Brooklyn, I'm Trying

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The New Year’s Weekend Guide | 28-31 December 2017

Starting a new year offers all of us a fresh start. We make resolutions, we clean out closets, we pay back debts, we join gyms, we fess up to lies we’ve told or promise ourselves that those things actually never happened. We are hopeful. We have every intention of being our best selves. And I believe in us, in all of us. Which means that this weekend is our last chance to be bad. We cannot dance ourselves clean until we get dirty. We cannot start the year on a good foot unless we end on a bad foot. We cannot repent unless we sin.

The best way to start fresh is to shed your clothing along with your inhibitions. You’ll shine extra bright going into 2018  juxtapose it with plenty of bad behavior. Let me be the catalyst. Let’s drop the ball before we raise the bar and let’s do it all weekend. Your New Year’s Weekend guide is ready and waiting.

 

 

THURSDAY

house of yes ugly sweater party

Tacky Sweater Party at House of Yes in Bushwick
It’s really fucking cold out. And because we don’t live in Murray Hill. let’s all go out and dress accordingly instead of shivering outside of bars with no pants on and tiny vegan leather jackets. Break out your biggest, baddest, tackiest, and well hottest sweater and get sweaty at House of Yes Tacky Sweater Party. It’s free all night baby, just like you. Info here, 10pm-4am, 2 Wyckoff Ave at the House of Yes Sweater Party, don’t say we didn’t warm you.™

 

 

dungeons and drag kingsDungeons and Drag Kings at Talon in Bushwick
New Year’s in this city can be kind of a drag. And at Talon in Bushwick, they mean that in the most fabulous way. Get down and dirty at Dungeons and Drag Kings, the best drag show in the borough. There’s burlesque! Trivia! Kink Demos! Drag! Dancing! And some things happening in bathrooms that you might bury deep deep and let die with 2017. Tickets, $10 available here. Doors at 8, demo starts at 8:30. 220 Wyckoff Ave.

 

 

FRIDAY

pjs n djs at littlefield
PJ’s ‘N DJ’s at Littlefield in Gowanus
Just because you might want to just stay in your PJs all weekend does not give you permission to stay indoors. Jam out in your jimmy-jammies this Friday at Littlefield. It’s like the pajama parties from childhood, except with booze. And way less makeovers and way more gossip about boys. They’ve even hired someone’s mom to cut the music and SHUSH! everyone just when things get fun. That might not be true, but you know you want it to be. Just go. Tickets are only $5. Wear your flannels, your silk teddies, your onesies with the butt flaps, that “Cute as a BUTTON!” nightshirt, whatever. Info here. 10pm. 635 Sackett St.

 

 

freddy's bar and backroom
Free Friday’s at Freddy’s in South Slope

People always ask me where the best places to see live music are in Brooklyn. For a place that is teeming with musicians trying to be heard, it can be ironically hard to find. My favorite spots are Barbes in Park Slope, weekends at Le Fanfare in Greenpoint, St. Mazie in Williamsburg and the absolute perfect gem of a saloon that is Freddy’s in South Slope. This Brooklyn mainstay has been hosting amazing live music for over 40 years. Get into it. This Friday hear Vapeism play and then dance all night to DJ C-Prod-G. Info here, 627 Fifth Ave. Head to  Camperdown Elm for dinner first. Get the ribeye, seasonal oysters, and anything Nacho recommends for wine. Trust me.

 

SATURDAY

risky business no pants party
Risky Business No Pants Party at Bogart House in Bushwick
Yeah it’s fucking freezing but you still have this nagging desire to shed your clothes along with your inhibitions and dance. All night. In your skivs. With all of your best friends and future lovers. Get risky and frisky at the Bogart House Saturday. Check your pants at the door and heat it up on the dance floor with Johnny Trike, DESNA, Chilly Mox, and Alex Raouf spinning all night until 4:30. At which point you will collect your pants, leave with a stranger, and then throw your pants on the floor of some drafty Bushwick apartment. Tickets are $20 available here. 430 Bogart St.

 

 

little metal print light painting workshop
Light Painting Workshop at Little Metal Print in Williamsburg.
Wine paint parties are pretty fucking lame. Learning a new skill to improve your photography and better use that DSLR camera that also happens to be BYOB is pretty fucking cool. Learn a new skill to elevate your photo game for 2018 and hang with other photo-enthusiasts and talk about what a necessary evil instagram is and drink wine. This event is FREE. 6-8pm. Info here, 51 South 1st St.

