Leaf peeping is around the corner. Photo by Kirby Kizuki on Unsplash Welcome to the first official weekend of fall, the best season available around these parts. Yes, it is getting dark distressingly early, but on the other hand we’re right at the precipice of leaf peeping/apple picking/hot cocoa/sweater weather times. In these trying times, that’s enough to get excited about, provided that I can actually find a pair of my jeans that …
Celebrate your soon-to-be-vaccinated self with a Key West getaway
Celebrate your soon-to-be-vaccinated self! Enter to win four nights in Key West, redeemable throughout 2021. We’re giving away a getaway that includes a resort stay, $100 toward food and drink, and $750 to apply to air travel or whatever will make your trip a breeze. You’ll be right on the Key West harbor, tucked away in the only luxury hotel in Old Town, with three pools for maximum lounging. Pass it on to your travel partner! Enter to Win
February Culture Calendar: There’s actually a lot to do!
February made a dramatic entrance this year, dumping feet of snow across the East Coast and somehow managing to make the once simple notion of leaving one’s apartment feel even less safe and comfortable than it already did. After nearly a year of strict pandemic protocol adherence and midway through a winter that won’t go down without a fight, never have I felt more thirsty for entertainment and some connection to creativity and the world beyond my (very, very narrow) immediate sphere. Last week …
What to do this week(end): Dec. 11-Dec. 18
The curated vendors of Brooklyn Pop-Up are appearing at a few holiday markets this weekend, including the holiday fair at Lakeside. Photo: @brooklyn.pop.up Happy Friday Brooklyn babies, in this, one of the final weeks of 2020, a year whose motto should officially be “If the virus doesn’t get you, the debilitating anxiety and/or boredom will.” I’m fresh off a decisive win in my office’s virtual team trivia event last night, the sun is out, and I just polished off a slice of pizza leftover …
What to do this week(end): Nov. 13-19
What a long five years it’s been. Photo: Kate Hooker WHAT A WEEK! Before I even get into it, I just want to get it out of the way that I wasn’t in the city on Saturday, so I missed the pot-banging party of the century that happened, although I watched about a million shaky iPhone videos of the same so I was here in spirit. Instead, I got the news when my texts started blowing up in the deli …
What to do this week(end), Nov. 6-Nov. 12
The leaves are all fired up in Prospect Park. Get outside this weekend and breathe in the summery, fall air. Photo: @craig_p_connolly It has been a long, lasagna-filled week for me. How about you? What did you stress eat while refreshing your NYT app and then double-checking what CNN and Fox were saying? (And did anyone else notice the Fox meters stopped working once they began tilting in Biden’s favor?) Going into this election, …
We could all use some distractions here
I don’t even know what to say anymore. It’s been two weeks since I last checked in via this column, and in the space of that time the news cycle has been so relentless and turbulent that it would take some superhuman capacity to process it all. In this episode, we find our sentient orange fever dream and his unmerry band of grifter sycophants in a state of disarray because, after months of actively trying to contract and spread Covid-19, the inevitable has happened and he’s taken it as an opportunity to spread lies and hatred with renewed maniacal energy. The question of whether we can collectively make it until November 3—to say nothing of what …
The site of ground zero, twice
A nighttime street yoga session in Astoria this week was a reminder that nothing can break this city. Photo: Kate Hooker Nineteen years ago today I was just a kid entering my second year of grad school at NYU. I’d returned from a summer internship in India that involved fieldwork in Gujarat, which had recently been ravaged by a deadly earthquake, and I remember feeling grateful to be able to come home to a place where things like that didn’t happen, where the concept of…
Soaking in the final days of summer
Photo: @viamaria_nyc Happy almost-Labor-Day-Weekend, amigos, and here’s hoping you really get a chance to really marinate in the sunny, lazy, final days of summer’s glory before we get rudely pitched forward into a fall that is both unmapped and extremely high-stakes. At the same time that the city moves into Phase 4, with museums and gyms opening at reduced capacity, there are other signs that we are light years from resuming life as we knew it before the all-encompassing smackdown of 2020 swooped in for the kill. My office announced that we won’t be returning until July 2021 at the earliest, which has been a tough pill for…
The test of a New Yorker’s true mettle: Mid-August
