This one’s for you, Twihards!
1. Dark Shadows at Twilight: A Paley Center Vampire Weekend
Midtown’s pop culture-loving Paley Center (25 W 52nd St between Fifth and Sixth Aves; 212-621-6600, mtr.org) hosts a vaguely Twilight-themed weekend with screenings of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood and other vampirey fare. Check out the schedule here to find a screening you want to see, or go from 2:30–4pm on Saturday for a panel discussion led by Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker. Afterward, you’ll probably have a taste for blood—take a stroll down to Keens (72 W 36th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves; 212-947-3636, keenssteakhouse.com) for one of the best steaks in the city.

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Video by Karina Granda and Elizabeth Kreutz

Last week, we took a tour of Spaeth Design, the company that’s building this year’s holiday windows for Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and Macy’s, and shot behind-the-scenes footage of Saks’s windows being built. We would love to show it to you now, but that would be like opening your presents on Christmas Eve. Instead, here’s David Spaeth and Saks fashion director for windows Steve Swirczek talking about last-minute panics from years past.

Check back after the unveiling on November 23 to follow David and Steve through the studio.

Books
Gary Shteyngart
The Absurdistan author heads to KGB Bar to discuss his fiction, a unique mix of inspired satire and brisk storytelling.

Discussion
“The Fighter Pilot and the Monk: Fearless Success in Business and Life”
It’s a study in contrasts: Former Navy pilot John Foley and Buddhist monk Geshe Michael Roach will talk about their strategies for success.

Gay & Lesbian
Reel Dialogue
The Hunter College series presents a trio of LGBT documentaries.

Cover image via Amazon.com

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That flash of light on your perfect Friday is your creative spark, it’s trying to metaphorically set alight Kidrobot’s newest line of customizable Munnys (above) at the Munnyworld Custom Toy Show. Start with that and mature rapidly as the day wears on, hitting your teenage years with Buffy the Vampire Slayer at Dark Shadows at Twilight: A Paley Center Vampire Weekend, and reaching sexual maturity in the evening at Tattooed and Fish Eye Fetish Sneak Preview Art Show. Finally, face death (not yours) at the improv interpretation of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s fatal duel in Code Duello. Live fast on your perfect Friday.

Photos by: Jolie Ruben

The Upper West Side just became home to Apple’s fourth shop in the five boroughs. The retailer has taken over the space previously occupied by Victoria’s Secret, and it’s architecturally unique in that it’s the only stand-alone building in the area. The sleek space resembles a modern museum with 45-foot-tall stone walls and a roof made entirely of glass. (How cool to watch it rain from the ground floor!) The basement level houses the Genius Bar and hosts workshops and one-on-one training sessions ($99), and the first floor is so huge, you could fit 11 of the Fifth Avenue store cubes inside it. Line up at 10am this Saturday and you may score one of 2,000 free adult-sized Apple T-shirts, and be among the first New Yorkers to try the shop’s new checkout system. All employees will be equipped with iPod touches that you pay on, so no more waiting in line. If you prefer to pay in cash (how passé), no problem: They’ve got cash drawers hidden beneath the computer tables. This holiday season, Apple is also offering online product reservations with no deposit, plus gift wrapping ($5) with each purchase. Stumped on what to give? Try the new Magic Mouse ($69), or a video-recording Nano ($149). 1981 Broadway at 67th St (212-209-3400, apple.com)—Corinne Mohr

The Whitney Museum of American Art gave itself an online face-lift today. In launching its redesigned and expanded site, the museum now allows visitors to search through full-screen or larger images of works from the museum’s permanent collection and put together their own selected slide show of faves to edit, caption and share. The custom collection feature is just one of the many ways in which the museum is trying to emphasize interactivity on the Web. Others include free streaming and downloadable audio guides for the collection and exhibitions—short videos featuring behind-the-scenes artist and curator commentary and their complete transcripts. The Whitney’s calendar, as well as all pages on the site, can be synched with a variety of personal calendar programs and online community pages including Facebook and Twitter.

