P.S. 1

Long Island City, Queens -- the MoMA sister museum. Housed in an old public elementary school, P.S. 1 has the strange, reminiscient feel of a locker room -- and simultaneously blows this notion apart with ultra-modern art exhibitions. I've only visited half the museum (LIC residents get in for free, so I'm in no hurry), but went instead for the Warm Up, an outdoor dance party held in the entrance area of the museum from 2 - 9pm on Saturdays. Guest DJs this summer included ?uestlove, Animal Collective, Ratatat, and James Murphy & Pat Mahoney (DFA Records); still to come are Big Freedia (nutso tranny rapper from New Orleans), Holy Ghost!, and DJ Medhi. (Unfortunately, these last two artists will be playing on the day of ELECTRIC ZOO, so I will obviously not be there [yahoo!]. DJ Mehdi was actually at the Zoo last year; funny that a music festival should have to compete with a museum.)

The most recent outdoor exhibit is called "Pole Dancing," an interactive (as always) techno-game that allows you to shake these poles and somehow involve your iPhone so that different poles make different musics. Kind of neat; I don't have an iPhone. A little less exclusive, however, is the outdoor bar and grill located in the bizarre, warren-like sand pit (you've gotta go to check out the layout for yourself; that simile doesn't explain well). Beer and hotdogs are prohibited inside the museum, obviously, but there's nothing preventing you from having a cold one outside on the dreamscape patio, electric beats afloat.