It’s a holiday weekend coming up and you know what that means? Even more time to do even more stuff. Never fear for Gotham is, as usual, awash in activities to entertain, educate and delight you and yours.

Books, books and more books, baby! Taschen Warehouse sale is running January 18-20 at their locations worldwide but let’s face it - the one we care about is at 107 Greene Street in NYC 10012. These books are the ones you salivate over in the store, beautiful, well-produced books bursting with the most beautiful imagery (almost regardless of the topic). And there are thousands of slightly damaged and display copies on sale at bargain basement prices, 50-75% off for 3 days only.
Sale hours are Friday and Saturday 11:00 am to 8:00 pm. Sunday from 12:00 to 7:00 pm. And if there are more titles in the Interiors series - look out, ’cause I will elbow you out of the way to get my hands on them. I have Paris and I have New York. I want them all.

Succumb to museum mania! There’s no such thing as ‘too much when it comes to museums’. At least, that’s my view. And now Manhattan has another — the Museum of American Finance. On January 11, the Museum re-opened in its new facility and to celebrate, admission is free until January 19th! You’ll find it at 48 Wall Street, right in the heart of the Financial District - good place for it - amongst so many other museums. As long as you’re down there, why not check out

• Gotham’s past at the Fraunces Tavern Museum (at 54 Pearl Street), Manhattan’s oldest surviving building
• Past, present and future all come together at the Skyscraper Museum (at 39 Battery Place) as the current exhibit, New York Modern, looks at the buildings that have defined the look and image of New York for over a century.
• Want to branch out from the Gotham of it all? Go explore different cultures at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas (at 70 Mulberry Street) or the Museum of Jewish Heritage (at 18 First Place/Battery Park City)

And you thought downtown was all stockbrokers and ferry terminals. The downtown museums - there are even more I didn’t include - are many, varied and always a good for weekend jaunts.

MLK Day the New York way: There are events all over the city honoring and celebrating the life and goals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

• The New York City Coalition Against Hunger is sponsoring it’s 5th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Anti-Hunger Serve-A-Thon on January 19, 20, and 21, 2008. Serve or sponsor, this is a great way to mark the day.
• The JCC Arts & Culture program is once again hosting their communal MLK Celebration on Monday, January 21 at 6:30. It’s free and often standing room only but with dance, poetry and music on the agenda, it has something for everyone!
• On Sunday Jan 20th, the Riverside Church has A Celebration of the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr from 4:00PM - 6:00PM
• This would also be a great weekend to try the NYC Discovery Tours. This weekend their Martin Luther King Weekend in Harlem on both Saturday and Sunday (both days at 2pm). Cost is $15 per person, call 212-465-3331 to make reservations and find out the meeting place.

The Power of Cheese! As I mentioned a few days back, Murray’s Cheese Shop is now offering monthly tours of their cheese caves and those tours happen on the third Saturday of every month. Guess what this Saturday is!

Coming up next weekend:

• The Library at the International Center of Photography is having it’s 3rd annual Benefit Book Sale, Jan. 26 -27. Doors are open from 12:00–5:00 pm each day and once inside, you can choose from donated and duplicated materials - everything from books and periodicals to items that are beyond the Library’s scope (but which, I presume they thought would be rude to decline =- think of it as institutional regifting). All proceeds help the Library build its collection, improve its facilities, and provide more resources to students and researchers.
• Two new exhibits open Jan 25th at the South Street Seaport Museum - Ocean Liner Cutaways and A Life in Whaling