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Thursday, September 30, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thursday, September 30, 2021, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
The Unknowable
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2021
7:30 & 9:30 PM
Jazz Gallery
1160 Broadway, NoMad, Manhattan
$25-$35
https://www.jazzgallery.org/calendar/the-unknowable
Unknowable, indeed. You've got World Eclectic Adam Rudolph on percussion. You've got saxophonist Dave Liebman, after all these years still fingered as a Miles Davis sideman (although my low-rent self would want to ask him what it was like to work with Genya Ravan). And on more percussion . . . perhaps the single most towering figure in all of contemporary jazz (and a major figure in contemporary classical as well) (to the extent there's a difference), Tyshawn Sorey.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Offal-heavy Korean barbecue (oh man I'm salivating all over my keyboard) at Jongro Gopchang.
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Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, Oct 2, 2021, 9:30 PM
AZUNA: 100 Keyboards
MUSIC
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – OCTOBER 2, 2021
7:00 PM THURSDAY
5:30 & 9:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
BAM Fisher
321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.bam.org/100-keyboards
Sound artist AZUNA has created a soundscape where single notes on a toy piano aggregate into something rather grand.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Superb Japanese bar snacks and supersuperb Japanese-inflected cocktails at Kenta Goto's Bar Goto Niban.
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Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 8:00 AM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 6:00 PM
Kamala Sankaram: The Last Stand
OPERA
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – OCTOBER 3, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 10)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Near the Music Pagoda, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Free
https://creativetime.org/the-last-stand-kamala-sankaram/
The long life of a tree is explored through arranged recorded natural sounds played by and around actual trees. Kamala Sankaram is one of the best opera composers around.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really delicious all-day Guatemalan Fusion sandwiches and stews at Ix.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2021, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 8:30 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 7:00 PM
Puppet Festival
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – OCTOBER 3, 2021
8:30 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
7:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 & 6:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25 per show; $20 per show students/seniors
$150 7-show Full Festival package
$110 5-show package
$65 3-show package
$45 2-show package
https://www.lamama.org/shows/puppet-series-2021
Puppets! (You might [or might not] be wondering why this List is so partial to puppet theater. Well, I'll tell you: puppet theater generally calls for the abandonment of the kind of naturalism and straightforward narrative that this List abjures in theater.) (Of course, when puppet theater tries for naturalism and straightforward narrative, it's even more intolerable than when human theater does. But that won't be a problem in this Festival.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You no longer have to go to New Jersey for good fried fish from The Chippery chain. Who says life doesn't get better?
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Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 4:00 PM
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Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 8:00 PM – Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 & 30, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 24)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Wednesday, September 29, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Recap: Album Release
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2021
8:00 PM
Tenri Cultural Institute
43A West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$25
http://recapalbumrelease.com/
The new percussion quartet Recap celebrates the release of their FANTASTIC new album — pieces by not two, not four, but six of my own personal very favorite composer/musicians: Angélica Negrón, Allison Loggins-Hull, Ellen Reid, Lesley Flanigan, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Caroline Shaw (I listen to it and I think, "am I in heaven??????") (then I look around and see I'm in my living room) — by playing from it. If you're reading this, you should be there.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: While we're on the subject of things Your Compiler personally loves, hearty Northern Chinese at Auntie Guan's Kitchen 108.
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Wednesday, September 29, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Sessa
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2021
8:00 PM
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$15 advance; $18 door
https://lpr.com/lpr_events/sessa/
In the great tradition of Brazilian pop, Sessa makes mellow tuneful music that nevertheless reflects an awareness of more challenging current streams. Opener Tall Juan's garage pan-Latinism is pretty mind-bending, too.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Deep-dish pizza barely counts as food. But the Italian Beef sandwich at Chicago vernacular haven Emmett's is Da Bomb.
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Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, Oct 2, 2021, 8:30 PM
HOLDTIGHT: What Keeps You Going?
DANCE
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – OCTOBER 2, 2021
7:30 PM
the cell
338 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$50-$90
https://www.thecelltheatre.org/holdtight
What would it feel like to exist in the past, present, and future at the same time? HOLDTIGHT takes you to three floors of the venue's space to find out.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm going to keep sending you to Qanoon for its wonderful home-style Palestinian. If the Musakhan isn't the best chicken dish in New York right now, it's got to be Top 3.
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Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 3:00 PM
Xandra Nur Clark: Polylogues
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – OCTOBER 3, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 9)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$30 Wednesday – Saturday; $40 Sunday
https://here.org/shows/polylogues/
An exploration of monogamy through anonymous interviews.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Betcha didn't know that longtime Village bistro Le Sirène has opened a Soho / Hudson Square branch.
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Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 6:30 PM
Susanne Sachesse feat. XIU XIU: I WAS A FORMALIST PENSIONER. AN ANTIOPERA
PERFORMANCE / OPERA
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – OCTOBER 3, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 17)
12:00, 12:30, 1:00, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 4:30, 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 & 6:30 PM
Participant Inc.
253 East Houston Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Free (by appointment)
http://participantinc.org/seasons/season-19/i-was-a-formalist-pensioner-an-antiopera
It was hard to be a non-realist in the GDR.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Of course I'm going to send you to Katz's. It's my nature.
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Wed, Sep 29, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 6:30 PM
Moses Sumney: technophenomena
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – OCTOBER 3, 2021
12:00 – 6:30 PM
Pioneer Works at Red Hook Lab
133 Imlay Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation (reservation required)
https://pioneerworks.org/exhibitions/moses-sumney-technoechophenomena
The terrific Ghanian-American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney presents an experiential multi-media installation that is manipulated by the viewer's own movements.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: One of the founding parents of the NYC Lobster Roll Trend several years ago, the Red Hook Lobster Pound.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Nick Dunston: La Operación: Reverberated
OPERA
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum HIll, Brooklyn
$20 advance in person; $25 door
Live Stream free
https://us17.admin.mailchimp.com/campaigns/wizard/neapolitan?id=5228712
Aided by a crack ensemble, bassist Nick Dunston revists and restates his opera about the effects of Colonialism on Puerto Rican politics (and life).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, You KNOW I'm gonna send you down the block to Kind of Soul. Live streaming at home, have a Stone Fence: pour 2 oz. dark Rum, with 1 dash of Angostura bitters, into a Highball glass over ice. Top with hard Cider. Garnish with a mint sprig.
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Tue, Sep 28, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 3:30 PM
Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company: Deep Blue Sea
DANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – OCTOBER 3, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 9)
7:30 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Wade Thompson Drill Hall, Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
$40-$125
https://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/deep_blue_sea
Thanks to the Quarantine, this spectacular Bill T. Jones piece has been a long time coming — and now it's here! The Drill Hall should be made even more overwhelming than its usual overwhelming self by a visual environment (we used to call them "sets") by Elizabeth Diller. The electronic soundscape and score (by Nick Hallett, Hprizm the High Priest of the Antipop Consortium, Rena Anakwe, and Holland Andrews, no less) uses texts by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Herman Melville. I don't see how you could not go to this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to sitting at the bar of Donahue's Steak House again.
