To the IRS and NYS in a few months, I will write off 67 drinks purchased aboard the vessel Anthem of the Seas and private island CocoCay during a Royal Caribbean cruise last March, where I was developing my experience into what I hoped would become a new tradition of nonfiction travel writing.¹ Unfortunately then Lauren and then Gary and then even Maria on my own website beat me and now the genre is dead.²
¶. Through November 14: a musical which began below deck in the crew bar of a cruise ship, presumably at a cast party for For The Record™ The Brat Pack Live aboard the Norwegian Escape en route to (or possibly from) Bermuda, and is likely to go places
The Tank, Chelsea, NYC, $25–45
It’s got some Monty Python with some Holy Mountain, some Unfinished Swan, and puppetry. It’s got Golem With One L and An E (from Jewish folklore) who owns the only independent Tropical Smoothie bar in the Southeast USA, and I have just been informed by the drummer that I left during intermission thinking the show was over (it was that strange). Will report back on the second half after Monday.
¶. Tonight 7pm: history of the Statue of Liberty in tattoo art book release & costume party
The City Reliquary, Williamsburg, NYC, $10
You’ve seen the TikToks of Bernie Wagenblast, voice of the majority of NYC subway navigation announcements,³ navigating her own transition to womanhood while keeping her professional male vocal repertoire alive in perpetuity and hireable. She will be one of our judges tonight at the City Reliquary, for a Statue of Liberty costume contest and book launch party for our new beautiful hardbound book.
¶. Tonight 8pm: music on candle
BioBAT Space, Sunset Park, NYC, $13
Concetta Abbatte and crew celebrate the release of LAMINARIA: a folk-horror-noir chamber music suite about a sea ghost in a kelp forest. You may remember a related live show last year. Now it is an album, and you can buy it on wax candle. Candle’s just got that authentic warm crackle and glow.
¶. Tomorrow 10am: inauguration of the first Rat Pack cohort
Steps of City Hall, Civic Center, NYC, free
I don’t know why the Eventbrite says 2nd. His Mayorship only launched this program in June. I got an email saying I had to choose a hat or shirt and I chose a hat. God I really, really hope Eric is there to give me my hat. At the very least you can meet our Rat Czar, Kathy.
¶. Tomorrow 9pm: choose your deranged Halloween theme party
Lower East Side or Bushwick, NYC, free
Bouba/Kiki Effect for the linguistic anthropologists, or Blair Witch Project Runway for you fashion warlocks.
¶. Sunday 5pm: the alien “conversation” scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, sung by a children’s and an adult choir facing each other
United Palace, Washington Heights, NYC, $5
On Election Eve’s eve, watch two species struggle to understand each other or even each other’s language.
¶. Tuesday 6pm: Local Election Watch
Trans Pecos, Ridgewood, NYC, free
Party as the results come in with the editorial staff of Hell Gate, the newspaper named after a bridge over troubling water.
¶. November 8 at 7pm: Infinite Jest: The Movie: The Trailer (of the book not from the book)
Dunkunsthalle, FiDi, NYC, free
I had the privilege of seeing this premiere last year in Gettysburg, and helped in a tiny technical way with translations. Shot in 35mm. Been in the works for like 10 years. Has the microwave scene. And/but/so this is big. Dunkunsthalle is an art gallery in a former Dunkin’ Donuts.
¹ Except for one c. 1995 brochure by writer Frank Conway, mentioned in this document.
² See the short film Shipping Out, though. And Lauren on Chapo.
³ She is, however, not the speaker of “stand clear of the closing doors, please”—that’s Charlie Pellett. I swear I saw a couple of these multiplying TikToks on Bernie showing her but playing Charlie’s audio, but now I can’t find them. Might have made it up to feel superior.