The MLK Holiday weekend just passed, which is the yearly opportunity to see party flyers with images of Rev. King, next to a carefully curated kaleidoscope of booty-clapping strippers, magnum bottles of Ciroc and a spread of big-face money. The good Reverend must be making it rain, errrr, turning over in his grave knowing his pictures are being used to sell lap dances from a lady named Lexus, whose government name is probably Diamond.
It's also, almost about that time: The Superbowl is cresting on the horizon and already shrouded in the Deflate Gate controversy, though deflated balls sounds like guerrilla marketing from Cialis, as a workaround to buying a Superbowl ad. Big Pharma generates huge profits, but $4.5 Million dollars, for a thirty second spot, is a grip of money for any company. You know how many people you can feed with $4.5 Million dollars? Well, if it's the eighty people who hold as much wealth, as half of the world's population, then maybe only eighty people, as $4.5 Million could be their combined brunch tab... before tip.
So, if we just passed the first holiday weekend of the new year and the biggest sports, drinking and domestic abuse event is not 'til next weekend, what happens during this weekend? Well that depends on what you like to do, when you like to do it and who you like to do it with. Either way, I suggest that you do it 'til you're satisfied, which is not just a chart-topping 70s tune, written by Billy Nichols or a slogan on a T-Shirt you copped at Goodwill, but a bonafide, beneficial ethos to guide your life.
Now onto the event picks for this weekend:
THURSDAY & FRIDAY
BRER RABBIT:THE OPERA
BRIC, 647 Fulton Street, 8pm
Thursday & Friday, $15 in Advance
Ok, so Thursday ain't the weekend unless you're still in college...but Bre Rabbit The Opera: A Funky Meditation On Gentrification, is a not to be missed event. It's down at BRIC and is part of their January conversation about gentrification:
"Brer Rabbit The Opera: A Funky Meditation On Gentrification (Work-in-Progress)" is an exploration of tricksterism, techno-animism and urban survival techniques, that tackles the modern dilemma of gentrification through the lens of legendary black folklore hero, Brer Rabbit, and his birthplace, the Briar Patch. A collaboration by performance artist Aisha Cousins, musician Greg Tate, and Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, Brer Rabbit The Opera will merge music, performance art, and community engagement to create a final piece that engages BRIC visitors of all cultures in reflecting on the life lessons our respective Briar Patches have taught us."-BRIC
Go See That! Click Here for more information
FRIDAY
ENJOY THE RIDE: Social Lovers LP release party
Splitty, 415 Myrtle Avenue (Clinton Hills), 10pm
$Free
I'm normally leery about going to a record release party, for a band that I've never heard of before, so I did you all the favor and listened to the EP, and it's a real jam! A dancey, kinda airy, post disco, sexy-fun affair-- what you put on in the morning after hooking up on Tinder, then finding that you actually like the person, so you want to make some breakfast. It's that kind of music. Hit their Facebook Event Page for more info and hit their SoundCloud to listen to some of the tunes.
STRICTLY NEW YORK 2
Pandemic Gallery, 22 Waverly Avenue (Brooklyn Navy Yard), 7pm-11pm
$Free
This is looking like an amazing group show. Fifteen photographers showing NYC through their eyes. This city is so vast, it's curious to see it through 15 other sets of eyeballs. Drinks will be served, which I'm assuming will be adult beverages, though I'm not sure if they're complimentary. Another highlight is the B-Boy performance, by Break Fresh NYC, which will bring it all full circle on the, Strictly NYC, tip.
Interestingly for me, the exhibit is at the Pandemic Gallery, over by the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and because of the HBO show The Wire, the word Pandemic now reminds me of Bawtamore! If you watched show, you know why.
Hit up their Facebook Event Page with any questions
SATURDAY
NATIONAL READATHON DAY
Everywhere, 12pm-4pm
$Free
Like drooling infants, I know that some of you are enamored by pretty pictures, but the world needs more reading. And this Saturday afternoon, National Readathon Day asks you to set aside four consecutive hours, to do nothing but read. There's a do-good component as well, via a fundraising mobilization to fight illiteracy. Yeah, fighting illiteracy... some people can't read, which is just insane in 2015!
So just do it. You can do it in a chair, you can do it at a fair, you can do it with Cher or with an Au pair. If you want to do it with a group of people, hit up Powerhouse Arena for their National Readathon Event.
That's down in D.U.M.B.O., ya big dummy (Fred Sanford Holler)
DEAD DISCO
Baby's All Right, 146 Broadway (by Williamsburg Bridge), 12:00noon
$Free
This brunch situation is not a night time disco, nor will any dead people be in attendance. What will happen, is that while you're enjoying your food and boozy brunch beverages, DJ Kuato will blow your mind by mixing Disco, Soul & Funk classics, with The Grateful Dead. Word to Jerry, I have no idea how he's going to do it, but it should surely be an interesting start to your Saturday!
Maybe the attire is tye-dye shirts with bell-bottom pants? I don't know, but hit up their Facebook Event Page with any questions
POLYGLOT DISCO
Secret Project Robot, 389 Melrose Street (Bushwick), 9pm
Anytime I see the word discotheque, in all of it's 60's, French splendor, it makes me wanna drink mushroom tea and work for a spy agency. This flyer is pretty killer and it doesn't contain all that's going on for this night of Jonathan Toubin's, New York Night Train. It's live bands, various go-go dancers, a visual show and the DJs are playing strictly 45's of crazy stuff. I can't 'splain it better than they do on their Facebook Event Page, so hit it up for more info/questions.
SUNDAY
PUPPET SCULPTING WORKSHOP
Lone Wolf Tribe Studio, 138 South Oxford St. (Fort Greene), 2pm
$70 (All sculpting material included)
If you really love somebody, you will book this puppet-making workshop and make them some sort of puppet for Valentine's Day.
"Tap into your creative potential and learn to sculpt your very own foam-rubber puppet! Limitless character possibilities await you in our fun, hands-on carving workshop at the Lone Wolf Tribe studio in Brooklyn (right around the corner from BAM)." I took that right from their Facebook Event Page, which you should hit up for more info.
You'll be working with foam rubber, which gives it a solid, life-like quality. Perhaps you're thinking how incredibly creepy a large puppet can be, but that's just your puppet fear; get over it! Lone Wolf Tribe, led by Kevin Augustine, master puppeteer, will have you shaping up something incredible in no time, but you should visit the Event Page to sort yourself out.
The workshop is in the Barclay Center neighborhood, so maybe you can make a puppet to heckle the Brooklyn Nets! They need some more fire under their butts, as they're currently in 9th place in the East (which means out of the playoffs)
Getting booed by a puppet is the one thing that could make a professional basketball player step his game up! No sculpting experience needed.
THE BROOKLYN WEIGH
The Kymberle Project, 1332 Atlantic Avenue (Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights), 5pm-12Midnite
It's a full day of vendors, bands, DJs, brands and a producer showcase on Sunday, so if you're in need of some tough beats, you should be in attendance. Hit up their Facebook Event page for more info or with questions or visit their Tumblr
Now go out and enjoy the Freakin' Weekend!!
