DON’T MISS!: HOT PURSUIT
IF you can’t stand the heat, avoid East River Park this weekend. It will be swimming in enough capsaicin to stun a herd of dragons, complements of the first annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo.
The two-day event will feature several dozen hot-sauce makers selling their wares, as well as contests (e.g., the Spicy Cookie Challenge), food and music. Tomorrow, the “Screaming Mi Mi Awards” ceremony will bestow prizes in categories including Louisiana style, fruit-based sauces and chipotle.
Co-organizer Jimmy Carbone says the event was inspired by a wave of hot-sauce makers who’ve emerged of late, as part of the general surge in small artisanal food businesses. And they’re doing more than just scorching tongues, he says. “In the old days people just wanted to blow your head off; now there’s more of a culinary component to it.”
Tomorrow and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at East River State Park, 110 Kent Ave., Williamsburg. Tickets, $10 in advance, $12 day of event. Info: nychotsauceexpo.com.
— Chris Erikson
Getty Images/CSA Images RF
2 of 5
CHECK IT OUT!: DRAPER CAPERS
If you’ve ever wanted to ask Jon Hamm why Don Draper treats women so shabbily — the ad man is currently cheating on his second wife, Megan, with his downstairs neighbor, Sylvia — you will have your chance Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. when the Paley Center for the Media (25 W. 52nd St.) presents a night with the “Mad Men” cast. Paley is pulling out the stops on this one: The panel includes creator Matthew Weiner, Hamm and his co-stars January Jones, John Slattery, Jessica Paré, Vincent Kartheiser and Kiernan Shipka — and it will be live-streamed at paleycenter.org. The Emmy-winning drama has just started its sixth season, exploring the moral quagmire into which most of its characters are sinking — while drinking! Weiner, Jones and Paré move on to the 92nd Street Y (Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street; 92y.org) Wednesday at 8 p.m., to discuss, no doubt, that irresistible cad.
— Robert Rorke
REUTERS
3 of 5
WATCH IT!: MOVING PICTURE
Filmed by documentarian Shirley Clarke during 12 hours in her apartment at the Chelsea Hotel, “Portrait of Jason’’ (1967) is a remarkable record of an evening with a 33-year-old African-American gay hustler and aspiring cabaret performer in pre-Stonewall Manhattan. “What is definitely of interest is the degree of penetration of the interview and also the fact that this is accomplished with a hard, unrelentingly inquisitive camera that plays no tricks,’’ reviewer Archer Winsten wrote in The Post. “The world of Jason Holliday is given with a bitter, incisive humor that’s better than you have any right to expect.’’ Newly restored from the rediscovered camera negative by Milestone Films and the Academy Film Archive, “Portrait of Jason’’ opens today for an open-ended run at the IFC Center, Sixth Avenue and Third Street; 212-924-7771.
— Lou Lumenick
2013 Milestone Film
4 of 5
LISTEN UP!: SHUGGIE TIME
Shuggie Otis, son of R&B pioneer Johnny Otis, had a bumpy ride the last time he tried to make a comeback. He took an unrehearsed band on tour behind the 2001 reissue of his cult funk classic “Inspiration Information” (packaged with his signature hit “Strawberry Letter 23”), and critics showed no mercy. But if his recent appearance on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” is any indication, he’s worked out all the kinks. “Inspiration” is back in the spotlight — paired this time with the unreleased album “Wings of Love”— and Otis, 59, is living the dream of a soul shut-in reborn. And it’s about time; along with Sly Stone and Bobby Womack, Otis embodies a trippy, sensuous side of the early ’70s LA funk scene that can still heat up a dance floor.
Tonight at 9, he plays the Music Hall of Williamsburg (66 N. Sixth St., Williamsburg; 718-486-5400), and Otis rocks B.B. King’s (237 W. 42nd St.; 212-997-4144) tomorrow night at 8.
— Bill Murphy
5 of 5
ABIDE BY THIS!: DUDE WITH ’TUDE
The eighth annual Lebowski Fest just happens to fall on the same day as 4/20, a k a the pot-smoking holiday. “It feels very apropos for the Dude,” says event co-founder Will Russell. While burning a doobie in the tub is a favorite pastime of the hero Jeff Bridges (left) played in the 1998 cult hit “The Big Lebowski,” the two-day fest is less illicit. Tonight, catch the movie at Gramercy Theater (127 E. 23rd St.), plus two musical acts: Los Duderinos, doing metal covers of the soundtrack, and Chipocrite, playing “Lebowski” songs on a Nintendo Game Boy.
Tomorrow, grab your jellies and head to Bowlmor (222 W. 44th St.) for unlimited bowling and a costume contest (the more obscure the reference, the better), but don’t worry if you have to “mark it zero, dude.”
“They’re definitely better drinkers than they are bowlers,” Russell says of the fans. Tickets: $25 and $30; 8 p.m. both days. Details at lebowskifest.com.
— Tim Donnelly
Gramercy Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
