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Coworking Jelly Day - Friday, January 18th!

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Before we really and truly roll out coworking at our new place in Prospect Heights this February, join us in January for some drop-in days. Our first one will be on Friday, January 18 as part of Worldwide Jellyweek. 

If you're a freelancer, or just happen to have the day off and want to get some work done outside the house and amongst other awesome people, we'd love to have you. Be cool and RSVP here so we know how many folks are coming! 

And if you're interested in learning more about membership at the new shared workspace in Prospect Heights, go ahead and join our coworking-only email list. We'll send you all the important membership details and let you know about other fun events. 

If you're wondering what a Jelly is in the first place, I'll let the inventors explain: 

Jelly is a casual working event. It's taken place in over a hundred cities where people have come together (in a person's home, a coffee shop, or an office) to work for the day. We provide chairs and sofas, wireless internet, and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of.

You bring a laptop (or whatever you need to get your work done) and a friendly disposition.

 


MSG takes on MSG: January's Masters of Social Gastronomy Lecture

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To celebrate its one year anniversary, this month's Masters of Social Gastronomy takes on its namesake: monosodium glutamate (MSG)! Savory spice or fatal flavor?

Sarah Lohman of Four Pounds Flour will track MSG back to its source in traditional Japanese food, showing how time and money can turned an innocuous plant into the darling of mass production

Soma will take on modern-day interpretations of MSG, from its role in "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" to its many relatives hiding in everyday foods. Science fact will be separated from science fiction as myths are deflated and truths laid bare.

While Sarah crafts organic MSG from scratch, Soma will bend science to his iron will and produce factory-farm MSG in his very own kitchen.

All the most important details:

Masters of Social Gastronomy
Tuesday, January 29, 7pm
Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street) in Williamsburg
RSVP on Facebook so we can bring lots of MSG-laden samples to delight your palate

Free Cowoking Day - Friday, January 25

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Before we really and truly roll out coworking at our new place in Prospect Heights this February, join us in January for some drop-in days. Our first one will be on Friday, January 25 as part of Worldwide Jellyweek. 

If you're a freelancer, or just happen to have the day off and want to get some work done outside the house and amongst other awesome people, we'd love to have you. Be cool and RSVP here so we know how many folks are coming! 

And if you're interested in learning more about membership at the new shared workspace in Prospect Heights, go ahead and join our coworking-only email list. We'll send you all the important membership details and let you know about other fun events. 

Brainery Swag on Sale!

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To celebrate the opening of our new space in Prospect Heights (190 Underhill Ave), we’re putting our awesome Brainery swag on sale! 

You like the Brainery? The classic Brainery tote can be yours. Don't even know what the Brainery is? Get it anyway! 

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Or perhaps the Let’s Make Thai tote is more up your alley. Tired of always forgetting your coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal? With our Let's Make Thai Food tote you'll have your shopping list at the ready no matter where you are (because that's useful).

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You can have your very own tote bag for the reduced priced of $10, or, amazingly, two for $16! Buy two for yourself! Or for a friend, neighbor or stranger. All totes measure 13" wide x 14" tall, with 25" handles and 3" gussets, because gussets make your life awesome. Made in the good ole U.S. of A of nice thick natural canvas (as in, it definitely won't fall apart on you).

Valentine's Day Workshop at Babeland

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We're excited to be hosting another free Friday night mini-workshop at Babeland in Park Slope (462 Bergen Street). Come on down on Friday, February 8 at 7pm for shopping, drinks, and a Bableland Quickie sex tips workshop, just in time for Valentine's Day. 

One lucky attendee will even win $100 worth of toys and free tickets to the Babeland workshop of their choice.

It's totally free, all you need to do is RSVP here.

Job Board: Part Time Assistant

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We're looking for someone to help out around the Brainery. It's part-time (12-15 hours a week), entirely at the Brainery, and involves all kinds of super glamorous* and not-so-glamorous things. 

• Hanging out during class two or three evenings every week (generally 4-10pm) & the occasional weekend. You'll need to be able to work at both locations (Prospect Heights and Carroll Gardens, so keep transport in mind!)
• Keeping the space clean and organized - set up, material prep, and some cleaning
• Writing blog posts and taking/posting photos of classes

In return, yes, you'll be getting paid ($12/hr), and you'll also get to sit in on all the classes you want for free and maybe learn a thing or two about running a tiny business in New York. It's pretty entry level stuff, but hopefully sorta fun at the same time. 

