Martin Schneider writes:

Seeing Larry David and the cast members of his show Curb Your Enthusiasm (Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, and Jeff Garlin) as well as a sneak preview of the first episode of Season 8 (it airs on HBO this Sunday) at 92Y of all possible places felt a bit like seeing— the mind gropes for comparisons. The Pope in Rome? Prince in Paisley Park? Oprah in Oprahland?

In other words, the adoration from the audience was total. Indeed, the whole thing was even better because (no spoilers) the episode has a lot to do with Judaism, and this highly Jewish audience (I didn't say "self-loathing") lustily ate it up.

The surprise MC was Brian Williams, and he couldn't have been more perfect or more mock-awkward. His first words were, "Welcome to 'Let's Find a Catholic to Moderate This Event,'"

Martin Schneider writes:

Last night the IFC Center in New York had a special event for the tremendous new documentary My Perestroika in which director Robin Hessman and the Meyerson family, three of the movie's subjects, fielded questions from the (it turned out) largely Russian-fluent audience.

My Perestroika retrospectively tracks a handful of Moscow elementary school chums from the 1970s to today. Hessman's subjects are, for lack of a better word, "ordinary" Russian citizens, which fact must present a hell of a challenge for a documentarian. These people are noteworthy for not having gaudy and

Martin Schneider writes:

With no further ado, we turn it over to Ethan:

The big red LED clock at the back of the Times Center auditorium last Wednesday had just blinked precisely 9:00pm as I and the rest of the crowd filed out, having witnessed precisely 90 minutes of "conversation with music," in which American music icon Emmylou Harris was interviewed by

Martin Schneider writes:

When 92Y has a good event, it's a doozy.

On Monday night Shirley MacLaine consented to be interviewed by WNYC's own Leonard Lopate (an unexpected surprise—I hadn't read the event preview carefully enough). I say "consented," but the truth is, MacLaine's casino-style show (she mentioned Atlantic City) apparently is mostly an evening of stories and audience Q&A too, and the woman is so ridiculously appealing and entertaining, she could certainly make a living doing just that and not being an incredibly good actress—which she still is, at 76. Also, she appears to cherish being the center of attention and twitting foils like Leonard Lopate for fun.

I could give an account of the event but it was mainly just MacLaine being very charming and telling stories that occasionally involved conversations with people like Nehru (!).

A few highlights: Early during the filming of The Trouble with Harry, her first movie, Alfred Hitchcock walked up to

Jonathan Taylor writes:

Tomorrow night at 6:30, Dale Peck and Rick Moody share the stage in a post-grudge match, to discuss Thomas Bernhard's My Prizes, at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York City. (Free, but reservation is required.)

Here is Peck's pretty wonderful Christmas Eve review of My Prizes from the cover of the Times Book Review. I thought it was devilishly perverse that the real payoff—Peck's explanation of the significance of the texts Bernhard's prize acceptance speeches themselves—comes only at the end of a relatively long essay that, I imagine, your median Sunday reader may not have gotten as far as.

A more dismissive take on these speeches can be found in Zadie Smith's review in the March Harper's, but for registered subscribers only.