Hey Brooklyn. I’m just sitting here hoping and wishing for the time when we can all be together again, dancing and sweating and laughing and sharing food and wine and stories around a big communal table. But until then, I’ve found all the best ways that we can be alone, together. So get cultured, become a home chef, turn your apartment into a dance club and support the community and city you love so much, right here in your weekend guide.
Stay safe, stay sane, and party on, Brooklyn.
Party From Home
I mean this is kind of the best kind of weekend partying… You can commit to a number of plans, and then do them all a little bit while not wearing pants, and then just fall right into bed without having to decide whether or not you deserve to take an Uber home.
This Weekend
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Live this Weekend
Because both Brooklyn Bowl and Joe Russo aren’t dead yet, keep them alive this weekend and be oh so grateful you’re not dead too. Proceeds go to Brooklyn Bowl staff so #revelwithacause and jam out to this amazing band that ALWAYS sells out when they play in Brooklyn, with no lines or lack of tickets, right here. Oh, and if you want to make sure you’re lookin’ groovy, tie-dye some of those dingy whites and get all those stains far out of your mind, baby. (If you need help, I have a surprising amount of dyes at my house. Holler at me. Because if we can’t dye together, we will certainly die separately!)
Juan McLean at Good Room Friday Night
The Good Room has always been my favorite place to do bad things, and this Friday they want to bring that same mischief into your home. Local DJ Juan McLean will be spinning tunes from 5pm so light up the disco ball put on any of the party clothes you forgot you owned and hop on the good foot and do the bad thing. Why? Because you need to transform your space from the kitchen/office/bedroom/study space it has been all week into one Good Room. RSVP for free (and add a donation!) See you out there/in there, you party animal.
Because the Music Must Play On
It’s been hard to have those “show canceled” emails trickle in and seeing the reality of my summer melt away without the reality of wild nights at Brooklyn Steel, Music Hall of Williamsburg, intimate shows in that magical backroom at Rough Trade, absorbing all the weird wonder at TV Eye and the exotic nights that end in kebabs at the Sultan Room. The Play-On Fest is here to help make you feel better. This weekend-long streaming festival will bring you live shows from Death Cab, The War on Drugs, Honne, David Guetta, Weezer and a TON of other artists, and best of all, you won’t feel judged for the relative skimpiness of your festival ‘look’ or have to wait in 40 minutes lines for portapotties. Because it’s an at-home festival. Stream it all weekend and fill your space with music and let your spirits be lifted.
Friday Night with C’mon Everybody
Saving small businesses can be downright funky. Need proof? Get your groove on Friday night with an Everybody, Everybody dance party with all your favorite 80s, 90s, and 00s tunes to support the staff at C’Mon Everybody, our favorite little funk palace in Bushwick. They’ll be spinning from 6-8pm (plus other parties this weekend) all to benefit this amazing space, so feel good and #revelwithacause. Tune in here.
Dance Away the Distance
This weekly social disdance party will bring you closer, socially. Tune in Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, and Sundays at 5pm and get down, apart, together. Let your body let out all of the deep distanced woes it’s been harboring for six weeks now. Dance hard, dance long, dance fast. Let it all go, and let ‘dis dance be the one that saves us. Tune in here.
Let the Lot Radio make your Zoom party a Lot cooler.
Because they’re bringing you live sets from local favorites and friends from around the world, so whatever is buzzing in the background of your screen will help mask those awkward silences and let you test your new dance moves in front of a much smaller, and semi-captive, audience. Tune in here.
Feel the Pleasure times 6 this Friday Night.
Give yourself the pleasure this Friday night of partying, digitally, with Pleasure Jams. This local DJ collective is guaranteed to make your living room look cool, and will make you into a disco queen… even in your jammies. Jam out this Friday to benefit RAPP- Release Aging People in Prison, so tune in here at 9pm and #revelwithacause.
Ongoing
Get Wet, Bathhouse-Style.
