HACHI MACHI!!! Is it ever cold this week! I actually had to stop playing Plants vs Zombies and head down to a subway just to warm up my frozen mitts.
Still! We mustn’t let winter prevail. Get out there and enjoy yourself, I say!
Fri 15: Yippee-Ki-Yay: Die Hard
The Chain Theater, 21-28 45th Rd, Long Island City, 7:00 PM, $15 (includes 2 drinks)
Long Island City. A land of industry, a land of exorbitantly expensive high-rise apartments. And shockingly, a place with a popping little art scene. The Ultimate Hipster I dated for a bit lived in an artistic commune in LIC, and that’s where I started performing musical improv.
This parody-ish performance that The Usual Rejects are doing isn’t exactly a parody, and it isn’t exactly a staged reading, and it isn’t exactly a pastiche, but it looks like a TON of fun. Fortunately, I don’t have to explain it here, because they made a video explaining it! I’ll be there. Come join me- it sounds like a blast.
On a personal note, this is how I will be commemorating the extremely sad death of Alan Rickman.
Fri 16: Zlatne Uste Golden Festival
The Grand Prospect Hall, 263 Prospect Ave, 7:30 PM – 12:30 AM, $35
Holy schnitzel, does this event sound like fun. Four stages of musical acts, tons of food, and a Balkan market truly sound like a place you’ll want to spend the entire night exploring. I mean, doesn’t this look cozy and inviting on a frigid winter night?
There’s a dance workshop on Friday so you can learn all the dance moves to groove along with the rest of the festival-goers enjoying the Roma music.
Sat 16: No BS! At NYC Winter Jazzfest
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Sq S, $45 (for the advance day pass – many events and venues)
My buddy Sonja described No BS! Brass as “a big, loud brass band that plays a lot of funky stuff.” I’d describe it as the reason I’ve been bopping my entire body around while writing this, watching various videos of their performances on Youtube.
This is part of part of New York’s Winter Jazzfest, which includes hundreds of acts over the Martin Luther King weekend. $45 multiple concerts is a pretty excellent deal. Check out the website for more information, and let me know how you liked No BS! Brass!
Sat 16: Fishnets and Ice Cream Party
Secret Loft, 255 McKibbin St, Brooklyn, New York 11206, 9:00 PM – ?, “$5 early, $10 late.”
The picture says what I believe is probably the most important information you need to know going into this party. Feel free to wear those scuba fins you bought for that trip to Isla Mujeres, but stay the hell away if you’re wearing pants. Sounds like a pretty exciting party!
Eat the Cake NYC is a burlesque and performance art group and Secret Loft is a seriously awesome performance art and concert venue, so you can think of this event as an awesome, kinda kinky introduction to both of them.
Sun 17: NY Jewish Film Festival
Film Society of Lincoln Center, 165 W 65th St, various times, $9-$14 a ticket
This is the 25th anniversary of the NY Jewish Film Festival, and there are plenty of cool and exciting events and panels to match. Sunday’s lineup looks particularly interesting, with directors Todd Solondz and Catherine Tambini in person for Q&A’s following screenings.
Make sure to check out the festival’s website for information on free events, including a poster exhibition
Mon 18: Swing Dancing
QED Astoria, 27-16 23rd Avenue, 6:30-7:10 or 7:10-8:00, $13 or $15
We’ve all been there. The wedding. The drunk uncles. Zoot Suit Riot comes on, and you and some friend or lover think you’re going to look AMAZING when you start the swing dancing.
Only you only know that one move and immediately you’re instantly full of regret.
Thank God for that open bar, huh?
No more! Join the enthusiastic duo of Akemi Kinukawa and Michael Duke as they teacher either the advanced beginner (perhaps you) or the total beginner (absolutely me) how to boogie and shimmie to that sweet, sweet brass.
Stick around at 8:30 for the indomitable (and very sweet) Ted Alexandro, who has opened for Louie CK and performed on just about every comedy TV show that exists. It’ll add $5 to the night’s tab, and you can sip a beer to reward yourself for all that shakin’!
Tues 20: Musical Megawatt
254 West 29th St @8th Ave, shows every hour starting at 7:00, $7 for the whole night
You know how sometimes improv sometimes sounds like this impossible thing, how stories and hilarious connections come out of nowhere and sometimes an ending will just be so perfect that you think there MUST have been some kind of planning involved, only there definitely wasn’t?
Musical Megawatt, a night of all improvised musicals, is like that plus a heaping cup of magic sparkles.
Musical improv is pure joy made manifest. It is Disney that often turns raunchy and bizarre comedy that often turns sweet and sincere. I was lucky to find Magnet’s musical improv scene a little over a year ago, and it has improved my life in a thousand ways. I ran tech for their Musical Megawatt night for around eight months before I auditioned, and I’ve been with my wonderful team, StartUp, for around three months now.
So yeah, this is a shameless plug for something I’ll be doing, but what the hey! It’s $7 for the whole night- go ahead and duck into the bathroom during my set for all I care!
(jk it’s a very small bathroom and you will be throttled if you attempt this)
Weds 21: Spa Day!
King Spa, 321 Commercial Ave., Palisades Park, NJ, $26 for one, $49 for two
Korean spas.
Korean spas and Korean subway systems.
Those words might not mean anything much to you, but they represent pure joy and simplicity for me, after having lived in Korea for 4 1/2 years.
Korean subways are pristine and reliable, and so are Korean spas. Reliable…y AMAZING! Yes, there is nudity. Get over it, Puritan. There are parts that involve pajamas- saunas and common areas for eating, etc. The tubs, which are gender-segregated, are where things get naked.
Grab a lover or a friend and GET. OVER. THERE. There’s a Groupon deal right now so you simply can’t go wrong!
