NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/17) + Today’s Featured Pub (Greenwich Village)

Posted on 03/17/2018 by GregD

Today’s Sweet 6 NYC Events > SATURDAY/ MARCH 17, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Elsewhere, but the Bronx is coming back and West Side Story and Bobby Sanabria are definitely worth the detour:

‘WEST SIDE STORY: REIMAGINED’
at the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture / 7:30PM, $25-$35
“Bobby Sanabria is a leading Cuban percussionist and historian of the Afro-Cuban folkloric tradition, as well as others from across Latin America. Here he leads his 21-piece Multiverse Big Band in a creative homage to Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” teasing out the various strands of musical information that Bernstein used — from Dominican merengue, Brazilian samba and Cuban mambo — and offering extrapolations of his own.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

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5 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>>HAROLD MABERN QUARTET
>> Semiramide
>>Paquito D’Rivera
>>KRIS DAVIS AND INGRID LAUBROCK
>> Chelsea “Best Exhibits” tour
——————————————————————
Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
======================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

HAROLD MABERN QUARTET (March 16-18)
at Smoke / 7, 9 and 10:30PM, $40
“With a crisp, harmonically rich attack, Mr. Mabern carries the mantle of a piano tradition that runs through Ahmad Jamal and Phineas Newborn Jr. From time to time, Mr. Mabern holds court for a weekend at Smoke, presenting his grooving, varnished brand of hard bop with a small group. This weekend is of particular note, as it is Mr. Mabern’s 82nd birthday celebration. He performs here with Eric Alexander on tenor saxophone, John Webber on bass and Louis Hayes on drums.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Semiramide (LAST PERFORMANCE)
Metropolitan Opera House / 8PM, $27+
“This masterpiece of dazzling vocal fireworks makes a rare Met appearance—its first in nearly 25 years—with Maurizio Benini on the podium. The all-star bel canto cast features Angela Meade in the title role of the murderous Queen of Babylon, who squares off in breathtaking duets with Arsace, a trouser role sung by Elizabeth DeShong. Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov, and Ryan Speedo Green complete the stellar cast.”

Paquito D’Rivera
Rose Theatre, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th St./ 8PM, $40+
“The saxophone genius Charlie Parker produced some of the most lyrical playing of his condensed career in his “Bird with Strings” projects of 1949-52, particularly his iconic improvisation on “Just Friends.” The Cuban-born saxophone virtuoso D’Rivera will take on this work, as well as some unrecorded scores and material from Parker’s collaborations with the Latin-jazz pioneers Chico O’Farrill and Machito.” (NewYorker)

KRIS DAVIS AND INGRID LAUBROCK
at the Jazz Gallery / 7:30 and 9:30PM, $25
“Ms. Davis and Ms. Laubrock are two subtle provocateurs whose respective roles in New York’s avant-garde music community continue to grow. Ms. Davis’s pianistic language is rangy and full-blooded, sometimes speaking in ripples and layers, elsewhere in adamant scatters. Ms. Laubrock’s tenor saxophone is just as given to frayed redirections, but she vests it with a vigilant coolness underneath. These two musicians have played together in a variety of configurations over the years. Now they’re at work on a duo recording; they play here in that pared-down formation.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

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Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

Chelsea “Best Exhibits” tour
526 W. 26th St. near 10th Ave. @ 1:00 PM and 3:45 PM, $25
“Highlights of this ALL-NEW tour, our most extraordinary this month in any gallery area: (1) a European artist’s transcendent 3D video that’s been a hit at international art festivals, (2) dynamic paintings by a notorious graffiti artist whose works are owned by major museums, and (3) a female artist’s mysterious “Immersion Room” that you’ll explore with a lantern. These are just 3 of 7 phenomenal shows in this 300-gallery area!”
SPECIAL OFFER: visit our website to request a DISCOUNT ticket link for $8-off admission! For more info, visit http://www.nygallerytours.com or call 917-250-0052.

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♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 63 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
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Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

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Bonus NYC Events – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are my favorite non jazz music venues on Manhattan’s WestSide. Hit the Hot Link and check out who’s playing tonight:

City Winery – 155 Varick St., citywinery.com, 212-608-0555
Joe’s Pub @ Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St., joespub.com, 212-967-7555
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St., beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
Town Hall – 123 W43rd St., thetownhall.org, 212-997-6661
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237W42nd St., bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St., lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474
and one more, not exactly WestSide
Bowery Ballroom – 6 Delancey St. boweryballroom.com,

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. caffevivaldi.com, 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening discovery and enjoyment.
See Below.

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NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):
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A PremierPub and 3 Good Eating Places – Greenwich Village

Caffe Vivaldi / 32 Jones Street (btw. Bleecker St./W4th St.)

Café Vivaldi is a classic, intimate club located in Greenwich Village on Jones Street, the street featured on the cover of Bob Dylan’s second album, “Freewheelin’. ”

maxresdefaultEach night Ishrat, the long time proprietor and impresario, carefully curates and schedules an eclectic series of musicians. You can often see him at his table in the corner, hard at work reviewing music videos and listening to cd demos on his laptop, scouting out future bookings. Musicians come from all over to play and sing in a club in Greenwich Village. Some are local New Yorkers, others are just passing through, in town for a few days.

There is a small bar, seating maybe 10. It’s close to the stage and I find it’s a perfect spot to sip a glass of red wine while listening to the music. The room itself has the performance area at one end and a cozy fireplace at the other. The performance area here is small, dominated by a large black Yamaha Grand piano. Tables are bunched together and most people at the tables are eating lite meals or sampling the wonderful desserts.

There is also a good selection of fairly priced wines,  but you are here because of the music. You can never be quite sure what you’re going to find, and that’s half the charm of this place. It’s not a home run every night, but many nights it’s pretty special.

I remember the night I saw the most talented bossa nova group, just in from San Paulo. As I listened, I wondered if there was any better music playing anywhere else in New York City that night. And at Caffé Vivaldi there is never a cover charge. Their recently redesigned web site does give you a better idea of the type of music playing each night.

At one time Greenwich Village was filled with clubs just like this, but times change. Real estate interests have impacted the village, and not for the better. Even Caffé Vivaldi had a rough time recently, when a new landlord raised the rent exorbitantly. Fortunately, Ishrat has built a loyal following over the years, and a fund raiser and slightly more reasonable rent has kept Café Vivaldi in business.

When Woody Allen and Al Pacino wanted to make movies featuring the timeless quality of Greenwich Village they came to Vivaldi. It’s important that we keep this special place alive, for if we lose Cafe Vivaldi, NYCity will have lost a piece of it’s soul.

Website: http://caffevivaldi.com/
Phone #: (212) 691-7538
Hours: Music generally 7:30PM – 11PM, but varies
Lunch/Dinner 11AM-on
Subway: #1 to Christopher St.
Walk 1 blk S. on 7th ave S. to Bleecker St., 1 blk left on Bleecker to Jones St., 50 yards left on Jones St. to Caffe V.
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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.

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 to find 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:

Fish – 280 Bleecker St. (just a bit S. of 7th ave South)
This was an easy pick – the best raw bar special in town. $9 gets you 6 of the freshest oysters or clams + a glass of wine or beer. Don’t know how they can do it, but I tell everyone I know about this place. And it’s located right in the heart of some of the best no cover music in town.

Bleecker Street Pizza – 69 7th ave S. (corner of Bleecker St.)
The place is tiny and not much to look at, but this is one good slice. They like to brag that they have been voted “Best pizza in NY” 3 years in a row by the Food Network. I believe them. I would have voted for them.

Num Pang – 21 E 12th St. (btw. University Place/5th ave.)
This is a Cambodian banh mi sandwich shop that kept me well fed while I was in class nearby recently. It’s cramped, even for NYCity, but usually there is room up the spiral staircase to sit down and eat. In good weather carry your sandwich a few blocks to Union Square park. You may have to wait a few minutes, because everything is freshly made, but it’s worth it. Can you believe – an unheard of 26 food rating by Zagat.

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“3 Good Eating places” focuses on a quick bite, what I call “Fine Fast Food – NYCity Style”
No reservations needed.
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NYCity is the most diverse and interesting place to find a meal anywhere in the world. With more than 24,000 eating establishments you might welcome some advice.

◊ For all my picks of 54 Good Eating places, and essays on my favorite 18 PremierPubs in 9 Neighborhoods on Manhattan’s WestSide, order a copy of my e-book:
“Eating and Drinking on NYCity’s WestSide” ($4.99, available Spring 2018).
◊ Order before May 31 28, 2018 and receive a bonus – 27 of my favorite casual dining places with free Wi-Fi.

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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/16) + Museum Special Exhibitions: Manhattan’s WestSide

Posted on 03/16/2018 by GregD

Today’s Sweet 6 NYC Events > FRIDAY/ MARCH 16, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

Back in business after some technical difficulties.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

¡VAYA! 63: Eddie Palmieri
Opening set by DJ Bongohead
Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center / 7:30PM, FREE, better get there early for this one.
¡VAYA! 63
One of the most acclaimed pianists of the past 60 years and New York salsa and Latin jazz icon, the nine-time Grammy winner Eddie Palmieri presides over a not-to-be-missed edition of our popular Latin dance party series.

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5 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>>Madama Butterfly
>> (Un)Silent Film Night: Improv Edition!
>>Paquito D’Rivera
>>Maxine Linehan: One—The Songs of U2
>> The History of Tech & The Future of Sex
——————————————————————
Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
======================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Madama Butterfly (LAST PERFORMANCE)
Metropolitan Opera House / 8PM, $
“Anthony Minghella’s stunning production of Puccini’s heartbreaking opera, an instant Met classic since its 2006 premiere, returns with Hui He and Ermonela Jaho in the tragic title role of the trusting geisha. Roberto Aronica and Luis Chapa alternate as her callous American lover, Pinkerton, and Jader Bignamini and Marco Armiliato conduct.”

