And for your random bookstore news of the day: The Housing Works Tumblr boasts possibly the best celebriture story you'll hear this week. It involves donated books (obviously, Housing Works) as well the actresses who once played Michelle Tanner and the host of America's Next Top Model. Smize, everybody! more ›

You've Got Mail just turned lucky 13 last year, which we celebrated by looking back at the still-functioning website and Meg Ryan's apartment in the movie. This year, however, there's an IRL celebration of the film, taking place at 7 p.m. tonight at Housing Works Bookstore (126 Crosby Street). We've Got Mail: An Interactive You've Got Mail Experience will revive Nora Ephron's rom com and bring fans of the flick a new type of viewing experience. We asked one of the organizers, Bobby Finger, for more details about the event, and he told us: more ›

A group of protesters arrested for blocking traffic yesterday during a World AIDS Day civil disobedience action near City Hall say they were not only denied dinner while being booked at the 7th Precinct, but that police also ate two pizzas that were specifically ordered for them by their supporters. This is already the second pizza pilfering scandal to rock the NYPD in as many years; last time it was the "hipsters" who suffered. In this latest incident, police allegedly encouraged the detained activists' supporters to order the pizza. more ›

Today is World AIDS Day, and while there are many events planned around the city, there is currently a 24-hour vigil at City Hall, with volunteers reading of the names of people who had been lost to HIV or AIDS at City Hall. And just now, during Mayor Bloomberg annual breakfast at Gracie Mansion in honor World AIDS Day, 10 Housing Works activists were arrested for protesting outside. more ›

This past Friday night a small crowd gathered for an intimate show at Housing Works Bookstore, where Björk and Dirty Projectors performed a suite of six songs written by Dave Longstreth specifically for the occasion. Amongst the nearly 300 lucky ones in the room were David Byrne, MIA, members of the National and Vampire Weekend, and even Haley Joel Osment. The night began with two openers handpicked by the headliners—fellow Iceland native Olof Arnalds and Kurt Weisman from Vermont. Starting a little after 8, the sound was soft for them, with notes hanging in the humid air and often not making it to the balcony above—but once the main event began, Longstreth, Björk & Co. belted it out amongst the books. Here's more on the evening, and the suite's muse: a whale hailing from Northern California. more ›

By now you have most likely heard of Housing Works, the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the U.S. (where there is currently a waiting list for volunteers!). While there are many facets of the organization, their Bookstore Cafe has set a high standard in the booking department, boasting a calendar jam-packed with diverse, must-see events. Susie Luppert, who started out as a volunteer and is now the Executive Director, has had no small part in making the Cafe a hotbed of activity. Coming up next month, Björk and the Dirty Projectors will play an intimate show in the space, and the Cafe is currently auctioning off some front row/center tickets. We recently checked in with Susie, who told a little more about the organization, and of course her dream line-up at the Crosby Street outpost. more ›

Housing Works' two-year-old Brooklyn outpost on Montague Street had a banner year in 2008. According to the Daily News, the thrift store made over $1 million last year, "far outstripping other borough thrift shops." The News points out that Housing Works—which provides care, meals, job training and other services for homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS—"carries higher-end merchandise than most thrift stores by screening donations so that only top-notch items make it into the store," though items can be found for as little at $1 (like a pair of jeans). One shopper said, “It’s a very chic thrift store. It’s not Goodwill. It’s Brooklyn Heights, and they probably get a lot of high-ticket items and a lot of people who are willing to pay for them.” more ›

BENEFIT: Tonight go out in the name of pot, at the New York Benefit to Celebrate Recent Medical Marijuana Successes. The evening includes music and comedy with the hopes of pushing the cannabis campaign to victory! The Marijuana Policy Project will host the spring soiree, which benefits its "efforts to protect seriously ill New Yorkers from arrest and jail if they use medical marijuana with their doctor's recommendation." Some of the bold face names on hand include: Lewis Black, Tucker Carlson, Michelle Phillips, John Stossel and many many more. And on top of all that: Nicole Atkins will be performing. more ›

FUNDRAISER: Design on a Dime opens tonight; the Housing Works event will be kicked off with a special event this year before opening to the public for free tomorrow. This is the fourth annual fundraising event, and tonight ticket holders "will view the room vignettes, enjoy exclusive preview shopping, cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, a silent auction and live entertainment." more ›

ART: Duke Riley brings his latest exhibit, After the Battle of Brooklyn: East River Incognita II, to Magnan Projects. Starting tonight and showing through December 22nd, the works imagine New York during the Revolutionary War and "interweave historical and contemporary events with elements of fiction and myth to create allegorical histories. His re-imagined narratives comment on a range of issues from the cultural impact of overdevelopment and gentrification of waterfront communities to contradictions within political ideologies as well as commerce and the role of the artist in society and at war." more ›

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 ›

REMINDER: Don't forget about the Atlantic Antic Festival, which we wrote all about yesterday. more ›

THEATER: Continuing through the 29th, the East to Edinburgh Festival is showcasing some of the most adventurous American theater productions before they blast off for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Tonight’s your chance to witness one of the more colorful and timely selections: LA FEMME EST MORTE or Why I Should Not F%!# My Son. It’s a contemporary Phaedra adaptation that satirizes America’s celebrity obsession in the midst of war, featuring live music, “frenetic dance, fierce boxing, raw meat. Flash photography is encouraged. Be careful of blood splatter.” - John Del Signore more ›

