I’m glad I was able to partake in an NYC summer tradition, because next week I’m already heading back out of town for the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. Bret and I accidentally stumbled into Fringe three years ago and immediately fell in love with the sheer number of weird, funny, ambitious shows happening all over the city, so I’m very excited to go back for round two with a couple of friends.

I may squeeze out one more newsletter before I leave, but don’t hate me if I disappear for a couple of weeks. Besides, everyone knows the best way to spend Labor Day weekend in New York is to snag a reservation at the most impossible restaurant you can think of while half the city is out of town. I expect those of you staying put to eat extremely well!

Now, on to the events…

⭐ The One Cool Thing

👠 Ever After: A Cinderella Story Entirely From Memory · littlefield · Gowanus · Thu, Aug 20, 8:00 PM · 🎟 ticketed · price tbd

A cast of improvisors attempt to recreate the CLASSIC 1998 movie Ever After entirely from memory, with no scripts, rehearsals, or sobriety. Actors draw roles randomly from a hat on stage while the audience submits their own lines to be injected into the show.

I went to the Pride and Prejudice version of this and was obsessed, but I will say, you have to get there early. Like 45 mins to an hour early (📣 late people this is not a drill), otherwise you will end up cramped and standing for the full two hours, which definitely detracts from the humor.

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🃏 S.I.N.A. Rides Again · Anthology Film Archives · East Village · Sat–Sun, Aug 22–23, 5:00 & 7:30 PM · 🎟 ticketed · $14

Long before Sacha Baron Cohen, professional hoaxer Alan Abel convinced the media that a group called the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals was campaigning to put clothes on any animal over a certain size.

This two-film program revisits Abel’s very strange career with No More Excuses (featuring Robert Downey Jr.!) and the documentary Abel Raises Cain. I wouldn't say this is my usual pick for the “spontaneous” section, but I love how absurdist the whole thing is and can't leave it out.

🏈 Hot Guy Draft: First Crush · littlefield · Gowanus · Sun, Aug 23, 7:00–9:30 PM (doors 6:00) · 🎟 ticketed · $19

Four comedians go head-to-head in a fantasy draft of their earliest pop-culture crushes (ie: the formative people who first made you think, “ohhh, I guess I’m into that.”)

As the audience gets to weigh in, play trivia, and help decide who built the hottest roster, the vibe lands somewhere between a sports draft and a bachelorette party. I will be scandalized if Devon Sawa is not discussed in-depth.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🕵️ Case 84: Adopted in the USA · Caveat · Lower East Side · Wed, Aug 26, 9:30 PM · 🎟 ticketed · $25

A Korean adoptee growing up in Philadelphia becomes the center of this autobiographical solo comedy about family, race, identity, and the complicated expectation that adoptees should want to search for where they came from. It’s funny, personal, and much more about belonging than “finding your roots.”

🌴 Isla · WP Theater · Upper West Side · through Aug 29 · 🎟 ticketed · $35–$85 ($15 rush)

A woman traces her family’s path through the 1960s Freedom Flights that carried thousands of Cubans to Miami, set against a show-stopping score. It’s history that most people only get in a footnote or a paragraph, turned into something you feel in your chest.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🤠 The Power Joker presents: Lyndon Johnson’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Comedy Jamboree · Caveat · Lower East Side · Sat, Aug 22, 7:00 PM · 🎟 ticketed · $27

Lyndon B. Johnson gets his own Texas-sized comedy show about voting rights, complete with sketches, live music, presidential cosplay, and actual experts from the Brennan Center and NYC Campaign Finance Board. Basically: civics class, but weirder and with better production value.

🚇 Tracking Shots: Films from the New York Transit Museum Archives · Film Forum · West Village · Tue, Aug 25, 6:00 PM · 🎟 ticketed · $18 ($12 members)

For the Transit Museum’s 50th anniversary, Film Forum is screening six rarely seen films from its archives, spanning subway footage from 1905 through 1988. The museum curator will introduce a program that includes vintage safety films, 16mm prints, and Daily Miracle, a 1961 documentary about what it takes to keep New York moving. It’s a love letter to the system everyone complains about, but nobody can imagine living without.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

✏️ Sketch Night · Materials for the Arts · Long Island City · Thu, Aug 20, 6:30–8:30 PM · 🔵 free · RSVP

Materials for the Arts opens its gloriously overstuffed warehouse for an evening of figure drawing curated by costume designer, Machine Dazzle. They provide the art supplies and nude models; you provide whatever level of drawing ability you happen to possess. No art-school credentials required.

🧹 Central Park Clean Up with Hibernica, Fernway and Wyld · Central Park North · Harlem · Sat, Aug 29 · 🟢 just show up

Hibernica is celebrating the opening of its new Central Park North dispensary by getting people together for a two-hour cleanup in the park. Meet at the shop, grab supplies, and spend the morning picking up litter alongside neighbors who consider Central Park their backyard.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🎲 Dungeons & Decanters · Caveat · Lower East Side · Sat, Aug 22, 4:00 PM · 🎟 ticketed · $24

An interactive Dungeons & Dragons show where comedians play through a campaign and the audience gets to help shape what happens along the way. As a bonus, the listing promises that “the wine flows freely,” though honestly I'm not quite sure what that means. With a name like Dungeons & Decanters, I’m choosing to trust the process.

👑 Never Could They Ever Kiki Ball · The Rooftop at Elsewhere · Bushwick · Thu, Aug 20, 5:00–10:00 PM (18+) · 🔵 free · RSVP

A free rooftop kiki with categories for runway, face, realness, performance, and more, plus commentary, cash prizes, and plenty of committed looks. If you’ve never been to a ball before, this would be a fun entry point: you can come to compete, cheer, or just watch people absolutely slay 💁🏻‍♀️

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅

🎹 Hiromi: The Piano Quintet feat. PUBLIQUARTET · Blue Note · Greenwich Village · Thu–Sun, Aug 20–23, sets at 10:30 PM · 🎟 ticketed · from $66

Jazz pianist Hiromi brings her playful, high-energy sound to the Blue Note for a late set that feels like the ideal New York night out: downtown, live music, and a 10:30 PM start that leaves plenty of time for dinner and drinks before. Her jazz leans modern, melodic, and almost poppy at times, so this is a good pick even if you don’t think of yourself as a “jazz person.”

🍷 Coppola · Film Forum · West Village · Fri, Aug 21 – Thu, Sep 10 · 🎟 ticketed · $18 ($12 members)

Film Forum gives Francis Ford Coppola the full retrospective treatment, moving well beyond The Godfather and Apocalypse Now into the stranger corners of his filmography: The Rain People, One From the Heart, Tucker, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, and yes, Megalopolis. Every so often I aspire to be a film buff and seeing these movies provides true cinephile bonafides.

This Week’s Rituals

Free Stargazing with the Amateur Astronomers Association · High Line at Little West 12th St · Meatpacking District · Tuesdays through October, sunset–30 min before close

Amateur Astronomers Association volunteers set up telescopes on the High Line every Tuesday through October, pointing out whatever Manhattan’s light pollution allows and usually a good deal more than that.

Weekly Bird Tour · Soissons Landing, Governors Island · Saturdays through Nov 1

A standing Saturday walk around Governors Island goes looking for whatever’s migrating, nesting, or just passing through that week, led by the NYC Bird Alliance.

Worth Knowing

Peral Soft Opening — New taqueria Peral, from the teams behind Olmo and Cicatriz, is running soft-opening weekends August 14–15 and 21–22 in Bed-Stuy before its full debut.

Meat Hook x Miss Lily’s — Miss Lily’s takes over The Meat Hook’s Williamsburg backyard for a one-day Jamaican cooking pop-up on August 20.

My first Meow Wolf experience was the Santa Fe location on New Year’s Eve a couple years ago, and I’ve been mildly obsessed ever since. There’s no particularly straightforward way to describe it (maybe a life-size, psychedelic Tim Burton movie?) but if you ever find yourself near one, go. Trust me.

Now we’re back to our regularly scheduled New York programming, and I already have a quintessential NYC Saturday planned: our annual trip to the Willy Wall, aka the bar floating in the middle of the Hudson.

It’s finally getting the attention it deserves, but somehow most people I mention it to still have no idea what I’m talking about. If you’ve never been, there are only a few weekends left in the season to fix that.

One other update this week: I cut the newsletter way down.

Last week, I started with 148 events. Seriously. I narrowed those to 32 genuinely good ones…and then realized I had recreated the exact problem I started this newsletter to solve: option overload 😵‍💫

So this week, I got much more ruthless and picked the 10(ish) events I’d actually recommend most. I’m not trying to deprive you of cool things; I’m trying to make choosing one feel a little less impossible.

Let me know what you think of the smaller list in the comments. I’d genuinely love to know whether this feels more useful.

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🏰 Coney Island Sand Sculpting Competition · Coney Island Beach & Boardwalk · Coney Island, Brooklyn · Sat, Aug 15, 10am–4pm · 🟢 just show up

If you haven't found an excuse to head to a local beach this summer (god forbid!), use this as your excuse. Once a year, amateur and semi-pro sand sculptors take over Coney Island Beach to build increasingly elaborate things out of a material most of us can barely turn into a bucket-shaped lump. You can wander through the creations, watch the judging, or enter yourself. Winners take home up to $500.

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🧵 International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC · The Clemente · Lower East Side, Manhattan · Aug 14–16 · 🎟 ticketed · price varies by show

More than 100 puppet performances from artists across 10 countries descend on the Lower East Side, alongside films, exhibitions, panels, workshops, and masterclasses. Half the festival is free, so this is also a very low-risk opportunity to find out how sophisticated your puppet tastes are.

💘 Jewish Dating Game · Caveat · Lower East Side, Manhattan · Tue, Aug 18 · 🎟 ticketed · $25

A live dating show where contestants go on blind dates onstage for the chance to win actual dinner dates around the city. You can volunteer as tribute or simply watch other people do it, then stick around afterward for a mingle and raffle featuring prizes from local Jewish businesses.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🗑️ Club Internet Presents: Does ‘Cancel Culture’ Really Exist? · Littlefield · Gowanus, Brooklyn · Wed, Aug 19, 7pm (doors 6pm) · 🎟 ticketed · $18.71

Slate’s Luke Winkie, Kat Tenbarge, Princess Weekes, and other culture writers revisit some of the internet’s biggest cancellations to ask a surprisingly unresolved question: does getting “canceled” actually have lasting consequences anymore? Expect everything from Jenna Marbles to Trump to make its way into the argument.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🗽 Revolutionary Women: The Stories History Left Out (Tour) · New-York Historical Society · Upper West Side, Manhattan · Sun, Aug 16 · 🎟 ticketed · $45

A private guided tour of the New-York Historical Society’s Revolutionary Women exhibition, focused on the women whose leadership, ideas, and political work helped shape the country’s founding but rarely get equal billing in the standard Revolutionary War story.

🎤 The Music That Makes Me Laugh · Caveat · Lower East Side, Manhattan · Mon, Aug 17 · 🎟 ticketed · $[tbd]

Musical theater gets the comedy-show treatment with funny songs from Mean Girls, Gypsy, Shrek, and beyond, plus stand-up inspired by the music. The best wrinkle: “disaster duets,” where one singer has rehearsed the number and their comedian scene partner absolutely has not.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🌆 Free Movie On The Waterfront: Hamilton · Astoria Park Lawn · Astoria, Queens · Mon, Aug 17, 8:30pm–10pm · 🟢 just show up

Watch Hamilton for free on Astoria Park’s Great Lawn, with the East River and Manhattan skyline behind the screen. No registration required; just bring something to sit on and settle in for nearly three hours of Founding Fathers rapping under the Hell Gate Bridge.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🕺 Balera Ferragosto · Balera · Williamsburg, Brooklyn · Sat, Aug 15, day to night · 🎟 ticketed · 🟢 just show up

Balera is recreating Ferragosto, the Italian mid-August holiday when cities empty out and everyone heads for the coast. Start with pizza and dinner, then stay as the restaurant turns into a dancefloor: DJ at 10pm, kitchen until 11pm, and dancing until 2am. Basically, one night of pretending Graham Ave is the Adriatic Riviera.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

📷 Yves Saint Laurent and Photography · International Center of Photography · Lower East Side, Manhattan · through Aug 23 · 🎟 ticketed · included with admission

Nearly 300 photographs and archival objects show how Yves Saint Laurent used photography not simply to document his clothes, but to build the image of the brand itself. Avedon, Warhol, Leibovitz, Newton, Penn, and plenty more are represented—and together make a pretty convincing case that modern fashion marketing owes YSL a debt.

First came one of my favorite summer rituals: The Challenge, a friend-run beer Olympics-style event involving many hours of competition, cunning, and canoeing (see the video for a wipeout 😂).

This year, it was held at the host’s parent’s Connecticut bar, Brewett City, where they make a Mango Tango that would knock you on your ass even if you hadn’t been drinking all day 😵‍💫

I was especially grateful for the fun and friend time because the following week, we traveled to Texas for Bret’s mom’s funeral.

Her health had been declining for several years, but the loss still hit hard. Thankfully, we had the chance to stay with family and look through old photos together. Here are some of the gems we uncovered.

Even though we’ll be in Texas for another week, I still pulled together a great list of things to do over the next 10 days.

The unusually high number of film festivals is particularly fortuitous since it gives you the chance to capitalize on someone else’s AC for a few hours 🧊

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🍕 Resy Pizza Night with Seven Kitchens · The Test Brewery · Williamsburg · Sat Aug 8 · 🎟 ticketed · $41
Four Horsemen and Blue Hill Farm are among seven kitchens debuting a single original pie apiece, and one ticket buys you a seat at all of them.

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

💅 Hot Boys · Caveat · Lower East Side · Thu Aug 6, 9:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $20
A former floozy and her piano spiral through a multimedia comedy set built from original songs and the kind of stories you tell after the third drink.

🎬 Movies with a View: Jurassic Park · Brooklyn Bridge Park, Harbor View Lawn · DUMBO · Thu Aug 6 · 🟢 just show up
The raptors get the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop this time, gates at 6, no ticket required, just a blanket and a spot on the grass before sunset.

🌱 The Big Vegan BBQ · Public Records · Gowanus · Thu Aug 6 · 🎟 ticketed · $22.66
Russell Markus of Essential Herbs & Hot Soup joins the guest chef lineup for Public Records’ summer cookout, proof that a vegan BBQ can still smell like one.

⚾ Peak and Pace Field Day · Prospect Park · Prospect Park · Sun Aug 9 · 🎟 ticketed · $10
Tug-of-war, sack racing, capture the flag, and kickball, run-club energy applied to a playground that hasn’t seen this much organized chaos since summer camp.

