Comic-Con: What Channel Are They Promoting Again?

SAN DIEGO - As always, the good ship Comic-Con comes with a lot of barnacles - offerings that really don’t belong at a convention dedicated to science fiction and fantasy but nonetheless come along for the ride. A good promotional opportunity has a way of making shame evaporate.

On Thursday, for instance, TV Land rolled out Roseanne Barr to discuss her classic sitcom, which stretched for nine seasons starting in 1988. (TV Land runs old episodes.) Also on the dais were Wayne Knight, a k a Newman from “Seinfeld,” who appears on “The Exes,” one of the cable channel’s new programs, and William Shatner, who has appeared on “Hot in Cleveland.”

Mr. Shatner is Comic-Con royalty for “Star Trek,” but he quickly made it clear that Capt. Kirk would not appear. “I’m here for TV Land, TV Land, TV Land,” he said. He then repeated: “TV Land, TV Land, TV Land.”

Opening day of Comic-Con has traditionally been packed with movie stars. This year, the big draws - Jennifer Lawrence, Sandra Bullock â€" were pushed closer to the weekend. Perhaps that accounted for the strong attendance at the TV Land panel: the 24,000-square-foot Indigo Ballroom was about 90 percent full.

Or maybe the crowd really did want to hear the show business veterans wax nostalgic about even older sitcoms like “All in the Family” and discuss how “Roseanne” tackled hot-button issues like same-sex marriage. Ms. Barr thanked attendees for “remembering old people, like ourselves.”

“Does anybody have any weed?” she continued.

As for Mr. Knight, he announced that he was simply there to “pimp” his show.

Well, points for honesty.

Comic-Con: Superheroes of Varying Sizes and Shapes

SAN DIEGOâ€"Who was that masked man?

Maybe, just maybe, Jack Black.

According to a publicist for the Yahoo Web series “Ghost Ghirls,” Mr. Black, one of its producers, spent Thursday morning wandering the halls of the Comic-Con fan convention here, disguised in a Nacho Libre mask. That would be the identity-concealing, Mexican-wrestling mask he wore in playing the good-hearted title wrestle of the 2006 comedy “Nacho Libre.”

On the one hand, it might have been possible for the sharp-eyed to spot Mr. Black via his physique, which resembles that of the Pillsbury Doughboy. On the other hand, the halls are being stalked by a lot of masked nerds who are similarly shaped.

Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci, the two deliberately dizzy blondes who star as clueless ghostbusters in the comic series, had some fun with the general doughiness. “Boys who like superheroes sometimes look like superheroes,” one of them deadpanned from the stage at a presentation of the series. Then they looked into the crowd for an example.

And looked. And looked.

Plans for a Messy Fight Spur Concern of Harm, to the Battlefield

Jose Jordan/Agence France-Presse â€" Getty Images The tomato fight coming to Brooklyn on Saturday is based on the one shown here: La Tomatina, held every year in a small town in Spain.

On Friday, 40,000 pounds of tomatoes will be delivered to Floyd Bennett Field, the old municipal-airport-turned-park by Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn. There are no plans for a giant salad or a record-setting pasta sauce; these tomatoes will meet a more violent end, when up to 5,000 people are expected to pay $50 for the chance to hurl the fruit of the Solanum lycopersicum at one another.

Tomato Battle, a mess of a food fight that would make Bluto Blutarsky proud, makes its New York debut on Saturday at an outdoor space at Aviator Sports and Events Center at Floyd Bennett Field, after having played cities including Denver, San Diego and Portland, Ore. The concept was lifted from La Tomatina, a festival in the Spanish town of Buñol that attracts up to 50,000 people.

The biggest challenge for Tomato Battle, said Aaron Saari, chief operating officer of Massivo, the company that runs the events, is finding enough farmers and distributors with damaged and overripe tomatoes â€" Massivo uses only produce that “is going to be tossed otherwise.”

In New York, however, objections have come because Floyd Bennett Field, whose 1,400 acres include gardens, a nature trail and campgrounds (as well as the hulks of disused airplane hangars), is part of Gateway National Recreation Area.

Complaints arose on a Google group devoted to Jamaica Bay that the food would attract flies or damage the environment. Mr. Saari said that Aviator and Massivo had reviewed any potential environmental impact, adding that the post-event cleanup would leave the area “cleaner than it was before,” with all tomato waste composted.

That doesn’t make swallowing the Tomato Battle easier for critics who believe such events don’t belong in a national park. One writer online called it “an outrage and an insult,” while another said the government had hosted numerous meetings about “historical and recreational uses” for the land but never discussed this sort of event.

“It just seems like a bad public image” for the National Park Service “to allow such frivolity and silliness in a national park,” Don Riepe, the Jamaica Bay guardian for the American Littoral Society, wrote in an e-mail.

But Jaclyn Muns, the marketing manager at Aviator, a concessionaire that runs skating rinks, basketball courts and open-air events at Floyd Bennett, said to expect more silliness. This summer features a mud race and a race in which runners get doused with multicolor cornstarch. There will be perhaps a dozen events total, double last year’s tally. She argues that the whole area is a “hidden gem,” and these events introduce people to the national park.

Not all nature lovers oppose Tomato Battle. Adriann Musson, president of the Floyd Bennett Gardens Association, whose community garden at Floyd Bennett Field is the city’s largest, said she was happy to “let them have a good time and get their aggression out.”

None of the garden’s tomatoes will be tossed on Saturday, though, and not just because they aren’t ripe yet. “We donate our extras to City Harvest,” Ms. Musson said. “We give them 500 pounds of vegetables a year, as opposed to throwing them at each other.”

Comic-Con: It Would Be Music to His Ears, if He Could Hear It

SAN DIEGOâ€"“It’s sometimes difficult to hear the music.”

So said John Debney, the composer who did music for “Iron Man 2,” among other films, and was speaking on a panel at the Comic-Con fan convention here about the not entirely subtle art of creating music for superheroes.

Mr. Debney joined a group of composers and executives, along with one director, Jeff Wadlow, whose credits include “Kick Ass 2.” The directors Shane Black and James Mangold had been advertised. But, ultimately, they didn’t show, leaving the discussion mostly to those second-class citizens of the superhero world, the music crowd.

The fantasy world isn’t exactly tone-deaf. But music simply isn’t the first priority here, or in the big fantasy and science-fiction films that appear at Comic-Con. Music makers who participated in the Thursday-morning panel discussion noted that the noisy sound effects and music are often at war in superhero movies. “Sometimes, I think the sound can get a little too assaultive,” Mr. Debney said.

Marco Beltrami, who introduced a clip from “The Wolverine,” for which he wrote music, was surprised to find, as the clip screened, that the scenes were scored with music he had written for some completely different segments. Joking, sort of, Mr. Beltrami mused that he’d better go see the finished film. “It might not even by my music in it,” he said.

Comic-Con: It Would Be Music to His Ears, if He Could Hear It

SAN DIEGOâ€"“It’s sometimes difficult to hear the music.”

So said John Debney, the composer who did music for “Iron Man 2,” among other films, and was speaking on a panel at the Comic-Con fan convention here about the not entirely subtle art of creating music for superheroes.

Mr. Debney joined a group of composers and executives, along with one director, Jeff Wadlow, whose credits include “Kick Ass 2.” The directors Shane Black and James Mangold had been advertised. But, ultimately, they didn’t show, leaving the discussion mostly to those second-class citizens of the superhero world, the music crowd.

The fantasy world isn’t exactly tone-deaf. But music simply isn’t the first priority here, or in the big fantasy and science-fiction films that appear at Comic-Con. Music makers who participated in the Thursday-morning panel discussion noted that the noisy sound effects and music are often at war in superhero movies. “Sometimes, I think the sound can get a little too assaultive,” Mr. Debney said.

