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Brooklyn Gets a Music Festival of Its Own

June 11, 2009 at 12:22 PM | 0 Comments

As the reigning indie music capital of the world, you'd think Brooklyn would have a long-running music festival to rival Austin's SXSW and Manhattan's CMJ, but the ragtag borough has never quite put it together.

But Brooklyn is amping up its game this weekend with the first annual Northside Music and Arts Festival, which will be taking over much of Williamsburg and Greenpoint tonight through Sunday. The blogistas will be out in full force to catch dozens of the borough's up-and-coming bands, along with a couple of A-list indie acts like The Hold Steady, Bishop Allen, and Sunset Rubdown.

The festival has also teamed up with the Williamsburg Gallery Association to offer an evening of music in the galleries tonight, along with a bunch of artsy events throughout the weekend.

All-access badges for the four-day event are a pretty reasonable $45, and shows take place at many of Williamsburg's most popular bars, including Barcade, t.b.d., and the Gutter, with just a few events across the river in—gasp—Manhattan.

Related Stories:
· Northside Festival [Official Site]
· Brooklyn travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Music travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: kenyee]

Go on an Urban Safari at Brooklyn's Prospect Park Zoo

June 6, 2009 at 3:54 PM | 0 Comments

New York has zoos in each of its five boroughs, and while the Bronx Zoo is the largest metropolitan zoo in the country, the other four are small enough that one can see pretty much every animal there is to see in two or three hours. I actually prefer these bite-sized zoological parks, where you can get in, get your animal fix, and get out with plenty of time left over for a nap before happy hour.

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The Simple Pleasures of Life: Pedal Boating in Prospect Park

May 30, 2009 at 3:20 PM | 1 Comment

So it looks like this won't be the year I buy a superyacht, but the recession can't keep me off the water entirely. In fact, we took our first boat excursion of the season last weekend - a lovely cruise on Brooklyn's Prospect Park Lake - and it only cost us $16.25, plus two bucks for ice cream. It had been years since I rented a pedal-boat, but the weather was beautiful and we were looking for a cheap way to float, so we took the Q train to the Prospect Park station and made our way to Wollman Rink, where we climbed into a yellow plastic pedal boat and hit the water.

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NYC's Food Trucks All Converge in One Place This Weekend

May 22, 2009 at 8:46 AM | 1 Comment

In the not-so-distant future, storefront restaurants in Manhattan will be a thing of the past, and New Yorkers will buy meals exclusively from food trucks. At least that's what it feels like. From crème brulee to waffles, the tastiest restaurants opening up over the last few years haven't really been restaurants at all, but rent-free eateries-on-wheels.

If you're behind on the New York food truck scene, catch up in one afternoon this Saturday, when hip drinking spot BKLYN Yard hosts Parked!, an eating event that brings all the city's best food trucks together in one spot. From pizza to tacos to ice cream, all the foodie faves will be here for one day only.

Coincidentally, this weekend also welcomes the debut of New York's newest food truck. Cupcake Stop will be serving freshly baked frosted treats starting tonight, when it will be parked on 23rd street between 7th and 8th.

So much mobile food, so little time.

Related Stories:
· Parked! [Brooklyn Yard]
· Cupcake Stop [Official Site]
· Food travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: cchen]

Jennifer Aniston Works Through the Pain of Missing Out on Mayercraft

March 31, 2009 at 8:41 AM | 0 Comments

While The Mayercraft sails back home after a raucous four days at sea, today is the second day of on location shooting for "The Baster", a new comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, is happening today in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, near Bedford Ave and North 6th St.

According to IMDb.com, the movie is about “an unmarried 40-year-old woman who turns to a turkey baster in order to become pregnant. Seven years later, she reunites with her best friend, who has been living with a secret: he replaced her preferred sperm sample with his own.”

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Further Reflections on Pizza: Brooklyn's Motorino Pizza Napoletana

March 29, 2009 at 3:21 PM | 0 Comments

It takes coglioni to open a fancy new pizza restaurant in an Italian part of Brooklyn, but Motorino is giving it a go in Williamsburg anyway. Just three blocks from the mostly take-out Sal's Pizza - a longtime favorite of mine - Motorino is looking to attract a more upscale, sit-down clientele, with a handsome wood-accented interior, dim lighting, and downtempo techno tunes piped through the sound system. Motorino's claim to fame is its wood-burning oven, which produces Neapolitan-style pizza with its signature fluffy crust that's ever-so-slightly scorched on the bottom. Since Williamsburg was originally populated by Italians from in and around Naples, particularly the town of Nola, Motorino's version of Neapolitan pizza is sure to receive a curious yet skeptical reception.