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Tue, Sep 28, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 5:30 PM
Justin Vivian Bond & Anthony Roth Costanzo: Only an Octave Apart
MUSIC / THEATER / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – OCTOBER 3, 2021
7:30 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
St. Ann's Warehouse
45 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
$44-$74 in person; $30 9/26 live stream
https://stannswarehouse.org/show/only-an-octave-apart/
Glitter and be gay with one of our leading countertenors and one of our leading dragaret performers. Musical direction by Doveman, to make it curiouser.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, Gran Eléctrica has such a great room and attractive crowd, you wish the good Mexican food were a tiny bit better. For the live stream, one feels constrained to recommend a Pink Lady: pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, and 1/2 oz. each of Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy, lemon juice, and Grenadine, with 1 egg white, into a cocktail shaker WITHOUT ICE. Dry shake. Add ice. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
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Tue, Sep 28, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 3:30 PM
Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu: Pass Over
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – OCTOBER 3, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 10)
7:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
8:00 FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
August Wilson Theater
245 West 52nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$199
https://www.passoverbroadway.com/
I've been resisting Listing this since it opened on Broadway (and didn't List it when it was at Lincoln Center either). Too issue-oriented, I thought. But if a play can address social issues without being social realist, instead rooting itself in Beckett — and be given on Broadway — then attention must be paid.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I have never had a bad time at the Russian Samovar.
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Tue, Sep 28, 2021, 5:00 PM – Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 10:30 PM
Liminality
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – 30, 2021
5:30, 7:00 & 10:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
Museum of Future Experiences
148 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$75
https://mofe.co/products/liminality
An evening of immersive, sometimes VR, Future Theater. The visual VR effects are stunning. Too bad the content is mostly either conventional narrative or lame New Age twaddle. Lap See Lam and Laurie Anderson/Hsin Chien-Huang (among others) are less clichéd thinkers who have done this kind of thing better.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to the new French/Italian brasserietoria Francie. Be sure to have an order of duck mortadella with your cocktail. After that, it's every diner for him or herself.
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Tue, Sep 28, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 4:30 PM
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Monday, September 27, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Lea Bertucci: A Visible Length of Light/Duo with Ben Vida
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette In Person & Live Stream
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum HIll, Brooklyn
$20 advance in person; $25 door
Live Stream free
https://roulette.org/event/lea-bertucci-a-visible-length-of-light-duo-with-ben-vida/
Lea Bertucci is a reeds/wind/noisy electronics player whose music is riveting. She does a solo set of stuff from her new album and performs in a duo with fellow explorer Ben Vida on accordion.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, food purportedly reflective of Brooklyn cultures but it looks like nice versions of the same old stuff to me at the restaurant in the new Brooklyn Ace Hotel, As You Are. Live streaming at home, welcome the Autumn with a Hunter's Cocktail: pour 1-1/2 oz. Whisky (your choice) and 1/2 oz. Cherry Brandy into an ice-filled Old Fashioned glass. Stir. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
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Monday, September 27, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Monday, September 27, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Monday, September 27, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 7:00 PM – Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 8:00 PM
Angélica Negrón: El Living Room
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – 30, 2021
7:00 PM
The Greene Space
44 Charlton Street, Soho, Manhattan
$15
https://thegreenespace.org/series/el-living-room-angelica-negron/
Freewheeling composer Angélica Negrón — a huge List fave if anybody is — hosts a nightly variety show!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: On Wednesday and Thursday, you can go to Basque/Catalan sensation Haizea. Monday and Tuesday, you'll have to console yourself with the Middle Eastern smash Shuka.
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Monday, September 27, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bushwick Improvised Music Series
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 (weekly)
7:00 PM
Bushwick Public House
1288 Myrtle Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$15
https://gaucimusic.com/bushwick-series
Every Monday night, a galaxy of different agglomerations of improvising (mostly jazz-based) musicians assemble for a series of sets at the Bushwick Public House, and the unexpected occurs.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You'll obviously be drinking at the Bushwick Public House (if you have any sense of citizenship AT ALL). Before the show, grab some delicious if somewhat improbable Colombian-Italian fusion at the entirely delightful Maite (even if this is yet another place whose menu got simplified during Lockdown).
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Monday, September 27, 2021, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Terence Blanchard: Fire Shut Up in My Bones
OPERA
MONDAY & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 & OCTOBER 1, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 16)
6:30 PM MONDAY
7:30 PM FRIDAY
Metropolitan Opera
30 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
MONDAY: $130-$500
FRIDAY: $37-$460
https://www.metopera.org/season/2021-22-season/fire-shut-up-in-my-bones/
Can Mainstream Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard write opera? Most people who saw this treatment of Charles M. Blow's memoir at Saint Louis a couple of years ago seemed to think so. A more interesting question is whether Yanick Nézet-Séguin can conduct jazz-based music. We'll see (I guess he did a good enough job with Bernstein's showbizzy Mass — but that's such a heaping pile of turds that it might be hard to judge by).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: No place nearby open afterward. If you're able to stay awake for a two-hour-forty-minute piece after eating, I'll note that Boulud Sud has reopened for dinner beforehand.
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Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 8:00 AM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – OCTOBER 3, 2021 (ongoing)
8:00 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/
One of the first shows during Quarantine that you could 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, Sep 27, 2021, 6:30 AM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – OCTOBER 3, 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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Mon, Sep 27, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Oct 3, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – OCTOBER 3, 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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Sunday, September 26, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
ACME
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2021
7:00 PM
Lot of Strings Music Festival
Morris Museum
6 Normandy Heights Road, Morris, New Jersey
$50 for up to 2 people
https://morrismuseum.org/events/acme/
Wile E. Coyote's favorite contemporary classical ensemble plays one of its usual programs of the strain of New Music we concentrate on here, pushing various boundaries in a way that's consistently enjoyable to listen to and engage with.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: South and Pine has the kind of boring, played-out New American menu we're all sick of. But you've gotta love their attitude.
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Sunday, September 26, 2021, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Sunday, September 26, 2021, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Composers & The Voice: Scene & Heard 2021
OPERA
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2021
3:00 PM
The American Opera Project
Tent next to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument
Fort Greene Park, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.aopopera.org/cvscenes21
New opera scenes by a variety of young composers (including Mary Prescott, who's been seen on this List before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good all-day American Bistro at Walter's.
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Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 22 & 25 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 24)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 6:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 5:00 PM
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Saturday, September 25, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
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Saturday, September 25, 2021, 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Suzi Takahashi: The Story Box
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 (continuing at different locations each SATURDAY through OCTOBER 9)
3:00 & 6:00 PM
The Promenade at Lighthouse Point, St. George, Staten Island
Free
https://here.org/shows/the-story-box/
Audiences get to experience Japanese-American interment! This will be presented each succeeding Saturday in a different borough.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ground Zero of the Tomkinsville Sri Lanken explosion at New Asha.
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Saturday, September 25, 2021, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Mark Morris Dance Group: Words / Quad / Water
DANCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
2:00 & 4:00 PM
Harbor View Lawn, Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park
80 Furman Street, Brooklyn Heights (really Brooklyn Depths), Brooklyn
Free
https://markmorrisdancegroup.org/event/brooklyn-09-25-21/
A world premiere on Handel (it's called Water — wanna guess what the music is?), an older piece on Mendelssohn — and a dance setting of Beckett (perfect for a nice late Summer day on the water!).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gotta be coal-oven pizza at Juliana's.
