Jaunted

Reality TV Travel / TV Travel / Television Travel / Brooklyn / Jersey Shore / Brighton Beach / → All Tags

'Brighton Beach' Reality Show Will Go Up Against 'Jersey Shore'

Are you tired of MTV's Jersey Shore yet? Your response to that doesn't really matter because either way, another show very similar to it is due to hit the TV, and it'll focus on an area not very far at all from Jersey Shore's Seaside Heights: Brooklyn's Brighton Beach. Auditions for the proposed Russian-American reality show wrapped in March, and now it's been confirmed that the series is coming to Lifetime next year.

Originally, the producers wanted "the Russian Snooki" and someone who attends "birthday parties at Russian restaurants every weekend," but now, with Lifetime's backing, they're recasting for families in order to tell a "multigenerational women’s story about life in the community." Hmm, that sounds like every other Lifetime movie they already have, except that this one will be a 12-episode series.

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Halloween Travel / Brooklyn / Brooklyn Travel / Haunted Houses / → All Tags

Get Spooked At A Sensory Haunted House In Brooklyn

When we talk about Halloween in NYC, we have to say that the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade is so 20th century. A Brooklyn haunted house showcasing professional scarers is what you'll really want to check out this season.

The Gravesend Inn Haunted Hotel is a yearly production by the New York City College of Technology as a departmental project in "entertainment technology"—the kind of training that would prepare you to work on a Cirque de Soleil show in Vegas or be a Disney Imagineer. The hotel is designed to "sense" and respond to visitors; for more on that, check out an engineer's inside take on what makes it run. Last year's production imagined a hotel buried over a sailors' graveyard haunted by vengeful pirate ghosts; will it be zombies (or zombie Michael Jacksons this year?

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Jaunted On Location / Julia Roberts / New York City / Brooklyn / Mumbai / New Delhi / → All Tags

Julia Roberts Filming 'Eat, Pray, Love' In NYC and India

Julia Roberts is spending the summer in the hot heat of New York City where she is filming Eat, Pray, Love. The movie is based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir of the same name, in which she retraces her soul-searching, one year journey through Rome for pleasure, Mumbai for spirituality, and Bali for "balancing."

Today, Julia along with Javier Bardem and James Franco, is filming at a home on Pacific Street in Brooklyn. The movie will continue filming throughout the city through the end of the month.

If you're spending the summer in the city as well, the New York City Explorer Pass has just been extended to included a ten attraction package for $209. The pass lets you choose from over forty popular attractions like the NBC Studio Tour, The Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building for a savings of up to 45%

On to India ...

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Religious Festival Travel / Religious Travel / Festivals / Brooklyn / Giglios / → All Tags

Watch the Giglio Dance in Brooklyn

For the past ten years or so, the north Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg has been identified primarily with avant-garde art galleries, stylish bars, and of-the-moment restaurants, but every summer, residents are reminded of a much deeper history. Each July, the neighborhood hosts the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a festival that honors a Catholic saint named Saint Paulinus with music, food, parades, and the famous dancing of the giglio. For those who don't know, giglio is the Italian word for lily, and in this case it refers to an 80-foot tall, three-ton statue (pictured) that is carried and "danced" along Havemeyer Street by about 130 thick-necked men known as the Giglio Boys.

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Museums / Music Travel / Brooklyn / Guggenheim / New York City / → All Tags

The Guggenheim Discovers Brooklyn At Manhattan Prices

As you’ve most likely read in about 10,000 articles over the past five years, the once-overlooked NYC borough of Brooklyn has experienced an artistic renaissance, giving birth to an independent art, music, and literary scene that now rivals Manhattan’s. But here’s something you didn’t know: the newest quirky Brooklyn hotspot is set inside Manhattan’s stuffiest museum.

This summer, the Guggenheim Museum launches It Came from Brooklyn, a new monthly concert series that pays tribute to the accomplishments of the inner-est outer borough, with Brooklyn-based artists, bands and writers performing inside the museum’s famed Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda. The series gets going on August 14 with Brooklyn band the Walkmen (two-fifths of whom now live in Philadelphia), and novelist Colson Whitehead (who is Internet-famous for writing about how he’s so over the Brooklyn writer thing).

So to summarize, two Brooklyn artists who both appear quite often in Brooklyn itself, and who are both at least somewhat tired of Brooklyn, will celebrate Brooklyn’s quirky, independent spirit at Manhattan’s snobbiest museum. And don’t forget the Manhattan-sized price tag: $45 a ticket. Is it just us, or is this the most ironic spin on Brooklyn yet?

