Brooklyn Abridged, Brooklyn Magazine

The War Memorials of Brooklyn

Henry Stewart — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:08:00 -0400

Since at least the Civil War, Brooklyn residents have commemorated American wars by building long-lasting memorials to those who died fighting them. These sculptures and monuments are scattered throughout the borough, from Greenpoint to East New York to Bay Ridge, and visiting one in your neighborhood over the next few days might not be a bad way to pay tribute to the reason for the long weekend—to contemplate what it means to be a citizen of a country that sends people to war who die there, and to honor the sacrifice of those who go.…

In Memoriam: 10 Much Mourned Brooklyn Institutions

Kristin Iversen — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:03:00 -0400

Nothing lasts forever, right? Especially in New York.…

The 11 Best Ways To Spend Memorial Day Weekend In Brooklyn

Virginia K. Smith — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:30:00 -0400

God, finally. Waiting for Memorial Day to get here is like a grueling year-long equivalent of the antsy "Is it Friiiiiday yet???" thing we all do like every single week.…

Northside Film Tickets Are On Sale Now!

Mike Conklin — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:00:00 -0400

Northside Film is quickly approaching (mark your calendars for June 17-20 if you haven't already) and badges are on sale now. What does a badge get you, you ask?…

Prospect Park After GoogaMooga: "No Longer a Meadow—An Abandoned Lot"

Henry Stewart — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:09:00 -0400

I felt conflicted about the Great GoogaMooga, the music and food festival that recently took over Prospect Park: on one hand, I live and write about Brooklyn everyday, and I feel like I should be present for large cultural events; on the other, I love Prospect Park and am sympathetic to the critics who say the damage incurred to it isn't worth the paltry sum the park nets from the festival. Luckily, I had been given tickets for Sunday, which was rained out, so I didn't have to confront this moral dilemma this year.…

Which Mayoral Candidate Gets To Be The "Brooklyn" Candidate?

Virginia K. Smith — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:13:03 -0400

Today's been a pretty huge news day. Or at least, it has been if you're specifically interested in the democratic field for this year's mayoral race: Anthony Weiner officially announced his sort of inevitable candidacy, with a solid 64-point "action plan" and a video his campaign accidentally released a few hours early, while the New York Times published a glowing profile depicting Bill de Blasio as the face of "new Brooklyn."…

More Bands Added to the Northside Festival Lineup: Chance the Rapper, A Place to Bury Strangers, Bleached, Weekend and More

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:44:00 -0400

The countdown to the Northside Festival has officially begun! In less than 30 days, more than 350 bands will descend on Williamsburg and Greenpoint for four long days and even longer nights.…

Hipsters Tired of "Hipsters" Ruining Williamsburg

Henry Stewart — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:08:00 -0400

People who recently moved to Williamsburg are angry that their favorite bars are now being overrun by bridge-and-tunnel tourists, DNAinfo reports. The worst blocks are those around the Wythe Hotel, residents report: you can't even go to Brooklyn Bowl, the Output Club, Kinfolk Studios or the hotel anymore without running into a bunch of phonies.…

The Rockabus Has Added Two New Routes

Virginia K. Smith — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:41:02 -0400

Just ahead of Memorial Day Weekend, the operators of Rockabus announced in a press release this morning that in addition to the usual pickup location in Williamsburg, this year's service will include two new routes from Grand Army Plaza, on Flatbush near the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Lower East Side, near the 2nd Avenue F stop. All buses will be traveling nonstop every hour to Rockaway Beach and Jacob Riis Park on Saturdays and Sundays.…

The Cicada Apocalypse!: or 5 Ways Brooklyn Has Changed In the Last 17 Years

Kristin Iversen — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:35:00 -0400

Perhaps you've heard of the cicada plague that is about to descend (or, rather, ascend... billions of these little suckers are going to be crawling up and out of the ground!) upon us all.…

Yet Another Reason Patrick Stewart Is Brooklyn's Finest Citizen

Virginia K. Smith — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:12:12 -0400

Listen, we all know that Patrick Stewart has proven himself to be a pretty superlative Brooklyn resident many times over, via his irritation with the Barclays Center (stars, they're just like us!), his excellent Twitter feed, mostly just his continued presence here.

