January 17, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

lagaleriademagdalena: #EnCinta & more

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I’ve been so impressed by lagaleriademagdalena’s events and projects ever since anA posted her exhibit last year on facebook. The two young Madrileñas behind this urban street gallery are architects Reichel Congosto and Isa Arenas who came up with this wonderfully innovative concept two years ago while wandering through la Calle de Magdalena in Madrid and coming across a building construction site with large rectangular test color swatches painted on a wall that reminded them of art displayed in a gallery. They quickly seized the opportunity to place artworks within the rectangles and thus began lagaleriademagdalena. The gallery’s (who says a gallery has to have four walls?) pop-up exhibits foment community and interactivity. Everything that is exhibited is there for the taking; they call them “regalos urbanos” (urban gifts) and one of the main motivations behind las magdalenas’ efforts is to give the public the gift of happiness. Plus, the exhibits are smart, creative, and fun. Some created by Reichel and Isa themselves, while others are collaborations. All involve recycling of objects, some involve social activism, and all bring a smile to those who pass as well as pique their curiosity. The ephemeral exhibits usually occur on metal shutters or walls in construction sites, attaching the works magnetically, avoiding harm to the walls and allowing for easy removal and replacement by passers-by which also makes the interventions vandalism-free, allowing them to occur in the light of day, unlike most street artists. One of their exhibits made up of cut-out words from various old periodicals was titled Nevera Urbana (Urban Fridge – top photo) urging the public to play with the words like magnetic poetry on your fridge. The exhibit Tangrams (bottom three photos) offered similar play. An example of a more seriously themed exhibit would be Contra la violencia de género (Against Gender Violence) where egg cartons were used to house images of the many layers of a woman: their beauty, emotional strength, intelligence, death as well as a mirror to remind the viewer that they are the ones reflected in the box.

This month lagaleriademagdalena celebrated their two-year anniversary with their 53rd (these ladies are busy!) exhibit: #EnCinta (2nd through 6th photos). A wall of cassette cases with inserts designed by the participating artists also included their playlist with a link to it on a special lagaleriadelamusica site set up by las magdalenas and audible via spotify or grooveshark. In addition, each case had a little spool of recycled cassette tape. The intervention was a huge hit with an impressive turnout, everyone inspecting the cases and lists, with all of the urban gift cassettes disappearing rather quickly. Seems that many in-the-know have started to collect these artworks.

There are many, many more exhibits to see and read about on their website and blog. The charming magdalenas (interview video in Spanish here) and their transient gallery are definitely ones to watch. They have grasped the true meaning of “public” art. Bravo!

Photos courtesy of lagaleriademagdalena.

January 16, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Lilian Bourgeat: Le Dîner de Gulliver

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French artist Lilian Bourgeat takes everyday objects and recreates them larger than life. Yes, this has been done before and tends to have an instant appeal with people of all ages, but Bourgeat’s art is both meant to appeal as well as mock the contemporary art world. At the same time, the artist enjoys the challenges he confronts in executing the production of these objects at such a large size. His works are participatory in that without the people, the scale would not be appreciated. He has exhibited his Le Dîner de Gulliver (Gulliver’s Dinner) on multiple occasions, offering a Rabelaisian meal on a surprisingly large table with proportionately large chairs, glasses, cutlery and dishes. No doubt with those over-sized glasses of wine, a viewer could attribute the distortions that surround them to the levels of alcohol in their system!

Photos: zounohana’s flickr; langepult; zerodeux; and artnews

via langepult

January 15, 2013 by collabcubed - 3 Comments

Andy Ralph: Yard Objects as Sculpture

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Brooklyn-based artist Andy Ralph often employs suburban lawn and household objects and transforms them into the most improbable things, straddling the line between function and fiction. His crazy lawn chair sculptures are a lot of fun and make sure to check out the video of his Trash Clan below for the surprise reveal.

via juxtapoz

January 14, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Harbin Ice Festival Castles & Slides

