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

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – WEDNESDAY, July 17, 2013

Dwight Gooden discusses his memoir “Doc: A Memoir”
bryant park’s word for word author series:
Former pitcher for the Mets and the Yankees talks about his bruisingly honest memoir of addiction, recovery and baseball. In conversation with co-author Ellis Henican of Newsday.
Bryant Park, Reading Room, Sixth Ave. & 42nd St. (under the trees)
AT 12:30PM / FREE
1-212-768-4242

Ben Sollee
“Ben Sollee, a Kentucky native, is considered a thrilling cellist who mixes folk, bluegrass, jazz, and R&B. He possesses rough, smooth-smoky vocal stylings and a knack for intricate arrangements.”
Bring a blanket for lawn seating; no chairs are allowed.
Madison Square Park, E 23rd St to E 26th St. (btw 5th/Mad Ave)
At 6pm / FREE
212-538-1884 / madisonsquarepark.org

Bryant Park After Work: The Chuck Braman Trio performs music of Thelonious Monk
Music to start the end of your day
An unusual instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums explore both the popular and lesser-known compositions of Thelonious Monk. Chuck Braman was born in Cleveland in 1959, and moved to New York City in 1989. He has had a varied career in jazz as an editor, critic, speaker, teacher, theorist, author, drummer, and bandleader.
Bryant Park, 42nd St., Btw 5th / 6th Ave. | Fountain Terrace
6:00pm – 7:00pm / FREE
1-212-768-4242
Brought to you by the Bryant Park Corporation as part of the After Work music series: Perfectly timed evening performances featuring talented New York area jazz musicians and singer-songwriters.

Bryan and the Aardvarks
Led by the bassist Bryan Copeland, this band specializes in an unabashedly pretty strain of postbop, chamberlike and euphonious. For this one-nighter, its lineup will feature the pianist Jon Cowherd, the vibraphonist Chris Dingman, the guitarist Jesse Lewis and the drummer Joe Nero.” (Nate Chinen-NYT)
Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street
At 8:30 p.m. / $20 cover, includes a drink.
989-9319 / corneliastreetcafe.com

Mimi Hines: ‘The 80th Birthday Concert’
“It’s been more than a decade since Broadway’s second and longest-running Funny Girl appeared in a New York cabaret and on the very night of her 80th birthday, she returns for one show only to celebrate in what is sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. Come celebrate with this legendary star and see why a recent review called her the “living embodiment of show business.”
54 Below, 254 West 54th St. (btw b’way/8th ave.)
At 9:30PM / $35-$45, $25 minimum food & drink
(646) 476-3551 / 54below.com

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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A PremierPub and 3 Good Eating Places – Greenwich Village

Caffe Vivaldi   /   32 Jones Street (btw. Bleecker/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’ ”.

Each 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 wines and lite meals, fairly priced, 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. I should note that 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, NYC 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 S/left on Bleecker to Jones st, 50 yards E/left on Jones st to Caffe V

“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, wine bars, cocktail lounges,  tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge.

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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. $8 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)
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. 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.

The focus for “3 Good Eating places” is on Fine Fast Food – NYCity Style
(pizza,  burgers,  food trucks/carts,  vegetarian/falafel,  soup & sandwiches,  salad bars,  hot dogs,  bbq,  picnic fixins’,  raw bars & lobster rolls – no reservations needed).

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There are also some casual dining, chain restaurant locations in this neighborhood that have decent food, provide a good hotel breakfast alternative, and have free Wi-FI:

A. Pret a Manger @ 821 Broadway (betw 12/13 st)
Subway: #1/2/3 to 42nd st; transfer to n/q/r to 14th st/union sq

B. Potbelly @ 41 W14th st (betw 5th/6th ave)
Subway: #1/2/3 to 14th st

C. Cosi @ 53 E 8th st (betw greene/mercer)
Subway: #1/2/3 to 42nd st; transfer to n/r to 8th st

◊ For a few more PremierPubs and Good Eating places see previous Featured Neighborhoods in the right sidebar.

◊ For all my picks of 54 Good Eating places and descriptions of my favorite 18 PremierPubs in 9 Neighborhoods (plus 27 casual dining places with free Wi-Fi) order a copy of my e-book: “Eating and Drinking on NYCity’s WestSide” ($3.99).

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – TUESDAY, July 16, 2013

The All-Star Game will be played tonight at sold out Citi Field, home of the Mets. The Mets have not hosted the game since 1964. Their ace, Matt Harvey, will be the starting pitcher and their stellar third baseman, David Wright, will bat cleanup for the National League All-Stars. Find someplace cool to watch the game.

‘Back Tomorrow: Federico Garcia Lorca/Poet in New York’ (through July 20)
Lorca is considered Spain’s greatest modern poet and playwright. This exhibition highlights the poet’s career and includes manuscripts, drawings, photographs and personal items. The focus is on his “Poet in New York”.

