Forget being a foodie, the new NEW Brooklyn trend is producing a web series.

There is Broad City, with its fancy New York Times profile and comparisons to HBO’s Girls. There is I Hate Being Single with its Upright Citizen’s Brigade cast and now there is Nights in UltraViolet, who borrowed actors from both shows (still a small “artisan” community, apparently) and is still putting out episodes and getting buzz. I’m sure there are 6794509 more and I’ll hear about every single one in PR blasts after this post. Thanks in advance, readers.

Nights in UltraViolet follows a shut-in author of legal thrillers who joins his freeloading friends for a night out, triggering a series of inexplicable events that HMMM mirror his stories? The latest episode, “The Whole World is Out To Get You” opens with slo-mo music video shot in the ‘burg. We can all get down with that.

You can catch up episodes at www.nightsinuv.com. Get to Nights and the rest of the web series before New York Times Style section gets to it, which Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan has aptly called “the herald of any modern day cultural apocalypse.”

A dance party in a Greenpoint church basement that happens every week. Apparently, these dance parties are all the rage in Australia.

Your very own is working on a video about NLNL and will be filming tonight.

Personally, I’m going through a brussel sprouts smothered in dijon mustard phase but this truffled honey mustard on a pretzel doesn’t sound so bad. Maybe we can get a mayonnaise fest next?

The First Annual Brooklyn Mustard Festival is happening Saturday, April 28th, in the beer garden at T.B.D. Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn from 12-5. It will be a celebration of mustard in all of its pungency and richness, its nobility and sloppiness. A smattering of vendors — mostly local but some distant — will be offering up an array of mustards and mustard-based delicacies. You’ll find mustard styles ranging from smooth dijon to stone ground, in flavors ranging from mustard with green peppercorn to mustard with truffled honey to mustard made with Six Point beer. Mustard hailing from one of New York’s oldest mustard companies, and mustard from local, small-batch artisans. We’ll have chutneys featuring mustard seed, mustard-flavored pickles, and a terrific mustard herring. Vendors will make all of their products available for sampling and purchase. In addition, we’ll have for sale delicious soft pretzels (Sigmund’s) and some of Brooklyn’s finest hot dogs and sausages (The Meat Hook) to spread your favorite mustards on, and T.B.D.’s extensive beer list will give you plenty of options to pair your food with.

Saturday, April 28 12-5
T.B.D 224 Franklin St rain or shine! (hopefully shine since they have such a nice yard)
Free

Vendors Participating-
A. Bauer’s Mustard (Queens, NY) • Divine Brine (Huntington Station, NY) • D.P. Chutney Collective (Brooklyn, NY) • Hudson Valley Homestead (Craryville, NY) • The Meat Hook (Brooklyn, NY) • My Friend’s Mustard (Brooklyn, NY – Philadelphia, PA) • Shelky’s Smoked Fish (Brooklyn, NY) • Sigmund’s Pretzels (New York, NY) • Tin Mustard (Brooklyn, NY) • Wine Country Kitchen (Napa, CA)

Our friends over at Brooklyn Bass are throwing themselves a one year anniversary party that you should probably go to tonight. Its free!

From the invite:

As part of our one year anniversary, Brooklyn Bass will be hosting a night of House, Bass, and Techno music, starting the evening off right with DJ sets from the editors.

It’s gonna be super fun, come party with us!

EVENT: Brooklyn Bass 1 Year Anniversary
BILL: Braille, Background Sound, Spectacal, Judge Wise, Thomas, Evan Michael
DATE: 03/29/12
TIME:10PM-LATE
VENUE: Public Assembly Loft
VENUE ADDRESS: 70 N6TH St.
SUBWAYS: Bedford Ave. [L Train], Marcy Ave. [J, M, Z train]

AGE: 21+
PRICE: FREE

Here’s the Facebook invite, if you’re into that kind of thing.

And, a sampling of the music:

(more…)

Our fancy friends over at Hella Bitter are throwing a launch party this Friday to show off their new fancy cart that maybe you helped build with a donation to their Kickstarter. This would be a good time to go and try the Vanilla Kumquat bitters, if I may so humbly recommend a bitter.

We’re finally ready to roll our the Seltzer Cart and Hella Bitter! We’re having a party in Brooklyn to celebrate, and we insist that you come to it. If you pledged at the $100 level admittance is free. For everyone else, it’s just $10 for all the delicious cocktails you can drink. Come and show your support, check out the cart, and help us make the world a bitter place.

March 2
Windmill Studios, 287 Kent Ave
7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.
$10 buckaroos

Have you ignored the protest thinking this was a short-lived fluke? Woken up and realized the protest is almost three weeks in and getting as much coverage as Jobs’ death? Realized its time to catch up so you have something to say over the water cooler?

Here is a primer, folks. It is far from being totally inclusive but the amount of articles being written and photos being taken are becoming unmanageable. Now is the time to save on some rent money, sublease your apartment and join them to really understand what’s going on.

