ATOM EGOYAN
Canadian director Atom Egoyan will talk about his latest film, CHLOE, at the Apple Store in SoHo on March 14
Apple Store, SoHo
103 Prince St.
Sunday, March 14, free, 5:00
212-226-3126
www.apple.com/retail/soho
Egyptian-born Canadian writer-director has made such well-regarded films as EXOTICA, THE SWEET HEREAFTER, and FELICIA’S JOURNEY, gaining a reputation as a daring independent auteur. He has earned Oscar nominations as Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for 1994’s THE SWEET HEREAFTER, four of his films have been up for the Palme d’Or at Cannes (ADORATION, WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, FELICIA’S JOURNEY, and EXOTICA), and he has been nominated for thirteen Canadian Genie Awards, winning five. His latest film, CHLOE, which has been featured at prestigious festivals in Toronto, San Sebastián, Vancouver, London, Greece, and Santa Barbara, opens in New York City on March 26. The romantic thriller, which is loosely based on Anne Fontaine’s 2003 film NATHALIE, stars Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried. On March 14, the forty-nine-year-old director will be at the Apple Store in SoHo to talk about his latest work. Other upcoming events at the store include DIARY OF A WIMPY KID actor Zachary Gordon on March 14 at 3:00, BREAKING BAD creator Vince Gilligan on March 19 at 6:00, and ADC Young Guns creative director Greg Brunkalla on March 22 at 6:30.
ARMORY ARTS WEEK: SITE FEST ’10
Multiple locations in Bushwick
March 6-7, 1:00 – 9:00 (music continues past midnight)
Suggested donation for certain events $5, day pass $10, weekend pass $20
www.artsinbushwick.wordpress.com
For something a little different during Armory Arts Week, head out to Brooklyn for two days of open studios, gallery openings, live performances, and more at the second annual SITE Fest. Organized by Arts in Bushwick, the festival has three primary theater, dance, and performance art hubs — 3rd Ward on Morgan Ave., Chez Bushwick on Boerum St., and the Grace Exhibition Space on Broadway — while Goodbye Blue Monday will be home base for much of the live music, curated by ionSOUND. Among the performers scheduled to appear are Kung Fu Crimewave, Larkin Grimm, Meng-Hsuan Wu, Homunculus Mask Theater, Yoo & Dancers, Jenny Vogel, Synthesis Dance Project, HoverBound, the Movement Farm, Ling-Fen Chien, and the Omen Project. There will also be site-specific installations, interactive performances, artist talks, film screenings, sketch comedy, and panel discussions at such satellite sites as the Bushwick Starr, English Kills Gallery, the Petri Space, Bushwick Music Studios, House of Yes, Brooklyn Fireproof Gallery, and many others.
OSCAR VIEWING PARTIES
ACADEMY AWARDS
Multiple locations
Admission: free - $225
www.oscars.org
The eighty-second annual Academy Awards plan to be bigger than ever, of course, hosted by those precocious twins, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be any better, especially with the Best Picture Oscar spread way too thin with ten nominees. The Super Bowl of the movie industry can be watched this year at locations all over the city, with fellow film lovers or loathers adding their own opinions as the night runs too long. The Oscar Viewing Party at 92YTribeca will have themed drink specials, interactive fashion commentary, and more with hosts Michelle Collins, Sara Benincasa, and Sara Schaeffer; eight bucks gets you inside and a complimentary glass of champagne. Admission is free to the Oscar Viewing Party at Comix, but you’ll have to RSVP quickly to kcrews@comixny.com if you want to get in and compete for prizes in trivia contests and partake of such food and drink specials as the Lovely Boneless Chicken Tenders, the Whoopi GoldBurger, the Hurt Liqueur, and the Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire Gin & Tonic. The Bell House in Brooklyn is holding the free WitStream Oscar Party, with comic emcees Gabe Liedman and Jenny Slate promising a pretty crazy evening. Crazy comedy is also the name of the game at the free Heeb Oscar-Watching Party at West 3rd Common, where Eliot and Ilana Glazer will MC the night, focusing on Jewish-related cinema with the folks from Heeb magazine and the Office of Cultural Affairs Consulate General of Israel. There’s no telling what might happen at the ninth annual Murray Hill Oscar Party at Joe’s Pub, with plenty of contests, audience best- and worst-dressed awards, impromptu live performances, and other glamorous nonsense from Murray Hill, Neal Medlyn, Cole Escola, Kate McKinnon, Robin Cloud, and Our Hit Parade (20-$25). Things will be a bit fancier and more serious at Oscar Night and the City at Alice Tully Hall. New York City’s official celebration will run you $150-$225 , starting with a cocktail reception with live music by the Juilliard Jazz Ensemble and including a copy of the official Academy Awards program. And if you can’t wait until Sunday night to see the Oscars, several statuettes are currently on view as part of Meet the Oscars at the Time Warner Center, including one that you can get your picture taken with.
