Mo’ Pickins
Back in 2004, New York-based singer Alex Battles started the Brooklyn Country Music Festival, wanting to showcase a burgeoning style of country that the Village Voice deemed “music for Midwestern transplants, steeped in the ’70s but with a punk ethos.” This Friday and Saturday, Southpaw plays host to the Festival’s fifth go-round. The weekend affair features more than 10 acts, including Battles and his band, the Whiskey Rebellion. site>>

The Soprano
Brooklynite Joel Thibodeau, aka Death Vessel, has utilized his absurdly high soprano to open for both Iron & Wine and Jose Gonzalez; on Saturday, he plays his beautiful, precious folk-pop at Union Hall. site>>

Gowanus Belle
The Bell House, the new Gowanus bar/music venue from the folks who brought you Floyd and Union Hall, celebrates its opening with a free show on Thursday, including Lilys, Matt Pond PA, and Robbers on High Street. site>>

BAM Takeover
BAM’s night-long panoply of film (”The Warriors”), music (Budos Band), art (Deborah Johnson), and a new rec room loaded with Guitar Hero and Wii returns Sept. 27. Get tickets now>>

Tasting Menus
Buy in Brooklyn sponsors Park Slope’s First Annual Restaurant & Food Tour tomorrow, Sept. 18. The participants, located primarily on 7th Ave., will be offering tour-goers free samples starting at 7pm. Be sure to get a sneak peek (and taste) of Bussaco, the new, local-food-sourced restaurant from Scott Carney of Gotham Bar & Grill, which officially opens Sept. 26  on a date TBD. site>>

Red Hook is also hosting a tasting night Wednesday, Sept. 24, to benefit the 10,000 Red Hook Houses residents via The Red Hook Initiative. Local favorites like The Good Fork and Baked will be among the 14-plus restaurants and cafes serving at Rocky Sullivan’s. Tickets start at $100. site>>

Soft Openings
Danny Minch (formerly of Balthazar) will soft open his restaurant Walter Foods at Grand and Roebling this Friday (kitchen is open 5:30pm-1am weekdays, and till 2 on weekends). Since sampling the blackened shrimp, warm beet salad, and pork chops with apple and shallot compote at the friends and family tasting on Monday night, we’re more excited about Walter Foods than any other Brooklyn spot that’s opened in some time. (Well, almost any. See below.)

Meanwhile, in Fort Greene, No. 7 at 7 Greene Ave. is still in its soft-opening phase, yet the food on the regular menu (two words: kimchi perogies) and bar menu, which includes grub like Crispy Pig Head served from midnight to 2, wins our prize for most inventive cooking in Brooklyn right now (and at least one chowhounder, Rambam, agrees>>). Some dishes were more creative than delicious, but kudos to chef and Fort Greene local Tyler Kord for knocking us out of our staid, farm-fresh comfort zone.

Grand Makeover
The Design Trust for Public Space is exhibiting the top 30 proposed makeovers for the dramatic, and drastically underused Grand Army Plaza at the plaza through Oct. 13 and online. Ideas we loved: the water features and amphitheater of “A Center for Brooklyn”; the water mist movie screen of “Aqua Plaza” (above); the underground tunneling for cars in “Curano Cor” and “HIGHwalk”; and the year-round Greenmarket enclosure in “Please Wake Me Up!”, which actually tied for first among the independent jury. Don’t let them have the last word though — vote for your favorite by Oct. 5 here>>.

Divine Entertainment
A multimedia event of biblical proportions, The Last Supper at 3rd Ward features 13 short films from emerging directors, 13 works from visual artists, and 13 dishes from creative gourmets. Bring in three cans of food for $10 admission (site>>). 3rd Ward also has a nationwide open call for an outstanding artist working in any medium. The price is a $1,000 cash grant, a month residency, an exhibition and exposure. Details here>>

Rare Docs
BB contributor Rachael Rakes is curating a new, free series of rare documentaries, debuting this Sunday, Sept. 21 at 9pm (doors at 8:30) with “Seventeen,” a 1983 film about black and white teens, compared to the Maysles’ Brothers’ film “Salesmen” in terms of all-American authenticity. East Coast Aliens, 216 Franklin St. site>>

Sent by Keith, Chrysanthe, Nicole, and Nina. Photos from top: Whiskey Rebellion by xoot via Flickr, Bell House photo via Mike Grimes/EAR FARM, Walter Foods photo by BB, Grand Army rendering courtesy Design Trust for Public Space.