Marco Beltrami, who introduced a clip from “The Wolverine,” for which he wrote music, was surprised to find, as the clip screened, that the scenes were scored with music he had written for some completely different segments. Joking, sort of, Mr. Beltrami mused that he’d better go see the finished film. “It might not even by my music in it,” he said.

Emmy Nominees: Kerry Washington of ‘Scandal’

Danny Feld/ABC, via Associated Press Ms. Washington in a scene from “Scandal.”

Kerry Washington works in Washington both in fact and fiction.

As a member of President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, she helps to make recommendations about arts education in America and promote cultural diplomacy programs like Film Forward. As Olivia Pope, the protagonist of the soapy ABC thriller “Scandal,” she fixes the problems of the powerful and has the occasional affair with the president.

On Thursday she became the first African-American actress to be nominated for best actress in a drama since 1995, when Cicely Tyson was nominated (and lost) for “Sweet Justice.” Ms. Washington called from Los Angeles to discuss “Scandal” and the nomination. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q.

How would you define “Scandal?” Is it a political thriller? A soap? All of the above?

A.

All of the above. There’s something very heightened about it. The work of my fellow actors is so real and honest â€" I don’t know if I’d say a soap opera but I would say there is something operatic about it.

Q.

Between your show and things like “House of Cards” and “Veep,” we seem to be having a D.C. moment on television.

A.

What’s great about it is the shows are so different, tonally. Some of us were at the White House Correspondents dinner and it was so much fun, because some of the folks from “Veep” and “House of Cards” were there. It was fun to be able to talk to people inside the Beltway about how excited they are about these shows.

Q.

You work in Washington as part of the President’s Committee for the Arts. What did you know about political fixers before you took this role?

A.

Not much, which I think is a good sign because it means I haven’t been involved in any scandals. [Laughs]. There were ideas I had about the wardrobe. I knew that I wanted her to stand apart from the D.C. aesthetic. The ideas about power and stuff â€" there’s enough of that in Hollywood.

Q.

What surprised you about that world?

A.

One of the things I learned when I was researching Judy Smith, who the character is based on, is crisis management is such a high-stakes world. People walk into her office every single day on the worst day of their lives, and say, “Fix it.” You and I may have one of those worst days. But she is constantly managing people’s worst days of their lives. So there is a kind of heightened energy to this kind of work. At the end of last season I actually said to my doctor, “I have no adrenaline left in my system because I’ve been operating with these everything-is-life-or-death stakes for nine months. I need a nap and some adrenal gland support.”

Q.

You are the first black leading actress nominee since 1995, did you know that?

A.

I have heard that this morning. [Laughs].

Q.

Is it a source of particular pride for you?

A.

Well I’m honored to share this history with some of the actresses I admire most, people like Debbie Allen, Alfre Woodard, Cicely Tyson and Regina Taylor. To be in that community of actresses is tremendous to me, personally. I’m really excited that a show that is as inclusive and diverse as our show, with regard to not just race, but ethnicity and sexual orientation and age and gender, is able to succeed in the United States and now abroad as well. I’m proud to be part of a show like that.

Emmy Nominees: Kerry Washington of ‘Scandal’

Danny Feld/ABC, via Associated Press Ms. Washington in a scene from “Scandal.”

Kerry Washington works in Washington both in fact and fiction.

As a member of President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, she helps to make recommendations about arts education in America and promote cultural diplomacy programs like Film Forward. As Olivia Pope, the protagonist of the soapy ABC thriller “Scandal,” she fixes the problems of the powerful and has the occasional affair with the president.

On Thursday she became the first African-American actress to be nominated for best actress in a drama since 1995, when Cicely Tyson was nominated (and lost) for “Sweet Justice.” Ms. Washington called from Los Angeles to discuss “Scandal” and the nomination. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q.

How would you define “Scandal?” Is it a political thriller? A soap? All of the above?

A.

All of the above. There’s something very heightened about it. The work of my fellow actors is so real and honest â€" I don’t know if I’d say a soap opera but I would say there is something operatic about it.

Q.

Between your show and things like “House of Cards” and “Veep,” we seem to be having a D.C. moment on television.

A.

What’s great about it is the shows are so different, tonally. Some of us were at the White House Correspondents dinner and it was so much fun, because some of the folks from “Veep” and “House of Cards” were there. It was fun to be able to talk to people inside the Beltway about how excited they are about these shows.

Q.

You work in Washington as part of the President’s Committee for the Arts. What did you know about political fixers before you took this role?

A.

Not much, which I think is a good sign because it means I haven’t been involved in any scandals. [Laughs]. There were ideas I had about the wardrobe. I knew that I wanted her to stand apart from the D.C. aesthetic. The ideas about power and stuff â€" there’s enough of that in Hollywood.

Q.

What surprised you about that world?

A.

One of the things I learned when I was researching Judy Smith, who the character is based on, is crisis management is such a high-stakes world. People walk into her office every single day on the worst day of their lives, and say, “Fix it.” You and I may have one of those worst days. But she is constantly managing people’s worst days of their lives. So there is a kind of heightened energy to this kind of work. At the end of last season I actually said to my doctor, “I have no adrenaline left in my system because I’ve been operating with these everything-is-life-or-death stakes for nine months. I need a nap and some adrenal gland support.”

Q.

You are the first black leading actress nominee since 1995, did you know that?

A.

I have heard that this morning. [Laughs].

Q.

Is it a source of particular pride for you?

A.

Well I’m honored to share this history with some of the actresses I admire most, people like Debbie Allen, Alfre Woodard, Cicely Tyson and Regina Taylor. To be in that community of actresses is tremendous to me, personally. I’m really excited that a show that is as inclusive and diverse as our show, with regard to not just race, but ethnicity and sexual orientation and age and gender, is able to succeed in the United States and now abroad as well. I’m proud to be part of a show like that.

Emmy Nominations: Vince Gilligan of ‘Breaking Bad’

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Vince Gilligan.

As “Breaking Bad” approaches its final episodes, this AMC series is going out with a bang at the Emmy Awards: on Thursday morning it was nominated for 13 Emmys, including dramatic series, lead dramatic actor (for three-time winner Bryan Cranston), supporting dramatic actress (Anna Gunn), and supporting dramatic actors (Aaron Paul, a two-time winner, and Jonathan Banks).

Vince Gilligan, the creator and show runner of “Breaking Bad” and the man who made the decision to bring it all to an end, learned of his show’s Emmy nominations just before flying to Comic-Con International in San Diego. In these excerpts from a conversation with him, Mr. Gilligan speaks about the good fortune of “Breaking Bad” and seeing its finish line just up ahead.

Q.

Did you deliberately plan your travel schedule so that you’d be flying today, when Emmy nominations came out?

A.

Actually, we flew down from Los Angeles to San Diego this morning, a couple hours after the announcement was made. It was a very enjoyable flight down here, knowing all this good news. Typically, these last couple of years, I get very nervous about these announcements, and I’ve taken to turning our phones off in the house. You lie there in bed, at 4 in the morning, thinking, Is the phone going to ring or not this year? The little trick I’ve played for myself is if the phones are turned off, I know they won’t ring and I can get more sleep. But this year I forgot to do that. Sure enough I woke up at 6 thinking, Gee, is the phone going to ring or not?

Q.

When you see all the positive response that’s greeted the show today, does it make you second-guess the idea of ending it?

A.

No. I’m happy to say it does not. I’m very sad the show is over, for personal reasons. Just yesterday, my assistant did the last bit of office cleaning. All the desks and phones were taken out in Burbank, and the office keys were turned over to the real-estate company. That was a very sad thing. For that I’m very regretful. But creatively, I think we’re going out on a high note. I’m very proud of these final eight episodes and have not had one second of self-doubt that we’re ending at the right moment.

