Subject: Williamsburg (Brooklyn)

• IT’S BUSINESS TIME

  April 29, 2008

• W-O-R-D!

  January 21, 2009

• Hip Rags

  February 11, 2009

• Pilgrimage

  February 11, 2009

• Twi the Humble Feather

  February 25, 2009

• Williamsburg's Nouveau Poor Eat Free Pizza With Their Beer

  February 15, 2005

• Mama Mia: A Bar That Feels as Cozy as Home But With Better Drinks

  February 28, 2006

• On Lockdown in Williamsburg

  August 15, 2006

• 'Speak Easy Presents Maetrik, Gregory Shiff & Atomly'

  March 25, 2009

• Rent-Poor Choreographer Proposes

  March 9, 2004

• Escape From Bedford and Head to an Oasis in Williamsburg

  July 6, 2004

• WAX Lights a New Candle Instead of Cursing Developers

  August 10, 2004

• Scary Hipsters

  October 26, 2004

• The Gong Show: Where Free Shots Are Served With Each Bang

  April 5, 2005

• Cracking the Code

  November 15, 2005

• Evil Empire Strikes Back

  July 24, 2007

• Borderline Inducktrination

  July 24, 2007

• Queer Eye for the Straight Dive

  September 4, 2007

• PHILLY ATTACKS

  March 25, 2008

• BACK IN THE SADDLE

  July 29, 2008

• NORTH BY NORTHSIDE

  June 3, 2009

• Halloween Critical Mass

  October 22, 2008

• Strangeness on a Train

  January 31, 2006

• 'Discovering' Williamsburg

  April 19, 2005

• Look at This "I'm a Fucking Hipster" Self-Hatred

  These went up earlier this week in--where else--Williamsburg. They're from Head Hoods, a project on behalf of a dude that's taken shape in the form of faux-stenciling I CAN'T AFFORD TO

  May 20, 2009

• Times Hipster-Bashing Perversely Arouses Our Sympathy

  In an objective correlative to the Simpsons scene in which Bart loses so much status that Martin is scoring off him, the New York Times runs "Parents Pulling the Plug on Williamsburg Trust-Funders," in which even the traditional measured Times-speak cannot conceal the schadenfreude. In the recession, a local realtor reveals, many of his heretofore subsidized young tenants "are moving back with parents," and a Northside cafe owner says she has "seen a steady number of applicants, in their late 20

  June 8, 2009

• Tonight! Northside Festival, Fleetwood Mac, Meat Puppets

  The first inaugural Northside Festival brings CMJ-style pandemonium to Williamsburg and Greenpoint, starting tonight. Ewok Village-natives Naybob and Raybob Shineywater of Brightblack Morning Light headline the opening gala at Studio B. The Music Hall of Williamsburg's sold out Hold Steady show also has some spots reserved for Northside badgeholders. There have been countless permutations of Fleetwood Mac personnel since the band's 70's heyday, partially because the group would constantly tw

  June 11, 2009

• Meet Our New Hero, Jay Mundy: "Picture the Most Left-Wing, Lunatic, Liberal, Hippy, 1960s Nutcase...That Is What Williamsburg Is."

  This genius Jay Mundy needs no help from us in going completely and totally viral, but there is a disturbing if also exhilarating recognition in hearing the exact rant you've unleashed many a time come out of the mouth of a man who is reportedly a right wing psychopath. Slash genius! Above is the first half of a radio rant he went on excoriating the entire neighborhood of Williamsburg, which he defines as "a place that is now the official hipster neighborhood of the United States of America."

  June 18, 2009

• Week in Review: I've Never Seen So Many Sick Weirdos Gathered in One Place

  Rebecca Smeyne In the week one of us had to publicly defend himself against the crime of using the phrase "Fey Highwayman," we watched with amusement as close SOTC affiliate Christopher R. Weingarten became a viral video poster boy for the death of music criticism. Poetic choice of t-shirts, Chris! Elsewhere, we talked to Woody Allen about his new Whatever Works, Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi about Ahmadinejad's repressive regime and the disputed election there, artist Ben Frost on his late

  June 19, 2009

• Phosphorescent For Free, Tonight at Bruar Falls

  Thankfully, we no longer have to keep this secret: Phosphorescent are playing a free show tonight in Williamsburg. If you didn't get enough of the band at Celebrate Brooklyn this past Saturday, catch angelic country crooner Matthew Houck and his gang of folksters in a more intimate setting at Bruar Falls, the new Grand Street, Brooklyn space run by the same people who run the Cake Shop. The show starts at 9pm; more info here.

