There’s no time to waste!

MONDAY

Check out the latest Tom Sachs installation, Space Program: Mars, in which the artist and his team enact a Mission to Mars! Interactivity, DIY, multimedia, and the extraterrestrial. A great combo if you ask me.

TUESDAY

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe is hosting a reading for the recent publication of the Lowbrow Reader Reader, an anthology of New York’s very own comedy journal, the Lowbrow Reader. Laugh a little with comedians Wyatt Cenac, Adam Green, and Supercute.

WEDNESDAY

“Get Strange” with a discussion at the Whitney Museum on the relationship between contemporary art and the debunking of social, political, and economic institutions through public performance and display. On the panel are artists Nora M. Alter, Hans Haacke, Liz Magic Laser, and Graham Parker.

The discussion is taking place in conjunction with the Creative Destruction exhibition at The Kitchen, which will feature events throughout June. Stay tuned to BOMB Alert for more info!

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Here is where you’ll find this weekend’s happenings: refreshing and cooool.

FRIDAY

As part of its monthly music series, Get Weird, The New Museum presents Graham Lambkin, formerly of Shadow Ring and now primarily known for his solo work, and C. Spencer Yeh, whose many current projects range from quartets to video performance, for an evening of music that promises to live up to the title of the series.

Photoville Brooklyn opens at the Brooklyn Bridge Park! Come partake in an exciting variety of activities and interests, including lectures, workshops, nighttime projections, and photo exhibitions on view in freight containers that will double as temporary gallery spaces for the next week and a half.

The Whitney offers a free tour of its ongoing exhibit, Singular Visions, in American Sign Language. Come participate in a different kind of tour, one that reaches the senses through a different mode, potentially spurring new ways of seeing and interpreting art. The exhibit presents work by artists Jonathan Borofsky, Alexander Calder, Eva Hesse, Matthew Day Jackson, Jasper Johns, Lee Krasner, Len Lye, Agnes Martin, Josephine Meckseper, and Fred Wilson.

SATURDAY

Blues Control will play from their album Valley Tangents, just out from Drag City Records, at 285 Kent. The band will be performing alongside several other bands and DJs, including Purling Hiss, Tonstartsbandht, Jordan Raedelli, Brian Turner, and Paul Major.

The Darmstadt Series continues at Issue Project Room with an evening of cutting edge, experimental music and performance. NYC music ensemble Either/Or will perform the work of composer/poet Chris Mann, while performance group Object Collection will offer an auditory experience of the unconventional sort.

SUNDAY

Head over to BookCourt for a reading hosted by the Brownstone Poets, featuring an excellent all-Brooklyn-based line-up.

Annette Insdorf, moderator of 92Y’s film series Reel Pieces, will host a reception at 92Y to celebrate her new book, Philip Kaufman (Contemporary Film Directors), a critical analysis of the filmmaker and his cinematic achievements. The evening will commence with a book signing and continue on with a screening of Kaufman’s mesmerizing 1974 forgotten classic, The White Dawn.

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So soak it up.

MONDAY

In conjunction with the summer reading series, Books Beneath the Bridge, the Community Bookstore presents beloved icon Patti Smith for a reading and book signing.

TUESDAY

The Community Bookstore, will also host a book launch party for Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by author David K. Randall.

Come celebrate the release of the new book by Joshua Cohen Four New Messages, at PowerHouse Arena, with an introduction by A Public Space founding editor Brigid Hughes.

Head over to Word for the launch of a new novel by Katie Kitamura, Gone to the Forest. Author Adam Rapp and news editor Sarah Weinman will join Kitamura to have a conversation about the book.

WEDNESDAY

A documentary by Dutch directors Rob Schröder and Gabriëlle Provaa, Meet the Fokkens opens at Film Forum, centering on the 69-year-old twin sisters Louise and Martine Fokkens, who’ve spent their lives working the red-light district of Amsterdam.

THURSDAY

In continuation of its free summer reading series, Poetry from the Rooftops, the Academy of American Poets presents an evening with Aracelis Girmay, A. Van Jordan, and Tom Sleigh.

Hudson River Park’s free outdoor concert series, RiverRocks, presents smashing performances by three musical groups, Grimes, Wild Nothing, and DIIV. Time to rock out on the river!

FRIDAY

Celebrating its 16th run, FringeNYC (or The New York International Fringe Festival) commences today, offering a VAST array of performances and shows produced by over 200 artistic groups, taking place over the course of the next two weeks in venues all over the city, plus more!

Burn the midnight oil at a late screening of cult favorite Fantastic Planet at Nitehawk Cinemas. This presentation of Rene Laloux’s hallucinatory classic will be enhanced by live musical support from Morricone Youth.

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It’s abundantly clear what you should do this week.

TUESDAY

Haunch of Venison proudly presents the first solo exhibition of London-based sculptor Kevin Francis Gray.

WEDNESDAY

Poet Paul Legault will read from his new English to English translation of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, The Emily Dickinson Reader, at PowerHouse Arena, alongside writers MacGregor Card, Dorothea Lasky, and Lynne Tillman.

Heliopolis presents the opening reception for Do It Awake (on Mysterious Mountain), a tri-part performance and gathering with artists Emma Corrall, Mollie McKinley, and Eliza Swann.

Come celebrate the beginning of the autumn season at Danspace Project by honoring the 100th birthday of the legendary John Cage. This reception is free and will feature performances by Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener, and So Percussion.

THURSDAY

See Covers by Katy Pyle and Jules Skloot, a combo of performance, music, and dance, exploring queer identity at the Bushwick Starr.

Emma Straub will read from her newly released novel Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures at BookCourt.