The museum is also commissioning a series of Internet art projects that will be changing every three to four months. Kicking off the series is Untitled Landscape #5, by EcoArtTech. The digital environmental-art collaborative has built a program into the site that follows the change of day to night in New York City. At sunrise and sunset every day the website will be overlaid with glowing orbs, whose size and speed will be proportionate to the number of visitors to the site in the preceding hours. These balls of light will herald the transition of the webpage’s background from white (day) to black (night) and vice versa. Check out this exciting new interface here.—Emily Bauman

Photographs by the Drunken Photographer

After four and a half years of men stripping for charity while calling out bingo numbers, Will Clark’s Porno Bingo hit a major milestone last night: The weekly show has now officially raised more than $100,000, one bingo card (and occasional pair of panties) at a time. For the special occasion, Mathew Rush was this week’s eye candy and number caller. The burly skin-flick star was happy to participate, saying, “It feels good to give back. I get a very nice feeling inside.” In addition to calling numbers, Rush exchanged breezy banter with Clark on the small Pieces stage, breaking to auction off his shirt and underwear (see postsale photos above). The party also included a moody tune courtesy of local singer-songwriter Dudley Saunders.

Photographs: Caroline Voagen Nelson

Barneys revealed this year’s holiday windows today, a tribute to 35 years of Saturday Night Live, including a papier-mâché Sarah Palin. Enjoy the photos of the windows and designers putting on the finishing touches, and then impress your friends with your in-depth knowledge of the windows, thanks to TONY’s interview with creative director Simon Doonan.

Doesn’t it put you in the holiday spirit? If it does, you’ll want to start the jolly season right away.

If you haven’t yet taken the opportunity to check out the endless lineup of horror, dance, vaudeville, comedy and spoken-word performances at Ant Fest 2009, perhaps you were just waiting for the word free to enter the equation. Hold out no longer—to see tonight’s gratis edition of the ongoing variety show “Showgasm,” all you have to do is reserve a seat beforehand at arsnovanc.com.

Ant Fest is all about out-of-the-box live entertainment, so the pick-’n'-mix variety format offers the perfect chance to see the weird and wonderful range of performers who play at Ars Nova (511 W 54th St between Tenth and Eleventh Aves, 212-868-4444). As an added bonus, tonight’s hosting duties will be handled by Upright Citizens Brigade vets Lance Rubin and Ray Munoz.

If you can’t brave the cold, you still have one more chance to see the show for free before the festival closes: next Thursday, November 19, at 10pm. Who knows—maybe you’ll find out you have more of a penchant for the avant-garde than you thought.

Earlier this week, we chatted with Fleshbot editrix Lux Alptraum about ejaculate omelettes, NYC porn and exactly what brand of debauchery the first-ever Fleshbot Awards at the Box might entail. And last night we sent reporter Ada Calhoun to find out.…

“Shut the fuck up!” yelled a woman who stormed onstage wearing a vagina T-shirt. She was ignored. In fact, the roaring, uh-perhaps-you-didn’t-notice-there-is-an-open-bar crowd ignored everyone, including presenters and winners, the gyrating, lingerie-clad Box dancers, and even porn star Belladonna as she got naked onstage and deep-throated a dildo.

There is kind of nothing more depressing than posturing sexiness that goes unnoticed. When someone spends the time hooking together all those bustiers and garter belts and rolling around looking sultry and pretending to make out with other girls also wearing black underwear, you really should pay attention to her, just to be polite. But the crowd was not polite. They were drunk and loud and teeming with chubby, giddy dudes who made Levi Johnston (winner for the Porn Crossover Award for his appearance in next week’s Playgirl) look like George Clooney.

The live-blog on Fleshbot is way funnier and hotter than the event itself, and Alptraum would have been a more appropriate host than Justin Bond and John Cameron Mitchell. (She could be seen in the audience jumping up and down with rapture as Belladonna did her blow-job routine. Bond at the end simply deadpanned: “That was beautiful.”)

