The Brooklyn Book Festival is taking place today until 6 p.m. at Brooklyn Borough Hall. All events-panels, forums, booths- are free to attend! Famous people, like Venus Williams and Sarah Silverman, will be there, along with Columbia’s own Professor Gary Shteyngart and Librarian Karen Green. Get your intellect on!

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

The Morningside minutiae in our little Bubble Above 110th Street is what keeps us together. The tiny parts of our neighborhood that make it both boring and wonderful would seem trivial to anyone on the outside. Occasionally, we’ll be taking the time to share the minor details with you.

• The Entitled Sophomores indignantly note that the price of a Brooklyn Lager at 1020 has increased from $3 to $4, and blame it on imagined gentrification.
• Those Perpetually in Fear of Slipping need fear no more. The mats outside Butler have been upgraded to rubber ones with exquisite traction.
• The upgrades continue inside with Blue Java now filling your cup of coffee for you, while Butler Café hosts its own new vending machine.

Those needing to fulfill their New Year’s Resolution of finally getting off campus need look no further than the DUMBO Winter Pop-Up Market for a healthy dosage of outer borough fun. The Market is an indoor flea market housed in two buildings on Front Street in the trendy up-and-coming Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO (and by “trendy” and upcoming,” we mean neither). The Pop-Up Market will close for the season after this coming weekend; a harbinger of spring and a sad loss indeed for the scores of Brooklyn-or-Manhattan-ites alike who have scored totally rad vintage finds throughout the season. 

While the Pop-Market is certainly an ideal arena for hipster-taunting, it actually also has much to offer, as Bwog discovered during the final fleeting milliseconds of spring break freedom this past weekend. The Market’s smaller outpost, on the left side of Front Street and Washington, houses mostly vintage clothing stands, some (though certainly not all) of which, contain reasonably priced goods such as Victorian lace shirts, $8 clip on bowties, Japanese baseball jerseys and the like. Read more…

Hark! Bwog stumbled upon something new outside of everyone’s favorite place to wait online on Sunday mornings, Community Food & Juice: a new “stroller parking” section, which can be found outside the entrance along a metal bar of scaffolding. That’s right, here in New York City’s more family-friendly crevices, we don’t have parking for cars, but toddlers. Will Community provide meters to make a little extra cash as the brunch crowd waits for its blueberry pancakes? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, be careful not to trip over the line of BabyBjorns outside next weekend on your way in.

A young woman and man meet outside Ferris and engage in a ferocious round of small talk.

Girl: I only had one class today! So, yeah, I’m not too busy today.

Guy: Oh man, awesome! Wow! You could do anything today. You could even go to Brooklyn!

But only if she flies “second to the right, and straight on ’til morning.“

It’s never too late to rediscover your passion for trick-or-treating. For those of your new to New York (or new to post-adolescent trick-or-treating), Brooklyn native Mariela Quintana has the scoop on the borough’s best locations, as well as tips and tricks for uncovering the best candy. Tomorrow we’ll hear from Upper West Sider Eliza Shapiro. 

It would be impossible to attempt to tackle every neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn in one night, so here is a survey of some of its most noteworthy Halloween destinations.    

Essentially, Brooklyn Heights is the Greenwich, CT of the borough.  On nearly every residential block you’ll find Saab station wagons double-parked outside of brownstones unloading gaggles of boys and girls clad in tennis whites.  Although the WASP-factor is unusually high for a Brooklyn neighborhood, the affluence and family-orientation of the Heights’ residents lends itself to Halloween.  The best block to hit up is the lovely, entirely residential Garden Place. There is little traffic here because the street is only a block-long, which gives it a members-only feel.

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Bwog’s food editor Jon Hill travels this week to Brooklyn to find a taste of Australia.

Almost everyone these days seems to have a beef with beef.

Cardiologists blame it for clogging arteries, animal rights advocates don’t like the way it’s processed, and environmentalists resent its carbon footprint. Beef has become a bad guy in the culinary world, a symbol of the excesses and failures of the modern diet.

Yet even with red meat getting such a bad rap, U.S. beef consumption has remained fairly steady. Poultry and pork have come on strong, but as far as substitutes go, we Americans have not found a good alternative to the T-bone steak.

Maybe it’s time to widen the search—to Australia.

Read more…

Yesterday, in search of relatively cheap and relatively nice-looking dorm room staples, Bwog spent the dreary afternoon at Ikea, Red Hook’s biggest and brightest mega-store.

And while the Ikea Red Hook was a sight to behold, the overall experience was a minor success for Bwog’s dorm room and major’s set-back for Bwog’s budget. 

Here are the pros and cons:

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In celebration of the beginning of High Holidays, Bwog offers a roundup of the city’s finest nosh purveyors.  Spice up your Rosh Hashanah spread with some alternatives to Zabars.



Russ and Daughters

If Westside’s lox doesn’t do it for you, then head to the Lower East Side for delicious smoked salmon in addition to a wide selection of other fish, including stable, sturgeon and other standbys. The prices are high, so order carefully. This is also a great place to stock up on more affordable treats like tsimmis, kugel and herring.





