Junot Diaz reads from his award winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Location: Gramercy, NYC
Reading: Junot Díaz
Show time: 7 PM FREE
Venue: Barnes & Noble
Food: New York Burger Co.
Drink: Metro Café & Wine Bar
Miscellaneous: City Bakery

Junot Diaz stops by Barnes & Noble (33 E 17th St) to read from his recent novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which has already won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Taking burgers to the next level, New York Burger Co. builds their burgers with high quality ingredients, delivering a better take on a classic. With a casual American and dim sum bar menu, the food is an excellent complement to the over 100 wines available by the glass from all the major wine-making countries in the world. With one of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had along with the hot chocolate, City Bakery makes all sorts of high-end food that won’t send you to the poor house.

What Made Milwaukee Famous
What Doesn’t Kill Us
Barsuk Records





Great rock music doesn’t come around that often but the new album from What Made Milwaukee Famous is great because it’s filled with what made 70’s and early 80’s rock so epic: killer guitar hooks, down to earth lyrics, and enough variation in melody to keep the album playing forever. The album, What Doesn’t Kill Us is the second release form the Austin, Texas natives and it begins with an enticing track- “Blood, Sweat & Fears,” which lets the listener know immediately that this is not just another indie band. It’s followed up with great tracks like “And the Grief Goes On...,” “To Each His Own,” and “Sultan”- one of my favorite new songs of the year. These tracks showcase the bands strength in their very personal and relatable lyrics about dysfunction, boredom, and difficult relationships. Their sound is fun, has well orchestrated instrumentation and dynamically fun musical phrasing. The songs have hints of everything from classic Queen, mid-career Billy Joel, to modern indie rock such as Spoon and Ben Folds. The album made me an instant fan of the band and with their recent gigs at Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza its clear their fan base is growing fast.

Tim Needles




Jack Peñate
Matinee
Xl Recordings






One of the best things about London rocker Jack Peñate is his completely unapologetic and unabashed English accent. "What" turns into "wot," "laugh" morphs into "lof," and "bottle" somehow miraculously turns into a one-syllable word. Half the time, you can hardly understand him, but honestly, it doesn't really matter because the hooks in the background are so catchy. A big fan of the off-beat and fast tempo, Peñate frantically makes the most out of his acoustic guitar strings. His vocals stay in a fairly safe (yet undeniably catchy) octave-and-a-half range, with a few falsetto notes thrown in here and there. The first track on his debut, "Spit at Stars," entices you to listen to the rest of the record while at the same time making you want to immediately memorize all the lyrics and sing along in your very own imitation "Bri-ish" accent.

Patricia Scull

Luis Buñuel (Spain, 1900-1983) and Salvador Dalí (Spain, 1904-1989) Film still from Un Chien andalou 1929 France, 35 mm print, black and white, silent. The Museum of Modern Art, Gift of Luis Buñuel © 2008 Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Location: Midtown West, NYC
Art: Dalí: Painting and Film
Show time: Sat – Mon, Wed & Thurs: 10:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Tues: Closed; Through Sept. 15
Venue: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Food GoGo Curry
Drink Stitch
Miscellaneous Leisure Time Bowl

Surrealist master painter Salvatore Dali is celebrated in this exhibition, which features 130 paintings, drawings, scenarios, and films, all focusing on how film influenced his work. The owner of Go!Go! Curry is obsessed with the Yankees Hideki Matsui and his Jersey (55). The menu’s theme is baseball and katsu, a fried meat, chicken, or shrimp cutlet served in a curry sauce is the specialty here. Portion sizes are Walk (small), Single (Med.), Double (L), and Triple (XL) and are inexpensive. The mascot, a gorilla for some reason, is plastered everywhere, making this place even quirkier. In the heart of the garment district, Stitch, a cozy after-work bar/lounge, stocks a cocktail menu with a design theme. If you still have energy and are in the mood to bowl, check out Leisure Time Bowl. Located in the Port Authority, this place is stylish and fun.

Stereolab
Chemical Chords
(4AD)






With 17 years and 11 albums to date, Stereolab has created their own sound, weaving tropicalia, French chanson, electronica, drum n' bass, and Italian soundtracks together into a bubbly, whimsical sound that is all their own. There is something so innate about this sound that it's instantaneously recognizable, like Bob Dylan's voice or Betsey Johnson's fashion.

Their latest release, Chemical Chords, is a more condensed and sleeker side of Stereolab. It's purposefully shorter, louder, and faster, which is what lead songwriter Tim Gane intended to create, and it sounds natural that way. Whereas previous albums are more of a soundscape and lack singable melodies, this one doesn't. I found myself whistling the first track, "Neon Beanbag" while walking my dog.

