Welcome to Gotham City
Let's Get This Party Started
“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless” – Simone de Beauvoir
Welcome to a very special newsletter put together by a group of friends who love New York City. Every three weeks, we curate and recommend the most fun and interesting under-the-radar activities and events for people who truly want to take advantage of everything the city has to offer. Our motto: Friends don’t let other friends be boring.
While the “same old same old” activities have their merits, and we love those too, we know there is FAR more than meets the eye in this city, and in many cases, they score higher on the blast scale.
Our rules are simple: 1) We provide recommendations in advance of the activities taking place. Nothing we write is sold out as of the time you receive the newsletter. 2) We only write about things that we either have seen/done or bought tickets for. 3) Every recommendation has a direct URL link to the event and where to buy tickets. 4) Our newsletter is succinct so your time is well spent. 5) The activities themselves can cost anywhere from nothing to a lot more. What matters most is the experience.
If you enjoy the newsletter, and especially if you love going to the places we recommend, please forward this to your friends and family, and drop us a line at whaddyawant@gothamcity.com
Brought to you by the Gotham City Rollers = Drew Kerr, Jan Renner, and Joel Roodman
ENERGY MUSIC CURFEW HOUR with Chris Thile and The Punch Brothers - Season 2
Minetta Lane (Audible) Theater
18 Minetta Lane
January 18, February 13, 18, 24
Mandolin genius/madman Chris Thile and his Punch Brothers band host an all-acoustic musical variety show with very notable guests for each performance. The scenario is (their words) set up in a fictitious, not-so-distant future where “diminishing resources and extreme weather have ushered in a worldwide effort to ration electricity. America has instituted a weekly ‘energy curfew’ where the power grid goes down completely and we all live electricity-free for 24 hours.” Season 2 guests haven’t been announced yet.
WHY GO? Season 1 guests included Norah Jones, Jason Isbell, Lake Street Dive, Jon Batiste, Kacey Musgraves, and James Taylor. The Minetta Lane Theater has 391 seats. Need we say more?
THE LOSERS LOUNGE TRIBUTE TO YACHT ROCK
Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater
Friday, February 21 and Saturday, February 22nd (7:00 and 9:30 pm)
Sunday, February 23rd (6 pm and 8:30 pm)
425 Lafayette Street
$60 per ticket (2 drink or 1 food minimum)
Bring on the cheese from the 70s and 80s – New York’s most popular tribute band digs into the era of Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Kenny Loggins, and numerous one-hit wonders. Don’t mistake the Losers Lounge for hokey costumes or pyrotechnics. They’re a core group of the city’s busiest and most talented musicians and singers led by former Psychedelic Furs keyboardist McGinty. They bring on a different amazing singer for each song, and you can tell they are having a total blast. Losers Lounge fandom cuts across three or four generations and they sell out most of their shows.
WHY GO? Even millennials know Fleetwood Mac songs. So who can resist singing along to the famous Losers Lounge performing “Ride Like The Wind,” “What A Fool Believes,” and “Africa?”
PRO TIP: Check out the excellent Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary now streaming on Max featuring Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Toto, Christopher Cross, and others.
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
The Quad Cinema
34 West 13th Street
Now Playing
With all the (well-deserved) hype about A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, and Nosferatu, there is one magnificent holiday film that doesn’t have the same marketing budget and screening in only one New York theater. Directors Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière have mounted an exciting, pulpy retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ revenge classic The Count of Monte Cristo that is one of the winter’s best films. The reviews were some of the best this season (97% on Rotten Tomatoes!), yet it’s totally under the radar. Don’t miss out on this one.
WHY GO? The Count of Monte Cristo feels like a Hollywood throwback epic of the highest quality (except everybody speaks French!). The devilishly clever revenge plot, which falls into delicious place after some very patient planning, is one for the ages
The Quad is one of NYC’s most beloved art movie houses, all the more so since the addition of the charming Quad Bar, where you can grab a drink before, after, or to go.
BLUES DANCE NEW YORK
Last Friday of the month = lessons and live music for beginners
Second Saturday of the month = lessons and DJ music for intermediate and advance
$25 lesson and dance
$20 dance only
$10 entrance after 11:30 pm
If you want to get your feet shuffling, but salsa will make you dizzy and ballroom is too formal, have we got a place for you. Blues Dance New York offers blues dancing lessons and live music to classic rhythm and blues music from the 50s and 60s. Blues dancing is hip swaying, legs twisting, and feet dragging, and not necessarily fast either.
WHY GO? Great down and dirty blues music that is not the usual disco and foxtrot. Friday night gigs are specifically for beginners. It’s super social, good exercise, and who couldn’t use a few new shuffle steps in their moves?
JUST IN TIME
Starring Jonathan Groff
Circle In The Square
235 West 50th Street
Previews Start March 28
When Jonathan Groff stars in any show, your radar should go up. When it’s directed by Alex Timbers, you know it’s not going to be just any show. Groff plays Mr. “Mack The Knife” himself, legendary singer/songwriter/actor Bobby Darin, in a unique nightclub setting-style bio musical.
WHY GO? It’s Groff’s first musical since taking home the Tony and other awards as one of the three stars in the acclaimed revival of the Sondheim musical Merrily We Go Along. Timbers is known as one of the more creative theater directors in town, having steered Moulin Rouge and Beetlejuice. And it’s Bobby Darrin, for God sake – “Dream Lover,” “Beyond The Sea,” “Splish Splash.”
RUN, DON’T WALK
Mark January 17th on your calendar for the long-awaited season 2 of the brilliant thriller/satire Severance starring Adam Scott on Apple TV+.
This music podcast is so cool that John Mulaney just name-dropped it on the “Tonight Show,” uber-producer Rick Rubin interviewed the host for 2 hours on his own podcast, and The New Yorker wrote a love letter to it. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get hooked on A History Of Rock Music in 500 Songs hosted by Andrew Hickey.
The Jewish Film Festival opens with rock and roll at Lincoln Center on Thursday, January 16th with two screenings of the bio pic Midas Man, about The Beatles’ first manager, Brian Epstein.
Chef Nirupa Konijeti hosts Bazaar, a monthly four-course supper club at her Prospect Heights apartment, fusing South Asian flavors and a global cuisine of her choice. For example, Indian and Lebanese or Indian and Italian. Aperitifs are always served and everybody leaves with an amazing goodie bag. 12 seats for each monthly dinner at 6 pm. Dinner is $125 per person.
WHAT WE DID LATELY
Chef’s table seats for the sampling menu at the “new Mexican” restaurant Corima in Chinatown. Not impossible to get – 3 weeks in advance. Last February, food writer Ryan Sutton wrote he thinks about Corima’s tasting menu “in the same obsessive way that other folks think about tickets to The Eras Tour.”
Bought an Air France premium economy ticket to Paris for October by transferring a mere 35,000 points to the airline’s Flying Blue program. Normal ticket price: $1,124. Booking 7-10 months out can improve your odds greatly of scoring excellent award seats on most airlines. Want to get started travel hacking? Begin here with this MaxMilesPoints playlist on YouTube.
Scooped up a pair of half-price tix to the hot revival of the musical Gypsy on Theatr, a new marketplace app for sellers getting rid of their tickets at the last minute.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
In honor of the late great Wayne Osmond, who passed away right after New Year, we present you with the cheesiest 70s Stevie Wonder medley with Cher and The Osmonds you’ve ever seen.
I met one of you at Bazaar last night! Looking forward to reading your substack