Fleak Out at the Brooklyn Flea

Do you ever finally get around to doing something or going somewhere and think, "Why wasn't I doing this years ago?"  That is exactly how I feel about the Brooklyn Flea.  The 25th Street Garage flea market in Chelsea (which is for the most part way overpriced for the junk they peddle) doesn't hold a candle to the Flea, in my opinion.  While that market is like a garage sale on crack, the Brooklyn Flea houses some of the coolest little makers of treasures imaginable as well as the furnitury, vintagy, oldy stuff you expect.  Easy to get to by way of Manhattan, the flea is held every Saturday and Sunday in varying locations throughout the year: inside Skylight 1 Hansen in the winter and Dumbo, Williamsburg, and Fort Greene during warmer months.  And, be sure to come hungry because there are six or so vendors serving up delectable delights from artisan grilled cheeses, porchetta sandwiches, lobster rolls, to tacos.  Best weekend afternoon ever!

BrooklynFlea.com  

Lovely light!

Bits and bobs

Help!  I'm trapped in a terrarium!

Pendants made of typewriter keys

Images by Barbara K.

Free and Discounted Museum Days in New York City

Want to become the most cultured New Yorker ever?  Unemployed and looking for ways to spend these cold February days while your friends are at work?  Think it is highway robbery that museums have admission prices of $20?  Oh wait, this is ME!!!  Here is a shameless pick-up straight from about.com on everyday deals, free days, and discounted rates to the city's top museums.  I guess you now have your Friday night planned out 'till after the thaw.

Enjoy, and huge thanks to Heather's NYC Travel Blog!

Everyday Deals

• Forbes Magazine Galleries
  Admission is always free to this interesting museum featuring collectibles such as toy soldiers, Monopoly games and more.
  62 Fifth Avenue (at 12th Street)
  212-206-5548
• Museum at Fashion Institute of Technology
  Admission to the museum displaying articles from the permanent collection, as well as changing exhibits on fashion, is always free.
  Seventh Avenue at 27 Street
  Phone: 212-217-5970
• National Museum of the American Indian
  Admission to the the sixteenth museum in the Smithsonian Institution is always free.
  1 Bowling Green, George Gustave Heye Center
  Phone: 212-668-6624
• Goethe Institut
  Weekdays you can experience German language and culture exhibits for free at the Goethe Institut, which is conveniently located across from the Met.
  1014 Fifth Ave
  Phone: 212-439-8700
• Sony Wonder Technology Lab
  Admission is always free to this entertainment and technology museum located in Midtown.
  Sony Plaza Public Arcade at 56th Street and Madison Avenue
  Phone:212-833-5414

Museums With Suggested Admission
In order to make museums affordable for all, these museums have "suggested" admissions. That means you can pay the amount of admission that you can afford and still enjoy access to the museum.

• Metropolitan Museum of Art Although they raised the "suggested" admission to $20, you can pay what you can afford to see one of the greatest art museums in New York City.
  Address: 1000 Fifth Avenue
  Phone: 212-535-7710
• American Museum of Natural History
  The "suggested" admission at the American Museum of Natural History is $15, you can make whatever contribution you see as appropriate to enter the museum (though you'll have to pay full price for planetarium shows, etc.).
  Address: Central Park West at West 79th Street
  Phone: 212-769-5000

FREE Levi's on Friday in Bryant Park!

All American and completely classic but with a new twist.  Head to Bryant Park this Friday, August 27th, and starting at 10am you can get a free pair of Levi's Curve ID jeans.  Bring in a pair of jeans that doesn't fit and walk away with one that does...because obviously, all asses are were not created equal (yes, I stole that from the Levi's website).  The new fits are based on shape, not size, so there will be great options for pears, apples, and all the other fruits they try to box a woman's shape into.  There will also be a performance by uber-stylish songstress Janelle Monáe and styling tips from Bobbie Thomas.  Hope to see you there!

When: Friday, August 27th at 10am

Where: Bryant Park

Why: Free Levi's Jeans

Remember: Bring a pair to get a pair

Levis.com

Get Your Books Netflix-Style in NYC

Inspired by the book club my friends and I have started, I am back to giving my library card a work out.  Yes, a library card...like the one you had when you were a kid.  Sure, I love perusing the aisles of Barnes & Nobel and The Strand, but why would I pay for a book when I can get it for free and then not have to keep it around cluttering up my apartment. 