Barney’s Greengrass

Barney’s claims it’s the city’s sturgeon king, but Bwog disagrees; your best bet is a Corned beef and sliced onion triple-decker. Prices tend to be high — $12 for a sandwich — but you’re getting a lot of meat.

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Bwog on a Budget, your wallet-friendly guide to living in the city returns this week, with a fall shopping guide for discount points of destination in and around the city.

Discount Department Stores

Don’t let the promises of Dolce and Gabana and Manolos fool you.  Invariably, you will search through piles of strewn polyester before you find any of the aforementioned treasures. Caveat emptor: low ceilings, dim lighting, and checkered linoleum floors induce migraines.

• Century 21 On a good day you might find some Betsey Johnson or Diane Von Furstenberg styles from last season for cheap.  Any other day you’ll just find very long lines and very small communal dressing rooms.  22 Cortland St. at Broadway Read more…

Has your weekend been lacking a certain cultural, athletic or alcoholic satisfaction? If so, check out Bwog’s mid-weekend guide to the weekend update.

Cultural

Danscores by Ofelia Loret De Mola

Shakespeare’s Ophelia was not much of a badass. Rather than sticking it to the man, she let the man stick it to her. Not so with this Mexican-born Ofelia. In the final performance of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s “Sitelines” series, this choreographer expresses her rebellious anti-establishment opinions in performances that challenge the conventions of modern dance. Expect dancing in the street and lots of Mexican punk music.

City Park Hall; September 13-14 at 8; Free

Oresteia

Major Cultures, Global Core, there may be very little distinction between the two, but one thing we do know is that Columbia loves the Western Canon. The university’s love fest with Greek tragedy continues with the Miller Theater’s performance of Iannis Xenakis opera, Oresteia, based on Aeschylus’ tragedy.

Miller Theater; September 13, 16 and 17 at 8
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This weekend, America is turning 232, making it just slightly older than the Columbia College website. Traditionally, Americans celebrate their country’s birthday by cooking meat on grills outdoors and then watching fireworks. For this week’s Guide to the Weekend, we’ve consolidated a few events that will give you the opportunity to do just that.

Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular; 9PM

Prime Viewing Spots: Manhattan: East River Park, South Street Seaport, FDR Drive between 14th and 42nd Streets; Brooklyn: Greenpoint, Empire Fulton Derry State Park (in DUMBO), Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Brooklyn Independence Day Parade; Between 66th and 86th Streets on 13th Ave in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn

Head to 66th Street in Dyker Height’s for the 103rd Annual Independence Day Parade! Who knew Brooklyn had a 66th Street?  Featuring classic parade staples like floats and veteran marching bands.

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Columbia Ping-Pong goes to the Midwest. Next stop: Beijing? No.

If an editorial doesn’t express an opinion or make a point, is it still an editorial? No.

Columbia student locates Brooklyn, but is it “the new Broadway?” No.

Will any Columbia student go to this Soho restaurant for $15 Vietnamese tapas? Sigh.

A White House spokesman goes to … a web forum… to insult Joe Stiglitz. And then George Bush calls him a “green eye-shaded accountant.” Eye-shaded?

This is part two of a two-part series introducing you to the acts playing at this year’s Bacchanal.

“Everything but country,” is an all too familiar way for unimaginative people to define their taste, or lack there of, in music. Sure, we all like different kinds of music, but the ambiguity of that statement is preposterous and country is just not that bad. Like it or not, Grizzly Bear’s music incorporates all sorts of genres and to some extent reflects that glib tag mentioned before. Their music has been described as everything from folk, country-folk, folk-rock and psychedelic folk-rock to electro-folk, post-rock and Baroque pop.

Fortunately, this Brooklyn based quartet coordinates their eclectic influences with dreamy cohesion. The pluck of acoustic guitars, reeds, retro organs and the occasional banjo articulate the soporific voice of the band’s lead singer, Ed Droste. With breathy gasps and sighs, Droste’s vocals give Grizzly Bear’s songs a natural, nonchalant sound. Read more…

Bwog loves food, especially cheap food.   Bwog also loves Brooklyn.  Indeed, Bwog loves Brooklyn Restaurant Week.  Here, Bwog offers a selective assortment of some Brooklyn Restaurant Week stand-outs.  If lines are long at the participating restaurants, Bwog provides a few noteworthy non-participating restaurants.

Unfortunately the borough publicizes rather humbly and Bwog just learned of the event.  But don’t despair! Restaurant Week lasts until Monday night.

Participating Restaurants:

Bacchus Bistro: 409 Atlantic Avenue (718) 852 1572

Simple French fare in an elegant and understated atmosphere.  As its name suggests, the wine list is excellent.

Blue Ribbon/ Blue Ribbon Sushi:  280 (718) 840 0408 5th Avenue

Large menus and large portions is the MO at the Brooklyn outpost of the Manhattan favorite by the same name.  Bwog recommends their pulled pork sandwich!

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