jeff Change school you on the history of hip hop with a background soundtrack from Qool DJ Marv. Discussion followed by books signing and dancing.
"Don't be misled. This is not just another rap book but a revelatory history of the inner-city cultural revolution that still rocks the world. Based on over ten years worth of interviews and research, Can't Stop Won't Stop is one of the most comprehensive accounts of hip-hop's infiltration into the mainstream every written." [from Hue-Man website]
Date: Thursday, March 23rd Time: 7:30pm Location: Babeland (94 Rivington Street) Cost: Free Summary: Tonight Babeland holds a party and book signing for Julie Taylor and Georgia Payne's book 'How To Be A Dominant Diva.' If you are one of the first 50 guests to show up tonight you recieve a free Dominant Diva paddle!
Date: Friday, March 24th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes and Noble (675 Sixth Ave) Cost: Free Summary: In association with the School for Visual Arts tonight there is a panel discussion on making children's books.
Date: Thursday, March 30th Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free Summary: Tonight the KGB Bar kicks off the Museum of Sex's March 16th art opening of Peeping, Probing & Porn: Four Centuries of Graphic Sex in Japan with a night of Manga and Anime.
Date: Monday, April 3rd Time: 6:30pm Location: Mid-Manhattan Library (455 5th Ave) Cost: Free Summary: Sara Horowitz, founder of Working Today talks about the struggles and problems of the independant workforce at this library event. Something that hits home with FreeNYC.
This is one of those events that we REALLY related to. As a full time freelance (both with Defined by Media and FreeNYC), Working Today is responsible for making sure that all of my MRI's, Doctor visits and assorted injuries don't put me on the poor house. In fact, over half of our staff use The Freelancers Union. Tonight, Sara Horowitzs will talk about what it takes to make it as a self-employed worker here in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Please help Sara, I am tired of eating Ramon and drinking PBR (okay, I still love PRB but you get the idea.)
Date: Wednesday, April 5th Time: 7:00pm Location: Location One (26 Greene Street) Cost: Free Summary: Its time for another instalment of Dorkbot, the group of people that gather to discuss some of the weirder things people try to do with electricty. On the line up today is John Arroyo talking about Eingen Rhythm Software, Jeff Han on Multi-Touch Interaction Research and John Huntington discussing how to synchronize live performance with musical time.
John Arroyo: Eingen Rhythm Software
Using machine learning statistical analysis a rhythmic synthesizer
was created. It is a rhythm composer of sorts that is trained instead
of user programmed. The end result is an intelligent groove box where
interpolations of the seed rhythms are possible to generate in real-
time. Each of the seed rhythms is automatically extracted and
projected into a space, the user can then move around in this space
and morph one rhythm into the next. More intelligent instruments are
on the drawing board...moving towards a new paradigm in music
software synthesis.
http://www.rhythmicresearch.com
Jeff Han: Multi-Touch Interaction Research
While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact,
multi-touch systems enables a user to interact with a system with
more than one finger at a time, allowing for the use of both hands
along with chording gestures. These kinds of interactions hold
tremendous potential for advances in efficiency, usability, and
intuitiveness. Multi-touch systems are inherently also able to
accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful
for collaborative scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.
We've developed a new multi-touch sensing technique that's
unprecedented in precision and scalability, and I will be
demonstrating some of our latest research on the new sorts of
interaction techniques that are now possible.
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch
John Huntington: Synchronizing Live Performance with Musical Time
Modern entertainment and show control systems run in many different
ways, but are often used in a linear mode, where all the elements of
a show are locked to a fixed time base (and the time base is often
linked to some linear media). For example, a prerecorded video might
be played in a live show, and lighting and sound cues might then be
programmed to trigger at precise times, down to the video frame. This
approach is cost-effective and relatively easy to program, but, of
course, the actors, dancers, musicians and other performers have to
synchronize themselves to this pre-determined, rigid clock structure,
and this severely limits the performance. Even with those
limitations, however the majority of media-synchronized live shows
today sacrifice flexibility in order to gain precision and control,
and execute all lighting, video and other cues from a rigid clock.
Professor John Huntington and Dr. David B. Smith, colleagues at NYC
College of Technology's Entertainment Technology department, believe
that that the technology should track the performers, not the other
way around, and this is the focus of our research into the use of
Musical Time as a synchronization source. Music runs on "musical" or
"metric" time, where the musician or conductor has total control over
the tempo, down to a beat level. Unlike linear time, Musical Time can
slow down or speed up, allowing the music to respond to the actions
of singers and other performers.
Date: Wednesday, April 5th Time: 7:00pm Location: Housing Works Used Book Cafe (126 Crosby Street) Cost: Free Summary: If you aspire to get into the music industry, tonight join music journos Chuck Klosterman (Spin), Elysa Garner (USA Today), Alan Light (Vibe, Spin, Tracks) and more of their contempories as they give the real story on breaking into the world of rock criticism.
Date: Wednesday, April 5th Time: 8:30pm Location:Freddy's Bar & Backroom (Dean & 6th Ave., Brooklyn) Cost: Free Summary: When I was in middle school I used to keep a diary about boys I liked, girls I didn't and all around young girl sillyness. Now when my liltle sister was mad at me and would read it, it was sorta embarassing, now picture it being read in public to a room full of people. The Cringe Reading series is "Funny people reading from their old diaries, letters, songs, poems, and other general representations of the crushing misery of their humiliating adolescence, but it's okay because they're totally cool and well-adjusted and super attractive now." Today is their first b-day, so come out and cringe with the rest of us.
Date: Friday, April 7th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free Summary:The Mad Hatters' Review brings their innaugural "anything goes" reading series to KGB tonght. Expect the dark, twisted side of the NY literary scene. Reader's bios after the jump.
Paul Beckman, contributor of three darkly witty flash fictions in Mad Hatters' Review, Issue 3, received an MFA from Bennington in 1999. Paul lives just over the border in Connecticut. He's the father of poet Joshua Beckman. Paul has writings in The Connecticut Review, Other Voices, Playboy, Northeast Magazine, 5 Trope, Exquisite Corpse, Del Sol Review, and many other journals. His stories have been published in Germany, New Zealand & Ireland. Paul’s also a four time nominee for a Pushcart Prize.
Amy King, a future Mad Hatter contributor, is the author of the poetry collection, Antidotes for an Alibi (Blazvox Books), a Lambda Book Award finalist, and the chapbook, The People Instruments (Pavement Saw Press Chapbook Award 2002). She currently teaches Creative Writing and English at Nassau Community College and a workshop of her own design, "Making the Urban Poetic," at Poets' House in Manhattan. Amy King's poems have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, TheMississippi Review, Tarpaulin Sky, Milk Magazine, and No Tell Motel, among others. She is the managing editor for the journal, MiPOesias. Please visit www.amyking.org for more.
Mark Crispin Miller is a professor of media studies at NYU, where he directs the Project on Media Ownership. A well-known media watchdog and frequent contributor to The Nation, he’s the author of Boxed in: The Culture of TV, The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder, and, Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order. Most recently, Miller wrote Fooled Again, a call to election reform, in which Miller argues that it wasn't moral values that swung the last election -- it was theft. Miller wrote and performed in "A Patriot Act," a chilling indictment of the movement to subvert the US Constitution and replace American democracy with religious values. Mad Hatters' Review will be publishing a review of Fooled Again in our fifth issue. See www.markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com.
Edgy & enlightened writers interested in being featured in the series should show upon April 7th bearing a couple of writing samples.
Date: Monday, April 10th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Theresa Lang Student and Community Center (55 West 13th St, 2nd Floor) Cost: Free, Please RSVP Summary: A panel of steemed speakers discuss a post-election analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. See presenter list below or on the site.
Dr. Ruti Ben-Artzi
post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania
Amjad Atallah
founder and President of Strategic Assessments Initiative (SAI) and former advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team and then-Prime Minister Abbas' office
Dr. Steven P. Cohen
founder of the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development and National Scholar of the Israel Policy Forum
Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal
professor of education at Tel Aviv University
Moderated by Samuel Norich
Publisher of the Forward and Executive Director of the Forward Association
Date: Monday, April 10th Time: 7:00pm Location: McNally-Robinson Booksellers (50 Prince St bet Lafayette and Mulberry) Cost: Free Summary: Joyce Carol Oates discusses High Lonesome, an unprecedented collection of the best of Joyce Carol Oates' short stories combined with eleven new stories.
No other writer can match the impressive oeuvre of Joyce Carol Oates, and High Lonesome: Selected Stories, 1966-2006 gathers stories from Oates's seminal collections, including The Wheel of Love (1970), Marriages and Infidelities (1972), and Heat (1991), arranged by decade. All demonstrate what the Chicago Tribune has praised: "the fierce originality of Oates's voice and vision, but also how she has imbued the American short story with an edgy vitality and raw social surfaces."
Date: Tuesday, April 11th Time: 6:30pm - 8:30p, Location: The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (365 Fifth Avenue) Cost: Free Summary: In the midst of tax time the "IRS estimates 6 billion hours will be spent in tax compliance, at a cost of $265 billion. This amounts to 22 cents for every dollar collected." Tonight Neal Boortz of The Neal Boortz Radio Show and the author of The FairTax Book squares off against Michael J. Graetz of the Yale School of Law and author of The Decline (and Fall?) of the Income Tax. They take a look at what tax reform should look like.
Date: Thursday, April 13th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East Fourth Street) Cost: Free Summary:Behind the Book is literacy nonprofit working with
low-income students in New York City public schools. Tonight Angie Cruz (Let It Rain Coffee, Soledad), Sheila Maldonado (poetry published in Rattapallax, Meridians, and
Promethean), and Nelly Rosario (Song of the Water Saints; a
Village Voice 'Writer on the Verge') stop by to read their work. A good alternative for a not so rowdy, but still fun Wednesday night.
Date: Monday, April 17th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble USQ (33 E. 17th St.) Cost: Free Summary: Tonight Jane Fonda, actress, activist, feminist, wife, and workout guru (and now philanthropist) reads from and signs copies of her book 'My Life So Far.' The book covers her very diverse career, three marriages, eating disorders, mothers suicide and apart from being slightly over self-analyzing could prove interesting.
Date: Wednesday, April 19th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome St. at Eldridge) Cost: Free Summary: In April, New York’s hottest personalities share their 100% true sex confessions. From bad sex to porn obsessions to prostitutes and more, they’ll make you cringe, laugh, and turn you on (maybe even all three at once!). In the Flesh is a monthly reading series featuring 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/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.
Date: Friday, April 21st Time: 6:00pm Location: CUNY Graduate Center Auditorium (365 Fifth Ave at 34th St) Cost: Free Summary: "The National Book Foundation and the Center for the Humanities, CUNY, invites New Yorkers to spend an evening with 2005 National Book Awards Winners Joan Didion (Nonfiction) and W.S. Merwin (Poetry) at the Graduate Center, CUNY." Bios after the jump.
Joan Didion is the 2005 winner for the National Book Award in Nonfiction for The Year of Magical Thinking. She has been a novelist, essayist and screenwriter for more than three decades and was awarded the 1996 Edward MacDowell Medal and the 1999 Columbia Journalism Award. In May 2005 she received the Gold Medal for Belles Lettres from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which is the highest honor the Academy awards to a writer, once every six years. Ms. Didion currently lives in New York and is a contributor to The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker.
W.S. Merwin won the 2005 National Book Awards in Poetry for Migration: New and Selected Poems. Born in New York City in 1927, he worked from 1949 to 1951 as a tutor in France, Mallorca, and Portugal; for several years afterward he made his living by translating from French, Spanish, Latin, and Portuguese. His many awards include the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, the Tanning Prize for mastery in the art of poetry, the Bollingen Award, the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, as well as fellowships from the Rockefeller and the Guggenheim Foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the author of dozens of books of poetry and prose; his most recent volume of poems is Present Company (Copper Canyon, 2005). For the past thirty years he has lived in Hawaii.
Date: Saturday, April 22nd Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 E. 4th) Cost: Free Summary: It suppossed to be rainiy this weekend, so step in a dry off at KGB Bar. Tonight catch some raw words from Contemporary Press. Enjoy "quick and dirty reads" from Carl Moore, Mike Segretto, Tony O'Neilland Jeff Somers with Jess Dukes as the emcee.
Date: Thursday, April 27th Time: 8:30pm Location: The Baggot Inn (82 W. 3rd St.) Cost: Free Summary: The L Magazine hosts the 2nd Annual Literary Upstart and has selected writers to come out and read their short fiction in front of some publishing bigwigs. The winners get published in The L's Summer Fiction Issue. And if literary excitment isn't stimulating enough for you, there is free Red Hook from 8:30 to 9:30.
Date: Wednesday, May 4th Time: 8:30pm Location: Freddy's Backroom (Dean Street & 6th Ave, BK) Cost: Free Summary: A few years back someone uncovered Cringe creator Liz's diary and thought it best to share her high school thoughts with all of her friends. She then made this idea into a monthly reading series. Come down to Freddy's Back room and share and hear readings from peoples "diaries, journals, notes, letters, poems, abandoned rock operas, and other general representations of the crushing misery of their humiliating adolescence."
Date: Thursday, May 4th Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm Location: Catholic Newman Center at the Studen Union - Room 208, Queens College Cost: Free (call 212.642.2094 to RSVP) Summary: Join in this day long discussion of "Language and Text in the Construction of Race and Italian Americans" See below for long version and directions.
"Race has long been a significant aspect of the Italian experience in
America. Italian immigrants encountered a racist system based on socially marked categories of “white” and “black.” During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Italian Americans found themselves in a liminal racial state, not quite black and not quite white, while, at the same time, they received the benefits of whiteness bestowed by the federal government. It was during the 1930s and 1940s that Italian Americans asserted a “white” identity that became entrenched after World War II and during the civil rights era. Recent work by scholars and artists has prompted Italian Americans to question and problematize the construction and meaning of whiteness in Italian American history and culture.
Spoken language and the written word contributed considerably to the ways that racial and national identities were formed, codified, ascribed, challenged, embraced, and reproduced, and ultimately impacted economic and political realties. Philological scholarship influenced social policy and legislation regarding the place of Italian immigrants in American society. Newspapers, with their daily columns, editorials, and letters to the editor, shaped public opinion concerning matters of race. Fictional accounts created textual narratives that negotiated the reader’s understanding of race and racial status vis-à-vis Italian Americans. This symposium presents
recent scholarship on the complex ways in which language and text situated Italian Americans within the context of a racialized America.
Schedule
Coffee and assorted pastries. 10-10:30 AM
Welcome 10:30 AM
Dr. James L. Muyskens
President
Queens College
Dr. Peter Vellon
Acting Executive Director
John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
Introduction
Dr. Joseph Sciorra
Assistant Director for Academic and Cultural Programs
John D. Calandra Italian American Institute
Chair: Dr. Joseph Sciorra
“‘Lynching Those Magnificently Miserable Italians’: Racism, Nativism, and the Twinning of Italianness”
Professor Joseph Cosco, Old Dominion University
“Philological and Social Scientific Theories of Language and Race in the Construction of Italian Americans, 1880s-1920s”
Professor Nancy Carnevale, Montclair State University
“‘Always the Question of Race’: The Italian Language Press, Racial
Consciousness, and the Creation of Italian American Identity”
Professor Peter Vellon, Queens College
“Guido d’Agostino’s Olives on the Apple Tree: Passing, Race Discourses, and Italian-American Literature”
Professor Steven Belluscio, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Discussant:
Professor David Roediger, University of Illinois
Directions to Queens College
By Car: The Long Island Expressway to Exit 24/Kissena Blvd.
By Public Transportation: Take the #7 train to Main Street, and then take the Q25, Q25-34, Q34, or Q17 bus. Take the E, F, G, R or V train to Forest Hills/71st Avenue, and then take the Q75A bus.
The Student Union Building is located at the corner of Kissena Boulevard and Melbourne Avenue.
Date: Monday, May 9th Time: 8:00pm Location: Galapagos Art Space (70 North 6th St, Williamsburg) Cost: Free Summary:Smut is a weekly series dedicated to high frisk art, poetry, writing, and performance. Tonight's bill features Brooklyn poet Jessica Mercado, Short Fiction writes Roger Pinnell, comedian Cheryl B of Poetry Vs. Comedy, and a performance by Joseph Keckler and Erin Markey. Its all followed by hula-hooping burlesque at 10pm so make a night of it already!
Date: Friday, May 12th Time: 7:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free Summary: Anything that's described to me as "Craploads of revelry" I feel needs to be checked out. Tonight KGB Bar joins up with Barrelhouse to present Take that Hill, an evening of short movies and short stories.
-- Stories about death metal, drug addled Japanese basketball teams, long nights at southern gas stations, and the perils of fathering the cool kid, all of which will be read by their authors, including David Barringer, Matt Bell, Justin Taylor, and Matt Kirkpatrick.
-- Movies about Ian McKaye and Dischord Records, dead cats, European bread-chasers, and post-industrial small town Pennsylvania.
Date: Tuesday, May 16th Time: 7:00pm Location: The Kitchen (512 W. 19th St) Cost: Free Summary: "Semi-annual literature, culture and politics magazine du jour, n+1, celebrates its fourth issue tonight at The Kitchen. There will be readings, music and a panel discussion among authors Caleb Crain and Vivian Gornick with n+1 editors Keith Gessen and Benjamin Kunkel."
Date: Monday, May 22nd Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm Location: Healy Hall, Science, Industry and Business Library (188 Madison Avenue) Cost: Free Summary:"Yo where's the movie playing? Upper west side dude! / Let's hit up Yahoo Maps to find the dopest route. / I prefer MapQuest! that's a good one too. / Google Maps is the best! True that! Double true!" The technology of mapping has changed radically with the advent of computers and the Web. Drawing on his personal collection of over 150,000 historical maps, David Rumsey will examine the past, present, and future of mapping information, including his most recent work on the use of historic maps in three-dimensional spaces.
The program is being offered during SIBL's 10th anniversary celebration, May 1996 –May 2006. This lecture is related to the exhibition, "Places & Spaces: Mapping Science," that will be on display in Healy Hall through August 31, 2006. Reservations are not required for this program.
All the lectures will be held in Room 018, Conference Center, Lower Level, unless otherwise indicated. They are free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Seating is on a first come, first seated basis, unless otherwise noted. Inquiries about programs may be made by calling (212) 592-7000.
Date: Tuesday, May 23rd Time: 8:00pm - 9:30pm Location: China Institute (125 East 65th St) Cost: Free with Registration Summary: Filmmaker/video artist Yang Fudong draws on traditional Chinese art to render this work into a contemporary setting for an international audience. Part 1 is from a series of five films that are adaptations of the traditional Chinese story and art theme known as The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and was filmed among the craggy and lush, mist-strewn environment of Yellow Mountain.
Date: Thursday, May 25th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Baggot Inn (82 W. 3rd St. btwn. Sullivan & Thompson) Cost: Free with RSVP Open Bar: 8:30pm - 9:30pm Red Hook Summary: The L Magazine is holding their second annual reading event for select writers to get up in front of some "publishing industry bigwigs," including Ben Greenman from the New Yorker, and read their short fiction. (sorry, but the submissions have already been selected, it's not an open mic). Cash prizes will be given away as well as a shot at getting published in L Magazine's Summer Fiction Issue. I'm not sure what happened last year, but I'll be very interested to see how this year's winners fair in their noble quest to attain some kind of recognition in the crowded world of short fiction writing.
Date: Thursday, May 25th Time: 6:30pm Location: Aperture Foundation (547 West 27th St, 4th Fl) Cost: Free Summary: Husband and wife team, Andrea Robbins and Max Becher, will speak about their new book, The Transportation of Place, which focuses on "situations which one limited or isolated place strongly resembles another distant one." Examples include Germans dressing as Native Americans and the New York-New York casino's skyline in Las Vegas.
Date: Thursday, May 25th Time: 7:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th St) Cost: Free Summary: In this all-female rendition of Drunken! Careening! Writers!, Janice Erlbaum, Tricia Pool, an dStaci Swedeen take to the stange to entertain you with excepts from their latest works. Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a monthly reading series dedicated to the proposition that readings should be: excellent, well-read pieces that have at least one thing in them that makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts), and don't run more than 15 minutes each.
Janice Erlbaum is the author of GIRLBOMB: A Halfway Homeless Memoir (Villard, March '06). She especially enjoys talking about herself in the third person. After a successful career as a slacker in Austin, Texas, Tricia Ellen Pool moved to the Upper West Side. At 11:30 every morning, she leads the hokey pokey at a prestigious private nursery school. Staci Swedeen is a playwright and actress who was once attacked by a rabid racoon. Her new play is Pardon Me for Living.
Looking Towards the Préval Presidency: A Reading and Discussion on Haiti's Future
Date: Thursday, June 1st Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Wollman Hall, The New School (65 W. 11th St., 5th Fl.) Cost: Free with RSVP Summary: We keep hearing about how things suck in Iraq (which they do!), but things have been sucking in other countries as well, particularly Haiti and it's been that way for a while. This reading and discussion, featuring journalist and author Michael Deibert, is being presented by The New School and The United Nations Association of New York’s Young Professionals for International Cooperation (how's that for a mouthful). Drinks & light appetizers will be served.
Deibert was a Reuters correspondent from 01-03 and will be reading from his book "Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti" and discussing the recently inaugurated Préval government. For anyone that hasn't been paying attention, Haiti is in some serious business. But then they're so far away, it really doesn't affect us, does it... ?
Date: Friday, Thursday, June 1st Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free Summary:The Mad Hatters' Review brings their innaugural "anything goes" reading series to KGB tonght. Expect the dark, twisted side of the NY literary scene. Reader's bios after the jump.
Features:
Dawn Raffel
Dawn Raffel is the author of a story collection, In the Year of Long Division (Knopf) and a novel, Carrying the Body (Scribner). Her work has appeared in various periodicals and anthologies, including O, The Oprah Magazine, Interview, The LA Times, Conjunctions, Open City, Fence, The Quarterly, NOON, Epoch, and the Anchor Book of New American Short Stories. She lives in Hoboken, NJ with her husband and sons.
Edwin Torres
Edwin Torres (www.brainlingo.com) has received poetry fellowships from NYFA, and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art, and has taught at Naropa University, Bard College and The Poetry Project among others. He's included in The Best American Poetry 2004 (Scribner) and his releases include the books "The All-Union Day Of The Shock Worker" (Roof Books), ?Fractured Humorous? (Subpress), and the CDs ?Holy Kid? (Kill Rock Stars) and ?Novo? (OozeBap.org). He is co-editor of the poetry journal,
Rattapallax (www.rattapallax.com) and he's currently writer-in-residence at The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Edwin?s next collection ?Electrobabblist: the
popedology of an ambient language? will be released by Atelos Books in 2006.
Doug Shapiro
Doug Shapiro is an extremely versatile professional actor who is pleased to be joining Mad Hatters' Review to bring our far-off contributors' writings to life. He usually plays a crowd and has done so recently with multiple roles in IRON CURTAIN (Prospect Theater Company, NY) and workshops of FINDING NEMO: THE MUSICAL (Disney Theatricals, slated to open in the Florida Park November 2006). Doug has also been a company member of The Barnstormers in Tamworth, NH and will be returning for his sixth season after his honeymoon. For more info, see http://www.dougshapiro.com.
Date: Tuesday, June 6th Time: 1:00pm Location: Barnes and Nobles (555 5th Ave at 46th St) Cost: Free Summary: A former Wilhelmina model, and Brooklyn Native, Lorraine Bracco a.k.a. Dr. Jennifer Melfi on The Sopranos stops by Barnes and Nobles to discuss her new tell-all autobiography, On the Couch.
Date:Tuesday, June 6th Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm Location:Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway at 12th St) Cost: Free Summary: The author of the infamous "Fight Club" Chuck Palahniuk will be reading from his new book "Haunted". I heard when his last book came out people were passing out and vomiting at the reading. In this new anthology themes include cannibalism, murder and corpse decay. Who said writers don't know how to party?
Date: Monday, June 12th Time: 12:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble (2289 Broadway) Cost: Free Summary: While George Bush claims that the "jury is still out on Global Warming," you like the millions of other people across the globe may be slightly concerned about the severe climate changes that are occuring. Remember when it used to snow on the East Coast? Possibly one of the biggest defenders of the climate as of late, Al Gore stops by Barnes & Noble to discuss his book An Inconcevient Truth.
"An Inconvenient Truth, Gore's groundbreaking battle cry of a follow-up to the bestselling Earth in the Balance, will be published to tie in with a documentary film of the same name that will be seen in theaters across the country in May. Both the book and film were inspired by a series of multimedia presentations on global warming that Gore created and delivers to groups around the world. With this book, Gore, who is one of our environmental heroes -- and a leading expert -- brings together leading-edge research from top scientists around the world; photographs, charts, and other illustrations; and personal anecdotes and observations to document the fast pace and wide scope of global warming. He presents, with alarming clarity and conclusiveness -- and with humor, too -- that the fact of global warming is not in question and that its consequences for the world we live in will be disastrous if left unchecked."
