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

Today’s TOP 10 – WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2015
“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 complete event info)

Music, Dance, Performing Arts
> George Cables Trio (until May 31)
Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Ave. S., at 11th St. / 8:30PM+10:30PM, $30
“pianist Cables delivers mainstream satisfaction in an elegant package.”

> Pixies
Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, at 74th St. / 8PM,
they have reunited, now let’s see if these guys still have what it takes.

> “The Tempest” (thru July 5) / Shakespeare in the Park
Central Park, Delacorte Theater / 8PM, FREE
actor Sam Waterston, makes his 13th Shakespearean production.
FREE tickets are available via a lottery system. check The Public Theater website.

> “BOSSABRASIL” Marcos Valle with Carlos Lyra (thru May 30)
Birdland, 315 West 44th St. (btw 8/9 ave) / 8:30PM+11PM, $40
“Forty years after it swept the world, Bossa Nova stands as as one of the enduring musical forms of the 20th century.”

> Wendy Whelan: Restless Creature (thru May 31)
Joyce Theater, Chelsea, / 7:30pm. $10–$100.
described by The New York Times as “America’s greatest contemporary ballerina.”

> Bill Charlap Trio (through May 31)
Dizzy’s Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th St. and Broadway / 7:30PM+9:30PM, $35
this is one fine trio, who have played together forever and it shows.

> Dancing in Bryant Park: Samba e Mais
Bryant Park, Fountain Terrace, (6th ave. btw 40th/42nd St.) / 6PM, FREE
weather should be good for this open-air dance party – dance instructors + quality bands

> Stars in the Alley
Schubert Alley, btw W44th and W45th St. / 10:30AM, FREE
outdoor concert that showcases numbers from new and long-running musicals.

Smart Stuff / Other
(Lectures, Discussions, Book Talks, Literary Readings, Classes, Food & Drink, Other)
> World Science Festival (through May 31)
various locations, check the website: worldsciencefestival.com.
more than 50 events, spread over five days and the city’s five boroughs.
includes a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

> John Waters: Carsick (Author – Word for Word)
Bryant Park Reading Room, 42nd St. (btw 5/6 ave.) / 12:30PM, FREE
John Waters Hitchhikes Across America, Hosted by Matthew Love,

Have time for only one event today? Do this:

> World Science Festival (through May 31)
various locations, check the website: worldsciencefestival.com.

“With the advent of the Internet, mobile phones, apps, and robots that can write prose and the prospect of self-driving cars, science is taking over our lives. This gathering, an annual affair since 2008, is organized by the string theorist Brian Greene and the journalist Tracy Day. It features fifty events in museums, parks, and other venues across all five boroughs. Highlights include a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, a stargazing session accompanied by live music, catch-and-release fish counts, and a daylong science street fair in Washington Square Park. If those activities don’t sound intellectually rigorous enough, there are also presentations with the physicist and string theorist Edward Witten; NASA’s chief scientist, Ellen Stofan; the paleoanthropologist Lee Berger; the Nobel-winning theoretical physicist Steven Weinberg; and many other leading thinkers. (worldsciencefestival.com. May 27-31.)” (NewYorker)

“This festival, with more than 50 events, is spread over five days and the city’s five boroughs. Highlights include programs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s theory of relativity, such as the premiere of “Light Falls,” a production by the scientist Brian Greene (who co-founded the festival) with music by Jeff Beal, featuring a cast of Broadway performers. The schedule is at worldsciencefestival.com.” (NYT)

Bonus – Music Venues:
So much fine live music every night in this town. These are a few of my favorite 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
Metropolitan Room – 34 W22nd St. / metropolitan room.com, 212-206-0440
Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St. / lepoissonrouge.com, 212-505-3474
Beacon Theatre – 2124 Broadway @ 74th St. / beacontheatre.com, 212-465-6500
B.B. King’s Blues Bar – 237 W42nd St. / bbkingblues.com, 212-997-2144
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 56 million visitors last year and is 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)

Metropolitan Museum of Art:
‘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)

‘Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklanski Selects From The Met Collection’ (through June 14) Complementing the survey of his photographs, the artist has orchestrated 80 works from the museum’s holdings — along with a few of his own — into a mesmerizing display meditating on sex and death. Consisting mostly of photographs, it is bolstered by paintings by Dali and Cranach sculptures from several cultures and several surprises. Scratch any artist of note, even a post-modern one, and you often find a connoisseur. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith)

‘Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklanski Photographs’ (through Aug. 16)
A small but succinct survey of the multimedia bad-boy artist’s polymorphous relationship to photography shows him constantly changing scale, film and printing methods while exploring the medium’s ability to startle, seduce and become generic. He appropriates, imitates and pays homage as he goes, regularly invoking his Polish roots. Don’t miss the large photo-banners in the museum’s Great Hall or the massive fiber-sculpture monument to the eye and to insatiable looking. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Smith)

Neue Galerie:
‘Egon Schiele: Portraits’ (through Sept. 07)
“Of the approximately 125 items in this terrific show, there are only 11 oil paintings, which is a good thing. Except for a large picture of his wife, Edith, in a colorful striped dress, Schiele’s works on canvas are dark and turgid. But his drawings are nimble and nuanced. Working on paper with pencil, charcoal, ink, gouache, watercolor and crayons, he portrayed himself and others with infectious avidity. There’s hardly a single sheet here that doesn’t warrant close looking for its virtuoso draftsmanship and psychological acuity. 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street, 212-628-6200, neuegalerie.org. “(Johnson)

Guggenheim Museum:
Kandinsky Before Abstraction, 1901–1911 (through spring 2015)
Early in his career Vasily Kandinsky experimented with printmaking, produced brightly-colored landscapes of the German countryside, and explored recognizable and recurrent motifs. This intimate exhibition drawn from the Guggenheim collection explores the artist’s representational origins.

El Museo del Barrio:
‘Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa, Art and Film’ (through June 27)
Painting with light is one way to define the cinematographer’s task, and it describes the art of Gabriel Figueroa (1907-1997), who worked with some of the leading international film directors of his time and was a national hero in his native Mexico, the supreme painter-in-light of Mexicanidad. How do you put this particular kind of art across in a museum — art that is as much about time as it is about material, as much about flux as it is about fixity? This show, which mixes Figueroa film clips with paintings and prints by some of Mexico’s greatest artists and in the process utterly transforms El Museo’s interior spaces, gives an enthralling answer. 1230 Fifth Avenue, at 104th Street, East Harlem, 212-831-7272, elmuseo.org. (Cotter)

Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (continuing):
The stately doors of the 1902 Andrew Carnegie mansion, home to the Cooper Hewitt, are open again after an overhaul and expansion of the premises. Historic house and modern museum have always made an awkward fit, a standoff between preservation and innovation, and the problem remains, but the renovation has brought a wide-open new gallery space, a cafe and a raft of be-your-own-designer digital enhancements. Best of all, more of the museum’s vast permanent collection is now on view, including an Op Art weaving, miniature spiral staircases, ballistic face masks and a dainty enameled 18th-century version of a Swiss knife. Like design itself, this institution is built on tumult and friction, and you feel it. 2 East 91st Street, at Fifth Avenue, 212-849-8400, cooperhewitt.org. (Cotter)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Nine museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:

• 110th Street – Museum for African Art
• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio
• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York
• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum
• 91st Street  –  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• 89th Street –  National Academy Museum
• 88th Street –  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• 86th Street –  Neue Galerie New York
Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave.
Now plan your own museum crawl. ========================================================

For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar dated 05/25 and 05/23.