-
Mon, May 31, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, Jun 6, 2021, 9:00 PM
Modulations
OPERA
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 31 – JUNE 6, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
8:00 PM (or on demand)
California Performing Arts / LA Opera
PROTOTYPE Festival Stream
$25
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/modulation/
A major event. A self-guided exploration of the efforts of 13 composers to deal with the various strands that wove together the past year. The composers include such List regulars as Mollly Joyce, Angélica Negrón, Paul Pinto, Raven Chacon, and Bora Yoon! This is how online presentations should be done.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: TGV: pour 2-1/4 oz. Blanco or Reposado Tequila, 1-1/2 oz. dry Vermouth, and 1/2 teaspoon of Grenadine into a tumbler over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.
-
Mon, May 31, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, Jun 6, 2021, 11:00 PM
Pamela Z & Geoff Sobelle: Times3 (Times x Times x Times)
OPERA / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 31 – JUNE 6, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
Starting 10:00 AM
PROTOTYPE Out of Bounds
PROTOTYPE Festival Onsite & Stream
Times Square, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/times-3/
A sonic journey through Times Square and its history that you can undertake live in Times Square or virtually at your computer. Created by two of this List's very favorites: magic soundscaper Pamela Z and physical theater magician Geoff Sobelle!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go, try the wonderful Los Tacos No. 1 (bizarrely closed Saturdays, though). At home, this will take some advance preparation, but: Times Square. Combine 1-1/4 oz. Southern Comfort (yeah, you heard right), 1/4 oz. sweet Vermouth, and 1/2 oz. Grenadine in a glass or pitcher. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Pour into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne.
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Mon, May 31, 2021, 7:00 AM – Sun, Jun 6, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 31 – JUNE 6, 2021 (ongoing)
7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
https://here.org/shows/cairns/
Something you can actually Go Out! to (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White. The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
-
Mon, May 31, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Jun 6, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 31 – JUNE 6, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 10:00 PM
HERE Arts Center Presentation
Jackie Robinson Park
Between Edgecombe & Bradhurst Aves. & 145 – 155 Sts., Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Pay what you wish
https://here.org/shows/the-visitation/
Another sound walk (I LOVE these!), this one set to avant-pop you access through Soundcloud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good beer, epic burgers at Harlem Public.
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Mon, May 31, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Jun 6, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 31 – JUNE 6, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park
59th Street – 110th Street/Central Park West – 5th Avenue, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
https://www.ellenreidsoundwalk.com/new-york-philharmonic
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train (see below). The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga.
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Saturday, May 29, 2021, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Mendi & Keith Obadike: lull, a sleep temple
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2021
10:00 PM
Look & Listen Festival Live Stream
Free (registration required)
https://form.jotform.com/211225699054154
An overnight (till 6 AM Sunday) sonic environment, using field recordings, synths, and whathaveyou, for sleep.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hot Toddy: fill a heatproof mug with boiling water. After a minute or so, empty the mug. Pour in 2 oz. Whiskey (your choice) (you can also use dark Rum or Cognac) and 3/4 oz. light honey. Stir. Garnish with a lemon twist. If you have a cinnamon stick, put it in. If you have a star anise pod, put that in, too.
-
Saturday, May 29, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Quark Circus: The Zoom Circus Show that Goes Wrong
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2021
8:00 PM
Quark Circus Live Stream
Zoom
Pay What You Can ($15 suggestedd)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-zoom-circus-show-that-goes-wrong-tickets-150332104371
Remote circus on Zoom. I mean, what could go wrong?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Horsefeather: pour 1-1/2 oz. Whiskey (I like Rye) and 4 oz. Ginger Beer, with 4-5 dashes of Angostura bitters and 1 squeeze of lemon, into a Highball or Collins glass over ice. Drop in the lemon wedge you'd squeezed.
-
Sat, May 29, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 8:00 PM
-
Friday, May 28, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sally Decker & Briana Marela Lizzáraga: Small Tremble in Slow Motion
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2021
8:00 PM
Qubit Stream
Free
https://qubitmusic.com/
Spacey music from Sally Decker and Briana Marela Lizzáraga, with accompanying visuals, exploring and illustrating deep emotional contraction.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: El Capitán 11: pour 1-1/2 oz. Pisco, 1/2 oz. Chinato, and 1/4 oz. Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of Pimento bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a Martini glass or coupe. Express an orange twist into the drink and garnish with the rind.
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Fri, May 28, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 29, 2021, 8:45 PM
The Underground Cabaret
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 28 & 29, 2021 (continuing through JULY 17)
7:30 & 7:45 PM
DeKalb Stage, City Point
445 Albee Square West, Downtown, Brooklyn
$40 (just drinks — but you have to pay for the drinks and there's a minimum of two) & $135 (includes dinner)
https://www.anverentertainment.com/the-underground-cabaret
Dinner and a neo-circus, neo-burlesque, neo-variety show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dinner is by Israeli chain Minzon.
-
Fri, May 28, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, May 29, 2021, 9:30 PM
Target Margin Theater: NOW GO AND ACT ACCORDINGLY
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 28 & 29, 2021
7:00 & 8:30 PM
Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$5-$35
https://www.targetmargin.org/now-go/
Target Margin reflects on our current moment: the hope, the possibilities, the misgivings — the complicated emotions. Through storytelling! If there's any company that embodies this List's belief that avant-garde work can be communicative and fun, it's Target Margin.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Charming Mexican at Tequilitas.
-
Friday, May 28, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2021 (weekly)
5:00 PM
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Facebook
Free
https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/ethel-online
The fab alt string quartet ETHEL brings its weekly recitals in the Met Balcony Bar home (theirs and yours). Expect old and new music, and surprise guests (from still more homes).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Amber Negroni: pour 1/2 oz. each of Gin and Braulio Amaro, and 1 oz. each of Lillet Blanc (with the usual preferred substitutions, especially Tempus Fugit Kino l'Áero d'Or) and lemon juice, with 3 dashes of Bitterman's Burlesque Bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
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Thursday, May 27, 2021, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
C4: Our Voices
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
8:30 PM
#C4GoesRemote
C4 Live Stream
Free (donations requested)
http://www.c4ensemble.org/remote-concerts.html
The crack Choral Composer/Conductive Collective does not just new but brandspankingnew choral pieces (with instrumentalist friends kicking in). Instead of incorporating the latency inherent in remote media into the performance concept as others have done, they grind their bootheels in its face.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Conference: pour 1/2 oz. each of Rye, Bourbon, Calvados, and Cognac, and 1 teaspoon of Demaerara Syrup, with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters and 1 dash of chocolate bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a double rocks glass over ice. Garnish with an orange twist and a lemon twist.
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Thursday, May 27, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Anjna Swaminathan: We Must Protect Our Bloom
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/anjna-swaminathanborderswe-must-protect-our-bloom/
The captivating and enthralling vocalist (she also plays violin — but not tonight) and multidisciplinary artist Anjna Swaminathan, who comes out of Carnatic and Hindustani but goes anywhere she wants, creates a musical and visual presentation reflecting on plant life and its similarities to human life. Her point is the need for communitarianism evidenced by our experience of the last year. Too bad she lives in a country whose ethos is devoted to repulsive disgusting atomistic hyperindividualism.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a Roosevelt: pour 1-3/4 oz. dark Rum, 1/2 oz. dry Vermout, and 1/4 oz. orange juice, with 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with an orange twist.
-
Thursday, May 27, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
BMP: Next Gen
OPERA / MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
7:30 PM
Beth Morrison Projects Stream
Free
https://www.bethmorrisonprojects.org/next-generation-2021
The unstoppable Beth Morrison Projects presents its annual gaggle of young music-theater composers, with instrumental support by Contemporaneous.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ranglum: pour 2 oz. Gosling Black Seal Rum, 1/2 oz. overproof Rum, 3/4 oz. Falernum, 1 oz. lime juice, and 1/4 oz. Simple Syrup into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with a lime twist.
-
Thursday, May 27, 2021, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble: House Music
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 25 & 27, 2021 (semi-weekly)
10:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble Stream
Free
https://metropolisensemble.org/house-music
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Metropolis Ensemble showcases ace musicianassociated with its excellent self, or in any event friends of the ensemble, playing solo contemporary, classical, and newly commissioned pieces from home. Metropolis Ensemble has assured me that no musicians were woken early for these shows; they are (new) prerecordings prepared for this series.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Coffee.
-
Wed, May 26, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sat, May 29, 2021, 9:00 PM
Persou
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 26 – 29, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 5)
8:00 PM
the cell
338 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$35-$70
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thecelltheatre/519624#
With Spring finally really springing, we celebrate with an attempted, not really recreation, but reflection of ceremonies worshipping Persephone at the Temple of Aphrodite in Paphos, Cyprus. (Wait I thought the main rites for Persephone and her mom Demeter were celebrated at Eleusis in Greece — and that the Temple of Aphrodite in Paphos was known for other things. Well, don't listen to me.) This particular version of the rite involves music, snacks, and general immersive performance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm actually really crazy for the homestyle Palestinian at Qanoon right now — and not just because of world events.
-
Wed, May 26, 2021, 7:00 PM – Thu, May 27, 2021, 8:00 PM
-
Wednesday, May 26, 2021, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Death of Classical / Bindlestiff Family Cirkus: Secret Mausoleum Music Club
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2021 (also JUNE 30 & JULY 21)
6:30 PM
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$50
https://www.green-wood.com/event/secret-mausoleum-music-club/2021-05-26/
You get to visit mausoleums that aren't usually open to the public (and more important: you get to leave!). You get to listen to musicians perched in various semi-expected spots. You get to watch a Bindlestiff Family Cirkus extravaganza. This sounds so great that I can only guess why last Summer's edition came across as corny instead. I'll be back, though. And I have nothing but praise for their adult beverage program.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: On the one hand, I think the food at Chilo's Greenwood is mediocre gloppy imitation Mexican, a crime when it's so near the good Mexican spots in Sunset Park. I also think the drinks are trash, fit only for those looking to get buzzed without caring about craft and nuance and shit like that. On the other hand, Chilo's is right across the street from Green-Wood Cemetery — and (having just spent an evening wandering through the graveyard that is the Sunset Park restaurant scene looking for a place to eat, I cannot overemphasize the importance of this factor) open for business.
-
Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Leila Adu Trio: WithPUBLIQuartet
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/leila-adu-trio-with-publiquartet/
Leila Adu is yet another artist who could be a poster person for this List: she writes contemporary classical, she writes pop — and unlike, say, Leonard Bernstein of a few generations ago, she doesn't convey any impression that she views them as separate pursuits. Here, Adu's trio is accompanied by the PUBLIQuartet.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a Polly Fizz: pour 2 oz. Gin and 3/4 oz. each of Grenadine and lemon juice, with one egg white, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker WITHOUT ice. Dry shake. Add ice. Shake some more. Strain into a Collins glass over ice. Top with club soda. It's a little early, but if you have a raspberry, toss it in.
-
Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Seth Parker Woods: Difficult Grace (excerpts)
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021
7:00 PM
Ecstatic Music Festival
Kaufman Music Center, Merkin Hall Stream
$15
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/seth-parker-woods/
Seth Parker Woods, an astoundingly good cellist, performs excerpts from a program, with visuals, devoted to the Great Migration.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: County Priest: pour 1-1/2 oz. Bourbon, 3/4 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and Aperol, and 1/4 teaspoon Absinthe, into an Old Fashioned glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
-
Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
ICEBERG feat. Ayanna Witter-Johnson & ShoutHouse
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021
12:00 PM
Carnegie Hill Concerts Live Stream
Zoom
Free (registration required)
https://www.carnegiehillconcerts.org/concerts/2021noondayseries-d6lng
Ayanna Witter-Johnson is something: an excellent cellist who's also a really really good Nu R&B singer-songwriter. Here she reinterprets pieces by the composers in the ICEBERG collective. The hip-hop inflected contemporary classical ensemble ShoutHouse joins in occasionally on tape.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Air Mail: pour 2 oz. golden Rum, 1/2 oz. lime juice, and 1 teaspoon honey into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Pour (UNstrained) into a Collins glass over ice. Top with Champagne. Originally this was garnished with a postage stamp. A lime twist is nicer.
