New Favorite Bar: Black Rabbit

Between working as an intern for an event marketing/public relations company, and waiting tables to pay my bills, I rarely get a night off. When I do, it usually entails me getting wasted with co-workers, or attempting to juggle dates with whatever boy may be in my life at the time. However, summer time inspires me to be better, with the growth of flowers and greenery, I feel this opportunity to start anew, make up for all the mistakes I've made in the past few months and join the smiling legions of peers in my neighborhood. The easiest way to join these happy people is to feel at home in my area. I've made this decision to create a community; attending events, weekly brunchs, concerts, meeting new people and trying new bars.

Well, act one in my quest for a community was to find a trivia night that I could attend semi-regularly. I'm a trivia junkie, and after trying multiple trivia nights in the city, I have found one that I want to stick with. Tuesday nights, at Black Rabbit, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. After talking my roommate into joining me, we got our spot at the bar, and embarked on an epic adventure that would leave me excited, knowledgable, and a bit hungover.

Some of the questions were entirely ridiculous and esoteric (playing a song from a Blur album and asking us to name the album, really?), and others were questions that everyone should know (like the picture round of dictators). Bonus questions were fun, and equaled a shot of absinthe (next time I plan on not drinking so much beer and just getting bonus questions continually correct). The crowd was great, drinks reasonably priced, great atmosphere, and the bartender is social and comfortable (something I find to be strangely lacking in many Williamsburg/Greenpoint bars)

All in all, I will be attending this trivia night in the future, I may have to recruit a few more troops though, my knowledge may be vast in certain areas, but severly limited in others. It's definitely one of the better trivia nights I've experienced and hey, I can walk home after several shots of absinthe. Ya can't beat that.

http://blackrabbitbar.com/

Event to Try: The Poetry Brothel

I've been in the city less then a week. I'm still living with my friend, desperately searching out a place and job hunting like crazy. However, I'm still making time to have fun and explore all the glorious things the city has to offer.

That being said, last night my dear friend dragged me to a "Poetry Brothel" in Brooklyn. I didn't know what to expect, but whatever it was, this event was not what I expected. The first thing I have to remember is that spaces in NYC are SMALL. I expected it to be more of an open warehouse type thing, but it was a small apartment building. It was crowded, hot, and sticky. But that can't ruin your night. There are various "whores" that you can pay to read you poetry (you get a free reading with your $10 cover charge). They come out and do excerpts at the beginning (most in costume). It is such a diverse group of talented poets it becomes tough to decide which whore you're going to take. You can choose from poems on beastiality, snails (my personal favorite), or rigor mortis erections.

If getting a poetry reading isn't your thing, then maybe the live music, ever present absinthe, or just the company will get you there. Either way, next time you're looking for something to do and the poetry brothel is going on, head down at least for a little while, you'll be glad you did. http://www.thepoetrybrothel.com