Fred Tomaselli @ Brooklyn Museum

I love Fred Tomaselli. His psychedelic collages remind me of the infinite nature of the universe and how all things are interconnected. The Brooklyn Museum is opening a mid-career survey of his work (1990-present) this Friday and I am psyched. Besides two newly created works specific for this show (see Night Music for Raptors above), there are 12 works on paper making their US debut. These new works have transformed the front page of The New York Times into a backdrop for his work.

Brooklyn Museum
October 8 - January 2

Tomaselli’s artwork draws upon a wide range of sources from both popular culture and art history, and from his own hobbies of gardening, kayaking, and bird-watching. Growing up near the desert in southern California, Tomaselli felt the influence of nearby theme parks, with their manufactured reality, and the music and drug counterculture of Los Angles in the 1970s and 1980s. His distinctive melding of these influences coalesces into a folk-driven, utopian vision of the mythic American West and of lush gardens as sites of contemplation, loss, and possible redemption. One of the pioneering artists who moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the 1980s, Tomaselli continues to live and work in the borough.

Healthy Bodegas

What would NYC be without our cornerstores, delis, and bodegas! GrowNYC, the organization behind the city's greenmarkets, has started a welcome new initiative with the DoH and Red Jacket Orchards to deliver farm-fresh, locally grown produce to Bed Stuy bodegas! Ive loved the influx of green carts across the city and in my neighborhood and this new program is another great step in the right direction. Healthy Bodegas has the potential to transform the "food desert" of neighborhoods like ours by offering healthy food options AND convenience. Now I can grab beers, snacks, seasonal vegetables AND vanilla dutches at my corner spot. Thanks Kat!!

Healthy Bodegas Initiative from CENYC on Vimeo.

HNH BBQ @ Trophy Bar

We're back at trophy bar for our monthly residency tonite and not only are we celebrating the one-and-only Dennis Ngo's birthday but we're also debuting our first fall special -- Four-Meat Texas Chili!! Sweet Tea Cocktails for $5 and Brisket in the Backyard. Sebastian, Don and EPak on the wheels spinning new wave!!

Happy Birthday MJ

A year later and I still get emotional about MJ's passing. This Sunday, Spike Lee and DJ Spinna are doing it again with the Michael Jackson birthday tribute. Come through Prospect Park and help us sing it "ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa!" Check out the clip below of from last year...Rest in Power MJ!

DJ Eleven x Devin the Dude

DJ Eleven x Devin the Dude. Cant get much better than this. Cop Devin's new album dropping next week, "Suite 420." Download here for your listening pleasure!!

The Dude
It's A Shame feat. Pooh Bear
Ain't That A B-tch feat. UGK
F-ck Faces feat. Scarface & Too $hort
I Don't Chase Em feat. Snoop Dogg
Thinkin' Boutchu
I Can't Make It Home
Where Can We Go
Fa Sho (P-ssy) feat. The Odd Squad
Your P-ssy's Like Dope feat. The Odd Squad
Just A Man feat. Raphael Saadiq
Baby Phat feat. De La Soul
Dime A Dozen feat. CoughEE Brothaz
She Useta Be
What A Job feat. Andre 3000
F-ck You feat. Snoop Dogg
R & B (Reefer & Beer)
Whatever
Too Cute feat. Erica Morton
The Mule feat. Z-Ro
Southside: Houston Texas feat. Scarface
Back Up Plan feat. Chamillionaire
4 O'Clock In Da Morning feat. Mddl Fngz & Bun B
Lacville '79
Doobie Ashtray
Sticky Green feat. Scarface
Do Whatcha Wanna Do
Anythang

John Francis Peter @ YES Gallery

YES Gallery in Brooklyn, NY will be hosting a benefit show this Friday January 29th, for the Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti.

John Francis Peter, the photo coordinator at The FADER, will be showing limited edition prints from the series "Where We Stood Together, Haiti, December 2009." "I made this series during the last two weeks of 2009 while I traveled around Haiti for the first time." All proceeds go directly to the Hospital Albert Schweitzer. Along with the images there will be Haitian arts and crafts on display, food and music, so please try to come out, support, and start the weekend off right :)

YES Gallery
147 India Street
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Barnstormers for Haiti

Barnstomers is organizing a night of music, art, food & drink this Saturday, January 23 in Brooklyn The line up looks dope and includes our friends Dhundee, Yuri Shimojo, B. Satz & Doze Green. If you haven’t seen the teaser for our studio visit, see it here.

