Happenings for Week of February 12th

Week of February 12th, 2007



The Westminster Kennel Club 131th Annual Dog Show (C, S)
America's First and Only. Champions Only Dog Show.
Entry limited to 2,500 dogs. Individual breed judging will take place each day between the hours of 8:30a and 6p. The Group and Best In Show competition will be televised
live on USA Network from 8 - 11p (Monday and Tuesday, February 12th and 13th, 2007)
For more information:westminster

Monday, February 12th, 2007

Wine and Cheese Tasting: Perfect Pairings (item #: 17PP) (D/F, E)
Waldemar Albrecht will guide you through the classic pairings, those combinations of cheese and wine or cheese and beer that marry as well as you and yours. Champagne with triple cremes, Cheddars with ales, Stilton with Port, Durrus with Riesling...pairs as classic as Romeo and Juliet. Join Waldemar and special guest speaker, Jeffa Gill, maker of Durrus, one of the finest of the modern, artisanally-produced Irish cheeses for a spectacular lead-in to your Valentine's Day celebration.
@ Artisanal Premium Cheese Center
500 West 37th Street (@ 10th Avenue) - 2nd floor
6:30 - 8:30p
$60
For more information and to register for class: artisanal



Worms Have Five Hearts: Vermicomposting for Valentine's Day (E)
With Kate Zidar, Lower East Side Ecology Center
Show your love for the earth this year by digging into indoor composting with red wiggler worms. Worms will eat your kitchen scraps and produce top-grade compost for your indoor and outdoor plants. You will learn all about vermicomposting, or composting with worms, including how to make and maintain a home for these hungry worms. A special Valentine's Day activity will be included! Participants may purchase a voucher for a pound of red worms and a plastic worm bin for $10. Refreshments for the Green Renter are generously provided courtesy of the Birdbath Bakery, NYC's only sustainably designed destination for amazing cookies and confections.
@ Solar 1
23rd Street and FDR Drive (Stuyvesant Park Cove)
7p
Free, though RSVP is required
RSVP to: (212) 505-6050 or neidl@solar1.org
For more information: solar1

Building Illusions, Then and Now (C, E)
Until recently, theater production meant traditional building and painting. New York City was home to many of the major scenic studios in the country and to generations of master craftsmen. In recent decades, however, economics and changing aesthetics have combined to eliminate almost all such work. We will look at the great scene painting and building through the mid-twentieth century, as well as look at what is happening now particularly with projected scenery.
@ General Society
20 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
7p
$15
For more information and to sign up for lecture: general

Valentine's Day Fete (P, S)
We’re having a huge flirtfest in celebration of Valentine’s Day at the Middle Eastern favorite Kush. Our venue will decked out with fun Valentine’s day decorations. Guests will be treated to complimentary sweets, delicious chocolates and sumptuous chocolate drink specials. Our main event will be the amorous “Speak and Seek” a dating game designed to get guests to open up and talk to each other, a flirty way to find your match.
@ Kush
191 Chrystie Street (Between Rivington and Stanton Streets)
7:30 to 10:00 pm
Laura’s List special pricing: $10 for men (if your bring a male friend), $6 for women.
To sign up for special pricing email your name(s) to admin@multimixx.com and use code: Laura’s List.
Without sending names, regular price of event: $20 in advance, $25 at door
For more information: multi

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007



The Metropolitan Opera: Bellini - I Puritani (A, C, F, M)
Experience the excitement of the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinees on the Big Screen. The sensational Russian soprano Anna Netrebko - "Audrey Hepburn with a voice," according to one critic has taken the opera world by storm, dazzling audiences in Vienna, Milan, Berlin, New York, and Los Angeles. Now she takes on the role of the fragile Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani, who goes mad when abandoned at the altar. With its vocal fireworks and deep pathos, this has been a supreme role for great singing actresses from Maria Callas to Beverly Sills.
Regal Union Square Stadium 14
850 Broadway (@ 14th Street)
7p
$18 (not including surcharges if purchased on-line)
For more information and to purchase tickets: fandango

Swiss Fondue and Wine Party (D/F, E, P)
We are psyched to offer an intimate evening of fondue, which will be paired with great wines for the winter. This event will feature Hot Wein, as well as a line-up of wines which are suited for drinking during the cold winter months.
Grant Gallery
7 Mercer Street (Between Canal and Grand Streets)
7p
$50
For more information and to sign up: wine

Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra (C, M)
Conducted by Bobby Sanabria
Bobby Sanabria drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, Grammy nominated recording artist and educator has performed with a veritable Who’s Who in the world of jazz and Latin music, as well as with his own critically acclaimed ensemble, Ascensión. His diverse recording and performing experience includes work with such legendary figures as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Paquito D’Rivera, Charles McPherson, Mongo Santamaría, Chico O’Farrill, Henry Threadgill, and Mario Bauzá.
@ Manhattan School of Music
601 West 122nd Street (@ Broadway), John C. Borden Auditorium
The main entrance is on 122nd Street
7:30p
Free
For more information: msmnyc

Wednesday, February 14th (Valentine’s Day)

The Chocolate Bar at The Ritz-Carlton (D/F)
Award-winning Pastry Chef Laurent Richard presents a sumptuous gourmet buffet of the most unforgettable decadent chocolate desserts complimented by a bottomless glass of Champagne. Indulge in this sinful selection while experiencing the most breathtaking views in Manhattan.
@ The Ritz-Carlton New York , Rise bar on the 14th Floor
2 West Street (between 1st Place and Battery Place)
Three seatings are available at 6p, 8p or 10p
Due to limited space, reservations recommended: 917-790-2600
Per person charge is $75 (including tax and tip)
For more information: ritzcarlton



Laura from Laura’s List and Sharyn from Sharyn's Joey Thai Dinner Club
present: (C, D/F, P)
Joey Thai Valentines' Day Dinner and Tasting of Thai Beer and Wines
(including: Singha Beer, Monsoon Valley Thai Grape Wines and Lychee Wines)
@ Joey Thai
17 East 31st Street (between 5th and Madison Avenues)
7p
$25 (includes buffet dinner, tax and tip)
We are taking over the restaurant. Please bring wine, beer or spirits of your choice for yourself and to share with others..
RSVP is a MUST... please email: sharyn.rosenblum@harpercollins.com
When RSVPing, please mention you found out from Laura's List.
" Looking foward to Joey Thai event this Wednesday. New format has been GREAT with buffet style, lots of new people to meet, and much more room to walk around and mingle. I really liked the idea of putting all the wine/spirits on one table for everyone to share as well - like a makeshift bar," says a fellow viewer.

Love Lost Readings Produced by 826 NYC (A, C, F/D, L)
Featuring: Jonathan Ames, Starlee Kine of This American Life and comedian and writer Leo Allen
@ Altoids Chocolate Shoppe
350 Bleeker Street (@ West 10th Street)
8p
Free
To RSVP for event email: brokenhearts@hunterpr.com
For more information: altoids

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

The Draw-A-Thon Theater (A, C, S)
The art world, like most of the world, is a very segregated and sometimes extremely lonely place. In reaction to these surroundings, I have launched the Draw-A-Thon Theater. At this alternative art event, figure drawing is re-cast by adding narrative, theatrical and musical components, creating context and energy in public spaces. The event will last 8 hours with 12 models nude and costumed performing in four unusual stories
@ Teatro Circulo
64 East 4th Street (between Bowery and 2nd Avenue)
6p - 2a
$20
For more information:drawathon

Lecture: (A, C, E, L)
"Transmission of Islamic and Chinese Artistic Motifs along the Silk Roads" Stefano Carboni
The Silk Roads and cross-cultural connections along its routes conjures images related to the interaction and exchange between peoples, religions, merchants, and traders. The art that emerged from this landscape between the Islamic world to the west and China ranged from a direct contact between craftsmen of different artistic formation to a combination of motives that included cultural, religious, political, and commercial links all at once.
Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Ave (@ 70th Street)
6:30 - 8:30p
$10
For more information and to buy tickets: asiasociety

Scottish Country Dancing (C, D, P, S)
Come dance with us. Scottish country dances are exciting jigs and reels and elegant strathspeys, the historic social dances of Scotland. For centuries they were enjoyed both at court and in the countryside, and today they are danced in hundreds of RSCDS (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society) groups throughout the world. Our classes offer a friendly, helpful program in which to learn. You need not come with a partner.
Beginners are always welcome.
@ Holy Cross School
332 West 43rd Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)
7:30 - 10p
$8
For more information: rscds