The porn industry has always been a West Coast thing, and the Fleshbot Awards drove home why: New Yorkers suck at faking things: boobs, pleasure, interest. We are a city of real bodies, and real volume. Our minds are not blown by Prince-video-without-Prince-to-redeem-it ladies dancing to “I Touch Myself” or stripteases to “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” or even a woman dancing—in a very Judy Chicago moment—in a giant vulva costume.

The New York sex industry will never be able to compete with L.A.’s, and so the Fleshbot Awards were unable to compete with the roar of an audience full of drunken New Yorkers just trying to get laid.—Ada Calhoun

See the winners after the jump…

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Food and art?!? What could be bad (other than your own cooking, perhaps)?

Whip up a dish and head to Aperture Gallery in Chelsea on Friday night to enjoy a shared dinner (7–9pm) and then a slide show by Chuck Close of his daguerreotype portraits (9–11pm), accompanied by lyrical praise poems by Bob Holman. On the off chance that everyone who attends is a worse cook than you, there will be a number of featured culinary guests, such as Annie Novak of Rooftop Farms in Brooklyn and Umami: People + Food Supper Club. Also on view in the gallery will be artworks by photojournalists, painters, sculptors, designers, and fashion and fine art photographers, including a movie about young farmers called The Greenhorns. So, mix, mingle and stuff your face while exposing yourself to new art and new ideas.—Emily Bauman

For more  information go to Slideluck Potshow’s site

If the wind and rain haven’t squashed your will to get out and do something tonight, why not keep your hands busy with some arts and crafts at Spacecraft (355 Bedford Ave between South 4th and 5th Sts, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; 718-599-2718, spacecraftbrooklyn.com)? From the stain on your jeans to the hole in your hat, you probably have something that needs bedazzling. If not, just get creative. “We had a gentleman come in to make an Obamoctopus,” explains store manager Christine. “He knitted an octopus and the pattern had Obama’s face on it.”

Visitors to Spacecraft’s “Church of Craft” (6-9pm, free) are welcome to bring along any project of their choosing, from quilting to embroidery to drawings with crayons. No one’s there to judge, though you may pick up some pointers on inventive uses of toilet paper.  Half of the store’s space is taken up by a long wooden table, around which visitors sit, drink wine and get crafty. Supplies (scissors, needles, rulers, etc.) are provided by the store, but  you should either bring your own materials or buy them from Spacecraft’s wide selection.

Clubs
Dance.Here.Now.: Carl Cox
The big man of techno plays the little club of the Meatpacking District.

Drink Up
Flute Fest
New Year’s comes early at this annual bash, featuring unlimited tastes from more than 20 champagne producers.

Event
The 11th Annual Mr. Lower East Side Pageant
Amazingly, this event is a decade old—come see if any dudes have a Miss South Carolina moment.

Music
Numero’s Eccentric Soul Revue
The great Chicago reissue label hits the road for its first-ever tour. Tonight’s show features special guest Missy Dee, an MC who takes it back to hip-hop’s roots.

Discussion
“Some Still Like It Hot”
Actor Tony Curtis talks about the making of Billy Wilder’s comedy classic Some Like It Hot, now celebrating its 50th anniversary.

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Festival
5 Dutch Days
Kick of this Dutch-themed festival with free food and Netherlands-ish trivia at the Dutch Quiz Quest.

Event
“Lower East Side Stories: Apartment Tales”
This regular storytelling series turns to a topic we can all relate to: NYC apartments, and the horror stories contained therein.

Discussion
Obsolete: An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things Passing Us By
Author Anna Jane Grossman will discuss things that are no longer in common use (e.g., mixtapes and getting lost), then open the floor to audience members who want to argue about them.

See all free things to do today

See more than 125 free things to do in NYC

Although most of us don’t have the spare $25,000 (minimum) for a table at the Tim Burton Film Benefit at MoMA, that sad fact of life doesn’t mean you can’t booze with the bigwigs afterward. You don’t even have to tell them that Large Marge sent ya. All you have to do is fill out our little contest form, win two tickets ($250 value) and then bring your melancholy dancing shoes for the MoMA Film Benefit’s after-party on November 17, which features the sounds of one DJ Justin Miller and celebrates the work of our foremost gothic weirdo auteur. (Extra props if you show up dressed in soft pastels and buck the grim sartorial trend.)