Sean O'Hagen's carefully and lovingly tended strings and brass really add an extra level of goodness to the songs on this album. Stereolab’s, sound is there and doesn't vary too much, but the album is more polished and definitely a great soundtrack for the end of summer.

Christine Thelen




Junk Science
Gran’ Dad’s Nerve Tonic
(Embedded)






Add DJ Snafu’s lo-fi jazzy samples over bass-heavy “boom bap” beats with Emcee Baje One’s playfully defiant lyrics, and you’ll get a wonderful concoction known as Gran’ Dad’s Nerve Tonic. Junk Science, the Brooklyn-based hip-hop duo, doesn’t suggest that their sophomore album promotes excessive drinking. As Baje One explains on their myspace page, “It's not a record about alcohol or alcoholism per se, as much as the record itself is the drink that me and Snafu needed and couldn't find anywhere on the shelves.” The search for good music is a common dilemma for true hip hop heads and in most cases, underground hip hop has been their antidote of choice. However, songs like “Do It Easy” and “Glass House (featuring MC K~Swift & Cavalier)” suggest otherwise. With an infectious sample hook from “My Melody,” by Eric B. & Rakim, “Do It Easy” makes their everyday financial stresses (bounced checks and lack of health insurance) comical, while “Glass House” best shows their ambivalence to being underground: “I try to beep out business but I wind up confused/Between my Communist views and taste for fly shoes.” Junk Science is not the “explosive combination” that they claim to be on “Pop Rocks,” but their different approaches throughout nicely complement one another.

Shannon J. Effinger

Three Masters at Work: John Zorn, Lou Reed, and Laurie Anderson. Photo Credit: Downtown Music

Location: Greenwich Village, NYC
Bands: John Zorn and Lou Reed + Phantom Orchard
Show time: 8:00 PM
Venue: (Le) Poisson Rouge
Food: Koo Sushi
Drink: Blind Tiger Ale House
Miscellaneous: Peanut Butter & Co.

Both monumental and historical, don’t miss this chance to see three music icons—John Zorn, Lou Reed, and Laurie Anderson—play together live. Openers Phantom Orchard, who consist of Zeena Parkins on keyboard and Ikue Mori on laptop are both innovative artists who have been improv’ing for years. A little known sushi joint, Koo Sushi offers affordable and fantastic fish with an impressive number of specialty rolls. For a bar that looks like any other, Blind Tiger Ale House offers an impressive number of beers including draught, bottled, cask and one called Louise’s Bloody Beer. Try it if you dare! If you’re in the mood for some comfort food, Peanut Butter & Co., offers some PB heavy hitters like the Elvis, a PB, banana, and bacon sandwich that tastes better than it sounds.

L’Oreal
Infallible Never Fail Lip Gloss



L’Oreal designs the first six-hour lip-gloss and the only way it can actually stay on for six hours is if you don’t eat, drink, or move your mouth in the course of a day. For all intents and purposes, the long wear gloss is perfect for photo shoots, where one is not moving their lips. The collection features sixteen translucent and high luster colors from pinks to wines to reds to browns. The formulation contains a film to keep the gloss in place, but effectively it is what it is… a vibrant, visible film on the mouth. The applicator comes in the shape of a heart, which may be charming but its not securely attached and it’s mobility does not lend to control. Shortly after application, you end up with a matte color with a lip-gloss residue on your lips.

Ashkan

Martha Holmes Jackson Pollock, 1948 (©) Getty Images. Painting © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Location: Upper East Side, NYC
Art: Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976
Show time: Sun to Wed & Sat 11:00 AM to 5:45 PM, Thurs 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM; Through September 21
Venue: Jewish Museum
Food: Brother Jimmy’s Bait Shack
Drink: Cavatappo Wine Bar
Miscellaneous: Ship of Fools

Probably one of the most inventive times for art, the action and abstraction genres that gained popularity after World War II by Jackson Pollack and Willem De Kooning, having influenced countless others after them, are explored in this exhibition of their work and the leading artists since them, from 1940-1976. Now that it’s getting warmer out, what better way to celebrate than with some BBQ. Jimmy’s Bait Shack is known for their BBQ’d meats, smoked in house. The menu is all Southern favorites like po boys, catfish, fried chicken, along with burgers. Though it’s small, Cavatappo Wine Bar packs a mighty punch, offering an amazing selection of wines from all over the world for under $10 a glass. With more than 40 TVs featuring sports, Ship of Fools also has darts, pool tables, and video games.