I Kinda Got Schooled at Terroir

I love to drink and, when it comes to beer, I like to think that I'm somewhat of a connoisseur. I'm good at picking out beers for friends based on their preferences. I'm often able to determine the type of hops in the beer I'm drinking. I'm a WHIZ at looking down at you for drinking shit beer. Recently, I've been going to Terroir a lot more and you'd think that by frequenting a wine bar, I'd at least try out some wines & get a feel for them. Nope. They have a solid beer selection so, like an asshole, I've just stuck with beer.

This past weekend, Terroir launched a series of hour-long wine classes with different teachers that they're holding twice every Saturday for the next five weeks. The first one was on Saturday, a "Wine 101" of sorts led by the founder of Terroir and the 2012 James Beard Award winner for Outstanding Wine, Beer, or Spirits Professional, Paul Grieco. Since I don't know shit about wine and dude's apparently winning awards for his passion for wine, I made sure I was there.

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This September, Get Some Class

via karmadecay.com

It's September, which means we're in for lots of football, dying leaves, and the return of Spider Man folders stuffed with algebra equations and emo lyrics: school is back! Maybe not for you. Maybe you graduated, dropped out, or -- more likely being that this is Park Slope -- earned approximately two-to-three too many unmarketable degrees. But, you'll never grow if you don't learn, so you should never stop learning. And as we all momentarily believe after a Democratic National Convention, education is the great leg up in America. So, improve yourself. Add a wrinkle to your grey matter. Receive some undeserved praise from an underpaid instructor. Take a class! Check out some of the Park Slope and area options below. As with much else, Brooklyn is simply teeming with opportunities to smartify yourself:

* Friday, Sept. 14: Uke Can Do It!, Jalopy: It's not just hipsters who want to play adorable, old-fashioned stringed instruments. Many accomplished musicians with jeans that fit normally also wield the banjo, mandolin, finger-picked guitar -- and the grandorable of them all, the ukulele. And Jalopy Theater and School of Music, snuggled just off the olde tyme BQE, employs some of the best string slingers in BK. Beginning uke courses tune up on Fridays, with many other classes (in guitar, banjo, songwriting, mouth harp, dance, and more old tyme sound-makin') at other times. 7pm-8pm, 8 wks, $245.

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FIPS Gets Crafty with CourseHorse

ta da!

Like so many other Brooklyn girls, I really like crafts. That said, my affinity for all things crafty is limited by one, my total lack of talent (behold: my greatest achievement to date) and  two, my fear of sharp things, pointy things and flaming things. Taken together, these characteristics have led me to become a serial craft class taker -- but generally only for one session classes that deal with soft, non-threatening materials.

So of course as you'd imagine, I was thrilled when our Managing Editor Kerri asked if I wanted to take a class through the new(ish) website CourseHorse and then review it for FIPS. CourseHorse is essentially one stop shopping for all your NYC class taking needs (crafts, food, career development, health and fitness, and language, to name a few). There are about 14,000 classes listed on the site at any given time, and the average course cost is $55 (though they just added free classes). You'll find classes at places like the Brooklyn Artists Gym or the 92Y, but also lesser known venues like a wood carving school in Forest Hillls. Better still, you can search classes by location, time, date and topic. So if you've ever spent two hours trying to find a class in which to crochet a chicken poncho somewhere in the 5 boroughs that was reasonably accessible, affordable and at a workable time, then you'll appreciate this -- but I digress.

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THE FIPS GUIDE TO THE BEST BROOKLYN CLASSES

You know how sometimes every night you end up coming home, sitting your ass on the couch, eating an entire bag of Funyons, and watching 11 episodes of Dance Moms? Just me? 

Right. So, it's pretty obvious that one of your/(our) New Year's resolutions should obviously be to get the hell out there in the world, learn something new, and take a class!

Luckily, there are some killer/fab classes right here in Brooklyn, so you probably don't even have to haul your ass onto the subway. Here are a few of my fave BK class picks:

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