Starting at 7 PM tonight, the Housing Works Bookstore and Café will host the release party for the fourth issue of the New York-based Alimentum, a literary magazine focused exclusively on food and eating. Since issue #4 contains a special feature about bananas, free banana splits will be served after tonight’s readings from five writers: Diana Abu-Jabar, Gary Allen, Robin Hirsch, Joanne Jacobson, and Scott Seward Smith. Like much of what appears in the scholarly journal Gastronomica, the writing in Alimentum explores different kinds of food experiences, from a short story about eating a pet guinea pig in Peru, to poetry gleaned and reclaimed from recipe cards. One of tonight’s readers, Scott Seward Smith, will read from his piece in the current issue of Alimentum on a topic that’s a perennial thorn in the NYC food blogosphere- the plight of the solitary diner. An excerpt from his short story, The Art of Eating Alone:

I sat there waiting for my food and feeling quite proper in my loneliness, quite relaxed. I felt the propriety of my loneliness. It's all in the attitude: don't keep recrossing your ankles, don't bite your cuticles, don't twist your glass so much, but don't look catatonic either. Just look like you know something everyone else doesn't.

SCIENCE: Since we spent the weekend thinking about the Earth, spend tonight learning about Mars with NASA Solar System Ambassador Dr. Ken Kremer. He'll take you on a tour of the planet through 3-D orbital views. more ›

EVENT: Housing works is opening their new store in Brooklyn today. With great events and thrifty finds and a way to support the HIV-positive homeless community, it's nice to see the store is expanding. more ›

READING: Here's something awesome to spice up your week - from Housing Works Used Book Cafe's website: "Jest Fest 06, a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of David Foster Wallace's INFINITE JEST. Join John Krasinski (The Office), Todd Hanson (The Onion), Lev Grossman (Time Magazine), and Laura Miller (Salon) in reading from and talking about the book. Audience participation strongly encouraged!" Nerdy goodness abounds! - Krissa Corbett Cavouras more ›

READING: The reclusive "Lemony Snicket" (known to grown-ups and non-believers as Daniel Handler) will be showing up - hopefully in a cloak and mustache disguise! - at Barnes and Noble tonight to celebrate the release of The more ›

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 play” he’s seen so far this season. That’s saying something, because Denton goes to enough shows to make him the Brooklynvegan of New York theater. - John Del Signore more ›

THEATER: The MoMA Dada exhibition ends Monday, and if you haven't gone yet here's even greater incentive to beat the deadline. Kate Valk, Scott Shepherd and Ari Fliakos of the Wooster Group are performing just three times at the museum in Who's Your DADA?!. This trio last mesmerized audiences in Emperor Jones and we're very curious to see what they do with original Dada materials. (The MoMA website tantalizingly mentions the appearance of "special guests". Buscemi? Dafoe? McDermott?) - John Del Signore more ›

THEATER: Previews start tonightfor the first U.S. production of Australian Gordon Graham's play The Boys, ferried here across the bigger pond by Outhouse Theatre Co. The title characters aren't boys in age, but they certainly are in their attitudes toward women: at a party celebrating one man's release from jail, he and two buddies grow increasingly angry at their girlfriends, and leave in a misogynistic huff. The next day a woman is found raped and murdered -- was it them? The play should provoke plenty of heated -- but hopefuly not too heated -- discussion among audience members. - Mallory Jensen more ›

EVENT: Even if the Freegans have a photo of a pale vegan going through the dumpster for food on the front page of their website, this is actually a really amazing group of people that we could all learn a lot from. Tonight, for example, they will teach you how to build bikes using abandoned parts found around the city. Tools and know-how supplied. more ›

THEATER: Shakespeare in the Park may be having its formal opening today, but at the Paradise Factory Shakespeare is Dead http://www.eastcheaprep.com/home, or so goes the title of Orran Farmer's new play starring Luke Rosen and Chelsea Lagos, which is about "what happens to love when the poetry is gone." An artistic couple -- writer and actress -- must somehow move past the death of their child so that they can continue their own lives and love. Is that possible, or will they end up just as destroyed and distant as Lord and Lady Macbeth? - Mallory Jensen more ›

We love the Housing Works auctions, and they're having another one right now. You can go check them out in person or online. This year, in addition to the window displays that are on view with auction items, there is now also bidding open on Housing Works first ever Art Auction. The auction features hand picked selections of art including paintings, posters, prints, and mixed media. Check the items out online now. more ›

With KEXP in town there's a lot more music than usual. Check out their in studio shows online while you're at work this week. Off the airwaves there's a lot to see, hear and enjoy as well. Tonight and tomorrow night, Angels and Airwaves and I Am The Avalanche play Bowery Ballroom. If you walk by the venue to see a cluster of pierced tweens waiting to get in, it may help to know that the former band is Tom from Blink 182. Goldfrapp is also in town, playing Irving Plaza tonight. more ›

We've got a packed week of awesome events for you, so start tonight (5/10) at McNally Robinson NYC to catch Welsh author Niall Griffiths in a rare U.S. appearance, reading from his latest, Wreckage, starting at 7PM. more ›

- Gary Shteyngart, Philip Gourevitch, and Tom Bissell to name a few. more ›

SPORTS: Does it seem like everyone you know is suddenly wrapped up in their fantasy leagues? If you're fully engullfed in your own, or if you're feeling left out because you just don't "get it" - head over to Housing Works for a discussion on fantasy baseball. Experts Ron Shandler (Baseball Forecaster), Sam Walker (Fantasyland), and Nate Silver (Baseball Prospectus) will let you know what it's all about. more ›