WEST CHELSEA STREET ART & GRAFFITI TOUR From officially commissioned works created over the course of a week, to small squiggled designs that crop up overnight and at odds with the law, West Chelsea walls are full of words and images that have woven themselves into the fabric of the neighborhood. But how did they get there, and why? This walking tour is led by licensed NYC tour guide and Save Chelsea Co-President Patrick Waldo, who will draw on his own “brief but memorable stint in the illegal world of street art.” The 90-minute stroll points out numerous examples of graffiti, street art, and legal public art (a prime example of which is the “Mural Man” who towers over PS 11’s playground, created by Brazilian twin superstars OSGEMEOS). Along the way, Waldo will discuss techniques and terminology while pointing out notable work from ’80s icon Kenny Scharf, mysterious French street artist Invader, as some up-and-coming local artists.
Sun., Nov. 20, 2–3:30pm. Cut-off time for sign-up is 8pm Sat., Nov. 19 ($20; reservations required, comfortable shoes recommended), visit the event sponsor, neighborhood preservation group Save Chelsea, at savechelseany.org.
SOLOCOM COMEDY FESTIVAL | Figuring out how many times one can go into 3.25 spaces in two locations over a four-day period is not the kind of math problem you were likely to have encountered in school — but it has solid real-life applications when it comes to SOLOCOM, the annual multi-venue comedy festival at which 123 solo shows will have their world premieres.
Presented by The Peoples Improv Theater and Chelsea-based producer Peter Michael Marino, this year’s fest offers up storytelling, stand-up, music, dance, drag, puppetry, magic, multi-media, improv, cabaret, and clowning — and that’s just for starters. Topics include gender dysphoria, dementia, sex shop work, plastic surgery, on-stage cooking demonstrations — and that, as well, is just for starters.
Some shows that caught our eye, through title, concept, or the performer’s proven comedic chops: Matt Cox channels the late, beloved PBS painter Bob Ross, in “Happy Little Trees: A Bobyssy.” SOLOCOM stalwart and reliably randy boylesque entertainer/sex educator Lucas Brooks is back once again, with “Exit Through the D*ck Shop,” a gadget-filled romp through one of his many former lives (specifically, as a “professional dildo peddler”). Lucy Shelby’s “Pretty Hurts” won’t judge you for showing up with a slight buzz — all the better to hear about her “addiction to validation and perfection.” Polly Esther beams in from Canada, with the Star Trek-themed “Dammit, Jim! I’m a Comedienne, Not a Doctor.” Further proving that America has yet to close its borders completely, “Harmon Leon’s Big Fat Racist Show” comes to us on the heels of its run at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe.
Thurs., Nov. 17–Sun., Nov. 20, at The People’s Improv Theater (The PIT; 123 E. 24th St., btw. Park & Lexington Aves.) and The PIT LOFT (154 W. 29th St., btw. Sixth & Seventh Aves.). For tickets ($5-10), visit thepit-nyc.com/solocom.
“ORCHESTRAL TREASURES” CONCERT | This free night of music is presentd by the Washington Square Music Festival (which sponsors a standout summertime outdoor concert series) and REACH-NYC “Concerts for Peace.” Lutz Rath conducts the Festival Chamber Orchestra. Selections include Gioachino Rossini’s overture to “The Italian Girl in Algiers,” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550,” and Carl Czerny’s “Piano Concerto in C major for four hands.” That work, which features virtuoso pianists David Oei and Hélène Jeanney, is described by composer Douglas Townsend as “an interesting example of the late classical piano concerto combined with the emerging bravura piano technique of the mid-19th century.”
Free. Sat., Nov. 19, 8pm at the Manhattan Seventh-day Adventist Church (232 W. 11th St., just west of Seventh Ave.). For info, call 212-252-3621 or visit washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org. Also visit reach-nyc.com.
THE ARChive OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC HOLIDAY RECORD & CD SALE | The beginning of next month marks the start of the most wonderful time of the year — when lovers of LPs, groovy givers of global music, and Secret Santas of all stripes can sleigh (okay, slay) their appointed tasks at this one-stop shopping opportunity. Day in and day out, the busy elves at the ARChive of Contemporary Music nonprofit library and research center labor to collect and preserve information on the popular music of all cultures and races throughout the world from 1950 to the present. Having amassed 3 million sound recordings so far, ARC’s noble Noah’s Arc mission inevitably wracks up duplicate copies from record companies and collectors — hence this holiday sale, one of two annual events where the general public has the run of the place.
Up for grabs this December are over 30,000 items for those on your “Nice” list, whose letters to the North Pole include any or all of the following: pop, rock, jazz, blues, classical, and world music recordings; videos and DVDs; music books and magazines; picture discs; original vintage ’60s psychedelic posters from the Grande Ballroom in Detroit; and rare Fillmore East programs. Formats? They’ve got 78s, LPs, 45s, and CDs (new and out-of-print CDs start at $3; classical LPs start at $1!). Become a member and score an invite to the Dec. 1 Cocktail Party — a merry and bright point on your social calendar that lets you schmooze with fellow music lovers while chowing on donated slices from Two Boots Pizza and enjoying quality libations from City Winery.
Dec. 3–18, daily, 11am–6pm. At the ARChive of Contemporary Music ground floor office at 54 White St. (3 blocks south of Canal St., btw. Broadway & Church St.). Call 212-226-6967 or visit arcmusic.org.
“VICTORIA WOODHULL” | The glass ceiling hovering over women with the White House in sight was waiting to be shattered long before Hillary Clinton. “Victoria Woodhull” is Claude Solnik’s play about the first presidential bid by a woman, circa 1872 — nearly a half-century before the 19th Amendment granted American women the right to cast a vote. Donna Mejia directs Theater for the New City’s in-house group, the Textile Co., in a production whose chronicling of strength, determination and disappointment takes on an even greater poignancy, given the results of last week’s election. Although Woodhull (who ran on the Equal Rights Party ticket) didn’t realize her ambition to reach the highest office in the land, history enshrines her as a crusading magazine publisher, the first woman to own a Wall Street brokerage, and one of the first women to testify before a congressional committee.
“She was courageous,” says Solnik, whose nuanced biography covers Woodhull’s high-water marks along with some less distinguished chapters (insider trading, obscenity charges, an uneasy working relationship with other suffragettes). Still, Solnik reminds us, “When other leaders focused on the vote and the vote only,” the Homer, OH native who spent much of her life in New York City “also fought for better wages and education for women.”
Through Dec. 4: Fri.–Sat. at 8pm & Sun. at 3pm (except for Nov. 24 & 25). At Theater for the New City (155 First. Ave., btw. E. Ninth & E. 10th Sts.). For tickets ($18, $15 for students/seniors), visit theaterforthenewcity.net or call 212-254-1109. Also visit textilecompanytheater.com.
—BY SCOTT STIFFLER
