Saturday
November 7
Freak show
The Cyclone, the sideshows, the costumed characters posing on the Boardwalk — it is all fodder for the 75 artists in the “Sodom by the Sea Salon” show, which has its opening reception today. The exhibit of contemporary art inspired by the People’s Playground, designed in counterpoint to an upcoming historical show at the Brooklyn Museum, and will be up each weekend at the Coney Island Museum.
2–4:30 pm at the Coney Island Museum (1214 Surf Ave. between Stillwell Avenue and W. 12th Street, www.coney
Sunday
November 8
Art Slope
Keep the art party going with a visit to the Park Slope-Windsor Terrace Open Studios today, where more than 30 painters, sculptors, and illustrators will open their doors to visitors. Plus you get to wander some lovely brownstone neighborhoods (so many cornices! Like the ones painted by Phil DeSantis, pictured). For more, drift downslope to Supercollider bar, which hosts a group show from the artists.
Noon–6 pm all over the neighborhoods (most between 13th and 18th streets in Windsor Terrace and Park Slope, see map at parks
Tuesday
November 10
Elvis lives
Singer, songwriter, and frequent Stephen Colbert-collaborator Elvis Costello held a book-signing last week, and the line stretched around the block. But tonight you can just walk in to his talk at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the “Alison” artist will chat with Roseanne Cash about his memoir “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink.”
7:30 pm at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House [30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 38–4111, www.bam.org]. $25 ($45 with signed book).
Wednesday
November 11
It’s awww-ful!
Adorable kitties in bowler hats! Yay! The bodies of kitties in bowler hats! Ew! Check out creepy-cute contradiction in “The Man who Married Kittens,” a short documentary about eccentric Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter, directed by Ronni Thomas of Brooklyn’s own Morbid Anatomy Museum. Part of Nitehawk’s festival of short films, which continues through Nov. 15.
7:30 pm at Nitehawk Cinema [136 Metropolitan Ave. between Wythe Avenue and Berry Street in Williamsburg, (718) 384–3980, www.niteh
thursday
November 12
Vale of ears
Hello, dear reader. Probably nothing bad will happen if you choose not to attend the release party for the “Welcome to Night Vale” novel tonight. The sinister government agents you sense monitoring your every move are probably just your own paranoia. But meeting the writers behind the creepy podcast would certainly be the right choice — the safe choice, at least.
7:30 pm at St. Joseph’s College, Tuohy Hall (245 Clinton Ave. between Dekalb and Willoughby avenues in Clinton Hill, www.welco
