NYC Events,”Only the Best” (10/16) + Today’s Featured Pub (Midtown West)

Posted on 10/16/2017 by

Today’s Sweet 6 NYC Events > MONDAY/ OCTOBER 16, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events better check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-OCTOBER”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all through the month.

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Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

New York Cabaret Convention 2017 (Oct.16-19)
Rose Theater / 6PM, $25+
If you like cabaret even a little bit, you’ll love this show.
“The 28th annual cabaret fest kicks off with a lineup that brings together some of the genre’s signature artists to celebrate the Great American Songbook. Mabel Mercer Foundation bigwig KT Sullivan hosts the evening; performers of note include Marilyn Maye, Amanda McBroom, Luba Mason, Karen Mason, Carole J. Bufford and Vivian Reed.” (TONY)

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5 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Norma
>> CAMILLE
>> Los Wembler’s de Iquitos
>> Can You See This?
>> Dancing with Fred Astaire: Jonas Mekas with Amy Taubin
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Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Norma
Metropolitan Opera House / 7:30PM, $32+
“Ponselle, Milanov, Sutherland, Callas … after last night, Radvanovsky can add her name to the list,” declared the Huffington Post when Sondra Radvanovsky made her Met role debut as Norma in 2013. The 2017–18 season opens with a new production of Bellini’s masterpiece, starring Radvanovsky as the Druid priestess and Joyce DiDonato as her archrival, Adalgisa—a casting coup for bel canto fans. Tenor Joseph Calleja is Pollione, Norma’s unfaithful lover, and Carlo Rizzi conducts. Sir David McVicar’s evocative production sets the action deep in a Druid forest where nature and ancient ritual rule.”

CAMILLE
at Le Poisson Rouge / 8PM, $40
“The Paris singer Camille is a sly innovator, reworking the traditional sounds of French pop into thrillingly unrecognizable forms. Her most recent album, “Ouï,” was recorded in a former monastery, and at times it sounds like a one-woman sect reaching psychedelic nirvana. And while her lyrics are full of clever French puns, even resolute Anglophones will find much to enjoy.” (NYT-SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON)

Elsewhere, but I’m a big fan of Peruvian rhythms, makes this worth the detour:
Los Wembler’s de Iquitos
PIONEER WORKS, 159 Pioneer St. Red Hook, 8PM, $25
“Formed in 1968 by Peruvian shoemaker Solomon Sanchez, along with his five sons, the apostrophically beguiling Los Wembler’s de Iquitos (the moniker reportedly has something to do with Wembley Stadium) launched the most otherworldly of cumbia subgenres with their first single, “Cumbia Amazónica.” Better known as chicha, the Sanchez sound mixed Andean melodies, psychedelic surf-rock guitar, and Farfisa organ along with strident cumbia bass lines and a pair of polyrhythmically persuasive percussionists. Songs like “Lamento del Yacuruna” and “La Danza del Petrolero” celebrated Amazonian water spirits and the oil industry, respectively, and inspired many other fine chicha groups (and imitators) during the Seventies. The five Sanchez brothers embody their father’s spirited grooves to this day, and local chicha-savvy Tropical futurists Combo Chimbita will join them here.” (Richard Gehr, Village Voice)

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

Can You See This?
The Cooper Union, 7 E. 7th St./ 6:30PM, FREE
“A free public lecture on how letters got on the eye chart and what they’re doing there by Professor William Germano, author of the recently published Eye Chart (Blooomsbury). The book traces the history of the eye chart as a medical test, work of graphic design and metaphor. Registration is requested.”

Author Talks:
Dancing with Fred Astaire: Jonas Mekas with Amy Taubin
NYPL, Main Building, Wachenheim Trustees Room / 6:30PM, FREE
“Filmmaker, critic, and poet Jonas Mekas has had an extraordinary life in the arts, playing an instrumental role in the careers of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, and numerous other iconic artists as well as hanging out with everyone from Maya Deren to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, from Tiny Tim to Salvador Dalí, from the Kennedys to Fred Astaire. In A Dance with Fred Astaire (Anthology Editions) , Mekas recalls his many chance encounters, intimate exchanges, and lasting friendships with some of the past century’s most iconic and beloved artists. Whether stealing Anaïs Nin’s cookies, living alongside Janis Joplin and Patti Smith in the Chelsea Hotel, contemplating life and death with Allen Ginsberg, or meeting Timothy Leary, Arthur Miller, Lenny Bruce and so many more, Mekas has spent 94 years weaving himself inextricably into the very fabric of American culture.

In this special one-night-only program, Mekas will not only discuss the stories in the book with film critic Amy Taubin, he will also present a selection of short 16mm films he has curated from the Library’s Reserve Film and Video Collection. The films amplify anecdotes in A Dance with Fred Astaire and represent some of the incredible filmmakers whose lives and work have intersected with Mekas’s.”

Continuing Events

Archtober
31 days, 100+ ways to celebrate design in NYC! The seventh-annual, month-long festival of architecture activities, programs, and exhibitions in New York City will take place October 1-31, 2017.  Archtober’s calendar features 200 architecture and design lectures, conferences, programs, and exhibitions at more than 70+ collaborating institutions across the city.

For more details go to my Tab in the Header: “Notable Events October”  and scroll all the long way to the bottom. This event makes America, or at least NYCity, great again.

The 10th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival (Oct.13-20)
“Produced by Imagine Science Films — the nonprofit behind science film festivals in New York, Paris, Abu Dhabi and satellite events worldwide – Imagine Science Film Festival showcases new and experimental works that bridge the worlds of science and film in an artful, entertaining, and meaningful way.

All of the events are low cost or FREE. The festival includes short and feature-length films, live cinema performances, discussions, interactive demonstrations and more taking place at museums, universities and cultural institutions across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Several of the films will be making their U.S. debuts at the festival.

Notable programming includes:
North American premiere of Honey, Rain and Dust at the American Museum of Natural History (Friday, Oct 20 @ 4 pm) – A unique ethnographic and ecological look into an unseen corner of the Arabian Gulf: beekeeping traditions in the northwestern mountains of the United Arab Emirates.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

For the complete program, visit: http://imaginesciencefilms.org/ny10/program
Tickets: FREE – $18

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Bonus NYC Events – Jazz Venues:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. South, villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com / 212-864-6662

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

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♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and is TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

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A PremierPub / Midtown West

Russian Vodka Room / 265 W 52nd St (btw 7th/8th ave)

Sure, you could travel to Minsk or even Brighton Beach, for an authentic Russian experience, but why bother. On those days when you feel you must wash down your dish of kasha with a few glasses of icy, cold vodka, the Russian Vodka Room will definitely satisfy your urge.

From the outside this place looks a bit drab, and with no windows, a bit mysterious. Midtown tourists walk right by on their way to see “Jersey Boys,” just down the block.
(Alas, no more. After 10 years, “Jersey Boys” closed Jan.15)

lThose in the know enter a secret hideaway, a dimly lit front room with soft jazz playing – a perfect spot for an illicit late-night rendezvous, or maybe a meet-up with your Russian spy handler, but that’s later in the evening. Early in the evening the large U-shaped bar fills with the after work happy hour crowd, a group made very happy by the much reduced prices.

Their website says: “Welcome Comrades”. Of course, this welcome focuses on dozens of different vodkas, including their own special infusions, which marinate in giant, clear glass jugs visible around the room. The large vodka martinis ensure that you won’t confuse this place with your mother’s Russian Tea Room.

But man does not live by vodka alone. Eat some food, especially the tapa like appetizers. Be decadent and try the cheese blintzes with chocolate, or try a main dish like beef stroganoff with kasha.

Your best bet is to go on a night when the piano man is playing. This guy, who looks like he has eaten a lot of those cheese blintzes, plays five nights a week from 7 to 12 (no Mondays and Thursdays). When the piano man is playing American pop tunes, and you are at the crowded, dimly lit bar testing the horseradish infused vodka, that’s when the RVR shines.

It’s the kind of place where the noise gets louder and the crowd gets happier as the happy hour goes on. I’m generally a beer guy, but I like to come here with a group of friends. We find a table in the back room near the piano man; we eat, and we drink vodka ‘till it hurts (and it will hurt).
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Website: http://www.russianvodkaroom.com/
Phone #: 212-307-5835
Hours: 4pm-2am; Fri-Sun closes 4am (that could be trouble)
Happy Hour: 4-7pm every day
$4 shots infused vodka (2oz), $5 cosmos; $4 czech draft beer
Music: FR-SU; TU-WE / 7pm-12am
Subway: #1 to 50th St.
Walk 2 blk N. on B’way to 52nd St.; 1 blk W. to RVR
Confusingly, the Russian Samovar is right across the street, on the S. side of 52nd St.
The RVR, your destination, is on the N. side of 52nd St.
Update: music now includes a younger, trimmer piano man. “Tiny” we miss you.
Update#2: Rumor that “Tiny” is back playing only on Friday nights – need to check it out.

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“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, jazz clubs, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars, cocktail lounges, and of course, pubs – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge (except for certain jazz clubs).
If you have a fave premier pub or good eating place on Manhattan’s WestSide let us all know about it – leave a comment.
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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (10/15) + GallerySpecialExhibits: Chelsea

Posted on 10/14/2017 by

Today’s Elite 8 NYC Events > SUNDAY/ OCTOBER 15, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events better check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-OCTOBER”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all through the month.

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Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Open House New York
various locations, FREE
Happens only once a year, makes this my fave weekend.
“Historic residential and commercial buildings will be opened to the public during this annual series of architecture tours and talks. Attendees will enjoy access to more than two hundred and seventy-five sites across the city, along with lectures from designers and developers. Highlights include the African Burial Ground National Monument, in Tribeca; the restored Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, in the financial district; the rooftop farms of Brooklyn Grange; a trip to the top of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, in the Bronx; the Met Breuer, on the Upper East Side; and the Kings County Distillery, the city’s oldest operating whiskey distiller.” (NewYorker)

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7 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Lou Reed: A Life
>> ANDREW CYRILLE, BEN STREET AND DAVID VIRELLES
>> Betty Buckley: Story Songs #2 
>> Carl Allen
>> Pickle Day – Hug a Pickle, Eat a Pickle
>> Buddha, Mara, and the Question of Evil with Stephen Batchelor
>> Occult Humanities Conference
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Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Lou Reed: A Life
92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave./ 7:30PM, $40
“Beginning with his genre-shattering work with the Velvet Underground and extending through a long, provocative solo career, Lou Reed has earned a place as one of the most significant artists and songwriters in the history of rock ’n’ roll.