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Saturday, September 25, 2021, 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM
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Saturday, September 25, 2021, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
loadbang: Plays Well With Others Release Event
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2021
12:00 PM
In Person & Live Stream
OPERA America National Opera Center
330 Seventh Avenue, Garment District, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors;
IN PERSON: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/plays-well-with-others-release-event-tickets-165856231453
LIVE STREAM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B63QedL_FxQ
The exciting brass/wind/voice quartet loadbang celebrates the release of its fantastic (I mean it!) new album by performing it live.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, B&B Restaurant Corp.'s West-African-with-some-West-Indian-ringers-thrown-in buffet has been reduced, post-Quarantine, from being staggering in its range of offerings to being merely impressive. The quality of the food, for what you pay for it, remains stunning. I'd almost be afraid to find a better food deal in New York. If you stream, have a Mimosa: pour 3/4 oz. Cointreau and 2 oz. orange juice into a Champagne flute. Top with Champagne. Garnish with an orange slice.
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Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 9:00 PM
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Friday, September 24, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Friday, September 24, 2021, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
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Friday, September 24, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 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, September 23, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Anna Webber: Simple Trio / Idiom VI Large Ensemble
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum HIll, Brooklyn
$20 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/anna-webbers-simple-trio-idiom-vi-large-ensemble/
Reeds player Anna Webber — she's really good — composed a set of pieces, each exploring a different extended technique on flute or saxophone, called Idiom. Here she traverses the set, with both a stunning trio and a really stunning large ensemble.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You KNOW I'm gonna send you down the block to Kind of Soul.
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Thu, Sep 23, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 4:00 PM
Justin Hicks: CROSS OVER
MUSIC / THEATER
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 26, 2021
7:30 PM THURSDAY & FRIDAY
9:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
JACK
20 Putnam Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.jackny.org/whats-on/cross-over
You may well be sick of reading how great I think Justin Hicks's avant-R&B music-theater is, but here I go again. This piece revisits Hicks's boyhood in his pastor father's church.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great beer and some of the best pub grub anywhere at Meckelburg's.
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Thu, Sep 23, 2021, 7:00 PM – Fri, Sep 24, 2021, 8:00 PM
Harlem Chamber Players: Season Opening Concert
MUSIC
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 & 24, 2021
7:00 PM
Broadway Presbyterian Church
601 West 114th Street, Harlem, Manhattan
$20; $15 student/senior (in advance)
https://www.harlemchamberplayers.org/event/season-opening-concert
The estimable Harlem Chamber Players start their season with a bang. Three pieces are by actual living composers: Nkeiru Okoye writes well in a conservative idiom; Chen Yi writes very well in an idiom all her own; and Adolphus Hailstorck — still active in his '80s, thanks be — wrote gut-punchingly in the Late 20th Century and still does today. Poulenc's Trio might seem trivial in this company, but (don't tell anybody) it's my personal secret fave chamber piece (shhhhhhhhhhh).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Superb Pan-Chinese (maybe an emphasis on Sichuan) at Atlas Kitchen.
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Thu, Sep 23, 2021, 8:00 AM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 6:00 PM
Kamala Sankaram: The Last Stand
OPERA
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 10)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Near the Music Pagoda, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Free
https://creativetime.org/the-last-stand-kamala-sankaram/
The long life of a tree is explored through arranged recorded natural sounds played by and around actual trees. Kamala Sankaram is one of the best opera composers around.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really delicious all-day Guatemalan Fusion sandwiches and stews at Ix.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
FRKTL & Tarkamt: Mirages
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
8:00 PM
Nomadic Signals
ISSUE Project Room Stream
Free
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/nomadic-signals-mirages-frktl-tarkamt
Two experimental electronics artists originally from Egypt — FRKTL is groovier, Tarkamt noisier — join forces for a multimedia show curated by the formidable Leyya Tawil.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Little Egypt: rinse a chilled Martini glass or coupe with Absinthe. Pour 1 oz. each of Amontillado Sherry and dry Vermouth, and 1 teaspoon each of sweet Vermouth and Boker's bitters (or Angostura, for you non-fanatics out there), into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into the chilled rinsed glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
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Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 3:00 PM
Ragmala Dance Company
DANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 26, 2021
7:30 PM WEDNESDAY
8:00 PM THURSDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
The Joyce Theater
175 8th Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan
$20-$55
https://www.joyce.org/performances/ragamala-dance-company
South Indian dance of astonishing precision and beauty and, if you want it, spirituality.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Suspect bistro, but across the street and open late, at Loulou.
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Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 8:30 PM
HOLDTIGHT: What Keeps You Going?
DANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 2)
7:30 PM
the cell
338 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$50-$90
https://www.thecelltheatre.org/holdtight
What would it feel like to exist in the past, present, and future at the same time? HOLDTIGHT takes you to three floors of the venue's space to find out.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm going to keep sending you to Qanoon for its wonderful home-style Palestinian. If the Musakhan isn't the best chicken dish in New York right now, it's got to be Top 3.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Taka Kigawa: Music of Ligeti and Boulez
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
7:30 PM
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20 advance; $30 door
https://lpr.com/lpr_events/taka-kigawa-ligeti/
Reminding us of the days when they deigned to program classical music, LPR brings us the annual stand of pianist Taka Kigawa, playing two composers he plays better than almost anyone: Ligeti and Boulez (about whom it becomes harder every day to remember why his exquisite music was considered so difficult).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Although I haven't been yet, I have become obsessed with the very idea of the new Basque spot Haizea.
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Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 3:00 PM
Xandra Nur Clark: Polylogues
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 & 22 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 9)
7:00 PM MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$30
https://here.org/shows/polylogues/
An exploration of monogamy through anonymous interviews.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Betcha didn't know that longtime Village bistro Le Sirène has opened a Soho / Hudson Square branch.
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Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 6:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 5:00 PM
Rugilé Barzdžukaité, Vaiva Grainyté & Lina Lapalyté: Sun & Sea
OPERA
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 26, 2021
6:00, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00 & 10:30 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
12:00, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30 & 4:00 PM SUNDAY
BAM Fisher
321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.bam.org/sun-and-sea
Remember how when this played at the Venice Biennale two years ago it sounded so great and you wished you could see it? Well . . . . THIS is how topical art should work: suggestive, insinuative. (PS: Lithuanian)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Above-average neighborhood food at Endswell.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
New York City Players: The Vessel
THEATER
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
6:00 PM
Empire Cruises, Skyport Marina
2430 FDR Drive, Kips Bay, Manhattan
$40
https://www.facebook.com/pg/newyorkcityplayers/posts/
A set of eulogies for people who died in you know. Delivered aboard a boat. Touring the Harbor.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Neighborhood pizza and composed dishes at Frank's Trattoria, which has been there forever.
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Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 6:30 PM
Moses Sumney: technophenomena
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 26, 2021
12:00 – 6:30 PM
Pioneer Works at Red Hook Lab
133 Imlay Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation (reservation required)
https://pioneerworks.org/exhibitions/moses-sumney-technoechophenomena
The terrific Ghanian-American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney presents an experiential multi-media installation that is manipulated by the viewer's own movements.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: One of the founding parents of the NYC Lobster Roll Trend several years ago, the Red Hook Lobster Pound.
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Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 6:30 PM
Susanne Sachesse feat. XIU XIU: I WAS A FORMALIST PENSIONER. AN ANTIOPERA
PERFORMANCE / OPERA
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 17)
12:00, 12:30, 1:00, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30, 4:00, 4:30, 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 & 6:30 PM
Participant Inc.
253 East Houston Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
Free (by appointment)
http://participantinc.org/seasons/season-19/i-was-a-formalist-pensioner-an-antiopera
It was hard to be a non-realist in the GDR.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Of course I'm going to send you to Katz's. It's my nature.