Because it may be a while until we can immerse ourselves into this sensual palace in Williamsburg, recreate the energy and experience at home. Bathhouse has posted a few great scrub recipes (including one that helps you get rid of old bananas in a much healthier way than making banana bread) and offers you a seductive playlist to accompany your steamy bath session. Drag your quarantine buddy in with you, or go solo. Bring a cocktail. Immerse yourself and escape from whatever real life is now.
Nowadays has live streaming DJs nightly starting at 8pm!
Yep. Every night, it’s virtually Nowadays. Tune in while you’re cooking, while you’re “working”, while you’re getting frisky or doing whatever else you’re doing over there. And dance like no one’s watching because… no one is, except maybe the cat.
Saturday Night Virtual Dance Parties with House of Yes
There are rules for this virtual dance party, and they are rules that you’ll want to follow. You must wear a costume. You must be moving (and not lurking). You must keep the lights up enough to be seen. And pretty much annnnything else goes. Need proof? They got in big trouble with Twitch two weeks ago. So cure that kinky itch of yours and RSVP then tune in at 8pm, every Saturday.
Or, bring your favorite club into your house…
House of Yes IGTV is coming at you nightly, so learn to twerk in the comfort of your own home, get into some amateur burlesque, or see whatever else they dream up. Tune in for all of the weird, wild, and wonderful that you’ve been missing, and thankfully, without that creepy bathroom with all the bugs crawling all over the walls. Info here!
Go on a Neighborhood Bar Crawl, from a safe distance!
Local bars need your support now more than ever. After a string of break-in attempts on Franklin Street this week, BiT favorites Brooklyn Safehouse and Brokenland were both victims of vandalism and robbery this week. So go let these wonderful establishments know you’re there for them. A few other neighborhood favorites that have been victim to the patronage of this #sidewalkregular include Brew Inn, 21 Greenpoint, and Diamond Lil. Air cheers, to you.
At-Home Chef
We have all been cooking. A lot. And there is nothing more lovely than exploring a new recipe and sharing it with loved ones, or even the roommates that you really pissed off earlier and this is the only way you can think of to say “I’m sorry for being an asshole. I’m losing it.” Here are a few of my pics. Get cookin’, good lookin’.
This Weekend
Local Chef John Turnbull Wants to Save your Pantry
The chef behind neighborhood newcomer turned favorite Madre will also be accepting the challenge of making a menu out of whatever is currently in your pantry. So before you mask-and-glove-up and prepare yourself to wait in socially distanced lines outside of the grocery store, put him up to the challenge of using what you have. And then let’s all meet for happy hour and get really fucking happy when all of this is over. Check it out here.
Or get let a whole Catering Team into your Pantry
Need some recipe information but want to avoid going to the grocery store? Send a picture of your pantry to the amazing team with @chefanienass and they’ll design a meal for you. You’ll be surprised how much you can do with… (gets up, checks cupboard) Sea Crunchies, cannellini beans, steel-cut oats, chicken stock, and crushed tomatoes! (At least, I hope to be!) Come on, give them a challenge.
Bring Italy into your Home with Opera in the Kitchen
Sign up for an Italian cooking class, live streaming from Chianti! Opera in the Kitchen is one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever been a part of, and taught me so much more about Italian cooking. Plus, they were just selected as one of the top 50 Airbnb Experiences in the world and the top 6 in Italy to be available online to help you get through the quarantine. Open your kitchen up to all of the beauty of Italy, virtually. Sign up here, and then bring your own opera by singing into the spatula (you know how to do it…)
ACME’s Fish Fridays are still happening!
and now you’re actually able to participate! Order online here and then pick-up curbside at 30 Gem Street. Then, cook up something funky using these smoked fish recipes I’ve procured, just for you, my fishy little friend.
Learn to Bake Some Swedish Sweets
I mostly want to come out of this being a much better entertainer… because I want all of you coming over to my house and sharing meals and stories and sitting way too close and reaching over each other and laughing in the same air. And that means, I need to keep expanding my repertoire of party-worthy recipes so you’ll accept my invitations. This one is perfect for a brunch party- nothing says, “I care about you and I love you” than the rich Swedish tradition of cardamom buns. Tune into this baking class via Airbnb and right into a Swedish kitchen and learn how!