Now renowned music writer Anthony DeCurtis shares insights from his new book, Lou Reed: A Life, a riveting, comprehensive biography of a man whose life was every bit as harrowing and experimental as his greatest work. Musicians Richard Barone, Jeff Ross, and Suzanne Vega will perform his indelible music, and join DeCurtis for a riveting discussion about Reed’s lasting impact near the fourth anniversary of his death.”

ANDREW CYRILLE, BEN STREET AND DAVID VIRELLES
at Jazz Standard / 7:30 and 9:30PM, $25
“Thelonious Monk’s influence is an impossible thing to bottle or comprehend, so the Jazz Standard’s approach seems apt: It is commemorating what would have been the pianist’s 100th birthday with a three-week-long kitchen-sink celebration. This show is among the many that you especially shouldn’t miss. Mr. Virelles, a pianist, has Monk’s love for corrosive locomotion, but his playing displays a cleaner grace. When he works with Mr. Cyrille, a drummer and luminary of the jazz avant-garde, it’s the percussion that provides a lot of the engine grease. They have played with Mr. Street, a formidable bassist, since at least 2012, when they all collaborated on Mr. Virelles’s stellar album “Continuum.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Betty Buckley: Story Songs #2
Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater / 7PM, +9:30PM, $25+
Buckley is a genuinely eccentric, eccentrically genuine Broadway diva, with a persona that shifts between fragility and imperiousness. In recent years, she’s moved away from the big belting of shows like Cats and Sunset Boulevard, favoring more monologue-like songs and arrangements. Her new Joe’s Pub set focuses on storytelling, and includes work by musical theater composers (Stephen Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown) as well as singer-songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Lisa Loeb).” (TONY)

Carl Allen 
Smoke Jazz Club, 2751 Broadway, between 105th and 106th Sts./ 7, 9, 10;30PM, $38
“My ultimate goal is to get to a level like Art Blakey, Art Taylor, Elvin Jones, and Billy Higgins,” Carl Allen has stated, “who every time they sit down behind a set of drums it’s swinging.” Olympian as his vision may be, Allen, undaunted, has built a long and sturdy career providing uplifting rhythm for any number of illustrious jazz artists. Leading his own quintet, Allen pays tribute to two of his guiding lights: Blakey and Jones.” (NewYorker)

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

Pickle Day – Hug a Pickle, Eat a Pickle
Orchard Street / 12PM-5PM
“Bring on the brine — Pickle Day returns to the Lower East Side on Sunday.
So what’s the dill?
The Lower East Side, once heavily populated by immigrants and dotted with pushcarts of their goods, was home to several pickle shops serving many who had come from Eastern Europe.

One of those vendors, Izzy Guss — a Russian émigré who established his pickle business there (first on Hester Street, then on Essex Street) in the early 20th century — is the name behind the famous Guss’s Pickles. The shop later became the focus of a long pickle war between several families arguing over the store’s legacy.

You can head down to “the center of all things pickled” on Sunday to whet your appetite. Orchard Street will be packed, not only with picklers but also with carnival games, goods from local boutiques and eateries, and more.” (NYT-Today)

Buddha, Mara, and the Question of Evil with Stephen Batchelor
Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W. 17th St./ 4PM,
Price: Talk + one performance of Mara: $50. Mara performance only: $25.
“Prominent Buddhist thinker Stephen Batchelor talks about the philosophy and psychology of good and evil through the figure of Mara, the Buddhist equivalent of the Devil. Having overcome Mara in his struggle for awakening, Gotama (Siddhartha Gautama) nonetheless continues to engage with him until the very end of his life.

Mara symbolizes the obstacles in the way of our becoming wholly human and fully alive. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from early Buddhist discourses to the poetry of Dante and Baudelaire, Batchelor will explore the complexity of this archetype and its continuing relevance across cultures.” (ThoughtGallery.org)
Please note:
Batchelor’s libretto MARA: A Chamber Opera, will have the first full concert performance held at the Rubin Museum on both Wednesday, October 18 and Friday, October 20.” Every ticket to the talk program requires you to also select an accompanying opera performance. If you’re only interested in the performance, opera tickets can be purchased separately.

The New York Coffee Festival
Metropolitan Pavillion / various times, $30
“This weekend-long fest features tastings, interactive workshops and barista demonstrations from more than 100 coffee-industry insiders.”

“Beanheads rejoice! The third annual New York Coffee Festival grinds into the Metropolitam Pavilion for three days of brewed fun with over 100 innovative exhibitors. There will be unlimited free coffee, workshops and talks, street food, a barista competition, live music inspired by New York from The Coffee Music Project, an art gallery through the Coffee Art Project, giveaways, and much more. So wake up and smell the coffee at this three-day fest.” (TONY)

AND DON’T FORGET THIS ONE NEXT YEAR.
Occult Humanities Conference (LAST DAY)
NYU Steinhardt, 34 Stuyvesant St./ 8PM, $110

*PLEASE NOTE: The conference is SOLD OUT. However the exhibition, vending area, Saturday night performance, and Sunday night closing reception are all free and open to the public.
Better pay attention next year, and get your tickets early, because this conference on Contemporary Art and Scholarship on the Esoteric Traditions is pretty darn unique.

“Do you believe in magic? Rick Santorum’s fundamentalist fears about satanic forces at work in academia will be justified, if only for one weekend at one university, during the Occult Humanities Conference. Art enchants scholarship when Serinity Young discusses women who fly, Karsten Krejcarek chronicles encounters with mystical traditions in Latin America, Sara Hannant illuminates the history of magic and photography, Jason Baumann summons up the “espiritismo” in Nuyorican poetry, and conference co-organizer Pam Grossman, of the marvelous Phantasmaphile blog, leads a panel discussion about the cresting “Witch Wave” in contemporary culture. Musical performances by harpist Ellena Phillips and the Alunaré collective will enhance the esoterica, and works by Toronto’s mysterious Tin Can Forest art crew are on display.” (Richard Gehr, Village Voice)

Continuing Events

The 55th New York Film Festival (LAST DAY)
at The Film Society of Lincoln Center,
The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring 25 works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent from around the globe.

“The 55th New York Film Festival’s Main Slate showcases films honored at Cannes, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner The Square; Robin Campillo’s BPM, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize; and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which took home the Golden Eye. From Berlin, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner Spoor mark the returns of two New York Film Festival veterans, while Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed Call Me by Your Name will be his NYFF debut.”(cityguideny.com)

“The main slate nabs the headlines, but this festival’s sidebars nearly constitute a festival of their own. In the Spotlight on Documentary program, Travis Wilkerson’s riveting “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” (Friday and Sunday) grapples with a family legend: that Mr. Wilkerson’s white great-grandfather almost certainly got away with murdering a black man in Alabama in the 1940s. The main retrospective of the festival (which runs through Oct. 15) celebrates Robert Mitchum’s centennial. “His Kind of Woman” (Friday), with Mitchum (above, with Jane Russell) as a gambler lured to Mexico as a sap, and the auteur purée “Macao” (Thursday), on which Nicholas Ray took over for Josef von Sternberg, are enjoyably overstuffed Howard Hughes productions. William A. Wellman’s “Track of the Cat” (Monday); Otto Preminger’s “River of No Return” (Monday), with Marilyn Monroe; and Vincente Minnelli’s “Home From the Hill” (Thursday), all in CinemaScope, demand big-screen viewing.” (BEN KENIGSBERG, NYT)

Archtober
31 days, 100+ ways to celebrate design in NYC! The seventh-annual, month-long festival of architecture activities, programs, and exhibitions in New York City will take place October 1-31, 2017.  Archtober’s calendar features 200 architecture and design lectures, conferences, programs, and exhibitions at more than 70+ collaborating institutions across the city.

For more details go to my Tab in the Header: “Notable Events October”  and scroll all the long way to the bottom. This event makes America, or at least NYCity, great again.

The 10th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival (Oct.13-20)
“Produced by Imagine Science Films — the nonprofit behind science film festivals in New York, Paris, Abu Dhabi and satellite events worldwide – Imagine Science Film Festival showcases new and experimental works that bridge the worlds of science and film in an artful, entertaining, and meaningful way.

All of the events are low cost or FREE. The festival includes short and feature-length films, live cinema performances, discussions, interactive demonstrations and more taking place at museums, universities and cultural institutions across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Several of the films will be making their U.S. debuts at the festival.

Notable programming includes:
North American premiere of Honey, Rain and Dust at the American Museum of Natural History (Friday, Oct 20 @ 4 pm) – A unique ethnographic and ecological look into an unseen corner of the Arabian Gulf: beekeeping traditions in the northwestern mountains of the United Arab Emirates.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

For the complete program, visit: http://imaginesciencefilms.org/ny10/program
Tickets: FREE – $18

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Bonus NYC events– Jazz Venues:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. South, villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com / 212-864-6662

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

==================================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

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Chelsea Art Gallery District*

Chelsea is the heart of the NYCity contemporary art scene. Home to more than 300 art galleries, the Rubin Museum, the Joyce Theater and The Kitchen performance spaces, there is no place like it anywhere in the world. Come here to browse free exhibitions by world-renowned artists and those unknowns waiting to be discovered in an art district that is concentrated between West 18th and West 27th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues. Afterwards stop in the Chelsea Market, stroll on the High Line, or rest up at one of the many cafes and bars and discuss the fine art.

Here is one exhibition that the New Yorker likes:

Jordan Casteel (thru Oct.28)
Casey Kaplan Gallery, 121 W27th St.

