Listings

WEDNESDAY

SEPTEMBER 17

Art

JIM SHAW

Ranging across nearly 30 years and a freaky cultural landscape, this glut of drawings shows the range of Shaw's twisted imagination. Nothing—not sex, drugs, religion, abstraction, mushroom clouds, Freud, or rabbits on scooters—is sacred when he wields his skills in the service of mirages, dreams, stylistic promiscuity, or pure naughtiness. Should we call him our own West Coast Kippenberger? LEVIN

Through October 18, Metro Pictures, 519 West 24th Street, 212.206.7100

Film

'INGRID BERGMAN: THE SWEDISH FILMS'

Before she was our most beautiful star, she was theirs. Ten of Ingrid Bergman's Swedish films—including the original Intermezzo and her 1978 return, Autumn Sonata—will show on Wednesdays through February, beginning with her debut as a teenage chambermaid in the 1934 comedy The Count of the Old Town.HOBERMAN

At 6:30, Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, 212.879.9779

Music

'BENEFIT FOR TREVOR SPARKS'

The list of reggae superstars who woke up one morning without the coin to buy "a next set of pants" is beyond lengthy. But the ailing Sparks is

not the only one to benefit from this event; the list of artists turning up for this event reads like a Who's

Who of reggae's fabulous '80s. Featuring Sister

Carol, Shaggy, Sugar Minott, Meditations, Yammi

Bolo, Frankie Paul, Red Foxx, and more. OUMANO

At 10, Club Cheetah, 12 West 21st Street, 718.941.4629, jammins.com

BUILT TO SPILL+THE DELUSIONS

Built to Spill are one of indie world's finest live acts, with all their minimal, tuneful songwriting and well-textured guitar lines taking flight in concert mostly because Doug Martsch is such a great guitarist—as good an indie-fied improviser as the Television boys. The Delusions do jangly indie-pop with a jagged, Built to Spill-ish edge in their guitars and charmingly homespun voices. Also: the Solace Bros. HOARD

At 8, through Saturday, Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Place, 212.777.6800

EDDIE PALMIERI

Pianist Eddie Palmieri has been around the Latin music block more times than most—and some even declare him to be the rightful heir to Puente's throne. Here he's working with the fiery 10-piece La Perfecta II, which is in the same mold as his successful '60s band. Palmieri always gets notice for his smart and sassy Latin jazz arrangements, but he'll knock you out with his assimilation bebop piano into the Latin context. HENDRICKSON

At 8 and 10:30, through Sunday, Blue Note, 131 West 3rd Street, 212.475.8592

THURSDAY

SEPTEMBER 25

Books

JOHN TYTELL

In Reading New York, Tytell writes of his own life in the city, and places it gently within a pattern outlined by Gotham's more celebrated immortalizers: Melville and Whitman, Poe, Kerouac, Henrys (James and Miller). Tytell, a professor of English at Queens College, will be joined by a mystery guest. PARK

At 7, Barnes & Noble, 675 Sixth Avenue, 212.727.1227

Dance

PATRICK CORBIN AND DANCERS

A dance for 18 women, many of them current or former members of the Paul Taylor company, is a highlight of this first outing by a leading Taylor dancer, who'll also perform two solos and show a duet for Michael Trusnovec and Julie Tice. Music for the evening includes Bach, Pärt, Dvorak, and two original scores by Berlin composer Marsha Groathe. ZIMMER

At 8:30, through Sunday, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church,131 East 10th Street, 212.674.8194

Film

'HEDDY HONIGMANN: DIRECT ADDRESS'

Born in Peru, trained in Rome, and living in the Netherlands, Heddy Honigmann is a cosmopolitan maker of offbeat documentaries, including evocations of displacement and eccentric city symphonies. Her latest, Dame la Mano is both—an account of a Cuban restaurant in Union City, New Jersey. HOBERMAN

Through October 5, MOMA at the Gramercy, 127 East 23rd Street, 212.777.4900

Music

DIANE REEVES

Everyone knows she can sing with a range, imagination, and wit that place her in the great tradition, and with the release of A Little Moonlight(Blue Note), even she seems to believe it. As on the CD, she will appear here with her trio—Peter Martin, Reuben Rogers, and the excellent drummer Greg Hutchinson; she needs no more. GIDDINS

