Does this place put you in the mood for love?

There comes a time in a couple’s relationship — and for some of you people it’s about two weeks in — when it’s time to flee the 17 roommates and upgrade to a love nest. In today’s edition of Awesome Cheap Apartments, we look at inviting one-bedrooms that will leave you enough money for the couples therapy you will inevitably need after moving in just to save on rent. First up (above): a light-filled 1BR in Sunset Park for $1,150, on the second floor of a walkup. Even if you’re solo, a joint like this will help you find a rent buddy real fast. What other cozy shacks beckon from our apartment listings? (more…)

It’s hard to believe that Brooklyn hasn’t always been the blogging, handmade, farm-to-table, indie-band-loving, summer-outdoor-movie-watching fairytale land that it is today. Fact is Kings County had the highest proportion of slaveholders and slaves in the North, thus ranking Brooklyn high on the moral hypocrisy scale. Yet despite the borough’s unconscionable participation in the institution of slavery, Brooklyn was also home to some of America’s most influential abolitionists.

Drawing upon historical documents from the Brooklyn Historical Society and Weeksville Heritage Center, the Irondale Ensemble is presenting “Color Between the Lines,” a musical that explores our great borough’s ideologically compromised past through a range of both real and fictional characters who fought tirelessly to end slavery. According to Irondale their musical is “the borough’s first public history project to explore the abolitionist movement in Brooklyn.”  (more…)

Who is it??

The Local today turns us on to this Craigslist casting call seeking extras to be in a “concert crowd” for a “former 90s Def Jam artist who is releasing a new solo album,” in a video “produced by an Emmy award winning filmmaker.” Sounds enticing! Or maybe sounds lame! But assuming it is someone you’d recognize, who could this blind item be about? Dru Hill? Ja Rule? Musiq? LL? Montell? SISQO?? Someone go take part to find out for us and we’ll let you see our thong.  (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…)

Dao-Palate doesn't skimp on presentation.

On one sunny morning recently, I was laid off. After the initial shock wore off and I figured out how to apply for unemployment, I decided to make the best of it. My first move: taking advantage of late-night inspiration. I’m an industrial designer, and like lots of creative people, my most productive stretch is from evening to the wee hours, so that’s when I work on my resume and portfolio. Waking up around 11 works out well, because while I can’t afford dinner prices at the trendy new places, I can still swing a $12 lunch. Here are some of my favorite new lunch haunts around Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights. What are yours? (more…)

Ah, spring is in the air, the racial injustice is blooming in Florida and those Occupiers are coming out of hibernation with their banners and teach-ins flowering left and right. While things are heating up to near-pepper spray levels in the city, a more mellow sounding event is taking place in Fort Greene Park on Sunday. Occupy Town Squares — a series of mobile, daytime occupations held in parks and public spaces — will set up shop in the park from 11-7pm. They’re bringing a vague-sounding slate of info tables, teach-ins, trainings and political discussions, all designed to “recreate the spirit of occupation and reclaim our public commons … for the purposes of democratic engagement.” You can read the group’s full mission statement here. And if it’s boring, use the park’s new free wifi to check your Goldman Sachs stock.

Why do this when you could be checking Facebook? Photo via Flickr's Pantone261.

This would normally be an item we’d tell you to hold on til the glory days of summer, but with our freakishly beautiful (and surely a harbinger of doom) spring-like winter, you can probably use it this weekend! Today, Fort Greene Park became the latest Brooklyn public spot to get free wifi. That brings the total jacked-in parks in the borough to five including Herbert Von King Park, McCarren, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Prospect Park (by the Picnic House). See the full list of wifi-enabled parks, which now includes Central Park Zoo — so you can instagram your orangutans? — across the whole city below. Wondering how good the signal is? Check out this test drive in McCarren Park from Meredith Olson. (more…)

Ladies' night, and the feeling's right. Mo's photo via Yelp.

“Ladies Drink Free” sounds like the best idea on paper, but as some of us learn the hard way, it doesn’t always pan out. So I was jazzed to discover that Mo’s, one of Fort Greene’s oldest bars, holds weekly free drink hours for ladies. And they don’t involve tacky Spanish-speaking frogs or an unknowing pledge to dance in the window (the aforementioned ”hard way”).  The happy hour applies to cocktails only: 8-9pm on Wednesdays and 11pm-midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. The bar recently re-opened under new owners with a sleeker design, while still paying homage to its previous namesake (Moe’s). How did “Ladiesss niiiight!!!!” get left out of this?

Greene Hill Food Co-op, opening Saturday.

Just because you’re getting public assistance doesn’t mean you’re stuck at Pathmark. The Greene Hill Food Co-op in Clinton Hill officially opens this Saturday much to the delight of locals or anyone caught up in work shift purgatory at the Park Slope Food Co-op. In true food co-op fashion, they’re offering discounted memberships to low-income residents enrolled in some form of public assistance (SSI, Medicaid, SNAP/Food stamps, etc.) under  the ecologically themed “Apple Plan.” If you qualify, you save $20 on your administration fee and can pay off the $150 member fee over five years, instead of six months. Fresh, local food, now even fresher for your wallet. (more…)

This is the 27th in our series on the venues featured in the second Brooklyn Beer Book. This week we’re going back to Clinton Hill for Beer Book newcomer, Rustik Tavern.

Photo via ultraclay.

RUSTIK TAVERN
471 Dekalb Ave., Clinton Hill

What it is: All that it’s name implies, plus more: a cozy neighborhood watering hole and food joint framed by rich oaks, exposed brick, antique wall hangings, and red velveted seating, with patrons and bar staff as warm as the decor. (more…)