Documentarian and filmmaker Carlos Motta will host a reading at the New Museum with artists Chitra Ganesh, Andrea Geyer, Ryan Inouye, Thomas Lax, and Alex Segade, investigating textual influences on contemporary queer culture.

Stephen Powers, best known for his paintings/graffiti/public artworks, returns to NYC! Head to the Joshua Liner Gallery for the opening reception of his exhibition, A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures.

A new exhibition, loop, exploring the notion of diaspora, opens at MoCADA. The show is curated by Jessica N. Bell and Terence Nance, with works by artists including Mendi and Keith Obadike, Kevin Jerome Everson, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, BOMBlog’s Legacy Russell, O’Neil Lawrence, and Wilmer Wilson IV.

FRIDAY

A new exhibition of the work of Richard Tuttle, entitled Systems VII-XII, opens at the Pace Gallery, running through October 13.

The New Museum presents an evening of experimental musical performance in which two live musicians, Pauline Oliveros and Doug Van Nort will collaborate with an artificially intelligent element called FILTER, to produce improvised, interactive sound.

The Abrons Arts Center presents a new exhibition entitled El Regreso de los Dinosaurios, with an eye on contemporary Mexican visual culture. The show will feature artists Alejandro Almanza Pereda, Travis Boyer, Gabriela Alva Cal y Mayor, Ricardo Cid, Aurora Ixchel Pellizzi, GT Pellizzi, and Amanda Valdez.

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Rachel Mercer speaks with author Claire Vaye Watkins about her first collection of short stories, Battleborn, and about home, homesickness, and moving on.

Battleborn is Claire Vaye Watkins’s first collection of short stories. The author grew up in Nevada, and this particular setting infuses her work. While in each story a different set of characters grapples with a different set of problems—situated either in this millennium or way back in 1800s—the telling is consistently awash in the bright light, open spaces, and howling winds of the west. Location, minutely described, inherently felt, is the unifying force in Battleborn, similar to the way films about the Wild West begin with a panorama of a desert landscape. However, the book is no old Spaghetti. Watkins’s stories are undeniably modern: they portray everyday people in everyday situations, which are often bleak and uncertain.

In “Rondine al Nido,” two teenage girls visit Las Vegas for a night, finding themselves partying in a hotel room of a casino with three strange boys they’ve just met, and watching as the lines between right and wrong, fun and fatal, become blurred. In “Ghosts, Cowboys,” Watkins explores her family history, which includes her father’s involvement in the Charles Manson Family at Spahn Ranch in California during the late ’60s. “The Diggings,” set during the California Gold Rush, tells of the unraveling of the minds of two brothers as they search desperately for “color” in the unyielding waters of the river. “The Past Perfect, The Past Continuous, The Simple Past,” explores the inner world of a brothel in the Nevada desert—the people who live, work, and visit there, and the cracks and seams that run within each of them. Throughout the book, Watkins exposes and explores many paradoxes, quandaries that ground her characters and make them real.

I got in touch with Watkins and established our common southwestern roots before the interview began. Reading Battleborn called up in me the exact feeling of standing in the sun with a dry wind whipping my face, looking across the sagebrush at a dark blue storm building majestically on the horizon. This natural element serves as a backdrop for Watkins’s work, standing in contrast to the seedy towns—all strip malls and fast food chains, gimmicky tourist shops selling turquoise and silver, and power plants cutting the skyline—that populate much of the southwest. What moved me about the book was the way it captured both beauty and horror and how the juxtaposition of these realms spurs Watkins’s characters toward beautiful and horrific acts.

Rachel Mercer You incorporate a lot of history into your stories, especially “Ghosts, Cowboys” and “The Diggings.” I’m wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you go about researching—or if you knew all that information before—and how you integrate it into your fiction.

Claire Vaye Watkins Yeah, I knew everything. I’m omniscient, which is really helpful. (laughter) I always do a lot of research for every story, and in “The Diggings” and “Ghosts, Cowboys,” it’s probably more obvious—in “The Diggings” especially, because it’s historical. And “Ghosts, Cowboys” kind of foregrounds its constructedness so you can see that part of the accumulation of information is in fact what the character is interested in, thematically.

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This week’s screaming selection of stuff to stave off the summer slogs.

MONDAY

This evening, the Franklin Park Reading Series features a stunning slew of writers, who will read from their works to much applause and beer-drinking: Tayari Jones, Victor LaValle, Lincoln Michel, Courtney Maum, and Caitlin Elizabeth Harper.

Head over to the Spectacle to celebrate the launch of the 7th issue of The New Inquiry with an evening of long-forgotten and obscure short films having to do with cops.

TUESDAY

Author Richard Morais discusses his new novel Buddhaland Brooklyn, with his editor Phil Roosevelt at Greenlight Bookstore.

WEDNESDAY

Get PSYCHed. Get ELECTROfied. Get WARPed. Gary War plays a free show at 285 Kent.

Reflections on identity politics and geography: A new installation opens at MoMA, entitled Beyonsense, by performance- and written word-inspired artist collective Slavs and Tatars.

Matt Mondanile, from Real Estate and Predator Vision, performs solo as Ducktails, along with bands Splash and The Babies, at McCarren Park. Surf the sweet breeze of Wednesday night on some sweet tunes. It’ll keep you sailing through the rest of the week.

“BOMB Appétit!” Come celebrate Julia Childs’ 100 birthday at PowerHouse Arena with various chefs and food writers.

THURSDAY

Last chance to check out the exhibition at the Kitchen, which closes tomorrow, Matter Out of Place, featuring work by New York artists including Paul Branca, Frank Heath, David Horvitz, Fawn Krieger, Sara Jordenö, and Anna Lundh.