(Un)Silent Film Night: Improv Edition!
The New School, John L. Tishman Auditorium / 7PM, FREE
“Seven years into their annual mix of classic silents and live music, the College of Performing Arts Theater Orchestra dispenses with scores and wings it — with the help of faculty extemporaneity experts from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music — during “(Un)Silent Film Night: Improv Edition.” Aaron Copland’s unstaged ballet inspired by Nosferatu seeds Jennifer Reeves’s experimentally macabre 2005 short Shadows Choose Their Horrors, with guitarist Marc Ribot helming the orchestra. Piano wonder Kris Davis sets the tone for Charlie Chaplin’s 1916 short The Pawnshop, which includes an alarm-clock dissection ripe for time-tampering. And avant-garde trailblazers Reggie Workman (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums) dig into a pair of 1941 film-noir Superman animations: Dave Fleischer’s The Mad Scientist and The Mechanical Monsters.” (Richard Gehr,Village Voice)

Paquito D’Rivera (also Mar.17)
Rose Theatre, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th St./ 8PM, $40+
“The saxophone genius Charlie Parker produced some of the most lyrical playing of his condensed career in his “Bird with Strings” projects of 1949-52, particularly his iconic improvisation on “Just Friends.” The Cuban-born saxophone virtuoso D’Rivera will take on this work, as well as some unrecorded scores and material from Parker’s collaborations with the Latin-jazz pioneers Chico O’Farrill and Machito.” (NewYorker)

Maxine Linehan: One—The Songs of U2
Feinstein’s/54 Below; 8:45pm; $35–$80
“Bono she didn’t! Poised and incisive Irish-born singer-actor Linehan gets close to the Edge in a set devoted to the music of U2.” (TONY)

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Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

The History of Tech & The Future of Sex
The Strand, 828 Broadway / 7PM, $20, includes complimentary beer
An Olio Happy Hour on tech and sex taught by Lawrence Cappello and Skye Cleary in Strand’s Rare Book Room.

The Great Laws of Technology – Lawrence Cappello
So people are having sex with robots now. Which is great. Or not. Either way, what a wondrous modern age we all live in. But before we dive into that, we should familiarize ourselves with some of the more dominant ideas and concerns that often come into play whenever humanity talks about technology in general.

Morality and Sexbots – Skye Cleary
We will touch on some of the philosophical issues with the design and use of intimate robots through questions such as: Are lovebots and sexbots mere “objects of our inclinations”, as Kant might argue, or do they deserve more respect? What does it mean to create robots that are designed to consent to our every whim? And at what point do they become morally equivalent to humans?”

===========================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
===========================================================================

Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

=====================================================
Bonus: Nifty 9 – Best Cabarets / Piano Bars NYCity
These are my favorite places for an after dinner night on the town – music and drinks.
Hit the Hot Link and check out what’s happening tonight:

Feinstein’s/54 Below – 254 W 54th St.

The Green Room 42 – 570 Tenth Ave.

Don’t Tell Mama – 343 W 46th St.

Marie’s Crisis – 59 Grove St.

The Rum House, in the Hotel Edison – 228 W. 47th St.

Laurie Beechman Theatre – 407 W 42nd St.

The Duplex – 61 Christopher St.

Sid Gold’s Request Room – 165 W 26th St.

Cafe Carlyle, in the Carlyle Hotel – 35 E. 76th St.
This is the only one not located on Manhattan’s WestSide, and it ain’t cheap, but it has some of the finest singers.

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NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

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WHAT’S ON VIEW
My Fave Special Exhibitions – MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s WestSide
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museums,
and also to see their expanded reviews of exhibitions)

Museum of Modern Art:

A special pat on the back to MOMA, who is now displaying art from the seven countries affected by Trump’s travel ban.

“Trump’s ban against refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations has sparked acts of defiance in NYC, from demonstrations across town, to striking taxicab drivers at JFK to Middle Eastern bodega owners closing their shops in protest. Recently, the Museum Of Modern added its two cents by bringing out artworks it owns from the affected countries, and hanging them prominently within the galleries usually reserved for 19th- and 20th-century artworks from Europe and the United States. Paintings by Picasso and Matisse, for example, were removed to make way for pieces by Tala Madani (from Iran), Ibrahim El-Salahi (from Sudan) and architect Zaha Hadid (from Iraq). The rehanging, which was unannounced, aims to create a symbolic welcome that repudiates Trump by creating a visual dialog between the newly added works and the more familiar objects from MoMA’s permanent collection.” (TONY)

Stephen Shore (thru May 28)

“This immersive and staggeringly charming retrospective is devoted to one of the best American photographers of the past half century. Shore has peers—Joel Meyerowitz, Joel Sternfeld, Richard Misrach, and, especially, William Eggleston—in a generation that, in the nineteen-seventies, stormed to eminence with color film, which art photographers had long disdained. His best-known series, “American Surfaces” and “Uncommon Places,” are both from the seventies and were mostly made in rugged Western states. The pictures in these series share a quality of surprise: appearances surely unappreciated if even really noticed by anyone before—in rural Arizona, a phone booth next to a tall cactus, on which a crude sign (“GARAGE”) is mounted, and, on a small-city street in Wisconsin, a movie marquee’s neon wanly aglow, at twilight. A search for fresh astonishments has kept Shore peripatetic, on productive sojourns in Mexico, Scotland, Italy, Ukraine, and Israel. He has remained a vestigial Romantic, stopping in space and 
time to frame views that exert a peculiar tug on him. This framing is resolutely formalist: subjects composed laterally, from edge to edge, and in depth. There’s never a “background.” The most distant element is as considered as the nearest. But only when looking for it are you conscious of Shore’s formal discipline, because it is as fluent as a language learned from birth. His best pictures at once arouse feelings and leave us alone to make what we will of them. He delivers truths, whether hard or easy, with something very like mercy.” (NewYorker)

Tarsila do Amaral (thru June 3)

Introducing New York to the First Brazilian Modernist
“Forty-five years after Tarsila do Amaral’s death, MOMA presents her first-ever museum exhibition in the U.S. Some artists are so iconic, they’re known by only one name: Brancusi, Léger, Tarsila. Wait, who? The painter Tarsila do Amaral is so famous in her native Brazil that forty-three years after her death she helped close out the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when a projected pattern of red-orange-yellow arcs graced the stadium floor, an homage to her 1929 painting “Setting Sun.” That chimerical landscape—stylized sunset above tubular cacti and a herd of capybaras that shape-shift into boulders—hangs now at MOMA, in the artist’s first-ever museum exhibition in the U.S., “Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil.” (NewYorker)

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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 03/08 and 03/06

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Selected NYC Instagram Photos (03/13) + Today’s Featured Pub (Times Square-theater district)

Posted on 03/13/2018 by GregD

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

For two days (and this is the second)  we are going to try a different format – offering a selection of the very best NYCity Instagram photos. We hope you enjoy this change of pace, then please return here tomorrow, March 14, and every day for our daily “Only the Best” NYCity event info.

travelinglens

johnnyyonkers

jmsuarez_

svvvk

openhousenewyork

jssilberman

=====================================================
Bonus: Nifty 9 – Best Cabarets / Piano Bars NYCity
These are my favorite places for an after dinner night on the town – music and drinks.
Hit the Hot Link and check out what’s happening tonight:

Feinstein’s/54 Below – 254 W 54th St.

The Green Room 42 – 570 Tenth Ave.

Don’t Tell Mama – 343 W 46th St.

Marie’s Crisis – 59 Grove St.

The Rum House, in the Hotel Edison – 228 W. 47th St.

Laurie Beechman Theatre – 407 W 42nd St.

The Duplex – 61 Christopher St.

Sid Gold’s Request Room – 165 W 26th St.

Cafe Carlyle, in the Carlyle Hotel – 35 E. 76th St.
This is the only one not located on Manhattan’s WestSide, and it ain’t cheap, but it has some of the finest singers.

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NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

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A PremierPub

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

IMG_2083Jimmy’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, with a great selection of  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.
================================================================================

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Selected NYCity Instagram Photos (03/12) + Today’s Featured Pub (Tribeca)

Posted on 03/12/2018 by GregD

Today’s NYCity Instagram Photos > MONDAY / MARCH 12, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

For the next two days we are going to try a different format. Let’s look at 6 very fine Instagram Photographers who specialize in NYC photos. We hope you will enjoy this change of pace, then please return here on March 14 and every day for our daily “Only the Best” NYCity event info.

underground_nyc

seaandshoots

silviosandino

papakila

sean  _p

visualmemories

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Bonus NYC Events – Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. South, villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com / 212-864-6662

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

==================================================================================
NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

================================================================================

A PremierPub / Tribeca

B-Flat / 277 Church St. (btw Franklin/White St))

b_flat4There are some places that are tough to find, then add a layer of mystery when you do find them. B-Flat has a nondescript, almost unmarked door at street level – today’s speakeasy vibe. Open this door and you face a dimly lit stairway down to their basement location. It almost takes a leap of faith to follow the stairs down to their interior door.
But open that door and a pleasant surprise awaits you.

It’s a basement jazz spot all right, but not like any traditional jazz joint you may have been to before. This place looks as fresh as today, probably because it’s only been open for 6 years. Even though it hasn’t had a chance to age gracefully, the cherry wood accents and low lighting make this small space very inviting.

There is always jazz, often progressive jazz, playing over their very discrete, stylish bose speakers, setting just the right tone as you find a seat at the bar, or one of the small tables. There is wine and beer available, but this place has some expert mixologists making some very creative cocktails, which I’m told change seasonally, a nice touch.

