Whassup: Embrace the Heat! Edition

Well everyone, yesterday the solstice arrived...wielding a flame thrower. Summer! Brownouts! Yay? Well, before we crap all over this newly arrived season, let's all take a moment to think about much more awesome free stuff outside is than slipping on icy subway steps and worrying about CO poisoning. Welcome to Whassup: Embrace the Heat! Edition:

* Ongoing: NEW Courses, BK Brainery: The Brainery announced a new slate of summer learning yesterday, with new sessions on fortune-telling, Scotch, oral sex (taught by two Babeland sexperts) -- and a topic near and terrifying to FiPS' heart: bed bugs. Get your grey matter on! Various times, most $25-$60.

* Thursday, June 21: Cringe, Freddy's: The monthly parade of delightfully mortifying teenage scribblings returns to Freddy's Backroom. Melodrama never felt so good. 7:30pm, FREE.

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Whassup: It's Summer Already! Edition

With the wealth of events going on this week, we're clearly hip deep in another Brooklyn summer. Though, I suppose, if you want to get technical about it, summer doesn't begin until a week from today. Eff that ish. Rail against the tyranny of the calendar with Whassup: It's Summer Already! Edition:

* Thursday, June 14-Thursday, June 21: Northside Fest, Billiamsburg: Why should Austin get all the sprawling-festival rep when all the hipsters raving about it live in Williamsburg? Good question, which is why Northside, Brooklyn's version of the multi-venue, multi-genre cluster-fest lives in the 'burg (and Greenpoint). Catch it before it gets ultra-huge. Various times, prices. 

* Thursday, June 14-Sunday, June 16: BRIC Shows, Prospect Park: Closer to your Park Slope home, Celebrate Brooklyn gets into the full summer swing this weekend, with a slate of shows at the bandshell: British folkie Laura Marling on Thursday (7pm), music and film on Friday (8pm), and the world-music hip-hop of Balkan Beat Box on Saturday (6:30pm). All FREE. 

* Saturday, June 16: Atlantic Ave. Fest, Atlantic Ave: Celebrating the launch of the new Atlantic Ave. BID (Business Improvement District), here's another street fest for ya, running along Atlantic from the BQE to 4th Ave. You know the drill: tastings, demos, sales, performances, and lots of sweaty dudes in NBA jerseys. Street fair! 1-5pm, FREE.

* Sunday, June 16: BK Beerfest, Wiliamsburg Waterfront: Seventy-five brewers will vie for your taste buds' approval along the waterfront, offering sweet, sweet mugs of fermentation. Getting plastered on beer outside was never so classy. 12:30-4pm, 6pm-9:30pm (including "VIP/Connoisseur" opening sessions), $55-$125.

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Whassup: So Proud Edition

via brooklyngay.com

Well, Slopists, it's an exciting time to be Prideful, especially since the President's on board now. But he's behind the times in Brooklyn, of course, where Borough President Marty Markowitz has long been annoying people at festivals both orientation-neutral and pride-supporting. Catch an event every day leading up to Pride Day on Saturday, but, of course, you can be proud to be you, etc., even without a parade, so take part, pridefully, in all the fun the 'hood has to offer with Whassup: So Proud Edition:

* Through Sunday, June 10: BK Film Festival, BK Heights Cinema and Indiescreen: After the image of a giant green man punching a dude with a hammer wears off your overstimulated retinas, catch some smaller (and likely better) cinema at Brooklyn's own film fest, including My Brooklyn, about the controversial transformation of downtown BK. Various times.

* Thursday, June 7: Sunset Bhangra, BK Bridge Park: Bollywood's still a thing that's hip to like, right? Or, has that passed? Well, it's a shame, if so. That shit should persist, like a heavy Indian meal in your stomach. Enjoy both at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy's Bhangra-themed fundraiser, a tradition since 2001. From $25 for kids, $125 adults. 6pm-9pm. 

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Whassup: Hey June! Edition

via onlyhdwallpapers.com

If you're like me, you're still excreting BBQ from last weekend. (TMI? TMI.) That, along with the sweatiness of the last several days -- and the return of music in the park! (see below) -- means that another Park Slope summer is upon us. Wrap your sunburned arms around it with Whassup: Hey June! Edition:

* Ongoing: NEW Summer Classes!, BK Brainery: Did you know that we actually learn better in summer because the heat makes our brains more absorptive? THAT'S NOT TRUE! But, you can learn a bunch of other things that ARE true at Brooklyn Brainery's new bevy of summer classes. Take on the great aphorizing philosopher (and possessor of ALL the consonants) Nietzsche, re-learn the cursive you never mastered in third grade, bolster your arguments against climate-change deniers, and more.  

* Thursday, May 31: Housing Works Bike Night, Brooklyn Brewery: Housing Works is a fantastic organization, and they've finally got a Brooklyn event I can pimp here. This celebration of Bike Month (I guess that's a thing?) fills you with $2 Brooklyn Drafts in support of BRAKING THE CYCLE, a NYC-to-DC ride supporting Housing Works' fight against homelessness and AIDS. 7:30pm. 

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Whassup: Non-Escape from New York Edition

You're not going anywhere, Snake (via storminforms.com).

There must be some sort of festival-planning wisdom about the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, given last week's schmorg of events (including a certain overhyped two-day event that rhymes with Ooga Booga). This weekend, the event gods are comparatively silent, surely aware that most New Yorkers will be fleeing the City like the Cloverfield monster has arrived. But, if you're taking your chances that the monster is a total Manhattanite, there's still some stuff to keep you occupied in Brooklyn. It's Whassup: Non-Escape from New York Edition:

* Thursday, May 24: Tastefully Naked, Bell House: Comedian/general-purpose-performer Dave Hill releases, or in his terminology "unleashes," his first book, a collection of essays called Tasteful Nudes, with accompanying comedic and musical performances. John Hodgman, Janeane Garofalo, and more share the stage. 8pm, $12.

* Thursday, May 24: Zydeco Dance Party, BK Bridge: The last of three Brooklyn Bridge Park dance parties put on by the Celebrate Brooklyn folks (see, Prospect Park, bandshell) rocks it with Grammy-winner Terrance Simien's Zydeco Experience -- that's Louisiana folk music. Free dance lessons in two-step before the get-down. 7-10pm, FREE.

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