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.
MONDAY, 1.29: The Reader’s Room at Mo Pitkin’s, hosted by Emilie Stewart and Leigh Newman, promises you will be “wowed by Jim Shepard, and swept away to foreign lands (which sometimes means a cruise ship) by debut novelist (and former international lounge singer) Lara Tupper.” 7:00pm, one drink minimum.
TUESDAY, 1.30: At the New York Public Library, “Novelists Richard Price and Colum McCann, a former Cullman Center Fellow, talk about the arts and crafts of writing fiction, and about McCann’s new novel, Zoli.” 7:00pm, $15.
WEDNESDAY, 1.31: Open City continues its monthly reading series at KGB with Vestal McIntyre and Rakesh Satyal (who will hopefully also kick out the jams). 7:00pm, FREE. And, “Jonathan LeVine Gallery and BrazilFoundation will host Ruas de São Paulo: A Benefit Art Auction on January 31, 2007 from 7pm to 10pm at The Newspace, located at 530 West 21st Street in Chelsea. The benefit is organized to raise funds for eight Brazilian street artists from São Paulo and Choque Cultural Gallery representatives to participate in a multi-tiered cultural immersion in New York City.” Admission is $30, which makes you BFF with Brazil or something.
THURSDAY, 2.1: Pranksters, Bluestockings, EXCELLENT. Also, at Anthology Film Archives: “An intensely intimate portrait of Japanese literary figure Mitsuharu Inoue. Born in 1926, Inoue was a member of the Japanese Communist party and his book CHI NO MURE was nominated for the highest literary prize in Japan. He was also a maddeningly complex person: on the one hand revered by students and colleagues alike; on the other, an unrepentant womanizer and a shameless liar.” 8:30pm, $8.
FRIDAY, 2.2: When I was planning out the week’s listings, I totally forgot about Friday. Let’s see… I hear that boldness is back in fashion. I’m sure you can think of something daring to do.
SATURDAY, 2.3: Last chance for: “The Gotham Chamber Opera is New York City’s leading opera company dedicated to the highest quality productions of chamber operas rarely performed in opera houses today. Our mission is to present vibrant, fully-staged productions of works from the Baroque era to the present that are intended for intimate venues… Rossini’s comic one-act opera IL SIGNOR BRUSCHINO, first presented at the Teatro Moise in Venice in 1813, paved the way for Rossini’s burst of stardom with the premiere of Tancredia mere ten days later. Gotham’s production of IL SIGNOR BRUSCHINO is set in the sexy and stylish world of Rome’s Via Veneto circa 1960: molto Fellini.”
SUNDAY, 2.4: Pretend to be too focused on rolling that cigarette to notice the Fairway across the street, and amble on nonplussed down to the waterfront, my little bohemians, as Sundays at Sunny’s presents an afternoon with Virginia Vitzthum reading from I Love You Let’s Meet: Adventures in Online Dating, and Brandon Stosuy, editor of Up Is Up, But So Is Down: New York’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992. 3:00pm, $3 suggested includes free coffee and Italian pastries, which are really, really good.