Come at happy hour and tasty cocktails like the el Diablo or the lychee martini are $8 – not bad. I am a sucker for any drink made with lychee and how can you not try a tequila drink named el Diablo. There is also nice selection of small bites available at happy hour and a food menu that is as innovative as the cocktail menu, so this does not have to be a happy hour only stop.

It wasn’t surprising to find a tasty prosciutto and arugula salad with yuzu dressing, but I did not expect to find such a good version of fried chicken breast on the apps menu. Here it’s called “Tatsuta.” Best bet is to sample happy hour, then dinner on a Monday or Wednesday night, when you can finish with no cover live jazz that starts around 8.

This place is tough to find (look for a small slate sandwich board on the sidewalk out front advertising happy hour) and on some nights when there is no live music it may be a little too quiet for some. But I think it’s worth searching out if you want a place with good music, food, and especially drinks, away from the maddening crowd.

Website: http://http://www.bflat.info/index.html
Phone #: 212-219-2970
Hours: Mo-Wed 5pm-2am; Th-Sat 5pm-3am; no Sun
Happy Hour: 5-7pm every day; $8 cocktails + special prices on apps
Music: Mon/Wed 8pm
Subway: #1 to Franklin; walk E 1 blk to Church; N 1 blk to bFlat

==================================================================================
“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.
==============================================================

xx

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/11) + Today’s Featured Pub (Greenwich Village)

Posted on 03/11/2018 by GregD

Today’s Sweet 6 NYC Events > SUNDAY/ MARCH 11, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

54 Sings Bruce Springsteen
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 7PM, +9:30PM, $35+
“This season we welcomed Bruce Springsteen to Broadway, and now we welcome his music to Broadway’s living room. Just 6 blocks up from where The Boss himself is performing, join a cast of Broadway favorites celebrating and interpreting some of his biggest hits. Expect to hear songs like “Born To Run,” “Thunder Road,” “Dancing In The Dark,” and so many more.”

“Can’t score a ticket to Springsteen on Broadway? The 54 Sings series is here to help. A big bunch of talented musical-theater performers help scratch your Boss itch with hits from Springsteen’s catalog. Scheduled singers include Richard H. Blake, Deborah S. Craig, Ben Fankhauser, Grace McLean, Julia Murney, Nic Rouleau, Jessica Vosk and Teal Wicks.” (TONY)

=========================================================
5 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>>Rebirth Brass Band
>>Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob
>> Encuentro Flamenco
>> The Armory Show 
>> Consciousness: The Power and Vulnerability of the Brain
——————————————————————
Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
======================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Rebirth Brass Band
Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St./ 8PM, +10:30PM, $20-$35
“This redoubtably funky ensemble has been representing the inexhaustible New Orleans groove since the early eighties, flaunting an expansive repertoire that joins Big Easy anthems with contemporary R. & B. The party only stops when the man blowing the paint off the walls with his tuba calls it a night.” (NewYorker)

Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob (Mar.8-11)
Jazz Standard / 7:30PM, 9:30PM, $30
“Ringmasterly slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein leads two bands over four nights. First up is Sexmob, his rambunctious quartet with Briggan Krauss (saxophones), Tony Scherr (bass), and Kenny Wolleson (drums). Expect Sexmob — unbelievably playing its first jazz-club gig in twenty years of existence — to pump up the volume and pull out the stops on its repertoire of pop covers and allusive Bernstein originals. (Combustible keyboardist John Medeski joins in Friday.)

Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, on the other hand, is returning to its early-Nineties weekly residence with a 2017 album of Sly Stone covers in tow. Inspired by the itinerant pre-swing territory bands of the Twenties and Thirties, who brought popular songs to outlying audiences, the nine-piece MTO rips outrageously in response to Bernstein’s conductive antics. You won’t find a more entertaining stand-on-your-chair-and-holler conclave of jazz adventurists.” (Richard Gehr, Village Voice)

Elsewhere, but I’ll travel miles for Flamenco, worth the detour:

Encuentro Flamenco
Thalia Spanish Theatre, 8PM, $37–$45
“Danza España, under the direction of Yloy Ybarra, assays an ambitious dance and musical encounter between Spain and the cultures of India and the Middle East, bringing together flamenco dancers Xianix Barrera, Sol La Argentinita, and Ybarra himself with Middle Eastern performer Reyna Alcala, and Kathak dancers Henna Khanijou and Urvashie Kissoon; they will plumb the relationship of these diverse cultures to the flamenco form. Supporting these artists are singer Juan Murube, guitarists Miguel Aragon and Basilio Georges, and percussionist Walid Guzman. The theater is six stops from Grand Central on the 6 local; lots of interesting food to be found in the area.” (Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice)

=========================================================

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

The Armory Show (March 8-11)
Pier 94, 12th Ave. at 55th St./ mm
“During a slow week at the big auction houses, two fairs pick up the slack. The Armory Show, a sprawling contemporary-art fair, returns to Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s West Side. This year’s edition focusses on themes of immigration and access in its “Platform” series, a curated subsection of the fair devoted to larger, site-specific works. One of these pieces will be installed outside the venue: a huge image of immigrant families waiting in line, entitled “So Close,” by the French artist JR. Inside Pier 94, another installation, by the Brooklynite Tara Donovan, will feature a towering pile of plastic tubes.” (NewYorker)

Taste of Science New York | Consciousness: The Power and Vulnerability of the Brain
Drom, 85 Avenue A / 7-10PM, $5
“Enjoy an informal setting for a look at what anesthesia can tell us about about our sentience and “how neuroscientists identify the brain architecture that underpins consciousness.”

==============================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
==============================================================

Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

=====================================================

Bonus NYC Events – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are my favorite non jazz music venues on Manhattan’s WestSide. Hit the Hot Link and check out who’s playing tonight:

City Winery – 155 Varick St., citywinery.com, 212-608-0555
Joe’s Pub @ Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St., joespub.com, 212-967-7555
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St., beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
Town Hall – 123 W43rd St., thetownhall.org, 212-997-6661
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237W42nd St., bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St., lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474
and one more, not exactly WestSide
Bowery Ballroom – 6 Delancey St. boweryballroom.com,

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. caffevivaldi.com, 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening discovery and enjoyment.
See Below.

———————————————————————————————————-

NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):
=================================================================================

A PremierPub and 3 Good Eating Places – Greenwich Village

Caffe Vivaldi / 32 Jones Street (btw. Bleecker St./W4th St.)

Café Vivaldi is a classic, intimate club located in Greenwich Village on Jones Street, the street featured on the cover of Bob Dylan’s second album, “Freewheelin’. ”

maxresdefaultEach night Ishrat, the long time proprietor and impresario, carefully curates and schedules an eclectic series of musicians. You can often see him at his table in the corner, hard at work reviewing music videos and listening to cd demos on his laptop, scouting out future bookings. Musicians come from all over to play and sing in a club in Greenwich Village. Some are local New Yorkers, others are just passing through, in town for a few days.

There is a small bar, seating maybe 10. It’s close to the stage and I find it’s a perfect spot to sip a glass of red wine while listening to the music. The room itself has the performance area at one end and a cozy fireplace at the other. The performance area here is small, dominated by a large black Yamaha Grand piano. Tables are bunched together and most people at the tables are eating lite meals or sampling the wonderful desserts.

There is also a good selection of fairly priced wines,  but you are here because of the music. You can never be quite sure what you’re going to find, and that’s half the charm of this place. It’s not a home run every night, but many nights it’s pretty special.

I remember the night I saw the most talented bossa nova group, just in from San Paulo. As I listened, I wondered if there was any better music playing anywhere else in New York City that night. And at Caffé Vivaldi there is never a cover charge. Their recently redesigned web site does give you a better idea of the type of music playing each night.

At one time Greenwich Village was filled with clubs just like this, but times change. Real estate interests have impacted the village, and not for the better. Even Caffé Vivaldi had a rough time recently, when a new landlord raised the rent exorbitantly. Fortunately, Ishrat has built a loyal following over the years, and a fund raiser and slightly more reasonable rent has kept Café Vivaldi in business.

When Woody Allen and Al Pacino wanted to make movies featuring the timeless quality of Greenwich Village they came to Vivaldi. It’s important that we keep this special place alive, for if we lose Cafe Vivaldi, NYCity will have lost a piece of it’s soul.

Website: http://caffevivaldi.com/
Phone #: (212) 691-7538
Hours: Music generally 7:30PM – 11PM, but varies
Lunch/Dinner 11AM-on
Subway: #1 to Christopher St.
Walk 1 blk S. on 7th ave S. to Bleecker St., 1 blk left on Bleecker to Jones St., 50 yards left on Jones St. to Caffe V.
==============================================================
“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.

If you have a fave premier pub or good eating place on Manhattan’s WestSide let us all know about it – leave a comment.
========================================================

3 Good Eating places

It’s not difficult to find 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:

Fish – 280 Bleecker St. (just a bit S. of 7th ave South)
This was an easy pick – the best raw bar special in town. $9 gets you 6 of the freshest oysters or clams + a glass of wine or beer. Don’t know how they can do it, but I tell everyone I know about this place. And it’s located right in the heart of some of the best no cover music in town.

Bleecker Street Pizza – 69 7th ave S. (corner of Bleecker St.)
The place is tiny and not much to look at, but this is one good slice. They like to brag that they have been voted “Best pizza in NY” 3 years in a row by the Food Network. I believe them. I would have voted for them.

Num Pang – 21 E 12th St. (btw. University Place/5th ave.)
This is a Cambodian banh mi sandwich shop that kept me well fed while I was in class nearby recently. It’s cramped, even for NYCity, but usually there is room up the spiral staircase to sit down and eat. In good weather carry your sandwich a few blocks to Union Square park. You may have to wait a few minutes, because everything is freshly made, but it’s worth it. Can you believe – an unheard of 26 food rating by Zagat.