Q.

Your AMC sibling, “Mad Men,” also did well today but it was shut out of certain key creative categories like writing and directing. Do you feel a shift in momentum, that “Breaking Bad” has become the dominant series of the two?

A.

I wouldn’t use the word dominant. I feel lucky that we’re even on the air, and I probably sound aw-shucks when I say that. I don’t take it for granted that we’ll get any nominations. “Mad Men,” rightly so, won four Emmys in a row [for dramatic series], and is an excellent show, and one for the record books. “Mad Men” is just as great as it’s always been, and will remain a quality show until it ends. I can only speak for “Breaking Bad,” but I know with TV shows, they have definite life spans and I feel like we’re ending at the right time.

Q.

Netflix, which also did well today, has helped establish a model where people can watch new seasons of a show all at once. Had that been available to “Breaking Bad,” would it have worked for the show?

A.

It’s such a new paradigm, the Netflix model â€" it’s an interesting thought experiment, but I don’t know how “Breaking Bad” would have fared. The one thing I can tell you with certainty is, if it wasn’t for Netflix and iTunes and all these streaming video-on-demand services, I don’t think you’d be talking to me right now. I don’t think “Breaking Bad” would have existed past, probably, Season 2. It’s a very hard show to get into, midstream, unless you have a relatively easy capability of going back and catching up with old episodes. Netflix has been very good to us and I’m grateful they exist, for keeping us on the air.

Q.

You’ve said that you’ve devised a happy ending for “Breaking Bad,” yet somehow I’m not imagining Walt and Jesse and Skyler holding hands and walking into the sunset.

A.

Oh no! That’s the ending! You just said it! [laughs] I hope that for the vast majority of viewers it will be a satisfying ending. That was really what drove us, the writers and myself. And sometimes satisfaction and happiness are words that become somewhat interchangeable. I think actually there is a fair bit of distinction between them. I think what we’ve accomplished is a satisfying ending. There’s probably some happiness and some sadness going hand-in-hand. Suffice it to say, it’s not going to be all peaches and cream.

Comic-Con: The Queen of the Convention

SAN DIEGO - The heat at Comic-Con International, the annual convention for fans of fantasy, science-fiction, horror, animation, video games and related toys, comes from cavernous Hall H, a 6,500-seat space where studios try to work attendees into a frenzy by showing exclusive snippets of coming movies and TV shows.

But the convention floor is where the queen of Comic-Con can be found.

Lisa Gregorian, chief marketing officer of Warner Brothers Television Group, runs what is unquestionably Comic-Con’s most full-tilt studio charge. Over the coming days, this tour de force will oversee screenings, panels and autograph signings for 17 Warner-produced shows, including “The Vampire Diaries,” “Revolution” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Her show advertising is everywhere in downtown San Diego - the drama “Person of Interest,” for instance, appears on 40,000 hotel room key cards.

She also created Lawn Con, a picnic area outside the convention center for families that promotes Warner-produced cartoons (“Teen Titans Go!”). And then there is the official 2,400-square-foot Time Warner booth, which this year displays props and costumes from TV programs and films like Tom Cruise’s coming “Edge of Tomorrow,” allows attendees to play Warner video games, and holds DC Comics autograph signings and HBO meet-and-greets.

“We’re like the department store that anchors the mall,” she said Wednesday evening, the convention’s preview night, as she surveyed her kingdom from the booth’s second-story platform.

Why such an aggressive push, especially as some other studios pull back? Disney, for instance, has a presence here, but is focused more on the D23 Expo, a fan convention of its own planned for Aug. 9 to 11 in Anaheim.

“Marketing and promotion for the fall TV season is starting earlier and earlier, and this convention comes at the perfect time for us,” Ms. Gregorian said. “All the traditional media now comes, and we get huge amplification on social networks.”

Hollywood types who turn up their noses, Ms. Gregorian said, glancing over at a pack of attendees wearing horned helmets, “simply don’t get it.”

“Our business is about red carpets and stanchions a lot of the time,” she added, “but we strongly believe â€" in the age of social media - that we need to also go directly to the fans and make them feel really special.”

Comic-Con: The Queen of the Convention

SAN DIEGO - The heat at Comic-Con International, the annual convention for fans of fantasy, science-fiction, horror, animation, video games and related toys, comes from cavernous Hall H, a 6,500-seat space where studios try to work attendees into a frenzy by showing exclusive snippets of coming movies and TV shows.

But the convention floor is where the queen of Comic-Con can be found.

Lisa Gregorian, chief marketing officer of Warner Brothers Television Group, runs what is unquestionably Comic-Con’s most full-tilt studio charge. Over the coming days, this tour de force will oversee screenings, panels and autograph signings for 17 Warner-produced shows, including “The Vampire Diaries,” “Revolution” and “The Big Bang Theory.” Her show advertising is everywhere in downtown San Diego - the drama “Person of Interest,” for instance, appears on 40,000 hotel room key cards.

She also created Lawn Con, a picnic area outside the convention center for families that promotes Warner-produced cartoons (“Teen Titans Go!”). And then there is the official 2,400-square-foot Time Warner booth, which this year displays props and costumes from TV programs and films like Tom Cruise’s coming “Edge of Tomorrow,” allows attendees to play Warner video games, and holds DC Comics autograph signings and HBO meet-and-greets.

“We’re like the department store that anchors the mall,” she said Wednesday evening, the convention’s preview night, as she surveyed her kingdom from the booth’s second-story platform.

Why such an aggressive push, especially as some other studios pull back? Disney, for instance, has a presence here, but is focused more on the D23 Expo, a fan convention of its own planned for Aug. 9 to 11 in Anaheim.

“Marketing and promotion for the fall TV season is starting earlier and earlier, and this convention comes at the perfect time for us,” Ms. Gregorian said. “All the traditional media now comes, and we get huge amplification on social networks.”

Hollywood types who turn up their noses, Ms. Gregorian said, glancing over at a pack of attendees wearing horned helmets, “simply don’t get it.”

“Our business is about red carpets and stanchions a lot of the time,” she added, “but we strongly believe â€" in the age of social media - that we need to also go directly to the fans and make them feel really special.”

Emmy Nominees: Connie Britton of ‘Nashville’

Jon Lemay/ABC Connie Britton in “Nashville.”

The Emmys are nothing if not consistent, with the same names appearing â€" occasionally inexplicably â€" for years on end.

But Connie Britton has put an impressive twist on the formula: The actress has been nominated three years in a row, for three different series. On Thursday she added a nod for ABC’s “Nashville” to previous ones for “Friday Night Lights” and “American Horror Story.”

Ms. Britton called from Nashville, where she just began shooting the new season of the series, to discuss the nomination and vocal confidence. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q.

Congratulations on this increasingly impressive run you’re on.

A.

Thank you. It is always a real surprise and a real thrill.

Q.

Do people still recognize you more for “Friday Night Lights”? Or has “Nashville” replaced that?

A.

It’s probably pretty even. Don’t forget “American Horror Story,” because there are some really, really avid watchers of that one. I always like the people who come up and say, “I loved ‘American Horror Story!’” Because I always go, “You are crazy. That show is scary.”

Q.

I’d guess those shows would appeal to very different kinds of people.

A.

You’d be shocked. There’s a lot of overlap.

Q.

“Nashville” features these interesting characters and impressive performances, but then the first season concluded with your character in a big car wreck. Were you surprised it ended on such a soapy note?

A.

We had a lot of conversations about that. If I’m honest, it’s probably little bit soapier than I would have preferred. There is an unfortunate history of a lot of accidents â€" plane crashes, car crashes â€" in the music world. So there was an ironic element of truth about it. But that said, yeah it was a little soapier than I would have preferred [laughs].