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Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 9:00 PM
-
Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 8:00 PM – Wed, Sep 22, 2021, 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 22 & 25 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 24)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 6:00 PM
Justin Vivian Bond & Anthony Roth Costanzo: Only an Octave Apart
MUSIC / THEATER / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 3)
7:30 PM TUESDAY – SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
St. Ann's Warehouse
45 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
$44-$74 in person; $30 9/26 live stream
https://stannswarehouse.org/show/only-an-octave-apart/
Glitter and be gay with one of our leading countertenors and one of our leading dragaret performers. Musical direction by Doveman, to make it curiouser.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, Gran Eléctrica has such a great room and attractive crowd, you wish the good Mexican food were a tiny bit better. For the live stream, one feels constrained to recommend a Pink Lady: pour 1-1/2 oz. Gin, and 1/2 oz. each of Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy, lemon juice, and Grenadine, with 1 egg white, into a cocktail shaker WITHOUT ICE. Dry shake. Add ice. Shake. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.
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Tuesday, September 21, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Moor Mother & Rena Butler
MUSIC / DANCE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021
7:00 PM
Pier 3, Brooklyn Bridge Park
334 Furman Street, Brooklyn Heights (more like Brooklyn Depths), Brooklyn
Free–$25
https://www.fourfourpresents.com/events/openairsept21
More Moor, this List's Afrofuturist Afropresentist hero. This time she's working with dancer Rena Butler.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Nice Sardinian at River Deli (NB: cash only).
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Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 4:00 PM
Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu: Pass Over
THEATER
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 10)
7:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
8:00 FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
August Wilson Theater
245 West 52nd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$199
https://www.passoverbroadway.com/
I've been resisting Listing this since it opened on Broadway (and didn't List it when it was at Lincoln Center either). Too issue-oriented, I thought. But if a play can address social issues without being social realist, instead rooting itself in Beckett — and be given on Broadway — then attention must be paid.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I have never had a bad time at the Russian Samovar.
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Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 5:30 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 10:00 PM
Liminality
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 26, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
5:30, 7:00 & 10:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
5:00, 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 PM FRIDAY
1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 PM SATURDAY
12:00, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 8:00 & 9:30 PM SUNDAY
Museum of Future Experiences
148 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$75
https://mofe.co/products/liminality
An evening of immersive, sometimes VR, Future Theater. The visual VR effects are stunning. Too bad the content is mostly either conventional narrative or lame New Age twaddle. Lap See Lam and Laurie Anderson/Hsin Chien-Huang (among others) are less clichéd thinkers who have done this kind of thing better.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to the new French/Italian brasserietoria Francie. Be sure to have an order of duck mortadella with your cocktail. After that, it's every diner for him or herself.
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Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 5:00 PM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 11:00 PM
Undercurrent
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 26, 2021
5:00 – 11:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
11:00 AM – 11:00 PM FRIDAY – SUNDAY
The Jefferson
455 Jefferson Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$45
https://undercurrent.world/
Pop musicians ranging from kind of great to kind of not contribute immersive multi-media installations in reaction to the Climate Crisis. I'm skeptical.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I find snack restaurants extremely unsatisfying (there's a reason "meal" and "snack" are different words). But everybody seems to love the Thai street snacks at Tong.
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Tue, Sep 21, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 4:30 PM
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Monday, September 20, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Brooklyn Rider feat. Nicholas Phan
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021
7:30 PM
Music Mondays
Advent Lutheran Church
2504 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free (reservations available)
https://www.musicmondays.org/september-2021
Brooklyn Rider returns with their usual blend of things from earlier the mainstream string quartet repertoire (Thomas Campion), things dead-center in the mainstream string quartet repertoire (Schubert's "Death and the Maiden"), and things from later than the mainstream string quartet repertoire (Rebecca Clarke — a throwback, though — and a local premiere by Nico Muhly). The excellent tenor Nicholas Phan joins in on most of it.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In a city rife with Dominican spots, the Malecon chain are some of the best.
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Monday, September 20, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bushwick Improvised Music Series
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 (weekly)
7:00 PM
Bushwick Public House
1288 Myrtle Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$15
https://gaucimusic.com/bushwick-series
Every Monday night, a galaxy of different agglomerations of improvising (mostly jazz-based) musicians assemble for a series of sets at the Bushwick Public House, and the unexpected occurs.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You'll obviously be drinking at the Bushwick Public House (if you have any sense of citizenship AT ALL). Before the show, grab some delicious if somewhat improbable Colombian-Italian fusion at the entirely delightful Maite (even if this is yet another place whose menu got simplified during Lockdown).
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Monday, September 20, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Xandra Nur Clark: Polylogues
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 & 22 – 26, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 9)
7:00 PM MONDAY & WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$30
https://here.org/shows/polylogues/
An exploration of monogamy through anonymous interviews.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Betcha didn't know that longtime Village bistro Le Sirène has opened a Soho / Hudson Square branch.
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Mon, Sep 20, 2021, 7:00 AM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – 26, 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/
One of the first shows during Quarantine that you could 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, Sep 20, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – SEPTEMBER 26, 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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Mon, Sep 20, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 26, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – 26, 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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Sunday, September 19, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Moor Mother: Black Encyclopedia of the Air
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2021
7:00 PM
The Kitchen
519 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$15
https://thekitchen.org/event/moor-mother
You're probably REALLY sick of reading me singing the praises of Moor Mother, but here it is. Verbally scathing, musically acute, her avant-jazz/future hip-hop is words-and-music that refuse to be ignored. This electronic project should bring out the very best in her. List regulars Jaimie Branch and Jason Nazary are among the accompanists.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you believe that there's nothing better than New York City Slice Shop Pizza, you probably already know Stella's.
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Sunday, September 19, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
AUNTS Goes Public!
PERFORMANCE / DANCE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2021
5:00 PM
Outside House of Yes
2 Wyckoff Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Free
https://nyuskirball.org/events/aunts-goes-public/
Manic street performers. And there's more! Say "AUNTS" at the door and you can get into the Sunday night dance party inside House of Yes for FREE even without RSVPing!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There are not one but two excellent Mexican food trucks on this very block of Wyckoff.
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Sunday, September 19, 2021, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Tilted Axes
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2021
1:00 PM
Make Music Autumn
Astor Place Plaza & environs, East Village, Manhattan
Free
https://makemusicny.org/
A buncha electric guitarists toting portable amps, and a percussionist, commence a procession through the neighborhood at The Cube in Astor Place Plaza, to which they will eventually return after proceeding through the neighborhood. Since they're using Astor Place HairStylists as their home base for this show, let me tell you my own story about a musical procession there. I was getting my hair cut. My barber told me he came from Leningrad; and without thinking I reflexively started whistling the March from Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony. The barber joined in — and then started marching, still whistling, around the barbershop. I followed, also whistling. Soon we found ourselves leading a procession of barbers and customers around the shop, all whistling the March. I love this dirty town.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still crazy about Che-Li, taking Shanghainese in New York to a new level.
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Olga Neuwirth: Die Stadt ohne Juden
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021
8:00 PM
Talea Ensemble
DiMenna Center
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$20; $10 students/seniors
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/olga-neuwirth-die-stadt-ohne-juden-us-premiere-tickets-167877607443
See what I'm saying? For four years I've been dying to hear the score (played along with a screening of the film) that the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth — who kind of does the same pop-into-classical thing our Brooklyn composers do, except in Neuwirth's case the pop is taken into European High Modernism rather than Post-Minimalism — wrote for the 1924 Austrian expressionist dystopian (heh: what did they know?) satire about what Vienna would be like if it expelled its Jewish population (it doesn't turn out well for Vienna) ("expelled": note that they couldn't even envision that the Jewish population would ever be exterminated). (Dystopian satire! I'm laughing so hard I'm going to die — just like the author of the novel the film was based on did, not to mention my entire Austrian family.) So now this is finally being given in New York — on the SAME NIGHT that EVERYTHING ELSE IS HAPPENING.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All I can do is send you way Downtown for Austrian at Schilling, where you should just be able to make the last seating.
