WED WEDNESDAY 6/18 Punks with Guns The NewFilmmakers New York ...
Punks with Guns
Joe Bob Briggs
"Six breasts. One beheading. Bondage. Stake Fu. Vampire Fu." Joe Bob Briggs has become an icon of trash cinema with his trademark drive-in summaries. Tonight, Briggs?columnist, humorist, late-night movie host, actor and Texan?will be reading from his new book, Profoundly Disturbing: The Shocking Movies That Changed History, an equal-parts humorous and insightful look at how "underground cult movies?have?unexpectedly and unintentionally?revolutionized the way that all movies would be made." Call it contemporary film studies, postmodern cultural anthropology or just a good time. Barnes & Noble College Bookstore, 105 5th Ave. (18th St.), 212-675-5500, 6:30, free.
The Knockout Drops
Swaggering somewhere between Americana and the Roger McGuinn/early REM "plugged-in folk better rock" ideology, Chris Campion's Knockout Drops sound like they're reveling in some kickass rock 'n' roll. With songs like "Wasted" and "Wrong Side of Love" on their debut record Killed by the Lights, and Gordon Gano a champion of this band, it sounds like the Drops are dropping the bomb for real at their record release party tonight at Knitting Factory. 74 Leonard St. (betw. B'way & Church St.), 212-219-3006, 10:30, $8.
FRIDAY 6/20
Harry Potter
Soon, subways will fill with twenty- and thirty-somethings reading the new Harry Potter book. These people, many of whom have graduated from expensive colleges, will be spellbound by words meant for 14-year-olds. Most of them, we assume, figure that after slogging through The Corrections, they've met their "brainy books" quota for the decade. The Toys 'R Us midnight festival transforms the temple of child-targeted commerce into the Hogwarts Academy of the book, so it will probably look like a junior prom planned for and by the developmentally disabled. There will be games, prizes and hopefully a sobering up for adults immersed in these Potter books. We'll be there with wizard hats filled with eggs and smoke bombs. 1514 B'way (44th St.), 646-366-8855, 12, free.
SATURDAY 6/21
Mermaid Parade
For the 21st year in a row, Coney Island (where else?) will be home to Brooklyn's oddest, goofiest parade. Freaks and would-be freaks alike, exhibitionists, musicians, land sharks, pirates, the wearily tattooed and, of course, a couple hundred home-style mermaids and mermen will gather just off the boardwalk for the annual Mermaid Parade. The crowds are a nightmare, finding a place where you can actually see anything is damn near impossible, the lines to the bathroom stretch for miles, and trying to get a beer at Ruby's requires a whip. Nevertheless, if you can overlook all those things and find a perch somewhere, it never fails to be one of the best free shows the city has to offer. The parade route travels along Surf Ave. between W. 10th St. and W. 15th St., or else on the Riegelmann Boardwalk between the same cross streets. You'll figure it out. 2 p.m., free.
The Hub
It's hardcore, it's metal, it's punk, it's freeform dirty jazz as you've never heard it before. Yep, it's local sound-freak heroes the Hub, and they rock violent and gentle, Albert Ayler and '88 Slayer?but always smart, always in control. If you still haven't submitted to the trio's unique sonic brutality, Northsix is giving you another chance. They're supported by Chips, a new collaboration between Hub drummer Sean Noonan and guitarist Aram Bajakian. 66 N. 6th St. (betw. Wythe & Kent Aves.), Williamsburg, 718-599-5103, 9, $10.
SUNDAY 6/22
Salvador DalI: Dream of Venus
Opening today is a show of photos that Salvador Dali shot of the 1939 World's Fair. The subject is a pavilion called Dream of Venus, a superbly weird and somewhat scandalous piece of architecture housing a dormant Venus and the realization of her dream. Apparently Venus dreamt of underwater half-naked women wearing spikes and fins as they typed on oversized typewriter keys, milked a mummified cow and chatted on huge phones. Who knew? Queens Museum of Art, Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, 718-592-9700, 12-5. $5 $2.50 st./s.c. sugg. don.
English tea time
Have you ever wanted to experience clotted cream without taking a trip across the pond? Merchant's House Museum hosts weekly teas with special themes that let people feel like they're part of Victorian high society. This week is a "fan tea"?the museum will provide everyone with hand fans, the better to flirt demurely with other attendees. With the price of admission you also get tea, dainty finger sandwiches, buttermilk scones and jam, desserts and (but of course) little pots of clotted cream. 29 E. 4th St. (betw. Bowery & Lafayette St.), 212-777-1089, 1:30 & 3, $40/couple.
MOCCA Art Festival
We hear a lot about film preservation societies and other groups dedicated to saving particular bits of specific arts and crafts. But who, we ask, speaks for the lowly comic artist? The non-profit Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is "dedicated to the collection, preservation, study and display" of comic and cartoon art, and their second annual festival at the Puck Building is part showcase, part fundraiser. Our very own Neil Swaab will be on hand peddling copies of his Mr. Wiggles book; other artists scheduled to participate include Bill Plympton, James Kochalka, Mike Mignola, Peter Kuper and maybe a few other New York Press illustrators and alums. Art Spiegelman is the special guest honoree. 293 Lafayette St. (Houston St.), 212-254-3511, 11-7, $5 sugg. don.
MONDAY 6/23
Broadway by the Year
It's like a TGI Friday's sampler platter of old Broadway musicals, only without the indigestion. Tonight's 1925 show is the last in this year's series, and will include music from No No Nanette, The Cocoanuts and Sunny as sung by current Broadway performers. The crowd might be older, but the happy-go-lucky style of musicals will forever age gracefully. Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St. (betw. 6th Ave. & B'way), 212-307-4100, 8, $37.50-$40.
Trampoline Hall Lecture
It seems like there's a "world's foremost authority" on every conceivable subject matter. None of those people will be here tonight. Toronto-based writer Sheila Heti's Trampoline Hall Lectures, consist of disquisitions by people who are totally unqualified to discuss their topic. Past lectures have examined the number 32, procrastination and eye contact. Tonight's panel is moderated by Jorge Just, while Heti and Misha Glouberman, the host, have joined forces with McSweeney's to bring out New York's best faux know-it-alls. Marquee, 356 Bowery (betw. Great Jones & E. 4th Sts.), 212-475-7621, 8, $6.50.
TUESDAY 6/24
Maceo Parker
James Brown's sax machine Maceo Parker blows his horn and avoids blowing trash at the Apollo tonight. Expect scratch funk guitar with a little wakakaka action, slinky pre-LSD Bootsy-style bass and the kind of beats that hiphop DJs stopped sampling around 1992. Will he give the drummer some? Show up and see. Maceo is a charismatic performer and will take breaks from laying down the woodwind to exhort the crowd to move. Assuming the Apollo isn't swarming with college hippies, everybody should have a funky good time. 253 W. 125th St. (betw. Frederick Douglass & Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvds.), 212-531-5303, 8, $37.
Contributors: Adam Bulger, Philip Henken, Art Janik, Mallory Jensen, Jim Knipfel, Jeff Koyen, Hana Nakamura and Alexander Zaitchik.