Real Journalism written by people
Comedy Every Tuesday in Williamsburg enjoy some free beer from 8-8:30pm as Ambush Comedy (hosted by Lucas Connolly and David Piccolomini) performs in the back of a Two Boots Pizza joint. Free. 558 Driggs Ave. The Bell House hosts “Oh, Such a Huge Show, Oh!” The Comedy/Variety show returns July 6 for a benefit performance for The Young Center for […]
Even by New York standards, Nick Fortugno has a radical idea. In a city where people are notoriously loath to make eye contact or take out their earbuds, he wants New Yorkers to run around and be ridiculous in public. Fortugno, 44, is a co-founder of the Come Out and Play Festival, an annual celebration of street games that’s been […]
From May to September, typically on the second Wednesday of the month, the arts organization Pioneer Works hosts $5 first-come-first-served lunches in its garden at 159 Pioneer Street. The series started in 2017, but I went for the first time this June. For each gathering, Pioneer Works hires a new chef to cater the event. When I attended, the food […]
The plays are some of the greatest ever written in the English language. The venue is a product of necessity, opportunism, and the quirks of New York real estate. This July marks the 25th anniversary of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, the annual production of the Bard’s plays that is exactly what it sounds like. Produced by local theater group […]
Question: “Where should we meet for drinks?” Answer: Gowanus Beat the heat and bask in the toxic fumes of Brooklyn’s best-kept secret. Gowanus exists right between the middle of nowhere and the middle of everything. The constant growl of the F/G train, low-to-the-ground buildings, and a general air of unfinished business has given the sprawling central Brooklyn neighborhood a bad […]
Red Hook residents know David Sharps as the founder, owner and full-time resident of the Waterfront Museum. Housed on Lehigh Valley Barge #79, docked at the end of Conover Street, the museum celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. What they may not know is that his years on the Red Hook waterfront are just the most recent chapter in an […]
We’re all familiar with the “One Crazy Night” format immortalized by classics such as “Dazed and Confused” and “American Graffiti.” The teen movie canon welcomed the newest member of the Class of 2019 this summer, “Booksmart.” Olivia Wilde’s (you know her from “The O.C.”, “Tron,” or a number of semi-forgettable romcom-adjacent films of the 2000s) directorial debut kicks into gear […]
Did somebody say High Concept? After a conk on the head (during a mysterious global blackout, no less), Jack Malik, played by th talented Himesh Patel, awakens to a world that never knew The Beatles. He alone, it seems, is aware of their very existence. He even Googles them. Nothing! Jack’s a musician, can play a few Beatles numbers, and […]
It was a beautiful New York early summer day, not too hot with a refreshing light breeze. You know, the kind we have before it gets unbearably hot and sticky. Having finished a quick bite with a friend, we decided to take the long way from Wall Street to check out a new gallery opening in Brooklyn. Crossing the Brooklyn […]
Last June, Sunset Park’s Target Margin Theater commissioned the Brooklyn-based experimental theater company, The Million Underscores, to stage “1001SUR” as part of its three-play festival News of the Strange Lab, which reimagines the classic story of The One Thousand and One Nights. “1001SUR” begins as you might expect, with the foundational myth of Scheherezade’s story: royal cuckold gone hunting; horny, […]
If one could go back in time and visit Red Hook in the 1940s, one would, at about 4:30 am, find a scene of desperation on its crowded waterfront. Days began with “longshoremen huddling in doorways in rain and snow on Columbia Street facing the piers, waiting for the hiring boss, on whose arrival they surged forward and formed up […]
Great TV shows not only reflect the current culture, but also offers a subtle critique of it — avoiding heavy-handed, simplistic moralism in favor of deeply comic and profound reflections on the nuanced power structures and characters that create what issues the show critiques. Others are wholesome depictions of society as we wish it would be. There is not a […]
A BRIEF HISTORY OF VOODOO FEST So, it’s early July and you, for some reason, are already planning your Halloween night activities. Good for you, you forward-thinking person! It’s time for a trip to New Orleans for Voodoo Fest. But what IS Voodoo Fest? Officially named the Voodoo Music and Arts Experience, Voodoo Fest has become a Halloween destination for […]
