Last week Paula Scher's exhibit of painted city maps opened at the Maya Stendhal Gallery (running through January 26th). The Pentagram design firm partner has created the looks of the Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the High Line, the Asia Society (and more) through logos. This exhibit expands on her Maps series which took over the gallery last year, and depicts "entire continents, countries and cities from all......

MUSIC: Frequenter of the Hotel Chelsea, Country Joe McDonald (pictured at Woodstock) will be taking the Joe's Pub stage tonight to perform a tribute to Woody Guthrie where he "deftly conveys all the charm, talent, and social and political consciousness of the legendary folksinger from Oklahoma." 7pm // Joe’s Pub [425 Lafayette St] // $30 EVENT: Move over spelling bee...The Define-a-Thon Word Challenge hits Brooklyn tonight. The competitive word challenge is good for the spelling-impaired,......

The NY Sun takes a look at the impact of graphic design firm Pentagram on the city’s arts institutions. The article focuses mostly on partner Paula Scher, who has created identities for the Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the High Line, the Asia Society and a host of others. Scher, who designed the original “Boston” album in 1976, is now designing for the Park Avenue Armory and Drill Hall,......

Barefoot in the Park Central Park Film Festival Saturday, 8 pm To close out this year's Central Park Film Festival, five nights of free out door movies in the park, the organizers put it to the people to choose the ultimate date night movie featuring our fair city. Out of Hitch, The Way We Were and Barefoot in the Park, Gothamist thinks the city chose wisely and well. If you've never seen the movie version......

MUSIC: Not long ago we saw the movie Once, and absolutely loved it. Busker meets girl, deep connection through music...you get the idea. Now the two main characters are touring and singing the songs from the soundtrack. The male lead was of course the singer of The Frames, Glen Hansard, and his female counterpoint is Marketa Irglova. Tonight they take the stage at Gramercy, so it's your chance to see them off the big screen......

READING: Have you thought about Rereading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë lately? Writers and Brontë enthusiasts Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt and Margot Livesey have! Tonight they celebrate the "heart-searing story of a plain, orphaned governess who struggles at an oppressive boarding school before moving to Thornfield, eventually falling in love with her mysterious employer, Mr. Rochester." The event coincides with a new Masterpiece Theatre presentation of Jane Eyre. 7:30pm // Symphony Space [95th and Broadway]......

EVENT: McSweeney's Presents an all-star benefit will feature an indie-rock supergroup made up of Dante Decaro and Hadji Bakara (of Wolf Parade), Nick Diamonds and Jamie Thompson (of Islands), Amber Webber (of Black Mountain) and Syd Butler (of Les Savy Fav). Authors Joshua Davis (Underdog), David Rakoff (Fraud) and Rodney Rothman (Early Bird) will also be on hand. And that's not all! Daily Show correspondent John Oliver will be on hand for some laughs. All......

READING: Alice Walker's daughter, Rebecca Walker, reads from her book "Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood after a Lifetime of Ambivalence". Babies, family, pregnancy...will all be discussed. 7pm // Barnes & Noble [675 Sixth Ave] // Free EVENT: Ever wonder how Shakespeare would respond to current events? Well someone did, and now there's an event series, Conversations with Shakespeare, based around what he would do if he were alive today. In other words, WWSD? This week "your......

Just a thought as we look ahead to this week's new releases. Someone should really take Diane Keaton aside to tell her that this series of increasingly painful looking romantic comedies where she plays an over-the-top meddling mom aren't good for her cinematic legacy. The newest installment is the Mandy Moore romantic comedy, Because I Said So, where Keaton plays a mother desperate to marry off her headstrong youngest daughter. Please Diane, after loving you......

EVENT: Tonight PowerHouse books is having a signing event for the release of photographer Ron Galella's "Disco Years". This visual diary of the New York club scene in the 70's and 80's is sure to make you nostalgic for Studio 54 - even if that was before your time. 5:30 to 7pm // Rizzoli Bookstore [31 W 57th btw 5th & 6th] // Free THEATER: The workaday lives of office temps are brightened by rumors......