“In one of the most buzzed-about débuts of the fall season, Casteel shows large figurative canvases that combine the candid immediacy of the digital snapshots on which they’re based with the restraint and humanity of an Alice Neel portrait. The young Colorado-born phenom worked almost entirely from pictures she took in Harlem of men, at night. Casteel’s subjects, like the artist herself, are black, and her work tackles the representation of race in general, while revelling, as painters will, in the specific details. In “Q,” a man sits on a stoop next to a sketched-in green railing, earnestly consulting his iPhone, and wearing a sweatshirt with an image of Biggie Smalls in wraparound shades, a gold chain, and a Coogi sweater. In “MegaStarBrand’s Louie and A-Thug,” two well-turned-out young men sprawl with authority in folding chairs on the sidewalk, gazing skeptically out of frame. One wears a shirt that says “REASON,” the other is in a T-shirt that reads “T.H.U.G.: THE HATE YOU GAVE US.” In her exhilarating, if uneven, show, Casteel gives nothing but love.” (NewYorker)

Here is one exhibition that the New York Times likes:

Magdalena Suarez Frimkess (through Oct. 21)
Kaufmann Repetto, 535 West 22nd Street,

“Untitled,” from 2009, is among the nearly 55 works by the ceramic artist Magdalena Suarez Frimkess at Kaufmann Repetto. Credit Adam Kremer
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess is some kind of genius. Her medium is glazed ceramic, with special emphasis on the glazes, expertly drawn and painted in numerous styles and indebted to popular art, folk art and an astounding array of other historical references. In Ms. Suarez Frimkess’s survey of nearly 55 works at Kaufmann Repetto, Minnie Mouse, Popeye and Krazy Kat keep company with Maya warrior gods. There are frequent forays into blue-and-white ware, which can depict Chinese-looking landscapes, mischievous kids on bicycles and more. Other decorations include village scenes that recall South American folk painting. (Ms. Suarez Frimkess, who has lived in this country since 1963, was born in Venezuela in 1929 and started her artistic career in Chile.)

“Untitled,” from 2014, by Magdalena Suarez Frimkess. Credit Dawn Blackman
Over the years she has often collaborated with her husband, Michael Frimkess, glazing vessels that he threw on a wheel. (They made a point of not consulting each other.) There are some of their collaborations here, with Mr. Frimkess’s contributions distinguished by their relative symmetry and finish. But Ms. Suarez Frimkess is at her best when glazing her own small hand-built vessels — plates, bowls, tiles, Japanese-influenced boxes, teacups and teapots — as well as small figurines. Marvelously irregular and sometimes almost as thin as leaves, they have a delicate looseness well-matched with glazes that often leave the clay body showing through. Their spontaneity can evoke Peter Voulkos’s towering, more Expressionistic forms, but on a small scale that is at once worldly, exquisite and laced with humor. They suggest an artist in love with her medium and buzzing with ideas.

Ms. Suarez Frimkess is fairly well known in her hometown, Los Angeles, but this is only her second solo show in New York, following her 2014 debut at White Columns. With works dating back to 1970, this selection is the first in these parts to delve into her past. It proves that she has been a genius for a while.” (ROBERTA SMITH, NYT)

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For a listing of 25 essential galleries in the Chelsea Art Gallery District, organized by street, which enables you to create your own Chelsea Art Gallery crawl, see the Chelsea Gallery Guide (nycgo.com) Or check out TONY magazine’s list of the “Best Chelsea Galleries” and click through to see what’s on view.

*Now plan your own gallery crawl, but better to plan your visits for Tuesday through Saturday; most galleries are closed Sunday and Monday.

TIP: After your gallery tour, stop in Ovest at 513W27th St. for Aperitivo Italiano (Happy Hour on steroids). Discuss all the great art you have viewed over a drink and a very tasty selection of FREE appetizers (M-F, 5-8pm). OR try the NYT recommendation: “When you’re done, adjourn to the newly renovated Bottino , the Chelsea art world’s unofficial canteen on 10th Avenue (btw 24/25 St.) “

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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see recent posts in right sidebar dated 10/13 and 10/11.

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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (10/14) + Today’s Featured Pub (Times Square / Theater District)

Posted on 10/13/2017 by

Today’s Elite 8 NYC Events > SATURDAY/ OCTOBER 14, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events better check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-OCTOBER”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Open House New York (also Sunday)
various locations, FREE
Happens only once a year, makes this my fave weekend.
“Historic residential and commercial buildings will be opened to the public during this annual series of architecture tours and talks. Attendees will enjoy access to more than two hundred and seventy-five sites across the city, along with lectures from designers and developers. Highlights include the African Burial Ground National Monument, in Tribeca; the restored Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, in the financial district; the rooftop farms of Brooklyn Grange; a trip to the top of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, in the Bronx; the Met Breuer, on the Upper East Side; and the Kings County Distillery, the city’s oldest operating whiskey distiller.” (NewYorker)

==========================================================

7 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> TROMBONE SHORTY
>> BALLET WEST
>> Andrea McArdle: An Evening with Andrea McCardle 
>> If These Walls Could Talk: Celebrating the Life and Times of The Bottom Line
>> Cruise Up the Hudson River
>> The New York Coffee Festival
>> Occult Humanities Conference
 ===========================================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

TROMBONE SHORTY
at Terminal 5 / 8PM, $42
“Troy Andrews, known as Trombone Shorty, is an ambassador for New Orleans music who’s ready to handle the syncretic impulse that guides both pop musicians and world-class improvisers today. He’s also deeply embedded in the tradition of his hometown, where he comes from a long line of professional musicians. His latest album, “Parking Lot Symphony,” has a strand of melancholic lament that runs through it, putting it in line with the times. But it inherits the lineage of celebratory funk and marching band music from which Mr. Andrews descends. His concerts lean heavily on that tradition.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

BALLET WEST
at the Joyce Theater (2 p.m. and 8 p.m.) $51+
“Adam Sklute, the artistic director of Ballet West, brings his company back to the Joyce with the New York premieres of “Fox on the Doorstep” by resident choreographer, Nicolo Fonte, and “Dances for Lou” by Val Caniparoli. Gerarld Arpino’s final work, the elegiac “Ruth, Ricordi per Due,” will also be shown along with excerpts from George Balanchine’s “Chaconne” and a preview of a coming piece by the Spanish choreographer Africa Guzman.” (NYT-GIA KOURLAS)

Andrea McArdle: An Evening with Andrea McCardle (Oct.12-14)
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 7PM, $40-$55
“Though she has appeared in many productions since—including Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast and Starlight Express—Andrea McArdle will probably always be remembered most fondly as the big-belting moppet who stole our hearts in the original Annie. (“Tomorrow” belongs to her.) In her return to F/54, she performs contemporary songs alongside standards and show tunes, and shares stories from her long showbiz journey.” (TONY)

If These Walls Could Talk: Celebrating the Life and Times of The Bottom Line
Schimmel Center, 3 Spruce St./ 7:30PM, $29+
Host Paul Shaffer; Music Director Gregg Bendian

Featuring Sean Altman, David Bromberg (Fri only), Marshall Chapman, Clint de Ganon, The GrooveBarbers, Garland Jeffreys (Sat only), David Johansen, Christine Lavin (Sat only), Will Lee, Darlene Love with Ula Hedwig and Curtis King, Terre Roche with Feifei Yang and Garry Dial (Fri only), Uptown Horns and Jimmy Vivino

“Join us for a multimedia celebration of The Bottom Line, featuring music and memories, songs and stories by a selection of artists who were regular performers at the iconic club. Host Paul Shaffer with special guests will swap stories about their favorite times on stage, off stage and backstage and perform songs that made the club a destination for fans of all music genres.”

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

Cruise Up the Hudson River
National Lighthouse Museum, 200 The Promenade at Lighthouse Point / 1PM, $60
“Join National Lighthouse Members and friends as we cruise up the Hudson River on Saturday, October 14th, 2016 from 1:00pm – 4:00pm – (tides will determine the ending time). We will be leaving from the NY Waterway Pier at the World Financial Center located on the Hudson River at Vesey St. and North End Ave.

Presenters will narrate the cruise as we view the Little Red Lighthouse at Jeffrey’s Hook, Ambrose Lightship, Frying Pan Lightship, Lilac Light Tender and the Titanic Memorial Light. Presenters will also note significant New York City sites and relate historic tales. We’ll learn about West Point, Stony Point and the Tarrytown Light while viewing the magnificent Palisades and fall foliage.

This trip takes place, rain or shine and leaves promptly at 1:00pm. (Time and tide waits for no man nor woman!) Refreshments will be available on board, but feel free to bring your own snacks.”

The New York Coffee Festival
Metropolitan Pavillion / various times, $30
“Kicks off today, this weekend-long fest features tastings, interactive workshops and barista demonstrations from more than 100 coffee-industry insiders.”

“Beanheads rejoice! The third annual New York Coffee Festival grinds into the Metropolitam Pavilion for three days of brewed fun with over 100 innovative exhibitors. There will be unlimited free coffee, workshops and talks, street food, a barista competition, live music inspired by New York from The Coffee Music Project, an art gallery through the Coffee Art Project, giveaways, and much more. So wake up and smell the coffee at this three-day fest.” (TONY)

AND DON’T FORGET THIS ONE NEXT YEAR.
Occult Humanities Conference (Oct.13-15)
NYU Steinhardt, 34 Stuyvesant St./ 8PM, $110

*PLEASE NOTE: The conference is SOLD OUT. However the exhibition, vending area, Saturday night performance, and Sunday night closing reception are all free and open to the public.
Better pay attention next year, and get your tickets early, because this conference on Contemporary Art and Scholarship on the Esoteric Traditions is pretty darn unique.

