AROUND TOWN

FreeCycle Post-Holiday Re-Gifting event | Sat., Jan. 29

FreeCycle's Post-Holiday Re-gifting event will put you in touch with someone who wants that Radio Shack boombox you got from your aunt Thelma in Utah. It also might garner you a new pair of slippers. The first step is to sort through all the crap you got this holiday season-everything from gently used clothing to working electronics and appliances are fair game.

But this isn't Barter Town; outright trading is not allowed. It's about the spirit of giving, and the golden rule is that everything you give, you give for free. If you see something up for grabs that melts your butter, ask and ye shall receive. If you can't find any takers for your unwanted acquisitions, you can donate to the network, which coordinates with local non-profits.

Started in Tucson, Arizona in 2003 by eco-conscious locals, the Freecycle Network was formed out of a desire to preserve the deserts from landfill expansion. This grassroots organization now boasts an international membership of 2,000 local "communities" comprised of over half-a-million people. With more than 10,000 members, New York is one of the largest "freecycling" cities in the world. These bastions of goodwill are operated locally by volunteers who co-ordinate with the larger organization online at www.freecycle.org. If you want to get involved, Freecycle is always looking for help.

6th Street Community Center, 638 E. 6th St. (betw. Aves. B & C), 212-677-1863; 10-6, free

-Brett Gelbord

Seventh Annual Australia Day Harvest Festival | Thurs., Jan. 27

If there's one day this year that you'll want to refuse-absolutely, and with a flat out no-the job of designated driver, it's Jan. 27, when the Seventh Annual Australia Day Harvest Festival comes to Gotham. The harvest being celebrated is, of course, Australia's fruit of the vine: grapes, grapes, grapes. Yep, some 300 Aussie winery owners and reps present their finest vintages for New Yorkers to sip, savor and suck up to their hearts'-and palates'-content. When the floodgates open at 6:30, you're handed a souvenir wine glass and detailed floor plan and turned loose to cruise row after row of tables topped with uncorked, flowing wine bottles. It's an oenophile's delight! You'll find your glass filled again almost as quickly as you can empty it.

Among the offerings: five labels each of superb Cabernets and Chardonnays from the renowned Margaret River growing region, the golden-sweet seductive Muscats from Rutherglen, and vertical-comparison tastings of same-label current vintages and 10-year-old wines from four distinct growing regions. At Focus Tables, where winemakers hold ongoing mini master classes, first-time tasters and those who always want to know more can get the skinny on the who, what, where, when and why of Aussie wines. There's food, too. Sydney-based chef and restaurateur Bill Granger demonstrates the preparation of selected dishes from his recently released cookbook, Bill's Open Kitchen. Yes, you may score some of Bill's nibbles, but more substantial fare comes in the form of typically Australian fish and lamb dishes, meat pies, Morton Bay bug soup, cheeses and other goodies amply supplied on strategically placed buffet tables. And, as at all wine tastings, there are crackers galore to soak up some of that alcohol, enabling you to sample some more.

Gotham Hall, 1356 B'way (36th St.), 212-351-6585; 6:30, $75, $65 adv.

-Jennifer Merin

Animation Extravaganza!

Sat., Jan. 29

Our need to convey emotion in emails and on cereal boxes may have rendered exclamation points meaningless, just as car companies' need to push last year's models out of the lot has done harm to the idea of an "extravaganza." Yet every so often, an event comes along bearing such wild extravagance that screaming its name might actually be appropriate. Animators from Royers Studios in Los Angeles are coming to the Museum of Television & Radio for an afternoon of such bomb-ass children's programming, you'll be sure the Helena Rubenstein Foundation hooked it up. Children will get to draw, color and record their images at a computerized animation stand at today's various workshops. They also get a VHS final product to take home, even if they don't own any archaic apparatus that would play such a thing.

Museum of Television & Radio, 25 W. 52nd St. (betw. 5th & 6th Aves.), 212-621-6600; 12-4, $10 adults, $8 st. & child.

-Dan Migdal

Essential Brakhage

Sun., Jan. 30

The Anthology Film Archives continues its series highlighting experimental film artist Stan Brakhage tonight with Scenes From Under a Childhood. Here Brakhage, the Lee Scratch Perry of 20th-century film, explores the development of conscious life from the origins of the fetus through the overwhelming first experiences of the sensual world in early childhood. Sometimes physically altering the film itself, Brakhage's work generally eschews narrative plot, his films becoming breathtaking tone poems alive with sound, images and light. And they really take your mind off the straight-backed, hard plastic seats of the Anthology theater.

Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave. (2nd St.), 212-505-5181; 4, $7.

-Simon Cohn

Repo HealthyHappy Hour

Wed., Jan. 26

What with all the murder-spree-inducing-hormone-horror stories about the pill, and the cancer-friendly chemicals in spermicides, a girl is almost- almost-tempted to start subscribing to the high school-boyfriend-contraceptive-of-choice known as the "pull-out" method.

To top it off, you've gotta worry that the 16-year olds currently falling for that line will soon be shipped off to the Crawford Texas Ranch for Wayward Virgins if they visit Planned Parenthood to learn about their options. It's a bitch being a broad sometimes. But then again, look at the only other option?

Get it all off your chest tonight, or any night thereafter, at the Repo Healthy Happy Hour, a "progressive, networking, grass roots" series of events for the city's "sexuality and reproductive health communities." Cause after all that, a bourbon on the rocks can't hurt anything!

The Half-King, 505 W. 23rd St. (10th Ave.); 212-462-4300; 4-7; $1 off all drinks.

-Tanya Richardson

Guided Artisanal Cheese Tasting | Thurs., Jan. 27

There's nothing bad about cheese. It flies solo or goes with crackers, bread, fruit or meat. You can pair it with beer or wine and get two completely different flavors. A little provolone adds some integrity to the workingman's turkey sandwich like an extra fork at dinner dignifies a meal. Smoked gouda topped with a well-seasoned slice of sausage can become a main course, provided you give in to it and keep on eating. Such is the addictive power of cheese. Cheese is enigmatic; never has a food been loved by so many who know so little about it.

Joyce Weinberg of New York Food Tours wants to reach those who continue to serve Cracker Barrel cheese logs to guests or think "fancy cheese" is limited to brie. Weinberg's lecture and tasting, hosted by the 92nd Street Y's Makor Center, will cover artisanal and farmstead cheeses, both handmade and produced in small batches. Farmstead cheeses are made from milk by people who own or are familiar with the daily life of the animal. "They control the food. You get the absolute best quality of milk. With artisanal, you get the milk from somewhere else. There's not as much quality control," she explained.

America's interest in cheese is the logical progression of a culture that figured out in the 1980s that gourmet food was tasty; and in the 1990s that wine came in more nuanced shades than simply red and white. "Now, there's a cheese renaissance," Weinberg said, adding that a spiked interest in handmade cheese is also part of a "backlash against mass-produced foods."

Weinberg's talk and tasting will keep you out of the processed cheese-food aisle forever, once you know what to get. "The world of cheese is like the world of wine. No one can know all of them. People tend to drink the same two or three wines or eat the same two or three cheeses," she said. "After you attend one of my seminars, you're going to be freed. The whole world of cheese is going to be open to you."

Steinhardt Building, 35 W. 67th St. (betw. Columbus Ave. and Central Park W.), 212-415-5500; 7:30; $35.

-Aileen Gallagher