Saturday is MCA Day! [Gothamist]
Don’t frack with our beer [Grist]
The Stumptown health insurance plan [NYT]
Nannygate, volume 435 [FiPS]
And like that, hitchhiking came back into style [Gawker]
Screens up, everyone [Brick Underground]
Netflix wants you back bad [Daily Beast]
Little free library is little, adorable [BoingBoing]

Look at all those eager supporters

We know that Brooklyn is a place of crazy entrepreneurship, endless innovation and boundless excitement. And we know that our readership, while they may be broke, loves to get in a support an idea they fill is worth some of their hard-earned money. Which makes Brooklyn a particularly ripe place to run successful crowdfunding campaigns: Kickstarters, Indiegogos, Lucky Ants, Rockethubs or anything else that plays up the appeal of you, the consumer, supporting an idea you truly believe in.

That’s why today we’re rolling out our brand-new Brokelyn feature: the crowdfunding directory! It’s your place to check in on all the ideas your fellow Brooklynites are incubating, pick some to support (when you have the money) and add your own to share it with the Brokelyn community. Submit yours here: we’ll be rounding up the best picks of the week, with the goal of connecting those in need of funding with your eager neighbors looking to support cool upcoming local projects. Check out some of this week’s highlights below, ranging from an artist-direct music distribution service to a new community garden in Crown Heights. (more…)

Where to start with this one, other than to suggest that air sex beats no sex at all? Time Out has a special discount today on tickets to an air sex competition next month, where combatants simulate the nasty for a live audience. Tickets are $8.50 (normally $15).  It’s on June 28 at Drom in Manhattan, and while it’s no dudes’ wet t-shirt contest, this one actually could be worth the outer-borough trek. From the Time Out writeup:  (more…)

Have you heard about this Bon Appétit Brooklyn Grub Crawl (June 1-3)? It’s a weekend-long noshfest at some of the  most hyped restaurants in three Brooklyn ‘hoods that costs a full $550 for a weekend pass, plus a ticketing fee of $26.45 (On Eventbrite?). Join the roving scarfathon and you can sip cocktails at the Clover Club, nibble on crostinis at Frankies, and munch fried chicken at Fort Defiance. And so on. But why so steep? Can any human being possibly eat that much over two and a half days? The simple answer is no, and, it turns out, so is the complicated one.  (more…)

You know they're serious when there's a tent involved.

You already got that highlighter out for Northside Festival June 14-17 2012 ‘cos you are amped for the film premieres (Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Ai Wei Wei in the building), the music sked (GZA of the Wu-Tang, The Thermals, holla), but get ready: a new segment of Northside on June 14-15 will focus on entrepreneurship, aka that DIY spirit that we all know and love so much. It’s called the HÜB@Northside (You know they’re serious about the blowing-up bit because there’s a glow-in-the-dark tent involved. Also an umlaut.). The entrepreneurship site will feature more than 40 panels on design, software development, music and films, featuring faces from Mashable, The Dharma Body, CodeCademy, StoryCode,  ReverbNation, The New York Times, Etsy,  MTV, Rhapsody, MakerBot, Artists Wanted and more. (more…)

Want in? Volunteer, why not?

Aspiring to a career in the fashion industry? If you’re willing and able to work hard, for free, in 4 inch heels for 12+ hours a day, apply now for a chance to volunteer at Mercedes-Benz Fall Fashion Week 2012. Fall Fashion Week, Sept. 6-13 in and around Lincoln Center, is where designers and brands debut their Spring 2013 collections to fashion editors and buyers (so they can start telling us what’s in and out next season).  (more…)

http://www.googamooga.com/tickets/ did you get tix??

Sexy, shadowy shot of moped ruling Bushwick by Lilly Frances.

It was the summer of 2009 in Minneapolis. A friend told me he and his roommate just bought something cool. In his backyard, he showed me this bright blue machine that was too large to be a bicycle, too small to be a motorcycle. At the time, I only had a foggy notion of what a moped was. A week later, I was obsessed.

Two-wheeled motorized vehicles have long been associated with freedom, spiritual journeying and rebellion. (See: Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance, Easy Rider, The Wild One, thousands of rock songs written about motorcycles.)  With a moped, I’d found a way for meek nerds to experience their own version of that exhilaration. Mopeds are faster than bikes, almost as ch­eap, and you can show up places not covered in back sweat. You don’t even have to have tattoos and do meth! This article is for those who are too cheap and impatient for the train and too fat and lazy and sweaty for a bicycle. My people, I present you with MOPED 101. (more…)

Brooklyn gets a new landmark: a store [NYT]
…and throws off the yoke of (George) Washington oppression [BK Paper]
Canarsie’s own El-P drops in on David Letterman [Pitchfork]
NYers get down with medical pot, tell UFC to go frack itself. Fracking too [NYP]
The lesson, as if it needs to be said, is stay off the goddamn tracks [Gothamist]
Jay-Z in “Mr. Mom 2: Mom Harder” [NYDN]
Craigslist ads for open rooms in divorced dad apartments will be AWESOME [The Awl]

Open these doors in person at 10 Grand Army Plaza and see for yourself why we need to keep them swingin’.

The Brooklyn Public Library is super broke right now. Like, the Central Library needs new doors kind of broke. To be fair, the doors are 70 years old, iconic and cannot be repaired — not an easy fix. However, the BPL is up for a $250,000 grant to get new doors (exact replicas of the old ones) through Partners in Preservation, a program from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And just like many of us brokesters, the BPL will only get that money by winning a web-based election for it …. that they need you to vote in EVERY DAY until MAY 21. The library is in competition with a bunch of other projects, including the Guggenheim, the Coney Island B&B Carousel and the Apollo Theater.

But seriously, what better architectural element to preserve than the symbolic gateway to knowledge in our treasured borough. (more…)