Pre Covid-19 we searched the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you didn’t have to.” We made it as easy as 1-2-3.
Covid-19 has required some changes for the time being. Stay Safe.
Earlier today we covered Top 9 Corona Culture. Now, how about some more useful NYC information.
New York magazine is biweekly these days and every issue has a wonderful section, “The Culture Pages,” which includes a “To Do” list – 25 things to see, hear, watch, and read. Here are my favorites from the current issue (Dec.9-23).
Art
Sam Gilliam: Existed Existing
A first-tier innovator of painting.
Behold Sam Gilliam’s magisterial painterly and sculptural grandeur. Plywood objects conjure pyramids, and continental plates vie for greatness with huge flecked, layered paintings the size of barges. Gilliam is a master of his medium in total control of his art. —Jerry Saltz
Pace Gallery, 510 and 540 West 25th Street, through December 19.
Harmony Hammond: Crossings
“Material engagement.”
Since the 1970s, Harmony Hammond has made the most psychically alive, roughly sensual, optically satisfying, and epistemologically adept paintings created anywhere. This powerful exhibition of new work finds the artist in top form, claiming a rightful place in the history of modernism with constructions that pack totemic presence and visual intelligence and make wonderfully aggressive demands on the graphic field. —J.S.
Alexander Gray Associates, 510 West 26th Street, through January 16.
Theater
The Long Goodbye Online Edition
I love a cup of tea and that.
Riz Ahmed’s concept album The Long Goodbye framed British Asians’ relationship with Old Blighty as a toxic love affair, one poisoned by colonialism, partition, and pernicious racism. The original plan was for Ahmed to take the album’s accompanying hybrid show — part theatrical storytelling, part music — around the world, but the pandemic canceled the tour. Now he’ll perform an in-real-time-only event, which will be streamed once via BAM’s digital broadcast. —Helen Shaw
bam.org, December 19.
Isaac@CafeCarlyle
A holiday show.
During the holiday season for the past four years, it was a special treat to go Café Carlyle and hear Isaac Mizrahi sing and do his own brand of stand-up, accompanied by the wonderful Ben Waltzer and his six-piece band. This year, of course, it’s different, but wonderful all the same, as we can look forward to a streamable concert series. In this four-show series, each mixes songs and storytelling and features a special guest. The first show will be released on December 4 and will then remain on-demand for 30 days, with additional shows on January 8, February 12, and March 19. Isaac says my favorite thing about the show, “It’s not exactly a holiday show … it’s not not a holiday show…” —Wendy Goodman
events.broadwayworld.com, through January 3, 2021.
Dance
The Hard Nut
Visions of sugarplums.
For vigor and variation, crack open excerpts from The Hard Nut, Mark Morris’s nearly 30-year-old comic “homage” to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. In Morris’s version, the E.T.A. Hoffmann story is reset in a kitschy ’60s suburbia, where party guests are more naughty than nice, Marie’s visions of militant rats speak to her own adolescent stirrings, and leaping Snowflakes throw fistfuls of snow into the air in little icy explosions. —Helen Shaw
markmorrisdancegroup.org/mmdg-holiday-special, December 12 to 18.
Classical Music
The Oratorio Society of New York
An abridged virtual performance.
In a normal year, professional singers would be earning a chunk of their annual income right now, dashing from Messiah to Messiah. The Oratorio Society, led by Kent Tritle, has done its best to preserve the tradition with a performance recorded outdoors, in a warmer month, rolled out in time for an at-home sing-along. —Justin Davidson
osny.org, from December 21.
Simone Dinnerstein
Live from Columbia.
When experiencing live music meant organizing an expensive night out, a two-hour concert with intermission was intended to give audiences their money’s worth. Now that it means clicking a free link, sometimes you want only a restorative half-hour. Miller Theater’s pop-up concerts satisfy that craving, and Dinnerstein is just the right pianist to keep the experience brief but intense, meditative, and surprising. Here, she pairs a Philip Glass étude with a movement from Schubert’s B-flat Sonata, two exercises in taking your time. —J.D.
millertheater.com, December 15.
*This article appears in the November 23, 2020, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!
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In the age of Covid-19 this info from City Guide is one of the best sources of info on What’s Happening, even if some are only available in your home, and not in your favorite venue.
CityGuideNY
NYC RESOURCES
The Metropolitan Opera is streaming operas FREE nightly.
The New York Public Library provides access to more than 300,000 FREE e-books and e-audio books.
NYC Health information page for COVID-19.
NYC restaurant world information.
Stream hundreds of Broadway shows (by subscription).
15 Broadway shows you can watch from home.
Broadway performances live—from stars’ living rooms.
The New York City Ballet presents a spring digital season.
Virtual programming will keep you connected to the York Theatre Company.
One World Observatory has made One World Explorer, the attraction’s Digital Skyline Guide, available for remote watching. Virtual helicopter tours of the city’s most iconic sites are available now.
51 New York TV shows and movies.
5 eras of New York to enjoy in books and movies.
2,500 museums and galleries you can visit virtually.
The New York Botanical Garden in bloom from home.
Exploring Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Times Square.
The Top of the Rock launches a brief virtual tour on YouTube.
Fun at-home activities for kids.
6 podcast series to help you understand New York.Discover the best of New York, from hidden gems to iconic landmarks, through The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s “Tourist in your own Town” Video Series.
VIRTUAL MUSEUMS
Explore the world of design with Cooper Hewitt.
Experience the Intrepid Museum anywhere.
New-York Historical Society from home.
A portal to the map collection of the Brooklyn Historical Society.
Virtually visit the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
The Merchant’s House Museum from home.
You can take a virtual tour of the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room at the Rubin Museum of Art. (You can find two hours of meditative chanting as well, if you’re searching out some respite.) The Rubin has also, for the first time, launched a digital assemblage of more than 300 items from the museum’s collection.
VIRTUAL TALKS, LECTURES, AND EVENTS
Thought Gallery has hundreds of livestream talks, lectures, performances, and more. Check out sessions with celebs, live concerts, and opportunities to learn the latest on everything from science to philosophy to social justice
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WFUV-FM 90.7 is my fave local radio station. Noncommercial, member-supported with a format of adult album alternative music, WFUV is doing it’s best to keep us connected to our music with a comprehensive, updated list of live music online.
WFUV Live Online (December 10 – December 16)
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12/10 Mountain Man, “Live from the Garden” concert series
12/10 The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy
12/10 Ingrid Michaelson’s Holiday Hop
12/11 M. Ward album release
12/11 Bootsy Collins live at Bear Creek
12/11 Cyndi Lauper “Home for the Holidays” concert
12/11 Los Lobos “Still Home for the Holidays”
12/12 Gorillaz, livestream from London
12/12 Charly Bliss, “It’s a Blissful Live”
12/13 Brandi Carlile “Still Home for the Holidays”
12/13 Andrew Bird “Gezelligheid”
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