✨ Harlem Week · various Harlem locations · Harlem · through Sat Aug 15 · 🟢 just show up
Fifty-two years running, with a street festival, SummerStage sets, and a Percy Sutton 5K on Aug 8 for anyone who’d rather race than watch.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🎬 15th Annual Greenpoint Film Festival · Broadway Stages · Greenpoint · through Sun Aug 9 · 🎟 ticketed · $10-20
Ninety-one shorts, eight narrative features, and a filmmaker Q&A lineup packed into five days at the Brooklyn stages where actual movies get made.

🤘 Afro-Punk with Q&A and Book Signing (James Spooner) · Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg · Williamsburg · Thu Aug 6 · 🎟 ticketed · [tbd]
Director James Spooner follows the screening with a slideshow, a talk, and copies of his new book for anyone who wants proof it happened.

🍪 Cookie Queens | Q&A with Director Alysa Nahmias · Angelika Film Center & Cafe · Greenwich Village · Fri Aug 7, after 7pm show · 🎟 ticketed · $22
A coming-of-age documentary about Girl Scout Cookie season gets its director in the room right after the credits roll.

👨‍🍳 Tony (opening) · Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park · Windsor Terrace · Fri Aug 14–Sat Aug 15, midnite screenings · 🎟 ticketed · $20
A 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain works a Provincetown kitchen the summer before he becomes Anthony Bourdain, and the only way to see it here is by staying up past midnight.

🎬 Chain NYC Film Festival · Chain Theatre · Garment District · Fri Aug 7–Sun Aug 16 · 🎟 ticketed · $13 adv, $15 door
Narrative features, documentaries, shorts, and at least one thriller from a filmmaker you haven’t heard of yet, spread across ten days in the Garment District.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🎤 Write Club · Caveat · Lower East Side · Tue Aug 11, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · [tbd]
Two writers argue opposite sides of a topic neither of them chose, the room votes, and the loser buys the winner a drink.

🎭 Little Shakespeare Festival: ShakesPUNK · Under St. Marks · East Village · through Sun Aug 23 · 🎟 ticketed · pay-what-you-can ($7 min)
Sixteen indie companies take unexpected swings at Shakespeare in a basement theater that’s basically built for it.

🎬 Essential Cinema: Chaplin · Anthology Film Archives · East Village · Thu Aug 6, 6:30pm & 8:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $14 ($8 members)
The Gold Rush and City Lights, both on 35mm, both silent, both still funnier than most things released this year.

🚡 NYC in Transit Film Series · Film Forum · South Village · Tue Aug 11 · 🎟 ticketed · $18-19.50
The Transit Museum turns 50 and Film Forum marks it with The French Connection, because nothing says New York transportation like a car chase under the El.

🌍 Radiolab at Little Island: ‘Grass Fed’ · Little Island · Meatpacking District · Fri Aug 14–Sat Aug 15, 5-6pm · 🟢 just show up
Molly Webster hosts a live look at what’s happening underneath the ground we’re all standing on, no ticket needed, just show up before the seats fill.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🧶 Junk Journal Club · City League Coffee Shop · Bay Ridge · Sat Aug 8, 11am-12:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · donation-based
Bring scraps, glue, and whatever story you’re trying to tell in collage form; journals run $5-15 for anyone who shows up empty-handed.

💬 Summer BK Book Crawl · Fort Greene · Sun Aug 9 · 🔵 free · RSVP
A moving afternoon between Fort Greene’s independent booksellers, framed as a small, deliberate act of buying books from people instead of algorithms.

😻 CatVideoFest 2026 · Nitehawk Cinema (Williamsburg & Prospect Park) · Williamsburg · Sat Aug 8-Sun Aug 9, brunch screenings · 🎟 ticketed · $17
An hour of the internet’s best cat footage on a real screen, with proceeds going to the Sean Casey Animal Shelter.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

💃 MoMA PS1 Warm Up · MoMA PS1 · Long Island City · Fri Aug 7 & Fri Aug 14, 4-10pm · 🎟 ticketed · $27.50+
Dub, gabber, hyperpop, and avant-garde sound art rotate through the courtyard while the museum stays open late for anyone still holding a ticket.

🧙 Mx. Nobody Pageant (Round 3) · TV Eye · Ridgewood · Sat Aug 8, 11:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $20 adv, $25 door
Brooklyn’s longest-running all-gender, all-genre drag competition returns with Switch n Play in tow, no skill level required to compete.

💃 Young Adult Friction · Union Hall · Park Slope · Sat Aug 8, midnight · 🔵 free · RSVP
An indie and alt dance party that doesn’t start until most nights are already winding down.

🎸 The Skint Presents: Cruel Summer | 80s & 90s Dance Party · Littlefield · Gowanus · Fri Aug 14, 7-11pm · 🎟 ticketed · $9.73 adv w/ code “bananarama”
A ten-piece cover band called The Engagements plays the hits live, then hands the floor to a DJ set built entirely from the decades that invented the mixtape.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🎷 NoMad Jazz Festival · Madison Square Park · NoMad · through Sat Aug 8 · 🟢 just show up
Free jazz closes out its run at Madison Square Park, no ticket, no RSVP, just a lawn chair and whoever’s playing that day.

👠 Welcome to Runway: An Immersive Experience · Museum of Arts and Design · Columbus Circle · through Sun Aug 9 · 🎟 ticketed · included with admission
Recreated Devil Wears Prada 2 sets, a styling consultation, and a chance to practice your runway walk before the movie even comes out.

💅 An Afternoon of Curiosity, Humor & Connection at HumorVille · HumorVille · East Williamsburg · Sun Aug 9, 3-6:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $85-110
An afternoon built entirely around laughter and connection, with the Full Experience tier continuing to dinner at Casa Ora afterward.

This Week’s Rituals

💃 Mister Sunday · Nowadays · Ridgewood · Sun Aug 9, 3-9pm · 🎟 ticketed · [tbd]
Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter trade off on the decks for the weekly outdoor day party that doesn’t bother announcing its own price.

💬 First Thursdays at the Ukrainian Museum · The Ukrainian Museum · East Village · Thu Aug 6, 6-9pm · 🎟 ticketed · $5 members, $10 non-members
Author David Mulkins traces the Bowery’s path from tap dance and vaudeville to skid row to punk rock, while the museum stays open and pours drinks late.

Worth Knowing

The Downtown Alliance’s RE:Store program is back. Six free pop-up storefronts in Lower Manhattan, including Brooklyn Craft Company and The Numero Group, open through summer with no cover to browse.

Thankfully, the dry spell is over.

A couple of weeks ago, the guys at Underground Overground Comedy & Magic reached out about promoting their upcoming Scuba Shop Magic Show. It sounded so interesting that I immediately booked tickets…and accidentally helped sell out the show. Great for them. Less helpful for the newsletter.

So sadly, I couldn’t share it with you all beforehand, but I did get to go.

We started with dinner at Lulla, a funky Italian restaurant inside the Motto Hotel in Chelsea, then headed to the magic show inside—you guessed it—a scuba shop called SCUBA Network. The drinks were free, the setting was unique, and the magic was truly magical ✨

The show featured three magicians, plus a vintage circus-style act involving a whip used in several breathtaking ways… I’ve never said “gird your loins” so literally 😅

I’ve seen a lot of close-up magic, including Steve Cohen at the Lotte Palace Hotel, and this was still completely mind-blowing. Because the space was so small, much of the audience (including Bret and me!) got pulled into the tricks.

I love trying to figure out how everything works while it’s happening, and I was genuinely BAMBOOZLED by what they managed to pull off.

That’s the best part of close-up magic: everything happens right in front of you, so it feels impossible that anyone could have pulled a fast one. And yet, clearly, they did.

Anyway, the whole night has galvanized me to keep finding awesome new things happening around the city. Luckily, I have an excellent list for you below…

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🦕 Bone Wars: A New Musical · The Players Theatre · Greenwich Village · through Sun, Jul 26 · 🎟 · from $25
Two Gilded Age paleontologists dig up the same dinosaur bones and ruin each other fighting over the credit. Now, a jury of their fossils (in towering dino headpieces) will settle their feud in this pun-loaded, folk rock spectacular. It plays for the next three nights and closes Sunday, so it's your last chance to see this whimsical, camp masterpiece.

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🎬 Rooftop Films: The Oldest Person in the World · Green-Wood Cemetery · Greenwood Heights · Thu, Jul 23 · 🎟 · $22
Sam Green’s documentary about the people who’ve briefly held the title of oldest living human, projected after dark among the headstones, with a Q&A and afterparty to follow.

🎬 NoBudge Live 51 · Nitehawk · Windsor Terrace · Mon, Jul 27 · 🎟 · $20
Ten short films from New York directors you don’t know yet, most of them premieres, on a real screen for one night before they scatter back to the internet.

🎲 Soho Diner Backgammon Night · Soho Diner · SoHo · Mon, Jul 27 · 🎟 · $10
Backgammon over diner coffee or a cocktail, boards provided, no experience required to play.

✨ Union Hall 20th Anniversary Party · Union Hall · Park Slope · Thu, Jul 30 · 🔵 free · RSVP
The basement room that launched a thousand comedy sets turns twenty with a bocce tournament, live-band accompaniment, and no particular closing time.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🎤 Jane Fonda × Rashad Robinson · IFC Center · West Village · Mon, Jul 27 · 🎟
Racial-justice strategist Rashad Robinson launches his book on building power alongside an interviewer who’s been arrested for the cause more recently than most: Jane Fonda.

🎬 DOC NYC Selects: The Great Experiment · IFC Center · West Village · Tue, Jul 28 · 🎟 · $18
Filmed over four years of political division, this documentary travels the country to examine how Americans interpret democracy, citizenship, and the ideals the nation was built on. Rather than adding to the outrage cycle, the filmmakers take an even-handed look at the conflicts—and persistent optimism—shaping the American experiment.

🎙 Moth StorySLAM: Plot Twist · The Bell House · Gowanus · Wed, Jul 29 · 🎟 · $22
The Moth’s latest theme is all about plot twists: friendships that implode, enemies who become lovers, disasters that somehow work out, and ordinary days that take a sharp left turn. Expect true stories about reversals, revelations, and moments no one saw coming.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🎭 The Greek and Persian War the Musical · Caveat · Lower East Side · Sat, Jul 25 · 🎟 · $20
Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis restaged as an original musical, for the kind of person who reads the Herodotus footnotes.

💬 NYC Pun Off · Caveat · Lower East Side · Tue, Jul 28 · 🎟 · $25
The city’s second competitive punning championship, where a single theme gets wrung completely dry, one contestant at a time.

🤖 Artificially Unintelligent: Tech Comedy · Broadway Comedy Club · Hell’s Kitchen · Thu, Jul 30 · 🎟 · $20
Stand-ups roast startup culture, AI hype, and everyone who says “disrupt” with a straight face, for a room that mostly works in it.

🚇 Transit Museum 50th Scavenger Hunt · citywide · all summer · 🟢 free · just show up
The Transit Museum turns fifty and hides the celebration across the actual subway, an app-guided hunt you can start from any platform.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🎭 Hudson Classical Theater: The Dancing Men · Riverside Park · Upper West Side · Thu–Sun, 6:30p · 🟢 pay-what-you-can
A Sherlock Holmes mystery staged outdoors at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, close enough to catch every muttered aside.

🎷 Jazz by the Water · Colonels Row Green · Governors Island · Sat Jul 25, 12–5p · 🟢 just show up
Start with a New Orleans-style second line honoring Louis Armstrong, then settle in by the water for five bands playing classic and contemporary jazz throughout the afternoon.

📖 Summer for the City Reading Party · Lincoln Center · Lincoln Square · Sat, Aug 1 · 🟢 free · just show up
Bring a book and read in companionable silence on the plaza, part of Lincoln Center’s summer takeover, no small talk expected of anyone.

🎭 Broadway in Bryant Park · Bryant Park · Midtown · Thu, Jul 30, 12:00p · 🟢 free · just show up
Casts from Hadestown, Moulin Rouge!, and & Juliet trade the proscenium for a lunchtime lawn and sing their biggest numbers for nothing.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

💃 13th Annual Uptown Bounce · El Museo del Barrio · East Harlem · Thu, Jul 23 · 🔵 free · RSVP
Two Museum Mile institutions throw their doors open after hours for DJs, dancing, and drinks that spill from the galleries out onto Fifth.

🎶 Vibes on Little West 12th · Meatpacking · Thu, Jul 30 · 🟢 free · just show up
The cobblestone street closes to cars and opens to a rotating cast of DJs, the whole block a dance floor at golden hour.

🍨 No. 02 Boozy Ice Cream Mixer · Flatiron · Thu, Jul 30 · 🎟 · from $40
A summer social built entirely around spiked ice cream, which is either the best idea in July or the worst, and there’s one way to find out.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🎬 Brunello: The Gracious Visionary · Angelika Film Center · NoHo · opens Fri, Jul 24 · 🎟 · $21
Meet the philosopher-designer known as the “King of Cashmere.” This documentary traces Brunello Cucinelli’s rise from rural Italy to the helm of a global luxury empire, with an intimate look at the craftsmanship, humanistic ideals, and very expensive knitwear behind the brand.

💃 PHILADANCO! at The Joyce · The Joyce Theater · Chelsea · Tue, Jul 29 – Sat, Aug 2 · 🎟 · from $57
The pioneering Philadelphia company brings two New York premieres and a 25th-anniversary revival to the Joyce, all fire and exactitude.

🎨 Whitney Biennial · Whitney Museum · Meatpacking · through the window · 🎟 · $30
The country’s most argued-over survey of new American art is down to its final weeks — go form your own opinion before everyone else’s sets.

This Week’s Rituals

🎙 Frigid Open Mic · Under St. Marks · East Village · Tue, Jul 28 · 🎟 · $9
Seven minutes, any discipline, one of the most forgiving rooms in the city — comedy, music, or the thing you’ve been too nervous to try in public.

Worth Knowing

Mostly Objects, a new shop of mid-century and postmodern furniture, has opened in Greenpoint.

Continental Hardware in Forest Hills is closing after 100 years — last call to wander a genuine neighborhood relic before the end of the month.

August 1 is Stationery Store Day, and Greenpoint’s Yoseka is marking it with in-store celebrations for the pen-and-paper obsessed.

That said, I'm just going to leave you with thoughts on what I've been watching lately and jump right into the events!