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This looks very fun and cool (in the literal sense as well.) These castles made using ice with multiple slides and lit with colorful LED lights are part of the 29th Harbin International Ice Festival in China. In addition to the ice architecture, the festival includes many a giant ice and snow sculpture. The Harbin Festival started 10 years ago and has grown to be one of the world’s biggest ice festivals with tens of thousands of people working on the displays. The castle and slides are especially spectacular at night with their pastel hues emanating from within the ice. The slides are not only fun, but they serve as a means of transportation to get around the grounds.

via inthralled/mymodernmet via notcot

January 14, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Thierry Fournier: A+ (See You)

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French artist Thierry Fournier works in digital media, video, performance and installation art. His work explores the physical vs. perception bringing together commonly dissociated space-times such as fiction and reality, living and non-living, interior and exterior.

In his installation A+ (also titled See You in English) which most recently was exhibited on a street in Lille as part of its Fantastic Festival — which ran from last October up until yesterday — Fournier placed a video screen displaying the street that continued on the other side of the framed screen, as if looking through a window except that the video being shown had a constant 24 hour delay. This confusing image had pedestrians stopping, trying to figure out what, in fact, they were watching, while at the same time being filmed themselves. As the artist describes it: “Two temporalities into the same perspective creates a ‘temporal depth’.” Those who pass in the image and those who observe them coexist without ever communicating. Very trippy…

You can see it in action here.

Photos courtesy of the artist.

via lille3000 Fantastic

January 11, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 1/11

This This weekend’s picks for Free & Cheap things to do in NYC (1/11 to 1/13) in art, music, theater, film, performance, comedy, architecture and general fun. Click through on the images above for the corresponding event page and details, or use the links below.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM (numbers will be added to photos next week, promise. This week I was struggling with iffy internet..)
1. TALK: Deborah Eisenberg and George Saunders Short Story Writers. Purchase of book or $10 gift card. 7 to 8pm
2. MUSIC/HUMOR: No Place to Go; Ethan Lipton & Orchestra 9:30pm $15
3. COMEDY: Funny Sh#t Comedy Fest. 8pm $10
4. TOUR/CONFERENCE: Charting the Road to Resilience. Site visits and conference to share lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy. FREE
5. MUSIC: Dirty Projectors and Andrew Bird at 8pm. $30 and up.
6. THEATER: Kristen Kosmas – “There There” Critically acclaimed play. $20
7. MUSIC/THEATER: Prototype Opera-Theater Fest, through 1/18. $15 to $20.
8. THEATER: The Improvised Shakespeare. 7:30pm $27.50
9. MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE: Emily Johnson/Catalyst Niicugni. $20
10. THEATER: Under the Radar Festival
11. STREET ART/FILM: NYC Street Pop. Opening reception film, photos and more by Ken Brown. Sat. 1 to 3pm. FREE
12. ART: Haroshi Virtual Reality, opening Sat 7 to 9pm.
13. ART: Aakash Nihalani – Portal. Opening Sat 7 to 9pm.
14. PERFORMANCE: New York City Pod Fest – Improv $8 for one $45 festival pass
15. THEATER: Urinetown the Musical $18.
16. FILM: Chasing Ice – Photographer James Balog captures images to show the Earth’s climate change in this stunning documentary. 6pm. $14 adults.
17. TOUR: Yale University Gallery & George Nelson Exhibit Tour: 11:30 am to 5pm $5 students $35 adults
18. MUSIC: Gregg Kallor Hurricane Sandy Relief Concert. 7:30pm $20

MORE:
Fri 1/11 & Sat 1/12 15th Contemporary Dance Showcase including Anarchy Dance Theater’s Seventh Sense (see post). 7:30pm. $28
Sat 1/12 Family Day: BankInk! 75-minute demo Sumi-e class. 1 to 2:15 pm. FREE
Sat 1/12, Documentary – The Atomic States of America at 7 pm. $10.
Sun 1/13 Improv Everywhere No Pants Subway RideFREE
Sun 1/13 Comedy/Music – Reggie Watts performs at 8:30. $10
Starting Monday – NYC Restaurant Week 2013. $25 Lunch; $38 Dinner

Sat 1/12 The All-Day Sandy Benefit with readings by Nick Flynn, Jonathan Ames, Emma Straub and more.
Sat 1/12 & Sun 1/13 Film: Clandestine Childhood (Infancia Clandestina) Argentine film with filmmaker Q&A’s.

