JANUARY
New York starts January off with a hangover. The city that never sleeps indulges in a postcelebration hibernation on the first day of the new year, insulated from the bitter winter wind rushing outside the windows of high-rises and walk-ups alike, recovering from a night spent in the rush of the Times Square ball drop, the sophistication of an exclusive tasting menu at a chef-run Brooklyn bistro—or, more likely, having stumbled home near sunrise from a string of bars, clubs, and parties throughout the five boroughs after counting down the old year in the back of a taxicab. But once the city shakes off its holiday headache, Jazzfest brings forward-looking jazz shows to the Lower East Side, the Winter Show brings top fine art and eclectic antiques to the Park Avenue Armory, and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show brings perfect pups to Madison Square Garden—all good reasons to get out of bed.
Professor Vaticinate says, Our new year kicks off with rain . . . that’s something that means “fare” weather for taxi and Uber drivers. During the second week of the month, we expect a significant snowfall; maybe half a foot or more . . . proving that “shovelry” is not dead. By midmonth it gets mushier and slushier; have you had enough? Tough! The final week of this month turns milder (“thawsome!”), but it comes with more wet stuff.
normals for central park
Avg. high: 38.3° Avg. low: 26.9° Avg. rainfall: 3.65" Avg. snowfall: 7.0"
Since the beginning of weather recordkeeping in Central Park in 1869, the most snow that has ever fallen in January was 36" in 2011. And believe it or not, not a single flake fell in January 1890!
January is the cloudiest month: 14 days average more than 8/10 cloud cover.
Sky Watch: Face southwest about an hour after sundown on the 5th to sight a slender crescent Moon and, hovering above it, Jupiter. Beginning around the 17th, the dazzling Morning Star, Venus, makes itself evident low in the east-southeast sky shortly before sunup. It will adorn the eastern sky before sunrise through the end of August.
celestial annals of the big apple: january 24, 1925 An eclipse of the Sun swept across NYC. The eclipse was total north of 96th Street, while to the south, a narrow edge of the Sun triumphantly remained in view, briefly creating a “diamond ring” in the sky. The next total solar eclipse for the tristate area is scheduled for May 1, 2079.
Municipal Horoscope: The Capricorn New Moon on the 2nd closely conjoins New York City’s Sun, quite literally signaling a changing of the guard as a new mayor takes office. Occurring in the 4th house of real estate and trine Uranus in the 8th house of taxes, this lunation ushers in a new agenda that prioritizes reform around housing and the distribution of resources.
We also start the year with Jupiter newly in Pisces, the city’s 6th house of public health. The city’s emergence from the pandemic, and the ability of the public health infrastructure to address future outbreaks, may feel more secure with 2021 behind us.
Mercury stations retrograde in Aquarius on the 14th, creating electric sparks of friction as it squares Uranus stationing direct. As a new taxation scheme advances, questions of how the city’s nightlife, performing arts centers, and entertainment industry can be supported in radically new ways may figure into this.
January has 31 days.
Dec. 27‒Jan. 2
“Our streets are calendars containing who we are and who we will be next.”
—Colson Whitehead
27 monday
7:19 am / 4:35 pm
Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall
30 thursday
7:19 am / 4:37 pm
The Metropolitan Opera presents Cinderella—Holiday Presentation.
28 tuesday
7:19 am / 4:36 pm
The Metropolitan Opera presents The Magic Flute —Holiday Presentation (through Jan. 5).
31 friday
7:19 am / 4:37 pm
New Year’s Eve Times Square Ball Drop
29 wednesday
7:19 am / 4:37 pm
New York City Ballet presents George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (through Jan. 2).
1 saturday
7:20 am / 4:39 pm
New Year’s Day 1898: Greater New York is consolidated into the five-borough city.
2 sunday
7:20 am / 4:40 pm new moon
1980: ABC No Rio, a collectively run arts organization, opens at 156 Rivington St.
6 thursday
“New York is not a completed city . . . it is a city in the process of becoming.”
—Le Corbusier
3 monday
7:20 am / 4:41 pm
1870: Construction begins on the Brooklyn Bridge.
7:20 am / 4:43 pm
Epiphany
Carnegie Hall presents the New York Philharmonic with Susanna Mälkki, conductor, and Branford Marsalis, saxophone.
4 tuesday
7:20 am / 4:42 pm
1865: The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent home at 10–12 Broad St.