At 8:30, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Seventh Avenue between 56th and 57th streets, 212.247.7800

Theater

'THE CITY'

Playwright Clyde Fitch (1865-1909) was the pre-O'Neill, whose tough-talking melodramas and sharp-tongued social comedies paved the way for the post-World War I explosion in American playwriting. Not seen here since its original production, The City is a famously cold-eyed study of a family climbing the urban success ladder, racking up crimes and dysfunctions as they go. Metropolitan Playhouse's production is staged by Yvonne Conybeare. FEINGOLD

Previews begin today, opens Sunday, Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East 4th Street, 212.995.5302

'GOOD MORNING, BILL'

Pronounce my name 'woodhouse' to rhyme with 'good house,' " he said, "not 'woadhouse' to rhyme with 'roadhouse.' " However you say it, P.G. Wodehouse's teddibly British comic novels have been delighting readers for a century now. Less known, though, are his theater works, including this puckish 1927 item, never before seen in New York, which Keen Company's Carl Forsman is dusting off. Presumably he expects good houses full of Wodehousians. FEINGOLD

In previews, opens Thursday, Connelly Theatre, 220 East 4th Street, 212.868.4444

FRIDAY

SEPTEMBER 26

Art

JASON RHOADES

With its wild material excess and deranged metaphors, "Meccatuna"—a mad tangle of neon, donkey carts (real and ceramic), camel saddles, scaffolds, Geisha tuna cans, and life-size fiberglass donkeys—is his most irreverent installation yet. It's got giant camel-toe bones, aluminum vulvas, and a one-third scale Kaaba (Mecca's sacred cube) made of a million Lego blocks, plus a wailing wall and self-referential pea-foam leftovers. And each of the 550 neon signs is a vaginal euphemism. LEVIN

Through October 25, David Zwirner Gallery, 525 West 19th Street, 212.727.2070

Film

'ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL'

The Ramones revival continues with the midnight book of their lone commercial feature. Cast as the Beach Boys of the Bizarro World in this candy-colored, self-consciously drive-in-inflected vehicle, the band seems a bit lost. You can't complain about the score though. HOBERMAN

At midnight, through Saturday, Landmark Sunshine Cinema,

143 East Houston Street, 212.777.FILM

Music

LES SAVY FAV

Practically wizened elders of the Brooklyn scene—just check out singer Tim Harrington's wooly beard and growing forehead if you don't believe me—these Providence art-school transplants quirk the fuck out of their post-emo with somersaulting riffs, lurching song structures, and lyrics about kidnapping and disco. You must see them live, if only to witness Tim climbing the rafters and acting like a deranged kitten. With TimandEric. com, Cause for Applause, and Thunderbirds Are Now. CATUCCI

At 9, Northsix, 66 North 6th Street, 718.599.5103

JIM O'ROURKE

Even before joining forces with Sonic Youth, the range of this gadfly's productions and guest appearances was only matched by the range of his musical offerings—Americana to avant-noise to laptop creations. While he's slated to re-create "Cede," a 1995 large ensemble electro-acoustic epic piece worthy of his Krautrock forefathers, he also cautions, "As usual, expect the unexpected." GROSS

At midnight, Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, 212.358.7501

Photo

ARNO RAFAEL MINKKINEN

Minkkinen appears in all his photos as a nude, faceless figure—often just a muscular limb or two—that molds or interacts with the landscape in a playfully godlike way. He walks on water, cups the setting sun, shapes a range of hills with the arc of his arm, and tweaks a distant mountain as if it were a lover's breast. As confident as he is clever, Minkkinen isn't communing with nature, he's remaking the world. ALETTI

Through October 4, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 724 Fifth Avenue, 212.262.5050

SATURDAY

SEPTEMBER 27

Music

CHARLES TOLLIVER BIG BAND

He shows up so rarely you may not know the name, though he was everywhere in the '70s as trumpet player and co-founder of the Strata-East label with Stanley Cowell, another long-time-no-see musician, who will be here along with a lot of other people you surely do know: Gary Bartz, Craig Handy, Howard Johnson, and Cecil McBee among them, for what may be the most unexpected debut of the jazz year. GIDDINS