Brooklyn Bridge Park has begun socially distanced events this month, from sunrise yoga to kayaking. Photo: Brooklyn Bridge Park And with the blink of an eye, we find ourselves in mid-August, the (in my opinion, anyway) most arduous test of a New Yorker’s true mettle. Year after year, I spend a few weeks in a hazy, sweaty, expletive-laden delirium until I ultimately cave and head north to visit family, and the pandemic has not changed a thing in that regard, as I’m currently writing this from a zero-gravity chair (Have you guys tried these things? They…
An almost normal summer weekend
A Carroll Gardens mural reminding us to spread love. Photo: Kate Hooker Hello BB and welcome to July! Sure, why the hell not? Seems totally normal that more than half of this berserk 2020 experiment is behind us already, right? If it’s otherwise difficult to wrap my head around this incomprehensible passage of time, the amount and caliber of the sustained fireworks activity happening in my hood on Saturday at least made it impossible to ignore that we have very much made it to the Fourth of July. The news of the infection spikes happening elsewhere in the country is obviously discouraging and scary, but I’m so relieved that my beloved New Yorkers are (so far, and for the most part) still being cautious and respectful …
10 Culture Essentials for a Pandemic July
When everything went off the rails in March, we at Brooklyn Based had a discussion about the continued viability of our monthly Culture Essentials feature during a time when it seemed there would be no events to preview. The thought was to give it shot for April, highlighting the smattering of virtual gatherings that crossed our radar alongside new TV, movie, and book releases, with the understanding that after that we’d probably table this column…
Jim Carrey to read from new memoir at Kings Theatre May 5
Award-winning actor and artist Jim Carrey sets out to destroy the celebrity memoir in his genre-bending new book Memoirs and Misinformation. Carrey and co-author Dana Vachon have fashioned a strange and hilarious story about acting, Hollywood, agents, privilege, friendship, romance, addiction to relevance, fear of personal erasure, our “one big soul,” Canada, and a cataclysmic ending of the world—with lots of celebrity cameos along the way. Carrey and Vachon discuss the book and much more at this exclusive launch event on the Kings Theatre stage
How to eat at NYC’s top restaurants for 45% off
Want to save up to 45% when you go out for food or grab drinks? Seated is an app that rewards you for dining out at NYC’s best restaurants and bars. Download the app, book a reservation or walk in, and earn rewards from brands like Amazon, Uber, Starbucks, and SoulCycle. As an exclusive offer, BROOKLYN BASED readers who use this link to download will get an extra $10 in rewards just for downloading the app!
Eating out in New York just got A LOT more affordable
We’re letting you in on our biggest, most life-changing secret. The app no New Yorker should be living without: Seated. Basically, you’ll get paid to eat out at your favorite restaurants and bars, which is insane! That means amazing rewards from brands you love, like Uber, Airbnb, SoulCycle, ClassPass, Amazon, Uniqlo, Madewell, and more, just for grabbing food or drinks at amazing restaurants and bars in NYC (which you’re already doing and not getting paid for)…
June is New York Music Month, get tuned in
June is New York Music Month, the official celebration of the city’s vibrant music scene. The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment has teamed up with New York is Music to offer a month of free events for musicians and music fans alike! Information about free rehearsal space, free workshops for musicians, free concerts, free walking tours of iconic music neighborhoods, a new radio show/podcast about NYC music scene, a songwriting contest, and a comprehensive website listing free and ticketed events …
Where to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Brooklyn, whatever your speed
Photo: Nowadays Ah, 2018…the year that zipped by while tugging at every political and ideological nerve it could snatch. While we prepare to reflect upon personal moments of growth, follies, loves lost and conquered, ledgers jumping red and green, and the tiny victories afforded us by living in this brutal and beautiful city, there is one question that is still left looming, almost universally, in the air: Where are we going this New Year’s Eve? Well, we here at Brooklyn Based understand the pressure you’re under to ring things in on an appropriate note, and are happy to help. Below you’ll find a list of all-nighters, champagne toasts, and public spectacles (beyond the curbside meltdowns we’ve …
Plan your NYC or Hudson Valley wedding at Wedding Crashers
Got engaged over the holidays? You are going to need a few things for your fabulous wedding, and we can help in that department. Our 10th annual wedding fair, Wedding Crashers, returns Sunday, March 17, 2019, and early bird pricing on tickets runs through Jan. 2. You’ll meet over 60 of the city’s most talented and creative wedding vendors, from planners to caterers to food trucks to floral designers to DJs to photographers to photobooths. You might even win an incredible raffle prize like …