7 friday
7:20 am / 4:44 pm
Orthodox Christmas Day
1955: Contralto Marian Anderson debuts at the Metropolitan Opera.
5 wednesday
7:20 am / 4:43 pm
1957: Jackie Robinson, before a trade to the New York Giants, retires from baseball to become an executive with Chock full o’Nuts.
8 saturday
7:19 am / 4:45 pm
The Metropolitan Opera presents Le Nozze di Figaro (through Apr. 21).
9
sunday
7:19 am / 4:46 pm 1st quarter
1875: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum, is born in Manhattan.
Jan. 3‒9
FEBRUARY
Fresh February snow can give the city a nineteenthcentury charm, recalling Currier & Ives prints of one-horse open sleighs. Nothing beats a snow day, when city kids with bright plastic sleds rush to city parks to careen down hillsides, narrowly avoiding ending up in the street. But the pristine snow quickly turns to gray slush. Wide icy rivers run into gutters, and cold black water pools in deceptively deep puddles at street corners, while automobiles and piles of trash harden into igloo-like mounds. At least it’s a short month. This February brings two new Broadway shows whose openings were delayed due to the pandemic: MJ, a jukebox musical featuring Michael Jackson’s hits, and The Music Man with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. Seeing The Tap Dance Kid at City Center is just one way to celebrate Black New Yorkers’ contributions to the city’s history and culture during Black History Month. And Midwinter Recess gives schoolkids a chance to “enjoy” the cold.
Professor Vaticinate says, That January warm-up was only a teaser . . . now it’s back in the freezer. Most self-respecting groundhogs will be searching for their fur parkas and not their shadows on the 2nd. It will turn colder as this month progresses. By the second week of the month, the teeth chattering could be record shattering. By month’s end, snow transitions over to rain. No question about it: it’s freezin’ and sneezin’ season.
normals for central park
Avg. high: 41.6° Avg. low: 28.9° Avg. rainfall: 3.09" Avg. snowfall: 9.2"
February 9, 1934, had the coldest temperature ever recorded at Central Park, -15°. Then on the same date in 1969, an unpredicted snowstorm dropped 15" to 20", paralyzing the city. It has been called the “Lindsay Storm,” since Mayor John Lindsay was criticized after parts of the city remained unplowed for a week.
Sky Watch: On the 2nd, only half an hour after sunset, near the west-southwest horizon is a razor-thin crescent Moon and, to its upper right, Jupiter. Winter’s halfway point comes on the 3rd, at 10:46 p.m. Venus gleams like a sequined showgirl, attaining her greatest brilliancy in the eastern sky at dawn on Feb. 13th. She resembles a striking crescent Moon in telescopes and steadily held binoculars.
celestial annals of the big apple
The Moon is out of sight for about three days each month around the time of New Moon. The slender crescent is quite hard to see if it is less than 36 hours from new, but occasionally some sharp-eyed individuals have seen it when it was less than 20 hours old.
Municipal Horoscope: February kicks off with a newly direct Venus followed in close pursuit by Mars. The two seal the deal midmonth, signaling some sort of accord or a fresh start around revenue and taxation.
With Venus stationing almost exactly on the degree of the city’s Sun, it seems likely that the new mayor will be met with demands around women’s issues, the arts, and childbirth, particularly as they relate to housing and real estate. Some of the financial moves taken this month (and beyond) may center these issues.
Mercury also stations direct on the 4th conjunct Pluto and the city’s Mercury. A plan to transform local transit, particularly in an underground capacity, may take form, but with Mercury also squaring the city’s Moon, it’s probably going to come with a few groans from the public.
February has 28 days. The next leap year is 2024.
“You could walk from the top of Manhattan to the bottom and when you walk back up, certain blocks will be different.”
—Lin-Manuel Miranda
31 monday
7:06 am / 5:12 pm
1981: Blondie’s “Rapture” with Fab 5 Freddy and Jean-Michel Basquiat is the first rap video broadcast on MTV.
3 thursday
7:03 am / 5:16 pm
Lucky Chops play Brooklyn Bowl.
1 tuesday
7:05 am / 5:13 pm new moon
Lunar New Year MJ opens at the Neil Simon Theatre.
4 friday
7:02 am / 5:17 pm
Carnegie Hall presents the New York Pops with Tony DeSare and Capathia Jenkins, celebrating Nelson Riddle.
