Three Kings Day Parade is an annual tradition at el Museo del Barrio
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
Wednesday, January 6, free, 11:00 am
212-831-7272
www.elmuseo.org
El Museo del Barrio will once again be hosting the Three Kings Day Parade, its thirty-third annual celebration of the Epiphany, beginning at 11:00 in the morning at 106th St. near Park Ave., winding down Third and Lexington, then heading for the museum at 106th and Fifth.
The Manhattan Bridge will be celebrating its one hundredth birthday on New Year's Eve (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
MANHATTAN BRIDGE ARCH & COLONNADE
Bowery & Canal St.
Admission: free
www.nyc.gov
On New Year’s Eve, the underrated Manhattan Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge’s baby brother, turns one hundred. While the festivities honoring the centennial took place back in October, you might still want to pass by today and wish the bridge, which usually gets short shrift, a happy birthday while also checking out some of its very impressive architecture. The Manhattan Bridge approach on the Manhattan side is simply spectacular. Designed in the early twentieth century by Carrère & Hastings — who were trained as draftsmen at McKim, Mead & White and also designed the New York Public Library — the massive Beaux-Arts structure, which was based on the Porte St. Denis arch in Paris, towers over Chinatown, impressive in its detail. Looking out from the top is a row of six lion heads. Beneath that, a frieze features four Native Americans tracking down buffalo; on either side of the frieze are pyramids of coats of arms spreading out into two magnificent sculptures. On the south side, Winged Mercury, standing atop a globe, holds a caduceus, a topless Native American woman to his right, a pilgrim with a bundle on his left. On the north side Winged Victory lifts out her arm, also flanked by a man and a woman. At the peak of the rounded arch itself, a buffalo head looks down Canal St. The colonnade contains seven columns on each side, with more coats of arms and images with various fish. The other side of the arch, facing Brooklyn, is much simpler, though it is guarded on each side by a lion with its paw placed firmly on a globe. The suspension bridge itself, which opened to traffic on December 31, 1909, measures 6,855 feet long and cost $30 million. Happy birthday!
“The Mayor,” pastel and pencil on board, on view and for sale at Animazing Gallery in SoHo
Animazing Gallery
54 Greene St. at Broome St.
Through December 31
Admission: free
212-226-7374
www.animazing.com
In addition to visiting the Tim Burton film program and exhibition retrospective at MoMA, completists and collectors still have one last chance to make their way to the Animazing Gallery in SoHo, which is displaying – and selling – storyboards, props, and other paraphernalia from THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, CORALINE, and CORPSE BRIDE. Also on view through December 31 is a handful of select pieces from this fall’s “Sendak in SoHo” exhibition, which featured select published and conceptual illustrations from the children’s classic WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.
Johnny Depp looks for answers in Tim Burton's haunted fairy tale SLEEPY HOLLOW
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through January 31
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.timburton.com
Writer, director, producer, and animator Tim Burton is a spectacular visual stylist with an unending imagination that began when he was a child and continues now into his fifties. He burst onto the cinematic scene in 1985 with the charming PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE and followed that up with such gems as BATMAN (1989), EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990), ED WOOD (1994), SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999), and SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (2007) as well as with such hit-or-miss films as MARS ATTACKS! (1996), BIG FISH (2003), and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (2005). His name actually became part of the title in the cult classic TIM BURTON’S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1993), the stop-motion animated movie directed by Henry Selick, who also helmed Burton’s production of JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1996). And Burton found his onscreen alter ego in Johnny Depp, who has starred in a half dozen features made by the Burbank-born filmmaker and will be playing the Mad Hatter in next year’s highly anticipated ALICE IN WONDERLAND. In conjunction with MoMA’s exciting retrospective of Burton’s work, a fantastic collection of models, shorts, costumes, storyboards, paintings, drawings, notebooks, school projects, and other paraphernalia, the museum is screening his entire oeuvre through January 31.
Michael Keaton closes out Burton retrospective in BEETLEJUICE on New Year's Eve
The upcoming schedule features the excellent SLEEPY HOLLOW on December 27 at 5:30, the dreadful PLANET OF THE APES (2001) remake on January 1 at 4:30, the great ED WOOD on January 2 at 5:30, the inconsistent MARS ATTACKS! on January 4 at 4:30, and the charming PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE on January 11 at 4:30 before finishing up with the fine BATMAN on January 23 (5:00), the up-and-down CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (4:30) and the bloody good SWEENEY TODD (8:00) on January 27, the nearly unwatchable BATMAN RETURNS (1992) on January 28, and the very funny BEETLEJUICE (1988) on January 31 (6:00). Tickets for the screenings are $10 and are available the day of the show, but they are free if you go the same day you visit the timed-ticked exhibition, which is a splendid way to experience Burton’s chaotic genius.
Cordero will get Saturday night party started at Brooklyn Museum on January 2 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, January 2, free after 5:00 (some events require advance free tickets available an hour or two before showtime)
718-638-5000
www.brooklynmuseum.org
The Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program rings in the new year with its monthly array of free activities, beginning at 5:00 with Cordero, a rousing live band formed by Ani Cordero in Tucson in 1999 with members of Calexico and Giant Sand and based in New York City since 2000; Cordero plays smooth, surprisingly subtle Latin pop that is always on the verge of busting loose. At 6:00, Daphne Brooks will talk about funk rock and James Brown. At 6:30, the Midnight Checkout Queens will play live along with a screening of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001). At 7:00, Venus Ensembles will headline the annual Winter Masquerade Ball, so be sure to come in costume. At 9:00, John Sellers will talk about his book PERFECT FROM NOW ON: HOW INDIE ROCK SAVED MY LIFE. Also at 9:00, Expressway Music hosts a karaoke contest for free FELA! tickets, and Jonathan Toubin spins tunes during the always hot dance party. And as always, the evening includes a gallery talk, a hands-on art workshop, and admission to all of the current exhibitions: “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present,” “James Tissot: ‘The Life of Christ,’” “Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets,” “Reflections on the Electric Mirror: New Feminist Video,” “Patricia Cronin: ‘Harriet Hosmer, Lost and Found,’” and “From the Village to the Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith.”
