If you have three days off this Labor Day weekend, don’t let them go to waste. Here are The Brooklyn Paper’s picks for sending out the summer right. We’re definitely gonna hit up Disco Bowl and the already mentioned West Indian Day Parade!
The ultimate silver lining to the end of summer is the 44th Annual West Indian-American Labor Day Parade, a time-honored treat for all of your senses that has the distinction of being New York City’s largest cultural festival, drawing some 3 million people. Bring a camera to capture the dazzling explosion of colorful costumes bouncing down the Eastern Parkway to the joyful sounds of reggae and calypso. The parade is free, but you’ll need some cash to partake in the feast of delicious island cuisine (think jerk chicken, curry goat, coconut bread, and callaloo) available from vendors all along the parade’s route. This tradition is one of Brooklyn’s most cherished, so be sure to come out and celebrate the end the summer of 2011 with an enthusiastic bang. (via BrooklynBased)
West Indian Carnival Festival
Eastern Parkway, Crown Heights
Monday, September 5th, 2011, Starts at 11am
Attending the upcoming tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows? Delta Air Lines and New York Water Taxi are offering a complimentary ride aboard the Delta Tennis Taxi! This free daily service will run from Opening Day, August 29th, through to the finals on September 11. All tickets must be reserved online. A non-refundable $1 service fee applies to all tickets secured online. While on board, enjoy Delta’s signature cocktail, The Ace, as well as cold beer, soft drinks and snacks.
Iced Blended lovers, rejoice! Beloved LA-based chain Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf opened their first NYC outpost this morning, right on schedule. The store, at 1412 Broadway (at 39th St) reportedly got down to business without a hitch, and before-work crowds starting forming around 8 a.m. (via Gothamist)
Yesterday the MTA proactively offered its plan for what it will do with Hurricane Irene—and that means a partial or full shut down, if things get really messy. Here’s the agency’s statement. Even a weakened Irene would bring winds in excess of 39 miles per hour (the speed at which the MTA can’t guarantee riders safety), making it likely that the MTA will start shutting down service Saturday morning. There could be lingering delays and service outages into Monday’s morning rush hour. (via Gothamist)
Give your four-legged best friend a bunch of extra attention today, loads more treats and a new squeaky toy today and celebrate National Dog Day!
Taking place annually on August 26th, this day serves to help galvanize the public to recognize the number of dogs that need to be rescued each year, and acknowledges family dogs and dogs that work selflessly each day to save lives, keep us safe and bring comfort. Dogs put their lives on the line every day - for their law enforcement partner, for their blind companion, for a child who is disabled, for our freedom and safety by detecting bombs and drugs and pulling victims of tragedy from wreckage. (read more)
What more need be said about Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling Aristotelian tragedy — which chronicles the rise (in cash and clout) and fall (in morals) of the mafia’s first famiglia, the Corleones — beyond that The Godfather is great cinema, through and through? Although women receive short shrift in the boys-will-butcher-boys storyline, everyone can appreciate the beautiful sets and legend-stacked cast, which contains method acting’s triumvirate: Brando, Pacino, and Lee Strasberg. Drifting above the back-room dealings, Nino Rota’s indelible theme tints the American dream with a romantic, funereal glow.” (via Flavorpill)
Tompkins Square Park
East 8th Street at Avenue A
Thursday, August 25th at 8:30pm
The Journal looks into the renovation of Flatbush’s Loew’s Kings Theater, noting that the 3,200-seat venue will be the biggest indoor theater in the borough when it reopens in 2014. The theater will have about 250 shows a year, according to its developer, and “civic leaders hope the transformation will benefit the Flatbush corridor, once a middle-class shopping district and now a patchwork of wig shops, 99-cent stores, roti diners and storefront churches.” In addition to the extensive renovation of the existing interior, the developer is building an extension on the back of the former movie palace in order to provide more space for performers and mechanical equipment. (via Brownstoner)
Coney Island’s reputation was built on the concept of über, that over-the-top, on steroids kind of grandiosity that took people out of their everyday lives, and placed them in places they would never see, and experience things they would never experience anywhere else. Child’s Restaurants understood this well, as did this building’s architects, and they gave us a building to rival Neptune’s own palace on the bottom of the sea. (read more at Brownstoner)
Who’s got the best milkshakes in New York? Our friends at The Daily News recently polled their online readers to try to find the very best. Click through to see the results, with some fantastic suggestions we’re excited to try. Where do you go in town for the perfect shake?
Take “holding your liquor” to a whole new level at Der Schwarze Kolner. Tuesday marks the finals for the bar’s Masskrugstemmen (or, for non-German speakers, “mug-holding competition.”) Participants, who have made it through preliminary rounds, are challenged to hold a one-liter stein filled with beer at arm’s length for as long as possible — it sounds easy, but the stamina required means that most people can only make it a few minutes before giving in. Come watch the best in the neighborhood compete — and while there, pick up a stein and start training for next year’s! (via Brooklyn Based)
Der Schwarze Kolner
710 Fulton Street, Fort Greene
Tuesday, August 23rd at 10pm