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Tue, May 25, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 4:30 PM
Ben Rubin & Brian House: Terminal Morraine
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 25 – 30, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 6)*
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Woodland Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Advance ticket required: $18; $12 students and seniors; free children with attending adult; weekdays pay what you can
https://www.bbg.org/visit/event/ben_rubin_and_brian_house_terminal_moraine
A sound installation in the Walled Garden in BBG's new Woodland Garden, intended to purvey a sense of the geological contingency that created the terminal morraine ridge on which the Garden sits that clefts Brooklyn and reaches all the way out to Montauk. The morraine, a pile of rocks left by ice age glaciers at their furthest point of advance before changing climate caused their retreat, was created at a climatic inflection point — and now we're at another (this one, however, of our specie's own creation).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Burmese at Rangoon.
-
Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble: House Music
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 25 & 27, 2021 (semi-weekly)
10:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble Stream
Free
https://metropolisensemble.org/house-music
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Metropolis Ensemble showcases ace musicianassociated with its excellent self, or in any event friends of the ensemble, playing solo contemporary, classical, and newly commissioned pieces from home. Metropolis Ensemble has assured me that no musicians were woken early for these shows; they are (new) prerecordings prepared for this series.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Coffee.
-
Tue, May 25, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 4:30 PM
-
Mon, May 24, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 9:00 PM
Modulations
OPERA
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 24 – 30, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
8:00 PM (or on demand)
California Performing Arts / LA Opera
PROTOTYPE Festival Stream
$25
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/modulation/
A major event. A self-guided exploration of the efforts of 13 composers to deal with the various strands that wove together the past year. The composers include such List regulars as Mollly Joyce, Angélica Negrón, Paul Pinto, Raven Chacon, and Bora Yoon! This is how online presentations should be done.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: TGV: pour 2-1/4 oz. Blanco or Reposado Tequila, 1-1/2 oz. dry Vermouth, and 1/2 teaspoon of Grenadine into a tumbler over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.
-
Mon, May 24, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 7:00 PM
Modesto Flako Jimenez: Taxilandia
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 24 – 30, 2021
12:00, 2:00 & 4:00 PM MONDAY – FRIDAY
12:00, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
¡Oye! Group
294 Harmon Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Taxi ride $25 per person; text-guided walking tour $3 per person
https://www.taxilandia.com/
Playwright/performer/director/producer Modesto Flako Jimenez drove a cab for years. Which gave him a street-level perspective of his Bushwick neighborhood — the one behind the fashionplate. There are two ways to do this show. Pods of up to three people can take a cab ride with Jimenez, who'll chat about the neighborhood (scarce cab reservations are available by lottery). Or you can take a text-guided walking tour of Bushwick.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grab some Birria at Nene's Deli Taqueria and eat it in Maria Hernandez Park.
-
Mon, May 24, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 10:00 PM
Pamela Z & Geoff Sobelle: Times3 (Times x Times x Times)
OPERA / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 24 – 30, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
Starting 10:00 AM
PROTOTYPE Out of Bounds
PROTOTYPE Festival Onsite & Stream
Times Square, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/times-3/
A sonic journey through Times Square and its history that you can undertake live in Times Square or virtually at your computer. Created by two of this List's very favorites: magic soundscaper Pamela Z and physical theater magician Geoff Sobelle!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go, try the wonderful Los Tacos No. 1 (bizarrely closed Saturdays, though). At home, this will take some advance preparation, but: Times Square. Combine 1-1/4 oz. Southern Comfort (yeah, you heard right), 1/4 oz. sweet Vermouth, and 1/2 oz. Grenadine in a glass or pitcher. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Pour into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne.
-
Mon, May 24, 2021, 7:00 AM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 24 – 30, 2021 (ongoing)
7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
https://here.org/shows/cairns/
Something you can actually Go Out! to (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White. The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
-
Mon, May 24, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 24 – 30, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 10:00 PM
HERE Arts Center Presentation
Jackie Robinson Park
Between Edgecombe & Bradhurst Aves. & 145 – 155 Sts., Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Pay what you wish
https://here.org/shows/the-visitation/
Another sound walk (I LOVE these!), this one set to avant-pop you access through Soundcloud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good beer, epic burgers at Harlem Public.
-
Mon, May 24, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 30, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 24 – 30, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park
59th Street – 110th Street/Central Park West – 5th Avenue, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
https://www.ellenreidsoundwalk.com/new-york-philharmonic
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train (see below). The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga (and people say their outdoor dining set-up is lovely).
-
Sunday, May 23, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Out of Caution: The Next Generation (Pilot Episode)
PERFORMANCE / THEATER / DANCE / MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 23, 2021
8:00 PM
The Brick Theater
Out of Caution Stream
Twitch
Free
https://www.bricktheater.com/event/ooctng-episode-two/
The new kidz version of the great showcase for alternative performance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The first time I visited Buenos Aires — probably my favorite city that isn't New York — I was disturbed to find out that their local cocktail of choice is a Fernet and Coke. "What is everybody here, 17?" asked myself bitterly. Then I had a few. The Porteños know what they're doing. Pour 1 cup Coke and 1/2 cup Fernet into a Collins glass over ice. Garnish with a lemon wedge. Be sure to repeat a few times.
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Sunday, May 23, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Ricarrdo Valentine: Brother(hood)Dance! / All About Love
DANCE
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 21 & 23, 2021
7:00 PM FRIDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
La MaMa Live Stream
$5-$25
https://www.lamama.org/shows/ricarrdo-valentine-brother-hood-dance-all-about-love
Black love and healing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ada Coleman's Hanky Panky: pour 1-1/2 oz. each of Gin and sweet Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. Fernet, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with an orange twist.
-
Saturday, May 22, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Joel Ross: 4Nette
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/joel-ross-2/
As you all know by now, this List thinks vibraphonist Joel Ross is one of the absolute best mainstream jazz musicians of the upcoming generation. Tonight he plays tribute to one of the best jazz musicians — fuck that, best musicians period — ever, Ornette Coleman. With a quartet including fellow best-of-upcoming-generation player Immanuel Wilkins on Ornette's horn, the alto.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, I was surprised (and disappointed) to learn that there does not appear to be a cocktail named for Lonely Woman, a composition that calls for one if any does. So I made one up (again, I'm still adjusting the proportions — input welcome) (experienced cocktailians will see what I'm doing here): pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, 1/2 oz. lemon juice, and 1/4 oz. each of Grenadine and Crème de Violette, with 1 dash of Peychaud's bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
-
Saturday, May 22, 2021, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Viola Yip & Ken Ueno: Forms of Erasure
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, MAY 22, 2021
4:00 PM
Look & Listen Festival Stream
Free (registration required)
https://form.jotform.com/210758562797167
Two sound artists, one located in Hamburg and one in Berkeley, collaborate on a live multi-media piece that exploits the failures of the streaming medium, the physical artifacts those failures create. Exploitation of the failures of a medium is, to me, one very good definition of art.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: 21st Century: pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, 1/2 oz. white Crème de Cacao, and 1/4 oz. each of Lillet Blanc (or Cocchi Americano or Kina l'Aero d'Or) and lemon juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass.
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Sat, May 22, 2021, 4:00 PM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 5:00 PM
Jasmine Hearn: Songs from "Pleasure Memories" // Sugar Vendil: Test Sites
MUSIC / DANCE
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 22 & 23, 2021
4:00 PM
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
Downtown Art / Alpha Omega
19 East 3rd Street, East Village, Manhattan
$5-$25
https://www.lamama.org/shows/shared-program-jasmine-hearn-sugar-vendil
Music with movement: Jasmine Hearn is mainly a dancer, but has a singer-songwriter album coming out, and here performs songs from it (with movement). Sugar Vendil is a pianist, but here mixes in movement and electronics.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Italian at Frank.
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Sat, May 22, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 8:00 PM
AFROFEMONONOMY: WORK THE ROOTS
THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 22 & 23, 2021
12:00 – 2:00 & 4:00 – 7:00 PM Outdoor Installation
2:30 & 3:45 PM Performance
Performance Space New York
150 First Avenue, East Village, Mannhatan
Free (registration required)
https://performancespacenewyork.org/shows/work-the-roots/
AFROFEMONONOMY is a real supergroup of Black female theatermakers. And I mean "super": Jackie Sibblies Drury, Kaneza Schall, Eisa Davis, Charlotte Braithwaite, and Joie Lee are just a few of the participants. Here they're paying tribute to a perhaps underappreciated pillar of Black female theatermaking, playwright Kathleen Collins. There's an outdoor installation called Last night I dreamt I danced in the image of God and a performance called The Reading.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Very appealing neighborhood Malaysian (sambal on everything!) at Medan Pasar.
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Sat, May 22, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 11:00 PM
Downtown Live
PERFORMANCE / THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 22 & 23
Various times
Engarde Arts/The Tank/Downtown Alliance
Various Locations, Financial District, Manhattan
Free (ticket required)
https://www.engardearts.org/downtown-live/
An amazing concatenation of NYC Alt Theater and Performance types — folks who get Listed here again and again — give performances at various outdoor spots throughout FiDi.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Unbelievably, there is now an Uyghur restaurant in the FiDi (we're not going to think about what drove them here). Have some hearty, satisfying, utterly delicious food at Caravan Uyghur Cuisine.
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Friday, May 21, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ches Smith, Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri & Bill Frisell
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$35 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/ches-smith-craig-taborn-mat-maneri-bill-frisell/
Drummer Ches Smith, pianist Craig Taborn, and violist Mat Maneri are a fascinating regular trio. Guitarist Bill Frisell is about the greatest ringer you could imagine.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, time to break out that supreme cocktail, the Last Word: pour 3/4 oz. each of Gin, green Chartreuse, Maraschino liqueur and lime juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Perfection requires no garnish.
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Friday, May 21, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
David Lang: Love Fail
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021
8:00 PM
Quince
University of Chicago Stream
$15-$20
https://tickets.uchicago.edu/Online/default.asp
There aren't many sure things in this world, but ab fab vocal ensemble Quince doing David Lang's Love Fail, incorporating the Tristan legend, is one.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ideally you'd drink a love potion you think is a death potion. Absent that, try a Cornwall Negroni: pour 2 oz. Gin and 1/2 oz. each of sweet Vermouth, Punt e Mes, and Campari, with 2 dashes orange bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with an orange twist.
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Fri, May 21, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 22, 2021, 8:45 PM
The Underground Cabaret
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 21 & 22, 2021 (continuing through MAY 31)
7:30 & 7:45 PM
DeKalb Stage, City Point
445 Albee Square West, Downtown, Brooklyn
$40 (just drinks — but you have to pay for the drinks and there's a minimum of two) & $135 (includes dinner)
https://www.anverentertainment.com/the-underground-cabaret
Dinner and a neo-circus, neo-burlesque, neo-variety show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dinner is by Israeli chain Minzon.
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Friday, May 21, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Parker adapt. Suzanna Szadowski: Still Waiting
THEATER
FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021
7:30 PM
DO MORE Series
Bedlam Theater Live Stream
Free (donation to 18 Million Rising requested)
https://bedlam.org/benefit-reading-2/
A dramatic adaptation of a short story by Dorothy Parker.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dorothy Parker would just have a Scotch. She took it straight.
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Friday, May 21, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Virtual Community Salon
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021 (monthly) (or so)
7:30 PM
Contemporaneous
Zoom
Free (with registration)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-community-salon-tickets-140418512551
A virtual salon. Artists and performers can share pieces in whatever stage of completion. Everyone else can comment and converse.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dark 'n' Stormy: pour 2 oz. Blackstrap Rum and 1 oz. lime juice into a Collins glass. Add ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with a lime wedge.
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Fri, May 21, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, May 22, 2021, 9:30 PM
Target Margin Theater: NOW GO AND ACT ACCORDINGLY
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 21 & 22, 2021 (continuing through MAY 29)
7:00 & 8:30 PM
Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$5-$35
https://www.targetmargin.org/now-go/
Target Margin reflects on our current moment: the hope, the possibilities, the misgivings — the complicated emotions. If there's any company that embodies this List's belief that avant-garde work can be communicative and fun, it's Target Margin.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Mexican at Tequilitas.