========================================================
“3 Good Eating places” focuses on a quick bite, what I call “Fine Fast Food – NYCity Style”
No reservations needed.
========================================================
NYCity is the most diverse and interesting place to find a meal anywhere in the world. With more than 24,000 eating establishments you might welcome some advice.

◊ For all my picks of 54 Good Eating places, and essays on my favorite 18 PremierPubs in 9 Neighborhoods on Manhattan’s WestSide, order a copy of my e-book:
“Eating and Drinking on NYCity’s WestSide” ($4.99, available Spring 2018).
◊ Order before May 31 28, 2018 and receive a bonus – 27 of my favorite casual dining places with free Wi-Fi.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/10) + Museum Special Exhibitions: Manhattan’s WestSide

Posted on 03/10/2018 by GregD

Today’s Super 7 NYC Events > SATURDAY/ MARCH 10, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

The House Is Black Media Project
Met Fifth Avenue, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium / 7PM, $35
“In The House Is Black, Iranian singer and performance artist Sussan Deyhim explores the life of poet-filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad through music, theater, and film. Farrokhzad, who died in a 1967 car accident at age 32, is an iconic modernist comparable to Sylvia Plath or Patti Smith. Trapped between tradition and transition, she developed a strong feminist voice but was condemned for her scandalous divorce. Her poetry was banned for more than a decade after the Islamic Revolution. Deyhim — who created this multimedia tribute in collaboration with co-composer Richard Horowitz and co-director Robert Egan — has been exploring Iran’s cultural tradition since the Seventies. The House Is Black, which takes its title from Farrokhzad’s remarkable documentary about life in a leper colony, touches on Persian classical music, jazz, and the trilling and ululating singer Deyhim’s early folk-music studies in Iran.” (VillageVoice)

=========================================================
6 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>>Carole J. Bufford: Come Together—When the 1960s Met the 1970s
>> La Bohème
>>Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob
>> Encuentro Flamenco
>> The Armory Show 
>> Seven Things I’ve Learned: An Evening with Ira Glass
——————————————————————
Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
======================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Carole J. Bufford: Come Together—When the 1960s Met the 1970s
Feinstein’s/54 Below / 9:30PM, $30+
“Bufford is one of cabaret’s brightest rising stars, with a distinctive, bluesy voice and a flair for the theatrical. Her new set surveys the musical landscape stretching from 1965 to 1975, including songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Simon and Garfunkel, Linda Ronstadt, Dusty Springfield, Carole King, Roberta Flack and others.” (tony)

La Bohème (LAST PERFORMANCE)
Metropolitan Opera House / 8:30PM, $
“The world’s most popular opera returns in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production, with a series of exciting casts. Angel Blue, Anita Hartig, and Sonya Yoncheva share the role of the fragile Mimì, with Dmytro Popov, Russell Thomas, and Michael Fabiano alternating as the poet Rodolfo. Alexander Soddy and Marco Armiliato share conducting duties.”

Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob (Mar.8-11)
Jazz Standard / 7:30PM, 9:30PM, $30
“Ringmasterly slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein leads two bands over four nights. First up is Sexmob, his rambunctious quartet with Briggan Krauss (saxophones), Tony Scherr (bass), and Kenny Wolleson (drums). Expect Sexmob — unbelievably playing its first jazz-club gig in twenty years of existence — to pump up the volume and pull out the stops on its repertoire of pop covers and allusive Bernstein originals. (Combustible keyboardist John Medeski joins in Friday.)

Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, on the other hand, is returning to its early-Nineties weekly residence with a 2017 album of Sly Stone covers in tow. Inspired by the itinerant pre-swing territory bands of the Twenties and Thirties, who brought popular songs to outlying audiences, the nine-piece MTO rips outrageously in response to Bernstein’s conductive antics. You won’t find a more entertaining stand-on-your-chair-and-holler conclave of jazz adventurists.” (Richard Gehr, Village Voice)

Elsewhere, but I’ll travel miles for Flamenco, worth the detour:

Encuentro Flamenco
Thalia Spanish Theatre, 8PM, $37–$45
“Danza España, under the direction of Yloy Ybarra, assays an ambitious dance and musical encounter between Spain and the cultures of India and the Middle East, bringing together flamenco dancers Xianix Barrera, Sol La Argentinita, and Ybarra himself with Middle Eastern performer Reyna Alcala, and Kathak dancers Henna Khanijou and Urvashie Kissoon; they will plumb the relationship of these diverse cultures to the flamenco form. Supporting these artists are singer Juan Murube, guitarists Miguel Aragon and Basilio Georges, and percussionist Walid Guzman. The theater is six stops from Grand Central on the 6 local; lots of interesting food to be found in the area.” (Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice)

=========================================================

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

The Armory Show (March 8-11)
Pier 94, 12th Ave. at 55th St./ mm
“During a slow week at the big auction houses, two fairs pick up the slack. The Armory Show, a sprawling contemporary-art fair, returns to Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s West Side. This year’s edition focusses on themes of immigration and access in its “Platform” series, a curated subsection of the fair devoted to larger, site-specific works. One of these pieces will be installed outside the venue: a huge image of immigrant families waiting in line, entitled “So Close,” by the French artist JR. Inside Pier 94, another installation, by the Brooklynite Tara Donovan, will feature a towering pile of plastic tubes.” (NewYorker)

Elsewhere, but Ira Glass should be worth the detour:

Seven Things I’ve Learned: An Evening with Ira Glass
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), 30 Lafayette Ave./ 7:30, $25
“In this unique talk, the iconic host of This American Life shares lessons from his life and career in storytelling. Using audio clips, music, and video, he shares his creative inspirations, the things that drive his passion, and how his many failures and successes have informed his decisions.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

===========================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
===========================================================================

Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

=====================================================
Bonus: Nifty 9 – Best Cabarets / Piano Bars NYCity
These are my favorite places for an after dinner night on the town – music and drinks.
Hit the Hot Link and check out what’s happening tonight:

Feinstein’s/54 Below – 254 W 54th St.

The Green Room 42 – 570 Tenth Ave.

Don’t Tell Mama – 343 W 46th St.

Marie’s Crisis – 59 Grove St.

The Rum House, in the Hotel Edison – 228 W. 47th St.

Laurie Beechman Theatre – 407 W 42nd St.

The Duplex – 61 Christopher St.

Sid Gold’s Request Room – 165 W 26th St.

Cafe Carlyle, in the Carlyle Hotel – 35 E. 76th St.
This is the only one not located on Manhattan’s WestSide, and it ain’t cheap, but it has some of the finest singers.

=========================================================

NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

===============================================================================

WHAT’S ON VIEW
My Fave Special Exhibitions – MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s WestSide
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museums,
and also to see their expanded reviews of exhibitions)

Museum of Modern Art:

A special pat on the back to MOMA, who is now displaying art from the seven countries affected by Trump’s travel ban.

“Trump’s ban against refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations has sparked acts of defiance in NYC, from demonstrations across town, to striking taxicab drivers at JFK to Middle Eastern bodega owners closing their shops in protest. Recently, the Museum Of Modern added its two cents by bringing out artworks it owns from the affected countries, and hanging them prominently within the galleries usually reserved for 19th- and 20th-century artworks from Europe and the United States. Paintings by Picasso and Matisse, for example, were removed to make way for pieces by Tala Madani (from Iran), Ibrahim El-Salahi (from Sudan) and architect Zaha Hadid (from Iraq). The rehanging, which was unannounced, aims to create a symbolic welcome that repudiates Trump by creating a visual dialog between the newly added works and the more familiar objects from MoMA’s permanent collection.” (TONY)

Stephen Shore (thru May 28)

“This immersive and staggeringly charming retrospective is devoted to one of the best American photographers of the past half century. Shore has peers—Joel Meyerowitz, Joel Sternfeld, Richard Misrach, and, especially, William Eggleston—in a generation that, in the nineteen-seventies, stormed to eminence with color film, which art photographers had long disdained. His best-known series, “American Surfaces” and “Uncommon Places,” are both from the seventies and were mostly made in rugged Western states. The pictures in these series share a quality of surprise: appearances surely unappreciated if even really noticed by anyone before—in rural Arizona, a phone booth next to a tall cactus, on which a crude sign (“GARAGE”) is mounted, and, on a small-city street in Wisconsin, a movie marquee’s neon wanly aglow, at twilight. A search for fresh astonishments has kept Shore peripatetic, on productive sojourns in Mexico, Scotland, Italy, Ukraine, and Israel. He has remained a vestigial Romantic, stopping in space and 
time to frame views that exert a peculiar tug on him. This framing is resolutely formalist: subjects composed laterally, from edge to edge, and in depth. There’s never a “background.” The most distant element is as considered as the nearest. But only when looking for it are you conscious of Shore’s formal discipline, because it is as fluent as a language learned from birth. His best pictures at once arouse feelings and leave us alone to make what we will of them. He delivers truths, whether hard or easy, with something very like mercy.” (NewYorker)

Tarsila do Amaral (thru June 3)

Introducing New York to the First Brazilian Modernist
“Forty-five years after Tarsila do Amaral’s death, MOMA presents her first-ever museum exhibition in the U.S. Some artists are so iconic, they’re known by only one name: Brancusi, Léger, Tarsila. Wait, who? The painter Tarsila do Amaral is so famous in her native Brazil that forty-three years after her death she helped close out the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when a projected pattern of red-orange-yellow arcs graced the stadium floor, an homage to her 1929 painting “Setting Sun.” That chimerical landscape—stylized sunset above tubular cacti and a herd of capybaras that shape-shift into boulders—hangs now at MOMA, in the artist’s first-ever museum exhibition in the U.S., “Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil.” (NewYorker)

