Today’s “FAB 5″/ Selected NYCity Events – SATURDAY, DEC. 13, 2014
“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to. We make it as easy as 1-2-3.”

Unsilent Night – SpecialEvent/ Holiday Music

Holiday Handmade Cavalcade  – SpecialEvent/ Shopping

Stacey Kent and Marcos Valle  – Jazz + LatinMusic

The Return of The Aimee Mann Christmas Show – Pop/Rock

Holiday Book Bazaar  – SpecialEvent/ Books

Former Stars of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons: The Hit Men  – Pop/Rock

For other useful and curated NYCity event info for Manhattan’s WestSide check out:
♦ “9 Notable Events-Dec.”, and “Top10 Free” in the header above.
♦  For NYCity trip planning see links in “Resources” and “Smart Stuff” in the header above.

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Unsilent Night
“Unsilent Night” is a holiday tradition open to anyone with capable feet and curious ears. The parade-like premise is simple: Attendees gather in Washington Square Park at 7 p.m. and, once given a signal, begin to play recordings of shimmering bell sounds, either on boomboxes provided by event organizers or on their phones with a free downloadable MP3. From there, the mass wanders on a slow, mesmerizing procession through the streets of the East Village to Tompkins Square Park. The effect of the music—composed by Phil Kline, who started “Unsilent Night” in 1992—is gorgeous, as bell sounds lap up against buildings and ricochet all around, and the nondenominational spirit of it can warm even the coldest of hearts.”(WSJ)
Washington Square Park, Arch at Fifth Avenue & Waverly Place

Holiday Handmade Cavalcade (also Sunday)
Hosted by a collective of local artists, designers and makers who sell their handmade goods on the online marketplace Etsy.com, the 7th Annual Holiday Handmade Cavalcade will feature unique wares including clothing, jewelry, accessories, paper goods, body products, and more from 62 different indie vendors all based in the tri-state area.
Chelsea Market, 9th Ave between 15th and 16th St
10am to 8pm

Stacey Kent and Marcos Valle
“The jazz singer Stacey Kent’s recent collaboration with Marcos Valle, the Brazilian songwriter, arranger, instrumentalist and singer, on an album celebrating the 50th anniversary of his music career, underscores Ms. Kent’s passionate, longstanding attachment to bossa nova and samba. The two have been performing at Birdland this week with a Brazilian band, featuring Jesse Sadoc on trumpet and fluegelhorn, Marcelo Martins on saxophone and flute, Alberto Continentino on acoustic bass and Renato Massa on drums. The saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, Ms. Kent’s musical partner and husband, is also appearing with them.” (NYT)
Birdland, 315 West 44th St.
at 8:30 and 11 p.m / $45, with a $10 minimum.
212-581-3080 / birdlandjazz.com

“THE RETURN OF THE AIMEE MANN CHRISTMAS SHOW”
“After a three-year hiatus, the singer-songwriter has resurrected her annual holiday celebration, this time sharing the bill and the spotlight with Ted Leo, her partner in the indie-rock act the Both. The eclectic gathering pokes fun at the awkwardness of the season, and is as tongue-in-cheek as it is genuinely sweet, offering classic holiday jingles as well as original tunes, videos, and comedic sketches. Guests include the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs, the geek rocker Jonathan Coulton, and Fred Armisen, the funnyman and co-star of IFC’s hit show “Portlandia,” on which Mann has appeared.” (NewYorker)
Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St.
212-840-2824.

Holiday Book Bazaar
Join Aperture for a Holiday Book Bazaar with publishers Abrams, A-Jump Books, A Love Token Press, bookdummypress, D.A.P., Empty Stretch, MACK, Magnum Foundation, MassArt/Houseboat Press, Monacelli Press, Mossless, Oranbeg Press, Pau Wau Publications, Spaces Corners, and Vuu Studio. Pick up a free copy of the latest issue of The PhotoBook Review, and enjoy winter festivities and music throughout the afternoon.