Q.

Which was more terrifying: singing on “Nashville” or enduring some of the lurid twists of “American Horror Story”?

A.

Definitely singing on “Nashville.” I do have to say that’s one thing I’m really struck by this morning, having had this little run with the Academy. Because doing “Nashville,” personally, was a big risk. It was a big challenge for me and for the Academy to acknowledge actors taking risks is great, and I’m really appreciative of that.

Q.

Where are you now on the spectrum from terror to confidence, as far as your singing is concerned?

A.

I’ve definitely moved further away from the terror end, but it still feels very much like something I’m learning. By the end of last season I thought, you know I really am starting to feel more confident about what I’m doing. But then this first song I’m singing in Season 2? It’s a whopper! I actually started working on it back when I was in L.A. with my vocal coach and I was like, “Wow, this is gonna whip my [behind] a little bit.”

Symphony Space Announces New Music Season

Symphony Space’s new music season starting this fall will include concerts focused on the music of two of Poland’s greatest composers, one living and one dead.

Krzysztof Penderecki, 79, one of Poland’s most celebrated living composers, will lecture on his life and work on Oct. 25 during an intimate concert of his pieces in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia space. Among the highlights will be his “Quartet No. 3″ performed by the Penderecki String Quartet from Canada, and “Sextette,” rendered by Ensemble Pi.

Then on Dec. 13, Symphony Space promoters plan a tribute to the compositions of Witold Lutoslawski, the Polish composer and conductor who died in 1994, featuring the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, which is a Brooklyn group, and the composer Steven Stucky.

One other classical highlight of the 2013-2014 season is a performance on Oct. 18 of Benjamin Britten’s songs by the guitarist David Leisner and the tenor Rufus Müller.

On the pop side, American folk musicians have been given a prominent role. Dar Williams, the Weschester-born singer-songwriter who recently released “In the Time of Gods,” will return to the Peter Jay Sharp Theater on Oct. 19. In January, the folksingers Tom Paxton, Christine Lavin, Pete Seeger and Tom Chapin will appear at a concert to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Woody’s Children radio show on WFUV.

In February and March, the Music of Now Marathon and Composers Now Series, now in its fifth year, will offer an eclectic lineup of events, including two composers who often blur the line between contemporary art music and various popular forms like jazz and the pop song. On Feb. 21, Errollyn Wallen, the British songwriter and composer, will join the violinist Anton Miller and the violist Rita Porfiris for the New York premiere of her work “Five Postcards,” as well as the Hart Quartet doing her piece “Hotel Terminus,” inspired by a David Grand novel. And on Feb. 27, Jovino Santos Neto, the jazz keyboardist and flutist, will perform with his trio.

A full schedule can be found on Symphony Space’s Web site.

Emmy Nominees: Julian Fellowes of ‘Downton Abbey’

Victoria Brooks/Carnival Films Julian Fellowes on the set of “Downton Abbey.”

Another year, another bushel of Emmy nominations for the PBS period drama “Downton Abbey.” The series received 12 writing, acting and technical nominations, including one for best drama, making a total of 39 nods for its three seasons, with 9 wins.

“I’m pleased that it went across so many departments,” said Julian Fellowes, the creator, writer and executive producer. “It reminds people that these things are teamwork.”

Mr. Fellowes called from London to discuss the show’s success, the new season and something called “Downton Arby’s.” These are excerpts from the conversation

Q.

Does “Downton Abbey” acclaim ever start to feel routine?

A.

With something like a TV series, when you go on getting them as the years go on, it becomes more and more flattering. Because by then you have lost the charm and bloom of novelty, and it does seem that you sort of made your way to the nation’s consciousness. And that’s a very nice feeling.

Q.

Do you feel like you’ve been forgiven for the way you abruptly killed off Matthew Crawley, Dan Stevens’s character, at the end of last season?

A.

Once people had realized it was Dan’s choice and not us, then we were forgiven. Dan felt three years were long enough for him and he wanted to get on with his film career and all the rest of it. We wish him nothing but good things.

Q.

Any chance he would come back? You don’t have any supernatural subplots, planned do you?

A.

Well we have the disadvantage of there not being too many showers. So I don’t think we can just walk ’round the corner and find him in the shower, and that the last series has been a dream. Maybe you could just find him in the bath.

Q.

You write every episode. How much gas do you have left in the tank?

A.

I don’t know. A day is a long time in show business. You just see how it’s going now. At the moment, now, we have a terrific and loyal following. The trick is not to question it.

Q.

You’re almost done shooting the next season. What can you tell me about it?

A.

Well the advantage of Dan dying at the end of last season as opposed to the beginning of the new one is we are able to have a six-month gap. So we don’t have to do funerals and memorials and all that stuff. That has all happened â€" we rejoin the family six months after his death. The sort of subtitle of the series is the rebuilding of Mary, really.

Q.

You’ve talked about Diddy’s spoof of the showâ€"

A.

I thought it was fabulous. I don’t know how they did it, the way they put him into the scenes.

Q.

Do you have any other favorite “Downton” parodies?

A.

I love the “Saturday Night Live” one as well. And one of my favorites was “Downton Arby’s.” Did you see that one?

Q.

I missed that one.

A.

I like all of them. They all make me laugh. And it’s very flattering that people should bother to imitate you.

Pereira to Take Over La Scala in 2014

Alexander Pereira’s tenure as the general manager of the Teatro alla Scala, the renowned opera house in Milan, will begin a year earlier than he and the company had originally planned.

When theater announced Mr. Pereira’s appointment, in June, the plan was that he would take over in October 2015, when Stéphane Lissner, who has held the post since 2005, takes over the Paris Opera. Mr. Pereira, in any case, was busy: he was the artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, with a contract that ran until 2016. Mr. Pereira had planned for a year in which his two jobs overlapped, but the Salzburgers felt differently, and decided to end his contract in Sept. 2014, instead.

The board at La Scala, seeing an opportunity to shorten the waiting time between administrations, voted on Wednesday to reconfigure its schedule. Now, the company said in a statement, Mr. Lissner will hand the reins to Mr. Pereira on Oct. 1, 2014.

One of Mr. Pereira’s early tasks will be to identify a successor to Daniel Barenboim as the company’s artistic director. Mr. Barenboim’s contract ends in 2016, and Mr. Pereira is known to favor installing an Italian conductor in the post.

Emmy Nominees: Louis C.K. of ‘Louie’

K.C. Bailey/FX Louis C.K. with Jeremy Shinder in an episode of “Louie.”

After three seasons on FX, “Louie,” about the lovably curmudgeonly not-so-alter ego of the comedian Louis C.K., is more popular than ever in the eyes of the Emmy Awards: on Thursday morning “Louie” picked up six Emmy nominations, including lead comedy actor (for Louis C.K.), guest comedy actress (for Melissa Leo), comedy direction and comedy writing, and comedy series â€" the first time a basic-cable TV series has been recognized in that category. In these excerpts from the conversation, Louis C.K. talks about his unexpected success and when he expects that it will all inevitably end.

Q.

“Louie” is not only a show in its third year, so it’s not the brand-new thing anymore, but it’s always marched to its own beat. Does it surprise you that it was embraced to the extent that it was this morning?

A.

Yeah, it’s kind of crazy. It’s nuts. This is the kind of show that you hope gets to stay on the air. And then there are shows that are on the air for years and years, that never get a single nomination. Somebody told me how many we were eligible for, and also, that Pamela got nominated and Melissa and Susan Morse, and I just laughed and said, “That’s just stupid. Are you kidding me?”

Q.