Related Stories:
· It Came From Brooklyn [Official Site]
· Buskers in a Dangerous Time: Win The Chance To Play At JFK's Terminal 5 [Jaunted]
· Baltimore's Virgin Mobile Festival Drops Ticket Prices To Free [Jaunted]

[Photo: cultureclashem]

Boats / Circle Line / Queens / Brooklyn / New York City / Cheap NYC / → All Tags

Circle Line Shouts Out Queens and Brooklyn

As far as New York City tourism goes, we're starting to think this whole outer-boroughs-are-the-new-inner-borough thing might be for real, because even one of Manhattan's stodgiest tourist attractions is getting in on the Brooklyn and Queens love.

Circle Line, the iconic green-white-and-red cruise line that has been shuttling visitors on circumnavigations of Manhattan since 1945, is adding two new ships to their fleet this week: Circle Line Brooklyn and Circle Line Queens. The ships will still take the same route—no full circles of Long Island or anything—but the company is acknowledging that visitors are now just as excited about seeing Brooklyn and Queens from the outdoor deck as they are for the Manhattan skyline.

On Saturday, June 20, Circle Line is welcoming the new ships by throwing a block party on the river. Starting at 10:30am, Circle Line will transform Pier 81 (at West 41st street) into a 1940s-style carnival, complete with jugglers, stilt-walkers, a dunk tank, and—most enticing to us—free cruises to the Statue of Liberty.

When they launch a Circle Line Staten Island, then we'll know Manhattan is really in trouble.

Related Stories:
· Circle Line [Official Site]
· Race You To The Top: Statue of Liberty's Crown Tickets Available Saturday [Jaunted]
· The Simple Pleasures of Life: Pedal Boating in Prospect Park [Jaunted]

[Photo: lemoncat1]

Music Festivals / Music Travel / Brooklyn / Greenpoint / Williamsburg / → All Tags

Brooklyn Gets a Music Festival of Its Own

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]

Beer Travel / Bars / Biergartens / Queens / Brooklyn / → All Tags

NYC's Exploding Biergarten Scene

Home to what must be the world's highest concentration of dark, tiny drinking dens, New York's nightlife scene has never been known for roomy outdoor drinking space. But that could be starting to change: NYC is slowly but surely becoming the biergarten capital of the country, with hip drinkers trading in their martini glasses and secret door passwords for picnic tables, ale-filled boots, and lederhosen (Well, we haven't seen any lederhosen yet – but we can hope!)

For many years, NYC had just one truly great biergarten, the legendary Bohemian Hall in Astoria, Queens. This century-old mega-garden is a long-time hangout for Eastern European ex-pats, although the 20-something set clearly got word about the cheap-cheap Czech beers in recent years and the place has become a bit of a zoo lately.

But that's OK, because imitators eager to suck up that overflow crowd have been popping up all over the five boroughs. We've got the hipster take on beer gardens, Radegast Hall, in Williamsburg, and the hard-party version, Loreley, on the Lower East Side.

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Events / Tokyo / Madrid / Paris / New York City / Brooklyn / Museums / Markets / → All Tags

This Weekend in the World: Markets and Museums, Oh My!

· New York City: Can it be true? Is New York finally going to enjoy some 70-degree weather this weekend? Since this spring will find more urbanites with less cash for indulging their al fresco fantasies, we turn to the opening weekend of the outdoor Brooklyn Flea Market in Fort Greene, Brooklyn on Saturday. From 10am to 5pm on the grounds of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, 200 or so vendors will pitch their tents and hock everything from vintage vinyl and handmade baubles to churros and organic everything. Read all about this weekend's deals and the fun for the rest of the summer at the Brooklyn Flea's website.

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Pizza / Food / Food Fights / Food Travel / Restaurants / Williamsburg / Brooklyn / → All Tags

Further Reflections on Pizza: Brooklyn's Motorino Pizza Napoletana

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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Street Art / Aakash Nihalani / Poster Boy / Ellis G / Brooklyn / New York City Travel / Art / → All Tags

Neo Con New York Opening in Brooklyn

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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Quirky Travel / Contests / Bizarre / Brooklyn / Bars / → All Tags

Is Your Facial Hair of World Champion Quality?

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]