I’m Going: SURREAL ESTATE NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY

Wednesday, Dec. 31st – Jan. 1st | 8 PM – 6 AM | SURREAL ESTATE Presents…
NEW YEARS’ EVE PARTY!
Four luscious floors and a silvery rooftop of live music, DJs +
all-nite dance party, a Variety Show with break dancers, a tall
unicycle rider, jugglers, a contortionist, and more! A Polaroid photo
booth and photographer armed with all the Polaroid film left in the
country to snap your pics. All these good times and the general
pandemonium brought to you by the surrealists of Surreal Estate. Stay
awake with us ’til dawn and we’ll make you pancakes! Promise!

| | | 1st FLOOR | | | 10 pm – 2 am | | | BANDS:
TALIBAM!
WHACK
THE PROSULAS
The Balkan Brass Band
KAI ZHANG
MELODIC
(Currently lives in Surreal Estate’s apartments & presents some of his
freshest rhymes at to follow up his recent performance at Sputnik in
Brooklyn!)

| | | 2nd FLOOR | | | 9 – 12 pm | | | VARIETY SHOW:
Tall Unicycle Rider, Juggler, Contortionist!
Prasad the Can Man on the Harmonica
* Emcee’d by Phoenix & Quinnifer Nopez of the Freegan Bike Workshop *

2nd Fl: VIDEO Immersion! VJs bring in the New Year with artful video
projection all night.

2nd Fl: D.I.Y. FASHION SHOW | | | 12 – 12:30 am

| | | 3rd FLOOR | | | 8 – 6 AM | | | DJs + DANCE PARTY
’til the break of dawn
DJ Yo DJ!
DJ Squarepants
DJ hypa
DJ Hotflashes

+ Pancakes for all who are up with us til 6 am!

Percentages of the proceeds from this event will benefit several community-based organizations: Make the Road NY, Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick Empowered (GLOBE), Trees Not Trash, the Anarchist Book Fair, In Our Hearts, and FIERCE: Building the Leadership and Power of LGBTQ Youth of Color. Thank you for your support!

Cover charge: $15 ($10 before 11 pm)
No outside alcohol.

Surreal Estate
13 and 15 Thames Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206

ABOUT SURREAL ESTATE
A collectively-operated, community-run living space and events venue housed in two adjacent buildings in Bushwick. They offer many kinds of events open to the community: readings, a local history group, bilingual events and readings (Spanish/English), fundraisers, parties, gallery space for exhibiting artists, a free reading library and cafe, by-donation classes, skill shares, and workshops. They hope to produce a dynamic and creative forum that embraces experimentation in many forms while maintaining a down-to-earth, friendly, welcoming environment.

Please feel free to email them with ideas and suggestions for the new space or to inquire about how you can get involved. If you’re a dancer, an artist, a promoter, a musician, a teacher, an organizer, or just want to find out more about what we’re working on over here, please email them! –surrealestatenyc@gmail.com

I’m Going: Meh Places With Great Free Booze

Finding free drinks in the city is pretty easy but it isn’t always, well, pretty. Sometimes you have to sacrifice your sense of taste or even some of your dignity just to score a diluted vodka cran.

Luckily, there are so many options that if you get a little creative, you can always make a grand game for your and your friends out of your collective attempt to drown your recession sorrows for free. Such as…

Best Open Bar To Meet Your Future Stalker

or

Best Open Bar To Inspire You To Kill Someone In College

See below.

(Don’t be confused by the date on the flier – the event is Dec 2nd) – freenyc.net

Date: Tuesday, December 2nd
Time: 10:00pm
Location: Angles and Kings (500 E 11th St bet Ave A & B)
Cost: Free
Open Bar: Venom and Vodka, 10:30-11:30

This is the first annual Trainwreck Winter Formal hosted by Panic at the Disco’s Brandon Urie. Formal and festive wear is strongly encouraged for this event.

Sling back complimentary Venom and Vodka from 10:30-11:30pm and free shots when they ring the gong. 21+

I went to the Angles and Kings in Chicago this past summer while working at Lolla. It felt like “House of Douche Baggery” would have been a better name for the venue. It was like all frat parties throughout history rolled into one burrito of sadness, with a coating of hair gel and tanning spray. But I am keeping an open mind because I want a free drink while checking out a potential prom situation.

After The Jump: More horrific places I am willing to check out in the name of damaging my liver during the recession..

(more…)

Stuff I Love: Scaring You With Dolls & Killer/Scary Doll Movie List

 I’ve been re-reading Borderlands: La Frontera this week and have been preoccupied with the passages describing the Shadow Beast. This morning I wondered why that was and then I realized that Halloween is coming up, a time when I tend to focus on the macabre.

Since I’ll probably seem more creepy if I do this another week, I figure a quick blurb on the art of Justin Aerni tonight is as appropriate as it’s going to get before Christmas.

Justin Aerni is a young artist living and working in Spokane, Washington. According to his bio, most of his art has been symbolic in dealing with what he (and other humans) fear most, Death. His work reflects the fragile human condition we are all held in. Most of it could be described as “Abstract Depressionism.”  Yay!

Not to worry folks, he also creates non doll-that-will-haunt-your dreams work. Check out this cheery Obama piece on Justin’s flick. He was also featured in this week’s episode of Epic-Fu.

In honor of Justin’s assemblage of petrifying playthings, here’s some history about scary dolls in cinema + a list of scary doll movies:

Wanna Play? after the jump… (more…)