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Get Out and Do This: Scotch School, Skateboard Movie, Hopper's Nighthawks

By Daniel Jumpertz | September 23, 2013 8:37am
 We've got your schedule set with great events and activities for the week.
Get Out and Do This
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Monday, Sept. 23
Wrapping up a brief season of cool skateboarding films at Brooklyn's BAM Rose Cinemas is a three-film program tonight including a satirical documentary about Montreal’s skateboarding culture and the very first skateboarding movie ever. "Skaterdater" is the 1965 story of a young skater’s first crush, set to a surf rock soundtrack. It won the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. Also showing is "The Devil's Toy," a 1966 satirical documentary about the birth of Montreal’s skateboarding culture and "Fruit of the Vine" (1999), a Super-8 ode to the daredevils who skate empty swimming pools.

Tuesday, Sept. 24
TriBeCa's Brandy Library has the exclusive vibe of a wood-paneled gentleman's club. With floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked with hundreds of bottles of liquid gold, it's a great environment to learn and unwind simultaneously. Their Spirit School is one of the best places in the city to learn about bourbon, Japanese whiskey, rum, cognac, brandy, tequila. Tonight's focus is on the rich world of Scotch whisky. The two-hour seminar kicks off at 6 p.m. and promises to "climb every peak and descend the glens of Scotland to discover the power of some of the biggest names, such as Glenmorangie, and Laphroaig, but...also uncover the warmth and complexity in the hidden gem distilleries." Call (212) 226-5545 to RSVP; $90 per person includes food and drinks.

There's only one day left to sign up to be one of more than 700 volunteers who help make the Open House New York (OHNY) Weekend possible. OHNY is the city's foremost celebration of architecture and design. This cultural event offers behind-the-scenes tours of hundreds of historic homes and sites, and opportunities to meet the architects, designers, planners, engineers and historians whose contributions make this city such a special place to live, work, visit, and enjoy. Volunteer for one shift of up to four hours and receive a 2013 limited edition OHNY T-shirt and a Volunteer Passport, which gives you and a friend front-of-the-line access to all non-reservation sites and programs during OHNY Weekend. Volunteer registration ends Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 12 p.m. OHNY Weekend is Oct. 12-13.

Wednesday, Sept. 25
Peter Kuper is an inspired illustrator whose striking work has appeared in Time, the New York Times and MAD, where he's illustrated the SPY vs. SPY strip every month since 1997. His latest book, "Drawn To New York," is an illustrated chronicle of his three decades in New York City. "New York has inspired me from my first visit at age 9," Kuper has said. "I set my sights on moving here (from Cleveland) from that moment and at 18 I stepped off a train in Grand Central Station...From comics to sketchbook drawings, illustrations and paintings, 'Drawn to New York' is a portrait of my 34 years on 12 miles of island with 8 million people."

Tonight is the opening reception at the Upper East Side's The Society Of Illustrators, where Kuper will give a lecture. Tickets for the 128 E. 63rd St. reception are $7 to $15.

Thursday, Sept. 26
In celebration of "Hopper Drawing" at The Whitney (945 Madison Ave. at 75th Street), a life-size window installation of Edward Hopper’s "Nighthawks" (1942) is on view inside the landmark Flatiron building (175 Fifth Ave.), one of the original architectural inspirations for this iconic painting. It's worth remembering that free (with admission) gallery tours through the Whitney’s collection and current exhibitions are offered daily. Today's tours for "Hopper's Drawing" are at 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. No reservations are necessary.

Opening tonight at the Upper East Side's National Academy Museum is "See It Loud: Seven Post-War American Painters", which presents the work of Leland Bell, Paul Georges, Paul Resika, Neil Welliver, Albert Kresch, Stanley Lewis and Peter Heinemann.  Bruce Weber, the curator of the exhibition, has said "all of the artists in this exhibition insisted on the significance of figuration and landscape painting, even when it seemed irretrievably out of fashion. All felt in some degree limited by abstraction and were, in fact, members of a larger group of American artists who wanted to go beyond abstraction.”

Friday, Sept. 27
The DUMBO Arts Festival transforms the streets, parks, bridges, buildings, loading docks, galleries, and studios of Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood into canvases, stages, and exhibition spaces. Set against the backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline, the festival offers unexpected installations in stores and lobbies as well as huge, multi-story projections, interactive social experiments, and participatory performances.

Saturday, Sept. 28
Museum Day Live! is an annual event hosted by Smithsonian magazine in which participating museums across the country open their doors for free to anyone presenting a Museum Day Ticket. Get your tickets here, and check out the participating institutions here.  One participating museum is the Meatpacking District's Rubin Museum Of Art, which focuses on the ideas, cultures, and art of Himalayan Asia. There are free tours throughout the day on the hour from noon. In the evening starting at 6 p.m. there is a special lecture on the theme of "Ignorance." According to Buddhist thinking, ignorance is the greatest impediment to enlightenment. Clear your path to Nirvana with the help of Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert and essayist and cartoonist Tim Kreider. The "Ignorance" lecture is a paid event, $30/$27.

Sunday, Sept. 29
Get a comprehensive look at America's art deco showpiece, Radio City Music Hall. The art deco tour journeys through the innovative mind of interior designer Donald Deskey, who incorporated his love for the 'new' art deco motif in the commission of a lifetime. His original 1932 furnishings have been expertly restored and adorn the public spaces and lounges of the Music Hall. Step inside the Roxy Suite, one of the few remaining spaces still intact designed entirely by Deskey himself. Tickets are $25.50.

While you're in the area, why not catch a show? Previews have begun for "A Night With Janis Joplin," a new show bringing the life and music of legendary American blues and rock singer Janis Joplin to the Broadway stage. Tickets are priced from $28 and the show is at Midtown's Lyceum Theater, 149 W. 45th St.