THEATER: Multi-talented and multi-gender performer Justin Bond – the beloved Tony-nominated Kiki from Kiki & Herb – vows to heat up the frigid East Village with Lustre, A Midwinter Trans-Fest. The cabaret show, which opened last night, promises to be a "fast and loose" night of music, dance and monologues for, by, or about transgender people, with a smattering of "neo-pagan revolutionary Appalachian-inspired folk songs." Bond's joined in the festivities by musical director Our......

LECTURE: NYU and the Department of Sanitation present a trash talk tonight, titled: Gotham and its Garbage: A History of the Department of Sanitation. The illustrated lecture will include an exhibition tour and status report on the DSNY Museum-in-the-Making (which we wrote about last year). Robin Nagle, Ph.D., DSNY Anthropologist-in-Residence, and Haidy Geismar, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology, NYU will both be there to lead the discussion. 6pm (also this Sunday at 6pm) // 136 W......

If you’re the type of parent who wears a Ramones T-shirt to a P.T.A. meeting, the idea of taking your kids to some sappy Christmas show is probably abhorrent; you wouldn’t be caught dead at Radio City’s spectacular and schlepping into Times Square to spend a fortune on “Grinch” is unthinkable. But if you’d still like to catch a holiday show with the whole family, there’s a limited-time-only alternative in the heart of the......

EVENT: Come feel the love at the hotel QT tonight, as the Love party returns. Get those swimsuits out of storage, because there's a pool! And don't worry, the open vodka bar (8-9) will help you warm up. Friday // 7pm to 2am // Hotel QT [125 W 45th St] // Free MUSIC: There's a lot of music options for your Friday night. First up, at Bowery Ballroom, Brooklynites A Place to Bury Strangers and......

PARTY: Haven't gotten your fill of holiday office party fun this season? Metro Metro reminds all of its faux-ployees that their office party is tonight! "This is a reminder going out to all fake employees about the Metro Metro Holiday Office Party. Please join us in celebrating the holidays by assuming a fake job title and hobnobbing with fake co-workers over genuine drinks. Need inspiration for potential job titles, such as Associate with the Bad......

PARTY: Though we were sad to see former editor, Colleen Kane, depart the media mothership of maleness, Playgirl magazine...the show must go on. Tonight come celebrate their January issue and their 2008 centerfold calender...all at once. Free booze and gift bags for all! 7 to 10pm // Happy Ending [302 Broome St] // Free THEATER: For “sophisticated literate slapstick, big on laughs highbrow and low,” Culturebot recommends 500 Clown Frankenstein. Although the cast is 497......

EVENT: Julian Schnabel will be screening clips from his latest flick, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tonight. Lou Reed, who Schnabel recently documented in Lou Reed’s Berlin, will also be on hand. 7pm // Apple Store [103 Prince St] // Free READING: The Desk Set's "Drinks with an Author" series continues tonight at Greenpoint's WORD. This evening chat with Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer, authors of How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter......

EVENT: White Castle is sponsoring an "over the top" (heh) event today at Port Authority...it's the 30th Annual White Castle Empire State Golden Arm Tournament of Champions. Over 100 ladies and gents will face off to become the arm wrestling champ! The event starts at 12:30 and the finals begin at 3:30pm. More info here. 12:30 and 3:30pm // Port Authority Bus Terminal [North Wing/Main Concourse at 625 8th Ave] // Free MUSIC: The Scotland......

The city is showing the door to a daycare facility that has called P.S. 122 its home for 26 years. The Children's Liberation Daycare Center (CLDC), which serves 88 kids between the ages of 2 and 6, is going to court later this month to object to its ejection from the building, with no plan for the daycare center's return. The CLDC shares P.S. 122 with three arts organizations and it's the city's Dept. of......

Except for the large banner hanging from the scaffolding outside Pasta Wafu, you would hardly know it was there. It is tucked in the long and narrow space behind the usually packed Ramen Setagaya, and the name on the door still reads "Oriental Spoon," it's former incarnation as a Japanese tapas restaurant, which itself only opened in July. But Pasta Wafu is all new and features Japanese style pasta, and sushi, and Italian food--all......

