Today’s “Fab 4” / Selected NYCity Events – SUNDAY, SEPT 08, 2013.

U.S. TENNIS OPEN (through Sept. 9)
Who to watch today:
We are now down to the final two days of the tournament and today we have the Women’s Singles Final, preceded by the Men’s Doubles Final.

» The first match features the  Doubles team of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek who stopped the Bryan brothers and their quest for a calendar Grand Slam in the semis. Paes is the best doubles player most people have never heard of. Every time he steps on the court he puts on a clinic of how doubles should be played.

» The Women’s Finals features the #1 seed Serena vs the #2 seed Azarenka. They played a tight 3 set match last year in the Finals, but I don’t see that happening this year. Serena has been playing some of her best tennis, which can’t be said for Azarenka.

The best, most comprehensive review of the tournament and the current state of tennis can be found at the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/sports/tennis/index.html

NYC Century Bike Tour
“Cooler weather this weekend may turn a bicyclist’s thoughts to this annual ride — the 24th — through the streets, parks and green spaces of the city. Sponsored by Transportation Alternatives, the tour features courses of 15 to 100 miles, with all the bumps, dips and climbs of open streets, as well as the relative smoothness of bicycle paths and the straightaways of bridges.

Staggered start times begin early at two locations: at 6 a.m. near the Harlem Meer in Central Park, reachable from 110th Street and Lenox Avenue, and at 6:30 a.m. in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, on Willink Drive, near the carousel, reachable from the entrance at Flatbush, Empire and Ocean Avenues. The 15-mile ride begins only at Central Park.

In advance, registration is $65; $55 for members; and $35 for those under 18, through Friday. The cost jumps to $75, $65 and $45, with registration on Saturday (from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Transportation Alternatives, 127 West 26th Street, Chelsea) or on site on Sunday; nyccentury.org. So check the tires and brakes, grab the helmet and hop on for a ride.” (Anne Mancuso-NYT)

Cassandra Wilson*
“The smoky-voiced Cassandra Wilson, a defiantly eccentric visionary, is one of the most influential and consistently captivating singers of her generation.”
(NewYorker mag)
Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village
At 8 and 10:30 p.m. / $55 cover at tables, $35 at the bar, with a $5 minimum
475-8592, bluenote.net

Trio da Paz and Friends
“Effervescence comes easily to Trio da Paz, a samba-jazz cooperative consisting of Romero Lubambo on guitar, Nilson Matta on bass and Duduka Da Fonseca on drums. For this engagement, loosely organized as a tribute to the popular bossa nova forays of Stan Getz, they welcome Harry Allen on tenor saxophone and Joe Locke on vibraphone, along with Maucha Adnet on vocals.” (Chinen-NYT)
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola,  Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th St &  Broadway
At 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. / $35 to $45 cover, with a $10 minimum
(212) 258-9595, jalc.org

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:

“Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective” (through Sept. 22)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
“Legends of the Dead Ball Era” (1900-1919) (through Dec. 1)
“Eighteenth Century Pastels” (through Dec. 29)
“Julia Margaret Cameron” (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

“Monika Grzymala, Volumen” (through Nov. 3)
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

XL: 19NewAcquisitions in Photography (through Dec. 31)
Walker Evans: American Photographs (through Jan. 26, 2014)
11 West 53rd Street / 212-708-9400

  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Julia Margaret Cameron (through Jan. 5, 2014)
Everyday Ephiphanies: Photography and Daily Life Since 1969 
(through Jan. 26, 2014)
1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street) / 212-535-7710

   ICP
A Different Kind of Order: The ICP Triennial (through Sept. 22)
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 

  Staley-Wise Gallery
It’s An American Thing (through Sept. 14)
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 08/25 and 08/23.