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

⚾ World Cup Final Watch Party · American Museum of Natural History · UWS · Sun Jul 19, 3pm · 🎟 museum admission (NY residents pay wyw)
Though you could watch anywhere, seeing the final game in the Hall of the Universe seems like the most epic option. Plus, after the match, the museum will be open for extended hours, including exhibitions and shows

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🎭 edfest: Edinburgh Fringe Previews · Brooklyn Art Haus · Williamsburg · thru Sat Jul 19 · 🎟 from $20
For those who don't know, Fringe is the largest performing arts festival in the world. Despite that, I still managed to go to Edinburgh a few years ago, with no ideaI’m heading to the Fringe in August, so I’m treating this as my scouting trip: fifteen shows testing their hour on a Williamsburg stage before they make the trip across the ocean.

💃 Double Dutch Fusion: Freestyle + Open Jump · Lincoln Center, Josie Robertson Plaza · UWS · Thu Jul 16, 5pm · 🟢 just show up
Championship teams turn two ropes into something between gymnastics and choreography on the plaza, then open the ropes to anyone who wants to jump in.

💅 What Else, What Else: Michael Cruz Kayne + Patti Harrison · Minetta Lane Theatre · Greenwich Village · Jul 21–22, 7pm · 🎟 from $43
Patti Harrison and Rosebud Baker work out brand-new, untested material with Michael Cruz Kayne hosting, in a theater small enough to feel every joke land.

🎬 She’s the Man: 20th Anniversary Brunch · Nitehawk Cinema · Prospect Park · Sat–Sun Jul 18–19, 11:45am · 🎟 ticketed
I just rewatched this in honor of the World Cup and it absolutely holds up — Amanda Bynes disguises herself as her own twin brother to make the boys’ soccer team, and the whole thing is a joy.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🎤 The Frenchmen: Emily Eakin with Adam Gopnik · 92NY · UES · Tue Jul 21, 7:30pm · 🎟 from $30
On her book’s publication day, Emily Eakin sits down with Adam Gopnik to trace how the French theorists — Foucault, Derrida, Barthes — reshaped the way a generation of Americans thought about language and power.

🎭 Shakespeare in the Parking Lot: As You Like It · The Drilling Company · LES · Thu–Sat thru Aug 1, 7pm · 🟢 just show up
The Drilling Company stages its thirty-first season of free Shakespeare in a Lower East Side parking lot, folding chairs and passing trucks included.

🎬 Belle de Jour (35mm) / Dressed by Yves Saint Laurent · Metrograph · LES · Fri Jul 17, 8:50pm · 🎟 ticketed
Metrograph opens its Yves Saint Laurent photography series with Catherine Deneuve in Buñuel’s 1967 film on 35mm, an ICP curator introducing the Friday screening.

🎧 Lower East Record Club: Vinyl Listening at Phos · Phos · LES · Sat Jul 18, 6:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
Two DJs spin rare house on vinyl inside a newly opened Lower East Side clothing shop — records first, browsing second.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🎬 Donnie Darko: 25th Anniversary Midnite · Nitehawk Cinema · Williamsburg · Fri Jul 17, 11:55pm · 🎟 ticketed
I love this movie and don’t care if that’s basic hipster vibes — twenty-five years on, Frank the rabbit and a teenage Jake Gyllenhaal still hold up, and Nitehawk’s running it at midnight.

🧙 Planet of the Grapes · Under St. Marks · EV · Thu–Sun Jul 16–19 · 🎟 $32
An astronaut crash-lands on a planet ruled by talking grapes, one audience member gets handed a puppet to play the grape judge, and the whole thing is Edinburgh-bound after an award-winning run.

🌍 Facts Machine: Science, Comedy & Trivia · Caveat · LES · Thu Jul 16, 7pm · 🎟 $13.61 with code theskint
Three working scientists who moonlight as trivia hosts turn this month’s marine-biology theme into a comedy show, where the “experiments” are, in practice, drinking games.

🎙 Story-oke: Sing and Tell · Caveat · LES · Tue Jul 21, 9:30pm · 🎟 $19
Performers ranging from a Carnegie Hall opera bass to first-timers each tell the true story behind a song, then sing it.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🍕 Tomato Social · Kitsby Studio · Tribeca · Sat Jul 18, 3:30pm · 🎟 $25
Bring a tomato dish, homemade or store-bought, taste through a table of everyone else’s, and head home with a box of summer produce.

✨ close knit: Issue 01 Launch Party · Location shared on RSVP · Sat Jul 18, 8:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A new indie magazine celebrates its first issue with cake, henna, a table of crafts, and a pile of stuffed animals.

🌿 Summer Sounds! at Carl Schurz Park · John Finley Walk · Yorkville · Wed Jul 22, 7pm · 🟢 just show up
A swing big band plays the elevated walkway above the East River while the park conservancy hands out free ices.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🎭 High School Musical Entirely From Memory · Littlefield · Gowanus · Thu Jul 16, 8pm · 🎟 $14.86
A cast recreates the 2006 movie from memory and thoroughly un-sober, taking cues shouted from the crowd, with a honked horn every so often forcing an invented “deleted scene.” I love this movie and this show, so highly recommend!

🧶 NYC Sip & Paint Masterclass · Janes Studios · Sunset Park · Sat Jul 18, 5pm · 🎟 $45/$50
An open bar runs for five hours while you work on a canvas, and the painting gets looser as the night goes on.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🎭 Sculpting the Senses: An Iris van Herpen Evening · Brooklyn Museum · Prospect Heights · Fri Jul 17, 3:45pm · 🎟 from $25
A private walk-through of Iris van Herpen’s sculptural, almost-grown-looking dresses, followed by a catered picnic in Prospect Park.

🎭 Poison & Power in Palermo: Giulia · Perelman Performing Arts Center · Tribeca · Thu Jul 23, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed
Jennifer Nettles stars as a seventeenth-century Palermo widow who sold other women a way out of their marriages, in a world-premiere musical from director Mary Zimmerman, with drinks on a harbor-view terrace beforehand.

This Week’s Ritual

🎺 Boardwalk Blues · Hudson River Park, Pier 97 · Hell’s Kitchen · Tuesdays thru Jul 28, 6:30pm · 🟢 just show up
The Jazz Foundation brings blues and roots players to a Hudson-front pier every Tuesday; this week it’s the Charlie Burnham Quartet at sunset.

Worth Knowing

NYC Restaurant Week runs July 20 through August 16, with prix-fixe lunches and dinners across all five boroughs and reservations already open.

Time Out just updated its list of the 45 best restaurants in NYC right now, from L’Industrie to Carnitas Ramirez to the Dynamo Room.

Village Works, the St. Marks bookstore of NYC art and downtown history and one of the last of its kind, is working through a hard transition after its owner’s health scare and could use the support.

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

• Finally, I’m still noodling on how to structure the sections and am open to suggestions.

I spent the holiday in New Mexico with family watching way too much soccer, whether is was World Cup games (😭 Mexico 😭 USA) or a hometown New Mexico United match with fireworks.

Two weeks away has made me very excited to come back, but I have to say, chilling out in suburbia has been a temporary treat. New York summer can ask for so much energy and enthusiasm, it was nice to press pause for a bit and reset.

That said, I have a whole newsletter of great events happening in the next 10 days, so scroll the list to see if there's one that suits your mood ☮️

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🎭 Othello: Uptown Shakespeare in the Park · Classical Theatre of Harlem · Marcus Garvey Park, Harlem · nightly Jul 9–16, 8:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
The Classical Theatre of Harlem drops Shakespeare’s most devastating unraveling into an open-air amphitheater for eight nights, where a whispered lie curdles into ruin and plays even sharper under a July sky.

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🎨 WHOOPS: An Interactive Art Pop-Up · ARTIACT · Long Island City · Thu Jul 9 · 🔵 free · RSVP
An interactive art pop-up designed to be handled rather than observed, with installations you walk through, touch, and rearrange as you go. It trades the usual don't-touch hush of a gallery for something closer to a playground built for adults.

🎤 SageMatch · Caveat · LES · Thu Jul 9, 9:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $19
Real scientists and working comedians are handed a topic from the audience, then improvise a straight-faced keynote on the spot. The fun comes from watching genuine expertise collide with total invention, and not being sure which is which.

🍕 NYC Pizza Crawl · Long Island City · Sat Jul 11, 12pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A guided afternoon crawl through Long Island City's pizzerias, stopping at four spots to taste and rank slices side by side. You'll cover the neighborhood on foot with a rotating group of strangers, comparing notes on crust and char along the way.

🍜 MáLà Spiciest Supper Club: Singles Brunch · MáLà Project · Greenpoint · Sat Jul 11, 12:30 · 🎟 ticketed · $81
Forty singles, three courses of Sichuan heat, and prompts engineered to make you sweat for more than one reason. If you're in your Hinge-free era, this could be a great way to meet someone.

🧙 Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast: Dancing of the Giglio · Williamsburg · thru Jul 19 · 🟢 just show up
Each summer, a four-ton, multi-story tower gets hoisted onto the shoulders of more than a hundred men, with a live brass band riding along, and danced down the street. It’s a century-old Italian-American ritual and some of the most striking street theater the city produces all year.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

👩🏻‍⚖️ Law of the Land: The Supreme Court Year in Review · 92NY · UES · Wed Jul 9, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $20
Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal joins a panel of Court watchers to break down a Supreme Court term that reshaped tariffs, free speech, and a great deal else. Expect a plain-English tour of the year's biggest rulings and what they mean going forward, from people who argue in front of the bench for a living.

🎬 River + Blues: Rebirth Brass Band · Wagner Park · Battery Park City · Thu Jul 9, 6:30pm · 🟢 just show up
The Grammy-winning Rebirth Brass Band brings its New Orleans brass-and-funk sound to a Hudson-front lawn at Wagner Park as the sun goes down. It’s part of the long-running River & Blues series, and the band’s second-line energy makes standing still nearly impossible.

🎼 Building a Grammy-Winning Score: Taurees Habib · Fridman Gallery · Bowery · Thu Jul 16, 6:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $44
Grammy-winning engineer Taurees Habib, who worked on Hans Zimmer's Dune scores, walks through how a piece of music gets built from a feeling into a finished orchestration. He breaks the process down cue by cue, opening up a craft most listeners never get to see up close.

💬 Critical Thinking Club: Is Therapy Making Us More Resilient? · Work Heights · Williamsburg · Thu Jul 16 · 🎟 ticketed · $10
The Critical Thinking Club gathers strangers for a structured, good-faith debate. This round on whether therapy culture is making people more resilient or more fragile.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🌍 The Earth Is Flat, and Other Facts · Caveat · LES · Fri Jul 10, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $22
Comedians earnestly defend history's worst and most thoroughly debunked ideas, with straight faces and real citations. It's a comedy show shaped like a lecture series, and the better the argument, the funnier the premise gets.

🌿 Summer on the Hudson: Mushroom Walk · Riverside Park · UWS · Sat Jul 11, 11am · 🟢 just show up
The New York Mycological Society leads a slow, close-looking walk through Riverside Park to find and identify the fungi hiding in plain sight underfoot. Members share what's edible, what isn't, and how much quiet life is at work in a single patch of city parkland.

✨ Meari Nori: Korean Culture Playground · NOFLEX · NoMad · Sun Jul 12, 5-11pm · 🟢 just show up
Part performance and part hands-on playground, this evening turns Korean traditions into things you take part in rather than watch from a seat. It's built for curiosity, welcoming newcomers into customs they may be meeting for the first time.

🎬 Gary Oldman: The Protean Man · Metrograph · LES · Jul 10–18 · 🎟 ticketed · $18
Metrograph runs a week of Gary Oldman prints spanning his range, from Sid Vicious to Beethoven to Dracula, on the big screen. Seen back to back, the series makes the case that few actors have ever disappeared so completely into so many different men.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

💿 Dreamy Girl: An Exclusive First Listen · Los Depressos · Bed-Stuy · Fri Jul 10, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $20
An intimate first-listen party in a rooftop greenhouse, where a new record gets played front to back for a small crowd before it reaches everyone else. The setting and the sound system are built for actually hearing an album the way it was meant to be heard, together and in order.

🪡 Beginner Embroidery · Brooklyn Craft Company · Lower Manhattan · Fri Jul 11, 11am · 🎟 ticketed · $50
A beginner-friendly workshop where you'll learn the foundational stitches while completing a small hoop project, no experience needed. An instructor walks you through each step, and you head out with the basics to keep stitching on your own.

💌 Analog Renaissance: Artist Market + Sticker Swap · Sweet Fire Cafe & Studio · Williamsburg · Jul 11–12, 12pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
Offline Recess throws a two-day celebration of analog and handmade culture with 20-plus vendors slinging zines, prints, stickers, jewelry, and stationery, plus workshops, a stamp rally, a raffle, and the beloved sticker swap. There’s a costume-connection game with prizes for anyone who does turn up in their best ren faire attire, a nod to the name.

🧶 Cleo’s Craft Circle Movie Night: Hackers · Cleo’s Yarn Shop · Bushwick · Wed Jul 16, 6-8pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $15
A yarn shop hosts a movie night built around the 1995 cyberpunk cult favorite Hackers, with the film rolling while you knit, crochet, or work on whatever you brought along. It's a relaxed screen-and-stitch hang for people who like a soundtrack with their craft time.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🎤 Landline Comedy · Wild East Brewing · Gowanus · Thu Jul 9, 8:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A stand-up night in the barrel cellar of a Gowanus brewery, where New York comedians work out new and half-finished material in a room small enough to catch every reaction. The close quarters and the beer make for a loose, forgiving crowd.

🍕 Pancakes + Booze Art Show · Brooklyn Monarch · East Williamsburg · Thu Jul 9, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $15
An underground art show that packs a warehouse with work from more than a hundred emerging local artists, alongside DJs, live body painting, and all-you-can-eat pancakes. Though this isn't another singles event, I did meet an ex-boyfriend here, so you never know 🤷‍♀️

🤘 Emo Night: 5-Year Anniversary of Panic! · The Wolfhound · Astoria · Fri Jul 10, 10pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A night of screaming along to Panic! at the Disco and the wider 2000s emo canon in an Astoria dive, marking five years of the recurring party. The anniversary edition promises a bigger, louder room that knows every word.

