Since founding in 1991, Big Dance Theater has been ebulliently blurring the traditional aesthetic boundaries between theater and dance, jumbling the two forms into often delightful yet esoteric performances. Their latest confection continues the tradition, but don't expect the term "theater" to include "narrative," at least not in any conventional sense. Called Comme Toujours Here I Stand, the hour-long piece is inspired by Agnès Varda's 1961 French New Wave film, Cléo From 5 to 7, which portrays, in real time, the life of a marginally talented pop singer waiting for the potentially dire results of a medical examination. more ›

Young Jean Lee's plays have been instant Off Broadway hits for their personal, probing, and typically hilarious explorations of race and religion in an ostensibly "post-racial" America. Her newest work, The Shipment, features an extremely talented all-black ensemble in a genre-defying show that looks at how African Americans are perceived and portrayed in mass media. As entertaining as it is thought provoking, it's also the best 15 bucks you can spend on theater in New York City at the moment. more ›

Just like today's gang of socially conservative zealots, late 19th century temperance crusader Carrie A. Nation had an unshakable conviction that she was on a mission from God to purge America of vice. She'd no doubt be appalled to know that her life's work has been appropriated by the outre transgressors in Radiohole—Brooklyn's fearlessly debauched four-person theater collective—for use in their latest provocation, which also takes visual inspiration from avant garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, whose oeuvre includes such titles as Lucifer Rising. more ›

BENEFIT: Come join in on a benefit concert for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn tonight, with a handful of Brooklyn-based singer/songwriters (including Clare & The Reasons, John Wesley Harding, Richard Julian, and Jolie Holland) taking the stage. The show will be "raising funds and awareness for DDDB in its legal battles against eminent domain abuse in the proposed Atlantic Yards development, the concert series will also highlight how such irresponsible development could threaten the artistic community that has flourished in Brooklyn over the last several years." There will also be a screening of Brooklyn Matters a documentary on the Atlantic Yards development. more ›

Brendan Canty is the drummer for Fugazi, the rightly revered D.C. post-punk band whose page on the Dischord Records website still states "1987 - present." The group hasn’t played together or released an album since their phenomenal seventh LP, The Argument; in 2002 they embarked on what is looking increasingly like a permanent hiatus. Like his bandmates, Canty has been consumed by various other creative projects: he’s produced albums for Ted Leo and The Thermals, among others; recorded and toured with Bob Mould; composed soundtracks for film and television; directed Sunken Treasure, Jeff Tweedy's live concert documentary; and helmed an eccentric rock DVD series called Burn to Shine. Started in D.C. in 2004, each DVD is shot on a single day with a lineup of bands who each get two takes on one song in a house slated for demolition. Canty will be at The Kitchen Wednesday night to perform live soundtracks to Brent Green’s distinctive stop motion animation films; other musicians on the bill include Jim Becker (Califone) and Fred Lonberg-Holm (Wilco, Freakwater). The 8pm show is sold out; tickets for the 10pm show are still available. more ›

The Under the Radar festival of cutting edge international theater, curated by former P.S. 122 artistic director Mark Russell, continues through next weekend. Here’s a brief rundown of three shows seen so far. more ›

THEATER: Under the Radar, arguably New York’s most exciting theater festival, begins today at The Public Theater and a few other odd locations like the Whitehall Ferry terminal. (There are also a few shows at the Classic Theatre of Harlem, P.S. 122 and The Kitchen.) One of the most buzzed about site-specific shows is Etiquette by the London company Rotozaza. It was a surprise hit at last year’s Edinburgh Festival; here the experience takes place at the East Village Ukrainian restaurant Veselka and involves only two actors: you and a friend (or stranger). It’s described as “a private theatrical experience for two people in a public space; the participants take a seat across from each other at a small table (the stage), put on headphones and follow a recorded script, complete with stage directions taking them through a half-hour play, in which they are both performers and audience.” And after the show, you can get pirogies with the cast! – John Del Signore more ›