Today and Sunday at 7:30 and 9:30, Saturday also at 11:30, Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, 212.576.2232

'VIVA EL MERENGUE Y SUS ESTRELLAS'

This star-studded extravaganza is tribute to "El Rey" Joseito Mateo and Johnny Ventura, two guys who first put merengue on the map more than 40 years ago. Happily this is not a posthumous tribute and both will be on hand to show us what they got. The night is rounded out by performances by Fernandito Villalona, Ramón Orlando, Kinito Mendez, Jossie Esteban, Rubby Perez, and others. Don't forget your dancing shoes. HENDRICKSON

At 8, Madison Square Garden, 31st Street and Seventh Avenue, 212.465.MSG1

Theater

'THE BELLE'S STRATAGEM'

Just as the Broadway musical has found its way back to silliness after decades of earnest gloom, 18th-century English comedy had to drag through decades of soggy sentiment before it learned to laugh again. One of its chief neo-ticklers was the now forgotten Hannah Cowley (1743-1809), who knew how to bury the period's moralizing under just the right amount of sauciness. This 1780 confection, being revived here by West End Theatre for the first time in nearly a century, became her signature piece, a standard rep item well into the 1890s. Davis McCallum directs. FEINGOLD

Opens today, West End Theatre, 263 West 86th Street, 212.352.3101

SUNDAY

SEPTEMBER 28

Film

'AN EVENING WITH TONY CONRAD'

Minimalist musician, structuralist filmmaker, and '60s survivor, Conrad is scheduled to alternate austere excerpts from Articulation of Boolean Algebra for Film Opticals (1975) with more recent "burlesque pieces" like Tony's Oscular Pets. HOBERMAN

At 7, Ocularis at Galapagos Art Space, 70 North 6th Street,Brooklyn, 718.782.5188

Music

CLEM SNIDE+CALIFONE

These bands travel country music's dusty roads to different destinations—Califone to high lonesome desert soundscapes and skewed honky tonk rockers, Clem Snide to melancholy indie-folk and raucous alt-country. On their latest records, both groups travel even farther from their Americana roots. Califone's noise experiments often succeed on Quicksand/Cradlesnakes, but Clem Snide's peppy pop pap falls flat on Soft Spot. However, they still rock live. PHILLIPS

At 9, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, 212.533.2111

Theater

'RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS'

But maybe they're funny too? Craig Wright's play about two kids who go through with a blind date on 9-12 despite the events of 9-11 is said to be "absurdly" comic as well as moving. We'll see. But any play that exposes Joyce Carol Oates as a sock puppet can't be wholly false to reality. FEINGOLD

Opens tonight, Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, 212.279.4200

MONDAY

SEPTEMBER 29

Books

'SWANN'S WAY'

Spurred by Lydia Davis's refreshing new translation of Swann's Way, my friends and I start the Proust Club. The inaugural meeting is spent dissecting the jaw-dropping first paragraph. Intense. The second meeting we comment on the length of the sentences and decide that the Proust Club will be more like a support group. Then we hie it over to this event, to listen to writers Francine Prose, Jonathan Franzen, André Aciman, and Ben Marcus talk to the translator herself about Marcel, Swann, and Combray back in the day. PARK

At 6:30, New School, 65 West 11th Street, 212.229.5488

TUESDAY

SEPTEMBER 30

Dance

BALLETT FRANKFURT

William Forsythe, raised in Manhasset, has been working in Germany for 30 years, but that could end soon. In his last season as director of this profoundly avant-garde troupe, he brings four New York premieres. A consummate showman, he's likely to startle and delight. ZIMMER

At 7:30, and October 2 through 5, Howard Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, 718.636.4100, bam.org

Photo

JEFF BROUWS

American Typologies 1987-2003" is visual anthropology at its most engaging—an encyclopedic show of crisp, descriptive photos arranged by subject (mall parking lots, abandoned gas stations, storage units, trucks, barns) that never feels didactic or cynical. Walker Evans, Robert Adams, and the Bechers all come to mind, but Brouws seems more inclined to give Ed Ruscha's deadpan style of iconography a high polish and a shot of eye-poppingly vivid color. ALETTI

Through October 11, Robert Mann Gallery, 210 Eleventh Avenue, 212.989.7600