“Do you believe in magic? Rick Santorum’s fundamentalist fears about satanic forces at work in academia will be justified, if only for one weekend at one university, during the Occult Humanities Conference. Art enchants scholarship when Serinity Young discusses women who fly, Karsten Krejcarek chronicles encounters with mystical traditions in Latin America, Sara Hannant illuminates the history of magic and photography, Jason Baumann summons up the “espiritismo” in Nuyorican poetry, and conference co-organizer Pam Grossman, of the marvelous Phantasmaphile blog, leads a panel discussion about the cresting “Witch Wave” in contemporary culture. Musical performances by harpist Ellena Phillips and the Alunaré collective will enhance the esoterica, and works by Toronto’s mysterious Tin Can Forest art crew are on display.” (Richard Gehr, Village Voice)

Continuing Events

The 55th New York Film Festival (9/28-10/15)
at The Film Society of Lincoln Center,
The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring 25 works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent from around the globe.

“The 55th New York Film Festival’s Main Slate showcases films honored at Cannes, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner The Square; Robin Campillo’s BPM, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize; and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which took home the Golden Eye. From Berlin, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner Spoor mark the returns of two New York Film Festival veterans, while Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed Call Me by Your Name will be his NYFF debut.”(cityguideny.com)

“The main slate nabs the headlines, but this festival’s sidebars nearly constitute a festival of their own. In the Spotlight on Documentary program, Travis Wilkerson’s riveting “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” (Friday and Sunday) grapples with a family legend: that Mr. Wilkerson’s white great-grandfather almost certainly got away with murdering a black man in Alabama in the 1940s. The main retrospective of the festival (which runs through Oct. 15) celebrates Robert Mitchum’s centennial. “His Kind of Woman” (Friday), with Mitchum (above, with Jane Russell) as a gambler lured to Mexico as a sap, and the auteur purée “Macao” (Thursday), on which Nicholas Ray took over for Josef von Sternberg, are enjoyably overstuffed Howard Hughes productions. William A. Wellman’s “Track of the Cat” (Monday); Otto Preminger’s “River of No Return” (Monday), with Marilyn Monroe; and Vincente Minnelli’s “Home From the Hill” (Thursday), all in CinemaScope, demand big-screen viewing.” (BEN KENIGSBERG, NYT)

Archtober
31 days, 100+ ways to celebrate design in NYC! The seventh-annual, month-long festival of architecture activities, programs, and exhibitions in New York City will take place October 1-31, 2017.  Archtober’s calendar features 200 architecture and design lectures, conferences, programs, and exhibitions at more than 70+ collaborating institutions across the city.

For more details go to my Tab in the Header: “Notable Events October”  and scroll all the long way to the bottom. This event makes America, or at least NYCity, great again.

The 10th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival (Oct.13-20)
“Produced by Imagine Science Films — the nonprofit behind science film festivals in New York, Paris, Abu Dhabi and satellite events worldwide – Imagine Science Film Festival showcases new and experimental works that bridge the worlds of science and film in an artful, entertaining, and meaningful way.

All of the events are low cost or FREE. The festival includes short and feature-length films, live cinema performances, discussions, interactive demonstrations and more taking place at museums, universities and cultural institutions across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Several of the films will be making their U.S. debuts at the festival.

Notable programming includes:
(Im)migration & Híbridos at National Sawdust (Saturday, Oct 14 @ 7 pm / 9:30 pm) – A two-part evening featuring Vincent Moon and Priscilla Telmon presenting their live cinema project Híbridos, an experimental ethnographic study of Brazil, mixing tradition and modernity. Preceding Híbridos is (Im)migration, a performance and short film program on the topics of migration and identity.

North American premiere of Honey, Rain and Dust at the American Museum of Natural History (Friday, Oct 20 @ 4 pm) – A unique ethnographic and ecological look into an unseen corner of the Arabian Gulf: beekeeping traditions in the northwestern mountains of the United Arab Emirates.”(ThoughtGallery.org)

For the complete program, visit: http://imaginesciencefilms.org/ny10/program
Tickets: free – $18

=====================================================
Bonus NYC Events – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are my favorite non jazz music venues, almost all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who’s playing tonight:

City Winery – 155 Varick St., citywinery.com, 212-608-0555
Feinstein’s/54 Below – 254 W54th St., 54below.com, 646-476-3551
Joe’s Pub @ Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St., joespub.com, 212-967-7555
Metropolitan Room – 34W22ndSt., metropolitan room.com, 212-206-0440
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St., beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
Town Hall – 123 W43rd St., thetownhall.org, 212-997-6661
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237W42nd St., bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
Bowery Ballroom – 6 Delancey St. boweryballroom.com,
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St., lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. caffevivaldi.com, 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

==================================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

=================================================================================

A PremierPub

Jimmy’s Corner / 140 W 44th St (btw B’way & 7th ave)

IMG_2083Jimmy’s Corner is right in the heart of Times Square, but you won’t find it on the corner, it’s mid-block. Enter this long narrow bar and you are struck by the walls covered with mostly black-and-white boxing photographs, and memorabilia. Soon enough you learn that “Corner” refers to proprietor Jimmy Glenn’s long career as a corner man for some of boxing greats – Liston, Tyson, even “the greatest,” Ali.

Jimmy’s is a sort of time machine, taking you back to a time and place that no longer exists. All around you Times Square has cleaned up, grown up, assumed a new identity. Jimmy’s probably hasn’t changed a bit since it first opened in 1971. Certainly the bar itself looks original and the prices haven’t changed much either. When I brought a friend, who owns her own bar, she was surprised when she got the small tab for a round of drinks. Figured there must be a mistake, that maybe they forgot to charge for all the drinks.

Times Square today is filled with neon glitz and wandering tourists from Dubuque, but not Jimmy’s. You’ll likely find some old timer’s at the bar nursing their drinks, some younger locals at tables in the back, and maybe a few adventuresome tourists clutching their trusty guidebooks. There’s no food served here because this is just a bar, and sometimes that’s all you need.

On nights when no local team is playing, it’s a fine place to sip some drafts and listen to a great old time jukebox, with a great selection of  40s& 50s R&B and soul. On sports nights this very narrow bar can get a bit claustrophobic, filled with excited fans watching their team on the TVs. Either way, Jimmy’s is the place to be if you are looking for an old time bar in the new Times Square.
————————————————————————————————————————
Website: are you kidding !
(although there is a facebook page with lots of photos –
facebook.com/jimmyscornernyc)
Phone #: 212-221-9510
Hours: 11am – 4 am, except Sunday they open 12 noon
Happy Hour: not necessary, low prices all day, every day
Subway: #1,2,3 to TimesSquare 42nd st
walk 2 blks N on 7th ave to 44th st; ½ blk E to Jimmy’s

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“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, jazz clubs, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars, cocktail lounges, and of course, pubs – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge (except for certain jazz clubs).
If you have a fave premier pub or good eating place on Manhattan’s WestSide let us all know about it – leave a comment.
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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (10/13) + Museum Special Exhibitions: Manhattan’s 5th Avenue

Posted on 10/13/2017 by

Today’s Elite 8 NYC Events > FRIDAY/ OCTOBER 13, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events better check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-OCTOBER”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

If These Walls Could Talk: Celebrating the Life and Times of The Bottom Line
Schimmel Center, 3 Spruce St./ 7:30PM, $29+
Host Paul Shaffer; Music Director Gregg Bendian

Featuring Sean Altman, David Bromberg (Fri only), Marshall Chapman, Clint de Ganon, The GrooveBarbers, Garland Jeffreys (Sat only), David Johansen, Christine Lavin (Sat only), Will Lee, Darlene Love with Ula Hedwig and Curtis King, Terre Roche with Feifei Yang and Garry Dial (Fri only), Uptown Horns and Jimmy Vivino

“Join us for a multimedia celebration of The Bottom Line, featuring music and memories, songs and stories by a selection of artists who were regular performers at the iconic club. Host Paul Shaffer with special guests will swap stories about their favorite times on stage, off stage and backstage and perform songs that made the club a destination for fans of all music genres.

From opening night on February 12, 1974, when headliner Dr. John jammed with Stevie Wonder and Johnny Winter in front of an audience that included Mick Jagger, Carly Simon, Bette Midler and an SRO crowd of entertainment industry luminaries, The Bottom Line was destined to be a cultural touchstone and hub of the music industry. For the next 30 years The Bottom Line influenced and impacted millions of music fans, providing a rich soundtrack to their lives that reflected the changing times.”

==========================================================

7 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> TROMBONE SHORTY
>> Maxine Linehan: One—The Songs of U2
>> Carl Allen
>> BALLET WEST
>> Andrea McArdle: An Evening with Andrea McCardle 
>> Ron Carter Quartet
>> Richard III
 ===========================================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

TROMBONE SHORTY (Oct. 13-14)
at Terminal 5 / 8PM, $42
“Troy Andrews, known as Trombone Shorty, is an ambassador for New Orleans music who’s ready to handle the syncretic impulse that guides both pop musicians and world-class improvisers today. He’s also deeply embedded in the tradition of his hometown, where he comes from a long line of professional musicians. His latest album, “Parking Lot Symphony,” has a strand of melancholic lament that runs through it, putting it in line with the times. But it inherits the lineage of celebratory funk and marching band music from which Mr. Andrews descends. His concerts lean heavily on that tradition.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Maxine Linehan: One—The Songs of U2
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 9:30PM, $35+
“Bono she didn’t! Poised and incisive Irish-born singer-actor Linehan gets close to the Edge in a set devoted to the music of U2.”

