Dance
14. See Mark Morris Dance Group
Mostly Mozart’s favorite son.
The rhythms and layered sonorities of early music bring out the best in Morris’s ultramusical work. His newest piece, Acis and Galatea�like his glorious L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato�takes on Handel, this time with Nicholas McGegan conducting the (live!) Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale. �Rebecca Milzoff
David H. Koch Theater, August 7 through 9.

TV
15. Watch Sharknado 2: The Second One
Just when you thought it was too stupid to go back in the water.
Why was this not subtitled The Sharkening? No matter: Ian Ziering and Tara Reid return to battle air-and-waterborne predators after a flood fills up New York City, endangering the city’s population and landmarks. Alas, John Heard does not return to kill sharks with bar stools, but we do get Judah Friedlander, Andy Dick, and Independence Day alumni Judd Hirsch and Vivica A. Fox, who certainly know what to do when humanity is threatened. Best appreciated with friends. And intoxicants. �Matt Zoller Seitz
Syfy, July 30, 9 p.m.

Pop Music
16. Hear Lisa Fischer
All by herself, at BAM’s R&B Festival.
Of the forgotten divas spotlighted in 20 Feet From Stardom, Lisa Fischer was the enigma: an earthy presence with an otherworldly voice who, despite longtime gigs with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, and Sting, never really wanted a solo career. But she more than holds her own, and might bring out �How Can I Ease the Pain,� the Whitney-esque slow-burner she won her Grammy for.
MetroTech Commons, August 7.

Art
17. See Alibis: Sigmar Polke
Final week.
Yes, this show is (per New York’s Jerry Saltz) frustrating, overthought, questionably selected�and, if you care about contemporary art, necessary viewing. Last chance is this weekend; go early in the day, because MoMA’s inevitable crowding will make this densely hung show even harder to appreciate.
Museum of Modern Art. Through August 3.

Sports
18. Attend the Big Strick Classic
A showcase for basketball’s best youth.
When John Strickland died in 2010, he was one of the city’s preeminent streetballers�Jay Z even name-dropped him on �Public Service Announcement.� The Big Strick Classic, the tournament named in his honor where the nation’s top high-school players square off, is now in its fourth year. Watching the two squads (Team NYC and Team USA) remains the best way to see the NBA’s next generation (and it’s free).
Gaucho’s Gym, 478 Gerard Ave., nr. 146th St., the Bronx, August 9.

Urbanism
19. See Urban Reviewer
What might have been.
Catnip for city geeks, on view in a house on Governors Island: a three-layer map including plans from the mid-century era of �urban renewal� (there’s an interactive digital version available online). Created by a group called 596 Acres, it shows how all these interventions in the city’s fabric were adopted. Docents are available on Fridays and Saturdays.
Building 403, Colonel’s Row, Governors Island, through August 17; details at urbanreviewer.org.

Movies/Video
20. & 21. See King Lear and Ran
Before you head to the park.
New York is swimming in King Lears this year, with two (including Frank Langella’s) a block apart in Brooklyn and now John Lithgow roaring into the Central Park night�which means it’s time to sample the movies. Skip the tatty �Olivier TV version, proceed warily to the frigid Peter Brook adaptation with Paul Scofield, and have a little sniff of Godard’s ’87 take. Kurosawa’s Ran is mighty good, but my choice for the best Shakespeare film of all time is Grigori Kozintsev’s ultrastark 1971 King Lear, which captures the public dimension of this most private horror show better than any other. (Yes, it’s in Russian, in a Boris Pasternak translation.) �D.E.
On Netflix and Amazon.

Books
22. Read Dry Bones in the Valley
You’re not from around here, are you.
Tom Bouman’s entry into the �rural noir� trend distinguishes itself by incorporating the style’s literary elements�thick atmosphere, regional rootedness, social scope�into an actual fast-paced mystery series. Dry Bones introduces Henry Farrell, half of Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania’s police force�a hunting, fiddle-playing brooder in over his head as fracking invades his impoverished paradise, bringing with it infusions of corporate cash, illegal drugs, and a few unsolved murders. �B.K.
Norton.

Movies
23. See Double Indemnity
Grande dame.
To the gentle strains of �Tangerine,� Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) enters the shadowed lair of Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), and you know you’re watching the ne plus ultra of deadly-dame film noir. Now you can see Billy Wilder’s 1944 Double Indemnity freshly restored for its 70th anniversary. But the stiletto dialogue (by Raymond Chandler and Wilder, from James M. Cain’s novel) needs no freshening. Stanwyck biographer Victoria Wilson�whose 1,057 pages have taken us only as far as 1940�gives a talk August 4. �D.E.
Film Forum, August 1 through 7 (except Monday).

TV
24. Watch Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words
Because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.
Nixonologists will be enraptured by this doc by Peter Kunhardt, which lets the only president ever to resign reveal his own darkest secrets. In the archives and on the tapes: racism, anti-Semitism, protester hate, Vietnam, the Pentagon papers, all of it. It’s all here, dammit! Nobody understands Richard Nixon. Certainly not that lily-livered East Coast media! �M.Z.S.
HBO, August 4, 9 p.m.

Museum Shows
25. See The Power of Poison
Wash your hands when leaving.
The AMNH’s show of toxic toads, blowguns, �rose hair tarantulas, and much more has two more weeks to run. Drop in before it’s finished off.
American Museum of Natural History, ends August 10.