If you haven't been to a library in a while, let me tell you...things have changed since the days of the card catalog I remember from elementary school.  Here in New York the public library has small branches all over the city with equally small collections, so the real gem is their Netflix-for-books style website (I am sure plenty of other cities are doing this too).  Log in and search thousands of books, DVD's, e-books, etc., request the ones you want (or save them in your list), and you will be notified via email when will arrive at your local branch.  I use the one by my office so I can zip in during the day to pick up and return.  EASY!  No Dewey Decimal system.  No forgetting when books are due.  No searching for that misplaced book they say is on the shelf. 

At the end of the day, we all know that going through life reading little more than US Weekly magazine is a bit sad, so it's time to broaden your horizons....don't worry, Rachel Zoe and Lauren Conrad are 'authors' now.

NYPL.org

Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot

Nothing says summer like Shakespeare in the park.  From NYC to Indonesia, from Central Park to podunk, if it's summer you can bet The Bard will be out in full force.  Back in high school I was even prop mistress of our community theater's performance of The Merchant of Venice set in the 1980's.  Good times.  

If you are in NYC, here is a new twist on an old fav: Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.  If this doesn't scream Lower East Side, I don't know what does.  In its 19th season, The Drilling Company will perform both Love's Labour Lost and Julius Caesar.  Get there early for a seat or bring your own....or you can blanket it on the asphalt if you're brave.  Best of all its FREE, FREE, FREE!

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot

Ludlow @ Broome

Love's Labour Lost

July 8 - 24

Thursday - Sunday @8pm

Julius Caesar

July 29 - August 14

Thursday - Sunday @8pm

Let Them Eat Cake

Ask my closest friends, and they will tell you that I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with Marie Antoinette.  I visited Versaille during a high school spring break trip, but truthfully, I was way more interested in why it smelled like pee after hundreds of years (yes, those lazy Frenchies peed behind tapestries instead of using the proper loo....or so that is what our tour guide said).  Since then, however, I have become a woman obsessed.  Maybe it started with reading The Journey by Antoinia Fraser, then I sank further down the rabbit hole after Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette which finally humanized this controversial figure, but I was completely done in after reading Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution by Caroline Weber.

So, in my email newsletter from The Museum at F.I.T. I was thrilled to see they had scheduled Caroline Weber to discuss her book and Marie Antoinette's wardrobe and its influence on the history of fashion in France.  I have been to a handful of discussions at F.I.T., which have been greatly entertaining, and I just love their museum with its ever-changing exhibits.  And best of all....it's free!  So, if you are in NYC on Monday, April 19th I would love to see you there!  Discussion starts at 7pm.  

Click here to register.

This Weekend: Decades Out FREE Theatre

This just came across the Shitty Chic radar screen:

Looking for something to do this weekend? Something involving theatre maybe? Something free?

Tonight, Friday, is the opening of the DecadesOut playwright's reading series, The Launch Pad. A reading of 'Dark Matter' kicks off the series at 7pm (a really wonderful script), tomorrow Sat afternoon 2 to 5 pm they'll be reading 3 short plays. And, another full length feature ends the series on Sat evening at 7pm. All the details and descriptions of plays and directors actors etc are below. And this evening the posse will reroute to a local watering hole for a toast or two afterwards. I hope you can make it out for some FREE cultural activity this weekend. A great opportunity to get to know a fantastic group of artists in the collective, DecadesOut.

3-Legged Dog (3LD) Art & Technology Center
80 Greenwich Street at Rector St in Lower Manhattan

Half of the donations collected throughout our series will be donated to Haiti Relief in partnership with the Beholders Group.

• Friday, January 15th
  7:00pm–10:00pm
• 
  
• DARK MATTER by August Schulenburg
  Directed by Zack Calhoon
  Maxine Clerk is a physicist chasing after the mysterious dark matter and energy that make up 95% of our known universe. As a rival colleague undermines her efforts, her personal life also begins to unravel. Facing the illness of her daughter and father, the distance of her lover and mentor, and the dangers of her own darkness, Maxine's struggle to understand the universe becomes a matter of personal survival.


• Saturday, January 16th
  2:00pm–5:00pm
  


• Two Shorts and a Solo Piece
  Directed by David Denson
  WORMHOLE by Whitney Hamilton
  A female astronaut drifts on the outer reaches of our solar system as her radio contact tries to help her back. She squeezes through a wormhole --- a hypothetical "tunnel" connecting two different points in spacetime in such a way that a trip through the wormhole could take much less time than a journey between the same starting and ending points in normal space. Thus, she is propelled into another dimension.
  
  LISTEN TO THE UNIVERSE by Francis Kuzler
  Radio astonomer Peter Haskell has spent years deciphering the sounds of space, but now he hears something that he's never heard before, the voice of a woman screaming about love and the human soul. Can Peter cope with his latest discovery?
  