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Neo Con New York Opening in Brooklyn

March 18, 2009 at 4:02 PM | 0 Comments

This weekend, New York City street art takes center stage at the 17 Frost Gallery in Williamsburg. The Neo-Con Collective, made up of renown street artists Aakash Nihalani, Ellis G., and Poster Boy, has created an exhibition of collaborative installations for the gallery that will open Saturday.

17 Forest has praised the artists for their innovative and thought provoking work.

The collective consists of artists that utilize ephemeral mediums to create public art, focusing on neo-contextualizing the mundane. Their works, on and off the street, possess urgent relevance to modern societal contradictions and conflagrations, confronting the humanness of discomfort and dissatisfaction with typical, routine, existence.

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Is Your Facial Hair of World Champion Quality?

March 12, 2009 at 10:21 AM | 1 Comment

Aside from the occasional octogenarian who refuses to admit the Dodgers ever moved away, Brooklyn is not known for its sports prowess. But that doesn't mean it isn't a highly competitive place, so we're glad to see the Williamsburg crowd has found something productive to channel their energy into.

The borough's competitive streak will be on display this Saturday at Public Assembly for the New York City Beard and Moustache Championships. Cash prizes will be awarded for the craziest facial hair in a wide range of categories, including goatee, sideburns, patchy beard, full-grown freestyle, and yes, even a contest just for the ladies (who are allowed to fake it).

Who knows? You might even catch a facial hair legend-in-the-making. The best of the best may try their luck at the World Beard and Moustache Championships (no joke), to be held this Spring in Anchorage, Alaska.

Related Stories:
· New York City Beard and Moustache Championships [Official Site]
· World Beard and Moustache Championships [Official Site]
· Brooklyn travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: roendoftheroad]

Are Donuts the New Cupcakes?

March 5, 2009 at 1:31 PM | 2 Comments

We think so! Judging by the fervor we've seen around the virtual food world lately, we're ready to say the cupcake craze is over and donut madness has begun. It makes sense really, given the economy, that foodies would abandon the trendy, overpriced, over-fancified cupcake for the original fried dough comfort food.

So over the next few weeks we'll be taking a look at our favorite Dunkin' Donuts Alternatives—from beloved old school pastry shops to designer donut newcomers.

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Fine Dining With Meryl Streep in Brooklyn

February 18, 2009 at 3:31 PM | 1 Comment

Fine dining takes on a whole new meaning today as “The Untitled Nancy Meyers Project” begins filming at Dressler in Brooklyn. The movie stars Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin and TV’s hottest "Office" employee, John Krasinski. Little is known about the film but according to IMDb, it is “a romantic comedy in which two men vie for the affection of a woman.”

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Jemaine Falls in Love With Another 'Race'

February 16, 2009 at 4:01 PM | 0 Comments

The smackdown between Australians and Kiwis continues this week on Flight of the Conchords when Jemaine has an abusive relationship with a Sheila. Ah, but where there is pain, there is gain. The episode produces two of the best songs this season--the type of songs that made us fall in love with Jemaine and Bret in the first place.

The first of which, "Too Many D--ks on the Dance Floor," takes place inside the fictional Score Spot disco on Greenpoint Avenue in Brooklyn. It's actually known as Club Exit in real life and according to NY Mag:

Polish club kids and greasy rockers cross unlikely paths on the zebra-printed dance floor of this over-the-top nightclub.

Hmm...we wonder if they filmed the interior scenes elsewhere as the Score Spot looked more "Saturday Night Fever" than "Eurotrip." Anyways, after creating "lady space" on the dance floor, Jemaine meets a girl named Keitha who he later finds out to be *gasp* an Australian.

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Explore the World's Oldest Subway Tunnel

February 13, 2009 at 9:36 AM | 0 Comments

Even though New York has more exciting neighborhoods than just about anywhere else in the world, it can still be frustratingly difficult to find anywhere undiscovered, because everything is so overly-documented.

So here's one walking tour activity you won't find in your Lonely Planet book: climb down a manhole underneath Brooklyn's busy Atlantic Avenue and inside the world's oldest subway tunnel.

The Atlantic Avenue tunnel is a half-mile road that was built back in 1844, and then just completely forgotten about for decades until it was rediscovered in 1980. Today, Bob Diamond, who found the lost tunnel, takes groups down on expeditions. If you're already grossed out, we can say that at least from the photos, it looks a lot cleaner than any subway tunnel we've ever seen.

Tours take place once a month; the next one is Sunday, February 22. Bring a flashlight!

· Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Tours [Brooklyn Rail]
· Walking tours coverage [Jaunted]
· Brooklyn travel coverage [Jaunted]

Photo: [Brooklyn Rail]