 

 

SUNDAY

new years eve at threes brewing

New Year’s Eve Party at Threes Brewing in Gowanus

It’s an all-day, all-night party at your favorite brewery. Come for brunch at noon for breakfast beers and bites and write your best intentions for the year on the brewery wall. At 2pm get your growler filled with your favorite beer for an extra special year-end price. From 5-9pm sign up for a $10 psychic reading and get a feel for what the upcoming year will bring, in lust and love and luck. From 7:30-9pm test your skills with A Year In Trivia hosted by NPR’s Jesse Brenneman. From 9pm into 2018, there will be DJs and dancing. Oh yeah, and the Meat Hook is providing the party snacks and they are going to be damn good. No cover. This is exactly how you want to ring in the new year. More info here, 333 Douglass St at Threes Brewing, I’ll try anything thrice.™

purple-rain-dance-party-2017-02-1

Purple Rain Party at Syndicated in Bushwick

Break out that raspberry beret and not much more and party like it’s 1999 but pretend we don’t know that Y2K wasn’t going to mean the demise of the world as we know it and don’t let the elevator break you down, let it bring you up. All the way up, and like a little east to Bushwick at Syndicated Bar + Theater’s New Year’s Eve Purple Rain Dance Party. Wear Prince-inspired garb and dance beneath a psychedelic, wall-sized, crowd-interactive visual projection that will integrate the artist’s 1984 classic film. Yeah. $25 tickets available right here. 10pm-2018. 40 Bogart St.

 

bangon new years eve
BangOn New Year’s Eve Time + Space Party in “East Williamsburg”
It’s no surprise that BangOn throws some of the biggest, wildest rave parties in this city. There are still tickets available for New Year’s Eve, os if two huge stages, a silent disco, spinning planetarium, infinity mirror room, fire breathers, aerialists, a pirate ship, art cars, and psychedelic art installations sound like something you and your crew could get in to, get tickets here now. $90. 9pm-5am, 485 Johnson Ave.

 

 

new years eve at le fanfare
Dinner and Live Music at Le Fanfare in Greenpoint
Come see me! At Le Fanfare. Prix fixe menu from 830-midnight will highlight all of the amazing Sardinian fair at this gem of a restaurant in NoGreePo, plus Felix Slim plays two sets to bring us into 2018 with plenty of funky beats. I’m bringing baggies of grapes for everyone to eat at midnight. If you don’t know this tradition, come find out why all of my New Year’s kisses have been soaked in grape slobber and I have had only good luck. Make a reservation here, and let’s toast to the new year. Together. 1103 Manhattan Ave.

 

 

new years eve at the diamond in greenpoint
New Year’s Eve Karaoke at Diamond in Greenpoint
What do you get when you combine the best bar in Brooklyn with New Year’s Eve and a killer fucking host and free karaoke and a dark and sensual little gondola just ripe for New Year’s makeouts? You get your NYE plans, man. That’s what you get. It’s the Diamond’s annual NYE karaoke party with your favorite personality Will “Dick” Clark as your host bringing you all the way into 2018. Free champagne toast at midnight, magic all night. Starts at 9pm, info here, 43 Franklin St.

 

 

new years eve in prospect parkNew Year’s Eve in Prospect Park
Ok, ok I know what you’re thinking. It’s cold. We all know this. But Prospect Park is the best place to see fireworks on New Year’s Eve, before you make your own in the bedroom. Or before you make your own in the park. Gotta keep warm somehow… Anyway, come hear live music from Quintessential Playlist (it’s a band) and admire the beautiful backlit scenery while fireworks ring in the New Year. The magic happens from 10:30-12:30. Bring a blanket and a flask with something warming inside.

 

 

New Years Eve Brooklyn Ball
Brooklyn Ball Raise at Floyd Bennett Field in Flatbush
If you can’t make it to Times Square this year because you think that it would be the absolute worst way to spend a New Year’s Eve or really any eve? BUT, you still kind of want to see a ball descend or ascend in some sort of cheesy representation of the passing of time? Well you are in LUCK. Head out to historic Floyd Bennett Field, you know that antique airport you pass on the way to Fort Tilden? Yep. It seems they are having some sort of rave there judging by this mock-up, so head over. Get wild. Do drugs. Throw your hands up in the air like you just don’t care like these shadow dancers above. And then watch that ball rise baby. Info here. Good luck getting out there, 3159 Flatbush Ave.

 

 

Happy New Year, Brooklyn.
See you in the next.
<3L.

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