Pencil This In

EVENT: Upstairs at the Square, the bookstores series featuring musicians and authors in conversation & performing their work, is happening tonight. This one will be featuring musician Badly Drawn Boy and author Dana Spiotta, with host Katherine Lanpher.

7pm // Barnes & Noble [33 East 17th St] // Free

THEATER: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by New Yorker scribe Lawrence Wright, was one of The New York Times Book Review's "Top 10 Books of 2006". It’s now been adapted into a one-man play called My Trip to Al-Qaeda, and the Times again approves.) The show is performed by Wright himself, using “facts, figures, and PowerPoint to weave the story of Al-Qaeda's rise into a compelling, dramatic, and unquestionably timely story.” His work is the culmination of interviews with over six hundred people (including members of Al-Qaeda) around the world and offers a chilling glimpse into that miserable gang of fanatics who would love nothing more than to eradicate us. As Wright puts it: “Al Qaeda offers them a chance to make history. All they have to do is die.” - John Del Signore

8pm // Culture Project [55 Mercer Street at Broome Street] // Tickets cost $35/$55

MUSIC: Apes and Androids are playing their first show since our Movable Hype show back in November tonight! There is really nothing that will top this tonight. Get on your finest dance gear, head to the Shindig party and enjoy the all night open bar. Flyer here.

8pm // 20 Warren St [map] // suggested $12 donation

SCIENCE: Union Hall's Secret Science Club is back tonight. It's like the Dead Poets Society, but way more nerdy! Tonight is “A Night of Cosmic Mayhem” where author and People magazine's “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive" Neil deGrasse Tyson gives a little lecture on the universe:

"Is the universe cuddly and friendly? NO! It’s full of monstrous gamma-ray bursts, deadly pulsars, matter-crushing gravitational fields, [and] matter-hungry black holes that flay their bloated stellar neighbors." Spooky!

8pm // Union Hall [702 Union Street @ 5th Ave] // Free

Photo of Apes and Androids by Kimberly Bellinger.