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Get Out and Do This: Jewish Dancing, Gin Cocktails and Tenement Tales

By Daniel Jumpertz | November 4, 2013 8:10am
 Sit back and relax — DNAinfo New York has your week's activities sorted.
Get Out and Do This — Events Monday, Nov. 4
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Monday, Nov. 4
Join Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, a professor in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, as he discusses planets and planetary atmospheres in science fiction Using some of the issues raised by newly discovered exoplanets, such planets where it may snow sapphires, he will introduce some possible plot lines that have not yet been exploited in fiction. Hayden Planetarium Programs, Frontiers Lecture Series: The Climate of Exoplanets. Hayden Planetarium Space Theater. Enter at 81st Street, Upper West Side.

Tuesday, Nov. 5
Lace up your dancing shoes and immerse yourself in the richness of traditional Jewish dance from Eastern Europe at this Tantshoyz Yiddish Dance Party. Featuring a workshop by dance leader Steve Weintraub, with live musical accompaniment by an all-star band led by clarinetist Michael Winograd, bassist Benjy Fox-Rosen and tsimblist Pete Rushefsky. Stephen Wise Free Synagaogue, 30 W. 68th St., 7:30 p.m. $10, Upper West Side.

Wednesday, Nov. 6
Ever wonder what life was like for early tenement residents? Ask them! For this event, visitors meet and talk with costumed interpreters portraying immigrant tenants who resided at the Lower East Side's 97 Orchard St. between 1869 and 1935. Tenement Talks is an evening series of lectures, readings, panel discussions, films and other programs at the Tenement Museum that provide historical and contemporary perspectives on New York City’s rich culture. 103 Orchard St. at Delancey Street. 6:30 p.m. $22, Students and seniors $17; Limited capacity. Lower East Side.

Thursday, Nov. 7
From its earliest beginnings in the Middle Ages, gin has evolved over the course of a millennium from an herbal medicine, used to treat such medical problems as kidney ailments, lumbago, stomach ailments, gallstones and gout, to a huge commercial money spinner for the spirits industry. Try this quick and easy tonic called a Gin Whippet to help you celebrate National Gin Day. You never know, your mystery ailment may vanish.

Take 1 oz gin, 2 oz grapefruit juice and 1 oz club soda. Mix gin and juice, pour over ice into highball glass. Fill rest of the glass with club soda and stir gently. Thanks to BoozeCarriage.com.

Also tonight: Children's Museum of the Arts 2013 are holding their annual Cocktail Party & Art Auction tonight from 7:30 p.m. and comedian Wanda Sykes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" performs at Beacon Theatre.

Friday, Nov. 8
Canstruction is an international charity competition where architects, engineers, contractors and the students they mentor, compete to design and build giant structures made entirely from full cans of food. At the close of the competition all of the food from the New York City competition will be donated to City Harvest. The exhibit will be open through Nov. 13 in the the Winter Garden and lobby of 200 Vesey St., Brookfield Place, which is formerly known as World Financial Center. Entry is free with one donated can of food. Downtown.

Saturday, Nov. 9
The 5th Annual Washington Heights Children and Young People’s Film Festival, an ambitious uptown celebration of fine children's films, features more than 30 films from 20 countries around the world. Through Nov. 14, centred around Washington Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill.

Catch Lady Lamb The Beekeeper, Ski Lodge, Pearl and the Beard and DJ Lady Byrd while getting a head start on your holiday gift shopping at the just-launched Brooklyn Night Bazaar. Free, from 6 p.m. Greenpoint.

Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, a.k.a. the Coke and Mentos guys, show you how you can pull off some of the most awesome science experiments of all time — in your own home. Grobe and Voltz have appeared on "The Late Show With David Letterman," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "MythBusters" and more, and their viral videos have been seen more 150 million times. Now visitors at the New York Hall of Science can get a look at some of the most amazing projects from their new book, How to Build a Hovercraft. Free with NYSCI admission, from 1 to 3 p.m. New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St. Corona.

Sunday, Nov. 10
As part of the Public Art Fund, Katharina Grosse has created a vivid landscape of abstract forms that calls to mind an unearthly Technicolor quarry among the trees of MetroTech Commons in Downtown Brooklyn. The work, "Just Two of Us", features 18 massive, irregularly shaped sculptural forms painted using Grosse's signature spray gun. This is the artist's first outdoor work in New York City, and it will be on view through September 2014.

Classic Album Sundays at Williamsburg's Output creates a premium listening environment to revisit the joys of timeless albums. Previous feature albums include Cocteau Twins' “Blue Bell Knoll” and The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Electric Ladyland." This week it's "Midnight Marauders" from A Tribe Called Quest. Part of Native Tongues, a hip-hop collective modeled on Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu Nation, A Tribe Called Quest's third LP balances socio-political consciousness with jazz-funk grooves. The Panther Room at Output, 74 Wythe Ave., 5 to 8 p.m. $10. Williamsburg.

To mark the 10th anniversary of The New York Review Children’s Collection, Edwin Frank, editor of the series as well as the NYRB Classics series, will moderate a discussion with children’s literature experts George Nicholson, Susan Hirschman, Nancy Gallt, Ellen Handler Spitz and Betsy Bird. They will talk about the changing character of children's books. A reception will follow the panel. McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince St., SoHo.