NYCity 1-2-3 : What's Happening / Manhattan's WestSide

“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.
(click on links for more complete event info.)

Have time for only one event today? Do this:
Joyce, Dori Caymmi, Trio da Paz (LAST DAY)
Birdland, 315 West 44th St./ 8:30 + 11PM, $40
“Billed as “A Rare Appearance of Brazilian Greats,” this engagement features the singer-songwriters Dori Caymmi and Joyce Moreno — backed by the samba-jazz cooperative Trio da Paz, consisting of Romero Lubambo on guitar, Nilson Matta on bass and Duduka Da Fonseca on drums.” (Chinen-NYT)

Music, Dance, Performing Arts
Christian McBride/Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th St. & Broadway / 8PM, $
“A big-band double bill, with a natural emphasis on uplift. Mr. McBride, a bassist and composer-bandleader with a muscular approach — and, as of last week, a five-time Grammy winner — leads his big band, which won him one of those awards. And the Hot 9, jointly led by the pianist Henry Butler and the trumpeter Steven Bernstein, puts a freewheeling and often funky spin on throwback jazz traditionalism.” (Chinen-NYT)

Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet (through Feb. 28)
Village Vanguard, 178 7thAve. S. at 11th St./ 8:30 + 10:30PM, $30
“The title of his 2014 album, “The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint,” is still open to interpretation, but the effect of Akinmusire’s trumpet is immediate and unambiguous. His stirring playing will be on display in a stripped-down quartet setting—joining Akinmusire are the pianist Sam Harris, the guitarist Harish Raghavan, and the drummer Justin Brown.” (NewYorker)

Christine Andreas: Café Society
Feinstein’s/54 Below, 254 W54th St. / 7PM; $50+, plus $25 minimum
“Broadway leading lady Andreas could coast on her pure, silvery soprano, but she is also a strong storyteller who knows how to dip beneath the pretty surfaces. In her new show, she pays homage to the swellegant golden age of nightclub singing.” (TONY)

Pacific Northwest Ballet (LAST DAY)
New York City Center, 131 W55th St. / 7:30PM; $35–$125
“The Seattle company, led by Peter Boal, returns to New York with a pair of programs. The first (February 24, 25) presents three works by George Balanchine, including Square Dance (1957). The second (February 26, 27) comprises David Dawson’s A Million Kisses to my Skin, William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude and Crystal Pite’s Emergence.” (TONY)

Smart Stuff / Other
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)
New York City Beer Week (Feb.19 – 28)
HopHeads Rejoice! It may be the heart of winter but there is a silver lining. The annual ten day celebration of craft beer throughout New York City will have events including festivals, tastings, menu pairings, and beer dinners.

For the astounding list of upcoming events for this year’s Beer Week head over to  newyorkcitybrewersguild.com/beer-week/2016-beer-week/ .
Oh My! How to choose, they all look so enticing.
Please drop us a line in the comment section to let us know how your event turned out.

Bonus – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are my favorite music venues on Manhattan’s WestSide. Check out who’s playing tonight:
City Winery – 155 Varick St., citywinery.com, 212-608-0555
Feinstein’s/54 Below – 254 W54th St., 54below.com, 646-476-3551
Joe’s Pub @ Public Theater – 425 Lafayette St., joespub.com, 212-967-7555
Metropolitan Room – 34W22ndSt., metropolitan room.com, 212-206-0440
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St., beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237W42nd St., bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St., lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474
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.

