this week in music

TELL YOUR FRIENDS! WE’LL KICK CANCER’S BUTT!

Comedian Liam McEneaney will host cancer benefit at Comix on December 8

Comix Comedy Club
353 West 14th St. at Ninth Ave.
Tuesday, December 8, $30 (two-drink minimum), 8:30
www.comixny.com

Benefit season is in full swing, and Comix joins the fray with an exciting bill raising funds and awareness for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America. Sponsored by the Onion, the comedy roster includes John Oliver, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Caroline Rhea, Kristen Schaal, Todd Barry, and Eddie Brill, with a musical set by folk duo a Brief View of the Hudson. The evening, which also features the Ultimate Comedy Nerd Raffle, will be hosted by Liam McEneaney, who produced the event with Jessica Flores, and continues with an after-party with DJ Eliel Lucero and free beer from Brooklyn Brewery. And while there’s a lot funny with this comic crew, there’s nothing funny about free beer, giving you no excuse not to shell out thirty clams and laugh and drink to your heart’s content.

BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL

brooklyncomics

Our Lady of Conservation Church, 194 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Bedford Ave., 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Secret Project Robot, 128 River St. at Metropolitan Ave., 1:00 – 6:00 pm
Death by Audio, 49 South Second St. between Kent & Wythe, 9:00 – ?
Saturday, December 5, free
www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com

Many of the finest practitioners of the graphic novel will be on hand for what looks to be quite the excellent free three-part festival in Williamsburg today. The stellar lineup of guest artists includes Charles Burns, Dash Shaw, R. Sikoryak, Kim Deitch, Gary Panter, Adrian Tomine, and more than a dozen others, along with such exhibitors as Drawn & Quarterly, Le Dernier Cri, Nieves, House of Twelve, the collective Uninhabitable Mansions, and many more. Exhibitors and signings will take place at Our Lady of Conservation Church, with the exact schedule available at the above Web Site. Five panel discussions will be held down the street at Secret Project Robot every hour beginning at 1:00, including the great Ben Katchor talking about the great JULIUS KNIPL, REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHER and THE JEW OF NEW YORK, as well as his other works that chronicle old-time city life, at 3:00, followed by Bill Kartolopoulus moderating “Flatlands: Comics on the Picture Plane” with Lisa Hanawalt, Mark Newgarden, Ron Regé Jr., and David Sandlin. The fest concludes at Death by Audio, with live performances by such artists and bands as Kites, Ambergris, Sam Gas Can, Boogie Boarder, Nick Gazin, Graffiti Monsters, and Dubbknowdubb.

THE BEATLES COMPLETE ON UKULELE

beatlesukulele

Brooklyn Bowl
61 Wythe Ave.
Sunday, December 6, $10, 11:00 am – 12 midnight
718-963-3369
www.brooklynbowl.com
www.thebeatlescompleteonukulele.blogspot.com

As much as we love the Beatles — and we really do, having grown up mimicking the Fab Four in our basement using tennis rackets for guitars and singing with buskers on Bleecker St. in our teens — we were getting just a wee bit oversaturated with the Rock Band video game and the preponderance of Beatles tunes being turned into commercials these days. But then, to save us from this horror, along comes the second annual Beatles Complete on Ukulele. Yes, you heard that right. On Sunday, December 6, from 11:00 am to 12 midnight at Brooklyn Bowl, Roger Greenawalt promises to “perform all 185 original Beatles songs in one day on ukulele with over 60 guest singers, 80 guest musicians, and 16 Yoko impersonators.” We’re particularly looking forward to the 1:00 hour, when Meg Farrell will make her way through “You Won’t See Me,” “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “The Night Before,” and “Dig a Pony” and Mary Lee Kortes, who we’ve seen play all of BLOOD ON THE TRACKS at Joe’s Pub with her band, Mary Lee’s Corvette, covers “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Here, There and Everywhere,” as well as the 7:00 hour, hosted by Jessica Delfino and featuring Dandelion Wine playing “When I Get Home,” “Yesterday,” “A Day in the Life,” and “While My Ukulele Gently Weeps” in addition to Gospel, the Pierces, Loribeth, the Morning Pages, and Kiddeaux. Last year’s inaugural event benefited Warren Buffett, while this year’s proceeds will go to Yoko Ono. Admission is $10, but it’s free if you show up at 11 with a ukulele and play in the Mass Ukulele Beatle Rally. But even if you can’t make it, you just have to check out some of the songs at the above Web site.