In 1936, the poet left the manuscript of “Poet in New York” on the desk of his Madrid publisher with a note saying he would be “back tomorrow,” probably to discuss final details. He never returned.

Weeks later, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he was brutally murdered by fascist elements in Granada, his body thrown into an unmarked mass grave.
New York Public Library, 42nd St. And 5th Ave.
Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m./ FREE
(this is also a great place to beat the heat – maximum A/C)
(917) 275-6975 / nypl.org/events/exhibitions.

On Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work
Celebrate Maurice Sendak’s life and career with noted children’s book historian Leonard S. Marcus and artists Paul Zelinsky, Peter Sis, Rick Meyerowitz and Etienne Delessert.

This program is in conjunction with The Society of Illustrators exhibition, Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work, on view in New York, Jun 11- Aug 17 and accompanying catalog.
92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St, Lecture Hall
At 7 pm / $15
(212) 415-5500 / 92y.org/Tribeca

Joel Harrison 19: ‘Infinite Possibility’
“Joel Harrison has gone the Full Monty: The accomplished guitarist and composer’s new release (being premiered at Dizzy’s) is an ambitious, six-part extended work for guitar and 19-piece orchestra. The general trajectory of the piece—its through-composed nature, as opposed to traditional song form—will remind some listeners of Maria Schneider, and the use of a vocalist doing an original text in an unusual form will also bring to mind Fred Hersch’s “My Coma Dreams.” But overall, the texture that Mr. Harrison gets from the ensemble—which features six reeds and saxophones plus JaLC’s Seneca Black on trumpet and a rhythm section that switches between acoustic and electronic implements—is uniquely his own.” (WSJ)
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway
at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. / $35 cover, with a $10 minimum.
(212) 258-9595 / jalc.org

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

‘Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney’ (through Sept. 2)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.org.

‘At War With the Obvious: Photographs by William Eggleston’ (through July 28) 
‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ (through Aug. 14)
“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde” (through Sept. 2)
‘The Civil War and American Art’ (through Sept. 2)
‘Photography and the American Civil War’ (through Sept. 2)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

“New Harmony: Abstraction Between the Wars, 1919-1939” (through Sept. 8)
“Aten Reign” (through Sept. 25)
the centerpiece of James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. {see review below}
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

Light and color wash the Rotunda. 
“Turrell works in a single medium: light. He has sliced into walls, designed seamless rooms with holes in the ceiling, and spent four decades building a giant naked-eye observatory in the Arizona desert—all to provide unexpectedly intimate and mysterious views of the sky, the sun, and the stars. For this segment of a three-part show running concurrently in L.A. and Houston, he’s turned the museum’s atrium into a giant light box. —J.D.” (NYMag)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten 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
• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though 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.
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 07/14 and 07/12.

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – MONDAY, July 15, 2013

The New York Philharmonic performs Dvorak and Tchiakovsky
Program (Alan Gilbert will conduct):
DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5
Central Park, Great Lawn
Directions: Westside entrances: West 81st or 86th Streets at Central Park West;
At 8PM / FREE
1-212-875-5709

Pilobolus (through Aug. 4)
“Any evening with Pilobolus is like a magic show, with bodies balancing and contorting in seemingly impossible ways. In “esc,” a New York premiere in the first of two programs at the Joyce, the troupe joins forces with Penn & Teller, combining its own corporeal stunts with the duo’s Houdini-inspired exploits. Program B features another new work, “Licks,” in which the frequent Pilobolus collaborator Trish Sie envisions a zany world for 6 dancers, 12 ropes and a rollicking soundtrack by Tijuana’s Nortec Collective Presents: Bostich & Fussible.” (Burke-NYT)
Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue, at 19th Street, Chelsea,
at 7:30 p.m. / $10 to $75.
(212) 242-0800 / joyce.org

Marissa Mulder: ‘Tom…In His Own Words’
“Sometimes, something remarkable can grow from the most unexpected juxtapositions. At 28, Marissa Mulder has a voice like a spring morning and a face to match. Her singing frequently puts experienced cabaret-goers in mind of Blossom Dearie’s little-girl innocence, and therefore the least likely material she could tackle would be the gin-soaked, hard-luck, grimy inner-city stories of Tom Waits.

No, she doesn’t take the easy step of addressing the songwriter’s lighter material, nor does she try to brighten up any of Mr. Waits’s infamously dark, rumpled anthems. Instead, she takes his darkest and most profound songs and looks them straight in the eye. Complementing Ms. Mulder’s starkly honest interpretations is pianist Jon Weber, who helps her extract the majestically dysfunctional beauty of texts like “Broken Bicycles” without merely prettying them up.

