DON’T MISS!: FILM-TASTIC
‘The best poster, regardless of the era or product, is one that makes you smile,” says Swann Auction Galleries president Nicholas Lowry. And the 139 eye-catching works that make up Swann’s upcoming “Monsters & Maidens” movie-poster auction, he says, “really make me smile.”
You can, too, as the colorful works featuring monsters, robots, space creatures and voluptuous women go on exhibit (for free) at Swann starting today. The auction is set for Tuesday.
With titles including “King Kong,” “Horrible Carnage” and “Africa Excitation” — as well as foreign versions of “La Hija de Frankenstein” (The Daughter of Frankenstein), “La Vendetta del Monstro” (The Revenge of the Creature) and “Le Jour ou la Terre s’Arreta” (The Day the Earth Stood Still) — Lowry says, “There’s posters here for the die-hard, passionate collector; for people who are slavish fans of campy imagery; and for people who are maybe just looking for something fun and memorable from their youth.”
104 E. 25th St., 212-254-4710. Hours and other details at swanngalleries.com.
— Billy Heller
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LISTEN UP!: BANKS A LOT
For a band as monochromatic as Interpol, the sound of frontman Paul Banks applying such varying sounds and textures to his solo album from this year, “Banks,” is a very pleasant surprise. Tonight at 7, he finally plays the show at Webster Hall that was postponed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. “You don’t get all the bells and whistles you hear on ‘Banks,’ ’’ admits the singer, who has rehearsed meticulously to re-create the album’s varying sounds. “But you get the best parts of the music, and you get them with the energy of the four of us [including the backup band] playing together. There’s still plenty of information to take in.”
In addition, Banks will also offer up reworked versions of the material he released under the guise of Julian Plenti in 2009. “There will be another Interpol album — that’ll probably be the next thing I do,” he assures us.
$25 at 125 E. 11th St.; 212-353-1600, websterhall.com.
— Hardeep Phull
Getty Images
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1…2…3 GO!: NEW ADDITION
Numbers can be cool! That’s what you’ll discover at the brand-new Museum of Mathematics opening tomorrow. Its two floors are packed with interactive exhibits that turn math from boring old problems into a carnival of games, virtual reality and touch-screen pattern painting. Highlights include a light-up floor with math games and a two-story “String Product” that uses light and string to illustrate multiplication.
The 20,000-square-foot space was spearheaded by Glen Whitney, a hedge-fund manager who became a math advocate and wanted to show kids from preschool on up how math changes the world.
“Mathematics has to do with lots more than adding up rows of numbers or finding the root of the quadratic equation,” Whitney says. “We wanted to make things physical so people could interact directly.”
Opening weekend admission, $20, $14 for kids; $15 and $9 afterward.
11 E. 26th St.; 212-542-0566, momath.org.
— Tim Donnelly
Jemal Countess
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GET SHOPPING!: QUIRKING CLASS
When asked to describe his 3-year-old company in fewer than five words, Quirky.com founder Ben Kaufman quickly offers two options: “magical invention machine” or “invention accessibility engine.” Either way, budding Thomas Edisons can now experience — and define for themselves— the phenomenon that has helped inventors bring to market more than 300 (often oddball) products, including a device that sucks the yolk from an egg, a jointed power strip (above) and a two-handed ice scraper. Starting today at 2 p.m., Quirky is offering an outdoor pop-up experience in SoHo so people can shop for gadgets and contribute your own inventions.
“You can submit ideas and help us decide what’s going to be a great gift in 2013. It’s about the future,” says Kaufman, 27, who isn’t reinventing the wheel to draw crowds. “We’ll be giving away a lot of free stuff.”
Through Sunday on the corner of Broadway and Prince Street.
— Kirsten Fleming
AP
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WATCH IT!: GREMLINOLOGY
“Don’t expose him to bright light. Don’t ever get him wet. And don’t ever, ever feed him after midnight.’’ Of course, we’re talking about the Mogwai-care advice that Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates ignore with hilariously horrifying effects in Joe Dante’s “Gremlins’’ (1984). This devilishly clever takeoff on “It’s a Wonderful Life’’ is being shown in a new digital restoration tomorrow at 6:50 and 9:15 p.m. as part of the “Home For the Holidays’’ series at BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. Info: BAM.org.
— Lou Lumenick
