Tip Sheet Feb. 22nd - 28th, 2012

WILLIAMSBURG This week the Brooklyn Brewery is hosting so many awesome food events you may as well pitch a tent on the sidewalk and camp out. Tonight, Edible Brooklyn expands your culinary skill set with How to Slice It ($5, doors at 7:30pm). Fleisher’s, Brooklyn Cured and Marlow and Daughters will be demonstrating how to tie a roast, stuff a sausage and cut up a chicken and snacks and drinks will abound. Thursday night we’re hosting the Trade Up! Kitchen Swap ($5, free to new subscribers and referrers, doors at 7:30pm). RSVP on Facebook and let us know what kitchen gem you’re bringing to trade. We’ll be announcing the winners from Fresh Meat, so sign up now to enter, AND we have tons of great door prizes for the swap, including a Locally Grown gift basket from With Love, From Brooklyn. The Food Freaks truck will be outside, whipping up grilled cheese to go with your beers. We’ll also be giving away a pair of tickets to Brooklyn Brewery’s sold-out Mary’s Maple Porter Brunch on Saturday morning, with all-you-can-eat waffles (from Wafels & Dinges, no less), maple syrup and bacon and all-you-can-drink coffee and beer. A bracing morning breakfast for an urban camper, rising from a restful night on N. 11th Street.

Williamsburg This Thursday marks the final show in the month-long weekly residency of brand-spanking-new band Don’t. Aaron Lazar, ex-lead singer of metal surf outfit The Giraffes, is on guitar and vocals, and Mitchell King, ex-drummer of Beat The Devil, is on the skins. Bring earplugs, because despite being a two-piece this band is loud. King drives the songs with busy drumbeats that pair nicely with Lazar’s simple riffs, and Lazar’s vocal melodies are similar to his Giraffes style, but tinged with a kind of Buddy Holly twang. The show is a great excuse to check out the new Williamsburg venue The Grand Victory, which replaced Bruar Falls. The show is $8 at the door.

Williamsburg Do you love the Bee Gees? Disco? Metal? Can they tell by the way you use your walk, you’re a ladies’ man? If you said yes to any one of those questions, then come headbang to the Bee Gees Friday at Brooklyn Bowl. Tragedy is performing an all-metal tribute to the group, ensuring the high-pitched-singing, disco-dancing trio’s sound is Stayin’ Alive–maybe even John Travolta will show up in all black to do a little slam dancing. The show is only $7–although that doesn’t cover if you decide to hit up one of the club’s 16 bowling lanes while busting a move.

Williamsburg This weekend grab a hold of your favorite devotchka, or just round up a few of your favorite droogs, and head on over to Nitehawk Cinema to feast your glazzies on a Kubrick classic. Confused? Then you’ve probably never seen A Clockwork Orange. Nitehawk Cinema is screening the deeply disturbing film Friday and Saturday at midnight. If you don’t like violence and obscenity then you probably shouldn’t see this movie–but then again, you probably wouldn’t live in Brooklyn if you couldn’t tolerate that stuff. General admission is $11, and get there early–you don’t wanna get into a fight over something as silly as getting a good seat at the cinny!

Williamsburg We’ve still got a few months to go until bathing suit season gets underway, so live it up this Saturday night at a day in the life of beer and cheese, a ridiculously decadent dinner organized by the I Was Really, Very Hungry supper club. You will definitely need to juice all day to prepare for what is described as “an evening that will take you through an entire day’s worth of meals all in one amazing meal.” For $75, you get a whopping seven courses prepared by Mike Ciardi, the chef de cuisine at Union Market, and Amy Stonionis, chef at Radish, each served with a beer and cheese pairing. When you purchase your ticket the top-secret Williamsburg location where it’s all going down will be revealed. And there’s good karma too, as a portion of the proceeds will go to help local musician Justin Young, who was injured in a freak accident last year, with his medical bills.

Greenpoint Ahhh, the chicken win—is there a truer embodiment of the American Dream? Once the lowliest part of the bird, the chicken wing has journeyed closest to the human heart to become the favorite snack of sporting events, party platters, and happy hours everywhere (take that, pickled eggs!). While there may have been a time where people wondered, “what the heck do I DO with this thing?” in today’s world, the wing and opinions on how it should be prepared are for serious. How serious? We suggest you head on over to Greenpoint’s Red Star this Saturday for their annual Best Wings in Brooklyn Competition and judge for yourself. Wings from different establishments all over Brooklyn will be competing for the ultimate prize of bragging rights as they duke it out before a panel of judges, and of course, you. Even better, it’s completely free to the public, and portions of the proceeds go to the Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation.