…Ms. Mulder has given us a virtual definition of what cabaret is supposed to be about, to project and amplify one’s own soul through the lens of songs written by someone else.” (WSJ)
Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St.,
At 9:30 / $20
(212) 539-8778 / joespub.com

Jim Caruso’s Cast Party
Broadway impresario Jim Caruso hosts a combination open-mic, networking event and party, where on some nights you may hear the biggest stars on Broadway relax on their night off by performing their favorite songs in an informal setting. Always fun.
Birdland – 315 West 44th St (Btw 8th/9th ave)
9:30 pm / $20 (includes a drink if you sit at the bar, which are not bad seats)
(212) 581-3080 / birdlandjazz.com

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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A PremierPub + 3 Good Eating places / Midtown West

Russian Vodka Room   /   265 W 52nd st (btw 7th/8th ave)

Sure, you could travel to Minsk or even Brighton Beach, for an authentic Russian experience, but why bother. On those days when you feel you must wash down your dish of kasha with a few glasses of icy, cold vodka, the Russian Vodka Room will definitely satisfy your urge.

From the outside this place looks a bit drab, and with no windows, a bit mysterious. Midtown tourists walk right by on their way to see “Jersey Boys”, just down the block.

Those in the know enter a secret hideaway, a dimly lit front room with soft jazz playing – a perfect spot for an illicit late-night rendezvous, or maybe a meet-up with your Russian spy handler, but that’s later in the evening. Early in the evening the large U-shaped bar fills with the after work happy hour crowd, a group made very happy by the much reduced prices.

Their website says: “Welcome Comrades”. Of course, this welcome focuses on dozens of different vodkas, including their own special infusions, which marinate in giant, clear glass jugs visible around the room. The large vodka martinis ensure that you won’t confuse this place with your mother’s Russian Tea Room.

But man does not live by vodka alone. Eat some food, especially the tapa like appetizers. Be decadent and try the cheese blintzes with chocolate, or try a main dish like beef stroganoff with kasha.

Your best bet is to go on a night when the piano man is playing. This guy, who looks like he has eaten a lot of those cheese blintzes, plays five nights a week from 7 to 12 (no Mondays and Thursdays). When the piano man is playing American pop tunes, and you are at the crowded, dimly lit bar testing the horseradish infused vodka, that’s when the RVR shines.

It’s the kind of place where the noise gets louder and the crowd gets happier as the night goes on. I’m generally a beer guy, but I like to come here with a group of friends. We find a table in the back room; we eat, and we drink vodka ‘till it hurts (and it will hurt).

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Website: http://www.russianvodkaroom.com/
Phone #: 212-307-5835
Hours: 4pm-2am; Fri-Sun closes 4am (that could be trouble)
Happy Hour: 4-7pm every day
$4 shots infused vodka (2oz), $5 cosmos; $4 czech draft beer
Music: FR-SU; TU-WE / 7pm-12am
Subway: #1 to 50th St.
Walk 2 blk N. on B’way to 52nd St.; 1 blk W. to RVR
Confusingly, the Russian Samovar is right across the street, on the  S. side of 52nd St.
The RVR, your destination, is on the N. side of 52nd St.
Update: music some nights includes a sax player with a younger, trimmer piano man.

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“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, cocktail lounges, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge.
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Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – SUNDAY, July 14, 2013

111th St. Salsa Street Party & Old Timers’ Stick Ball Game
“Now in its 44th year, this annual street fair sponsored by the 111th Street Old Timers Stick Ball Association and the 111th Street Block Association celebrates the traditions and flavors of Spanish Harlem with music, Latin food, stick ball and, of course, salsa dancing. The stick ball games begin at 7 a.m., with the street party going from noon to 7 p.m. Music begins around 1 p.m.” (NYT)
111th Street, btw 5th Ave and Lenox Ave, Harlem
free, with food items additional.
Subway: #2,3 to 110th St.

Bastille Day on 60th Street
“If the fromage, crêpes and éclairs weren’t enough to satisfy Franchophile foodies in the past, this year’s celebration of French independence will include the inaugural Bastille Day Banquet, a three-course lunch created by the Maîtres Cuisiniers de France, an association of highly trained French chefs. The boxed lunches are $25 in advance or $30 the day of, and partakers are encouraged to dine at communal tables in the style of a medieval French feast.

Other highlights of the event, sponsored by French Institute Alliance Française, include raffles for trips and prizes with French flair, language workshops, children’s activities, cancan dancers, mimes, live music and tastings.” (NYT)
60th Street (btw 5th Ave/Lexington Ave)
From noon to 5 p.m.,
free, as are most activities; food is additional, with items from $2.50 to $8, or $20 for a wine, beer and cheese tasting.
355-6100 / bastilledayny.com
subway: #1-2-3 to times square, transfer to N/Q/R to 59th St.

