THEATER: Hemingway’s play The Fifth Column takes its now-familiar name from the Spanish Civil War, when General Emilio Mola, advancing on Madrid with four columns of troops, boasted of a hidden “fifth column” of fascist sympathizers waiting within the city. Hemingway, of course, was there for the action as a newspaper correspondent and dashed off the play while fascists bombarded his hotel. His rarely produced drama tells the “surprisingly funny story of the private......

Blind item! What downtown venue was behind screwing over yet another band? We never did like blind items, so we'll just tell you through part of this letter we received from the disgruntled band behind the latest booking botch-up:We had a really bad experience at the Annex, on Orchard St. last night. Basically we showed up for a 5:00 load in to find out that our show had been canceled. The two other bands on......

READING: Our interviewee from yesterday, Adrian Tomine, will be reading tonight at Book Court. The graphic novelist not only has his work in some of the more prestigious rags, he's also got a full length graphic novel, titled Shortcomings. 7pm // Book Court [163 Court St, Cobble Hill] // Free At a very different reading in Manhattan, Chris Matthews will be promoting his new political memoir Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About......

THEATER: Sarah Maxfield, the brains behind theater collective Red Metal Mailbox, brings THROW, the bi-monthly performance series she curates, to The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City. Imbibe cheap beer and vibe new work by Rebecca Davis, Betsy Miller & Dancers, and Tara O'Con. After each experiment, Maxfield moderates an exchange in which each performer interrogates the audience in hopes of culling constructive criticism from the increasingly lubricated crowd. Who’ll be the first to declare,......

PARTY: It's hot out, so what better way to cool down than with a pool party? Impetuous Theater Company is having a fundraiser tonight on the roof of the Holiday Inn Midtown. Scenes from the upcoming aquatic theater festival will be performed, there will be free beer and wine from 7 to 9pm, and there will be a pool in which to fully submerge yourself (who needs a/c?). 7pm to 12am // The Holiday Inn......

Jill Cunniff keeps a blog (a "MamaLog") about being a mom and a musician in New York, but you probably know her best as the lead singer and bass player of early-90s band Luscious Jackson. The band broke up in 2000, but Jill is still creating and performing music - all while being a mom, a wife, and doing her part to clean up New York's beaches. This weekend she'll perform at the Mermaid Parade......

MOVIE: By now you've all seen, memorized and lived your own version of neurotic New York love story Annie Hall, the classic Woody Allen film that's stood the test of time. But have you seen it under the open night sky? Didn't think so. Get there early for a seat. Get there even earlier for knitting lessons! In an unrelated event earlier in the day, the folks from Knit New York will be teaching those......

HAPPY HOUR: You read the Onion, and you probably drink whiskey...so why not combine the two tonight? The Onion crew enjoys the simple pleasures of life in WIlliamsburg with some free Jameson Irish Whiskey in the name of alcohol preservation. 7 to 9pm // Live at Rose [345 Grand St, Williamsburg] // Free, RSVP nypromo (a) theonion.com EVENT: Mikhail Baryshnikov, ballet superstar, has joined forces with illustrator Vladimir Radunsky in creating Because..., a children's book.......

Who better to dissect the hipster than a bartender at favorite hipster hangouts? NY Mag asks bartender at Enid's and The Annex, Lynnea Scalora, some questions about the regulars. Is there a difference between the LES hipster and the Greenpoint hipster? In Greenpoint, it’s relaxed hipsters. They’re cool but messy. Whereas in the LES everyone is cool and dolled up. At the Annex people are very concerned about their image, who they’re seen with, getting......

READINGS: Russell Simmons has written a self-help book and will be at Border's today promoting it (okay, now all of this recent noise he's making makes more sense)! It's called "Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success." None of the laws include any of these three words. 1pm // Border’s [100 Broadway] // Free As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Tim Gunn will be reading from......

This Sunday, the Mayor will formally unveil more PlaNYC details (though the website has been up for a while now). He'll give the speech at the American Museum of Natural History, to which New York Mag says, "while we're excited to see the plan, we confess the museum's symbolism is making us nervous: dinosaurs … carcasses … oy." MUSIC: Celebrate the earth with some tunes this weekend at the Green Apple Music Festival. Musicians will......

THEATER: Lear deBessonet culled material from sources as varied as Henrik Ibsen, Joan of Arc and Times contributor/author Russell Shorto (The Island at the Center of the World), scientific journals, and post-it notes from the desks of corporate secretaries to create the new play transFigures. She was also inspired by the Jerusalem Syndrome, the well-documented psychosis that causes ordinary tourists to channel Biblical figures, create togas out of hotel bed-sheets, and parade through the Holy......

MOVIE: The First Time I Was Twenty is playing tonight as part of the New York Jewish Film Festival. According to Paper, French director Lorraine Levy "tells the story of a smart, chubby Jewish girl who endures rampant sexism and anti-Semitism in order to fulfill her dream of joining her high school’s all-male jazz band. Pretty in Pink it is not." 6pm // Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center [165 W. 65th St] // $10......

THEATER: The Scene, a black comedy by Theresa Rebeck that premiered at this year’s Humana Festival in Louisville, is now in previews at Second Stage. The satire is about an out-of-work New York actor (Spenser: For Hire’s Tony Shalhoub) — married to a news producer (Alien Nation veteran Patricia Heaton) — who has an affair with a fresh-faced Ohioan ingénue. Rebeck’s stated intent with The Scene is to skewer America’s “cultural collapse into narcissism”. -......