FRIDAY

Slip over to the Mercury Lounge on some black bananas. Rather, Black Bananas is playing a rocking show at Mercury Lounge.

Creative Time launches its first ever Sandcastle Competition! Hang out with artists on the beach, including, Ricci Albenda, Jen Catron & Paul Outlaw, Jen DeNike, William Lamson, Marie Lorenz, Mary Mattingly, Ryan McNamara, Kenya (Robinson), Dustin Yellin, and others, as they tap into their ancient sand skills, long-forgotten since childhood (or not). Prizes, snacks, refreshments, and an after party on the boardwalk with music supplied by DJ iDEATH.

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Kate Christensen and Lara Santoro come together to discuss their literary influences, the origins of greatness, and how to get things done in fiction.

Kate Christensen is the author of numerous novels, including The Great Man, (Doubleday, 2007) which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2008. I met Kate several Christmases ago at a holiday party in Taos, New Mexico, and was told she was a famous author who had graduated from the same college as me. She was humble, almost shy. It wasn’t until this year that I read The Great Man and discovered the brilliance of her writing.

Lara Santoro is the author of Mercy, a novel about a woman journalist working in Africa during the AIDS crisis, which was published in 2007 by Other Press and was a finalist for the Foreward Independent Press Award. Her novel The Boy is forthcoming from Little Brown in early 2013. Lara and I worked together at a small restaurant in Taos where I frequently pestered her, trying to glean as much insight about writing as I could during the busy, frantic hours of service. I admire her courage and forcefulness as a person and a writer.

To complete the circle, Lara and Kate met in Chicago in 2007, when they were both on book tour. After hearing one another read, they went out for dinner, which was, as Lara says, “the only fun I had on that tour.” The two writers discovered kindred spirits in one another and have kept in touch ever since. It was my pleasure to bring them together for this conversation, which took place through an exchange of emails, about the merits and pitfalls of American versus British literature, how to find the muse, and loneliness as a source for great writing.

Kate Christensen Hello, Lara! Do you read me?

Lara Santoro Hello, yes! I read you.

So here is the first question: Who, in your opinion, is the best American novelist alive—and dead?

KC The notion of “the best” is a hard thing for me to reckon with when it comes to novelists. First of all, I haven’t even read so many of my contemporaries. And my mind goes blank when I’m confronted with choosing absolute favorites among the enormous population of writers I love and admire, the huge mass of novels, of books. “The best” is a shifting, slippery thing. Writers I love and admire, that’s easier. You, for one. I think the greatest living writer is [J. M.] Coetzee, who isn’t American. Like most writers, I have always read everything, anything, indiscriminately and voraciously, cramming it all into my brain and digesting it and learning from it. A lot of my favorite writers are English, not American: George Eliot, for one. Do you have an idea of the best living and dead American writers?

LS Well I would have to say Cormac McCarthy and Daniel Woodrell among the living and Faulkner among the dead. Oh, and Flannery O’Connor. I think there is a vein in American literature that is concerned with tragedy in a way that the Russians for instance, who are constantly feeling the pain of the world and crying into their vodka, can’t begin to replicate. I think it’s the relative newness and rawness of the American experience, the speed at which it all happened, and it’s all reflected in the language, which is my main obsession. It’s interesting you mentioned Coetzee because Disgrace, to me, is a masterpiece in the same savage vein (and he’s not American otherwise he’d be up there). The prose is subtle, refined, chiseled in the European tradition—the sentences are longer, more articulated—whereas you read someone like Woodrell and you’re lucky if you get a comma, never mind a semicolon. Chandler is an example of someone who chose to reduce his sensitivity—which was essentially British—to gain immediacy in prose.

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Rachel Mercer on the stark and moving photography of Rineke Dijkstra, now on view with a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum.

As a photographer whose focus is portraiture, Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra, captures a range of vulnerable subjects, including children and teenagers, soldiers, bullfighters, and women who have literally just given birth and stand before the camera, naked, clutching their red, grub-like newborns to their chests. Dijkstra, is particularly well-known for her portrayals of adolescents, young children/adults in the throes of puberty. Her approach, in all her work, is tender yet unflinchingly honest. Her portraits are confrontational in the ways their subjects peer, stare, or glare at the viewer, and yet inviting at the same time; they draw us in, asking us to recognize ourselves in the faces of those before us. No matter whom Dijkstra depicts, her work is about vulnerability and transition. The identities of the subjects are often at stake in the photographs, as they are portrayed at liminal stages in their lives, and so the work is underscored by movement, the ever-present forward motion from birth to death, which is at the core of what it means to be human.

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Teetering on the edge? We are here to save you!

MONDAY

Alexander Melamid, in conjunction with (Art) Amalgamated, has opened a new branch of the Art Healing Ministry in Chelsea, the idea being that art can heal the many psychological, emotional, and even physiological ailments that plague our society today. As it says on the website, “In Art We Trust!”

Housing Works Bookstore Cafe is hosting a party this evening for Book Expo America, featuring many authors including, but not limited to, Emma Straub, Kate Christensen, Jennifer Egan, and Justin Taylor. Don’t miss this “Bookrageous Bash”!

TUESDAY

Bill Bollinger’s installation at Algus Greenspon is on view for just a few more days! (Exhibition ends June 9.) Don’t miss the chance to see works by this artist who is often associated with the likes of Richard Serra and Bruce Nauman.

WEDNESDAY

The Center for Fiction is hosting a special pairing of authors Joyce Carol Oates and Richard Ford for an evening of discussion focusing on their respective new books and what it means to be a writer. Get your literary fix here.

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July is heating up in more ways than one: right here.