PURIM 2010
Masks and Mayhem is only one of many Purim parties taking place all over the city on February 27
The Jewish holiday of Purim is a time of rejoicing, celebrating the defeat of the Persian leader Haman, who, serving under Persian king Ahasuerus in the fifth century BCE, sought to kill all the Jews. There will be Purim parties all over town on Saturday night, when people will gather with noisemakers and good grog, partaking in the triangular delicacy known as hamentashen, and reading from the Megillah. Chris Noth will host the Aish Center’s “Masks and Mayhem” in the Sony Atrium, with food from Eli Kirshstein, a free drink, music by DJ Roy Baron, and a costume contest that can earn you a pair of first-class tickets to Israel or a Private Chef’s Table for Ten at Solo. The Shushan Channel will be going crazy at 92yTribeca with their eighth annual Purim spiel, “Lady Graga,” led by Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead and taking on pop culture as only they can. JDub records will be getting down at the CSV Cultural Center with a Hamanbashin costume contest and party featuring live performances by the Shondes, Can!!Can, and Gangsta Rabbi, DJ sets by Ultragrrrl and Matt Elkin, and Patrick Aleph delivering the whole Megillah channeled through Sid Vicious. Israeli hip-hoppers Hadag Nahash will be partying late into the night at (le) poisson rouge. At City Winery, Storahtelling presents Bloody Esther, starring Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross, better known as the First Lady of Judeo Kitsch. And in Brooklyn, Heeb magazine has teamed up with 3rd Ward for the Pour ’em Party, featuring Team Facelift, the Shining Twins, Dirty Fences, and DJs Johnny Tropical, Drew Heffron, and Kool Jew, while the Sway Machinery will headline the third annual Purim Bash at Littlefield, along with Djarara.
THE YEAR OF THE TIGER: 4708
Chinatown Lunar New Year celebration goes into full swing this weekend (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
Museum of Chinese in America (and other locations)
211 Centre St. between Howard & Grand Sts.
Thursday – Monday, $7 (free Thursdays 11:00 am – 9:00 pm)
212-619-4785
www.mocanyc.org
The Museum of Chinese in America will be celebrating the Year of the Tiger, 4708, in its beautiful new space on Centre St., honoring the animal that represents courage and bravery. Tonight, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken-word artist Kelly Tsai will host an open-mic event dedicated to Valentine’s Day and the Lunar New Year, both of which occur on Sunday, two holidays bathed in beautiful red colors. For the next two Saturdays, MOCA is holding walking tours entitled “Prepare for the New Year in Chinatown.” The Lunar New Year Flower Festival takes place in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on February 12-13, featuring a bevy of cultural programs and traditional festivities, while on Sunday the annual New Year’s Day Firecracker Ceremony and Festival will light off an estimated 600,000 rounds in the park. On February 18, as part of the Free Fridays program at MOCA, the museum will be screening CHINESE ODYSSEY 2002 (Jeffrey Lau, 2002) at 6:30. If you’ve never been to Chinatown in Flushing, the fourteenth annual Lunar New Year Parade and Festival offers an excellent opportunity to check out that growing neighborhood, February 21 beginning at 11:00 am. And the weeklong partying comes to a close that same day with the eleventh annual Lunar New Year Parade and Festival starting in Little Italy at 11:30 am, with Lion Dancers going in and out of local stores and restaurants to bring good luck and prosperity in the coming year. Be sure to stop off for some dumplings, moon cakes, and other festive food, even if you’re not exactly sure what it is. Gung Hey Fat Choy!
THE EMERGENCY HAITI BENEFIT SHOW!
Janeane Garofalo will be participating in Haiti comedy benefit at Lolita Bar
TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
Lolita Bar
266 Broome St. at Allen St.
Monday, January 25, $10-$100, 8:00
212-966-7223
www.lolitabar.net
www.kidliam.blogspot.com
Liam McEneaney and Jessica Flores’s weekly comedy showcase at Lolita Bar on Monday nights is turned into a Haiti benefit and auction on January 25, featuring an all-star lineup raising funds for Doctors Without Borders. Among the comedians who will be performing are the great and powerful Lewis Black, the cynically lovable Janeane Garofalo, Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac, Flight of the Conchord’s groupie Kristen Schaal, Todd Barry, and McEneaney himself. Live music will be provided by Tracy Bonham and house band a Brief View of the Hudson; the evening will be hosted by Victor Varnado. Admission is a mere $10 at the door, but if you want a better chance of getting in, there are VIP packages available for $25, $50, and $100 as well. Among the raffle prizes will be tickets to late-night television shows, autographed books and scripts, comedy festival tickets, and more.