==============================================================
For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 03/08 and 03/06.
============================================================

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/09) + Today’s Featured Pub (Tribeca)

Posted on 03/09/2018 by GregD

Today’s Super 7 NYC Events > FRIDAY/ MARCH 09, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Elsewhere, but I’ll travel miles for Flamenco, worth the detour:

Encuentro Flamenco
Thalia Spanish Theatre, 8PM, $37–$45
“Danza España, under the direction of Yloy Ybarra, assays an ambitious dance and musical encounter between Spain and the cultures of India and the Middle East, bringing together flamenco dancers Xianix Barrera, Sol La Argentinita, and Ybarra himself with Middle Eastern performer Reyna Alcala, and Kathak dancers Henna Khanijou and Urvashie Kissoon; they will plumb the relationship of these diverse cultures to the flamenco form. Supporting these artists are singer Juan Murube, guitarists Miguel Aragon and Basilio Georges, and percussionist Walid Guzman. The theater is six stops from Grand Central on the 6 local; lots of interesting food to be found in the area.” (Elizabeth Zimmer, Village Voice)

=========================================================
6 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> LEDISI PRESENTS ‘NINA AND ME’
>> FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART
>>Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob
>> The Armory Show 
>> Perverts, Creepers, and Freaks: A History of Sexual Perversions
>> StarTalk at BAM: Science Is Everywhere
——————————————————————
Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
======================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

LEDISI PRESENTS ‘NINA AND ME’
at the Apollo Theater / 8PM, $44+
“On her latest album, “Let Love Rule,” the vocalist Ledisi refuses to sit still. She moves from snakily grooving songs of uplift to romantic entreaties to reggae-tinged protest anthems. Altogether, the album seems to suggest a liberated neo-soul concept, constantly reimagining what a groove can feel like and how a voice can be woven into an ensemble sound. In the depth of her convictions and the proud intimacy of her reveal, Ledisi has some things in common with Nina Simone. At this concert, she will perform classics from Simone’s repertoire, as well as her own tunes. Her strong backing band includes the esteemed pianist and vocalist Patrice Rushen.” (NYT-GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Steven Bernstein’s Sexmob (Mar.8-11)
Jazz Standard / 7:30PM, 9:30PM, $30
“Ringmasterly slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein leads two bands over four nights. First up is Sexmob, his rambunctious quartet with Briggan Krauss (saxophones), Tony Scherr (bass), and Kenny Wolleson (drums). Expect Sexmob — unbelievably playing its first jazz-club gig in twenty years of existence — to pump up the volume and pull out the stops on its repertoire of pop covers and allusive Bernstein originals. (Combustible keyboardist John Medeski joins in Friday.)

Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra, on the other hand, is returning to its early-Nineties weekly residence with a 2017 album of Sly Stone covers in tow. Inspired by the itinerant pre-swing territory bands of the Twenties and Thirties, who brought popular songs to outlying audiences, the nine-piece MTO rips outrageously in response to Bernstein’s conductive antics. You won’t find a more entertaining stand-on-your-chair-and-holler conclave of jazz adventurists.” (Richard Gehr, Village Voice)

FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART (March 6-11)
Village Vanguard/ 8:30 and 10:30PM, $
“These three expert musicians all boast a lightness of touch and a keen sense of suspenseful development. Mr. Hersch, a pianist, has played separately with the bassist Mr. Gress and the drummer Mr. Hart, but they haven’t performed as a trio in more than a decade. This week provides a chance to hear three elder musicians whose creative drive remains undiminished, exploring a fresh scenario.” (NYT – GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

=========================================================

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

The Armory Show (March 8-11)
Pier 94, 12th Ave. at 55th St./ mm
“During a slow week at the big auction houses, two fairs pick up the slack. The Armory Show, a sprawling contemporary-art fair, returns to Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s West Side. This year’s edition focusses on themes of immigration and access in its “Platform” series, a curated subsection of the fair devoted to larger, site-specific works. One of these pieces will be installed outside the venue: a huge image of immigrant families waiting in line, entitled “So Close,” by the French artist JR. Inside Pier 94, another installation, by the Brooklynite Tara Donovan, will feature a towering pile of plastic tubes.” (NewYorker)

Perverts, Creepers, and Freaks: A History of Sexual Perversions
The Strand, 828 Broadway/ 7PM, $20, includes complimentary beer
“Historian Jamie Warren leads a Think Olio at The Strand that questions what we call “normal” as it covers “the history of sexual insiders and outsiders from the colonial era through the twentieth century.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

Elsewhere, but Neil deGrasse Tyson is always worth the detour:

StarTalk at BAM: Science Is Everywhere
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). 30 Lafayette Ave./ 7:30PM, $35
“Astrophysicist and star of StarTalk Neil deGrasse Tyson returns to BAM for the RadioLoveFest. He’ll be joined by the hosts of StarTalk All-Stars and Playing with Science for a session called “Science Is Everywhere.” They’ll show off the major, if occasionally overlooked, role that science plays in our lives.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

===========================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
===========================================================================

Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

===========================================================
Bonus NYC events– Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Hit the Hot Link and check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. So., villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037 (1st 8:30)
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592 (1st set 8pm)
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883 (1st 7pm)
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346 (1st 8)
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346 (1st set 7:30pm)
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319 (6pm)

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595 (1st set 7:30pm)
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080 (1st 8:30pm)
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com/ 212-864-6662 (7pm)

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538 (1st 7pm)
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

=========================================================

NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

================================================================================

A PremierPub / Tribeca

B-Flat / 277 Church St. (btw Franklin/White St))

b_flat4There are some places that are tough to find, then add a layer of mystery when you do find them. B-Flat has a nondescript, almost unmarked door at street level – today’s speakeasy vibe. Open this door and you face a dimly lit stairway down to their basement location. It almost takes a leap of faith to follow the stairs down to their interior door.
But open that door and a pleasant surprise awaits you.

It’s a basement jazz spot all right, but not like any traditional jazz joint you may have been to before. This place looks as fresh as today, probably because it’s only been open for 6 years. Even though it hasn’t had a chance to age gracefully, the cherry wood accents and low lighting make this small space very inviting.

There is always jazz, often progressive jazz, playing over their very discrete, stylish bose speakers, setting just the right tone as you find a seat at the bar, or one of the small tables. There is wine and beer available, but this place has some expert mixologists making some very creative cocktails, which I’m told change seasonally, a nice touch.

Come at happy hour and tasty cocktails like the el Diablo or the lychee martini are $8 – not bad. I am a sucker for any drink made with lychee and how can you not try a tequila drink named el Diablo. There is also nice selection of small bites available at happy hour and a food menu that is as innovative as the cocktail menu, so this does not have to be a happy hour only stop.

It wasn’t surprising to find a tasty prosciutto and arugula salad with yuzu dressing, but I did not expect to find such a good version of fried chicken breast on the apps menu. Here it’s called “Tatsuta.” Best bet is to sample happy hour, then dinner on a Monday or Wednesday night, when you can finish with no cover live jazz that starts around 8.

This place is tough to find (look for a small slate sandwich board on the sidewalk out front advertising happy hour) and on some nights when there is no live music it may be a little too quiet for some. But I think it’s worth searching out if you want a place with good music, food, and especially drinks, away from the maddening crowd.

Website: http://http://www.bflat.info/index.html
Phone #: 212-219-2970
Hours: Mo-Wed 5pm-2am; Th-Sat 5pm-3am; no Sun
Happy Hour: 5-7pm every day; $8 cocktails + special prices on apps
Music: Mon/Wed 8pm
Subway: #1 to Franklin; walk E 1 blk to Church; N 1 blk to bFlat

==================================================================================
“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.
============================================================

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/08) + GallerySpecialExhibits: Chelsea

Posted on 03/08/2018 by GregD

Today’s Elite 8 NYC Events > THURSDAY/ MARCH 08, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Madama Butterfly (next performance Mar.13, 7:30PM)
The Metropolitan Opera House / 7:30PM, $25+
“Anthony Minghella’s stunning production of Puccini’s heartbreaking opera, an instant Met classic since its 2006 premiere, returns with Hui He and Ermonela Jaho in the tragic title role of the trusting geisha. Roberto Aronica and Luis Chapa alternate as her callous American lover, Pinkerton, and Jader Bignamini and Marco Armiliato conduct.”

=========================================================
7 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> Stephanie Chou
>> FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART
>>Bernie Williams
>> The Armory Show 
>> Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall & His Times
>> Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas
>> Art Battle NYC
——————————————————————
Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
======================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

Stephanie Chou
Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center / 7:30PM, FREE, better get there early for a seat.
“New York–based saxophonist, singer, and composer Stephanie Chou makes beautiful experimental pop by blending traditional Chinese music with elements of jazz, contemporary classical music, spoken word, folk, and the American singer-songwriter tradition. Among the music on tonight’s setlist, she’ll perform works from her latest album, Asymptote, which includes invigorating arrangements of Chinese classics such as “Kangding Love Song,” “The Moon Represents My Heart,” the tongue twister “Eating Grapes,” and a setting of one of Li Bai’s most famous poems.”

FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART (March 6-11)
  Village Vanguard/ 8:30 and 10:30PM, $
“These three expert musicians all boast a lightness of touch and a keen sense of suspenseful development. Mr. Hersch, a pianist, has played separately with the bassist Mr. Gress and the drummer Mr. Hart, but they haven’t performed as a trio in more than a decade. This week provides a chance to hear three elder musicians whose creative drive remains undiminished, exploring a fresh scenario.” (NYT – GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Bernie Williams
Café Carlyle / 8:45PM, $80
“…. But no other professional baseball player in the sport’s history has perhaps enjoyed a cooler post-MLB career outside of Moe Berg than Bernie Williams, who followed up his tenure on the winningest Yankees team in history by diving deep into the art of Latin jazz guitar, which he had begun in his final years with the club. His solo debut from 2003, The Journey Within, was an out-of-left-field surprise featuring an all-star band comprised of such names as Leland Sklar on bass, E-Street Band keyboardist David Sancious, and the great Kenny Aronoff on drums, among others. His 2009 follow-up, Moving Forward, scored cameos from Mike Stern, Bruce Springsteen, and the late NBA star–turned–jazz bassist Wayman Tisdale.

Now, Williams makes his return to jazz since retiring from baseball in 2015, with a week-long stint at the Café Carlyle, where no confirmed set list is promised (“elements of improv jazz” are foretold). Are we going to see Bernie the guitar player go full Joe Pass in the house that Bobby Short built? For fans of both jazz and baseball who are lucky enough to land a ticket to this special homecoming for one of the most beloved guys to ever don the pinstripes, we can only hope.” (Ron Hart, Village Voice)

=========================================================

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

The Armory Show (March 8-11)
Pier 94, 12th Ave. at 55th St./ mm
“During a slow week at the big auction houses, two fairs pick up the slack. The Armory Show, a sprawling contemporary-art fair, returns to Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s West Side. This year’s edition focusses on themes of immigration and access in its “Platform” series, a curated subsection of the fair devoted to larger, site-specific works. One of these pieces will be installed outside the venue: a huge image of immigrant families waiting in line, entitled “So Close,” by the French artist JR. Inside Pier 94, another installation, by the Brooklynite Tara Donovan, will feature a towering pile of plastic tubes.” (NewYorker)

Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall & His Times
Fraunces Tavern Museum, 54 Pearl St./6:30PM, $10
“Learn about the remarkable story of John Marshall who, as chief justice, statesman, and diplomat, played a pivotal role in the founding of the United States.”

Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas
South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St./ 6:30PM, $10
“Take a different tack on Women’s History Month with a book talk on Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas.”(thoughtgallery.org)

Art Battle NYC
Le Poisson Rouge / 8pm; $20
The solitary art of painting becomes a spectator sport at this showdown, where live painters face off in front of a crowd for a chance to compete in the international Art Battle championships. Watch as 12 artists spray and splash an assortment of paint during timed rounds, with drinks and music to keep the audience screaming. Paint on.” (TONY)

===========================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
===========================================================================

Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

=====================================================

Bonus NYC Events – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are my favorite non jazz music venues on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who’s playing tonight:

City Winery – 155 Varick St., citywinery.com, 212-608-0555
Joe’s Pub @ Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St., joespub.com, 212-967-7555
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St., beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
Town Hall – 123 W43rd St., thetownhall.org, 212-997-6661
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237W42nd St., bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St., lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474
and one more, not exactly WestSide
Bowery Ballroom – 6 Delancey St. boweryballroom.com,

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. caffevivaldi.com, 212-691-7538
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening discovery and enjoyment.
===========================================================

NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

================================================================================

Chelsea Art Gallery District*

Chelsea is the heart of the NYCity contemporary art scene. Home to more than 300 art galleries, the Rubin Museum, the Joyce Theater and The Kitchen performance spaces, there is no place like it anywhere in the world. Come here to browse free exhibitions by world-renowned artists and those unknowns waiting to be discovered in an art district that is concentrated between West 18th and West 27th Streets, and 10th and 11th Avenues. Afterwards stop in the Chelsea Market, stroll on the High Line, or rest up at one of the many cafes and bars and discuss the fine art.

Here is an exhibition the New Yorker likes:

“The Shadow Archive: An Investigation Into Vernacular Portrait Photography”

Walther Collection, 526 W. 26th St. (thru Mar.31)

“The first in a multiyear series of shows about photographs made for commercial or practical purposes, curated by Brian Wallis, considers the portrait. Most of the images date to the nineteenth century; all of them fit into typologies. Fifteen tintypes of “workers with tools of their trade” include a barber, a piano tuner, and a sword swallower; several mug shots attributed to the California sheriff Thomas Cunningham are so picturesque that they could be mistaken for stills from a Hollywood period piece. Passport photographers across Africa take full-length portraits and cut out the heads, leaving behind accidental studies of fashion. A mesmerizing series of such discards, shown here, were taken against a red background in Gulu, Uganda, and collected by the Italian-born journalist Martina Bacigalupo. A found group of forty-eight color snapshots of migrant farmworkers, each holding up a paper number—their source is unknown—takes the idea of identifying documents in a more chilling direction.”

And an exhibition NY Magazine likes:

Carrie Moyer: Pagan’s Rapture
Sweeping auras and boreal nights.
DC Moore Gallery, 535 West 22nd Street, (thru Mar.22).
“Carrie Moyer is making the hottest, most ambitious and optically ferocious abstract paintings of her life. Sensual passages of stains, drips, and what look like imprints made from available female bodies conjure a world of light, cloud-scapes, body interiors, sex up close, and diamond gasses. The spaces she creates are simultaneously deep, biological, psychological, and metaphysical.” (J.S.)

==========================================================

For a listing of 25 essential galleries in the Chelsea Art Gallery District, organized by street, which enables you to create your own Chelsea Art Gallery crawl, see the Chelsea Gallery Guide (nycgo.com) Or check out TONY magazine’s list of the “Best Chelsea Galleries” and click through to see what’s on view.

*Now plan your own gallery crawl, but better to plan your visits for Tuesday through Saturday; most galleries are closed Sunday and Monday.

TIP: After your gallery tour, stop in Ovest at 513W27th St. for Aperitivo Italiano (Happy Hour on steroids). Discuss all the great art you have viewed over a drink and a very tasty selection of FREE appetizers (M-F, 5-8pm). OR try the NYT recommendation: “When you’re done, adjourn to the newly renovated Bottino , the Chelsea art world’s unofficial canteen on 10th Avenue (btw 24/25 St.) “

=======================================================
For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see recent posts in right sidebar dated 03/06 and 03/04.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/07) + Today’s Featured Pub (Upper West Side)

Posted on 03/07/2018 by GregD

Today’s Sweet 6 NYC Events > WEDNESDAY/ MARCH 07, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

===========================================================

Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Elsewhere, but this looks worth the detour:

Elvis Costello
Brooklyn Steel, 319 Frost St.,/ 8PM, $80
“Costello isn’t the intense spitfire he was in the late seventies, when he led the crop of angry young men who bridged the gap between punk and New Wave. Nor is he the songwriting superhero he was in the eighties, when he could knock out classic albums like “King of America” and “Blood and Chocolate” in the same year, or the restless talent of the nineties, when he jumped from genre to genre, often via collaboration, flirting with classical (“The Juliet Letters,” with the Brodsky Quartet) and sublimely subtle adult pop (“Painted from Memory,” with Burt Bacharach). These days, though, Costello still makes interesting choices (his last record, “Wise Up Ghost,” was a team-up with the Roots), and he’s increasingly sharing the details of his life with his fans; recent New York concerts have included a large-screen display of family photos, scribbled notes, and other personal ephemera.” (NewYorker)

=========================================================
5 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> EZRA FURMAN AND ANNA BURCH
>> FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART
>> La Bohème
>>Bernie Williams
>> AMNH Presents, SciCafe: Primate Palate: Orangutans, Obesity, and Human Evolution
——————————————————————
Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
=======================================

Music, Dance, Performing Arts

EZRA FURMAN AND ANNA BURCH
at Bowery Ballroom / 9 p.m., $17
“Ezra Furman’s most recent album, “Transangelic Exodus,” is a radical revision of the American rock canon. Songs like “Suck the Blood From My Wound” (where Mr. Furman rhymes “Pasadena” with “deus ex machina”) use distinctly Springsteen-esque tropes — forbidden lovers, cars speeding toward state lines — to tell a story about life outside restrictive social binaries. Arrive at this show early to catch an opening set by the witty singer-songwriter Anna Burch.” (NYT-SIMON VOZICK-LEVINSON)

La Bohème (Oct 2-Mar 10) next and last performance Mar.10- 8:30PM
Metropolitan Opera House / 8PM, $
“The world’s most popular opera returns in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production, with a series of exciting casts. Angel Blue, Anita Hartig, and Sonya Yoncheva share the role of the fragile Mimì, with Dmytro Popov, Russell Thomas, and Michael Fabiano alternating as the poet Rodolfo. Alexander Soddy and Marco Armiliato share conducting duties.”

FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART (March 6-11)
at the Village Vanguard / 8:30 and 10:30PM, $
“These three expert musicians all boast a lightness of touch and a keen sense of suspenseful development. Mr. Hersch, a pianist, has played separately with the bassist Mr. Gress and the drummer Mr. Hart, but they haven’t performed as a trio in more than a decade. This week provides a chance to hear three elder musicians whose creative drive remains undiminished, exploring a fresh scenario.” (NYT – GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Bernie Williams
Café Carlyle / 8:45PM, $80
“…. But no other professional baseball player in the sport’s history has perhaps enjoyed a cooler post-MLB career outside of Moe Berg than Bernie Williams, who followed up his tenure on the winningest Yankees team in history by diving deep into the art of Latin jazz guitar, which he had begun in his final years with the club. His solo debut from 2003, The Journey Within, was an out-of-left-field surprise featuring an all-star band comprised of such names as Leland Sklar on bass, E-Street Band keyboardist David Sancious, and the great Kenny Aronoff on drums, among others. His 2009 follow-up, Moving Forward, scored cameos from Mike Stern, Bruce Springsteen, and the late NBA star–turned–jazz bassist Wayman Tisdale.

