By Tracy Zwick
Welcome back to UWS Weekend, a selection of five fun things to do on the Upper West Side this coming weekend, chosen by your curator: me. I’m an Upper West Sider of 25 years, a journalist, a mom, an art historian, a former lawyer, and a lady you might’ve seen being pulled through Riverside Park by a labradoodle named Gary. I love working in New York’s art world, but I also grab every chance I get to explore all corners of the cultural wonderland that is the Upper West Side. I’m excited to share the best of it with WSR readers.
June 7 – 9, 2024
Exhibition: Sonia Delaunay: Living Art at Bard Graduate Center (18 West 86th Street)
Ukrainian-born French artist Delaunay (1885-1979) made paintings, dresses, books, ads, housewares and much, much more, often in bold, colorful designs with squiggles and paisleys, triangles, stripes, and arcs that might remind Rag readers of the recent West 103rd Street redesign. If you enjoyed the blockbuster Hilma af Klimt show at the Guggenheim a few years ago, you’ll love this one, which has examples of the pioneering abstractionist’s ranging creative output and marketing genius filling its four floors. If you stay long enough to need a sit-down afterwards, as I did, follow the lamppost banners west on 86th Street to Columbus Avenue and Plant Shed, where you can have a chai or coffee and local pastry among the tropical flora. Get there early if you’re hoping for a snack. They were sold out when I rolled in at 4:30.
Nature: Birding with Bob in Central Park (Saturday & Sunday, 7:30 & 9:30 a.m.)
I went on a birding walk recently, my first, in Central Park with Carine Mitchell of The Wild Bird Fund. It was a revelation. She told me about Bob, who’s been leading groups for over 25 years. Let Bob know in advance if you need to rent binoculars; they’re essential. I fell hard for the Northern Flicker woodpecker, whose bold strokes of ochre and red on its crown, along with the graphic patterns of half-moons and circles on its body, might remind you of Delaunay. Ten bucks, cash only.
Film: “The Apartment” at New Plaza Cinema (June 9th at 12:15 p.m.)
Did you pull the covers up and refuse to get out of bed after learning Lincoln Plaza, the below-ground art-house theater and UWS institution, had closed in 2018? There’s reason to cheer these days, with the non-profit New Plaza Cinema delivering top-notch programming every weekend at Macaulay Honors College (35 West 67th Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West). This Sunday, check out 1960’s “The Apartment,” starring Jack Lemmon as an office worker named Bud and Shirley MacLaine as Fran, an elevator operator in his building. Bud’s in love with Fran, who’s having an affair with Bud’s boss, who’s using Bud’s apartment for their trysts. It won five Academy Awards in 1961, including Best Picture.
Comedy: Mike Birbiglia, “One Night Only” at The Beacon Theatre (June 8th at 7:30)
Birbiglia famously almost died after sleepwalking through the second-story window of a hotel room in 2005. He transposed the experience into a hit 2008 off-Broadway show called “Sleepwalk with Me.” Last year he explored mortality again in “The Old Man and The Pool” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (and later on Netflix). The pool referred to the swimming Birbiglia decided to do after a doctor told him to get in shape or risk an early death. “I don’t have a swimmer’s body,” Birbiglia quipped. “I have what I call a drowner’s body.” Whatever autobiographical grist Birbiglia’s serving, I’ll be eating it up on Saturday night.
Food: Magnolia Bakery
Speaking of eating, with my daughter coming home from college for the summer (finally!), I’ll be stockpiling the iconic UWS bake shop’s seasonal Strawberry Shortcake Pudding and the cupcake of the week: strawberry. It’s never a mistake to have some individual Classic Icebox Cakes in the fridge, either.
Check WSR tomorrow for a Q&A with Magnolia Bakery’s CEO and CBO (Chief Baking Officer), Bobbie Lloyd
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What a fabulous list! I’m going to be following up on at least two of these recommendations.
Magnolia is the best. What does everyone think of HMart? What’s your favorite foods at HMart?
A waste of space. 3 food stores within one block. We can’t even buy a lightbulb after 7pm . The least convenient neighborhood on the UWS. We needed another Rite Aid or a large home goods store or a complete hardware store. How about an attractive shop open past 7 pm possibly clothing shoes accessories. Instead we get shelters, wandering homeless and bad food (Pastrami Queen awful!). Give it up. Manhattans dumping ground. Either useless stores or empty spaces.
Walgreens and CVS don’t carry lightbulbs? Gartner’s is a complete hardware store on 72nd near Broadway (btwn B’way and Columbus). And there’s Basics Plus on Broadway and 84th, for housewares, open every day from 8am-9pm. I know a lot of people on the UWS don’t like to leave their own neighborhood, but sometimes we do have to leave our own block.
I appreciate this list and the wonderful bird pic! Will be skipping Birbiglia, though. Tickets are a fortune and I wasn’t impressed with his show that he made into a movie, where he cheated on his wonderful girlfriend with a Hooter’s waitress. He is funny a little sometimes, but I’d rather just watch his standup for free on Netflix while cleaning my bathtub or something….
And I highly doubt Wild Bird Fund would in any way ‘endorse’ Birding Bob.
Thank you for posting your list.
So happy for these great suggestions !
Classic Icebox Cake??? Where is this place?
Strawberry cupcakes! I’m hitting that!
A big pass on Birding Bob. Playback of bird songs i s increasingly prohibited at National Wildlife Refuges. Bob terrorizes birds with aggressive playbacks. Stay away from this.
Such fantastic suggestions! Really great weekly feature, WSR!
Agree about passing on Birding Bob, who uses loud and aggressive playbacks of bird songs. It confuses the birds and agitates them, especially during migration season when they are supposed to be resting after long flights. Most bird watchers and naturalists I know really wish Birding Bob would not use the bird playbacks, and he gets really ruffled and aggressive when people ask him to stop.
Love these suggestions! The Sonia Delaunay exhibit looks wonderful, will have to check it out before it closes!