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Saturday, September 18, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Saturday, September 18, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
-
Saturday, September 18, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Suzi Takahashi: The Story Box
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021 (continuing at differernt locations each SATURDAY through OCTOBER 9)
3:00 & 6:00 PM
HERE Presentation
BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance
2474 Westchester Avenue, Westchester Square, Bronx
Free
https://here.org/shows/the-story-box/
Audiences get to experience Japanese-American interment! This will be presented each succeeding Saturday in a different borough.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Campy Chino-Latino at Shanghai Red.
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
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Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 2:30 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 4:00 PM
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus: Flatbed Follies
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 & 19, 2021
2:30 PM SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
SATURDAY: 116th Street & Frederick Douglass Boulevard, Harlem, Manhattan
SUNDAY: Johnny Hartman Plaza
143rd Street & Hamilton Place, Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
Free
http://bindlestiff.org/flatbed-follies-landing-page/
Circus! Variety acts! Music!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: SATURDAY: Safari is definitely the best Somali restaurant in New York. It's also the only one — but that's not their fault.
SUNDAY: Before the show, nice pizza and more (and City College views) at Fumo. After, ramen, oysters, and cocktails (not necessarily in that order) at ROKC, a place so nice you'll wish you spent more time in Hamilton Heights (unless you live there, in which case it'll make you glad you do).
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 2:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Contemporaneous Ensemble: Day of Imagination
OPERA / MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021
2:00, 5:00 & 8:00 PM
The Space at Irondale
85 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$20 per set; $30 all-day pass
https://www.contemporaneous.org/upcoming-events/day-of-imagination
An amazing day with Contemporaneous, with two operatic premieres sandwiching a set of some intriguing instrumental music. One of those operatic premieres comprises the second two acts of Dylan Mattingly's amour fou of a six-hour opera, Stranger Love, a Saint François d'Assise for our time (the first act, which Contemporaneous premiered a few years ago, was astonishing). The other is Brian Petuch's Jackson Pollack opera — a new piece by a composer who can really write music drama. In the middle set, a multi-media piece about particle physics and an orchestration of an enchanting electronica album.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Out of all the New Israeli places that have opened over the last several years in New York, Miss Ada is the best.
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Oneida / Kid Millions / Jaimie Branch Trio / Sarah Bernstein Duo / Ava Mendoza / Gabby Fluke Mogol
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021
1:00 PM
George Seuffert, Sr. Bandshell, Forest Park
Forest Park Drive, Woodhaven, Queens
Free
https://www.facebook.com/events/410252487199155/
Lotta stunning free outdoor shows this weekend. This one features an agglomeration of really great experimental musicians. Oneida: experimental psych/noise/kraut/minimalist rock. Kid Millions: their drummer and a star in his own right. Jaimie Branch: a jazz trumpeter who listens to a lot of hip-hop, and lots of other stuff, too. Sarah Bernstein: isshejazzisshepopissheclassical violin. Ava Mendoza: fearless exploratory guitar. Gabby Fluke-Mogul: violin outside of all categories.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Take a walk over to Neir's Tavern, have a burger and a beer, and thank GOD the place still exists.
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
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Saturday, September 18, 2021, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Metropolis Ensemble: Biophony
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2021
1:00 PM
Making Music Autumn
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
150 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
$18; $12 students/seniors; free children under 12
https://metropolisensemble.org/biophony-project
More than 20 groups of musicians play newly commissioned pieces at various sites strewn throughout this great garden (they give you a map). What could be a nicer afternoon?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: And there's no place nicer than the wonderful all-day spot Hunky Dory.
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Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 8:00 AM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 6:00 PM
Kamala Sankaram: The Last Stand
OPERA
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 & 19, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 10)
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Near the Music Pagoda, Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Free
https://creativetime.org/the-last-stand-kamala-sankaram/
The long life of a tree is explored through arranged recorded natural sounds played by and around actual trees. Kamala Sankaram is one of the best opera composers around.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really delicious all-day Guatemalan Fusion sandwiches and stews at Ix.
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Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 11:00 PM – Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 12:00 AM
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE
DANCE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021
8:00 PM
Little Island Dance Festival
The Amph, Little Island
Pier 55, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
Free (registration required)
https://littleisland.org/ronald-k-brown-evidence
Ronald K. Browne's African-American-vernacular-inflected contemporary dance is getting pretty mainstream for this List. But it isn't getting any less enjoyable.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Shanghainese-leaning Pan-Chinese at the Chelsea Hao Noodle.
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Erin Rogers & Friends: Record Release
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021
8:00 PM
Microscope Gallery In Person & Live Stream
525 West 29th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$12
https://microscopegallery.com/erin-rogers-and-friends/
Exploratory saxophonist Erin Rogers plays stuff from her new solo album — and also presents (and occasionally plays with) some equally exploratory musical friends.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, enjoyable faux-Southern food, drink, and ambiance at Porchlight.
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Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 3:00 PM
New York Philharmonic: From Silence to Celebration
MUSIC
FRIDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 – 19, 2021
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
1941 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$52-$166
https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/2122/from-silence-to-celebration
Some complain that the new emphasis on expanded representation among performed composers leads to tokenism. But if leads to the New York Philharmonic's putting first-rate contemporary classical (Anna Clyne) and unjustly obscure 20th Century American (George Walker) on its (re)opening program, I say, hell yeah. Also Aaron Copland's ineffable Quiet City, and the world-beating Danill Trifonov playing The Greatest Piano Concerto Ever Written (don't worry: Trifonov ain't no empty virtuoso, and this ain't no empty virtuosic piece — quite the opposite). Strange title for such an elegiac program, though: should be more like "From Silence to Quiet".
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Very winning country French at La Boite en Bois — and they'll still be open after the evening shows.
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Messiaen: Quartour pour la Fin du Temps
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021
8:00 PM
Anzû Quartet
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue, Boerum HIll, Brooklyn
$25 advance; $30 door
https://roulette.org/event/mary-halvorson-amaryllis-and-belladonna/
An all-star quartet performs Messiaen's astonishing piece, composed in a Nazi POW camp for the clarinet-violin-cello-piano (the composer's own) instrumentation that was available there. Without wanting to sound too stupid about it, this is as good as music gets.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You KNOW I'm gonna send you down the block to Kind of Soul.
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 15 & 17, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Friday, September 17, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Katherine Young & Yarn/Wire: Biomes 4.1
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2021
6:00 PM
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
Free (registration required) (donation requested)
https://pioneerworks.org/programs/katherine-young-and-yarn-wire-biomes-4-0
The exciting piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire performs within a sound installation by sound artist (and bassoonist!) Katherine Young in Pioneer Works's garden. (PS -- Although it's outside the parameters of this live-performance-oriented List, Pioneer Works's Tour Without End installation by Laura Parnes, running from September 10 through November 28, is of immense interest to anyone who shares this List's esthetic.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Whether Red Hook Tavern's epic burger is the best/most famous in Brooklyn depends on how you rank it against its model at Peter Luger (HINT: it's better). If they have their steak, that's pretty epic, too.
