Volume 77 / Number 50 - May 14 - 20, 2008
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

The A List

NYC SPELLING BEE The New York City Spelling Bee—a new, adults-only spelling bee offering erudite fun to all—is a glamorous offshoot of the Williamsburg Spelling Bee, which has scintillated Brooklyn since 2004. Co-hosts bobbyblue and Jennifer Dziura have now brought the logophilia to the great isle of Manhattan, where the Bee occurs the third Saturday of each month. bobbyblue, a musician who eschews capital letters, is heading up the pop-mariachi movement, and comedian and writer Dziura recently completed an East Coast tour of her solo show, “What Philosophy Majors Do After College.” May 24 at 8 p.m. $10. Housing Works Book Café. 126 Crosby St. 212-334-3324, housingworks.org, nycbee.com.
	LAURA VEIRS & LIAM FINN Citing her influences as “the sky—stars, meteors, galaxies—and a lot of stuff from the sea,” Laura Veirs (pictured) plays beautiful poem-like songs with her backing band, Saltbreakers. Singer/songwriter Liam Finn was born in Australia and moved to New Zealand as a boy, but his MySpace page lists his home as “anywhere, your couch?” There’s something raggedy about the way this 25 year-old looks, as well as his voice, but it’s an appealing quality. His first single, “Second Chance,” is one of the best songs of the year. May 22 at 8 p.m. $13. Bowery Ballroom. 6 Delancey St. 212-533-2111, boweryballroom.com
PHILLIP LOPATE Vibrant and opinionated, “Writing New York” is a toast to a city whose most enduring characteristic is the speed at which it changes. Phillip Lopate and a circle of his friends read and discuss selections from NYC’s most brilliant writers. Over 200 years of New York’s finest literature is collected in this anthology, including works by Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, Dorothy Parker, Ralph Ellison and Colson Whitehead. Lopate, the author of two novels, two poetry collections, and many collections of essays and criticism, is most famous for his no-holds-barred approach to personal—and extremely funny—stories about himself. May 22 at 6:30 p.m. Free. Tenement Museum. 108 Orchard St. 212-982-8420, tenement.org.
	ED PARK New York author Ed Park, founding editor of the “The Believer” magazine creates a modern-day masterpiece of office life with his debut novel “Personal Days.” Following an idiosyncratic group of coworkers in a Kafka-esque office as their company mysteriously unravels, “Personal Days” nails cubicle culture and the peculiar blend of dread, ennui, and romance that characterize life in the corporate working world. Park talks with his editor Julia Cheiffetz about the literature of the workday world and their own working relationship. May 21 at 7 p.m. Free. McNally Robinson. 52 Prince St. 212-274-1160, mcnallyrobinsonnyc.com.
MOMIX Famous for conjuring surreal images using props, light, shadow, humor and the human body, Moses Pendleton’s wildly popular MOMIX performs a month-long season at the Joyce with two classics. “Passion” is an erotic exploration of birth and being, set to Peter Gabriel’s score for Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ.” Playful and spiritual, the work is filled with the gravity-defying sights for which MOMIX is renowned. For the final two weeks, May 27-June 8, the dancers present “Lunar Sea,” an otherworldly montage of cinematic moments executed partly in black light and accompanied by projections. Through June 8. $44 general, $33 members, $25 Sunday evenings. The Joyce.175 Eighth Avenue. 212-242-0800, joyce.org.

Retrospective of James Nares, No Wave’s subtlest filmmaker