Date: Monday, June 19th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: 136 Second Ave Cost: Free with RSVP Summary: Does anyone else remember when rent in Williamsburg was resonably priced? And when its residents were artists and old grandmas and grandpas, and not NYU trustfund babies? Well if you don't remember, I'm sure that The Foundry Theatre does. Today they lead a roundtable discussion entitled Rent, Real Estate & Neighborhoods: A Brief History of Rapid Change. Brad Lander of Pratt Institute will be on hand to explain changes in city planning, urban development, and the housing market.
Date: Wednesday, June 21st Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome Street) Cost: Free Summary: "This Gay Pride month, come celebrate queerness in all its rainbow of colors with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender erotica at In The Flesh, a monthly reading series featuring the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered."
Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York City-based author and editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a Contributing Editor and columnist for Penthouse, writes the Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice, and conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com. Her erotic stories have appeared in over 60 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she's edited her own collections, including Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2, Up All Night, First-Timers, Glamour Girls, and the forthcoming Ultimate Undies, Sexiest Soles, Secret Slaves, and Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark. http://www.rachelkramerbussel.com
Cheryl B. is an award-winning poet and writer. Her work appears in dozens of print and online publications including; BLOOM, Small Spiral Notebook, The Guardian, Reactions 5, and Pills, Thrills, Chills and Heartache. She has received a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and has been a resident at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She curates and hosts the monthly ATOMIC Reading Series and she is the creator and producer of PVC: The Poetry vs. Comedy Variety Show. Cheryl is the editor of the forthcoming anthology Coming Out of the Closet Again: Queer Women on Loving Men (2007, Suspect Thoughts Press). She lives in Brooklyn and online at http://www.cherylb.com.
Trebor Healey is the author of a novel, Through It Came Bright Colors (Harrington Park Press, 2003), and a book of erotic poems, Sweet Son of Pan (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2006). His work has appeared in Best Gay Erotic 2003, 2004, 2006 and Best of Best Gay Erotic; the Bad Boy Book of Erotic Poetry; Queer Dharma; Holy Titclamps; Van Go's Ear; and dozens of other anthologies and journals. He wrote the hit single "Denny" for the Queercore band, Pansy Division. http://www.treborhealey.com
Gena Hymowech is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in over 20 venues, including the New York Post, Time Out New York Kids, Complete Woman, Black Table and AfterEllen.com. Her first anthology work will be appearing (under a pseudonym) in First-Timers: True Stories of Lesbian Awakening. She used a pseudonym for that essay because the event happened at one of her last jobs and she really doesn't want to be sued. If you get her drunk enough at the In the Flesh event though, she might tell you where it occurred, among other things. She lives in Brooklyn.
Sam J. Miller is a community organizer. His writing has been published in Velvet Mafia, Smut!, In The Fray, and Best Gay Erotica 2006, among others. He lives in the Bronx with his partner of four years. When he's not writing or organizing poor people to fight for social justice, he's binging on old movies and punk rock. Drop him a line at samjmiller79@yahoo.com.
Scott Pomfret puts fun and romance back into gay erotica with his funny, tender yet still smokin' hot stories. Together with his real-life boyfriend (also named Scott), he writes the Romentics series of romance novels for gay men (www.romentics.com). His stories have appeared in Best Gay Erotica, Playguy, Honcho, In Touch for Men, Hot Gay Erotica, Alyson Books' Friction series, Best Gay Love Stories 2005 and 2006, and numerous other anthologies. For more information, see http://www.scottpomfret.com.
Jane Vincent is a sexuality educator, smut writer, and certified sex coach who holds a BS in human sexuality. She has published diverse works ranging from A Baby Dyke Learns to Score to Gonorrhea – Questions & Answers. As the educated slut, she takes it to the streets and the sheets and lives to blog the tale at http://educatedslut.blogspot.com. She currently practices her unique blend of sexual activism in Houston, TX.
Scott Whittier, 31, a native of Poland, Maine, is an advertising copywriter. His commercial work has appeared on radio, billboards, TV and in print media internationally and has won top honors in the Healthcare Advertising Awards and Admission Advertising Awards. He has published fiction in Children Churches and Daddies, Playguy, In Touch, Honcho and Alyson's anthologies Just the Sex, Ultimate Gay Erotica and Friction 7. With his boyfriend Scott Pomfret, he is co-author of the Romentics series of gay romance novels. http://www.romentics.com
Date: Tuesday, June 27th Time: 6:30pm Location: Apple Store Soho (103 Prince St.) Cost: Free Summary: "Join remix master Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, for a hands-on look at musical track building on the Mac... with an emphasis on the history of remixing, DJ Spooky will trace back today’s popular sounds to many jamaican dub influenced roots." [personal note... DJ Spooky's Necropolis changed the way I listened to music forever... pick that $#!# up. There are few artists that can both define a sound and defy it...]
Date: Wednesday, June 28th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: GRNY (437 East 9th St bet. 1st and A) Cost: Free Summary: "Giant Robot is proud to host a book signing by John Gall, the author and designer of Sayonara Home Run! The book chronicles the evolution of baseball in Japan through the art of its trading cards. In the process, it puts the spotlight on certain players (from Saduharu Oh to Ichiro Suzuki) and aspects of history (including relations with the U.S. during the postwar Occupation). As a result, the book will appeal will fans of the sport, Japanese culture, art, design, and history."
Date: Monday, July 10th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble (6th Ave at 21st St) Cost: Free Summary: In his new book, Nothin's Sacred, The Daily Show's classic satirist Lewis Black touches on topics of religion, politics, and is own upbringing. Tonight he discuss the work with a Q & A at B & N.
Date: Thursday, July 13th Time: 7:00pm Location: Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction (31 Ave. A) Cost: Free Summary: Organized by nycollective this evening features readings from the Summer 06 issue of Collectanea* at "the coolest address in town."
Date: Wednesday, July 19th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble USQ (33 East 17th Street at Union
Square) Cost: Free Summary: In their continuing series, B&N brings notable current authors and notable current songsmiths together in their upstairs café. Tonight's evening features Absurdistan author Gary Shteyngart, underground pop sensation Sondre Lerche, and journalist Katherine Lanpher. Bio's after the jump.
Gary Shteyngart -- author of Absurdistan, praised by The New York Times Book Review as 'so immodestly vigorous, so burstingly sure of its barbaric excellence, that simply by breathing, sweating and
standing upright it exalts itself' -- was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His debut novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, won the Stephen Crane Award for First
Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. The novel was also named a New York Times Notable Book, a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly, and one of the best debuts of the year by The Guardian. Absurdistan has been translated into ten languages. Shteyngart's fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, GQ, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.
Still in his early twenties, Sondre Lerche has already released two critically acclaimed albums, and been called 'one of the most talented new names in contemporary pop' by The Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on the Conan O'Brien and Carson Daly shows, toured with Elvis Costello, Jason Mraz, Nada Surf, Liz Phair and Ed Harcourt. His new album, Duper Sessions, is a fresh, back-to-basics collection of songs that showcases a more intimate side of this gifted singer-songwriter. Inspired by Chet Baker, Caetano Veloso and even David Lynch, Duper Sessions transports the listener into a different time and place, filled with melody and romanticism. The album is Sondre Lerche's tribute to the music he loves.
Katherine Lanpher is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press will publish her first book, Leap Days: Chronicle of a Midlife Move, this October.
Date: Wednesday, July 19th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome Street) Cost: Free Summary: "In the Flesh is a monthly reading... [featuring] 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." This month's readers after the jump
Take a break from the heat with sexy words and yummy cupcakes. With Diana Cage (Box Lunch, Bottoms Up, On Our Backs Guide to Lesbian Sex), Desiree Burch (SMUT Series), Zaedryn Meade (Covet, Valence, For the Record), Doreen Orsini (Hunting Diana, Tanner's Angel), the co-editor of The MILF Anthology, Cecilia Tan (Circlet Press), along with contributors Elspeth Potter (Tough Girls, Best Women's Erotica) and Stacy Brown, and host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served. Various erotic books, including The MILF Anthology, will be raffled off as door prizes.
Date: Thursday, July 20th Time: 4:30 - 6:00pm Location: The B'nai Zion Building (136 E 39th Bet. Lex and 3rd Ave) Cost: Free with RSVP (bring ID) Summary: "Special briefing and discussion about the latest developments in the Middle East. Ambassador John Bolton, the U.S. Representative to the U.N; Ambassador Dan Gillerman, Israeli Representative to the U.N.; and Ambassador Arye Mekel, the Consul General of Israel in New York, will share with us their thoughts and perspectives on the situation and will answer questions from the audience."
Date: Thursday, July 20th Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Location:aNYthing (51 Hester St) Cost: Free Summary: People can't get enough of Ricky Powell. His iconic photographs of the 1980's NYC hip hop scene have basically defined the visual image of a time now past. Of course, having your name in a Beastie Boys song doesn't hurt either. Tonight he signs copies of his latest, Public Access, at LES hipster shop, aNYthing.
Date: Thursday, July 20thth Time: 7:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th St) Cost: Free Summary: "Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a reading series dedicated to the proposition that readings should be: excellent, well-read pieces that have at least one thing in them that makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts), and don't run more than 15 minutes each." Tonight is a special all-male edition (bios below)
Novelist Brian Avenius is moving away from the oeuvre of PowerPoint presentations, and into complete sentences and prose that requires spiral binding.
Rich Merritt, author of Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star, "came out" of the closet -- at least, the closet of denial -- at the age of 25 while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. In 1998 Rich Merritt received an honorable discharge from the United States Marines Corps and in 2001 he graduated from the University of Southern California Law School. He is presently an attorney in New York.
Chris Weikel is an award-winning playwright (Penny Penniworth) and actor, currently appearing in “Talk of the Town, as Robert Benchley, at the Algonquin.
Date: Saturday, July 29th Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm Location: Big Apple Jazz (2236 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd bet. 131st and 132nd St) Cost: Free Summary: powerHouse books, publishers of most hipster must-read books, flips things this afternoon with a family friendly jazz celebration. "Carol Friedman, author of Nicky The Jazz Cat will read Nicky and host a jazzy sing-a-long with Nicky's Jazz For Kids CD, accompanied by very special guest jazz musicians."
A Conversation on Aftican Hip-Hop, Youth, & Politics
Date: Wednesday, August 2nd Time: 7:00pm Location:Rotunda Gallery (33 Clinton St, Brooklyn) Cost: Free Summary: Acclaimed drummer and Nomadic Wax founder Ben Herson will moderate a discussion on African hip-hop, youth, and politics this evening which will feature pan-African hip-hop MCs Chosan of Sierre
Leone, Saaba Saaba of Uganda and Toni Blackman. The event is organized in conjunction with Celebrate Brooklyn’s annual African Music Festival. (full info PDF)
Date: Wednesday, August 2nd Time: 8:30pm Location: Freddy's Backroom (Dean Street & 6th Ave, BK) Cost: Free Summary: A few years back someone uncovered Cringe creator Liz's diary and thought it best to share her high school thoughts with all of her friends. She then made this idea into a monthly reading series. Come down to Freddy's Back room and share and hear readings from peoples "diaries, journals, notes, letters, poems, abandoned rock operas, and other general representations of the crushing misery of their humiliating adolescence."
Date: Thursday, August 3rd Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: Monkey Town (58 N 3rd St bet. Kent & Wythe) Cost: Free Summary: In this version of website 101, Erik Courson teaches the basics of setting up your own website: how to register a domain name, how to find and set up web hosting, basics of html, basics of images/graphics, how to upload your new site via FTP.
Date: Monday, August 7th Time: 6:30pm Location:Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (594 Broadway) Cost: Free Summary: Each Monday, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art presents MoCCA Fool the World tells the Pixies' story in the words of those who lived it: from the band members to studio owners, from executives, producers and visual artists who worked with them to admirers of their music, such as Bono, PJ Harvey, Beck and Perry Farrell. Acoustic rocker Angry Lemon to celebrate the legend of Pixies with a live performance before and after the discussion."
Date: Tuesday, August 8th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Nobles (4 Astor Place) Cost: Free Summary: "In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan-surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through mountains covered in nine feet of snow, hamlets burned and emptied by the Taliban, and communities thriving amid the remains of medieval civilizations..."
"...By night he slept on villagers' floors, shared their meals, and listened to their stories of the recent and ancient past. Along the way Stewart met heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers. He was also adopted by an unexpected companion-a retired fighting mastiff he named Babur in honor of Afghanistan's first Mughal emperor, in whose footsteps the pair was following." Tonight, Stewart recounts his journey in honor of his new memoir, The Places in Between.
Date: Monday, August 14th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Nobles (6th Ave at 21st St) Cost: Free Summary: Back in 2003, Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong fame) was arrest at automatic weapon gunpoint in his California home under the DEA's Operation Pipe Dreams for running a glass pipe comoany known as Chong Glass. The the "'Pope of Pot' was sentenced to nine months in prison because his company shipped bongs to a head shop in Pennsylvania that was a front for the DEA." Well Tommy is back with a new book, The I Chong, that discusses his life long encounter with the war on drugs, the american politcal system and more. Tonight he discusses such matters at Barnes and Nobles.
"Beginning with Tommy's experiences growing up in Canada in the forties and fifties as a mixed-race kid and going on to become a comedy legend, The I Chong is at once a memoir, a spiritual exploration of his time in prison, and a political indictment of the eroding civil liberties in post-9/11 American society. He tells the unbelievable story of his trip down the rabbit hole of America's war on drugs and of his experiences in the federal prison system, and he offers up timely observations on combating the conservative political forces at work in this country. Introspective, inspiring, and incendiary, The I Chong is a unique chronicle of one man's life and how his humorous and spiritual point of view saved him during his wrongful incarceration at the hands of an administration without boundaries."
Duncan Sheik & Dennis Lehane - Upstairs at the Square
Date: Wednesday, August 16th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Nobles USQ (33 E 17th St) Cost: Free Summary: B&N continues their "Upstairs at the Square" series tonight with a reading by author Read More
Bestselling author Dennis Lehane has written seven novels: A Drink Before the War; Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River and Shutter Island. Mystic River was a finalist for the PEN/Winship Award, won both the Anthony Award and the Barry Award for Best Novel, and the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction. Clint Eastwood directed the film adaptation of Mystic River, which won two Oscars, for Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Best Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins). Before becoming a full-time writer, Mr. Lehane worked as a counselor with mentally handicapped and abused children, waited tables, parked cars, drove limos, worked in bookstores, and loaded tractor-trailers. His one regret is that no one ever gave him a chance to tend bar.
Though many know him for his gold records, Grammy nomination and yearlong ride on the pop charts with “Barely Breathing," Duncan Sheik's mainstream success may belie the depth of his work. Sheik has scored for film and for the stage (most recently, Spring Awakening, which The New York Times praised as “bold, inviting and funny”), produced ambitious records for himself and his peers, and captured audiences around the world. Sheik's new record, White Limousine, represents the latest turn from an artist who has always avoided predictability, despite commercial triumphs and critical acclaim. The album fuses the epic balladry and tuneful love songs for which Sheik is known with visceral comments on war, media and consumer culture.
Katherine Lanpher is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist. Springboard Press will publish her first book, Leap Days: Chronicle of a Midlife Move, this October.
Date: Wednesday, August 16th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome Street) Cost: Free Summary: "In the Flesh is a monthly reading... [featuring] 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." This month's readers after the jump
"Join an eclectic mix of New York's finest writers as they entertain
and arouse you. Readers include Marie Lyn Bernard (Best American
Erotica 2007, Erotic Interludes 2), Lily Burana (Try, Strip City),
Shari Goldhagen (Family and Other Accidents), Riain Grey (Erotic
Authors Association, Scarlet Letters), Shane Luitjens (Bullets and
Butterflies, Revolutionary Voices), Lisa Montanarelli (Whipped!,
Strange But True), Caridad Piñeiro (Sex and the South Beach Chicas,
The Calling Vampire series), and host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Copies of
the authors' books will be given away, along with free candy and mini
cupcakes."
Date: Tuesday, August 29th Time: 7:00pm Location: Apple Store Soho (103 Prince St) Cost: Free Summary: Get the chance to peek into the mind of a one of today's hottest filmmakers as Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind Director and personal hero Michel Gondry pops by the Apple store. "Michel will discuss his narrative, documentary, and music video work, including his upcoming film, 'The Science of Sleep.'"
Date: Wednesday, August 30th Time: 7:00pm Location: Galapagos Art Space (70 N 6th St at Wythe, Williamsburg) Cost: Free Summary: "This evening will feature staffers from Lonely Planet, the leading global travel book company, and Roadtrip Nation, a cross country collegiate movement that empowers students to hit the road and define their own paths in life. The event will feature screenings of the forthcoming new PBS show season, Lonely Planet video clips, Q and A and a tour of the RTN touring RV which the students take out around the country."
Date: Wednesday, August 30th Time: 7:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St) Cost: Free Summary: Bob Dylan's first new album in five years drops this month which means be on the look out for lots of Dylan-centric events. The first is this roundtable discussion at literary hang-out, KGB Bar. Join Ben Hedin, Bob Levinson, Mary Lee Kortes, Robert Polito, David Remnick and Alex Ross as they discuss the seminal songwriters life and times.
Date: Tuesday, September 5th Time: 6:30pm Location: New School (66 W. 12th St, Rm 501) Cost: Free with RSVP Summary: NY's obsession with Bob Dylan continues tonight as Michael Gray discusses (or performs as the press release states) the great songwriter. Gray "uses a surprising selection of great records and rare video footage to show how hugely Dylan has been inspired by the blues and how much of its poetry has been smuggled inside his own, highly influential writing."
Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
Date: Wednesday, September 5th Time: 7:00om Location:The Half King (505 W. 23rd St btw. 10th & 11th) Cost: Free Summary: Former NPR correspondant Sarah Chayes reads from her latest "Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban" tonight. Book description after the jump
he Punishment of Virtue is NPR reporter Sarah Chayes’ account of the sobering realities of this first and vital front in the war on terror. Chayes lived in an Afghan home, learned the country's culture and politics, and became expert on the history of Afghanistan's legendary resistance to foreign interference. Chayes forges relationships with the Karzai family, tribal leaders, U.S. military and diplomatic brass, and leading figures in the Kandahar government; she takes her reader into meetings with Hamid Karzai and the corrupt Kandahar governor, Gul Agha Shirzai, into the homes of tribal elders, and onto the U.S. military base. She details the complexities and traumas of Afghanistan’s post-war struggle, revealing how the tribal strongmen who have regained power—after years of being displaced by the Taliban—have visited a renewed plague of corruption and violence on the Afghan people, under the complicit eyes of U.S. forces and officials.
“The most gripping, sensitive, funny, perceptive and beautifully written book you will ever read on Afghanistan, US policy, and nation building... Chayes makes history, politics and war more of a pleasure to read about than anything I have yet read. This is the best book to have come out of Afghanistan since 9/11.” -- Ahmed Rashid
“Engrossing…[Chayes’s] hands-on experience as a deeply immersed reporter ant activist gives her lucid analysis and prescriptions a practical scope and persuasive authority.” --Publishers Weekly
From 1997 to 2002, Sarah Chayes served as an overseas correspondent for NPR, reporting from Paris and the Balkans, as well as covering conflicts in Algeria. In 2002, she left NPR to take a position running a non-governmental aid organization, Afghans for Civil Society, founded by Qayum Karzai. Her work as a correspondent for NPR during the Kosovo crisis earned her the 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards, together with other members of the NPR team.
Report from Israel: Arab and Israeli Citizens Face the Aftermath of War
Date: Thursday, September 7th Time: 7:00pm Location: JCC in Manhattan (334 Amerstdam Ave at 76th St)* Cost: Free Summary: "Close to half of the civilian casualties in the recent war were Israeli Arabs. Mohammed Darawshe, co-existence activist, political analyst and Israeli-Arab leader, will discuss the impact of the war on the Arab sector and its effect on the delicate relationship that exists between the Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. Why is this issue central to Israel's long-term well-being, and why is it critical to repair and preserve the fabric of Arab and Jewish cooperation and dialogue? Mr. Darawshe brings a personal and professional view of both the promise and the challenge."
*Program room assignments will be available at the JCC Customer
Service Desk, in the lobby of the Samuel Priest Rose Building.
PATRIOTIC: Dissent Readings and Town Hall on The 5th Anniversary of 9/11
Date: Monday, September 11th Time: 9:00pm Location: Mo Pitkins restaurant (34 Avenue A) Cost: Free Summary: This morning I told our dear publisher that on account of my personal beliefs and my disapproval of the way our government/media/country handled the events prior, of, and post September 11th that I refuse to post anything relative to its anniversary. And well, then I found this in my mailbox...
Tonight Mo Pitkins hosts PATRIOTIC: Dissent Readings and Town Hall on The 5th Anniversary of 9/11. "Bush is marking the 5th anniversary of 9-11. We are supposed to hang our heads, act like we believe in what he’s done for the last five years. We don’t, after all, want to be UNpatriotic. But dissent is the highest form of patriotism. So as an alternative to the administration’s agendizing of 9-11 there will be PATRIOTIC at Mo Pitkins..."
"The event begins with literary readings from three of our best writers on the front lines of culture and resistance. Sara Valentine of the Hungry March band will MC. Ted Hamm, founding editor of the Brooklyn Rail will open. John Mailer (son of Norman) reading from his play Crazy Eyes. Then Jason Flores-Williams: novelist-activist. The event then evolves into a Public Town Hall. Full audience participation. A free and open airing of thoughts on 9-11. How and why did it happen? Where is our country now? How can we get back on the right track? This event at Mo Pitkins speaks to the spirit of our city and the soul of America."
Upcoming Tomorrow: The Sinner's Guide to The Evangelical Right
Here's a little head's up for tomorrow... Robert Lanham, author of the Hipster Handbook, is giving a reading tomorrow (Wednesday) in Greenpoint for his latest, The Sinner's Guide to The Evangelical Right. Tonight he reads and discusses such topics as "gayness," the Rapture, and - yes - Spongebob Squarepants. Check out all the information here.
Date: Wednesday, September 13th Time: 6:00pm Location: Tishman Auditorium, New School (66 West 12th St near 6th Ave) Cost: Free with reservation Summary: "An expert on healthcare, military issues, international affairs, and world history, [former Speaker of the US House of Representatives] Newt Gingrich will discuss how real change can help the poor, the powerless, and those left out of the American dream. He will draw heavily upon the argument of his best-selling 2005 book, Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract With America.
Date: Wednesday, September 13th Time: 6:00pm Location: Greenpoint Reformed Church (138 Milton Street, Greenpoint) Cost: Free Summary: Robert Lanham, author of the Hipster Handbook, turns his pen towards the Evangelical right with his latest release, The Sinner's Guide to The Evangelical Right. Tonight he reads and discusses such topics as "gayness," the Rapture, and - yes - Spongebob Squarepants. Afterparty around the corner at The Pencil Factory. Full info here and much Longer diatribe below.
I'll tell you this much, being a man if "faith" (yes, its true, don't laugh) its really hard sometimes to put up with, defend, or try and explain things in the current climate of organized religion. It seems that everywhere I turn, extreemists would rather build million dollar chaples, play rock guitars, or scream about the damnation of Furbies then lead humble lives, and feed the homeless, or simply hold the door for a stranger. Often times, its hard to explain that there's a lot of ground between athiesm and evangelicalism.
Thankfully, Robert Lanham, author of the Hipster Handbook, is back on the scene with his latest, The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right (except here). "From Bibles designed to look like glossy fashion magazines to mega-churches with ATMs, rock climbing walls, and in one case, a drive-thru McDonalds, the nuances of conservative evangelical culture are no mystery to Robert Lanham, who has his roots in the Bible Belt. Now, with his anthropological eye and trademark wit, Lanham has compiled a handy guide to the evangelical right for those who can expect to be left behind in the End of Days."
Celebrate the release tonight as Lanham reads from his new book, discussing hot topics such as gayness, the Rapture and, yes, SpongeBob Squarepants. "Ann Kansfield; an openly gay minister whose denomination published literature labeling her a 'dyke' before firing her father from his post at the Reformed Church of America for supporting her decision." opens and there is an afterparty at the Pencil Factory around the corner.
Date: Friday, September 15th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street) Cost: Free Summary:The Mad Hatters' Review brings their innaugural "anything goes" reading series to KGB tonght. Expect the dark, twisted side of the NY literary scene. Reader's bios after the jump.
