PARTY: Though we were sad to see former editor, Colleen Kane, depart the media mothership of maleness, Playgirl magazine...the show must go on. Tonight come celebrate their January issue and their 2008 centerfold calender...all at once. Free booze and gift bags for all! 7 to 10pm // Happy Ending [302 Broome St] // Free THEATER: For “sophisticated literate slapstick, big on laughs highbrow and low,” Culturebot recommends 500 Clown Frankenstein. Although the cast is 497......

READING: Rosemarie Tichler, casting director and artistic producer at New York's Public Theater, and playwright Barry Jay Kaplan have put together a written work called Actors at Work. Tonight they'll be discussing this quintessential, and inspirational, resource. 7:30pm // Barnes & Noble [1972 Broadway] // Free THEATER: Writer/director Peter A. Campbell works his multimedia magic on Euripides’s Iphigenia in Tauris (not to be confused with Iphigenia at Aulis, which Charles Mee has re-imagined in a......

THEATER: Len Jenkin's Kraken imagines the details of an actual 1856 encounter between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Melville, his Moby-Dick long since met with a critical “meh”, was in the midst of a spiritual journey to Jerusalem – a trip that would, two decades later, yield the back-breaking, 2 Volume, 18,000 line Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land. En route he stopped to visit his old Berkshire homey Hawthorne, now the......

THEATER: A.R. Gurney’s new meta-play, Post Mortem, takes place in a future tyrannical America where a college student discovers a lost “masterpiece” by the largely forgotten playwright A.R. Gurney. In Post Mortem's cowardly new world, many believe Dick Cheney to be responsible for Gurney’s death, and the discovery of an unpublished memoir reveals Gurney affairs with Cameron Diaz, Katherine Hepburn and Katrina Kerns. (Okay, that last one's from our own meta-memoir.) The student’s willingness to......

READING: Got some free time on a Thursday afternoon? Then head up to the 92nd Street Y at lunchtime to hear readings from former poet laureate Billy Collins and novelist Francine Prose. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 1pm // 92nd Street Y [Lexington Ave and 92nd St] // $17 THEATER:If ventriloquist dummies haunt you like Mr. Marbles, here’s a golden opportunity to overcome your fears. The promotional blurb for Jay Johnson: The Two and Only! asserts......

THEATER: The talented Michael Gladis, who theatergoers may recall from the hit 2000 revival of Brecht’s Baal, is currently appearing in ‘nami at The Kirk Theater. This darkly humorous drama is about a suburban woman’s belief that she has uncovered a plot to sell a child of Tsunami-ravaged Indonesia into sex slavery by her neighbors. Sounds heavy, but Martin Denton at nytheatre.com hails ‘nami as “indie theatre at its very best” and the “most exciting......

ART: Tonight Dreamland: Coney Island 1905-1925 opens. The exhibit is opened through August 19th and features "original drawings, blueprints, and vintage photographs of New York City’s favorite amusement park, Coney Island." Opening Reception 6 to 8pm // Ricco Maresca Gallery [529 West 20th St] // Free THEATER: The year's not half over, but we'd bet good money that Men Eat Mars Bars While Touching Their Penis, which opens tonight, would win the prize for most......

COMEDY: Sara Schaefer's latest show is at UCB, following up her long running series "Sara Schaefer is Obsessed With You" with a new show called "Video Gaga". The night features Schaefer counting down funny music videos for you (we've been told that tonight will include The Fresh's Myspace video), a live musical act (tonight it's Erin McKeown), special guests and glittery dance numbers! (We hear she has her own version of Fly Girls!). 9:30pm //......

It's soggy outside but it's cozy at the bookstores and bars this week. Tonight (6/16), Australian writer Peter Carey is reading from his latest book, Theft: A Love Story, at 192 Books at 7PM. Or, head down to the always cozy Half King tonight for the Spring 2006 edition of The Literary Review, where Lynne Tillman, Craig Mueller, and Cary Goldstein will be reading from their selections in the journal. It starts at 7PM and......

It's not quite the lusty month of May yet, but spring fever is already gripping the denizens of the city. So for your monthly dose of sexy scribes, head down to Happy Ending Lounge (302 Broome St.) for the monthly In The Flesh Erotic Reading Series. This month's theme is True Confessions, featuring comedian Dan Allen, blogger and novelist Jessica Cutler (The Washingtonienne), Columbia Spectator sex columnist Miriam Datskovsky, among others, and hosted by the......

