Free Weekend Things To Do in NYC courtesy of Complex Magazine

Every week (I believe) Complex Magazine (do they still do the actual print magazine?? *shrugs*) online releases a guide to "The Coolest Free Things to Do in NYC This Weekend"

Albeit one day after payday and rent was due this past week as suggested by the preface of the Complex list, I paid rent two weeks early so funds for leisure are disposable at this time (pardon me while I pat myself on the back). I peeped this list Saturday morning around 10:30am so with Friday lost I challenged Amanda to help me fill up our weekend schedule and tackle remainder the list of things to do that were available for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday @ 2pm: Union Square Walking Tour

First things first with any tour in a big city, it's important to stay together.  To facilitate that, we thought it'd be easy to stay together if we rocked matching t-shirts (don't judge us!)

The shirts were especially designed by Amanda herself.  I'm a fan of her work.

The tour itself was surprising. I thought with a scheduled 90 minute tour we'd be scouring the surrounding neighborhood, but it was literally a tour around the park grounds themselves, but it was very informative and entertaining thanks in part to our guide, Gregory.

Check out my list of most interesting facts learned:

- Although America won the American Revolutionary War, the battle of New York City was actually lost to the British in 1783 and the city was not freed until awhile later.

- Evacuation Day (look it up)

- The first ever statue of Lincoln was placed in Union Square Park

- "Ladie's Mile"[double entendre] (look it up) is an interesting study in gentrification, socioeconomics, and urban studies; if you're interested in that kind of thing. 

- Finally learned why the Frenchman, Lafayette's name is plastered all across America. (Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette)

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Selected images from the tour:

Approximately 4pm: The Museum at F.I.T.

After a short subway ride up Broadway and a stop in the only stateside Maison Kitsuné boutique (which I had no idea was on 28th street), which is my latest obsession in all many things French, we made our way to our next destination on the New York campus of the Fashion Institute to check out one of their museum's latest exhibits entitled "Beyond Rebellion: Fashioning the Biker Jacket?

Photography was not allowed in the exhibit, of course I didn't care and it rows it anyway but I couldn't cleverly hit the shutter button my phone before the security personnel noticed my not so stealthy mannerisms.

Sorry, best I could do...

Sunday @ 10:15ish am: A Brooklyn Area Subway Station

After a night of partying into the morning, it's always nice to wake up early and take a one hour train ride that I thought would be closer to 35 minutes uptown to 59th Street and Columbus Circle. Nevertheless we made the journey arriving fashionably late.

11:15ish am: Cooking with Spring Produce at Williams-Sonoma

Long story short, we got some valuable recipes and I actually have a new found slight admiration for green peas, but only when they're fresh and blanched (I learned how to Blanche vegetable...quite bourgeois). I also learned how to properly butcher a chicken...no more buying boneless breasts at the grocery store for me...whole birds only!

they even provided a nice dessert option

After this session of standing and then browsing for cookware that we honestly didn't need, but would be fun to have, we decided to break away from our Complex schedule and pick up a nice Belgium brunch at BXL East.

Bottomless mimosas on a Sunday, don't mind if I do....

Despite missing a few things on the list that we really did plan to do, star-gazing in Central Park (celestial stars, not people with their heads in the clouds due to celebrity) and the Pratt Institute's feature exhibition, "Black Dress..." Highlighting underrepresented African-American fashion designers.  

At the end of the day, it was a fun weekend and you really can't beat free. Complex's weekend guides will definitely keep me checking my emails on time.

Winter, Release Your Grip

Snow covers the sidewalk on a Brooklyn block

As snow once again covers my commute to work, I can do nothing more than reminisce of the pleasures of warmer days and long for the embrace of above 50 degree weather in Spring that I know will soon come *crosses fingers*.

Wishing the frozen clouds over SoHo would "Love Me"

I am reminded of 5 years ago, when I first moved to Chicago in the debt of winter (disclaimer: I do enjoy winter and the cold and moderate amounts of snow to liven or enshrine the landscape, depending upon your view; however...), I was given a harsh greeting and I longed for the warmer months when the city comes out to play and invite you out for drinks, parties, etc.  I'm ready for that phase here in New York.  I arrived mid-Summer and managed to wander a bit through the city but I'm ready to really experience this city full cycle.

I've slipped on this corner of Crosby Street twice this season

Cold Winter

With that being said, Winter, please release your sleeper hold on us.