Book signings:
2:00–4:00 p.m.: Duane Michals / Monacelli Press
3:00–4:00 p.m.: Michael Ashkin / A-Jump Books
4:00–6:00 p.m.: Laia Abril
5:00–7:00 p.m.: Stuart Shils / bookdummypress

The occasion will also mark the opening of the 2014 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards Short List exhibition, as well as the opening of the 2014 Portfolio Prize winner Amy Elkins‘s exhibition.
Plus, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., Aperture Members can enjoy a private preview of the bazaar and a walk-through of the exhibitions with Aperture editors. Members can RSVP to membership@aperture.org.
Aperture Gallery & Bookstore
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, Between 10th and 11th Avenues,
1-7PM / 212-505-5555

Former Stars of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons: The Hit Men
It’s a night of your favorite mega hits and holiday classics performed rock and roll and “Four Seasons style” by THE HIT MEN: Amazing performers, superb musicians, superior vocalists, arrangers and composers, whose members were stars of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Tommy James & the Shondells + other mega-hit acts of the 60s, 70s 80s.

From “Oh What a Night”, “Who Loves You”, “Sherry” and many other Four Seasons hits to “Leroy Brown”, “Hanky Panky” and “Mony Mony”. Plus, great holiday favorites from “Santa Claus is coming to Town” and “Jingle Bell Rock” to “So This is Christmas” and “Christmas Baby Please Come Home”. You’ll know every word in every song in this night of mega hits and holiday classics. Relive the glory days of rock and roll and celebrate the holiday season with The Hit Men. You’ll leave the theater saying “Oh, What a Night!”
Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St
8:00pm / $35
212-220-1459

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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 (pop. 8.4 million) had 54 million visitors last year and quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
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For many the Holiday Season means a visit to the NYC Ballet to enjoy their performance of the “Nutcracker” ballet. Thought Gallery, a very fine site with event info on a range of NYCity cultural topics, surprises us with a comprehensive list of more “Nutcracker” performances around town than you ever imagined. Who Knew?

Going Nuts: A Roundup of Nutcracker Ballet Performances in NYC
By Troy Segal

“A FINELY AGED NUT Many a native NY-er has grown up with New York City Ballet founder George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, a holiday tradition since its debut in 1954. Balanchine based his version on the productions he himself danced in as a child in Russia. Act I serves up the spectacle: a rambunctious holiday party and an epic battle between the armies of the Nutcracker Prince and the multi-headed Mouse King. Act II is devoted to displays of dancing virtuosity by waltzing flowers, jumping candy canes and little clowns that emerge from a lady’s hoopskirt. Nov. 28–Jan. 3.

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN Returning for the last time to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s version of The Nutcracker takes a dramatic approach to the often-saccharine classic: “The Waltz of the Snowflakes,” for example, turns into a nearly fatal blizzard for our heroine Clara, and the Sugar Plum Fairy is explicitly a projection of her desire to be all grown up, rather than just the usual showy anonymous ballerina role. Not that there aren’t plenty of sweet moments, too, from the adorable baby mouse to the magically expanding Christmas tree to the dazzling turns by American Ballet Theatre’s artists. Dec. 12–21.

DANCING IN THE STREETS In contrast to the productions above, The Knickerbocker Suite unfolds the familiar story in modern-day NYC. Those swirling snowflakes turn into shoppers, waltzing in and out of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s; Mother Ginger, traditionally a lady whose skirts house hidden little dancers, becomes the Statue of Liberty leading a host of immigrants. The concepts are as fresh as the cast, all students of Manhattan Youth Ballet. Dec. 12–14 & 19–21.

TINY BUT TASTY The New York Theatre Ballet is a chamber dance company specializing in streamlined stories for the littlest balletomanes. Its version, dubbed Keith Michael’s The Nutcracker (after is its resident choreographer) and set in an Art Nouveau world, runs only an hour, but packs in all the big turns, using its small cast in ingenious ways and with witty fashions (the Metropolitan Opera’s resident costume designer did the garments). Dec. 19–21.

RED HOT If ballet ever merged with burlesque, the result might be something like Nutcracker Rouge. This strictly-for-grownups version—by Company XIV, which loves to mash up music, Baroque dance and texts and acrobatics—has Marie (not so much a little girl as a nubile young thing) embarking on a discovery of the sweet things in life—and we’re not talking candy canes. The classically trained dancers pose, pirouette and gyrate to the Tchaikovsky’s greatest hits, as well as Madonna’s (we said it was a mash-up, didn’t we?). If you like your hot chocolate with a little spice, this is for you. Through Jan. 4.”
(Troy Segal-ThoughtGallery.org)