Sharon Van Etten has performed and collaborated with some of indie’s most celebrated names, now she emerges from the basement with the release of Epic on Ba Da Bing! on October 5. Catch her live local performances shortly after that.
September 21, 2010 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Multi/Media, Music Profiles, Video
From pie weights to Pyrex, each of us considers a different set of elements to be crucial to our cooking, and we often have strong opinions as to why. In this column, we ask chefs, foodies, and restaurateurs from across the borough for the top ten necessities—both edible and utensil—that they keep stocked in their home kitchens. In this installment, Sarah Peck of Ortine in Prospect Heights shares her top ten list.
September 20, 2010 Classic, Food, Restaurants
In the vein of the Double Rainbow Guy, we bring you Tornado Hipster Dudes. Watch a couple of Greenpoint residents completely overreact (ironically or not?) to some wind and rain, from their double balconied-condo. It’s fucking funneling dude!
September 17, 2010 Classic, Culture, In Brooklyn, Multi/Media, The People, Video
Queerespondence is moving it’s monthly bonanza to the fabulous DownSouth lounge at Southpaw in the heart of Park Slope. From now on every second Saturday of the month will be the time and place to party like a Queerespondent should.
September 17, 2010 Features, Multi/Media, Queerespondence, Video
When Kensington was developed in the late 19th century, there surely was no concept of what the neighborhood would become—the crossroads of countries, a confluence of cultures, an ethnic food shopper’s paradise. See what I found, traipsing through ten countries in five blocks of Church Avenue.
September 16, 2010 Things to Do
The Census Bureau estimates that poverty afflicts at least 13% of the country, including one in five people in Brooklyn. Income impacts nutritional health throughout life, and poor nutrition, especially prevalent in low-income neighborhoods, is a direct cause of heart disease and diabetes. Now, the slow food, urban farming and organic movements act as catalysts for a healthier America. Here are the policy changes, present and future, necessary for a healthier Brooklyn and beyond.
September 14, 2010 City Politics, Classic, Environment, Food
We proudly present our new advice series: ASK ALLISON! You send questions to our favorite Riot Grrrl Allison Wolfe, and she’ll serve you up an eye-opening, ear-bending dish of honesty. Trust us – she’s going to make you a better person. In this inaugural edition, Allison deals with the time honored tradition of telling folks to get the f@#k out of the way.
September 14, 2010 Allison Wolfe, Classic
This year’s 5th annual Book Festival at Borough Hall was a hit once again, despite the rainy weather, and we were fortunate enough to catch a lot of great authors. Watch our video for a taste of the fest.
September 13, 2010 Authors Speak, Digital/Read, Local/Readings, Multi/Media, Read Features, The Locals, The Read, Video
The weather is getting cooler, but urban planner, visual artist and recent Brooklyn The Borough profile subject Alex White Mazzarella and his team of artists will soon head to warmer pastures. The clan will fully immerse themselves in Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai, India, this winter to document and manifest their experiences as they engage the city through art and film. In this international-meets-hyperlocal update, Mr. Mazzarella tells us about his plans for Mumbai and beyond.
September 13, 2010 Featured Artists, Film
Elizabeth Streb is a special force. She has jumped through glass, set herself on fire and has undertaken the equally dangerous feat of writing a book, Streb: How to Become an Extreme Action Hero, published by the Feminist Press in 2010. Owner of the performance company Streb and the S.L.A.M (Streb Lab for Action Mechanics) studio in Williamsburg, Streb will appear at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival.
September 10, 2010 Classic, Read Features
On the eve of Greenlight Bookstore’s one year anniversary – actually next month – Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting, the Fort Greene duo who founded the shop, are also set to ring in their first year at the Brooklyn Book Festival. On Friday from 7:30-9PM they’ll host one of the festival’s bookend events, The Brooklyn Indie Party, featuring locals like Melville House and Akashic’s own Johnny Temple, the night’s resident DJ along with music writer Dave Tompkins. We caught up with Jessica to talk birthdays and books.
September 10, 2010 Read Features
Intelligent, wry and hilarious writing make Kate Christensen a serious wordsmith and a PEN/Faulkner fiction award winner. Her titles include Trouble (Doubleday, 2009), The Great Man (Doubleday 2007), and The Epicure’s Lament (Anchor, 2005). Her characters, often set in Brooklyn, are fun to read and incredibly believable; her human portrayals of gay and lesbian characters is also a plus. She will appear at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival on the Me…In The World panel.
September 9, 2010 Classic, Read Features
T Cooper’s The Beaufort Diaries, released by Melville House in July, reads more like a grown-up picture book than a graphic novel. Cooper will appear at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival, on a panel titled How Things Shake Out.
September 9, 2010 Read Features
Amaranth was brought to the New World by West African slaves, and is a staple of Caribbean cuisine, appearing in Callaloo and also as a juice, in soups, and in places elsewhere occupied by spinach. I used mine in a frittata with goat cheese; for the recipe, read on.
September 8, 2010 Classic, Recipes
This year’s Brooklyn Book Festival on September 12 is bigger than ever with two days of “Bookend” events and all-star authors like Salman Rushdie, Naomi Klein, and Gary Shteyngart. We caught up with Johnny Temple, president of the Brooklyn Literary Council, to talk about Akashic Books, how music and literature connect, and who he’s most excited to see at the festival.