You’re already pretty ambitious in where the stories on “Louie” have gone. Does this encourage you to try things that are even more different, to push things even further?

A.

It’s more just that it doesn’t do the opposite. I’m not worried about it. I feel like it’s O.K. to keep doing what I’m doing. When I first went on the air, it was like, let’s try things that aren’t exactly what folks are expecting me to do, and see if we can get the license to do stuff like that. Maybe reality will set in and I won’t be able to keep doing it. But you what you want, and see what audience you gather. We gathered enough of one â€" we got some super-delegates or whatever they are â€" so we get to keep going.

Q.

If the Netflix model of programming had existed when “Louie” started, where you could release an entire season to viewers at once, could you see that working for your series?

A.

I never think about that because of how fast all this stuff moves. You can’t really make a very specific goal because by the time you do your work, to get to a place where you’ve earned some credibility, everything has changed completely. The first award I ever got was a CableACE Award on “The Chris Rock Show,” and it was something people made fun of. Cable was a punch line. Cable’s not even the new thing anymore, it’s old as hell. It’s like when you buy a house and sell it, and then you stupidly look back at what it’s worth now. “If I had held on to it for 10 more years!” You buy houses when you need to live there. If that Netflix stuff is around the next time I’m looking for a job â€" everything you get is going to spit you out the other end at some point. No matter what, no matter how big your success is, in this business, you will always come back to looking for work. So someday, I’ll call John Landgraf [the FX president] and say, “Hey, man, I’ve got an idea.” And he’l be like, “We’re not really doing that anymore.” And I’ll feel kind of sad. The new thing will be, like, putting a show on people’s contact lenses.

Q.

Woody Allen told us recently that he’d like to make a movie that might star the two of you. Has he expressed this same idea to you?

A.

I had this three-day part [on "Blue Jasmine"] and I figured I’m a tourist on this movie. All I want is a little Woody moment to take home with me. It was so fun, and we had lunch, and I thought having lunch with him was my rewarding moment. And then after lunch, we shot one more scene and I got a big laugh on the set, and I thought, that’s my Woody moment. He had said, “I want to talk to you for a minute,” and I thought, what’s Woody going to ask me for? If he wanted to put me in another movie, he would just call my people. It wouldn’t go down like that. What’s the biggest thing I could hope for? My expectations could only go down. I thought, O.K., he has a nephew who wants to be an intern on my show. Or he wants to ask me about Web sites because he feels like he should get into the Internet and it’s a little mysterious for him. Then he pulled me aside and he said, “Listen, I wanted to ask you if you’d be interested in something. What if we were in a movie together, you and me?” I sid, “Of course I’d love to do that.” And he said, “Could you do it next summer?” which is now, and I said, “Sure, no problem.” I was restraining myself.

Q.

So you feel that this door is still open to you?

A.

He said I’ll go work on it, and that’s the last I talked to him. I thought to myself, never tell anybody that this happened. The last thing I need for him is to read in the trades that I’m talking to everybody about it. I’ve told more people than I thought I should, but I’ve sworn them to secrecy. So when I saw something on Google about “Louie Woody Allen buddy-picture possibility,” I thought, Who told? And then I read that it was him, I was like, Thank God I don’t have to keep it a secret anymore. Who knows if it’ll ever happen? It’s his artistic whim that determines that, but of course I’d love to do it. It would be really cool and fun, but it all starts in his head.

Emmy Nominees: Elisabeth Moss of ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Top of the Lake’

The past television season found Elisabeth Moss leaning in on opposite corners of the earth, enduring plenty of slings, arrows and petty condescensions in two very different male-dominated milieus. She was nominated for both roles: Peggy, the striving mid-century Manhattanite on AMC’s “Mad Men” and Robin, the moody detective in “Top of the Lake,” the the New Zealand-set Sundance crime psychodrama, created by Jane Campion.

“In ‘Mad Men,’ the men have words to hurt you,” Ms. Moss said. “In ‘Top of the Lake,’ they’ve got guns.”

Ms. Moss discussed the twin nominations, her mysterious “Top of the Lake” accent and sheep. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q.

Congratulations on the twofer.

A.

The fact that it was two is a little bit overwhelming.

Q.

Was one more surprising than the other?

A.

No, both are pretty surprising [laughs]. You’re never like, “Yep that’s a lock. I’ve got that one in the bag.”

Q.

Are you going to the Emmy ceremony with the “Top of the Lake” gang or the “Mad Men” crew?

A.

I was just talking to my mom and we were laughing because it’s like, do I get four seats now because its two nominations? Do I go back and forth and sit with “Top of the Lake” for 15 minutes and then get up and sit with “Mad Men” for 15 minutes?

Q.

On the surface, the roles are very different. How did you get the “Top of the Lake” one?

A.

I auditioned for it. Jane had seen “Mad Men” and was familiar with my work, but didn’t think I was necessarily right for this role. Because it was so different from Peggy and so different from anything I’ve done.

Q.

Yet there are parallels in that they’re both women in male-dominated worlds â€" the 1960s New York advertising offices and rural New Zealand police stations.

A.

I was always in rooms full of men trying to stand up for myself [laughs]. It’s the story of almost every single woman today and then â€" if you’re a strong, powerful, smart woman, you tend to end up at some point in a room full of men trying to prove that your ideas are good. I felt like Robin was Peggy 40 years later. She’s what Peggy would be if she was an Australian detective [laughs]. Another parallel is that they’re women who are strong, but vulnerable. Who are smart and yet make bad choices.

Q.

Were you intimidated about working with Jane Campion?

A.

Absolutely. The first time I got on the phone with her I was so terrified, just to talk to her, because she’s legendary and she has a reputation for being a very opinionated filmmaker. But she was very, very nice to me on the phone. Obviously I still have respect for her but now it’s different. Now she’s just Jane; she’s my friend. I can’t believe when a Jane Campion text message pops up on my phone. I’m still a little bit like, “Oh my God, Jane Campion is texting me!”

Q.

What was the key to nailing the New Zealand accent?

A.

Actually it is Australian. I never fault anyone for calling it New Zealand, but it’s actually this weird hybrid mix of Australian, New Zealand and British. We wanted it to be something that was hard to place but was of that world. We didn’t want it to be like, “Oh that’s what Hugh Jackman sounds like.”

Q.

You filmed “Top of the Lake” before the “Mad Men” season. Did the accent ever bleed into “Mad Men” production?

A.

Apparently not enough to ruin it, so that’s good. With my first read-through for Season 6, I found myself translating it in my head. I was so used to looking at lines and translating them into the accent. So I would translate them into the accent and then translate them back into American [laughs].

Q.

You filmed in New Zealand for five months. What were some of the hardest cultural differences to get used to?

A.

It’s a different attitude there. It’s peaceful and relaxed. The people are very kind. I’m a New Yorker. I adore New York more than anything but it’s fast, it’s tough. You take too long at the deli and they will practically throw you in jail. Going from that to this little town on the other side of the world, everything is different. And there’s a lot of sheep. Many more sheep in New Zealand than in Manhattan.

The Ad Campaign: Quinn Pitches Herself as Champion for Middle Class

First aired: July 18, 2013

Produced by: SKDKnickerbocker and Mark Guma Communications

for: Christine Quinn

Christine C. Quinn, a leading contender for mayor, on Thursday became the first Democrat to air a television advertisement. Titled “Middle Class,” the 30-second spot is running on broadcast and cable channels across New York City.

Fact-Check

0:06

“Expanding Pre-K, saving the jobs of 4,000 teachers.”