Our deal: we're just two people who thought taking classes in NYC was way too expensive. So now, a zillion years later, we're hunkered down in Carroll Gardens storefront, dedicated to helping people learn bread-making, knot-tying, stargazing, kimchi-fermenting, ASL-signing, physics-experimenting, beekeeping, and pretty much anything else that exists, all from people in their communities. You can read more about how we roll over here

To apply: Send us an email to jobs@brooklynbrainery.com. Attach a resume if you want (pdf please!), but most importantly tell us why you want to work here and why you're awesome. 

*Just kidding, none of it is very glamorous. 

 

CANCELED: Valentine's Day Workshop at Babeland

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**Sorry guys, we're not as strong as the snowstorm blowing into town so we're going to have to call off tonight's event!**

We're excited to be hosting another free Friday night mini-workshop at Babeland in Park Slope (462 Bergen Street). Come on down on Friday, February 8 at 7pm for shopping, drinks, and a Bableland Quickie sex tips workshop, just in time for Valentine's Day. 

One lucky attendee will even win $100 worth of toys and free tickets to the Babeland workshop of their choice.

It's totally free, all you need to do is RSVP here.

Field Trip: The Onderdonk House in Ridgewood, Queens

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I keep meeting people who live in Ridgeweood (hey Ridgewood!), so I thought it'd be fun to revisit one of my favorite historic houses, which just happens to be in Ridgewood: the wonderfully named Vander Ende-Onderdonk House

The house is at 1820 Flushing Avenue, just over the Queens-Brooklyn border; it's an easy walk from the Jefferson L stop, but it couldn't be further away in spirit from the busy, industrial Flushing Avenue on which it sits:

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Flushing Ave, today

Vs. the Onderdonk house: 

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The Onderdonk house itself! 

The stone structure (which you can see above) was built way back in 1709, and proudly displays some of your typical Dutch farmhouse features, like the gambrel roof (below).

The steep slope of the roof originally was designed to give you more headroom on your upper floor. No one quite agrees where the flared overhang came from, but in practice, it does a pretty good job keeping rain off the front of the house.  

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Today, the grounds are full of parties during the summer, and it's really just a friendly, lovely place to visit. You can get married there or go to a wine tastings, but it's also a fun for a Saturday afternoon history lesson. Get all the details over at their official site: http://www.onderdonkhouse.org/

 

 


The Brainery & Fluent City

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We're excited to partner with the fine folks over atFluent City to bring all of you a couple of their two-hour slang workshops on the cheap.

These workshops are taught in English, so you won't need to be fluent in Spanish or French to pick up some fun phrases and avoid sounding like a silly American on the streets of Madrid or Paris. 

Both workshops take place on FridayFebruary 22, from 7-9pm at Fluent City's HQ in Williamsburg, and you can choose from French or Spanish

All you have to do is use the discount code BKBrainery at checkout for your 15% discount on any class or workshop through March 1st. Do it! 


Want to know more about Fluent City? 

Learning French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian or Hebrew is fun and affordable at Fluent City. Classes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Midtown, Manhattan are lead by engaging professors that make learning a new language accessible for any skill level. With a variety of class times including daytimes, weeknights and weekends, Fluent City has a class that will work for even the busiest of New Yorkers. In addition, your friends in other cities can now take classes in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia! Private lessons are also available. For full class schedules visit www.fluentcity.com.

 

March (Craft) Madness

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Court Street's going crafty for the first week of March, as Jessica Kaufman takes over for a series of hands-on classes. Check the links for all the details and to register! 

Monday, March 4

Dreamcatchers: The Ultimate Summer Camp Craft - 2-5pm & 7-10pm

Tuesday, March 5

Project: Knit a Hat - 2-5pm

Learn to Knit: Handwarmers - 7-10pm 

Wednesday, March 6

Learn to Knit: Handwarmers - 2-5pm

How to Read a Knitting Pattern - 6:30-9pm

Thursday, March 7

Project: Knit Baby Booties - 1-5pm

Block Printing - 6:30-8pm & 8:30-10pm 

Between the Bread: Masters of Social Gastronomy Talk Sandwiches

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The history of sandwiches is laced with vice, ingenuity, and industry.

