Volume 78 / Number 8 - July 23 - 29, 2008
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

The A-list

Compiled by sarah norris
sarah@chelseanow.com

Reading

The American Wedding
Authors Kamy Wicoff (“I Do But I Don’t: Why the Way We Marry Matters”) and Rebecca Mead (“One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding”) discuss weddings in the U.S. In her book, Wicoff explores the modern wedding through her own experience and that of 80 women from generations X and Y. Mead, a staff writer at “The New Yorker,” examines what today’s weddings reveal about American culture and how the ways we marry define who we are. Aug. 4 at 7 p.m. Free. McNally Robinson. 52 Prince St. 212-274-1160, mcnallyrobinsonnyc.com.

Stories
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Beat the Heat
Four master storytellers—Carlo D’Amore, Margot Farrington, Joey Hood, the hilarious Adam Wade, and host H.R. Britton—share their tales of sandy swimsuits, broken air conditioners and escapades unfolding in the sweltering heat. Audience members are also invited to tell a three-minute personal story about summertime in New York City. July 30 at 6:30 p.m. Free. Tenement Museum Shop. 108 Orchard St. 212-982-8420, tenement.org.

Adam Wade from New Hampshire gets personal.



Theater

Strawberry One Act Festival
A play competition in which the audience and the theatre’s judges cast votes to select the best play of the season. Twice a year, hundreds of plays from across the country are submitted, 40 are chosen to compete and plays can move through first round to the finals. Subjects include a woman breaking up with her mother, women as robots and a 12-step program called “MySpace Anonymous.” Through Aug. 3. $20. Baruch Performing Arts Center. 55 Lexington Ave. (Entrance on 25th St.) 646-623-3488, therianttheatre.com.

The cast of Rosemary Zibart’s “Babe, Inc.,” a futuristic play that imagines women as robots.

Music

Laurie Anderson, “Homeland”
Performance-artist Laurie Anderson brings her latest full-length work, “Homeland,” to Lincoln Center Festival 08. A concert poem driven by the political urgency of contemporary American culture, “Homeland” weaves a conceptual sonic tapestry through spoken word, music and technology. Anderson is backed by NY musicians, offering an editorial narrative on the push and pull of freedom and fear. Through July 26 at 8 p.m. $30-60. The Rose Theater. 60th St. and Broadway. 212-721-6500, LincolnCenter.org.

Courtesy of Laurie Anderson

Music

Bon Iver
Justin Vernon is the folk force behind Wisconsin’s Bon Iver. To record the acclaimed debut album “For Emma, Forever Ago,” a heartbroken Vernon holed up in a cabin in the middle of the winter woods. The result—songs that speak of darkness, desperation and lost love—is a melodic record both haunting and beautiful. Opened by the Bowerbirds. July 29 at 8:30 p.m. $15. Ages 18+. Bowery Ballroom. 6 Delancey St. 212-533-2111, boweryballroom.com. boniver.com.

Photo by Sarah Cass