Vintage NYC Subway Train Swing Dance Party 2011

Fans of of nostalgia or vintage subway trains gathered yesterday for the annual Vintage Tea and Swing Dance Party on the 2nd Avenue station's uptown F platform, as well as aboard a vintage subway train. The free event started at noon when the music and dancing started. NYC Swing Dancers performed on the platform. At 12:30, the vintage train from the 1920's arrived, and the dancers and lovers of vintage trains and swing dancing got on the vintage train that headed to Queens. The train u-turned and went back to the East Village where the  non-political Vintage Tea party on the nostalgia train took place.

Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party", an Icon of Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum

Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party" is an art installation consisting of place settings for 39 mythical and famous women in history, and 999 names inscribed in the Heritage Floor on which the table rests. The dinner table is triangular, a symbol of equality, divided by 3 wings, each 48 feet long. The "guests of honor" commemorated on the table are designated by embroidered runners, each executed in a historically specific manner. Upon these are placed, for each setting, a gold ceramic chalice and utensils, a napkin with an embroidered edge, and a fourteen-inch china-painted plate with a central motif based on butterfly and vulvar forms. Information from the exhibit caption and the Brooklyn Museum website.

Peter Woytuk's Life-Size Elephant Sculptures at Columbus Circle

These bronze elephant sculptures by American artist Peter Woytuk are part of a public art exhibit hosted by the Broadway Mall Association, the non-profit that beautifies and maintains the landscaped medians in the middle of Broadway, one of the city's busiest thoroughfares. The elephant sculptures are installed at Columbus Circle. The exhibit stretches across more than five miles, through the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, West Harlem and Washington Heights.

Michelle Greene's "Railrider's Throne"

Permanently installed on the downtown platform of the 116th Street/Columbia University subway station is a welded steel chair called "Railrider's Throne" (1991) by Michelle Greene. The oversized grand chair was created to introduce humor into the station, and to "create a whimsical environment that allows the commuter to feel special as opposed to alienated" while waiting for the train on the platform.

'Tis the Season for Kissing Under the Mistletoe in the Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza

A pair of live, 10-foot high, 30-inch round mistletoe was hung for two days (December 12-13) in the pedestrian plaza at 23rd Street and 5th Avenue near the Flatiron building. The event was a promotion for FindYourFaceMate.com, a dating site that uses facial recognition technology to help members find a mate. Kissing was encouraged under the mistletoe. For every kiss under the mistletoe, FindYourFaceMate.com will donate $1 to Operation Smile, an international charity that provides free reconstructive surgery for children with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.

HUGH JACKMAN is Back on Broadway!

video by HughonBroadway

Hugh Jackman, the movie actor who is probably best known as the manly mutant Wolverine in the "X-Men" movie franchise, returns to Broadway in a rare and intimate concert at the Broadhurst Theatre. The Tony- and Emmy Award-winning actor performs with an 18-piece orchestra, singing his personal selection of his favorite musical numbers, and shares some personal experiences on stage in a show called "Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway." Ben Brantley of the New York Times says that the "impossibly talented Mr. Jackman is glorious" in this limited engagement that runs through January 1. The images above were made after his matinee performance last Sunday as he signed autographs for his fans at the stagedoor of the Broadhurst Theatre at 235 West 44th Street.

Hugh Jackman first performed on Broadway in 2003 when he portrayed the role of Australian songwriter and performer, Peter Allen in the hit musical "The Boy from Oz." For this role, Mr. Jackman won the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. He also hosted the Tony Awards in 2003, 2004, and 2005, garnering rave reviews. His hosting of the 2004 Tony Awards earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performer in a Variety, Musical or Comedy program.