FRIDAY

Head back to BAM to catch Czech New Wave classic Daisies.

285 Kent puts on an unreasonably energetic electronic showcase tonight, headlined by juke veteran DJ Rashad. Brave the heat and test your footwork against the frenetic beats of the legendary Chicago producer.

The New Museum presents a fresh exhibition in its Lobby Gallery, entitled Pictures from the Moon, featuring holographic works dating from the 1960s to the present, from a variety of established artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, Bruce Nauman, Eric Orr, Ed Ruscha, and James Turrell.

SATURDAY

Anthology Film Archives re-introduces works from the legendary documentary filmmaker, Robert Flaherty. Filmed in 1922 and lauded as the first feature-length documentary, Nanook of the North, will play on Saturday. And Man of Aran, Flaherty’s third major film, will be screened on Sunday.

The Spy Music Festival continues with Dustin Wong and Dan Friel performing at 285 Kent alongside White Out & Charles Gayle and PC Worship.

MoMA PS1’s outdoor series, Warm Up 2012, kicks off this weekend with an exciting line-up of artists hailing from Los Angeles and Toronto, as well as from New York City. Performances will be given by Todd Terry, X-Mix Productions, Light Asylum, Mexican Summer, Nguzunguzu, Fade to Mind, Hippos in Tanks, Trust, Arts and Crafts, Arca ft. HBA, and UNO. And this is just the beginning. This series, which celebrates music and performance poised on the very edge of the cutting edge, continues every Saturday through September, so stay tuned to Bomb Alert for more upcoming events!

SUNDAY

Joseph Keckler performs his I am an Opera at Joe’s Pub this evening, a brilliant operatic performance from a classically trained singer, but with a contemporary spin. You’ll see.

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It’s the fall season and New York is revving back up with art openings, book launches, and the first ever La Di Da Film Festival, plus so much more!

TUESDAY

As a complement to last week’s performance by Pauline Oliveros at the New Museum, composer, performer, and visual artist Arnold Dreyblatt presents his Turntable History / Spin Ensemble at Issue Project Room.

The Center for Fiction reopens for the fall season with a conversation between writers Joshua Cohen and Steve Stern.

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Don’t have a cow, man—there’s so much to do!

FRIDAY

If you’re feeling the need to traipse about the city, but with a little guidance, check out the 4th annual Hell’s Kitchen Studio Tours, an open house of sorts, where you’ll get to meet artists and see their work and workspaces. This goes on all weekend!

Come participate in a collaborative photo exchange. The artist, Kambui Olujimi, encourages viewers to bring a photograph of their own to swap with one of his. Show up and engage in some of that good old questioning of authorship! This event extends into Saturday and children are invited to participate.

SATURDAY

Honor the Lords of Literature on this day with several spectacular readings and events.

First, pop over to the Bowery Poetry Club for an installment of the Segue Reading Series, featuring Jena Osman, and one of our very own here at BOMB, Monica de la Torre. This series occurs every Saturday from 4-6 PM.

Then, continue on to the BookCourt for an evening of poetry, wine, and conversation hosted by the Pen American Center. This reading is affiliated with the NYC Lit Crawl, which also offers a wealth of information about literary events going on in the city.

SUNDAY

Head over to the Whitney Museum for a performance by K8 Hardy entitled Untitled Runway Show. No doubt this will be an entertaining and thought provoking multimedia event. Be sure not to miss it! And be sure to check out our article on K8 Hardy from the Spring issue of BOMB.

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We aim to make the quiet season less quiet.

MONDAY

Books Beneath the Bridge continues with a Short Story Night hosted by Word. The spectacular line-up of authors slated to read includes, Robin Black, Tania James, Rajesh Parameswaran, Jim Shepard, and Charles Yu.

Go see Salt-N-Pepa at Wingate Park. For free. Yes, Salt-N-Pepa. And also Public Enemy. Hm? What? Yes, that’s what I said.

TUESDAY

Three readings tonight: Take your pick.

BookCourt will host a release party for the novel, Dare Me, by Megan Abbott, which will include a reading from the author, audience Q & A, and book signing.

Alternatively, if you missed Books Beneath the Bridge, head over to McNally Jackson Bookstore to see Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, read from his new story collection, Sorry Please Thank You.

Or! Yes, there’s more: check out Karen Thompson Walker, reading from her new novel, The Age of Miracles, at the PowerHouse Arena.

WEDNESDAY

In celebration of having too many books (as if such a thing were possible), Ugly Ducking Presse is launching the Full Moon Sale, offering a special package deal of 70 UDP titles for under $5 per book! The sale begins today and lasts through the 3rd. Don’t miss out.

The Museum of Chinese in America will host a reading and discussion by Jeffery Yang from his translation of Chinese poet Liu Xiaobo’s collection of poems June Fourth Elegies.

THURSDAY

Unnameable Books is hosting a launch party for the Spring 2012 issue of The Literary Review. There will be readings by poets Cindy Cruz, Geoffrey Nutter, Tanya Paperny, and Martha Witt.

As part of the ongoing summer free music series at the Damrosch Bandshell, The Bad Plus will play along with Brandt Brauer Frick.

FRIDAY

Head upstate for Pork and Poetry at the Mt. Tremper Arts Summer Festival in Mount Tremper, NY. There will be a pork roast dinner, a small press gathering, and a poetry reading featuring Joe Fletcher, Paul Legault, Bianca Stone, and Ana Božičević.

Wander over to the Whitney for a visual description and touch tour of the Yayoi Kusama exhibition.

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It might be rainy today. It might be rainy tomorrow. But it might not be rainy tomorrow. Either way, go do something.