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Friday, September 17, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 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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Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 9:30 PM
Justin Hicks: CROSS OVER
MUSIC / THEATER
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 18, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 26)
7:30 PM THURSDAY & FRIDAY
9:00 PM SATURDAY
JACK
20 Putnam Avenue, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
$20
https://www.jackny.org/whats-on/cross-over
You may well be sick of reading how great I think Justin Hicks's avant-R&B music-theater is, but here I go again. This piece revisits Hicks's boyhood in his pastor father's church.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Great beer and some of the best pub grub anywhere at Meckelburg's.
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Thu, Sep 16, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 8:00 PM
Julie Mayo: Nerve Show
OPERA
THURSDAY – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 18, 2021
7:00 PM
Target Margin Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Free
https://www.targetmargin.org/nerve-show/
Lo-fi operatic landscape centered on a dynamic interrelationship of mutability and exaggerated impulse (yeah that certainly sounds operatic).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If I told you that the food at Chuan Tian Xia was unusually temperate for Sichuan, you'd think it must be boring. But it isn't: it's deep and rich, a different take on this cuisine. (Try the fish-flavored eggplant — which isn't eggplant flavored with fish, but eggplant cooked in a sauce usually used for fish.)
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Wednesday, September 15, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 15 & 17, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 9:00 PM
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Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 8:30 PM
HOLDTIGHT: What Keeps You Going?
DANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 19, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 2)
7:30 PM
the cell
338 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$20-$50 Wednesday & Thursday; $50-$75 Friday – Sunday
https://www.thecelltheatre.org/holdtight
What would it feel like to exist in the past, present, and future at the same time? HOLDTIGHT takes you to three floors of the venue's space to find out.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm going to keep sending you to Qanoon for its wonderful home-style Palestinian. If the Musakhan isn't the best chicken dish in New York right now, it's got to be Top 3.
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Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 7:30 PM – Sat, Sep 18, 2021, 8:30 PM
Colleen Thomas: Light and Desire
DANCE
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 18, 2021
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$15-$25
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/light-and-desire-2021/
The radiant side of Pandemic-induced political radicalism (we could only wish Pandemic-induced political radicalism were as widespread as Colleen Thomas seems to think).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Paella down the block at Soccarat.
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Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 7:00 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 3:00 PM
Xandra Nur Clark: Polylogues
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 19, 2021 (continuing through OCTOBER 9)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
2:00 PM SUNDAY
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$20
https://here.org/shows/polylogues/
An exploration of monogamy through anonymous interviews.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Betcha didn't know that longtime Village bistro Le Sirène has opened a Soho/Hudson Square branch.
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Wednesday, September 15, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Wednesday, September 15, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
PRISM Quartet feat. Melissa Aldana / Chris Potter / Rudresh Mahanthappa / Terell Stafford: Heritage / Evolution Marathon
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2021
7:00 PM
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$30; $20 students/seniors
https://www.prismquartet.com/concerts/heritage-evolution-nyc/
The New Music saxophone quartet PRISM Quartet have been engaging in a long-term project in which they collaborate with sax player/composers of various strains. But it inevitably involves a lot of jazz players — and in this show they collaborate with four monsters.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I adore Central Asian powerhouse Farida so much, I can't send you anywhere else from here. (I am currently obsessed with the Kazakh Besh Barmak, if you want to know.)
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Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 6:30 PM – Fri, Sep 17, 2021, 7:30 PM
Simone Dinnerstein: An American Mosaic
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15-17, 2021
6:30 PM
Angel's Share
Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
$100
https://www.deathofclassical.com/angelshare/an-american-mosaic
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein spent a lot of time walking around Green-Wood Cemetery during The Quarantine. Now, she'll walk you around, stopping at various points to play, on pianos she's had stashed there, a new piece by Richard Danielpour and Bach transcriptions by Danielpour as well.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You should just be able to make it to Korzo, where you'll be rewarded with fantastically delicious rib-sticking Slovakian food.
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Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 6:00 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 5:00 PM
Rugilé Barzdžukaité, Vaiva Grainyté & Lina Lapalyté: Sun & Sea
OPERA
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 19, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 26)
6:00, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30, 10:00 & 10:30 PM WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
12:00, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30 & 4:00 PM SUNDAY
BAM Fisher
321 Ashland Place, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$25
https://www.bam.org/sun-and-sea
Remember how when this played at the Venice Biennale two years ago it sounded so great and you wished you could see it? Well . . . . (PS: Lithuanian)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Above-average neighborhood food at Endswell.
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Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 6:30 PM
Moses Sumney: technophenomena
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 19, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 26)
12:00 – 6:30 PM
Pioneer Works at Red Hook Lab
133 Imlay Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation (reservation required)
https://pioneerworks.org/exhibitions/moses-sumney-technoechophenomena
The terrific Ghanian-American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney presents an experiential multi-media installation that is manipulated by the viewer's own movements.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: One of the founding parents of the NYC Lobster Roll Trend several years ago, the Red Hook Lobster Pound.
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Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 7:00 PM – Wed, Sep 15, 2021, 8:00 PM
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Tuesday, September 14, 2021, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Kinan Azmeh's CityBand
MUSIC
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2021
6:30 PM
Five Boroughs Music Festival
Five Boroughs Brewing Co.
215 47th Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$25-$75
https://5bmf.org/events/cityband/
The fabulous Syrian-American clarinetist/composer Kinan Azmeh leads his Arabic-Jazz band. (They're also at DROM on Thursday.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You're in a Taproom forchristssake. But you'll need something to eat. Luckily, the brick-and-mortar location of the mighty Tacos el Bronco is near.
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Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 5:00 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 5:59 PM
Liminality
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 19, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
5:30, 7:00 & 10:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
5:00, 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 PM FRIDAY
1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 PM SATURDAY
12:00, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 8:00 & 9:30 PM SUNDAY
Museum of Future Experiences
148 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$75
https://mofe.co/products/liminality
An evening of immersive, sometimes VR, Future Theater. The visual VR effects are stunning. Too bad the content is mostly either conventional narrative or lame New Age twaddle. Lap See Lam and Laurie Anderson/Hsin Chien-Huang (among others) are less clichéd thinkers who have done this kind of thing better.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to the new French/Italian brasserietoria Francie. Be sure to have an order of duck mortadella with your cocktail. After that, it's every diner for him or herself.
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Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 5:00 PM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 11:00 PM
Undercurrent
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 19, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 26)
5:00 – 11:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
11:00 AM – 11:00 PM FRIDAY – SUNDAY
The Jefferson
455 Jefferson Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$45
https://undercurrent.world/
Pop musicians ranging from kind of great to kind of not contribute immersive multi-media installations in reaction to the Climate Crisis. I'm skeptical.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I find snack restaurants extremely unsatisfying (there's a reason "meal" and "snack" are different words). But everybody seems to love the Thai street snacks at Tong.
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Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 5:00 PM
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Monday, September 13, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 15 & 17, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Monday, September 13, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Bushwick Improvised Music Series
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 (weekly)
7:00 PM
Bushwick Public House
1288 Myrtle Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$15
https://gaucimusic.com/bushwick-series
Every Monday night, a galaxy of different agglomerations of improvising (mostly jazz-based) musicians assemble for a series of sets at the Bushwick Public House, and the unexpected occurs.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You'll obviously be drinking at the Bushwick Public House (if you have any sense of citizenship AT ALL). Before the show, grab some delicious if somewhat improbable Colombian-Italian fusion at the entirely delightful Maite (even if this is yet another place whose menu got simplified during Lockdown).
