For our (unconscionably high) rent money, the best thing about living in New York City is its endless supply of fun, odd, and inspired cultural events. But with so many options, it can be hard to know where to even begin planning your week. To help you make sense of it all, Flavorpill has launched a new social discovery engine where users can create and share events with friends, as well as follow Flavorpill editors’ and plugged-in local curators’ picks. Below, you’ll find the very best of what’s on offer this week, recommended by Flavorpill NYC’s very own Managing Editor, Leah Taylor. It’s just a taste of what you can find on the new Flavorpill, so if you like what you see, be sure to sign up.
Monday, January 14
Winter Restaurant Week: Just in time to alleviate both your thinning wallet and your shrinking waistline: NYC’s Winter Restaurant Week offers steep discounts on lunch and dinner at a multitude of the city’s finest eateries. Lauded, almost exclusively Manhattan restos — from Café Boulud and Lupa to Telepan and Red Rooster — are offering special three-course, prix fixe menus to the discerning, if cash-strapped, masses. Score a multi-course lunch for $25 or dinner for $38. (If you’re keeping track, that’s up from $24.07/lunch and $35/dinner during last year’s Winter Restaurant Week.) — Leah Taylor
Tuesday, January 15
Mike Daisey: F*cking F*cking F*cking Ayn Rand
Wednesday, January 16
A Celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s “First Blues”
Thursday, January 17
An Evening With Blake Schwarzenbach
Friday, January 18
The Birth of a Scent: Viktor&Rolf Spicebomb
Saturday, January 19
The First Novelization: Film classics like Pretty in Pink, Grease 2, Jurassic Park (the film version, not the book one), and others are given dramatic treatments by readers that would probably have Will Shakespeare crying tears of joy. — Jason Diamond
Sunday
Daily
COIL 2013: For those up for a bold and brain-tingling adventure, we recommend wrapping your head around COIL, the annual festival organized by renowned contemporary performance incubator PS 122. Now in its eighth year, this two-plus week affair illuminates a number of theatrical spaces in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens with groundbreaking works from the worlds of dance, theatre, and performance art. With many making their New York debut, standouts from this year include Ruff, the latest one-woman show from legendary queer performance artist Peggy Shaw, Radiohole’s awe-striking and wildly unorthodox Mary Shelly blow-up, Inflatable Frankenstein, and two takes on Chekhov: Kristen Kosmas’ There There, which casts Kosmas as a replacement for Christopher Walken who’s unable to play Solyony (Three Sisters) during a Russian tour, and the world premiere of Half Straddle’s re-imagining of The Seagull. For more clues to how this year’s COIL unravels, check out the teaser trailer. — Mindy Bond
On Creating Reality, by Andy Kaufman: Click here to see Flavorwire’s gallery of images from this show.