The Feast; Burn This; Harvest in the Square; Museum for African Art Goes East; Kim Deitch's New Book; Oakley Hall; Alex McManus Is the Bruces; Todd Hido's Bleak, Beautiful Photos

We love Catherine Keener. She's the best bitch onscreen today. And if every man looked like Edward Norton, the world would be better off. They make a helluva team together onstage in Lanford Wilson's Burn This, a tragicomedy about New Yorkers overcoming their "deepest fears and doubts" after an unexpected death. Keener plays a dancer-choreographer and Norton the brother of her deceased roommate, and they end up sharing a couple of blissful evenings together. Dallas Roberts also shines as the third, gay roommate, especially during his slow striptease strut across the stage. It opens Thurs., Sept. 19, at Union Square Theater, and runs Weds.-Sat. & Tues. at 8, mats. Weds., Sat. & Sun. at 3. 100 E. 17th St. (Park Ave. S.), 505-0700; $65.

A nip in the air means it's time to dig deep as benefit season descends upon the city. Nowhere will you receive as much for your largess than at the annual Harvest in the Square benefit, the seventh of which takes place this Thurs., Sept. 19, when chefs from nearly 50 Union Square-area restaurants (from Gotham, Gramercy, Verbena, Union Square and Bolo on down to L'Express, Galaxy and Chat 'n Chew) set up shop in the park and offer samples to the donating public. You can wash it all down with Long Island wines (relax?there'll be Heartland brew too) and we hear that the chefs might even deign to chat with the great unwashed. Proceeds go to the 14th Street-Union Square Local Development Corp. for area improvement, including the further beautification of Union Square Park. If you've seen the work done so far, you know LCD earns its money and spends it wisely. 7:30-10 p.m.; for general admission it's $70 adv. at Telecharge, 239-6200, or $85 at the door, cash only. VIP admission is $350, which includes 6 p.m. entry, no lines and a Pommery Champagne reception, 460-1208.

Long Island City continues to grow its own kind of Museum Mile this week, as the Museum for African Art moves out there to join MOMA, P.S. 1, AMMI and the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum. As with MOMA, this Queens location will be temporary, while the museum builds itself a permanent new facility in Manhattan. This Fri.-Sun., Sept. 20-22, the museum celebrates its arrival in Queens with free admission, live music on the weekend and "Facing the Mask," an exhibit of more than 70 masks from Congo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and elsewhere. 36-01 43rd Ave. (36th St.), LIC, 718-784-7700, museum@africanart.org. Mon., Thurs., Fri. 10-5; Sat. & Sun. 11-6. $5, $2.50 st./sc. & child.

Kim Deitch has been one of the heroes among "underground" comics artists since that genre exploded in the 60s. You probably know him best for Waldo, his cartoon cat with a suspicious resemblance to Felix, one of Deitch's childhood favorites. (As someone once remarked, Waldo is sort of Felix on acid.) He's also done more mainstream work for places like Nickelodeon. Deitch's celebrating a new book, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, with screenings of the vintage cartoons his work evokes, this Weds., Sept. 18, 7 p.m., in the Little Theater at the West Side YMCA. 5 W. 63rd St. (betw. B'way & Central Park W.), 875-4128.

Hootenanny (n.) An informal performance by folk singers, typically with participation by the audience. [Origin unknown.] Oakley Hall is a generously sized local country-rock outfit complete with occasional hollering and stomping, not to mention three lovely male and female vocalists, including Papa Crazee of erstwhile Oneida fame. Named after the prolific author of novels set in the Old West, on Fri., Sept. 20, they'll be squeezing seven or eight people, including a fiddler, onto the tiny stage at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg, which pretty much ensures audience participation of some kind or another. The band has an urbane, soulful style that owes more to the spirit of 1970s Laurel Canyon or Woodside than to the stripped-down, rootsy sound currently in vogue. They're a treat and a half. 11 p.m.; no cover. With the Race, from Chicago, at 9:30. 709 Lorimer St. (betw. Frost & Richardson Sts.), 718-302-3770.

After a seven-year hiatus, Alex McManus' one-man band, the Bruces, follows up its debut release with The War of the Bruces. The electrified folk album, recorded by Lambchop member & producer Mark Nevers, treads familiar territory?think live Vic Chesnutt combined with the quirkiness of Will Oldham. Also on the bill is country/folk artist M. Ward?Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) released Duets for Guitars #2 if that gives ya any indication how good this guy is. Ward and whiny Bright Eyes back up the Bruces and vice versa, Fri., Sept. 20 at Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Pl. (15th St.), 777-6800; 8 p.m., $15.

Todd Hido's pictures are of places most people pass by in the car. He likes to shoot drab working-class houses, unadorned with anything more than snowdrifts or maybe an aging pickup truck. There are no people in Hido's pictures, which make those already scraped-bare buildings look even lonelier. Sound bleak? They are. Hido, however, finds enough beauty in this hope-free landscape to fill his photographs with a haunting sense of loss. "Todd Hido: Roaming" is at Paul Morris Gallery Sat., Sept. 21, through Oct. 5. 465 W. 23 St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 727-2752.