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Friday, May 21, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Ricarrdo Valentine: Brother(hood)Dance! / All About Love
DANCE
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 21 & 23, 2021
7:00 PM FRIDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
La MaMa Live Stream
$5-$25
https://www.lamama.org/shows/ricarrdo-valentine-brother-hood-dance-all-about-love
Black love and healing.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ada Coleman's Hanky Panky: pour 1-1/2 oz. each of Gin and sweet Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. Fernet, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with an orange twist.
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Friday, May 21, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021 (weekly)
5:00 PM
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Facebook
Free
https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/ethel-online
The fab alt string quartet ETHEL brings its weekly recitals in the Met Balcony Bar home (theirs and yours). Expect old and new music, and surprise guests (from still more homes).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Amber Negroni: pour 1/2 oz. each of Gin and Braulio Amaro, and 1 oz. each of Lillet Blanc (with the usual preferred substitutions, especially Tempus Fugit Kino l'Áero d'Or) and lemon juice, with 3 dashes of Bitterman's Burlesque Bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
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Thursday, May 20, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ghost Ensemble Presents: Carrie Frey & Robert Fleitz
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021
8:00 PM
Ghost Ensemble Stream
YouTube
$5-$10 suggested donation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw7eUqT66Xo
A violin/piano duo plays a wide-ranging contemporary program including a lot of time-stopping Wandelweiserer Eva-Marie Houben.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Salers Delight: pour 1-1/2 oz. amber Rum, 1/2 oz. each Cocchi Americano and Salers, 1/2 oz. Aperol, and 1 teaspoon Crème de Violette into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Thursday, May 20, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
G Lukas Crane: Exploded Archive
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/g-lucas-crane-exploded-archive/
G Lukas Crane, who um does things with tapes, spent the Quarantine messing with existing pieces. Here we go.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have an Et Mois Je Te Dis Maud: pour 1-1/2 oz. Armagnac and 1/4 oz. each of yellow Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur into an ice-filled cocktail shaker (in the unlikely event you have any cinammon-fig bitters, shake in 1 dash). Stir. Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass.
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Thu, May 20, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 22, 2021, 8:30 PM
Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith: Gloria
DANCE
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 20 – 22, 2021
7:30 PM
Abrons Arts Center Amphiteater
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$5-$20
https://www.abronsartscenter.org/program/gloria/
Dancers/choreographers Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith deconstruct tropes of female objectification and throw them right back.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: How wonderful that just around the corner from Abrons is now one of the best restaurants in New York, Basque knockout Ernesto's.
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Thursday, May 20, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Women | Create: A Virtual Festival of Dance
DANCE
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts Stream
Free ($10 donation suggested)
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/women-create-a-virtual-festival-of-dance/
Short works by an impressive line-up including, among several others, Karole Armitage, Jennifer Muller, and Sidra Bell.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dr. Melfi's Medicine: pour 1/2 oz. of Gin, sweet Vermouth, Campari, and Simple Syrup, with 1/4 oz. lemon juice, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a Collins glass over ice. Garnish with a grapefruit wedge.
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Thursday, May 20, 2021, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Caridad Svich: The Little Hours
THEATER
THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2021
7:00 & 9:00 PM
Theater in Quarantine
La MaMa Live Stream
Free (donation requested)
https://www.lamama.org/shows/the-little-hours-theater-in-quarantine
Nostalgia for an Old Bohemianism that may never return. Hell, it may never have been there in the first place. (Theater in Quarantine — pretty much put on in closets — is reliably excellent.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Americano: pour 1-1/2 oz. each of Campari and sweet Vermouth into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Strain into a Highball glass over ice. Top with soda water. Garnish with an orange wedge.
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Thursday, May 20, 2021, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
-
Thursday, May 20, 2021, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble: House Music
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 18 & 20, 2021 (semi-weekly)
10:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble Stream
Free
https://metropolisensemble.org/house-music
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Metropolis Ensemble showcases ace musicianassociated with its excellent self, or in any event friends of the ensemble, playing solo contemporary, classical, and newly commissioned pieces from home. Metropolis Ensemble has assured me that no musicians were woken early for these shows; they are (new) prerecordings prepared for this series.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Coffee.
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Wed, May 19, 2021, 8:00 PM – Thu, May 20, 2021, 9:00 PM
Jon Tai & Alex Gruhin: Missed Connections
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 19 & 20, 2021
8:00 PM
59E59 Live Stream
Zoom
$29
https://www.59e59.org/shows/show-detail/missed-connections/
A highly interactive magic show about human connectivity.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: New Orleans Creole Cocktail (from Henry Ramos!): rinse a chilled Old Fashioned glass with Absinthe. Muddle a sugar cube and 4 dashes each of Angostura and Peychaud's bitters in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Pour in 2 oz. Rye and 1/2 teaspoon Curaçao. Add ice. Stir. Strain into the rinsed Old Fashioned glass.
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Wed, May 19, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 9:00 PM
-
Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Marisa Tornello feat. Yoshi Weinberg: now that you know yourself
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/steve-swell-tom-rainey-duo/
Vocalist/composer/performance artist with (really good!) flautist/composer explores alienation and healing relating to gender uncertainty (as opposed to the emptyheaded denialism of gender certainty — but that's a different piece).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a Southern Cross: pour 3/4 oz. each of Cognac and Rum, 1 oz. Cointreau, and 1/2 oz. lemon juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Wed, May 19, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sat, May 22, 2021, 9:00 PM
Persou
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 19 – 22, 2021
8:00 PM
the cell
338 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$35-$70
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thecelltheatre/519624#
With Spring finally really springing, we celebrate with an attempted, not really recreation, but reflection of ceremonies worshipping Persephone at the Temple of Aphrodite in Paphos, Cyprus. (Wait I thought the main rites for Persephone and her mom Demeter were celebrated at Eleusis in Greece — and that the Temple of Aphrodite in Paphos was known for other things. Well, don't listen to me.) This particular version of the rite involves music, snacks, and general immersive performance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm actually really crazy for the homestyle Palestinian at Qanoon right now — and not just because of world events.
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Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Ensemble Connect: American Mosaic
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 2021
7:30 PM
Carnegie Hall Stream
Free
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2021/05/19/Ensemble-Connect-Up-Close-0730PM
Not much info available on this program, except that it seems to be mainly fairly mainstream 20th-into-21st Century repertoire with visuals by artist Kevork Mourad.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: 21st Century: rinse a chilled Martini glass or coupe with Absinthe. Pour 2 oz. Blanco Tequila and 1/4 oz. each of white Crème de Cacao and lemon juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into the rinsed glass.
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Wed, May 19, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 22, 2021, 8:30 PM
Maria Camia: NEW MONY!
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 19 – 22, 2021
7:30 PM
Dixon Place Live Stream
I'm so sick of dystopian SciFi — masturbatory fodder for Trumpboys, if you ask me — that it's nice to see utopian SciFi, however whimsical. Especially if it has puppets.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Por Do Sol: pour 1 oz. each of Cachaça, Vermouth Blanc, and Campari, with 1 dash orange bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
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Wed, May 19, 2021, 7:00 PM – Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:00 PM
Francesca Harper: The Freedom Series
DANCE
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 19 & 20, 2021
7:00 PM
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.green-wood.com/event/the-freedom-series/2021-05-19/
I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. Francesca Harper will help us remember (to the extent we ever knew it).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: On the one hand, I think the food at Chilo's Greenwood is mediocre gloppy imitation Mexican, a crime when it's so near the good Mexican spots in Sunset Heights. I also think the drinks are trash, fit only for those looking to get buzzed without caring about craft and nuances of flavor and shit like that. On the other hand, Chilo's is right across the street from Green-Wood Cemetery — and (having just spent an evening wandering through the graveyard that is the Sunset Park restaurant scene looking for a place to eat, I cannot overemphasize) open.
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Wed, May 19, 2021, 7:00 PM – Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:00 PM
S.E.M. Ensemble
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 19 & 20, 2021
7:00 PM
WEDNESDAY: WhiteBox@El Barrio's Artspace PS109
215 East 99th Street, East Harlem, Manhattan
THURSDAY: Kentler International Drawing Space
353 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$15
http://www.semensemble.org/
The veteran experimental S.E.M. Ensemble presents new and older pieces by its leader, the estimable Petr Kotik.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Wednesday, the tacos at El Paso Taqueria are really good. Thursday, wildly popular American fare — including a burger that has, in a short time, become iconic — at Red Hook Tavern.
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Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
For Living Lovers: CRUCIBLE
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/for-living-lovers-crucible/
The serenely spacey guitar/bass duo of Brandon Ross and Stomu Takeishi — two amazing players no matter how you look at it — present their account of the Pandemic, its effects, and its aftermath.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a Blue Moon: pour 2 oz. Gin and 1/2 oz. each of Crème de Violette and lemon juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Virtual International Showcase
DANCE
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
7:00 PM
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
La MaMa Live Stream
$5-$25
https://www.lamama.org/shows/virtual-international-showcase
Dancer/choreographers from all over the place.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Captain's Blood: pour 2 oz. Jamaican Rum, 1 oz. lime juice, and 3/4 oz. each of lime juice andSimple Syrup, with 2 dashes Angustura bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Raymond Nagem
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
6:00 PM
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine Live Stream
Free
https://www.stjohndivine.org/calendar/35899/tuesdays-at-6-raymond-nagem
An organ recital featuring Schumann pretending to be a formalist (that's rich), Nico Muhly actually being Nico Muhly, and Messiaen being his strange unique visionary self.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fumata Bianca: pour 1/2 oz. Mezcal and 1 oz. each of Vermouth Blanc and Suze into a Collins glass over ice. Stir. Top with club soda. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
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Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble: House Music
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 18 & 20, 2021 (semi-weekly)
10:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble Stream
Free
https://metropolisensemble.org/house-music
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Metropolis Ensemble showcases ace musicianassociated with its excellent self, or in any event friends of the ensemble, playing solo contemporary, classical, and newly commissioned pieces from home. Metropolis Ensemble has assured me that no musicians were woken early for these shows; they are (new) prerecordings prepared for this series.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Coffee.
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Tue, May 18, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 4:30 PM
-
Tue, May 18, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 4:30 PM
Ben Rubin & Brian House: Terminal Morraine
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 18 – 23, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 6)
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Woodland Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Advance ticket required: $18; $12 students and seniors; free children with attending adult; weekdays pay what you can
https://www.bbg.org/visit/event/ben_rubin_and_brian_house_terminal_moraine
A sound installation in the Walled Garden in BBG's new Woodland Garden, intended to purvey a sense of the geological contingency that created the terminal morraine ridge on which the Garden sits that clefts Brooklyn and reaches all the way out to Montauk. The morraine, a pile of rocks left by ice age glaciers at their furthest point of advance before changing climate caused their retreat, was created at a climatic inflection point — and now we're at another (this one, however, of our specie's own creation).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Burmese at Rangoon.
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Monday, May 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Laura Cocks: LARUS LARUS
MUSIC
MONDAY, MAY 17, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/laura-cocks-larus-larus/
Flautist extraordinaire Laura Cocks presents an evening of compositions for flute, voice, physically modeled ensembles, tools, and balloons. And the composers are the great elder George Lewis and young comers Natacha Diels, Jessie Cox, Bethany Younge, Weston Olencki, and flautist extraordinaire Laura Cocks!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a French Pearl: pour 2 oz. Gin, 1 oz. lime juice, 3/4 oz. Simple Syrup, and 1/4 teaspoon Absinthe, with a small handful of mint, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Monday, May 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Felipe Ossa: The Ultimate Stimulus — Now More than Ever
THEATER
MONDAY, MAY 17, 2021
8:00 PM
The Brick Stream
YouTube
Free (registration required)
https://www.bricktheater.com/event/the-ultimate-stimulus-now-more-than-ever/
Wealth inequality solved by concubinage? Seems less like a joke than ever.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's time for an Income Tax: pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, and 1/4 oz. each of dry Vermouth and sweet Vermouth, and 1 oz. orange juice, with 2 dashes Angostura bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Garnish with an orange wheel.