Carl Allen (Oct. 13-15.)
Smoke, 2751 Broadway, between 105th and 106th Sts./ 7, 9, 10;30PM, $38
“My ultimate goal is to get to a level like Art Blakey, Art Taylor, Elvin Jones, and Billy Higgins,” Carl Allen has stated, “who every time they sit down behind a set of drums it’s swinging.” Olympian as his vision may be, Allen, undaunted, has built a long and sturdy career providing uplifting rhythm for any number of illustrious jazz artists. Leading his own quintet, Allen pays tribute to two of his guiding lights: Blakey and Jones.” (NewYorker)

BALLET WEST
at the Joyce Theater (Oct.12-13, 8 p.m. Oct.14, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.) $51+
“Adam Sklute, the artistic director of Ballet West, brings his company back to the Joyce with the New York premieres of “Fox on the Doorstep” by resident choreographer, Nicolo Fonte, and “Dances for Lou” by Val Caniparoli. Gerarld Arpino’s final work, the elegiac “Ruth, Ricordi per Due,” will also be shown along with excerpts from George Balanchine’s “Chaconne” and a preview of a coming piece by the Spanish choreographer Africa Guzman.” (NYT-GIA KOURLAS)

Andrea McArdle: An Evening with Andrea McCardle (Oct.12-14)
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 7PM, $40-$55
“Though she has appeared in many productions since—including Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast and Starlight Express—Andrea McArdle will probably always be remembered most fondly as the big-belting moppet who stole our hearts in the original Annie. (“Tomorrow” belongs to her.) In her return to F/54, she performs contemporary songs alongside standards and show tunes, and shares stories from her long showbiz journey.” (TONY)

Ron Carter Quartet (Oct.10-14)
Birdland, 315 West 44th St./ 8:30PM, +11PM, $40
“Having recently turned eighty, this master bassist is officially a jazz patriarch, though his nimble fingers and agile responsiveness regularly make light of the calendar. Carter propels a fleet quartet featuring the saxophonist Jimmy Greene and the pianist Renee Rosnes.” (NewYorker)

Elsewhere, but this US premier, part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, looks worth the detour:
Richard III (Oct.11-14)
Sex, drugs, and regicide.
BAM, / 7:30PM, $35+
“Director Thomas Ostermeier brings his growling, glittery take on the murderous escapades of the world’s favorite wicked hunchback from the Schaubühne Berlin to BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Lars Eidinger — who played a mud-slathered Hamlet for Ostermeier and has a face that leaps between beautiful and grotesque — takes on the title role, imagined as a kind of savage, monomaniacal rock star.” (S.H., NY magazine)

Continuing Events

The 55th New York Film Festival (9/28-10/15)
at The Film Society of Lincoln Center,
The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring 25 works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent from around the globe.

“The 55th New York Film Festival’s Main Slate showcases films honored at Cannes, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner The Square; Robin Campillo’s BPM, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize; and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which took home the Golden Eye. From Berlin, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner Spoor mark the returns of two New York Film Festival veterans, while Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed Call Me by Your Name will be his NYFF debut.”(cityguideny.com)

“The main slate nabs the headlines, but this festival’s sidebars nearly constitute a festival of their own. In the Spotlight on Documentary program, Travis Wilkerson’s riveting “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” (Friday and Sunday) grapples with a family legend: that Mr. Wilkerson’s white great-grandfather almost certainly got away with murdering a black man in Alabama in the 1940s. The main retrospective of the festival (which runs through Oct. 15) celebrates Robert Mitchum’s centennial. “His Kind of Woman” (Friday), with Mitchum (above, with Jane Russell) as a gambler lured to Mexico as a sap, and the auteur purée “Macao” (Thursday), on which Nicholas Ray took over for Josef von Sternberg, are enjoyably overstuffed Howard Hughes productions. William A. Wellman’s “Track of the Cat” (Monday); Otto Preminger’s “River of No Return” (Monday), with Marilyn Monroe; and Vincente Minnelli’s “Home From the Hill” (Thursday), all in CinemaScope, demand big-screen viewing.” (BEN KENIGSBERG, NYT)

Archtober
31 days, 100+ ways to celebrate design in NYC! The seventh-annual, month-long festival of architecture activities, programs, and exhibitions in New York City will take place October 1-31, 2017.  Archtober’s calendar features 200 architecture and design lectures, conferences, programs, and exhibitions at more than 70+ collaborating institutions across the city.

For more details go to my Tab in the Header: “Notable Events October”  and scroll all the long way to the bottom. This event makes America, or at least NYCity, great again.

The 10th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival (Oct.13-20)
“Produced by Imagine Science Films — the nonprofit behind science film festivals in New York, Paris, Abu Dhabi and satellite events worldwide – Imagine Science Film Festival showcases new and experimental works that bridge the worlds of science and film in an artful, entertaining, and meaningful way.

All of the events are low cost or FREE. The festival includes short and feature-length films, live cinema performances, discussions, interactive demonstrations and more taking place at museums, universities and cultural institutions across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Several of the films will be making their U.S. debuts at the festival.

Notable programming includes:

World Premiere of Mosaic at The New School (Friday, Oct 13 @ 7pm) – The mixed genre, science-driven anthology film Mosaic explores evolution in its natural and artificial forms — the deliberate and random modifications of an organism. The film is the first of its kind featuring ten visionary, international filmmakers and stories from the most influential scientists of our time.

U.S. premiere of the film Dusk Chorus – Based on Fragments of Extinction at the Rubin Museum (Friday, Oct 13 @ 9:30 pm) – Join director Alessandro d’Emilia and researcher and eco-acoustic composer David Monacchi, who capture incredibly detailed 3D soundscapes of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Home to one of the highest biodiversities in the world, this area may all too soon fall silent due to habitat loss and other anthropocene effects.

(Im)migration & Híbridos at National Sawdust (Saturday, Oct 14 @ 7 pm / 9:30 pm) – A two-part evening featuring Vincent Moon and Priscilla Telmon presenting their live cinema project Híbridos, an experimental ethnographic study of Brazil, mixing tradition and modernity. Preceding Híbridos is (Im)migration, a performance and short film program on the topics of migration and identity.

North American premiere of Honey, Rain and Dust at the American Museum of Natural History (Friday, Oct 20 @ 4 pm) – A unique ethnographic and ecological look into an unseen corner of the Arabian Gulf: beekeeping traditions in the northwestern mountains of the United Arab Emirates.”(ThoughtGallery.org)

For the complete program, visit: http://imaginesciencefilms.org/ny10/program
Tickets: free – $18

===========================================================
Bonus NYC events– Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. South, villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com / 212-864-6662

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

==================================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

================================================================================

WHAT’S ON VIEW
These are My Fave Special Exhibitions @ MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museum exhibitions,
and also see the expanded reviews of these exhibitions)

Museum of the City of New York
NY AT ITS CORE (ongoing)
“Ten years in the making, New York at Its Core tells the compelling story of New York’s rise from a striving Dutch village to today’s “Capital of the World.” The exhibition captures the human energy that drove New York to become a city like no other and a subject of fascination the world over. Entertaining, inspiring, important, and at times bemusing, New York City “big personalities,” including Alexander Hamilton, Walt Whitman, Boss Tweed, Emma Goldman, JP Morgan, Fiorello La Guardia, Jane Jacobs, Jay-Z, and dozens more, parade through the exhibition. Visitors will also learn the stories of lesser-known New York personalities, like Lenape chieftain Penhawitz and Italian immigrant Susie Rocco. Even animals like the horse, the pig, the beaver, and the oyster, which played pivotal roles in the economy and daily life of New York, get their moment in the historical spotlight. Occupying the entire first floor in three interactive galleries (Port City, 1609-1898, World City, 1898-2012, and Future City Lab) New York at Its Core is shaped by four themes: money, density, diversity, and creativity. Together, they provide a lens for examining the character of the city, and underlie the modern global metropolis we know today. mcny.org” (NYCity Guide)

and you should be sure to check out these special exhibitions at that little museum on Fifth Ave., The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(open 7 days /week, AND always Pay What You Wish)

‘CRISTÓBAL DE VILLALPANDO: MEXICAN PAINTER OF THE BAROQUE’  (through Oct. 15). “In 1683, the leading painter of colonial Mexico painted a stupefying altarpiece for the cathedral of Puebla: a 26-foot showstopper that merged a radiant vision of Jesus’ transfiguration into light with a grimmer narrative of Israelites attacked by snakes. Now, for the first time ever, Villalpando’s altarpiece has left Mexico and stands alone in the Robert Lehman Collection wing of the Met, where you could spend days gaping at its churning collision of saints and mortals, and puzzling over the strange confluence of Old and New Testament visions. Compared with Baroque painting in Italy or Flanders, the Mexican version was lighter and less rigid, making use of bright color and free ornamentation. Ten other paintings by Villalpando, all but one lent from Mexican collections, round out the presentation, but it’s the altarpiece that matters, and it’s here for your veneration into the fall.” (NYT-Farago) 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

‘TALKING PICTURES: CAMERA-PHONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN ARTISTS’  (through Dec. 17). “One of the wisest, savviest museum exhibitions of the summer may not have much actual art in it, but it circles the subject like a satellite around a planet. Using prints, slide shows, books and iPads, it presents image-only camera-phone exchanges between 12 pairs of artists and is full of flashes of wit, poetry, even genius. Observers will find occasional momentous events, both personal and presidential.” (NYT – Roberta Smith) 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

‘STREAMS AND MOUNTAINS WITHOUT END: LANDSCAPE TRADITIONS OF CHINA’  (through Jan. 6). “If you’ve seen only ash-aired Beijing, or that architectural Oz Shanghai, you haven’t seen China. Most of the country is wide-open space, green and blue: hills, plains, water. And it was for an escape to that openness that some Chinese urbanites yearned in centuries past. Their dream: to sit in on a terrace halfway up a mountain, with tea steeping, an ink-brush at hand, a friend at the door, and a waterfall splashing nearby. Not just for vacation. Forever. One way they could live the dream was through images of the kind seen in this show. Technically, it’s a collection reinstallation spiced with a few loans. But the Met’s China holdings are so broad and deep that some of the pictures here are resurfacing for the first time in almost a decade; one is finally making its debut a century after it was acquired. And there’s more than just paintings on view: ceramics, textiles and scholar’s rocks fill out the panorama.” (NYT-Holland Cotter) 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

‘JAPANESE BAMBOO ART: THE ABBEY COLLECTION’  (through Feb. 4). “This fabulous show celebrates Diane and Arthur Abbey’s gift of some 70 bamboo baskets and sculptures, which nearly doubles the Met’s already outstanding holdings in this genre and brings them into the 20th and 21st centuries. The curator has embedded this trove within what is essentially a second exhibition that traces bamboo’s presence through folding screens, ink paintings, porcelain, netsuke, kimonos and more.” (NYT-Roberta Smith)
212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

