Dinner and Tosca; "The Last Days of Penn Station"; William F. Buckley Jr. Reads; Urbana Poetry Slam; Fantasia in Prospect Park; Chico O'Farrill's Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band; the Snakes
Great cities have great architecture, but when things go wrong, watch out. There is nothing like a major architectural blunder to remind us of how much architecture affects us, for better or ill. As the debate begins on what to build at Ground Zero, it's good to remember the lesson of Penn Station. The city fathers tore down the aging but still magnificent building and replaced it with the suffocating rathole we suffer from today. For anyone too young to remember how wonderful and graceful civic spaces can be, see "The Last Days of Penn Station," the 40 prints by photographer Aaron Rose chronicling the station's twilight years at the Museum of the City of New York. Through Jan. 3, 2003, 1220 5th Ave. (103 St.), 534-1672, www.mcny.org.
Have you too missed those wild Irish eyes & crumpled oxford buttondowns? Prove it by turning up today when former Firing Line legend, author of dozens of books (incl. the Blackford Oakes mystery series) and the best thing that ever happened to the New York Post's opinion section reads from his latest, Nuremberg: The Reckoning, Weds., July 24, 7 p.m., at the Upper East Side Barnes & Noble. "William F. Buckley Jr.'s riveting historical novel about the 1945 International Military Tribunal that brought Nazi war criminals to justice is driven by an illuminating synergy of fact and fiction," says Amazon.com. Whether you agree with his politics or his esthetic, know one thing for sure?Bill Buckley is class. 240 E. 86th St. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves.), 794-1962.
Poetry mixed with screeching rock can be seen in a whole lot of places in New York, but why not get the choicest screechers and the best poets at Bowery Poetry Club? This and every Thursday, the Urbana poetry slam starts things out at 7 p.m. with many of the wordsmiths who have been featured on HBO's terrific and overlooked Def Poetry Jam. Then, at 11:30, local heroes Daddy play their Jane's Addiction-type shock schlock non-cock rock. This week you're actually encouraged to heckle the poets, though you're never encouraged to heckle Daddy. 308 Bowery (betw. Houston &Bleecker), 614-0505.
Now here's a real conflict of conscience. You live near Prospect Park and you want to take your kids to the free outdoor movie Thurs., July 25, at the Bandshell. But the movie's Fantasia! And you've agreed it's probably not good to get high in front of the children. What to do? It'll be a nice night out, and the kids'll love the movie. It might even be their sugar-coated introduction to classical music. But Fantasia without shrooms? Without firing up the bong? Man, parenthood can be hard. At 7:30. Prospect Park W. (9th St.), Park Slope, www.prospectpark.org.
Every Sunday night, the grand old man of Latin jazz and his grand old orchestra, the Chico O'Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Big Band, play Birdland. O'Farrill's sweeping, soft-edged fusion of Cuban rhythms and big-band orchestrations isn't for all fans of Latin music; he's a smoothie, not likely to make your pulse pound like Michel Camilo or your feet move like Cachao. But there's a lush, almost symphonic beauty to his scores that's pretty perfect for, well, a summer Sunday night at Birdland. 315 W. 44th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 581-3080; $20.
Wanna get wit that whole rock 'n' roll revival, but you're sick of schlepping to Bedford Ave. U on Saturday night? Then come on down to 13 Bar/Lounge Sun., July 28, at 11, while the hipsters are still nursing their hangovers, to hear the Snakes (think Fun House?their single is called "Total Fuckdown"), salivate over sweet young things and feel justified in looking down your nose at the boroughs once more. Free. 35 E. 13th St. (betw. University Pl. & B'way), 979-6677.