🪩 Michael Jackson on Repeat · Sugar Mouse · East Village · Sat Jul 11, 8pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $22
An all-night dance party devoted entirely to Michael Jackson's catalog, from the early hits through the deep cuts, in an East Village bar. The floor rarely empties, and the room tends to know every lyric and every move.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🏛 Gothic by Design: The Dawn of Architectural Draftsmanship · The Met · UES · closes Jul 19 · 🎟 ticketed · Met admission
The first exhibition ever to treat medieval architects’ working drawings as art rather than blueprints. More than 90 rare sheets and objects, the largest running eleven feet tall, and it’s the last week to stand in front of the line that conceived a cathedral.

👜 Vintage Designer Bags + More NYC Pop-Up · Arlo SoHo · SoHo · Sun Jul 12 · 🔵 free · RSVP
Seven Moods hauls in more than 250 vintage and secondhand designer bags for a one-day takeover of Arlo SoHo, including pieces pulled straight from a well-known New York collector's personal closet. Everything's one-of-a-kind and priced to move, so the best bags tend to walk out the door in the first hour.

This Week’s Rituals

💃 Sunset Salsa · Pier 76 · Midtown West · Thursdays, 6:30pm · 🟢 just show up Lessons at 6:30, open dancing after, and a Hudson sunset doing the heavy lifting on the waterfront.

🎺 Live at the Gantries · Gantry Plaza State Park · Long Island City · Tuesdays, 7pm · 🟢 just show up
Global sounds against the Manhattan skyline every Tuesday, on a lawn built for exactly this kind of evening.

Worth Knowing

2 Lucky Vintage just opened on Park Slope’s 5th Ave (btwn 4th & 5th) — a sharp early rack worth the detour.

Maayan’s is soft-opening its wine program on Watts St in Tribeca — go while it’s still a secret.

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

Some of the best places in New York go out of their way not to be found.

No marquee, no line, no sign that means anything — just a door you’ve walked past a hundred times without once wondering what’s on the other side. A basement under a tattoo parlor. An unmarked red door at the top of a staircase. A lantern next to what looks like an ordinary sushi spot.

That’s what I want to show with this newsletter: the best stuff in this city isn’t gone, and may not even be hard to find. It’s just behind a door you never thought to open.

This week, I open three of them, all in the East Village, and all within a five-minute walk. Close enough to do in a single day if you’re feeling ambitious.

If these are already on your list, I’ve done my job. If they’re not, consider this your key. 🚪🗝️

BATSU!

I’ll be honest: I didn’t choose BATSU, BATSU chose me. The night started next door at Hatsu, enjoying the unhinged delight of a Labubu omakase (yes, that’s a real thing) with no idea the evening had a second act. Then I got walked through an unmarked door beside a paper lantern, past a sushi counter, and into what I can only describe as a Tokyo back-alley fever dream.

The premise: four comedians compete in a live Japanese game show where the losers get punished… and I don’t mean metaphorically. I mean paintballs, electric shocks, and at one point a giant egg-smashing chicken 🐔

Buy the $20 hachimaki headband (do it) and a “sake ninja” appears at your table to keep your cup full all night, which is precisely as dangerous as it sounds. I walked in expecting dinner and a show and walked out having laughed harder than I had in months.

Two ways in: the flagship game show is the main event, but there’s also a monthly Laughter Party — a looser, late-night stand-up-and-mayhem spinoff — if you want the BATSU energy in a different key.

Upcoming Shows

🥢 BATSU! · BATSU! NYC · EV · Tue–Sat, 7pm (late shows Fri & Sat) · 🎟 ticketed · from from $45
The live Japanese game show where comedians compete and the losers pay for it in paintballs, electric shocks, and sake-fueled chaos.

🎤 Laughter Party (the “not BATSU!” stand-up show) · BATSU! NYC · EV · monthly, late night · 🎟 ticketed · $17
The after-hours spinoff. Stand-up, drinks, interactive games, and the BATSU! cast off the leash.

Under St. Marks

Tucked down a few steps beneath Fun City Tattoo which, fair warning, is much easier to spot than the theater is, Under St. Marks has been the East Village’s scrappiest black box since the 1970s. Forty-five folding-chair seats, a sandstone wall on one side and a stand-up bar on the other, and a rotating lineup of off-off-Broadway, comedy, burlesque, and the kind of experimental work that only really lands in a room this small.

Right now, as Pride month wraps, the calendar is stacked with FRIGID’s Queerly Festival — so this is a particularly good week to take the stairs down. Nothing here is polished, and that’s the point: you’re close enough to watch the performers sweat. Pick the thing that sounds strangest and go.

Upcoming Shows

🎶 “Trauma Mia: A Transgender Parody of the Hit Musical” · Under St. Marks · EV · Jun 25–Jul 1, 9:15pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $22
A closeted trans girl flies to Greece for her sister’s wedding determined to keep her transition quiet, which goes about as smoothly as any show set to ABBA music ever does.

🤼 SCOWL: Queerapalooza · Under St. Marks · EV · Jun 27–29, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $22
A queer and trans stage-combat collective throws a campy, full-tilt pro-wrestling spectacle where a ten-year reigning champ takes all comers in her annual Pride Open Challenge.

🎬 East Village New York Film Festival · Under St. Marks · EV · Jun 28, 10pm · 🎟 ticketed · $12
The month’s best short films in a 45-seat basement — eight this round, from a desert “Monolith” to something ominously titled “No Face Man.”

🎙 Awkward Teenage Years · Under St. Marks · EV · Jul 1, 7:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $12
NYC storytellers relive their most gloriously cringe adolescent moments. I’ve been and the show is intimate, fun, and better than just grabbing drinks at Bua.

The Red Room at KGB Bar

On the street, all you’ll see is a red KGB sign. Climb the narrow marble stairs of 85 East 4th, past the literary bar on the second floor where writers have been reading their work for twenty years, and keep going when most people stop — at the top there’s an unmarked red door.

Behind it is the Red Room: a low-lit deco speakeasy in a building that, floor by floor, was once Lucky Luciano’s Palm Casino and the headquarters of Emma Goldman’s anarchists. These days it’s velvet banquettes, a copper bathtub in the corner, cocktails with gangster names, and some of the better-kept nightlife in the neighborhood. Come for a French 75 on a quiet weeknight, or time it to a show.

Upcoming Shows

🎸 Strange Majik Trio @ Private Curtain · The Red Room at KGB Bar · EV · Jun 26, 11pm · 🟢 just show up
Strange Majik Trio plays a late-night set of blues-rock, funk, R&B, and ’70s soul. Expect guitar-heavy live music from David Pattillo’s longtime project, which has roots in NYC’s downtown music scene.

🎙 Tale: NYC’s Finest Storytelling · The Red Room at KGB Bar · EV · Jun 26, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $20 ($5 OFF w/ CODE: DiscountTALE) + 2 drink minimum
No themes, no gimmicks — just a rotating lineup of the city’s best true-story tellers (Comedy Central, The Moth, This American Life regulars) three floors up.

🎷 Tuesdays at the Red Room · The Red Room at KGB Bar · EV · Tuesdays, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $12
Live jazz and vocals turning the deco room into the kind of low-lit weeknight that makes you quietly cancel your other plans.

My Pick Last Week

This past weekend was my birthday, and I got the best gift of all: my whole family in town to celebrate.

We caught Chess just before it closed (it was fantastic, and DAMN, the pipes on those singers), then went wedding dress shopping because nothing says "happy birthday" like getting corseted into gowns after cake 😅

I've only seen a handful of Say Yes to the Dress episodes, so Kleinfeld's wasn't exactly high on my list… but I'm so glad I went anyway. Maybe I just got lucky, but my stylist Olivia was an absolute gem, and we spent the afternoon cycling through unexpected silhouettes I actually loved.

To round out the weekend, we celebrated Father’s Day with a Classic Harbor Line cruise and I cannot recommend it enough. This was my second time setting sail with them and it’s hands down the best way to circumnavigate Manhattan.

We closed out the day at the Frying Pan, which — barring a touch of motion sickness — was the ideal way to soak up the last 76º day we’ll probably have for a while ☀️

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event or venue I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

The best thing about New York City is discovering the places that feel like they couldn’t exist anywhere else.

These are the spots that make a solo night feel easy, or turn a normal hang with friends into something outside your usual routine. They’re specific, a little strange, and usually much more memorable than whatever bar you were going to default to.

If these places are already familiar to you, I’ve done my job. If you’re new here — or just looking for a better reason to leave the house — here are a few of my hyper-local favorites, starting on the Lower East Side.

Caveat

This venue is like the live, nerdy cousin of Dropout TV. Located in a library-esque basement on Clinton St, you can snag a beer, empanada, and some popcorn (add Frank’s Red Hot and truffle salt) while watching some of the most fun, niche shows imaginable.

Their comedy-minded programming touches on everything from politics to science, vocab to history, economics to dating, and all the weird little places in between. If you’re a Caveat person — and you’ll know when you go — I guarantee it will become one of your favorite places.

At least that’s what happened to me. I’m such a fan, my fiancé planned his surprise proposal there and invited an improv rap group to perform a parody of our love story, which is about as Caveat-coded it gets.

Upcoming Shows

📉 EconLOL: An Economics-Themed Comedy Show · Caveat · LES · Jun 22, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $24
These comedians and actual economists won’t teach you anything about the economy, but they will give you lots of opportunities to laugh at anything remotely econ, money, and finance-related.

🧪 Science Tonight: Science Does Sports · Caveat · LES · Jun 24, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $19
Real scientists deliver real talks while improvisers ambush them with games and bits, so you walk out having learned something without sitting through anything resembling a lecture. The upcoming show is World Cup-themed.

💘 Looking for Laughs · Caveat · LES · Jun 26, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $22
Two strangers go on a blindfolded blind date while four comedians improvise around every awkward silence and the audience gets the chance to ask rapid-fire questions to see if this could be a real match. I went to their last show in BK and it was a blast 🍻

⚓ Rouge Salon: Absurd True Tales · Caveat · LES · Jun 21, 5pm · 🎟 ticketed · $25
Rouge Salon brings together five veteran storytellers for an afternoon of absurd-but-true stories pulled from history and human experience. This edition includes tales of shipwrecks, live burials, and vegetables somehow tied to continental conquest.

🎤 Story-oke: Sing and Tell · Caveat · LES · Jul 21, 9:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · ⟨add price⟩
Performers and audience members each pick a song tied to some piece of their life (an ex, a parent, a summer that went sideways), tell that story aloud, then sing their heart out. If I wasn’t sick, I would literally be there right now, so hopefully I’ll hit this next performance!

Lectures on Tap — The upcoming show is already sold out, but this Caveat series is worth knowing about. It’s ultra popular, so it's worth bookmarking the calendar and pouncing the next time tickets drop!

The Slipper Room

This is the Lower East Side’s — and possibly all of Manhattan’s — premier burlesque venue. If you’ve never been to a burlesque show, this hidden, vintagey spot is the place to start.

My favorite series, Hotsy Totsy, brings together nerd culture and nudity in the best possible way. I loved both the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings-themed shows, though I can’t say I expected to see the Eye of Sauron make an appearance on a pair of tighty-whities. 👀

Upcoming Shows

🎪 The Slipper Room Show! · The Slipper Room · LES · Jun 19, 8pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $35
Burlesque, comedy, circus, and sideshow rotate through the room’s flagship variety night under hosts Lydia Vengeance and Daphne Always. The show’s been running since 1999, which is a pretty strong endorsement in a neighborhood where the most hot spots flame out in less than three rental cycles.

🎭 The Fricks: POMP! · The Slipper Room · LES · Jun 19, 11:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $20
The Fricks stage the wedding of Mozart and Constanze Weber and let it curdle from historical celebration into full rococo fever dream, mischief and over-the-top reception included.

🗡 Nerdlesque NYC: Breasts of the Wild · The Slipper Room · LES · Jun 25, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $30
The Legend of Zelda gets the burlesque treatment with tassel-twirling, sword-swinging, drag, and aerial work in a very specific overlap of fandom and late-night performance.

😈 Sir Richard Castle’s Naughty Little Show · The Slipper Room · LES · Jun 25, 9:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $30
Sir Richard Castle hosts a quintessential Slipper Room night: vintage variety, a little filth, and a lot of theatrical charm, with performances from Sam Urdang, Veronica Viper, Rosie Cheeks, and Audrey Love.

🦖 Hotsy-Totsy Tribute to Godzilla · The Slipper Room · LES · Jul 9, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $25
Hotsy-Totsy Burlesque unleashes a kaiju-themed night under hosts Cherry Pitz and Handsome Brad. Stop by to find out if the monsters are practical effects or anatomical 🙊.

Metrograph

This is the only venue on the list I haven’t been to yet, but it’s still worth a shout because I want to go and the film series below are exactly why.

Metrograph is an independent two-screen movie theater on Ludlow Street, focused on repertory screenings, rare archival films, premieres, Q&As, and the kind of programming that makes “going to the movies” feel like an intellectual choice, not just a reason to munch popcorn.

It hits the sweet spot between classics you want to come back to, overlooked international films, and themed series that make it easy to find something nostalgic, smart, and a little outside your usual movie comfort zone.

Their $5-a-month membership saves you $7 on every ticket — an easy win if you like local cinema and hate paying full price.

Upcoming Movie Series

🌫 The Last Dreamers · Metrograph · LES · Jun 10–24 · 🎟 ticketed · $18
A survey of 1990s Sinophone cinema caught mid-transition — Hong Kong before the Handover, Taiwan urbanizing fast, the mainland after Tiananmen — through Fallen Angels, Xiao Wu, Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers, and Suzhou River.

⚽ The Art of Soccer · Metrograph · LES · Jun 12–28 · 🎟 ticketed · $18
Timed to World Cup fever, a lineup that treats the sport as the rest of the world sees it: movement, obsession, and a national mood. Showing The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, the Brazilian queer soccer comedy Onda Nova, Jafar Panahi’s Offside, and What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?

🎬 Back to the Fox: The Early Films of Michael J. Fox · Metrograph · LES · Jun 19–28 · 🎟 ticketed · $18
A collection of Michael J. Fox films from the era when he was the definitive all-American boy, despite being Canadian. Featuring Back to the Future (of course), Class of 1984, Teen Wolf, and Paul Schrader’s Light of Day.

🏨 Hotel Europa · Metrograph · LES · Jun 19–Jul 5 · 🎟 ticketed · $18
According to these films, European luxury hotels are elegant, haunted, politically loaded, and a terrible place to actually relax. See Death in Venice, The Grand Budapest Hotel (preceded by Hotel Chevalier), Grand Hotel, Daughters of Darkness, Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel, Europa, and Last Year at Marienbad.