Friday, February 16th, 2007



Opening Exhibit and Artists Reception (A, C, E, F/D, P)
A.A. Rucci, Don’t take all night, to show me you love me
In this show, he will debut a series of new paintings along with sculptural work. Within the multiple pictorial and spatial contradictions, a more intimate, open narrative has emerged. In this new body of paintings, Rucci's naughty, headless characters appear again. However, this time the ground seems to be taking over. In some cases, the actors disappear altogether, leaving looming architectural facades to fill the set. When the figures are replaced with birds, or when the omnipresent stage is reduced entirely to abstraction, there remains a tingle of recognition, expectation and desire. Rucci's masterfully precise lines, super-saturated, plastic colors and simulated wood-grain combine to create paintings and sculptures that are inviting and human. They evoke landscapes, domestic interiors, and, everyone's first trip to Orlando, Florida.
@ Mixed Greens
531 West 26th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues)
6 - 8p
Free
For more information: mixedgreens

The 3rd Annual Brooklyn Winter Hoedown (Feb 15 - 18th) (A, C, D/F, M)
A festival of bluegrass and stringband music played by fun people
Friday night featuring:
Dock Oscar & Chenango County Line, Citigrass and Grizzly's Banjo Assault
@ Superfine
126 Front Street (@ Pearl Street), Brooklyn
Bands start at 9p
No cover
For more information and rest of weekend schedule: hoedown

Artists talk on Art (A, C, E)
Anthropological and Ethnographic Photography
Nelson Hancock presents three extraordinary, internationally famous photographers and their work. Nelson received a PhD in 2001 from Columbia University in visual and cultural anthropology. He is also a successful fine art and commercial photographer and is on the faculty at the Pratt Institute of Design. Moderator: Nelson Hancock, panelists: Robert Gardner, anthropologist, filmmaker, photographer, Rosalind Morris, professor of cultural anthropology at Columbia and Susan Meiselas, award winning photojournalist.
School of Visual Arts (SVA)
209 East 23rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues ) in the Amphitheater
7p
$7
For more information: atoa

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

Indoor GoKarting and Pub Pit-Stop (S)
People, Start your engines. Get your inner racer on at this 700 ft. long track and Karts that go 35 mph. Our indoor track offers a combination of open runs and turns of different degrees to test your skill and driving expertise. You will experience 1.5 G's while accelerating through the turns. We'll enjoy 3 hours of racing (5 races), which includes a safety seminar, helmet and warm-up. If nothing else, you will look like a total badass in your helmet. We will be stopping at a Pub Pit stop afterwards to quench your thirst.
Time: 9:30 - 4 (meet at 9:15 for check-in)
Meeting Place: 73rd Street and Broadway, NE corner (in front of Apple Bank)
Cost: $85
For more information and to sign up: outdoorbound
Save $5.00 - after signing up email: info@outdoorbound.com and let them know you found out about trip from Laura’s List.



Art Exhibit: (A, C, E)
GIANTS: The Twin Towers & the Twentieth Century
This exhibit commemorates the original World Trade Center, viewing its creation in the context of the technological ambitions of the 1960s and the hundred-year evolution of New York’s skyline. On their completion in 1971 and 1973, the Twin Towers were both the tallest and the largest skyscrapers in the world. Innovative engineering carried the structures to 110 stories, at 1362 and 1368 feet, and floors of nearly an acre multiplied the space of each tower into more than 4 million square feet. The scale of these giants has been exceeded only once in history, by the contemporary Sears Tower in 1974. The exhibition features architectural and engineering models, construction photographs and films, drawings and other documents addressing the planning and design on the complex.
@ The Skyscraper Museum
39 Battery Place (between 1st Place and West Street)
$5
For more information: skyscraper

Jelani Cobb talks about his new novel (A, C, D, L, M)
To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic
Want to learn about the evolution of rap and hip-hop? To the Break of Dawn dissects the evolution of hip hop lyricism from its most primitive beginnings to its current manifestation as a global phenomenon. Jelani Cobb takes you on a journey of artistic evolution of hip-hop from its beginnings in the South Bronx all the way to the current trends and language used today. All true artists know the history of their craft. Come learn the truth about Hip-Hop.
@ Hue-Man Bookstore
2319 Frederick Douglass Boulevard (between 124th and 125th Streets)
4p
Free
For more information: hueman