International Sounds: Fanfare Ciocarlia / Red Baraat – SUMMERSTAGE
“Fanfare Ciocarlia is one of the world’s greatest live bands, their energy and ingenuity having won them fans from Melbourne to Memphis, Tokyo to Toulouse. The National Geographic has said “the music of Fanfare Ciocarlia pulls not only from the band’s homeland but also rhythms from Turkey, Bulgaria and Macedonia to make a complete Balkan stew.” The Romanian group’s breakneck speed, technical chops, ripping rhythms and sweet and sour horns is quite different from any other brass band on earth.”
Central Park, Rumsey Playfield – mid-Park off Fifth Avenue at 69th Street
At 3:00PM / FREE
212-360-2777

CEDAR WALTON
The veteran pianist CEDAR WALTON delivers authentic, straightforward hard bop with his longtime associates DAVID WILLIAMS, on bass, and WILLIE JONES III, on drums.” (NewYorker mag)
VILLAGE VANGUARD
178 Seventh Ave. S., at 11th St.,
At 8:30 and 10:30 PM / $25
212-255-4037 / villagevanguard.com

Melissa Aldana  – MoMA Summergarden
Programming at this popular concert series held outdoors in MoMA’s walled-in Sculpture Garden alternates between new-music presentations featuring Juilliard School performers and jazz nights booked by Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Tonight you can swing with saxophonist Melissa Aldana, and her quartet. Lines for these popular events forms well in advance, so show up early for prime seating.
Museum of Modern Art, 11 W 53rd St. (btw 5th/6th Ave.)
At 8PM / FREE
212-708-9400 / moma.org

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS @ 3 Museums (WestSide & the BklynMuseum) 

‘Claes Oldenburg: The Street and the Store’ and ‘Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum, Ray Gun Wing’ (through Aug. 5)
‘Performing Histories (1)’ (through Aug. 5)
‘Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light’ (through Aug. 12)
‘Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series’ (through Sept. 8)
Museum of Modern Art: 11 W 53rd St,
(212) 708-9400 / moma.org.
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‘Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design’* (through Sept. 15)
Museum of Arts and Design: 2 Columbus Circle,
299-7777, madmuseum.org.
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‘John Singer Sargent Watercolors’  (through July 28) [see review below]
‘Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui’ (through Aug. 4)
‘LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital’ (through Aug. 11)
Brooklyn Museum: 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park,
(easy ride from midtown on #2 or #3 subway to Eastern Pkway/Bklyn Museum)
(718) 638-5000 / brooklynmuseum.org

John Singer Sargent Watercolors
“The exhibition brings together 93 of his watercolors and 9 oil paintings from the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Both institutions acquired significant quantities of his work early on, the Brooklyn Museum from Sargent’s career debut show in New York in 1909 and the Boston museum from a solo show there in 1912. The beauty of Sargent’s watercolors is in how seemingly effortlessly yet exactly he captured outdoor light and complicated man-made and natural forms. In landscapes, close studies of fruit and flowers and portraits of women you see at once the supremely deft action of the brush and the illusions of a sun-drenched halcyon world that it conjures. Prepare for bedazzlement.” (KEN JOHNSON-NYT)
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 07/12 and 07/10.

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – SATURDAY, July 13, 2013

Don’t Forget! – this evening around 8:20pm we have Manhattanhenge.
This natural spectacle occurs when the sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan’s grid. For your best view, try to place yourself as far east as possible along a broad avenue with views across the island (eg. 14th, 34th, 57th Streets work fine – weather permitting).

Tap it Out is a free, public, outdoor event, and will be presented and performed three times this afternoon in the heart of Manhattan. Dancers and students of all ages and levels, from all over the world, will join together to create a thunderous chorus of 300 hundred tapping feet in a pre-choreographed orchestral collage of a cappella unison rhythms, contrapuntal sequences, individual riffs, movements and grooves. Tap it Out will be conducted by Tap City producer Tony Waag.
Father Duffy Square, Times Square, 47th st and Broadway
At 12, 1 and 2PM / FREE

Latin Sounds: Julieta Venegas / Carla Morrison / Alex Anwandter
“Julieta Venegas is a renowned Mexican singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. With six released albums to date, Venegas has sold more than 9 million copies of her albums worldwide. The Washington Post describes Venegas as a different sort of artist. “While many of her songs will entice you to get up and dance, there is also an intimacy to her work that comes through even for those whose Spanish doesn’t go much beyond “hola.”
Central Park, Rumsey Playfield – mid-Park off Fifth Avenue at 69th Street
At 3PM / FREE
212-360-2777

Bang on a Can All-Stars
Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the All-Stars have shattered the definition of what concert music is today.
Governors Island
at 1PM and 3PM / FREE
212-825-3045
Directions: Ferry departs from the Battery Maritime Bldg., 10 South St.,
adjacent to the SI Ferry in Lower Manhattan.