MONDAY

Brooklyn native and rapper El-P is holding a record release party for his next album CANCER4CURE at the Santos Party House. TONIGHT! QUICK!

TUESDAY

President of the National Book Critics Circle, Eric Banks, moderates a discussion about possible changes to the architectural plan of the New York Public Library.

WEDNESDAY

The opening of Common Ground, which brings together the work of an international group of contemporary artists, celebrates art in the public realm.

Mark Dery speaks about the publication of his new book “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts: Drive-By Essays on American Dread, American Dreams,” and more specifically discusses the relevant concept of “invisible literatures.”

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It’s time to get freaky with this week’s happenings

MONDAY

The summertime reading series Books Beneath the Bridge commences in the Brooklyn Bridge Park with Brian Francis Slattery reading from his novel Lost Everything, accompanied by an old-timey band.

The Franklin Park Reading Series continues with the theme “Travels and Journeys,” featuring writers Mark Leyner, Eric Sasson, Rupinder Gill, Matthue Roth, and Polly Bresnick.

TUESDAY

As part of its Art of Another Kind exhibition, the Guggenheim museum offers an evening of experimental music from the 1950s, by composers Earle Brown, John Cage, Giacinto Scelsi, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The music can be absorbed while observing works on view by such artists as Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, and Antoni Tàpies.

At BookCourt, Colson Whitehead reads from his book Zone One, just out in paperback.

WEDNESDAY

Poet extraordinaire, Mark Strand, will read from his most recent book, Almost Invisible, at 192 Books.

The work of visual artist Whitney Claflin will be on display with her exhibition As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too at the Thomas Erben Gallery for the rest of July. If you haven’t already stopped by to check it out, now’s the time.

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Peter Rock on the collection and distillation of information, the interplay between fictional and real worlds, and the dogged process of revision, in his new novel The Shelter Cycle.

In the fall of 2011, Peter Rock sent me an early draft of a book he was working on, asking for thoughts and comments. Subsequently, I read two more versions of what has become The Shelter Cycle, which will be published in early 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The novel centers on the lives of children who grew up in the 1980s in Montana and whose parents, along with many others, were involved in an organization called the Church Universal and Triumphant, led by a woman named Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Prophet warned about an imminent nuclear holocaust and offered salvation to those devoted to the Church, inspiring monumental efforts to build underground shelters for when the disaster reigned. On March 15, 1990, thousands of people disappeared into the subterranean shelters, believing they were bidding the world as they knew it goodbye.

While the past is the foundation for the story, the novel takes place twenty years later, focusing on several characters, now adults. Francine is happily married and about to give birth to her first child. She has been reticent about her past with her husband, Wells, but is forced to reckon with it when her childhood friend, Colville, appears at their door one night after the strange disappearance of a young girl in the neighborhood. This encounter spurs each of the characters on separate journeys, during which they must attempt to reconcile the past—all its contradictions and unanswered questions—with the present.

It was a pleasure to witness the development of The Shelter Cycle through its various drafts, to see the process by which the story and characters came into themselves. Pete’s work is highly attuned to the strange, the eerie, and he treats his subject matter—which is often off-kilter to begin with, and involves characters that exist on the fringes of society—with language that is spare and quiet, yet forceful. In his storytelling, Pete upends expectations and opens up possibilities, suggesting unforeseen and unfamiliar ways of seeing, thinking, feeling. I always feel unhinged after reading Pete’s writing, but also refreshed and invigorated.

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The goings-on for this weekend will give you the best kind of chills.

FRIDAY

This weekend Anthology Film Archives presents a special series, Sometimes Cities: Urban America Beyond NYC, a set of documentaries dealing with the plights and promises of often-forgotten metropolises in the United States. Included are films by Julien Temple, James Gaffney, Martin Lucas, Jonathan Miller, Stephen Lighthill, Tom Jarmusch, and Chad Freidrichs.

The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space will open Cultural Transference, an interdisciplinary show focusing on cross-pollination between contemporary culture and art. These interstices will be plumbed by a talented and diverse group of young artists, including Pablo Helguera, Christopher K. Ho, and Dread Scott.

SATURDAY

CLMP kicks off the 13th Annual Lit Mag Marathon Weekend with The Magathon, a marathon reading in which editors will present a wide variety of literary magazines, including your very own BOMB! Other journals will include 6×6, A Public Space, Conjunctions, Bellevue Literary Review, Literal Magazine, BOOKFORUM, The Literary Review, The Common, and Washington Square Review. Don’t miss this chance to get submerged into the wonderful world of literary magazines and journals!

First shown in Switzerland in 2011, Polly Apfelbaum’s installation Haunted House opens this evening at T Space in Rhinebeck, NY. The first viewing will run from 3-6:00 PM.

SUNDAY

In addition to the Magathon on Saturday, CLMP is also hosting a HUGE magazine sale at the Housingworks Bookstore Cafe, where a vast array of literary publications will be available for just $2 each.

In conjunction with Williamsburg’s Reverse Space, curatorial group AD Projects brings you Spectrum Vision, an electrifying exploration of alternate and potential constructions of reality. Spectrum Vision will run until June 30, but today is your only chance to view a public exhibition of Amanda Browder’s CHROMATIC HI-FIVE!, a massive vehicular sculpture that is being showcased outdoors as part of the Northside Festival. HEAVYPET will contribute sonic accompaniment from 6–9:00 PM.

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Your bi-weekly forecast of events, openings, happenings, shakedowns, showdowns, and hoedowns around town.

FRIDAY

Take to the streets with Bushwick Open Studios, a neighborhood event that brings artists and performers together and invites viewers into the inner sanctums (sancti? sancta?) of the studios where all the brilliance is created. Equal parts art fair, festival, and block party, BOS promises good amounts of community celebration and inspiration. BOS starts today and goes through Sunday!

