October

KOONS IN BILBAO, ABBA ON BROADWAY, AND CURIOUS GEORGE AT 60

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Show of Jeff Koons's paintings, called "Easyfun— Ethereal," at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. This could be prettycool— atmospheric.

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art shows some 160 glass objects from the Islamic world, 7th century to 19th century, in "Glass of the Sultans." (Don't wear heavy

Children's Museum of Manhattan celebrates the 60th anniversary of Curious George. Between this, Planet of the Apes, and the return of Joe Piscopo, this is definitely the year of the monkey

Studio 450 in N.Y.C. opens a digital and print exhibition in honor of Amnesty International's 40th anniversary. Grassroots activism gets glamorous.

FRIDAY

Previews of Mamma Mia!, the ABBA musical, begin on Broadway. 9:13 P.M.: usher decides to dye all own body hair ash-blond.

SATURDAY

Radio City Music Hall: big shindig to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film West Side Story. 11:30 P.M.: insecure gang member asks dance captain, "Am I too chesty through my topline?"

7A

Nearly 1,000 balloons take to the skies at the Kodak

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The theme

Buffett performs at the 17th Annual Rita Hayworth Gala benefiting the Alzheimer's Association at New York's WaldorfAstoria. Yes, charity may begin at home, but apparently it can take you to the Waldorf.

Prepare for tomorrow's opening of "One Planet Under o Groove:

Hip Hop and Contemporary Art," at the Bronx Museum of Art.

Total phatness ensues.

Alberto Giacometti retrospective at N.Y.C.'s MoMA. Giacometti sculptures always make me feel 40 pounds overweight.

"Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age,

Museum of Art. Rothko, de Kooning, Tupperware, to the podium, please. ^

1940-1960," at the Brookl

Illustrator Al Hirschfeld's work on display at the Museum of the City of New

Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island celebrates the closing of the Fresh Kills landfill. At last: an exhibition that admits it contains garbage.

The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is awarded to Whoopi Goldberg at the Kennedy Center.

Elsewhere, Bruce McCall and

Buckley weep

The New-York Historical Society presents exhibition of neglected post-war master realist and portraitist John Koch.

Music students,

A cocktail parties,

strings of peads: all can be expected.

A show exploring the history o(the projected image in art, at N.Y.C.'s Whitney. Holography, check. Slides, check. Shadow puppets, btful.

Exhibition of the work of British architect John Soane at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes in Madrid. 1:20 P.M.: museumgoer confused by employee's reference to Serior "Jawzone."

Fashion

photographs by Horst and Hoyningen-Huene on display at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. 3:55 P.M.: Brahmin attendee pronounces exhibition

"absolutely divoon."

London's V&A showcases radical fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Helmut Lang. Note museum's sudden uptick of visitors wearing Puma sneakers, elective baldness.

Champion dance couples from 15 countries strut their stuff at Chicago's Bum the Floor event. Love that Cuban motion.

N.Y.C.'s Mary Boone Gallery opens a Helmut Newton

show called "Sex and

expectation: shrubs, heavily trussed.

Broadway opening of new musical directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, Thou Shalt Not. Oh, yes, we will!

Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company celebrates its 10th anniversary with production of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. One should embrace any opportunity to use the word "Shavian."

L.A.: Liz Phair, Seal, Run-DMC, others perform concert called Breathe to benefit the Revlon/U.C.L.A. Breast Center and Sloan-Kettering's Breast Cancer Examination Center. (They should have called this concert Breast.)

Fort

Lauderdale's Museum of Art presents "Fashion: The Greatest Show on Earth." Balenciaga! Elephants! Peanuts!

L.A.'s Getty Museum opens an exhibition called "Posing for Posterity"—a topic that Tinseltown denizens know a little about.

Halloween. Five-pound Hershe/s Kisses: too

Mini Snickers bars: just right.

HENRY ALFORD