Today’s “Fab 5″+1/ Selected NYCity Events –FRIDAY, SEPT. 12, 2014
“We search the internet looking for the best of What’s Happening on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.”

Christine Ebersole, ‘Big Noise from Winnetka’ (through Saturday Sept. 20)
The double Tony-winner has titled her latest offering after both a 1938 big band standard and her hometown, thereby indicating that this new production will be both noisier than usual but also exceedingly personal.

Although the two goals would appear to be inapposite, she somehow indeed achieves both, as shown with her two key show tunes from “Grey Gardens”: “The Revolutionary Costume for Today,” delivered in an exuberantly extroverted funk arrangement that is in itself “revolutionary,” and the lovely, haunting waltz “Will You,” which she renders with heightened sweetness—a kind of built-in nostalgia for itself—and even more intimacy than the original show. Throughout, there is no one who commands a stage like Ms. Ebersole, whether a full Broadway musical or a one-woman show, she’s an industry leader in any medium she appears in.” (WSJ-Will Friedwald)
on Friday, Saturday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m. (and Sept. 20 at 8 p.m.),
54 Below, 254 W. 54th St. (btw Broadway/8th)
$55 to $125 cover in advance; $5 extra at the door; with a $25 minimum.
646-476-3551 / 54below.com

4X4 Baroque Music Festival
4 Concerts on 4 Summer Nights

The 4×4 Festival presents concerts of baroque music at New York City’s historic Saint Paul’s Chapel, showcasing works by well-known composers such as Bach, Handel and Vivaldi while shedding light on some of their unjustly neglected contemporaries.
Tonight – Café Zimmermann
Chamber music by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Zelenka
St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway at Fulton
7PM / FREE

‘Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host’:
Ira Glass, Monica Bill Barnes, Anna Bass
“What do a radio personality and a choreographer have in common? In the case of Ms. Barnes and Mr. Glass, host of the public radio show “This American Life,” both are funny, relatable storytellers. In “Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host,” they join forces, along with the dancer Anna Bass, to tell tales of their lives as people and performers, with and without words.” (Burke-NYT)
Town Hall, 123 West 43rd St. (btw 6/7 ave)
800-745-3000, the-townhall-nyc.org
At 8 p.m. / $27 to $82.

Jerome Sabbagh Quartet
“The tenor saxophonist Sabbagh’s fine new album, “The Turn,” calls attention to the connection that he’s developed with the guitarist Ben Monder, who joins him here. Sabbagh’s quartet, though deeply touched by the epochal music of the late Paul Motian, has discovered its own expressive voice.” (NewYorker)
Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village,
212-989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com;
At 9 and 10:30 p.m. / $10 cover, with a $10 minimum.

Trampled by Turtles
Hailing from Duluth, Minnesota, Trampled by Turtles are an alt country band caught between Dylan and Nirvana: plaintive bluegrass songs and speed-picked covers of indie rock. With old world Americana instrumentation (banjo, fiddle, harmonica, etc.), Turtles are open to interpretation as a strictly bluegrass band. However, their unconventional bouts of shredding and occasional use of drums invite people who don’t necessarily like bluegrass to, well, like bluegrass. Wild Animals, their seventh studio album, landed them on Letterman this July — a well-earned time slot thanks to songs like the expansive and melodic title track, and the melancholic waltz, “Repetition.” (Sarah Madges-VillageVoice)
Terminal 5, 610 W 56th St., west of 11th ave.
9:00 p.m. / $25
(212) 582-6600 / terminal5nyc.com

Elsewhere, but worth a detour:

The NYT  “New York Today”, a daily feature worth checking out, has a fine summary of current exhibitions about to close:

“Before these exhibitions close this month, you may want to see:

• A 16th-century prayer book the size of a MetroCard commissioned by the queen of France, at the Morgan Museum.
• Big word-based paintings by Mel Bochner based on his fascination with Roget’s Thesaurus, at the Jewish Museum.
• A pendant containing Tom Thumb’s tiny foldout wedding album, at the Museum of Arts and Design.
• The “world’s biggest and most elaborate display of Lego art” at Discovery Times Square.
• The short videos of Abounaddara, “a collective of self-taught filmmakers dispersed throughout Syria,” at the New Museum.
• Protuberant sculptures of playground animals, with their springs often made from melted-down World War II airplane parts, at the Gagosian Gallery.
• Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” transcribed onto 20 6-by-6-foot canvases by Allan Ruppersburg, at MoMA.
• An East Village collector’s trove of street art — including photographs of now vanished graffiti on subways and buildings — at the Museum of the City of New York.
• Objects on loan from the homes of East Harlemites that showcase “the human impulse to collect,” at the Museo del Barrio.
• A fairly unforgettable Coney Island couple, amid a visual feast of photographs by the Bronx-born Garry Winogrand, at the Met.”

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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 is a big town with many visitors, where quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
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The Week That Was in NYCity
(courtesy NYPost, with the most unique front/back pages anywhere)

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A PremierPub + 3 Good Eating places

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

Jimmy’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 (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.
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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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3 Good Eating places

It’s not difficult finding 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:

Patzeria Perfect Pizza – 231 W46 st (Betw 7th/8th ave)
Perfect name for a pizza joint. On a street filled with Broadway theaters, this is a real hole in the wall, but don’t let the dive look scare you away. You can never go wrong with a slice of NYC pizza, and this one is a classic thin crust. Only a few seats here, but pizza was made to eat standing up.

Shake Shack – 691 8th ave (Betw 43rd/44th st)
Danny Meyer has revolutionized the high quality burger in this town. Now he has a branch on the West Side that was desperately needed, with none of the insane lines that you find at the Madison Sq. Park location. Plus, it may be the cleanest joint to eat in all of Hell’s Kitchen.

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“3 Good Eating places” focuses on a quick bite, what I call “Fine Fast Food – NYCity Style”

That covers a wide range of food – pizza, burgers, food trucks/carts, vegetarian/falafel, ramen, chopped salad & salad bars, hot dogs, bbq, soup & sandwiches, picnic fixins’, raw bars & lobster rolls. No reservations needed. ================================================================================

◊ For all my picks of 54 Good Eating places and essays on my favorite 18 PremierPubs in 9 Neighborhoods on Manhattan’s WestSide (plus 27 casual dining places with free Wi-Fi) order a copy of my e-book: “Eating and Drinking on NYCity’s WestSide” ($3.99).
(available Fall 2014)