If you prefer to lament, or compliment, the cleanup plan in the company of your neighbors, then you’re in luck: North Brooklyn Neighbors and NYC Council Member Stephen Levin are hosting a comment-athon this Wed. Oct. 24, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Threes Brewing (113 Franklin St.). Continue reading →
“If we want to be happy all the time and to be free from problems, we must develop and maintain a peaceful mind.” – Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, How to Transform Your Life
In Buddhism, the term mindfulness is interchangeable with meditation.
Mindfulness is that part of the mind we need to cultivate in order to practice meditation. Mindfulness technically means to remember, to be mindful. We already have mindfulness, the problem is we have mindfulness of the wrong things. For example, if we have a tendency towards anxiety we’ve already mastered mindfulness of remembering all the things that might go wrong.
That’s why we need to train in mindfulness of the right things, to train ourselves to focus on those aspects of our mind that produce what we actually want – peace, happiness and an expansive and open heart.
We can think of meditation as focusing the mind on the internal causes of peace and happiness. The beautiful thing is we carry these internal causes with us everywhere we go. While we all already have them, we need to learn how to recognize them. Once we can recognize our internal causes of peace and happiness. we then train in remaining mindful of them.
This is essentially what the practice of meditation is all about, and how it can be used to completely eradicate all suffering, including the suffering of anxiety.
Soft Opening (570 Manhattan Ave.) is one of Greenpoint’s latest additions and offers refuge from the always-on tech world in a thoughtfully curated plant shop abundant with nature you can bring home. You can also catch Soft Opening at the Greenpointers Samhain Fall Market happening this Sunday, Oct. 28.
The shop’s name is intentionally mysterious according to the owner, Kristin McLaughlin. “I love the way the words Soft Opening can mean different things to different people. A new bud or blossom can be a soft opening. An art reception can be a soft opening,” she said. Continue reading →
The 7th Annual Party for the Parks in Williamsburg
In North Brooklyn open green space for public recreation is considered scarce. But the mood was celebratory at the North Brooklyn Parks Alliances’ annual Party for the Parks held on Oct. 18 at the Wythe Hotel (80 Wythe Ave.).
The passage of the Waste Equity Bill that will cut in half North Brooklyn’s waste processing by Oct. 2019 and the opening of the ultra-modern Domino Park on the Williamsburg waterfront highlighted a year of environmental victories in an area once defined by the burdens of industrial pollution.
Pop-up park on the Pulaski Bridge! (via Lucy Levine)
With some turf and a table, the Pulaski Bridge pedestrian lane just got a little greener. A small “park” installation has been slotted into the span’s scenic-overlook which offers unobstructed views of Newtown Creek. Continue reading →
Full disclosure: Mary Houlihan and I used to carpool. The guest star on “Difficult People” and I would be shuttled to Brookside Middle School by my neighbor’s mom, but it was always a mystery whether or not Mary would join us on a given school day. Hers was the last house on our carpool journey, and — after a few car honks — Mary emerged, or didn’t. I was always grateful for the mornings she did. Even then, she had a stupefyingly offbeat wit — generous but dry, subdued but bonkers. Chipper as we were bitter with her tardiness, Mary would enter the car and chime, “Good morning, friends.”
We once shared a commute; we now share a neighborhood. Houlihan embodies the best parts of Greenpoint in her life and career — she builds community, as with her Three Chickies musical improv series, and maintains a signature self-awareness, even as careers (and neighborhoods) change. I’m happy to have caught up and discussed the comedy scene with the sly wizard behind “Learn To Paint With Mary Houlihan!“.
Greenpointers: How long have you been in Greenpoint? Mary Houlihan: About six years. When I first moved here I lived off the Myrtle/Willoughby G stop in Bed-Stuy, then I moved to a big building that flooded in Hurricane Sandy after living there for just a month. Then I moved in with my parents in New Jersey. Then I moved to a green house off Calyer Street, then I lived near Grandma Roses, and now I’m in my current location. I’ve moved a lot.
The neighborhood’s treated you well? It’s treated me well, me likely. It’s quiet. It’s hidden but not insane.
Greenpoint Beer& Ale and Knick Knacks Brooklyn are teaming up one more time before the year is over and they’re going all out on October 21st for #crabfest#round3! They will be offering UNLIMITED SNOW CRAB LEGS with an order of SHRIMP, POTATOES and CORN for 75 MINS! ($65 per ticket – drinks a la carte) Get your fill, you don’t want to be the one left out! Check out the ticket link and pick your session. See you there! Buy tix [Sponsored]
WEDNESDAY 10/17
♫ The O’My’s @ Rough Trade (64 N 9th St.), 8pm, $15, Buy Tix ♫ Big Thief@ Brooklyn Steel (319 Frost St.), 8pm, $22, Buy tix ♫ Sontag Shogun, Christopher Tignor, Anastasia Clarke @ Arete Venue and Gallery (67 West St. #103), 8pm, $15, An evening of abstract sentimental music (for lovers and loners alike). All artists performing new music from forthcoming releases and improvisation, More Info ♫ ALBERICH, Geography Of Hell, DJ Becka Diamond, DJ JonBenet, DJ Guilt Attendant @ St. Vitus (1120 Manhattan Ave.), 11pm, $10, Buy Tix
THURSDAY 10/18
♦ Nicolas Holiber: Birds on Broadway Audubon Sculpture Project @ Kingsland Wildflowers (520 Kingsland Ave.), 5:30pm, $15 suggested, Learn about an ambitious public-art project set to line Broadway with 12 larger than life bird sculptures next year, more info * Pints for Paws @ Brouwerij Lane (78 Greenpoint Ave.) 6pm, $5 raffle ticket, hourly raffle to benefit BARCS Animal Shelter, More info # COPENHAGEN FOOD with author Trine Hahnemann @ Archestratus (160 Huron St.), 7pm, FREE, Get a free glass of Glögg with the purchase of the new cookbook Copenhagen Food: Stories, Traditions and Recipes, More info ^♥ The Poetry Brothel: Season of the Witch @ House of Yes (2 Wyckoff Ave.), 7pm, $50+, immersive cabaret featuring poetry, burlesque, live music, vaudeville, aerials, visual art, magic, and mysticism, with newly integrated themes, performances and installations at each event. Buy TixContinue reading →
Videology (308 Bedford Ave.) announced today that the business will close its doors forever at the end of October after nearly a 15-year run.
The much-adored bar and neighborhood hangout for film aficionados became a staple in South Williamsburg that hosted screenings and trivia nights after shifting focus as a movie rental store.
NYC Together’s annual fundraiser takes place on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. at the Wythe Hotel (80 Wythe Ave.), with 100 percent of the proceeds going toward the program to bring officers from the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Brooklyn North together with high schoolers.
Founder Dana Rachlin (L) student (C) and Assistant Chief Jeffrey Maddrey (R): Image courtesy of NYC Together
NYC Together’s founder Dana Rachlin views the relationships as beneficial for both the students and the officers: “We don’t see it as a mentorship, we see it as a way for us to build community and support young people with the resources and the support that they need.”
Join your neighbors at the Park Church Co-op (129 Russell St.) for a locally sourced feast on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 6:30 p.m. – 8: 30 p.m.
Tickets for the Park to Table Community Harvest Dinner are available now and cost $35 for adults and $5 for children; a portion of the proceeds will benefit Brooklyn Defenders.
WEDNESDAY 10/17
THURSDAY 10/18