I haven’t checked out the scene in a few days, but this video, “Right Here All Over” shows a huge group. If they got a masseuse hanging out, this has gone prime time.

-Notables are coming by! Jeff Magnum played but Susan Sarandon, Former Governor Paterson, Michael Moore have all also stopped by.Penn Badgley too. But don’t call him a celebrity, he’s a public artist.

The protests are all over the country! Mother Jones is updating an interactive map of the 60+ protests that have sprung up.

-The New York Observer has been on the ground, covering the event before it was cool to cover the event. They are still plugging away, too.

-Slate takes a stab at explaining the finances behind the 1% that Occupy Wall Street reviles.

-There’s been a lot of criticism over the lack of demands. Douglas Rushoff argues on cnn.com that this is not as big of a problem as mainstream media is making it out to be. Here is the “living document” the protestors are working on to define what they are working towards.

-Yours truly has been dropping by since day one and I’ve kept up taking photos and tweeting up a storm I got interviewed in a podcast, which is a little dated at this point but a good overview on the beginnings.

-Their are protestors who say they aren’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future. To keep up with the growing moment, the group’s website and twitter are good starts.

Commuters that use the Williamsburg Bridge know the recent construction is making a melee on the Manhattan side. Walkers, runners, bikers and the assholes on nominally motorized scooters all are forced through a tiny, blind spot-ridden hell. Unfortunately, the end of construction will not alleviate these issues.

The Department of Transportation released the above rendering for the project. The fence extending halfway through the entrance/exit is an attempt at steering bikers up Clinton Street. The traffic problem on Delancey is ignored and will continue to be one of the most terrifying rides in the city (Canal Street and Herald Square maybe still beat Delancey). AND the tight entrance becomes permanent with low concrete walls. I’m going to be even more wary of the fixed gears and skaters bombing the bridge. This rendering looks like they are intentionally after blood for anyone without brakes.

Side note, this is the most biked over bridge in North America. Hot Damn.

(via Gothamist’s Bike Champion, John Del Signore)

Brooklyn Boulders is the only reason I go to South Brooklyn for weeks at a time. Their birthday party this weekend looks worth a trip on the G.

From the invite:
MASSIVE GIVEAWAYS FROM:
Eastern Mount Sports
&
Adidas Outdoor

Chef Master Nieves on the grill.
Sheep Station bartenders at the tap.
Brooklyn Brewery on tap.

Somebody’s winning an annual membership to BKB!
Free 2nd Bday shirts
Photobooth to remember our bday by.
Cornhole tournament.
Premiere of City Slickers: Part 2.
Treasure hunt.
Unicorn rides and so much more…

Members = $12
Non-Members (who like us on FB) = $15

So, for 12 to 15 bucks you will be automatically receiving $50 worth of items,
and a chance to win several hundred more in giveaways and raffles!

More info on the facebook event.

I’ll spare you from all the “This is nothing compared to where I’m from” triteness our Californian friends put us through during the earthquake. I’ve learned my lesson after talking shit about a little hurricane named Katrina that caused barely more than a drizzle over southwest Florida but subsequently destroyed New Orleans.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned after sitting through—or running from, in the case of Hurricane Andrew—after a dozen or so hurricanes.

1) Electric is going to go down so stock up on food that can stay out. If ConEd doesn’t have their act together, we could be without electric for days after the hurricane. Open up your fridge as rarely as possible because there is little worse than a fridge reeking of rotting foods in the heat. Try eating anything tonight or early tomorrow that would be a shame to let go bad. This also means at the very least that you’re going to need a cooler and ice to keep the beer cold that you will need to steady your nerves and pass the time.

2) Water stops working when the treatment plants go offline. Make sure you are showered and then fill up your bathtub with water. You’ll need this and a bucket to flush your toilet.

3) Towels, lots of them. There is something about hurricanes that bring out the leaks. Also, if you’re on the first floor, you’ll want them for your doorway. We’ve had a lot of rain to soak up already and depending on what quadrant of the hurricane hits us (the upper-right quadrant produces the biggest storm surge, strongest wind and most chance of tornadoes), we might get some serious flooding.

4) Batteries, water, etc. Charge your stuff. Buy Cheetos. You know this drill.

5) We use to tape a big X on windows so that if the glass did break, it would break into bigger pieces. This has been disproved, but I might do it, for old times sake.

6) Those plants on your fire escape? They are now flying projectiles. Bring them in now while you’re thinking about it. Anything outside that can be picked up and tossed around also needs to be secured.

7) Find a Florida friend that isn’t in the evac zone and get an invite to their hurricane party. We are all having them and will be complaining nonstop that we thought we had moved away from all this nonsense. But we will still be the ones with the best board games and the most beer. And the first ones playing outside when its deemed safe(ish).

Coma Cinema – Business as Usual from Micah Van Hove on Vimeo.

It’s like the Tree of Life previews met drugs.

Also, Coma Cinema is currently offering free downloads for four of their albums. Go crazy.