Bitchin' sombrero shot courtesy of Jack Woo on Flickr.

The time has come again to celebrate everyone’s favorite Pueblan holiday. Nope, not the feast of patron Saint Augustine–it’s Cinco de Mayo, which means bar and restaurant specials galore. As luck would have it, May 5 this year also marks the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby, bringing together the best in bluegrass and Benito Juárez. We’ve got you covered on cheap booze and grub, so all you have to worry about is combination costuming to cover your bases. Tulle-trimmed sombrero, anyone? (more…)

Can you attend without paying a princely sum?

I spent the summer of 1996 glued to my living room TV set mimicking Dominique Moceanu’s floor routines at the summer Olympics. The U.S. Women’s gymnastics team went on to win the gold medal on their home turf in Atlanta, and I told my mom that someday I, too, would go to the Olympics. Like most 8-year-olds, I didn’t realize that I would grow into an adult with neither flexibility nor disposable income. If you’re in the same boat, the torch-bearing dream isn’t totally dead. There are tons of £0 (that’s zero dollars, American) events at the Summer Games in London — if you can afford to get there. But unless you’ve developed a sudden talent for competitive canoe slalom, it’s going to cost you. (more…)

Wyatt seems pretty smug about Get It Out There

When you hear the word “experimental,” you probably recall the time you watched Godspeed You! Black Emperor loop projections throughout their entire set or the time you let psychologists film you for money. What you probably don’t think of is comedy. BAM and the IFC are determined to play around with the usual comedy formula (whatever that means) with their aptly named new live series, Get It Out There on April 25. As consenting guinea pigs for up-and-coming comedians to test out new work and push the boundaries of entertainment, the cost for you is free. Performers — or shall we say artistes? — on the first billing are no small beans: Wyatt Cenac (Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Mike Lawrence (TBS’ Conan), Damien Lemon (Comedy Central’s Russell Simmons Presents The Ruckus, MTV2’s Guy Code), Giulia Rozzi (VH1, Stripped Stories), and host Jared Logan (John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show). (more…)

Chris Gethard eats his words.

The first time I attended the Bushwick Book Club, I had just moved to Brooklyn and was on the only-spend-$6-a-day plan. Prowling for free events, I read a vague post for what sounded a lot like a monthly lit-kid singalong. I hate singalongs (sorry, Bell House), but my curiosity got the best of me.

Stationed at Goodbye Blue Monday in — you guessed it — Bushwick, Susan Hwang and Sweet Soubrette host one of the wackiest and most inspired open mics I’ve seen. The concept is simple: each month, a book or author gets picked, then participants write a song about the subject and perform it at the event. What results is an “hour-long orgy of book-related songs,” as the website calls it, that satisfies the snobbiest affectations of music and prose lovers alike. From accordion odes for Frankenstein to piano diatribes on Nabokov, emotions run high in the dimly lit speakeasy, and performers often leave the stage to both raised eyebrows and thunderous applause.  (more…)

Uh, can I see the classifieds section?

If you’re like me, you’ve blamed your lack of funds on everything from The Man to Rupert Murdoch to a weakness for 4am cab rides. But what really causes economic decline on a global scale? The Society for Advancement of Social Studies lecture series presents the ultimate brokester’s (free!) history lesson at the March installment of its lecture series next week: The Great Depression. A bona fide history grad student will enlighten you on Black Tuesday, the New Deal and everything in between while you enjoy themed drink specials. Celebrate your new found knowledge on the Dust Bowl and Big Apple damage control tactics with beats from DJ Kate Pilgrim and comic relief from the Crappy Cinema Council. S.A.S.S. also promises a bindle stick prize package raffle, so you can leave Public Assembly feeling — if not better — at least better-informed about your own financial state. RSVP on Facebook.

Tuesday, March 6, 7–9:30pm, Public Assembly, 70 N 6th St., Williamsburg.

All the cover ladies.

It’s no secret that Brokelyn has been trying to hook you up, from “The broke guy’s guide to dating awesome women” to the n+1 personals to tips on staying passionate while penniless. Turns out it was all for naught, as writers Eric Klinenberg, Kate Bolick and Daniel Smith will tell you at n+1 and powerHouse Arena’s panel discussion next week, Singles Going Steady: Why More People are Going Solo Than Ever Before. Remember the Atlantic article “All the Single Ladies” that enraged marriage enthusiasts and thrilled intentionally independent women (like myself)? Bolick wrote that, and she along with Going Solo author Klinenberg and Muses, Madmen, and Prophets author Smith will be chatting Tuesday night about why so many New Yorkers have chosen to live alone in matters of both lodging and love. (more…)

Motherlovers reunite in front of the Brooklyn Detention Center.

Need a free date idea that borders on macabre this weekend? Don’t pass up the opportunity to tour Brooklyn’s own house of detention free of admission before its grand reopening in early February. The towering, 759- bed gray building in Boerum Hill was constructed on Atlantic Avenue in 1957 as a jail for men, but was shuttered in 2003 due to budget cuts. If you’re curious about the history of the institution (or just want to get the words “penal system” into your date), Warden Walter Nin will be on hand to answer questions throughout the tour, which will include the cells, kitchen and medical clinic. We can’t guarantee a hint of romance — although it worked for Lonely Island’s Mother Lovers, who featured the jail in the opening shot of its video —  but we can guarantee that it will cost you less than dinner at Chef’s Table around the corner. (more…)

Despite its super-smart concept for crowdfunding creative projects, Kickstarter doesn’t always inspire. Donate twenty bucks to get that girl from high school’s ska band a new amp? Nah. Support your roommate’s boyfriend’s recreation of Jackass II in his studio apartment? No can do. But here are six Brooklyn Kickstarter projects we can get behind, starting with a brand new campaign to send the Atlantic Yards documentary Battle for Brooklyn to the Oscars. (more…)

All the sad young psuedo intellectuals. Image via New Yorker.

I was intrigued immediately upon reading the Brokelyn headline, “A free way to date the BK intelligentsia.” Why? I’m single. I started reading n+1 after devouring co-editor Keith Gessen’s novel about All the Sad Young Literary Men and kept reading when I discovered that each issue’s 200 pages were filled with even more sad young literary men’s critical-theory informed ramblings. I was sick of giving my number to boys in bars who seemed smart in person and used all the wrong conjugations of “your” via text. But how good could a free personals site that appeals to shy bookish types actually be? I sent in my post and received an unsurprisingly lengthy e-mail reply seeking a “cunning lit-cougar” a few days later. (more…)

Make your own beer, charge your friends $6 a glass for it (plus tip).

The leaves in Prospect Park may not have changed color yet, but nothing says autumn like Oktoberfest. Instead of dropping cash on a flight to Munich or overpriced craft beer and sausage at a biergarten, learn to DIY brew from the best of them at Oktoberfetsy, a workshop sponsored by Etsy Labs in Dumbo on Oct. 19. Talk shop with Brooklyn Brew Shop founders Erica Shea and Stephen Valand while getting the insider scoop on the best way to brew. If the $5 price tag isn’t enough to pull you away from Netflix, there’s a catch: you can get in free with any beer-related purchase from Etsy, some of which are cheaper than $5, though we dissuade you from sporting this PBR belt buckle. You’ll also get to sip on beer samples while watching a brewing demo of the Shop’s autumn ale, Bourbon Dubbel, then get the 411 on how to replicate the process yourself. (more…)