💥 When Carolco Was King · Metrograph · LES · late Jun–early Jul · 🎟 ticketed · $18
A tribute to the independent studio behind the loudest, most gloriously excessive genre spectacle of the ‘80s and ‘90s — Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Universal Soldier — for anyone who believes cinema (not reality) should involve cyborgs, memory implants, and questionable corporate spending.

My Pick Last Week

You all know there was exactly one cool thing to do last week and it was WATCH THE KNICKS WIN THE NBA FINALS!!!! This is a video from the bar I watched at after the Brooklyn Pride Twilight Parade and a scene echoed across the five boroughs:

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event or venue I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

BUT, I know not all of us are sports girlies. Plus, Pride Month, Juneteenth, and the Puerto Rican Day Parade come with plenty of festivities that do not require a working knowledge of sportsball.

Still, I didn’t say I wasn’t going to try to convince you to amp up your city pride for just a couple of days 😄

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🏀 Watch the Knicks · Throughout the city · Wed Jun 10 & Sat Jun 13th, 8:30pm
I know, I know, you may not be a basketball fan. It doesn’t matter! The energy is electric and it’s worth wedging yourself in a bar for a few hours to watch with the rest of the city.

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

⚽ World Cup Under the Stars · Marine Park · Marine Park, Brooklyn · Fri Jun 12, 7pm · 🟢 just show up
Bring a blanket, claim some lawn, and watch Team USA play Paraguay on a giant outdoor screen. The lawn opens at 7pm for pre-game hanging; kickoff is at 9pm.

🎭 Books & Burlesque · Caveat · Lower East Side · Sat Jun 13, 9pm · 🎟️ ticketed
Authors read from novels, graphic nonfiction, queer essays, animal sex research – yes, really – and then burlesque and drag performers turn those books into brand-new acts. Literary, horny, weirdly educational.

🎤 Story-oke: Sing and Tell · Caveat · Lower East Side · Tue Jun 16, 9:30pm · 🎟️ ticketed · $19
Part karaoke, part confessional: people tell the story behind a song, then sing it in front of a room full of strangers. Tender? Probably. Chaotic? Almost certainly. Judgment-free? Heck yes, and we love that for everyone.

🎭 Broadway Celebrates Juneteenth · Times Square · Midtown · Thu Jun 19, 4pm · 🟢 just show up
An all-Black Broadway concert takes over Duffy Square for Juneteenth, with performers from shows like Hamilton, Wicked, Hadestown, Ragtime, MJ, and more. Free, first-come-first-served, and about as Times Square as Times Square gets, but in the good way.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🎬 GASLIT · IFC Center · West Village · Opens Fri Jun 12 · Fonda in person Fri, Q&As Sat 7:00 & Sun 2:15 · 🎟️ ticketed
Jane Fonda road-trips through Texas oil country and Gulf Coast communities in this documentary about the people fighting the oil, gas, and plastics boom from their own backyards. She’ll be at IFC opening night,

💬 Luke Burgis with David Brooks: The One and the Ninety-Nine · 92NY · Upper East Side · Mon Jun 15, 6pm · 🎟️ ticketed · $25/$40
Luke Burgis joins David Brooks for a conversation about social contagion, belonging, and how easily our desires and identities get shaped by the people around us. The talk centers on Burgis’ new book, The One and the Ninety-Nine, and asks what it takes to stay grounded in a culture built around imitation.

🌍 How on Earth? LIVE! · The Climate Imaginarium · Governors Island · Sun Jun 14, 2:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A live climate-anxiety makeover show where five “Earth Archetypes” help one New Yorker turn a real climate question into something resembling a plan. I have no idea what that setup will lead to, but I know I’d love it.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

💅 Uptown Showdown: Aliens Vs. Robots · Symphony Space (Leonard Nimoy Thalia) · Upper West Side · Thu Jun 11, 7pm · 🎟️ ticketed · $18
Seven comedians split into two camps and argue, in full earnest, whether aliens or robots would win — the room picks the victor.

✏️ Taxidermy Demonstration & Drawing Workshop · Gotham Taxidermy × NYC Plover Project · neighborhood TBD · Sun Jun 14, 10am · 🎟️ ticketed
Watch a specimen prepared up close, then sketch it, with proceeds going to the people protecting NYC’s piping plovers (a bird, I Googled it).

🐉 Matt Smith: House of the Dragon · 92NY · Upper East Side · Tue Jun 16 · 🎟️ ticketed · Starting at $40
Matt Smith sits down with Josh Horowitz to talk House of the Dragon, Daemon Targaryen, and the high-drama machinery of the Game of Thrones universe. For anyone who has ever had strong opinions about wigs, dragons, and more.

🎬 Studio Ghibli Summer Festival · Village East · East Village · Opens Wed Jun 17 with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind · 🎟️ ticketed · Starting at $22
The summer-long Ghibli run opens on the big screen with Nausicaä, Miyazaki’s windblown eco-fable.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🎸 Sofar Sounds: Live Music in an Intimate Setting · 190 Bowery · Nolita · Thu Jun 11, 8pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
Surprise musicians play an after-work set inside the 1898 former gilded age gem, Germania Bank, that Jay Maisel called home for fifty years.

✨ LES Pride Bookstore Crawl · Book Club Bar · Lower East Side · Sat Jun 20 · 🟢 free · just show up
A roving queer-lit afternoon hopping between Lower East Side bookshops, with Book Club Bar as home base for coffee, cocktails, and of course more books.

🎬 Hedda Lettuce: Jonesing for Joan – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane · Village East · East Village · Starting Thu Jun 18, 7:30p · 🎟️ ticketed · from $27
Drag legend Hedda Lettuce hosts a screening of Baby Jane, opening a summer of Joan Crawford camp with exactly the right amount of green-wigged commentary.

🧶 Summer Tote Painting · Tipsy Village Café · neighborhood TBD · Thu Jun 11, 6:30pm · 🎟️ ticketed · $30
Paint a canvas tote you’ll actually carry all summer at a low-key, beginner-friendly art night over drinks.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

💃 VShow Presents NERVO · VShow · Flushing · Fri Jun 12, 10pm · 🎟️ ticketed · from $24
The Australian twin sisters who wrote half your favorite 2010s dance hits bring festival-grade drops to a Flushing club.

🛳️ NYC Summer Boat Series · Skyport Marina · Kips Bay · Sat Jun 13 · 🎟️ ticketed · from $57
A Saturday-night yacht pushes off from Kips Bay with a DJ, the skyline, and open water between you and your inbox.

💃 Perreo on the Pier · Watermark at Pier 15 · South Street Seaport · Sat Jun 13, 9pm · 🎟️ ticketed · Free before 10pm or starting at $18
A waterfront reggaeton party landing the night before the Puerto Rican Day Parade, with DJs, dancing, and skyline views.

💅 Gay Shame Comedy & Pride Party · littlefield · Gowanus · Sun Jun 14, 7:30pm · 🎟️ ticketed · $12
A raucous Pride-night comedy blowout that tips into a full dance party once the sets wrap.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🧙 Bee’s Knees 1920’s Garden Party · Medusa Bar Bk · Williamsburg · Sun Jun 14, 4–10pm · 🎟️ ticketed· Starting at $22 (first cocktail included!)
Dust off the fringe and the spectator shoes for a Prohibition-era garden party, cocktails to match, in a Williamsburg backyard.

🎭 Candlelight: Tribute to Bad Bunny · Sony Hall · Theater District · Sun Jun 14 · 🎟️ ticketed · Starting at $35
A string quartet reworks “Tití Me Preguntó” and the rest of the Bad Bunny canon by the glow of a few thousand candles.

🎷 Blue Note Jazz Festival · Blue Note · Greenwich Village · Through Jul 1 · 🎟️ ticketed · Starting at $55
A month of marquee names crowding the stage of the Village’s most storied jazz room, right through the start of July.

This Week’s Rituals

🧶 Crafternoon · LIC waterfront · Long Island City · Sun Jun 14 · 🔵 free · RSVP
Bring your hands and your half-finished projects to a monthly make-along on the Long Island City waterfront.

🎸 SummerStage: Yellowcard / New Found Glory / Plain White T’s · Central Park · Manhattan · Thu Jun 11 · 🎟️ ticketed · Starting at $76
Three bands that scored every 2000s breakup reunite under the Central Park sky for SummerStage’s opening week.

Worth Knowing

The New York Transit Museum opens its 50th-anniversary exhibit, 50 Years of Stories, on Jun 17 in Brooklyn Heights. The company I work for actually created the anniversary logo, so I’m very excited to finally check this out!

The Orchard Beach Pavilion is open again after a 17-year shutter, its grand WPA colonnade back in service out at Pelham Bay.

Book Club Bar’s East Village shop is back after a month dark, refreshed at 197 E 3rd St.

My Pick Last Week

I can hardly contain myself to one cool thing lately because there’s so much going on! I saw a final performance of the off-Broadway dance program Gotta Dance! and enjoyed my 15 seconds of fame on stage at Tootsie’s Video Vault where we had the chance to meet dozens of ultra-talented comedic filmmakers 🙌

I also stopped at the Museum Mile festivities last night and it was so fun to see everyone congregating around some of the UES’s landmarks enjoying music and ice cream 🍦

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

It 👏 is 👏 party 👏 season 👏

To me, peak summer in NYC starts at the beginning of Pride Month and stretches through Fourth of July weekend.

Yes, spring is nice. It's cherry blossoms. It's rosé at a sidewalk café. But the city really comes alive June 1 and this newsletter proves it. Not only do we have the big city-wide stuff, there are still tons of niche parties, shows, and crafting circles happening every week. I included more events than usual and still feel like I barely scratched the surface.

On that note, if you're plugged in to the awesome things that are going on, drop them in the comments, so I can sort and share for other readers!

⭐️ The One Cool Thing & Pride Festivities

🎶 Gov Ball · Flushing Meadows Corona Park · Queens · Jun 5–7 · 🎟 ticketed · from $199
Three days, three stages, and sixty-odd headliners turning the old World’s Fair grounds into the loudest corner of the five boroughs.

🏳️‍🌈 Queens Pride · Jackson Heights · Jun 7 · 🟢 just show up
Floats and performers celebrate diversity and multiculturalism of all kinds in a Jackson Heights parade.

🏳️‍🌈 Brooklyn Pride · 5th Ave · Park Slope · Jun 13 · 🟢 just show up
The city’s only twilight Pride parade lights up 5th Avenue after dark, with a street festival that refuses to call it a night.

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🎬 Tootsie’s Video Vault · littlefield · Gowanus · Jun 6 · 🎟 ticketed · $12
Local filmmakers get three months to make three minutes of something unhinged, then a roomful of strangers votes on the chaos. I'll be there, so come early and say hi!

🎬 Nitehawk: Be Gay, Do Crime · Williamsburg / Prospect Park · Jun 5–8 · 🎟 ticketed · $17
The finale tour of Nitehawk’s queer-criminal canon, where Divine and Park Chan-wook share a marquee and nobody behaves.

💃 This Is 40ish (80s/00s) · The Club by Mr. Purple · LES · Jun 13, 6–10pm · 🎟 ticketed · $50
A throwback dance party engineered for people who want to rage to Blink-182 and still make it to bed by eleven.

🎭 Mr. Choade’s Upstairs Downstairs · Slipper Room · LES · Jun 6, 8pm · 🎟 ticketed · $35
Twenty-seven years deep and the Lower East Side’s sauciest variety show still feels titillating and original.

🎡 Astoria Park Carnival · Astoria · Jun 3 - 7 · 🟢 just show up
Tilt-a-whirls and funnel cake in the shadow of the Hell Gate Bridge, because summer in Queens demands one questionable carnival ride.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🎭 Indian Princesses · Linda Gross Theater · Chelsea · closes Jun 7 · 🎟 ticketed · $25
Five girls of color, their white dads, and a 2008 summer camp built on the kind of cultural appropriation people used to call “wholesome.” A tender satire with teeth.

🎨 What Are You Gay For? · Gotham Bowery · NoHo · Jun 4 · 🔵 free · RSVP
A Pride opening reception built around one excellent question: What are you gay for? Expect portraits, local queer artists, and a lot of very specific answers.

🎤 Hidden Histories of Jazz Age New York · Book Culture · Morningside Hts · Jun 4 · 🟢 just show up
The speakeasies, scandals, and forgotten players of 1920s New York, told by the two people who went digging for them.

🎙 Storyteller’s Salon · NYC Drawing Room · Midtown · Jun 7, 10am · 🎟 ticketed · $71
A morning workshop for turning the thing that happened to you into a story you can actually tell out loud with more confidence, shape, and nerve.

🎨 LES: The Untold Story · Studio6 Gallery · LES · closes Jun 10 · 🟢 just show up
The graffiti, tenements, and street-level history of the Lower East Side before the boutiques moved in, up for only a few more days.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🦸 Brooklyn Comic Con · Brooklyn Monarch · Bushwick · Jun 6, 11:30am–8pm · 🎟 ticketed · $39
Indie comics, cosplay, panels, vendors, and the very specific joy of being around people who know exactly which issue they’re looking for.

💅 Vocabaret: A Tourney at Law · Caveat · LES · Jun 12 · 🎟 ticketed
A vocabulary game show where language gets dragged to court by comedians who clearly have strong opinions about morphemes.

🀄 Riichi Mahjong Learn-and-Play · Sparrow’s Nest · Midtown South · Jun 13, 4–10pm · 🎟 ticketed · $23
Six hours to go from clueless to clacking tiles like a Bejing regular, no prior obsession required.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🧘 the gather: flow · Manhattan (location after RSVP) · Jun 7 · 🔵 free · RSVP · women-only · $20 suggested
Yoga, meditation, journaling, and community time with Tea Time Gatherings – a women’s space for easing into summer with intention.

🧶 Queer Craft Club: Jewelry · The Collaboratory · LIC · Jun 9 · 🎟 ticketed · $15 suggested
Make jewelry, meet fellow queer crafters, and leave with something more interesting than whatever you were going to impulse-buy online.

👕 Dykes and Dolls: Stencil and Swap · McCarren Park · Williamsburg · Jun 13, 12–4pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
Bring the clothes that never fit your body or your gender, trade them for someone else's, and stencil them into a Pride shirt while you're at it.

📚 BKLYN’s Biggest Reading Party · Abolitionist Place · Downtown BK · Jun 13 · 🟢 just show up
Bring a book, sit among a few hundred other quiet people, and remember that parallel play absolutely counts as community.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🏀 Knicks vs. Spurs Game 2 Watch Party · T Squared Social · Midtown · Jun 5, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · $25
Watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals on big screens, with pop-a-shot, food, drinks, and room full of Knicks fans as invested as you are.

