Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – WEDNESDAY, July 10, 2013

Midsummer Nights Swing
Lincoln Center’s outdoors dance party returns for its 25th year under the stars. On the schedule this week – mambo on Wednesday with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Tito Rodriguez Jr.
Dance lessons are at 6:30 p.m.; live music is at 7:30.
Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center
(212) 721-6500, midsummernightswing.org; $17.

Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival (Wednesday and Thursday)
This two-day festival will feature performances by B. B. King and the James Hunter Six (Wednesday) and Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and Alejandro Escovedo (Thursday).
Brookfield Place Waterfront Plaza, 220 Vesey Street, near West Street
Shows both days are from 6 to 9:30 p.m. / FREE
brookfieldplaceny.com/blues

René Marie’s “Experiment in Truth”
“Invited to sing the national anthem at a Denver civic assembly, René Marie solemnly intoned the lyrics to”Lift Every Voice and Sing” (known as the Black National Anthem) to the familiar strains of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Colorado-based Virginian clearly remembers a time when jazz represented democracy in action, and she’s doing her best to rekindle that spirit—which doesn’t keep this technically gifted, deeply funky singer from having a good time onstage. This evening, she performs at Madison Square Music’s sweet outdoor summer festival.” (TONY)
Madison Square Park, E 23rd St to E 26th St. (btw 5th/Mad Ave)
At 7pm / FREE
212-538-1884 / madisonsquarepark.org

Forbidden City: Shanghai
“The George Gee Swing Orchestra, the Grand Street Stompers and the Gordon Webster Sextet provide the tunes for this throwback party, which aims to re-create the atmosphere of 1930s Shanghai. Between dance tunes, see burlesque by Calamity Chang and Minx Arcana, go-go from Stella Chuu, Cheeky Lane and Bitty Bamboo, and hear a Chinese pipa performance by Zhou Yi. For more details, and info on VIP packages ($50–$80), visit thesalon.biz.” (TONY)
Copacabana Supper Club , 268 W 47th St. (btw 7th/8th Ave)
At 7pm / $30 – Average main course: $22.
212-239-2672 / thecopacabana.com
Event website: thesalon.biz

Suzanne Vega
“Ms. Vega’s scholastic folk shares the affecting poignancy of the works of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell; the hauntingly self-conscious refrain of her hit “Luka” cut deeper than any of those created by her grandiloquent singer-songwriter peers of the late 1980s.” (Anderson-NYT)
City Winery, 155 Varick Street, near Spring Street, South Village
At 8 p.m., $35 to $55.
(212) 608-0555 / citywinery.com

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

‘Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney’ (through Sept. 2)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.org.

‘Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich’ (through July 7)
‘Velázquez’s Portrait of Duke Francesco I d’Este: A Masterpiece from the Galleria Estense, Modena’ (through July 14) 
‘At War With the Obvious: Photographs by William Eggleston’ (through July 28) 
‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ (through Aug. 14)
“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde” (through Sept. 2)
‘The Civil War and American Art’ (through Sept. 2)
‘Photography and the American Civil War’ (through Sept. 2)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

“New Harmony: Abstraction Between the Wars, 1919-1939” (through Sept. 8)
“Aten Reign” (through Sept. 25)
the centerpiece of James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. {see review below}
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

Light and color wash the Rotunda. 
“Turrell works in a single medium: light. He has sliced into walls, designed seamless rooms with holes in the ceiling, and spent four decades building a giant naked-eye observatory in the Arizona desert—all to provide unexpectedly intimate and mysterious views of the sky, the sun, and the stars. For this segment of a three-part show running concurrently in L.A. and Houston, he’s turned the museum’s atrium into a giant light box. —J.D.” (NYMag)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 110th Street – Museum for African Art
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York
• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum
• 91st Street – Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 89th Street – National Academy Museum
• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York
• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave. Now plan your own museum crawl.
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 07/08 and 07/06.