Around the Neighborhood

There's a bunch of free stuff going on in the area in the next few weeks:

Fritz Scholder's “American Portrait No. 46,” on display at the National Museum of the American Indian

On Nov. 1, the National Museum of the American Indian celebrates El día de los muertos (Day of the Dead), an indigenous Mexican holiday after Halloween, with dance performances, art installations, and the holiday’s staple treat, sugar skulls. The museum also debuts painter Fritz Scholder’s exhibit Indian/Not Indian that day.

You can catch the New York Scandia Symphony for free too (a $2 donation is suggested). Conductor Dorrit Matson will lead the strings ensemble in pieces by Grieg, Roman, and Wagenseil, as well as in the U.S. premiere of Andrew Ackers’ Pastoral Peace. Check it out on Nov. 6 on the corner of Broadway and Wall Street.

Also on Nov. 6: The AKO Gallery in the Seaport is holding a poetry reading and exhibit reception. Poet J.M. Barnes will be on hand to read his “Villa lovis,” the inaugural publication of the recently launched Tennyson Press. And the library’s always a good place to find free events. The New Amsterdam Branch of the NYPL (on Murray Street) is screening the Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis classic “Some Like It Hot” on Nov. 12.

Though it’s not free, the Seaport’s Halloween celebration should be a fun time. Anyone can tour a haunted house, but you can tour the haunted USS Peking, “the Ship of the Dead.” Tickets are $15-20, but it’s not a bad price to pay for a good scare.

And because I’ve always got food on the brain, here’s a quick restaurant update:

As I reported earlier, Todd English’s Libertine opened a few weeks ago on Gold Street, but reviewers from the New York Daily News were not impressed.

MSNBC.com reports on the difficulty of opening a restaurant during these trying economic times, and talks to Australian restauranteur Shaun Hergatt about his slated opening for SHO Shaun Hergatt at the end of the year. Hergatt’s chic restaurant will be in The Setai New York building on Broad Street, and will most likely be upscale. Hopefully the economy will have rebounded by then, though Hergatt mentions in the MSNBC article that he’s looking into less expensive menu options. I’ll keep you posted as more details come out!