ART: Duke Riley brings his latest exhibit, After the Battle of Brooklyn: East River Incognita II, to Magnan Projects. Starting tonight and showing through December 22nd, the works imagine New York during the Revolutionary War and "interweave historical and contemporary events with elements of fiction and myth to create allegorical histories. His re-imagined narratives comment on a range of issues from the cultural impact of overdevelopment and gentrification of waterfront communities to contradictions within political......

HAPPY HOUR: You read the Onion, and you probably drink whiskey...so why not combine the two tonight? The Onion crew enjoys the simple pleasures of life in WIlliamsburg with some free Jameson Irish Whiskey in the name of alcohol preservation. 7 to 9pm // Live at Rose [345 Grand St, Williamsburg] // Free, RSVP nypromo (a) theonion.com EVENT: Mikhail Baryshnikov, ballet superstar, has joined forces with illustrator Vladimir Radunsky in creating Because..., a children's book.......

Tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m., the Municipal Arts Society is holding a meeting at Hunter College to present a brainstormed plan for making the East River waterfront in Manhattan's midtown an accessible public waterfront. The idea is that if the rebuilding of the FDR Drive, the decommissioning of the Con Ed power plant, and the expansion of the U.N. are coordinated, there is the opportunity for a waterfront park to be built, and completing the......

Everybody wants to be a rock star, perhaps none more ardently than theater folk, some of whom have been prodding the form toward rock since the sixties. Sam Shepard famously insisted that he wanted to be a rock and roll star, not a playwright; recently the likes of theater company Les Freres Corbusier and playwright Adam Rapp (who moonlights in a band) have expressed a sensible desire to tap into the Bowery Ballroom demographic.......

SCIENCE: The UnCoolKids always know about all the best science events. Tonight is The Revolution in Physics at the Turn of the 20th Century, featuring “a presentation by Richard Liboff, Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of Central Florida, formerly Professor of applied physics, applied mathematics, and electrical engineering at Cornell University, author of the best- selling college text book, Introductory Quantum Mechanics, featured in “Spider-Man 2" movie.” 5:30pm // NYPL, Science, Industry and Business Library......

FILM: Who doesn't like a rendez-vous? Tonight come to Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. The event is in its 12th year and will introduce you to what's been playing on Parisian movie screens. Tonight is the first night and Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose plays - the film will educate you on French legend Edith Piaf. Through March 11th // Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts [70 Lincoln Center Plaza] // $22......

Today the NY Times introduces us to the man behind some of the city’s most boring buildings. Costas Kondylis, aka the Developer’s Architect, is a skyscraper-embracing traditionalist whose clients have included Donald Trump, Larry Silverstein, Related Companies (developer of the Time Warner Center), Forest City Ratner Companies (developer of The New York Times building and, of course, the Atlantic Yards project) and Vornado Realty Trust (the Penn Plaza towers), among others. Kondylis, who's worked on......

VACATION: The Greater Fort Lauderdale visitors' bureau has brought the Sunshine State to NYC in the form of a 3,600-square foot virtual vacation. The space includes a palm tree-lined "beach", complimentary mini-massages and, of course, bikini clad models. Virtual fishing, golf and more, will make you forget the sudden drop in temperature. Through 6pm // The Bank Building [20 Union Square East] // Free READING: Nancy Reardon, who penned "On-Camera: How to Report, Anchor and......

THEATER: It’s Friday night, and what better way to cut loose than an evening of interactive theater – set in plague-ravaged New York City! In All Fall Down, a savage battle rages for the dwindling supplies of the vaccine, but soon a question arises: "Is the cure worse than the disease?" Theatre Recrudescence vows to explore our “post 9/11 hysteria with elements of carnival, clowning and rock and roll.” (All Fall Down is in previews,......

