Whassup: Anti-Mooga Edition

 

Man, the promo and PR push for this GoogaMooga thing has been intense. Everyone's all over this Googa thing's jock (and we here at FiPS have been no better). Clearly, there is absolutely nothing else going on in Park Slope this week, yes? WRONG! In fact, there is so much else going on that it's unreal. Welcome to Whassup: Anti-Mooga Edition:

* Thursday, May 17: Cringe, Freddy's: The shame-fest of teenage diary entries, horrible poetry, and more middle school drama is back to make presenters' faces hot and audience members howl. It's Freddy's own creation and one of the Backroom's most popular events. 7:30pm, FREE.

* Thursday, May 17: Brazilian Dance Party, BK Bridge: The folks behind summer's Celebrate Brooklyn shows in the bandshell gotcher spring covered, too, with the second of three Brooklyn Bridge Park dance parties. The rhythms are Carnival-esque this time, with Brazil-meets-Bayou Brooklyn group Nation Beat, DJ'd Brazilian tunes, and hip-nourishment from the drums of Maracatu New York. Make it your pre-Mooga warmup if you must. 7pm-10pm, FREE. 

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A FiPS Guide to Great GoogaMooga Fooda

It's Great GoogaMooga week, bitches! To prepare you for the upcoming 2-day food, wine and music orgy festival, we here at FiPS are going to be talking about it nonstop from now 'til Saturday.

Yeah, motherfucker! Are you ready to stuff your face, GoogaMooga style? Good luck with that. If you're spending next weekend at the Great GoogaMooga Festival, the two-day Prospect Park event dubbed as "an amusement park of food & drink," you're obviously not doing so for the music. It's all about the food. I mean, sure there's a James Murphy DJ set and a performance by The Roots -- but Hall & Oates as a headliner? That shit's LAME (Ed note: Some of your fellow FiPS writers would disagree, Shawn).

Maybe you were one of those lucky enough to score a free ticket to the event. Maybe you even forked over dough via Craigslist to get your hands on one. If so, you'll have access to food & drink from 75 food vendors, 30 brewers & 30 wine makers. Whether you'll have to wait in ridiculous lines over & over again is yet to be seen. Personally, I'm assuming CLUSTERFUCK.

At this point, if you weren't able to score a ticket, you do have the option of spending that extra $250 you have lying around on an ExtraMooga pass. With it, you get VIP access to as much food & drink as you can handle, alongside events such as a discussion about food & music with Ruth Reichel, Aziz Ansari, James Murphy and David Chang, and multiple Q&A's with Anthony Bourdain. There's even a Gatsby-themed brunch.

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Park Slope Parents Survey Reveals That 44% of Slope Parents Don't Pay Their Nannies OT (Which is totally illegal)

So remember that Park Slope Parents survey on babysitters we wrote about last month? The one that revealed that sitters under 21 years-old typically get paid less, among other things? Well PSP did a similar survey last year, and apparently there was a question on it that asked if Park Slope parents pay their nannies time and a half after working over 40 hours a week. 44% of these parents said "No."  Did y'all know that this is against the law? It has been since 2010. Here's a copy of the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights for your reading pleasure, if you care to take a peek at the details.

When those stats went public, it caught the attention of a workers' rights group called Domestic Workers United, who has since set up a hotline for sitters and nannies to call to be informed of their rights. Priscilla Gonzalez, Executive Director of Domestic Workers United, recently told the Daily News, "This is pretty serious," adding that she is zeroing in on the Slope because she believes that the 4,000-ish nannies working in the neighborhood are likely treated better than if they were working elsewhere. Deep down in her heart, Gonzalez believes that "Park Slope employers want to do the right thing.”

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WE'RE NOW BRINGING YOU EVEN MORE PARK SLOPE PHOTOS FOR YOUR iPHONE

Remember a while back when we told you about these great iPhone lock screens made from photos taken around Park Slope by fab local photographer SPENCER RITENOUR? He's added to his collection and, like last time, FiPS readers can download them for free! All you have to do is click HERE and enter the password 'fipslovesyou'.

We'll be dropping new, free downloads every few weeks, so make sure to check back for more! And if you want to load up on more of Spencer's iPhone screens for only $3/pop, click on over HERE for a larger selection.

Who Gives a Shit: Do you do your own laundry, or Drop It Off?

Since moving to New York, I've never once used a drop-off service. Part of me feels guilty at the thought of handing MY dirty clothes to someone ELSE for cleaning, especially since I'm prone to spilling food on myself. A larger part of me just really likes the way warm clothes feel when they come out of a dryer. There are definitely downsides to doing ones own laundry -- like the time commitment, and the hassle of collecting a bunch of quarters ahead of time (though the good laundromats are stocked with 'em).

When it comes to cleaning t-shirts, ties and underoos, what's your go-to method in Park Slope?