Dusty Rose (251 Greenpoint Ave) is hosting a show this Thursday night (7-10pm) for local and national artists offering their interpretation on the theme of #Nightboob. 15% of all sales that night will go to Komen Greater NYC, an organization that helps a diverse range of women get help with breast cancer screening, treatment, and more. Just as importantly, there will be private boob portraits painted by the talented Akane Ogura (who was doing face portraits this weekend during Greenpoint Open Studios), live screenprinting, music by Mur and adult beverages.
The Hum, in its 5th year, is a magical project put together by Rachael Pazdan. Pazdan, music director at the Le Possion Rouge, unites female artists who have never worked together to create new music for an all-female performance series for five nights. In past years it was held at Manhattan Inn (RIP), but this year Good Room (98 Meserole Ave) is hosting all the events except one which will be held at Le Poisson Rouge. This past Monday’s session was serene, synth-ful and sinful, and full of dance-like beauty. Each group was seamless and fluid in their collaboration, making it appear that they must have worked together before. These groups that played involved several powerhouses, including Kissey as well as Sadie Dupuis (Speedy Ortiz). Continue reading →
If you’re a music fan in North Brooklyn, you’ve probably heard of The HUM, a kickass all-female music fest. In past years, it was held at the now shuttered neighborhood fave Manhattan Inn, and this year Good Room (98 Meserole Ave) is playing host. Last week, Erika Spring from Au Revoir Simone took the stage with several other megatalented megababes. Tonight’s show (which we will be covering) features Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz plus a solid lineup of additional female powerhouses. Tickets ($15) will be available at the box office tonight, and you can get $12 tickets online for the upcoming shows. Rock out with your frock out! Continue reading →
Picture this: you and bae decide to spice things up so you get down and dirty with a sex toy—a totally magical night. But, your night was actually so magic that you wake up the next day and discover you’ve switched bodies, which is simultaneously terrifying and awesome. We’ve seen body-switching in movies before (Freaky Friday, Vice Versa and The Change Up, among others), but the new film Inside You goes deeper and explores gender, sexuality and marriage while still remaining hilarious. After three years of challenging production, badass lady director Heather Fink is ready to put her latest film out into the world. Using shows and films like Louis, Girls, Obvious Child and Bridesmaids as the script’s true-to-life comedic inspiration, she shot the film right here in Greenpoint and other parts of North Brooklyn (you can see Bushwick’s Catland in the trailer, masquerading as the sex shop). Heather (a Greenpointer) not only directed the film, but she also wrote it and stars in it. We chatted with her about her filmmaking process and her love of Greenpoint.
GP: How long did the film take to make (from writing the script through production)?
Heather: I finished the script in March 2014, ran the Kickstarter in June 2014, tried to shoot in October 2014 but had the lead actress drop out the day before the shoot. We re-tooled the project, I decided to act in it myself, and we finally shot in June 2015. We locked the picture edit by January 2016, and finished sound, color, VFX, music and titles by June 2016. I applied to festivals with this cut—and waited several months to hear back, taking me into 2017. I ran out of money so I needed to work several months to afford the final pieces—the end credits sequence, and we just finished the trailer. Every step of the way I had to work till I had enough money to pay for each thing. Now, it’s paid for.
Some friends and I were sitting out on the grass in Transmitter Park one warm June evening watching a film when we were approached by a young woman campaigning for Emily Gallagher, who was running for the position of Female District Leader of the Democratic Party. Most people, even people who follow politics closely, would not know there was even a Female District Leader, let alone what the job entailed. But I was familiar with the position because Peter McGuinness, the legendary Greenpoint Democratic Boss and the namesake for McGuinness Boulevard, owed his rise to power to his Female co- leader, Margaret Conlon.
A District Leader is an unpaid position in the local Democratic Party, representing the neighborhoods of Greenpoint, North and South Williamsburg on issues regarding judicial nominations and elections. At the end of World War I, McGuinness, had grown fed up with the inertia of local Democratic politicians, but he had never gone to high school and needed someone’s help to write letters to the editor criticizing the party establishment. He turned to Conlon, a poet as well as a skilled prose writer, who helped McGuinness write a series of highly provocative attacks on the corruption and inertia of the local political machine and the letters hit home. Thanks in large part to Conlon, she and McGuinness in a shocker were elected as local Democratic Party leaders and they served effectively for years, bringing a number of positive changes to our area and making history. Continue reading →