2 wednesday
7:04 am / 5:15 pm
Groundhog Day
City Center Encores! presents The Tap Dance Kid (through Feb. 6).
5 saturday
7:01 am / 5:18 pm
Cœur de pirate plays the Town Hall.
6 sunday
6:14 am / 5:19 pm
1895: Babe Ruth is born.
Jan. 31‒Feb. 6
Feb. 7‒13
“This island, floating in river water like a diamond iceberg, call it New York.”
—Truman Capote
7 monday
6:59 am / 5:21 pm
1963: The Mona Lisa is exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
10 thursday
6:56 am / 5:24 pm
The Music Man with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster opens at the Winter Garden Theatre.
8 tuesday
6:58 am / 5:22 pm 1st quarter
Carnegie Hall presents the Philadelphia Orchestra with soprano Angel Blue.
11 friday
6:54 am / 5:26 pm
New York City Ballet presents Swan Lake (through Feb. 20).
9 wednesday
6:57 am / 5:23 pm
1969: A blizzard paralyzes the city for three days, nearly ending Mayor Lindsay’s political career.
12 saturday
6:53 am / 5:27 pm
Lincoln’s Birthday 1924: George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiers at the Aeolian Hall.
13 sunday
6:52 am / 5:28 pm
1934: Artists are outraged by the destruction of Diego Rivera’s Rockefeller Center mural, Man at the Crossroads.
MARCH
The first bright rays of spring sunshine pierce the city’s winter gloom in March. Warmish days beckon New Yorkers out of doors to eat their lunches in patches of sun in Midtown plazas and stretch their legs walking, running, biking, or shooting hoops all over town. But don’t take that dirty gray wool overcoat or salt-stained down jacket to the cleaners just yet— no sooner do you swap it for a bright new spring trench than you are blasted by a stiff wind whipping off the Hudson River. Don’t miss Asia Week’s citywide celebration of Asian art or the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. (But you might want to avoid the roving bands of tipsy postparade bagpipers on the Upper East Side.) This year you can catch Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall, Stephane Wrembel at the Town Hall, and legendary stars Elton John at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and Billy Joel (again) at Madison Square Garden.
Professor Vaticinate says, This month prepare for lots of clouds, snow, and rain, but let’s not complain. If it wasn’t for weather, most of us wouldn’t know how to start a conversation. Expect a big storm during the second week of the month: copious rain and wind, even a bit of wet snow; it’ll make apologists out of meteorologists. Technically, on the 20th astronomers claim it’s spring, but winter will have one last fling. So, beware! March is going to go out like a polar bear!
normals for central park
Avg. high: 49.7° Avg. low: 35.2° Avg. rainfall: 4.36" Avg. snowfall: 3.9"
On March 29, 1970, it was Easter Sunday, and an unusual late-season snowstorm enveloped the tristate area. Four inches fell in the city, canceling the traditional Easter Parade. Six years later, Easter fell on April 18, and the temperature hit 96°.
Sky Watch: Use Venus, low in the east-southeast about an hour before sunrise as a benchmark this month to locate two much dimmer planets. On the 16th, down to its lower right will be Mars. On the 29th, look for Saturn, again positioned to the lower right of Venus. Spring officially arrives in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20, at 11:33 a.m. EDT.
celestial annals of the big apple: march 30, 1967 Switchboards at broadcast outlets throughout NYC lit up after multicolored pillars of light suddenly appeared in the southern sky. But they weren’t UFOs; it was a NASA experiment in which chemical-bearing rockets had been sent aloft to test the flow of winds and electrical currents at high altitudes.
Municipal Horoscope: The mood around town at the very beginning of March may feel contentious. Venus, Mars, and Pluto will all be conjunct in Capricorn and forming testy squares to the city’s Moon, which signifies the people. Public discontent, particularly around cost of living and abuse of power, may swell early in the month and reach another critical juncture around the 21st, when the transiting Moon, Mars, and Uranus all form a T square.
However, the New Moon in Pisces on the 2nd is conjunct Jupiter, bringing support to the realms of public health or labor—possibly in terms of cash or in the form of a judicial decision.