  June 30, 2009

• Finally, Jelly NYC's Pool Parties Made Official: Mission of Burma, Deerhunter, Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, and More

  File under Summer 2009's Worst-Kept Secrets: Jelly NYC is, again this year, throwing a slew of free Sunday-afternoon shows in Williamsburg. As pretty much everyone and your L-Train-puking pug already knew (except AM New York), this season's location is 90 Kent Ave a/k/a the Williamsburg Waterfront a/k/a the place where a few weekends ago I taunted a hippie-pirate-juice truck from a moving car. Anyway.

  July 2, 2009

• Williamsburg's The Shank, an "After-Hours Club of Unprecedented Size and Bravado," Commemorated in this Week's New York Press

  Nate "Igor" Smith In this week's New York Press, there's an enormously long feature chronicling the ignominious rise and fall of Williamsburg's short-lived after-hours space, the Shank. As someone who pulled a few all-nighters loitering around that mud-bucket of an early morning hideaway this past winter, I am totally confused about hearing people memorialize the Shank's unavoidable demise as some "fin de siecle" epic, especially when the timeline of the spot's golden era is depicted here, ulti

  July 22, 2009

• Trail of Dead and Yesterday's Pool Party Victims of Lightning

  Scary sky pic via​Credit to whoever runs things over at the Williamsburg Waterfront's Sunday Pool Parties--since lightning was actually striking humans in Brooklyn yesterday, the choice to end Sunday's HEALTH/Black Lips/Trail of Dead show before ToD actually got to play seems prudent. Which hasn't stopped some entertaining talk on Twitter about "the police state" (alternately: "Fuck lightning, fuck the state!") and of course, liberal use of the word "fail." But at least everyone lived! Al

  July 27, 2009

• Bedford Avenue Crazy Man Profiled

  ​We are grateful to Gothamist for finding Russel Fong's short film on the Williamsburg yelling man, whom we've been wondering about. As it happens, Lawrence LaDouceur is a lot more amiable in private conversation than when yelling at the corner of North 7th and Bedford, but alas, no less crazy. He traces all the problems of his life to "the identity of being a sex object" -- which he was from age 13 to age 55; "that's all over now" -- and Thorazine. Also, he served in Vietnam, is the messi

  July 29, 2009

• Sympathy for the Hipster: Even Annoying Young Toffs Don't Deserve Rent Scams

  ​Queens Crap posts the sort of headline you expect to get the schadenfreude roaring: "Bushwick hipsters kicked to the curb." They refer to a NY1 story about several young people who'd been living in 20 apartments carved out of a building certified for only six, with which the DOB caught up and evicted them. Yet some QC commenters, contrary to common practice, actually show sympathy: "These aren't hipsters. They are young kids starting out in life who were swindled and then flung out int

  August 7, 2009

• Strange Bedfellows: Bread, Madonna, Gravestones

  ​ High real-estate costs make for strange bedfellows: Pedestrians passing Grande Monuments, seller of gravestones and a longtime fixture on Graham Avenue, have been double-taking at the sight of hand-chalked-signs advertising bread. Just what is this bread made from, they wonder? Well, the bread is excellent, and it comes from Il Fornaretto Bakery in Bensonhurst. Loaves for sale include olive, whole wheat, and prosciutto. The bread often sells out in late afternoon. 382 Graham Avenue, Wil

  August 20, 2009

• Matt and Kim on Jimmy Kimmel Tonight--Promises To Be "that f'ing good"

  We're contractually obligated to post about Williamsburg's finest making their late-night TV debut. Couldn't happen to a nicer meaner couple. Flyer promises "that f'ing good"--does this mean they'll streak? Yes, contractually obligated to make nyucky naked jokes too.

  August 26, 2009

• Grizzly Bear Was Also At Grizzly Bear's Williamsburg Waterfront Pool Party

  Sam HorineHey, look, Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste went to that Jay-Z show yesterday in Williamsburg. ​A whole summer's worth of Jelly NYC Pool Parties on the Williamsburg waterfront took a bow yesterday, as Grizzly Bear, Beach House, and Vega played the final Sunday of the 2009 series. Solange Knowles' sister and her gentleman escort (who has about as much of an idea about how to dance to Grizzly Bear as I do) were in the building, along with Solange herself. Also, Chuck Schumer, for the secon

  August 31, 2009

• This Week in Openings: Lots and Lots of Booze

  TONY's The Feed blog has posted a roster of establishments slated to open by September 16. While there is actual food to be found, most notably at Saltie, Caroline Fidanza's Williamsburg lunch counter, and at An Nhau, a new Vietnamese spot, what's most striking about the eight places included in the round-up is that eating, by and large, plays a second, tiny fiddle to drinking. Los Feliz will offer tacos and ceviches to soak up all of the tequila, while a full roster of Latin American drinks wil

  September 8, 2009

• Pavement Tickets Available for Presale This Friday: "Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion."