Sucre ( Haitian Cafe )

520 Dekalb Avenue
(On the corner of Bedford)

Saturday, Jan. 23 – 7:30pm till enough

$10 suggested donation
All proceeds go to first response efforts on the ground in Haiti.

Shipping containers for food and clothing will be on site – suggested items are baby food, shoes, first aid supplies, non-perishables and water.

Eclectic mix of music from Stevie Wonder to Johnny Cash to ODB. DJs, Jazz musicians, Percussionists, dancing and art all night.

The Mapping Project : Williamsburg

BODEGA warmly invites you to be a part of our first endeavor, The Mapping Project. The Mapping Project is an exercise in connecting creatives, startups, social entrepreneurs, and small business owners in the borough of Brooklyn in order to help bring their ideas to fruition. By creating an interactive digital map, we consider how geography and the proximity of an area’s clustered residents can stimulate change through collaboration.

This Thursday, October 8, from 7-10pm at 303GRAND - A Revolving Storefront, we’re having a party to gather YOU, Brooklyn’s creative and entrepreneurial force, to introduce you to one another, draw awareness to the project, begin creating a platform for connecting change-makers, and allow you to register for the project. The meet-up will start collecting the data needed to construct the digital interactive map of community members that will not only stand as a symbol of the growing movement taking place, but serve as a resource for the community to continue business development.

Mostly, it’s going to be rad. Please RSVP here:

http://www.themappingproject.eventbrite.com

We also want to give a shout out to our event partners, DJ Jubilee who will be spinning, 303GRAND, IfWeRanIt, cut&paste, and PBR who is generously providing free beer for the event.

Cheers,

BODEGA

Date an Asian

Calling all my Asian brothers!!! Brooklyn-based comedian Jen Kwok has your back. Check her pitch for dating Asian men in this hilarious video.

Hey there, my name is Jen Kwok
And I'm here to tell you that dating Asians rocks
They have smooth skin and silky hair
So damn exotic, got that ethnic flair
So sweet and gentle, smell so good
So freaky, nasty, do what you always wanted to
So obedient, they'll please you like no one can
That's right, I'm talkin bout an Asian man

thanks kat!!!

The Kitchen Tuesdays: LAST CALL with Amir, Ge-Ology, Waajeed + the BLK JKS

LAST CALL!!! We're wrapping up our garden event series with a banger. Amir/Ge-Ology/Waajeed on the wheels and South Africa's BLK JKS (www.blkjks.com) host our closeout jam!!! We go till 2AM to say goodbye to summer.

**************
THE KITCHEN TUESDAY @ Jungle Garden
in association with PUMA and The Horticultural Society of New York

OUR LAST TUESDAY OF THE SEASON!!!!
8PM - 2AM
61 Kent Avenue and N10 Street
Williamsburg Waterfront, Brooklyn

TUESDAY 09.15.2009
DJ AMIR (Kon and Amir/OnTrack/BBE)
GE-OLOGY (Female Fun/Rotation)
WAAJEED (Bling47/PPP)

Hosted by the BLK JKS

Cakeballs by Sweet Jewels
Spacecakes by Let Them Eat Cake
Cheap Drink Specials!

$3 Suggested Donation at the Door
RSVP thekitchentuesdays@gmail.com

21+ ONLY!
Cash only, the nearest ATM is 5 blocks away.

From the Bedord Avenue L Train:
Walk west on North 7th towards the waterfront (Berry Street). Take a right on Kent Avenue. The venue is on the corner of N10th and Kent Avenue.