"Ron Silliman has written and edited 26 books to date, most recently Under Albany. In 2007, the University of California Press will issue the complete version of The Age of Huts. Between 1979 & 2004, Silliman wrote a single poem, entitled “The Alphabet”. In addition to Woundwood, a part of VOG, volumes published thus far from that project have included ABC, Demo to Ink, Jones, Lit, Manifest, N/O, Paradise, (R), Toner, What and Xing. He has now begun writing a new poem entitled “Universe”. Silliman was a 2003 Literary fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts and was a 2002 Fellow of the Pennsylvania Arts Council as well as a Pew Fellow in the Arts in 1998. Visitors to his weblog are quickly approaching the three-quarters of a million mark. He lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania , with his wife and two sons, and works as a market analyst in the computer industry.
Debra Di Blasi (www.debradiblasi.com) received the 2003 James C. McCormick Fellowship from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. Her books include The Jirí Chronicles & Other Fictions (forthcoming from FC2 Books in 2007), Prayers of an Accidental Nature (Coffee House Press), and Drought & Say What You Like (New Directions), winner of the 1998 Thorpe Menn Award. Her fiction has been adapted to film, radio, theatre, and audio CD in the U.S. and abroad. She is president of Jaded Ibis Productions, Inc., a transmedia corporation producing most notably, The Jirí Chronicles, a mélange of fictive audio interviews and music, videos, print, web and visual art. She is former art columnist at Pitch and taught experimental writing forums at Kansas City Art Institute.
Samuel R Delany “is one of the two or three top living sci-fi writers. His work with porn, critical writing & comics all puts him into edgy spaces.” (says Ron Silliman) He's never tame. His fictions include Dhalgren (1975), Atlantis: Three Tales (1995), Hogg (1995), and Phallos (2004). His most recent book, from Wesleyan University Press, is About Writing (2006). Samuel (aka Chip) teaches English and creative writing at Temple University in Philadelphia and at the Naropa Summer Writing Program in Boulder, Colorado."
Date: Saturday, September 16th Time: 10:00am - 6:00pm Location: Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza Cost: Free Summary: Ahhh books. Good for rainy days, subway rides, expanding the mind, and for fixing uneven table legs. Brooklyn celebrates its love for books and book writers at the annual Brooklyn Book Festival. Brooklynite writers such as Nicole Krauss, Colson Whitehead, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Lethem (!), Mo Willems (the Pigeon series!), Paula Fox, Philip Lopate and Darin Strauss - to name a few (of my favorites) - will be giving readings and lectures, having open discussions, and answering questions at different locations throughout the day.
Full list of writers, speakers, schedule and venues below.
..................................................................................................................................................
Jonathan Ames, I Love You More Than You Know, Wake Up Sir!
Miguel Arteta, director: The Good Girl, Chuck & Buck, Six Feet Under
*Asha Bandele, The Subtle Art of Breathing, The Prisoner’sWife
*Emily Barton, The Testament of Yves Gundron,Brookland
*Leonard Benardo, Brooklyn by Name
Phil Bildner, The Shot Heard Around the World, Twenty-One Elephants
Holly Black, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tithe: A Modern Fairie Tale
Lawrence Block, Hit Parade, The Girl with the Long Green Heart
Roger Bonair-Agard, tarnish and masquerade, Burning Down the House
Ann Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series
*Libba Bray, A Great and Terrible Beauty
*Colin Channer, Waiting in Vain, Passing Through
Michael Cirelli, Executive Director Urban Word, NYC
Melissa Clark, East of Paris (w/ David Bouley), The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen
Rich Cohen, Sweet and Low, Tough Jews, The Avengers, Lake Effect
Bryan Collier, Illustrator Uptown, Rosa, Freedom River
*Jennifer Egan, Look at Me, The Invisible Circus, The Keep
*Barbara Ensor, Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story)
Valorie Fisher, Big Brother, Big Sister, Nonsense
*Paula Fox, The Slave Dancer, One-Eyed Cat
*Nelson George, Hip Hop America, Post-Soul Nation, One Woman Short
*Myla Goldberg, Bee Season, Wickett's Remedy, Time's Magpie
Rigoberto Gonzalez, So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water Until It Breaks, Crossing Vines
Ben Greenman, Superbad, Superworse, editor The New Yorker
*Kimiko Hahn, The Narrow Road to the Interior: Poems, The Artist’s Daughter: Poems
Alan Harding, Smith St. restauranteur
Pete Hamill, The Gift, Downtown: My Manhattan, Why Sinatra Matters
*Steve Hindy, Beer School: Bottling Success of the Brooklyn Brewery
Kenji Jasper, Dark, Dakota Grand, Seeking Salamanca Mitchell
Maureen Johnson, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Devilish
David Klass, Firestorm
Yusef Komunyakaa, Neon Vernacular, Taboo, Talking Dirty to the Gods
*Nicole Krauss, Man Walks Into a Room, The History of Love
Gersh Kuntzman, Editor-in-Chief The Brooklyn Papers
Justine Larbalestier, Magic Lessons
*Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies
*Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn
*Leonard Lopate, The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC
*Phillip Lopate, Getting Personal, Waterfront, Totally Tenderly Tragically
Glenville Lovell, Fire in the Canes, Too Beautiful to Die, Love and Death in Brooklyn
Matt Madden, Odds Off, A Fine Mess
Jaime Manrique, Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig
Patrick McDonnell, Art, The Gift of Nothing, Our Mutts Five
Yona Zeldis McDonough, In Dahlia's Wake, The Four Temperaments
*Tim McLoughlin, Heart of the Old Country, editor: Brooklyn Noir, Brooklyn Noir 2
Kirsten Miller, Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City
*Rick Moody, Demonology, Purple America, The Ice Storm, Garden State
Eileen Myles, Cool For You, Skies
Aaron Naparstek, Honku
*Elizabeth Nunez, Bruised Hibiscus
Willie Perdomo, Visiting Langston, Smoking Lovely, Where a Nickel Costs a Dime
Katha Pollitt, Subject to Debate, Antarctic Traveller
Sofia Quintero, Explicit Content, Picture Me Rollin', Burn
*Nelly Rosario, Song of the Water Saints
Kevin Rosen, Welcome to Junior's!
Elizabeth Royte, Garbage Land
*Carl Hancock Rux, Asphalt
Gary Shteyngart, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan
*Wesley Stace, Misfortune
Lyn Stallworth, The Brooklyn Cookbook
*Darin Strauss, The Real McCoy, Chang and Eng
*Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle, Abide with Me
*Robert Sullivan, Cross Country: Fifteen Years and 90,000 Miles…, Rats
*Touré, Soul City, Never Drank the Kool-Aid
Erica Simone Turnipseed, A Love Noire, Hunger
*Jennifer Weiss, Brooklyn by Name
*Simcha Weinstein, Up, Up and Oy Vey
Scott Westerfeld, The Last Days
Edmund White, The Flaneur, My Lives
*Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt
*Mo Willems, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus
BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL COURTROOM
11 a.m. – 12:00p.m.
Under One Brooklyn Roof: Carson McCullers, Gypsy Lee Rose, W. H. Auden, and Jane and Paul Bowles. Actors read from the work of authors who lived at the famed Midaggh Street house in Brooklyn Heights.� Introduction by February House author Sherill Tippins.
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
The Streets Are Talking. Jonathan Lethem (Fortress of Solitude), Emily Barton (Brookland), and Paula Fox discuss the relationship between their writing and Brooklyn and read from their work set on the borough’s streets. Q & A.
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
The Soul of a Bestseller. Nationally best-selling authors Pete Hamill, Colson Whitehead, and Jennifer Egan (The Keep) talk about a major literary figure who inspired their writing, then read passages from their work that reflect this inspiration. Q&A.
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
City on the Edge. Readings by groundbreaking New York writers whose work reflects the quirky and unpredictable spirit of the city: Gary Shteyngart (Absurdistan), Jonathan Ames (I Pass Like Night), and Ben Greenman (Superworse). Q&A. Hosted by Charlotte Abbott (Publishers Weekly).
3:00–4:00 p.m.
Under Seige: The U.S. Constitution and American Democracy. Political dialogue and discussion with Katha Pollit, Patricia J. Williams (Open House) and US Representative Elizabeth Holtzman. Moderated by Laura Flanders, Air America. Organized by The Nation magazine. Q & A.
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Of Chaos and Fiction. In an era of war and global political trauma, how do writers maintain their artistic equilibrium and stay focused on their craft? Does reality intrude? A panel discussion with Nicole Krauss (The History of Love), Jhumpa Lahiri, Jaime Manrique, and Elizabeth Nunez.
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
History Matters. New York City’s most insightful and adventurous literary historians and discuss their work. TBA. Q&A.
MAIN STAGE (BOROUGH HALL PLAZA)
10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Truth from Youth. New York City’s top teen poets from Urban Word NYC, a free literary arts organization for youth, will inspire audiences of all ages in a program filled with poetry, spoken word, and hip-hop. Champions from the Annual Urban Word NYC Teen Poetry slam will perform solo and group poems. Hosted by UrbanWord director Michael Cirelli.
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
21st Century Poets: Rising Stars. Readings by four of the most promising poets of 2006: Willie Perdomo, Asha Bandele, Roger Bonair-Agard, and Rigoberto Gonzalez. Program introduced by Rob Casper of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Straight Outta Brooklyn. Can fiction writers rock the mic? You bet. Dramatic readings by Rick Moody, Carl Hancock Rux, Wesley Stace, and Colin Channer.
1:00–2:00 p.m.
Power of the Word. Four acclaimed poets read their work and reveal the visceral power of the written word: Kimiko Hahn, Eileen Myles, Yusef Komunyakaa and Phil Levine. Program introduced by Lynne Procope, founder of Louder Arts.
2:00–3:00 p.m.
New World Noir. Gritty suspense provided by mystery titan Lawrence Block, Brooklyn Noir editor Tim McLoughlin, and author Glenville Lovell.
3:00–4:00 p.m.
Only the Dead Know Brooklyn. Actors will read passages from legendary Brooklyn authors as a celebration of the borough’s literary history.
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Beat Street Breakdown: Hip-Hop as Literature. Nelson George (Hip-Hop America) and Touré (Soul City) discuss how hip-hop lyrics have been an influence on writing over the last three decades, as well as a powerful literary form all their own. Moderated by MTV News producer Joseph Patel.
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Secrets of the Street. Readings from the winners of the Brooklyn Secrets of the Street Lit Match, a writing contest for students ages 14 – 19. Hosted by Jeanine Ramirez, NY 1, with a special reading by Ken Siegelman, Brooklyn Poet Laureate.
BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL COMMUNITY ROOM
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
TBA
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Superborough: Brooklyn’s Indelible Stamp on Comic Book History. A panel of five creators, publishers and critics discuss the borough’s crucial role in the past, present, and future of comic books. Panelists include Simcha Weinstein, Matt Madden and others. Moderated by Calvin Reid, PW Comics.
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Concrete Dreams: Tales from the World Beneath the World. Stylized urban fiction read by Kenji Jasper and Sofia Quintero, accompanied by dramatization and recorded music and poetry performance.
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Notes from Underground. While the literary establishment laments the alleged dwindling of the reading public, Brooklyn’s literary magazines and independent publishers are flourishing. A panel discussion highlighting these home-grown visionaries. Featuring Sina Najafie (Cabinet magazine), Ted Hamm (Brooklyn Rail), and Betsy Sussler (Bomb magazine). Moderated by Eric Demby.
3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Historical Fiction for the New Millennium. Groundbreaking historical fiction by three revered Brooklyn-based authors: Darin Strauss, Nelly Rosario, and Elizabeth Strout. Q&A.
4:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Books to Film. A panel discussion exploring the process by which a book is turned into a major motion picture. TBA.
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
TBA
OUTDOOR NONFICTION STAGE
11:00 – 11:30 a.m
The Flora of 718. Brooklyn Botanic Garden author, Steve Clemants, will give a presentation on local wildflowers and gardening in the city.
11:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Gleason’s Gym Presents: Million-Dollar Ladies. Boxing demonstration and book signing of Gleason's Gym Total Body Boxing Workout for Women.
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Brooklyn Cooks, the World Eats. A discussion/presentation by notable Brooklyn chef-authors, moderated by Gersh Kuntzman (Editor, The Brooklyn Papers). Panelists include Lyn Stallworth (The Brooklyn Cookbook), Alan Harding, and Kevin Rosen.
1:00–1:30 p.m.
Brooklyn Philharmonic. Book presentation and performance.
1:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Dirty Secrets: A Literary Investigation of Rats & Garbage. Featuring readings/presentations by Robert Sullivan (Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants) and Elizabeth Royte (Garbageland).
2:00 – 3:00
Brooklyn Brews, the World Drinks. Brooklyn Brewery founder Steve Hindy discusses his new book and the rise of one of America’s most celebrated beer institutions.
Date: Tuesday, September 19th Time: 7:00pm & 8:30pm Location: Gotham Writer's Workshop (101 West 91st at Columbus Ave) Cost: Free with enrollment Summary: Looking to hone your creative writing skills a bit? Then check out these 12 free short creative writing classes tonight for a crash course in fiction, memoir, and even article writing. There will also be a brief intro to the Gotham Writer's Workshop for those who want to continue their pursuits further. It's all free you need to sign up on the site.
Date: Wednesday, September 20th Time: 7:00pm Location: 14th Street Y Theatre (344 E 14th St. @ 1st Ave.) Cost: Free Summary:Art in Odd Places, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
and The Public Space Research Group present this panel will be moderated by Alec Appelbaum, with panelists Bill Brown, Paul Carter, and Clarinda Mac Low.
Date: Wednesday, September 20th Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble Lincoln Center (1972 Broadway at 66th St.) Cost: Free Summary: Some where in my free time I'm supposed to be working on a screenplay... if only I had free time or uh knew how to write a screenplay. If you have time today though, Gotham Writers Workshop welcomes Alexander Steele, the author of Writing Movies. Steele who is also the dean at GWW will present a one-hour introductory workshop on the art of the screenwriting.
Date: Monday, September 25th Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm Location:NYU’s Kimmel Center (60 Washington Sq. South) Cost: Free, Reservation required: ac5@nyu.edu Summary: A panel of digital artists, designers, developers and other relevant members of the digital industry will discuss topics relating to their field. All panel participants are members of a high-end animation house and game studio and will present one of their projects in a step-by-step walk-through to compare concept development and production workflow. Nerds, pull yourselves off ytmnd for a quick sec - this one’s for you.
Date: Monday, September 25th Time: 6:30pm Location: Storefront for Art & Architecture Cost: Free Summary: Current Art in General residents Mona Marzouk and Rana El Nemr discuss their work this afternoon with Storefront Acting
Director Yasmeen M. Siddiqui. "The Artist Residency Program at Art in General gives national and international artists the opportunity to create art work in a new context, and to meet and interact with art communities and audiences in New York City."
Mona Marzouk (1968) lives and works in Alexandria, Egypt. She has
had solo exhibitions at Townhouse Gallery in Cairo (2006), Marco
Noire Contemporary Art in Turin (2002), and Institute of Visual Arts
(INOVA) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2001), and her
work has been included in various group exhibition, among them,
Rainbow A painting show, at the Zentrum fur Kulturproduktion in Bern
and An Image Bank for Everyday Revolutionary Life at Redcat Gallery
in Los Angeles. Mona is co-founder of the artist run space
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum in Egypt.
Egyptian artist Rana El Nemr (1974) was born in Hanover, Germany,
and is based in Cairo, Egypt. Her slide projection, Colors of the
Gray, was recently presented at the Victoria & Albert Museum in
London as part of Arabise Me, and her work is currently on
exhibition in Coastline at the Galleria Gallery in Denmark. In
2005, she was awarded the grand prize at the Bamako Biennale of
Photography, and in 2003, she was awarded both the bronze awards of
Canon Digital Creators Contest and at the Nile Salon Photographic
Exhibition. Rana is also founding board member of Contemporary
Image Collective (CIC) in Cairo.
Date: Wednesday, September 27th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome St. btwn. Forsyth & Eldridge) Cost: Free Summary: This music and reading series takes place on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month. It's been dubbed the best reading series in NYC by New York mag and NY Press and host and curator Amanda Stern was recently featured in the NY Times Magazine as one of the "New Bohemians" who is keeping downtown alive. Indeed this series always features an exciting roster of contemporary literary talent. Tonight is the fourth season's premiere and includes readings from Kelly Kerney, Karen Russell and Lynne Tillman, with music from Marcellus Hall. Doors are at 7pm and getting there early is highly recommended. Click below for bios.
Kelly Kerney received her BA from Bowdoin College in 2002, and her MFA from the University of Notre Dame in 2004. She was awarded the Nicholas Sparks post-graduate fellowship in 2004, which allowed her to stay at Notre Dame as a teacher and writer-in-residence. A recovering born-again Christian, she is 26 years old and lives in Richmond, VA. Born Again is her first novel.
Karen Russell, a native of Miami has been featured in both The New Yorker’s debut fiction issue and New York magazine’s list of twenty-five people to watch under the age of twenty-six. She is a graduate of the Columbia MFA program and is the 2005 recipient of the Transatlantic Review/Henfield Foundation award; her fiction has recently appeared in Conjunctions, Granta, Zoetrope, Oxford American, and The New Yorker. Twenty-five years old, she lives in New York City.
Lynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and critic. Her last novel, No Lease on Life, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction. Her stories have appeared in Bomb, The New Gothic, New York Writes After September 11, Conjunctions, Black Clock, The Literary Review, McSweeney's and Cabinet. Her new novel, her fifth, American Genius, A Comedy, will be out in October from Soft Skull Press.
MUSICIAN:
Marcellus Hall has played in the band Railroad Jerk and the critically-acclaimed White Hassle. He is currently performing as a solo artist with accompanying musicians Damon Smith on bass, Jimmy Ansourian on drums. (See marcellushall on myspace.com.) Hall also works as a freelance illustrator. His illustrations have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times. His first cover for The New Yorker was published in 2005. He is currently illustrating a children's book for Harry Abrams.
("Legends of the Infinite City," a 36-page booklet of black & white drawings of NYC by Marcellus Hall and the White Hassle CD, "Your Language," will be available at the show.)
Date: Thursday, September 28th Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm Location: 402 W. Broadway, 4th Fl. (W. Broadway and Spring) Cost: Free with RSVP Summary:Renée Vara is presenting what's described as "A new series of interviews, talks and open conversations to revive the classical poetic tradition of putting words together to describe and discuss art and visual culture in a non-partisan environment." Sounds great! Tonights panelists include Maura Reilly, Danielle Mysliwiec and Paddy Johnson. Click below for bios.
Maura Reilly: Maura Reilly is the Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, and is also a nationally and internationally recognized curator, lecturer and writer, and winner of ArtTable's Future Women Leadership Award and the Women's Caucus for Art's Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts Award.
Danielle Mysliwiec: Danielle Mysliwiec is the founder of tART and a co-founder of Brainstormers' Report, a performance collaborative currently fighting for gender equity in the art world. She is currently a professor of studio art at Yale University, Hunter College, and Pace University.
Paddy Johnson: founder of Art Fag City, a top rated artblog which has received wide acclaim in the artworld.
"GI Resistance, Counter Recruitment and Getting Out of Iraq"
Date: Thursday, September 28th Time: 7:00pm Location: Judson Memorial Church (55 Wash. Sq. at Thompson St.) Cost: Free Summary: Various antiwar writers and activists discuss what our government doesn't want us to - resistance to the war in Iraq found within the armed forces. Speakers include Veteran Jose Vasquez and author Anthony Arnoove. It's easy for us to have disdain for the war; come find out why some of the troops fighting in Iraq agree with us.
Stephen Eisenman: The Abu Ghraib Effect: Images of Pathos from Pergamon to Picasso
Date: Tuesday, October 3rd Time: 6:00pm Location: Guggenheim (1071 5th Ave at 89th St) Cost: Free Summary: "From the ancient Pergamon Altar to the photographs of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, images of conquered figures embracing their own deaths pervade visual culture. However, there also exists a tradition in modern art—including works by Pablo Picasso, Ben Shahn, Leon Golub, Gillo Pontecorvo, and others—that subverts this oppressive paradigm. This lecture addresses the nature of the opposition, and the political stakes for those involved."
Date: Tuesday, October 3rd Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm Location:The Urban Center (457 Madison Ave @ 51st St) Cost: Free with RSVP Summary: In this lecture, "controversial, best-selling author Robert Bruegmann, whose radical claims about urban history challenge conventional planning wisdom by highlighting the benefits of sprawl, will present his vision of the city to an expert panel of urban designers and historians who will debate their implications.
Date: Friday, October 6th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 E. 4th st.)Cost: Free Summary: Since it opened in 1993, KGB Bar has touted itself as a literary enclave in the big city. This installation of the KGB's Riot Lit Collective features N. Frank Daniels, Futureproof ("Really good shit," - James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces); Tony O'Neill, Digging the Vein ("Digging the Vein is mining diamonds for the crown of the king of hell." - John Giorno); and Jolene Siana, Go Ask Ogre ("Pure, lucid and engaging… more authentic for a new generation of young women than, say, the 1971 cautionary tale about drugs Go Ask Alice." - Susan Carpenter, L.A. Times).
Date: Sunday, October 8th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 E. 4th st.) Cost: Free Summary: Since it opened in 1993, KGB Bar has touted itself as a literary enclave in the big city. This installation of the KGB's Riot Lit Collective features Fiction Writers Kelly Link and Shelley Jackson.
Kelly Link's debut collection, Stranger Things Happen, was a Village Voice Favorite Book and a Salon Book of the Year. Tonight's reading is taken from her second collection, Magic for Beginners ("...an alchemical mixture of Borges, Raymond Chandler, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer." - Salon), which was selected for best of the year lists by Time Magazine, Salon, Boldtype, Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Capitol Times.
Shelley Jackson studied art at Stanford and writing at Brown, and now lives in Brooklyn. She is the author of the "classic" Patchwork Girl , as well as a story collection, The Melancholy of Anatomy, which has just been published by Anchor Books. She will read from her novel, Half Life. "Jackson's prose is nothing short of dazzling, but it's still not enough to give real tension to her oddball plot." – Publishers Weekly
Date: Tuesday, October 10th Time: 7:00pm Location: Barnes & Noble, USQ (17th St. btw. Broadway and Park) Cost: Free Summary: Contemporary iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz discuss her life and her work today in honor of her new book. Over the last 30+ years Leibovitz has shot just about every celebrity you can think of and was recently invited to shoot the first photos of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes baby, Suri. Keep an eye out for her upcoming exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art opening October 20th.
"I don't have two lives," Annie Leibovitz writes in the Introduction to this collection of her work from 1990-2005. "This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it." Portraits of well-known figures-Johnny Cash, Nicole Kidman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Keith Richards, Michael Jordan, Joan Didion, R2-D2, Patti Smith, Nelson Mandela, Jack Nicholson, William Burroughs, George W. Bush with members of his Cabinet-appear alongside pictures of Leibovitz's family and friends, reportage from the siege of Sarajevo in the early Nineties, and landscapes made even more indelible through Leibovitz's discerning eye. The images form a narrative rich in contrasts and continuities: The photographer has a long relationship that ends with illness and death. She chronicles the celebrations and heartbreaks of her large and robust family. She has children of her own. All the while she is working, and the public work resonates with the themes of her life.
Date: Wednesday, October 11th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome St. btwn. Forsyth & Eldridge) Cost: Free Summary: This music and reading series takes place on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month. It's been dubbed the best reading series in NYC by New York mag and NY Press and host and curator Amanda Stern was recently featured in the NY Times Magazine as one of the "New Bohemians" who is keeping downtown alive. Indeed this series always features an exciting roster of contemporary literary talent. Tonight includes readings from Michelle Wildgen, Ruth Ellen Kocher, and David Lehman, with music by Rebecca Moore. Doors are at 7pm and getting there early is highly recommended. Click below for author bios.
Ruth Ellen Kocher is the author of One Girl Babylon (New Issues Press 2003) When the Moon Knows You're Wandering (New Issues Press, 2001), winner of the Green Rose Prize in Poetry, and Desdemona's Fire (Lotus Press, 1999), winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in various journals, including Washington Square Journal, Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, Clackamas Literary Review, The Missouri Review, African American Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Antioch, among others, and has been translated into Persian in the Iranian literary magazine She'r. She has also worked as a fellow in the Cave Canem Workshop and Retreat. She teaches in the MFA program at University of Colorado-Boulder.
Michelle Wildgen is the author of the novel, You're Not You, and editor of an anthology, Food & Booze. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Best New American Voices 2004, Best Food Writing 2004, StoryQuarterly, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. She is a senior editor at Tin House Magazine and an editor at Tin House Books.
David Lehman is the author of seven books of poetry, including When a Woman Loves a Man (2005). Two of his books, The Daily Mirror (2000) and The Evening Sun (2002), reflect the practice of writing a poem a day, which he did for the better part of five years. In collaboration with the poet James Cummins, he has written a book of sestinas, Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man (Soft Skull Press, 2006). Mr. Lehman is the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry (2006) and series editor of The Best American Poetry.
