The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
By Aaron Gold The atmosphere changes when you walk down the stairs to MyssTic Rooms, an escape room in Park Slope. The style is almost Sherlock Holmesian with a big leather couch and a chest you lock your valuables into. I’ve done quite a few escape rooms in my time, as well as worked for a couple of them. Aesthetics are crucial. You want to set the right mood for your customers, intriguing them to a mystery while looking professional and assuaging any idea that they’re about to be underwhelmed. Mystic Rooms on 794 Union St. accomplishes that with flying colors.
0 Comments
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
By Marleen Barr Anti-defamation League National Director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt posted this comment about the December 9, 2023 Saturday Night Live cold open skit concerning the Harvard, M.I.T, and University of Pennsylvania presidents’ response to calls for Jewish genocide on their campuses: “The skit was atrocious. The sentiment even more appalling” (X, December 10, 2023, https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL/status/1733975732148183439 ). I disagree. The laugh out loud funny skit was devoid of anti-Semitism. It instead focused on at once pervasive and ludicrous aspects of academic culture: administrators’ rampant embrace of equivocation as well as scholarly discourse’s jargon filled incomprehensible locutions. The knee jerk anti-Semitism accusations the skit garnered fail to place it within the Jewish humor tradition. This omitted contextualization is integral to understanding the skit. I will link the skit to comedic “tradition, tradition” and counter the anti-Semitism accusations.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
By Aaron Gold When people make fun of Brooklyn hipsters, one of the go-to things to cite (after craft beers, underground music, and ironic tattoos) would be axe-throwing bars. But there’s a very good, very deep reason why axe-throwing has become such a staple of the scene: It’s really, really fun.
Even the less violent of us can feel a rush of pride and adrenaline as a steel hatchet leaves your hands, rotates end over end, and finds purchase in a wooden target. It’s marksmanship to the level of lumberjack. It’s darts with bladed weapons. It’s a unique experience for anyone who doesn’t have a penchant for chopping firewood or acres of wooded land, but does have a bit of free time. When approaching Kick Axe Throwing in Gowanus, you’re immediately greeted by a large statue of a bull. Because, why not? Once you get through the people who are taking their pictures beside it (don’t judge, you know you’ll be doing the same when you leave), you’re treated to a vibe that is clubhouse meets escape room. There is a nice lounge area with couches that are actually comfortable, alongside plenty of games like Jenga and beer pong. If you have to wait for your appointment, you will not be left bored, as there is plenty to fuel either your Instagram feeds or your desire for social connection. The bar is not quite as well stocked as one might hope, but that’s understandable, considering the majority of the establishment’s patrons will be spending their evening chucking hatchets. Still, the beer selection has enough to appeal to both those looking for the classic cheap drinks, as well as those with a thirst for microbrews. A few canned cocktails and wines are also available for those with more discerning palettes, but the options there are limited. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
By Sarah Harley My mother was a woman with pretty glinty eyes. Pale green, sometimes flecked with silver, depending on her mood. The eyes lighted on sights that made her smile. The passing dazzle: summer flowers filled with petals then run to seed; slants of blue and yellow light. She knew about distances that were not connected to the visible world. She saw things others did not, things just beyond. She possessed a predisposition, acquired through fire and bombs falling through the roof.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
My main criterion for a date night craft activity is this: Is it fun? Close second and third: Will it bring us together? Is it achievable? After all, a date night is more about getting to know a person or, for long-term couples, keeping that flame aglow. It's not about perfection or making a museum-quality work of art. While, my partner, Aaron Gold (whose name you may recognize from other Quail Bell endeavors), and I enjoyed our first-ever ceramics foray together at Pottery 1 Studio in Brooklyn, NY, we have a couple of caveats.
Pluses: We had a somewhat intimate atmosphere, with one instructor for us and another instructor/couple trio on the other side of the studio. We had more than enough instruction without feeling overwhelmed, and we were allowed to bring whatever snacks we wanted. The activity was definitely intro level, meaning we had enough time to accomplish what we wanted. We certainly learned a thing or two and got to clown around with each other, too. Minuses: The activity was not the most conducive to eating and drinking. Clay is messy, so we really had to get to a point in our respective pots—we each made one—where it was safe to start reaching into bags and crunching and chewing. There were no snacks available for purchase. Due to the physical properties of clay and the studio's process, we had to wait a month before we could come back and pick up our finished pieces. On one hand, we loved getting to create and personalize our own pieces. We have different interests, styles, and abilities, so it's nice to fly solo in that sense. On the other hand, it would've been more romantic to make one piece, perhaps a more ambitious one, together. Overall, we rated this experience 4 out of 5 stars. Find out more about date nights at Pottery 1 Studio on their website. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
By Karen Resta The man across from me was vaguely familiar, but I really didn’t know him at all. The woman next to me I did know, but at the moment she was acting distant. We sat in a large booth near the front of this famous old Brooklyn restaurant, a gilded place with broken-springed red velvet banquettes, uneven wooden floors, and elderly waiters wearing long aprons that fell well below their knees. The gaslights fizzed grimy yellow, highlighting the dark sticky contours of the heavily varnished booths.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The couple that welds together stays together. Certainly, I felt bonded with my partner (and frequent collaborator/Quail Bell Magazine photographer) Aaron Gold the night we hit up Craftsman Ave. in Brooklyn, NY for the "weld a steel rose" date night. We entered this gritty workshop fully expecting to try something new and get our hands dirty. And by "we," I mean me. I hadn't given Aaron too many hints about our destination because I wanted it to be a surprise. Surprises make date nights all the more thrilling! He knew we would be doing a couples activity and I had warned him to wear sturdy shoes and old clothes. Nada más.
The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
I had every intention of reviewing An-My Lê's "Between Two Rivers/Giữa hai giòng sông/Entre deux rivières" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. As my City College of New York sculpture professor Colin Chase once told me, I'm a "serious artist" and a "serious thinker." (He also called me Miss Thang, but that's another story.) Shouldn't I gaze upon this conflict related body of work and come up with something poetic about Vietnam and the U.S. military-industrial complex?
Thankfully, it is a sign of maturity to know when to excuse yourself from a task. Given that my visit occurred on my birthday, I decided to cling to the wisdom that one acquires by living another year. Rather than inundate myself with more thoughts of war-themed photography, I'd inundate myself with thoughts of conceptual art. So I opted for Ed Ruscha first and foremost during my most recent MoMa escapade. I needed escapism and humor, and "Now Then" is a big, honkin' retrospective. Did I see An-My Lê's exhibition? Yes, and the "Fourteen Views" installation juxtaposing images from Vietnam, U.S., and France was a chapel I hope to reflect upon another time. If nothing else (and there's a lot else), go see it for that. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Poem & Photo by Ghia Vitale Art Effects by Pixlr E In case you haven’t heard already, I married myself on Samhain (Halloween) of October 31, 2023. My self-marriage ritual is the result of sologamy, or the practice of marrying yourself. During my self-marriage ritual, I read “Venus of Abyssal Seas”. I wrote and dedicated this poem to Venus and Astaroth, the goddess of love and demon who blessed my self-marriage.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2023
Categories |