October

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1 Richard Strauss's Salome,at the New York City Opera. Ways to Deal with Unrequited Love, No. 1,077,333: Ask your stepfather to bring you your beloved's head on a silver platter.

2 Gala-opening benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. The strings: plucked, bowed, retightened. The elegantly dressed women of a certain age: plucked, bowed, retightened.

3 Tomorrow at the Beverly Hills Library: Mineko Iwasaki, the most revered geisha in Japan, signs copies of her memoir, Geisha: A Life. Elsewhere, Memoirs of aGeishaauthor Arthur Golden spends day regrouting bathroom.

4 Maggie Smith and Judi Dench open in Davids, Hare'sThe Breath of Life,in London's West End. Both actresses are dames; this show is dame-heavy. A

5 "Celebrating Art Nouveau," at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in Richmond. Symbolist, Jugendstil, and Liberty-style work on display, much of itmelty.

6 Cities in thrall to brilliant performers this weekend: Springsteen plays Philadelphia, and Savion Glover finishes his run ofBring inDaNoise, Bring inDa Atlanta.

7 N.Y.C.'s Fashion Institute of Technology prepares "Scaasi: Exuberant Fashion," to open next week; L.A.'s Book Soup hosts Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) reading from his new book, Porno. Today's "unapologetic."

8 The San Francisco Ballet kicks offa little ballet humor for you—its 70th season by performing at N.Y.C.'s City Center.

10 Night No. 3 of Tony Curtis—playing Osgood Fielding III, not Josephine—in the musical version of SomeLike It Hot, in San Francisco for four weeks. Speaking from a camp perspective, this could be rich.

11 Joan Cusack turns 40. Intelligent goofiness has a moment.

12 Greta Garbo and Hillary Clinton have enjoyed her handbags. Now Washington's Corcoran Gallery does, too, apparently: today it opens a show of Judith Leiber's Faberge-egginspired output.

13 "Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe I'Oeil Painting," at Washington, D.C.'s National Gallery. Your oeils are gonna be totally tromped!

Danceof the Vampires,based on Roman Polanski'sThe Fearless Vampire Killersand starring Michael Crawford, opens on Broadway. Thinkplasma.

15 A civil servant discovers he can walk through walls (dull jobs lead toall sortsof fanciful thinking) in the new Broadway musicalAmour,in its last week of previews.

16 London's National Gallery explores how Madame de Pompadour—Louis XV's official mistresscreated her image for social and political gain. (Highly effectively,, we're guessing.)

17 Dame Edna in New Haven. Bugle beads, Yalies:

18 Exciting opportunity to use the word "Shavian": Costa Mesa, California's South Coast Rep opens both a new theater complex this month and Shaw's MajorBarbaratoday.

21 This month the National 1 Breast Cancer Awareness Program auctions off, yes, popcorn buckets designed by celebrities, including, yes, Al Roker. ►

"Femme Fatale: Fashion and Visual Culture in Fin-de-Siede Paris," at N.Y.C.'s Fashion Institute of Technology. Tea gowns, insouciance.

23 Work by Herzog and de Meuron, the recent (Swiss) winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Onregarde!

24 Today's theme is Surprising People Taking the Reins: former N.Y. Philharmonic honcho Kurt Masur conducts the San Francisco Symphony, Peter Jennings hosts a charity art auction at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, and Twyla Tharp choreographs Billy Joel's music on Broadway.

25 Kevin Kline turned 55 yesterday; Jaclyn Smith turns 55 tomorrow. Today, though, cperien brief lull in the pageant of Older Can Be Sexy.

This week, London's Tate mounts the largest-ever show of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). (Historical note: in the late 20th century, the name of the artist's most famous painting— Blue Boy—was used by a gay-porn rag.)

27 Tomorrow: Comedy Central's hilariousDaily Showstarts taping in Washington, D.C., for midterm elections. Satirists descend.

29 "New Hotels for Global Nomads," at N.Y.C.'s CooperHewitt museum, explores the escapist experience of the modern hotel. "I'd like a week/ In Martinique/ I'd like to get away/ To Biarritz or Vouvray..."

30 Work by the four nominees for the Turner Prize (Keith Tyson, Fiona Banner, Liam Gillick, and Catherine Yass) is shown at London's Tate Modem. It's an honor—or, actually, an exhibition—to be nominated.

Halloween. Masks are donned.

HENRY ALFORD