===========================================================
Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Eight museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio (closed Sun-Mon)*
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York (open 7 days /week)
•  92nd Street – The Jewish Museum (closed Wed) (Sat FREE) (Thu 5-8 PWYW)
•  91st Street  –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (open 7 days /week)
•  89th Street –  National Academy Museum (closed Mon-Tue)
•  88th Street –  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (closed Thu) (Sat 6-8 PWYW)
•  86th Street –  Neue Galerie New York (closed Tue-Wed) (Fri 6-8 FREE)
Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
•  82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art (open 7 days /week)*
*always Pay What You Wish (PWYW)

Although technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection (closed Mon) (SUN 11am-1pm PWYW) on the corner of 70th St. and Fifth Avenue and the The Morgan Library & Museum (closed Mon) (Fri 7-9 FREE) on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave.
Now plan your own museum crawl (info on hours & admission updated June 2, 2015).
==============================================================
For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 10/11 and 10/09.
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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (10/12) + Today’s Featured Pub (Greenwich Village)

Posted on 10/12/2017 by

Today’s Super 7 NYC Events > THURSDAY/ OCTOBER 12, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events better check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-OCTOBER”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

BALLET WEST
at the Joyce Theater (Oct.12-13, 8 p.m. Oct.14, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.) $51+
“Adam Sklute, the artistic director of Ballet West, brings his company back to the Joyce with the New York premieres of “Fox on the Doorstep” by resident choreographer, Nicolo Fonte, and “Dances for Lou” by Val Caniparoli. Gerarld Arpino’s final work, the elegiac “Ruth, Ricordi per Due,” will also be shown along with excerpts from George Balanchine’s “Chaconne” and a preview of a coming piece by the Spanish choreographer Africa Guzman.” (NYT-GIA KOURLAS)

==========================================================

6 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Andrea McArdle: An Evening with Andrea McCardle 
>> Joey DeFrancesco
>> Ron Carter Quartet
>>“Turandot”
>> Richard III
>> Voices of a People’s History of the United States
 ===========================================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Andrea McArdle: An Evening with Andrea McCardle (Oct.12-14)
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 7PM, $40-$55
“Though she has appeared in many productions since—including Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast and Starlight Express—Andrea McArdle will probably always be remembered most fondly as the big-belting moppet who stole our hearts in the original Annie. (“Tomorrow” belongs to her.) In her return to F/54, she performs contemporary songs alongside standards and show tunes, and shares stories from her long showbiz journey.” (TONY)

Joey DeFrancesco (Oct. 12-15)
Dizzy’s Club, Broadway at 60th St./ 7:30, +9:30PM, $40
“The enduring and rigorously individualistic music of Thelonious Monk can be adapted by any instrumentalist valiant enough to face its challenges. Here, DeFrancesco, a sparkplug of a keyboardist, brings his electric organ to the ever-challenging repertoire.” (NewYorker)

“Turandot”
Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center / 8PM, $
“Franco Zeffirelli’s over-the-top style defined the Met in the eighties and nineties, but now the famed Italian director has only one other production (besides “La Bohème”) left in the company’s repertory, a traditionalist pageant of glittering chinoiserie that he devised for Puccini’s “Turandot” thirty years ago. Oksana Dyka, Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Maria Agresta star in the revival; Rizzi.” (NewYorker)

Ron Carter Quartet (Oct.10-14)
Birdland, 315 West 44th St./ 8:30PM, +11PM, $40
“Having recently turned eighty, this master bassist is officially a jazz patriarch, though his nimble fingers and agile responsiveness regularly make light of the calendar. Carter propels a fleet quartet featuring the saxophonist Jimmy Greene and the pianist Renee Rosnes.” (NewYorker)

Elsewhere, but this US premier, part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, looks worth the detour:
Richard III (Oct.11-14)
Sex, drugs, and regicide.
BAM, / 7:30PM, $35+
“Director Thomas Ostermeier brings his growling, glittery take on the murderous escapades of the world’s favorite wicked hunchback from the Schaubühne Berlin to BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Lars Eidinger — who played a mud-slathered Hamlet for Ostermeier and has a face that leaps between beautiful and grotesque — takes on the title role, imagined as a kind of savage, monomaniacal rock star.” (S.H., NY magazine)

Voices of a People’s History of the United States
Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center/ 7:30PM, FREE; better get there early for a seat.
“This Lincoln Center commission commemorates Howard Zinn’s seminal book, A People’s History of the United States, with music and spoken word performances that will bring to life the extraordinary history of ordinary people in the book: those who built the movements that made the United States what it is today, ending slavery and Jim Crow, protesting war and the genocide of Native Americans, creating unions and the eight-hour workday, advancing women’s rights and gay liberation, and struggling to right the wrongs of the day.”

Continuing Events

The 55th New York Film Festival (9/28-10/15)
at The Film Society of Lincoln Center,
The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring 25 works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent from around the globe.

“The 55th New York Film Festival’s Main Slate showcases films honored at Cannes, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner The Square; Robin Campillo’s BPM, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize; and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which took home the Golden Eye. From Berlin, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner Spoor mark the returns of two New York Film Festival veterans, while Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed Call Me by Your Name will be his NYFF debut.”(cityguideny.com)

“The main slate nabs the headlines, but this festival’s sidebars nearly constitute a festival of their own. In the Spotlight on Documentary program, Travis Wilkerson’s riveting “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” (Friday and Sunday) grapples with a family legend: that Mr. Wilkerson’s white great-grandfather almost certainly got away with murdering a black man in Alabama in the 1940s. The main retrospective of the festival (which runs through Oct. 15) celebrates Robert Mitchum’s centennial. “His Kind of Woman” (Friday), with Mitchum (above, with Jane Russell) as a gambler lured to Mexico as a sap, and the auteur purée “Macao” (Thursday), on which Nicholas Ray took over for Josef von Sternberg, are enjoyably overstuffed Howard Hughes productions. William A. Wellman’s “Track of the Cat” (Monday); Otto Preminger’s “River of No Return” (Monday), with Marilyn Monroe; and Vincente Minnelli’s “Home From the Hill” (Thursday), all in CinemaScope, demand big-screen viewing.” (BEN KENIGSBERG, NYT)

Archtober
31 days, 100+ ways to celebrate design in NYC! The seventh-annual, month-long festival of architecture activities, programs, and exhibitions in New York City will take place October 1-31, 2017.  Archtober’s calendar features 200 architecture and design lectures, conferences, programs, and exhibitions at more than 70+ collaborating institutions across the city.

For more details go to my Tab in the Header: “Notable Events October”  and scroll all the long way to the bottom. This event makes America, or at least NYCity, great again.

======================================================
Bonus NYC Events – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are my favorite non jazz music venues on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who’s playing tonight:

City Winery – 155 Varick St., citywinery.com, 212-608-0555
Feinstein’s/54 Below – 254 W54th St., 54below.com, 646-476-3551
Joe’s Pub @ Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St., joespub.com, 212-967-7555
Metropolitan Room – 34W22ndSt., metropolitan room.com, 212-206-0440
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St., beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
Town Hall – 123 W43rd St., thetownhall.org, 212-997-6661
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237W42nd St., bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
Bowery Ballroom – 6 Delancey St. boweryballroom.com,
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St., lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. caffevivaldi.com, 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening discovery and enjoyment.
See Below.

==================================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):
=================================================================================

A PremierPub and 3 Good Eating Places – Greenwich Village

Caffe Vivaldi / 32 Jones Street (btw. Bleecker St./W4th St.)

Café Vivaldi is a classic, intimate club located in Greenwich Village on Jones Street, the street featured on the cover of Bob Dylan’s second album, “Freewheelin’. ”

maxresdefaultEach night Ishrat, the long time proprietor and impresario, carefully curates and schedules an eclectic series of musicians. You can often see him at his table in the corner, hard at work reviewing music videos and listening to cd demos on his laptop, scouting out future bookings. Musicians come from all over to play and sing in a club in Greenwich Village. Some are local New Yorkers, others are just passing through, in town for a few days.

There is a small bar, seating maybe 10. It’s close to the stage and I find it’s a perfect spot to sip a glass of red wine while listening to the music. The room itself has the performance area at one end and a cozy fireplace at the other. The performance area here is small, dominated by a large black Yamaha Grand piano. Tables are bunched together and most people at the tables are eating lite meals or sampling the wonderful desserts.

There is also a good selection of fairly priced wines,  but you are here because of the music. You can never be quite sure what you’re going to find, and that’s half the charm of this place. It’s not a home run every night, but many nights it’s pretty special.

I remember the night I saw the most talented bossa nova group, just in from San Paulo. As I listened, I wondered if there was any better music playing anywhere else in New York City that night. And at Caffé Vivaldi there is never a cover charge. Their recently redesigned web site does give you a better idea of the type of music playing each night.

At one time Greenwich Village was filled with clubs just like this, but times change. Real estate interests have impacted the village, and not for the better. Even Caffé Vivaldi had a rough time recently, when a new landlord raised the rent exorbitantly. Fortunately, Ishrat has built a loyal following over the years, and a fund raiser and slightly more reasonable rent has kept Café Vivaldi in business.

When Woody Allen and Al Pacino wanted to make movies featuring the timeless quality of Greenwich Village they came to Vivaldi. It’s important that we keep this special place alive, for if we lose Cafe Vivaldi, NYCity will have lost a piece of it’s soul.

Website: http://caffevivaldi.com/
Phone #: (212) 691-7538
Hours: Music generally 7:30PM – 11PM, but varies
Lunch/Dinner 11AM-on
Subway: #1 to Christopher St.
Walk 1 blk S. on 7th ave S. to Bleecker St., 1 blk left on Bleecker to Jones St., 50 yards left on Jones St. to Caffe V.
==============================================================
“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, jazz clubs, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars, cocktail lounges, and of course, pubs – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge.

