THUR. 01/20

MUSIC

TAKE YR MEDICINE

A punk quick fix

Not to be confused with the Cure, but they occasionally share the British despondency. Not to be confused with the Germs, though their punk back beats should be in fine, scabrous form live. Not to be confused with the Vaselines, although their distorted sing-song is just one sneer away from a mocking, “maaaan-boy” chorus. In fact, London troupe the Vaccines shouldn’t be confused with anyone, because they just formed this past summer . . . But they’re stoking quite a fire across the pond and charted third on the BBC’s “Sound of 2011” poll. Early leaks of March’s debut, What Did You Expect From the Vaccines?, suggest new wave–laced punk rock and an amiable discordance. These lads are proving themselves quickly and surely. At 8:30, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, 212-533-2111, $13–$15 STACEY ANDERSON

PARTY

PRETTY THINGS

Be famous for a night

Edie Sedgwick, Lou Reed, and Nico were just a few of the iconic Factory regulars who appeared in Andy Warhol’s famous Screen Tests. Now, the MOMA party Pop Rally is giving you a chance at 60 Seconds of Fame, an interactive event, directed by Conrad Ventur, and inspired by the exhibition Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures currently at MOMA. Guests are invited to record their own screen test, à la Warhol, which will then be projected on the walls of the Marron Atrium and will also be seen on the Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures website. So while you dance the night away, don’t be surprised if someone asks you for your autograph. At 8, MOMA, 11 West 53rd Street, moma.org, $15–$17 ARACELI CRUZ

FRI. 01/21

MUSIC

WANDA AND JACK

A rockabilly pioneer enlists a White Stripe

Jack White is developing quite the reputation for squiring around country’s greatest dames: first, Loretta Lynn (Van Lear Rose), and now Wanda Jackson, whose The Party Ain’t Over (out January 25) was produced by White on his Third Man Records imprint. We trust he understands his fortune in collaborating with these ladies; Jackson, one of rockabilly’s most exciting pioneers, has led a solid and fruitful career since her debut hit single, 1956’s “I Gotta Know.” Gospel and more straight-ahead country has ensued since her glamorous rockabilly start; The Party Ain’t Over is described, per Third Man’s site, as a “retro modern collection.” We sincerely can’t wait for the next chapter of her reckless love affair. Performing tonight with the Third Man House Band featuring Jack White. At 9, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, 718-486-5400, $30 STACEY ANDERSON

MUSIC

POLICE ON YOUR BACK

The Canadian army returns

Their sophomore album, Champ, didn’t quite incite the fervor of their debut, but Tokyo Police Club are no spring chickens anymore. After all, they’re all of 24 now (with one extra year for the squad’s eldest). But the prodigious spirit and substance that made the Ontario group’s rise so remarkable is still evident, and still a live spectacle worthy of your chilled, rock starved ears. Plenty of young upstarts find A meal ticket in today’s fickle garage rock scene, where a nicely lurid growl practically guarantees a Converse sponsorship, but few groups have the stamina of these men . . . Nor do they have the chorus of “Gone” in their back pocket. With Two Door Cinema Club and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. At 9, Terminal 5, 610 W 56th Street, 212-582-6600, $23–$25 STACEY ANDERSON

LITERATURE

Fame—The Journal ‘Lapham’s Quarterly’ explores celebrity

The latest issue of Lapham’s Quarterly, the history-minded literary journal, reads like a dignified version of People magazine. Its 224 pages draw on essays, letters, poems, and book excerpts from writers as varied as Dylan, Proust, and Warhol to expound upon the topic of “celebrity.” And what better way to explore the fame monster than by indulging in it? The Lapham’s Quarterly Celebrity Event presents editor Lewis Lapham in conversation with the Public Theater’s artistic director, Oskar Eustis, and then welcomes the celebs themselves for readings from the publication—Alec Baldwin and Philip Seymour Hoffman among them. Most intriguing of all is the odd coupling of Broadway star Mandy Patinkin and drag star Taylor Mac on a duet of “Unworthy of Your Love,” from Assassins. At 7, Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, 212-967-7555, $20 SHARYN JACKSON