NEW YEAR’S EVE 2009
The Detroit Cobras get ready to rock in the new year at the Mercury Lounge
You can say goodbye to the decade with a cornucopia of live concerts in New York City on December 31, starting with Chuck Berry’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve at B.B. King’s Blues Club and Grill ($98, 8:00 show; $120, 11:00 show). The very hot Detroit Cobras will be at the Mercury Lounge, welcoming in 2010 with the Underthings and the A-Bones ($25-$30). The intriguing trio of John Medeski, Robert Randolph, and the North Mississippi Allstars bring the Word to Terminal 5 ($40-$50). Revelers can get their freak on for free at Radegast Hall & Biergarten in Williamsburg, where the Coney Island Circus Sideshow will set up their portable tent, featuring Scott Baker, Serpentina, Kryssy Kocktail, Adam “the First Real Man” Rinn, the Executioner, Dick Zigun, Bad Buka, and more starting at 10:00. Los Lobos will threaten to tear down the house at City Winery with shows at 7:30 ($45-$150) and 11:00 ($75-$225). Roky Erickson won’t need any elevators at Maxwell’s, where he’s on a bill with Muck & the Mires ($35). Former Luna residents Dean & Britta will be playing an early show at Southpaw with Undersea Poem ($20-$25).
MSTRKRFT will mix things up at Webster Hall on December 31
The Living Room on Ludlow hosts a night of bluegrass, Auld Twang Syne, with Fresh Baked, Whistlin’ Wolves, Michael Daves, the Birdhive Boys, and others ($10-$15). Necromantic presents a Blue Moon New Year’s Eve party at the Bowery Poetry Club, featuring goth, synth, wave, dancing, revelry, and more ($10-$15). SOB’s, the Home of Universal Music, will get your booty shaking to a Taste of Latin Paradise with Kazua Band, La Excelencia, Stil, and DJ Spike ($25-$150). The Lovin’ Cup in Brooklyn will be throwing a ‘50s Beach Party, with Lemonade, Surfer Blood, Frankie and the Outs, Beach Fossils, We Are Country Mice, booze and food packages, and more ($15-$99). The Bell House will be providing a free can of Champagne along with Obits, the Subway Soul Club, and Eli Paperboy Reed & the True Loves at the Rock ‘N’ Soul 2010 New Year’s Eve Party ($30-$40). The Club Night New Year’s Eve Ball at Webster Hall is sure to be crazy, with MSTRKRFT, four floors, six adventure rooms, aerial performances, and what is billed as the Largest Balloon Drop in the World ($60-$150). And party planners extraordinaire Gemini & Scorpio promise that plenty of contraband will be on hand at the Bootleggers’ Ball in a vacant Carroll Gardens warehouse space, along with the Mad Jazz Hatters, the Stumblebum Brass Band, the Main Squeeze Orchestra, Alchemy Dance Theater, burlesque performers Mme Renee Rosebud and Jenny C’est Quoi, tarot reader and numerologist Marcy Currier, aerialist Nikki Borodi, mayhem master Dan Glass, host Bastard Keith, a live auction, games of chance, the Den of Sin, Dub Pies, and lots of surprises ($30-$40).
Audrey Hepburn brings class and style to Film Forum for NYE
For a milder New Year’s Eve, the Concert for Peace at St. John the Divine features Harry Smith, Judy Collins, Glen Cortese, Lauren Flanigan, and a thousand points of candlelight ($60), while Music at St. Bartholomew’s will include works by Bach, Böhm, and Langlais in addition to Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” at midnight (free). If music of any sort isn’t quite your beat on New Year’s Eve, you can head over to Central Park for the annual Midnight Run, with a fireworks and laser light show, costume contest, dancing, and a four-mile run. Prospect Park will also host free fireworks, right over Grand Army Plaza. Jivamukti Yoga School will be holding its twenty-first annual New Year’s Eve celebration with more than eight hours of special classes, a vegan dinner, a free kirtan dance party, and three hours of silence leading up to a midnight message (free - $75). Carolines on Broadway celebrates with Bobby Lee headlining at 8:00 ($38.25), while Greg Giraldo leads two shows at Comix (7:30 & 10:30, $45-$149). Sandra Bernhard continues her string of shows at Joes Pub (9:00, $100; 11:00, $150), followed by various members of the cast of HAIR letting the sun shine with DJ Theocracy in 2010: AN EQUALITY ODYSSEY! (1:00, $20). Film Forum is throwing in a free glass of Champagne after the 9:50 screening of THE APARTMENT (Billy Wilder, 1960), followed by BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (Blake Edwards, 1961). And for a little something very different, New Lost City begins at 195 Morgan Ave. at 9:00 pm and continues through 7:00 am with promised fire and ice, art and laughter, love and nudity, and prophetic visions and brief moments of the sublime as well as performances by the Hungry March Band, Baja + the Dry Eye Crew, the Lady Circus, and lots more ($29).
