BREW SKILLS: Following up on the massive popularity of their winter homebrewing class, Brooklyn Skillshare is concocting a summer edition of their Homebrewing 101 class. The mini-skills session will cover equipment, ingredients, and processes involved in brewing your own beer at home, including a demonstration of getting a batch ready for fermentation.
Tuesday, August 9 // 7:30 p.m. // Tea Lounge [837 Union St Brooklyn] // Free, $10 suggested donation
SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS: A hotspot of New York City's literary world, the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe hosts an impressive panel tonight: The Last Shot: Chuck Klosterman, Dana Stevens, Brian Koppelman, and Mark Harris Talk Summer Movies. The cultural critics will discuss the sometimes discouraging landscape of summer blockbuster territory and the future of the medium. As always, all profits benefit the organization's efforts to tackle the dual causes of AIDS and homelessness.
Wednesday, August 10 // 7 p.m. // Bookstore Cafe [126 Crosby St] // Free
SPIKE'S SIDESHOW: As part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival (running through August 14th), Spike's Sideshow brings good old freaky fun to the plazas of Lincoln Center. Honoring King of the Sideshow Ward Hall, a dozen different performance artists will present in the summery spectacle, including magicians, contortionists, comedians, and hula-hooping burlesque, naturally.
Wednesday, Aug 10 // 6 p.m. // Lincoln Center [Columbus Ave. between 62nd and 66th Sts] // Free
HITTING THE STREETS: It's no secret that Japan ups the ante on just about everything. We do street food, but they
do it better. So, Brooklyn Kitchen is taking its inspiration for a DIY street food class from our neighbors across the Pacific with its Japanese Street Food class. Taught by Candice Kumai (author of Pretty Delicious and a cooking host on TLC), guests will get to taste fresh turkey meatball yakitori with grilled negi, ginger beef yakitori, fried noodle yaki soba, and takoyaki, or fried octopus balls, for those so inclined. Beer and sake will also be generously served for an accompanying tasting. You'll leave buzzed, full, and with a few recipes in hand.
Thursday, August 11 // 6:30 p.m. // 100 Frost St, Brooklyn // $75
A FAMILY (STONE) AFFAIR: All great musicians must be immortalized in a show that appropriates their music, and Sly and the Family Stone is no different. David Dorfman Dance is putting on a concert version of their upcoming show Prophets of Funk, an 8-person dance performance intended to "find strength and joy in the muck and mess--the funk--of every day life" a la the Family. As a special treat, the Family Stone will be joining the dancers on stage, amplifying the already "outrageous costumes, striking lighting and visual effects, and gorgeous dance" with funkadelic sounds guaranteed to take you higher.
Thursday, August 11 // 7 p.m. // Damrosch Park Bandshell [Amsterdam Ave & W. 62nd St]// Free
SONIC YOUTH: Squeeze in your last bit of outdoor concerts with the No Wave rock-noise sounds of New York natives Sonic Youth. Performing along with four-woman girl group Wild Flag, Sonic Youth brings its part-alt, part-indie sensibilities to the Williamsburg Waterfront to usher out the dog days of August, and perhaps our own youth, in style.
Friday, August 12 // 5:30 p.m. // N 8th St. at Kent Ave, Brooklyn // $32.50
CENTENNIAL SWIM: August 13th will mark the hundred year anniversary of Rose Pitonof's historic swim from Manhattan to Coney Island. Rose's successful swim from East 26th Street to Steeplechase Pier earned her the title of Long Distance Swimming Champion of the World. Rose covered some 21 miles during her eight hours and seven minutes in the water, and to commemorate this remarkable event, six swimmers will tread the City waters from the north end of East River Park to Steeplechase Pier.
Saturday, August 13 // 9 a.m. // East River Park [E 10th St and the FDR] to Steeplechase Pier [1904 Surf Ave, Brooklyn] // Free
THOUGHTFUL THEATRE: Taking on the heady topics of race and humanity, Terrence Patrick Hughes ("Finding the Rooster") teams up with the Horse Trade Theatre Group and the Ice and Fire Theatre of London to present Lines at the Red Room. Telling the story about an allegorical country where a physical line separates blacks and whites, this barely veiled jab at petty prejudice promises not to let its audience off easy.
Saturday, August 12 // 8 p.m. // 85 E 4th St // $18, $15 students & seniors
ARCADE-DRAMA: Whatever happened to the guy in the green striped shirt from Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues? We'll give you a clue--he's starring in Theater of the Arcade a show that adapts five classic video games for the stage as a part of the International Fringe Festival. This collection of short plays will explore what happens when stories "born of the arcade are given the high literary respect and dramaturgical rigor they deserve." We wonder how they'll re-enact Frogger?
Saturday, August 13 // 9 p.m. // 45 Bleecker St // $16
TWIGGY: No, not the supermodel, something even smaller: moss terrariums. Brooklyn-based artist duo Twig Terrariums hosts a open studio at the Museum of Art and Design where attendees can watch them create wee worlds in antique, vintage, and new glass apothecary jars, science glass, kitchenware and more. Sound tame? Idyllic pastoral scenes, angry punk rockers and Central Park muggings can be found in these tiny twig terrariums, making them uniquely suited to New York sensibilities.
Saturday, August 13 // 11 a.m. // MAD [2 Columbus Circle] // Free with museum admission ($15)
DREAM UP:Theater for the New City, the Pulitzer Prize-winning theater organization known for its high artistic standards, widespread community service, and dedication to new or emerging playwrights and actors, presents its second annual Dream Up Festival, debuting tonight. Running through September 4, the festival will present a wide variety of original theater composed of drama, poetry, music, and dance.
Sunday, August 14 // 2 p.m. // Theater for the New City [155 First Ave] // Prices vary
BEAT BOXING: Not just for YouTube channels and street performers, beat boxing gets legit at the 2011 American Beatbox Championships (ABCs), presented by the World Beatbox Association at Le Poisson Rouge. Celebrating this hands-on vocal art, contestants and fans participate in workshops, panel discussions, an open mic series, film screenings and featured showcases, culminating in an epic vocal battle Sunday, headlined by Rahzel (the Roots) and Rakaa (DilatedPeoples).
Sunday, August 14 // 6 p.m. // Le Poisson Rouge [158 Bleecker St] // $25
REAL CHARACTERS: Some of New York's funniest writer/comedian personalities will showcase their charisma at McNally Jackson's aptly titled storytelling and performance show, "Real Characters". Event organizers promise that "Some of it’s true, some of it feels more than true, and most of it is mostly funny."
Monday, August 15 // 7 p.m. // McNally Jackson [52 Prince St] // Free
Newsletter contributions from Nell Casey, Elyssa Goldbery, Bethany O'Grady and Eva Saviano