SAT. 01/22

THEATER

THE BORN-AGAIN IDENTITY

Summer camp can be hot

Christian camp can be enlightening—and not just in a religious sort of way. The summer humidity swirling with adolescent pheromones in those sex-segregated cabins can be a dangerous combo, contributing to more than one sexual awakening over the long history of sleep-away camp. That’s exactly the setting in which 14-year-old Jana and Titi meet in Camp Wanatachi, an electro-musical by Natalie Elizabeth Weiss and Bekah Brunstetter that grapples with the intersection of the young girls’ religious and sexual identities. The play made its New York premiere at the Fringe in 2009, and is back for a full-fledged, hormonesoaked run. Opens January 21, through February 6, Ellen Stewart Theater, 74A East 4th Street, 212-475-7710, $18 SHARYN JACKSON

COMEDY

UNCUT & UNCENSORED

Good thing the FCC doesn’t regulate sketch comedy

Saturday Night Live is great and all, but there will always be those sketches that are just too dirty for television. If it’s truly nasty, tasteless, crude live comedy you want, the Upright Citizens Brigade has it at their Dirtiest Sketch in NYC Contest. John Flynn and John Frusciante host a range of sketch teams all competing to gross out the audience in three minutes or less. If there’s a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Bananas, someone may want to call them. At midnight, Upright Citizens Brigade, 307 West 26th Street, 212-366-9176, ucbtheatre.Com, $5 ARACELI CRUZ

RECREATION

COME SAIL AWAY

It’s the 106th annual New York Boat Show

Tired of snow already? One antidote to winter is the New York Boat Show. This year’s show offers the museum-quality History of Boating in America exhibit, which features photos, videos, models, and historic vessels such as an 1899 electric launch. For Star power, there are appearances by deckboss Russell New berry, of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch (or, for the kids, Sponge Bob Square Pants). Included in the activities: restoration of an antique boat, a boat-handling clinic, a fish tales storytelling contest, and the Wing-a-Thon Wing Eating contest. CBS Money Watch recently called buying a boat one of the surest ways to “buy happiness.” Even if you’re not in the market, there’s plenty to see and do. Starts January 19, through January 23, Jacob Javits Center, 655 West 34t Street, nyboatshow.com, $12 ALLEN BARRA

SUN. 01/23

FOOD

YOU, JERK LOVER!

Enjoy all-you-can-eat dry meat

We, like many other easily influenced kids in the late ’90s, had a burning desire to snap into a Slim Jim, thanks to Macho Man Randy Savage. However, as an adult, We learned beef jerky doesn’t come in one manufactured flavor—there’s a whole world of jerky out there. The World’s Biggest Jerk Off, presented by Matt Timms of Chili Take down fame, is a cooking contest for the best jerky makers this side of Montana, or at least in Brooklyn—so if you have a dehydrator or the Nu Wave oven, get to it. Prizes will be awarded to the best jerk and jerk runners-up. At 4, the Bell House, 149 7th Street, Brooklyn, 718-643- 6510, $10 ARACELI CRUZ

FILM

A MOTHER’S LOVE

Film Forum revives ‘Mamma Roma’

When it was released in Italy in 1962, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s controversial second feature film, Mamma Roma, was banned for obscenity for its story of a former prostitute struggling to make a new life for herself and her son, who falls in with the Wrong crowd. Now, Film Forum is reviving this classic with a fresh 35mm print. It’s a wonderful chance to see the Italian powerhouse Anna Magnani in what is considered to be one of her finest, most gripping performances as Mamma Roma, a woman tragically unable to outrun the demons of her past. Opens January 21, through January 27, at 1, 3:30, 5:40, 7:50, and 10, Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, 212-727-8110, $12 ANGELA ASHMAN

FILM

SMALL WORLD

Nine new films from around the globe

Tired of all that Hollywood has to offer? From Uruguay to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Global Lens 2011 highlights some of the best new films from emerging international filmmakers. Presented by MOMA and the Global Film Initiative, the series includes nine new feature films. Today at 2, catch Aktan Arym Kubat’s Svet-Ake (The Light Thief), a film from Kyrgyzstan about a simple electrician whose ability to pirate electrical currents makes him the town’s Robin Hood. Also, today at 5 is Levan Koguashvili’s Quchis Dgeebi (Street Days), which follows a heroin addict in Georgia’s capital city and looks at the older generation left behind in the new world of the post-Soviet era. Runs through January 28, MOMA, 11 West 53rd Street, 212-708-9400, moma.Org, $6–$10 ANGELA ASHMAN