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Mon, May 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 9:00 PM
Modulations
OPERA
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 17 – 23, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
8:00 PM (or on demand)
California Performing Arts/LA Opera
PROTOTYPE Festival Stream
$25
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/modulation/
A major event. A self-guided exploration of the efforts of 13 composers to deal with the various strands that wove together the past year. The composers include such List regulars as Mollly Joyce, Angélica Negrón, Paul Pinto, Raven Chacon, and Bora Yoon! This is how online presentations should be done.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: TGV: pour 2-1/4 oz. Blanco or Reposado Tequila, 1-1/2 oz. dry Vermouth, and 1/2 teaspoon of Grenadine into a tumbler over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.
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Mon, May 17, 2021, 6:00 PM – Tue, May 18, 2021, 8:00 PM
Gelsey Bell: Breadths of Listening at Twilight
MUSIC
MONDAY & TUESDAY, MAY 17 & 18, 2020
6:00 & 7:00 PM
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$35
https://www.green-wood.com/event/breadths-of-listening-at-twilight/2021-05-17/
You are led around Green-Wood to hear music emerging from the landscape. And the music is made by project mastermind Gelsey Bell and an eclectic assemblage comprising Shayna Dunkelman, gamin, Darius Jones, Erin Rogers, and, on the bagpipes, David Watson! Between them and the Cemetery, it is hard to conceive of so much aggregated awesomeness.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: After you've eaten the Slovak food at Korzo, you KNOW you've eaten.
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Monday, May 17, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble: The Sprezzaturameron
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, MAY 17, 2021
5:00 PM
Baryshnikov Arts Center Stream
Free (registration required)
https://bacnyc.org/performances/performance/tei-blow
Two artists, becoming aware of their own privilege in a reforming world, try to craft the perfect apology. Since the title comes from Castiglione's term, in his Book of the Courtier (if you haven't read it: READ IT), for "a form of defensive irony: the ability to disguise what one really desires, feels, thinks, and means or intends behind a mask of apparent reticence and nonchalance", one might of course queston their good faith (like that of all privileged apologists).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Contessa: pour 1 oz. each of Gin, dry Vermouth, and Aperol into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake (you'd think you'd stir this, but you shake it). Strain into an Old Fashioned glass over ice. Express a lemon twist into the cocktail and then discard the rind.
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Mon, May 17, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 6:00 PM
Modesto Flako Jimenez: Taxilandia
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 17 – 23, 2021 (continuing through MAY 30)
12:00, 2:00 & 4:00 PM MONDAY – FRIDAY
12:00, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
¡Oye! Group
294 Harmon Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Taxi ride $25 per person; text-guided walking tour $3 per person
https://www.taxilandia.com/
Playwright/performer/director/producer Modesto Flako Jimenez drove a cab for years. Which gave him a street-level perspective of his Bushwick neighborhood — the one behind the fashionplate. There are two ways to do this show. Pods of up to three people can take a cab ride with Jimenez, who'll chat about the neighborhood (scarce cab reservations are available by lottery). Or you can take a text-guided walking tour of Bushwick.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grab some Birria at Nene's Deli Taqueria and eat it in Maria Hernandez Park.
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Mon, May 17, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 11:00 AM
Pamela Z & Geoff Sobelle: Times3 (Times x Times x Times)
OPERA / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 17 – 23, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
Starting 10:00 AM
PROTOTYPE Out of Bounds
PROTOTYPE Festival Onsite & Stream
Times Square, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/times-3/
A sonic journey through Times Square and its history that you can undertake live in Times Square or virtually at your computer. Created by two of this List's very favorites: magic soundscaper Pamela Z and physical theater magician Geoff Sobelle!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go, try the wonderful Los Tacos No. 1 (bizarrely closed Saturdays, though). At home, this will take some advance preparation, but: Times Square. Combine 1-1/4 oz. Southern Comfort (yeah, you heard right), 1/4 oz. sweet Vermouth, and 1/2 oz. Grenadine in a glass or pitcher. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Pour into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne.
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Mon, May 17, 2021, 7:00 AM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 17 – 23, 2021 (ongoing)
7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
https://here.org/shows/cairns/
Something you can actually Go Out! to (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White. The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Mon, May 17, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 17 – 23, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 10:00 PM
HERE Arts Center Presentation
Jackie Robinson Park
Between Edgecombe & Bradhurst Aves. & 145 – 155 Sts., Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Pay what you wish
https://here.org/shows/the-visitation/
Another sound walk (I LOVE these!), this one set to avant-pop you access through Soundcloud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good beer, epic burgers at Harlem Public.
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Mon, May 17, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 23, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 17 – 23, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park
59th Street – 110th Street/Central Park West – 5th Avenue, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
https://www.ellenreidsoundwalk.com/new-york-philharmonic
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train (see below). The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga (and people say their outdoor dining set-up is lovely).
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Sunday, May 16, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Igor Golyak: chekhovOS / an experimental game /
SUNDAY
MAY 16, 2021 (also MAY 27 & 30, JUNE 6, 13, 20 & 24)
8:00 PM
Boston Harkekin Players Theater Zero Gravity (zero-G) Lab / Cherry Orchard Festival Live Stream
Free (donation requested)
https://www.zerogravity.art/
As Igor Golyak showed last year with State v. Natasha Banina, he knows exactly how to do remote online theater. Now he's tackling the sainted Chekhov (The Cherry Orchard, to be precise). And the cast includes Jessica Hecht and Mikhail Baryshnikov — not to mention Darya Denisova, whom everyone who saw Natasha Banina must have thought, at least for a few minutes, is one of the greatest actors in the world!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moscow Mule: squeeze 3/4 of a lime into a copper Mule mug (you HAVE a copper Mule mug, right?) and then drop in the spent shell. Add ice. Pour in 2 oz. Vodka. Top with ginger beer.
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Sunday, May 16, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Edward Einhorn: Cabaret in Captivity
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2021
5:00 PM
Untitled Theater Company No. 61
Open Culture
Morningside Avenue btw. 114th & 115th Streets, Harlem, Manhattan
$25 suggested
http://www.untitledtheater.com/previous-productions/cabaret-in-captivity.html
Sardonic (as they would have to be) cabaret pieces written at the Nazis' Potemkin Village of a concentration camp, Terezin/Theresienstadt, where artists and intellectuals and the privileged were made to look to the world as if they were living happy productive lives under the affectionate protection of the Nazi government while they were being held for transport to extermination camps. This is an outdoor street performance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I mean, you're right around the corner from the celestial soul food at Melba's.
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Sunday, May 16, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
J. Bouey: untitled: an exploration of grief
DANCE
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 14 & 16, 2021
7:00 PM FRIDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
La MaMa Live Stream
$5-$25
https://www.lamama.org/shows/j-bouey-untitled-an-explorationof-grief
J. Bouey takes us to the intersection of Queer Blackness and grief and mental illness. He seems to think it's a MAJOR intersection.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Triple Black Diamond: pour in 1 oz. each of Gin, Braulio Amaro, and lime juice, and 3/4 oz. Simple Syrup, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Add ice. Shake. Strain train into a Collins glass over ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with an orange slice.
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Sunday, May 16, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
S.E.M. Ensemble
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2021 (also at other locations — and not free — on MAY 19 & 20)
5:00 PM
Playground behind Willow Place Auditorium
25 Columbia Place, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Free (registration required)
http://www.semensemble.org/
The veteran experimental S.E.M. Ensemble presents new and older pieces by its leader, the estimable Petr Kotik.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Nice Sardinian at River Deli.
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Saturday, May 15, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Saturday, May 15, 2021, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Oracle Hysterical / Hub New Music: Terra Nova
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2021
4:00 PM
Brooklyn Public Library Central Library, Plaza
10 Grand Army Plaza, Across the Street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Free
https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/five-boroughs-music-central-library-plaza-20210515
The performing composers' collective (fuck it, really they're a band) Oracle Hysterical is the very model of what this List is about. They do contemporary Alt Classical, with heavy tinges of pop and Baroque. Their music is inventive and formally valid — but it cares if you listen. They will do their stuff — a new song cycle about unfamiliar climes — in front of the Library with Hub New Music pitching in with additional instrumental support.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Olmsted's Quarantine menu is kind of basic (for them). But the backyard seating area is charming in the extreme.
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Sat, May 15, 2021, 1:00 PM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 8:00 PM
Lisa Cuyjet / Kennis Hawkins / Alex Rodabaugh: This Is a Dance: Dance and Process 2021
DANCE
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 15 & 16, 2021
1:00 – 8:00 PM
The Kitchen In Person Presentation & Live Stream
Evergreen Cemetery
1629 Bushwick Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
(Arrive at Queenslab for the Cemetery performance)
Queenslab
1611 Cody Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
1:00 PM Evergreen Cemetery Section Free (registration required)
4:00 & 7:00 PM Queenslab Sections $12 each
Live Stream Free
https://onscreen.thekitchen.org/dance-and-process-2021
Three engaging choreographers were supposed to present a three-part show through The Kitchen's Dance and Process program last year. Let's just say that they got an extra year to perfect their pieces.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go in person, Izakaya-lite food, decent beer, fun galore at Nowadays. At home for the live stream, for some reason I see us downing Hemingway Daiquiris: pour 2 oz. white Rum, 3/4 oz. lime juice, and 1/2 oz. each of grapefruit juice and Maraschino liqueur into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lime wheel.
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Sat, May 15, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 7:00 PM
AFROFEMONONOMY: WORK THE ROOTS
THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 15 & 16, 2021 (also on MAY 22 & 23)
12:00 – 2:00 & 4:00 – 7:00 PM Outdoor Installation
2:30 & 3:45 PM Performance
Performance Space New York
150 First Avenue, East Village, Mannhatan
Free (registration required)
https://performancespacenewyork.org/shows/work-the-roots/
AFROFEMONONOMY is a real supergroup of Black female theatermakers. And I mean "super": Jackie Sibblies Drury, Kaneza Schall, Eisa Davis, Charlotte Braithwaite, and Joie Lee are just a few of the participants. Here they're paying tribute to a perhaps underappreciated pillar of Black female theatermaking, playwright Kathleen Collins. There's an outdoor installation called Last night I dreamt I danced in the image of God and a performance called The Reading.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Very appealing neighborhood Malaysian (sambal on everything!) at Medan Pasar.
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Sat, May 15, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 11:00 PM
Downtown Live
PERFORMANCE / THEATER
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 15 & 16 (also MAY 23 & 24)
Various times
Engarde Arts / The Tank / Downtown Alliance
Various Locations, Financial District, Manhattan
Free (ticket required)
https://www.engardearts.org/downtown-live/
An amazing concatenation of NYC Alt Theater and Performance types — folks who get Listed here again and again — give performances at various outdoor spots throughout FiDi.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Unbelievably, there is now an Uyghur restaurant in the FiDi (we're not going to think about what drove them here). Have some hearty, satisfying, utterly delicious food at Caravan Uyghur Cuisine.
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Sat, May 15, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 11:00 PM
Silkroad Ensemble: 1:1 Concerts
MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 15 & 16, 2021
Various Times
Brooklyn Academic of Music Presentation
Building 77, Brooklyn Navy Yard
141 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn
Free
https://www.bam.org/1-1-concerts
One-on-one recitals (you can't call it a concert if there's only one performer) by Silkroad Ensemble-associated musicians at various outdoor sites in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. These one-on-one performances that have proliferated during the Quarantine always bring to mind Sir Thomas Beecham's brilliant solution to the eternal problem, what do you do when you find yourself chatting with a performer after a lackluster performance? Beecham would put his arm around the performer's shoulders (you can't do that now — but you can bump elbows) and shout lustily, "Superb is not the word!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Out of all the great solid-food places in the Navy Yard, the only one that's open over the weekend is Russ & Daughters — so you'll have to console yourself with the best appetizing in the world. Beer at Transmitter.
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Friday, May 14, 2021, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Center for Psychic Technology
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021
9:00 PM
The Quarantine Concerts
Experimental Sound Studio Live Stream
Free (suggest $5+ donation)
https://ess.org/esscalendar/2021/5/14/tqc-center-for-psychic-technology-presents
Music on the edge, that'll put you on the edge. Among others, there's List perennial Luke Stewart exploring the outer reaches of the contrabass, Dreamcrusher making nihilist queer noise, and visual-artist-delving-into-sound Alexander Barton making his return to performance.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Inside Job: pour 1-1/2 oz. Reposado Tequila and 1/2 oz. each Braulio Amaro and sweet Vermouth into a rocks glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with an orange twist.