Ms. Quinn, who is the City Council speaker, can claim some credit for expanding prekindergarten, whose enrollment grew from 40,000 in 2002 to more than 58,000 in 2012, but not all of it: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was heavily involved. There is still a citywide shortage of pre-K seats, and Ms. Quinn’s Democratic opponents, including Bill de Blasio, argue that too many of the classroom spots are part time, rather than for a full day.

0:10

“Balancing eight budgets…”

New York City law requires balanced budgets, so that accomplishment, while accurate, is hardly heroic. Her claims of playing a role in thwarting teacher layoffs and firehouse closing are accurate but require a caveat: in negotiations, Mr. Bloomberg routinely threatens such cuts as an initial bargaining position in the annual ritual of blustery budget give-and-take. Ms. Quinn did allow the Council to approve a so-called living wage bill, a measure long sought by progressives that requires higher pay for certain workers in private developments subsidized by the city. But the ad’s spare language glosses over the contentious question of the law’s scope. Ms. Quinn demanded the inclusion of business-friendly exemptions that limit the law’s initial projected impact to several hundred workers a year, far fewer than many advocates had wanted.

0:17

“… Creating thousands of new tech and manufacturing jobs …”

The claim of “creating thousands of new tech and manufacturing jobs” is a semantic stretch. It is largely based on the Council’s role in financing the expansion of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, now a small-business incubator. Job growth from that project has surged in recent years. But the navy yard was churning out jobs well before Ms. Quinn was speaker, and its expansion has been financed by an array of public and private sources, including the state and federal government. “Helped create” thousands of jobs would be far more accurate.

Scorecard

The advertisement will test the potency of Ms. Quinn’s central message: love her or hate her, she gets stuff done. But â€" surprise! â€" it oversimplifies the messy work of government.

@import url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/css/newsgraphics/2013/0712-nyc-ad-campaign/promo.css);

More from The Ad Campaign

The Ad Campaign: Quinn Pitches Herself as Champion for Middle Class

First aired: July 18, 2013

Produced by: SKDKnickerbocker and Mark Guma Communications

for: Christine Quinn

Christine C. Quinn, a leading contender for mayor, on Thursday became the first Democrat to air a television advertisement. Titled “Middle Class,” the 30-second spot is running on broadcast and cable channels across New York City.

Fact-Check

0:06

“Expanding Pre-K, saving the jobs of 4,000 teachers.”

Ms. Quinn, who is the City Council speaker, can claim some credit for expanding prekindergarten, whose enrollment grew from 40,000 in 2002 to more than 58,000 in 2012, but not all of it: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was heavily involved. There is still a citywide shortage of pre-K seats, and Ms. Quinn’s Democratic opponents, including Bill de Blasio, argue that too many of the classroom spots are part time, rather than for a full day.

0:10

“Balancing eight budgets…”

New York City law requires balanced budgets, so that accomplishment, while accurate, is hardly heroic. Her claims of playing a role in thwarting teacher layoffs and firehouse closing are accurate but require a caveat: in negotiations, Mr. Bloomberg routinely threatens such cuts as an initial bargaining position in the annual ritual of blustery budget give-and-take. Ms. Quinn did allow the Council to approve a so-called living wage bill, a measure long sought by progressives that requires higher pay for certain workers in private developments subsidized by the city. But the ad’s spare language glosses over the contentious question of the law’s scope. Ms. Quinn demanded the inclusion of business-friendly exemptions that limit the law’s initial projected impact to several hundred workers a year, far fewer than many advocates had wanted.

0:17

“… Creating thousands of new tech and manufacturing jobs …”

The claim of “creating thousands of new tech and manufacturing jobs” is a semantic stretch. It is largely based on the Council’s role in financing the expansion of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, now a small-business incubator. Job growth from that project has surged in recent years. But the navy yard was churning out jobs well before Ms. Quinn was speaker, and its expansion has been financed by an array of public and private sources, including the state and federal government. “Helped create” thousands of jobs would be far more accurate.

Scorecard

The advertisement will test the potency of Ms. Quinn’s central message: love her or hate her, she gets stuff done. But â€" surprise! â€" it oversimplifies the messy work of government.

@import url(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/css/newsgraphics/2013/0712-nyc-ad-campaign/promo.css);

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Comic-Con: A Forced Smile for the Fans

SAN DIEGO - Many film actors, directors, executives and producers look forward to Comic-Con the way people look forward to stabbing themselves in the eye with the rusty tooth of a can opener. They increasingly spend as little time at the pop culture convention here as possible, flying in and out on corporate jets or helicopters.

It’s easy to see why they privately loathe it - these are fussy people used to Cannes - and why they come anyway.

Comic-Con, which started Thursday and runs through Sunday, is on the other side of the tracks from Hollywood - quite literally. To access the San Diego Convention Center, which will burst with some 140,000 attendees over the coming days, you must cross an ugly, busy train line.

On Wednesday evening, the convention’s preview night, thousands of people milled restlessly as a Norfolk Southern freight train blocked the main pedestrian crossing. It was almost a real-life scene from “World War Z” only instead of zombies there were rabid fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror crawling on top of each other.

But moviedom puts on its best forced smile and heads to Comic-Con anyway because the fans here â€" armed with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+ accounts - can put a film on the map overnight.

Warner Brothers is expected to announce a “Man of Steel” sequel. Marvel will probably make “Avengers” news. Lionsgate/Summit is mounting a huge push for “Ender’s Game” and “Divergent.”

If it makes the movie and television stars en route to San Diego feel any better, there is a perk: For the second year, Warners set up a 4,000-square-foot V.I.P. tent for their use - no press, no fans - with a gifting lounge, sofas and a pool table. Hair and makeup artists stand at the ready to give last-minute touch-ups.

“It’s very, very mellow in there,” one studio executive said. “You wouldn’t even know you’re at Comic-Con.”

To Mark This Day on the Calendar, Use a Pen From Your Pocket Protector

Aladdin, via Associated Press The “Dork Diaries” series of books has sold over 10 million copies in less than four years.

Even before the celebration at the Great Kills branch of the New York Public Library on Staten Island on Monday, someone had thought up a word to describe it: Adorkable.

What was being celebrated, according to Paula Amore, the information assistant at the library, was National Dork Day.

It was not a legal holiday like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July - banks and post offices (not to mention public libraries like Ms. Amore's) were open as usual on Monday. And unlike, say, Christmas Day or New Year's Day - two holidays with consistent, solid, seemingly indisputable names - it may not be National Dork Day but “Be a Dork Day.”

Whatever, as Nikki Maxwell might say in “Dork Diaries,” the series for tweens that has sold more than 10 million copies in less than four years. Ms. Amore said dork day was about self-confidence and self-esteem, about celebrating one's shortcomings, about not being ashamed of one's imperfections. The message of dork day, she said, is: “It's cool to be yourself, no matter what anyone thinks.”

She said she had discovered National Dork Day online and had written to Simon & Schuster, which published the “Dork Diaries,” saying she was considering scheduling a dork day event. Simon & Schuster “sent a kit filled with giveaways for the readers and T-shirts for our staff to wear to celebrate being a dork,” she said, adding, “I consider myself one, too, because I'm 38 and I love Taylor Swift.”

As if the package from the publishing house was not enough, there was more available on the Internet. Zazzle.com, a Web site that sells mugs and T-shirts, had bumper stickers and magnets for “Be a Dork Day” ($4.45 for a bumper sticker, $4.40 for a magnet).

There is a market for such things because dorkiness “is cool now,” Ms. Amore said, thanks to television programs like the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” about four guys who are long on graduate degrees in science but short on social skills. “Kids, they can laugh now and not wait until they're 38,” she said.

So maybe Monday was a day for plastic pocket protectors, polyester shirts or shorts worn with dark socks and dress shoes. Then again, maybe not. Chase's Calendar of Events, a compendium of dates, celebrations and observances, does not list either National Dork Day or “Be a Dork Day.”