Now, Williams makes his return to jazz since retiring from baseball in 2015, with a week-long stint at the Café Carlyle, where no confirmed set list is promised (“elements of improv jazz” are foretold). Are we going to see Bernie the guitar player go full Joe Pass in the house that Bobby Short built? For fans of both jazz and baseball who are lucky enough to land a ticket to this special homecoming for one of the most beloved guys to ever don the pinstripes, we can only hope.” (Ron Hart, Village Voice)

=========================================================

Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

AMNH Presents, SciCafe: Primate Palate: Orangutans, Obesity, and Human Evolution
American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St. (Enter at 81st St.) / 7PM, FREE
Primate dietary ecologist Dr. Erin Vogel shares her research on wild orangutans from the tropical forests of Sumatra and Borneo. She’ll reveal how their diets, behavior, and metabolism provide insights into human conditions.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

===========================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
===========================================================================

Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

=====================================================
Bonus: Nifty 9 – Best Cabarets / Piano Bars NYCity
These are my favorite places for an after dinner night on the town – music and drinks.
Check out what’s happening tonight:

Feinstein’s/54 Below – 254 W 54th St.

The Green Room 42 – 570 Tenth Ave.

Don’t Tell Mama – 343 W 46th St.

Marie’s Crisis – 59 Grove St.

The Rum House, in the Hotel Edison – 228 W. 47th St.

Laurie Beechman Theatre – 407 W 42nd St.

The Duplex – 61 Christopher St.

Sid Gold’s Request Room – 165 W 26th St.

Cafe Carlyle, in the Carlyle Hotel – 35 E. 76th St.
This is the only one not located on Manhattan’s WestSide, and it ain’t cheap, but it has some of the finest singers.

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NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):
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A PremierPub / Upper West Side

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que / 700 W125th St. @ 12th ave.

Walk only five minutes from the 125th St. station on the #1 line to find this authentic honky-tonk barbecue joint. Some folks think Dinosaur is just a place to eat ribs. Au contraire. With 24 carefully selected taps, this is a place to drink beer, and eat ribs.

HarlHostStandNo food goes better with American craft ales than American barbecue. Dinosaur may be the best combo of good beer drinking and hearty eating in town, which makes the trip uptown to West Harlem totally worthwhile.

This second incarnation of Dinosaur in Harlem is in a two story, old brick warehouse near the Hudson River. Don’t let that run down exterior fool you. Inside it’s a large space with huge, rough wooden columns and unfinished wooden floors and brick walls – just right for a bbq joint. As soon as you open the front door you are hit with that tantalizing aroma of barbecue coming from the large open kitchen. Reminds me of those great rib joints I frequented when stationed in North Carolina all those years ago. If your stomach wasn’t grumbling before, it is now.

Head to the bar, sit down and try to decide on a beer. It’s not an easy decision – a good problem to have. This is a pretty damn good beer list to choose from, one that most beer bars should be jealous of. I love that they feature NY craft beers. You may want to try the four beer sampler, which is always fun, and in this place may be necessary.

The blues music playing in the background will get you in the mood for their North Carolina style barbecue, and even when it’s a full house your order shouldn’t take too long (assuming you snagged a table). The food is all slow smoked, so it’s already mostly done and ready to go. I always start with an order of their giant, spice rubbed wings, so good they may make you give up Buffalo wings.

Unfortunately, a place this good does not fly under the radar. There can be some long waits for a table at dinnertime. So you need a strategy – avoid prime time, and try not to arrive with your entire posse, which will limit your seating options.

A seat at the bar, a small table in the bar area, or in the summer, an outside table underneath what’s left of the elevated West Side Highway, all may open before a table inside the main dining room. Otherwise, try Dinosaur for lunch, or come very late for dinner, maybe after a show at the nearby Cotton Club nightclub.

Website: http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com/
Phone #: 212-694-1777
Hours: Mo-Th 11:30am-11:00pm; Fr-Sa 11:30am-12:00am;
Su 12:00pm-10:00pm
Happy Hour: 4-7pm every day; $1 off all drinks
Music: Fri / Sat 10:30pm
Subway: #1 to 125th St.
Walk 2 blk W on 125th St. to Dinosaur Bar-B-Q,
just past the elevated highway.
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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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NYC Events,”Only the Best” (03/06) + Museum Special Exhibitions: Manhattan’s 5th Avenue

Posted on 03/06/2018 by GregD

Today’s Sweet 6 NYC Events > TUESDAY/ MARCH 06, 2018

“We search the internet everyday looking for the very best of What’s Happening, primarily on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.” We make it as easy as 1-2-3.

For future NYC Events, better check the tab above: “NYC Events-March”
It’s the most comprehensive list of top events this month that you will find anywhere.
Carefully curated from “Only the Best” NYC event info on the the web, it’s a simply superb resource that will help you plan your NYC visit all over town, all through the month.

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Have time for only one NYC Event today? Do this:

Bernie Williams
Café Carlyle / 8:45PM, $80
“…. But no other professional baseball player in the sport’s history has perhaps enjoyed a cooler post-MLB career outside of Moe Berg than Bernie Williams, who followed up his tenure on the winningest Yankees team in history by diving deep into the art of Latin jazz guitar, which he had begun in his final years with the club. His solo debut from 2003, The Journey Within, was an out-of-left-field surprise featuring an all-star band comprised of such names as Leland Sklar on bass, E-Street Band keyboardist David Sancious, and the great Kenny Aronoff on drums, among others. His 2009 follow-up, Moving Forward, scored cameos from Mike Stern, Bruce Springsteen, and the late NBA star–turned–jazz bassist Wayman Tisdale.

Now, Williams makes his return to jazz since retiring from baseball in 2015, with a week-long stint at the Café Carlyle, where no confirmed set list is promised (“elements of improv jazz” are foretold). Are we going to see Bernie the guitar player go full Joe Pass in the house that Bobby Short built? For fans of both jazz and baseball who are lucky enough to land a ticket to this special homecoming for one of the most beloved guys to ever don the pinstripes, we can only hope.” (Ron Hart, Village Voice)

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5 OTHER TOP NYC EVENTS TODAY (see below for full listing)
>> CANDICE HOYES AND DORMESHIA SUMBREY-EDWARDS
>> FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART
>> Semiramide
>>Panel Discussion on Science Fiction with Samuel R. Delany
>> Brewshop 101: Home Brewing Essentials
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Continuing Events
>>STREB EXTREME ACTION
>>Whiteout
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Music, Dance, Performing Arts

CANDICE HOYES AND DORMESHIA SUMBREY-EDWARDS
at Harlem Stage (one of my fave venues) / 7:30PM, $20
“The great singer, dancer, actress and activist Lena Horne would have turned 100 this past June (she died in 2010), and in honor of that anniversary, the vocalist Candice Hoyes and the tap dancer Dormeshia Sumbrey-Edwards have teamed up to pay tribute. Ms. Hoyes follows Horne’s decades-long career through music, while Ms. Sumbrey-Edwards, long one of tap’s modern masters, celebrates Horne’s work on Broadway and in film, and especially her early years as a dancer at the Cotton Club.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

FRED HERSCH, DREW GRESS AND BILLY HART (March 6-11)
at the Village Vanguard / 8:30 and 10:30PM, $
“These three expert musicians all boast a lightness of touch and a keen sense of suspenseful development. Mr. Hersch, a pianist, has played separately with the bassist Mr. Gress and the drummer Mr. Hart, but they haven’t performed as a trio in more than a decade. This week provides a chance to hear three elder musicians whose creative drive remains undiminished, exploring a fresh scenario.” (NYT – GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO)

Semiramide (next performance Mar.10, 1PM)
Metropolitan Opera House / 7:30PM, $27+
“This masterpiece of dazzling vocal fireworks makes a rare Met appearance—its first in nearly 25 years—with Maurizio Benini on the podium. The all-star bel canto cast features Angela Meade in the title role of the murderous Queen of Babylon, who squares off in breathtaking duets with Arsace, a trouser role sung by Elizabeth DeShong. Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov, and Ryan Speedo Green complete the stellar cast.”

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Smart Stuff / Other NYC Events
(Lectures/Discussions, Book Talks, Film, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)

Panel Discussion on Science Fiction with Samuel R. Delany
Grolier Club, 47 E. 60th St./ 6PM, FREE
“Samuel R. Delany is just one of the big-name authors you’ll find at a Grolier Club panel discussion in tandem with the club’s current second-floor gallery show, “A Conversation Larger Than the Universe”: Science Fiction and the Literature of the Fantastic from the Collection of Henry Wessells.” (ThoughtGallery.org)

Elsewhere, but if you like beer this sure looks worth the detour:

Brewshop 101: Home Brewing Essentials
Bitter and Esters, 700 Washington ave. Bklyn / 6:30PM, $55
“Bitter and Esters is to beer nerds what Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory was to Charlie Bucket. Geek out over all the bubblers, kettles and other brewing gadgets, then sign up for one of the shop’s DIY brewing classes to learn how to make your favorite beer at home. The expert instructor will give you the lowdown on extract brewing, malts, grains and yeasts, then tell you how to spot common problems during the brewing process.” (TONY)

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♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, plus dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 60 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2017 – awesome! BUT quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats for these top NYC events in advance, even if just earlier on the day of performance.
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Continuing Events

This is not Manhattan’s WestSide, but it is Brooklyn’s WestSide. If you have never seen these crazy, fearless performers, they are well worth the detour:

STREB EXTREME ACTION (March 2-25 at various times)
at SLAM, 51 N 1st St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
“Elizabeth Streb’s cavernous Brooklyn space is known as SLAM (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics), which is also a frequent move that occurs at one of her shows. For the month of March, her fearless team of action heroes, as they’re called, will navigate intimidating industrial contraptions and fling themselves from unnatural heights, seemingly defying physics with the pep of cheerleaders. The hourlong show, “S.E.A.” (“Singular Extreme Actions”), encapsulates all the thrill, humor and energizing fun that makes this company so singular.” (NYT-BRIAN SCHAEFER)

Let there be light!
Erwin Redl’s Whiteout, a newly commissioned public art project, will light up in Madison Square Park. It consists of hundreds of transparent white spheres, each embedded with a white LED light, and suspended from a square grid of steel poles. The swaying sequence of light will be on display until April 2018.