FIRST SATURDAYS: LIGHT UP THE SEASON

James Tissot, detail, “Jesus Goes Up Alone onto a Mountain to Pray,” opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, 1886−94

Brooklyn Museum of Art
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, December 5, 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 welcomes in the holiday season with a flurry of free activity tonight, much of which surrounds the James Tissot exhibition “The Life of Christ,” including a rare screening of LA VIE DU CHRIST (THE LIFE OF CHRIST) (Alice Guy Blaché, 1906), a concert of liturgic music by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and a Young Voices gallery talk about the Tissot show. In addition, Pete Fornatale will discuss his new book, BACK TO THE GARDEN: THE STORY OF WOODSTOCK, in conjunction with the “Who Shot Rock & Roll” photography exhibit; there will be live performances by a trio of Dutch groups, Michael Varekamp’s Caribbean jazz ensemble, EveNi, and Lee-Ursus Alexander, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s travels to New York; the Hands-On Art workshop will teach participants how to make a stained-glass window; Beatlemania continues with a screening of Richard Lester’s 1964 classic comedy A HARD DAY’S NIGHT; and Soul Summit hosts the hot and sweaty dance party. There really is nothing quite like First Saturdays, an energizing mix of art, music, film, literature, dance, and more, held the first Saturday of every month to an ever-growing crowd.

ART AND LITERATURE

Salman Rushdie will participate in special presentation at the Cooper Union on December 1

GREAT EVENING IN THE GREAT HALL
The Great Hall at the Cooper Union
7 East Seventh St. at Astor Pl.
Tuesday, December 1, free, 6:30
212-353-4195
www.cooper.edu/month.html

The Cooper Union’s 150th anniversary celebration continues with a special free evening of art and literature with an all-star lineup. Writers Tony Kushner, Salman Rushdie, and Siri Hustvedt will read from their own works, while Isaiah Sheffer and Olympia Dukakis will read selections from W. H. Auden and Mark Twain. Dynamic vocalist Capathia Jenkins and guitarist Louis Rosen, who have set music to poems by Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and Maya Angelou, will also perform. The exquisite evening will be directed by Michael Unger.

I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE

Leigh and McNeil will discuss Joey Ramone in B&N conversation on December 1

MICKEY LEIGH / LEGS McNEIL
Barnes & Noble TriBeCa
97 Warren St.
Tuesday, December 1, free, 7:00
212-587-5389
www.books.simonandschuster.com
www.store-locator.barnesandnoble.com

No, I SLEPT WITH JOEY RAMONE (Touchstone, December 1, 2009, $26) is not a juicy tell-all about the late, beloved leader of punk progenitors the Ramones. Instead, it’s an intimate family memoir written by Jeffry Hyman’s brother, Mickey Leigh, with the legendary Legs McNeil. “Jeff was as happy a kid as you could find in Forest Hills in the 1950s: rolling down the grassy hills laughing; standing up, spinning round and round in circles with his long gangly arm outstretched; then falling over like a drunken monkey,” Leigh writes in the first chapter, “I Slept with Joey Ramone – and His Mother Too!” He continues, “Jeff would coax me to join him but warned, ‘Don’t throw up on me.’ I did both of the above.” The book includes an eight-page black-and-white insert of photos dating back to 1952 and even showing Joey with McNeil back in the day, with Ramone reading a TWILIGHT ZONE book and Legs delving into a copy of Billboard. Leigh and McNeil will be sharing their memories of Joey and talking about the book at the TriBeCa B&N on December 1 at 7:00.

WINTER’S EVE AT LINCOLN SQUARE

Revelers kick off the holiday season at the annual Winter's Eve celebration in Lincoln Square (photo by Greenberg)

Broadway from 59th to 66th Sts.
Monday, November 30, free, 5:30
www.winterseve.org

The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District is celebrating its tenth year of presenting Winter’s Eve with another fun, frolicking holiday kickoff party along Broadway. The tree lighting itself — a twenty-five-foot Balsam Fir — will take place in Dante Park at 63rd Sts., hosted by Joy Behar. The great Brooklyn Afro-funk group Antibalas (Main Stage, 64th St., 6:30 & 7:45) headlines a slate of entertainment that also includes God’s Generation Choir (Dante Park, 5:30 & 6:00), the Flaming Idiots (Dante Park, 5:30 & 6:45), the Harlem Samba Band (Richard Tucker Park, 66th St., 6:00, 7:00, 8:00), the Andy Akiho Foundry Percussion Trio (Richard Tucker Park, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30), Alice Farley Dance Theater (Boradway & 65th St.), and Chinese Lion Dancers and the Hungry March Band, both of which will be marching all over the place. In addition, jazz composer and cellist Ben Allison will be playing two special sets at the American Folk Art Museum, “Songs from Think Free and Others” at 6:30 and a special Neil Young birthday tribute at 7:30. Other events are scheduled for the Time Warner Center and the local Barnes & Noble and Apple Store. There will also be ice sculpting demonstrations, AcroYoga, holiday singalongs, children’s activities, special discounts at area stores as well as $1-$5 food tastings from Asiate, Bar Boulud, Josephina, Landmarc, Picholine, Rosa Mexicano, Sushi a-go-go, and other restaurants. Be sure to bring a can of food to donate to the City Harvest truck at Dante Park to help others usher in the season.