While you’re exploring all BOS has to offer, be sure to check out Parallel Art Space, where Amanda Valdez and her collective will be featured with their inaugural show, Same Same but Different.

Another highlight of the weekend, in conjunction with BOS, is Bushwick Basel, a smaller scale fair in its own right, which will be held at Jules de Balincourt’s studio, Starr Space.

SATURDAY

Creative Destruction continues at The Kitchen, with a panel discussion at the Whitney on the reformulating of public space in relation to recent global protest movements.

The Robert Miller Gallery is featuring a stunning triad of artists in the current exhibition: Diane Arbus, Bill Henson, and Robert Mapplethorpe. In addition, Yayoi Kusama is in the Project Room of the gallery.

SUNDAY

Wind down easy on a Sunday afternoon by heading over to the Miguel Abreu Gallery to check out the current exhibition, which brings together six artists working in a wide range of media and drawn together by the common theme of Surface Affect. The show will be up until June 24.

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. . . all the important things you need to know.

MONDAY

Who gives a shit about literary magazines? WE DO! That’s why we want you to come to a discussion on this important topic, hosted by The Coffin Factory at BookCourt. The panelists will include Lorin Stein of The Paris Review, Rob Spillman of Tin House, John Freeman of Granta, and Randy Rosenthal of The Coffin Factory.

Go see Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays at Anthology Film Archives as part of the series highlighting the screenwriting work of writers known as novelists.

The Performa Institute presents a panel discussion exploring the relationship between dance and the art world, with critical contributions from Jennifer Homans, Ralph Lemon, Jenny Schlenzka, David Velasco, and RosaLee Goldberg.

The Brooklyn Book Festival is upon us, folks. Head to Public Assembly for an opening party, hosted by Tumblr, Electric Literature, the New Inquiry, and the LA Review of Books. Dancing and drinking will ensue.

TUESDAY

Feeling creepy? Richard Matheson’s House of Usher is playing at Anthology Film Archives as part of the novelists-as-screenwriters series. Vincent says “Go.”

Painter Jason Bryant’s exhibition Smoke and Mirrors opened last week at porter/contemporary. Go check it out.

The 5th Annual Registry Exhibition at BRIC Arts opened last week, featuring 8 Artists Making Sculpture. The show features Arielle Falk, Jamie Felton, MaryKate Maher, Abraham McNally, Jong Oh, Carolyn Salas, Ian Umlauf, and Matthew C. Wilson, and will be on view until October 8.

Victor LaValle will read from his new novel The Devil in Silver at the Center for Fiction. This is a free event!

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Here’s the latest and the greatest for this weekend’s entertainment:

FRIDAY

Performance artists Andrew Dinwiddie and Michelle Ellsworth will perform together at Danspace Project, a collaboration that promises to be raucous, entertaining, zany, and maybe a little weird. But weird is good, right? Right.

Times Square Arts presents Chorus, a new public art installation by Kiki Smith. Rainbow-colored star clusters made of various types of cut glass, sparkling in the sunshine, dazzling you . . . sounds lovely.

SATURDAY

Something sweet? Kissing! In her presentation—ahem, The Kiss —at Location One, Maria José Arjona utilizes sound, video, and performance to explore in depth and dissect this ubiquitous act of connection.

The exhibit An Accumulation of Information Taken from Here to There is on at Sperone Westwater, highlighting several American and European artists who worked in the ‘60s and ‘70s, experimenting with then-new artistic forms and procedures.

SUNDAY

“Folds of skin, an opened armpit, a tuft of hair, the delicate veins in the hand—” This is just a taste of the new work on display in the Lobby Gallery of the New Museum by New York painter Ellen Alfest. Don’t pass up a chance to check out this thought-provoking presentation, entitled Head and Plant.

Peter Watkins’s film Punishment Park is on screen at the Spectacle, a documentary made in 1970, dealing with cultural dissent, corruption within the United States military system, and civil and constitutional rights supposedly every American should be able to take for granted. Head over to the theater for a late-night dose of heavy reality.

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We tell you how to maintain your youth.

MONDAY

In event of the recent re-release of his novel, Snowball’s Chance, author John Reed will give a lecture at the New York Public Library on the mechanics of storytelling and the relationship between literature and culture.

TUESDAY

At BookCourt Bruce Wagner reads from his new novel Dead Stars, whose characters are situated within the frightening reality of a society obsessed with reality TV, voyeurism, and celebrity.

Shake a leg at 92YTribeca with The Bandana Splits, a three-woman harmony that takes its inspiration from the pop sounds of the age of golden oldies, and Well Informed, a Brooklyn-based duet that harkens back to the same era.

WEDNESDAY

The American Folk Art Museum presents DARGER/MELVILLE: The Debauchery of Weather: A Literary Mash-Up, an exploration of the literary and visual works of Henry Darger and Herman Melville. Curator Kevin Miller, writer Nicole Haroutunian, and actor Josh Weinstein will come together to read and perform excerpts.

It’s what you’ve been waiting for: a film series devoted entirely to Jeff Bridges. It’s at 92YTribeca, folks, JB before The Dude. In the spirit of this, go see Starman tonight.

THURSDAY

It’s your last chance to check out Other Arrangements, the film program organized by Frédéric Moffet at the New Museum, featuring shorts from various filmmakers, exploring the facets of queer identity from a range of perspectives.

FRIDAY

As part of its Get Weird series, the New Museum presents two bands. Dunes, a post-punk group hailing from LA, recently released their album Noctiluca with PPM Records. Household is a Brooklyn-based trio with sound that is crisp, energetic, and will most definitely make you want to tap your feet.

