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92Y Tribeca officially opens

92Y Tribeca, a new downtown arts, entertainment and cultural center with an eco-friendly café officially opened this weekend. To celebrate its grand opening on Saturday, the venue offered up a stellar night of indie rock, comedy and even a dance party kicking off its "18 Nights of Inspiration" – a series of 18 opportunities to sample nightlife between now and December 18th at the Y.

Comedian Michael Showalter of Wet Hot American Summer fame (which was actually screened earlier in the evening) kicked the night off with an offbeat stand-up set that ranged from the political to the personal –the best jokes were direct quotes taken straight from his middle school yearbook. Apparently 11 year old girls like ponies and rainbows and boys love ska music, even if they have no idea what that is.

Following Showalter was a set by "the nicest man in indie rock" John Vanderslice, during which, the analog-obsessed, singer-songwriter did little to dispel his moniker. He enthusiastically gave home-baked cranberry almond cookies to the audience and even went so far as to hug quite literally everybody in the room (yours truly included). He also raffled off gummy vitamins (yes, such a thing exists) to whoever could answer a trivia question about your favorite political pawn/plumber, Joe.After he performed, Vanderslice proposed what only seemed a natural way to follow up his set of quiet, lyrically-thoughtful, acoustic songs –a dance party with an emphasis on the new Lil Wayne album. Cue the DJ! And yet the odd transition was a perfectly complete way to end the night.

Upcoming events in the 18 Nights of Inspiration series include: punk-meets-garage girl-band Care Bears on Fire (Nov 6); comedians Aasif Mandvi (on his new movie, Nov 19), Greg Giraldo (on the election, Oct 29), Zach Galifianakis (Dec 10), and Eugene Mirman (Nov 5); a night with the cast of Broadway’s [title of show] hosted by Ira “This American Life” Glass (Nov 5), and “Byte Me,” a series on digital gaming that kicks off with a talk and tournament (Oct 25). For more information visit www.92Ytribeca.org

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