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Monday, September 13, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tim Berne
MUSIC
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
7:00 PM
Barbès
In Person & Live Stream
376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$20 in person; stream free ($5-$10 donation requested)
https://www.viewcy.com/e/tim_berne
More Tim Berne, a saxophonist-composer who studied with Julius Hemphill — and it shows, to his and our benefit (which is not, of course, to say Berne is any kind of carbon copy). Tonight he plays with his (great) regular trio. You can tap your foot and tap your brain.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Berne himself would probably go to the self-explanatory Colombia in Park Slope.
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Mon, Sep 13, 2021, 7:00 AM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 19, 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/
One of the first shows last Summer that you could 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, Sep 13, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – SEPTEMBER 19, 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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Mon, Sep 13, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 19, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 19, 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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Sunday, September 12, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tesla Quartet
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2021
7:00 PM
Lot of Strings Music Festival
Morris Museum
6 Normandy Heights Road, Morris, New Jersey
$50 for up to 2 people
https://morrismuseum.org/events/tesla-quartet-2/
The Tesla plays a string quartet by the usually electronic Steven Snowden, who likes to mix euphony with extended sounds. And some Haydn (the "Emperor"), the massively great composer whose oeuvre is underrated cuz it's so enjoyable.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: South and Pine has the kind of boring, played-out New American menu we're all sick of. But you've gotta love their attitude.
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Sunday, September 12, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
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Sunday, September 12, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Juan Atkins
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2021
5:00 PM
Backyard, H0l0
1090 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
$34.40
https://www.facebook.com/events/352429892952422/
A certain rearguard faction in Jazz likes to call that form "America's Classical Music" — as if being the greatest musical effloresence in the 20th Century (a period with A LOT of great music) weren't enough without invoking supposed European prestige. I'd like to put in a good word for Detroit Techno, though: a form that actually sounded like contemporary expressions of classical music — and that has influenced subsequent classical iterations. Juan Atkins was one of the pioneers of Detroit Techno back in the '80s.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Unbelievably good Danish/American beer at Evil Twin Brewing.
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Sunday, September 12, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Alkemie: Hildegard Refracted
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2021
5:00 PM
Bridge Studio
Address provided upon ticket purchase, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$50
https://www.alkemie.org/hildegard-refracted
The Abbess Hildegard is, of course, one of the peaks of the Western Canon. Here this crack Medieval ensemble performs her music old style and modernized, with electronics and other contemporary instrumentation. That's all good — but one worries about the "lighthearted video content" they promise. Neither the Benedictines nor this repertoire are known for their lightheartedness.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Japanese-Jewish fusion that was just waiting to happen at Shalom Japan.
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Saturday, September 11, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 9 & 11, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Saturday, September 11, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Saturday, September 11, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Onyx Collective: Holy Ground Land of Two Towers
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
7:00 PM
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$21
https://www.abronsartscenter.org/program/holy-ground/
The fantastic Nu Jazz Onyx Collective — one of the better live acts around — commemorates 9/11, and reflects on its effects, on its 20th anniversary.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: How convenient that one of the best restaurants in New York has opened around the corner from Abrons Arts Center: Basque sensation Ernesto's.
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Saturday, September 11, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
American Contemporary Music Ensemble: William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops" — 20th Anniversary
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
7:00 PM
Ambient Church
Riverside Church
490 Riverside Drive, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$65
https://ambient.church/events/the-disintegration-loops-20th-anniversary
At the beginning of this century, electronic experimentalist William Basinski discovered, in transferring tape loops to a digital format, that the original tapes disintegrated in the process to a point where new sounds were introduced, essentially creating new pieces. He finished his transfer process the morning of September 11, 2001 — just in time to watch the Twin Towers fall from his Williamsburg apartment. This concert features a new orchestration of the work (with electronics) — along with immersive architecturally mapped projections.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: NYC's premiere Eritrean restaurant, Massawa, has reopened after protracted renovations!
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Saturday, September 11, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
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Saturday, September 11, 2021, 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Suzi Takahashi: The Story Box
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 (continuing at differernt locations each SATURDAY through OCTOBER 9)
4:00 & 7:00 PM
HERE Presentation
Japan Society Open Culture Street
East 47th Street btw. 1st Avenue & 2nd Avenue, Turtle Bay, Manhattan
Free
https://here.org/shows/the-story-box/
Audiences get to experience Japanese-American interment! This will be presented each succeeding Saturday in a different borough.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Excellent West African at Violà Afrique.
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Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:30 PM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 2:30 PM
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Saturday, September 11, 2021, 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Eiko Otake: Slow Turn
DANCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
7:00 AM & 6:00 PM
Belvedere Plaza
Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, Manhattan
Free (by reservation)
https://nyuskirball.org/events/eiko-otake-slow-turn/
If anyone can appropriately memorialize 9/11, it's the riveting slo-mo post-Butoh dancer Eiko Otake (once half of the indelible Eiko & Koma). Intriguingly, she'll be accompanied by David Krakauer's prog-Klezmer clarinet.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good luck finding anything open around 7:00 AM at Brookfield Place on a Saturday. For the late show, you could do a lot worse than the barbecue at Blue Smoke.
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Friday, September 10, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 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, September 9, 2021, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Keji Haino, Jim O'Roarke & Orin Ambarchi / Tamio Shairashi & Julia Santoli feat. Austin Sley Julian / David Watson & Ikue Mori / Manāt
MUSIC
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
7:30 PM
ISSUE Project Room at First Unitarian Congregational Society
119 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
$15
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/keiji-haino-jim-orourke-oren-ambarchi-remote-recording-tamio-shiraishi-julia-santoli-austin
ISSUE Project Room powers back to live performance with a long mixed bill of artists who have been associated with the venue over the years. If you like experimental music, you know what to do.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Cozy neighborhood Italian at Noodle Pudding (not clear if it's still cash-only what with The Pandemic).
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Thursday, September 9, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Thursday, September 9, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
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Thursday, September 9, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Nia Witherspoon / Normandy Sherwood: Staging Decadence
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
6:00 PM
HERE
145 6th Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$5-$50
https://here.org/shows/raw21-staging-decadence/
A theatrical salon whose title is self-explanatory.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Pino Luongo has been serving good Italian food to New Yorkers for as long as many can remember. He hasn't stopped at his Downtown Cocco Pazzeria.
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Thu, Sep 9, 2021, 5:00 PM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 11:00 PM
Undercurrent
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 – 12, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 26)
5:00 – 11:00 PM THURSDAY
11:00 AM – 11:00 PM FRIDAY – SUNDAY
The Jefferson
455 Jefferson Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$45
https://undercurrent.world/
Pop musicians ranging from kind of great to kind of not contribute immersive multi-media installations in reaction to the Climate Crisis. I'm skeptical.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I find snack restaurants extremely unsatisfying (there's a reason "meal" and "snack" are different words). But everybody seems to love the Thai street snacks at Tong.
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Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 8:00 PM – Thu, Sep 9, 2021, 9:00 PM
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Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 8:00 PM – Thu, Sep 9, 2021, 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 9 & 11, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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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Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 9:00 PM
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Wed, Sep 8, 2021, 12:00 PM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 6:30 PM
Moses Sumney: technophenomena
PERFORMANCE
WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 – 12, 2021
12:00 – 6:30 PM
Pioneer Works at Red Hook Lab
133 Imlay Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$10 suggested donation (reservation required)
https://pioneerworks.org/exhibitions/moses-sumney-technoechophenomena
The terrific Ghanian-American singer-songwriter Moses Sumney presents an experiential multi-media installation that is manipulated by the viewer's own movements.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: One of the founding parents of the NYC Lobster Roll Trend several years ago, the Red Hook Lobster Pound.