Oliver Stone may have already unleashed on moviegoers his melodramatic vision of 9/11 with World Trade Center but even if you don't want to see the wreckage recreated on screen, there's way more filling New York movie screens. Two flicks to appeal to the teen and pre-teen audiences: Step Up is a dance school movie about a boy from the wrong side of the tracks (Channing Tatum) and the slightly prissy girl (Jenna Dewan) who......

Action adventure, animated sci-fi, iconic '80s actresses and French sexual intrigue—this weekend is a good one for movie going in New York. Draw your swords landlubbers, Gore Verbinski's sequel to his bombastic film based on an amusement park ride is out this weekend, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. In this installment, shot at the same time as the forthcoming part III, Johnny Depp's brilliant Jack Sparrow searches for Davy Jones's chest to free......

Tomorrow is Bloomsday, the day chronicled in James Joyce's Ulysses. And for the 25th year, Symphony Space has a full Bloomsday on Broadway celebration, focusing on "on Mr. Leopold Bloom's spiritual son, Stephen Dedelus (aka James Joyce), with readings from Ulysses, Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners." The events start at noon tomorrow, and the final performance is the inimitable Fionnula Flanagan reading Molly Bloom's monologue (aka, "The Fully Molly") at 10PM till whenever she......

THEATER: The Debate Society's "Snow Hen" was a quirky, dreamy take on an old Scandinavian folk tale about the Black Death; now, in "The Eaten Heart," the talented trio of Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen, and Oliver Butler riff on an Italian view of the plague, Boccaccio's bawdy classic Decameron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decameron as the second part of a plague trilogy. This is a workshop production, so while the group's work always seems fresh and engagingly inchoate, here......

...this week has got it all. Kick it off tonight at the South Street Seaport Museum (Melville Gallery, 213 Water Street), as the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings presents Robert Freeman Wexler (his latest novel is Circus of the Grand Design) and Gregory Frost (with his latest, Attack of the Jazz Giants). The reading starts at 7PM and the suggested donation is $5. Tomorrow night (4/5), head down to KGB Bar (85 E.......

This week’s repertory options want to take New York moviegoers around the world and back again via the silver screen. But spring has finally sprung like so many daffodils in the new theatrical releases category as well, so there are lots to see all over the city this weekend. Aaron Eckhart, an actor who’s been building his career on playing delightfully dimpled bad guys continues his dastardly trend with the tobacco industry satire, Thank You......

Maybe it's been a while since you sat down with some Law & Order Franchise and you've been missing your facetime with your Dr. George Huang, portrayed by the preternaturally calm B.D. Wong. We know we've been missing him lately, so tonight's the night to head over to Symphony Space (95th and Broadway) to check out Wong and Stephen Lang read stories from Roald Dahl and J. Robert Lennon, as part of the Selected Shorts......

This week at the movies, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that the new releases are seriously scrapping the bottom of the quality bucket. How many weeks now has it been that we've had this complaint? The good news is that, as per usual, there's load of other fascinating movie related events In New York to sink your teeth into with relish. Someday soon someone should tally up the release record......

It's a packed week for the bookish types, with a couple of our favorite love-to-hate-them New York novelists on the readings circuit. Yeah, we're talking about the Jonathans. On Wednesday (2/22) Lethem is hosting a short-story evening at Symphony Space (W. 92nd St. and Broadway), with stories by James Thurber, Italo Calvino, and Jorge Luis Borges read by Malachy McCourt, Maria Tucci and Isaiah Sheffer. The show starts at 8PM and costs $21/25. And not......

We know it's fashion week, but Gothamist prides itself on offering all kinds of other, more bookish delights for those not inclined to prowl the tents at Bryant Park. Kicking off this week, Symphony Space (95th and Broadway) is hosting Banned: Stories by Censored Writers and Dissidents, with work by authors from Iran and Indonesia. The show starts at 6:30PM on 2/8 and costs $25, less for members. At KGB Bar (85 E. 4th St.)......