Mariah Carey and the New York Philharmonic
Ave Mariah! It’s no great surprise that Mimi’s name comes first, but make no mistake: This is by and large a public outing for Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, presented by Major League Baseball to drum up support for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts—and to draw attention to the All-Star Game, too. The program includes some of Carey’s biggest hits, nestled among baseball-related film music (The Natural, 42) and New York–themed classics. Arrange your free tickets via allstargame.com/concert.
Central Park, Great Lawn, Central Park, from 79th to 85th St.
At 7:30PM / FREE
212-310-6600 / centralparknyc.org

Louis Hayes Quintet ‘Cannonball Adderley Legacy’
“Cannonball Adderley was a much-beloved alto saxophonist who balanced the harmonic precision of bebop with the homegrown grit of soul. This tribute band, led by his former drummer Louis Hayes — and featuring Vincent Herring on alto saxophone, Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Rick Germanson on piano and Dezron Douglas on bass — preserves his spirit faithfully, and with force.” (Chinen-NYT)
Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton
At 8:30 and 11 p.m. / $30 and $40 cover, with a $10 minimum.
(212) 581-3080 / birdlandjazz.com

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change ================================================================================

A PremierPub + 3 Good Eating places 

Jimmy’s Corner   / 140 W 44th St (btw B’way & 7th ave) 
Jimmy’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 (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, cocktail lounges, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge.

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3 Good Eating places 
It’s not difficult finding 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:

Patzeria Perfect Pizza – 231 W46 st (Betw 7th/8th ave)
Perfect name for a pizza joint. On a street filled with Broadway theaters, this is a real hole in the wall, but don’t let the dive look scare you away. You can never go wrong with a slice of NYC pizza, and this one is a classic thin crust. Only a few seats here, but pizza was made to eat standing up.

Shake Shack – 691 8th ave (Betw 43rd/44th st)
Danny Meyer has revolutionized the high quality burger in this town. Now he has a branch on the West Side that was desperately needed, with none of the insane lines that you find at the Madison Sq. Park location. Plus, it may be the cleanest joint to eat in all of Hell’s Kitchen.
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“3 Good Eating places” focuses on a quick bite, what I call “Fine Fast Food – NYCity Style”

That covers a wide range of food – pizza,  burgers,  food trucks/carts,  vegetarian/falafel,  ramen, soup & sandwiches,  salad bars,  hot dogs,  bbq,  picnic fixins’,  raw bars & lobster rolls.

No reservations necessary.

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There are other casual dining options in this neighborhood that provide good food, especially as alternatives to overpriced hotel breakfasts, and most importantly, have free Wi-FI:

>Pret a Manger @ 11 W 42nd st (Betw 5th/6th)
Subway: #1/2/3 to 42nd st / times square

>Potbelly @ 30 Rockefeller Plaza (Betw 49/48 st)
Subway: #1 to 50th st

>Pret a Manger @ 1200 6th ave (Betw 47/48)
Subway: #1 to 50th st

For all my picks of 54 Good Eating places and extended descriptions of 18 PremierPubs in 9 Neighborhoods, order a copy of my e-book:
“Eating and Drinking on NYCity’s WestSide”

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – FRIDAY, July 12, 2013

Don’t Forget! – this evening around 8:20pm we have Manhattanhenge.
This natural spectacle occurs when the sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan’s grid. For your best view, try to place yourself as far east as possible along a broad avenue with views across the island (eg. 14th, 34th, 57th Streets work fine – weather permitting).

STEVE FORBERT
The singer-songwriter STEVE FORBERT performs with a full band to mark the thirty-fifth anniversary of the release of his first album, “Alive on Arrival.”
CITY WINERY, 155 Varick St.
at 8PM / $20-$22
212-608-0555 / citywinery.com

Louis Hayes Quintet ‘Cannonball Adderley Legacy’
Cannonball Adderley was a much-beloved alto saxophonist who balanced the harmonic precision of bebop with the homegrown grit of soul. This tribute band, led by his former drummer Louis Hayes — and featuring Vincent Herring on alto saxophone, Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Rick Germanson on piano and Dezron Douglas on bass — preserves his spirit faithfully, and with force.” (Chinen-NYT)
Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton
At 8:30 and 11 p.m. / $30 and $40 cover, with a $10 minimum
581-3080 / birdlandjazz.com

FFEAR, Blurring the Line Between Jazz and Classical
(new music in bryant park) 
The four-piece jazz ensemble ffear, the forum for electro-acoustic research, blurs the boundaries between classical and jazz with its funky, earthy, and visceral work.
Bryant Park, Upper Terrace & Lawn Gravel, Sixth Ave./42nd St.
At 6:00PM / FREE
1-212-768-4242

Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Through Saturday)
As its new album, “That’s It!” (co-produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket) makes clear, this is no longer your father’s Preservation Hall Jazz Band, or even that of Ben Jaffe, its current director, whose parents founded both the Hall (still standing in New Orleans’s French Quarter) and the band more than 50 years ago.

The original job description was to preserve the authentic sounds of Crescent City jazz going back to the turn of the 20th century, but lately, and particularly in the collaboration with Mr. James, the current mandate is to write and perform new works in the classic tradition as well. In fact, “That’s It” (the title track showcases the dynamic trumpeter Mark Braud) consists entirely of the band’s originals.