🖤 The Black Parade (Emo Summerween) · Brooklyn Monarch · Bushwick · Jun 5, 10pm · 🎟 ticketed · 21+ · from $15
Halloween in June for everyone who never fully recovered from 2006, with a costume contest and a DJ who takes My Chem requests.

🎨 Drag Queen Sip and Paint · Hell’s Kitchen rooftop · Jun 13 · 🎟 ticketed · $49
A rooftop paint-and-sip led by a drag queen, with skyline views, drinks available, and all the supplies you need to make a canvas of your own.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🖼 Museum Mile Festival · Fifth Ave · East Harlem · Jun 9, 6–9pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
Fifth Avenue’s grandest museums throw open their doors while an all-women salsa orchestra turns the sidewalk into a Puerto Rican block party.

🎬 Tribeca Festival · various · thru Jun 14 · 🎟 ticketed
Premieres, restorations, and the occasional surprise A-lister scattered across downtown screens for one more week.

This Week’s Rituals

🎬 Free Summer Movies · citywide · summer-long · 🟢 just show up
The parks department rolls out the projector and a different crowd-pleaser every week; the blanket and the bug spray are your department.

🧘 Rooftop Yoga at Brooklyn Grange · Navy Yard · Sundays · 🔵 free · RSVP
Sun salutations on a working rooftop farm, with the Manhattan skyline doing its best to pull your eyes off your breath.

Worth Knowing

Free Shakespeare is back outdoors all summer — the Public’s Mobile Unit and New York Classical Theatre are touring all five boroughs at no charge.

My Pick Last Week

Because I was allergizing last week, my social life was limited to a BBQ with some friends and a viewing of The Sheep Detectives. Though the movie has a patently ridiculous plot, it's hilarious to hear famous voices coming out of sheep mouths and it still somehow made me cry?!

I also optimistically bought tickets for the first ever Wisdom Bar event about the parallels between 1976 and America today (Netflix has a good doc about this), but the aforementioned sneezeles kept me away. Thankfully, this purchase also included a ticket to their second event on 6/18, so expect to see me there for round two!

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

Naturally, the whole affair has me craving couch time this week. And yet! I still managed to pull together a lineup tempting enough to get even me out of the house for one small adventure.

Speaking of which, one of this week’s picks is especially exciting because, somehow, I will be on stage. Yes, really.

Read on for the big announcement, which is this week's One Cool Thing.

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🎬 The 6th Annual Tootsie’s Video Vault · littlefield · Gowanus · Sat Jun 6, 7:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $12
Local filmmakers get three months to make a brand-new short film, three minutes or less, then screen the results together for one night only. Now in its sixth year, the festival mixes bizarre, heartfelt, and genuinely funny shorts with filmmaker and audience awards — including one that comes in the form of a gigantic wrestling belt.

And this year, there’s one more award I’m especially excited about: The Vinyl TV Development Award.

Vinyl TV is an indie, New York-centric streaming service I’m building with my partner, focused on comedy, curated films, and useful little bits of city life. We were lucky enough to connect with the brilliant founders of Tootsie’s Video Vault, and this partnership is one of the first ways we’re starting to work with local creators on original content for the platform.

Their world of funny, strange, deeply New York filmmaking is exactly what we want to share more of when Vinyl TV launches.

More on all of that soon. For now, you can sign up here if you want an email when we go live.

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🎙 Do It Live w/ Chika · Caveat · LES · Thu May 28, 9:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $24
Late-night talk show meets “wait, should I know more about local politics?” Chika brings in the people actually running, shaping, and arguing over this city without the dead-eyed talking points of your usual news show.

🎭 House of Wax (2005) w/ Drag & Commentary · Nitehawk Cinema · Williamsburg · Wed May 28, 9:15pm · 🎟 ticketed · $26
Paris Hilton. A wax museum. Live drag. Running commentary. This is not a film screening, so much as a group decision to honor camp in its highest, stickiest form.

💅 Steve Martin Presents · Union Hall · Park Slope · Fri May 29, 5pm · 🎟 ticketed · $16
Andrew Dismukes (of SNL!) and Michael Good host their recurring showcase under Steve Martin’s borrowed name. This season I've been super into SNL, so this sounds like a fun chance to get to see one of the performers in a new environment.

✨ Foodies + New Friends: Brooklyn Book Lovers Edition · Location shared post- sign-up · Brooklyn · Sun May 31, 7–10pm · 🎟 ticketed · $13 (with current 50% off)
A social mixer for people who like food, books, and meeting strangers under slightly more structured circumstances than “just go talk to people.”

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🎤 Mindy Kaling: “Not Suitable for Work” Screening + Conversation · 92NY · UES · Tue May 27, 8pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $40
An advance episode screening of her new Hulu show, followed by a conversation with Kaling and showrunner Charlie Grandy. It premieres June 2, so this is the rare chance to have an opinion first.

👩🏻‍⚖️ Rental Ripoff Hearing · Hostos Community College · Grand Concourse · Thu May 28 · 🔵 free · RSVP
Mayor Mamdani joins More Perfect University for a student-focused Rental Ripoff hearing, where young tenants can testify directly to the administration about junk fees, bad leases, and the increasingly deranged math of staying in New York.

🎬 Hangin’ with the Homeboys (35mm) w/ Q&A · Nitehawk Prospect Park · Park Slope · Wed May 27, 8:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $17
A Bronx-set 1991 indie about four friends trying to have one good night downtown, which naturally turns into a very New York tangle of friendship, ambition, race, class, and bad decisions.

🦃 Wining and Dining in 1820s–1830s NYC: A Culinary History Tour · Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden · UES · Fri Jun 5, 12–1pm · 🎟 ticketed · $23
A food history program about how guests ate and drank at the Mount Vernon Hotel, back when UES counted as the “countryside.”

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🧙 Dungeon Aid: A Nerdy Charity Drag Show · Purgatory · Bushwick · Fri May 30 · 🎟 ticketed · $25
A D&D-flavored charity drag show benefiting the Ali Forney Center, which supports LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness in NYC. Come for the nerdy performers, raffle prizes, and stay for the good karma.

🎬 Bicycle Thieves Brunch Screening · Nitehawk Prospect Park · Park Slope · Sat May 31 & Sun Jun 1 · 🎟 ticketed · $17
One for the film-history people: Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves is the kind of movie that gets called “one of the greatest ever made” so often it sounds like homework, until you actually watch it and understand the fuss.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🧵 Stitch Club: Bead Embroidery · RecCreate Collective · Clinton Hill · Sun May 31, 11am–1pm · 🎟 ticketed · $85
A meditative bead embroidery workshop with artist Kadi Flory — you’ll leave with a handmade magnet, brooch, or patch and two hours of focused quiet.

🏠 Clay Space BCAT Pottery Throw Down + Closing Party · Clay Space Ceramic Center · Greenpoint · Sun May 31, 5:30–9pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A ceramics-community wrap party for Brooklyn Ceramics Art Tour and Greenpoint Open Studios, with a live pottery throw down, mug-and-cup sale, food, drinks, and music.

🧶 NYC Rooftop Charm Bar Experience · 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar · Flatiron · Sat May 30, 12–5pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $25
A one-night-only rooftop charm bar popup with music, cocktails, and Empire State Building views. Your ticket counts toward a custom bracelet or necklace, with charms and upgrades available onsite.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🎨 Bat Haus Drink N’ Draw · Bat Haus · Bushwick · Wed May 28, 7–9pm · 🎟 ticketed · $20
Brooklyn’s long-running Drink N’ Draw is a Wednesday night figure-drawing session with a live nude model, basic materials provided, and complimentary Brooklyn Brewery beer plus NA drinks.

🎧 Bring Your Own Vinyl Night @ Alphaville · Alphaville · Bushwick · Sun May 31, 8–11pm · 🎟 ticketed · price TBD
A Sunday night BYOV setup at Alphaville: bring a record, hear it played, and settle into the bar’s rotating vinyl night. Part listening party, part low-stakes social experiment, with Sunboy Specials running all night. The event is 21+.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🎵 Terrace Martin Residency: Miles Davis Centennial · Blue Note Jazz Club · West Village · May 28–31 · 🎟 ticketed · $20 min/person
Terrace Martin, a five-time Grammy-nominated musician, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, continues Blue Note’s Miles Davis Centennial celebration with two nightly sets focused on Davis’s sound and style.

🌿 PLG House & Garden Tour · Lefferts Manor Association · Prospect-Lefferts Gardens · Sun May 31, 12–5pm · 🎟 ticketed · $40
The 52nd annual PLG House & Garden Tour opens up eight homes and gardens around Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Check in, get the guide book, and indulge your neighborhood nosiness.

🎬 Marilyn 100 · Film Forum · West Village · May 29–Jun 11 · 🎟 ticketed · $20
Film Forum’s 13-film Marilyn Monroe centennial series runs beyond the obvious greatest-hits version of her career, with titles like Some Like It Hot (love this one!), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, and The Misfits.

This Week’s Rituals

🎭 Lipstick & Tarot Readings at Théâtre XIV · Théâtre XIV · Bushwick · Ongoing Fri/weekends · 🎟 ticketed · $50
Théâtre XIV’s recurring divination appointments include French Kiss Lipstick Readings and tarot in its speakeasy bar. For the lipstick reading, you get a red lipstick, make your mark on a cocktail napkin, and let a resident clairvoyant read the impression like a very theatrical Rorschach test.

Worth Knowing

World Cup summer is here — Meatpacking’s summer programming includes open streets, outdoor events, and World Cup watch-party energy, while the city’s “Five Boroughs Winners Specials” program brings $26 dining deals to participating restaurants during the tournament.

Casa Tua Cucina is coming to Downtown Brooklyn, with the global hospitality brand planning an elevated food hall concept inside One Hanson Place, across from Atlantic Terminal. The project is expected in 2027, so this is more “watch the neighborhood’s dining scene shift” than “go this weekend.”

My Pick Last Week

Last week I saw Burnout Paradise, a treadmill-based show at Astor Place Theatre, and loved it. It was funny, strange, extremely committed to the premise (the performers collectively ran 20 miles!), and also a little too accurate about the burnout culture I’m pretty sure every New Yorker experiences. Sadly, the show is now closed, but I'll let you all know if this troupe comes back with another off-the-wall performance.

While I was out of town, my fiancé also went to the “roster reveal” for Team USA at Pier 17! It looks like a blast and I'm jealous he was able to catch some rays on a workday to see the announcement ⚽️

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

Despite that, I still pulled together some of the best things happening around town for those who are homebound. Even though Memorial Day embodies the outdoors and first peek of summer, sadly ya'll are in for a doozy with rain and chilly temps to follow these 90º days.

For your benefit, most of my picks are indoors, but I'm crossing my fingers for the few outdoor events 🤞🏻

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🎭 Burnout Paradise · Astor Place Theatre · NoHo · Through May 23 · 🎟 ticketed · from $39
An Australian theater troupe put five performers on four treadmills and called it a show — part experimental comedy, part endurance art, directed by Pony Cam, and it’s been selling out since February. I'm going tonight before it's gone!

🎬 Projectorfest 2026 · Caveat · LES · Mon May 25–Fri May 29 · 🎟 ticketed
An homage to multimedia comedy, Projectorfest will feature a week of one-of-a-kind shows including My Life in Charts, Smart Bidet: A Keynote Presentation, From Wolf To Baby: The Creation Of The Dog, and more. I'm looking at the lineup now and will definitely check out one or two 👀

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🎭 Can I Be Frank? · SoHo Playhouse · SoHo · Thu May 21–Sat Jun 27 · 🎟 ticketed · from $45
A new solo performance about queer comedian Frank Maya who was on the verge of mainstream success before dying from AIDS-related complications in 1995, directed by Sam Pinkleton. He is the Tony winner who gave us Oh, Mary! (I was a hipster early fan), and the first show is nearly sold out.

💅 Facebook Marketplace Live!: The Game Show · Caveat · LES · Thu May 21, 9:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $19
Comedians compete using real, live Facebook Marketplace listings and the chaos that inevitably follows.

🎭 Shrek Entirely From Memory · littlefield · Gowanus · Thu May 21, 8pm · 🎟 ticketed · $15
Performers don’t know their roles until they’re onstage and the script is whatever they can remember. I went to the Pride & Prejudice iteration of this and it was a blast – highly recommend, but get there early so you don't have to stand the whole show.

🌿 15th Annual Bushwick Collective Block Party · Bushwick Collective · Bushwick · Sat May 30, 10am–6pm · 🟢 just show up
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony performing live while murals get painted around them, food trucks, DJs, and fifteen years of street art — free, all day.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🎤 Soft Screens Opening Reception · The Old American Can Factory · Gowanus · Thu May 21, 6–9:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
Four artists reckon with the ways algorithmic systems quietly reshape attention, habit, and agency. Opening night at MESH Arts’ new group show.

💬 The Worst of All Possible Worlds: The Gay Agenda · littlefield · Gowanus · Sun May 24, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $25
The award-winning podcast takes the stage to perform a children’s evangelical radio drama deemed too spicy for Clinton’s America, dissect the evangelical project live, and – they promise – finally get to the bottom of the gay agenda. Comment if you are a weirdo who loves evangelical critique and we'll go to this show sometime.

🎤 Mystery and Wonder: Exhibition Gallery Tour · NYPL for the Performing Arts · Lincoln Center · Wed May 27, 11am · 🔵 free · RSVP
A free staff-led tour through the NYPL’s exhibition on the golden age of NYC magic: archival posters, obsessive collectors, performers who built modern stagecraft in this city between the 1870s and 1930s. The exhibit runs through July 11. (Shout out to the wonderful librarian Adena Gruskin for sharing!)

🎬 Story Lab NYC IRL · Planet X Studios · Williamsburg · Wed May 27, 6–9pm · 🎟 ticketed · $10 for non-members
Monthly IRL gathering for working filmmakers and media professionals, this month with Tribeca Film Institute alum Stephanie Cherng and comedy writer Timothy Cooper – limited to 75.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🌼 May Flowers: Lego Floral Making Party · Lips Café · Midtown · Thu May 21, 7–10pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $25
Three hours of building LEGO floral arrangements with strangers, which sounds like nothing until you’re an hour in and deeply invested in your bouquet. My fiancé got me this set for Valentine's a few years back and it was fun/easy to put together!

🌍 Science Tonight: The Boneys · Caveat · LES · Wed May 27, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $19
An awards ceremony for the fossil record — categories include Best Fossilized Butthole, a full in memoriam for every species that’s gone extinct, and a live interview with a paleontologist; dress to compress.

