So much dancing and screenings going on this week. Welp, add this one to list.
Come celebrate another successful season of collaborative filmmaking with the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective this Thursday (March 25) at the Knitting Factory. We’re screening innovative and original work from over twenty-five Brooklyn based filmmakers including an experimental exquisite corpse video project and a series of original 2 minute shorts.
Live music from Brooklyn’s dynamic Dynasty Electric and a dance party curated by DJ Phantom Power of the Goddamn Cobras Collective. Watch/drink/schmooze/dance with some of the borough’s most promising new filmmakers as they celebrate another successful season of collaborative filmmaking.
Spot: Knitting Factory. 361 Metropolitan Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11211
Doors: 7:30 Screening: 8:00 DJ and Band: 9:30 Cover: $10
Band: Dynasty Electric DJ: Phantom Power

The DIY Bushwick Music Festival kicks off tonight with a free show at Eastern District at 5pm followed by a slew of shows and parties at venues all across Brooklyn.
Seven venues, including Brooklyn Fireproof, Bushwick Music Studios, Don Pedro, Easter District, Goodbye Blue Monday, Northeast Kingdom, and Party Expo all start tonight at or around 7pm, with bands like Shinobi Ninja, Pearl and the Beard, and Aviation Orange on the bills.

The inaugural festival will feature Brooklyn-based bands, DJs, and artists performing in alternative Do-It-Yourself spaces just a walk or a bike ride apart. Admission prices range from free to $10 with an average ticket price of $5. Festival passes will be available online for $20, with Friday/Saturday passes available for $10. This is part of an effort by festival organizers to make sure that the events are accessible to all.

For a complete list of bands, venues, and shows visit DIYBushwick.

The Bushwick Food Coop is screening ‚”The Power of Community ‚Äì How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” tonight at Tandem Bar.

Here’s the story:

‚”When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half ‚Äì and food by 80 percent ‚Äì people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call ‚”The Special Period.” The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis ‚Äì the massive reduction of fossil fuels ‚Äì is an example of options and hope.”

Beers are $3, door donation is suggested at $5, doors are at 7 w/ the film at 7:30.

Fauxhemians it is, voteth 34% of the people.

From Matt re: Williamsburg Walks:

it’s a no brainer for me: cancel this. frankly, i enjoyed it. snapped a few nice pictures.
but, when it comes down to it, if it’s hurting local businesses then it should stop. these are shitty economic times, and when local businesses suffer big shitty chain stores will move in.
then bedford will suck and i’ll support having williamsburg walks again, because i’ll want the shitty chain stores to go out of business. but then, when local businesses move back in, shut down williamsburg walks again.

Baaaaaaaa-bahinyaaaaa, oh-ma-vee-chi-mawah!

Last month one of our favorite Southern food restaurants The Brooklyn Star was badly damaged by a fire and closed ‚”for a spell” pending reconstruction. The costs of the reconstruction are much higher than they had anticipated, and they’re not sure if they have the money to fund it.
That’s where The Brooklyn Star Hootenanny comes into play! This Friday Brooklyn Kitchen Labs will host a benefit for The Brooklyn Star. It will feature Beer from Brooklyn Brewery, whiskey from Whiskey Town and Wilfie & Nell, smoked meats from the Meat Hook, Momofuku Milk Bar sweets, and Brooklyn Star’s own brisket and shrimp and grits. All that, plus oyster shucking and hot-dog-eating contests, and the chance to fell an aggressively whiskered Williamsburger in a 350-gallon dunk tank, for $50 in advance, $75 at the door. To buy tickets click here.

The title says it all, but here’s the Post’s cheeky take on it:

An opponent of the Atlantic Yards hacked into a digital traffic sign on Flatbush Avenue near developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards mega-project on Tuesday, manipulating it to flash the message, ‚”F‚Äîk Ratner.”
Instead of warning motorists about traffic pattern changes from the construction of the Barclays Center a few blocks away, the sign, near the corner of St. Marks Avenue, flashed its obscenity from about 8 am until about 10 am, when it was disabled.

While they won’t show you the photo, we, of course, will! Major credit to duelin markers on Flickr for snapping this pic. And if you’re curious on how to do that to your very own street sign, here’s a step-by-step guide.

Mayor Bloomberg, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly (code name: “Nowa”), FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano, and others boogied down at Brooklyn Bowl Monday night.
Commissioner Kelly bowled an 86!

The venue’s patrons trickled in toward the end of the event, greeted by a host of official city cars and several business-suited security staffers wired with earpieces.
Several top officials, including Kelly, stuck around past 9:30 p.m. to keep bowling, some of them picking up for players who had left earlier, as a small group of patrons watched and gawked.

Brooklyn Bowl’s website had previously noted the venue would be closed for a private event, but reopened at 9:30 for Karaoke Killed The Cat, a free karaoke dance party. No word on whether Bloomberg crept into his extra Justin Beiber skin to sneak around and rock out, but Chris Goldteeth, an organizer for the event, did tweet he was “about to try to convince Mayor Bloomberg to sing Empire State of Mind @brooklynbowl.” So, maybe!

The future of Williamsburg Walks is in jeopardy as testy merchants have begun criticizing the popular street festival, reports Courier Life. A number of business owners lining Bedford Avenue are “fed up” with the falling profits that Williamsburg Walks allegedly bring, the trash, and the unlicensed vendors that siphon away cash.
A&G Merch’s Jill Goldhand said there were a few Saturdays “when we had no revenue.”
Spoonbill and Sugartown Booksellers’s Miles Bellamy blames pedestrians who, the horror, tend to chill outside “instead of visiting stores.” He wants the street festival hacked back to just one day.
Other ways of fixing the supposed problem could mean moving the whole thing to a different street, which to me would take be like moving Times Square to the Financial District on Saturdays to help congestion. The whole point of Williamsburg Walks is to hang out on Williamsburg’s main strip — Bedford Ave — which on the 359 other days of the year is jam-packed with cars and buses.
What do you guys think? Support the Bedford businesses or give us a few summer Saturdays a year to play around in the street?
photo via nycstreets

With the passing of SXSW, WOXY.com, the awesome & popular web-based rock & roll music station has suspended operations as of this morning.
In a statement posted on its website, they blame “current economic realities and the lack of ongoing funding for WOXY’s operations.”
Here’s the full statement:

WOXY Listeners, Fans and Friends…
Due to current economic realities and the lack of ongoing funding for WOXY’s operations, we’ve been forced to suspend our live broadcasts as of March 23rd. We’re continuing to explore options to keep The Future of Rock and Roll alive. For business inquiries, please contact Bryan Jay (bryan@woxy.com) or John at Future Sounds (john@futuresounds.com).
Thanks for your years of dedicated support.
- Mike, Shiv, Joe, Paige, Brian and Bryan Jay

Bummer. Here’s hoping they find those options.