EVENT: Into anime? It's your lucky weekend, the New York Anime Festival is in town! There will be previews, screenings and panels galore. Check out their website for more details.

All Weekend // Jacob Javits Convention Center [655 W 34th St] // $30 day pass, $55 weekend pass

SHOP: FIT and the Design Mavens come together for a 3 day shopstravaganza. Tons of designers we're not cool enough to have ever heard of will be on hand...and they prefer cash, so hit the ATM beforehand. For an extra 10% off, print out this flyer.

All Weekend // Friday 6 to 9pm and Saturday and Sunday 11am to 6pm // FIT's John E. Reeves Great Hall [7th Ave and 28th St] // Free

READING: Yesterday we interviewed Brian Berger, who helped create the book New York Calling. Fans of New York history take note: tonight he'll be at Book Culture with Marshall Berman for a reading, Q&A and book signing.

Friday // 7pm // Book Culture [536 West 112th St] // Free

THEATER: Williamsburg’s theatrical center of gravity, The Brick Theater, bounces into the holidays with a festival of world premiere one act plays by some of New York’s most buzzed-about playwrights. Called The Baby Jesus One-Act Jubilee: Second Coming, the dozen quickies are split into two programs of six plays each (the groupings are labeled "Josephs" and "Marys"). Using various degrees of holiday ennui as a starting point, the plays lope from “bawdy eggnog-laden comedies to wicked exposes on torture in Iraq.” – John Del Signore

Friday // Josephs @ 7pm, Marys @ 9pm // The Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn] // Tickets cost $10 for each program, or $15 for both in one night.

PARTY: Come celebrate Daft Punk and their latest release Alive 2007. Dance the week away at Studio B tonight as guest deejays spin tunes, prizes are handed out, and Faux Punk (the world's best, worst and only Daft Punk cover band) rock you silly. More details here.

Friday // 8pm // Studio B [259 Banker St, Greenpoint] // $8 in advance, $10 at the door

MUSIC: thingNY is at the Yippie Museum Cafe for a night of "new experimental music and avant-garde improv from the city's freshest entourage of composers." They encourage you to grab a 50-cent coffee, slouch on a couch and let the things entertain you. Program includes some juicy improv and brave new works by New York underground composers: Paul Pinto's "hands… my hands", Erin Roger's Sketch 5 , plus the American premiere of Scottish composer, John Gormley's Dialogue and the world premiere of Rocco Di Pietri's Chamber Prison Dirges/Multiple.

Friday // 8:30pm // Yippie Museum Cafe [9 Bleecker St] // $10

EVENT: Get your shop on this Saturday at the 3rd Ward Craft Fair. Their 1st-ever Handmade Holiday Craft Fair and Open House will feature much more than crafty wares to buy, expect a "classic marketplace amidst an Open House filled with free tutorials and demos in vintage furniture restoration, sustainable lamp design, video animation, metal work, graphic design and more."

Saturday // Noon to 8pm // 3rd Ward [195 Morgan Ave, East Williamsburg] // Free

READING: Recently we had the chance to interview graphic novelist, New Yorker illustrator and cartoonist Adrian Tomine, and Saturday night he'll be on hand to meet, greet and discuss his latest work Shortcomings. The story "pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth"!

Saturday // 6:30pm // Giant Robot [437 E 9th St] // Free

THEATER: Cagey Productions’ The Blue Puppy Cycle takes the antiquated leash off Sophocles’s Electra and lets it romp wildly through the fertile aesthetics of ‘50s TV sitcoms and Ionesco absurdity. Much of the Electra plot is shaken off in this shaggy dog story, as the highly dysfunctional Greek family goes Eisenhower-era nuclear, with an obsessive-compulsive mother, uptight father and the titular reckless blue dog. The show’s four zany episodes are performed in different places throughout Long Island City’s Chocolate Factory, with live commercial interruptions and surprise guest appearances – you provide the laugh track. Martin Denton says “the collision of dark absurdist satire and passive consumerist complacency makes for a hilarious and pungent combination… a genuinely inventive theatrical adventure.” – John Del Signore

Saturday // 8pm // The Chocolate Factory Theater [5-49 49th Ave, L.I.C.] // Tickets cost $15

MUSIC: End your weekend with some rock. This Sunday Danbert Nobacon (ex-Chumbawamba), Franz Nicolay (of The Hold Steady), Erik Petersen and The Cotton Jones Basket Ride take the Mercury Lounge stage for a night of tunes that will likely keep you awake past your bedtime.

Sunday // 8pm // Mercury Lounge [217 E Houston St] // $10

And if you only do one thing this weekend: make it Santacon!