Venus is still traveling neck and neck with Mars, and when they both enter Aquarius on the 6th—the city’s fifth house of entertainment and pleasure—New Yorkers may soon be in the throes of a spring awakening filled with lust for good times. However, Saturn is there too, so this party will, to some extent, have a chaperone.
March has 31 days.
“It is a city and it is also a creature, a mentality, a disease, a threat, an electromagnet. . . . It is an implausible character, a monstrous vortex of contradictions . . . so extreme no one could have made it up.”
—Luc Sante
28 monday
6:31 am / 5:46 pm
The Metropolitan Opera presents a new production of Don Carlos.
3 thursday
6:26 am / 5:49 pm
1907: Actor Canada Lee is born in Manhattan.
1 tuesday
6:29 am / 5:47 pm
Elton John plays Barclays Center.
4 friday
6:25 am / 5:50 pm
Carnegie Hall presents the New York Pops’ One Night Only: An Evening with Norm Lewis.
2 wednesday
6:28 am / 5:48 pm new moon
Ash Wednesday
They Might Be Giants play the Bowery Ballroom.
5 saturday
6:23 am / 5:51 pm
The Town Hall presents Django A Gogo with Stephane Wrembel.
6 sunday
6:22 am / 5:52 pm
1947: Actor and director Rob Reiner is born in the Bronx.
Feb.
28‒Mar. 6
Mar. 7‒13
“Each neighborhood of the city appeared to be made of a different substance, each seemed to have a different air pressure, a different psychic weight.”
—Teju Cole
7 monday
6:20 am / 5:54 pm
1960: Jack Paar returns to The Tonight Show, having left after the network censored one of his jokes.
10 thursday
6:15 am / 5:57 pm 1st quarter
Asia Week (through Mar. 19)
8 tuesday
6:18 am / 5:55 pm
International Women’s Day
Carnegie Hall presents Emanuel Ax, piano, Leonidas Kavakos, violin, and Yo-Yo Ma, cello.
11 friday
6:14 am / 5:58 pm
The Metropolitan Opera presents Rodelinda (through Mar. 31).
9 wednesday
6:17 am / 5:56 pm
Iceage plays the Bowery Ballroom.
12 saturday
6:12 am / 5:59 pm
1926: Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, where the Lindy Hop is born, opens.
13 sunday
7:10 am / 7:00 pm
Daylight saving time begins.
1893: The original Waldorf Hotel opens (the Astoria opens next door in 1897).
APRIL
March is a tease; April is when spring really starts. The Mets’ and Yankees’ home openers kick off the city’s baseball season. Public schoolkids are cut loose for Spring Break. Cherry, crab apple, and Callery pear trees burst with pink and white blossoms. Tulips pop up throughout city parks from Central to Sunset to Astoria. They dot the lavish front gardens of brownstones, rimmed by glossy black ironwork, on the Upper East and West Sides and in Park Slope. They color the medians of Park Avenue in a riot of yellow, red, and pink, and paint pockets of beauty in the middle of even the most unassuming, workaday streets. New Yorkers indulge in over-the-top bonnets and pastel finery for the Easter Parade. The Whitney Biennial brings cutting-edge American art to the Meatpacking District, the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair attracts the city’s bookworms, Fran Lebowitz kvetches at the Town Hall, and Smorgasburg ushers in the outdoor-dining season across the boroughs.
Professor Vaticinate says, The first week of April will be delightful: sunshine and pleasant temperatures; golfers will get that fairway look in their eyes. And the nice weather continues into the middle of the month. Our Easter forecast: a few clouds . . . but then clearing up rabbit-ly. But we have something for everyone this month: by month’s end, there’ll be at least one group of happy fellas . . . and those are the guys who make umbrellas!
normals for central park
Avg. high: 61.2° Avg. low: 44.8° Avg. rainfall: 4.50" Avg. snowfall: 0.6"
Forty years ago, on April 6, 1982—for the first time ever in April—New York was hit by a blizzard. A total of 9.6" of snow fell, canceling opening day of the baseball season at Yankee Stadium.
Sky Watch: At around 5:30 a.m. on the 5th, look low toward the southeast for a very close pairing of Saturn and Mars. The color contrast between Saturn (yellow) and Mars (orange-red) will be striking. About the same time on the 26th, look low toward the east-southeast for a “celestial summit meeting” composed of Mars, a thin crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter. These latter two planets will rise closely side by side on the morning of the 30th— an eye-catching sight.
celestial annals of the big apple: april 25, 1966
At 8:15 p.m. est, a dazzling fireball meteoroid, estimated to be roughly the size of a football and weighing a few hundred pounds, swept across the sky on a south to north trajectory from Cape May, NJ, to near Montreal, witnessed by countless thousands and leaving a glowing trail in its wake.
