DON’T MISS!: BLINDED BY SCIENCE
The Knicks might still be in the playoffs if they had paid more attention in science class. The physics of basketball is just one of the topics touched on in the fifth annual World Science Festival, unfolding around town through Sunday.
Families are invited to look at the science behind such topics as bridge building and perfume making. And yes, there will be robots.
“Every kid starts out being a scientist,” says event president and co-founder Tracy Day. “They’re curious. They want to know things.”
Tomorrow’s events at Brooklyn Bridge Park are geared toward natural sciences, and end with an 8 p.m. star-gazing party — telescopes included. Also tomorrow, Innovation Square at the NYU-Poly campus in Downtown Brooklyn will focus on robotics and gaming. It all wraps up Sunday in Washington Square Park with the Ultimate Science Street Fair, featuring square-wheeled tricycle rides, more robots and hoops science. Details at worldsciencefestival.com
— Brian Niemietz
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EAT THIS!: THE HOLE TRUTH
Thanks to some courageous women nearly 100 years ago, there will be free doughnuts in Madison Square Park today, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. — for the 75th National Doughnut Day.
The holiday commemorates the “doughnut lassies” — Salvation Army women who provided writing supplies, clothes-mending, meals and, “last but not least, doughnuts for soldiers on the front lines in France during World War I,’’ says Denver Frederick, director of development for the Salvation Army Greater New York Division. ‘‘Two Salvation Army officers cleverly thought of frying doughnuts in soldiers’ helmets.”
Doughnut Day was started in 1938 to honor the doughnut
lassies and raise funds to help the needy during the Depression.
But there’s nothing depressing about free Entenmann’s doughnuts and coffee (from the Salvation Army) at the southwest corner of the park, at 23rd Street and Broadway. Even diet-conscious Mayor Bloomberg has gotten into the act, officially proclaiming today NYC Doughnut Day.
— Billy Heller
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WATCH THIS!: BEST WESTERNS
Sergio Leone may have invented spaghetti Westerns — and made Clint Eastwood an international superstar with “A Fistful of Dollars’’ (1964) — but the lesser-known, cult-favorite Italian director Sergio Corbucci’s “Django’’ (1966) inspired no fewer than 30 sequels, including Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming “Django Unchained.’’ The original stars Franco Nero (Vanessa Redgrave’s companion since they appeared together in 1967’s “Camelot’’) as a blue-eyed stranger who enters dragging a coffin through a crummy frontier town fought over by the KKK and banditos. Both Sergios’ Westerns will be shown today and tomorrow at Film Forum as part of an epic three-week, 26-movie tribute to Italian horse operas that includes many rarities of the genre. West Houston and Varick streets. Info: filmforum.org
— Lou Lumenick
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LISTEN UP!: ISLAND VIBE
For most people, says 64-year-old reggae pioneer Jimmy Cliff, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be seen as “a capstone” to their career. But Cliff, whose turn as the star of and soundtrack singer for the Jamaican film “The Harder They Come” in 1972 catapulted both him and reggae to international stardom, says his 2010 induction was merely “a step-stone to another level.” On Tuesday, he kicks off Celebrate Brooklyn!, Prospect Park’s free summer concert series, and he’ll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of “The Harder They Come” and the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence.
Even after all these years, Cliff relishes the challenge of playing here for what he calls the multicultural “center of the world.” He’s planning to connect many with music from his new album, “Rebirth,” for the first time, but concedes: “If you’re playing to people who have seen everybody and everything, play your hits.’’ Free, 8 p.m., Prospect Park Bandshell, Prospect Park West at Ninth Street, Brooklyn; bricartsmedia.org
— Charlie Heller
AFP/Getty Images
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CHECK IT OUT!: FAMILY TIES
Nearly two decades before “Modern Family,” we had “Falsettos,” about the adventures of Marvin and his family: his male lover, his ex-wife, their son — and their psychiatrist. With songs such as “Four Jews in a Room Bitching” and “My Father’s a Homo (‘‘My mother’s not thrilled at all’’), it won the 1992 Tonys for James Lapine and William Finn’s book and Finn’s score. Now it’s back — off-Broadway, briefly — for a cause. Proceeds benefit the Long Island Crisis Center and its gay-youth initiative.
“After the reviews came out, Playwrights Horizons had hundreds of people, including Leonard Bernstein, on line looking for tickets,” marvels original cast member Alison Fraser, of the original musical’s off-Broadway debut in 1979. “It’s more than a gay thing,” she says. “It’s about people choosing to love in their own way.” Bleecker Street Theater, 45 Bleecker St.; tomorrow, Sunday, Wednesday, and June 11 and 15; $18; details at planetconnections.org/falsettos
— Barbara Hoffman