MUSICIAN:
Harvey Mars (Rebecca Moore, solo) has written full-scale low-budget surrealistic musical theater pieces that were presented at spaces such as Performance Space 122 and La MaMa E.T.C. The music from one of these shows became the basis for her first CD, Admiral Charcoal’s Song. Her second CD is Homewreckordings 1997-1999. Currently she is working on a third CD for Tzadik, which is taking a long time to finish, and contributes music to friends films and dance pieces when able. For more information: www.bluviolin.com
HOST:
Amanda Stern is the author of The Long Haul (Soft Skull Press). She teaches 3rd – 8th graders at The School at Columbia University. She founded the Happy Ending Reading series in 2003 and has been hosting and curating it ever since.
Date: Friday, October 13th Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Nublu (62 Ave C btw. 4th & 5th St.) Cost: Free Summary: "A [Creative Commons] Salon is a free, casual monthly get-together focused on conversation, presentations, and performances from people or groups who are developing projects that relate to open content and/or software." While these events have been happening worldwide, this is the first one in NYC and will feature two performances by multimedia artists dedicated to the Open Source format. Performer bios below.
Marisa Olson
Marisa Olson's performance-based work revolves around the shared histories of popular music, cinema, and sound recording technologies. Her interdisciplinary practice incorporates internet art, videos, audio recordings, drawings, and installations in tandem with live performance, to make statements about life, communication, and the voice in contemporary digital culture. these works are often infused with mixed metaphors about the relations between talent, fame, and failure. Marisa studied art at Goldsmiths College, History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz, and Rhetoric and Film Studies at UC Berkeley. Her work has most recently been presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, New Langton Arts, the Art Gallery of Knoxville, Side Cinema-UK, and the New York and Chicago Underground Film Festivals. She's also Editor & Curator at Rhizome.org, an organization celebrating its 10th anniversary of supporting the new media community. While Wired has called her both funny and humorous, the New York Times has called her "anything but stupid."
Paul Slocum of Tree Wave
Paul Slocum is a musician and new media artist living in Dallas. Computers and computer culture are often the medium and subject of his work. Some of his projects are The Dot Matrix Synth, an 80's dot matrix printer with re-programmed firmware to transform it into a sort of musical instrument, The Century Callback Project, a phone number that calls you back 8 times in a century, and The Time-Lapse Homepage, a video made with HTML. He is also half of the band Tree Wave that makes music and video with obsolete assembly-language-programmed computer and video game gear. Some of Paul's performances and exhibitions include Transitio MX (Mexico City), The New Museum of Contemporary Art (NY), Deitch Projects (NY), Le Confort Moderne (France), README 2005 (Denmark), The Liverpool Biennial, Eyebeam (NY), and Fluxfactory (NY).
Date: Sunday, October 15th Time: 9:00am - 6:00pm Location: Bryant Park (Btwn. 5th & 6th Ave. & 40th & 42nd St.) Cost: Free Summary: The NY Times (you know the one) presents this 2nd annual literary festival for "book lovers of all ages." This event is jam packed with some pretty serious, heavy hitting literary talent. It includes readings, signings, discussions and a whole program for the kiddies (which includes Rhea Perlman. Yeah!) Click here for full schedule.
Date: Monday, October 16th Time: 7:00pm Location:The Kabbalah Centre (155 E 48th st) Cost: Free Summary: Now, this whole new Kabbalah-loving movement pisses me off to no end, but, I’m all for being educated about it and making up your own mind. This series of lectures will (hopefully) inform you on how you can join the one million people who are ‘improving their lives’ because of Kabbalah. While listening, please keep in mind that Kabbalah is a minor beliefs system within a much larger religion, and should really only be studied by men over the age of 40.
Date: Wednesday, October 18th Time: 5:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Trinity Church (Broadway at Wall St) Cost: Free with Reservation Summary: In his only scheduled New York appearance this year, Archbishop Desmond
Mpilo Tutu will join John Allen, author of Rabble-Rouser for Peace: The Authorized Biography of Desmond Tutu, in a conversation about South Africa's struggle with apartheid. Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his tireless efforts in ending apartheid in South Africa. He is still regarded as one of the most influential civil rights leaders in the world.
Date: Sunday, October 23rd Time: 5:00pm Location: Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway at 12th St) Cost: Free Summary: Post my liberal arts education, it seems I am way too busy to come across phenomenal literary works. One such work, however, was Mark Z. Danielewski's deconstructivist fiction work "House of Leaves." This afternoon, Danielewski reads from his latest "Only Revolutions" which promises to be just as bizarre and gripping. The novel presents two separate narratives - one beginning in the front and one in the back - of the same story. Pop by the packed house this afternoon to find out more!
Date: Sunday, October 22nd Time: 7:00pm Location: Magnetic Field (97 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn) Cost: Free Summary: "Spend an evening in Brooklyn with three Onion writers talking and reading to you and offering other varities of fun to entertain you. The evening features Onion head writer Todd Hanson, contributor John Harris, and Onion features editor Joe Garden. Soundtrack accompaniment by Onion contributing writer and recent winner of the NY Press People's Choice award for Best DJ, the Meat Mistress!"
Date: Friday, October 24th Time: 5:30pm - 7:00pm Location: Rixxolli Bookstore (31 West 57th btw 5th & 6th) Cost: Free Summary: PowerHouse book signings are always as much about the party as they are about the book and this one promises to be no exception. Celebreate the release of photographer Ron Galella's Disco Years - "the definitive visual diary of the New York club scene in the seventies and eighties" - with this signing and celebration. More about the book after the jump.
The definitive visual diary of the New York club scene in the seventies and eighties, Disco Years presents an astounding collection of photographs from America’s premier nightlife photographer, Ron Galella. His candid shots of the era’s fabulous fashionistas, indulgent rock idols, outlandish artists, mystical muses, jet-setting socialites, and fantastic freaks reveal the delicious decadence that defined the decade.
Disco Years brings us the high life, literally and figuratively. Featuring unforgettable photographs of Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Halston, Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Diane von Furstenberg, Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Keith Richards, Ali MacGraw, Truman Capote, Gloria Vanderbilt, Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields, Cher, Raquel Welch, Donna Summer, David Bowie, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Divine, Johnny Lydon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sean Penn, Rod Stewart, and John Belushi, among countless others, Disco Years takes us back to a time when skiing was an indoor activity, velvet ropes were high security, and incredible style was the only requirement.
Date: Monday, October 30th Time: 7:00pm Location:Barnes & Noble Union Square (E 17th st.) Cost: Free Summary: This month's installment of Barnes & Noble's new interview series called 'Upstairs at the Square' features writer Nell Freudenberger and muscian Howard Fishman. Freudenberger, a native New Yorker, has lived in Bangkok and New Delhi, and has written a short story collection entitled Lucky Girls, presumably based on her experiences abroad. She will be reading, discussing and signing her new novel The Dissident. Following the reading, Howard Fishman will be playing selections from his album, Look At All This!. The night will be hosted by journalist Katherine Lanpher.
Date: Monday, November 5th Time: 7:00pm Location: Apple Store SoHo (103 Prince St) Cost: Free Summary:UPDATE: not sure if this is happening today, or next week or not at all. No one can confirm... "Darren Aronofsky is the director of the beautiful but disturbing "Requiem for a Dream." He's coming to the Apple Store to talk about his new movie, "The Fountain," which is about a man's thousand-year quest (first as a conquistador, then as a 20th century scientist, and finally as an astronaut in the distant future) to save the woman he loves." [via papermag]
Popular Science Magazine's "Best of What's New" Showcase
Date: Tuesday, November 7th - 9th Time: All Day Location: Grand Central Terminal (101 East 42nd Street) Cost: Free Summary: Three days and 100 technological innovations so mind-blowing that POPULAR SCIENCE magazine named them winners of the 19th annual Best of What's New awards. The POPULAR SCIENCE Best of What's New Showcase returns to Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall for the fourth annual exhibition of the top tech innovations of the year.
Date: Wednesday, November8th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome St. btwn. Forsyth & Eldridge) Cost: Free Summary: This music and reading series takes place on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month. It's been dubbed the best reading series in NYC by New York mag and NY Press and host and curator Amanda Stern was featured in the NY Times Magazine as one of the "New Bohemians" who is "keeping downtown alive." Indeed this series always features an exciting roster of contemporary literary talent. Tonight includes readings from Jennifer Egan, David Rakoff, and Peter Behrens, with music by Hannah Marcus. Doors are at 7pm. CLick below for bios.
Peter Behrens held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford University, and was a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His collection of short stories, Night Driving was published in 1987. Stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Tin House, Brick, Best Canadian Stories, Best Canadian Essays and many other magazines and anthologies. When his first story published in The Atlantic Monthly and was optioned by a Hollywood producer, Behrens began to work as a professional screenwriter. He lives in Brooklin, Maine with his wife, the designer Basha Burwell, and their son Henry. The Law of Dreams is Peter Behrens' first novel.
Jennifer Egan is the author of The Invisible Circus, which was released as a feature film by Fine Line in 2001, Emerald City and Other Stories, Look at Me, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 2001, and most recently The Keep. Her short stories have appeared in Harpers, The New Yorker, McSweeney's, and other magazines. Also a journalist, she writes frequently in the New York Times Magazine.
David Rakoff is the author of the books Fraud and Don’t Get Too Comfortable. A regular contributor to PRI's "This American Life," his writing has also appeared in GQ, Outside, the New York Times Magazine, Salon, and The New York Observer, among others. He can be seen (fleetingly) in the films "Capote," and (fleetingly; mutely) and in "Strangers With Candy."
MUSICIAN:
Hannah Marcus is a songwriter-singer and composer who lives in Brooklyn. Her forthcoming CD was recorded in Montreal with members of the groups Godspeed You Black Emperor and A Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orkestra. It sounds at times somewhat like "a Salvation Army band playing over Graham Parson's funeral pyre." Her last record was made in Montreal as well. It came out on Bar/None last year. Hannah collaborates often with author Rick Moody, with whom she plays and sings in a band called The Wingdale Community Singers. She recently composed the music for a documentary entitled "Refrigerator Mothers," about the plight of mothers of autistic children who grew up in the late 1950's. Hannah counts American Music Club and Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon) as early influences. Mark Kozelek produced her first demos, and she recorded two albums with the San Francisco producer and legendary drummer Tim Mooney, who still plays with AMC. Marcus is also a big fan of Stan Rogers, Almeda Riddle and John Darnelle.
Date: Thursday, November 9th Time: 7:30pm Location: Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction (31 Ave. A btwn. 2nd & 3rd St.) Cost: Free Summary: In celebration of their fall New York Issue, join the Collectanea* folks for a night of readings as performed by the NYCollective and friends. Readers include my man Jesse Ashlock, Jordan Heimer, Nathan Hunt, Deborah Schwartz, and Robert Voris, with special guest Marvin Gelfand. It supposedly gets pretty crowded, so get there early. The first 25 folks through the door get free copies of the print edition.
Date: Tuesday. November 14th Time: 7:00pm Location: Strand (Broadway and 12th St) Cost: Free Summary: "Green Apple Talk #1: Eating Green explores the common ground between eating for pleasure and eating politics. How are consumers changing the way they eat, and what impact do those trends really have on the environment? Can people - individually, and as a society - really be healthier? Join us at the Strand for a sure to be lively panel discussion with Eating Green explores the common ground between eating for pleasure and eating for politics."
Join us for a sure to be lively panel discussion with Tim Fitzgerald of Environmental Defense , who will discuss the Oceans Program on conservation and human health issues related to the U.S. seafood market as well as projects to improve aquaculture and develop meaningful organic standards for fish; Organic, Inc: Natural Foods and How They Grew author Samuel Fromartz; and a director of Slow Food USA , the American branch of a global movement with over 80,000 members who recognize that the enjoyment of wholesome food is essential to the pursuit of happiness. Moderated by award-winning journalist Bryan Keefer.
Date: Thursday, November 16th Time: 7:30pm Location: Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer St. btwn Frost & Richardson, W'burg) Cost: Free Summary: For seven years running, this BK reading series, hosted by Mira Jacob and Alison Hart, has established itself as a seriously reputable lit night to see a full spectrum of writers from the literary firmament. The stars vary in brighness, but they all shine true. Tonight gives you a chance to see Lynne Tillman (American Genius: A Comedy) and Alison Smith (Name All the Animals) in action. Click below for bios.
Lynne Tillman, Associate Professor/Writer-in-Residence in the Department
of English at the University at Albany, is the author of four novels, two
collections of short stories, one collection of essays and two nonfiction
books. She has collaborated often with artists and writes regularly on
culture. Her novels include No Lease on Life (1997) which was a New York
Times Notable Book of 1998 and a finalist for the National Book Critics
Circle Award, Cast in Doubt (1992), Motion Sickness (1991), and Haunted
Houses (1995). Absence Makes the Heart (1990) and The Broad Picture (1997)
are both collections of Tillman's essays that were published in literary
and art periodicals. In 1995, Tillman's The Velvet Years: Warhol's Factory
1965-1967 was published with photographs by Stephen Shore, and it
presented Factory personalities' narratives as well as her critical essay
on Warhol, his art, and studio. Tillman is also the author of the
nonfiction book The Life and Times of Jeannette Watson and Books & Co.
(1999) a cultural history of a literary landmark, where writers and
artists would congregate for nearly 20 years. She has taught at Princeton
and Bard College. She is the Fiction Editor at BOMB Magazine.
Alison Smith's writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Granta, The London
Telegraph, The New York Times, The Believer, Glamour, Best American
Erotica, and other publications. Her first book, a memoir titled Name All
the Animals, was published by Scribner. Name All the Animals was named one
of the top ten books of 2004 by People Magazine and was shorted-listed for
the Book-Sense Book-of-the-Year Award. Alison has been awarded the Barnes
& Noble Discover Award, the Judy Grahn Prize for Nonfiction and a Lambda
Literary Award. Name All the Animals has been published in seven foreign
countries, including the UK, Italy, Denmark, France, Germany, Brazil and
Spain. Alison lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Date: November 17th - 19th Time: Fri. & Sat. 11am-7pm, Sun. 11am-5pm Location: 548 W. 22nd St. (btwn. 10th & 11th Ave.) Cost: Free Summary:Printed Matter, Inc. is presenting this first annual fair of, "contemporary art books, art catalogues, artists' books, art periodicals, and 'zines offered for sale by over 70 international publishers, booksellers, and antiquarian dealers." There will be tons of interesting events and whatnot, with participants like Creative Time and Performa. I just read in the Times Style section that "Black is Back," so dust off that black turtleneck and head down. Check all the deets HERE
Date: Friday, November 17th Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location: KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St. btwn 2nd Ave and Bowery) Cost: Free Summary: This is the fourth installment of the Mad Hatters' Review "Poetry, Prose & Anything Goes" reading series. The KGB Bar is known, and I mean known, for its literary leanings and they feature readings almost every night, so if you're that kind of person and haven't checked 'em out yet, you better do that. Tonight's "edgy & enlightened literature, art & music in the Age of Dementia" features Wanda Phipps, Frederic Tuten and Diane Williams. Click below for bios.
Wanda Phipps, a writer living in Brooklyn, NY, and the author of Wake-Up Calls: 66 Morning Poems (Soft Skull Press), Your Last Illusion or Break Up Sonnets (Situations), Lunch Poems (Boog Literature), the e-chapbook After the Mishap and the CD-Rom Zither Mood (Faux Press). Her poems have been published over 100 times in publications such as the anthologies Verses that Hurt: Pleasure and Pain From the Poemfone Poets (St. Martin's Press) and The Boog Reader (Boog LIt). She's also curated several reading and performanceseries at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church as well as other venues and written about the arts for Time Out New York, Paper Magazine, and About.com.
Frederic Tuten, who studied pre-Columbian art history at the University of Mexico and later traveled through South America, writing on Brazilian cinema. He received his Ph.D. from New York University, concentrating on the Melville, Whitman period; for some years he taught courses in literature and America films at the University of Paris 8. For more than fifteen years he directed and taught in the City College of New York's Graduate Program in Creative Writing. He is currently giving graduate fiction workshops at The City College and offers classes on experimental writing at The New School University. He is the author of five novels: The Adventures of Mao on the Long March; Tallien: A Brief Romance; Tintin in the New World; Van Gogh's Bad Café; and most recently, The Green Hour. His short fiction has appeared in Tri-Quarterly, Fiction, Fence, The New Review of Literature, Conjunctions, and Granta. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing and in 2001 was given the Award for Distinguished Writing from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Diane Williams, the author of six books of fiction. It Was Like My Trying to Have a Tender-Hearted Nature will be out from FC2 in Fall 2007. She is the founding editor of Noon.
Date: Monday, November 20th Time: 7:30 Location: National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South) Cost: Free as space permits Summary: In one of the more unique lectures I've seen come across my inbox, Dirty Dancing author Eleanor Bergstein discuss the similarities between her opus and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Shakespearian scholars will be on hand to agree or refute the argument.
Date: Monday, November 20th Time: 8:00pm Location: 511 Dodge Hall, Columbia University Cost: Free Summary:The Blue Notebooks is a series of student run interviews presented at Columbia University. Each event features leading writers, artists, and intellectuals discussing their latest. Tonight features conversation with writer Scott Snyder, whose collection of stories, Voodoo Heart (The Dial Press), was released in summer to rave reviews. "The stories in Voodoo Heart are giddy with the thrill of discovering what can be done with words, what you can make happen on the page. The result is as irreducible and rewarding as making playing cards disappear or pulling gold coins out of thin air" (Francine Prose)
Date: Wednesday, November 29th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome St. btwn. Forsyth & Eldridge) Cost: Free Summary: This music and reading series takes place on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month. It's been dubbed the best reading series in NYC by New York mag and NY Press and host and curator Amanda Stern was featured in the NY Times Magazine as one of the "New Bohemians" who is "keeping downtown alive." Indeed this series always features an exciting roster of contemporary literary talent. Tonight includes readings from Alix Strauss, Mila Drumke, Jennifer Banash, and Robert Marshall. Doors are at 7pm. Click below for bios.
Mila Drumke has recorded four albums: Gathering My Name, which features “Someone,” the theme from the film Go Fish; Illinois; Hip to Hip: A Collection of Standards; and, most recently, Radiate. “Someone” also appeared on the first Independent Film Channel release, In Your Ear. In 2005, Mila was awarded a NEA/Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation fellowship and residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts for her work on a non-fiction book, All the Time in the World. For more information, please visit miladrumke.com.
Robert Marshall was born in Oregon and grew up in Phoenix. He is an accomplished visual artist whose work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, and South America, and his fiction has appeared in Blithe House Quarterly and Euphony as well as in the anthologies Afterwords, Queer 14, and Fresh Men II. In addition, his interviews and criticism have appeared in New York Press, on ArtNet, and in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. Marshall founded "Prose in General" at New York's Art in General, and is the director of "Writers at the Alliance" at the Educational Alliance. He has received fellowships from the Macdowell Colony, Yaddo, the Virginia Center, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Alix Strauss is a trend writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Post, and Daily News, as well as national magazines: Time Magazine, Town & Country Travel, Travel & Leisure Golf, Marie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, Self, Wine Enthusiast, Esquire and Outside, among others. Her collection of shorts, THE JOY OF FUNERALS, was published by St. Martin's Press. Stockard Channing will be directing the film version, with Alix writing the screenplay. Currently, she is editing an anthology of blind date stories for Adam's Media called HAVE I GOT A GUY FOR YOU, due out in 2008.
Jennifer Banash was born and raised in New York City. She graduated with a B.A. in Fine Art from Arizona State University and has worked as a copywriter, editor, waitress, television news writer, party promoter, and exotic dancer. She lives, works and writes in Iowa City, Iowa, and is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Iowa. In August 2006, she co-founded Impetus Press with her partner, Willy Blackmore. Her poetry has been published in Black Spring Review, Poetry Motel, and The Colorado Review. Her first novel, Hollywoodland: An American Fairy Tale, is published by Impetus Press.
MUSICIAN:
Paul Brill forward-looking creator of 2004’s critically-acclaimed New Pagan Love Song, released his new LP, Harpooner, on his own Scarlet Shame Records last week. His most searing artistic statement to date, Harpooner marks the end of Brill’s Americana tinges and a full embrace of the intense musical collages he began on NPLS. It’s a stunning, challenging, and edgy piece of work, marking the welcome return of one of songwriterdom’s most independent and progressive artists. In addition to writing and recording songs for his own albums, Brill has composed music for several films, commercials, and, most recently, the theme for a NPR program. Brill’s original score for the upcoming HBO feature documentary, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, was hailed by Variety as “memorably chilling, sounding notes of purest dread." The film was most recently selected to the shortlist for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
Date: Thursday, November 30th Time: 7:30pm Location: Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer St. btwn Frost & Richardson, W'burg) Cost: Free Summary: For seven years running, this BK reading series, hosted by Mira Jacob and Alison Hart, has established itself as a seriously reputable lit night to see a full spectrum of writers from the literary firmament. The stars vary in brighness, but they all shine in their own special way! Tonight Katherine Lanpher (Leap Days) and Vince Passaro (Violence, Nudity, Adult Content) read what they've writ. Click below for bios.
Katherine Lanpher was most recently the co-host on “The Al Franken Show.”
Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, and More magazine, as well
as several regional newspapers. She hosts “Liberal Arts,” a performance
and interview show for Air America that features a diverse roster of
artists and writers. Before her midlife move she was the host of Minnesota
Public Radio’s Midday Show.
Vince Passaro’s nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine,
Harper’s and many other publications. His novel Violence, Nudity, Adult
Content was published in 2002.
Date: Friday, December 1st Time: 8:00pm Location:Rocketship (208 Smith St, Brooklyn) Cost: Free Summary: Art Spiegelman, Francoise Mouly, Kim Deitch and David Mazzucchelli will be on hand this evening to sign copies of this new collection of children's comics. The book includes work by Kaz, Tony Millionaire, Maurice Sendak, David Sedaris, Lemony Snicket, Jules Feiffer, Charles Burns, Neil Gaiman, Dan Clowes, and many, many others.
Date: Saturday & Sunday, December 2nd & 3rd Time: 10:00am - 6:00pm Location: The landmark building of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen (20 W 44th St. @ 5th Ave.) Cost: Free ($1 donation encouraged) Summary: The Small Press Center has brought together over 100 small and independent publishers and authors for your intellectual edification (and consumption). There are going to be some seriously heavy hitters this weekend and, frankly, a pretty decent selection of both "high" and "low" subjectmatter. They've got interviews with authors like Michael Cunningham, a panel on Roe v. Wade, and one sponsored by The Nation, as well as a panel on graffiti. Also, books books and more books! The talent they've assembled in these two days really is staggering. Click HERE for a full schedule of events.
Date: Saturday, December 2nd Time: 5:00pm Location: Galapagos Art Space (70 N. 6th St. btwn Kent and Wythe, W'burg) Cost: Free Summary: The lit journals Small Spiral Notebook and Ballyhoo Stories are hosting this literary get-together at the fabulous Galapagos Art Space, with participants from BOMB, Opium, Pindeldyboz, Post Road, Quick Fiction, Swink, and Tin House magazines. There will be free and discounted magazines subscriptions, raffles for theater tickets and spa and restaurant gift certificates, readings by Noria Jablonski, Irina Reyn, Brian McMullen, Aaron Hamburger, Elizabeth Searle, Salar Abdoh, and Brian McMullen, and musical performances "courtesy of Pindeldyboz."
Date: Saturday & Sunday, December 2nd & 3rd Time: 11:00am - 6:00pm Location: The landmark building of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen (20 W 44th St. @ 5th Ave.) Cost: Free ($1 donation encouraged) Summary: The Small Press Center has brought together over 100 small and independent publishers and authors for your intellectual edification (and consumption). There are going to be some seriously heavy hitters this weekend and, frankly, a pretty decent selection of both "high" and "low" subjectmatter. They've got interviews with authors like Michael Cunningham, a panel on Roe v. Wade, and one sponsored by The Nation, as well as a panel on graffiti. Also, books books and more books! The talent they've assembled in these two days really is staggering. Click HERE for a full schedule of events.
Date: Monday, December 4th Time: 8:00pm Location: 511 Dodge Hall, Columbia University Cost: Free Summary:The Blue Notebooks is a series of student run interviews presented at Columbia University. Each event features leading writers, artists, and intellectuals discussing their latest. Tonight features a symposium on W.G. Sebald, commemorating the 5th anniversary of his untimely death and reappraising his life and work...
"Even in his lifetime, W.G. Sebald was compared to the likes of Kafka, Proust, and Borges. It has already been five years since his untimely death in an automobile accident, and it seems that Sebald's place in literature is even more indelible, permanent. Yet his work remains as unclassifiable and enigmatic as ever. Is it fiction or non-fiction? Why the use of haunting photographs? Does the pessimism of his writing offer any hope for this day and age?"