Check back for possible updates throughout the weekend and peruse previous Culture on the Cheap posts for ongoing events.

January 10, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Aqua Dice: Max Mulhern

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American artist Max Mulhern, living in Paris, has long been fascinated by the role that luck plays in life. For the past two years, Mulhern has been sketching and painting floating dice — after earlier designing many sculptures of unrealistic boats — uniting his interest in art and chance. The culmination of his efforts, along with a French kickstarter-like campaign to raise funds, took the shape of two giant orange and blue dice, Aqua Dice, launched to sea from the port of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands on the appropriately slot-machine-like date of 12/12/12. Mulhern also refers to his Aqua Dice project as “The Greatest Floating Craps Game on Earth”.

The dice were made from bio-composites and are 100% recyclable. They were designed to collapse on impact and, due to their fluorescent orange color, are highly visible to any nearby vessels. Each die has a specially designed GPS unit inside within a “souffle-like” padding that will turn on once a day to enable tracking of their journey. As of January 7th the dice were about 1,100 miles west of the Canary Islands, though one of the dice started heading back east since then, separating from the other.

You can see more photos of the project on Mulhern’s site and follow its progress on the Aqua Dice facebook page. And here’s an interview with the artist on the project.

via the nytimes

January 8, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Sbagliato: Roman Street Art Collective

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The art collective Sbagliato (meaning “wrong” in Italian) pastes images of windows and doors in the most unexpected places, suggesting a way inside and adding a surreal quality to the ordinary; makes me think of the holes in the Yellow Submarine. The anonymous group redraws urban surfaces, promoting a new reality by subverting order and changing landscapes — in some cases existing buildings, in other cases rock formations, and in still others stone walls by the river banks — by adding a twist with their surprising windows, shutters, and doors.

You can see more of their work here and here.

via tribeart

January 7, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

How Much Do I Owe You?: No Longer Empty

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Friday, the three of us headed over to No Longer Empty’s (previously here) 14th exhibition titled How Much Do I Owe You? located in the former Bank of Manhattan in Long Island City’s Clock Tower. No Longer Empty aims to revitalize communities through art. They create site specific, socially-conscious public art exhibits usually in unoccupied yet interesting spaces.

Inspired by the Bank building, 26 artists from 15 countries take on the topic of money and its value during these tumultuous economic times of growing debt and job insecurity. The space is filled with large-scale murals, installations, and videos, in addition to interactive areas that are especially kid-friendly such as drawing your own “Fundred” dollar bill at one installation, and filling in forms on ‘Surplus’ and ‘Debt’, considering the concepts beyond the monetary significance, as well as offering up humorous buttons on the themes.

There’s way too much to go into here, but the three vaults downstairs should not go without mention…even empty they would be fun to experience, but each one, in very different approaches, makes great use of the space including the security boxes and balance sheets.

We had a lot of fun at this exhibit. Some of the highlights for us include Guerra de la Paz’s snake-like ties in his Sealing the Deal (top); Ghost of a Dream’s wall murals, both In Banks We Trust where the word TRUST drops out boldly from walls covered with handwritten questionably trustworthy bank slogans, and their other mural The Price of Happiness, a large-scale collage made up of losing lottery tickets and Buddhist afterworld money (second and third works from top); also, Theodoros Stamatogiannis’ Ping Pong table straddled tightly between two walls, symbolizing the lack of a level playing field in society.

How Much Do I Owe You? will be on exhibit through March 13th, 2013 and is only a block from the subway. We’re looking forward to seeing what No Longer Empty comes up with next.

