Cheers, on this first Friday in June, and wowie zowie, a lot has changed around here since my last dispatch! The BB inbox is positively flooded with emails from concert venues, comedy clubs, restaurants, bars, and PR folks promoting all kinds of events. And it really looks like it’s shaping up to be the banner summer that we’ve all been so cautiously keeping our fingers and toes so tightly crossed for.
Honestly, it feels great, so great even that I’ll ignore for a minute the fact that it’s also overwhelming and (pathetically) a little scary to no longer have the pandemic as an excuse for avoiding everything from booking a hotel for a wedding I’m attending in a few weeks, to going to the dentist, to, ya know, figuring out my career/life for once.
The good news is that I’ve been having LOTS of fun while I’ve been procrastinating on that stuff, despite the almost comically terrible MDW weather, and hope y’all have too! A quick jaunt to an Airbnb on the Jersey Shore with my boyfriend, a super boozy brunch with a great pal at Lola Taverna (in the city, no less!), binge-watching all of Hacks, stumbling upon a live opera performance on a Park Slope stoop, and an evening of outdoor theater courtesy of Moliere in the Park were just a few highlights and a tiny taste of the fun that’s in store as we zoom into summer proper at breakneck pace.
Did you know that the new TWA Hotel at JFK has an outdoor roller rink that is open on weekends? Or that Storm King Art Center is unveiling a major new work by Sarah Sze on June 12? Have you seen that BRIC has released its lineup of free Celebrate Brooklyn! shows, or that tickets to see Jeff Tweedy, Trombone Shorty, Band of Horses, Guided by Voices, and many more at Brooklyn Made, a new Bushwick venue, go on sale on June 11?
This weekend, Pop-Up Magazine launches a series of free, self-guided story installations throughout Fort Greene in collaboration with BAM, and Brooklyn Museum is hosting its June First Saturdays Lite, which celebrates Pride with a Still Here, Still Queer theme. The Brooklyn Film Festival kicks off today with a robust schedule of online and indoor screenings of 184 new films competing for awards. Alternatively, you could head to the Queens Drive-In for a special screening of Bong Joon-ho’s The Host this evening if you’d rather stick with something tried and true.
I’m keeping an eye on the new Cezanne Drawing exhibition at MoMA, which opens to the general public on Sunday, and also angling to score some last-minute tickets to see the Philharmonic tonight at Green-Wood Cemetery. (There aren’t many left, even though several performances are scheduled through the weekend.) Saturday, I plan to brave the 90-degree heat and drop by a pop-up exhibition along the Gowanus Canal featuring the work of 20 local artists working in a variety of media.
Speaking of the heat, I’ll be surprised if my weekend doesn’t include a trip to the beach, which is now open, with a crossword puzzle and a copy of The Other Black Girl, which was one of the hightlights on the June Culture Calendar. I’d love to explore some of these experiential restaurants that Meredith Craig De Pietro wrote about for us, and I will also definitely hit up Lot2, a neighborhood favorite spot that is hanging on admirably after a very difficult year.
Here’s hoping the weekend has tons of fun and excitement in store for all of you! Now, get back to work, so you can finish up, get out there and have a great one!
