Restaurant Weeks is still available until February 12. Broadway Week is still available until February 13. Black History Month offers a variety of events and of course love is in the air everywhere.

Jerry Seinfeld

2/3-4: Jerry Seinfeld @ Beacon Theatre

2/3-4: The Manhattan Vintage Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion

2/4: Central Park Winter Jam NYC’s Ultimate Snow Day, www.nycgovparks.org 

2/5-8: NY Now Winter Market at the Javits Center. Explore the most design-forward brands in the fashion, wellness, and home industry.

2/6-9: Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 21st Anniversary Concert @ Radio City Music Hall

2/9-15: Fall/Winter Women’s Fashion Week, Fashion Week provides the world’s top designers an international platform to showcase their collections to more than 100,000 industry insiders from around the world. Dozens of fashion shows and related events are held around the city.

2/10: The New York Pops One Night Only: An Evening with Heather Headley at Carnegie Hall.

2/12: The Chinese New Year Parade and Festival has the parade kicking off at 1pm. This year will be the parade’s 25th anniversary.

2/14: Love In Times Square with

2/14: Billy Joel @ MSG

2/18 – 4/23: Orchid Show @ New York Botanical Garden. Thousands of orchids provide bursts of color—in purples, reds, oranges, and hot pink—revealed through overhead arches, vine-inspired ribbons, mirrored sculpture, dramatic lighting, and other artistic embellishments. The largest exhibition of its kind in the United States also offers insight into caring for orchids, music from around the world, and a gorgeous setting for evening cocktails.

2/21: Carrie Underwood @ MSG

2/24-26: Harlem Fine Arts Show New York 15th Anniversary Celebration 10:00 AM at The Glasshouse.

The older you get, the harder and harder it becomes to form new relationships, both platonic and romantic. Even with all the dating apps out there, it sometimes feels harder than ever to meet someone whom you like and share the same interests with. But, don’t give up hope just yet. There’s a chance you’re going about it wrong, or, there’s an even better chance that you’re not doing anything and are just hoping that perfect person will appear.

If you’re sick of swiping through dating apps, read this article. We’ve got the top 5 ways to meet singles who share similar interests.

1. Join a Nice Dating Website

Part of the reason you’re so frustrated with dating apps is probably due to the fact that you are picking the wrong ones. The solution? Join a niche dating site instead.

Niche dating sites make it super easy to find someone out there who also shares in your interests. And, there’s an unlimited amount of niche sites out there too.

You can choose everything from a site based on your hobbies to ones based on your faith to ones based on your ethnicity. You can even choose one based on your occupation or former occupation, such as a military dating site or a farmers dating site.

2. Take an Interesting Class

Oftentimes, the easiest way to meet people in college was through classes. If you’re no longer in college, you can still meet people through classes.

Every city has community classes you can take which are open to adults. Find a class that interests you, and sign yourself up. You could do a class in acting, painting, photography, writing… The list goes on!

This is a great way to meet someone single in a low-pressure format. And, you get to expand your knowledge and expertise about something you like doing at the same time.

4. Volunteer

Are you someone who has a passion for social justice and are looking for someone else with that same passion? If so, you should consider volunteering.  Not only is it a great way to meet singles with a similar passion, but you can also feel good about yourself, knowing you’re doing a small part to make the world a better place.

There are all kinds of nonprofits and charities out there, so finding one that matches your interests shouldn’t be hard.

For example, if you love animals, volunteering at an animal shelter would be a great fit. If you’re passionate about politics, you could volunteer for a local campaign or advocacy group. And the list goes on and on.

5. Join Meetup or Another Event Group

Another great way to meet singles is to join Meetup or some other type of event group.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Meetup is an event app. In each city, you will find different groups and organizations you can join. For example, you’ll find rock climbing clubs, tech clubs, language clubs, etc. You’ll even find clubs for singles.

Once you join a group, you’ll get to partake in the different events they have planned. Some Meetup groups meet once a week, while others meet once a month or every couple of months.

Well, there you have it, the top five ways to meet singles who share the same interests. If you have any questions about any of these ideas, be sure to leave a comment below.

Valentine’s Day in Times Square saw four couples getting married, three getting engaged and countless others renewing their vows. The marriages took place in front of  We Were Strangers Once Too, which is on display until March 5. The sculpture is made of thirty-three metal rods that rise up on a platform in Duffy Square. Each is covered with red or pink bands and the name of a country. The numbers below each country indicate where the more than three million immigrants who live in the city came from.

Stephanie Torres, Tim Porter and Gunner

Stephanie Torres, 40, a Coney Island snake charmer and Tim Porter, 32, a welder who specializes in set design, married at 11 a.m. Torres-Porter who is Puerto Rican won a contest as a result of an essay that explained how her romance epitomized the melting pot nature of The Crossroads of the World. He husband is  of German and Irish descent. The couple already has a two soon to be three year-old son Gunner. Porter finally married Ms. Torres after her sister, Rebecca Tighe, 26, was struck by a tow truck and killed while crossing a street in Massapequa Park, L.I., the week before Thanksgiving. Torres stated before her wedding “That tragedy reminded me that I can’t wait forever.”

Hollis Kam, a human resource director for the Times Square Alliance, officiated. Mr. Kam became a Universal Life Church reverend in 2008. His vows  asked the forces of the universe to allow the pair to “live in perfect harmony,” “be eternally happy” and to “always be the best of friends.”

