Figuring out where to go and what to do in Lincoln Square is easy with the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District's updated website at www.lincolnsquarebid.org. We now maintain a comprehensive Events Calendar of exciting local activities such as Target Free Thursdays at Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium, Guitar Afternoons at the Lincoln Square Branch of the American Folk Art Museum and the twice-weekly Greenmarket at Richard Tucker Park.

Community organizations, local businesses and nonprofits can use our online calendar free of charge as a cost-effective and easy marketing tool to announce any events or special offers to the public. Those wishing to add an event can easily submit information by going to www.lincolnsquarebid.org and clicking on the "Events Calendar: View and add area events" link right on the home page. Upon approval by the website's moderator, the event will appear in the BID's online calendar. We are very excited to offer this new tool to the Upper West Side community and look forward to receiving your listings.

Our new website is one of the many ways we help neighbors and visitors stay connected digitally. The BID also maintains active Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Flickr accounts, providing end-users quick and easy access to the neighborhood through a variety of media.

Click here to add or view area events!

This St. Patrick's Day, celebrate in Lincoln Square. Soutine Bakery at 104 W. 70th Street just west of Columbus Avenue is whipping up batches of Irish soda bread, shamrock cookies, green frosted cupcakes and other St. Patrick's Day treats, while P.J. Clarke's at 44 W. 63rd Street and Columbus Avenue will serve up corned beef and cabbage for its lunch and dinner crowds. You can sharpen your own Irish culinary skills at Williams-Sonoma on the ground floor of Time Warner Center at an 11:00 am demonstration on St. Patrick's Day. After learning their tips and techniques, hop downstairs to Whole Foods Market to pick up necessary ingredients for your own Irish feast.

As part of a larger New York Public Library Irish Festival, the Library for the Performing Arts at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza is presenting a new exhibition showcasing musical scores and recordings, photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera from its collections. A documentary film series, curated by the Irish Film Institute and NYPL Performing Arts, that provides a broad range of contemporary and historical perspectives on Ireland will be screened on Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm and on selected Saturdays at 6:30 pm beginning on St. Patrick's Day and continuing through May 19, 2011.

There's still a chance to take in Lincoln Center's new festival, Tully Scope. The New York premiere of Heiner Goebbels' Songs of Wars I Have Seen is the series finale on Friday, March 18 at 7:30 pm. Gertrude Stein's memoir, Wars I Have Seen, is a deeply personal glimpse at life in France under the looming Nazi occupation. Visionary music director Heiner Goebbels combines Stein's text, spoken by female members of the ensemble, with a score that pairs Baroque music with staccato machine-gun fire.

There are a limited number of tickets still available, call CenterCharge at 212-721-6500, visit the Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Hall Box Offices at Broadway and 65th Street or click here to purchase your tickets.

Image: Sian Edwards conducts London Sinfonetta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Heiner Goebbels, concept, music, director) by Justin Piperger

From Kikkerland to Umbra, Gracious Home's West Side store at 1992 Broadway at 67th Street has the best selection of wall clocks in the neighborhood... just in time for daylight saving time. Whether you're looking for something elegant for your study or kitschy for your kitchen, you'll be sure to find the right style to complement any decor.

While you're there, take the escalators up and down the sprawling space to find anything and everything for your home. Seasonal products, bath, bedding, tabletop, luggage, and a full range of housewares and hardware are at your fingertips. On sale right now through March 31 are Omnia cabinet and door knobs, pulls, levers, switchplates and more.

Shop online at www.gracioushome.com or call the West Side store at 212.731.7800 for Gracious Home's legendary service.

Starting Friday, March 18 from 5:00 - 9:00pm, New York City Opera will open the doors to the David H. Koch Theater for the return of Parallel Perceptions - a contemporary art exhibition that pairs the work of six visual artists with the 2010-11 season's operas. FREE public viewing hours of the exhibit will be held Tuesdays from 1:00 - 6:00pm and Sundays from 5:00 - 8:00pm throughout the duration of the spring season (March 22 - May 1).

Curated by accomplished artist and photo editor Naomi Ben-Shahar, this season's exhibit will feature works on display from artists Kehinde Wiley, Isaac Julien, Pipilotti Rist, Dash Snow, Charles Ray, and Tina Barney. "The visual arts are central to City Opera's mission to serve as a meeting place for all the arts. Opera needs artists from every discipline to redefine what it is and what it can be," said City Opera General Manager and Artistic Director George Steel.