Are you a fantasy baseball nut who finds your loyalties divided between your fantasy team and your real team? Are you a Mets fan who “owns” Chipper Jones, a Yankee fan with Curt Schilling on the roster? Maybe you are one of the millions who hate Duke Basketball. Tonight offers a chance to learn more about both subjects as Dan Shanoff of ESPN.com's Daily Quickie launches a new reading series “Varsity Letters” devoted specifically to......

Maybe it's been a while since you sat down with some Law & Order Franchise and you've been missing your facetime with your Dr. George Huang, portrayed by the preternaturally calm B.D. Wong. We know we've been missing him lately, so tonight's the night to head over to Symphony Space (95th and Broadway) to check out Wong and Stephen Lang read stories from Roald Dahl and J. Robert Lennon, as part of the Selected Shorts......

It's a packed week for the bookish types, with a couple of our favorite love-to-hate-them New York novelists on the readings circuit. Yeah, we're talking about the Jonathans. On Wednesday (2/22) Lethem is hosting a short-story evening at Symphony Space (W. 92nd St. and Broadway), with stories by James Thurber, Italo Calvino, and Jorge Luis Borges read by Malachy McCourt, Maria Tucci and Isaiah Sheffer. The show starts at 8PM and costs $21/25. And not......

Todd Zuniga, Opium Magazine...

So it's Valentine's Day. And if you're not busy cavorting with your Sweet Baboo in a gushy fountain of chocolate and self-satisfaction, consider feeding your snark instead, with Love Stinks: Tales of Hook-ups and Heartbreak, a reading all about the ugly side of cupid from the mouth of babes - well, by babes we mean some very funny authors and comedians like Marcy Dermansky and Heather Fink. The reading starts at 7:30PM at Mo Pitkin's......

Over two weeks after Chonley Butler was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment, police have called his death a homicide. Butler had been celebrating his birthday at Happy Ending on Broome Street when he got into argument with some other people, one of whom punched Butler in the face. The Daily News says that Butler was hit on his way out of the bar, and the Post says that Butler still got into a cab......

Just what everyone needs: Some pot-bust-and-police-bribe humor! The NY Post reports that two police officers busted 20 year old Marco Germosen for smoking pot outside of Happy Ending on Broome Street around 6AM. Then at the station house, Germosen "tried to bribe the cops, offering them $600 to cut him loose." At the station house! Not only is bribing a police officer illegal, but to do it at the station house? Gothamist supposes that his......

Beer, wine or cocktails? Cocktails [Ed. note: We're particularly fond of the lychee martini, ourselves.] What could I order that will get me laughed right out of the bar? You can't get laughed out of the bar. Whew! (This seems to be a company policy of sorts -- Juan Carlos at Happy Ending, owned by the same folks, told us the same thing!) Who has been your favorite celebrity patron? Um . . . I......

[Ed. note: We forgot our digi-cam the night we visited Happy Ending, and we tried to take a picture of Juan Carlos with our snazzy new cameraphone, but we're still trying to get the hang of it. That night, we apparently didn't. But for future reference, he's the super-handsome, very friendly fellow with long dreadlocks.] Beer, wine or cocktails? (very definitively) Beer. What could I order that will get me laughed right out of the......

I recently moved to New York from Philadelphia, and while I'm happy to leave much of my Philly life behind, I very much miss Quizzo, a great bar trivia game that at least a dozen bars would have going on any given night across the city. I've tried looking for different trivia replacements in New York, but found very little. Am I doomed to nights at home with my Trivial Pursuit board? Our favorite......

Here's the question for the day: Should Gothamist even mention sold out shows? There are a few of them this week. Mentioning sold out shows creates an environment where the "haves" are the winners and the "have nots" are the loser--unless the "have nots" turn in sexual favors with exes who thought ahead and bought two tickets. Is it right to pit the winners against the losers? Is it right to pour salt on the......

Amanda Stern, Author...

Yes, it's June 16, which means it's time for James Joyce enthusiasts to celebrate Ulysses, one of the most heralded books of the English language very few actually manage to read. Bloomsday on Broadway at Symphony Space started at noon today, but the readings of Joyce's work and reaction to it go on until midnight (Stephen Colbert, Jefferson Mays, the McCourt brothers - and Malachy will be in drag- and Fionnula Flanagan are a few......

If you don't have any plans tonight, it might be tough to choose between two that Gothamist thinks should rate high on anyone's list: How can one choose between Amanda Stern's Happy Ending Reading Series, with readings from Aaron Hamburger, Shelley Jackson, and Molly Ringwald, or Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale's Invite them Up at Cinema Classics, with Brian Husky, Todd Barry (ask him if he ate any dingoes while in Australia!), and Partrick Borelli......

Whitney Pastorek, Writer/Etc....