Critical 5 things to do in NYC: fun, Feb., and fab, Feb. 22-24
Somehow the end of the month is already approaching, and we have March coming in like a lion to look forward to. Keep busy this weekend with booze, food, and a little glamour, and maybe you'll forget just how long and cold winter really is.
Seventh Williamsburg Cask Beer Festival, Feb 23-26
Rescheduled due to Sandy, now conveniently in time for NYC Beer Week, the Seventh Williamsburg Cask Beer Festival is in full spring at d.b.a Brooklyn. Find out for yourself why beer snobs swear by this so-called real ale with its unfiltered, unpasteurized, and thereby thicker body and arguably more complex taste. With sixteen cask-conditioned beers on tap, you’ll be able to discern the difference between Beadeca’s smoked porter and the new hazelnut brown ale from Bridge and Tunnel Brewery. Pay-as-you-go tastings (ranging from $5-$10) are available from 1pm to midnight, and rarities and vintage bottles sweeten the pot of the Mega Beer Raffle on Sunday. All raffle proceeds go to the family of the late beer-bar pioneer, Ray Deter.
Social media week comes to a close with a series of parties, presentations, workshops, and keynote talks hosted by media moguls such as BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti. Covering a wide range of topics from advertising and marketing to education and learning to even health and wellness, each presentation looks at the field’s pressing issues through a social media lens. Visit the website to sit in on the various talks on Friday, such as “Lessons from the Tumblr-verse: Creating Advertising People Love” and “Longform in a Shortform World,” or drop by Saturday to celebrate Wikipedia Day until you’re sick of citations.
Big Onion’s Multiethnic Eating Tour, Feb 24
Head to the corner of Delancey and Essex Sts. this Sunday at 1pm for a multiethnic eating tour that combines gastronomy with history. The 1.5 mile walk will take you on a food sampling adventure through the Jewish East Side, Dominican Side, Little Italy, and Chinatown and offer you about ten different items that represent these communities. The noshing tour utilizes specific shops and markets to highlight eigh neighborhood’s history and offer the most opportunities to try something new. Reservations are required, so visit the site for details and get to sampling.
Avant Music Festival at the Wild Project, Feb 15-23
Now in its final weekend, the Avant Music Festival is a grassroots event meant to expose listeners to new music, with an emphasis on new. Curated by composer Randy Gibson and soprano Megan Schubert, the festival is at once immersive and experimental, with live sprawling performances and supplemental media. Friday night features the premiere of Nick Hallett’s electroacoustical tapestry, Rainbow Passage. Using vocals strictly processed through effects machines, the resulting work juxtaposes ancient and modern techniques alike while presenting them against a live-cinema backdrop. Saturday night the festival goes out with a drone with Gibson’s avant garde composition, Appartion of the Four Pillars.
Last week saw the opening of the New Museum’s exhibit entitled: “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star,” conceived as a time capsule attempting to capture the intersection of art, pop culture, and politics as well as the relationship between mainstream and underground culture of the early '90s. In conjunction with this cultural project, Sacha Jenkins, cofounder of hip-hop journals Beat Down Newspaper and ego trip, will chat with '90s radio icons, Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia this Friday. Broadcast from Columbia University on WKCR-FM 89.9 for eight years, their show was responsible for introducing countless underground rappers and MCs to the wider public, such as Wu-Tang Clan and Nas.
Academy Awards at Videology, Feb 24
This weekend, movie theater cum video store cum bar Videology is offering an alternative red carpet with a night full of formalwear, Oscar trivia, awards, and drinks. Comedian Maggie Ross will be your personal host for the 85th Academy Awards, even offering awards to the Best Dressed, Best Hair, and Best (presumably drunk) Acceptance Speech of the attendees. Try your hand at ballot-predicting to win a comprehensive copy of 80 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards, or just sit back and enjoy their specialty cocktail appropriately called “the Oscar Goes To,” which features a citrusy blend of gin, cognac, lemon, orange bitters, and sugar, with a lemon twist.
