Spoonful

Looking for something to do tomorrow at 7PM?

Britt Daniels of Spoon will be playing a free acoustic in store set at Sound Fix in Williamsburg. Sounds like one hip time!

Windnie and I already have plans which I'm sure you'll be reading about soon so if you go tell us how it was!

Thanks to pulseJFK on twitter for the heads up!

More show info:

http://eventful.com/brooklyn/events/britt-daniel-spoon-/E0-001-027407023-4

Brooklyn Frees.

So Brian and I had the best idea ever.  Wake up early on a Saturday morning and go to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden!  It is free every Saturday morning till noon after all and who doesn't like flowers!

So we got there and somehow were surprised that nothing was in bloom.  We're smart!  But never fear, we were still able to enjoy the beauties of nature.

Here's Brian testing the ice in this frozen-over stream.  How lovely!  It didn't take us long to realize we could stand and skate and play and have a grand old time on this ice.  Here's a video to show you how far we (Brian) went!


Impressive eh?

So after frolicking in the outdoors for a few hours we went to the Brooklyn Public Library for the Sesame Street exhibit which celebrates "40 years of life on the streets".  It is set up in the lobby and is of course, free.  We didn't take pictures of the actual exhibit... we want you to check it out for yourself, duhhh!

But here is a photo of the beautiful entrance to the library.  It makes Brian swoon.

And if that wasn't enough free fun for the day, we met up with our friends for game night a little later that day.  Here is a little shout out to them and one of the cardigan-wrapped trees who live on their street.

Not pictured: Sarah and Joe.  Hello to you too!!

Help Haiti, Help yourself

A lot of you may have already given to Haiti relief and more of you may be thinking it would be a nice thing to do. Well Spirit Airlines (based in Ft. Lauderdale with destinations including LGA) is making it an even better idea by offering 5000 free airline miles for the first 200,000 people who donate at least $5 to Haiti relief efforts. Enough for a free flight! Sounds like a good deal for a good cause!

See the link below!

http://marketing.spiritair.com/haitirelief/

Partying Hard

After a long week, with lots of long days at work, Windnie and I needed a fun weekend. And who do you turn to when you need to make the most of life? Andrew W.K.

Turns out AWK made a deal with his friend Spencer that if Spencer ever lived in one of his art spaces he would perform on the second to the last day of the exhibit. Thanks, Spencer! I figured the place would be packed but there were only about 25 people there when it all kicked off and probably 50 by the end. It made for a cozy time. AWK didn't play any of his songs, he improvd for awhile, took requests, played some Bach, just kinda let it come. And just in case free Andrew W.K. wasn't enough, they threw in plenty of free beer! Thanks again, Spence!

Some pics and vids from the evening:









We finished off the show with a stop by S'Mac! Which is a Mac N Cheese restaurant! Mmmmmm

I was an Audience Extra or When Free Things Cost Too Much

Many know about the TKTS booths located around the city (including the cool new digs in Times Square) which offer "cheap" Broadway tickets. Broadway's definition of cheap is unfortunately still out of my regular price range and is reserved for those special nights out.

But what about shows off Broadway? With all that talent on Broadway some of it is bound to overflow onto other streets and avenues, right? Sure! I bet any old street, like 24th Street for instance, would have close to Broadway musical talent! So out I wandered onto 24th Street and POW! Windnie, David Emery, and I were asked to be "Audience Extras" for Sessions the Musical featuring Robert Newman! (Clarification: I found the tickets on Craigslist)

Robert Newman! OMG!

Who is Robert Newman?! It turns out he spent basically an entire career on A Guiding Light! WOO! That's a certifiable D-list celebrity!

Anyway, as audience extras we got free tickets that usually sell for $50 (though I'm not sure if the entire audience was "extra")! It's not all fun and games as an extra though. The email they sent me carried some very specific instructions:

1.Please be discreet! Not everybody gets free tickets, and we don't want our full-price paying guests to know you didn't pay! To get your tickets just show the printed email or your photo ID! Don't say "FREE!" if asked how you heard about the show Please show your Print out or just say "through Carly"

2.) Please show up on time and dressed appropriately!

3.) Please do not cal l the theater for any reason. They simply cannot handle the volume of phone calls

Yep, I had to use a secret code word to get our tickets! But the hardest part of being an Audience Extra was the part that came next... sitting through the show! OH! BURN! It was about as good as one might expect from a play led by the staccatoed, head bobbing leading man of a daytime television show. Which is to say it wasn't very good. I'm not here to give a detailed analysis of Sessions, but it wasn't worth the price of admission (ZING!). Some moments were pretty good but mostly it was uneven and had bad singing.

Sometimes it pays to pay but I think I'll keep on being a cheapskate for at least a little while. I'll just be a little more wary next time I go browsing the free tickets being offered on craigslist.

You can almost hear the crickets

Blockbusted

If you're in the Union Square/NYU area tomorrow stop by the Blockbuster on Broadway which is going out of business! Tomorrow is the last day of operation and basically all the dvds that are left cost $2! They're also selling various other things like books, video games and accessories, etc. You can also buy shelving if you want to start your own video store to be destroyed by Netflix!

In related news, let me know if you want to come over and watch Komodo vs. Cobra or Wieners starring Keenan Mitchell :)

Go for the booze, stay for the networking

College equipped me with many things; a passion for learning, great friends, the beginnings of a career and lots of debt that limits my spending potential. There are occasions however when the old alma mater gives back.

While I've been to all sorts of schools, Windnie and I share only one school in common: Washington University in St. Louis. You may have guessed that Wash U is located in St. Louis. About 900 miles away from our present home in New York City. Fortunate for us, Wash U is just crawling with New Yorkers with a passion for the educational opportunities of the midwest.

On Wednesday Wash U held a "networking event" at Mustang Harry's (In case Mustang Sally's was too feminine for you). Networking starts by handing out 2 free drink tickets to everyone in attendance (They basically took our word for being alums, which makes me think I should bring a crew next time). The next part of networking involves eating lots of appetizers. Part 3 of networking involves talking to others in a related field by looking at their color coded name tags. We didn't really make it to part 3. We were experts at parts 1 and 2 and felt like that was good enough. Expert enough that we didn't even need to eat real dinner on Wednesday night, we just stuck with our aps (as the cool kids say).

Windnie did eventually end up networking and we'll see how that all pans out. Heh. Pans out. I also suggested Windnie and I collaborate on a community development handbag project but she seemed a bit sceptical.

Til next time,

Later days

Sorry to keep you waiting

Oh hello, how have you been? We've missed you terribly! There will be more from us soon, in the mean time watch the entertaining packing peanuts we saw on the way home last night!

Free fun for minutes on end!