We know it's cold outside, but trust us, this is a good week for literature (unlike last week, coughFREYcough). We've got some real fiction, some real non-fiction, and even a real memoir! The fun kicks off tonight at 7PM at 192 Books (10th Ave. at 21st St.) with Caroline Burke reading from Lee Miller: A Life, her new biography of the photographer. Seating is limited, so call (212) 255-4022 for reservations. Because of the reservation......

So when it was unveiled that the designers on Project Runway would be making clothes for a Barbie doll last week the first thing that came to our mind was: "Man, it'd be so much hotter if they were making clothes for Miss Piggy." (Is that wrong?) Sadly, we are all just going to have to wait to see the Muppets tackle the reality genre. But if you're looking for something to do this......

Today Gothamist has quite the conundrum on its hands…with so many good shows happening this week all over our fair city, how do we narrow it all down? There’s a bit of a hodge-podge of things happening tonight, so rather than file them all under comedy, it’s probably safer to refer to them as a canon of miscellany. The first option we are mulling over is the eclectic variety show Sxip’s Hour of Charm, happening......

It's quite the red letter week for us bookish types, with the prestigious, sometimes baffling, and oft-maligned National Book Awards dinner and awards ceremony tomorrow night where trophies will be bestowed, granted, totally robbed, whatever, at the Marriott Marquis. To that end, critic A.O. Scott has an interesting article about the contradictions and complications inherent to the awards, Medal Fatigue (registration required). Garrison Keillor is the Master of Ceremonies which, frankly, is why Gothamist wishes......

FAIR: The WFMU Record & CD Fair is this weekend. Hundreds of music dealers will be there to help with your vinyl fix. Sift through obscurities and maybe you'll find what you've been searching for on eBay for the past 4 months. All Weekend // Friday 7-10pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am-7pm // Metropolitan Pavilion [125 W 18th St] // $5 ART OPENING: Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth collaborates with Leah Singer for Drift. Ranaldo brings......

Gothamist loves Sufjan Stevens. We think Illinois is perhaps the best album of 2005 and that he is one of the finest songwriters of our generation. So maybe we just had too many expectations for one of our favorites. Or maybe it was too many margaritas at Festival while waiting for the (awfully late) 11:45 start time to come around. Hate to say it, but we were rather disappointed by Saturday night's show. There was......

As the number of shopping days tick down in the single digets, you may have a few people on your list who call themselves cinephiles. Or at the very least are movie-lovers. In which case we have a few gift giving suggestions for the season. And if you've finished all your shopping already, remember that Gothamist has been a very good little weblog this year... The Incredibles Interactive Talking Edna Doll -- She's a sassy,......

On Friday Gothamist went to check out Paul Auster and Billy Martin perform at Symphony Space in an event called My Mouth Is Tired Now (although Martin says his personal theme for the show was "The Music of Chance is Always Playing".) We walked into the space with no expectations and as we slid down in our seat, the lights dimmed and our minds opened to take in whatever we were about to see and......

Gothamist was excited to hear about the collaboration of two New Yorkers we respect on different parts of the creative spectrum. Tonight musician Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) and author Paul Auster will join forces at the Thalia Theater for a performance guaranteed to be unlike any other. Martin will curate and lead a trio to accompany Auster in the reading of Timbuktu and City of Glass. Musicians Marty Ehrlich and Doug......

Like Gothamist, you're so into Hero right now, aren't you? You've taken to wearing monochromatic colored ensembles on different days of the week. (Tuesday felt like sea-foam green, didn't it?) You've been doodling "Flying Snow Hearts Broken Sword 4-Ever" on random scraps pieces of paper. You're obsessed. It's cool. We know how it goes. Now you're wondering, where did Chinese director Zhang Yimou's operatic tendencies so stirringly evident in Hero come from? Perhaps a look......