Photos: collabcubed

January 4, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 1/4

This weekend’s picks for Free & Cheap things to do in NYC (1/4 to 1/6.) Click through on the images above for the corresponding event page and details, or use the links below.

From left to right, top to bottom:
1. ART: How Much Do I Owe You?: Sound installations, projections, immersive installations in the iconic former Bank of Manhattan in LIC.
2. FILM: 56Up – Michael Apted’s documentary following a group of people every 7 years. Should be excellent.
3. FILM/LECTURE: Ethics in Film – The Terminator.
4. COMEDY: 7th Annual 50 First Jokes – $10 advance. $12 door
5. THEATER/DANCE: COIL 2013 Performance Festival.
6. FILM/ART: Christian Marclay’s The Clock. FREE Fridays 4 to 8pm.
7. FILM: First Look Film Series $12 adults/$9 students
8. ART: Martin Soto Climent, Contemporary Sculpture. 5pm Sat Opening, FREE
9. ART: Lin Tianmiao: Bound Unbound, Chinese Contemporary Art. FREE Fri 6 to 9pm. Other times $10.
10. THEATER: Job by Thomas Bradshaw. A Tarantino-esque tale. $20 to $25
11. MUSIC/DANCE/ART: Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum w/ Lez Zeppelin, Heems from Das Racist and Occupy Wall Street writers. FREE
12. DANCE: Noche Flamenca. $35
13. GRAPHIC DESIGN: The Fifty and Fifty State Mottos Project. 50 posters by 50 designers depicting each state’s motto, graphically. FREE
14. FOOD: The Great CSA Smackdown. Citywide cooking competition. Sat 2 to 4pm. FREE
15. ART: Franck Yefeng Wang’s installation titled Impersonal. FREE
16. ART: Target Free Sundays at the Studio Museum of Harlem. Gallery Tour at 1pm. FREE
17. READINGS: Sunday Night Fiction – Readings by Alexandra Chasin, Dawn Raffel, John Dermot Woods and Halvor Aakhus. Sunday; 7 to 9pm FREE
18. ART: Paint the World Project – Over 20 artists will be creating multiple large scale canvases. FREE

Check back for possible updates throughout the weekend, and check out previous Culture on the Cheap posts for ongoing events.

UPDATES:
Fri 1/4: Altnerative Histories: NY Art Spaces, 1960 to 2010, book launch & reception. 6 to 8pm. FREE
Sat 1/5: Hit and Run Shakespeare: “Twelfth Night” 7 to 8pm $10 to $20.
Sat 1/5: MUSIC – Bridges and Powerlines/Fan Tans/Crazy Pills: 8pm doors 9pm show. $8 to $10.
Sun 1/6: ART – Closing reception for Mike Rader ‘Below See Level’ 4 to 6pm & Man vs. Ultraman extended. FREE.

January 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Pantone 2013 Calendars: Pentagram

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Eddie Opara and Brankica Harvey of Pentgram have designed the Pantone 2013 Wall and Engagement Calendars. Using the PMS color chips as image pixels, the designers created a “digitized” seasonal thematic image for each month, much in the way Vik Muniz recreated famous Impressionist paintings with Pantone chips (see here). Each month features a Pantone color and continues with tints of it, each a square for every day of the month.

Cleverly and nicely done, though I have to admit a preference for the images in the engagement version. That donut on the cover is pretty great.

You can purchase the calendar here.

via @pentagram

January 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

The New Colossus: Bronze Union Rat Statue

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Last week while waiting on line to deposit a check at a midtown bank, I noticed a new sculpture across the way in the plaza at the Lever House. The New Colossus, as it is titled, is a bronze replica of the giant inflatable rats that labor union strikers often park outside the employer’s premises they are picketing, usually for hiring non-union workers. There’s definitely some irony there, seeing this working class object converted into a piece of fine art in a very white collar part of NYC.

