The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30pm and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please send details to lauren [at] maudnewton.com by the Thursday prior to publication, with the event’s date in the subject line.
TUESDAY, 2.20: At Dance Theater Workshop, the world premiere of Plum House (A Cartoon): “Vicky Shick, who has masterfully created works that are full and supple yet quiet, invites the audience into a world of claustrophobic busyness… The evening also features a revival of the critically lauded duet Repair. As danced by Jodi Melnick and Shick, this ‘beautiful, tough, and even a bit perverse’ (The New York Times) work reveals a personality exploding with extravagance.” 7:30pm, $12.
WEDNESDAY, 2.21: “Scandinavia House presents a special opportunity to meet the next generation of Nordic filmmakers and see their latest work. The program features short films by five Scandinavian artists currently based in New York…With highly original takes on a variety of scenariosâ€â€a troubled teenager embarks on a complex relationship with a single mother in her 20s, a young boy encounters death for the first time, two strangers meet up in a motel room to determine the fate of a parrotâ€â€the films represent a smörgÃ¥sbord of new work by some of Scandinavia’s most talented young filmmakers.” Highly recommended. 6:30pm, FREE.
THURSDAY, 2.22: “Starting this week, there’s a whole new dimension to the Maxx Klaxon live experience. The Maxx Klaxon Outreach Unit (Maxx + bassist and vocalist Marlene Mars) will debut their dazzling multimedia show…Also appearing will be solo electro performers Kumabear and Vector Zero. As always, Maxx’s music mixes sensual synths, post-punk bass guitar, robotic vocoders, and booming beats, to deliver a dark, clever take on love and politics. But now the entire live set is accompanied by full-stage video projections (designed by Maxx himself).” At The Tank. This week’s pick! 8:30pm, $5. And, The Brooklyn Rail presents Fiction Night at the Strand, with readings by T Cooper, author of Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes, Sigrid Nunez, author of The Last of Her Kind, and Lynne Tillman, American Genius. 7:00pm, FREE. Plus, “Double Agents: An Evening with Contemporary Russian Artists, with Keith Gessen, New York magazine and the literary journal n+1; authors Laura Vapnyar and Gary Shteyngart; and painter Albert Fayngold, Baruch College. Moderated by Andre Aciman, The Graduate Center. (Center for the Humanities).” At The Graduate Center, CUNY. 6:30pm.
FRIDAY, 2.23: At the French Institute Alliance Francaise, “Pamela Golbin, author and editor of Balenciaga Paris (Thames and Hudson), discusses the designer described by Christian Dior as “the master of us all.  Two main periods are explored in depth: 1937-1968, when Cristobal Balenciaga made his name during Paris’s golden age of fashion; and 1996-2006, the revival of the House of Balenciaga under Nicolas Ghesquière, one of the most celebrated designers in contemporary fashion. Golbin is curator of twentieth-century and contemporary fashion at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris.” 7:00pm, $12. Plus, Walter Kirn, whose discussion of “Power Animals” in Thumbsucker left such an impression on me that I immediately spent too much money on a silly necklace with an admittedly very totemic swan design, reads from his latest, The Unbinding, at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side (82nd & Broadway). 7:00pm, FREE.
SATURDAY, 2.24: In Chelsea, indulge your best bad habit at a book sale to “Support Homeless and Formerly Homeless New Yorkers and the Youth Programs of Episcopal Charities.” 12:00 – 6:00pm.
SUNDAY, 2.25: Daniel Alarcon and Francisco Goldman read as part of KGB’s Sunday Night Fiction series. 7:00pm, FREE.
Plus, an HONORABLE MENTION: I’m going down to Philadelphia for a reading this Thursday by debut novelist Robert Marshall (who, full disclosure, as always, is one of my PR clients) and since I’ve only been there once or twice, I think I’ll spend the afternoon in the city. Philly Smart Set readers: your cafe, art, culture, vintage shopping et al suggestions in the Center City area are most welcome (lauren [at] maudnewton dot com)!