  FIRE IN THE GARDEN by Ken Weitzman
  In 1965 Norman Morrison, a Quaker from Baltimore, drove to the Pentagon and, in protest over the U.S. policy in Vietnam, doused himself in kerosene and lit himself on fire. Looking on as he did this was his one-year-old daughter. Fire in the Garden is told by a new father who finds himself haunted by Morrisonís act as he struggles mightily (and comically) with the challenges of modern fatherhood.
  
  Featuring: Jennifer Larkin*, Ryan McCarthy*


• Saturday, January 16th
  7:00pm–10:00pm


• EXILE by Lindsey Ferrentino
  Directed by Tony Macy-Pérez
  Exiled historical figures Einstein, Brecht, Lenin, Trotsky, Napoleon Bonaparte, and a Catholic Nun meet in front of a wall to contemplate how and why they need to get over it, confusing themselves into wondering whether or not they have already done so. Consumed with the menial, they debate action vs. intellect with cynically humorous dialogue as bleak and ironic as their landscape. Inspired by the proposed wall to be built between the United States and Mexico, this play questions the idea of boundaries, what it means to be contained, and the isolation of genius. The cast of characters must work together to salvage their sanity before it's too late in this new absurdist tragicomedy.
  
  Featuring: Grace Kiley*, Pascal Escrout*, Thomas Garvey*, Patrick Melville*, Marek Sapieyevski, and Leal Vona

The End of "Insufficcient Funds" Forever!

I know this is very NYC-centric, but I have been waiting for this to happen for the past THREE years. While living in Chicago, I always had a CTA transit card that was hooked up to my plastic and automatically refilled every month. I was nothing less than shocked when I moved to New York City to find that I had to physically buy a new Metrocard every month. For a city that has a couple million legs up on the public transit in Chicago I thought this very strange and like I had reverted back to the Stone Age....or at least a time before things like online bill pay, cell phones, and hotel rooms with actual keys instead of swipe cards.

But now my dreams have come true, and New York is finally offering an EasyPay XPress Metrocard that is linked to your debit/credit card and automatically refills. READ: No more running to the turnstile in hopes of catching the train that just pulled into the station only to be denied by running into the locked turnstile bar and seeing "Insufficient Funds" pop up on the screen.

There are two options:
1- The unlimited monthly which will refill automatically every 30 days
2- The "Pay-Per-Ride" card that will put $45 on your card and refill when the balance drops below $20 (you still get the 15% bonus).

This is a total no-brainer. Saving time, limiting stress, reducing trash (no tossing cards after 30 days), and making that train when you are running 10 minutes late is always chic.

Click here to get your card.

Marc Jacobs in Your Living Room

I am a total fashion documentary addict, and Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton is one of my absolute favorites. It is also incredibly near and dear to me because they are filming during the creation of the Spring 2007 collection, and I was lucky enough to go to the NYC afterparty that year. As someone who had moved to NYC 3 months prior, it was my first taste of the crazy world of fashion, first red carpet experience (along with paparazzi obviously not after me), and first time to meet the man himself (Marc is very sweet). If you are looking for a way to fall in love with Marc all over again, get an inside glimpse into how the collections are created from inspiration to catwalk, or just bored on this rainy Sunday, this is an amazingly candid look into the world of Marc Jacobs.

Don't get scared...each segment on YouTube is only about 10 minutes. Also available in its entirety on Netflix...add it to your queue now. Enjoy!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9

Head to the LES for Pickle Day!

Looking for something to do on this lovely Sunday that is free and involves food? Today is your lucky day! Head to the Lower East Side this afternoon for the 9th annual International Pickle Day. I went last year and ate about 8 pickles (got my pickle fix for the year), felt like I was going to vom, and I have been looking forward to this year's event ever since. Don't think you are going to stick to the cucumber variety at this festival either; they have pickled fruits (the grapes are amazing), pickled fish, and just about anything else that can be brined in a jar. There was even a trio singing songs about pickles! These people are obsessed in a way you can only love. So, thank God (since it is the Lord's Day and all) that we have beautiful weather, and come enjoy the pickle bonanza!

2009 International Pickle Day
Sunday, October 4th
Broome btwn Essex and Ludlow
11:30 - 4pm

PS - On Orchard St. people will be strutting their Pickle Day costumes....can't wait to see this!

New York Times Wants to Revamp Your Space!

I found a great article last week featuring a sad space in Brooklyn that was revamped on the cheap with the help of the New York Times bringing renter and designer together. Using a combination of existing furnishings, purchases, and reupholstered pieces this loft was transformed from drab to fab. The alcove studio now has three distinct living spaces: living room, dining area, and bedroom without blocking light or making the already small space seem cramped. Bravo!