September 8, 2010 Classic, Read Features
From pie weights to Pyrex, each of us considers a different set of elements to be crucial to our cooking, and we often have strong opinions as to why. In this column, I will ask chefs, foodies, and restaurateurs from across the borough for the top ten necessities—both edible and utensil—that they keep stocked in their home kitchens. In this first installment, Amy Marks of Williamsburg’s Radish shares her top ten list.
September 7, 2010 Classic, Food
That New Year’s Day of the Brooklyn literary scene, the Brooklyn Book Festival, is fast approaching. On September 12, myriad writers, readers, and other assorted bookfolk will descend once again on Brooklyn’s Borough Hall. In anticipation, we visited with author (most recently of Reset) and “Studio 360” host, Kurt Andersen.
September 7, 2010 Classic, Read Features, Video
New York natives Josh and Benny Safdie are the Safdie Brothers. Remember the name, these kids are going places. This weekend marks the final days of the brothers two-week summer series Emotional Sloppy Manic Cinema, which features films they directed and selected for screening at BAM. We spoke to Josh Safdie about his craft.
August 20, 2010 Classic, Film, Multi/Media, Video
Nowhere in Brooklyn is there a more foreign enclave than Brighton. Under the elevated tracks of the B and Q, caressed by sea breezes, the sidewalks of Brighton Beach Avenue vibrate with a cacophony of voices: the Russian of women hawking pastries, the English of sand-seeking day trippers, the hum of shoppers hailing from Omsk to Kiev.
August 19, 2010 Things to Do
Welcome to the new home of Brooklyn Collective, an artisan gallery and boutique in the Columbia Street Waterfront District that exhibits and sells handcrafted jewelry, clothing, art, and housewares. For the first time since its inception six years ago, the Collective has a space all its own.
August 18, 2010 Art n' About, Classic, Fashion
Aryn Kyle tells a great story about what it’s like to date another writer, especially around these parts. Aryn was born in Peoria, Illinois, and grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her debut novel, The God of Animals (Scribner, 2007) was an international bestseller.
August 16, 2010 Classic, Local/Readings, Video
Despite its tiny size, the Sunset Park Greenmarket has a sizeable proportion of produce geared towards the Latin market, with crates of fresh peppers (poblanos, jalapeños, cherry peppers), tomatillos, squash, epazote, and other herbs both foreign and flavorful. Find out what I did with this amazing array of fresh herbs and veggies with a recipe for guacamole and papalo.
August 16, 2010 Classic, Food, In Brooklyn, Multi/Media, Photo, Recipes
Twin brothers Benjamin and Stefan Ramírez Pérez, an animation team based in Cologne, Germany, make sense of the latest release from Clogs with a delicately animated video for “Last Song.”
August 13, 2010 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Multi/Media, Music Profiles, Video
Signs advertising government food subsidy programs dot the awnings and windows of the small and decrepit mini-grocers that line poverty stricken streets throughout Brooklyn, where rotting produce and goods packed with corn syrup collect dust. With a new federal cut to food stamp subsidies signed into law this week, how can Brooklyn retailers provide better food to it’s most vulnerable citizens rather than just continue to cut corners?
August 13, 2010 City Politics, Classic, Food, State Politics
Todd Shalom wants you to walk down Carroll Street with your eyes closed. He wants you to write poems in the sand at Brighton Beach. He wants to stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge with you, marveling at the worn planks and angled wires. He wants you to experience this great city in a whole new way. Living in New York City, it’s easy to take our everyday surroundings — the size of a city block, the copious amounts of public art, the glean of the skyscrapers — for granted, which is why Shalom, a Brooklyn artist, founded Elastic City.
August 11, 2010 Art n' About, Classic
Jon Friedman is a writer, comedian and producer living in Brooklyn and currently writing and blogging for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon for which he won an Emmy. Watch as he shares rejected Late Night jokes with the crowd, and addresses a letter to his upcoming blind date.
August 11, 2010 Authors Speak, Classic, Local/Readings, Multi/Media, The Read, Video
For local musicians to be prolific in this modern-day cash-is-king society – and specifically in the pricey bohemian mecca of New York City – one has to be realistic, and get one of those things regular people call a “day job” to pay the bills. Often when that 9 am to 5pm or 4pm to 1am shift is done, a double-life is born.
August 10, 2010 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Music Profiles
Huitlacoche, known as “corn mushroom”, “corn fungus” or as “Mexican truffle,” was prized by the Aztecs and is still commonly found as an ingredient in Mexican and Central American cuisine. In the US, meanwhile, huitlacoche research is the recipient of millions in funding—to eradicate it from our crops.
August 9, 2010 Classic, Food, Restaurants, Things to Do
For brunch this weekend, hop on your bike and head to Home/Made in Red Hook. With long wooden tables, benches topped with pastel colored pillows, potted plants abound, and just-picked-fresh food, dining in the back garden feels like a picnic at a country cottage.
August 6, 2010 Classic, Restaurants
This Saturday Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (backed by the Bushwick Philharmonic!) are bringing a full ‘Super Soul Revue’ to Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park. Our resident photographer Jacob Blickenstaff shot some great backstage portraits of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings before they hit the stage at their last New York show at the Apollo Theater back in May.
August 6, 2010 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Multi/Media, Photo
The media you see here is free, both in the sense that you are not paying for it, but also in that it serves as a place to exchange free speech. This speech is not mediated by corporate sponsors. If you find it compelling, please support this project as we build new media for free culture in Brooklyn.
As little as $5 goes a long way as we build our new infrastructure without venture capitalists, grants, traditional media or sponsorships. This project is totally DIY and donations are tax-deductible.