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Friday, May 14, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Tomas Fujiwara: Shizuko
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/steve-swell-tom-rainey-duo/
Master drummer Tomas Fujiwara (I'm listening to him as I type this: what a mind!) goes all autobiographical and Hapa on us in a set of compositions played by him and a rather spectacular ensemble.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, please understand that, while it's a perfectly good cocktail taste-wise, I'm recommending the Yaka Hula Hickey Dula ironically, as an example of the kind of derisive appropriation I'm sure Fujiwara will be exploring (it is good to drink, though): pour 1-1/2 oz. each of Dark Rum, dry Vermouth, and pineapple juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Friday, May 14, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Brooklyn Art Song Society: New Voices
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021
7:30 PM
Brooklyn Art Song Society Stream
$9.99
http://brooklynartsongsociety.org/new-voices-ii/
A bunch of good local singers do a bunch of new songs by a bunch of very able mainstream composers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excelsior Special: pour 1-1/2 oz. sweet Vermouth and 3/4 oz. each dry Vermouth and Campari into a Highball glass over ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with an orange slice.
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Fri, May 14, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 15, 2021, 8:45 PM
The Underground Cabaret
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 14 & 15, 2021 (continuing through MAY 31)
7:30 & 7:45 PM
DeKalb Stage, City Point
445 Albee Square West, Downtown, Brooklyn
$40 (just drinks — but you have to pay for the drinks and there's a minimum of two) & $135 (includes dinner)
https://www.anverentertainment.com/the-underground-cabaret
Dinner and a neo-circus, neo-burlesque, neo-variety show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dinner is by Israeli chain Minzon.
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Friday, May 14, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
J. Bouey: untitled: an exploration of grief
DANCE
FRIDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 14 & 16, 2021
7:00 PM FRIDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
La MaMa Live Stream
$5-$25
https://www.lamama.org/shows/j-bouey-untitled-an-explorationof-grief
J. Bouey takes us to the intersection of Queer Blackness and grief and mental illness. He seems to think it's a MAJOR intersection.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Triple Black Diamond: pour in 1 oz. each of Gin, Braulio Amaro, and lime juice, and 3/4 oz. Simple Syrup, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Add ice. Shake. Strain train into a Collins glass over ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with an orange slice.
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Fri, May 14, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, May 15, 2021, 8:30 PM
Target Margin Theater: NOW GO AND ACT ACCORDINGLY
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 14 & 15, 2021 (continuing through MAY 29)
7:00 & 8:30 PM
Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$5-$35
https://www.targetmargin.org/now-go/
Target Margin reflects on our current moment: the hope, the possibilities, the misgivings — the complicated emotions. If there's any company that embodies this List's belief that avant-garde work can be communicative and fun, it's Target Margin.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Guess what Chongqing foodstuff is featured at Meet Noodles?
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Friday, May 14, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Meadow Perry: Bubble Magic
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021
7:00 PM
Meadow Perry Stream
$20
https://www.meadowperry.com/event-details/meadow-perrys-bubble-magic-05-14-2021
Look, we all have our weird preferences — and among mine are tricks with bubbles. I could imagine someone not being charmed by this stuff — but I wouldn't want to be them.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: B2C2: pour 1-1/2 oz. each of Brandy, Bénédictine, and Cointreau in an Old Fashioned glass over ice. Stir. Top with — here's the bubble trick — room temperature Brut Champagne.
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Friday, May 14, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021 (weekly)
5:00 PM
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Facebook
Free
https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/ethel-online
The fab alt string quartet ETHEL brings its weekly recitals in the Met Balcony Bar home (theirs and yours). Expect old and new music, and surprise guests (from still more homes).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Amber Negroni: pour 1/2 oz. each of Gin and Braulio Amaro, and 1 oz. each of Lillet Blanc (with the usual preferred substitutions, especially Tempus Fugit Kino l'Áero d'Or) and lemon juice, with 3 dashes of Bitterman's Burlesque Bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
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Thursday, May 13, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Jumaane Taylor: Presents the Jazz Hoofing Quartet
MUSIC / DANCE
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021
8:00 PM
The Quarantine Concerts
Experimental Sound Studio Live Stream
Free (suggest $5+ donation)
https://ess.org/esscalendar/2021/5/13/jumaane-taylor
Chicago jazz backing a righteous tap dancer on the anniversary of the MOVE raid in Philadelphia in 1985.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Winners Circle: pour 2 oz. Bourbon and 3/4 oz. each of lemon juice and Crème de Cacao into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a rocks glass. Float Angostura bitters on top.
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Thursday, May 13, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
I am sitting in a room: Alvin Lucier's 90th Birthday
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021
8:00 PM
ISSUE Project Room Stream
Free
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/womens-work-audrey-chen
No one has ever heard American experimentalist Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting in a Room without having their mind blown. In the great tradition of experimental avant-garde triumphs, this exploration of the effects of room resonance on repeated rerecorded playbacks of a vocal recitation ought to be boring — except it isn't; you can't take your ears off it. And that's only the tip of the Lucier iceberg (here at the List, clichés R us). In celebration of Lucier's 90th birthday tomorrow, ISSUE presents a marathon concert lasting from 8 PM tonight all through the big day tomorrow, featuring what looks like just about everybody on the contemporary classical/new music scene. Lucier deserves no less.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'd recommend drinking lots of water.
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Thursday, May 13, 2021, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Orrin Evans Quintet
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021
7:30 & 9:30 PM
Jazz Gallery In-Person & Live Stream
1160 Broadway, NoMad, Manhattan
$50 in person
$5-$15 live stream
https://www.jazzgallery.org/calendar/orrin-evans
You can call pianist/composer Orrin Evans bop. You can call him post-pop. You can call him contemporary. What you can't call him is ordinary.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go in person, excellent speakeasy cocktails with an electric theme, and serviceable bar snacks to absorb them, at Patent Pending. If you watch from home, I personally am really in the mood for a Trinidad Sour: pour 1/2 oz. Rye, 3/4 oz. each Orgeat and lemon juice, and (get ready) 1-1/2 oz. Angostura bitters into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Thursday, May 13, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Steve Reich & Amy Sillman
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021
7:30 PM
Bang on a Can/BOMB Magazine/Jewish Museum Live Stream
$10-$100 (or pay what you will)
https://live.bangonacan.org/steve-reich-and-amy-sillman/
Steve Reich thinks the Bang on a Can All-Stars are some of his best interpreters: who am I to disagree? You also get to/have to listen to Reich talking to his cousin Amy Sillman (yeah, the painter).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I don't usually (or ever) post cocktails I made up myself — and I haven't finished adjusting the proportions of this one yet — but this show cried out for something called the Alter Cocktail -- and since, to my astonishment, no such thing exists, I created it: pour 2 oz. aged blended Scotch, and 1/2 oz. each of Slivovitz and Grand Marnier, with 3 dashes of orange bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. (Don't worry: it's supposed to make you feel a little dyspeptic.)
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Thu, May 13, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, May 15, 2021, 8:00 PM
Saul Williams: The Motherboard Suite
MUSIC / DANCE / PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 13 – 15, 2021
7:00 PM
Altered Worlds: Black Utopia and the Age of Acceleration
New York Live Arts In Person & Live Stream
THURSDAY & FRIDAY In Person: New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea
SATURDAY In Person: Father Duffy Square
West 46th Street & Broadway, Theater District, Manhattan
THURSDAY & FRIDAY In Person: $45 per person
SATURDAY In Person: Free (registration required)
THURSDAY – SATURDAY Online: $25
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/the-motherboard-suite-live-arts/
Saul Williams — the after-the-Last Poet, you might say — does his eloquent, challenging thing to the accompaniment of dance pieces by several choreographers, all directed by Bill T. Jones. That's quite an assemblage..
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to New York Live Arts, might be time to try the bistro Loulou — we barely had a chance to see how it was before the Quarantine hit. If to Father Duffy Square, Sichuan Dry Pot at MáLà Project. At home, have a King Cole: pour 2-1/4 oz. Bourbon, 1/2 oz. Fernet, and 1 teaspoon Cane Syrup (or 1-1/4 teaspoons Simple Syrup if you must) into an Old Fashioned glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Thursday, May 13, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Thursday, May 13, 2021, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble: House Music
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 11 & 13, 2021 (semi-weekly)
10:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble Stream
Free
https://metropolisensemble.org/house-music
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Metropolis Ensemble showcases ace musicianassociated with its excellent self, or in any event friends of the ensemble, playing solo contemporary, classical, and newly commissioned pieces from home. Metropolis Ensemble has assured me that no musicians were woken early for these shows; they are (new) prerecordings prepared for this series.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Coffee.
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Wed, May 12, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 5:00 PM
Jon Tai & Alex Gruhin: Missed Connections
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 12 – 16, 2021 (continuing through MAY 20)
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY
4:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
59E59 Live Stream
Zoom
$29
https://www.59e59.org/shows/show-detail/missed-connections/
A highly interactive magic show about human connectivity.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: New Orleans Creole Cocktail (from Henry Ramos!): rinse a chilled Old Fashioned glass with Absinthe. Muddle a sugar cube and 4 dashes each of Angostura and Peychaud's bitters in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Pour in 2 oz. Rye and 1/2 teaspoon Curaçao. Add ice. Stir. Strain into the rinsed Old Fashioned glass.
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Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Steve Swell / Tom Rainey Duo
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/steve-swell-tom-rainey-duo/
Avant-jazzers Steve Swell (on trombone) and Tom Rainey (on drums) have played together before — but, at least in public, never as a duo. That will be corrected tonight.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a Rye Shake: pour 2 oz. Rye, 1 oz. lime juice, and 3/4 oz. Simple Syrup into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Wed, May 12, 2021, 7:30 PM – Fri, May 14, 2021, 9:30 PM
Drexciya Redux: An Afro-Futurist Cabaret
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY, MAY 12 – 14, 2021
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY
8:30 PM THURSDAY & FRIDAY
Altered Worlds: Black Utopia and the Age of Acceleration
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea
$20 per person
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/drexciya-redux-an-afrofuturist-cabaret/
An immersive elaboration on the mythology concocted by the great Detroit Techno duo Drexciya, involving a subaquatic race of African superpeople evolved from pregnant women who were thrown from slave ships. Gonna be greatgreatgreat.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Superstar Palestinian at Qanoon.
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Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
FLUX Quartet: Hans Tammen's "Skeuomorph"
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/skeuomorph/
Hans Tammen takes the FLUX Quartet into electro-acousticland.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have an 86 Spritz: pour 1oz. each of Vermouth Blanc and Amaro Montenegro, 2 oz. Champagne, and 1-1/2 oz. club soda into a rocks glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
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Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Endless Field
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
7:00 PM
Underexposed Live Stream
YouTube
Facebook
Free
https://www.underexposed.live/
Guitar/standup bass duo Endless Field do jazzish ambientish music that could be insipid — but thankfully isn't.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: And here's a cocktail that could be insipid — but thankfully isn't. Eagle's Dream: pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, 11/2 oz. Crème de Violette, 3/4 oz. lemon juice, and 1/2 oz. Simple Syrup, with an egg white, into a cocktail shaker WITHOUT ice. Dry shake. Add ice. Shake some more. Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass.
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Tue, May 11, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 4:30 PM
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Tue, May 11, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 4:30 PM
Ben Rubin & Brian House: Terminal Morraine
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 11 – 16, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 6)*
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Woodland Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Advance ticket required: $18; $12 students and seniors; free children with attending adult; weekdays pay what you can
https://www.bbg.org/visit/event/ben_rubin_and_brian_house_terminal_moraine
A sound installation in the Walled Garden in BBG's new Woodland Garden, intended to purvey a sense of the geological contingency that created the terminal morraine ridge on which the Garden sits that clefts Brooklyn and reaches all the way out to Montauk. The morraine, a pile of rocks left by ice age glaciers at their furthest point of advance before changing climate caused their retreat, was created at a climatic inflection point — and now we're at another (this one, however, of our specie's own creation).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Burmese at Rangoon.
