Saturday, October 11

Yoko in SoHo: If your best solution to the economic crisis is to stay heavily medicated and knee-deep in Sarah Palin YouTube clips, take a breather with a flashback to a groovy time: Yoko Ono celebrates her late husband’s 68th birthday (which was Thursday) with the largest collection of his art ever assembled, “Come Together: A Look Into John Lennon’s Career Through His Artwork,” at the Open House Gallery. Later, expensive European denim label Diesel, apparently trying to re-interest its New York customers in, you know, buying things, throws a “Rock and Roll Circus” at Pier 3 in Brooklyn, featuring fire eaters, sword swallowers, female roller derby squads (this oughta lubricate the credit cards!) and performances by hip-hop goddess du jour M.I.A. and electro-band Hot Chip, not to mention “ringmasters” Joey Arias, the cabaret singer, and Good Charlotte band member Benji Madden (who’s with either Paris or Nicole, one of those tramps, we don’t have the energy to remember …).

[“Come Together: A Look Into John Lennon’s Career Through His Artwork,” Open House Gallery, 201 Mulberry Street, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., through Sunday; Diesel Rock and Roll Circus, Pier 3, Furman Street, Brooklyn, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.]

mbryan@observer.com