i really love beards (men, take note).

So I'm spending a rare weekend outside of the City for

George Wein's Folk Festival 50

(i.e. The Newport Folk Festival).

Sorry I won't be around to advise you on your social lives until I come back August 5th.
Until then, I leave you with a glimpse of the beautiful hairy men I will be experiencing at the festival. You'll stay busy gawking at them until my return.

Enjoy.

1. Sam Beam

2. Scott Avett

3. Robin Pecknold

4. Josh Ritter

5. Pete Seeger

Laupalooza 2009!

Please join us in celebrating the
Bat Mitzvah of our dearest friend,
Lauren Rebecca Bellhouse

Wednesday, the 29th of July, 2009
8:00 pm
Fontana’s Bar
104 Eldridge Street, The Lower East Side, NYC

It’s LAUpalooza 2009
But get ready to boogie like its 1999

Coke & Pepsi, Electric Slide, and other classics will be
played throughout the evening.

I MUST get these tickets.

MONSTERS OF FOLK

=

Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis

My Morning Jacket's Jim James

and singer/songwriter M.Ward

November 6th at the United Palace (I love this venue...saw Sigur Ros here...it's beautiful!)

November 8th at the Beacon Theater

Tickets go on sale next Friday, July 31st.

Who's in?

Let's Bike to The Gate Tonight!

Did you know that July is officially "Good Beer Month"?!

It's also "NYC Bike to the Bars Month!"

Bikes + Beer = one of my favorite combinations (though helmet is REQUIRED!!)

One of the best Park Slope bars with a rad outdoor space, The Gate, is having it's annual WHITEOUT tonight...

The Gate is turning its taps over to the perfect summer time brew, wheat beer*, for what seems to be becoming its annual White Out.

I have to work at The Park Slope Food Coop until 8:45 tonight, but who's down to head over there afterwards?!

*Matt, I know you're allergic to wheat beer, but you always seem to drink it anyways despite the sneezing, so don't feel excluded from partaking in this.

Dumpster Pool?

Who's up for dumpster pool swimming in Gowanus this weekend?

Just one more reason why I love Park Slope.

Adrian Grenier works at the same place as me.

My shift is tomorrow night at the Park Slope Food Coop. Probably one of the greatest things I've decided to do since moving to Brooklyn. I hope I have hot celebrities working next to me as I stock the shelves...

BEER!

Ok, so this post isn't about an event I want you to come to. But I'm too excited not to blog about it.

My wonderful roommate and I were at The Brooklyn Flea in DUMBO yesterday, and made one awesome purchase...

A BREW YOUR OWN BEER KIT!!!

Thanks to the Brooklyn Brew Shop, Ally and I will introduce our homemade Grapefruit Honey Ale in approximately 4 weeks.

ALLY AND I NEED A NAME FOR OUR NEW BREW!

SUGGESTIONS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

You better believe we'll have a tasting party in the near future!

Wooo!

<3 FREE STUFF!

I just won two tix to go see

the first NYC screening of Paper Heart @ BAM tonight!

I can't tell you how much I love free shit.

(especially when Michael Cera is involved)

Wondering how to win free tix to events?

Sign up for the JellyNYC mailing list and then keep your eyes open for emails during the day.

You gotta be quick like me, but it could happen to you too!

This one is for Nat.

Opening in the next two months: The Black Horse Pub, 568 5th Avenue, South Slope

In his 13 years in the Park Slope area, Brian McNally had never found a local bar that was entirely to his liking. So when the right space opened up, McNally, a Brit, went and built exactly the kind of bar he felt the neighborhood was missing: a contemporary British pub.

Nat Osborn, take note:

Bar extras: Come next summer, it’s all soccer, all the time, as the pub will serve as an official bar of the 2010 World Cup. Fans won’t have to wait that long to catch a game, though: On weekends, the bar will open early to show football matches, offering patrons full English breakfasts — eggs, beans, toast, sausage, and grilled tomatoes — while they watch.

Thanks for coming!

Props to the M.Block Blog for initiating a wicked successful first gathering...
How awesome was the Philharmonic in Prospect Park last night?!
Thanks to all the Manhattanites for venturing so far off the F train!

Do I Lose All Indie Cred Because I'm Excited About This?

"It's been ten years since we released Lost & Gone Forever, the album that put us on peoples' radars, helped us graduate from our van to a bus, and taught me to fill my finger cuts with krazy glue.
To celebrate, we're turning the clock back to 1999 and announcing the Lost & Gone Forever Ten Year Anniversary Tour -- 9 very special evenings with Guster. No opener. Two sets, one of which will be the album in its entirety. Yes, even Two Points for Honesty and Rainy Day. I haven't decided if we should play the album in order or in shuffle mode. Any thoughts?"