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Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble: House Music
MUSIC
TUESDAY & THURSDAY, MAY 11 & 13, 2021 (semi-weekly)
10:00 AM
Metropolis Ensemble Stream
Free
https://metropolisensemble.org/house-music
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Metropolis Ensemble showcases ace musicianassociated with its excellent self, or in any event friends of the ensemble, playing solo contemporary, classical, and newly commissioned pieces from home. Metropolis Ensemble has assured me that no musicians were woken early for these shows; they are (new) prerecordings prepared for this series.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Coffee.
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Mon, May 10, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 9:00 PM
Modulations
OPERA
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 10 – 16, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
8:00 PM (or on demand)
California Performing Arts / LA Opera
PROTOTYPE Festival Stream
$25
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/modulation/
A major event. A self-guided exploration of the efforts of 13 composers to deal with the various strands that wove together the past year. The composers include such List regulars as Mollly Joyce, Angélica Negrón, Paul Pinto, Raven Chacon, and Bora Yoon! This is how online presentations should be done.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: TGV: pour 2-1/4 oz. Blanco or Reposado Tequila, 1-1/2 oz. dry Vermouth, and 1/2 teaspoon of Grenadine into a tumbler over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.
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Mon, May 10, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, May 15, 2021, 8:00 PM
Sibyl Kempson / 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr & Perf. Co.: The Securely Conferred, Vouchsafed Keepsakes of Maery S.
THEATER
MONDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 10 – 15, 2021
7:00 PM
Chocolate Factory / Abrons Arts Center Stream
$5-$20
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/sibyl-kempson-2020/
The wickedly inventive theatermaker Sibyl Kempson reinvents Mary Shelley. So far we have a four-part episodic radio play, all of which is now available for streaming. A digital "theatrical miniseries" will follow in the Spring (if we live that long).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dr. Frankenstein: pour 2 oz. Bourbon, 3/4 oz. lemon juice, 1/2 oz. Grenadine, and 1 teaspoon of Absinthe, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Mon, May 10, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 6:00 PM
Modesto Flako Jimenez: Taxilandia
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 10 – 16, 2021 (continuing through MAY 30)
12:00, 2:00 & 4:00 PM MONDAY – FRIDAY
12:00, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
¡Oye! Group
294 Harmon Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Taxi ride $25 per person; text-guided walking tour $3 per person
https://www.taxilandia.com/
Playwright/performer/director/producer Modesto Flako Jimenez drove a cab for years. Which gave him a street-level perspective of his Bushwick neighborhood — the one behind the fashionplate. There are two ways to do this show. Pods of up to three people can take a cab ride with Jimenez, who'll chat about the neighborhood (scarce cab reservations are available by lottery). Or you can take a text-guided walking tour of Bushwick.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grab some Birria at Nene's Deli Taqueria and eat it in Maria Hernandez Park.
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Mon, May 10, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 11:00 AM
Pamela Z & Geoff Sobelle: Times3 (Times x Times x Times)
OPERA / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 10 – 16, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
Starting 10:00 AM
PROTOTYPE Out of Bounds
PROTOTYPE Festival Onsite & Stream
Times Square, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/times-3/
A sonic journey through Times Square and its history that you can undertake live in Times Square or virtually at your computer. Created by two of this List's very favorites: magic soundscaper Pamela Z and physical theater magician Geoff Sobelle!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go, try the wonderful Los Tacos No. 1 (bizarrely closed Saturdays, though). At home, this will take some advance preparation, but: Times Square. Combine 1-1/4 oz. Southern Comfort (yeah, you heard right), 1/4 oz. sweet Vermouth, and 1/2 oz. Grenadine in a glass or pitcher. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Pour into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne.
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Mon, May 10, 2021, 9:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 5:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 10 – 16, 2021
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
https://here.org/shows/cairns/
Something you can actually Go Out! to (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White. The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City (if you go over the weekend, you can get the fabulous pastrami).
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Mon, May 10, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 10 – 16, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 10:00 PM
HERE Arts Center Presentation
Jackie Robinson Park
Between Edgecombe & Bradhurst Aves. & 145 – 155 Sts., Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Pay what you wish
https://here.org/shows/the-visitation/
Another sound walk (I LOVE these!), this one set to avant-pop you access through Soundcloud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good beer, epic burgers at Harlem Public.
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Mon, May 10, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 16, 2021, 1:00 PM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 10 – 16, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park
59th Street – 110th Street/Central Park West – 5th Avenue, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
https://www.ellenreidsoundwalk.com/new-york-philharmonic
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train (see below). The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga (and people say their outdoor dining set-up is lovely).
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Sunday, May 9, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
The Rhythm Method: Hidden Mothers
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 9, 2021
7:00 PM
Morris Museum
6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, New Jersey
$50 for up to two people
https://morrismuseum.org/events/rhythm-method-hidden-mothers/
Reactionaries like to claim that the current efflorescence of programming of pieces by non-white and/or non-cis-male composers, both past and present, forces audiences to works of lesser quality in further of sociopolitical posturing. That's patent bullshit: all you have to do is listen. But that doesn't mean that everything that's uncovered is great: to me (if no one else), Florence Price (featured here) is just more of the boring post-Romantic music I don't like anyway, even if in her case it boringly (over)elaborates African-American folk themes rather than European ones. (OTOH, there's no reason in the world she shouldn't be played just as much as all that other boring post-Romantic music is!) Often, though, the uncovered stuff is great: Elizabeth Maconchy (also featured here) was simply one of the best British composers of the last Century, and her relative neglect is a blight on the music world. And if the need to find music by a more diverse composer base forces staid institutions to program contemporary classical, that of a non-cis-male like violinist Leah Asher (also featured here) is as good as anyone's of any orientation — a win for everybody. Not that the vital quartet The Rhythm Method needed any pushing in this direction: it's good that now they get expanded exposure as well.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The only place in Morristown that anybody outside Morristown knows is Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen — and it won't reopen for onsite dining until the end of the month.
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Saturday, May 8, 2021, 10:30 PM – 11:30 PM
All-Night Concert from India
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 8, 2021
10:30 PM
Chhandayan Programming Stream
$25
https://www.viewcy.com/e/allnight_concert_fro
If you want to stay up all night (till 5:30 AM) listening to (first-rate) Indian music, here's your chance. Proceeds go to the assistance of people in India (who can use it).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Boulevardier: pour 1-1/4 oz. Rye and 1 oz. each of Campari and sweet Vermouth into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a rocks glass over ice. Garnish with an orange twist.
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Saturday, May 8, 2021, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Ekmeles: A Time for Everything (second time)
MUSIC
SATURDAY, MAY 8, 2021
5:30 PM
Ekemeles Stream
Free
https://ekmeles.com/wp/2021/04/a-time-for-everything-second-time/
This was the program of the first concert the fabulous vocal ensemble Ekmeles was forced to cancel last year. Now, they're gonna try again — remotely. There'll be an opening set by pianist/composer Courtney Bryan — who also provides the title piece of the program proper. But the big news, as far as I'm concerned, is a piece by The Composer Of The Moment, Julius Eastman (too bad he's been dead for 30 years), who is to minimalist music approximately what Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker is to minimalist dance: he brings the clutching, drenching emotion into what in other hands can be a cold style. I play a lot of Alt and Contemporary Classical for people who don't listen to classical music (it's part of my ongoing attempt, of which this List is the flagship, to make people realize that they'd like this music if they could only get over the fact that it's called "classical"). And it's almost always Julius Eastman they like the best.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Baroque: pour 1-1/2 oz. dark Rum, 3/4 oz. each of Gin and lime juice, 1/4 teaspoon Maraschino liqueur, and 1/2 teaspoon Simple Syrup into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Sat, May 8, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 5:00 PM
Silkroad Ensemble: 1:1 Concerts
MUSIC
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, MAY 8 & 9, 2021 (also on MAY 15 & 16)
Various Times
Brooklyn Academic of Music Presentation
Building 77, Brooklyn Navy Yard
141 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn
Free
https://www.bam.org/1-1-concerts
One-on-one recitals (you can't call it a concert if there's only one performer) by Silkroad Ensemble-associated musicians at various outdoor sites in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. These one-on-one performances that have proliferated during the Quarantine always bring to mind Sir Thomas Beecham's brilliant solution to the eternal problem, what do you do when you find yourself chatting with a performer after a lackluster performance? Beecham would put his arm around the performer's shoulders (you can't do that now — but you can bump elbows) and shout lustily, "Superb is not the word!"
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Out of all the great solid-food places in the Navy Yard, the only one that's open over the weekend is Russ & Daughters — so you'll have to console yourself with the best appetizing in the world. Beer at Transmitter.
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Friday, May 7, 2021, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
KeiyaA / MIKE / duendita
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 20221
9:00 PM
NoonChorus Live Stream
$12
https://noonchorus.com/keiyaa-mike-duendita/
Between KeiyaA's nu-R&B, MIKE's alt rap (he's everybody's — by which I mean my — fave solo NYC alt rapper), and duendita's melodic energy beat onslaught, this is a great live triple bill like you used to Go Out for.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Better & Better: pour 1-1/2 oz. Mezcal, 1/2 oz. Pot Still Rum, and 1/4 oz. Falernum into a rocks glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Friday, May 7, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Joel Ross & Immanuel Wilkins
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2021
8:00 PM
Village Vanguard Stream
$10
https://villagevanguard.com/product/ross-wilkins-may7-9
As regular readers well know, this List considers alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and vibes player Joel Ross to be two of the best — hell, the two best — young players in mainstream jazz. Well, here they are.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Double Barrel : pour 1 oz. each of Rye, dry Vermouth, and sweet Vermouth, with 2 dashes each of Angostura and orange bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.
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Fri, May 7, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 8:30 PM
Schiller: Mary Stuart
THEATER
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 7 – 9, 2021
7:30 PM
Bedlam Theater Stream
$30
https://bedlam.org/mary-stuart/
A video (rather than live, as far as I can tell) account of Schiller's historical thriller about the contest for power between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots (SPOILER ALERT: Elizabeth wins). Fully staged in a Brooklyn apartment (not mine — unless they snuck in when I wasn't looking).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Straight Up: pour 2 oz. Scotch, 1/2 oz. Cocchi Americano, and 1/4 oz. Amaro Meletti, with 1 dash of Peychaud's bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
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Fri, May 7, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 8, 2021, 8:45 PM
The Underground Cabaret
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 7 & 8, 2021 (continuing through MAY 31)
7:30 & 7:45 PM
DeKalb Stage, City Point
445 Albee Square West, Downtown, Brooklyn
$40 (just drinks — but you have to pay for the drinks and there's a minimum of two) & $135 (includes dinner)
https://www.anverentertainment.com/the-underground-cabaret
Dinner and a neo-circus, neo-burlesque, neo-variety show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dinner is by Israeli chain Minzon.
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Fri, May 7, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 5:00 PM
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Friday, May 7, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bergamot Quartet: Changing Landscapes
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2021
7:00 PM
Mannes / New School Live Stream
Free
https://event.newschool.edu/mannessounds0507
The Bergamot Quartet is pretty sensational. Tonight they offer a program featuring such List regulars as Jessie Montgomery, John Luther Adams, and (the late) Lee Hyla.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Italicus Spritz: pour 1-1/2 oz. Italicus, 2 oz. sparkling wine (you know you wanna use Prosecco), and 1 oz. club soda into a wine glass over ice. Garnish with some orange wedges.
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Fri, May 7, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, May 8, 2021, 9:30 PM
Target Margin Theater: NOW GO AND ACT ACCORDINGLY
THEATER
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 7 & 8, 2021 (continuing through MAY 29)
7:00 & 8:30 PM
Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$5-$35
https://www.targetmargin.org/now-go/
Target Margin reflects on our current moment: the hope, the possibilities, the misgivings — the complicated emotions. If there's any company that embodies this List's belief that avant-garde work can be communicative and fun, it's Target Margin.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Guess what Chongqing foodstuff is featured at Meet Noodles?