Image: Love, 2003 by Isaac Julien is paired with Donizetti's "Elixir of Love" and evokes the overwhelming force of this emotion, a prominent theme in Donizetti's work.

Visit Time Warner Center and take the "Jazz elevators" up to the 5th Floor to the Peter Jay Sharp Arcade in Frederick P. Rose Hall for Traveling Full Circle: Frank Stewart's Visual Music - an exhibit featuring the works of Jazz at Lincoln Center senior staff photographer Frank Stewart. This exhibition celebrates an artist who has crisscrossed the world exploring music and showcases his travels from the U.S. to the Caribbean, to Africa.

Admission is FREE and open to the public: Tuesdays through Sundays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm, and Mondays from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm. This exhibition is made possible by a generous gift from Janice and Bob Burns and is on view until Saturday, May 21, 2011.

Image: Miles in the Green Room by Frank Stewart

For 30 years, Esa Pekka-Salonen has been conducting and composing some of the world's most groundbreaking music. Now, you can join Salonen as he leads a journey through three eras of Hungarian folk music in the New York Philharmonic's Hungarian Echoes: A Philharmonic Festival going on now through March 26. Salonen conducts the New York Philharmonic and acclaimed guest artists as they perform music from three trailblazing composers with ties to Hungary: Haydn, Ligeti, and Bartok. Using his inventive approach to classics, Salonen will weave common threads of these masters' works, each building upon the other. The result is a beautiful tapestry of music that will allow you to experience Hungarian folk tradition as it comes alive in these unique performances.

Don't miss this chance to experience the one-of-a-kind mastery of Esa Pekka-Salonen. This festival is a must-see for classical music lovers. To purchase tickets, click here or call 212.875.5656.

Image: Esa-Pekka-Salonen by Con Keyes/Los Angeles Times

Lincoln Square, New York's cultural and entertainment heart, is a shopper's paradise with its diverse array of premier retail offerings. Our latest publication, Where to Shop in Lincoln Square, highlights the neighborhood's exciting collection of prestigious stores and brands. Whether it's eyewear or athletic wear, hair care or pet care, you'll find it in Lincoln Square. Allow Where to Shop in Lincoln Square to serve as your guide.

Please contact our office at 212.581.3774 to request your copy or multiple copies for your business or organization. You can also download a pdf version of the guide here.

The New York Council for the Humanities along with co-sponsors, West Side Crime Prevention Program and Jewish Association for Services for the Aged (JASA), will present The 1960s: The Struggle for Justice Intensifies - a series of FREE lectures that will confront the issues of the 1960s and will feature many speakers who were active participants in one or more of the struggles that occurred in that decade.

What were the real 1960s? Was it the successful struggle for Civil Rights and voting rights? Was it the expansion of Social Security with the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid? Was it nine years of uninterrupted prosperity and economic growth? Or, was it the eruption of riots in all of our major cities? Was it a divisive war that led to terrible domestic disunion? Was it the decade of horrifying political assassinations? Was it sex, drugs and rock "n" roll?

Find out the answers to these questions and more at this ongoing series, which runs almost weekly through May 2, 2011 and will mostly take place at John Jay College at 1099 Ninth Avenue. Admission is FREE and on a first come, first served basis. Click here for dates and more information.

Curious about wines and want to learn more, or are you the pro all your friends turn to at dinner? Every Tuesday from March 22 - April 19 between 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm, Atlantic Grill at 49 West 64th Street just east of Broadway will host a wine tasting series covering the basics from selection and aromas to regions and grape varietals.

Atlantic Grill's experienced wine guides will educate the novice as well as engage the pros and discuss style, region and climate. Journey from New York to Italy, California to South America and onwards to New Zealand where the sun shines first! Each $85 class, will feature six tastings of a variety of wines, artisanal cheese plate, hors d'oeuvres and fresh baked breads. Classes may also be purchased in groups: Three for $230; Entire series for $400.

Call Atlantic Grill's special events team at 212.331.0328 for reservations or questions or visit them online at www.atlanticgrill.com.