The final date on that tour will be a show at NYC's Beacon Theatre on Friday, November 27th.

Shut up. You loved them at 15 too.

My Body Cannot Do That.

I'm going to see Pilobolus Dance Theater on Monday @ The Joyce Theater!

I'm in awe just from seeing the pictures on their website, so can't wait to experience them live.




What is Pilobolus?

Pilobolus began, in 1971, as an outsider dance company, and quickly became renowned the world over for its imaginative and athletic exploration of creative collaboration. Nearly 40 years later, it has evolved into a pioneering American cultural institution of the 21st century.

Reviews to follow...

Team Members Needed!!!

*I need 3 other team members for

Board Game Olympics @ Union Hall!*

Monday, July 27th

7-11 PM

"Because playing is better than working, Metro Metro offers a night of classic board games in a competitive arena. Teams of four will compete round robin-style in a variety of games like: Trivial Pursuit, Jenga, Connect Four, Operation and more. The winningest team brings home the gold"...

It's $30 for a team of 4 -- that's only $7.50 for a night of fierce competition.

I know you're all as equally nerdy as I am, so let's do this!

*** UPDATE: Our team has been formed!!! Wish me, Avery Block, Jess Schary, and Lauren Bellhouse best of luck on our Board Game skills!! ***

Music, Dodgeball, & BBQ on Sunday!

The Pool Parties are back!!!

R.I.P. McCarren Pool...

(though who really wants to party around dead bodies anyways?)

This summer's parties have moved to the Williamsburg Waterfront.

Despite the change in locale, there will still be:

1. Dodgeball
2. Beer
3. Kiddie pools
4. B-B-Q
5. Music
6. Enough ridiculously dressed people to keep you thoroughly entertained all afternoon.
   

The Essentials:

When: Sunday, July 17

Where: The Williamsburg Waterfront, 90 Kent Ave btw N8th and N9th St

Who's playing: The Dirty Projectors, Crystal Antlers, Magnolia Electric Company

Cost: FREE!

Bikeable?: Yes, but I don't endorse drunken riding on the way home

ROCK!

i want.

i want to go bowling & drink beer.

Brooklyn Bowl just opened in Williamsburg.

how great does this place look?!

Check out the Making of Brooklyn Bowl (thanks Matt).

i want to go see this film.

kind of obsessed with Zooey Deschanel. (500) Days of Summer opens this weekend!

I want the hot/slighty nerdy guy that works at SIP to ask me out the next time I go there to buy a bottle of overpriced wine.

I only go there for you, you know! I could be going to that ghetto place on 4th Ave. But no, I don't. I buy your $15 Rioja so that I can attempt to flirt with you at checkout. I really just can't afford this anymore. So come on. Step it up.

Siren Fest is on Saturday!!

Crazy that this will be the fourth year in a row I go to Siren Fest... Each year it's a hot sweaty blur, full of too much cheap beer, obese women in bikini tops, fried food, encounters with about every hipster that ever graduated from Skidmore College, and music that's just about at your loudness threshold.

And it's always fucking awesome.

Ok, so I feel a little sub-par on my knowledge of the indie bands this time around, but I can't say I've ever really gone for the music anyways.

Last year, even after the Nathan's hotdogs, we waited in excruciating heat for Totonno's Pizza. SO worth it.

Who's with me?

The Essentials
Date: July 18th
Time: noon-9:00 p.m. or whenever we get into Totonno's.
Location: Coney Island (take the Q!)
Bikeable?: probably not... too many poor hipsters there who will want to steal your bike.

You asked for it.

Ok. So I'm in love with New York.

Especially my new home in the fabulous borough of Brooklyn.

The energy of this city is addictive. So much to do in every genre of activity imaginable. Yes, it's overwhelming.

But that's where I come in.

Come on, people. Let's not kid ourselves. I know what's going on.

As your unofficial Social Coordinator of Brooklyn & Beyond, I will attempt to compile all the events that I want to go to. Y'all know I'm big into music, so upcoming concerts will certainly be a highlight. But art, dance, films, restaurants, bars, you name it. You better believe I'll be on top of my shit.

My friends - let the M.Block Blog guide you through this crazy city of ours, and join me in taking advantage of all it has to offer. Ok, maybe not all. But at least some of the good stuff.

So here we go...


Wednesday, July 15th
The New York Philharmonic plays in Prospect Park!



Let's bust out those picnic blankets, bottles of vino, and baguettes and cheese from Brooklyn Larder.






The Essentials
Date: July 15th
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Prospect Park- Enter at 15th Street
Bikeable?: yes