BEER: This one is pretty simple...there will be lots (58!) of New York beers, and a few bands to soundtrack your drinking them, at the Seaport tonight. Go, imbibe, enjoy! more ›

Also, if you're having trouble getting the texture you like when you make ice cream, head over to read David Lebovitz's Tips For Making Homemade Ice Cream Softer. We wish he'd written that list years ago, back when we were first figuring out these tricks through trial and error ourselves.
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THEATER: HERE Artistic Director Kristin Marting concludes the OBIE-winning art center’s season by directing performer/dancer Alexandra Beller in us, “a highly athletic, sensual and dynamic blend of movement with song, text and a layered soundscape. Beller created this deeply personal commentary on the state of the union from the perspective of a woman who is at a crisis point in a love relationship.” As we haven’t seen it, we’ll defer to The New Yorker on this one: “The former Bill T. Jones standout dresses herself in the American flag, uses it as a jump rope, breast-feeds it. A sound score assaults her with conservative rhetoric, circa 2004, and she enlists the audience in pointing out contradictions in Leviticus.” Just another reason why we love New York. ENDS SUNDAY! – John Del Signore more ›

If you’re anything like me, there sits somewhere on your bookshelf a neglected copy of Aristotle’s Poetics that hasn’t been opened in years. And if you’re even more like me, the odds of you wading through those dense waters again are about as slim as Kansas legalizing pederasty. Of course, that’s not to say there aren’t stimulating and, yes, immensely influential philosophical ideas set forth therein. The extant text of The Poetics was transcribed from Aristotle’s lectures on the nature of theatrical tragedy: why our species craves imitative narrative performance, what separates a well-made tragedy from cheap melodrama, and the alchemical power of catharsis – to name a few. more ›

Joshua White is renowned for his light show at the Fillmore East (not to be confused with the inanely re-branded The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza) in the late sixties and early seventies. Employing an arsenal of various trailblazing effects, including the now-iconic “liquid light”, the Joshua Light Show catapulted Fillmore crowds into cosmic depths from which many have yet to return. more ›

We had the pleasure of attending a food-blogger get together of sorts this past weekend, hosted by Chris of Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen, Ann of A Chicken in Every Granny Cart and Jon of Wheelhouse Pickles. Sure, there was great conversation and booze and whatnot, but the highlight of the evening were the pickled delights from Wheelhouse. more ›

THEATER: The Debate Society's "Snow Hen" was a quirky, dreamy take on an old Scandinavian folk tale about the Black Death; now, in "The Eaten Heart," the talented trio of Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, and Oliver Butler riff on an Italian view of the plague, Boccaccio's bawdy classic Decameron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decameron as the second part of a plague trilogy. This is a workshop production, so while the group's work always seems fresh and engagingly inchoate, here you get to see it while it is that and then some (and with less expensive tickets!). - Mallory Jensen more ›

- New York Magazine gives us a rundown of "New Brooklyn Cuisine," -- "small, seasonal, understatedly stylish—and unrecognizable to anyone who grew up there." more ›

We’re always astounded by the number of shows out there, most of them blessedly far from the lights and crowds of Times Square, at least in spirit. This week has exactly the head-scratching mixture of classic and wacky, earnest and ironic, polished and rough, that we adore, so without further chatter, here are our picks of performances we think are worth checking out. more ›

Myriad sake bottles line the windowsills of Chibi's Sake Bar, a candle-lit Soho nook offering 18 varieties of sake served hot or cold. Named after the Dutch-Japanese husband-wife owners' bulldog, Chibi, the bar also serves edamame, mushroom dumplings, caviar, and grilled tofu to nibble on as the sake disappears and evening turns to night. Those with bigger appetites can stroll next door to the adjoining restaurant, The Kitchen Club, where a Japanese inspired menu offers specialties such as tofu and chrysanthemum dumplings, yellowfin tuna and wasabi cream, and a king salmon salad with pickled ginger and orange. more ›