Video shot by Roberto De Luna, edited by Karina Granda and Elizabeth Kreutz

We’ll say one thing for returning to “standard time” after daylight saving time in the summer: There are more hours of darkness to drink covertly, which is great for two reasons. The first is that as it gets colder, we just want to toss one back; and second, there’s a whole new winter drinking guide, with cozy bars, seasonal drinks, warming comfort food and more. Perfect if you’re feeling like the dude above.

Which brings us to our video. We just wanted to prove that no models were hurt, or caught hypothermia, in the making of this cover. Check out how we did it with this behind-the-scenes footage.

Twinkle by Wenlan
Designer Wenlan Chia is unloading her cheerful fall collection and jewelry for up to 75 percent off during this biannual blowout. Wool coats are lowered from $484 to $165, knitted accessories are snipped from $120 to $40 and printed silk frocks are $160 (were $471). 545 Eighth Ave between 37th and 38th Sts, 17th floor (212-625-8710). Subway: A, C, E, 1, 2, 3 to 34th St–Penn Station. Wed 18, Nov 19 10am-7pm.

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Keepin' it indie: Housing Works Bookstore

With even the big-box bookstores struggling against the tide of technology, you know it’s got to be hard out there for an independent bookseller. Bibliophiles and local business advocates alike can show their support for the small guys during Independent Bookstore Week (November 15–21), which kicks off tonight with a “preweek” party at powerHouse Arena (37 Main St at Water St; 718-666-3049, powerhousearena.com). The event is free, but a suggested $10 donation will be collected at the door.

Get there at 7pm for a wine-and-beer reception and a performance by singer-songwriter Mark Ettinger, then check out talks by authors like Kurt Andersen (who wrote a few New York Times bestsellers), Jennifer Egan (The Keep) and Sharon Zukin (Naked City). Stay for another musical break from Brooklyn Jones Street Station at 9pm and to find out winners of a raffle featuring (what else?) books and a special signed edition of a poster designed by New Yorker illustrator Bruce McCall.

If you still haven’t fulfilled your indie-bookstore cravings by the end of the evening, check out the 40-plus events scattered at 25 indie bookshops throughout this week and next.—Laura Yan

Rebecca Minkoff + Nicholas K
Celebrities are obsessed with Rebecca Minkoff’s chic leather carryalls, but anyone can pull off a piece from the trendy line. Her famous Morning After Bag, marked $350 (instead of $635), can help you avoid the walk of shame. Other styles will soon become your everyday staples, like the Nikki, a slouchy hobo bag with gold hardware, chopped from $595 to $350; or the Devote, a studded leather tote for $435 (as opposed to $695). After picking up a purse, check out Nicholas K’s edgy ensembles, including women’s cropped leather bombers for $325 (usually $740) and men’s two-tone wool sweaters for $250 (were $499). 17 W 17th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves (212-677-7829). Subway: 1 to 18th St. Wed 18–Nov 22 10am-8pm.

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Photos by: Dan Dealy

Fashion brand Nooka, best known for its design-object watches with innovative methods of displaying time, has begun expanding beyond the timepiece to what founder Matthew Waldman calls “Nooka mindstyle accessories.” In the past year, the New York designer has launched a fragrance, a strip belt and an AO organizer wallet, while continuing to innovate and expand the watch line.

Last night, Nooka hosted a reception for a one-day gallery show of its latest collaborative creation, the mini NookaNooka. The toy, originally created in a larger size to function as a watch display for retailers, was reworked as a smaller figurine and handed over to 16 world-renowned artists, including design house ilovedust and Undrcrwn, to apply their own creative flourishes. We had the opportunity to speak with Waldman about his new endeavors for the Nooka brand, and about what’s in store for 2010, including a hint of a sunglasses line. Check out our slide show above, displaying some of the work, still on view until 7pm tonight at the Red Bull Space, and hit the jump to watch Waldman explain the the full story behind NookaNooka.

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