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♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.
♦ NYCity, with a population of  8.5 million, had a record 58 million visitors last year and was TripAdvisor’s Traveler’s Choice Top U.S. Destination for 2015.  Quality shows draw crowds.
Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
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WHAT’S ON VIEW
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)

Guggenheim Museum:
‘Photo-Poetics: An Anthology’ (through March 27)
“Formally complex and expressively reserved, even hermetic, the work by 10 photographers in this stimulating show has roots in Conceptualism and takes language, history and speculative thinking as its raw materials. Photographs are structured with the equivalent of poetry’s metrical cadences and internal rhymes, and treated less as generators of translatable ideas than of suggestive metaphors. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, 212-423-3500, guggenheim.org.” (Cotter)

‘Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better’ (through April 27)
“Presenting more than 300 sculptures, photographs and videos, this marvelously entertaining exhibition demonstrates the power of creative play to invigorate hearts and minds. It includes photographs of doll-scale tableaus made mainly of processed meats; films starring the artists as Rat and Bear in frowzy costumes; more than 160 small, comical clay sculptures representing a harebrained history of the world; and myriad trompe l’oeil sculptures of ordinary objects. Most importantly, there’s the team’s classic movie “The Way Things Go” (1987), the landmark film documenting an apparently continuous series of chain reactions of a Rube Goldberg-type construction. 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, 212-423-3500, guggenheim.org.” (Ken Johnson)

Metropolitan Museum of Art:
‘Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from Collection of Ricky Jay’ (thru April 11)
“A draftsman, calligrapher, magician and musician, Matthias Buchinger (1674–1739) traveled all over Northern Europe to entertain kings and aristocrats as well as hoi polloi with feats of physical dexterity. He was especially noted for elaborate drawings featuring biblical passages written in letters too small to be read by ordinary naked eyes. This he managed despite having been born without hands or legs: His arms ended at the elbows and his lower extremities were truncated at the upper thighs. Sixteen of his amazing works are featured in this exhibition. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.” (Johnson)

‘A New Look at a Van Eyck Masterpiece’ (through April 24)
“This small show of Flemish art, highly specialized yet not inaccessible, is the latest in an impressive sequence of laser-focused examinations of the Met’s holdings of late medieval and Renaissance painting. A crystalline Crucifixion attributed to van Eyck, and a jam-packed Last Judgment painted by him and his studio, now hang as a diptych — but technical analysis of the frames suggests they were probably side panels for a central painting now lost. Alongside the Met’s van Eycks is a recently resurfaced drawing of the Crucifixion, lent by Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, whose wizened Virgin and writhing thieves rhyme with the painted version. Did van Eyck draw it? Whether he did or not, the drawing grounds these divinely impeccable paintings in the real world of brushes and pencils. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.” (Jason Farago)

‘Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection’ (continuing)
“This lavish roll out of 160 objects came to the Met from the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation last spring. The Burkes loved Japanese art — all of it — and the collection is close to compendious in terms of media, from wood-carved Buddhas to bamboo baskets, with a particular strength in painting, early and late. The quality of the work? Japan thinks highly enough of it to have made the Burke holdings the first Japanese collection from abroad ever to show at Tokyo National Museum. Some pieces on view now will be rotated out and replaced in February, making this an exhibition to visit at least twice. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.” (Cotter)

‘Reimagining Modernism: 1900-1950’ (continuing)
“One of the greatest encyclopedic museums in the world fulfills its mission a little more with an ambitious reinstallation of works of early European modernism with their American counterparts for the first time in nearly 30 years. Objects of design and paintings by a few self-taught artists further the integration. It is quite a sight, with interesting rotations and fine-tunings to come. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org.” (Smith)

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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) (SUN 11am-1pm PWYW) 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 02/25 and 02/23.
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This week’s fave and FREE NYCity AppS: 
Trip Advisor
An enormous base of NYCity user reviews (2.1 million) provides the widest coverage of hotels (468), restaurants (12,645) and things to do (yes, 3,246). Have a specific question? Then try one of Trip Advisor’s forums. Just remember that with all those reviews you have to try to find the consistency among the comments, and ignore the outliers.

OpenTable
Instantly locate restaurants near you with open reservations and then place a reservation right from your iOS device. A great interface and the ability to see a menu from the restaurant you’re interested in makes this my go to restaurant reservation app.

Subway Time 
Need to catch your #1,2,3 subway to attend an event? Use the Subway Time app from the MTA to find out when the next train arrives at your station. The MTA also has Bus Time info available on their mobile website.
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