1. Learn how to belly dance. It’s exotic dancing’s semi-respectable cousin! (Friday)

2. Cool off in the kiddie pool with the world’s best view. (Friday – Sunday)

3. See more short films than you can shake a stick at, which is coincidentally, eight films. (Friday)

4. Or, tell no one that this feature length movie is showing and you can have a pier all to yourself. (Friday) (more…)

Reason #89: Super Summer Man is here! Flickr photo by Quiet Storm!

We tell people all the time that NYC is a great place to live even when you’re broke, and never is that truer than in the summer, when the city splits open at the seams and releases everyone into the wide open. The almost nightly barrage of free movies, free concerts, cheap drinking spots and no-cost revelry makes you drunk on the idea that this is indeed the best city in the world, even if you don’t have a dime. And there’s seemingly more every year. Here, in honor of  today’s high temp, our top 88 reasons why summer belongs to brokesters: (more…)

Prospect Park canoes. Photo via Flickr's Megnyc

If you missed free summer kayaking in Brooklyn Bridge Park or are too skeeved out by free boating on Gowanus Canal (it is 90 percent guns, after all), you’ve still got one more chance to row-row-row gently: the Urban Rangers are hosing free “canoe adventure” that around the waters of Prospect Park on Sept. 18. Meets at the Audubon Center at 11am; the trip ends at 2. Kids 8 and older can take part too, and it’s first-come, first-served so get there early. For more info, visit Parks and Rec. For more Parks and Rec, visit this.

It ain’t sailing off Montauk, but there are surely worse ways to explore Brooklyn. Through September, the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club is offering free self-guided canoe tours of the canal, Wednesdays at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m., the Park Slope Patch reports today. The boats launch from 2nd Street near Bond; see the Dredgers’ site for more info. Also, the Red Hook Boaters are offering free “walk-up” kayaking on Sundays from 1 to 5, from the end of Coffey Street in Red Hook. See their site for more info.

Circle Rules Football. You got what it takes?

We all know the story: you pay something ridiculous for a gym membership and swear that this time, you’re gonna use it. Really. But 5 p.m. comes around, and the last thing you want to do is run like a hamster for 30 minutes in front of a flat-screen. You want something more from your workout, something… alternative. Lucky for you, you live in Brooklyn—where football is circular, bar-hopping is aerobic and exercise need not be boring. (more…)

Fred Flare photo by Stefan Tonio

For the Brooklyn teen in search of ways to stretch that ever-waning allowance dollar, five ways to work it out:

GREENPOINT
What happens when you gather all the cutest merchandise one could possibly find and put it in one store for sale? You get Fred Flare (left) The brand with the ultimate cute factor has been an online shop for over 10 years, with affordable and stylish findings: clothing, accessories, home goods, etc.  But they just recently opened a physical location in Greenpoint. With nice employees and a cheerful design, this little store could be the happiest place in Brooklyn. Fred Flare, 131 Meserole Ave, 718-349-1257, www.fredflare.com. (more…)