PRESSED FOR TIME

This week is all about vision. Whether it’s what New York looks like to an Ohioan, what words look like jumping off of skin or how we view Basquiat 22 years after his death, you’ll need your eyes and wits about you to take this week in properly.

  Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child Opens Dec. 15, Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. (betw. 6th Ave. & Varick St.), 212-727-8110; $12. Tamra Davis’ 2010 film chronicling the career of Jean- Michel Basquiat re-opens Dec. 15. Over 20 years ago, Davis—a brilliant music-video director, host of an Internet cooking show and a friend of the artist—interviewed him on camera. That conversation forms the centerpiece of the film. Bottom Line: You can’t get much cooler than being a brilliant artist who dated Madonna and was best buds with Andy Warhol, but you can live vicariously through this film.

  Jawbreaker: The Musical Dec. 12, Canal Room, 285 West Broadway (at Canal Street), 212-941-8100; 9, $20. Yep, this is really exactly what you think it is. It is really a musical based on the 1999 film starring Rose McGowan, in which the popular bitch pays dearly for sucking on something not found in the boys locker room. The nowdead bitch’s clique Cinderella-fies the class nerd so she’ll keep the whole thing a secret, and—for one night only— everyone sings and dances. Bottom Line: We’re still waiting for musical remakes to stop being the latest “it” thing. Meanwhile, we’ll be watching this to pass the time.

  Nathan Harger Opens Dec. 9, Hasted Kraeutler, 537 W. 24th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-627-0006; Free. Harger’s super-high-contrast blackand-white photographs depict the glory of American engineering in a manner simultaneously eerie and cartoonish. This latest exhibition highlights power lines, cranes, factory apparatuses and other staples of industry in the outer boroughs, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Bottom Line: Leave it to a Cleveland “Untitled (Overpass).” native to see beauty in places like these.

Now you can witness it too, minus the sketch factor of finding it on your own.

  American Hardcore Dec. 15, The Strand, 828 Broadway (at E. 12th St.), 212-473-1452; 7, Free. Punk rock chronicler Steven Blush, who founded Seconds magazine, speaks on a panel—with guests including Dag Nasty’s Dave Smalley and Laura Albert of JT Leroy fame—about the past, future and current state of hardcore. Bottom Line: Not only is Blush’s book perhaps the best Christmas gift we could get, but this panel is a can’t-miss collection of people we very much want to hear spouting off about floor punching and things of that ilk.

A bad-ass literary tattoo.

  Franklin Park Reading Series Dec. 13, Franklin Park, 618 St. John’s Place (betw. Classon & Franklin Aves.) Brooklyn, 718-975-0196; 8, Free. The idea may have come to The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos From Bookworms Worldwide authors Justin Taylor and Eva Talmadge over a plate of cheap tacos, but the result has given voice to a movement. Discover the lofty tattoos of literary lovers over a plate of sausage bread at this month’s installment of the Franklin Park Reading Series. Bottom Line: Words on skin are infinitely sexier than words on paper. And these are words on skin on glossy, heavy stock.

Mmmmmm.