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 date in the subject line.
MONDAY, 9.17: Even if I weren’t going to Japan at the end of the month, Monday evening’s reading of Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace at 192 Books would still be a must-do… “In 2003 he was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. He moved to Japan in his early 20s to teach English and never went back to the UK. He tried for several years to to make a go of being a hard core punk musician and then turned to writing.” The novel, his first published in the U.S., and praised for its “complex style” by Publisher’s Weekly, sounds all kinds of brilliant. Highly recommended. 7PM, FREE.
TUESDAY, 9.18: I personally do not care for the Columbia Journalism Review but I simply ADORE Mark Sarvas, who will be participating in the discussion, and so I am recommending this event with highest praise: “In the cover article of the September issue of the Columbia Journalism Review, Steve Wasserman, former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, takes on the case of the vanishing coverage of books. Springing from that article, CJR will present a panel discussion on the subject–at 7 p.m on Tuesday, September 18 in the third-floor lecture hall of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. The discussion will feature five leading figures of the book world.” FREE. Downtown, the PAGE series unwraps the plastic on a brand-new season.
WEDNESDAY, 9.19: Smart Set reader Cappi at Knopf writes in to remind us that, “Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, will be making his first U.S. appearances since the publication of his new work, Other Colors: Essays and A Story, this Wednesday, Sept. 19 at The New York Public Library at 7 p.m., with a reception to follow, and this Thursday, Sept. 20th at Barnes & Noble, Union Square at 7 p.m.” Wow, brilliant. Plus, Cate Martin does Mixer!
THURSDAY, 9.20: The 92nd Street Y presents an essential reading: Edwidge Danticat and Zakes Mda. $10 tickets for under-35s are a true innovation and it’s great to see them expanding their audience. Thursday’s a perfect day to discover the Y if you’ve never been. Downtown, Levi Asher and his hooligan beatnik chums take over the Bowery Poetry Club. Can you dig that Happy Hour, man? I’m already deciding what to wear. 6:30pm, $6.
FRIDAY, 9.21: Mississippi phenom Kate Bingaman-Burt’s Obsessive Consumption opens at jen bekman. 6 – 8PM, FREE.
SATURDAY, 9.22: I usually consider it worth a trip to the Low Countries to view artistic masterworks, but in this case, the Upper East Side is much more convenient as the Met presents “The Age of Rembrandt.”
SUNDAY, 9.23: At Anthology Film Archives, “Loosely adapted from DON QUIXOTE and largely inspired by Robert Bresson’s LANCELOT DU LAC and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s BLISSFULLY YOURS, QUIXOTIC is a captivating celebration of landscape, a wry rumination on the theme of idealism and a daring exercise in cinematic minimalism. In Albert Serra’s version of Cervantes’ chivalrous comedy, the elderly knight and his companion Sancho pass the time bathing, bickering and bumming around…Yet Serra punctuates the proceedings with sublime moments of grace, wonder and tenderness.” –Jason Anderson, EYE WEEKLY” 2006, 110 minutes, 35mm. In Catalan with English subtitles. U.S. Theatrical Premiere Run!
Soundtrack to this post: Anything by Omaha outfit CAPGUN COUP, which played the (Downtown) Omaha Lit Fest closing party at the library and is surely destined for big, big things. I was tote-ally starstruck when I saw one of the band members at Film Streams the next day. Tote-ally.