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Putting the world back together at the last minute.

MONDAY

Tonight, join us at BookCourt for our Summer Launch Party! We will be celebrating the release of Bomb’s Summer Issue with several of our wonderful contributors, including Joshua Cohen, Wayne Koestenbaum, Justin Lieberman, Lynn Melnick and B. Wurtz. We’d love to see you!

This is the last chance to check out photographer Matthew Brandt’s exhibition Lakes, Trees and Honeybees, on view at the Yossi Milo Gallery until Friday!

TUESDAY

In conjunction with its exhibition Young Curators, New Ideas IV’s ERRATUM, the Meulensteen presents excerpt hearts performance, part musical exploration of love, with niv Acosta, Tess Dworman, and BOMBlog’s Art Editor, Legacy Russell.

Word hosts a reading this evening in association with Akashic Books and the Brooklyn Rail. Many excellent authors will appear and read their words, including Donald Breckenridge, Mickey Hess, Nathan Larson, Joe Meno, and Leigh Stein.

WEDNESDAY

The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research kicks off a new series of classes, Spinoza and Mendelssohn: Politics of the Sacred and Profane, which will explore notions of political theology and the secular through a comparative textual study. Get your brain on!

The New Museum hosts a conversation between artists Otto Piene and Massimiliano Gioni about art and technology.

THURSDAY

Chekov’s Uncle Vanya, reinterpreted by writer Annie Baker and director Sam Gold, is up at Soho Rep until August 26!

FRIDAY

Curbs and Stoops, in collaboration with Rhythmology, present their first pop-up art exhibition, featuring Mexican-American painter and installation artist, Francisco Moreno. Moreno’s solo show, Las Noticias explores issues of assimilation and immersion in the terms of the immigrant’s experience entering into American culture. The artist will give a lecture Thursday, and the opening reception will be held Friday.

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This is real, not fake.

MONDAY

Head to Hous Projects gallery to catch two photo exhibits by artists Scott Davis and Tara Bogart before they close September 1.

It’s also your last chance to catch The Parade, Nathalie Djurberg’s eerie and unnerving show, up at the New Museum until September 2.

Catch The Landlord at BAM this evening, a comic and poignant portrait of race relations in NYC in the 1970s.

TUESDAY

Bryant Park’s Word for Word Poetry series presents an evening of ekphrastic poetry, featuring Eduardo C. Corral, Sharon Dolin, Dean Kostos, and Michael T. Young.

WEDNESDAY

Join author of Snowball’s Chance, John Reed, and president of the National Book Critics Circle, Eric Banks, at McNally Jackson for a lively literary debate.

Victor LaValle will read from his recent novel, The Devil in Silver, at BookCourt.

THURSDAY

In anticipation of the new exhibition, NEWSFEED: Anonymity & Social Media in African Revolutions and Beyond Curatorial Series, opening on October 18, MoCADA and Greenlight Bookstore are hosting a supplementary reading series. Head to MoCADA for the second installment of this series, Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action That Changed America by Writers for the 99%, with Amity Paye and Jessica Moore.

Head to EFA Project Space for a reception and open house featuring works by artists who participated in the 2012 Residency for Arts Workers as Artists, including Jonathan Durham, Francis Estrada, Howard Halle, Elizabeth Hamby, Jamie Kim, Naomi Miller and Sarah Walko.

FRIDAY

Flash back to cinema of the 1970s with Turkish film Kartal Yuvasi at The Spectacle, or Rock and Roll High School at Nitehawk. Vastly varied; take your pick.

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Laziness does NOT find respectability in the the deep of summer! Here are things for you to do.

MONDAY

Anthology Film Archives will hold its Annual Film Preservation Honors and Benefit as a way to acknowledge and appreciate important contributors. The honorees this year will be Cinetech, The Women’s Film Preservation Fund, and Richard Pena. The evening will feature performances from DJ Michael O’Neill and Bush Tetras, with special guests Richard Barone and Felice Rosser, as well as cocktails, things to munch, and a rather tantalizing raffle.

TUESDAY

Head to The Kitchen to experience an unusual pairing of contemporary music with silent experimental films. Cinema 16 presents five different cinematic works, including Standish Lawder’s ColorFilm and Len Lye’s Color Cry, overlaid by a musical score designed by New York artist Matteah Baim.

WEDNESDAY

The Guggenheim Museum will host an opening reception for a retrospective of the work of Dutch artist, Rineke Dijkstra. The show will feature a wealth of photographic pieces, as well as several video installations. The opening is a members-only event and the exhibition will be open to the public Friday the 29th.

Celebrate the release of the Coffin Factory’s third issue at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, with readings by various talented literary persons, including Chinelo Okapranta, Sam Allingham, Ali Hosseini, Lara Vapnyar, and Justin Taylor.

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Or let us do it for you with this week’s dynamite directory of peachy possibilities.

MONDAY

As part of the 2012 HOT! Festival, Dixon Place presents FUMBLING: A Queer Tribute to Sarah McLachlan. A talented cast of artists including NathAnn Carrera, Jessica Halem, Elizabeth Koke, Katie Liederman, Bryn Kelly, Jeanne Vaccaro, Chris Tyler, and Justin Vahala will perform interpretive and commemorative explorations of individual tracks from McLachlan’s album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy.

Don’t miss your opportunity to watch John Huston’s classic film The Maltese Falcon under the stars in Bryant Park.

TUESDAY

LIMITED TIME ONLY, co-directed by BOMBlog Arts Editor Legacy Russell, invites you to participate in MAD-LIB[rary] a self-directed curatorial adventure at the ICI’s Curatorial Hub in TriBeCa. This unconventional creative experiment, which is produced in collaboration with the Feminist Press, will feature editions from BOMB Senior Editor Mónica de la Torre, John Reed, J. Morrison, and Clifford Owens, among many others.