Date: Thursday, December 7th Time: 7:30pm Location: Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer St. btwn Frost & Richardson, W'burg) Cost: Free Summary: For seven years running, this BK reading series, hosted by Mira Jacob and Alison Hart, has established itself as a seriously reputable lit night to see a full spectrum of writers from the literary firmament. The stars vary in brighness, but they all shine in their own special way! Tonight Nell Freudenberger (The Dissident) and Dana Spiotta (Eat the Document) bring to life their creations. Click below for bios.
Nell Freudenberger was awarded the 2005 Whiting Writer’s Award. In
addition to the PEN/Faulkner Award for excellence in short fiction, she
has received the O. Henry Award for short fiction, and the Sue Kaufman
Prize for first fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Lucky Girls was named a best/notable book of 2003 by the New York Times
Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” Chicago Tribune,
Seattle Times, and New York Newsday, and was a BookSense 76 pick. She
lives in New York City.
Dana Spiotta grew up mostly in California and moved to New York City in
1993. She was the managing editor (with Jodi Davis) of “The Quarterly” for
two years. Her first novel, Lightning Field, was a New York Times Notable
Book of the year and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the West. Her second
novel, Eat the Document, has been nominated for the National Book Award.
The New York Times called it “stunning” and described it as “a book that
possesses the staccato ferocity of a Joan Didion essay and the
razzle-dazzle language and the historical resonance of a Don DeLillo
novel.” Spiotta lives in a small rural village in upstate New York with
her husband and daughter. When she isn’t writing, they run their small
country restaurant, The Rose & Kettle, on the ground floor of their home.
Date: Wednesday, December 13th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome St. btwn. Forsyth & Eldridge) Cost: Free Summary: This music and reading series takes place on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month. It's been dubbed the best reading series in NYC by New York mag and NY Press and host and curator Amanda Stern was featured in the NY Times Magazine as one of the "New Bohemians" who is "keeping downtown alive." Indeed this series always features an exciting roster of contemporary literary talent. Tonight includes readings from Leanne Shapton, Marcellus Hall, and Chris Leo and music by Jennifer O Connor. Doors are at 7pm. Click below for bios.
Leanne Shapton is an artist, illustrator, art director and writer born in Toronto and living in New York. She has contributed to The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The Believer and The New Yorker, among other publications. Leanne is the "L" of J&L Books, a non-profit publishing company founded with photographer Jason Fulford, specializing in new photography, drawing and writing. Her first collection of drawings, titled "Toronto" was published in 2003. Her latest book, "Was She Pretty" was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in November 2006.
Chris Leo, the mythical troubador flaneur who scored higher on the New York City tour guide exam than anyone else in the city -- neither Philip Lopate nor Speed Levitch can claim this -- is also responsible for the novels White Pigeons and We Pulse in Pink, the children's book Coomoococklemungmung illustrated by Buenos Aires' Francesca Massai, and over ten albums over the past two decades with bands like The Van Pelt, The Lapse, and currently, Vague Angels. Though hailing from the Leo New Jersey art dynasty (brother of Ted, Dan, and Amy), when not on tour he divides his time between Manhattan and Cupra Marittima, Italy.
Marcellus Hall's illustrations have graced the pages of The New Yorker, Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times. His first cover for The New Yorker was published in 2005. He has won recognition from American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators, and Communication Arts. Marcellus Hall created the comic strip Bill Dogbreath for alternative weekly newspapers in the 1990s. He contributed an 8-page illustrated narrative to the literary journal Open City #18 and has self-published booklets of writings and drawings including 2003’s "Legends of the Infinite City – Drawings of New York." As a songwriter and singer Marcellus Hall has fronted bands Railroad Jerk and White Hassle, releasing albums and touring Europe, Japan, and North America. An exhibit of his illustrations and sketches was held at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005 and his illustrated tour diaries can be found on the web. In 2004 he wrote and illustrated a weeklong journal for Slate.com.
MUSICIAN:
Jennifer O’ Connor’s third album, 'Over The Mountain…' has the immediacy of a debut. The past year saw many personal upheavals which informed it more than she expected. "It's been so tumultuous, I think that inevitably crept into my songs," she says. "I wouldn't say that I always write from experience, but I did a lot of it on this record." For her most emotional songs yet, she self-produced and got rid of reverb and extraneous sounds, giving them an urgency that her other records didn't always have. She explains, "There's a lot of space; we purposefully pared everything down to what was necessary for the song." Her self-released, self-titled debut came out in 2002. 'The Color And The Light' followed in May 2005.
Date: Friday, December 15th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: powerHouse Arena (37 Main Street, Dumbo) Cost: Free Summary: "The PowerHouse Arena will host a panel discussion on Studio 54 and the glamorous 70s and 80s nightlife scene, moderated by Michael Musto, and featuring Anthony Haden-Guest, Ron Galella, Maripol, and Randy Jones of The Village People, followed by a book signing with Ron Galella for his new tome, Disco Years, along with participating photographers and panel members. Michael Musto's will also sign his new publication La Dolce Musto, a compilation of Musto's Village Voice columns."
Date: Wednesday, December 20th Time: 8:00pm Location: Happy Ending (302 Broome Street) Cost: Free Summary: "In the Flesh is a monthly reading... [featuring] 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." This month's special "holiday erotica" readers after the jump
Ring your jingle bells and get warm and cozy at December's In The
Flesh, featuring holiday erotica and much more. With Abiola Abrams
(BET's The Best Shorts), L. Elise Bland (Best American Erotica 2006
contributor), Scott Bowen (The Midnight Fish), Kevin Keck (Oedipus
Wrecked), Stan Kent (Shoe Leather series, Hustler Hollywood), Lisa
Beth Kovetz (The Tuesday Erotica Club), Karen Moulding (Unbox, The
Untrainable Heart), Jean Roberta (Best Lesbian Erotica contributor),
and host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Candy canes and cupcakes will be
served, and erotic books, including The Merry XXXMas Book of Erotica,
will be given away as door prizes.
L.L. Cool J: Self Proclaimed Fittest Man in Hollywood
Date: Wednesday, January 3rd Time: 1:00pm Location: Barnes and Noble (555 5th Ave at 46th St) Cost: Free Summary: Clearly 2007 is the year for hip hop superstars to pick up the pen and pad and take a crack at the literary world... and why not? I'm waiting on some sort of Hip-Hop Economics 101 from Jay-Z but in the meantime at least I work on my abs with Mr. LL Cool J. That's right, "Hollywood's Fittest Star" (from the title, not my words... promise) drop his new fitness routine for the new year and tonight he's at Barnes and Noble to show off the result, swoon the ladies, and perhaps sign a few copies.
A Super Serial Meetin fo the Super Secret Science Club!
Date: Wednesday, January 3rd Time: 7:30pm Location: Union Hall, downstairs (702 Union St. at 5th Ave., Park Slope) Cost: Free Summary: Its the night of the Doppelganger at Park Slope's monthly Super Secret Science Club. Tonight's gathering of science loving folks (seriously, what's up with the Math League today?) is dedicated to the secret lives of - what else - neurobiologists. By Day, David Sulzer charts undiscovered parts of the brain while by night he charts undiscovered parts of the musical spectrum. He's joined by David Soldier who explores European pop traditions with The Spinozas.
Date: Thursday, January 4th Time: 6:00pm Location: Borders Books and Music (10 Columbus Circle) Cost: Free Summary: First hip hop, then Vitamin Water and now book stores across the globe! 50 Cent appears at Borders Books on Columbus Circle with two of his writers for the launch of G Unit books. 50 will be on hand for a book signing of Death Before Dishonor, Baby Brother and The Ski Mask Way, but there is a limited number of wrist bands that will be given out, and they will be distributed starting at 9am. While the idea of 50 sitting at Borders sipping a latte is pretty funny, anything he can do to inspire people to read is cool in my book.
Date: Thursday, January 11th Time: 7:00pm Location:Barnes & Noble Union Square (E 17th st.) Cost: Free Summary: This month's installment of Barnes & Noble's newish interview series called 'Upstairs at the Square' features visionary filmmaker-turned-writer David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive) who will be discussing his book Catching the Big Fish. His lecture and q & a will be accompanied buy music from Au Revoir Simone's new album, Verses of Comfort, Assurance & Salvation. The night will be hosted by journalist Katherine Lanpher.
Date: Tuesday, January 16th Time: 6:00pm - 9:00pm Location: DCTV 87 Lafayette St btw. White and Walker Cost: Free Summery: For the last 35 years, DCTV has been supporting and celebrating the world of independent media. "DCTV believes that expanding public access to the electronic media arts invigorates our nation's democracy." If this sounds up your alley then stop by their open house today. There are lots of inticing treats including an open bar (6-7), food from Chipotle, a File Cut Studio Workshop (7pm), a sneak peak at DCTV productions, and even a "test drive" of the Sony HVR-Z1U Camera (maybe your geeking out on that, I'm lost)
Date: Friday, January 19th Time: 5:00pm - 7:00pm Location:Courant Institute, Room 109, NYU (251 Mercer) Cost: Free to All Summary: It's time for another lecture on digital media rights with Free Culture and the NYU ACM. Tonight they welcome boingboing.net co-editor and Creative Commons author Cory Doctorow for a lecture titled: State of the Copyfight 2007: Looking up, not out of the woods yet.
Date: Monday, January 22nd Time: 6:30pm Location: Apple Store SoHo (103 Prince Street) Cost: Free Summary: "Join photographer John Harrington as he presents in the Pro Sessions: APA series. Harrington’s work runs the gamut from commissioned books by the Smithsonian, to coverage of legendary musicians and the White House. Over half the Fortune 500 have called on him for assignments, and his work has appeared in Time, Life, Newsweek, and numerous others. He is also the author of the bestselling book Best Business Practices for Photographers. The Advertising Photographers of America (APA) is the leading national organization run by and for professional photographers. With a culture that promotes a spirit of mutual cooperation and support, APA offers outstanding benefits, educational programs and essential tools for business success and creative achievement."
Personal Finances and Home Buying Seminar - Part 1
Date: Wednesday, February 7th Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm Location: Brooklyn Public Library (396 Clinton St, Carrol Gardens) Cost: Free Summary: "Can you imagine a day when you'll never have to pay rent? Or never move out of your neighborhood because the rent's too high? These days can happen and you'll have a balanced budget too...come to Personal Finances and Home Buying Seminar for 20 and 30 somethings. We will discuss the importance of credit, savings, and how to go about buying a home or apartment." Tonight's topic: Financial responsibility, Credit and How to Save
Date:Wednesday, February 7th Time: 7:00pm Location: Housing Works Bookstore Café (126 Crosby Street) Cost: Free Summary:Housing Works presents an eye-opening evening about modern day slavery with Jesse Sage, the editor of Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Day Slavery, who will discuss the situation followed by a question and answer session and a book signing. "Twenty-seven million people are estimated to be held in slavery around the world today. In ten 'heartbreaking, eye-opening accounts' (Booklist) Enslaved shows how slavery is thriving in the twenty first century. From poverty-stricken countries to affluent American suburbs, slaves toil as sweatshop workers, sex slaves, migrant workers, domestic servants, and chattel slaves."
"Join acclaimed art critics Joan Acocella and Alex Ross for a conversation about Acocella’s new book, Twenty-eight Artists and Two Saints: Essays. Their conversation will be followed by a question-and-answer session and a book signing."
Endulge in your cellular geekdom tonight as Mobile Monday celebrates new and upcoming projects.... "We’re giving anyone who is interested, 5-10 minutes to show off what they’ve been working on in mobile, whether it is an application, a WAP site, an art project…you get the idea. Corporate, startup, personal project…all are welcome."
Cooper Union Dialogue Series with Newt Gingrich & Mario Cuomo
Newt Gingrich, who served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999 and represented the State of Georgia for 20 years, and Mario M. Cuomo, who served as governor of the State of New York from 1983 to 1995, will meet to discuss issues facing presidential candidates in the 2008 election. Journalist and host of "Meet the Press" Tim Russert will moderate the discussion. Sharing the belief that national and international issues facing presidential candidates deserve full discussion and analysis in the style of Lincoln's time, Gingrich and Cuomo will issue a challenge to all declared presidential candidates to come to the Great Hall and address the American public in the same manner Lincoln did 147 years ago when he delivered his "Right Makes Might" address at The Cooper Union.
The site of Abraham Lincoln’s historic “Right Makes Might” speech, which catapulted him to the Republican nomination for president, will once again be the site for great political discussion as The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art hosts former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich in The Cooper Union Dialogue Series, on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. in The Great Hall at The Cooper Union, located at 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue. The event will be moderated by Tim Russert, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The event is sponsored by The Cooper Union.
At this event, Cuomo and Gingrich will issue the “Cooper Challenge” to all presidential candidates: to eschew the 30-second soundbyte in favor of a broader dialogue, with an open invitation to candidates to address essential issues at Cooper Union’s Great Hall – in person, and in detail – just as Lincoln did 147 years ago. It was Lincoln’s 1860 “Might Makes Right” speech at The Cooper Union which propelled him to the Republican nomination, and ultimately, the presidency.
Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer, co-chair of the U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, immortalized Lincoln’s speech event in his 2004 book, Lincoln At Cooper Union. Mr. Holzer, Cooper Union President George Campbell Jr., Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Gingrich will be available for media interviews before and after the event.
Gotham Gazette Reading NYC Book Club presents Kevin Walsh, the author of Forgotten New York, to speak this Wednesday evening. Forgotten New York - based on Walsh's celebrated website www.forgotten-ny.com - is an addictive layman-friendly catalog of the many quirky and obscure historical and cultural sites in the five boroughs. Roberta Gratz, author of Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown, and a commissioner on the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission will also be a guest.
Heeb invades the Cup and Pen Small Press Reading Series
The usually mild-mannered Cup and Pen series - a twice month reading of small press, literary journals, zines and comic books - gets a serious dose of chutzpa this month thanks to Heeb Magazine. All month, "the mouthpiece for upstart Jews menacing the world with their overactive left-hemisphere cortexes and their pen-wielding mean right hooks" brings their literary prowess to the venue with storytelling by Gordon Haber, Sara Marcus, Allen Salkin and Abby Sher. Rapturously emceed by Rebecca Alvarez.
What happens when a bunch of anarcho-punks, radical feminists, cantankerous visual artists, seasoned and burgeoning musicians, cutting-edge performance artists, rebel academics, and good time party folk join together under a common goal: to make great street music and spectacle utilizing the gods of brass, wind, percussion and dance? Find out when Hungry March Band talks to students from Stonehill College at The Change You Want to See Gallery and Convergence Stage...
The band will discuss their history, HMB's role as the soundtrack for NYC's activist movement in the post-'99 WTO world, their musical repertoire and direction, their performance elements and inspirations, and the great and wonderful network of political street bands emerging in the U.S.A. today. HMB will also introduce the audience to the European network of brass bands they've met in their travels, and talk about the central role the brass bands both in the U.S. and abroad play in participatory culture. Refreshments will be served, courtesy of HMB.
ABOUT THE HUNGRY MARCH BAND
The Hungry March Band is a 25-piece community based, award-winning Brass March Band. Saving the Fire Houses, playing for the dogs, freeing the gardens, making room for bikes, the freaks, the wild and the meek; on Coney Island, the subways, Brighton Beach Boardwalks, the steps of the NYC Post Office and fine institutions of culture including Lincoln Center, MOMA and MSG.
Their musical repertoire consists of original compositions written by band members as well as scores selected from our multi-cultural world community. These songs range from New Orleans street bands, European brass traditions, Gypsy/Roma classics, wedding brass bands from India, the jazz world and the global community of NYC. The band is an ever evolving musical experiment influenced and inspired from Brooklyn’s backyard with Latin flavor, punk rock noise, hip hop beats and music of the streets.
From their website: "Put on your dancing shoes and break out the fancy threads because we’ve got the party going on - a blazing parade of flesh, blood, steel, brass and wood. We are the music of the people!"
"You've noticed a change in your neighborhood. First came the Pottery Barn, then came the Buy Buy Baby, and now you're living above an American Apparel and you and Peter Sarsgaard share a dry cleaner. Is New York becoming the next Connecticut? Head to The Gotham Center, where contributors to the new tome The Suburbanization of New York, including Marshall Berman, Eric Darton, Francis Morrone, Matthew Schuerman, Neil Smith, Michael Sorkin, and Suzanne Wasserman will discuss the changing face of our beloved city." [via Papermag.com]
"Whether as a producer, or a spectator, video can be transformative. The purpose of this workshop is to address how your work (organizationally produced or selected for a specific purpose) can be used in exposing the issues you are most interested beyond your closest circles. Panelists will explore some of the successful models in getting the most of your production or distribution processes. Be certain that a video that is clear and unique can go a long way!"
The Japan Society, in conjunction with CUNY, presents an evening with playwright and director Takeshi Kawamura, featuring video clips of Kawamura’s past work, a short performance and a discussion of his vision and process, and a conversation with Kawamura and Richard Foreman, moderated by Carol Martin. More below...
Takeshi Kawamura (Writer/Director) was born in Tokyo in 1959. In 1980, Kawamura founded his theatre company Daisan Erotica with students at Meiji University, and in 2002 he created his production company T-Factory in order to broaden his producing capabilities for his writing and directing work. In 1985 Mr. Kawamura was awarded the prestigious Kishida Kunio Award for Shinjuku Hakken-den Chapter One: Birth of a Dog (Inu no Tanjou). In 1996 he received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council for a New York residency. In 1998, he was invited to teach at New York University as a guest director, where he directed two plays from Yukio Mishima's Modern Noh Plays, Sotoba Komachi and Yoroboshi in English translation. Mr. Kawamura has directed several productions at the Setagaya Public Theatre including Heart of Straw (Wara no shinzou) (2000), which he also wrote, and a staged reading of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Orgia (2003). He was chosen as the participant representing Japan for the Setagaya Public Theatre — Japan Foundation's Asia Contemporary Theatre Collaboration Project.
Richard Foreman founded the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 1968. In the early 1980s a branch of the theatre was established in Paris and funded by the French government. Since 1992 the theatre has been located in the historic St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, in New York City's East Village neighborhood, and serves as a home to Foreman's annual productions as well as other local and international artists.
Carol Martin was awarded a Visiting Professor Fellowship to Tokyo University for the spring semester of 2005. Her most recent book is Global Foreigners, co-edited with Saviana Stanescu and published by Seagull Press, London, New York, and Calcutta.
This is a series of great lectures put together by the fine folks at Chase Morgan to get your money out of the bar and into your future. Tonight's topic... Financial Responsibility...Home Buying Co-op House or Condo, which one is which? and How to manage credit. "Can you imagine a day when you'll never have to pay rent? Or never move out of your neighborhood because the rent's too high? These days can happen and you'll have a balanced budget too...come to Personal Finances and Home Buying Seminar for 20 and 30 somethings. We will discuss the importance of credit, savings, and how to go about buying a home or apartment. "
It's time for another instalment of Dorkbot, the group of people that gather to discuss some of the weirder things people try to do with electricty. On deck tonight are Gabe McNatt's Wind-Composition that "allows the user to adjust the volume and pan of nine different sound-layers," Caitlin Berrigan Viral Confections... edible chocolates shaped into the molecular structure of the hepatitis C virus, and Zach Smith RepRap open source 3D printing technology. Full details below...
Gabe McNatt
"Wind-Composition" is a software program created in MAX-MSP that allows the user to adjust the volume and pan of nine different sound-layers. The idea is for the user to create his/her own soundscape, or composition; a completely original work that exists once and only once, and then disappears without recreation. He/she uses his/her ears and own sense of fancy to compose a throw-away-composition. The nine sound-layers consist of synthetically created wind-noises, and pre-recorded sounds created by wind. Despite the user's ability to control the overall volume and pan levels, each layer constantly and randomly modulates giving the sounds a more elusive, and thus more characteristic wind quality.
Caitlin Berrigan: Viral Confections
"Viral Confections" are edible chocolates shaped into the molecular structure of the hepatitis C virus. These designer chocolates illustrate the inventive protein structure of the hepatitis C virus. A model of the virus was printed as a rapid prototype from a 3D algorithmic illustration of the virus from the Protein Data Bank. The chocolates were then cast into this molecular form. These delicious truffles do not carry hepatitis C. Each one was lovingly handmade from 72% Belgian roasted cocoa. Desire to eat the enticing chocolates is mixed with a repulsion for the infectious virus. This unnerving dialectic has proved to be an exciting and approachable way to ignite discussion and create awareness about an extremely prevalent and underrepresented disease. Dorkbots will have the opportunity to consume the chocolates at the meeting.
http://www.membrana.us
Zach Smith: RepRap
RepRap is an open source 3D printing technology that a Maker can truly appreciate. It uses a thermoplastic extruder to melt and lay down a fine stream of plastic. Feed it an object file, and it will hum to life. Line by line, layer by layer, your object slowly appears. Forget the cutting edge, the melted edge is here!
"Ready to photosynthesize? Explore the wonderful world of plantlife at this months Super Secret Science Club. Tonight's gathering of science loving folks (seriously, what's up with the Math League today?) welcomes Gerry Moore, director of science for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, whole discuss his "tromp[s] through abandoned train yards, vacant lots, and traffic islands... on a quest for NYC’s botanical strivers and survivors." Singer-Songwriter Lee Feldman plays afterwards.
The BRIC Rotunda Gallery and New York Magazine continue their monthly Stoop Series this evening as New York Magazine's contributing editor and moderator Logan Hill sits down with some of New York's newest young filmmakers: Ramin Bahrani, Julia Loktev and Chris Zalla. Also:free beer, free Johnny Walker Blue Label scotch, and tunes before and after by DJ Elliot of the blog The Simple Mission. For more information on the Rotunda Gallery and the Stoop Series, click here.
Its National Poetry Month and we're going to try and bring you some serious wordsmiths over the next few weeks. First up we've got Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Elaine Equi reading from their new works.
I love to lick English the way I licked the hard
round licorice sticks the Belgian nuns gave me for six
good conduct points on Sundays after mass... [Bosselaar]
Beginning with a harrowing account of her childhood in a Belgian convent, where she was placed at the age of four, Laure-Anne Bosselaar 's new collection, A New Hunger (Ausable Press, 2007), shows us how early emotional and physical deprivation can be overcome by intelligence, humor, curiosity, and determination. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn wrote of this volume, "Laure-Anne Bosselaar, with her wonderful third book, has become more than just good. It's an occasion to mark and to celebrate."
Elaine Equi's new collection, Ripple Effect (Coffee House Press, 2007) consolidates thirty years of work, showcasing her ability to transform almost anything—a list, a diary entry, advertising speak—into sophisticated, germane elixirs of pop culture and high art. Floyd Skloot wrote recently of her work in The New York Times Book Review, "Thoughtful, witty, curious, Equi has known from early in her career that 'the air is full of secrets' and has gone out to find them, to bring them 'down to earth where all poetry begins.'"
The City Is Here For You To Use: Urban Form and Experience in the Age of Ambient Informatics
The Cooper Union Lecture series continues tonight with Everyware author Adam Greenfield who will discuss how the computer has begun to disappear into the fabric of everyday life. Relatively little thought has been given specifically to how these changes might unfold at the scale of the city and how the advent of a truly ubiquitous computing will change our urban places—both the way they're built, and the way we live them...
Greenfield's presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with Christina Ray of Glowlab, a creative lab exploring psychogeography as it relates to contemporary art; Soo-In Yang and David Benjamin of New York architectural practice The Living and area/code principal Kevin Slavin.
"Suburbanization of New York" book reading and signing
Join the Princeton Architectural Press as they celebrate the release of "Suburbanization of New York" with a reading and book signing by contributors Francis Morrone (NYU), Eric Darton (best-selling author), and Matthew Schuerman (NY Observer). The book asks some fundamental questions as the infrastructure and populace of New York enters a new chapter of unparalleled up-market expansion. "What does the future hold for the legendary metropolis, gateway to immigrants and strivers, magnet for builders and dealers, muse for artists and dreamers? Will the current political, economic, and social influences dull its once-famous creative edge and culture of opposition? What will become of the special allure of New York?"
The Suburbanization of New York presents fourteen timely, provocative articles that explore the radical transformation unfolding in New York City and raise serious questions about the future of any metropolis struggling to maintain its unique identity. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the field of urban studies or the forces shaping our cities today." For more information, see the Princeton Architectural Press blog here.
'Drink and listen to stories! The2ndHand (Chicago + Birmingham) brings new writing for literate apes to New York. This latest installment features Tao Lin, author of the forthcoming volumes "Bed" and "Eeeee Eee Eeee" (both Melville House); Tobias Carroll, East River Music Project, THE2NDHAND installment 23; and Kathryn Holmquist. Hosted by Chi editor Jeb Gleason-Allured."