  ​One interesting sentence in the latest press release making the rounds re: Pavement's reunion show at Central Park's Summerstage on September 21, 2010: "Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion." Make of that what you will. Related: tickets are on presale this Friday at 10 a.m. The password is ZOWEE, which, of course, really. General on-sale is a week from tomorrow, and let's also note here that your friendly local independent record sto

  September 17, 2009

• New Venue Report: South Williamsburg's The Woods

  PIx by Puja Patel, more below​Nestled beneath the Williamsburg Bridge (a charming view) (no, really), long-rumored nightlife spot the Woods finally opened its doors Friday night to an overwhelming response. Located at 48 South 4th Street, the bar has no sign over the door; a set of stairs and swarm of people was the only indications of its existence. (Despite all the buzz, no one was sure where--or what--this place would actually be.) When we arrived at 9 p.m., a sign read "free beer 'til

  October 5, 2009

• Who's That Bloomberg Guy Knockin' On My Door?

  For a welcome break from campaign nastiness, check out the video of Mike Bloomberg knocking on door No. 1,000,018 in Williamsburg. It's the fourth day of Succoth, according to mayoral video DJ Barnett Zitron, and the door swings open to an impossibly crowded room of fully garbed and ecstatic Hasidim who start tumbling around like the Marx Brothers as the doo wop tune, "Who's that Knockin'" plays in the background. The song was a hit for The Genies out of Long Beach in 1958 and the actual lyrics

  October 10, 2009

• See Diplo and DJ Drama in Williamsburg Tomorrow Night

  ​An RSVP will get you in for five bucks cheaper. Not for nothing, but the circa '04-'05 spectacle of Diplo doing it in Williamsburg will probably move a lot of humans to show out for this. And how will you look your future children in the eye and tell them that you missed the opportunity to have Drama screamingly ad-lib your life in real time? Roxy Cottontail hosts, and Maluca--who just shot a video in the neighborhood--will be in the building. More info here.

  October 14, 2009

• The Top 10 Records Sold Last Week at Academy Records in Brooklyn

  In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you. Academy Records, Williamsburg Annex. Pic via.​When we phoned the Academy Records Annex in Williamsburg, 32-year-old employee Caleb Eraaten was listening to Peter Ivers Band's bizzare 1969 LP Knight of the B

  October 16, 2009

• Best of NYC: Brooklyn Rocks!

  October 20, 2009

• Project Runway Winner Christian Siriano Says Williamsburg Is Full of "Little Divas"

  This week is the Voice's Best of NYC issue, our annual opportunity to bestow awards like Best Blow Job and Best Literally Underground Cabaret Show on our favorite things about the city. In turn, we asked a few of our favorite New Yorkers to name a few of their favorite local things. He's the fierecest, and most succesful (!), thing to ever come from the Frau Klum empire that is Project Runway. Fashion designer Christian Siriano lets us in on his best reason to appreciate "all the little div

  October 23, 2009

• Vegetarian Delights of NYC: Ship's Biscuit at Saltie in Williamsburg

  ​ ​Ship's biscuit is the somewhat facetious name for one of the vegetarian sandwiches available at Saltie. Saltie is a sandwich shop that debuted recently on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, open from 8 a.m. in the morning till 8 p.m. at night. The cafe--which provides only rudimentary seating--is descended from Marlow and Sons, and uses local ingredients--so local, in fact, that many are made on the premises.

  October 28, 2009

• The Meat Hook Arrives; Mommy Bloggers Shill for Big Food

  ​International aid agencies are saying that a United Nations summit on food security that kicked off in Rome today could be a "waste of time" as it won't commit donors to provide more money to end world hunger. [Bloomberg] Companies like Nestle and Frito Lay are offering "mommy bloggers" all-expense-paid luxury trips to learn about their latest product lines, as well as other perks like free steaks, in return for tweets and blog posts from the bloggers raving about the new products. [LA T

  November 16, 2009

• Our 10 Best Williamsburg Restaurants

  ​The roof garden at French bistro Juliette awaits forlornly the return of summer. The growth of Williamsburg restaurants in the last dozen years has been meteoric, and, where once there were a dozen or so places that might be worth trying, now there are probably 200 or more.

  November 20, 2009

• Some of Our Favorite Restaurant Names, Part 3

  ​A storefront in Murray Hill, Flushing, Queens, proclaims poultry insanity. Here we go again, offering yet another picture gallery of our favorite names for restaurants, liquor stores, coffee bars, caterers, and other food- and booze-related establishments.

  November 24, 2009