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Bonus NYC events– Jazz Clubs:
Many consider NYCity the Jazz capital of the world. Here are my favorite Jazz clubs, all on Manhattan’s WestSide. Hit the Hot Link and check out who is playing tonight:

Greenwich Village:
(5 are underground, classic jazz joints. all 6 are within walking distance of each other):
Village Vanguard – UG, 178 7th Ave. So., villagevanguard.com, 212-255-4037 (1st 8:30)
Blue Note – 131 W3rd St. nr 6th ave. bluenotejazz.com, 212-475-8592 (1st set 8pm)
55 Bar – basement @55 Christopher St. nr 7th ave.S. 55bar.com, 212-929-9883 (1st 7pm)
Mezzrow – basement @ 163 W10th St. nr 7th Ave. mezzrow.com,646-476-4346 (1st 8)
Smalls – basement @ 183 W10th St. smallslive.com, 646-476-4346 (1st set 7:30pm)
Cornelia Street Cafe – UG, 29 Cornelia St. corneliastreetcafe.com, 212-989-9319 (6pm)

Outside Greenwich Village:
Dizzy’s Club – Broadway @ 60th St. — jazz.org/dizzys / 212-258-9595 (1st set 7:30pm)
Birdland – 315 W44th St.(btw 8/9ave) — birdlandjazz.com / 212-581-3080 (1st 8:30pm)
Smoke Jazz Club – 2751 Broadway nr.106th St. — smokejazz.com/ 212-864-6662 (7pm)

Special Mention:
Caffe Vivaldi – 32 Jones St. nr Bleecker St. — caffevivaldi.com / 212-691-7538 (1st 7pm)
a classic, old jazz club in the Village, Caffe V often surprises with a wonderfully eclectic lineup. It’s my favorite spot for an evening of listening enjoyment and discovery.

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NYCity Vacation Travel Guide Video (Expedia):

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WHAT’S ON VIEW
These are My Fave Special Exhibitions @ MUSEUMS / Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue
(See the New York Times Arts Section for listings of all museum exhibitions,
and also see the expanded reviews of these exhibitions)

Museum of the City of New York

NY AT ITS CORE (ongoing)
“Ten years in the making, New York at Its Core tells the compelling story of New York’s rise from a striving Dutch village to today’s “Capital of the World.” The exhibition captures the human energy that drove New York to become a city like no other and a subject of fascination the world over. Entertaining, inspiring, important, and at times bemusing, New York City “big personalities,” including Alexander Hamilton, Walt Whitman, Boss Tweed, Emma Goldman, JP Morgan, Fiorello La Guardia, Jane Jacobs, Jay-Z, and dozens more, parade through the exhibition. Visitors will also learn the stories of lesser-known New York personalities, like Lenape chieftain Penhawitz and Italian immigrant Susie Rocco. Even animals like the horse, the pig, the beaver, and the oyster, which played pivotal roles in the economy and daily life of New York, get their moment in the historical spotlight. Occupying the entire first floor in three interactive galleries (Port City, 1609-1898, World City, 1898-2012, and Future City Lab) New York at Its Core is shaped by four themes: money, density, diversity, and creativity. Together, they provide a lens for examining the character of the city, and underlie the modern global metropolis we know today. mcny.org” (NYCity Guide)

Frick Collection

Veronese in Murano: Two Venetian Renaissance Masterpieces Restored (thru Mar.25)

“In between jobs for doges and popes, the sixteenth-century Italian painter, who was born Paolo Caliari in Verona, completed two large paintings for a chapel in a convent graveyard on the Venetian island of Murano. One portrayed St. Jerome during his stint as a hermit in the Syrian desert; the other showed St. Agatha, imprisoned by a Roman consul for resisting his advances. Recently restored and leaving Italy for the first time, the canvases are remarkable for the subtlety of their color. Under matte and powdery surfaces, Jerome’s cardinal-red loincloth shimmers like real silk, the dark-green leaves of an overhead laurel branch look waxy, and a line of clouds at the bottom of the sky are simultaneously pink and orange. Agatha, sharing her cell with an apparition of St. Peter and a small blond angel, is perfectly distinct in every detail while still chromatically at home in a dim prison. Equally remarkable is Veronese’s understated insight into the ambivalent humanity of his saintly characters. Jerome has stopped mortifying his flesh with a rock to gaze up at a crucifix, but the way he holds his arm suggests that he might suddenly toss the stone at his distant Saviour instead. Agatha turns her head only halfway, as if unwilling to withdraw full attention from her own suffering merely on the strength of St. Peter’s promises.” (NewYorker)

Zurbarán’s Jacob and His Twelve Sons: Paintings from Auckland Castle (thru April 22)

Francisco de Zurbarán was the second-best painter in seventeenth-century Spain—no disgrace when the champion, his Seville-born near-exact contemporary, happened to be Diego Velázquez, who arguably remains better than anybody, ever. In this room-filling show, thirteen life-size imagined portraits, painted by Zurbarán circa 1640-45, constitute a terrific feat of Baroque storytelling: the movies of their day. Each character has a distinct personality, uniquely posed, costumed, and accessorized, and towering against a bright, clouded sky. All appear in the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis, in which the dying Jacob prophesies the fates of the founders-to-be of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. After nearly four centuries, the canvases sorely need cleaning. The brilliance of their colors has dimmed, notably in passages of brocade and other sumptuous fabrics—a forte of Zurbarán, whose father was a haberdasher. But most of the pictures retain power aplenty. Spend time with them, half an hour minimum. Their glories bloom slowly, as you register the formal decisions that practically spring the figures from their surfaces into the room with you, and as you ponder, if you will, the stories that they plumb. (NewYorker)

Jewish Museum

‘SCENES FROM THE COLLECTION’  “After a surgical renovation to its grand pile on Fifth Avenue, the Jewish Museum has reopened its third-floor galleries with a rethought and refreshed display of its permanent collection, which intermingles modern and contemporary art, by Jews and gentiles alike — Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, and the excellent young Nigerian draftswoman Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze — with 4,000 years of Judaica. The works are shown in a nimble, non-chronological suite of galleries, and some of its century-spanning juxtapositions are bracing; others feel reductive, even dilletantish. But always, the Jewish Museum conceives of art and religion as interlocking elements of a story of civilization, commendably open to new influences and new interpretations.” (Farago) 212-423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org

and you should be sure to check out these special exhibitions at that little museum on Fifth Ave., The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(open 7 days /week, AND always Pay What You Wish)

‘BIRDS OF A FEATHER: JOSEPH CORNELL’S HOMAGE TO JUAN GRIS’ (through April 15). “This small, hyper-specialized, stunning exhibition brings together a grand total of only 13 works — a dozen shadow boxes by Joseph Cornell, the Queens-based assemblage artist, and a Cubist masterwork that he cited as their direct inspiration. Gris’s “Man at the Café” (1914) might seem like a surprising obsession for Cornell, who was not a painter nor a Frenchman. He and Gris never met. But Cornell was deeply moved by Gris, the overlooked, tagalong third in the Cubist movement that also included Picasso and Braque, and the show succeeds in tracking the fluttery ways of artistic inspiration.”
(Deborah Solomon)
212-535-7710, metmuseum.org

‘THE FACE OF DYNASTY: ROYAL CRESTS FROM WESTERN CAMEROON’ (through Sept. 3). “Upstairs, the Michelangelos continue to knock ‘em dead; downstairs, in the African wing, a show of just four commanding wooden crowns constitutes a blockbuster of its own. These massive wooden crests — in the form of stylized human faces with vast vertical brows — served as markers of royal power among the Bamileke peoples of the Cameroonian grasslands, and the Met’s recent acquisition of an 18th-century specimen is joined here by three later examples, each featuring sharply protruding cheeks, broadly smiling mouths, and brows incised with involute geometric patterns. Ritual objects like these were decisive for the development of western modernist painting, and a Cameroonian crest was even shown at MoMA in the 1930s, as a “sculpture” divorced from ethnography. But these crests had legal and diplomatic significance as well as aesthetic appeal, and their anonymous African creators had a political understanding of art not so far from our own.” (Farago)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Eight museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio (closed Sun-Mon)*
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York (open 7 days /week)
•  92nd Street – The Jewish Museum (closed Wed) (Sat FREE) (Thu 5-8 PWYW)
•  91st Street  –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (open 7 days /week)
•  89th Street –  National Academy Museum (closed Mon-Tue)
•  88th Street –  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (closed Thu) (Sat 6-8 PWYW)
•  86th Street –  Neue Galerie New York (closed Tue-Wed) (Fri 6-8 FREE)
Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
•  82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art (open 7 days /week)*
*always Pay What You Wish (PWYW)

Although technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection (closed Mon) (Wed 2-6pm PWYW; First Friday each month (exc Jan+Sep) 6-9pm FREE) on the corner of 70th St. and Fifth Avenue and the The Morgan Library & Museum (closed Mon) (Fri 7-9 FREE) on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave.
Now plan your own museum crawl (info on hours & admission updated June 2, 2015).
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 03/04 and 03/02.
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