The Kitchen Tuesdays : No Ordinary Monkey

The weekly event series has been a huge hit with an amazing lineup of DJs and great music. Thanks to everyone who has made this late-summer jump-off a huge success. We have two more to go before we wrap up the summer so don't miss tonite's jam with the gentlemen of No Ordinary Monkey, our favorite disco party. They've been throwing underground dance parties since 2004 with some of NYC's finest guest DJs in secret loft locations and afterhours chinese restaurants! Come through on Tuesday and enjoy the musical stylings of one of New York's best kept secrets and dance the night away under the moon!! As always we'll have snacks, spacecakes, and drink specials! RSVP at thekitchentuesdays@gmail.com

p.s. this will be our second to last event! We'll be taking a break on labor day (09.08) and finishing off the series on September 15th with Amir, Ge-Ology and Waajeed!

*********
THE KITCHEN TUESDAY @ Jungle Garden

in association with PUMA
and The Horticultural Society of New York

Every Tuesday
8PM - Midnight
61 Kent Avenue and N10 Street
Williamsburg Waterfront, Brooklyn

TUESDAY 09.01.2009

NO ORDINARY MONKEY

Cakeballs by Sweet Jewels
Spacecakes by Let Them Eat Cake

Cheap Drink Specials!

$3 Suggested Donation at the Door
RSVP thekitchentuesdays@gmail.com

21+ ONLY!
Cash only, the nearest ATM is 5 blocks away.

From the Bedord Avenue L Train:
Walk west on North 7th towards the waterfront (Berry Street). Take a right on Kent Avenue. The venue is on the corner of N10th and Kent Avenue.

Happy 51st Birthday, MJ!

Happy Birthday, Michael Jackson! Brooklyn knows how to throw a birthday jam!! "Happy Birthday to ya, happy birthday to ya, happy birrrrrth-day!" 08.29.09 - Michael Jackson Birthday Celebration: Spinna x Spike Lee @ Prospect Park

Animal Collective @ Celebrate Brooklyn

This past weekend, Brooklyn's own Animal Collective did back-to-back shows at the Prospect Park Bandshell. A fundraiser for Celebrate Brooklyn!, all of my friends who attended couldnt stop gushing about the experience. A true concert experience, people not only loved the music but the creative set design by artist and sister of Animal Collective Dave Portner, Abby Portner, was a real standout feature of the show. Her "handmade" quality set featured multi-layered moving "waves" light-up oversized tiki torches, and a "shark!" For the current issue of Theme, my friend Duane Harriott actually interviewed Abby about her work for Animal Collective and their record label, Paw Tracks! I fell in love with her beautiful illustrations and great sense of humor in the interview. Check the below video from the soundcheck for a daylight glimpse of her set design for the show!!

Free Music Thursday!!

Damn it feels good to be in Brooklyn during the hot and sticky dog days of summer! Check out this amazing lineup of FREE live music going down in Brooklyn today!!

Zap Mama @ BAM Rhythm & Blues Festival
MetroTech Commons
Noon-2PM
Zap Mama is the Grammy-award winning group founded and fronted by Marie Daulne. Since the early 1990’s, Marie has spent her life crossing continents and winning the hearts of thousands of fans, while introducing her Afropean musical heritage to the world.

Purple Rain Sing-a-Long with Escort @ Celebrate Brooklyn
Prospect Park West
7:30PM
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of history’s greatest pop albums, and the extravagantly, hilariously whacky and over the top film it inspired (the apotheosis of both the purple one’s genius and self caricature), we invite you to don something lacey and ruffled and come get your Prince on. We'll have lyric subtitles, but you know the words already. Joy Dragland of Brooklyn's live disco orchestra Escort certainly does; Purple Rain was the first cassette she ever owned. Dragland and others from Escort will lead the sing-along, after the band puts everyone in the mood with an opening set. (Note: The film is Rated R and admission of anyone under 17 will require an accompanying parent or guardian. The whole evening will feature scenes of extreme sexiness throughout.)

Hall & Oates @ Seaside Summer Concerts
Asser Levy in Coney Island
7:30PM
Daryl Hall and John Oates are the NUMBER-ONE SELLING DUO in music history! Starting out as two devoted disciples of earlier soul greats, Daryl Hall & John Oates are soul survivors in their own right. Daryl Hall & John Oates recently released the DVD/CD Live at the Troubadour. The release marks the 35 year anniversary of their first gig in LA!

Ninjasonik x Major Lazer: Hold the Line

Directed by my man, Lazlo Jefferson. Don't sleep.

