Brokelyn

The post's author drinking with Ames. The boredom was worth it.

We’re still in mourning for Bored to Death after HBO announced it canceled the show yesterday. What better way to drown our sorrows than with a drink with the show’s creator, Jonathan Ames? Gothamist tells us Ames will be joined by BTD regular (and neighborhood fixture) John Hodgman at the Brooklyn Inn tonight around 10pm to celebrate three seasons of Brooklyn debauchery. Ames claims he’s buying a round for everyone, and we at Brokelyn have never been known to pass up a free drink. Just don’t punch Kevin Bacon in the mouth.

HBO announced today it is canceling its Brooklyn-based, Jonathan Ames-penned Bored To Death, and all I could think was, in the words of Ray, “My brain is attacking itself.” Let’s take a moment to pay homage to a show that for three seasons brought together some of finest in entertainment including Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifinakas, Ted Danson and often featured Brooklyn’s own John Hodgman. Ok, ok…so the characters these guys played and I don’t share mirrored lives, but a lot of the shenanigans rang true to a struggling Brokelynite. Amateur detective Jonathan Ames fought to master the world of freelance clients, scraping together pennies to feed his white-wine addiction and crashing swanky parties for the free booze and possible dates. And haven’t we all at one time or another taken an additional job, say teaching a writing class to disinterested night students, just to pay the bills? I loved Bored to Death not only for its fabulous talent and intricate, belly-laugh-inducing writing, but most of all because it all went down in my favorite city, in the little (huge) borough of Brooklyn. Read the rest of this entry »

How to Make it in America: become an HBO extra?

Craigslist has no shortage of casting calls for tattoo-y creative types, but when it’s HBO, it may be worth putting aside your refusal to self-identify with the ghoulish h-word. This ad says HBO is seeking “hipsters” for shoots of How to Make it In America in Bushwick and the Lower East Side on Tuesday through Sunday and later in the season. HBO’s year-old show, which tracks young entrepreneurs in the city’s fashion scene, deserves credit for saying exactly what it means by hipsters (though the proof reading is oddly lax), “Did you make it to the LCD Soundsystem farewell show or desperately wanted to?” The gig pays a minimum $85, so at least it isn’t just another project offering “exposure” for using your hipster cred.

BlackBook's Steve Lewis with Lydia Hearst. Photo courtesy of BlackBook.

Not according to the Fabulous in Park Slope blogger, nor to the author of a new article in Blackbook magazine that paints Brooklyn as the land of the bed-headed samesters. In the latest salvo in the ongoing Brooklyn vs. Manhattan debate, Blackbook columnist Steve Lewis complains of a dull evening spent bar-hopping in Williamsburg. The popular Barcade, he says, was “the worst place I’ve ever tried to have a good time in,” and things only improved once he and his crew were safely ensconced back in Manhattan: Read the rest of this entry »

See you at Two Boots! Photo by AP.

Today’s Post looks to have the biggest story in Brooklyn since the Dodgers left town: real-estate scoopmeister Jennifer Gould Keil is reporting  “rumors” that Sarah Jessica Parker, mom of new twins via a surrogate, bought Jennifer Connelly’s double-wide brownstone at 17 Prospect Park West for $8.45 million and is currently renovating the house. Read the rest of this entry »