The group behind the sculpture is the Bruce High Quality Foundation known for their provocative art. The rat has actually been at the Lever House since last July when it accompanied an exhibit of the group’s works in the lobby called Art History with Labor: 95 Theses. The show consisted of real objects including a bucket with a mop, a wheelbarrow with a bag of soil, a floor polisher, a ladder, a trash can, and other elements that made it look like a construction site. Each object had a built-in audio speaker with voices emanating from them reading texts about art and labor, as if the objects that experienced the daily work became animated. I wish I had seen the show, but I wasn’t even aware of the rat until last week.

Photos: Lucy Hogg; Lever House art collection; and Polichtallix

January 2, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hendrik Kerstens: Paula Pictures

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Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens has been photographing his daughter Paula since 1995, using her as his model both in photographs reflecting events in her own life, as well as in his humorous series of photos inspired by the 17th century Dutch Masters. His choice of headdresses range from bubble-wrap to trash bags, paper towels to lampshades. Though I’ve seen similar concepts before (see Julia Kissina’s Fairies and Nina Katchadourian’s Lavatory Self-Portraits) Kerstens excellently emulates the Vermeer-style lighting in his Paula Pictures. As an additional fun fact, Alexander McQueen (who had been a collector of Hendriks’ photographs) used the image of Paula with a plastic bag headdress for his Fall 2009 show invitation.

via nunc contemporary

January 2, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

MRtoll: Clay Street Art

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Brooklyn-based painter and street artist MRtoll has been placing his clay street sculptures and street poetry around town for the past couple of years. These brightly colored clay works include everything from humorous word conjugation-like panels (my favorites) to emoticons and more illustrative pieces such as fried eggs, feathery birds, skulls and more. From the looks of his tumblr, the childlike quality of some of these may be toddler-inspired.

Photos: newyorkshitty; according2g; hragv’s flickr; saatchionline; and mrtoll.

via according2g

December 21, 2012 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 12/21

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This weekend’s picks for free and cheap things to do (12/21 to 12/23) in NYC. Holiday-themed as well as end-of-the-world ones too. Cultural events in art, music, film, dance, theater, design, walking, food, and general fun!

1. Fri 12/21 in Music/Participatory/Fun – The Gaits: A High Line Soundwalk. 3 to 4:30pm. Turn your footsteps into sound. Just one of the many Make Music Winter Events this Friday. See other events here. FREE

2. All weekend in Film/Art – Christian Marclay’s The Clock. Through 1/21/13. FREE Fridays from 4 to 8pm.

3. Fri 12/21 in Art/Film/Music/Magic/Comedy – The End of the World Party. 7pm to midnight. FREE (RSVP here)

4. Fri 12/21 in Comedy/Performance — The Afterlife Comedy Show at 8:30pm: Emily Heller, George Gordon, Erin Judge and more.$8

5. All weekend in Art – George Bellows Paintings through 2/18/13. Pay what you wish.

6. Fri 12/21 & Sat 12/22 in Music – Sō Percussion: Where (we) Live: crafting sonic landscapes from found objects, Brooklyn-based quartet Sō Percussion explores the idea of home with a bold experiment in collaborative art-making. At 7:30pm. $16 to $40

7. All weekend in Dance/Acrobatics – STREB- Forces! The Movical. Elizabeth Streb and her Extreme Action Company a theater of flight with big hardware and big muscles. Good for the whole family. $25 Adults $15 kids Check site for showtimes.

8. Fri 12/21 in Music/Participatory – Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace: Come together and sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at the very moment Yoko Ono’s new video IMAGINE PEACE lights up sixteen Times Square billboards at 11:57pm. Meet 11:45pm at Times Square. Part of Make Music Winter. FREE

9. All weekend in Dance/Music/Light – iLuminate Artist of Light: extraordinary effects choreographed with phenomenal dance moves. You can see them in action here. $49.50 adults $30 Students Check site for numerous showtimes through 1/5/12.

10. Fri 12/21 in Music – JD Samson and MEN at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar. 6pm to midnight. FREE

11. Sat 12/22 in Walking/Fun – The Amazing New York Scavenger Hunt: fast-paced team event that is part scavenger hunt and part obstacle course. 12:30pm ~~$17.50~~ Holiday Edition is $35.

