ART: "Drawing Art and Politics" seems like a fitting event to have on the calendar today. "Spend an evening with New York’s renowned graphic artists Jules Feiffer, David Levine, Stan Mack, and Edward Sorel, as they examine the ways in which complex social and political issues are depicted by artists in today’s media. Jules Feiffer will moderate a discussion that explores the roots of political art and social realism in the context of John Sloan’s......

READING: Olympia Dukakis, who you know from such films as Moonstruck and Steel Magnolias, will be at Barnes & Noble tonight. She'll be reading from a brand spakin' new edition of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children. She recently put down the Oscar and picked up a pen to write the forward to the antiwar classic. 7pm // Barnes & Noble [1972 Broadway] // Free EVENT: Tonight the Raw Word Reading hits Galapagos,......

Recently, legend became reality when a 10-story building in SoHo was being converted to a luxury condo. Unearthed in the walls was a large mural created by graffiti pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Futura 2000.The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker and whatever else was on hand — in silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoonlike pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a......

EVENT: Tonight, as part of the recurring Upstairs at the Square event, Nellie McKay plays tunes from her latest, Obligatory Villager and host Katherine Lanpher talks with author and filmmaker Antonio Monda. Monda's new book Do You Believe? Conversations on God and Religion will hit shelves soon -- and tonight he'll relay the discussions he had about religion with folks like Spike Lee and David Lynch. 7pm // Barnes & Noble [33 E 17th St]......

THEATER: The annual Soho Think Tank Ice Factory, arguably New York’s most impeccably curated theater festival, has been hosting an exhilarating array of new shows every weekend since July 4th . Starting tonight you can sink your teeth into Vampire University, in which “a struggling vampire family descends on an evangelical college in the Midwest, the dad’s mid-life crisis of immortality triggers a desire to come back to life and the gulf between first and......

MUSIC: If you haven't checked out the Summer of Love exhibit at the Whitney, head over there after work and get a double dose of rock while you're at it. Tonight Dirty Projectors and Lucky Dragons take the stage at Whitney Live. Get there early to get in. Check out this "Take Away Show" in New York featuring the Dirty Projectors. Friday // 6pm // The Whitney [945 Madison Ave at 75th St] // Free......

READINGS: Jonathan Lethem reads from his new novel You Don't Love Me Yet. In it, Lethem leaves Boerum Hill for LA "to recount the near-fame experience of a Los Angeles alternative rock band". A girl, a boy and a band - sounds like a hipster love story to us! 7pm // Barnes & Noble [33 E 17th St] // Free Saul Austerlitz talks about his book Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video.......

THEATER: Strings, a new play by Carole Bugge, is loosely based on a real-life train ride in which American physicists Burt Ovrut, Paul Steinhardt and English physicist Neil Turok tweaked the Big Bang theory – and changed it forever. In Bugge’s version, three fictionalized characters – physicist George, his cosmologist wife June and string theorist Rory – spend the trip arguing physics and examining old scars of jealousy and infidelity. En route, the trio is......

THEATER: Self-proclaimed “super-ultra-nerd” Brooke O’Harra has spawned Panic at P.S. 122. Written by Rafael Spregelburd, her production invokes the mood of low-budget horror movies to tell the tale of a mother and her two children as they attempt to recover the key to their safety deposit box - from the hands of the dead! Panic is part of the Buenos Aires in Translation (BAiT) festival, featuring the U.S. premieres of four playwrights from Argentina’s capital,......

READINGS: Mark Helprin, author of the whimsical and weird Freddy and Fredericka (reviewed on Gothamist) will be reading from the novel at the 7th Ave Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn. We suspect the witty parts will be even more witty when read in a British accent, so head on down. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 7pm // Barnes & Noble [267 7th Ave. in Park Slope] // Free THEATER: As the behemoth Fringe Festival stands up,......

ART: On the Couch: Cartoons From the New Yorker is a collection of cartoons from the magazine which Bob Mankoff (the cartoon editor) says focuses on “the shrink and the shrunk, the practitioner and the practiced upon.” So we're sure you'll all be able to relate, somehow. 10am to 5pm // The Museum of New York [1220 5th Ave] // $9 YOGA: Just reading the words "sunset yoga" is relaxing. Tonight you can actually head......

EVENT: Every time a new song by Madonna, Bloc Party or...anyone really, come sout - it's pretty safe to say it'll be remixed within a week. Tonight DJ Spooky discusses the art of the remix at the Apple Store. All you need is a little imagination, some knowledge of modern sampling and production techniques and, of course, a Mac. 6:30pm // Soho Apple Store [103 Prince St] // Free THEATER: Off-off-Broadway and schlocky B movies:......

THEATER: The Ohio Theater is the site of two of summer's best play festivals, and the first, Clubbed Thumb's eleventh Summerworks, started yesterday with Anne Washburn's I Have Loved Strangers, "in which true prophets, false prophets, and non-prophets battle for the salvation of ancient New York." On the company's website http://www.clubbedthumb.org/ you can do some "research" before going, via various eyebrow-raising links; or you can just rely on the winning trifecta of excellent track records:......

May 27: Habana Outpost's Grand Reopening Habana Outpost is reopening with a day full of festivities and eco-dining. In addition to enjoying their Cuban/Mexican menu, you can support local artists at their open air market, listen to drummers, watch capoeira, or stay late for the "surprise" musical performance at 9pm or burlesque at 10pm. 757 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, 718-858-9500. May 27 - May 29: Broadway Panhandler's Moving Sale While we wait eagerly for their new......

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author. It’s hard to imagine a quirkier, more compelling idea for a character than a half-Irish salesman, jazz aficionado, and ladies’ man who also happens to be Adolf Hitler’s nephew. It might not even be possible to dream up such a creation, and in fact Mark Kassen......

Right now we feel like the bear climbing the mountain of previews, knowing that in a couple weeks we'll reach the top and see a whole slew of shows opening (at least, that’s how we like to sing the mountain-climbing bear song). We can hardly wait for later in March when everything’s in full swing, but there’s more than enough to keep us awash in Playbills…er, hand-folded programs…for now. It feels like the fall EATFest......

Sometimes it’s hard not to think that really, it’s Barbie’s world, we just live in it. For the next two weekends, we can at least amp up the experience: starting today at the always-awesome Ohio Theatre is the Barbie Project, a multimedia, multigenre workshop by White Bird Productions that takes a good long look at the fantastic plastic doll’s role in shaping our world. Funnyman Paul Boocock (a Gothamist interviewee fresh off his one-man......

Fashionistas and music snobs descend upon the city over the next week with both CMJ and Fashion Week starting. We'll most likely only be attending the former. Before it begins though, we'll ease into the hectic schedule with a few of the following events...even if we should be resting up for the week ahead. PARADE: Some downtown blocks will play host to The Art Parade this weekend, with artists parading toward Soho on foot and......

The weekend is here, and unfortunately our run of nice weather has run out. The rains will be coming. Luckily the city is prepared with plenty of indoor activities to enjoy, and if you're not scared of getting a little wet there is some outdoor fun to be had as well. FILM: Hopefully the rain will hold off until after tonight. As the Tribeca Film Festival will be airing the comedic masterpiece Monty Python and......