Live at McKittrick, home of “Sleep oNo More,” the band also continues to grind out venerable warhorses like “Sugar Foot Stomp”—for those of us who can’t resist shouting, “Oh play that thing!” (WSJ)
The McKittrick Hotel, 530 W. 27th St.
(866) 811-4111

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change ================================================================================

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 – my fave is Ovest on W 27th St., where the aperitivo is like Happy Hour on steroids.

Here are a few Special Exhibitions in Chelsea Galleries that you shouldn’t miss:

“Paul McCarthy and Damon McCarthy: Rebel Dabble Babble” (through July 26)
Paul McCarthy has a large scale exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory, decidedly not on the WestSide. “At Hauser & Wirth, a second extravaganza by the artist, working in collaboration with his son Damon, is in the same politically incorrect, punch-drunk vein on a slightly less epic scale. Here the reference point is the 1955 film “Rebel Without a Cause.” (Cotter-NYT)
Hauser & Wirth, 511 West 18th Street, Chelsea,
Mon – Fri, 10am-6pm / FREE
(212) 790-3900 / hauserwirth.com

Laddie John Dill: ‘Elementary’ (through July 26)
At the end of the 1960s the West Coast Light and Space artist Laddie John Dill began producing electric light works out of blown glass tubes in a lush palette of jewel-bright colors. Here nine of these works, all from 1971, are installed in one room at regular intervals creating a trippy visual chamber music. Elsewhere, glowing constructions of glass panes in geometric arrangements could be models for updates of Stonehenge, monuments for a new cosmic paganism.” (Johnson-NYT)
Nyehaus, 358 West 20th St.
Tue-Sat, 11am-6pm / FREE
366-4493 / nyehaus.com
==========================================================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: Chelsea Gallery Guide (nycgo.com)
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in the right Sidebar: “Selected Events + Special Exhibitions : Manhattan’s WestSide” dated (07/10) and (07/08).

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – THURSDAY, July 11, 2013

Broadway in Bryant Park
This series of music from Broadway and Off Broadway shows, performed by the shows’ cast members, will begin with excerpts from “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” “Pippin,” “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812” and “Stomp.” Presented by 106.7 Lite FM, this performance also features a guest D.J. from the radio station as well as cast members from “Peter and the Starcatcher” (not a musical, but with music).
The series will run Thursdays through Aug. 15.
Bryant Park, Avenue of the Americas, at 40th St.
At 12:30 p.m. / FREE
(212) 768-4242 / bryantpark.org.

Mapping Manhattan: A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers by Becky Cooper
“In the summer of 2009, writer Becky Cooper began handing out prints of Manhattan to strangers on the street, asking them to personalize the images and mail them back to her. She hatched the idea a few years earlier while working as a cartographer to create a public-art map of the island. “Instead of hiding the subjectivity of the mapmaker, as I felt like I was doing, I would celebrate it,” she says. “And from the collection of these personal portraits, the city would emerge.”

The results are compiled online at mapyourmemories.com, as well as in her new book, Mapping Manhattan: A Love (and Sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers, which includes a foreword by New Yorker scribe Adam Gopnik. (He isn’t the only notable local to get onboard; well-known Gothamites such as Yoko Ono and David Chang contributed their own geographical scribbles to the project.) On Monday 29, Cooper and Gopnik will talk about the book and what this city means to them at 92YTribeca; in the meantime, we asked Cooper to pick a few of the more memorable drawings to have dropped into her mailbox.” (TONY Mag)
New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan,
455 Fifth Ave, (btw 39th/40th Sts)
At 6:30pm / FREE
212-340-0833 / nypl.org

Les Chauds Lapins / Target Free Thursdays
Les Chauds Lapins (“the hot rabbits”), lead by New York’s Kurt Hoffman and Meg Reichardt, specialize in a repertoire of French swing from the 1920’s through the 40’s. The group has re-arranged long-forgotten French classics for banjo-ukes, string trio, guitar and winds, mixing the rootsiness of early American jazz with the lushness of a Bernard Hermann film soundtrack.
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
at 7:30pm / FREE

Midsummer Nights Swing
Lincoln Center’s outdoors dance party returns for its 25th year under the stars. On the schedule this week – disco on Thursday with the Loser’s Lounge.
Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center
Dance lessons are at 6:30 p.m.; live music is at 7:30 / $17
(212) 721-6500 / midsummernightswing.org.

Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival
This two-day festival will feature performances by B. B. King and the James Hunter Six (Wednesday) and Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and Alejandro Escovedo (Thursday).
Brookfield Place Waterfront Plaza, 220 Vesey Street, near West Street
Shows both days are from 6 to 9:30 p.m. / FREE
brookfieldplaceny.com/blues

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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A PremierPub and 3 Good Eating places – West Village

Corner Bistro   /   331 W. 4th St.