William Blake, “Mysterious Dream,” watercolor over traces of black chalk
Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave. at 36th St.
Closed Monday
Admission: $12 adults, $8 children under sixteen (free Fridays 7:00 – 9:00)
212-685-0008
www.themorgan.org
While they’re not exactly the Rat Pack and didn’t exactly hang out together – although there is some overlap of when they existed here on earth – William Blake (1757-1827), Jane Austen (1775-1817), Charles Dickens (1812-70), and Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) make for quite a foursome at the Morgan Library this holiday season. A master engraver, painter, Romantic poet, and religious nut, Blake was a visionary artist who claimed that some of his work came from, well, otherworldly visions. “William Blake’s World: ‘A New Heaven Is Begun’” (through January 3) includes such awe-inspiring pieces as “Satan,” “Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims,” the gorgeous watercolor series he did illustrating the Book of Job (even throwing in Jesus for good measure), the wacky “First Book of Urizen,” a letter from Blake to one of his patrons, a pair of plates of his most famous poem, “The Tyger,” and his anti-New World screed, “America: A Prophecy.” Blake, who died poor and was buried in an unmarked grave, had remarkable skill and a mind that just did not quite fit in his time.
The Morgan takes a revealing look at one of England’s greatest novelists in “A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy” (through March 14), comprising original manuscripts, letters, and illustrated editions as well as Blake’s portrait of Harriet Quentin, which Austen saw in London. Austen, who published anonymously because of her gender, penned such classic books as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, MANSFIELD PARK, EMMA, and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, all dealt with in this exhibition. Her writings are placed in context alongside satiric cartoons by James Gillray and diary entries and a documentary film in which other authors discuss Austen’s lasting influence. The letter from her sister Cassandra announcing Jane’s death is simply heartbreaking.
John Leech, detail, “Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball,” original watercolor illustration for Charles Dickens’s CHRISTMAS CAROL, first edition, 1843
Running through January 10 in the McKim Building, “Charles Dickens’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL” features Dickens’s original marked-up manuscript of the holiday tale, written in six weeks in 1843 and bound in red leather shortly after its publication. The book is in the McKim Building, which will be open to the public for free on Tuesdays from 3:00 to 5:00, Fridays (except Christmas and New Year’s Day) from 7:00 to 9:00 (when the entire museum is free), and Sundays from 4:00 to 6:00. Finally, the Morgan is displaying more than three dozen items that look into the life and legacy of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini in “Celebrating Puccini” (through January 10), including letters, posters, and original manuscripts for LA BOHÈME and MADAMA BUTTERFLY.
The Flaming Lips celebrate CHRISTMAS ON MARS with screening at IFC
Even though most arts institutions and music clubs are closed on Christmas Day, there are still plenty of cool things to do after the presents are given out, the table has been cleaned, and exhaustion is setting in. And for those who don’t celebrate Christmas, well, there’s a handful of events to choose from. Christmas is a big movie day, whether people go to the theater after celebrating the holiday with friends and family or instead pair it with Chinese food, at least partially in homage to A CHRISTMAS STORY. At 92YTribeca, screenings of Mel Brooks’s still hysterical BLAZING SADDLES (2:30) and occasionally funny but mostly silly SPACEBALLS (4:00) will be accompanied by an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet ($25-$30). Film Forum’s ongoing Madcap Manhattan series will be showing a special double feature of the original MIRACLE ON 34th STREET with Preston Sturges’s CHRISTMAS IN JULY, while the IFC Center will be presenting the rather bizarre CHRISTMAS ON MARS: A FANTASTICAL FILM FREAKOUT FEATURING THE FLAMING LIPS at midnight all weekend. Jewish singles might want to head uptown to the main branch of the 92nd St. Y for the JDate Christmas Day Chinese Food and Comedy event, thirty-five and over only, please (3:00, $30). The Museum of Jewish Heritage will be holding its annual “Challah-lujah: The Tradition Continues,” a concert featuring Joshua Nelson and the Kosher Gospel Choir, with a family program at 11:00 am ($10-$20) and a show for general audiences at 1:00 ($35). At the Jewish Museum, the Family Celebration includes art workshops, a live performance by Metropolitan Klezmer, the “Strike a Surreal Pose” photo booth in conjunction with the Man Ray exhibition, guided tours, and free hot chocolate ($12 adults, children under twelve free). And at the Museum at Eldridge Street, Greg Wall and Klezmerfest will lead audiences on a musical journey in Klez for Kids ($8-$12, 11:00 am).
Later in the evening, (le) poisson rouge is hosting the Freedom Party, a night of classic hip-hop, dancehall reggae, neosoul, and more with DJ Cosi, DJ Marc Smooth, and DJ Herbert Holler ($15, 11:00 pm), while at SOB’s, T-Vice and Kreyola lead a pair of Manhattan Haitian Dance Parties at midnight and 2:00 am ($30).