ON A HAZY day this June, I was hopping from stranger’s loft to stranger’s loft, dodging swarms of sweaty beer bottles as I navigated the Bushwick Open Studio weekend. The crowd’s assertive dress and distinctive swagger disrupted the otherwise normal neighborhood fare of hoopties swooping, chorizo grilling and children busting open fire hydrants. While trying to focus on the art, I found myself unable to do anything but stare fixated for hours at the cracked sidewalks in between venues, scanning them like a geriatric wielding her metal detector. The sought treasure? Heroin stamps, or paper packets emblazoned with tiny pictures that tell a story of how drugs are marketed, bought and sold in New York. more

OFTEN GHETTOIZED INTO the cobwebbed recesses of haunted houses, Tim Burton’s triumphant oddities and alluring grotesqueries are now anointed by one of the world’s elite cultural circles. Halloween’s pumpkin glow may have barely drained from New York’s autumnal complexion, but all things diabolical and dark will be resurrected beginning Nov. 22, as the auteur unveils over 700 never-before-seen storyboards, paintings, drawings, puppets, costumes, sculptures and ephemera at the Museum of Modern Art. It’s a goth girl’s dream (nightmare?) come true. more

IT'S ALMOST NEVER a good thing when, sitting among hundreds in a theater, a strong and distinct aroma fills the room. However, entrepreneur Stewart Matthew and veteran perfumer Christophe Laudamiel mean to do precisely that with 23 scents as part of a 40-minute “operatic” work that bucks genre classification and aims to pioneer new forms of artistic expression. more

THE SHOW MUST go on” finds new meaning as Opening Night’s leading lady stumbles, falling-down drunk, into the auditorium. Stagehands scurry to remove her messy street clothes, pump her full of caffeine and slap away at her face with greasepaint-covered powder puffs, attempting to revive her in time for the show within a show’s opening night.While they prepare her for her close-up, the lucky aisle-seat dweller is already being treated to another type of close-up as the actor’s panty-clad rear wriggles just inches from your nose. Everyone loves a substance-addled, oncebeloved actress fallen from grace.We all sheepishly remember finding titillating schadenfreude in embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions, unruly public displays and impulse head shaves.While she’s far from analogous to today’s pop-culture twits, Myrtle Gordon, the aging heroine of John Cassavetes’ 1977 film Opening Night, struggles to tell the difference between stage and sidewalk, and is forced to take a hard look at what it means to be an actor when the accidental death of a fan throws her into psychological crisis.The story follows Myrtle’s operatic collapses and histrionic tantrums as she rehearses a play for Broadway debut. more