a brief list of suggestions from the Computer Art faculty...

MUST READ

Computer Animation, Visual Effects and Motion Graphics:

Animators Survival Kit, Mitch Williams
CINEFEX Magazine
Cinematic Motion, Steve Katz
Experimental Typography, Rob Carter
Illusion of Life, Frank Thomas
Shot by Shot, Steve Katz
Timing for Animation, Whitaker and Halas

General Reading:

New York Times
The Onion
The Village Voice
Wall Street Journal

MUST SEE

Animated Movies and Classic Films:

The Birds and Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock
Citizen Kane, Orson Welles
Day for Night, Truffaut
Elephant Man, David Lynch
Hable Con Ella, Almodóvar
Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi, Reggio
Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese
Stealing Beauty, Bertolini
Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki
Visions of Light (anthology of cinematographers), American Film Institute
Wallace and Gromit, Nick Park
Any Pixar Animation

Where to see classic films:

Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston Street, (212) 995-2000
Cinema Classics, 332  East 11th Street, (212) 971-1015
Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, (212) 727-8110

MUST DO

while you are in NYC:

Walk through Central Park on Sunday
Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
Take the Subway to Coney Island
Go to a Broadway play
Go to an Off Broadway play
Visit museums: Frick Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, American Museum of the Moving Image, Museum of Television and Radio, International Center of Photography
Check out the art galleries around Chelsea, SoHo, the Lower East Side, and Williamsburg
Attend local software user group meetings
Shakespeare in The Park (Central Park)
The operas and Philharmonic in Central Park
Midsummer Swing at Lincoln Center
Take notice of the architecture in NYC, from Washington Heights to the Woolworth building downtown
Spend an hour watching a film crew on location