Seattle-based duo Shabazz Palaces brings its wildly fresh and abstract hip hop to Fort Greene Park for a free show beginning at 6 PM. Longtime collaborators THEESatisfaction will open things up.

The Brooklyn Institute of Social Research launches a new series of classes on Realism, which will explore notions of what is real in the context of historically situated literature through various fictional and theoretical readings and discussion.

WEDNESDAY

Christian Marclay’s staggering video project The Clock will run through the end of July. Head down to Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium early to gain free admission.

McCarren Park’s Summerscreen, which pairs live musical performances with outdoor film screenings, will show Dirty Dancing at 8 PM this evening. The event will begin at 6 PM with sets by Vaz and Prince Ramaand, as well as a secret band, which may or may not by Telepathe . . .

THURSDAY

SculptureCenter’s retrospective of the work of minimalist sculptor Bill Bollinger concludes on July 30.

Biographer Lisa Cohen discusses her debut work All We Know: Three Lives, a tripartite study of the lives of Ester Murphy, Mercedes de Acosta, and Madge Garland, with New Yorker critic Hilton Als at Greenlight Books

Head down to Pier 84 in Hudson River Park for free show featuring Oberhofer, The Soft Pack, and Royal Bangs.

FRIDAY

Joshua Cohen reads from his collection of novellas, Four New Messages, at 192 Books at 7 PM. Four New Messages won’t be available for purchase until August 7, but you can read an excerpt from “Sent” by purchasing a copy of BOMB Issue 120 or subscribing.

Never Sorry, which chronicles the political and artistic practices of renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, opens today at the IFC Center.

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It’s getting heavy around here; we’re trying to keep you organized.

MONDAY

We all know zombies are a popular subject these days, in films, books, and the public imagination. Learn about the history of these nonpeople and the place they have held in various cultures before infecting ours, through a new class at the Brooklyn Institute entitled ‘Zombi’ and the Politics of Representation, starting today.

TUESDAY

At the Center for Fiction, authors Susan Richards Shreve and Elizabeth Strout will read from their respective novels, You Are the Love of My Life and Olive Kitteridge.

WEDNESDAY

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is hosting another evening of beatboxing slam reinterpretation of great literature with the Hip Hop Book Club, curated and hosted by Kid Lucky and Susan Hwang. This week, featured hip hop artists Spiritchild, Beatsmyth, and Luquantum Leap, among others, will engage with Grimm’s Fairytales . . . and see what comes up.

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Leaves turn, light wanes, temps drop; BOMB never quits.

MONDAY

As part of PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now, dancer Trajal Harrell performs his ANTIGONE JR. at Danspace Project.

The history of art in New York runs deep. Get a little educated or just pay homage with a visit to Come Closer: Art Around the Bowery 1969-1989, the new exhibition on view at the New Museum, featuring works by artists including Barbara Ess, Keith Haring, Christy Rupp, Billy Sullivan, Robin Winters, Martin Wong, and more.

TUESDAY

Artists Space hosts a reading with Chris Kraus and Jim Fletcher to celebrate the launch of Kraus’s new novel, Summer of Hate.

The ANIMAL FARM Reading Series presents an evening with authors John Reed (who will read from his novel Snowball’s Chance), Ginger Strand, Hope Ewing, and James Suffern.

As part of the Mischief and Mayhem Reading Series, authors Jaime Manrique and Goce Smilevski will read at Le Poisson Rouge.

Anthology Film Archives presents a series in honor of Judson Dance Theater’s 50th anniversary. Go see Lives of Performers and Connecticut Rehearsal by filmmaker and choreographer Yvonne Rainer.

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Never a day late, always very rich.

TUESDAY

Catch a Museum Highlights tour of the Brooklyn Museum.

Wade Guyton’s OS is linked and influenced by the technologies of our time: computers, scanners, and printers. Check it out at the Whitney.

Stray Light Grey, a collaboration between Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe is an installation of parallel corridors, chambers and passageways that gives a distorted vision of a metropolis.

WEDNESDAY

Take in some tunes at Le Poisson Rouge! Save the Village: A Benefit Show will provide the stage for musical masters John Zorn, Thurston Moore, Jesse Harris, TriBeCaStan, Flutterbox, John Kelly, Gary Lucas, Red Baraat, David Amram and MYCALE.

Anthology Film Archives presents a special program featuring experimental filmmaker Tony Conrad. The program will run for two days with screenings of some of Conrad’s more obscure and unknown works. It takes place in conjunction with the exhibit at NYU’s 80WSE gallery, which opens on Friday.

In conjunction with ZOOPSIA, the exhibition of new paintings by Jenny Lynn McNutt at Art101, a reading and discussion will take place in the gallery space between poet Tom Sleigh and McNutt, exploring the relationship between art and poetry.

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Holding you hostage and making you do things since 1981. In a good way.

MONDAY

The Franklin Park Reading Series continues tonight with readings from five authors you would be a sad sap to miss: A.M. Homes, Emma Straub, Michael Kimball, Scott McClanahan, and Marie-Helene Bertino. Get a beer and get down with some contemporary lit.

Head over to the Lincoln Center Campus for the latest edition of The New Salon, featuring readings by award-winning poets Henri Cole and Jean Valentine.

As part of their ongoing series Born in Flames: New Queer Cinema, BAMcinématek is screening a collection of shorts by artists associated with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), such as Zoe Leonard and Gregg Bordowitz. The directors will be present for a post-screening Q&A.

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