READING: Here's something awesome to spice up your week - from Housing Works Used Book Cafe's website: "Jest Fest 06, a celebration of the 10th Anniversary of David Foster Wallace's INFINITE JEST. Join John Krasinski (The Office), Todd Hanson (The Onion), Lev Grossman (Time Magazine), and Laura Miller (Salon) in reading from and talking about the book. Audience participation strongly encouraged!" Nerdy goodness abounds! - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 7pm // Housing Works Used Book Cafe......

THEATER: Jude Narita's one-woman show, Walk the Mountain, is about the hellish effects of the Vietnam War. In the wrong hands, this might make for an unbearably ponderous evening, but the Times review puts us at ease: “In dramatizing unspeakably horrific events, must an artist end up brutalizing her audience as well? [Jude Narita] reminds us that it's possible for a performer to treat both her material and her audience with respect.” For Walk the......

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed - Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, 'It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be......

The NY Sun looks at the strange but-more-common-than-you'd-think phenomenon of New Yorkers waiting for things. Well, in addition to Magnolia cupcakes and Shake Shack (yeah, you knew it) burgers and shakes, the Sun listed some waits:HALAL GYRO AND CHICKEN Sixth Avenue at 53rd Street Waiting for: A hefty platter of meat, rice, salad and secret sauce combination. Peak time: 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., and midnight to 3 a.m., Fridays and Saturdays Average wait time:......

September 3: Outstanding in the Field Join guest chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune for a five-course al fresco dinner featuring produce harvested from the surrounding fields and from farms in all five boroughs and paired with wines from Long Island's Lenz Winery. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Just Food, helping support family farmers and providing city folks in low-income neighborhoods with access to high-quality, locally grown and affordable food. The New York dinner,......

EVENT: Even if the Freegans have a photo of a pale vegan going through the dumpster for food on the front page of their website, this is actually a really amazing group of people that we could all learn a lot from. Tonight, for example, they will teach you how to build bikes using abandoned parts found around the city. Tools and know-how supplied. 7pm // Bicycle Rescue & Repair [327 W. 36th St between......

It's just like the MTA to problem solve a couple years after the problem starts. The NYC Transit Authority will be adding more trains to the L line because the current, snazzy R143 line is "not enough" to serve the masses of people. The TA will have to figure out how to make the signals work with both the current, (relatively) high-tech R143s and the old cars (maybe the slant R40s?), and that could......

There's been a great deal of foodblogger and foodie message board buzz over the past few weeks about the bakery in the East Village whose baked goods bore an uncanny resemblance to those at the beloved City Bakery. New York mag reveals the source of the confusion -- City Baker's owner, Maury Rubin. His goal is to have his patrons focus on the space itself—what he believes is the first top-to-bottom green bakery. Rubin, it......

THEATER: PS 122 & Act French present The Itching of the Wings (La démangeaison des ailes) as part of the series which brings new French theater to us. The play itself is an "autopsy of daydreams" and presents, among other things, a visit from a rock band dimensionalizing the polyphony of music, movement, text and image that is a history of the history of art and ideas. With music by Stockhausen, Kid Koala, Raymond Scott,......

Time Out New York came out with their Essential New York issue yesterday, which included various and sundry food picks. Now we can't personally vouch for some of them, since we haven't hit them up yet, so if you have an opinon, let us know: * Late night chicken: Big Arc chicken, 233 First Ave between 13th & 14th Sts. * Vegetarian restaurant: Counter, 108 First Ave between 6th & 7th Sts. * Overlooked midtown......

With a custom built brick oven donning Napolitan lava from Mount Vesuvius, Lil' Frankie's thin-crusted pizzas are memorable and deliciously fresh, despite skewing from the destinctive chew of New York's signature pizza dough. Straight from the oven and onto your plate, the restaurant's menu offers nearly a dozen classic pizza combinations by mixing and matching an endless number of delectable meats, cheeses, and vegetables. The capacious dining room features a tenement garden; one room......