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8 Things To Do in New York City This Weekend

 The long weekend's most interesting events are here for you in one handy guide.
8 Things To Do in New York City This Weekend
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Friday, May 23
Come spring, the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Roof Garden Commission is always worth a visit. Contemporary artists (last year featured Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi) focus their imaginations on the roof of the iconic Central Park museum. This year, American artist Dan Graham, known for his distinctive steel-and-glass pavilions, has created a landscape that is part garden maze, part modernist skyscraper facade. See it from 10 a.m. to 8:15 p.m. (Martini Bar opens at 5:30 p.m.) on the fifth floor via the elevator in the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts galleries. Metropolitan Museum, Fifth Ave. at 82nd St., Upper East Side. Recommended entry $25 for adults, $12 for students.

Visionary French poet and novelist Jean Cocteau, while famous for his 1929 novel “Les Enfants Terribles,” is best known for a succession of influential and groundbreaking films made between 1925 and 1960. Two of his most famous, the avant-garde “Le Sang d'un Poète” (The Blood of a Poet) and "Orphée" — a variation of the classic Greek myth of Orpheus — are showing at Anthology Film Archives. 7:15 p.m. tonight, The Blood of a Poet, with Orpheus showing 7:15 p.m. Saturday. Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue, East Village. $8.

Saturday, May 24
Governor’s Island is open! The 2014 public access season begins today and continues seven days a week until Sept. 28. There are 30 fresh acres of parkland to explore, with plenty of free activities available. Explore the historic circular fortification Castle Williams and join free guided tours of Nolan Park and the Arsenal District. Plan your visit here. Pack a picnic and enjoy one of New York City’s most tranquil getaways.

Governors Island is accessible only via ferries which are available from Manhattan and Brooklyn. To help fund this newly expanded public access there is a $2 round trip charge for adults on all weekday ferries and on afternoon ferries on Saturdays and Sundays. Morning ferries on weekends will continue to be free for all.

Sunday, May 25
Today is the final day to view the 2014 Whitney Biennial, the last to take place in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s building on Madison Avenue before the Museum moves downtown to its new building in the spring of 2015. Catch a (free with Museum admission) daily tour of the museum at 11:30 a.m. and a performance by electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros at 4 p.m. in the Deep Listening Room. Admittance is on a first-come, first-seated basis until capacity is reached. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 945 Madison Ave., at 75th Street, Upper East Side. General admission, $20, ages 19 to 25, $16.

Before they began their film career, The Marx Brothers created three Broadway musicals. Two of these, “The Cocoanuts” and “Animal Crackers,” became films. But their 1924 Broadway debut, “I’ll Say She Is,” was lost to history. Writer Noah Diamond, drawing from multiple sources, is attempting to reconstruct the play and return it to the New York stage for the first time in 90 years. As part of Marxfest, a monthlong series of events celebrating the Marx Brothers, a full-length reading of “I’ll Say She Is” is happening. A panel discussion will follow the performance, which is a preview of the upcoming production. See it at 5 p.m. at The Players Theatre, 115 Macdougal Street, Between West 3rd and Bleecker Streets, Greenwich Village. $25 (ticket price includes 2 drinks).

Monday, May 26
The original Coney Island Luna Park Thunderbolt roller coaster stood from 1925 until it was torn down in 2000, two decades after it was shuttered. But a new Thunderbolt has risen from the rubble, and will make its debut this week. Built by Italian company the Zamperla Group, the new Thunderbolt begins with a long slow vertical climb of 115 feet and contains plenty of surprises during the ride’s two minute duration including a 100-foot vertical loop and five inversions (including a corkscrew). Coney Island is open today from 11 a.m until 11 p.m. 1000 Surf Ave., Coney Island.