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Everything You Need To Know About The Brooklyn Half Marathon

Virginia K. Smith — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:05:00 -0400

Raise your hand (weirdly, at your desk, right now) if you enjoy running. Or friendly competition?…

RSVP to the Third Literary Upstart Reading!

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:47:00 -0400

You are cordially invited to the third semi-final reading of Literary Upstart: The Search for Pocket Fiction, The L Magazine's annual competitive reading series in which the city's finest unknown writers read and compete for an enormous novelty check worth $250 and publication in our Summer Fiction Issue.

We've changed locations!…

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Is It Actually Possible To File Complaints With The MTA?

Virginia K. Smith — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:30:33 -0400

I'd like to say this question came to me totally in the spirit of public service, but, I mean, of course it didn't. Of course I've spent the better part of the week trying to figure out this labyrinth (and the better part of Sunday afternoon sitting at a bar frantically jamming "HOW TO REPORT BAD BUS DRIVER MTA NYC?" into my phone) because this weekend, on the shuttle replacing the J train, I had what you could call a Very Bad Bus Driver.…
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Brownsville Just Might be the Next Williamsburg

Virginia K. Smith — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:52:32 -0400

With insanity like "East Bushwick" and and, uh, an East Williamsburg that includes part of Queens gaining real estate momentum, it's never too soon to speculate on what the next hot hot hot neighborhood for gentrification will be. So let's talk about Brownsville for a minute.…
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The Northside Festival Needs Volunteers!

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:02:00 -0400

The Northside Festival is quickly approaching (mark your calendars for June 13-20) and early bird badges are totally sold out. Bummer!…
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The 5 Best Books for Brooklyn's Topless Book Club

Kristin Iversen — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:50:00 -0400

Is there anything that can destroy the fun of reading more than a book club? I don't know about you, but nothing makes me want to read a book less than if I feel like it's been assigned to me. I mean, for me, being a writer is already sort of like being a full-time student in that I am constantly doing work at home at crazy hours and I subsist pretty much on caffeine and potato chips and other things that are undeniably bad for me. It's unhealthy, it really is. But so, book clubs.…
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Some of the Citi Bike Backlash Actually Worked

Virginia K. Smith — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:18:00 -0400

Well, that was pretty fast. Of all the different people who are pissed at Citi Bike, at least a few of them are getting their way.…
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5 Controversial City Programs That Changed New York Forever

Kristin Iversen — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:45:00 -0400

The official launch of New York CIty's bike share program is approaching quickly and, as expected, opponents are becoming more and more vocal about all the problems that might occur. The New York Times reports, "Bike share was easy for New York City to love in the abstract...But with the program two weeks away, many New Yorkers have turned against bike share."…
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Should We Be Worried About This Brooklyn Measles Outbreak?

Virginia K. Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:55:15 -0400

Well, here's something I thought I'd never be typing, in 2013: there's a measles outbreak in Brooklyn. Huh.…
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Some Americans Actually Admit to Being Hipsters

Henry Stewart — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:51:00 -0400

Twenty seven percent of Americans support levying a special tax on hipsters for "for being so annoying," according to a survey by Public Policy Polling. The research firm, which published a press release that reads like the Borowitz Report but is apparently not a joke, asked Americans many questions about hipsters, with not-so-surprising results: 42 percent have an unfavorable view of hipsters, 46 percent agreed that hipsters "soullessly appropriate cultural tropes from the past for their own ironic amusement," and 98 percent of Republicans said they'd be less likely to vote for a hipster (dashing our dreams of electing a hipster president any time soon, ugh).…
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Why Being Lonely Will Probably Kill You

Kristin Iversen — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:45:00 -0400

Are you alone? I don't mean "alone" in the "are you single" kind of a way, although that way might very well apply here too.…
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Are You a Lazy Millennial? Take a Quiz and Find Out

Kristin Iversen — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:36:00 -0400

Who doesn't love an online quiz? I can't think of a single person who doesn't like online quizzes, except arguable (noted) curmudgeon and L Mag culture editor, Henry Stewart.…
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The Grossest Things You Will Breathe on the Subway

Virginia K. Smith — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:36:00 -0400

Listen, today is not a great day for subway news. And I know you know the subway is gross.…
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"East Williamsburg, Queens"?!

Henry Stewart — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:49:00 -0400

I mean, if you want to get all technical about it, Queens is not actually Brooklyn, but, I mean, it basically is, right? At least that's what one Williamsburg realty company thinks.…
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