12. All weekend in Dance/Performance – The Butt-Cracker Suite: A Trailer Park Ballet, a funny and irreverent adaptation of The Nutcracker. Enter promo code flamingo for $25 tickets. 8:30pm.

13. All weekend in Theater/Multimedia – Reid Farrington’s A Christmas Carol. an imaginative and ghostly multimedia re-telling of Dickens’ seasonal tale. Fri 12/21 & Sat 12/22 at 8pm. Sun 12/23 at 3pm. $25

14. Sat 12/22 in Music – Everett Bradley’s Holidelic: this holiday funk-tacular blends the influences of P-Funk, Sly Stone and other 1970’s and ‘80’s funk and soul bands into original songs that celebrate diversity, mild familial seasonal dysfunction, individuality, and holiday booty shaking. 8pm $20 advance $25 at door

15. Sat 12/22 in Music – The Cecilia Chorus of NY: Mangia! Holiday Music with the Flavor of Italy. 8pm Tkts $25 and up.

16. Sat 12/22 in Music – David Johansen with Romans. 7pm $23 advance; $25 door

17. All weekend in Dance/Comedy/Performance – The Bang Group: Nut/Cracked: a comic/subversive, neo-vaudeville version of The Nutcracker. 7:30pm $24 in advance $30 day of

18. Sun 12/23 in Film – Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel. 2pm and 6pm. $14

Also in Film all weekend – Zero Dark Thirty: The new Kathryn Bigelow film about the manhunt for Bin Laden. $13

UPDATES:
All weekend in Graphic Design – The Fifty and Fifty State Mottos Project at the Ace Hotel Gallery. FREE
Sat 12/22 in Music/Participatory/Holiday – Greenwich Village Caroling Walk at 4pm. FREE
Sat 12/22 in Performance/Improv – The Tarantino: Improvisers performing an improvised Quentin Tarantino movie before your eyes. At 10pm $5.
Sun 12/23 in Film/Holiday – It’s a Wonderful Life at 2pm. $10 tkts

December 19, 2012 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

cartonLAB: Typographied Cardboard

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Our friends over at cartonLAB (previously here and here) are working nonstop expanding their offerings with all sorts of fun products and stands made out of cardboard. And lately, much to our delight, they’ve gone a little type crazy. From their personalized Photocall Polaroid-like photo frames for weddings and parties to their impressive range of creative event stands with the type cut out or printed right on, cartonLAB has added another dimension to their work. And if that weren’t enough, they’ve also come up with a smart proposal for recycling large boxes (think Ikea furniture boxes) by printing the patterns to some of their creations on the cardboard for personal execution called Mas que Cajas (More than Boxes). Very clever.

All photos courtesy CartonLab

December 18, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hao Ni: Object-Based Sculpture

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Daniela spotted Taiwanese MFA student Hao Ni’s Smoke Ring sculpture a couple of weeks ago at RISD’s Grad Open Studios. Looking at more of Hao Ni’s work, smoking cigarettes appear in some of his other curious and playful sculptures as well, one of which is called You Have Your Fortress, I Have Mine. The Fortress becomes a story told through the sculptural pursuit of space and object-based relationships. Another recurring theme in Ni’s work is the house. He has an ongoing collaboration with Kazuki Sebastian Guzmán called Play House; a sort of pop-up installation/sculptural house that houses other smaller house sculptures inside and evolves with every showing.

You can see more of Hao Ni’s work here, here, and here.

Top photo by collabcubed; all others courtesy of the artist.

December 14, 2012 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 12/14

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This weekend’s picks for free and cheap things to do (12/14 to 12/16) in NYC. Cultural events in art, architecture, music, film, dance, theater, design, walking tours, food, and fun!