Scrub Up All Over.
Handwashing has stopped being fun even with the help of creative TikTokers and Bill’s weekly song on Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me… but skin scrubs still can be, if you learn to make them at home. Sign up for this amazing skincare workshop and slough away all of your sins, and germs, and come out looking cleaner, younger, leaner, and way smoother.
No More Milk Waste
Because nothing is more upsetting than seeing farmers dispose of millions of gallons of milk they can’t distribute to food banks and needy Americans, do your part to use your own almost-too-old milk and turn it into an amazing ricotta. Tune into this ricotta cheesemaking class in Sonoma and stop crying over spilled milk.
Ongoing
Learn (almost) all of Ovenly’s Secrets
Local favorites Ovenly are sharing some of their unbelievable secret recipes via IGTV daily, so tune in and try your hand at their famous Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies, their Blackout Cake, and (maybe soon?) their Hot Chocolate Cookies. Say thanks by contributing to their employee GoFundMe and let’s keep this amazing bakeshop going. Plus, stay tuned for their next pop-up shop to get all of the goodies (yep, we both missed the one today…)
Milk Bar Baking Hour with Christina Tosi, daily!
Of all the skills I want to have “when this is all over”, top of the list is the ability to make birthday cakes like @ChristinaTosi because that will inevitably lead to more birthday party invites. To do so, I’ve been tuning into her daily baking classes (ok, well, some of them…) and you should too. Then we can both bake cakes together and go to all the parties.
Get On the Sourdough Train.
Yep. Everybody’s doing it. I picked up a sourdough starter from the stoop of a friendly neighbor and I’m happy to share! Let’s show this precarious yeast shortage who’s boss, and try to learn the secrets of our pizza heroes. Just holler at me if you want some, let’s start something together.
Get Cultured.
There is more available at our fingertips right now than ever before, and I don’t mean whatever stockpile of filtered images influencers have scheduled to roll out to you this month. Check out my favorites below and learn something while you’re “stuck inside”.
This Weekend
Let Green-Wood Cemetery make you feel Alive
Perhaps it feels odd to appreciate life while sitting among the dead, but taking an afternoon to wander the sprawling grounds of Green-Wood Cemetery will help you feel grounded about this pandemic somehow just being part of the history that humanity has experienced and withstood throughout time. They’ve extended their hours, so pass through the stunning gothic arches and get lost anytime between 7am and 7pm. Oh yeah, and make sure you pass by Boss Tweed’s grave and let him know how much you like Cuomo’s unabashed and relatively uncorrupt leadership.
Admit It, You Miss the Subway
Tune in to live virtual discussions and explore (now) closed exhibits with the NY Transit Museum. Our transit workers are so essential to our city, now and always, and their workforce has been affected exponentially more than other industries by this virus- 68 have now died. Dive into the archives and appreciate this amazing system that connects our city and its citizens, and donate here to help keep the Transit Museum moving, and make your voice heard to make sure that these “bailouts” include money for states and thus the cities and the ways in which we move within them.
Gallery Hop around Chelsea with David Zwirner
These are the Saturday’s I miss most- dodging tourists on the Highline (but still loving every inch of this glorious promenade) and then gallery hopping through Chelsea. David Zwirner wants to bring that energy back and let you visit some amazing galleries, plus tune in to artist interviews and discussions to bring you further inside the art. It’s all here for you, tourist-free.
Wax Poetic with this Saturday Line-Up
Tune into Rupi Kaur’s weekly 12pm poetry workshops, then have a mind-bending afternoon with Pioneer Works’s event titled “The Universe in Verse,” featuring astronomers, physicists, astronauts, authors, poets, and other spiritually inspired and spatially connected beings who will be bringing you poetry readings that will help you understand the physical universe we inhabit. And anytime, get a poem chosen and delivered especially for you via The Poetry Foundation. Let’s take the time to appreciate where we are, who we are, and where we’re going, in so many words.