🌍 Brooklyn Environmental Justice Arts Festival · Newlab · DUMBO · Sat May 30, 11am–3pm · 🟢 just show up
Community arts festival with local performers, designers, activists, all-ages programming, giveaways, and food vendors centered around environmental justice. Feel better about the future and stop by.

🛳️ Red Hook Regatta · Valentino Pier · Red Hook · Sat May 30, 1–5pm · 🟢 just show up
Remote-controlled, 3D-printed, and DIY boats will race through an obstacle course on the Red Hook waterfront. It's the kind of wholesome chaos I want from a summer afternoon. Bring a blanket, pack a lunch, and go watch tiny homemade vessels battle the elements alongside science and art activities nearby.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🛍️ AAPI Month Crafting & Maker’s Market · Essex Market · LES · Sat May 23, 12–5pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A sweet AAPI Month event at Essex Market where crafts, small shopping, and snacky incentives all support local AAPI nonprofits fighting food insecurity.

👜 Chunky Trinket Bag Charms · haricot vert’s dreamworld · Brooklyn · Sun May 24, 12–3pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $38
A workshop for making oversized bag charms out of mixed materials — bold, layered, and the kind of thing you’ll actually use (and maybe even trade in your Labubu for).

🌸 Springtime Bath Bombs · The Collaboratory · Long Island City · Tue May 26, 6:30–8:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $35
Make your own all-natural bath bomb, learn which herbs and essential oils are actually worth knowing about, and leave with a tiny fizzy reward for surviving winter.

🧵 Embroidery and Mending Workshop · Yume · Brooklyn · Wed May 27, 7–8:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $25
Ninety minutes of sashiko embroidery and visible mending – the Japanese tradition of stitching that makes the repair part of the design.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🌍 Drunk Planet Earth · Caveat · LES · Sat May 23, 9:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
Comedy show where Planet Earth gets narrated over a drinking game, then the audience tries to stump the hosts with animal questions. Come for the nature facts, stay for the drunk comedians trying to remember what they know about giraffes.

💃 Matinee Disco · Joyface · East Village · Sat May 30, 5–10pm · WAITLIST
A disco party that runs 5–10pm on purpose! 70s and 80s hits, confetti, pizza included, and you’re home before midnight. Sadly, this is already on waitlist, but I wanted to include it so you have the chance to follow their Eventbrite for future events. These are popular and definitely sell out!

🕺 Daybreak · Elsewhere · Bushwick · Sat May 30, 10:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · from $21
Hip-hop and house across two rooms at Elsewhere to close out Memorial Day weekend.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

🎭 An Evening with Aszure Barton · 92NY · UES · Thu May 21 · 🎟 ticketed · from $45
One of the most important living choreographers, nineteen dancers, and both a world and NYC premiere on the same night — the quiet one everyone regrets missing.

🎵 Brian Newman: After Dark — Songs for Lonely Lovers Release Party · The Box · LES · Fri May 29 · 🎟 ticketed · from $49
Grammy-winning trumpeter, Lady Gaga collaborator, and all-star band celebrate a new album at The Box. It's a whiskey-haze late-night cabaret with burlesque dancers.

✨ HUE Affair NYC Marketplace · Metropolitan Pavilion · Chelsea · Sat May 30, 1–6pm · 🎟 ticketed · $29
One-day beauty marketplace with 60+ emerging haircare, skincare, cosmetics, and wellness brands, plus founder meet-and-greets, demos, samples, and a swag bag for the first 200 people in line.

This Week’s Rituals

🎨 Drink & Draw · Newlab · DUMBO · Thu May 21, 5:30–7pm · 🎟 ticketed (monthly — Third Thursdays)
Recurring third Thursday drink-and-draw night with a live nude model, guided sketching, materials, drinks, and light bites — open to actual artists and people whose last drawing was technically a doodle.

Worth Knowing

NYT 100 Best Restaurants in NYC 2026 — The Times dropped their annual list earlier this month; if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s the one everyone will be referencing all summer.

Fleet Week — Fleet Week is not just men in uniform flooding Stone Street. There’s also actual maritime programming, including free ship tours, demos, and events at the Intrepid Museum.

My Pick Last Week

As I mentioned last week, every year I sponsor Rooftop Films because I love their events in Green-Wood Cemetery! It's hard to capture on camera, but the vibes are immaculate. I love laying in the grass and watching whatever off-beat shorts they've picked. Be on the lookout for their NY-focused shorts night – those are usually my favorite of the summer.

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

We’ve reached the point in the year where the calendar has officially started to intimidate me.

There are good things on it. Fun things! Things I actively chose! And yet, when I look at the next few months, I have to wonder how I’m actually going to do all this.

In the blur: two international trips, including Edinburgh Fringe (don’t get me started 🤩), wedding planning, my birthday, family time, and of course, our collective project to leave the house for something fun.

In past years, this is where I would oscillate between spreadsheet tyranny and calendar denial, but this time I’m aiming for enough structure to enjoy the chaos without appointing myself COO of Summer.

We’ll see how that goes…

Maybe it’s the birthday on the calendar, but I’ve also been thinking about who I want to be at this point in my life. As a woman in her 30's, it seems like it's about to time to claim some confidence and shed the “Good Girl” conditioning that tells me to stay small.

To start that journey, my one cool thing last week was a posing class. Like, posing for a camera. On purpose. In front of other people.

It was mortifying. It was amazing. More on that at the end 😅

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🎪 Business Business Business · Circus Academy NY · Gowanus · Thu May 15–Sat May 17 · 🎟 ticketed · $40
Corporate consulting, but make it circus. This 75-minute fever dream combines aerial silks, Chinese yoyo, and burlesque in a high-stakes drama about trying to land a client. Deeply absurd, and with performers from Cirque du Soleil and House of Yes, probably incredible.

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous

🎬 Film Feast: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off · Nitehawk Prospect Park · Park Slope · Wed May 13, 7pm · 🎟 ticketed
A dine-in screening of Ferris Bueller where the cuisine is designed around the film. It's the kind of thing that sounds corny until you’re actually there eating a Chicago-style hot dog in the dark. Luckily, Malört is not on the menu.

💅 Fridge Art Fair: Hello Dolly — The Dolly Parton Experience · Hotel Alameda High Line · Chelsea · May 13–17 · 🟢 just show up
A free, dog-friendly art fair devoted entirely to Dolly Parton (they should have called it Hello Doggy – it was right there!) . It feels like the kind of programming Dolly herself would support: accessible, sparkly, and not taking itself too seriously.

🎙 Alison Leiby: For This? · Union Hall · Park Slope · Sun May 17, 5pm · 🎟 ticketed · $16
Alison Leiby turns a near-death experience at 19, an experimental procedure, and 20-plus years of “wait, I survived for this?” into a full hour of comedy. Dark, existential, and probably very funny if your coping mechanism is also jokes.

If You’re Feeling Curious

🎨 Atlantic Avenue Artwalk · Atlantic Avenue · Carroll Gardens to Brooklyn Heights · Through Sat May 16, curator tour 1pm · 🟢 just show up
A 1.5-mile self-guided art tour through 70-plus shops and restaurants along Atlantic Avenue, with 150 Brooklyn artists showing work in the spaces they actually live and work around.

🎵 Lionsgate’s Power Ballad · 92NY · UES · Mon May 18 · 🎟 ticketed · TBD
A preview screening of a new musical comedy starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas as a wedding singer and washed-up pop star chasing a comeback song. It comes from the director of Once and Sing Street, so expect big feelings and catchy music.

🎬 Mad Bills to Pay · Film Forum · West Village · Through Wed May 21 · 🎟 ticketed · $18
A Dominican American coming-of-age story from a Bronx-born debut filmmaker who made the whole thing in 14 days with street-cast actors, a guerrilla crew, and a largely improvised script. This is exactly the kind of tiny-miracle filmmaking that makes me support indie cinema.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy

🎙 Richard Pryor: Live in Concert · Nitehawk Prospect Park · Park Slope · Wed May 13 · 🎟 ticketed · $17
For comedy nerds: Richard Pryor’s 1979 concert film, widely considered one of the greatest stand-up specials ever recorded, gets the big-screen treatment. The set still feels volatile, alive, and ridiculously modern — less like a museum piece than proof that half of stand-up is still trying to catch up.

📊 Nerd Nite: Three Spreadsheets to the Wind · Caveat · LES · Sat May 16, 4pm · 🎟 ticketed · $26
Three people get onstage to present their real personal spreadsheets, including bachelorette logistics, band name selection, and retirement math. Of all the events I see, this is the only one where I think, “Hell yes, I could actually do that.”

🎞 Fleischer père et fils · Film Forum · West Village · Through Thu May 28 · 🎟 ticketed · $20
A rare side-by-side retrospective of Max Fleischer — the animation pioneer behind Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman cartoons — and his son Richard, who went on to become a Hollywood director. It’s a neat little film-history rabbit hole: one family, two careers, and a century of pop culture weirdness between them.

If You’re Feeling Cozy

✍️ Writer’s Tea Party · Drawing Room · Chelsea · Fridays weekly, 6pm · 🎟 ticketed · $20
A ninth-floor Chelsea studio where you take your shoes off, pour a cup of loose-leaf tea, and write alongside strangers — the kind of place that makes you feel like you live in a different, better city.

🏺 Clay Club: Charms, Magnets, Figurines · RecCreate Collective · Clinton Hill · Fri May 15, 7–9:30pm · 🎟 ticketed · $45
A relaxed clay workshop in a hidden sixth-floor art studio in Clinton Hill, where you’ll make small objects like charms, magnets, and figurines. No experience needed, this is a great class to show up to solo.

🍽 The Longest Table Brooklyn Heights · Remsen Street · Brooklyn Heights · Sat May 16, 12:30–2:30pm · 🔵 free · RSVP
A communal picnic on a car-free stretch of Remsen Street, with one long table running toward the Promenade. Bring something to eat, take a seat, and spend an afternoon meeting neighbors and other Brooklynites.

If You’re Feeling Boozy

🐟 Piscator Branzino Pop-Up · Test Brewery · Greenpoint · Sat May 17 · 🎟 book ahead
The viral whole-grilled-branzino pop-up that sells out in minutes is back for its first night of the season — tickets drop on Hotplate at 10am sharp, so set an alarm.

🍦 Boozy Ice Cream Making Class · Tipsy Scoop · Williamsburg · Multiple Saturdays · 🎟 ticketed · $129
You make a batch of liquor-spiked ice cream on a commercial machine, drink a cocktail while doing it, and take home two pints — an amazing souvenir.

🎤 Karaoke Tremendous · Union Hall · Park Slope · Fri May 15, midnight · 🎟 ticketed
A late-night karaoke party built less around polished performance and more around committing to the bit. Good for people who want karaoke with dance-party energy, or a dance party with a microphone problem.

If You’re Feeling Bougie

🖼 Tribeca Gallery Night · Various galleries · Tribeca · Thu May 15, 6–8pm · 🟢 just show up
Over 80 galleries across Tribeca stay open late during art fair week. Come for the independent art, stay for the free wine (or visa versa).

🏛 Auction House Previews: Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Phillips · Midtown/UES · Through Mon May 18 · 🔵 free · RSVP (Sotheby’s) / 🟢 just show up (Christie’s, Phillips)
The spring marquee sales have an estimated $2.5 billion on the walls — Van Gogh, Rothko, Richter, Warhol — and anyone can walk in and stand next to them for free.

👗 Costume Art at the Met · The Met · UES · Through Jan 10, 2027 · PWYW for NY residents
The Costume Institute’s inaugural show in its brand-new 12,000-square-foot galleries pairs couture with 5,000 years of art across the Met’s collection — less about pretty dresses, more about what clothing actually does to the human body.

This Week’s Rituals

🌴 Little Caribbean Night Markets · WE Plaza · Crown Heights · Monthly through October · 🟢 just show up
The monthly night market in the heart of Little Caribbean — Caribbean eats, local vendors, live music, and a neighborhood that genuinely has some of the best food in the city.

🌸 Weekends in Bloom at Brooklyn Botanic Garden · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · Crown Heights · Sundays through the season · 🎟 ticketed · $22
Peak bloom season at BBG means peonies, wisteria, and azaleas all at once — book tickets in advance, go early on Sunday, and accept that your phone camera will not do it justice.

Worth Knowing

Six Coasts opens on Governors Island — Smorgasburg’s new pan-American open-air seafood restaurant launches on Soissons Landing, open Thurs–Sun, with sweeping harbor views of Lower Manhattan.

The Goods Mart comes to Williamsburg — The smart-convenience store specializing in indie startup brands opens its Williamsburg outpost on May 13.

Flushing Restaurant Week through May 22 — Eighteen restaurants in Flushing are offering prix-fixe menus through the 22nd — the most affordable way to eat seriously well in Queens right now.

My Pick Last Week

As I said up top, the posing class was a surprisingly great time. Credit to the instructor, Brittany Hayles, for making the extremely embarrassing process of mugging in the mirror approachable and fun. The next class is 6/6 and I would highly recommend for anyone who feels uncomfortable in photos and thinks “what do I do with my hands?”

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

Hi guys! Unfortunately, at this point I can’t help you with Cinco de Mayo plans, but I can help you find something fun to do in the city now that spring has maybe? Finally? Officially? arrived.

It feels like a jinx to even say it, but the cold weather may be behind us. Which means we have approximately 2.7 weeks before it's scorching outside. Let’s use them wisely.

As a reminder, One Cool Thing is organized by vibe, because I never know what kind of person I’m going to be by Friday. Events are generally shared 1–10 days out, with a few farther-out happenings and recurring rituals sprinkled in for the planners, commitment-phobes, and “circle back later” girlies among us.

And for those curious what I did last week: I went to a blind date improv show that was somehow both deeply awkward and genuinely hysterical. More on that at the end 😁

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

Or two in this case. Still, they’re the best excuse(s) to leave your apartment this week.

🏙️ Community Week NYC [🟢 just show up] Various venues · Citywide · May 9–17 · Various
A nine-day citywide celebration spotlighting the organizers, spaces, and communities doing the mostly-thankless work of bringing New Yorkers together. There are dozens of events anchored by a screening of Join or Die (Emmy-nominated documentary about civic life). I could have populated this whole newsletter with their calendar, but decided to link to it instead – check it out!

🎬 This Is What We Mean by Short Films: Opening Night 2026 [🎟 book ahead] Green-Wood Cemetery · South Slope · Fri May 15, 7:45pm · $28
Rooftop Films’ annual summer series opener and my “cool thing” for next week. The free tickets and cocktails that come with the $60/year membership make it one of the best deals in town: you get to support the arts and earn a little treat. These cemetery events are my absolute favorite, so make it if you can!

