What’s to do? | New York City Edition

Animal Collective at Webster Hall

The last time I saw Animal Collective, I found myself circling a campfire somewhere out in the wilderness, my feet pounding the forest floor to the beat of Panda Bear’s tribal rhythms, Avey-Tare’s looped and delayed guitar riffs squeezing their way into one ear, out the other, and back into the other once again. I was alone, except for the company of my animal friends. But soon the silhouettes of other revelers emerged from the shadows that surrounded me. We all spoke different languages, but somehow we all understood why we were there. Joining hands we flew into the blackness of the night, our feather-fingers lifting us up into the great gaping pupil in the sky that looked down upon every person on the planet earth.

Their new album Feels is full of near pop-songs about beer and girls. They’ve left the campfire, but Animal Collective plays Webster Hall this Sunday, Nov. 20, with Amandine and Excepter opening, and it should still allure.

—David Knowles, Public Relations Manager

NYC photos show The New City

The explosion of suburbs around new urban centers and ever-rising real estate speculation are photographically represented in The New City: Sub/Urbia in Recent Photography at the Whitney. A diverse range of media within photography are explored, from digital adjustments to photo narratives evoking the streets of America’s shifting landscape.

Images from Gregory Crewdson, Catherine Opie, and Amir Zaki, as well as many others, chart the growth of the American suburb in the past to future visions of what our country may look like. Documenting city limits has been a photographic obsession since the 1970s, as the chasm between urban and suburban architecture and corporate domination of the American consumer culture have expanded. The photos are thought-provoking, and sometimes even disturbing in their interpretation of the afflictions of modern American culture.

The exhibit closes on Jan. 15.
—Marcella Veneziale, Arts Editor

Friday, Nov. 18
New York City:
Grand Magasin: Fifth International Forum of Corporate Cinema François Hiffler, Pascale Murtin, and Bettina Atala, French collective Grand Magasin, mock science fiction as filtered through the camp promotional video genre, accompanied by special guests. St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water Street, Brooklyn, 8 p.m., $25

Vassar:
LIVEFEED Experimental Theater production at the Mary Virginia Henlein Stage. CDF, 8 p.m., free

Saturday, Nov. 19
New York City:
The Barnard Project Barnard dance students perform works by Ori Flomin, David Parker, and Donna Uchizono. Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19th St., 7:30 p.m., $12

Vassar:
The Limit Comedy troupe’s first performance of the year, complete with live sketches and videos. Sanders 212,
8:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 20
New York City:
American Analog Set On tour promoting their latest album, Set Free. Mercury Lounge, 217 E. Houston, 10 p.m., $14