"Sasha Haines-Stiles, a publicist for a fashion label, felt her 850-square-foot apartment felt awkward and incomplete. The dining area was next to the bed; all the furniture in the seating area was shabby. The Times asked Mary L. Chan of Studio Bartleby in Brooklyn, an interior design firm, to help make over the space on Ms. Haines-Stiles's budget of $5,000."

Click here for the full article.

This is the first in a serious of room make overs costing anywhere from $300 to $10,000. Do you have a make over problem or are you a design professional willing to help solve one? Contact the NY Times at onthecheap@nytimes.com and you could be featured next!

Spin Around the City for Free!

If you haven't already noticed, I am kinda loving the fact that we are in September, and the weather is completely amazing. I literally want to spend all day outside and soak it up because come February I will be wondering if it will ever be warm again and how the wind could possibly be blowing from all directions at once.

Till then it is outside on the weekends for me. One of the top things on my list to do now that it is not 90 degrees with 90% humidity is bike around the city. Now, I don't own a bike or really care to venture into biking the mean streets of Manhattan as a commuter. Every so often my biking to work dreams are dashed when I see a cyclist get turned into a milder form of roadkill. I will stick to the West Side Highway bike path for now.

Free bike rentals through the end of September at the South Street Seaport. Sign up at downtownny.com at least one day in advance for your 2-1/2 hour spin around the city. Only 30 bikes are available for each of three daily sessions so get on this!

For more information or to register click here.

Your Guide to Fashion's Night Out Freebies

Little did I know when I planned my most recent business trip that I would be missing A) a good portion of Fashion Week (boo hoo), and B) Fashion's Night Out (double boo hoo). If you live in NYC, you have been inundated with posters, advertisements, and every shop window screaming about Fashion's Night Out on Thursday night. If we will so kindly remember the retail meltdown that happened last holiday season, this is the fashion industry's attempt to remedy the "world is ending so I may as well die in clearance cashmere" and put the "fun back into shopping"...or so the PSA says. Let's face it: consumers saw how much retailers were willing to hike up their skirts to make a sale, and now it seems incredibly painful to pay full price for anything.

Well, lucky for us, even if you shop on September 10th, you can still come out of the night with tons of free booty. Here is your guide to looking fabulous for free all evening.

• Start off at Pure Yoga for an unlimited free weekly pass. Only worth it if you live/work on the Upper East Side. Located on 86th. I think my nose bleeds when I go that far Uptown.
  
  
• Head to Bumble and Bumble for a free glass of bubbly and a styling session. You want to be camera ready, and the booze will numb the stiletto strife as the night goes on. (56th and Lex)
  
  
• Why pay when you can get one for free? Free official Fashion's Night Out t-shirt at Gucci.
  
  
• It's a beauty bonanza at Saks. Tons of deals, free brow shaping, and swag, swag, swag.
  
  
• Move downtown where you know the party is going to outlast those old bags on the Upper East Side. You are probably hungry (and drunk) by now, so swing by Unis (Elizabeth at Prince) for free Thai food.
  
  
• Free manicures at Chanel in Soho or Tracy Reese (Hudson at Gansevoort). Let your food digest before the last big push.
  
  
• Finish the night with a bag of beauty swag at Space.NK (Greene near Spring) or a free Mentha Lip Shine at CO Bigelow.
  

I think you have worked very hard this evening to get spruced up and replenish your beauty stash. Enjoy, and I am so jealous you will be there! Any crazy stories, major attitude, or juicy bits I would love to hear about? Leave a comment, and let me know!

For more awesome frugal finds for Fashion's Night Out click here.

For more on Fashion's Night Out click here.

Perfect Summer Sunday: Washington Square Park

Now that half of Washington Square Park is renovated and landscaped, it is one of my favorite places in the world to stop, sit, and soak up the deliciousness of Summer. I know that my tax dollars were hard at work to move the fountain all of 10 feet to the west, but I am more than impressed with this little oasis in the Village. There always seems to be some sort of jazz trio playing, great people watching, and a few good junkies just to remind you that yes, you are in New York City. Some people go to therapists, some get massages, I go to the park.

Free Yoga in Bryant Park

Who needs to pay for Bikram yoga when you can just have class outside in the summer? Considering the combination of heat, humidity, and violent rain we have had this summer in NYC this is more like extreme yoga than relaxy-stretchy yoga. Check out the free yoga classes in Bryant Park through the end of August. For those of us who have that place to go to called work during the day, we can hit up the Thursday class from 6-7. Get your sun salutations in before the sun sets on the glorious days of summer.

Click here for a full schedule of yoga, tai chi, and knitting classes at Bryant Park