MON. 01/24

MUSIC

MADE IN PORTLANDIA

Three nights with the Decemberists

Prog-phobic indie types put off by the Decemberists’ recent forays into the rockoperatic should check back in with these Portland geeks: On their new album, The King Is Dead, frontman Colin Meloy and his mates forgo concept in favor of songcraft, and the result is the band’s most tuneful (and enjoyable) effort in years. Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Gillian Welch joined the Decemberists in the studio, but for the world tour they’re launching with a three-night stand at the Beacon, they’ve drafted former Nickel Creek member Sara Watkins. Her presence never hurts. With Wye Oak. At 8, also Tuesday and Wednesday, Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, 212-496-7070, $40 MIKAEL WOOD

COMEDY

THE CABLE GUY

Matt McCarthy is a commercial success

The regular cable guy on the Verizon FiOS commercials is constantly being outsmarted by the FiOS guy, but Matt McCarthy, who plays the red-haired bear of a customer service tech for the much-reviled cable company, is actually pretty savvy. He’s made quite a career for himself out of the consumption habits of Americans, starring in ads for OfficeMax, Doritos, and U.S. Cellular. Besides his commercial success, McCarthy is a comic who has appeared on Comedy Central, and is hosting a new monthly live show, “Marking Out.” Tonight, he’ll be joined by fellow comics Adira Amram, Vince Averil, Sean Donnelly, Hannibal Buress, and Anthony Jeselnik. At 8, Liberty Hall at the Ace Hotel, 20 West 29th Street, 212-679- 2222, $5 SHARYN JACKSON

TUES. 01/25

ART

JUST KIDS

Larry Clark goes back to Tulsa

Filmmaker-photographer Larry Clark, notoriously of Kids fame, first earned acclaim for his raw 1971 black-and-white photography book Tulsa, which documented the squalid lifestyle of young people in his hometown playing with guns, having sex, and shooting up. Recently Clark found footage he shot of the Tulsa crew with a rented 16-millimeter Bolex. Now, for the first time in the U.S., at Luhring Augustine you can see the 64-minute silent black-and-white film he made in 1968 of the young addicts going about their daily drug rituals. As Clark told Interview Magazine, “When I watch it now, my friends come back to life, because most of the people in the film are gone.” Through February 5, Luhring Augustine, 531 West 24th Stret, 212-206-9100, luhringaugustine.com, free ANGELA ASHMAN

WED. 01/26

MUSIC

STILL WHIP-SMART

Liz Phair just wants to have fun

Having concluded (perhaps) that being hated is preferable to being ignored, Liz Phair took to her website last year to follow up 2005’s ultra-bland Somebody’s Miracle with Fun style, a purposely lowrent bit music-biz satire that has attracted more critical eye-rolls than her notorious collab with Avril Lavigne’s peeps. Don’t believe the anti-hype: With its giddygoofy rap tracks and occasional radio-pop choruses, Fun style is indeed a good deal of fun, and no less confrontational than the sacrosanct Exile in Guyville. Figure she’ll play at least one song from the thing tonight.At 8, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, musichallofwilliamsburg.Com, $25 MIKAEL WOOD

ART

MIND TRIP

Enter the fun house of George Condo

Kanye West is no stranger to controversy— so for his new album cover, he wanted a like-minded artist to be as out there as he is. Naturally, he approached artist George Condo. The rapper wanted Condo, who once worked as a printer for Andy Warhol, to create an album cover that would get “banned.” However, the cover for West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, featuring a trippy brightly colored image of a Devilish monkey screwing a naked female monster with wings and a tail, never did get banned—in fact, even Wal- Mart was excited to sell it. Mental States, Condo’s first major U.S. survey, is just as out there, with more than 80 paintings and sculptures from the past 28 years of the artist’s career. The exhibition, divided on two floors and separated in chapter form, details the artist’s unique adaptation of Old Master paintings and has its own share of female monsters and strange monkey people suitable for rock stars and us weirdly normal folk. Opens today, through May 8, New Museum, 235 Bowery, newmuseum.Org, $10 ARACELI CRUZ