Travel the World through the Portals of Artists’ Studios
Having trouble envisioning your space as a studio? I get it. Somehow my attempts at at-home wine-and-paint nights end up just drunk and messy. And as much as I like to pretend I’m at the peak of productivity being creative at home, all of my projects are somewhat joyfully interrupted by my cat. Come on this virtual tour of artists’ studios all around the world and get inspired on how to change your space, creatively. Plus get an inside look at the process that brings us so many masterpieces. Tune in here.
Meet Your Friends at the Cinema
So Netflix is now letting all of us go to the cinema together, at home, with this Party feature. Choose a film to watch together, at the same time, with your friends while laughing and discussing the film without being shushhhh-ed by serious theatergoers. If you need help choosing a film, I use a damn impressive bracket system that was dreamt up by a friend to help create an impartial voting system. Holler at me and I’ll explain. See you at the (virtual!) cinema!
Paint Classes through Happy Creative Dig
My favorite little creativity nook is taking their coveted wine paint nights online, for free! Learn to paint alongside a bunch of strangers, virtually, who won’t judge you for refilling your wine glass every time you clean your brush. This Sunday’s lesson will take us farther west than the West Village, all the way to Antelope Canyon in Arizona, so pair it with a nice dry white and get ready to find Pepper the cat somewhere in the desert. Sign up and see the full schedule here, and choose from general admission (free!) to painter package (have supplies mailed to you!) or ‘Taste of the World’ which includes an assorted food box. Cheers, future painters! or just drinkers with paint-covered hands!
Live, Local Comedy this Weekend!
There is so much good local comedy that you can access from home right now while supporting local artists too. Find some via the Brooklyn Comedy Collective this weekend and have a laugh. We all need it.
Ongoing
Decameron, Daily- Streaming Stories from an empty Italian Museum
As a response to the country-wide lockdown in Italy, Triennale Milano (an amazing design-focused museum in Milan) started a moving Instagram Live event series called Decameron: streaming stories that invites artists, designers, architects, intellectuals and other creatives to enter the empty museum and “develop a personal story”. If you’re over hearing Cuomo say the word “ventilator” or using metaphors about grinding gears, change up your 11am tune-in to this one. Livestream daily here, through April 30th.
Be a Peeping Tom.
There’s something about the 7pm clap that gives us these little peeks into the lives of our neighbors, through their windows. Local photographer @johnnycirillo has been capturing that magic through this NYC Quarantine portrait series. Scroll through to find someone you likely know, and send him a DM to be captured during your intimately noticeable moments.
Help Dr. Fauci Get Revenge
I’ve never been a gamer, but I have always been one to #revelwithacause and to seek entertaining ways to do philanthropic work. And this, my friends, is a great one. Fauci’s Revenge is a videogame from Brooklyn’s Beat the Bomb team and is a part of the #BeattheVirus campaign to raise $25,000 for NYC Hospitals and first responders, and it’s darkly hilarious. Play now and show your support.
Read more. A lot more.
The New York Public Library has over 300,000 titles available for free download! Become an expert on anything or just really enjoy that reading nook in your apartment that you never use. (Hint: Anything is a reading nook if you read in it). Plus, they’re teaming up with WNYC to make a virtual book club, so now you get books AND friends. Start here.
The New Museum, home delivery!
Sign up for daily content and virtual tours to feed your creative energy and get yourself out of that foggy quagmire.
Curious? That’s Natural, baby.
Check out the archived photos from the Museum of Natural History because we’re all a little bored of staring at our house pets. Big cats are better. Check out some amazing images of how they put together the dinos (I like to imagine while singing “the leg Bone’s connected to the… HIP BONE!”) and all of those spooky dioramas. Seriously, check them out here.
Watch old Broadway shows via the Museum of the City of New York.
