Brooklyn Brainery

Masters of Social Gastronomy!: The Masters of Social Gastronomy Face the Future

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:44:51 -0400

Masters of Social Gastronomy!: The Masters of Social Gastronomy Face the Future:

Banning pasta in Italy, pre-WW2 molecular gastronomy and high-concept dinner parties: Welcome to The Futurist Cookbook!

Published in 1932 by F.T. Marinetti, it aimed to transform everyday meals from stodgy, sleep-inducing traditions into multi-sensory, scientific experiences…

Fence going up in Prospect Heights!

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:58 -0400

Fence going up in Prospect Heights!

MSG at GoogaMooga - Saturday!

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:17:44 -0400

If you’ve got Saturday GoogaMooga tickets, swing on by Cafe GoogaMooga at 2:30pm for a special Masters of Social Gastronomy talk.

Sarah and Soma will be showcasing the crazy world of the 1932 Futurists Cookbook: a manifesto intent on banning pasta in Italy, inventing pre-WW2 molecular gastronomy, and throwing high-concept dinner parties.

Join them as they abandon silverware, caress sandpaper, and craft meat skyscrapers, all in the name of recreating the cuisine of futures past.

Snake’s-Head Fritillary, from a visit to the Shakespeare...

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:43 -0400

Snake’s-Head Fritillary, from a visit to the Shakespeare Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Our first batch of Brainery kombucha

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:01:04 -0400

Our first batch of Brainery kombucha

Marbling is absolutely amazing.

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:00:50 -0400

Marbling is absolutely amazing.

Here is a completely gratuitous cat photo. This cat is amazing...

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:58:06 -0400

Here is a completely gratuitous cat photo. This cat is amazing and lives in Greenpoint.

New Classes Posted - terrariums, commas, ice cream + more!

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:09:04 -0400

New Classes Posted - terrariums, commas, ice cream + more! :

Brooklyn Brainery is accessible, community-driven, crowdsourced education. Classes on anything and everything in NYC

Marbling Classes are BACK - this week only!

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:05:58 -0400

Forgive the hard sell, but I can pretty much guarantee that you want learn how to turn plain old construction paper into something that looks like this:

or this

Right?

Great! Then you should definitely take our marbled papers class with Jessica from Happy Go Crafty this week, on either Tuesday, April 30 or Thursday, May 2nd. It’s the last time we’ll have it on the calendar for a good long bit, so don’t miss out!

Felted Soaps - tonight!

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:06:44 -0400

Want to learn how to felt and also make something useful? We’ve got you covered: http://brooklynbrainery.com/courses/felted-soaps

A Love Letter to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:01:05 -0400

Today I did a very adult thing and bought a membership to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which allowed me to spend the rest of the afternoon reading in the grass under a flowering cherry tree. Pretty much the best $50 I’ve spent in a long time.

It looked kinda like this:

When I wasn’t hanging out under a tree, I was Instagramming a million pics of the annual bed of tulips, which happen to be planted according to their fifteen horticultural divisions, divisions based on size and shape.

Best division? Definitely the Rembrandt, named after the painter even though there’s no record he ever painted a tulip. Visually, these are the “broken” or streaked tulips that were most prized during the Dutch Tulip Mania of the 17th century.

a broken tulip, the Semper Augustus

BBG has a really jaw-dropping spread of the fifteen divisions, some of which don’t even look like tulips, and they happen to be blooming like crazy right now.

Behold!

Mystery Round!

Besides gawking at tulips, I fell in love with this crazy-looking plant, but wasn’t able to identify it. If anyone knows the name, I’d love to hear!

Tons of new classes posted!

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:06:00 -0400

Here’s the whole newsletter, for your reading pleasure:

During World War II, British scientists experimented with anthrax on a tiny place namedGruinard Island. After the tests (which included bombing sheep!) the island was deemed unfit for habitation and abandoned.

In 1981, a militant group began threatening to spread anthrax-contaminated soil around British cities unless the island was decontaminated. Five years later the government relented, covering the island with a seawater/formaldehyde mixture intended to kill any anthrax spores. A flock of sheep placed on the island remained healthy, and on April 24, 1990, the island was declared safe!

