THIS WEEK’S EVENTS

Events for the week beginning May 14, 2012

Check out our list of events in the neighborhood this week, with ongoing events (art shows, long-running performances, etc.) at the bottom. Email us at “info at westsiderag dot com” to tell us about any upcoming events or events we’ve missed. Events will be updated every Sunday night with the following week’s schedule. Please double-check times and prices with the event producer. Many venues offer special pricing for students, seniors and members.

Monday

7 p.m.
Frank Deford Frank Deford, a Peabody Award winner and a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, discusses his 50 years as a sports writer and signs copies of his new book, Over Time. At 82nd Street Barnes & Noble. FREE.

7:30 p.m.
The Birth and Death of Stars with Walter Lewin Join MIT Professor Emeritus Walter Lewin to learn about the “death” of stars and the history and discovery of white dwarfs, neutron stars, and stellar-mass black holes. Lewin will also demonstrate the Doppler shift, a crucial concept in astrophysics. At the Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium. $15.

8 p.m.
D’Ambrose Boyd & David Pearl Present Singers Space Come to Singers Space at Bar Thalia, hosted by D’Ambrose Boyd with David Pearl at the piano. Where New York’s finest professional and aspiring singers come to sing their favorites and hear their peers perform before an intimate audience. Bar Thalia offers cocktails, wine & beer, soups, salads, wraps and desserts. There’s no cover and no minimum. Each Monday night a guest vocalist stars in the Feature Spot, an extended 20-minute showcase for their talents. Before and after the Feature Spot, other performers sing their current favorites during the open mic spots. D’Ambrose presides over the fun and fabulous music. David provides solid, sensitive accompaniment and sprinkles solo piano gems throughout the evening. It’s a classy way for singers and listeners to enjoy a great variety of songs and song stylists. Singers Space at Bar Thalia. At Symphony Space. FREE.

Tuesday

12 p.m.
Toe-Tapping Tuesdays Tuesdays at noon have never been so much fun! The Gotham Jazzmen bring you all your old favorites and more on Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. FREE.

7 p.m.
Victoria Moran — Main Street Vegan Victoria Moran dispels the many myths about the difficulties and high cost of being a vegan and provides practical solutions to living a healthy meatless diet in her new book, Main Street Vegan. At 82nd Street Barnes & Noble. FREE.

Wednesday

2 p.m.
Guitar Afternoon Jazz guitarist Bill Wurtzel and guest musicians. At the Folk Art Museum. FREE.

3 p.m.
Work from Home Meeting Join a growing group of telecommuters and people working from home to share the challenges and successes of working remotely. Meetings are free, casual, and act as a way to connect and network with others work from home! At the Dead Poet Bar.

7 p.m.
Reeve Lindbergh — Against Wind and Tide: Letters and Journals, 1947-1986 Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Anne and Charles Lindbergh, reads from Against Wind and Tide, the new collection of her mother’s letters and journals that casts a new light on the wife of the pioneer aviator who made a life and a name for herself. At 82nd Street Barnes & Noble. FREE.

8:30 p.m.
West Side Rag 1 Year Anniversary Stop by and meet some of the people who write for the West Side Rag. At The Parlour, West 86th Street.

Thursday

6:30 p.m.
To The Light with Yuanchen Liu Winner of the 2011 Margaret Mead Filmmaker Award Yuanchen Liu comes to the Museum for a special screening and discussion of his film as part of the Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival. To the Light presents a riveting story about coal mining communities in rural China. This notoriously dangerous profession claims an estimated 5,000 lives annually. The film follows a family whose patriarch became a coal miner in order to pay off the fine for violating China’s One Child Policy. Young Hui, the son of another miner, prefers to be coal-train driver than to work far from home. Taking his camera deep underground, filmmaker Yuanchen Liu exposes the perils faced by miners, the slim rewards, and the dire consequences when things go wrong. At Museum of Natural History. $12.

7 p.m.
Mosquito Town Hall Specialists in the field of pest management and representatives from various City and State agencies will be on hand to address your concerns. Goddard Riverside Community Center, located at 593 Columbus Avenue at West 88th Street. FREE.

7:30 p.m.
The Thalia Follies: The Race for the White House In its final production of the season, The Thalia Follies trains its musical and comical guns on the risky, rocky road leading to this summer’s political conventions and the fall race for all the marbles. Main themes include the G.O.P.’s war against women, many people’s unspoken but unmistakable determination to get that black man out of that white house, the Supreme Court’s historic decision on undoing health care, and the acute suffering of Mitt Romney’s dog, Seamus. Songs and sketches now in development range from “Life is A Pre-Existing Condition,” “The Real Brokers of Tampa Bay,” “I Should Have Run This Year,” and Barack O’Bama’s “What I’ve Learned Since the Last Time I Ran.” You’ll laugh; you’ll cry; you’ll run for shelter. At Symphony Space. $30.

