The Raconteur Presents PARTY # 33! Featuring the mix-media artwork of PETER ARAKAWA. Over 50 Works of Art!! With classical and jazz piano by composer John Wicke (tickling the ivories of the shop's scarred, but in tune, mahagony upright). FREE! Complimentary Wine/Amuse Bouche If you plan to attend please contact raconteurbooks@aol.com. If you know of someone who might be interested in the above event, please forward this notice. Labeled a 'literary center of gravity' by Peter Applebome of The New York Times, The Raconteur is known for its eclectic programming, organizing literary happenings that range from motorcycle rides to arm wrestling tournaments. In addition to the free weekly events (film screenings, staged readings, live music) they mount at their store, The Raconteur sponsors annual film and literary festivals at The Forum Theatre, a 500 seat landmark playhouse/former vaudeville venue three blocks from the shop.

The Raconteur Motorcycle Club, which now allows “cagers” (people in cars) to tag along with supplies, meets at the shop and proceeds en masse to a destination of literary significance. NEXT RIDE: The Pearl Buck House. This 1835 farm, set on sixty acres of good earth in Bucks County, is now a museum dedicated to the American author and Nobel Prize winner who lived there for over forty years. The ride is two hours each way. We stop for lunch in the river village of Frenchtown around 1:30 PM.

Join The Raconteur in supporting Word Fest 2007 participant James Braly in: LIFE IN A MARITAL INSTITUTION Written and Performed by James Braly Directed by Hal Brooks First comes love. Then comes marriage counseling. Two-time winner of The Moth's 'GrandSLAM' James Braly and director Hal Brooks (Pulitzer Prize Finalist Thom Pain: Based on Nothing) join forces in this hilarious, heartbreaking monologue on attraction, repulsion, birth, death, and the afterlife: 20 years of monogamy in one terrifying hour. 8 PM, Weds. May 23 & May 30 Tickets: $15 ARS NOVA 511 W. 54th Street @ 10th Ave James Braly tells stories. Period. But his true tales don't begin with "Once upon a time...," more likely it's "It was Christmas morning and Dad was going through our dead neighbor's stuff." He's performed on Marketplace, NPR, and at The Whitney Museum, The Long Wharf Theatre, and The Moth, where he's the only two-time winner of the GrandSLAM and a featured performer on The Moth National Story Tour. He's a veteran of a rapidly growing New York storytelling scene where organizations like The Moth (whose eclectic assortment of tale-tellers include Ethan Hawke, Moby and Mira Nair) have brought to the stage an oral tradition that grew up around campfires, at dinner tables, and on front porches.

THE TUESDAY THING A night to get new ideas on their feet (it’s free). Readings from new Film, TV and stage scripts by Andrew Secunda, Kelly Kimball, David Marek. Plus between stuff by Janine DiTullio and special guest performers. This is the first Tuesday Thing. Please support it and get it going!