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Friday, May 7, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2021 (weekly)
5:00 PM
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Facebook
Free
https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/ethel-online
The fab alt string quartet ETHEL brings its weekly recitals in the Met Balcony Bar home (theirs and yours). Expect old and new music, and surprise guests (from still more homes).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Amber Negroni: pour 1/2 oz. each of Gin and Braulio Amaro, and 1 oz. each of Lillet Blanc (with the usual preferred substitutions, especially Tempus Fugit Kino l'Áero d'Or) and lemon juice, with 3 dashes of Bitterman's Burlesque Bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
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Friday, May 7, 2021, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
First Friday with Robert Black
MUSIC
FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2021
12:00 PM
Bang on a Can Live Stream
Free (donation requested)
https://live.bangonacan.org/black/
There isn't that big a repertoire for the double bass (Patrick Susskind wrote a play about that). But ace bassist Robert Black is doing his best to fix that.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Abbey: pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, and 3/4 oz. each of Kina l'Aero d'Or and orange juice, with 2 dashes of orange bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Julia Wolfe: Steel Hammer
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
10:00 PM
Bang on a Can All-Stars
Cal Performances at Home
Cal Performances Stream
$15-$51
https://calperformances.org/events/2020-21/at-home-spring/bang-on-a-can-all-stars-julia-wolfe-steel-hammer/
A video version of Julia Wolfe's oratorio taking off from the hundreds of versions of the "John Henry" ballad: another great example of Wolfe's use of the vernacular to make contemporary classical that is not so much visceral as that it punches you in the gut.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Sledge Hammer: pour 1/2 oz. each light Rum, Cognac, and Calvados, with 1/4 teaspoon Absinthe or Pastis, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Thu, May 6, 2021, 8:30 PM – Fri, May 7, 2021, 3:00 PM
Mark Morris Dance Company: Live from Brooklyn
DANCE
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, MAY 6 & 7, 2021
8:30 PM THURSDAY
2:00 PM FRIDAY
Mark Morris Dance Company Live Stream
$25
https://markmorrisdancegroup.org/event/live-from-brooklyn/
Funny, surprising, formally interesting choreography from our greatest contemporary American choreographer and his wonderful company. In this show, mainly early stuff with one new piece.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Contessa: pour 1 oz. each of Gin, dry Vermouth, and Aperol into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Express a lemon twist into the drink and discard the rind.
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ghost Ensemble: Presents Lucia Stavros & Tyler J. Borden
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
8:00 PM
Ghost Ensemble Live Stream
YouTube
Free ($15-$20 suggested donation)
https://www.facebook.com/events/869447080286080
Harpist Lucia Stavros and cellist Tyler J. Borden play new music by composers such as the exciting (I mean it) Jessie Cox and old music by composers such as the ever-fascinating Elliot Carter.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Green Ghost : pour 2 oz. Gin and 1/2 oz. each Green Chartreuse and lime juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Dark Days: Karl Larson Plays Scott Wollschleger
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
8:00 PM
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/dark-days-karl-larson-plays-scott-wollschleger/
Karl Larson is the pianist in Bearthoven, and Scott Wollschleger is a composer that band plays a lot of. Alternating quietitude and eruptions, Wollschleger's music is magnetic.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have an All Quiet : pour 1-1/2 oz. blanco Sotol (get some Sotol: you'll thank me!), 1/2 oz. Lillet Blanc, and 1/4 oz. Amaro Montenegro into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with an orange twist. If you have any Neroli Oil, put in a drop (WHY do you have Neroli Oil???????).
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sarah Morgan Ashley: The Brooklyn Job
OPERA
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
8:00 PM
New Camerata Opera Live Stream
$40-$160
https://www.newcamerataopera.org/events/2021/5/6/the-brooklyn-job
A comedian puts together an opera, to pre-existing music, about a museum heist. It's somehow interactive (I don't think you get to keep the spoils, though).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Nothing for it but to have a Brooklyn: pour 2 oz. Rye, 1 oz. dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Maraschino liqueur and Amer Picon/Golden Moon Amer Dit Picon/Bigallet Chino-Chino/Amaro CioCiaro into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. (If you buy expensive tickets enough in advance, New Camerata Opera will send you a home cocktail kit — but to me, if you need one, that's just pathetic.)
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Brooklyn Raga Massive Presents: The Adam Rudolph Quartet
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
7:30 & 9:30 PM
Jazz Gallery In-Person & Live Stream
1160 Broadway, NoMad, Manhattan
$50 in person
$5-$15 live stream
https://www.jazzgallery.org/calendar/adam-rudolph-quartet
Adam Rudolph combines World with New Thing jazz, usually in a large ensemble, but here in a quartet including musicians from several different traditions. His major achievement is the avoidance of mere syncretism. How he does it is anybody's guess.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go in person, excellent speakeasy cocktails with an electric theme and serviceable bar snacks to absorb them at Patent Pending. If you watch from home, try a Gin & It: pour 2 oz. each Gin and 1 oz. sweet Vermouth into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist or a few cocktail cherries.
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Conrad Tao
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
7:00 PM
Ecstatic Music Festival
Kaufman Music Center Live Stream
$15
https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/ecstatic-music-conrad-tao/
Piano (given how amazingly Conrad Tao plays, maybe that should be "PIANO")! Electronics! Video! Magnets!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All Hands on Deck: pour 1-1/2 oz. Mezcal and 1/2 oz. each of Fernet, sweet Vermouth, and Curaçao into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with an orange twist.
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Quartetto Prometeo: Beethoven and Arcana
MUSIC
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
7:00 PM
Columbia University Italian Academy Stream
Free (registration required)
https://italianacademy.columbia.edu/event/quartetto-prometeo-beethoven-and-arcana
Beethoven's Serioso Quartet, sandwiched between arrangements, transcriptions, and reinventions of Baroque pieces, mostly by Modern Italian composers (but also Kurtág, who did some of the best Bach transcriptions of all — but these are some of his unmatchable original pieces).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Blessed Thistle Negroni: pour 1 oz. each of Gin and Campari, and 1/4 oz. each of Amaro CioCiaro and Cardamaro, with 1 dash of Angostura bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a rocks glass or tumbler over ice. Garnish with an orange slice.
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Thu, May 6, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 3:00 PM
MUSIC
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 6 – 9, 2021
Various Times
MUTEK Live Stream
$18.09 (or so)
https://virtual.mutek.org/en/es-ar-2021
The Buenos Aires and Barcelona 2021 installments of the MUTEK Festival of electronic pop music and associated arts moves online. There are various musical performances scheduled from Thursday through Sunday (follow the AR times, remembering that they're 1 hour later than EDT). There are also online video and other arts exhibited starting like now.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You can pretend you're in BA and have a Fernet & Coke: pour 1 cup Coca-Cola and 1/2 cup Fernet into a tall glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lemon wedge. Or you can pretend you're in Barcelona and have a Vermut: pour Spanish Vermouth into a tumbler over ice. Garnish with an orange slice and an olive.
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Thursday, May 6, 2021, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
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Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Cleek Schrey & Yo! Vinyl Richie: Stranger than Friction
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/cleek-schrey-and-yo-vinyl-richie-stranger-than-friction/
More pop/avant fusion, this time experimental and hip-hop from regular collaborators fiddler+ Cleek Schrey and DJ+ Yo! Vinyl Richie. It's probably emblematic of something that this will be second successive show at Roulette this week to feature the daxophone.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a Mean Fiddler (you have to make some Cinnamon Syrup for this — but how hard is that?): pour 1 oz. Irish Whiskey, 1/2 oz. Islay Whisky, 3/4 oz. each of sweet Vermouth and Green Chartreuse, 1/2 oz. Campari, and 1 teaspoon Cinnamon Syrup, with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
-
Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Audrey Chen
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021
8:00 PM
With Womens Work
ISSUE Project Room Stream
Free
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/womens-work-audrey-chen
ISSUE Project Room finishes of its With Womens Work series, in which contemporary experimental artists created new pieces responding to pieces published in the 1970s feminist multidisciplinary arts magazine Womens Work. Tonight, cellist/vocalist/etc. Audrey Chen responds to a piece by Beth Anderson, who not only was several decades ahead of her time but who rocks.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Fallen Angel: pour 2 oz. Gin, 1 oz. lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons each Crème de Menthe and Simple Syrup, with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with mint.
-
Wed, May 5, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 8, 2021, 8:30 PM
Justin Perkins: Unicorn Afterlife
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, MAY 5 – 8, 2021
7:30 PM
Dixon Place DPTV
Dixon Place In Person & Live Stream
161A Chrystie Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$18-$34; $12 student/senior both in person and live stream
http://dixonplace.org/performances/unicorn-afterlife-05-05-2021/
A puppet play that purports to be "a grimy, synthesizer dream ballet about fantasy, greed, gender, glitter and the power of belief". With a unicorn! (Albeit a dead one.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go in person, great Haitian (and don't miss the cocktails!) at Rebèl. If you watch from home, Welterweight: pour 1-1/2 oz. white Rum and 3/4 oz. each of Amontillado Sherry and Aperol into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
-
Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Tuesday, May 4, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Gelsey Bell & Justin Hicks: VER
MUSIC
TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$25 in person
Free live stream (donation requested)
https://roulette.org/event/gelsey-bell-justin-hicks-ver/
Gelsey Bell and Justin Hicks are two performers who are afraid neither of going pop nor of going avant. In fact, they each excel at both (and, I'm sure, don't see there's any difference). Here, together and separately, they perform songs and improvisations that reflect the verdant NYC parks in which they each spent so much time during Quarantine.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the venue, it'll be nice to walk around the corner to the welcoming and delicious Kind of Soul. At home, have a Prospect Park: pour 1-1/2 oz. each of Rye and Aperol, 1/2 oz. of sweet Vermouth (Punt e Mes by preference), and 1/4 oz. each of Maraschino liqueur and Simple Syrup into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
-
Tue, May 4, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 4:30 PM
Ben Rubin & Brian House: Terminal Morraine
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 4 – 9, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 6)*
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Woodland Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Advance ticket required: $18; $12 students and seniors; free children with attending adult; weekdays pay what you can
https://www.bbg.org/visit/event/ben_rubin_and_brian_house_terminal_moraine
A sound installation in the Walled Garden in BBG's new Woodland Garden, intended to purvey a sense of the geological contingency that created the terminal morraine ridge on which the Garden sits that clefts Brooklyn and reaches all the way out to Montauk. The morraine, a pile of rocks left by ice age glaciers at their furthest point of advance before changing climate caused their retreat, was created at a climatic inflection point — and now we're at another (this one, however, of our specie's own creation).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Burmese at Rangoon.
-
Tuesday, May 4, 2021, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
-
Tue, May 4, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 4:30 PM
Michael Gordon: loved.
MUSIC
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 4 – 9, 2021
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Advance ticket required: $18; $12 students and seniors; free children with attending adult; weekdays pay what you can
https://www.bbg.org/visit/event/loved
I hadn't been Listing this: as totally wonderful as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is — it's really about my favorite spot in New York — am I going to send you there to hear a five-and-a-half-minute music tape played hourly at the Cherry Esplanade (the cherry blossoms are OUT!) — even if the music is composed by Michael Gordon and played by master percussionist David Cossin? But with all the other great stuff going on at the Garden now, I'd be remiss not to point you to this as well.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The fabulous Gold Star Beer Counter serves on-premises (outdoors) when it's nice out.
-
Tue, May 4, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 4:30 PM
-
Mon, May 3, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 8:59 PM
Modulations
OPERA
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 3 – 9, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
8:00 PM (or on demand)
California Performing Arts / LA Opera
PROTOTYPE Festival Stream
$25
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/modulation/
A major event. A self-guided exploration of the efforts of 13 composers to deal with the various strands that wove together the past year. The composers include such List regulars as Mollly Joyce, Angélica Negrón, Paul Pinto, Raven Chacon, and Bora Yoon! This is how online presentations should be done.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: TGV: pour 2-1/4 oz. Blanco or Reposado Tequila, 1-1/2 oz. dry Vermouth, and 1/2 teaspoon of Grenadine into a tumbler over ice. Stir. Garnish with a lime wheel.
-
Mon, May 3, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 8:00 PM
Sibyl Kempson / 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr & Perf. Co.: The Securely Conferred, Vouchsafed Keepsakes of Maery S.