Municipal Horoscope: Venus and Mars continue trailing each other through April, culminating in a giant cuddle pile with Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces by the end of the month. Broadly, this incites a bit of a whimsical fever dream that peaks when the Moon floats through Pisces on the 25th and 26th. This takes place in the 6th house, however, suggesting momentum for workers and healthcare. Unexpected coalitions may form between different groups as possibilities for a more inclusive future are entertained.
The Full Moon in Libra on the 16th lands exactly opposite the city’s Moon and square its nodal axis, which looks like a significant turning point for the collective well-being and sense of shared destiny among New Yorkers. Pluto is also stationing on the degree of the city’s North Node throughout April, emphasizing the seismic magnitude of what it takes to bounce back from a pandemic—not to mention the high creation that comes from high destruction.
April has 30 days.
Apr. 4‒10
“Every now and then the city shook its soul out. It assailed you with an image, or a day, or a crime, or a terror, or a beauty so difficult to wrap your mind around that you had to shake your head in disbelief.”
—Colum McCann
4 monday
6:34 am / 7:23 pm
1973: The World Trade Center opens.
7 thursday
6:29 am / 7:22 pm
Radio City Music Hall presents Josh Groban’s Great Big Radio City Show (through Apr. 9).
5 tuesday
6:33 am / 7:25 pm
The Weeknd plays Madison Square Garden (and 4th).
8 friday
6:28 am / 7:28 pm
The Philadelphia Orchestra presents the New York premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Pachamama Meets an Ode, Carnegie Hall.
6 wednesday
6:31 am / 7:26 pm
The Town Hall presents An Evening with Fran Lebowitz (through Apr. 7).
9 saturday
6:26 am / 7:29 pm 1st quarter
Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure opens at the Starrett-Lehigh Building.
10 sunday
6:25 am / 7:30 pm
Palm Sunday
1925: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is published.
14 thursday
“Lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration.”
—Jane Jacobs
11 monday
6:23 am / 7:31 pm
Garment District Alliance presents Here, a sculptural installation, between 39th and 40th Sts.
6:18 am / 7:34 pm
Fuzz plays the Music Hall of Williamsburg.
12 tuesday
6:21 am / 7:32 pm
2003: Subway tokens are sold for the last time.
15 friday
6:17 am / 7:35 pm
Good Friday
Passover begins. Spring Recess for New York City Public Schools begins (through Apr. 22).
13 wednesday
6:20 am / 7:33 pm
1870: The Metropolitan Museum of Art is incorporated.
16 saturday
6:15 am / 7:36 pm full moon Watchhouse plays the Beacon Theatre.
17 sunday
6:14 am / 7:37 pm
Easter Sunday
Easter Parade and Easter Bonnet Festival on Fifth Ave. from 49th to 57th Sts.
Apr. 11‒17
MAY
May is a Goldilocks month. Roses start to bloom in the manicured beds of the city’s botanical gardens; young tomato plants appear on makeshift rooftop and fire-escape gardens, soaking in the fresh (or carbon monoxide–laden) air; and sundresses sprout on city streets. The month starts with more than 2,000 cyclists pedaling up the avenues and over the bridges for the Five Boro Bike Tour ; picnickers setting out by ferry to celebrate the opening of Governors Island, the city’s lush getaway in the harbor; New Yorkers gawking at overdressed celebrities arriving at the Met’s Costume Institute Gala; and moms being treated to Mother’s Day brunch. It ends with Memorial Day—summer’s official start. See contemporary art at TEFAF at the Park Avenue Armory, and celebrate Fleet Week, when sailors from across the country carouse through Times Square while trying to keep their spotless dress whites clean.
Professor Vaticinate says, The first half of this month looks generally fair and nice: we expect nothing but bright sunshine and blue skies (azure thing). Weather is quite a different story for May’s second half. Expect either some rain or scattered showers; one damp thing after another. During the final week of the month, squally weather . . . at worst, a cloudburst. Question: If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Answer: Pilgrims!
normals for central park Avg. high: 70.8° Avg. low: 54.8° Avg. rainfall: 4.36"
May 9 is the latest calendar date on which snow has been sighted at Central Park. It happened 45 years ago, in 1977, and again 2 years ago, in 2020.