- Keilon

Getting snow is like winning a lottery. With snow storms, you have a windfall of amazing little flakes that once fallen create a wonderful clean blanket of newness and magic. Full of possibilities. But then you wake up at five in the morning to realize that this beautiful snow will be a hazard to your life on your journey to work. No Bueno. 

So here's to hoping spring weather is just a hop, skip and a jump away. (That's close right?) Anyway bring on the warmer, not hot, weather. Spring and Autum are my thriving seasons. These seasons are full of nature shifts that keep everyone on their toes and I need a change of pace. 

- Amanda

DIY: Artisanal Craft Day

My latest urban endeavor finds me in the house all day cooped up with a sewing machine and a dream, errr, or loosely formed idea of how to save $25 or more on a genuine leather camera strap for my new vintage Canon AT-1 film camera.  Also, the idea of handcrafting my own pieces makes the labor of love that much sweeter.

I've recently been working on a secret photography project that will very soon come to fruition (more details on that to come later).  However, since procuring this vintage camera, it was only right that the camera accessories have that same flair for eccentricity.

Enter: Vintage Black Leather Jacket

This jacket probably cost me about $10 while thrifting back in Chicago (I miss paying thrift store prices for secondhand items; it doesn't work that way here in NYc). Due to the broken zipper that I swore to have fixed before the first wear, this jacket was steal. Fast forward three years and this jacket has finally come full circle in its investment potential.

In an effort to preserve the numerous original panels from the jacket's designer construction made for some interesting fabric pulls.

Enter: Seam Ripper

Tedious process...

Having a functional sewing machine in your place is beautiful thing and great way to let your creative juices flow for a couple of hours. I've got access to 3 of these devices in my home. I've never had formal training in how to use these but that's never stopped me from doing anything in life. Learn as you go. My best sewing tips to share so far: steady your hands and move slow until you develop your technique.

Machine work:

Finished Product:

I'm looking forward to sharpening my sewing skills so that I can repurpose more of the remnants of my leather; stay tuned.

- Keilon

When will spring get here?

Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NYC

even though I know winter won't last forever... I'm ready for spring to have it's turn... 

Urban Learning Day

I've been an official Brooklyn resident for just over 6 months now and I'm slowly but surely finally getting a chance to explore my city or more politically correct--borough.  I have to admit that for the first few months of my relocation The City (the landmass that is Manhattan Island; you know, the SoHos, the Times Squares, the Central Parks, etc.) was more so my life than the place that I laid my head every night.  I knew more about SoHo, the neighborhood in Manhattan where I work, than Crown Heights, here, in Brooklyn where I reside--that concerned me.

If you're looking at New York City as a whole entity, frankly, it's quite hard.  New York City is a vast conglomeration of 5 separate cities, officially known as boroughs--Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, and the Bronx.  For the most part, each of these boroughs alone would be one of the largest cities in America.  Despite their separate identities they all come together under one flag that is New York City and they are a damn proud people.  Nevertheless; where does one start in the process of becoming a "local?"

The answer to that question finds me in Prospect Heights taking a leisurely stroll through Grand Army Plaza to the Brooklyn Public Library on a Monday afternoon.  A library card is the skeleton key to a corridor of endless entryways (too dramatic?).  In all seriousness, your local and/or in this case regional library is a great resource for a transplant (incoming resident from another city) to begin to learn what their community has to offer.  Here at the Brooklyn Public Library, one can find community calendars, learn new languages, take creative writing classes, join a book discussion club, apply for a passport, take classes to learn valuable job readiness skills, relax in the café and make a new friend over  a warm drink (perfect central meet-up spot for the cold winter months), use the internet, or even read a book, maybe?

At the end of the day, when moving to a new community there's a plethora of new things to learn and explore and your local public library has a wealth of information and services to get you well on your way.  Happy exploration...

- Esoteric

"Here are enshrined the longing of great hearts and noble things that tower above the tide, the magic word that winged wonder starts, the garnered wisdom that never dies." (Roscoe C. Brown)

Selected Shots:

Fin.

Pause for Prose

2.11.2014: While crossing the Manhattan Bridge, a moment of poetry hit me:

I'm still writing to you.
This time, I'll address you as future.
Time yet spent, up against hours, days, months, years of wisdom playing in mental blocks upon repeat.
Upon request, failures remembered while abstracts of what to do again differently diffuse from situations rendered.
Upon request I fly to you on a whim; 
Future...
I see you; because I know that you're there. 
Because I know that you long for me too
My failures remind me of that.

- Esoteric