“We try to keep aware of what people are celebrating out there, but there's a lot,” said the editor, Holly McGuire. “Web portals smack something out there with no documentation of where it came from. We try to find the documentation.”

Michael Yarish/Warner Brothers Television The CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” features characters with big brains but poor social skills.

That may be difficult, at least for National Dork Day. Jonathan Pace, a spokesman for the New York Public Library, sent a link to a Web site with a section headed “How Did Dork Day Start?” The answer did nothing to solve the mystery: “There hasn't been any known or documented beginning of dork day.” (The Web site holidayinsights.com said more or less the same thing about Tapioca Pudding Day, also listed for July 15, but not by Chase's.)

Then there is “Be a Dork Day,” started by Thomas and Ruth Roy of Lebanon, Pa.

They are veterans in the holiday business, having invented dozens, including “Humbug Day,” “Panic Day,” “Blah Blah Blah Day” and “Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day.”

As for “Be a Dork Day,” the Roys' Web site explained, “This is the day to be a dork and be proud. Wear goofy clothing, don't brush your teeth, eat yucky food and fall off a swing set.” They also celebrate geeks with “Embrace Your Geekness Day,” two days before “Be a Dork Day.”

So what is Ms. McGuire's reaction to dork day? “We're neutral,” she said. “We just want to put things in the book that people are celebrating.”

A version of this article appeared in print on 07/16/2013, on page A16 of the NewYork edition with the headline: To Mark This Day on the Calendar, Use a Pen From Your Pocket Protector.

Union Square, 3:24 P.M.

Damon Winter/The New York Times

The Ad Campaign: Supporters Praise Catsimatidis in Ad

First aired: July 9, 2013

Produced by: The Victory Group

For: John A. Catsimatidis

The mayoral primary is still about two months away, but John A. Catsimatidis, the billionaire grocer who is running as a Republican, has already produced three television advertisements about his candidacy. All of them have been biographical in nature. The latest, a 30-second spot that began being broadcast last week, seeks to highlight his long ties to New York City, using testimonials in which a series of supporters praise him with varying levels of specificity.

Fact-Check

0:01

“He's been creating jobs…”

Most of the assertions in the spot are prosaic. Mr. Catsimatidis is indeed a real person, and his businesses have created jobs for New Yorkers.

0:07

“Catsimatidis will stop those fare hikes.”

As mayor, Mr. Catsimatidis would not have the unilateral power to stop fare increases. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is governed by a board that has 17 voting members, and only 4 of them are nominated at the recommendation of the mayor.

Scorecard

Polls have shown that many Republican voters still have not formed opinions about their party's candidates for mayor. Mr. Catsimatidis's advertisement continues his effort to introduce himself to voters as a committed, patriotic, caring New Yorker - not an aloof billionaire. The specifics about what he would do as mayor will have to wait.

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A version of this article appeared in print on 07/16/2013, on page A18 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Lining Up to Praise Catsimatidis .

New York Today: All-Star Evening

Peter Morgan/Associated Press Big Apple, the All-Star Game awaits you. And vice versa.

Updated, 12:23 p.m. | The All-Star Game will be played tonight at Citi Field, home of the Mets.

For baseball fans, this is a big deal. The Mets have not hosted the game since 1964. Their ace, Matt Harvey, will be the starting pitcher.

For the rest of New York, it means a parade of retired ballplayers and costumed mascots down 42nd Street that will set off a cascade of street closings.

Next door to Citi Field in Queens, auto body-shop owners will protest their proposed eviction to make way for redevelopment.

Harvey may be a baseball celebrity. But when he asked New Yorkers what they thought about one Matt Harvey, the results were amusing. (Almost no one recognized him.)

It's all captured in a video that Jimmy Fallon showed Monday night.

Here's what else you need to know to start this steamy Tuesday.

WEATHER

The weather forecast, sadly, has not changed. It will be scorchingly hot, with a forecast high of 95, a degree hotter than Monday's high of 94. No relief in sight until Saturday. City cooling centers are open, and some pools in Nassau County are staying open till 8 p.m.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Roads Alternate-side parking rules in effect.

- Mass Transit Click for the latest M.T.A. status.

COMING UP TODAY

- On the campaign trail, Anthony D. Weiner unveils a plan to save mom-and-pop pharmacies. John A. Catsimatidis will speak at The Common Good's candidate series. Scott M. Stringer, trailing Eliot Spitzer by 15 points in a new poll, is live on MSNBC at noon.

- Jews and Muslims will join together at Beth Elohim, a synagogue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, to mark the observance of both Ramadan, the Muslim fasting holiday, and the end of Tisha B'Av, a Jewish fast day.

- Van Holmes, who ran a Queens nonprofit group tied to former State Senator Shirley Huntley, will be arrested on charges that he stole $88,000 in government funds, The New York Post reports.

- Metropolitan Opera stars will sing arias and duets at Central Park SummerStage, off Fifth Avenue and 72nd Street, at 8 p.m. [Free]

-The New York Philharmonic plays Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx at 8 p.m. [Free]

- Find films, not cars, on the roof deck of Bronx Terminal Market's parking garage. At sunset, it's the first iteration of “Despicable Me.” [Free]

- Bars and restaurants along Stone Street in the Financial District are hosting a street party tonight to raise money for Self Help Africa, a nonprofit that works to improve the continent's agricultural economy.

- Brace yourself, it's hurricane season. Better yet, join volunteers packing disaster relief supplies this afternoon at the Food Bank for New York City, 355 Food Center Drive in the Bronx.

- For more events, see The New York Times's Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- A poll shows Anthony D. Weiner and Christine C. Quinn leading the pack among Democratic candidates for mayor. [New York Times]

- Two teenagers who stole a motorized wheelchair from a man with cerebral palsy and joy-rode it through Roslyn on Long Island had their day in court. [CBS2 New York]

- CUNY had planned to pay David Petraeus, the former C.I.A. director, $200,000 a year to be an adjunct professor. Now, after a backlash, he is going to earn $1. [New York Times]

- Thieves stole an entire ATM from a diner in Queens. It contained $9,000. [Daily News]

- An 89-year-old Staten Island woman's hurricane-damaged home had just been repaired. Then burglars broke in and set fire to it. [Staten Island Advance]

- Metta World Peace, the basketball player formerly known as Ron Artest, returns to the Knicks. [New York Times]

- After months of labor (by humans), Komodo dragons have a gorgeous new home at the Bronx Zoo. [New York Times]

AND FINALLY…

This week in New York rock history: in 1967, a very loud quartet from Long Island called Vanilla Fudge had the No. 70 hit with an oozing, plodding deconstruction of the Supremes' “You Keep Me Hanging On.”

Makes a nice soundtrack for a turgid summer day.

Michaelle Bond and Sarah Maslin Nir contributed reporting.

We're testing New York Today, which we put together just before dawn and update until noon.

What information would you like to see here when you wake up to help you plan your day? Tell us in the comments, send suggestions to anewman@nytimes.com or tweet them at @nytmetro using #NYToday. Thanks!

Shopping Advice at Loehmann\'s

Dear Diary:

I have been a Loehmann's shopper for over 40 years and have seen many changes. Designer labels used to be cut out, designer samples were commonplace, returns were not allowed, men shopping with their wives waited on a bench and there was only a communal dressing room. Part of the whole experience.

And if you were not alone, you didn't have to go to social media to get an opinion; you just asked the dressing room.

A week or two ago I was in the dressing room in Loehmann's on the Upper West Side and an older woman was trying on a designer top. It was pretty ugly and about three sizes too big. So I just offered, “It's too big for you.”

She turned, gave me the once-over and said, “Well, you wear your clothes rather tight.”