In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Academy of American Poets presents Henri Cole and Carl Dennis. Cole is the author of BLACKBIRD AND WOLF and five previous books of poetry including MIDDLE EARTH which received the 2004 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He is the recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Carl Dennis is the author of ten books of poetry, including UNKNOWN FRIENDS. His collection PRACTICAL GODS was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize. He has received a Guggeheim Foundation Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. He is the Writer in Residence at the University of Buffalo and has taught in the graduate program at Warren Wilson College.
Curlyhead was bellowing Puccini
and making the boat rock.
The sun shone like a Majolica clock.
The sea boiled noisily.
I lay down like a child in a box.
It was my birthday.
Above, on a cliff,
a mule pissed on us.
Then the dragging chain
as we lurched into the chasm.
Archaic cooings: Byzantine blue.
J removed her tortoiseshell glasses,
crossing her pretty legs.
C thoughtfully stroked his goatee.
I sat up, as in a coffin
after three hundred lovers.
Starboard, an oar-blade splashed
emeralds against valedictory black.
Once again, description,
unemotional shorthand
for sublimated wisdom,
fails to conjure what we felt;
the poem years for something more.
Like me: childless.
My love & I: gutted words.
My prick: like an instrument for an altar
or surgeon's table,
shiny & maleficent.
Stalactites,
like jaws, bedeviled us.
Sunlight struck the sandy bottom:
Giotto blue, the Tennessean said;
Florida blue, the tobacco queen said;
Cognitive blue, I, the unanalyzed, said.
Nothing from Curlyhead, who rowed vigorously.
Then a serpentine thing,
with five pairs of legs grasping at us,
appeared beside our little boat,
unidentifiably damaged,
as the young man was,
who boarded our bus going home.
His arms flailed spasmodically.
His face was pinched like a retarded boy's.
I dedicate this poem to him,
whose unneediness shamed me,
demanding I acknowledge the best in myself,
whose arms & legs
racked the blue lapidary air,
as if burdened by ropes, lantern, & pick,
while he bantered brilliantly to himself,
the mind struggling
to overcome the stick that is the body.
[The Blue Grotto by Henri Cole]
True Sex Confessions Night at In The Flesh Erotic Reading Series
"In the Flesh is a monthly reading... [featuring] 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." This month's readers after the jump...
The second annual True Sex Confessions night features an all-star roster of artists, bloggers, and writers, including Chelseagirl (Pretty Dumb Things), Valerie Frankel (The Accidental Virgin, Hex and the Single Girl), Dan Goldman (“Kelly,” Shooting War), Peter Hyman (The Reluctant Metrosexual, “Group Therapy” show), Logan Levkoff (Third Base Ain’t What It Used To Be), and Courtney McLean (“Normal-C, “Super Glossy!”). Hosted by erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (He’s on Top, She’s on Top, Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z). Audience members will have the chance to share their anonymous true confessions throughout the night. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served.
Rachel Kramer Bussel is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com, and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have been published in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited 13 erotica anthologies, most recently He’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Male dominance and Female Submission, She’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission, Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmo UK, Gothamist, Mediabistro, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
Natasha Richardson, Michael Sheen, and others read from the plays and journals of British playwright John Osborn tonight. There's even a special introduction and commentary by John Heilpern, author of John Osborne: The Many Lives of the Angry Young Man. Tickets, which are free, are required for this program, and will be distributed, one per person, starting at 4pm at the Library entrance.
He has been the source of more game-winning hits in the history of the Boston Red Sox, and Yankee fans will recall his performance in 2004 as the reason why they cringe when he comes to the plate. Boston's David Ortiz takes a break from vanquishing baseball opponents to shake some hands and sign some copies of his new book "Big Papi:My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits" written with Tony Massarotti of the Boston Herald.
Come and meet famed eastern philosopher and author Deepak Chopra, who will be in town to sign copies of his new book Buddha, which, unlike many of his previous books, a work of fiction. It recasts the traditional story of how Siddhartha the prince became Buddha, the enlightened one. Either way, it will probably be a nice day out and you could work this into your lunchbreak. Come on, it's a great combo:sunshine and eastern philosophy!
By now, I've been pegged as the book-signing guy, but I keep finding cool ones that I would go to, if I left my house before dark, ever. Today we find everyone's favorite movie-villain Rutger Hauer will be signing copies of his memoir All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners, which presumably has details of his life in cinema and hopefully details about how kooky Sean Young actually was (is). Anyways, come meet the reall "Hitcher" and say hello for me.
It's time once again for the 5th Annual Free Comic Book Day. Various comic book stores throughout the country (and several here in NYC) will be giving out free comics. From Spiderman to Gumby to Sonic the Hedgehog, several titles will be available so this is great chance to spread your love for the original graphic novel with someone new, or just grab some proper subway reading material.
Hear media artist Paul D. Miller, known as DJ Spooky, discuss his boundary defying work, Rebirth of a Nation, in which he deconstructs and remixes D.W. Griffith’s controversial 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation.
Washington, DC's Barrelhouse Magazine -a literary journal that aims to bridge the gap between pop culture and serious art - launches their fourth issuetonight with readings by Jennifer L. Knox, Catie Rosemurgy, and Gary J. Whitehead. Author bios below.
Jennifer L. Knox was born and raised in Lancaster, California, where absolutely anything can be made into a bong. Her work is featured in Best American Poetry 2006, and her book of poems, A Gringo Like Me, is available from Soft Skull Press.
Catie Rosemurgy is originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where she still spends time each year. She currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and teaches creative writing at The College of New Jersey. Her poetry collection, My Favorite Apocalypse, was published by Graywolf Press. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award for Emerging Female Writers and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gary J. Whitehead is the author of The Velocity of Dust, as well as three chapbooks of poetry. His writing awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts grant in poetry, the Pearl Hogrefe Fellowship at Iowa State University, and the PEN Northwest Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency Award. He teaches high school English at Tenafly High School and lives in New York.
"As The Sopranos bids its fans adieu, the show's creators have just released a comprehensive book, appropriately titled The Sopranos: The Book, to commemorate the beloved series. Today, cast members will sign copies for the adoring masses. We suggest getting there early." [via Papermag]
Now that you've been religiously following the ways of FreeNYC - sapping up open bars, getting cultured on art openings and dancing away to free bands - its time to put that money to good use. Bryan Hanley continues his series of financial investment seminars for the young (and old) tonight with some knowledge on updating your spring finances and looking forward to a real estate owning future. If today's the day you start the 5 year plan then this is a good jumpoff
"Mobsters. Big hair. The smelly Turnpike. The poor cousin of its glittering neighbor Manhattan. Could that really be all there is to New Jersey? [The new story collection ] Living on the Edge of the World, the best and brightest young writers from the much maligned state answer back with edgy, irreverent pieces of nonfiction paying tribute to New Jersey's unique place in the cultural consciousness." Tonight the author's converge upon the city's finest lit bar for a book launch reading of sorts.
Come and join Open City literary magazine as they celebrate the publication of Jerome Badanes' book of poetry, Long Live a Hunger to Feed Each Other. Open City is one of New York's greatest literary magazines and they continue to only deal with the masters of the written word, and as you will discern if you attend, the coolest of venues for such events. For more information on their ongoing series of readings, click here.
"Is hip-hop's history in need of revision? In a world still stuck in the East/West coast paradigm of the ’90s, Southern hip hop is speaking up. The South’s hip-hop artists, most notably OutKast, Timbaland, and more recently, crunk superstars like the Ying Yang Twins and Lil Jon, have expanded the parameters of hip hop. Whether you don’t know your screw from your crunk, or you been chopping your own beats since you were young, come and hear what they have to say…" Roni Sarig, author of Third Coast: Outkast, Timbaland, and How Hip-hop Became a Southern Thing talks tonight with XXL Magazines's Elliott Wilson and Jon Caramanica. followed by a Q&A.
Have you seen the giant steel Richard Serra Sculptures at MoMA yet? The ones in the outdoor sculpture garden are my favorite. Tonight at the Strand, Richard Serra himself talks about his new book, 40 Years of Sculpture. Get there early to get a seat.
If a discussion of the "differences between consistency, uniformity, and convention in user interface design" gets you excited then this evenings lecture by Interface Designer and Blogger John Gruber is right up your alley. Presented by the AIGA as part of Design Remixed, John will discuss the in's and out's of effective interface design..
One of our FreeNYC writers LOVES Cynthia Rowley. And I love when fashion designers remind the world that they are not one-sided trendfu¢kers. Rowley is one of my fav's. She'd got this little fantasy girl world throughout her work that comes across as playful and stylish all at once. It bares mentioning that she has just released a fantastic "fantasy memoir" collection, Slim, accompanied by 40 original drawings. Tonight she reads excerpts and signs copies.
Nick Antosca, Rachel Sherman, Tao Lin, and Nelly Reifler are four Nerve writers attempting a quirky and cunning takeover of the literary world. With recently published books deemed "lunatic," "moving," "hot" and "hilarious," you could say these edgy youngsters are bringing sexy back…to books. [via Papermag]
Change your life with some folks named after a Ken Wilber book.. this is the New-New-Age... "We are brilliant, feeling emotional beings and through our senses, we experience the richness of life. Learning to describe these experience through the art of journaling is an essential part of our practice of Orgasmic Meditation™. The goal is simple: To express through words, the sensations we feel during our lives. We journal in a group to enable our practice to expand and grow. Writing experience is not required nor is the fear that "I cannot write" a reason not to come. The writing session is free. Please bring your laptop or paper and pen, a sense of adventure, and your good humor."
OneTaste is an invitation to mindfully prepare your life. We are getting back to basics. We are Post New Age™. We want bodies that feel good. We want intimacy, deep practice and life purpose. We want nourishment that can sustain us and make us whole. We are an urban retreat center; an innovative laboratory researching human connection, a mix between university, spiritual center and electronic open source community. Explore OneTaste and taste the range of what life has to offer. Whether through Internet writings, audio shows, massage, personal coaching, volunteering, lectures or courses; whatever the form, this place is uniquely real.
Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies With Patti D’Arbanville
"Pamela des Barres has been called the Queen of the Groupies; she paired up with everyone from Jim Morrison to Mick Jagger to Frank Zappa, led the first Groupie Supergroup (the cult favorite The GTOs), and wrote all about it in her first book I’m With The Band. Now Miss Pamela has gathered her fellow former rock muses, both famous and infamous, for Let's Spend The Night Together, a collection of stories and interviews that sets out to prove that the girls behind the scenes were part of making the music happen. She will be joined by Warhol protégé Patti D’Arbanville, who was interviewed for the book, and other special guests. Join us for a book event with the inimitable Miss Pamela, get her autograph and ask the questions you’ve always wondered about." All Ages.
"Too hot to think? Don't sweat it. Science is cool even in the heat. Union Hall's Secret Science Club is back with more brain-bending lectures, mind-altering cocktails, and air-conditioned sounds. Tonight, Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel lectures on Memory and the Mind. Learning -- the act of creating new memories and new synaptic connections -- changes the very nature of our brains. Every conversation alters brain chemistry. So what will happen after an evening spent with Eric Kandel, one of the living icons of neuroscience? Your mind will be blown!" 21+
Professor at Columbia University, senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, and the author of In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, Eric Kandel received his Nobel Prize in 2000 for helping to "crack open the secrets of the neuron" and radically improving our understanding of the brain. He discusses: Do memories make us who we are? How is our psychology linked to our biology? How do you study self-awareness? What mechanism causes memories to last a lifetime? How can we overcome diseases that affect the human mind? And why is the humble sea slug, Aplysia, his mascot? Strengthen those synapses. Post-lecture book signing, silent sci-fi, and science mingle. Stick around for brain food, memorable tunes, and neurally
inspired video.
Check out this reading and signing today in Bryant Park on your lunch hour. "Pop-culturist Chuck Klosterman explains: 'Things That Are True'; 'Things That Might Be True'; and 'Something That Isn’t True At All' – in his latest book told in three parts. Klosterman was called “one of America’s top cultural critics” by Entertainment Weekly, and there is a good reason for this. He is. If you haven’t joined his cult following yet, now is the time."
As most of you know from reading FreeNYC, every once and a while I like to nerd out on some science and all around geeky stuff. Lately I am finding more people of similar dorky mindset. The manager over Angels & Kings "is an advocate-supreme of Nerd Nite" and has gladly given them a new home. Tonight, hyperspace and talking robots! More details below. 21+
Presentation #1: Going in a New Direction: An Introduction to Hyperspace
by Shieva Kleinschmidt
Description: Since the dawn of time, mankind has wondered about how many dimensions of space there are. Many scientists are now suggesting that, at least in theory, bigger is better. But setting all the science (and math!) stuff aside, there are some important, basic questions to ask: how can we even begin to visualise space we can't see? What might hyperspace really be like, if it exists? And what do these extra dimensions have to do with the difference between right and left hands, and with immaculate conception?
Presentation #2: Talking robots: A do-it-yourself guide for the discerning nerd
by Alexander Koller
Description: In movies, more or less intelligent robots communicate with people all the time. But of course, as well-educated nerds we all know that talking robots are total science fiction, and we'd better spend our weekends more productively exploring the sex lives of tadpoles rather than trying to build C-3PO. In this talk, I set out to demonstrate a much niftier reality: We do have the technology to build robots that communicate with humans using spoken language. I report on a project that I organized a little while ago, in which the task was to build and program a Lego Mindstorms robot and connect it to software on a PC that allows it to react to spoken commands, talk back to the user, and generally have a dialogue and be a smart-ass. I will explain the technology that went into them, show a bunch of videos (including one of the robot bartender who mixes real cocktails and tells bad jokes), and illustrate that a least a tiny piece of science fiction can be science today.
Too hot to think? Don't sweat it. Science is cool even in the heat. Union Hall's Secret Science Club is back with more brain-bending lectures, mind-altering cocktails, and more talks of global warming. Tonight biogeochemist William Schlesinger lectures on the “role and response of forests in a future warmer world.” 21+
"One of the founders of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, iconoclastic poet, author, critic and revolutionary theorist Amiri Baraka will read from his recently published collection of short fiction Tales of the Out & the Gone (Akashic Books), which spans the early 1970s to the twenty-first century. Baraka’s fellow Black Arts Movement pioneer, the poet Sonia Sanchez, joins him on the program, reading from her vast body of work, which includes Homegirls And Handgrenades, Shake Loose My Skin and Like The Singing Coming Off The Drums: Love Poems."
In his new book "You Can Run But You Can't Hide," Dog the Bounty Hunter "recounts his incredible story, chronicling his journey from his onetime criminal past to the guiding faith that has led him to become one of the most successful bounty hunters in American history. Against all odds, DOG turned his life around and went from ex-con to American icon." Here his tales as he signs books this afternoon
In recognition of the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima in August, 1945, the Living Theatre Company reads Enola Gay, the winner of the 2006 John Gassner Memorial Playwrighting Award, by Australian playwright David Blackman. The script incorporates actual memos and conversations into the drama about events leading up to the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. All Ages.
From juicy mangos to sex on Fire Island and more, August's In The Flesh takes into the bedroom and beyond with steamy stories from some of New York's naughtiest (plus a visiting guest from Minneapolis). Featuring John Blesso (Sharehouse Confidential), Perry Brass (Carnal
Sacraments), Catherine Lundoff (Crave), Elisha Miranda (The Sista Hood), and Michelle Herrera Mulligan (Juicy Mangos). Hosted by erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (He's on Top, She's on Top, Caught Looking). Free candy and cupcakes will be served and authors books will be available for sale.
Today as I was walking to get a sandwich, I saw a big poster that said "Poop Culture", and seeing as I like poop as much as the next girl, I couldn't help but be intrigued. "Poop Culture's main focus is the true origin of the flush toilet: invented not for sanitary reasons, as conventional wisdom holds, but rather as a tool to help rich Victorians separate themselves from the upwardly-mobile masses during the Industrial Revolution. From that basis, Poop Culture explores how the ideology of waste disposal affects us today in our psychology, sociology, art, economics, the environment, and more." Tonight the author, Dave Praeger, reads and lectures on the book as well as a variety of other poop related matters.
I have been celebrating being a science nerd for all of my 26 years, but today The Union Hall Secret Science club celebrates their first anniversary! And they are celebrating with a big bang (get it? big bang!), as they welcome a science superstar, Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist Harold Varmus. "Dr. Harold Varmus lectures on why he quit studying literature at Harvard to become a scientist, the future of cancer research, and why America needs science-savvy citizens." Before and after the doc, groove to science-inspired music, check out the self-replicating bio-video, and don’t forget to sample the Secret Science Club’s Brainy Libation of the Night: the Scientific Method .
Straight from the mouth, err, keyboard, of my man, Marty Markowitz: "The second annual Brooklyn Book Festival... is a book lover’s dream come true! The festival presents exciting and innovative fiction and non-fiction programs with author discussions and readings—come early to get a seat! Nearly 100 booksellers and thousands of books will fill beautiful Borough Hall Plaza and Columbus Park. You can hear a poetry slam, participate in a define-a-thon, and have your favorite book signed by the author. Children can hear their best-loved books read at the Target Children’s Pavilion; teenagers will find sports, fantasy, graphic novels and more at the Independence Community Foundation Youth Pavilion. The Brooklyn Book Festival is a best seller! See you there!"
"In the Flesh is a monthly reading series held every third Thursday of the 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 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... [celebrating] two years of erotica, we're welcoming back audience favorites to read new material, so whether you caught them the first time around or not, you won't want to miss this spectacular lineup of people sure to make you laugh, squirm, and get turned on (perhaps all at once!)."
From 1971 to 1979, Francesco Clemente traversed a decade-long artistic passage through drawings, altered photographs, and conceptual works. Francesco Clemente: Works 1971–1979 is the compilation of a decade’s work inspired by his time in Delhi, Madras, Srinagar, and Rome. Evident in this survey is the investiture of Clemente’s surrealist notions and psychological investigations. It is preemptive global citizenship incarnate, and a look at the beginnings of a masterful career. Poet, art critic, translator, editor and curator, Vincent Katz, will introduce Clemente and discuss his work during a wine reception in Clemente's honor. Clemente will sign copies of his book.
You know some Wednesday nights I sit home and watch America's Next Top Model. And other Wedensday nights I go to Union Hall and discuss hot topics in science! Turn on your Bunsen Burners 'cause tonight's Super Science Club is "A Cataclysmic Evening: [of] Super-volcanoes and Killer Asteroids." Geologist and NASA researcher Michael Rampino lectures on Mass Extinctions and the History of Life as chronicled in the fossil record, the history of life is marked by violent and devastating episodes. He asks: Why was 95 percent of ocean life wiped out 250 million years ago? Was human evolution influenced by the eruption of a super-volcano? Who benefits from mass extinctions? (Answer: Not dinosaurs.) And don’t forget to sample the Secret Science Club’s Shock-tail of the Night: the explosive Magmarita.
The powerHouse Arena is invites you to the VH1 Hip Hop Honors Weekend 2007. In honor of the Honors, powerHouse has arranged a weekend full of events, activities, readings and signings. They have a jam packed line up of hip-hop related artist talks, slide shows, and book signings taking place exclusive at the Arena in conjunction with the opening of exhibitions by Jamel Shabazz and Leonard Freed, in conjunction with Wild Style's 25th Anniversary Celebration. The full schedule and descriptions of each event here!
The powerHouse Arena is invites you to the VH1 Hip Hop Honors Weekend 2007. In honor of the Honors, powerHouse has arranged a weekend full of events, activities, readings and signings. They have a jam packed line up of hip-hop related artist talks, slide shows, and book signings taking place exclusive at the Arena in conjunction with the opening of exhibitions by Jamel Shabazz and Leonard Freed, in conjunction with Wild Style's 25th Anniversary Celebration. The full schedule and descriptions of each event here!
Barnard Zine Library: a One-Two Zine Reading and Zine Making Event Combination
"Leaning into the romantic chill of a new fall, we are more than amped to announce that the Barnard Zine Library will be making literary smores overs the flame of our passion! Join us for a one two combination where you're smacked down with a collection of women zinsters reading from their work and helped up again with a zine making event (materials provided)! No one walks away without an ear full of opinions and a hand sticky with gluestick. Expertly curated by Zine librarian Jenna Freedman and dutifully emceed by Rebecca Alvarez."
"Small press enthusiasts, littérateurs and zine-heads unite! Come to listen actively, converse heartily and drink organic beverages (now including wine and cheese) slowly with the Cup and Pen Small Press Reading Series. Cup and Pen, a twice-monthly small press reading series in the back room of Think Coffee, hopes to create a series in which readers discover new presses to support and introduce emerging writers to publishers. Huzzah!"
Nick Hornby and Josh Rouse at Barnes and Noble USQ
This evening catch an appearance from bestselling British author Nick Hornby, whose new book is Slam (Penguin, October) and his friend, singer-songwriter on-the-rise Josh Rouse, whose latest album is Country House, City Mouse (released on his own Bedroom Classics
label), discuss and perform their work. Journalist Katherine Lanpher hosts the program. Admission is free and seating is first-come, first-served.
Nick Hornby is the author of the novels How to Be Good, High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down, as well as the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and the editor of the short story collection Speaking with the Angel. The recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award for 1999 as well as the 2003 Orange Word International Writers' London Award, he lives in North London. His new novel, Slam, is about teenagers and written with a slightly younger readership in mind but have no doubt it's vintage Hornby: funny, humane, touching and unfathomably spot-on.
Country Mouse, City House is Josh Rouse's seventh full-length album, recorded over six days in Spain. The album explores themes of death, isolation, nature, religion, and dreaming, and expands upon his trademark "70s singer/songwriter" sound. Says Rouse, "That's my favorite style of music, so that's what I do. I, and many
of the people I work with, am obsessed with the sound and production of the 60's and 70's. Put simply, it just has something that a lot of modern records don't have." Since starting his own label, Bedroom Classics, two years ago, he's released Subtitulo and two EP projects (Bedroom Classics, Vol. 2 and She's Spanish, I'm American, a project with Paz Suay).
Do lunch with the Donald today, as he attends a Borders event and discusses his book Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and in Life. "Bill Zanker used Donald Trump's strategies to grow the revenues of The Learning Annex twenty times in under three years. Both of them have been down and out, and know what it's like to feel the whole world's against you-and both have risen to dizzying heights of success by thinking BIG and kicking ass! This is the first book where Donald reveals his Think BIG attitude."
Girls Write Now is "a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998". Tonight they gather at the Slipper Room for their fall event. The party "will feature short readings by Janice Erlbaum and Tayari Jones, two noted authors whose work has touched on the inner lives of teenage girls, and a musical performance by downtown favorites Royal Pink. Girls Write Now mentees will read from their work at Bluestockings, around the corner at 172 Allen Street at Stanton, from 5:30 to 6:30, giving those curious about the organization an opportunity to see it in action."
It seemed a bit strange to get an email with both Donald Trump and M.I.A. in the subject line, bit I guess Borders is doing a top job of entertaining all of their customers. Today, M.I.A. makes a pit stop at Borders in Columbus Circle to sign copies of her latest CD, Kala.
"The Blue Notebooks is a series of student run interviews presented at Columbia University. Each event features leading writers, artists, and intellectuals discussing their latest." Today's guest is Alex Ross, the classical music critic of The New Yorker magazine. "His long-anticipated history of music in the twentieth century was finally released on 10/16 - The Rest Is Noise (FSG). Our conversation will entail the discussion of his book, as well as the interesting, hybridized state of classical music today, what it might mean in the context of the larger cultural history..."
Was getting tickets for The Police tour this summer a little out of your price range? Get yourself a little sliver of the pie today and meet with Andy Summers, guitarist of The Police. Recently, I’ll Be Watching You: Inside the Police 1980-83,
a book of his tour photography from the early 1980s was published and today he will be signing copies at the Tashen store.
"Robots, it seems are everywhere these days! Even here at the Museum of Sex, where we are currently hosting a popular installation entitled, ‘The Sex Life of Robots’ by artist Michael Sullivan. Coincidentally, author and artificial intelligence expert David Levy has just written a book that looks at sex, technology, emotions and humanistic dynamics from an academic point of view. In this fascinating presentation, Levy will explore: *how the human-robot relationship develops and how with the progression of technology, emotional and physical relationships with artificial intelligence are more likely to take place and flourish"
Antonio Monda, whose new book is Do You Believe? Conversations on God and Religion and singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, whose highly anticipated new album is Obligatory Villagers join forces as they both discuss and perform their work tonight. Journalist Katherine Lanpher hosts the program. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis, so try and get there early.
It's time for another installment of our favorite nerdiest event, Union Hall's Secret Science Club. This month's gathering features world-renowned chemist Ronald Breslow lecturing on "SAHA" (I have absolutely no clue what that is!) "H2O, CO2, C6H12O6. All these molecules are naturally occurring—but new ones are being created all the time...
The recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science and the author of more than 400 scientific papers, Dr. Breslow has been instrumental in creating over 1,000 new chemical compounds—including SAHA, a recently approved cancer-fighting drug with a novel mechanism of action. [He is] a pioneer of biomimetic chemistry and a passionate proponent of the public understanding of science..." Before and after check out free- radical video by scientist/filmmaker Alexis Gambis + groove to tunes inspired by test tubes and litmus paper! Plus enjoy the “Bunsen burner,” a fiery little cocktail that will re-fuel your love life.
"Tonight, Rapture opens its doors to The Regulars, the web-based comic serial that everyone's talking about. The Regulars is a fun, snarky take on what might happen if a gay, urban attorney burn-out wound up running a coffee bar. It's an irreverent weekly, web-based look at the silly, sexy, and enraging clash between gay pride and daily prejudice."
"In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted 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 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." Tonight, True Sex Confessions return, with a wild mix of memoirists, sex bloggers, and comedy. Audience members will have the chance to anonymously share their own confessions as well. Free candy and cupcakes will be served."
I know it's not just me, I know that some of you people are gettin' old too. And you know what happens to old people, they become responsible and do things like save money and buy houses. If you are really like me, then you also have no clue about buying houses. And apparently there are a enough of us to warrant a monthly event called Home Buying For Hipsters. Licensed Real Estate agents, Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate Attorneys show up and teach you the ins, and outs of home buying, while having one or two or several drinks to make the shock of it all a bit easier. This week they move settlement to Long Island City.
Union Hall's "Secret Science Club" presents: "Evolve!"
"Earth to humans, Earth to humans .... is anybody there?" calls the Secret Science Club. Joining the ranks of Park Slope science fans tonight is AMNH Paleontologist Michael Novacek who will be lecturing on Evolution, Biodiversity, and Mass Extinction. "The provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History, a world-renowned dinosaur hunter, and the author of Terra: Our 100-Million-Year-Old Ecosystem—and the Threats That Now Put It at Risk, Dr. Novacek takes the long view and asks: Why are ecosystems essential to human survival? How did Homo sapiens co-evolve with other species? Can we change our ways and save the planet?" Plus, Groove to naturally selected tunes and check out the apocalyptic video by scientist/filmmaker Alexis Gambis. And tonight's science themed drinks "Hungry Hyena" a ferocious cocktail that will determine the survival of the fittest.
"Harvey Pekar, the reclusive and eccentric author of the autobiographical comic book series 'American Splendor' and the Academy Award-nominated 2003 movie of the same name, talks about his latest endeavor 'Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History.' Working with (and appearing tonight) alongside friend and illustrator Robert Crumm and editor Paul Buhle, the three tell the story of the 1960s radical student activist group, SDS. [via papermag]
If your New Year's resolution involves brushing up on your literary skills then Gotham Writers' Workshop has a treat for you. Tonight they make their curriculum available to the public by inviting all perspective writers to participate in one (or two) of the 12 free writing workshops. Professional writers on the school's faculty will teach one-hour workshops in Fiction Writing, Screenwriting, Children's Book Writing, Memoir Writing, Article Writing, Poetry Writing, and an introductory course titled Creative Writing 101. Pre-registration is required and all the details can be found here.
If your New Year's resolution involves brushing up on your literary skills then Gotham Writers' Workshop has a treat for you. Tonight they make their curriculum available to the public by inviting all perspective writers to participate in one (or two) of the 6 free writing workshops. Professional writers on the school's faculty will teach one-hour workshops in Fiction Writing, Screenwriting, Children's Book Writing, Memoir Writing, Article Writing, Poetry Writing, and an introductory course titled Creative Writing 101. Pre-registration is required and all the details can be found here.
Time for another trip to science class kids! But you know the special kind of science class, the kind with a bar! This month at Secret Science Club, Princeton astrophysicist David Spergel lands his rocket at Union Hall tonight and helps you dive head first into Dark Matter.
"Tonight is the ultimate face off of hippy and the yuppie in a night comedy and booze. It should be an exciting event that will get you wasted as well as getting rolling on the ground with laughter. There will be three comedians including Gabe Liedman who will be the Moderator, for the Hippies will be Max Silvestri and for the Yuppy will be Lang Fisher. The only way to find out is to show up and be a part of the fun." 21+ [via WUNY]
Nothing like a book dedicated to art of of sex writing. Tonight celebrate the book release party of Best Sex Writing 2008 with editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, along with contributors Rachel Shukert ("Big Mouth Strikes Again: An Oral Report"), Lux Nightmare ("The Pink Ghetto"), Miriam Datskovsky ("Absolut Nude") and Liz Langley ("Sex and the Single Septuagenarian"). Free refreshments will be served including cupcakes! Books will be available for sale and signing.
The New York Open Center is a non-profit educational and cultural center offering programs intended to heal the body, nourish the soul and awaken the spirit. It aims to serve as a focal point for holistic thought and practice. Today they offer an evening of free lectures and refreshments where you can meet the faculty, sample programs, ask questions and browse the bookstore. The schedule includes Dynamic Mindfulness Meditation, Introduction to Reiki, Discovering Your Soul's Work, Detox and Rejuvenation, Introduction to Aromatherapy, Mantra and Meditation, Introduction to Reflexology and Bollywood Dancing.
Tonight, the Secret Science Club welcomes President of New York’s prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Dr. Bruce Stillman. He "take us to the frontlines of cancer and disease research. Get ready to go cellular as Dr. Stillman asks: Where will the latest discoveries in genetics take us? Will it be possible to live with cancer one day? What are the most promising new technologies for biomedical researchers? How can we employ the latest breakthroughs in science to benefit public health? A recipient of the Curtin Medal for Excellence in Medical Research, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Stillman focuses his research on DNA replication." Before and after, check out the science inspired tunes and self-replicating bio-video, plus the cocktail of the night, the Double (Make That a Triple) Helix.
As most of you know from reading FreeNYC, every once and a while I like to nerd out on some science and all around geeky stuff. Lately I am finding more people of a similar dorky mindset. And apparently the people over at Angels and Kings as they host Nerd Nite described pretty accurately as "like the Discovery Channel with beer." Tonight is a special real-live zombie edition of Nerd NIte so check below to see the details on tonight's program.
Presentation #1:
Zombies Are Real: Actual Zombies of the Natural World And Why You Might Be One
By Jeremy Kay
Description: You might think of zombies as trite B-movie material, but scientists are discovering more and more real zombies in nature. These natural zombies have had their brains taken over by parasites, who use their zombified hosts to further their own ends – like reproducing or finding their way into the brain of a new host. Tonight I'll give some examples of the crazy and self-destructive things that animals do when
they've been turned into zombies. I'll explore the neurobiology of how a parasite can control the behavior of its host. And I'll reassure everyone that we humans don't have anything to fear from zombies... or do we?
Bio: Jeremy is a postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology at Harvard. His professional work concerns vision, but he thinks parasite mind-control is far more interesting. His interest in zombies is purely academic. Really. Like, your brain will totally not get eaten if you show up. We promise.
Presentation #2:
Pythagoras and Beethoven Sitting in a tree! The Magical Mathematics of Music.
by Jaime Peters
Description: Galileo said the entire universe is "written in the language of mathematics." Well, part of that entire universe is music. You may say, but music and math have no real connection. But I say au contraire. Come hear about how the entirety of a song (whether it sounds good or sounds bad) can be broken down to a single ratio that governs harmonious sound.
Bio: By day, Jaime Peters spends her time toiling to get more women involved in the political process and creating a truly representative democracy. By night, she plays the saxophone with a local Brooklyn jazz ensemble and walks her dog Scarlett through the maze of Park Slope.
Presentation #3:
Different Sizes of Infinity
by Chris DiScenza
Description: Infinity has many strange properties, with the main result being _______. Well, if we told you now we’d ruin it, but you’ll be shocked. This presentation will also show that there is a true statement about infinity that can not be proved or disproved. Surprisingly, there is not any technical math required to show all of this.
Bio: Chris works at The Physics Factory which is comprised of a team of scientists and educators who share a common goal: to share their enthusiasm for physics with students, teachers and the community. Through a combination of hands-on learning and eye-popping stage shows, The Physics Factory aims to show that physics is an exciting process of discovery and invention, and a rewarding career. Chris has infinite
enthusiasm for physics. Get it?
On the day before Valentines Day come it may be nice to be reminded that there are people worse off than you are. Tonight is the book release party for How Not to Date, a series of gradually worse-off situations compiled from readers over the years. Some feature those which are simply not ideal dates while others showcase the worst of the worst.
I know it's not just me, I know that some of you people are gettin' old too. And you know what happens to old people, they become responsible and do things like save money and buy houses. If you are really like me, then you also have no clue about buying houses. And apparently there are a enough of us to warrant a monthly event called "Home Buying For Hipsters." Licensed Real Estate agents, Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate Attorneys show up and teach you the ins and outs of home buying, all while having one or two or several drinks to make the shock of it all a bit easier. This week they move settlement to Willamsburg.
George Washington: The Man, the Myth and the Bridge
Given that Monday was President's Day, today seems like the perfect day for a satirical discussion about our very first president, George Washington. Marvin Kitman has bee media critic at Newsday for over 35 years, and currently is the media critic at HuffingtonPost.com. In celebration of Washington’s 276th birthday Kitman promises a historical and humorous explaination of how the general managed to be elected President in 1789.
Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a monthly reading series dedicated to the proposition that readings should be: excellent, well-read pieces that have at least one thing in them that makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts), and don't run more than 15 minutes each. This months installment brings the Big Easy Mardi Gras spirit to the East Village with writers who have been featured at the annual Saints & Sinners LGBT conference in New Orleans. Expect to see beads!
"In the Flesh is a monthly reading series held every third Thursday of the 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 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." Tonight's superstar erotica evening celebrates the release of two new anthologies. Featuring Stephen Elliott, editor of Sex for America: Politically Inspired Erotica, along with contributor Nick Flynn (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City) and Succulent: Chocolate Flava II. Free candy and cupcakes will be served. Full info on both pieces here.
"Visionary artist and co-founder of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in NYC--a creative sanctuary for art and meditation--Alex Gray discusses his multi-dimensional paintings that weave anatomical drawings with tantric, psychadelic symbols. The talk will be presented by the Temple of Understanding, an interfaith nonprofit dedicated to promoting cooperation and friendship amongst different faiths around the world through interfaith education...BRAINWAVE is an extravaganza of art, music, and ideas running from January to June... [which] sks how art, music, and meditation affect the brain and offers countless answers in more than a hundred public events, ranging from contemporary art shows to a cinema series to cutting-edge concerts, performances, talks, and panels.""
There is so much for me to say in reference to this post it's hard to know where to begin. The meat of this event, is that there is a public discussion at Eugene Lang this evening about racial and ethnic stereotypes in mainstream media. Filmmakers will explore the role of documentaries in combating negative images. Panel participants after the jump. I graduated from Eugene Lang, and it is an excellent place to get a college education and I think that this is going to be a very important and eye opening discussion.
That being said however, in the description of the event they referenced "TV shows like Arrested Development" as a source of said stereotypes. A.D. happens to be one of my favorite shows, and of all the examples of harmful stereotypes on TV, I do find it rather strange that this is the one they chose instead of half the shows on VH1 or even The Sopranos for that matter.
Sophia Chang, Manager for producers/composers: the RZA, Raphael Saadiq, Organized Noize, and Pete Rock; and film producer, Shaolin and Wu Tang (HBO)
Sonia Gonzalez, Director/Producer, Blind Leading the Blind (2007), Remembering Ragtime (2004); City by the Sea (2002)
Al Santana, Director/Producer, One People (2007, documentary short); Military Option (2005, documentary short); DURBAN 400 (2003, digital video feature)
Sofia Quintero, Board Chair/Co-founder, Chica Luna Productions
Moderator: Michelle Materre, film distribution and marketing consultant
As most of you know from reading FreeNYC, every once and a while I like to nerd out on some science and all around geeky stuff. Lately I am finding more people of a similar dorky mindset. And apparently so do the people over at Angels and Kings as they host Nerd Nite described pretty accurately as "like the Discovery Channel with beer." Tonight is a 2 parter, Presentation #1, Tales From The Senate Subcommittee: The Gruesome Death of Horror Comic Books of the 1950s and Presentation #2, BEAM Robots: Insects of the Robot Kingdom. Details on each after the jump.
Presentation #1:
Tales From The Senate Subcommittee: The Gruesome Death of Horror Comic Books of the 1950s
by George Pasles
Description: Four color presses spat out grisly morality plays (think O. Henry by way of Edgar Allen Poe) at the dawn of the Cold War. Murderers were dispatched by their zombie victims. Mad scientists were done in by their foul creations. Freak show acts killed their cruel carnies. One company created the genre, and its runaway success inspired other publishers to dispense with their insipid superhero fare and follow suit. These imitators, however, trafficked in overt gore rather than irony. And soon the ten-cent comic books themselves proved to be too tempting a target for revenge...
The cast: A Senator looking to raise his national profile for a White House bid! A sex-obsessed psychiatrist blaming comics for juvenile delinquency! A comic book publisher on speed! Blood! Sex! Violence! Communism! A showdown in the Senate! Censorship! Death! And, of course, the inevitable return from the grave.
Bio: George Andrew Pasles is a fraud, a mountebank, a charlatan. He has pursued no advanced degrees, named no social ills, nor addressed some mere disease. He speaks extemporaneously on a wide variety of topics, often in the presence of others. As a personal first, he intends for this talk to be factually accurate.
Presentation #2:
BEAM Robots: Insects of the Robot Kingdom
By Rob Lockhart
Description: BEAM is a relatively new movement in robotics which produces robots with incredible complexity using very simple analog circuits. This field, which was pioneered by Mark Tilden (who also invented the Robosapien toy), mimics the structure of organic nervous systems, but can be made easily by anyone with $10 and a soldering iron.
Bio: Rob Lockhart is a person with nearly $11 and a soldering iron. He teaches robotics for kids and adults at Robot Village on the upper west side.
I beginning to believe that Pour is single handedly trying to turn us all into winos! For bazillionth week in a row they are offering daily wine tastings after work and this time they are even adding food into the mix! "What better way to wrap up winter and welocome in spring than with a little wine drinking. Or, in this case a lot of wine drinking. For two straight weeks, Pour will be serving up some of their best vinos for free! There will be different wines each night paired with food too!"
Girls Write Now is "a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998." Today is Girls Write Now Day featuring original collaborative works by the city's best emerging young female authors and the professionals that mentor them, as well as a reading from Anne Landsman from her new novel, The Rowing Lesson. Plus a fashion show from SIC (Smart Is Cool).
I like to write about free events and various goings on in NYC, but some people, they like to write fiction. If you are of the latter variety you may want to check out the writing class courtesy of Gotham Writers' Workshop tonight. Susan Breen, author of The Fiction Class will explain how writers craft fictional characters and bring them to life on the page. Participants are encouraged to bring pen and paper to complete a short writing exercise designed to help them kick-start a story of their own.
In this month's edition of the Upstairs at the Square series, bestselling author and journalist Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) swings by to talk about his literary career. He's joined by Argentinean composer/pianist Fernando Otero, whose new album is Pagina de Buenos Aires (Nonesuch). They will discuss and perform their work in conversation with journalist Katherine Lanpher. All Ages
"Small press enthusiasts, littérateurs and zine-heads unite! Come to listen actively, converse heartily and drink organic beverages slowly with Cup and Pen, a twice-monthly reading series in the back room of Think Coffee. Each month, Cup and Pen showcases a different small press, literary journal, zine or comic book for two nights of self-curated readings, exhibition and book sales."
"Do you get the uncontrollable urge to shake your hips when James Brown's "I Feel Good" comes on the radio? Ever wonder if your brain is hardwired to do so?
Columbia University neuroscientist Dave Sulzer (a.k.a. composer Dave Soldier) with colleague John Krakauer, co-director of the Motor Performance Laboratory at Columbia University, discuss the brain activity that makes us groove to the beat of music. Following the discussion, a premier performance, where percussionists using an electroencephalographs (EEG) instead of instruments conduct a live experiment of sound manipulation that explores brain activity. Lead by Dave Sulzer, the musicians will use an EEG as a “prosthetic” instrument composing sounds in real time according to their brain waves."
This month at Secret Science Club is all about the final frontier as they welcome Ben Oppenheimer, principal investigator of an ambitious mission to discover and record images of planets outside our solar system called the Lyot Project. He’ll discuss the challenges scientists face in probing for exoplanets and reveal some of the Lyot team’s latest results. 21+
Out Loud is a free play-reading series at Ars Nova dedicated to new, emerging playwrights. Tonight, they feature Jim Knable's Green Man, the story of a a painter, an architect and a stone sculptor are all haunted by a mysterious Green Man who fills an incredible void in each of their lives. A powerful new play about love, loss and gargoyles, featuring two original songs and a man painted green.
Nothing like brushing up on your literary skills in time to pen out a love sonnet for your spring fling. Tonight, the Gotham Writers Workshop make their curriculum available to the public by inviting all perspective writers to participate in one (or two) free writing workshops. Professional writers on the school's faculty will teach one-hour workshops in Fiction Writing, Screenwriting, Humor Writing, Children's Book Writing, Memoir Writing, Article Writing, Poetry Writing, and Travel Writing, and an introductory course titled Creative Writing 101. Pre-registration is required and all the details can be found here.
"Weekend kickoff event: Remembering Spain, Remembering Heroes! An Encore. An opening talk about us, the anarchists, the only dedicated organization honestly caring about the working class, and also some examples from my Spanish experience, where entire towns were ran by anarchists, with order, and efficiency with our libertarian spirit and concern. How the communists betrayed the proletariat world wide, creating a bourgeois class (CEO and contractors), non compatible with our libertarian ideal. How could you understand that the Soviet Union, after 70 years of communism, vanished without fire a shot. The Communists, and also their Unions, are losing support from the working class all over the world." Book Fair starts Saturday.
George Sossenko is an 88-year old veteran of the Spanish Civil War. At the age of 16, he left his home in France to fight against Franco's fascists with the anarchists of the Durruti column. A dedicated, life-long anarchist, George is still an active organizer as he travels and gives lectures on this important period in revolutionary history.
"The Goethe-Institut New York, a branch of the Federal Republic of Germany's global cultural institution, is pleased to announce the next event in its new series, "With God on Our Side," designed to take aim at the heart of societal discourse on multiculturalism and national identity with several provocative pairings of intellectuals, policymakers and authors this year. The second event, "The Islamic Challenge" will feature Dutch sociologist Paul Scheffer and New York-based author Paul Berman in conversation." More info here.
Tonight, "the Goethe-Institut New York [presents its] next event in [the] new series, "With God on Our Side," designed to take aim at the heart of societal discourse on multiculturalism and national identity. The second event, "The Islamic Challenge," will feature Dutch sociologist Paul Scheffer and New York-based author Paul Berman in conversation [and] will examine the validity of Huntington's dark vision of struggle within and between organized societies and explore key challenges of Muslim integration in the U.S. and Europe, as the speakers discuss the liberal response to Islamic extremism, together and with the audience!" More below.
Paul Berman is a writer on politics and literature whose articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, the New Republic (where he is a contributing editor), the New Yorker, Slate, the Village Voice, Dissent, and various other American, European and Latin American journals. He has reported at length from Europe and Latin America. He has written or edited eight books, including, most recently, Power and the Idealists: Or, the Passion of Joschka Fischer and Its Aftermath, with a new preface by Richard Holbrooke for the 2007 paperback edition; Carl Sandburg: Selected Poems, edited with an introduction, published in 2006 by the American Poets Project of the Library of America; and Terror and Liberalism, a New York Times best-seller in 2003. His writings have been translated into fifteen languages. Berman received a B.A. and M.A. in American History from Columbia University and has been awarded a MacArthur, a Guggenheim, the Bosch Berlin Prize, a fellowship at the New York Public Library's Center for Writers & Scholars, and other honors.
Paul Scheffer, is professor of urban sociology at the University of Amsterdam and publicist with the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. He has been a correspondent in Paris, France and Warsaw, Poland; Head of the Division of European Politics at the research institute of the Labor Party; a member of the Advisory Council of Foreign Affairs, member of the Atlantic Commission, and member of the board of Forum (the Institute for Multicultural Questions). His articles have been published in many European countries. His publications include: "A Satisfied Nation" (1988), "The Quest for Eternal Peace (2000), and "The Land of Arrival" (2006).
"Hot or cold conflicts between cultures, religions, lifestyles and value systems are a signature of the twenty-first century," notes Dr. Stephan Wackwitz, Program Director of the Goethe-Institut New York. 'With God on Our Side' aims at bringing together thinkers, politicians, activists from Europe and America to discuss these common concerns and to link our traditions of political thought as well as look towards the future."
Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a monthly reading series dedicated to the proposition that readings should be: excellent, well-read pieces that have at least one thing in them that makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts), and don't run more than 15 minutes each. This months its all males all night with Andrew W. M. Beierle, Tim W. Brown, Paul McComas, & Adam Szymkowicz. Writer bios after the break. 21+
Andrew W. M. Beierle will read from his novel, First Person Plural, which examines the personal lives of a pair of extremely rare conjoined twins of the type dicephalus (two-headed), one of whom is gay and one straight. First Person Plural has been short-listed for the Lambda Literary Award for best men’s fiction of 2007. His debut novel, The Winter of Our Discothèque, received a 2002 Lambda Literary Award in the romance category. His work has appeared in the Harrington Gay Men’s Literary Quarterly and Rebel Yell: Stories by Contemporary Southern Gay Authors. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Tim W. Brown is the author of two novels, Deconstruction Acres and Left of the Loop. A third novel, Walking Man, is forthcoming from Bronx River Press. His latest literary effort is American Renaissance, a comic historical novel set in 1830s America, to be published by Gival Press. Brown’s fiction, poetry and nonfiction have appeared in over two hundred publications, including Another Chicago Magazine, Chelsea, Slipstream, Colorado Review, Pleiades, The Ledge, Storyhead, Rockford Review, Bridge, Oyez Review, The Bloomsbury Review, Rain Taxi, Small Press Review, Main Street Rag, Chiron Review and New Observations. A long-time resident of Chicago, where he was a fixture in that city’s literary scene as a writer, performer and publisher of Tomorrow Magazine (1982-1999), Brown moved to New York in 2003.
Paul McComas’s fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines, and he is the author of a novel, Unplugged, and a short story collection, Twenty Questions. Paul’s comedic coming-of-age novel, Planet of the Dates, was just published by Permanent Press. He has presented his performance art and monologues at more than 70 theaters and other venues nationwide, including the Bowery Poetry Club, Chicago’s Around the Coyote Fall Arts Festival and N.A.M.E. www.paulmccomas.com
Adam Szymkowicz is a playwright whose work has been called “fabulously weird and weirdly fabulous” and “sweet, sexy, neurotic friendly” by the New York Times. He graduated from The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. His work has been produced throughout the U.S.; and in Canada; England; The Netherlands; and Lithuania. Plays include Deflowering Waldo; Open Minds; Anne; The Art Machine; Pretty Theft; Food For Fish; Herbie; Incendiary; Old Fashioned Cold Fusion; Bee Eater; Temporary Everything; Susan Gets Some Play and Nerve. Several of his plays have been published by Dramatists Play Service. For more; go to www.adamszymkowicz.com.
I know it's not just me, I know that some of you people are gettin' old too. And you know what happens to old people, they become responsible and do things like save money and buy houses. If you are really like me, then you also have no clue about buying houses. And apparently there are a enough of us to warrant a monthly event called "Home Buying For Hipsters." Licensed Real Estate agents, Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate Attorneys show up and teach you the ins and outs of home buying, all while having one or two or several drinks to make the shock of it all a bit easier.
I'm not gonna lie, when I saw the title of this in my email the first thing I thought of was this is a Lost event! I am totally a Lost dork. Anyway. Talk Dharma actually focuses on learning "the truths that reside between Western psychology and Eastern philosophy. Master Ven. Thich Thien Son has been applauded by Buddhist Masters from the East,Western business leaders, and students from around the globe."
Poetry month has come and gone and each year we do less and less to support (in our defense, we don't get all that many poetry events). If you feel like you missed out then catch tonight's reading by Ann Lauterbach, author of Hum and The Night Sky, and John Rybicki, author of We Bed Down Into Water. More on the poets below. All Ages.
Ann Lauterbach is the author of six collections of poetry: Hum (Penguin, 2005), Of In Time: Selected Poems 1975-2000 (2001), On a Stair (1997), And for Example (1994), Clamor (1991), Before Recollection (1987), and Many Times, But Then (1979). Her collection of essays, The Night Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience, was recently reprinted. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine C. MacArthur Foundation. Since 1991 she has taught at Bard College, where she co-directs the Writing Division of the M.F.A. program.
John Rybicki’s third collection of poetry, We Bed Down Into Water, was published by Northwestern University Press this February. He is also the author of Traveling at High Speeds (New Issues, 2003) and Yellow-Haired Girl with Spider (March Street Press, 2002). Rybicki lives in his hometown of Detroit and is associate professor of English and writer in residence at Alma College.
