Today’s “Fab 5” / Selected NYCity Events – THURSDAY, AUG 15, 2013

Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffet is playing the Today show for their 2013 Toyota Summer Concert Series. They suggest people to arrive around 6am for best viewing. With a fan pass, you’ll spend less time waiting in line and will have access to the plaza viewing area prior to the general public.
Rockefeller Plaza 
from 8:00am — 9:00am/ FREE

Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance :  Outdoor Performances
Introduction by Aroon Shivdasani, IAAC Executive & Artistic Director,  & Jonathan Hollander, Artistic Director Battery Dance Company     Gurukul Dance Academy – Kuchipudi (Samarpita Bajpai,…
Here’s what the site says about the first performance:
“Gurukul Dance Academy – Kuchipudi (Samarpita Bajpai, Kirstie McDermott, Krystal Bryan)
Balagopala Tharangam (9 mins)
An offering in the traditional Kuchipidi style, to the dark and handsome cowherd, Krishna, the beloved son of King Nanda and Queen Yashoda. Within the scope of the narrative, dancers also execute complicated rhythmic sequences balanced on brass plates with pots of water on their heads and lamps in both hands. The most distinctive and popular dance of this style, choreographed by late Guru C. R. Acharya of the Darpana Academy, Gujarat, whose style is not a commonly seen one, since it did not step outside the boundaries of Gujarat too much.”
Battery Park Stage, Great Lawn, (between the Carousel and the Turkey Garden)
12 noon – 2 pm

Quentin Crisp Tribute
A screening and discussion series devoted to the life of the writer, raconteur and actor, who died in 1999 at 90, will feature the screening of a 1995 conversation between Mr. Crisp and Penny Arcade, a performance artist and friend. After the screening, Ms. Arcade and the film’s director, Steve Zehentner, will take part in a question-and-answer session. (The screening series runs through Sept. 6.)
Museum of Arts and Design, 2 Columbus Circle
At 7 p.m./pay what you wish
(212) 299-7777, madmuseum.org

Get Lost with Matt Gross and Peter Meehan
From his first trip as a kid driving through New England in the back of his dad’s station wagon, to journeys to Polish border towns in search of his Lithuanian roots, to post-college stints in Vitenam, The Turk Who Loved Apples is Matt Gross’ account of a life lived in constant motion and how he turned wandering into a full time career. Layers of history, undulating apple groves, ethical dilemmas—plus karaoke and borlotti beans to boot. With Peter Meehan, editor at Lucky Peach Magazine.
McNally Jackson Bookstore, 52 Priince St.
At 7pm / FREE

Lou Donaldson Quartet (through Aug. 18)
“Bebop, blues and boogaloo are all fair game for Lou Donaldson, 86, who was honored as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master this year. His working quartet includes Akiko Tsuruga on organ, Randy Johnston on guitar and Fukushi Tainaka on drums.” (Chinen-NYT)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Ave So, at 11th St, West Village
At 8:30 and 10:30 p.m./$25 cover, with a one-drink minimum.
255-4037, villagevanguard.com

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:

“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

‘Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney’ (through Sept. 2)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.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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Top Photography Exhibitions – NYCity / Manhattan’s WestSide

  Museum of Modern Art
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Photography and the American Civil War (through Sept. 2, 2013)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through January 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22, 2013)
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street / 212-857-0000

  American Museum Natural History 
Picturing Science: Museum Scientists and Imaging Technologies          
(through May 31, 2014)
79th St. And Central Park West / (212) 313-7278 

  Howard Greenberg Gallery
Bruce Davidson: “Time of Change” & “Staff Picks 2013”
(through Aug. 31, 2013)
41 East 57th Street, Suite 1406 / 212-334-0100

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (through Sept. 14, 2013)
560 Broadway, Soho / 212-966-6223

One more photo exhibition, this one in a special setting – the lovely, new Bklyn Bridge Park with spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline, and of course, the Brooklyn Bridge.
(easy to get to via subway: #2 or 3 express to Clark St. 1st stop in Bklyn.)

‘The Fence’ in Brooklyn Bridge Park (through Oct. 1)
“When is a fence not a fence? When it is the backdrop for a free display of over 200 jury selected images of people, animals and daily life by 39 photographers from the United States and abroad. Presented for the second year by United Photo Industries, a Brooklyn arts cooperative, as a showcase for young photographers, the display consists of a 1,000-foot-long waterproof mesh banner superimposed with color and black-and-white photos.

The banner stretches through Brooklyn Bridge Park, from Pier 15, at Joralemon Street and the East River in Brooklyn Heights, to Main Street in Dumbo.” (Anne Mancuso-NYT)
Pier 5, Joralemon Street and the East River
From 6am to 1am / FREE
(718) 215-9075 / fence.photovillenyc.org
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 08/13 and 08/11.