Gamelan Dharma Swara presents Rwa Bhineda (A, C, D, E, M)
The Sacred Balance, culminating in the spectacular clash between the gruesome witch Rangda and the Barong protector dragon. Nearly fifteen dancers in traditional Balinese costume, backed by twenty-five musicians performing on bronze gamelan instruments, will appear onstage. The performance features guest artistic director, Wayan Dibia, former head of Bali's National Arts Institute.
@ Symphony Space - Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway (@ 95th Street)
7:30p
Tickets: $22 in advance, day of show $25
For more information and to buy tickets: symphonyspace

Sunday, February 18th, 2007



Chinese New Years: Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival (A, C, D, E, F/D, P)
The firecracker detonation, with expected attendance by local politicians and community leaders, is intended to ward off evil spirits. At the same time, large stage will feature all-day cultural performances by traditional and contemporary Asian-American singers and dancers. Plus, a dozen lion, dragon and unicorn dance troupes will march through Chinatown’s main streets, including Mott Street, the Bowery, East Broadway, Bayard Street, Elizabeth Street and Pell Street.
11 - 3p
Fireworks: @ Chatham Square (Intersection of Bowery, Mott & East Broadway), Chinatown
For more information: gonyc

Walking Tour (C, E, S)
Urban Explorers: Lower East Side (code: Code: T-MM5RT84-01)
Once lined with tenements and pushcarts, the Lower East Side’s historic streets now house eclectic boutiques, restaurants and lounges. And you can still get some of the best pickles and pastrami sandwiches around. Discover trendy spots and rediscover 19th-century history.
Meet at the southeast corner of Delancey and Essex Streets
12p
$20.00
For more information and to sign up: 92y

Howie says, “ Come see an excellent exhibition at NY Historical Society on the economics of slavery in Civil war, as viewed from a New York perspective.”
New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War (A, C, E, L)
This is the final exhibition in the New-York Historical Society's groundbreaking series on slavery and its impact on the people, landscape, institutions and economy of New York. New York Divided offers a bold look at one of the most challenging periods in New York City's history, when it was torn by the violence of the 1863 draft riots, produced some of the most significant figures in the abolitionist movement, and became the economic engine of the country. New York was a virtual "Capital of the South," with major commercial and political ties to Southern slavery and, at the same time, a major center of the nation's abolitionist movement. The exhibition traces the evolution of New York's rise to national and global economic power and its relationship to the nation's confrontation with issues of slavery and racial inequality against the backdrop of the Civil War. While at the museum, check out the gospel and spiritual music performances.
@ New York Historical Society
170 Central Park West (@ 77th Street)
Music performances daily 2p, 4p - free with admission
$10 (save $2 with presenting a metrocard)
For more information: nyhistory

Let My People Go Presents: Annual All-Night President's Day Bash (P)
For 12 years in a row, this bash has been one of our most popular events of the year. This year's event at Loft the gorgeous new Upper West Side restaurant and lounge, with 2-for-1 Martinis. We will be exclusively taking over both floors of Loft - the sexy downstairs lounge and dance floor beginning at 9p (music by DJ Mike Dominico) and the entire main level beginning at 10p.
@ Loft
505 Columbus Avenue (between 84th and 85th Streets)
9 - 2a
$20 in advance or at door with RSVP, $25 at door without RSVP day of event
For more information and to buy tickets: people

Monday, February 19th, 2007



Ed Koch talks…(code: T-BL5LA03-01) (C, E)
The funny, irreverent and always original Ed Koch discusses New York news and his own identity as a Jewish New Yorker and politician. Koch was mayor of New York for three terms, from 1978-89. He is a partner in the law firm Bryan Cave, LLP, and hosts a call-in program on Bloomberg Radio. In 2004, Koch was appointed chairman of the United States delegation to the Conference on Anti-Semitism sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 2005, he was appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Koch is the author of numerous books.
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue (@ 92nd Street)
$25
For more information and to sign up: 92y

Key to Activities

A Art
C Cultural
D Dance
D/F Drink/Food
F Film
E Education
L Literature
M Music
NP Non-Profit
P Party
S Sport