The ACMA (Alliance for Creative Music Action) is a group of musicians, artists and supporters of the arts who are joining together "as a pressure group to bring awareness about the needs of art in our communities." Tonight they'll be holding a Town Hall Meeting, demanding that the city provide "an adequate subsidized performance space in Manhattan." The meeting will be held just a block away from Tonic, a recent casualty amongst downtown performance spaces. more ›

THEATER: Breedingground Theater Company continues their three week Spring Fever Festival of work by self-producing artists. (We suggest perusing the full lineup on the company’s website, though we caution that it's quite an eyesore.) Nevertheless, one that happily caught our eye is Chess’d, about a ninja and a man in a white tux playing a game of life-sized chess. The game escalates into a no-holds-barred life-or-death struggle, which reviewer Daniel Kelly declares “hilarious from start to finish.” Another possibility is the heady Simulacra: a modern myth, which concerns “an amnesiac TV junky running a freakish temperature and channel surfing a crumbling reality on a quest to recover her identity.” (We’ve been there!) According to reviewer Mark DeFrancis, the show “takes everything from MySpace to the Greek gods and somehow manages to fuse them into a sleek, frenetic production about self-identity, materialism, and mass media.” - John Del Signore more ›

THEATER: It’s Friday night, and what better way to cut loose than an evening of interactive theater – set in plague-ravaged New York City! In All Fall Down, a savage battle rages for the dwindling supplies of the vaccine, but soon a question arises: "Is the cure worse than the disease?" Theatre Recrudescence vows to explore our “post 9/11 hysteria with elements of carnival, clowning and rock and roll.” (All Fall Down is in previews, so there are no reviews; we'll have to take them on their word that the show “includes the audience, but doesn't embarrass them.”) - John Del Signore more ›

Light green walls and a board of hand-written daily specials are the only decor inside Soy, a self-described Japanese "home-cooking restaurant" which touts the nutritional values of soy and serves tasty, unpretentious dishes in a small, Suffolk Street storefront. After existing in a previous incarnation as a handbag shop by the same owner, Etsuko Kizawa, who calls herself the "neighborhood SOY mom," opened Soy in February 2002, exposing locals both to the healthfulness and the versatility of soy-based cuisine. more ›

The Village Voice's 2005 Best of New York has much fodder for thought (heavy emphasis on its readers' 'hoods - below 14th Street or in Brooklyn), but we are loving the essays which touch upon "Spooky New York": From one about what happens at the end of subways lines to a look at the one-block streets (the picturesque and gated - Washington Mews - to pee-intense - Weehawken), from insane new buildings (they do scare) to the bouroughs' piers. Each essay inspires us to explore and re-explore neighborhoods. More essays: The small islands besides Manhattan and Staten; free places to sleep; little beaches; and the ghosttowns within the city. more ›

While usually known for its annual swap with bread, Matza – the flat, unleavened bread of Passover, is inspiring downtown artists. The Matzo Files, an artist-run project on the Lower East Side, features “flat” files and thin boxes full of various types of art by over 200 New York artists. Originally located in the Streit's Matzo Factory, it allows a large number of artists to showcase their work at one time, as opposed to conventional galleries which hold only a few artists at a time. Gothamist checked out the Matzo Files gallery and was impressed by the wide range of art -- silkscreen prints, cartoons, photography -- you could just pick from a drawer and study (for some crazy reason, they trust the public). more ›

Rothko is located on Suffolk Street (& Rivington). more ›