Sometimes you just need a beer and a burger. If so, Corner Bistro is the place you want. Located just outside the hip Meatpacking district, this corner bar and grill is decidedly unhip, but it’s not uncrowded, especially at night. Seems that everyone knows this place has one of the better burgers in town.

In the maze of streets known as the West Village, where West 4th intersects with West 12th (and West 11th, and West 10th, go figure), you will eventually find Corner Bistro on the corner of West 4th and Jane Street. An unassuming neighborhood tavern, it looks just like dozens of other taverns around town. The bartender tells me that the Corner Bistro will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary next year. The well worn interior tells me that the place itself is much older.

Corner Bistro has outlasted many of those other taverns around town because they know how to keep it simple — just good burgers and beer, fairly priced. The classic bistro Burger is only $6.75, and should be ordered medium rare, which will be plenty rare for most folks. Actually, it will be a juicy, messy delight – make sure you have extra napkins. I like to pull up a stool and sit by the large front window in the afternoon, where I can rest my burger and beer on the shelf, and watch the Villagers walk by.

Corner Bistro seems to attract very different groups of patrons depending on time of day. While it’s crowded with locals in the evening,  in the afternoon you hear different foreign languages, and watch groups of euro tourists wander in, led by their guidebooks and smartphones.

For the classic Bistro experience, order your burger with a McSorley’s draft, the dark preferably. This is the same beer that you can get over at the original McSorley’s in the East Village, the pub that claims to be the oldest continually operating bar in NYCity. The only difference is that this McSorley’s ale is served with a smile by the bartenders here. Or you  can get a Sierra Nevada, Stella, or Hoegaarden on tap if you want to go upscale a bit. Either way this is a simple, but quality burger and beer experience that is just too rare these days (sorry for the pun).

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Website:  cornerbistrony.com
Phone #:  212-242-9502
Hours: 11:30am-4am Mon-Sat; 12pm-4am Sun
Happy Hour:  NO
Music:  Juke Box
Subway: #1/2/3 to 14th St. (S end of platform)
Walk 2 blk W. on 13th St. to 8th Ave.; 1 blk S. on 8th Ave. to Jane St.
Update:

===============================================================================
“Pub” is used in it’s broadest sense – bars, bar/restaurants, cocktail lounges, wine bars, tapas bars, craft beer bars, dive bars – just about anyplace you can get a drink without a cover charge.
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Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – WEDNESDAY, July 10, 2013

Midsummer Nights Swing
Lincoln Center’s outdoors dance party returns for its 25th year under the stars. On the schedule this week – mambo on Wednesday with Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and Tito Rodriguez Jr.
Dance lessons are at 6:30 p.m.; live music is at 7:30.
Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center
(212) 721-6500, midsummernightswing.org; $17.

Lowdown Hudson Blues Festival (Wednesday and Thursday)
This two-day festival will feature performances by B. B. King and the James Hunter Six (Wednesday) and Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys and Alejandro Escovedo (Thursday).
Brookfield Place Waterfront Plaza, 220 Vesey Street, near West Street
Shows both days are from 6 to 9:30 p.m. / FREE
brookfieldplaceny.com/blues

René Marie’s “Experiment in Truth”
“Invited to sing the national anthem at a Denver civic assembly, René Marie solemnly intoned the lyrics to”Lift Every Voice and Sing” (known as the Black National Anthem) to the familiar strains of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Colorado-based Virginian clearly remembers a time when jazz represented democracy in action, and she’s doing her best to rekindle that spirit—which doesn’t keep this technically gifted, deeply funky singer from having a good time onstage. This evening, she performs at Madison Square Music’s sweet outdoor summer festival.” (TONY)
Madison Square Park, E 23rd St to E 26th St. (btw 5th/Mad Ave)
At 7pm / FREE
212-538-1884 / madisonsquarepark.org

Forbidden City: Shanghai
“The George Gee Swing Orchestra, the Grand Street Stompers and the Gordon Webster Sextet provide the tunes for this throwback party, which aims to re-create the atmosphere of 1930s Shanghai. Between dance tunes, see burlesque by Calamity Chang and Minx Arcana, go-go from Stella Chuu, Cheeky Lane and Bitty Bamboo, and hear a Chinese pipa performance by Zhou Yi. For more details, and info on VIP packages ($50–$80), visit thesalon.biz.” (TONY)
Copacabana Supper Club , 268 W 47th St. (btw 7th/8th Ave)
At 7pm / $30 – Average main course: $22.
212-239-2672 / thecopacabana.com
Event website: thesalon.biz

Suzanne Vega
“Ms. Vega’s scholastic folk shares the affecting poignancy of the works of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell; the hauntingly self-conscious refrain of her hit “Luka” cut deeper than any of those created by her grandiloquent singer-songwriter peers of the late 1980s.” (Anderson-NYT)
City Winery, 155 Varick Street, near Spring Street, South Village
At 8 p.m., $35 to $55.
(212) 608-0555 / citywinery.com

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:

‘Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney’ (through Sept. 2)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th St.
(212) 685-0008 / themorgan.org.

