If these events are not enough for you, Bwog recommends you check out the listings linked for National Poetry Month. On a tangent from that,  Bwog sincerely enjoys this charming photograph of New York poet Frank O’Hara (who will not be present at any of the events listed).

TONIGHT

Junot Díaz and Francisco Goldman at the Martin E. Segal Theatre, CUNY (365 5th Ave). “Acclaimed writers Junot Diaz and Francisco Goldman discuss writing lives, through history and fiction with Lynn Di Iorio, Assistant Professor of English at City College and The Graduate Center.” (FREE, 6:30-7:30PM)

Irezumi Ichidai (Tattooed Life) — part of Gamblers, Gangsters, and Other Anti-Heroes: The Japanese Yakuza Movie at the Asia Society and Museum. Before you become tired of anything upstanding in Japanese culture (see ongoing events), go see a movie about its intriguing underbelly. (7-9PM, $10 students)

11th Anniversary of Basement Bhangra at S.O.B.’s (200 Varick St, at W Houston St, Soho). Mumbai meets Mojitos: Multi-cultural match made in Heaven. Featuring DJ Rekha and Eddie Stats, with visuals by Fictive. Free mojitos from 7 to 8PM, and free dance lessons at 9PM. (7PM-? $12 w/flyer; $16 without; $5 before 8pm)

Jorie Graham at the New Museum (235 Bowery, SoHo). If you haven’t had the chance to check out the New Museum yet, tonight’s your chance. Your ticket gets you museum admission as well as Graham’s reading from her new collection of poems, Sea Change, in celebration of National Poetry Month. Seating is first-come, first-served. Go! Now! ($5, 7PM)

FRIDAY

Junot Diaz & Edward Hirsch at the Village Community School (272 W 10th St, between Greenwich and Washington Sts, West Village). If you missed him Thursday night, you’ve got another chance — this time with poet Edward Hirsch. Winner of the 2008 National Book Critics Award, Diaz reads from his latest fiction, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao with a book party to follow. Wow! (7PM, $5)

The Belcea Quartet at Carnegie Hall (Zankel stage). The young string quartet comprised of graduates from the Royal College of Music in London performs a program of Haydn, Bartók and Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden.” (7:30PM, $10 Students)



PICTOGRAM featuring Heather Kravas and Anthony Livingstone at The Kitchen. “The observation and sensation of ‘the dancing body’: a constantly shifting and coexisting space for love, boredom, violence, pleasure, excess, loss, and wonder. How can one give such work a title consisting only of words? Make the title a pictogram, an image to be uniquely interpreted by each viewer, much like the dance, much like the experience of dancing it.” The contemporary choreographers put on a show based on the idea of words, images, and societal customs. (8PM, $10 Students)



Prokofiev’s The Gambler at the Metropolitan Opera. Based on Dostoyevsky’s work, Valery Gergeiv conducts this production, “evoking the seamy underbelly of Czarist society, [which] is brought to life by a cast of Met veterans and the greatest Russian singers from Gergiev’s legendary Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, including Vladimir Galouzine and Olga Guryakova.” No general rush tickets are available on Fridays, but if you are lucky you can get a standing room ticket for pretty cheap too (and swipe an empty seat when no one’s looking). (8PM, $15-20 standing room)

Janeane Garofalo at Comix (353 W 14th St). Indulge your Gen-X nostalgia! Bwog recommends that after attending this event you go home and watch Kicking and Screaming. (8:30PM/10:45PM, $30 advance/$35 door)

Sunshine at Midnight presents The Muppet Movie at The Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema (143 East Houston Street). Bwog expects to see you all there. (MIDNIGHT, $11.50)

SATURDAY

PICTOGRAM featuring Heather Kravas and Anthony Livingstone at The Kitchen. See Friday listing. (8PM, $10 Students)

Janeane Garofalo at Comix (353 W 14th St). See Friday listing. (8:30PM/10:45PM, $30 advance/$35 door)

Sunshine at Midnight presents The Muppet Movie at The Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema (143 East Houston Street). See above listing. (MIDNIGHT, $11.50)

SUNDAY

Bobby McFerrin conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall (Perelman stage). The famed a-capella conducts a program of Prokofiev, Ravel, Fauré, and his own work with the chamber orchestra (not associated with the hospital across the street), vocalists Dominique Labelle and Nathan Gunn, and the Morgan State University Choir. (2PM, $10 Students)

The Handsome Furs and Violens at The Bowery Ballroom (6 Delancey St, at Bowery, Lower East Side). Animal Collective? Deerhoof? Wolf Parade? Grizzly Bears? What’s the deal with all the bestial bands? This Sunday, find out why everyone’s going primal over this X based addition to the alternative music scene. (7:30PM, $15)

ONGOING

Jellyfish at Angelika Film Center. Israeli film about a child who mysteriously emerges from the sea. (Opens Friday – see link for showtimes, $11.75)

Flight of the Red Balloon at IFC Center. Hou Hsiao-hsien directs a film inspired by the 1956 French classic. “Hou paints an intimate, note-perfect portrait of contemporary Parisian life, at times stressful and frustrating, but buoyed by affection, the power of art and the city’s timeless beauty.” (See link for showtimes, $11.50)

(C) Murakami and Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Traveling retrospective of neo-pop artist/Louis Vuitton muse Takashi Murakami. After you get oversaturated with cute Japanese images at the Murakami show, stay in the museum and check out their exhibit of old-timey Japanese images. (Murakami opens Saturday, $4 students)

2008 First-Year MFA Exhibition at The Nash Building (3280 Broadway @ 132nd Street, 5th Floor). Forget the Hunger strike. Support Columbia’s Starving Artists —  Manhattanville will forgive you this time around. (Opening reception Fri. 5PM-8PM/Exhibition Sat. & Sun. 11AM-4PM)

Close Encounters: Irving Penn’s Portraits of Artists and Writers at The Morgan Library & Museum (225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street). Impressive photographs of impressive people, including Marc Chagall, T.S. Eliot, George Grosz, Joan Miró, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and Igor Stravinsky. (FREE, see here for hours — ends next Sunday)