THEATER
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 3 – 9, 2021 (continuing through MAY 15)
7:00 PM
Chocolate Factory / Abrons Arts Center Stream
$5-$20
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/sibyl-kempson-2020/
The wickedly inventive theatermaker Sibyl Kempson reinvents Mary Shelley. So far we have a four-part episodic radio play, all of which is now available for streaming. A digital "theatrical miniseries" will follow in the Spring (if we live that long).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dr. Frankenstein: pour 2 oz. Bourbon, 3/4 oz. lemon juice, 1/2 oz. Grenadine, and 1 teaspoon of Absinthe, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
-
Monday, May 3, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tony Bordonaro & Ingrid Kapteyn: The Pigeon & The Mouse
DANCE / THEATER
MONDAY, MAY 3, 2021
7:00 PM
La Mama Stream
Free (donation requested)
https://www.lamama.org/shows/experiments-the-pigeon-the-mouse
A dance/theater sci fi video love fable.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Angel's Delight: pour 3/4 oz. each of Gin and Cointreau, 1 oz. cream, and 1/2 teaspoon Grenadine into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
-
Monday, May 3, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Stefanie Batten Bland: Kolonial
DANCE
MONDAY, MAY 3, 2021
5:00 PM
Baryshinkov Arts Center Stream
Free (registration required)
https://bacnyc.org/performances/performance/stefanie-batten-bland
A dance video investigating issues of exploitation and the like through the lens of the European and North American Colonial exposition parks of the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Singapore Sling: pour 1 oz. each of Gin, Cherry Brandy, Bénédictine, and lime juice into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with soda water. Stir. Add 1 dash of Angostura bitters. You might want to garnish it with a long lime peel. Or, if you want to stay totally OG, you might not.
-
Mon, May 3, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 6:00 PM
Modesto Flako Jimenez: Taxilandia
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 3 – 9, 2021 (continuing through MAY 30)
12:00, 2:00 & 4:00 PM MONDAY – FRIDAY
12:00, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
¡Oye! Group
294 Harmon Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Taxi ride $25 per person; text-guided walking tour $3 per person
https://www.taxilandia.com/
Playwright/performer/director/producer Modesto Flako Jimenez drove a cab for years. Which gave him a street-level perspective of his Bushwick neighborhood — the one behind the fashionplate. There are two ways to do this show. Pods of up to three people can take a cab ride with Jimenez, who'll chat about the neighborhood (scarce cab reservations are available by lottery). Or you can take a text-guided walking tour of Bushwick.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grab some Birria at Nene's Deli Taqueria and eat it in Maria Hernandez Park.
-
Mon, May 3, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 10:59 AM
Pamela Z & Geoff Sobelle: Times3 (Times x Times x Times)
OPERA / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 3 – 9, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 30)
Starting 10:00 AM
PROTOTYPE Out of Bounds
PROTOTYPE Festival Onsite & Stream
Times Square, Midtown, Manhattan
Free
http://prototypefestival.org/shows/times-3/
A sonic journey through Times Square and its history that you can undertake live in Times Square or virtually at your computer. Created by two of this List's very favorites: magic soundscaper Pamela Z and physical theater magician Geoff Sobelle!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go, I think the wonderful Los Tacos No. 1 still has an outdoor seating set-up (bizarrely closed Saturdays, though). At home, this will take some advance preparation, but: Times Square. Combine 1-1/4 oz. Southern Comfort (yeah, you heard right), 1/4 oz. sweet Vermouth, and 1/2 oz. Grenadine in a glass or pitcher. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours. Pour into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne.
-
Mon, May 3, 2021, 9:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 5:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 3 – 9, 2021 (ongoing)
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
https://here.org/shows/cairns/
Something you can actually Go Out! to (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White. The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Sunset Park entrance is only a short walk from Hometown BBQ Industry City.
-
Mon, May 3, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 3 – 9, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park
59th Street – 110th Street/Central Park West – 5th Avenue, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
https://www.ellenreidsoundwalk.com/new-york-philharmonic
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train (see below). The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga (and people say their outdoor dining set-up is lovely).
-
Mon, May 3, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 9, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, MAY 3 – 9, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 10:00 PM
HERE Arts Center Presentation
Jackie Robinson Park
Between Edgecombe & Bradhurst Aves. & 145 – 155 Sts., Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Pay what you wish
https://here.org/shows/the-visitation/
Another sound walk (I LOVE these!), this one set to avant-pop you access through Soundcloud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good beer, epic burgers at Harlem Public.
-
Sunday, May 2, 2021, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Pickup Chamber Music
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 2, 2021
3:00 PM
the cell
338 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
Free ($25 suggested donation)
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thecelltheatre/493229
Violinist Janey Choi and whomever she can get to show up sight-read some chamber music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Star Palestinian spot Qanoon appears to be open for indoor dining only, if you can swing that.
-
Sunday, May 2, 2021, 12:00 AM – 1:00 AM
Bang on a Can Found Sound Nation: OneBeat Marathon
MUSIC
SUNDAY, MAY 2, 2021
12:00 PM
Bang on a Can Live Stream
Free (donation requested)
https://live.bangonacan.org/onebeat-marathon-may-2021/
Bang on a Can's World Music Auxiliary presents a global concert. I don't know what more I can say to try to convince you all to watch these things.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Punch House Spritz: pour 2 oz. Cocchi Americano, 4 oz. Lambrusco Rosato, 1 oz. grapefruit juice, and 1 oz. soda water into a wine glass over ice. Garnish with a grapefruit wheel.
-
Fri, Apr 30, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, May 1, 2021, 8:45 PM
The Underground Cabaret
PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 30 & MAY 1, 2021 (continuing through MAY 31)
7:30 & 7:45 PM
DeKalb Stage, City Point
445 Albee Square West, Downtown, Brooklyn
$135
https://www.anverentertainment.com/the-underground-cabaret
Dinner and a neo-circus, neo-burlesque, neo-variety show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dinner is by Israeli chain Minzon.
-
Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 9:00 PM
Darrel Alejandro Holnes: Black Feminist Video Game
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 27 – MAY 2, 2021
8:00 PM
The Civilians
59E59 Live Stream
Twitch
$10
https://thecivilians.org/upcoming/black-feminist-video-game/
I'm just gonna quote the promotional materials here:
Enter Jonas: a biracial teenager with autism. Jonas broadcasts all aspects of his life online, including a disastrous first date with his crush, Nicole. Desperate to regain her affections, he dusts off a long-ignored gift from his mother — a classic 2D “Black feminist video game” — hopeful that the game will grant him the key to winning Nicole back. But Jonas soon discovers that, with only the Game Master and his friend Sabine to guide him, he must confront his own misperceptions of the women in his (real) life, or risk losing not only the game but also his first chance at love. In this mashup of live performance, video game design, and online interaction, Jonas and Sabine stream their play on Twitch and find their path through the game together. Along the way, you’ll help (or hinder!) their progress by responding in real time to the choices they make.
Does that sound great, or what?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Arsenic and Old Lace: Rinse a Martini glass or coupe with Absinthe. Pour 2 oz. Gin, 3/4 oz. dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. Crème de Violette into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into the rinsed glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
-
Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 4:30 PM
Ben Rubin & Brian House: Terminal Morraine
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 27 – MAY 2, 2021 (continuing through JUNE 6)*
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Woodland Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Advance ticket required: $18; $12 students and seniors; free children with attending adult; weekdays pay what you can
https://www.bbg.org/visit/event/ben_rubin_and_brian_house_terminal_moraine
A sound installation in the Walled Garden in BBG's new Woodland Garden, intended to purvey a sense of the geological contingency that created the terminal morraine ridge on which the Garden sits that clefts Brooklyn and reaches all the way out to Montauk. The morraine, a pile of rocks left by ice age glaciers at their furthest point of advance before changing climate caused their retreat, was created at a climatic inflection point — and now we're at another (this one, however, of our specie's own creation).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Burmese at Rangoon.
-
Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 4:30 PM
-
Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 4:30 PM
Michael Gordon: loved.
MUSIC
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 27 – MAY 2, 2021 (continuing through MAY 9)
10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Advance ticket required: $18; $12 students and seniors; free children with attending adult; weekdays pay what you can
https://www.bbg.org/visit/event/loved
I hadn't been Listing this: as totally wonderful as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is — it's really about my favorite spot in New York — am I going to send you there to hear a five-and-a-half-minute music tape played hourly at the Cherry Esplanade (the cherry blossoms are OUT!) — even if the music is composed by Michael Gordon and played by master percussionist David Cossin? But with all the other great stuff going on at the Garden now, I'd be remiss not to point you to this as well.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The fabulous Gold Star Beer Counter serves on-premises (outdoors) when it's nice out.
-
Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 8:00 PM
Sibyl Kempson / 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr & Perf. Co.: The Securely Conferred, Vouchsafed Keepsakes of Maery S.
THEATER
MONDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2021 (continuing through MAY 15)
7:00 PM
Chocolate Factory / Abrons Arts Center Stream
$5-$20
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/sibyl-kempson-2020/
The wickedly inventive theatermaker Sibyl Kempson reinvents Mary Shelley. So far we have a four-part episodic radio play, all of which is now available for streaming. A digital "theatrical miniseries" will follow in the Spring (if we live that long).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Dr. Frankenstein: pour 2 oz. Bourbon, 3/4 oz. lemon juice, 1/2 oz. Grenadine, and 1 teaspoon of Absinthe, into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.
-
Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 7:00 PM
Modesto Flako Jimenez: Taxilandia
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2021 (continuing through MAY 3)
12:00, 2:00 & 4:00 PM MONDAY – FRIDAY
12:00, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
¡Oye! Group
294 Harmon Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Taxi ride $25 per person; text-guided walking tour $3 per person
https://www.taxilandia.com/
Playwright/performer/director/producer Modesto Flako Jimenez drove a cab for years. Which gave him a street-level perspective of his Bushwick neighborhood — the one behind the fashionplate. There are two ways to do this show. Pods of up to three people can take a cab ride with Jimenez, who'll chat about the neighborhood (scarce cab reservations are available by lottery). Or you can take a text-guided walking tour of Bushwick.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Grab some Birria at Nene's Deli Taqueria and eat it in Maria Hernandez Park.
-
Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 9:00 AM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 5:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2021 (ongoing)
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
#stillHERE IRL
Green-Wood Cemetery, Sunset Park Entrance
35th Street at 4th Avenue, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$7 or more for soundtrack
https://here.org/shows/cairns/
Something you can actually Go Out! to (although it's not quite "live"). Gelsey Bell, that vocal star of NYC Alt Classical, has conceived of a piece that walks you around Green-Wood Cemetery (starting at the Sunset Park Entrance). You download the soundtrack on your phone beforehand (the Times complains about how hard it is to download from Bandcamp to an iPhone — trust me: if I can figure out how to do it, anyone can). Bell wrote the text and narrates, with a co-composing assist from the inimitable Joe White (who seemingly couldn't write an unenjoyable tune if he tried). The Cemetery itself will do the performing. (You can also listen to the soundtrack at home and pretend you're walking around the Cemetery.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bring bottled water. As for afterward, 5th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets is designated for street dining on weekends — and there's lots available at all times.
-
Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 10:00 PM
HERE Arts Center Presentation
Jackie Robinson Park
Between Edgecombe & Bradhurst Aves. & 145 – 155 Sts., Sugar Hill, Manhattan
Pay what you wish
https://here.org/shows/the-visitation/
Another sound walk (I LOVE these!), this one set to avant-pop you access through Soundcloud.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good beer, epic burgers at Harlem Public.
-
Mon, Apr 26, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, May 2, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, APRIL 26 – MAY 2, 2021 (ongoing)
6:00 AM – 1:00 AM
New York Philharmonic
Central Park
59th Street – 110th Street/Central Park West – 5th Avenue, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
https://www.ellenreidsoundwalk.com/new-york-philharmonic
The New York Phil hops aboard the walk-around-the-landscaped-space-with-soundtrack train (see below). The highly allusive soundtrack was put together by Ellen Reid, who is one of the more soundscapey (and certainly one of the best) of today's many excellent young composers. This walk isn't guided: you download an app that triggers sounds sent to your earphones from various cells around the Park as you wander. So you can do it over many times. (Speaking of wandering around Central Park, here's something that I, for one, never knew.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delicious pan-African at Teranga (and people say their outdoor dining set-up is lovely).