Sky Watch: During the overnight hours of the 15th–16th, between 10:29 p.m. and 1:56 a.m., the Moon will slide completely into Earth’s shadow, producing a total lunar eclipse. Totality begins at 11:30 p.m. and lasts 85 minutes. Another “summit meeting” is scheduled on the 25th at 4:45 a.m., when the Moon passes Mars and Jupiter low in the east, and then Venus on the 27th. The remnants of a shattered comet might cause an outburst of meteors around 1 a.m. on the 31st.
celestial annals of the big apple: may 19, 1910 Halley’s Comet passed within 14 million miles of Earth in 1910. Before dawn on May 19, astronomer Mary Proctor, observing from the top of the New York Times building, saw streamers from the comet’s tail stretching across two-thirds of the sky! The comet is due back midsummer of 2061.
Municipal Horoscope: May brings us fully into the start of a new eclipse series. We enter the month still very much feeling the aftershock of the Taurus eclipse on April 30, and a total lunar eclipse takes place in Scorpio on May 16. These eclipses speed up inevitable changes around the city’s financial future. The Taurus eclipse in particular looks interesting, occurring conjunct Uranus and on the same day as an especially generous Venus/Jupiter conjunction in Pisces. An unexpected amount of financial support may be extended to the neediest New Yorkers in the wake of this eclipse.
Mercury stations retrograde in Gemini on the 10th, creating snarls at airports and shipping facilities for much of May— maybe some commotion at universities too.
Also on the 10th, Jupiter enters Aries for a six-month stint. With Venus there too until the 28th, wedding season is kicking off in surplus mode.
May has 31 days.
5 thursday
“Miss Manhattan is a tall, liberated young woman with the stride of a man, a pony face, and long stringy hair.”
—Anita Loos
2 monday
5:53 am / 7:52 pm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala
5:49 am / 7:56 pm
Cinco de Mayo
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens In America: An Anthology of Fashion.
3 tuesday
5:53 am / 7:53 pm
Eid al-Fitr
New York City Ballet presents a Stravinsky Festival (through May 15).
6 friday
5:48 am / 7:57 pm
TEFAF art fair opens at the Park Avenue Armory (through May 10).
4 wednesday
5:50 am / 7:55 pm
Jacob Collier plays Terminal 5.
7 saturday
5:47 am / 7:58 pm
Carnegie Hall presents Jon Batiste.
8 sunday
5:46 am / 7:59 pm 1st quarter
Mother’s Day
1970: The Knicks beat the Lakers to win the NBA championship.
May 2‒8
12 thursday
“City of the towers near God, city of hopes and visions, of spires seeking in the windy air loveliness and perfection.”
—Langston Hughes
9 monday
5:45 am / 8:00 pm
Rina Sawayama plays Brooklyn Steel.
5:41 am / 8:03 pm
1925: Lawrence “Yogi” Berra is born.
13 friday
5:40 am / 8:04 pm
The Metropolitan Opera presents a new production of Brett Dean’s Hamlet (through Jun. 9).
10 tuesday
5:44 am / 8:01 pm
Aly & AJ play Webster Hall.
11 wednesday
5:43 am / 8:02 pm
1877: Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone at the St. Denis Hotel at Broadway and 11th St.
14 saturday
5:39 am / 8:05 pm
New York Philharmonic presents Young People’s Concert: One Planet, Lincoln Center.
15 sunday
5:39 am / 8:06 pm
Total lunar eclipse begins at 9:32 pm.
1855: Walt Whitman copyrights the first edition of Leaves of Grass.
May 9‒15
JUNE
“I like New York in June, how about you? I like a Gershwin tune, how about you?” crooned Judy Garland to Mickey Rooney in the 1941 film Babes on Broadway. June is a romantic month in the city. As the wedding season picks up, couples and entire wedding parties dash out of cabs or limos in bright dresses and sharp tuxes for photo shoots in the middle of Fifth Avenue, or against the backdrop of Lower Manhattan seen from Brooklyn’s Fulton Ferry Landing, or in pretty park settings like Central Park’s Conservatory Garden. The Philharmonic brings its orchestra out of doors for sunset concerts that, with a little wine and cheese, make unforgettable dates. (Central Park’s Great Lawn gets packed early, so don’t forget shows in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park, and Queens’ Cunningham Park.) And join the NYC Pride March to celebrate love in all its forms.