THEATER: The Transport Group’s season begins with Tad Mosel's 1961 play All the Way Home. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play is based on James Agee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family, so that kind of prize power should put this production on track for a couple OBIEs, at least. Set in Knoxville in the summer of 1915, All The Way Home explores generations of family relationships in a time of crisis, with an original......

COMEDY: OMG, we get like so many creepy myspace friend requests but this one made us LOL. Actually, it’s two friend requests in one, from Braeson Herold and Alana Harrison. But they’re not just groveling for “the add”; they want us to come see their show called Fake Friends Tour! The title doesn’t really make sense, because they're not touring and whoever heard of fake friends on myspace? But the way they blog about it......

EVENT: Tonight at the Apple Store, the NYC photobloggers get together again. Come check out: Scott Heiferman, Kara Canal, Rebecca Smeyne, Will Sherman, Kamau Mucoki, Boogie and Martin Fuchs. There's an afterparty (TBA) so be sure too look nice, with all those cameras out and all. Friday // 6:30pm // SoHo Apple Store [103 Prince Street @ Greene] // Free SIDEWALK SALE: Have a bookshelf to stock? Head over to the Strand Bookstore. They're having......

Recently, after a show we co-sponsored at CBGB's, we mentioned the payment at the end of the night was a bit unfair ($25 to pay three bands with). We have worked with a few venues here in New York and have had great experiences (The Knitting Factory and Tonic, to name a couple), so when something like this happens it's a surprise. Non-payment, over/double-booking, not following through with promises...these things do not a good venue......

The VMA's are in town, but there's more to do beyond screaming outside of Radio City or attempting to hit up one of the red carpet parties... EVENT: If you're in to PDA then head uptown tonight, there's going to be a "makeout party". We prefer the sound of silence over the sound of hundreds of people smooching, so we'll probably skip this. Of note: they mention that "this is a kissing-only event, so all......

SHOPPING: Get ready to do some defensive shopping at the Barneys mega warehouse sale. It only comes twice a year, and this one runs til September 4th. So psych yourself up for some shoppin' before all the good stuff is gone. 10am to 8pm // Barneys Co-Op [236 West 18th St] MOVIE: Tonight's outdoor movie? The Warriors! Part of this summers Brooklyn Bridge Park "Movies With a View" series. Nothing fits a good 'ol New......

The Head Set is: Jordan Blaugrund (vocals, guitar), Brett Sherman (bass), Michael Blaugrund (drums), Eliot Wadsworth (guitar) Gothamist is not unfamiller with The Head Set. Back in the fall of 2004, we ran an interview with the band right before they were set to open for Sonic Youth at an Irving Plaza CMJ kick off party that year. It is a pleasure to state that, 2 years later, the band is till going strong and......

READINGS: Mark Helprin, author of the whimsical and weird Freddy and Fredericka (reviewed on Gothamist) will be reading from the novel at the 7th Ave Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn. We suspect the witty parts will be even more witty when read in a British accent, so head on down. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 7pm // Barnes & Noble [267 7th Ave. in Park Slope] // Free THEATER: As the behemoth Fringe Festival stands up,......

THEATER: Last time we saw the National Asian-American Theatre Co. http://www.naatco.org/ was in the charmingly quirky Cowboy vs. Samurai. Now, for something completely different: their next show, which opens tonight, is The Dispute by Pierre Marivaux, an 18th century French dramatist. In it, a prince confines two male and two female orphans to an artificial "Eden" until they come of age, then he sets them loose to see what happens -- who will succumb first......

MOVIE: Get a little more in depth on the whole border crossing controversy with Woodstock in the City's screening of Crossing Arizona at +Art%2C+Dance%2C+Music+and+Film888The+Arts+%2D+Events888Makor+%2D +Film888Makor+Film+August888&productid=T%2DMM5FA06">Makor. There's a Q&A with the filmmakers Joseph Mathew and Dan DeVivo and a reception following the screening hosted by Indiepix.net. Roger Ebert said after the film screened at Sundance, “On the last day or two (of Sundance) you hurry between screenings, trying to catch films everybody tells you not to......

GAME ON!: NY Games presents Capture the Flag! We love this game. If you love it too, come be a spectator - or join in! Team Caution plays Team Danger...which will you root for? 7:30pm // Washington Square Park (waterfoutain in the center) // Free MUSIC: With ¡Forward, Russia! playing last night and Band of Horses playing tomorrow night, what does tonight - the meat in the blog buzz sandwich - bring us? How about......

Saints and Lovers are: Dennis Cahlo, Scott Meola, Doug Meola We've missed Saints and Lovers. It's been way too long since we've last seen them. One of our favorite local acts (they played the first Movable Hype back when they were called The Sons of Sound!) is still playing beautiful sets of soaring, heartbreaking music to the rock kids fairly regularly. This weekend, the criminally underrated band will be playing a double bill at......

The fiery heat common in much Mexican cooking can be too much for most American palates. Hence the ubiquity of watered-down Tex-Mex joints across the city. But if you’re ready to venture into more authentic territory, here’s the perfect first step: Visit the tamale vendor who sets up outside the Chelsea Flea Market every Saturday from about 9am to 2pm. Tamales are probably the quintessential street food of Mexico, which may have the most vibrant......