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Tue, Sep 7, 2021, 5:30 PM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 10:00 PM
Liminality
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 – 12, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)*
5:30, 7:00 & 10:00 PM TUESDAY – THURSDAY
5:00, 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 PM FRIDAY
1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 PM SATURDAY
12:00, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 8:00 & 9:30 PM SUNDAY
Museum of Future Experiences
148 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$75
https://mofe.co/products/liminality
An evening of immersive, sometimes VR, Future Theater. The visual VR effects are stunning. Too bad the content is mostly either conventional narrative theater or lame New Age twaddle. Lap See Lam and Laurie Anderson/Hsin Chien-Huang (among others) are less clichéd thinkers who have done this kind of thing better.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to the new French/Italian brasserietoria Francie. Be sure to have an order of duck mortadella with your cocktail. After that, it's every diner for him or herself.
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Tuesday, September 7, 2021, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Caroline Shaw & Andrew Yee: Music for Two People
MUSIC
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2021
5:00, 6:00 & 7:30 PM
Angel's Share / Death of Classical / ChamberQUEER
The Catacombs, Green-Wood Cemetery
500 25th Street, Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
5:00 PM: Free-$15
6:00 & 7:30 PM: $35
https://www.deathofclassical.com/angelshare/music-for-two-people
Composer/violinist/vocalist Caroline Shaw (hell, she's one of the best composers in the country) and cellist/composer Andrew Yee perform something new and reworkings of old things. The two later shows include unlimited whiskey; the early show doesn't.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to the early show, you can leave the Cemetery by the side Prospect Park West exit and have an easy walk to local Red Sauce fave Giovanni's Brooklyn Eats. If you go to the late shows, you'll have a longer walk from the main entrance.
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Tue, Sep 7, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 5:00 PM
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Mon, Sep 6, 2021, 7:00 AM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – 12, 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/
One of the first shows you could 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, Sep 6, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – SEPTEMBER 12, 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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Mon, Sep 6, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 12, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – 12, 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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Sunday, September 5, 2021, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Composers Concordance: Gene Pritsker @50
MUSIC
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2021
6:00 PM
In Person & Live Stream
DROM
85 Avenue A, East Village, Manhattan
Facebook
IN PERSON: $15 advance/$20 door
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gene-pritsker-50-tickets-162966492165
LIVE STREAM: Free
https://www.facebook.com/ComposersConcordance/video
An overview of the work of composer/guitarist Gene Pritsker, whose work combines tendencies of contemporary classical, hip hop/funk, and rock.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go, drink at DROM; eat Taiwanese at Ho Foods. Those watching at home can have a Moscow Mule: pour 2 oz. Vodka and 1/2 oz. lime juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake. Strain into a Mule mug over crushed ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with a lime wedge.
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Sunday, September 5, 2021, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
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Sunday, September 5, 2021, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
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Saturday, September 4, 2021, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Saturday, September 4, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Tim Berne & Matt Mitchell
MUSIC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2021
8:00 PM
Soapbox Gallery In Person & Live Stream
636 Dean Street, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
$25 in person; pay what you can live stream
https://www.soapboxgallery.org/events/tim-berne-matt-mitchell
Saxophonist Tim Berne stays on the avant side of avant-gutbucket — but the gutbucket is always very much there. Pianist/occasional electronics guy Matt Mitchell will only encourage his avant tendencies.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Delightful French-inflected yakitori (except mostly not chicken, so not really) and a great burger at Maison Yaki.
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Saturday, September 4, 2021, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
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Saturday, September 4, 2021, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
-
Fri, Sep 3, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 4, 2021, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, September 3, 2021, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Third Rail Projects: Return the Moon
THEATER
TUESDAY & FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 (continuing through SEPTEMBER 30)
8:00 PM
Zoom
$15-$67
https://thirdrailprojects.com/return-the-moon#returnthemoon
Third Rail Projects, specialists in immersive theater presentations, goes Zoom. This piece recounts the old legend of how the Moon was lost and found (you've seen theatrical treatments before).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Moon Dance: pour 2 oz. Corn Whisky, 1/2 oz. each of Cocchi Americano and dry Vermouth, and 1/4 oz. each of Green Chartreuse and Maraschino liqueur, with 1 dash of 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, Sep 3, 2021, 6:00 PM – Sun, Sep 5, 2021, 5:00 PM
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Friday, September 3, 2021, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
ETHEL and Friends: Balcony Bar from Home
MUSIC
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 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, September 2, 2021, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
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Wednesday, September 1, 2021, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tatsuya Nakatani, Gabby Fluke-Mogul & Frank Meadows / Aaron Edgcomb
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2021
7:00 PM
Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe Street, Lower East Side (unless you want to call it Between the Bridges), Manhattan
$12 suggested donation
https://www.downtownmusicgallery.com/shows.php
A night of improvised music on the edge, with a focus on percussion. The big draw is a stellar trio led by the fabulous Japanese-in-New-Mexico (Truth or Consequences, NM: who wouldn't want to live there?) percussionist/soundscaper Tatsuya Nakatani. But don't disregard Brooklyn's Aaron Edgcomb, whose percussion explorations are fascinating.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Celebrate the reopening of Korean-inflected diner Golden Diner after a serious fire.
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Wednesday, September 1, 2021, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
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Wed, Sep 1, 2021, 1:00 PM – Fri, Sep 3, 2021, 2:00 PM
-
Tue, Aug 31, 2021, 10:00 AM – Sun, Sep 5, 2021, 4:30 PM
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Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 8:00 PM – Sat, Sep 4, 2021, 9:00 PM
MUTEK Festival
MUSIC
MONDAY – SATURDAY, AUGUST 29 – SEPTEMBER 4, 2021
8:00 PM
Live Stream
Free
https://montreal.mutek.org/en/schedule/festival-en-ligne?date=24.08&offset=0
The great Montreal festival of pop-leaning electronic music and associated arts maintains its online component.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Montreal: pour 3/4 oz. each of Rye (Canadian if you have any), Gin, Aperol, and Suze into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
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Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 6:00 PM – Thu, Sep 2, 2021, 7:00 PM
On Site Opera: What Lies Beneath
OPERA
MONDAY – THURSDAY, AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
6:00 PM
Tall Ship Wavertree
Pier 16, South Street Seaport, Manhattan
$40 suggested donation
https://osopera.org/productions/what-lies-beneath/
A pastiche featuring new stuff, arias from Anthony Davis's Amistad and Britten's Billy Budd and other nautically themed things. But the big deal is that it's staged in various different areas on this tall ship!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's every reason to expect Jean-Georges Vongerichten's seafood-house-with-a-view The Fulton to suck. It doesn't. No one knows why.
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Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 7:00 AM – Sun, Sep 5, 2021, 7:00 PM
Gelsey Bell feat. Joseph White: Cairns
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 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/
One of the first shows you could 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, Aug 30, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 5, 2021, 1:00 AM
Ellen Reid: SOUNDWALK
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 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.
-
Mon, Aug 30, 2021, 6:00 AM – Sun, Sep 5, 2021, 10:00 PM
Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett: The Visitation
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY – SUNDAY, AUGUST 30 – SEPTEMBER 5, 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.