Upcoming Classes

Reading, Writing, & Speaking
Emily Dickinson - spend some time with one of the most distinctive voices in American poetry
Presentation Skills - tools to get over that fear of public speaking
Get Unstuck: Get Writing, Again - a daylong workshop to up your output
Storytelling Weekend Workshop - spend a weekend learning refining your craft
Get Published: Write an 800 Word Essay - personal essays are a great way to get your work out there; in this class, you’ll cover everything from practical guidelines to getting a workable draft
Storytelling for Business People - whether you’re working on a mission statement or prepping to give a killer presentation, tactics for bringing personal stories to the office

Social Science
Serial Killers - a look at some of the most famous American serial killers, and why they’re so fascinating to us
For The Record: A History Of The DJ - how a set of turntables changed dance music forever
Great New York City Buildings Few Guide Books Will Ever Mention - from Red Hook to the West Side, you’ll have a new appreciation for the city

Skills of all Sorts
Contra Dance Lesson with Brooklyn Contra - If swing dancing and square dancing met in a bar, you’d get contra dance. This Friday!
How to Be a Connector - it’s more than amassing business cards
Tips and Tricks for Scrabble & Words with Friends - become the king of Words with Friends
How to Plan a Better Party - Want to throw an awesome house party, but not sure where to start?

Hands On Craftiness
Introduction to Stranded Knitting - a weekend intensive to bring a little color into your knits
Felted Soaps - make neat looking soaps with a little wool roving and warm water
Coptic Binding - an ancient book-binding method with beautiful results
Learn to Knit: Summer Shawls - because knitting’s not just for winter
Lo-fi Printing: Block Carving - an easy way to get awesome prints right in your apartment
Shibori Tie-Dye - can we all agree that tie-dye should never go out of style again?

Sciency
Perfumery: Materials, Bridges and Accords - explore four key components of perfume making, from vanilla to rose
Tree Identification! - bring a little nature into your daily walk to the subway; lots of sessions in Prospect Heights and Greenpoint

Food/Drink
Campfire Cuisine Beyond Hot Dogs: An Introduction to Hearth Cooking - be the best cook around the campfire
Homemade Ice Cream - cause maybe it’ll finally be warm by May
Intro to Home Canning - put your pile of CSA produce to good use

The Masters of Social Gastronomy Meet Their Sweet Tooth - April 30

MSG is our monthly bar-room lecture series on the history and science behind some of your favorite foods. Next Tuesday: sugar and artificial sweeteners.

From Brooklyn’s long relationship to the sweet stuff to the science of high fructose corn syrup, your sweet tooth has never gotten this much attention.

RSVP on Facebook so we’re sure to have plenty of sugary samples.

Tuesday, April 30, 7pm, no charge but bring ID.
Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg

The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies - May 7

This month at S.A.S.S., you’ll learn about a whole bunch of historical figures who just decided to give up when things got tough. Get all the details and RSVP.

More block printing awesomeness. Lots more sessions coming up...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:01:23 -0400

More block printing awesomeness. Lots more sessions coming up this spring too!

Photos courtesy Jessica Kaufman of Happy Go Crafty

A Fate Worse Than Death: The Perils of Being a Famous Corpse

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:42:31 -0400

A Fate Worse Than Death: The Perils of Being a Famous Corpse:

This talk at Observatory Room in Gowanus this Friday, April 26th, looks awesome.

The results of our very first kombucha class.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:05:00 -0400

The results of our very first kombucha class.

An super useful guide to help you identify common NYC street trees:

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:40:09 -0400

I love this so, so much: a visual guide to the leaves of the trees we see around us.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/trees_greenstreets/treescount/2005_Census_Leaf_Key_Final.pdf

Meet TodoCat

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:48:00 -0400

This is not an official Brainery project, but Soma made this Sophisticated Cat to do list, and you should definitely use it: todocat.com

Class Preview: The Design Gym Weekend Workout

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:04:06 -0400

Thinking about taking the Design Gym weekend intensive on April 19, but not quite sure what you’re in for? Read on for a recap of September’s session and sign up for the new one here.

From The Design Gym’s blog:

Twenty-one students last weekend were pushed to the max over two and a half days, all in the name of better understanding and, more importantly, executing on the design thinking process. Throw in a session with an improv teacher, real world clients, and all of a sudden this fun weekend has turned into a race going at full tilt. But the next thing out of people’s mouths is how worth it the weekend was. This is an account of how The Design Gym, in combination with Holstee and Improvulation, spent this past weekend solving some big, hairy problems.

Last Friday a diverse group of strangers ascended upon the Brooklyn Brainery, giving up their weekend with the common goal of figuring out what this “design thinking” thing is all about. The first hour was a quick overview of the weekend to come, as the Design Gym folks walked through the 5-phase process of design. But academics and powerpoints aren’t exactly how things roll at Weekend Workouts, so things took an unexpected twist as the class was prompted to see creativity through the lens of improvisation.