8:30 p.m.
Orquesta Sarabia Known for his mashup of Cuban-Jewish music, Rodriguez continues to evolve as bandleader composer with the debut of “Orquesta Sarabia.” Longing for the arrival of this dream project, Rodriguez pushes his prolific and cultural reality for a fresh dynamic sound with new arrangements from Baila! Gitano Baila! (his 2004 CD on the downtown Tzadik label) as well as new compositions. With a cosmopolitan cast of talented New York musicians, they’ll do a tribute ala Rodriguez, to the music of Maurice El Medioni, John Zorn as well as a tribute piece for two of the musical giants of Algeria, El Medioni and Dahmane El Harrachi, the composer of “Ya Rayah”, (The Passenger-Oh Emigrant). At the David Rubenstein Atrium. FREE.

9 p.m.
Live Jazz At Sasa’s Lounge. 105th and Columbus. FREE (no cover).

Friday

8 a.m. (until 1 p.m.)
Green Market Choose from fresh produce & dairy, artisanal breads, baked goods, meats & poultry, honey, eggs. Clothing/textile recycling bin on-site. 97th Street and Columbus.

5:30 p.m.
Free Music Friday Featuring Jarrod Dickenson, Ellen Adams, The Tres Amigos. At the Folk Art Museum. FREE.

5:30 p.m. (and 8:30)
The Thalia Follies: The Race for the White House In its final production of the season, The Thalia Follies trains its musical and comical guns on the risky, rocky road leading to this summer’s political conventions and the fall race for all the marbles. Main themes include the G.O.P.’s war against women, many people’s unspoken but unmistakable determination to get that black man out of that white house, the Supreme Court’s historic decision on undoing health care, and the acute suffering of Mitt Romney’s dog, Seamus. Songs and sketches now in development range from “Life is A Pre-Existing Condition,” “The Real Brokers of Tampa Bay,” “I Should Have Run This Year,” and Barack O’Bama’s “What I’ve Learned Since the Last Time I Ran.” You’ll laugh; you’ll cry; you’ll run for shelter. At Symphony Space. $30.

6:30 p.m.
Beijing Guitar Duo The Beijing Guitar Duo, composed of Meng Su and Yameng Wang, is widely acclaimed for its outstanding technique and artistic musicality. Their first duo recording, “Maracaípe,” received a Latin GRAMMY nomination for the featured work Maracaípe, written and dedicated to them by composer Sergio Assad. At NY Historical Society. FREE.

7 p.m.
Ethics and the Theater Whose Life Is It Anyway? by Brian Clark. Ken Harrison lies in a hospital bed, able to move only his head, from side to side. A sculptor, whose hands have been both his living and his life, Ken chafes at his imprisonment in a frozen body, but still more against a medical establishment that infantilizes and patronizes him. With the only weapons at his command—fierce intelligence and mordant humor—he battles for the right to be fully human and decide his own fate. But is he really capable of making that decision? Might acceptance, impossible to envision now, come with time? These are difficult questions that Brian Clark and his characters confront head-on. At NY Society for Ethical Culture. $5 (with wine and cheese reception at 6:30).

8 p.m.
Michael Barra Michael Barra is an actor and stand up comedian. He is originally from Durham, Connecticut. Michael studied acting at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts as well as the acting conservatory at SUNY Purchase. Michael has been in major television shows including Law and Order: SVU, as well as having a role in the upcoming movie The Amazing Spider-Man. At Symphony Space. FREE.

9 p.m.
One Step Beyond Party With Spank Rock Launch your weekend with drinks and dancing at the most explosive party this side of the Milky Way. See and be seen under the stars as live bands, DJs, and VJs present the hottest music and project dynamic visuals at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. Cocktails keep the party going. At Museum of Natural History. $25 (21+).

10 p.m.
Live Jazz At Sasa’s Lounge. 105th and Columbus. FREE (no cover).

Saturday

11 a.m.
PS 9 Spring Fair Rides, games, crafts and food for all! On 84th Street outside of PS 9 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

12 p.m.
On a Wing: Family Festival Marvel at live native raptors from Hawk Creek Wildlife Center, view feathers under the microscope with the New York Microscopical Society, craft an owl, and record bird sightings in your personal Central Park Birding Journal on a tour with the Urban Park Rangers. Belvedere Castle Terrace (mid-Park at 79th Street). FREE. (All ages welcome. No advance registration.)

Sunday

8 a.m.
Tai Chi Join Silvana Pizzuti to learn and practice Tai Chi, a slow moving martial art with health benefits for all fitness levels. At the West 89th Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument Plaza in Riverside Park. FREE.

8 a.m. (until 5)
79th Street Greenmarket Located on beautiful, tree-lined Columbus Avenue, this year-round market stretches from 77th St. to 80th St. each Sunday. Just behind the American Museum of Natural History, shoppers will find grass fed beef, goat cheese, fresh flowers, eggs, honey, baked goods, apple cider, and a large variety of fruit and vegetables. Columbus Avenue between 78th & 81st Streets.

1 p.m. (until 5)
9th Annual Mamapalooza Outdoor Extravaganza Celebrate mothers and the people who love them at Riverside Park’s annual music and art-filled afternoon featuring mom bands, an especially fabulous lady emcee, as well as a Gymboree Play Tent, arts & crafts, eco-environmental information, food, vendors, interactive fun, and more! At Pier I @ 70th St. FREE.