This year’s Valentine’s Day extravaganza was the fourth year of weddings and proposals, the sixth year of vow renewals and the ninth year of the heart sculpture, which will be on display until March 5.

Fourteen couples also said their vows at the Empire State Building’s 86th floor observatory. A NYPD officer, and a woman whose great-grandfather was a construction worker on the Empire State Building site were part of the couples saying “I Do.”

What a seamless enterprise and an engaging night. The Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Chicago’s only Equity theatre dedicated to producing new works with women at the core, and Chicago Fringe Festival and NYC Strawberry Theatre Festival Award-winner, powerhouse Danielle Pinnock and her triumphant, world premiere, one women show, Body/Courage.  Partnered with Waltzing Mechanics, this production shared Pinnock’s unique perspective on what it means to be truly beautiful. Body/Courage is a culmination of over 5 year of writing, mixed with over 300, one on one, interviews, is the very heart of this program, which felt like a work in progress, but in the best sense of that expression. Organic in structure, Rivendell has found the perfect piece to launch their new 2016 season. Directed by RTE member Megan Carney, this 90 minute witty, humorous and poignant journey chronicled one woman’s transformative journey to self acceptance through understanding the unique voices of others. A relevant lesson that rang true within many an audience member, judging from their reactions of uproarious laughter to shedding a few well earned tears.

Crafted from over 300 interviews conducted worldwide, Pinnock established herself as the new go-to character actress in the Windy City. Finding truth in her performances from young girl to Jamaican grandmother with equal aplomb and authority. The show bookends with her own personal stories, from childhood to present day. As a girl, Pinnock spent time split between two diametrically opposed grandmothers. One who purposely purchased school uniforms a size to small, “I was dressed for school like a black child Republican” Pinnock surrendered. The second, Grandma Una, shared a love of candy and feeding feelings to find self worth.  “Fat was healthy in Jamaica” she shared. Then suddenly,  “America sneezed and Jamaica caught the cold” as the quest to get Hollywood skinny invaded the popular culture there as well. This began a lifetime excursion of binge diets and being encourage and equally discouraged by the reflection in her own mirror. Tired of being obese and exhausted at the unrelenting hamster wheel of unsuccessful fad diets including the South Beach, LA Diet and the “pray the hunger away,” yes that is a real diet, you pray until you are no longer hungry, Pinnock discovered her trek was not a solo journey. This started her vanity project, chronicling interviews with hundreds of people about their relationship with food and their bodies. Touching on everything from skin color, body sizes and shape, illness and disability, ageing, and finally the newsworthy gender transition.

Body/Courage morphs from character to character at a split second pacing. This powerful and often funny contemplative journey introduces us to a young girl who shared “4th grade is when I became enemies with my body,” a professional escort who learned “big wallets lead to big egos” and a Trans character who felt trapped by her “sensual kindness” from “gender fluidity.”  We even have a celebrity cameo, the “Tan Mom” also played by Pinnock in a long blonde wig, who manically paced the stage while sharing her parental tips which no one should follow. I found the more poignant moments of the piece were sampled from Pinnock’s own life story. She jokingly reflected upon her “Elaine Stritch phase” when she mixed rigorous amounts of alcohol consumption with casual sex. “My freshman 15 was more like freshman 60”  she chronicled while double fisting bottles of Patron.  Not surprisingly, the most significant pathos came from her dealings with her mother, who had a stroke the day before Pinnock’s wedding.  “That heifer is not about to steal my day!” she snapped in a moment that brought the audience to hysterics.  Finally, on Thanksgiving day, the final chapter in this interview series began as our heroine asked her mother, point blank, “do you hate my body.” A lifetime of insecurity laid forth in that moment.  “You are wonderfully made sweetie” she replied, as both women were reduced to joyful and cathartic tears. Body/Courage eclectic design team included Diane Fairchild’s lighting, Regina Garcia’s set design, costumes by Janice Pytel and Robert Hornbostel on sound, with Danielle commanding center stage.

Voluptuous, full-sized, and embracing her full womanhood, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble presents Body/Courage is the perfect girlfriend’s night out. As Pinnock conveys her story, her own voice emerges within the stories of others. Is anyone at peace in their own skin? “Beauty is something you define within yourself” she concludes.  While she may have asked “where is the plus sized Juliet?” mid-show, this princess rides to her own rescue, and has written a piece both promising and passionate. “I make my own mold and I make my own brand.” Smart girl!  Finding and defining yourself from what you have been taught and what you have been told is only part of the story.  You have to define yourself for yourself.  Beauty is a piece of mind and as Pinnock derided, “Now, in this moment, I feel beautiful.”  You will too.

Body/Courage is now playing through February 27, 2016 at the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble

Romance returned to Times Square with a dazzling public pavilion designed by architectural collaboration Collective-LOK. The winner of the annual 2016 Times Square Valentine Heart Design, Heart of Hearts will encircle visitors with kaleidoscopic golden mirrored hearts that reflect and amplify the dramatic lights of Times Square. The love-themed installation will mark the eighth year that the Times Square Alliance and the Center for Architecture have brought an icon of romance to the heavily trafficked NYC plaza.

Made up of nine highly reflective mirrored heart sculptures, cast in a gold hue and arranged in a ring, the installation will form a bejeweled pavilion that will reflect everything happening around it.

To satisfy its romantic visitors, each adjoining heart shape will create semi-private, diamond-shaped spaces that Collective-LOK is calling “kissing booths.”

Want a wonderful free Valentine’s Day…here it is.