Are you feeling…

• Spontaneous ⚡️

• Curious 📚

• Nerdy 🤓

• Cozy 🧶

• Boozy 🍺

• Bougie 💅🏼

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous

💃 Bryant Park Dance Party [🟢 just show up] Bryant Park · Midtown · Weds + Thurs thru May 14 · 6pm lesson, 7–8:30pm live music ·
Free Samba, bachata, swing, and a Cuban salsa festival finale on May 14 — two nights left in the season, free lesson built in, and the kind of crowd that makes a Tuesday feel like a Saturday.

🎙️ Caveat: Impossible New York Stories [🎟 book ahead] Caveat · LES · Sun May 10, 2:30pm · $25
A Mother’s Day edition of comedians and storytellers sharing their most unhinged, improbable, somehow-true NYC stories. Expect “only in New York” chaos, light trauma bonding, and better punchlines than your family group chat.

🎭 Shotgun Theater Players Theatre (115 MacDougal St) · Greenwich Village · Sat May 16, 9:30pm · Save 20% via showtix.nyc
Ten performers meet each other for the first time hours before the show and by curtain they’ve committed to a single unrepeatable story; the one-night-only format means whatever happens in the room stays there.

If You’re Feeling Curious

📚 Greenlight: Rennie McDougall – “Nonstop Bodies: How Dance Shaped New York City” [🔵 free · RSVP] Greenlight Bookstore · Fort Greene · Thu May 7, 7:30pm
A history of how dance – not ballet, not Broadway, but street-level social dance – shaped the physical and cultural infrastructure of New York. It's the kind of local-history book that makes you look at the subway differently afterward.

🎬 The Python Hunt Angelika Film Center · West Village · Opens Thu May 7; Q&As through Sun May 10 · Standard ticketed
A documentary about amateur python hunters in the Everglades that IndieWire is already comparing to Tiger King. That was pretty much all I needed to hear. Go opening weekend for the filmmaker Q&A.

🎤 92NY: Orna Guralnik – “Showtime’s Couples Therapy” [🎟 book ahead] 92NY · UES · Sat May 10, 4pm in-person, 5pm streaming · $40
The therapist behind the most emotionally honest show on television in conversation with a journalist. It's the rare event where the Q&A has a chance of being better than the talk itself.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy

🎮 Geeks Who Drink Trivia Night [🔵 free · RSVP] The Tiny Cupboard · Bushwick · Thursdays, 8pm (May 8 + May 15 within window)
Several rounds of audio, visual, and speed-based trivia – Obscure Cinema, Science Gone Wrong, 90s boy bands – surrounded by board games and retro consoles, in a bar that actively encourages you to stay and play Mario Kart after the winners are crowned.

🎤 Punderdome® 15th Anniversary Show [🎟 book ahead] Littlefield · Gowanus · Wed May 13, 8pm (doors 7pm) · $15–$20
NYC’s cult-favorite pun competition celebrates 15 years – founded by a Rodney Dangerfield impersonator and his alleged daughter (comedian Jo Firestone), with an All-Star Tournament of Pun Champions and a cash one-on-one pun-off.

🇺🇸 92NY: America at 250 — Ken Burns + Nicolle Wallace [🎟 book ahead] 92NY · UES · Tue May 12, 7:30pm · Starting at $40
For the political nerds: Ken Burns and Nicolle Wallace in conversation about what the nation’s 250th anniversary actually means right now. Coming from the man behind the definitive American documentaries, expect less patriotic victory lap and more historical reckoning.

If You’re Feeling Cozy

🧀 Rom-Com & Cheese Club [🎟 book ahead] Fabrik · DUMBO · Fri May 8, 6–9pm · $30
​Watch a classic romantic comedy paired with cheeses inspired by the film's mood and signature food moments. Part movie night, part guided tasting, part accidental meet-cute with the cheese or the stranger next to you. Communal seating, solo-friendly, wine and non-alc included. If I wasn't out of town, this is 100% the one thing I'd be doing this week.

🏳️‍🌈 Rainbow Book Fair [🟢 just show up] LGBT Community Center · West Village · Sat May 9, 12–6pm · Free ($5 suggested donation)
A hundred-plus exhibitors of LGBTQ+ literature packed into one building on a Saturday afternoon – small presses, debut novelists, zine makers, the works. It reads as niche until you’re an hour in and your tote bag is full.

📎 Craft Crawl: For New York Stationery Lovers [🔵 free · RSVP] Haricot Vert’s Dreamworld · Williamsburg (119 N 1st St) · Sun May 10, 12–5pm
Pick up a passport and move between six small stationery shops, collecting stamps and paper goods at each stop; end at CraftNook for open crafting and a free journal (first 50 people who hit three or more stores). Use the Friend in Store app for the store map.

If You’re Feeling Boozy

📺 Spoons Toons & Booze After Dark [🎟 book ahead] Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park · Park Slope · Thu May 7, 9:15pm · $20
Free cereal bar, specialty cocktails (a Fruity Pebbles–infused Aperol spritz, a White Russian topped with Cocoa Puffs), and 150-plus cartoon series from the ‘40s through early 2000s – the audience votes on what plays, which means the chaos is structural.

🌭 Smorgasburg Central Park: Grand Opening [🟢 just show up] Columbus Circle · UWS · Sat May 14, hours TBD · Free admission (dishes ~$6)
The beloved outdoor food market opens a new Central Park location this season. As a Manhattan resident, I could not be more hype for the beer, block party energy, and jerk chicken smell on my doorstep. Worth showing up early.

If You’re Feeling Bougie

🔮 Mystic Caviar x Anne Parke Art Salon [🎟 book ahead] Tara Downs Gallery · address shared after registration · Wed May 6, 6:30–9pm · $75 · 21+
An art salon timed to New York Art Week — Anne Parke leads exclusive previews of upcoming NYC art fairs, plus speed tarot for all cosmic contemplations; drinks and light appetizers included.

💎 MAD About Jewelry Benefit Show and Sale [🎟 book ahead] Museum of Arts and Design · Columbus Circle · Tue May 6–Fri May 9 · Ticketed
Forty-five contemporary jewelry artists at MAD showcase their most innovative designers. Shop (or window shop) and do something good while you get drippy.
(I wanted to say, "while you frost yourselves,” but sadly that reference is now 23 years old 😅. If you don't know it, here’s the best clip I can find. )

👜 Seven Moods Vintage Designer Archive Pop-Up [🔵 free · RSVP] ArLo Soho, Living Room · Soho · Sat May 16, 12–5pm · Free (RSVP at posh.vip)
500+ pieces of vintage designer clothing and bags sourced from Paris, Milan, Rome, Osaka, and Tokyo – one day only, and whoever RSVPs and shows up is entered to win an LV mini papillon.

This Week’s Rituals

🍕 Queens Night Market [🟢 just show up] Flushing Meadows Corona Park · Flushing · Saturdays thru Oct 31, starting May 9 · Free admission (dishes ~$6)
One of the great food rituals of the New York summer – a hundred vendors, $6 dishes, and people from every part of the city chowing down. Opening weekend of the season.

🌿 Governors Island Arts Season Opens [🟢 just show up] Governors Island · Opens Sat May 16; weekends thru fall · Free before 11am weekends; $5 otherwise
This is the spot I bring all my friends the second time they visit the city because the views are immaculate and insulated from the hustle. In addition to peaceful park spaces, the large-scale public art and 2026 arts programming are worth checking out. Ferry from Battery Maritime Building (10 South Street).

Worth Knowing

Book Club Bar Opens Bushwick Location — Books. Coffee. Cocktails. This East Village mainstay is one of my faves. Glad to hear they're growing with this new Bushwick outpost!

New Restaurant Openings — Rather than listing all them all out, check out the Infatuation’s recently updated guide to the latest NYC openings.

My Pick Last Week

One of the things I'm working on right now is finding more artsy friends who are into the same smart, funny, weird shit I am. That's why I feel very lucky to have met the duo that hosts Looking for Laughs, a blind date improv show.

The whole thing is both hysterical and awkward (what blind date isn’t!), and this team truly does some of the best improv I’ve seen. Their next show is at Caveat in late June. I’ll share the details when the date gets closer so you can stop by 😁

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

• Finally, I’m still noodling on how to structure the sections and am open to suggestions.

Hi guys! I'm Arielle and this is the first issue of One Cool Thing, my extremely type-A response to feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of “stuff to do in NYC” newsletters I receive each week.

Rather than unsubscribing (like a normal person), I've decided to pull together the best of my inbox to share with you all here. The goal? Help myself (and anyone who wants to join) do just one cool thing a week.

It's New York City! It shouldn't be that hard. But I know many of you, like me, spend way too many nights sitting at home. That's why we're choosing just one, manageable thing to do each week to capitalize on what this city has to offer.

Before we dive in, just a few notes about how this newsletter is structured:

• Events are being shared ~1-10 days out to give you a little wiggle room to plan ahead. I've also added a list of happenings that are a little further out and some recurring “rituals” that will be going on over the next few months.

• Generally, I’m an artsy, intellectual-y, vintagey person, so many of the events and activities reflect that. However, I never quite know what I’ll feel like week to week, so this newsletter is organized by “vibe.” Feel free to jump to the section that suits your mood.

• Because I am a ~patron of the arts~, I will leave my commentary on the stuff I've been to. Please feel free to do the same in the comments!

Finally, I want to keep the good stuff up front, but for those who are curious what I did last week, skip to the end. As a teaser, I saw a brand-new show where the lead actor plays 30 characters 🫠

⭐️ The One Cool Thing

🏰 Coney Island Sand Sculpting Competition · Coney Island Beach & Boardwalk · Coney Island, Brooklyn · Sat, Aug 15, 10am–4pm · 🟢 just show up

If you haven’t found an excuse to head to a local beach this summer (god forbid!), use this as your excuse. Once a year, amateur and semi-pro sand sculptors take over Coney Island Beach to build increasingly elaborate things out of a material most of us can barely turn into a bucket-shaped lump. You can wander through the creations, watch the judging, or enter yourself. Winners take home up to $500.

One Cool Thing NYC is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

If You’re Feeling Spontaneous ⚡️

🧵 International Puppet Fringe Festival NYC · The Clemente · Lower East Side, Manhattan · Aug 14–16 · 🎟 ticketed · price varies by show

More than 100 puppet performances from artists across 10 countries descend on the Lower East Side, alongside films, exhibitions, panels, workshops, and masterclasses. Half the festival is free, so this is also a very low-risk opportunity to find out how sophisticated your puppet tastes are.

💘 Jewish Dating Game · Caveat · Lower East Side, Manhattan · Tue, Aug 18 · 🎟 ticketed · $25

A live dating show where contestants go on blind dates onstage for the chance to win actual dinner dates around the city. You can volunteer as tribute or simply watch other people do it, then stick around afterward for a mingle and raffle featuring prizes from local Jewish businesses.

If You’re Feeling Curious 📚

🗑️ Club Internet Presents: Does ‘Cancel Culture’ Really Exist? · Littlefield · Gowanus, Brooklyn · Wed, Aug 19, 7pm (doors 6pm) · 🎟 ticketed · $18.71

Slate’s Luke Winkie, Kat Tenbarge, Princess Weekes, and other culture writers revisit some of the internet’s biggest cancellations to ask a surprisingly unresolved question: does getting “canceled” actually have lasting consequences anymore? Expect everything from Jenna Marbles to Trump to make its way into the argument.

If You’re Feeling Nerdy 🤓

🗽 Revolutionary Women: The Stories History Left Out (Tour) · New-York Historical Society · Upper West Side, Manhattan · Sun, Aug 16 · 🎟 ticketed · $45

A private guided tour of the New-York Historical Society’s Revolutionary Women exhibition, focused on the women whose leadership, ideas, and political work helped shape the country’s founding but rarely get equal billing in the standard Revolutionary War story.

🎤 The Music That Makes Me Laugh · Caveat · Lower East Side, Manhattan · Mon, Aug 17 · 🎟 ticketed · $[tbd]

Musical theater gets the comedy-show treatment with funny songs from Mean Girls, Gypsy, Shrek, and beyond, plus stand-up inspired by the music. The best wrinkle: “disaster duets,” where one singer has rehearsed the number and their comedian scene partner absolutely has not.

If You’re Feeling Cozy 🧶

🌆 Free Movie On The Waterfront: Hamilton · Astoria Park Lawn · Astoria, Queens · Mon, Aug 17, 8:30pm–10pm · 🟢 just show up

Watch Hamilton for free on Astoria Park’s Great Lawn, with the East River and Manhattan skyline behind the screen. No registration required; just bring something to sit on and settle in for nearly three hours of Founding Fathers rapping under the Hell Gate Bridge.

If You’re Feeling Boozy 🍺

🕺 Balera Ferragosto · Balera · Williamsburg, Brooklyn · Sat, Aug 15, day to night · 🎟 ticketed · $[tbd]

Balera is recreating Ferragosto, the Italian mid-August holiday when cities empty out and everyone heads for the coast. Start with pizza and dinner, then stay as the restaurant turns into a dancefloor: DJ at 10pm, kitchen until 11pm, and dancing until 2am. Basically, one night of pretending Graham Ave is the Adriatic Riviera.

If You’re Feeling Bougie 💅🏼

📷 Yves Saint Laurent and Photography · International Center of Photography · Lower East Side, Manhattan · through Aug 23 · 🎟 ticketed · included with admission

Nearly 300 photographs and archival objects show how Yves Saint Laurent used photography not simply to document his clothes, but to build the image of the brand itself. Avedon, Warhol, Leibovitz, Newton, Penn, and plenty more are represented—and together make a pretty convincing case that modern fashion marketing owes YSL a debt.

My Pick Last Week

Even if the idea of a “one man show” feels a little too artsy for you, the new play Kenrex may still be worth a shot. The genre-defying performance is based on a true crime podcast (yes, really) and is accompanied by some absolutely sick on-stage guitar solos. I thought it was weird, but I also loved it and attending one of the first shows its NYC run made me feel like a hipster in the best way possible 💁🏻‍♀️

One Closing Thing…

• Did this help you find your “one cool thing” this week? Share your experience in the comments!

• If there’s an upcoming event I should know about, feel free to post or DM me about it as well. I’m subscribed to approximately 1M newsletters, but I know I’m still not exposed to half the amazing things happening in this city.

• Finally, I’m still noodling on how to structure the sections and am open to suggestions.