THEATER: Temporary Distortion’s Welcome to Nowhere (bullet hole road) juxtaposes lushly photographed cinema with hypnotic live performance. Positioned within a small but elaborately designed boxlike installation, the actors draw the audience into their blood-stained world with a stillness that approaches meditation. When fused with the rich film projection above their heads – which furthers the abstract plot of the road movie/love story – the show draws you into an intimate embrace, as if the characters are whispering in your ear while you watch their dreams. (Read a feature article about Temporary Distortion in the current Brooklyn Rail.) – John Del Signore more ›

Tonight's the Harvest Moon! The full moon nearest the fall equinox is known as a harvest moon because the moon provided extra light for harvesting crops. For most of the year moon rise occurs about 50 minutes later each day. Because of the earth's orbital geometry, around the equinoxes the moon rises only about 30 minutes later from day to day. Since a full moon rises at the same time as the sun sets, the sky does not darken quickly for several days around the equinox, allowing for extra time to work in the fields. To see the Harvest Moon, look to the east at sunset tonight. more ›

THEATER: With his zany imagination and distinctive bass-baritone voice, Joseph Keckler (myspace) has been generating buzz throughout the gooey honeycomb of the downtown performance art cabaret scene. Tonight he sprinkles his particular blend of whimsical catnip at Dixon Place with Cat Lady, in which a man re-enacts an ordinary day with his mother, who runs a community theater with cat actors out of her home. “Past lives are recalled, songs are sung, and finally a trip to the vet's is made in this comedic and dark exploration of the relationship between art and trauma.” Part of the HOT! Festival. – John Del Signore more ›

We may have to wait until next April for Comic Con in New York, but there's plenty of comic goodness over at the Puck Building this weekend at the MoCCA Art Festival. Their well-punctuated description promises a generous dose of the genre: "Meet comics and cartoon artists! Four full ballrooms of cartoonists and publishers! Get sketches and autographs from Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Staton, Arthur Suydam and others at the MoCCA Fundraising Sketch Table! Buy comics, comix, cartoons, graphic novels as well as prints and original artwork! Sit in on our always entertaining and educational panel sessions!" more ›

How does one get banned from Nobu? After a rude comment to the manager on his way out of the restaurant he left a DVD of the first season of Entourage...AS A TIP. Allegedly an employee ran up the stairs and hurled it at him as he was leaving. The Daily News reports that Piven said through his rep: "I'm such a fan of Nobu and all of his restaurants. I had a great dinner at the Nobu in Aspen. As always, the meal was excellent and the service was great." more ›

December is a special time for comedians. Not only are they trying to scrape together enough money from the commercials and VH1 shows they booked this year to buy presents for their family, but it’s also Aspen audition time. The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival held in Aspen is a Mecca for comedians. Auditioning and being chosen for the USCAF and mingling with the comedy elite (past performers have included…basically everyone famous) is a career maker for many who attend. This weekend, check out the shows that just might end up catapulting these New York comics toward sitcom deals, Hollywood scripts or at the very least, a Sierra Mist ad. All shows are free. more ›

Comedy comes in many forms. Musical, sketch, improvised, and sometimes the best of all, unintentional. This week is rich with all of the above. more ›

In L.A., Un-Cabaret has been a fixture of the alternative comedy scene for over a decade. Founder Beth Lapides started it after growing tired of what mainstream stand-up comedy was offering, and brought in friends over the years like David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, Michael Patrick King, Scott Thompson and Patton Oswalt to break new ground and showcase their material. Today it has grown into a tiny empire with live shows, writing classes and contests for aspiring writers. This week several venues around our fair city play host to The Uncabaret Micro-Festival where never before seen TV pilots will air and comedy workshops will be held, and for comedy nerds (redundant, I know) the lineup is pretty great. more ›

Maybe you couldn’t swing the cost of the Black Diamond All Access Pass, or perhaps you got blackballed from the St. Regis Hotel for trying to sneak into Larry David’s suite last year. Whatever your reason may be for not attending this year’s US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, you need not worry, a bit of it is coming to New York throughout the week. Flight of the Conchords, named Best Alternative Comedy Act at this year’s festival, will be performing their show at various venues around the city. Self described as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk parody duo”, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie perform their own ingenious brand of acoustic musical comedy. The Guardian described them as having “virtuoso musicality and superbly gormless banter”. If you see one gormless show this week, Gothamist thinks this should be it. more ›

The weather is a mixed bag this weekend as we stick around the city this weekend (we're glad we won't need to follow Gawker's rules of conduct for getting to the Hamptons - we've seen people getting on and off the Jitney and it looks worse than the school bus we had to take). We've been trying to think of what we want to do, and have come up with some ideas that we'd like to share: more ›

According to the Times today, the Gray Line tourbus company will be running a route around the borough of Brooklyn. The tour will run two hours, covering the area from Downtown to the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Brooklyn Botanic Gardens in Prospect Heights. The tickets cost $35, and are available from their website. more ›