Home Buying for Hipsters turns it focus on yet another scary topic tonight...mortgages! Yikes! Have a drink or two and try to relax, then meet with Rob Slifer of Professional Advantage Financial Group to talk money and Eve Levine of Corcoran to talk property. Don't drink too many though 'cause you will definitely need to save all of your spare dollars for that mortgage.
"Nineteen sixty-eight was a formative year for the left. The feminist, civil rights, and antiwar movements mobilized the idealism of many. But there were also many political disappointments: the Kennedy and King assassinations, the Soviet crackdown in Prague, the Chicago riots." Tonight, Dissent magazine editors Marshall Berman, Mitchell Cohen, Ann Snitow, and Michael Walzer will contemplate that tumultuous year--and its significance for today's left. There will be wine, cheese, and schmoozing after the talk. All Ages
The New York Open Center is a non-profit educational and cultural center offering programs intended to heal the body, nourish the soul and awaken the spirit. It aims to serve as a focal point for holistic thought and practice. Today they offer an evening of free lectures and refreshments where you can meet the faculty, sample programs, ask questions and browse the bookstore. The schedule includes intros to a variety of programs including Eating Smart!, Introduction to Reiki, Mantra & Meditation, Bollywood Dancing, and much more!
Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a monthly reading series dedicated to the proposition that readings should be: excellent, well-read pieces that have at least one thing in them that makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts), and don't run more than 15 minutes each. This months writers are Anne Elliot, Angela Himsel and Alyson Palmer.
In the third installment of With God on Our SideThe Goethe-Institut New York "brings together London-based Asia expert, Ian Buruma, and Die Zeit journalist, Thomas E. Schmidt, to review the concept of 'Asian-style democracy.' Drawing on both philosophical analysis and empirical knowledge Buruma and Schmidt will discuss the question whether Confucian values and principles are compatible with the development of democracy. Ian Buruma, the author of Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies (Penguin Press), is Professor of Human Rights, Democracy and New Media at Bard College, New York, and a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Thomas E. Schmidt, formerly literary editor of Frankfurter Rundschau and cultural editor of Die Welt, is now cultural correspondent of Die ZEIT in Berlin."
Today is the kick off of Word for Word 2008, which brings the country’s most celebrated authors and celebrities to speak about their recent successes and their thoughts on being a writer. This summer marks their fifth anniversary. This afternoon they welcome Augusten Burroughs who will read from A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father. Rain location is Barnes & Noble at Fifth Avenue and 46th Street.
Recent Poetry magazine contributors Mary Jo Bang, Cate Marvin, Philip Nikolayev, and Meghan O’Rourkewill all read their own works this evening. Complimentary copies of Poetry magazine and tote bags will be available to attendees and there will be a Q&A and signing after the reading. Donations of books to the store are welcome and encouraged.
World Science Festival and WNYC Present: You and Your Irrational Brain
"Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, will join Radio Lab hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich and Proust was a Neuroscientist author and Radio Lab contributor Jonah Lehrer to explore the often surprising factors that motivate and dictate human behavior. Why, for example, are people generally more comfortable stealing pencils from work than money from a petty cash box? And what does this tell us about the degree to which human decision-making is based upon irrational thinking? The free event will combine discussion with live group experiments, games and demonstrations that test the ideas in Ariely's book, followed by food, drink and music under the stars." Admission is free, but reservations are required. More info on World Science Festival after the jump.
"The first annual World Science Festival, an unprecedented celebration of scientific discovery, will take place from May 28 through June 1, 2008 at more than 20 venues throughout New York City. It will bring together over a dozen Nobel Laureates, leading researchers, top-level technologists, dedicated educators, and high-level policy makers with creative artists, filmmakers, and performers to create more than 40 unique events that will shine a spotlight on science and explore the many ways in which scientific discovery and innovation are shaping modern life."
As artistically inclusive as it is audience-friendly, Bang on a Can's annual 12-hour Marathon has become one of the most diverse, most open and most exciting music events in the world. "Imagine Lollapalooza advised by the ghost of John Cage," Vanity Fair wrote. "There are other places to hear new contemporary music, but it is seldom offered with such a potent blend of intensity, authority, and abandon." Last year's clocked in at a non-stop 27+ hrs of free avant guard music from the likes of Karsh Kale, Dan Deacon, Crash Ensemble, and more. Full details here. All Ages.
As most of you know from reading FreeNYC, every once and a while I like to nerd out on some science and all around geeky stuff. Lately I am finding more people of a similar dorky mindset. And apparently the people over at Angels and Kings do too as they host Nerd Nite. It's described pretty accurately as "like the Discovery Channel with beer." Tonight's Nerd Nite edition features a lesson what Chinese tattoos do and do not mean as you learn about Chinese characters, and you'll even find out why you should drink even more beer as Adam Kavalier talks about the anti-cancer ability and other healthy qualities of hops and beer. Full details of each discussion below.
*Presentation #1:
Home Is Where Your Pig Is and Other Ancient Chinese Secrets
by Mike Love
Description: Ever wonder what that Chinese tattoo actually means? Or whether the Chinese word for "crisis" is really the same as the word for "opportunity?" Or how many keys are there on a Chinese computer keyboard? We'll learn the answers to these and many other questions as we explore the rich and befuddling world of Chinese characters.
Bio: Michael Love has been studying Chinese since he was 12, making a living off of it since he was 19, and has visited China a grand total of 10 times, yet still hasn't managed to perfect his Kung Pao Chicken recipe. He has, however, occasionally been known to perform Chinese karaoke if you get him sufficiently drunk.
Presentation #2:
Some Like It Hop(py)
by Adam Kavalier
Description: Now there are more reasons to drink beer than ever before! As the main flavor ingredient in beer, hops possess a broad spectrum of healthy compounds. These wonderful flowers contain the most potent phytoestrogen known to date as well as produce a broad spectrum anticancer compound, among other friendly little compounds. So who says beer is just a bunch of empty calories? Drink up! Cheers!
Bio: Adam Kavalier is a doctoral student in biology trying to avoid politics and survive the CUNY system. He works in a phytochemistry lab studying the composition of plant stuff. When he's not at the bench or standing on his head, Adam can be found drinking his beverage of choice, that's right a hop-filled pint of pale ale!
Girls Write Now is "a nonprofit volunteer mentoring organization that has been matching bright, creative teenage girls from New York City's public high schools with professional women writers in the community since 1998." Today is Girls Write Now 10th Anniversary Spring Reading. "New York City's most talented teen writers, along with celebrity host Amanda Diva (Def Poetry Jam, HipHopNation, MTV2, Floetry), will turn a downtown bookstore into a showcase for a collection of powerful new poems, stories and essays that reflect an electrifying community of girl writers spanning often hard-and-fast lines of race, age, economics and geography in New York City"
What Is Green Architecture is a "new series of conversations, lectures and events exploring the cutting-edge developments in the field and their impact on contemporary life as well as implications for the future." Tonight, the series continues with a talk by noted architect Matthias Sauerbruch followed by a conversation with Andres Lepik. More info on site.
Matthias Sauerbruch is most famous for his "city-landscapes": this is what he calls the design of his colorful and energetic buildings, such as the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau or the GSW headquarters in Berlin. Sauerbruch understands the work of architects and urban planners as landscape-gardening by means of shaping their surroundings with colorful and organic buildings. Sauerbruch believes that it was his time in architecture school in Berlin and later in London which led him to his success today. From 1985-1989, he worked in Rem Koolhaas's London office as a project manager, and helped him build the Checkpoint Charlie Haus Friedrichstraße 214 in Berlin. He founded the company Sauerbruch Hutton in London in 1989 with his future wife, Ms. Louisa Hutton. In 1993, a branch of the office was also opened in Berlin. Matthias Sauerbruch was a professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design) in Stuttgart from 2001-2007. In the spring term of 2008 Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton were visiting professors at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has won several prizes, including the Fritz Schumacher Preis für Architektur (2003), the Deutsche Fassadenpreis (2001), the Deutsche Architekturpreis (2001), and the Erich-Schelling-Architekturpreis (1998).
Drunken! Careening! Writers! - “Careening with Pride!”
Drunken! Careening! Writers! is a monthly reading series dedicated to the proposition that readings should be: excellent, well-read pieces that have at least one thing in them that makes people laugh (nervous laughter counts), and don't run more than 15 minutes each. This months writers are Christopher Bram, Robin Cloud and Joel Derfner. More info about the writers after the jump.
CHRISTOPHER BRAM is the author of nine novels, including GODS AND MONSTERS, which was made into a wonderful movie starring Ian McKellan and Lynn Redgrave. His most recent books are LIVES OF THE CIRCUS ANIMALS, which is about a pack of actors in New York City, and EXILES IN AMERICA, which is about a gay open marriage in a college town in Virginia.
ROBIN CLOUD has been seen spewing her innermost thoughts, passions, and comedic observations to the masses at Caroline's, The Duplex, New York Comedy Club, and The Peoples Improv Theatre and Emerging Artist Theatre’s One Woman Standing series; at times in the form of characters Jerri Beige, Angela Davison and JD West. Robin is one of the founding members of the sketch group Connecticrack. Robin’s one woman show turned feature length screenplay, “Tales from the Big House” is a comical coming of age story about a young African American woman who gallantly claims her lesbian identity at the age of 16 only to find that being a lesbian is only half the battle.
JOEL DERFNER is the author of Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever and Gay Haiku. Musicals for which he has written the scores have been produced in London, New York, and various cities in between (going counterclockwise). In an attempt to become the gayest person ever, he joined Cheer New York, New York’s gay and lesbian cheerleading squad, but eventually he had to leave because he was too depressed. In desperation, he started knitting and teaching aerobics, though not at the same time. He hopes to come to a bad end. He is currently hosting a competitive gay-off (internet entries accepted!) at www.joelderfner.com.
"New Yorkers have been mixing it up on city trains since the first 'elevated' opened in 1868. Today we all have a subway story to tell, whether it’s the thrill of a first ride, the surprise of an unexpected encounter, or the frustration of losing your wallet to an artful Dodger. Share your tale at our latest LES Stories open-mic night, dedicated to the serendipity of our city’s public transport system." Readings will include Matt Bresler, Michele Carlo, Brad Lawrence and Regina Ress (more info on each below).
Matt Bresler is a public school theatre teacher, storyteller with The Moth, and an LES regular.
Michele Carlo has been published in the short story anthology Chicken Soup For The Latino Soul, online in Mr. Beller's Neighborhood and is the curator of GeT LiT, a literary/ performance series at Tribeca's Collective:Unconscious Theater. She is a frequent contributor to NYC’s storytelling community, appearing with The Moth, (two-time Grandslammer and MainStage), Speakeasy, TalkingStick, The L.I.A.R. Show and her own show, It Came From New York.
Brad Lawrence is a writer, actor, and storyteller based in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to appearing in several plays and independent films, he currently has his first feature length screenplay in production and his one man show, Monsters In The Wood, will be making its premiere at the 2008 NY Fringe Festival.
Regina Ress, award winning storyteller, actor, teacher, and writer with programs ranging from world folk tales and mythology to original stories about life and love. She has performed across the US, Latin America, and Europe, telling stories in both English and Spanish in such varied venues as Lincoln Center, homeless shelters, prisons, and the White House. She is a long-time Board member of the NY Storytelling Center and is an adjunct instructor of storytelling for New York University’s Program in Educational Theatre.
As most of you know from reading FreeNYC, every once and a while I like to nerd out on some science and all around geeky stuff. Lately I am finding more people of a similar dorky mindset. And apparently the people over at Angels and Kings do too as they host Nerd Nite every month. It's described pretty accurately as "like the Discovery Channel with beer." Tonight's Nerd Nite edition features "Ben Nugent, author of American Nerd: The Story of My People, will share some of the research that went into his book, while Eric Molinsky demonstrates tips and tricks of animation, and Kristen Klemenhagen discusses multicolored pictures of areas of'"brain
activity' detected via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of experimental neuroimaging that can be done using an MRI magnet. Phew!" Full details of each discussion below.
Presentation #1
How Cartoons Come to Life
by Eric Molinsky
Description: Isn't animation extremely tedious? Isn't it all done on computers now? Isn¹t it really hard to do a live cartoon? This presentation will allow you to learn the secrets of the craft that
brought Dumbo, Bambi, and Bugs Bunny to life.
Presentation #2
A Brief History of the Nerd
by Benjamin Nugent
Description: "Nerd" is like "white person" in that it's a scientifically invalid category that affects us all. What is the history of this all-important construct? From romanticism to anti-semitic caricature in early industrial England to the Muscular Christianity movement to Zane Grey's assertion that all real boys like baseball to the engineering school humor magazines of the late 1950s to Superbad, it's largely painful. Come experience catharsis.
Presentation #3
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): A Painless Peek Inside the Brain
by Kristen Klemenhagen
Description: You may be familiar with images from the popular press showing multicolored pictures of areas of "brain activity" detected via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, fMRI is only one type of experimental neuroimaging that can be done using an MRI magnet. Learn about what fMRI actually measures (and what it does not measure), and about other interesting but less well-known imaging modalities. You'll also learn a hot dance move called the "hydrogen proton precession" while learning about MRI physics, and hear about some recent controversial functional imaging studies.
You probably already know I love Union Hall's Secret Science Club! But what you may not have already known, is that I love it even more when it's about Anthropology and Evolution! Tonight, Anthropologist William Jungers lectures on Human and Primate Origins. "Set the dial on the Wayback Machine... One of the world’s most eminent evolutionary morphologists, Dr. William Jungers asks: How have hominids changed over the last 6 million years? What do we know about the behavior of our human ancestors? When (and why) did some primates start walking upright?" He is chair of the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University’s School of Medicine,
Before and After groove to bone-jangling tunes and video in Union Hall’s subterranean grotto and try the cocktail of the night, the Naked Ape.
Two up and coming authors, Nuar Alsadir and Nick Flynn, read from their latest this evening at this Cobble Hill independent book spot. Nick Flynn is author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and the recent play Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins. Nuar Alsadir has published poems and essays in numerous periodicals, including Grand Street, The Kenyon Review, Agni, and others. All Ages.
Tonight, The Living Theatre presents a free reading of Kevin Anthony Kautzman's play Then Waves. "This stunning, severe play explores the imprint that the violence of war leaves on its survivors. Kautzman alternates free verse with nipping dialogue in this study of a troubled veteran. All Ages.
"Booklyn Artist Alliance is excited to announce the publication of Haiku Not Bombs, the latest edition of the Another Booklyn Chapbook series, a letterpressed/silkscreened handmade series. Please join Booklyn and Collectivo Haiku authors for a book release party including readings and films from the book in a multimedia extravaganza." Readings and films by Tom Gilroy, Jim McKay, Shin Yu Pai and Patrick So.
Tonight, The Living Theatre presents a free reading of Kevin Anthony Kautzman's play Then Waves. "This stunning, severe play explores the imprint that the violence of war leaves on its survivors. Kautzman alternates free verse with nipping dialogue in this study of a troubled veteran. All Ages.
Esteemed author, Princeton professor, and winner of the Common Wealth Award for Distinguished Service in Literature, Joyce Carol Oates discusses her latest release, My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike. "Likely to be Oates's most controversial novel to date, as well as her most boldly satirical, this unconventional work of fiction is a wry, captivating saga on a murder - inspired by an unsolved American true crime mystery."
For what will be the final Upstairs at the Square for the summer, acclaimed singer-songwriter Aimee Mann will be joined by Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland. They will discuss and perform their work in conversation with journalist Katherine Lanpher, who hosts the program.
Spend you lunch break with Tommy Chong as he touts his latest book venture, ‘Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography’. Keenly insightful and utterly candid, Chong provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of one of the most popular comedy teams of all time. Hosted by: Josh Gilbert, Director of the Documentary ‘AKA Tommy Chong’. All Ages
One of my very favorite things to talk to New Yorkers about is the summer blackout of 2003, and apparently I am not the only one. Tonight's Lower East Side Stories at Tenement Museum Shop is all about Blackouts! Participants include Jennifer DeMeritt, Michele Carlo, and host H.R. Britton. Audience members are invited to share their own tale (assuming you can spit it out in 3 min or under).
Scratch and Sniff at the Union Hall Secret Science Club
"Steeped in the perfume of spilled beer and aging taxidermy..." Union Hall brings you Secret Science Club, one of my favorite monthly events. Come nerd it up with mind-blowing lectures, volatile cocktails, and chemically-altered sounds. Tonight, Smell, the most primitive of senses take the main stage. Dr. Leslie Vosshall, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, probes the brains and neural networks of creatures from fruit flies to Homo sapiens. The world is filled with scents that suggest danger, the presence of food—and (most importantly) mating opportunities.
Because I'm a huge nerd, I'm going to a "librarian party" in Greenpoint on tonight hosted by these folks. Why? Because losing a drinking game to a kid who can cite The Bell Jar is totally awesome. So tap into your supreme inner dorkdom and join us to celebrate the loudest librarian gathering in town. 21+ (guest written by Jenny G of the MeanRed Crew)
In Jeffery Deitch's fourth thematic exhibision, Conceptual Figures, twelve artists come together and approch "figurative painting as an intellectual construct... Conceptual figuration builds on the innovations of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray. It represents a break with the impressionistic and expressionist traditions of modern figuration." Tonight, four of those artists - Caleb Considine, Sophia Dixon, Ridley Howard, and Kurt Kauper - come together along with Peter Brooks and Rober Storr to discuss the concept in a roundtable hosted by Colleen Asper of Ad Hoc. All Ages.
Since I'm reading Snow Crash right now, you can pretty much throw anything dealing with robots, hackers, or the Metaverse at me (geek alert) and I'll get excited. A perfect example is today's lecture and hands-on building class for robotics beginners that requires no prior experience or knowledge. The lecture will cover basic electronics, basic robot components, and where to get your own supplies. Afterwards, participants will split into groups and build their own robots! Yay Science! (image source)
Irving Welsh - author of Trainspotting, Filth, and half a dozen other books on my shelf - is back with his latest, Crime. “Crime is as close to an Ian Rankin novel as Welsh seems likely to write…..It’s like Lolita in reverse: this European man takes to the highways of the South not to escape the law but to protect a vulnerable young girl from other men…. Welsh applies his unique artistic gifts to a more conventional story line and succeeds admirably.” Find out all you've every wanted to know about the mind of Mr. Welsh at tonight's reading and book signing.
Okay, seriously? This has got to be the best idea I've heard in a long, long time. Hosted by Sarah Brown and Liz Schroeter, this monthly reading series features former awkward adolescents reciting their tales of love, lost and pimples as written in their very own diaries. Come listen to your peers' pubescent woes and triumphs, and have a great laugh while doing so. Oh, and you get to go home feeling great about being 20-something - who'd ever want to do 14 over again?
"It has been said that 'music has charms to soothe the savage breast,' but its true power lies in its ability to affect the human brain. In a free lecture... neurologist and author Oliver Sacks discusses the mind’s relationship to music. His latest book, Musicophilia, uses medical case studies to illustrate this extraordinary interaction, including a man struck by lightning who is suddenly inspired to become a pianist, a group of children who are hyper-musical from birth, and a man whose memory spans only seven seconds -- for everything but music."
The Housing Works Annual Open Air Book Fair give you then chance to sort through tens of thousands of old books, records, and CDs. Collect those hidden gems for merely $1 and then hibernate for the winter with your new stack of used books. There is also clothing sold by the bag. [note: date changed due to expected weather]
Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in New America
In her sixth appearance at the Tenement Museum, documentary artist Judith Sloan channels the experiences of New York’s newest arrivals in a multimedia performance. While immigration policy is debated across the country, Judith Sloan presents the very human stories of immigrants and refugees who have come to the United States and what their experiences have been pre- and post-9/11.
Union Hall brings you Secret Science Club, one of my favorite monthly events. Come nerd it up with mind-blowing lectures, volatile cocktails, and chemically-altered sounds. Tonight, at the Bell House, a new, awesome, venue in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Cosmologist Tony Rothman of Princeton University lectures on Sacred Mathematics. "At work, Tony Rothman studies the Big Bang and the early Universe. He also researches black holes on the verge of becoming naked singularities. But what does he do for fun? He does sangaku—clever math puzzles that decorated Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in 17th-century Japan. Wha---?? He even wrote a book about it: Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry." Groove to science-loving tunes and video and sample the cocktail of the night, the Bamboozler.
DCTV is NYC's premiere Resource for the Low-Budget Independent Digital Filmmaker. Tonight is their Spring open house, which features Sample Workshops, High-Def Camera Demos, Open Bar, Free Food, Discounted Membership, Legendary Raffle and more! Click here for the full schedule
"Join filmmaker Lance Hammer at the Apple Store SoHo as he discusses his feature film, 'Ballast,' which took prizes for best director and cinematography at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Hammer produced, edited, and will self-distribute this dramatic, quietly beautiful film set in the Mississippi delta, where one man's suicide affects three people's lives. indieWIRE contributor Anthony Kaufman will moderate the discussion. 'Ballast' opens in NYC at Film Forum on October 1."
Drawing from all writing outlets, from major publications to music blogs, this annual collection finds the best of the best in music writing. The Half King hosts a release party for the ninth installment, edited by Daphne Carr and Nelson George.
With its customary range—covering everything from the Wu-tang Clan to Pete Seeger, Louis Armstrong to ABBA—the 2008 edition emphasizes not only a diversity of music, but a diversity of sources as this year’s essays, missives, and musings are culled from publications ranging from blogs to the New Yorker, making BEST MUSIC WRITING 2008 one of the most fascinating editions yet.
Nelson George, the first African-American music writer chosen to helm the annual collection, will lend his expertise to the BEST MUSIC WRITING series as Guest Editor of the 2008 edition. A long love affair with music and a “search for God in the vinyl” has influenced the assembly of this special collection, as George highlights critics who “have a knack for looking deeply at a current work, holding it up as a mirror to the present music scene and as a window into the mind of its maker.”
Nelson George joins an esteemed list of previous guest editors from a variety of disciplines including Robert Christgau, Nick Hornby, Mickey Hart, Matt Groening, Peter Guralnick, Jonathan Lethem, and Mary Gaitskill. Daphne Carr will reprise her role as Series Editor for the third year.
This event will feature the following writers/works:
LARRY BLUMENFELD * Band on the Run in New Orleans * Salon
GARY GIDDINS * Back to Bossa: Rosa Passos and Fifty Years of Bossa Nova. * The New Yorker
SAM KASHNER * Fever Pitch: When Travolta Did Disco; the Making of Saturday Night Fever * Movies Rock
JODY ROSEN * A Pirate Looks at Sixty: Jimmy Buffett’s Mid-Life Crises * Slate
JEFF SHARLET * The People’s Singer: the Embattled Lee Hays * Oxford American
Join us as we celebrate this fantastic collection, and both the writers and editors that made it possible.
Carol McManus, author of the new "Table Talk" cookbook and creator of President Bill Clinton's favorite "Presidential Muffins" will be on hand to sign copies of her new cookbook and officially announce her contest, "Your Favorite Meal Time Memory." Haha. there are way too many jokes that can be made out of the term "Presidential Muffins"... anyway, if your in the neighborhood may be worth swingin' by.
"Wall Street’s woes have changed the course of New York City for the immediate future and perhaps, forever. How different will our city be five years from now? Peering into the void: is there a silver lining? Fred Siegel, historian and Cooper Union professor, moderates a panel of notable New Yorkers, encompassing the spectrum of political views, to consider our prospects."
Tonight marks the last upstairs at the square until 2009. Alaa al Aswany, author of Chicago (HarperCollins) and Rachael Yamagata, whose new album is A Record In Two Parts: Elephants… Teeth Sinking Into Heart (Warner Bros. Records), discuss and perform their work in conversation with journalist Katherine Lanpher, who hosts the program.
![1566564786.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1].jpg](http://www.freenyc.net/archives/images/1566564786.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_[1].jpg)
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![Fool the World](_blank">Mondays,</a> an in depth look at some facet of the comic world. Tonight, comic scholar <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sanderson" target="_blank">Peter Sanderson</a> lectures on some of the biggest names in graphic novel history including Mark Gruenwald, Bob Hall, John Buscema & Paul Ryan.</p>
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<h3>Fool the World: A Tribute to Pixies</h3>
<p><img alt="Book_72.jpg" src="http://www.freenyc.net/archives/images/Book_72.jpg" width="125" height="125" clas="floatimgleft" /><strong>Date:</strong> Monday, August 7th<br />
<strong>Time:</strong> 7:00pm - 8:30pm<br />
<strong>Location:</strong> <a href="www.strandbooks.com">Strand Book Store</a> (828 Broadway at 12th St)<br />
<strong>Cost:</strong> Free<br />
<strong>Summary:</strong> "It){kind=link}