Sarah will relate this sordid tale via the PB&J, perhaps the sandwich Americans feel the most passionate about. But jelly wasn't always thought to be peanut butter's natural companion and at MSG you'll get to experience long-forgotten peanut butter sandwiches of the past. 

Later, Soma will take us on a tour of America's best sandwiches, from national standbys like the BLT to regional treasures like the Po' Boy. He'll go to bat for the grilled cheese as the greatest sandwich of all time, and use the power of experimentation to uncover the Perfect Grilled Cheese.

During Storytime, former-Sandwich-Artist Soma will spill the beans on Subway's secrets, because we know you've always wondered what exactly that "Subway smell" is. Afterward, they'll put on their brave faces while tasting the most bizarre and innovative sandwich combinations history has to offer.

Masters of Social Gastronomy
Tuesday, February 26
Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg)
Doors at 7pm, free, bring your ID
RSVP

 

Field Trips: Atlas Obscura's Upcoming Cemetery Tours

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We love Atlas Obscura, and these upcoming cemetery tours, given by Allison Meier, look absolutely great:

March 10: Exploring the Glamorous Afterlife in Woodlawn Cemetery http://www.atlasobscura.com/events/glamorous-afterlife

April 28: An Afternoon in the New York Marble Cemetery http://www.atlasobscura.com/events/obscura-society-nyc-an-afternoon-at-the-new-york-marble-cemetery

In March, we'll be hosting a class on cemetery symbolism with Allison at the Brainey, and taking a tour would make for an awesome pairing. 

If you want to read up on some NYC cemetery history ahead of time, check out this series Allison put together for us:

Part 1: Forgotten NYC Cemeteries

Part 2: NYC's Early Cemeteries 

Part 3: City Cemeteries, Working Class Cemeteries, and Rural Cemeteries

 

Prospect Heights Coworking Test Drive

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Come flex your work muscles with us starting February 18th! We'll be offering coworking by the day at our new space in Prospect Heights (190 Underhill Ave) for a couple weeks before monthly memberships roll out in March. All you need to do is pick your days and sign up. 

Whether you're penning the next Great American Novel or coding a nouveau Instagram, working around other folks just works. We've got wifi, coffee, a smattering of fancy-pants office chairs, and plenty of awesome people who aren't your boss

The only thing we're missing is you.

Does that sound like a sappy valentine? I mean, yeah, but it's totally true. Getting involved now while the culture and space are developing is a great opportunity to help shape the daytime Brainery into just what you're looking for.

Important notes: Doors will open at 10am and we'll give you the boot around 5pm - it'll be 6pm once we get going, but for now we'll need a little extra time before we're into our changing-things-around-for-classes groove. Sign up for your days. 

P.P.S. We didn't want to start monthly memberships just yet (we're fleeing to Austin in a couple weeks for coworking-related SXSW things), so for now you get to test drive the Brainery by signing up a day at a time.

Block Printing Class Photos

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Check out these photos from last week's print making class! Students carved images into linoleum blocks, rolled paint on them, and printed on paper and cards. 

If you want to make your own, we have a couple sessions coming up on March 7th

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Chinatown Roulette: Bamboo Charcoal Peanuts

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When you go to Chinatown, you're morally obligated to buy strange and unfamiliar goods, then decipher (and eat) them back home. It's Chinatown Roulette!

Over the weekend I was poking around New York Supermarket, looking for roasted peanuts. While that didn't work out, I did find an incredible alternative: Bamboo Charcoal Peanuts.

I've dealt with enough foreign-language packaging to know a mistranslation when I see one. What could have been turned into "bamboo charcoal," though? Maybe they were roasted in a bamboo fire or something, who knows. I turned the package over and checked out the ingredients:

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#3 ingredient? Bamboo charcoal powder. Well, then. Bamboo charcoal peanuts it is.

Chinatown Roulette engaged: consider it purchased.

I understand we're all trying to be healthy these days. Avoiding sugar, quitting smoking, going for a 15 mile run every morning. But I'll be damned if sometimes you don't just want to rip into a container of peanuts covered in the burned remnants of bamboo.