If you have a fave premier pub or good eating place on Manhattan’s WestSide let us all know about it – leave a comment.
========================================================

3 Good Eating places

It’s not difficult to find a place to eat in Manhattan.
Finding a good, inexpensive place to eat is a bit harder.
Here are a few of my faves in this neighborhood:

Fish – 280 Bleecker St. (just a bit S. of 7th ave South)
This was an easy pick – the best raw bar special in town. $9 gets you 6 of the freshest oysters or clams + a glass of wine or beer. Don’t know how they can do it, but I tell everyone I know about this place. And it’s located right in the heart of some of the best no cover music in town.

Bleecker Street Pizza – 69 7th ave S. (corner of Bleecker St.)
The place is tiny and not much to look at, but this is one good slice. They like to brag that they have been voted “Best pizza in NY” 3 years in a row by the Food Network. I believe them. I would have voted for them.

Num Pang – 21 E 12th St. (btw. University Place/5th ave.)
This is a Cambodian banh mi sandwich shop that kept me well fed while I was in class nearby recently. It’s cramped, even for NYCity, but usually there is room up the spiral staircase to sit down and eat. In good weather carry your sandwich a few blocks to Union Square park. You may have to wait a few minutes, because everything is freshly made, but it’s worth it. Can you believe – an unheard of 26 food rating by Zagat.

========================================================
“3 Good Eating places” focuses on a quick bite, what I call “Fine Fast Food – NYCity Style”
No reservations needed.
========================================================
NYCity is the most diverse and interesting place to find a meal anywhere in the world. With more than 24,000 eating establishments you might welcome some advice.

◊ For all my picks of 54 Good Eating places, and essays on my favorite 18 PremierPubs in 9 Neighborhoods on Manhattan’s WestSide, order a copy of my e-book:
“Eating and Drinking on NYCity’s WestSide” ($4.99, available Winter 2017).
◊ Order before Feb. 28, 2018 and receive a bonus – 27 of my favorite casual dining places with free Wi-Fi.

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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (10/11) + Museum Special Exhibitions: Manhattan’s WestSide

Posted on 10/11/2017 by

Today’s Super 7 NYC Events > WEDNESDAY/ OCTOBER 11, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events better check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-OCTOBER”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Elsewhere, but this US premier, part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, looks worth the detour:

Richard III (Oct.11-14)
Sex, drugs, and regicide.
BAM, / 7:30PM, $35+
“Director Thomas Ostermeier brings his growling, glittery take on the murderous escapades of the world’s favorite wicked hunchback from the Schaubühne Berlin to BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Lars Eidinger — who played a mud-slathered Hamlet for Ostermeier and has a face that leaps between beautiful and grotesque — takes on the title role, imagined as a kind of savage, monomaniacal rock star.” (S.H., NY magazine)

==========================================================

6 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> KENNY BARRON
>> Norma
>> Ron Carter Quartet
>> New York City Ballet
>> ADF in NYC
>> Chilean Gastronomy With Rodolfo Guzmán
 ===========================================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

KENNY BARRON
at Jazz Standard / 7:30 and 9:30PM, $30
“One day after Thelonious Monk’s 100th birthday, Mr. Barron pays tribute with a set of music by the bebop legend. Mr. Barron’s own piano style has always been more tapered and refined, but Monk’s jagged melodic sense and idiosyncratic compositional style have always been a major influence on Mr. Barron, who was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2010.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Norma
Metropolitan Opera House / 7:30PM, $32+
“Ponselle, Milanov, Sutherland, Callas … after last night, Radvanovsky can add her name to the list,” declared the Huffington Post when Sondra Radvanovsky made her Met role debut as Norma in 2013. The 2017–18 season opens with a new production of Bellini’s masterpiece, starring Radvanovsky as the Druid priestess and Joyce DiDonato as her archrival, Adalgisa—a casting coup for bel canto fans. Tenor Joseph Calleja is Pollione, Norma’s unfaithful lover, and Carlo Rizzi conducts. Sir David McVicar’s evocative production sets the action deep in a Druid forest where nature and ancient ritual rule.”

Ron Carter Quartet (Oct.10-14)
Birdland, 315 West 44th St./ 8:30PM, +11PM, $40
“Having recently turned eighty, this master bassist is officially a jazz patriarch, though his nimble fingers and agile responsiveness regularly make light of the calendar. Carter propels a fleet quartet featuring the saxophonist Jimmy Greene and the pianist Renee Rosnes.” (NewYorker)

New York City Ballet
tonight: 20TH CENTURY VIOLIN CONCERTOS
NYS/DHK Theater, Lincoln Center / 7:30PM, $30+
“An instrument of marvelous versatility, the violin has stimulated choreographers for centuries, including NYCB’s three artistic leaders who contribute their interpretations of three world-famous violin concertos to this program. Inspired by the instrument’s immense range, these works convey moments of reflection, poignancy, and brilliance”

ADF in NYC
NewYork Live Arts, 7:30PM, $15+
“This “split week,” presented by the American Dance Festival, brings to town works that premiered in Durham, North Carolina, this summer. In The Lectern: rule by rule by rule, playing Tuesday and Wednesday, Claire Porter and Sara Juli, two of the dance world’s foremost comic artists, collaborate in words and movement on bending the rules that constrain our daily lives. On Friday and Saturday, Yossi Berg and Oded Graf, a duo of Tel Aviv–based performers with first-class pedigrees, shows us Come Jump With Me, which examines the importance of creating art in contemporary Israel. Critics have called it “a blow to the stomach, somewhere between black humor and suffocation,” “daring and personal,” and “a cartoon that becomes a gut-wrenching act of hara-kiri.” (Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice)

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

Elsewhere, but this looks worth the detour:
Chilean Gastronomy With Rodolfo Guzmán
Museum of Food & Drink / 6:30PM, $30
“The world-renowned chef Rodolfo Guzmán of Boragó — his progressive fine-dining restaurant showcasing beloved and underappreciated local ingredients — brings a bit of Santiago to New York City at this Q&A taking place at the MOFAD Lab in Williamsburg. Something of an archivist of the Chilean palate, Guzmán will take the audience deep into his process, with a behind-the-scenes look at the way his painstaking tasting menus come together. Attending the $30 event nets you a sampling of Chilean delights, plus early access to the chef’s new book, Boragó: Coming from the South, which doesn’t hit stores for another month.” (Zachary Feldman, Village Voice)

Continuing Events

The 55th New York Film Festival (9/28-10/15)
at The Film Society of Lincoln Center,
The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring 25 works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent from around the globe.

“The 55th New York Film Festival’s Main Slate showcases films honored at Cannes, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner The Square; Robin Campillo’s BPM, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize; and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which took home the Golden Eye. From Berlin, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner Spoor mark the returns of two New York Film Festival veterans, while Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed Call Me by Your Name will be his NYFF debut.”(cityguideny.com)

“The main slate nabs the headlines, but this festival’s sidebars nearly constitute a festival of their own. In the Spotlight on Documentary program, Travis Wilkerson’s riveting “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” (Friday and Sunday) grapples with a family legend: that Mr. Wilkerson’s white great-grandfather almost certainly got away with murdering a black man in Alabama in the 1940s. The main retrospective of the festival (which runs through Oct. 15) celebrates Robert Mitchum’s centennial. “His Kind of Woman” (Friday), with Mitchum (above, with Jane Russell) as a gambler lured to Mexico as a sap, and the auteur purée “Macao” (Thursday), on which Nicholas Ray took over for Josef von Sternberg, are enjoyably overstuffed Howard Hughes productions. William A. Wellman’s “Track of the Cat” (Monday); Otto Preminger’s “River of No Return” (Monday), with Marilyn Monroe; and Vincente Minnelli’s “Home From the Hill” (Thursday), all in CinemaScope, demand big-screen viewing.” (BEN KENIGSBERG, NYT)

Archtober
31 days, 100+ ways to celebrate design in NYC! The seventh-annual, month-long festival of architecture activities, programs, and exhibitions in New York City will take place October 1-31, 2017.  Archtober’s calendar features 200 architecture and design lectures, conferences, programs, and exhibitions at more than 70+ collaborating institutions across the city.

For more details go to my Tab in the Header: “Notable Events October”  and scroll all the long way to the bottom. This event makes America, or at least NYCity, great again.

=====================================================
Bonus NYC events– Jazz Venues:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. South, villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com / 212-864-6662

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

==================================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

===============================================================================

WHAT’S ON VIEW
My Fave Special Exhibitions – MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s WestSide
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museums,
and also to see their expanded reviews of these exhibitions)

Whitney Museum of American Art:

Calder: Hypermobility (thru Oct 23)
“focuses on the extraordinary breadth of movement and sound in the work of Alexander Calder. This exhibition brings together a rich constellation of key sculptures and provides a rare opportunity to experience the works as the artist intended—in motion. Regular activations will occur in the galleries, revealing the inherent kinetic nature of Calder’s work, as well as its relationship to performance. Influenced in part by the artist’s fascination and engagement with choreography, Calder’s sculptures contain an embedded performativity that is reflected in their idiosyncratic motions and the perceptual responses they provoke.”

Museum of Modern Art:

A special pat on the back to MOMA, who is now displaying art from the seven countries affected by Trump’s travel ban.