‘Cambodian Rattan: The Sculptures of Sopheap Pich’ (through July 7)
‘Velázquez’s Portrait of Duke Francesco I d’Este: A Masterpiece from the Galleria Estense, Modena’ (through July 14) 
‘At War With the Obvious: Photographs by William Eggleston’ (through July 28) 
‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ (through Aug. 14)
“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde” (through Sept. 2)
‘The Civil War and American Art’ (through Sept. 2)
‘Photography and the American Civil War’ (through Sept. 2)
‘The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi’ (through Nov. 3)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org

“New Harmony: Abstraction Between the Wars, 1919-1939” (through Sept. 8)
“Aten Reign” (through Sept. 25)
the centerpiece of James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980, recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light. {see review below}
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

Light and color wash the Rotunda. 
“Turrell works in a single medium: light. He has sliced into walls, designed seamless rooms with holes in the ceiling, and spent four decades building a giant naked-eye observatory in the Arizona desert—all to provide unexpectedly intimate and mysterious views of the sky, the sun, and the stars. For this segment of a three-part show running concurrently in L.A. and Houston, he’s turned the museum’s atrium into a giant light box. —J.D.” (NYMag)

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Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten 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
• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though 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.
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 07/08 and 07/06.

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – TUESDAY, July 09, 2013

Today’s “Fab Five” / Selected NYCity Events – MONDAY, July 08, 2013

She & Him*
“Five years before cementing sitcom stardom on “New Girl,” the famously twee singer-actress Zooey Deschanel formed She & Him with the indie-country veteran M. Ward. The unlikely pairing of her warmly vintage, romantic vocals atop his gentle progressions and intuitive harmonies has resulted in three discs of earthy, easygoing folk-pop and a cockles-warming Christmas album. Part of the SummerStage Festival with Camera Obscura.” (Anderson-NYT)
Central Park SummerStage, Rumsey Playfield,
midpark at 70th St.
At 7 p.m. / $40.
(212) 360-2777 / summerstage.org

Stephanie J. Block
“The vivacious star of The Pirate Queen, Wicked and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (which earned her a Tony nomination this year) returns to her periodic perch at Birdland, there to be mobbed by her legions of loyal Blockheads.” (TONY)
Birdland, 315 W 44th St, (btw 8th / 9th Aves)
At 7pm, $30–$40, plus $10 minimum
212-581-3080 / birdlandjazz.com

Brian Stokes Mitchell: Simply Broadway
“The baritone star of such shows as Ragtime and Man of La Mancha, Mitchell is one of Broadway’s most accomplished leading men, and has lately proved a suave and affable concert performer as well.” (TONY)
The Town Hall, 123 W 43rd St (btw Sixth Ave and Broadway)
at 8pm / $50-$65
212-840-2824 / the-townhall-nyc.org

The English Beat
“Brit-ska’s greatest pogo band comes to town, with lead warbler Dave Wakeling and a backing group that plays to his strengths. And you know “Mirror in the Bathroom,” “I Confess” and Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown” are on the set list.” (TONY)
City Winery, 155 Varick St, at Vandam St
At 8pm / $40-$60
212-608-0555 / citywinery.com

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Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.
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SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS @ 3 Museums (WestSide & the BklynMuseum) 

‘Claes Oldenburg: The Street and the Store’ and ‘Claes Oldenburg: Mouse Museum, Ray Gun Wing’ (through Aug. 5)
‘Performing Histories (1)’ (through Aug. 5)
‘Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light’ (through Aug. 12)
‘Ellsworth Kelly: Chatham Series’ (through Sept. 8)
Museum of Modern Art: 11 W 53rd St,
(212) 708-9400 / moma.org.
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‘Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design’* (through Sept. 15)
Museum of Arts and Design: 2 Columbus Circle,
299-7777, madmuseum.org.
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‘John Singer Sargent Watercolors’  (through July 28) [see review below]
‘Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui’ (through Aug. 4)
‘LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital’ (through Aug. 11)
Brooklyn Museum: 200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park,
(easy ride from midtown on #2 or #3 subway to Eastern Pkway/Bklyn Museum)
(718) 638-5000 / brooklynmuseum.org

John Singer Sargent Watercolors
“The exhibition brings together 93 of his watercolors and 9 oil paintings from the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Both institutions acquired significant quantities of his work early on, the Brooklyn Museum from Sargent’s career debut show in New York in 1909 and the Boston museum from a solo show there in 1912. The beauty of Sargent’s watercolors is in how seemingly effortlessly yet exactly he captured outdoor light and complicated man-made and natural forms. In landscapes, close studies of fruit and flowers and portraits of women you see at once the supremely deft action of the brush and the illusions of a sun-drenched halcyon world that it conjures. Prepare for bedazzlement.” (KEN JOHNSON-NYT)
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For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 07/06 and 07/03.