The Kitchen Tuesdays @ Jungle

THE KITCHEN TUESDAY KICKS OFF!
in association with PUMA at Jungle Garden

Every Tuesday
8PM - Midnight
61 Kent Avenue and N10 Street
Williamsburg Waterfront, Brooklyn

TUESDAY 08.04.2009**
DJ AMIR (Kon and Amir/OnTrack/BBE)
GE-OLOGY (Female Fun/Rotation)
WAAJEED (Bling47/PPP)

Hosted by Wax Poetics

Empanadas by Coque
Cakeballs by Sweet Jewels
Spacecakes by Let Them Eat Cake
Cheap Drink Specials!

$3 Suggested Donation at the Door
RSVP thekitchentuesdays@gmail.com

21+ ONLY!
Cash only, the nearest ATM is 5 blocks away.

**RAIN DATE is Wednesday, August 05.

From the Bedord Avenue L Train:
Walk west on North 7th towards the waterfront (Berry Street). Take a right on Kent Avenue. The venue is on the corner of N10th and Kent Avenue.

Food Truck 2.0

When you talk to folks in NYC about food trucks, they usually assume you mean one of those big industrial trucks slinging tacos, coffee, ice cream, or dumplings. Over the last two days, I've serendipitously run into the work of filmmakers Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney and their efforts to increase awareness about urban farming and sustainable living! Their food truck is Cheney's 1986 Dodge pickup which they've planted with a variety of heirloom tomatoes, arugula and herbs in the truckbed. Using a solar-powered time-lapse camera mounted on the roof of the truck, they are slowly but surely posting their adventure online. For $20, you can share in the truck farm bounty and a promise to receive a copy of the finished Truck Farm DVD. More than a real way to feed urban dwellers, I love that this project challenges people to think of their own creative and sustainable way to engage in food production and gives a new spin on the idea of an urban farmer. Check out Ellis and Cheney's 2007 documentary film on the industrial food industry, King Corn too!

PSFK Snapshot: Brooklyn

"Half guide book, half trends report," the folks over at PSFK launched the second book from their "Snapshot" series highlighting venues and interesting happenings from around our beloved borough. On a secondary note, its interesting that PSFK choose the self-publishing tool/website, Blurb, to publish their series! Cop it here.

Died Young, Stayed Pretty

Check out my friends from Kayrock in the awesome poster art show at 303 Grand opening tonite! It coincides with the opening of the film by the same name documenting the underground indierock poster movement. Deets below.

303Grand is pleased to be the venue for Died Young, Stayed Pretty, a rock poster show for the documentary "Died Young, Stayed Pretty." The art show will be Thursday July 16th from 7p.m.-10 p.m. at 303GRAND (303 Grand St. Brooklyn, NY 11211). The event is sponsored by Giant Robot & Kayrock Screenprinting.

The art show is representative of director Eileen Yaghoobian's film, "Died Young Stayed Young," which takes a candid look at the underground indie-rock poster subculture in North America that was reborn, post-Punk, with the launch of groupie Clayton Hayes’ website Gigposters.com.

The art show at 303GRAND will feature silkscreen masterpieces that are used for advertising rock shows all for sale! The content ranges from hot political issues to lewd, inside jokes. Featured posters include Radiohead, White Stripes, Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, The Melvins, Nick Cave, Broken Social Scene, Ween and legends like Bob Dylan and Marianne Faithful.

The Film will be Premiering on July 17th, 9pm at IFC Center in Manhattan!

It's My Birthday...

Come celebrate my birthday with fellow Cancer-iran Waajeed this Thursday thanks to our good friend Geology.

Thursday, July 16th...AKALEPSE & GE-OLOGY present "ROTATION".

Please join us as we celebrate the birthdays of WAAJEED (Bling 47 / PPP) and LINYEE (The Kitchen) along with our super special surprise guest DJ from Deviation (hint: UK)...who you definitely don't want to miss during his short stay in NYC.

Playing classics, funk, soul, house and all your favorite dance jams all night long!

Doors: 10pm
2 for 1 well drinks 10pm-12am

$5
Ladies FREE before midnight

**early arrival is strongly suggested**