This Weekend: Free Activities in Brooklyn

The past few days have been a flurry of free activities for me.

Thursday evening I went to the Myopenbar.com party at Starr Space, for the Cinema 16 series, which offered a free screening of film shorts by Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer, free Drambuie cocktails and slices of watermelon (also free). The space, located on Starr St. off the Jefferson L stop, is a large, open room with wood floors and high ceilings. For the screening, folding chairs were arranged in rows, and people who didn't attain seats (such as myself) stood to the sides or crowded at the back. Overall, it seemed to be a nerdy hip(ster) crowd, most of who managed to concentrate and stay silent for the film shorts.

I didn't make it until halfway through the film screening, at 9 pm, and the hour of the screening I was there for seemed to whizz by. The films were captivating in their eerie, experimental and sometimes quite humorous style. The only full clip I saw, entitled "The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia," was a clever collage of claymation, authentic video footage, and edited video work that featured the dissection of a replica of Stalin's head (which contained a very real semblance to human brains). The space quickly largely cleared out after this final clip, and my friends and I remarked on how impressed we were with the space, having never previously known of it. Apparently, Starr Space regularly hosts Sunday film nights, as well as Monday figure drawing sessions, yoga, and other such cultural/hipster-type activities. Maybe I should visit Bushwick more often... *And*, I almost forgot to mention, after the film screening, the space became the host to a little dance party. And a significant amount of people were actually dancing: a nice refutation of the stereotype that "hipsters don't dance."(!)

I spent my day Friday at Coney Island, walking on the boardwalk to the very end (Brighton Beach), enjoying the sand and water and yes, even a ride. Here are some pictures I took at the beach, many from the Wonder Wheel:





Friday night I attended a friend's birthday party, and today, Saturday, so far I spent the day in Fort Greene, where I strolled through the Artisan and Green Markets in Fort Greene Park and sat down to enjoy the Fort Greene Park Literary Festival. (Also see the Flavorpill write-up.) While I did not stay long enough to hear all of the writers, I was impressed by the music of the percussion ensemble which played, Indoda Entsha, and the dancers who performed with them.



Hooray for Brooklyn in the summertime!