1. Art – Henry Moore: Late Large Forms. Simply spectacular! Fri 12/14 & Sat 12/15 and through 1/19. 10am to 6pm. FREE

Also in Art – Ed Ruscha Bookworks (see post) Fri 12/14 & Sat 12/15 and through 1/12. 10am to 6pm. FREE

Also also in Art – Masterpieces: A Fact-Filled Coloring Book. Professional artists of various disciplines, as well as creative nonprofessionals, were recruited to reinterpret the book’s 60 pages, each depicting a famous work of art. Fri 12/14 at 8pm. FREE

2. Graphic Design – The Lustigs: A cover story an exhibit including 500 book, magazine and catalog covers designed by Alvin and Elaine Lustig. Fri 12/14 and through 2/15/13.11am to 5pm FREE

3. Food/Tour – Crosstown Pizza Walk, Fri 12/14 & Sat 12/15 at 11am. 3 hrs $35

4. Design/Talk — 3DEA Pop Up: Artist’s Talk. Artists speak about their 3D printed works. Fri 12/14 at 7:30pm FREE

5. Film/Talk – A Conversation with Ewan McGregor interviewed by NYTimes’ Melena Ryzik. Fri 12/14, 6:30 to 8pm. $35.

6. Music – Antibalas with special guests Red Baraat, Fri 12/14 at 8pm $25

7. Art/Internet/Talks & Multiple Events – #NYANCATCITY a good-humored, creatively diverse 4-day series of events that celebrates creativity and the influence of Internet culture—and cats. All weekend. FREE

8. Music – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Brooklyn Night Bazaar. Fri 12/14.

9. Food – Free Momofuku Milk Bar cookies from the roaming Holiday Cookie Truck and pastry chef Christina Tosi w/her mom. Sat 12/15 from 11am to 5:30pm. See locations.

10. Peformance/Art/Theater – What the Dickens Third Annual A Christmas Carol Marathon. Sat 12/15 at 1pm FREE

11. Fun/Goofiness – SantaCon. Put on your Santa suit and roam (and drink) with hundreds of others, hopefully bringing good cheer to all and not trouble. Sat 12/15 at 10am. Follow @SantaCon on Twitter for locations.

Alternatively in mellower Santa-ness: Santa Claus Association—the subject of the City Reliquary’s current exhibit. This group began in NYC in 1913, diverting children’s letters to Santa from the postal service’s “Dead Letter Office” and matching them with donors who could fill their requests. All weekend. $5

12. Music/Participatory Performance Art – Unsilent Night. Each participant gets one of four tracks of music in the form of a cassette, CD, or Mp3. Together all four tracks comprise Unsilent Night. Sat 12/15 at 7pm. Washington Sq. Park FREE

13. Dance – ABT’s The Nutcracker. There are $25 to $35 tickets available (and up, of course) at BAM. See showtimes and tickets here. All weekend.

14. Music – Medeski Martin & Wood. All weekend at the Blue Note. $30 tickets at the bar. Check showtimes.

15. Readings/Party/Music – Gigantic Magazine Launch Party with music, readings, booze and more: Sat 12/15 at 8:30pm. $10 in advance $12 door

16. Walking Tour – Chinatown: Culture and Change Walking Tour. Sun 12/16 at 1pm $20

17. Art/Multimedia Performances – Sunday Sessions Pier Paolo Pasolini: Intellecttuale, Sun 12/16, 12 to 6pm. $10.

18. Music – John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders. Fountains of Wayne, Ron Sexsmith and many more. A few bar stools left. $25. Sun 12/16 6pm doors; 8pm show

Additional ongoing events to keep in mind:
Ann Hamilton’s The Event of a Thread participatory installation all weekend. $12.
Brooklyn Night Bazaar continues every Friday and Saturday through 12/22. FREE
11th Annual Holiday Train Show at Grand Central. All weekend. FREE
Holiday Nostalgia Train: Ride a Vintage Subway. Sundays through 12/30. $2.50

UPDATES:
The Museum of Mathematics opens Sat 12/15. $20 wkd $15 wkday
The Degenerate Crafts Fair: Featuring affordable wares from 50+ artists & designers. Sat 12/15 & Sun 12/16.FREE

Be sure to check back for updates and peruse previous COTC posts for some additional ongoing events.