Three cheers for Friday! Sure, sure, the weekend looks like a bit of a washout, but let’s focus on the positive: 48 hours of Zoom-less leisure await, now with rapidly decreasing positivity rates and improved outdoor seating options! I just booked a dinner reservation for tonight at Victor, which I’ve been keen to check out since Kara Zuaro reviewed it for us. And all I’ll say is that I am over-ready for some celebratory drinks and the opportunity to show off the first professional haircut I’ve had in 2020 or 2021.
Unfortunately I’m still processing the proclamation that side parts and skinny jeans are for old people, so those will both be in my repertoire for the immediate term, unless someone presents an alternative that doesn’t make me look like a haggard, disheveled cow. I still think I deserve praise for being back in jeans at all, so let’s not get crazy, Gen Z.
In other excitement, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! has officially announced its return for a 2021 season, and tickets for the only show revealed to date, Glass Animals, are already on sale. Also, they’ve rescheduled the Bikini Kill concert (part of the canceled 2020 season) for July 8 at Pier 17, and tickets are still available for that as well.
Sadly, I slept on tickets to Dead On Live at Industry City this weekend, and they are already sold out. But a new June 12 date has already been added, and I plan to go to Sunset Park tomorrow anyway to check out A Current Affair, a well-curated vintage clothing pop-up where I’ve had lots of luck in years past.
Tonight, you may consider sneaking in a trip to the newly re-opened Dreamland Roller Disco (this week’s theme is ’90s and ’00s pop) in Prospect Park before the rain begins in earnest tomorrow.
If it is going to pour all weekend, the Queens Drive In’s double-feature screening of the original versions of Godzilla and King Kong could be a good option for a dry Saturday night out, or you could stay home and watch Elon Musk host SNL, which has high trainwreck potential. I finally mustered up the attention span to watch Sound of Metal and found it deeply affecting, so I’d recommend that to any fellow Oscar contender stragglers out there.
I choose to believe that the forecasters are wrong and there will be pockets of sun this weekend, so I’m hoping to to see a free performance by Grammy-winning trumpet player Keyon Harrold tomorrow night at 8pm at the Breathing Pavilion, an immersive art installation by Ekene Ijeoma in the Plaza at 300 Ashland. I also love the idea of supporting the Pablo Ramirez Foundation, which was started by Loren Michelle in memory of her son, a professional skateboarder who died in 2019, by attending the Skate with Your Mom Community Skate Party in Washington Park Skate Park tomorrow. And maybe a trip clear across the borough to Domino Park, which now boasts a newly-opened Roberta’s outpost as well as an Other Half Brewing location, is in the cards if the weather cooperates.
Later this week, the works on display at The Other Art Fair will be available to peruse virtually from May 11–16 (prices start at $150, so you could add some new life to the apartment walls you’ve been staring at for 15 months, despite lack of access to a trust fund). And Seth Rogen will be on hand to discuss his first book, Yearbook, via livestream on Tuesday night, which is just one of the events we previewed in our May Culture Calendar earlier this week.
Of course, it is Mothers’ Day on Sunday, and this feels like an especially important year to honor it, given the incredible demands that were placed on moms of young children this past year-plus. I hope that all of you who have been struggling with remote schooling and lack of access to child care—on top of all of the other stressors that the pandemic wrought—feel immense gratitude and respect from the people who love you, and that you get some time for yourselves! Have a great weekend and week, everyone, and we’ll see you back here next Friday!
Sadly (and insanely), that Pier 17 Bikini Kill show is in July 2022.