DON’T MISS!: GOT IT MER-MAID
SEVEN months on, and the wrath of Hurricane Sandy is still being felt by the organizers of the annual Mermaid Parade. The nonprofit organization had its performance space obliterated by floodwaters and needs to raise $100,000 to ensure the parade (a regular attraction on Coney Island since 1983) continues. Tomorrow night at 7, singer Amanda Palmer headlines a benefit show at the Bowery Ballroom. “I’ve never actually been to the parade because I’m always on tour,” Palmer admits. “But it’s extremely important to my friends in the burlesque and gay community. It’s part of my extended performance family, so I didn’t hesitate when they reached out for help.” The benefit promises special guests, surprises and collaborations but, as Palmer herself points out, the unexpected should always be expected. “There is no such thing as a normal Amanda Palmer show!” $25.
7 p.m. at 6 Delancey St.; 212-533-2111, boweryballroom.com.
—Hardeep Phull
Getty Images
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WATCH IT!: THIS SCHOOL’S TOO COOL
Jack Black gives one of his most endearing performances as a metal-head who unintentionally redeems himself after his band fires him in Richard Linklater’s 2003 sleeper hit “The School of Rock.’’ Pretending to be a teacher, he is hired as a sub by an uptight prep-school principal (a wonderful Joan Cusack). In the classroom, Black brings out the inner Led Zeppelin in a group of misfit fifth-graders. Get schooled Sunday at 11 a.m. as part of the Film Forum Jr. program aimed at younger audiences and their parents. There will also be an air-guitar contest after the screening. Houston and Varick streets. Info: filmforum.org.
— Lou Lumenick
Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection
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CHECK IT OUT!: PROPER HOPPER
Before Edward Hopper picked up his brush, he made sketches — dozens of them: a hand holding a cigarette, a figure slumped on a stool. As the Whitney’s new “Hopper Drawings” shows, from those humble sketches came “Nighthawks” and other great, brooding paintings that helped define a city. “It’s a very New York show,” says curator Carter Foster. Indeed: Maps and photos show how close Hopper was to inspiration — often streets away from the Greenwich Village apartment he shared with his wife (and model), Josephine, until his death in 1967. “Some painters paint pretty quickly,” Foster says. “He’d work on a painting for a month to six weeks. He liked to ruminate on his subjects.” Look no further than the 52 drawings he made before painting “New York Movie.” The theater in that work, as vintage photos show, was the Palace, now home to the un-Hopperly “Annie.” $20; 945 Madison Ave.; whitney.org.
— Barbara Hoffman
The Art Institute of Chicago
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DRINK IT IN!: IN THE SWIM
Like so many Coney Island casualties of Hurricane Sandy, the New York Aquarium was forced to close its doors after the storm. Thankfully, the Big Apple landmark is back in business: Tomorrow, the aquarium will reopen part of its 14-acre campus to the public. Familiar favorites on view will include the Belize-themed Glover’s Reef and several exhibits in Conservation Hall featuring sea life from Fiji, East Africa and the Amazon. But aquarium director Jon Forrest says the main attraction will be the better-than-ever Aquatheater, and its all-new sea-lion demonstrations. “We’ve done a great renovation of our Aquatheater, which is our most popular exhibit to begin with,” he says. $13 for adults, $9 for kids ages 3 to 12. 602 Surf Ave., Coney Island; 718-265-3474, nyaquarium.org.
— Jacqueline Burt
Julie Larsen Maher
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CHANNEL HISTORY!: BRIDGE APP-RECIATION
When Mayor Koch led a celebration on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1983 for its 100th anniversary, Kriss Roebling, a descendent of the bridge’s builders, was there. But he nearly got trampled into the bridge itself by fans of the structure looking for his autograph.
“It was actually kind of scary,” recalls Roebling, the great-great-grandson of bridge construction overseers Washington and Emily Roebling.
You can relive that stampede, along with other points in the bridge’s history, with the new free app Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge Tour that Roebling and his wife just released. And with good timing, too: The bridge opened 130 years ago today.
The app gives you a 40-minute guided tour, and includes nearby points of interest, plus historical photos and personal Roebling family anecdotes.
The darkest part of the bridge’s history is covered, too:
“Everyone very quickly becomes silent when you talk about the history of jumpers on the bridge,” Roebling says.
— Tim Donnelly
Getty Images/Image Source