Well HELLLOOO Dolly! (I have no idea if that’s part of the play at all… but, I’m about to find out.) The MCNY now has a TON of amazing cultural interests from our city’s history available online, like hundreds of Broadway plays! So stop mindlessly scrolling through Netflix. Watch these instead.
Watch this New York City Documentary on Amazon
Don’t we realize that this city is the reason why most of us are here? Our families, our heritage, our curiosity was all, likely. led to the promise of New York. Our ancestors fought to get here and to make moves here and so many of us have returned to find ourselves here. Don’t let that be lost. Watch this amazing Ric Burns series. Find your heritage here and ask your parents to connect with your eldest living relatives. Let’s carry on the torch.
Tell Spotify You Have Other Plans.
Because the Met Opera is bringing Opera into your home, every day. Opera everyday via @MetOpera, So tune in and feel cultured, without even dressing up. Different performances nightly, but I guarantee you’ll like them each better than the Pirates of Penzance.
Or, head East from the UWS and travel to Paris instead by tuning into the Paris Opera, for free! Pair with a rich Bordeaux and some foi gras and that beret you’ve never been able to get quite right and sink into your inner Francophile.
Atlas Obscura’s Wonder From Home
All the best ways to get lost and feel better on the internet are waiting for you right here via Atlas Obscura. Because mindlessly scrolling never really led anyone to where they wanted to be anyway, here’s the anti-Instagram black hole.
Show Your (local!) Support
One of the most important ways we can spend our time and hard-earned government paychecks is by funneling that money back into our communities and supporting local businesses. Don’t let them shudder once we all decide to “open back up”.
Help Your Community
Download Deed and find volunteer opportunities in your community that will directly help food banks, essential workers, undocumented residents and small businesses, like packing and delivering food and thus spreading joy with the North Brooklyn Angels! Sign up with New York Cares for both community-based and city-wide volunteer opportunities. Can’t volunteer your time? Help the helpers by supporting the restaurants who have transitioned into full philanthropic endeavors but preparing and delivering meals to essential workers. See the list here and help them keep helping.
Rooftop Reds’ Local Shop Keeps Expanding
Which means this magical little rooftop vineyard has become your one-stop market to help support tons of local restaurants, breweries, distilleries, butchers, and makers. Find their full list here and fill your box with whatever mix of wine, whisky, beer, kimchi, cured meets, cheeses and sake makes your heart content.
Get Coffee Locally
Try switching up your daily cup a few times a week by patronizing your local shops. In Greenpoint, neighborhood darlings Odd Fox and The Early just curbily reopened this week, and favorites Cafe Grumpy, Pueblo Querido, Champion, and Sweet Leaf are consistently serving up some of the best beans and brews in this neighborhood that seems to be the Mecca of independent coffee shops and laundromats. Buy a cup, buy some beans, tip your baristas, show them how much you love them… and maybe how much you appreciate the number of hours you’ve sat and slowly sipped on one cup of coffee over an 8-hour “work day”… (Shame on you. Get two!)
Help Yourself Stay Steady with these Goods
Sick of trying to snag a puzzle online? These guys are making iconic New York jigsaws, and tons of other amazing locally made goods that you need right now, right here in the Navy Yard via Steady Goods. Check out the site and choose whatever you need to keep your ship steady, and feel good about helping to revive and let survive the new industries in the historic Yard.
Turn Off Netflix, and tune into Ladies Rocking the Lens Fest
This annual festival is not only offering access to all of this year’s amazing films online, but also donating all proceeds to the Global FoodBanking Network and the World Central Kitchen. Get inspired by over — award-winning independent films and feel good while keeping yourself entertained this weekend. Netflix will be there when you’re done. Promise. #watchforacause
Ongoing
Makeup for Lost Time with Zoe’s Beauty
There is no better way to show your support for small businesses than in a way that makes you look, and feel, better. Personally, I think it’s extremely important to make sure our eyes our expressive when they are the only part of our face we can share with the outside world. Our eyes need to say both,“Hi! How are you! I love you! Stay safe!” to everyone we pass, and also, “daaaamn right you can’t wait to see what I’m hiding beneath this hazmat suit” to a select few. The best way to make your eyes talk, your face glow, and your heart feel better for supporting this amazing place is by placing an order (DM them here!) and then picking up, curbside, on Fridays. Orders of $50+ qualify for free shipping. Let’s makeup for lost time, together.