“Trump’s ban against refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations has sparked acts of defiance in NYC, from demonstrations across town, to striking taxicab drivers at JFK to Middle Eastern bodega owners closing their shops in protest. Recently, the Museum Of Modern added its two cents by bringing out artworks it owns from the affected countries, and hanging them prominently within the galleries usually reserved for 19th- and 20th-century artworks from Europe and the United States. Paintings by Picasso and Matisse, for example, were removed to make way for pieces by Tala Madani (from Iran), Ibrahim El-Salahi (from Sudan) and architect Zaha Hadid (from Iraq). The rehanging, which was unannounced, aims to create a symbolic welcome that repudiates Trump by creating a visual dialog between the newly added works and the more familiar objects from MoMA’s permanent collection.” (TONY)

New-York Historical Society

‘THE DUCHESS OF CARNEGIE HALL: PHOTOGRAPHS BY EDITTA SHERMAN’ (through Oct. 15).
“In this show, royalty photographs royalty, and everyone looks grand. The subjects facing the camera included some of the pop culture sovereigns of the 1940s and ’50s: Carl Sandburg, Tyrone Power, Leopold Stokowski. The person behind the lens was, though more discreetly crowned, no less lofty a luminary. Editta Sherman, born Edith Rinaolo, was a self-made celebrity portraitist operating out of a studio atop Carnegie Hall, where she worked and lived until she and her fellow tenants were removed in 2011. The show incudes dozens of her best pictures, her monumental 1930s camera and a short film of which she is the very engaging subject. Together they make a moving and regal tribute. (Holland Cotter-NYT)

American Museum of Natural History:

Mummies (thru 1/7/18)
“For thousands of years, peoples around the world practiced mummification as a way of preserving and honoring their dead. Mummies brings you face to face with some of these ancient individuals and reveals how scientists are using modern technology to glean stunning details about them and their cultures. In Mummies, ancient remains from the Nile Valley of Africa and the Andes Mountains of South America will be on view, allowing visitors to connect with cultures from the distant past. Mummification, a more widespread practice than most think, was used not only for royal Egyptians but also for common people and even animals. Interactive touch tables let visitors virtually “unravel” or see inside mummies as they delve deep into the unique stories of the people or animals who lie within. Other parts of the exhibition showcase the latest isotopic and DNA testing being performed on mummies, and explain how these sophisticated analytical techniques are helping scientists discover important clues about long-vanished practices. Mummies was developed by The Field Museum, Chicago.”(NYCity Guide)

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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 10/09 and 10/07.
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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (10/10) + Today’s Featured Pub (Tribeca)

Posted on 10/10/2017 by

Today’s Super 7 NYC Events > TUESDAY/ OCTOBER 10, 2017

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events better check the tab above: “Notable NYC Events-OCTOBER”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all through the month.

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Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Andrea McArdle: An Evening with Andrea McCardle (also Oct.12-14)
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 7PM, $40-$55
“Though she has appeared in many productions since—including Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast and Starlight Express—Andrea McArdle will probably always be remembered most fondly as the big-belting moppet who stole our hearts in the original Annie. (“Tomorrow” belongs to her.) In her return to F/54, she performs contemporary songs alongside standards and show tunes, and shares stories from her long showbiz journey.” (TONY)

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6 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Ron Carter Quartet
>> New York City Ballet
>> T.S. Monk Sextet 
>> ADF in NYC
>>The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions
>> Leaders in War: From the French Revolution to the Cold War
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Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Ron Carter Quartet (Oct.10-14)
Birdland, 315 West 44th St./ 8:30PM, +11PM, $40
“Having recently turned eighty, this master bassist is officially a jazz patriarch, though his nimble fingers and agile responsiveness regularly make light of the calendar. Carter propels a fleet quartet featuring the saxophonist Jimmy Greene and the pianist Renee Rosnes.” (NewYorker)

New York City Ballet
tonight: 20TH CENTURY VIOLIN CONCERTOS (also Oct.11)
NYS/DHK Theater, Lincoln Center / 7:30PM, $30+
“An instrument of marvelous versatility, the violin has stimulated choreographers for centuries, including NYCB’s three artistic leaders who contribute their interpretations of three world-famous violin concertos to this program. Inspired by the instrument’s immense range, these works convey moments of reflection, poignancy, and brilliance”

T.S. Monk Sextet
Dizzy’s Club / 7:30PM +9:30PM, $35
“On what would have been Thelonious Monk’s 100th birthday, we celebrate Monk’s legacy with his son, T.S Monk. Much like his father, drummer T.S. Monk has made invaluable contributions to jazz, including founding the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which has educated and helped launch the careers of some of our best musicians. T.S. first performed with his father’s group in the early 1970s, but for the last few decades he has been an excellent band leader with a reputation for highlighting obscure compositions deserving of larger audiences.”

ADF in NYC
NewYork Live Arts, 7:30PM, $15+
“This “split week,” presented by the American Dance Festival, brings to town works that premiered in Durham, North Carolina, this summer. In The Lectern: rule by rule by rule, playing Tuesday and Wednesday, Claire Porter and Sara Juli, two of the dance world’s foremost comic artists, collaborate in words and movement on bending the rules that constrain our daily lives. On Friday and Saturday, Yossi Berg and Oded Graf, a duo of Tel Aviv–based performers with first-class pedigrees, shows us Come Jump With Me, which examines the importance of creating art in contemporary Israel. Critics have called it “a blow to the stomach, somewhere between black humor and suffocation,” “daring and personal,” and “a cartoon that becomes a gut-wrenching act of hara-kiri.” (Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice)

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions
92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave./ 12PM, $25
“Hear from award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen, whose new book looks at historic examples of climate change and how they’ve led to the five biggest catastrophes the Earth has endured (to date).” (ThoughtGallery.org)

Leaders in War: From the French Revolution to the Cold War
New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West/ 6:30PM, $44
“In culmination of his four-year lecture series, historian Andrew Roberts reviews what we’ve learned about the secrets of war leadership exhibited by Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles de Gaulle, Horatio Nelson, Margaret Thatcher, and George Marshall. Is leadership unique, or might these leaders have something in common, techniques that can be transferred from age to age, country to country, war to war?”

Continuing Events

The 55th New York Film Festival (9/28-10/15)
at The Film Society of Lincoln Center,
The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring 25 works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent from around the globe.

“The 55th New York Film Festival’s Main Slate showcases films honored at Cannes, including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner The Square; Robin Campillo’s BPM, awarded the Cannes Critics’ Prize; and Agnès Varda & JR’s Faces Places, which took home the Golden Eye. From Berlin, Aki Kaurismäki’s Silver Bear–winner The Other Side of Hope and Agnieszka Holland’s Alfred Bauer Prize–winner Spoor mark the returns of two New York Film Festival veterans, while Luca Guadagnino’s acclaimed Call Me by Your Name will be his NYFF debut.”(cityguideny.com)

“The main slate nabs the headlines, but this festival’s sidebars nearly constitute a festival of their own. In the Spotlight on Documentary program, Travis Wilkerson’s riveting “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” (Friday and Sunday) grapples with a family legend: that Mr. Wilkerson’s white great-grandfather almost certainly got away with murdering a black man in Alabama in the 1940s. The main retrospective of the festival (which runs through Oct. 15) celebrates Robert Mitchum’s centennial. “His Kind of Woman” (Friday), with Mitchum (above, with Jane Russell) as a gambler lured to Mexico as a sap, and the auteur purée “Macao” (Thursday), on which Nicholas Ray took over for Josef von Sternberg, are enjoyably overstuffed Howard Hughes productions. William A. Wellman’s “Track of the Cat” (Monday); Otto Preminger’s “River of No Return” (Monday), with Marilyn Monroe; and Vincente Minnelli’s “Home From the Hill” (Thursday), all in CinemaScope, demand big-screen viewing.” (BEN KENIGSBERG, NYT)

Archtober
31 days, 100+ ways to celebrate design in NYC! The seventh-annual, month-long festival of architecture activities, programs, and exhibitions in New York City will take place October 1-31, 2017.  Archtober’s calendar features 200 architecture and design lectures, conferences, programs, and exhibitions at more than 70+ collaborating institutions across the city.

For more details go to my Tab in the Header: “Notable Events October”  and scroll all the long way to the bottom. This event makes America, or at least NYCity, great again.

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Bonus NYC Events – Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. South, villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com / 212-864-6662

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

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♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just on day of performance.
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

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A PremierPub / Tribeca

B-Flat / 277 Church St. (btw Franklin/White St))

b_flat4There are some places that are tough to find, then add a layer of mystery when you do find them. B-Flat has a nondescript, almost unmarked door at street level – today’s speakeasy vibe. Open this door and you face a dimly lit stairway down to their basement location. It almost takes a leap of faith to follow the stairs down to their interior door.
But open that door and a pleasant surprise awaits you.

It’s a basement jazz spot all right, but not like any traditional jazz joint you may have been to before. This place looks as fresh as today, probably because it’s only been open for 6 years. Even though it hasn’t had a chance to age gracefully, the cherry wood accents and low lighting make this small space very inviting.

There is always jazz, often progressive jazz, playing over their very discrete, stylish bose speakers, setting just the right tone as you find a seat at the bar, or one of the small tables. There is wine and beer available, but this place has some expert mixologists making some very creative cocktails, which I’m told change seasonally, a nice touch.

Come at happy hour and tasty cocktails like the el Diablo or the lychee martini are $8 – not bad. I am a sucker for any drink made with lychee and how can you not try a tequila drink named el Diablo. There is also nice selection of small bites available at happy hour and a food menu that is as innovative as the cocktail menu, so this does not have to be a happy hour only stop.

It wasn’t surprising to find a tasty prosciutto and arugula salad with yuzu dressing, but I did not expect to find such a good version of fried chicken breast on the apps menu. Here it’s called “Tatsuta.” Best bet is to sample happy hour, then dinner on a Monday or Wednesday night, when you can finish with no cover live jazz that starts around 8.

This place is tough to find (look for a small slate sandwich board on the sidewalk out front advertising happy hour) and on some nights when there is no live music it may be a little too quiet for some. But I think it’s worth searching out if you want a place with good music, food, and especially drinks, away from the maddening crowd.

Website: http://http://www.bflat.info/index.html
Phone #: 212-219-2970
Hours: Mo-Wed 5pm-2am; Th-Sat 5pm-3am; no Sun
Happy Hour: 5-7pm every day; $8 cocktails + special prices on apps
Music: Mon/Wed 8pm
Subway: #1 to Franklin; walk E 1 blk to Church; N 1 blk to bFlat

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“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, jazz clubs, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars, cocktail lounges, and of course, pubs – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge (except for certain jazz clubs).

If you have a fave premier pub or good eating place on Manhattan’s WestSide let us all know about it – leave a comment.
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