DON’T MISS!: JUST SAY ‘NO’
James Bond creator Ian Fleming didn’t like it very much, calling it “simply dreadful.” But “Dr. No” — the first 007 flick, premiering in England in 1962 — certainly struck a chord. Upon its US debut the next year, The Post’s Archer Winsten predicted, “James Bond is the sort of thing that will be our popular fodder for some time to come.” Fifty years later, MoMA kicks off a monthlong festival showcasing 22 Bond installments. The late producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli gave the museum new 35mm prints of all the Bond movies in 1987, a tradition since carried on by his daughter Barbara. The action starts tonight at 8 with “Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love” shows tomorrow at 2 p.m. More demanding cinephiles might want to skip 1999’s “The World Is Not Enough,” with Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist, though. Tickets $8 to $12. 11 W. 53rd St.; 212-708-9400, moma.org.
— Reed Tucker
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CANVAS THE TOWN!: LONDON CALLING
A Matisse, Seurat, Cézanne and Van Gogh go into a room together and . . . nope, there’s no punch line, just a lovely show. Now at the Frick Collection, it’s “Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery,” a stellar lineup of 58 works on loan from that London gallery, some never before seen in the US. Among them are Michelangelo’s black-chalked “The Dream” (Il Sogno), in which a gorgeous male nude is visited by a trumpeting angel, both surrounded by images of greed and lust. Here too is Rubens’ “Helena Fourment,” a portrait of the 53-year-old artist’s flushed, 16-year-old bride, wearing what looks like one of Lady Gaga’s headdresses. Don’t miss the impressionists: Matisse & Co. hang together in a little room just off the main entrance, Seurat’s nude and Cézanne’s apples so luscious you’ll want to pinch them. 1 E. 70th St.; 212-288-0700, frick.org.
— Barbara Hoffman
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CHECK IT OUT!: TILLEY HO
Gospedelic music, radical bluegrass and a chance to meet the Focker: This weekend’s annual New Yorker Festival will feature a series of intimate special events around town starring intriguing visionaries, deep thinkers and also Ben Stiller. Highlights include a discussion of money with Brit authors Martin Amis, Zadie Smith and John Lanchester (all of whom have more of it than you: Guaranteed laffs if you stand up and ask to borrow some!); Norah Jones chatting with music critic Sasha Frere-Jones; foot-fetishist enabler Christian Louboutin talking about Middle Eastern geopolitics (just kidding: fashion); and Calvin Trillin’s wit-infused gastronomic walking tour of the Village (don’t even try — it’s been sold out since 1938). Lena Dunham, Salman Rushdie, Vampire Weekend and a sneak screening of “Cloud Atlas” will also join the party. Some tickets remain, plus a few tickets are being held at each venue one hour before showtime. For details, go to newyorker.com/festival.
— Kyle Smith
Courtesy of The New Yorker
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GO HERE!: WONDERFUL TOWN
It was the port of entry for the war in Europe, the place our soldiers returned to for some badly needed R&R. At long last, our city’s pivotal role in the Big One gets a shoutout in “WWII & NYC.” Opening today, the exhibit flows through every floor of the New-York Historical Society, with paintings, photos, posters, videos and a swinging ’40s soundtrack, heavy on the Sinatra. “We’re fighting wars now, but without the full-scale mobilization we experienced [then], when people thought of the war every day,” says curator Marci Reaven. Along with artifacts both sobering and homey — a subway air-raid siren, “Send a salami to your boy in the Army” posters — are profiles of those who fought, and footage of the Stage Door Canteen, where stars such as Bette Davis flipped burgers for the troops and even danced with them. Central Park West at 77th Street; 212-873-3400, nyhistory.org.
— Barbara Hoffman
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LISTEN UP!: TAKING FLIGHT
If the currently rising crop of electronic dance music producers are the Rolling Stones of that scene, Flying Lotus is the Velvet Underground. The music produced and performed by Steve Ellison — the man behind FlyLo — is hard to describe, but beneath his cosmic mixture of hip-hop, electronica and the spiritual jazz of his great aunt Alice Coltrane is the distinctly off-kilter, head-bobbing rhythm of the LA beat scene. It’s a rhythm that’s captured the ears of Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu, who both appear on his new album “Until the Quiet Comes.” Catch FlyLo as he celebrates the album at Terminal 5 on Sunday, and then takes over the city for several club and radio shows, including a talk and performance at the SoHo Apple store on Tuesday. So when the next wave of boundary-pushing musicians cite their influences, you can say you were there. Terminal 5, 610 W. 56th St.; 212-582-6600, terminal5nyc.com.
— Charlie Heller
Timothy Saccenti