Tend Greenpoint Pick-Up!
Because bringing a little life into your home while in isolation lifts everyone’s spirits. Check out their selection via Instagram and call in an order to pick up!
Step Up your Virtual Cocktail Parties with St. Agrestis + Greenhook Gin Negronis, plus hand sanitizer!
As if I couldn’t love these two distilleries and the magic they make together when stirred in a glass, Greenhook has been donating hand sanitizer to our local sanitation workers, who are ALSO on the front lines but too often forgotten about. Their spirits are available for curbside pick-up or local delivery, get a little tipsy and stay clean while you do it.
Help the businesses that are Helping the Helpers
There are so many AMAZING businesses that are using their resources (supplies, workers, time) to prepare food to donate to essential workers. Which is just about the best reason I can think of to order food from any of the businesses on this list (offering free meals to families in need!) or through this project from the Taralucci family or this one from Jose Andres (although he won my heart as the moment I stepped foot into Mercado Little Spain). Plus, local favorites Pies ‘n Thighs, Van Leeuwen, Dar525, Eagle Trading, Vinnie’s, Bierocracy, Gertie, The Olmsted, and The Wheelhouse are all donating locally, to hospitals, fire departments, and families in need. And as always, the North Brooklyn Angels are always deserving of support, especially now.
Barano Brooklyn, dinner + wine pairing
Offering their full menu and custom wine pairings through neighboring bottle shop Spirit Animal, wine and dine yourself finely tonight. All info here.
Edouard Massih Quarancatering
This Greenpoint local chef is posting his daily recipes for a homecooked, catered meal to help feed and connect you to your community from the comfort of your own mess-free kitchen. Follow him here and join in this week’s menu options, complete with a mocktail ready and waiting for your favorite liquor to be added.
Archestratus Contact-less Market!
Your favorite cookbook store and cafe has been working with local makers and markets to bring you this, a contactless market open this Saturday! Order online and pick-up right outside of the store, from 1-3pm. 160 Huron St.
Pour one out for your homies…
And please, support your favorite local businesses by contributing to their staff’s GoFundMe. There are 321,000 restaurant industry workers who are now, all, unemployed and potentially without jobs once “all of this ends”. Contribute the extra cash you have in your pocket that you haven’t been using as tips to help them get through this indefinite period of confusion. Le Fanfare in Greenpoint has been my family and livelihood for nearly 3 years now, and also provides the means for me to create all of this, for you. Show your support, to us, to them, to everyone.
Ponyboy Bottled Cocktails and new Mexican To-Go Menu!
Featuring the work of local artists, 10% of each sale goes to the artist. #revelwithacause
For a few other creative ways to show your support, by one of these amazing t-shirts from Moonlight Mile, get some amazing French wines at a discount from Sauvage, and buy one of these charming tote bags from Anella.
And Finally, what to Avoid like the Plague during Quarantine
QuaranteeNYC can Suck It.
Anyone who is choosing to ruthlessly profit as a result of this pandemic can go fuck themselves. And even worse if your marketing is this out of touch. Can I report this disgusting party foul to the Chief of Nightlife? Virtual For-Profit Parties Like QuaranteeNYC which has a dress code, ticket price, VIP tables and bottle service… What the fuck. Please just read what you get with your Premium VIP Table- For $200.00+$13.80 tickets provide private space for you and your company on the virtual premises of Quarantee. You can freely move back and forth between the table and the dance floor(via camera). You will be able to listen to the DJ, watch all performers and artists, and engage with your friends through video chat. A dedicated host will support you in making your virtual clubbing dreams come true. For groups up to 10 guests.
Yeah. Fuck you guys. Instead, choose from ANY of the amazing event options above. Party on, Brooklyn.
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