Professor Vaticinate says, We’re betting on clearing skies in time for the Belmont Stakes. If not, showers and dark clouds could linger in the skies above . . . it’s weather only a mudder could love. Summer will arrive with a bang! First, lightning and thunder, then . . . it’s a hot attack! It will get hotter as grads sing their alma mater, but too hot to do all the chores it was too cold to do last February.
normals for central park Avg. high: 79.3° Avg. low: 63.6° Avg. rainfall: 4.41"
This is the 50th anniversary of “Agnes.” She was once a hurricane that made its way into the tristate area as a tropical storm on June 22, 1972, with a landfall near Long Beach, packing winds of 65 mph and accompanied by widespread severe flooding.
Sky Watch: Summer officially arrives on the 21st at 5:13 a.m. Early risers can watch the Moon visit five planets this month. Look to the upper left of the Moon during the predawn hours of the 18th, 21st, and 22nd, and you’ll find (respectively) Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. On the 26th, 45 minutes before sunrise, low to the east-northeast horizon, Venus will glow to the right of the Moon, and the next morning Mercury will shine to the Moon’s lower right.
celestial annals of the big apple
The most luminous known star, cataloged as R136a1, is located in the Tarantula Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. It is estimated that this star shines with a brilliance over six million times that of our Sun.
Municipal Horoscope: Venus spends most of June in Taurus, whetting appetites for savory meals and experiences and, specifically in New York City, promoting funding for the arts and cultural institutions.
Mars and Jupiter are both egging each other on in Aries, though, which might bring criminal justice and policing issues to the fore, hearkening back to what was happening during the second half of 2020, when Mars was retrograde in Aries. This peaks toward the end of the month, especially around the 30th. There may be public demonstrations and attention on the courts, and this may be part of a broader national issue, perhaps with events in other cities influencing those in New York.
With Saturn and Neptune both stationing retrograde this month and pinging various aspects of the city’s chart involving recreation, revenue, public health, and its inhabitants, an important turning point or milestone may be reached around the implementation of legal recreational cannabis.
June has 30 days.
“Where God builds a church, the devil builds next door—a saloon. . . . Either the devil was on the ground first, or he has been doing a good deal more in the way of building.”
—Jacob Riis
30 monday
5:28 am / 8:19 pm new moon
Memorial Day Have a picnic in a city park.
31 tuesday
5:27 am / 8:20 pm
1819: Walt Whitman is born.
1 wednesday
5:27 am / 8:21 pm
Carnegie Hall presents the Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst, conductor, and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, violin.
2 thursday
5:26 am / 8:21 pm
New York Philharmonic presents Beatrice Rana’s debut at the Rose Theater, Lincoln Center (through Jun. 4).
3 friday
5:26 am / 8:22 pm
1980: The Mets draft Darryl Strawberry.
4 saturday
5:26 am / 8:23 pm
Shavuot begins. Governors Ball Music Festival (through Jun. 5)
5 sunday
5:25 am / 8:23 pm
Philippine Independence Day Parade, Madison Ave. from 38th to 27th Sts.
30‒Jun.
May
5
“There is no thrill in the world like entering, for the first time, New York harbor—coming in from the flat monotony of the sea to this rise of dreams and beauty.”
—Langston Hughes
6 monday
5:25 am / 8:24 pm
Shavuot ends. D-Day Ringo Starr plays the Beacon Theatre (through Jun. 8).
9 thursday
5:24 am / 8:26 pm
Company opens at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
7 tuesday
5:25 am / 8:25 pm 1st quarter
1936: Gangster Charles “Lucky” Luciano is convicted of sixty-two counts of compulsory prostitution.
10 friday
5:24 am / 8:26 pm
The New York Philharmonic performs the world premiere of Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward into Light, Carnegie Hall.
8 wednesday
5:24 am / 8:25 pm
2009: The first section of the High Line opens.
11 saturday
5:24 am / 8:27 pm
The Belmont Stakes
12 sunday
5:24 am / 8:27 pm
National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Fifth Ave. from 44th to 86th Sts.
Jun. 6‒12