[Enter several cases of Brooklyn Lager and a whole lot of students suddenly questioning if they made the right weekend plans]

Luckily, Holly Mandel, owner of Improvolution, was on site to help ease everyone through those instinctual fears, and proceeded to set a tone that would last the rest of the weekend. She facilitated the room, teachers and all, through activities demonstrating some uncomfortable scenarios that were sure to crop-up during a fast-paced, group intensive weekend. By exercising principles like ‘Yes And’ and ‘I made a mistake’, the class loosened up within minutes.”Although the “I Made a Mistake!” exercise often annoys people at the outset, at some point there’s a flip and you can feel the room has now accepted that making a mistake is ok - we all do it, it can often suck when we do…but it doesn’t have to.” - Holly Mandel

Saturday started early, but was greeted with an immaculate spread of food from Jump Kitchen. Fueled on vegetarian chili, finger lickin ribs, and lots of coffee, it was time to begin digging into the theory behind the 5-phase design process.

The class broke into groups and were given a design challenge all New Yorkers can relate to - “How might we make the urban moving experience less burdensome?”

The class tackled the prompt throughout the entire day, using it as a foundation to better understand the design process. By the end of the day the students had conducted interviews, identified themes, ideated solutions, prototyped the solutions, and had even crafted a compelling story.

Concepts were as diverse as platforms for introducing people to new neighborhoods to financial models for providing loans to those that need to spread out the lump cost of moving.

With a round of beers, the class retired for the day, equally as exhausted but much more confident than the night prior.

Sunday means action at The Weekend Workout. After breakfast, Ankit Shah from Holstee kicked off the day with a design brief for an initiative called #BlockFriday. Holstee is first a mission driven company, which secondarily just happens to be in the form of an online retailer. This was illuminated to the class as Ankit recounted a story from the prior year.

For Holstee, Black Friday typically accounts for 10-15% of their annual revenue, but they began realizing the hustle around driving consumerism on that day was exactly the opposite of the mission they’d set out to achieve. As a reaction, Holstee shut down their on-line store for the day, blocking it with a note kindly reminding their customers of the real purpose of the holidays, and that they would always be there to supply them with high-quality goods. Thus, the concept of #BlockFriday was born. This year, Holstee, in partnership with a large number of other retailers, is transforming that single act into an entire movement, and the Design Gym students were there to help.

The class again walked through the 5-phase design process, but this time as owners, not students. They tackled questions like how to get retailers interested, how to make the biggest splash and how to make the deepest possible connection with their loyal customers. Often too focused for breaks, the students dove headfirst into better understanding people, the founding principle of good design. The day concluded with passionate, story driven presentations to none other than the founders ofHolstee, who were delighted for a jumpstart to their new initiative. Oh, and of course a final round of beers to celebrate.

It’s exhausting to even read through the activities of the weekend, but to us it’s about much more than just providing a class to really rad students. It’s about learning through doing. It’s about connecting passionate learners with dynamic, local organizations like Holstee that are grateful for their input. It’s about getting out of our comfort zones with partners like Improvulation. It’s about joining a community who shares an interest in making big change in a people focused way.

But most importantly, it’s about getting excited to learn again. Getting excited to do what we’ve done for years, but with a new approach and therefore energy. It’s about creatively solving the world’s biggest problems.

April 26th! Special Contra Dance Lesson with Brooklyn Contra

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:53:01 -0400

We’re hosting a special class in conjunction with the awesome Brooklyn Contra group. Their next dance is Friday, April 26th, and you can sign up for a special Brainery group lesson starting at 7pm, before the official dance and lesson begin at 7:30pm. The $25 price gets you the extra 1/2 hour lesson and admission to the dance, which runs until 11pm.

Sign up here: http://brooklynbrainery.com/courses/contra-dance-lesson-with-brooklyn-contra

What it’s all about:

If swing dancing and square dancing met in a bar, you’d get contra dance.

Contra dancing is an easy but energizing type of community folk dance with roots in the UK, New England, and Appalachia—and if you can walk, you can definitely contra dance! You’ll dance to fantastic live music with a partner, although bringing a partner is not at all necessary—it’s a great way to meet new people without having to make much conversation.

Couples form parallel lines (like in Madeleine) and over the course of the dance, they interact with the couple next to them, moving up and down the dance floor and interacting with every other couple in their line. There’s no fancy footwork involved, and each dance is taught from the stage, by the “caller”, similar to square dancing. We dance until 11pm or so and then head to Sheep Station for drinks, conversation, & Aussie pub food afterwards. We swear, you’ll be hooked!

What You’ll Learn:

Our class starts at 7:00pm at the Brooklyn Lyceum (4th Avenue & Union) and will give you a major step up from those other beginners who show up for the regular lesson at 7:30.

Don’t forget to bring:

Shoes you could walk in quickly in (i.e., no spike heels or flip flops), a water bottle, and a willingness to hold strangers’ hands. Read answers to FAQs here.

New York City Secrets

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:30:15 -0400

New York City Secrets:

Huge thanks to Time Out New York for including us in this really neat round up of New York City secrets. (Be sure to read them all!)