Aputumpu Festival Poster

Freewilliamsburg is pleased to team with My Social List and Aputumpu to bring you the Aputumpu Festival.  The festival takes place from March 22-25 at Shea Stadium, Public Assembly, Cameo Gallery and (le) poisson rouge. (more…)

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Today is Fat Tuesday, which means that people from all over will be coming to Greenpoint, New York City’s most Polish neighborhood, for the most authentic paczki available. For Polish Americans, Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) is also known as Paczki Day because according to tradition, households must use up the sugar, eggs, fruit, and other ingredients before Lent. If you’re unfamiliar with the Polish pastry, here is a quick rundown:

-A paczek is deep-fried flat dough with fruit or cream filling and usually covered with sugar or icing

-Paczek is the singular, Paczki is the plural

-Paczek is translated as “doughnut” or “little package”

-The American equivalent is the jelly doughnut

-The pastry dates back to Poland in the Middle Ages

Rzeszowska Bakery (948 Manhattan Ave.), Syrena Bakery (207 Norman Ave.), and Star Deli & Bakery (176 Nassau Ave.) are just some of the places in Greenpoint to pick up the treat, according to Yelp.

The new Shins video for “Simple Song” is all about James Mercer’s death. It’s about a dysfunctional family, bad childhood memories and playing one last prank on your family after you’re gone. Posthumous pranks are the best pranks, probably.

Watch the teaser below. Download the whole thing for free from iTunes.

The new Shins record Port of Morrow is out next month on Columbia/Aural Apothecary.

I’ve spent years living in North Brooklyn but I really didn’t know anything about it until I was able to see how it was portrayed by 2 Broke Girls, a hackneyed, LA-filmed sitcom created by the “brain” behind Sex and the City and the “brain” behind Whitney. This column will keep track of all the knowledge dropped and questions answered, like: Why do hipsters wear knit hats? Because of Coldplay…of course (seriously, this was one of the first jokes of the series).

This week I learned…

Williamsburg Has Hasidic Jews

Last week there was a big revelation that rich, successful, Jewish doctors now live in Williamsburg and every character’s face exploded. This week, faces sadly restored, there is a new breakthrough, there are other Jews in Williamsburg as well, really Jewish one’s at that.

The broke gals are sick and decide to go to a doctor. The clinic must be south of Broadway, as it’s completely Hasidic. Of course, the blond broke girl tells the Kat Dennings broke girl that she had lots of Jewish friends growing up. It allowed her to say a bunch of silly Yiddish phrases that had the audience presumably laughing their yarmulke-less heads off. Yada yada this leads to them getting a job making cupcakes for a Bar Mitzvah.

There is a nice moment when the Jewish receptionist acknowledges the undeniable Jewishness of the Kat Dennings broke girl’s hair, complexion, and boobs. It actually leads to a really sweet arc, in which KD acknowledges that her dad could have been a Jew and the Orthodox family fully embraces her. For a show so derided for its use of stereotypes, it was a joy to see one executed without cynicism. I know boring, AHHHHHH, sorry.

Don’t worry, there were plenty of cringe-worthy scenes with a jive talking Bar Mitzvah boy and his breakdancing friend. I hated every second of each.

First the Polish, now the Hasidim, the show seems to be picking off Williamsburg demographics one by one. What’s next Dominicans? Puerto Ricans? Fried chickens?

[What I learned from last week's episode]

via twitter

A truck’s overturned load shut down westbound traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge at around 5:50 this morning, according to reports. The truck happened to be carrying broccoli. Don’t worry, the driver wasn’t hurt. Clearing the truck took twenty minutes.

Maya Rudolph killed it hosting Saturday Night Live last night. Justin Timberlake popped in on a couple sketches; most notably, to do a refreshingly great Bon Iver impression. The white butler was really into it. Watch below:

There was at least one very enthusiastic, surprisingly still awake fan of the impersonation:

Wires Under Tension simply destroyed at 285 Kent last Saturday. Watch a 2 song video edit of their performance below.

Kinda NSFW. [via]

In case you missed the show (which was great!):

the pool as a concert venue in 2008 via mk

The city has issued a call for proposals to turn the McCarren Park pool into an ice skating rink to operate annually from October to March.

mccarren park pool 1937 via nyc parks department

I got my hands on on the RFP, published two weeks ago, “for the development, operation, and maintenance of a seasonal ice rink at McCarren Park Pool, Brooklyn, NY.” The city is accepting proposals until March 15th and the contract will be for twelve years.

The pool opened under Mayor La Guardia in July 1936 and operated until 1984, when the local government and residents decided against renovating the facility because, according to the Parks Department, it had started to attract vandals and drug dealers and had fallen too far into disrepair. The site re-opened in 2005 as a summer concert venue, which it remained until 2008 when the city announced plans to pump money into the project and make it usable for swimmers once again. Renovations began in 2009 and the new facility will include a recreation center, among other amenities.