Each week, there’s an avalanche of upcoming albums, films, books, theater and art—from monumental new voices in culture to guilty pleasures worth indulging in. We’re here to help narrow down what deserves your attention. Our picks for the week of May 13th are below:
The Exhibit: As part of the Expo1: New York series of art events, the Museum of Modern Art will host Random International’s Rain Room, in which visitors—10 at a time—have the chance to control the falling water in an odd, thrilling encounter. Open now.
The Album: On their third album, Modern Vampires of the City, Ivy League rockers Vampire Weekend show off a mature sensibility without losing any of the wold-music-tinged excitement that made them stand out in the first place. “If people could look at our three albums as a bildungsroman,” frontman Ezra Koenig recently said, “I’d be OK with that.” Out Tuesday, May 14, 2013.
The Book: The latest adventure for Robert Langdon—you might remember him from a little book called The DaVinci Code—is chronicled in author Dan Brown’s new Inferno. Resistance will be futile. Out Tuesday, May 14, 2013.
The Movie: Golden boy J.J. Abrams returns to the big screen with his second Star Trek movie, this one subtitled Into Darkness. If the plot—a traitor lurks on the U.S.S. Enterprise—doesn’t hook you, the cast—Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana—will. Opens Wednesday, May 15, 2013.