MIDWINTER NIGHT: SACRED AND PROFANE RITUALS Music from the Carpathians, a Baroque Nativity folk opera and carnivalesque Goat Songs by a punk group from Toronto comprise “Midwinter Night: Sacred and Profane Rituals” — an evening (or in one case, a matinee) of world music theater presented by Yara Arts Group. In 2003, the La MaMa [...]

 BY SARAH FERGUSON | On Dec. 4, more than 30 leading jazz, performance and visual artists threw down at a benefit to launch a new venue for improvisational music on the Lower East Side. Didn’t hear about it? Let me run down some names: DJ Spooky, William Parker, John Zorn, Henry Grimes, Joe Lovano, Roy Campbell, Christian [...]

Aries  Fight the temptation to see relationship potential in a fleeting mistletoe smooch. Lucky pole: North. Taurus  Don’t gulp spiked eggnog when a series of modest sips will do. Lucky Donald Fagen album: Kamakiriad. Gemini  Sparkle from tree tinsel will reflect in the eye of the soulmate you’ve yet to meet. Introduce yourself! Lucky dog [...]

MADE IN CLAY HOLIDAY SALE  | As sand continues to build in the bottom of your hourglass, clay could very well be the missing ingredient that allows you to finally start crossing some names off that long holiday shopping list. Potential gifts abound, as you explore some of the best in New York City ceramic arts [...]

Four fine gallery shows soon to close Jules de Balincourt: “Ecstatic Contact” Known for his abstract and figurative paintings that explore global anxieties, de Balincourt’s latest body of work continues this quest by narrowing in on the uncertainties of contemporary human life. A glimpse of hope is offered in “Ecstatic Contact” — a composition glowingly [...]

‘13 Things’ star on Baxter, Bacall and her post-Sandy two-star hotel BY DAVID NOH   | Actress Penny Fuller is returning in “13 Things About Ed Carpolotti” at 59E59 Theaters, and she described her new musical as the story of “a recent widow, whose parents didn’t approve of her husband, but they loved each other. She [...]

BY BOB KRASNER  |  There was a time when an ambitious young artist supplemented his or her income in the domain of food services — waiter/actor, waitress/musician, etc. But in a world where housewives are kicking back with “Fifty Shades of Grey” and Rihanna and Britney are extolling the virtues of “S&M,” finding that Jessica Love, a model, [...]

Your guide to Downtown December essentials BY SCOTT STIFFLER  |  Like Times Square on New Year’s Eve, Macy’s windows on the weekends and that lit-beyond-recognition Norway spruce clogging pedestrian traffic around Rockefeller Center, the good people of New York City know what overblown seasonal trappings to avoid. They know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and [...]

2012’s most innovative 15 BY MARTIN DENTON & MICHAEL CRISCUOLO  (of nytheatre.com, indietheaternow.com and nytheatreblog.com)   |  It’s that time of year again, when nytheatre.com celebrates a group of individuals and companies who have made a significant contribution to the NYC indie theater landscape. This is the ninth consecutive year that we’ve recognized a group [...]

  WASHINGTON SQUARE TREE  |  Maybe it’s the comfort taken by participating in a seasonal tradition, or the way exhaled breath looks as it wafts upward on a chilly December night, past a string of twinkling lights. Maybe it’s a matter of group dynamics and distinctive acoustics. One thing’s for sure, carols and brass instruments [...]