Are there any traditions left?

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.

July 16: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Joseph Burgess and Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.

Events by candidate

Albanese

Carrión

De Blasio

Liu

Quinn

Thompson

Weiner

Group event

Bill de Blasio
Democrat

8 a.m.
Greets morning commuters, at the Church Avenue subway station in Flatbush.

12 p.m.
Three days after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in Florida, holds a news conference on racial profiling by the police with City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda, Councilman Andy King, clergy and activists from across the city, outside City Hall.

1 p.m.
Holds a news conference criticizing the New York City Housing Authority for having an excessive backlog of needed repairs, and warns the agency against quick fixes on the most serious and health-threatening problems, at Alfred E. Smith Houses in Lower Manhattan.

2 p.m.
Talks with voters at St. Gabriel's Senior Center, with former Councilwoman Una Clarke, on Hawthorne Avenue in Brooklyn.

5 p.m.
Greets voters at Utica Avenue and Eastern Parkway, in Crown Heights.

7 p.m.
Participates in a town hall meeting on Justice for Trayvon, hosted by State Senator James Sanders Jr., at the New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Jamaica, Queens.

8:30 p.m.
A week after getting arrested for participating in a rally protesting the possible closing of Long Island College Hospital, Mr. de Blasio attends a rally to save Interfaith Hospital, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, at King Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn.

John C. Liu
Democrat

12 p.m.
Visits with seniors, at the Corsi Senior Center in East Harlem.

12:30 p.m.
Stops by a second senior center, the Leonard Covello Neighborhood Senior Center in East Harlem.

7 p.m.
Three days after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in Florida, attends a candlelight vigil for Trayvon Martin, at Mitchell Square Park in Upper Manhattan.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters, at the Inwood 207th Street subway station.

11 a.m.
Holds a news conference with representatives of groups calling themselves Organizations United for Trash Reduction and Garbage Equity, or OUTRAGE for short, who will be calling on opponents to the city's proposed East 91st Street waste transfer station to drop their lawsuit and propose an alternative site if they do not support the solid waste plan that the city formulated seven years ago. Ms. Quinn speaks at P.S. 132 in Williamsburg, a Brooklyn neighborhood that already houses city waste stations.

Some of Ms. Quinn's events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

12 p.m.
Visits with seniors at the Casabe Senior Center in East Harlem.

12:30 p.m.
Accepts the endorsement of Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, outside of Casabe Senior Center in East Harlem. Mr. Ferrer himself ran for mayor twice, losing in a 2001 primary runoff to Mark Green and then in the 2005 general by 19 points to Michael Bloomberg. Mr. Ferrer also endorsed Mr. Thompson's failed bid for Gracie Mansion in 2009.

Outlines new efforts to help Latino small businesses and tours local businesses with Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president, in East Harlem.

5 p.m.
Greets afternoon commuters, at the 72nd Street subway station on Broadway.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

11:30 a.m.
Continues his “Keys to the City” tour, proposing steps to stem the loss of mom-and-pop drug stores, at N.Y.C. Pilgrim Pharmacy on Westchester Avenue in the Bronx.

7:30 p.m.
Attends the New York Philharmonic concert, in Van Cortlandt Park.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

7:30 a.m.
Greets morning commuters at the 52nd Street subway station in Sunnyside, Queens.

11 a.m.
Joins a Sustainable Restaurant Corps news conference that will address a recent survey of restaurants and assess ways to increase recycling rates while reducing food waste, the use of plastic foam containers and utility costs, outside City Hall.

11:30 a.m.
Visits with seniors at the Williamsburg Senior Center, on Graham Avenue in Brooklyn.

1 p.m.
Continues his “Save Our Neighborhoods” tour, walking the length of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens to talk with residents and local business owners about their concerns surrounding possible developments in the area, including changes to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, starting at 51st Street.

Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Independent

10:30 a.m.
Meets with the editorial board of CBS2, at the CBS Broadcasting Center.

With a Virtual Tour, Preserving the History of East Harlem

Dith Pran/The New York Times
A virtual tour of East Harlem will include the historic La Marqueta market that once occupied several buildings under the Park Avenue railroad tracks.

Celia Cruz and Tito Puente, two legendary Latin musicians, may not have had superpowers, but an artist from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, plans to tap the popularity of comic book heroes to celebrate the significance of these and other figures in the cultural history of East Harlem.

Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, an artist specializing in comic-book-style graphics, is working with other comic book artists to depict, among other spots, Park Palace, a former Latin dance club in East Harlem that welcomed artists like Ms. Cruz and Mr. Puente when downtown clubs would not welcome Latinos.

“They were like the Superman and Wonder Woman of the Latin music world,” he said.

Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez's work will be part of an app that a nonprofit organization, the Caribbean Cultural Center in East Harlem, hopes will help preserve the history and culture of a neighborhood undergoing gentrification and that those participating in the project say history books often overlook.

The center will use art to depict significant people, places and events to give the app's users a virtual walking tour of East Harlem. The app will superimpose original artwork onto images of the neighborhood on the screens of smartphones and tablets.

“The importance of this project is the sustainability of community in a period of gentrification,” said Marta Moreno Vega, president of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute.

Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez and seven other artists from East Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and Puerto Rico are each developing several works for the app component of the “Mi Querido Barrio” project, which means “my beloved neighborhood.” The virtual tour will include tributes to Puerto Rican, Jewish, Italian, Mexican and African history and culture in East Harlem, Dr. Vega said.

The project plans to include artwork about the historic La Marqueta marketplace on Park Avenue, for example, and an African burial ground on First Avenue. Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez also plans to sketch a tribute to the game of stickball, which East Harlem residents of various ages and ethnicities have played in the streets for decades.

“The artists are looking broadly at events and people that have created what we understand as East Harlem,” Dr. Vega said.

The debut of the app will coincide with the planned opening in early 2015 of the Caribbean Cultural Center's new location at a vacant firehouse at 120 East 125th Street. The app will direct users from the firehouse to different locations in an area encompassing 103rd Street to 128th Streets and Fifth Avenue to the East River. When users reach specific destinations, artwork related to their current location and its history will appear on their devices' screens.

The neighborhood's history is not traditionally easy to find, said Yasmin Ramirez of Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, who has studied Puerto Rican art history in the city and researched East Harlem's cultural history for the project.

“We're trying to really preserve a history that if we don't do it would never be seen, because it was marginalized when it was happening,” she said.

One of Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez's works depicts a 1969 demonstration in which the Young Lords, a group of community activists, piled up and burned trash to spur the city's sanitation department to pick up garbage more often in East Harlem.

“You look at the Young Lords. Those were our Avengers,” he said. He calls his work on the project a tribute to “actual amazing heroes from our community.”

Carlos Pacheco, a comic book artist from Spain whose work includes Superman, X-Men and Captain America comics, drew the Young Lords piece from photographs that Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez provided.

Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez plans to animate the graphic and pair it with a spoken word piece from a musical, “Party People,” based on the Young Lords Party and Black Panthers Party. Clickable bilingual text on the protesters' signs and links to stories about the Young Lords will make it interactive, he said.

“It's better than some tour guide saying, ‘Visualize here there was all this garbage that was set on fire,'” said Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez, who hopes pairing technology and comics draws a wide audience to the app. “We're in an era now where geek is chic.”

Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, one of the artists  helping to create the virtual tour of East Harlem, shows some of his designs for the project.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 17, 2013

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Carlos Pacheco, a comic book artist helping on a project to develop a virtual tour of East Harlem, drew a piece for the project based on sketches provided by an artist, Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez. In fact, Mr. Pacheco's piece, depicting a demonstration by the Young Lords, was based on photographs provided by Mr. Miranda-Rodriguez.