Boroughwide Whether you’ve managed to see all the best picture contenders by now or not, you know you’re going to watch the Academy Awards this Sunday night.  It’s also inevitable that you are going to have strong opinions on the winners, Billy Crystal’s jokes, the length and boringness of various segments, and, of course, the red carpet fashion. Sure, you can take the festivities in from your couch, but wouldn’t it be more fun to discuss it all with like-minded friends at one of the many Oscar-viewing parties taking place at a variety of Brooklyn’s best venues? There’s something for everyone this year: oenophiles can enjoy themed snacks and cocktails at the Brooklyn Winery; comedy buffs can head to the The Bell House for a screening hosted by Seth Hertzog and featuring topical tweets by the comedians of Witstream.com; serious film aficionados can don costumes and enter trivia contests at Nitehawk Cinema; cheese lovers can dig into fondue at Bar Halyards; if you want to pile into a photobooth and document your own Oscar fashions, head to Mullanes; and sideshow fans can watch the envelope openings at the Coney Island’s Freak Bar. The awards ceremony officially begins at 8:30pm, but you’ll want to get to your destination early to catch some of the red carpet arrivals.

Atlantic Ave./Red Hook PortSide NewYork, operators of the beloved tanker MARY A. WHALEN (where we once held a July 4 fundraiser), have issued an SOS call! PortSide could close and the tanker will be scrapped if they don’t get a home fast and some money raised quickly. Attend their meeting this Monday, Feb. 27 from 6:30-8:30pm at LICH (corner of Atlantic Ave & Hicks St.) or join them afterwards at Montero’s maritime watering hole. If you loved the tanker opera in the containerport, hearing a Jalopy concert or watching a movie on the deck of the MARY WHALEN, head to the meeting, write letters of support, post flyers, tweet it up or offer your Kickstarter campaign-making help! Brooklyn shouldn’t lose this floating cultural treasure.

Cobble Hill As this season of Top Chef comes to an end, we find ourselves, yet again, asking that all-important question — how do the cheftestants chop so quickly and so accurately while we find ourselves covered in nicks and cuts when attacking even the simplest tasks? On Monday, Local Roots NYC will be hosting a knife skills class at 61 Local, one of their CSA pickup points. Taught by local chef (and CSA member) Will Griffin, the class promises to handle everything from the basics like chopping onions and garlic to, as they put it, “dealing with unusual fruits and vegetables.” Each class is limited to just 10 people, so we recommend picking up tickets today.

Fort Greene Starting at 7:30pm on Monday, BAM will be screening a Brooklyn-themed double feature showcasing two cinematic tributes to the great neighborhood of Fort Greene. First up is this year’s Brooklyn Boheme, a documentary about Fort Greene in the 80s, when it was an epicenter of forward-thinking black culture. Writer, historian, and resident Nelson George created this intimate portrait of the neighborhood, featuring interviews with Spike Lee, Branford Marsalis, Rosie Perez and Chris Rock. As an added bonus, both George and his co-director Diane Paragas will be in house for a brief Q&A about the film. Second on the bill is Spike Lee’s full-length feature debut, She’s Gotta Have It, the now-classic indie comedy that was shot primarily in Fort Greene in 1986. Admission is $12 and includes free samples of BAMboozle, Brooklyn Brewery’s new beer celebrating BAM’s 150th anniversary.

Park Slope If you’re a devoted home brewer and think your stuff could make the cut to be a featured selection at your local bar, then get your growlers ready, buster, ’cause Beer Table is hosting its monthly Home Brewer’s Meetup this Monday. All DIYers are welcome, from obsessives to tinkerers to eager-to-learners, all located in a place that makes it their business to know everything there is to know about beer. The event is free and glassware is provided—all you have to do is bring your beer. And if you want extra incentive, just think about how many times you can say, “I drank this before it was mainstream.”

Fort Greene For a glimpse into the ladies night of your future, or a fabulous way to spend time with your favorite authors, get thee to BAM’s Eat, Drink & Be Literary on Thursday, March 15 with Open City author Teju Cole, who will be interviewed by Francine Pose. Because they switched the date on this one, tickets ($50) are still remaining—a rare occurrence for this series. The event is a real value considering the food, bottomless wine, and literary stars you get to enjoy in the glamorous BAMcafé. (You can even purchase Cole’s books and others at one of the two Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks, and support one of our advertising partners.) Tickets available here.

Gowanus Think you don’t know Stephen Tobolowsky? Well, we might beg to differ. Tobolowsky, officially “that guy,” is arguably the most pervasive character actor in contemporary film. He’s appeared in almost every movie and TV show of the past 20 years—remember Ned from Groundhog Day? Sandy Ryerson (aka The Pink Dagger) from Glee? Oliver Mintz from Dr. Jekyll & Ms. Hyde? (Don’t lie, we know you still have it on VHS.) He’s seen more things and collected more stories than almost anyone else in the biz, and, perhaps unexpectedly, he’s also quite the charming raconteur. His podcast The Tobolowsky Files is a must-download and this Tuesday he’s performing it live at Bell House, hosted by David Chen. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 at the door, and you can buy them here.