Pencil This In

MOVIE: Last week Bryant Park was packed as Annie Hall played on the big screen. This week grab someone who's hand you'll be able to squeeze tight as the classic horror flick, The Thing, plays in the park. The timeless flick watches the sci-fi terror unfold as "scientists at an Arctic research station discover a spacecraft buried in the ice. Upon closer examination, they discover the frozen pilot. All hell breaks loose when they take him back to their station and he is accidentally thawed out!"

5pm for seats, show starts at sunset // Bryant Park // Free

THEATER: The Fire Dept. theater company inaugurates their new Salon series at The National Arts Club tonight with At War: American Playwrights Respond To Iraq. The “kaleidoscope of views on the war” are written by Jose Rivera and The Exonerated dramatists Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen; performers include David Strathairn, Michael Cerveris and Juilianna Margulies. Show up at 6:30 for wine, hors d'oeuvres and conversation, and linger afterwards for dessert and discussion with Mark Crispin Miller (Professor of Media Studies, NYU, and author of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections) and others. - John Del Signore

6:30pm // National Arts Club [15 Gramercy Park South] // Call 212-352-3101 for tickets, which cost $35.

HAPPY HOUR: FreeNYC gives us one more way to cure the Monday's. Head over to Park Slope for Blue Monday, and indulge in some live blues, free bourbon and tasty BBQ. If you're more of a beer fan, fear not, there are $2 Blue Points all night long. And if that won't cheer you up, nothing will.

7pm // Bar BQ [689 6th Ave at 20th St, Park Slope] // Free

COMEDY: Michael Ian Black's "I'm A Wonderful Man" show is all sold out, which makes us a little sad (an effect comedy rarely has on us). So, we suggest going to the improv show just before his at PIT, called The Hamptons. Check out details on that show here, looks pretty promising - and then once it's done you can hide under your seat til the next show (Michael Ian Black's) starts. That's a fail proof plan right there.

7pm // PIT [154 W 29th St] // $5