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Crazy logo man agrees! He is begging to be eaten. Look at those little peanut cheeks! That coaly, rotund body! Just makes me want to eat him up.

And in case you were curious about the little badge, M.I.T. means Made In Taiwan. Unfortunately these snacks were not made in Boston out of futuristic bamboo-charcoal technology.

Before we dig in, let's take a moment to talk about bamboo charcoal.

The facts: bamboo charcoal is made out of five-year-old bamboo, burnt at around 800°C. It's great at absorbing things like odors, moisture and inorganic compounds. You'll find it used as an air filter, water filter, ground-things filter, everything-filter.

If your office is missing a certain je ne sais quois, Amazon is offering decorative bamboo charcoal for all your air-filtering needs. Burned plants are better than dead plants.

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Bamboo charcoal is leagues move impressive than other types of charcoal: it's so famous and amazing that is has its own Wikipedia page!

Down under the "Popular culture" section is a mention of the Japanese animated show Yakitate!! Japan, which is about a kid's quest to create a national bread for Japan. The 29th episode is all about bamboo charcoal, you say? Must be watched, immediately.

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And I was not let down! An evil bakery rips off the diet bread recipe of the good guys, who then counter with a bamboo charcoal bread. [SPOILER ALERT] The bad guys are left in tears at its flavorful beauty. Somewhere in there they also manage a giant robot battle. If you've got a half-hour to burn you can watch the episode right over here.

Looking around for real-life food uses of bamboo charcoal, you get a lot more than you'd expect. I've found charcoal in Japanese desserts, real-life charcoal bread, and a restaurant in Vancouver that has bamboo charcoal ramen.

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Bamboo charcoal ramen image courtesy sinu_renka on Flickr

Dear Canada, 

Please please please donate some charcoal ramen to your poor neighbors to the south. 

Love, New York City

But enough with the facts, let's get back to the taste test.

Once you open the (resealable!) package, you're greeted by a dozen or so tiny adorable packages. Perfect for unsuspecting trick or treaters!

It's time to eat, though, so let's break these puppies open.

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Bamboo charcoal peanuts look just about like you'd expect bamboo charcoal peanuts to look. Peanut-sized rocks, covered in charcoal.

The peanut's hidden right inside.

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Tasting time:

Simply put, they're great. When you put them in your mouth you have a split-second of charcoal texture, but it quickly fades away into just being a slightly sweet peanut treat.

It doesn't taste like you'd expect charcoal to taste, and although a character in Yakitate!! Japan says this is due to roasting at such high temperatures, I'm guessing there's also a lot more wheat flour in there than bamboo charcoal.

After some arm twisting I got coworkers and roommates to try them out, and the approval isn't some strange burnt-food fetish of mine: everyone likes these.

They are delicious. They are great. They are made out of bamboo charcoal.

PRODUCT: Bamboo Charcoal Peanuts from New York Supermarket (75 East Broadway, Manhattan)

VERDICT: Pretty awesome.


A Tale of Two Cities: New York and Berlin

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Next Friday, March 8, join Brainery teacher and friend, John Reinhardt for the opening of his photo exhibition for the opening of A Tale of Two Cities: New York and Berlin, Possessing and Processing Trauma. You can also participate in a silent aucition to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Get all the details and RSVP on Facebook. 

The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies: Drunk on History - March 5th

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This month Society for the Advancement of Social Studies teams up with Urban Oyster Tours to bring you the history of booze!

Some of Urban Oyster's best tour guides enlighten us with a lecture on each of beer, wine, and whiskey. Plus the chance to win tickets to Urban Oyster’s new spring waterfront tour!

All the details:

Tuesday, March 5th
Public Assembly, 70 North 6th Street, Brooklyn
Doors at 7pm
Free, RSVP recommended

Hooray! Language Events with Fluent City

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We're excited to partner again this month with the fine folks over at Fluent City to bring all of you a couple of their two-hour slang workshops (or any of their in-depth classes!) on the cheap.

These workshops are taught in English, so you won't need to be fluent in Spanish or French to pick up some fun phrases and avoid sounding like a silly American on the streets of Madrid or Paris. 

The nextFrench slang workshop takes place on March 22, from 7-9pm at Fluent City's HQ in Williamsburg, while the next Spanish slang is coming your way on April 5th. 

All you have to do is use the discount code BKBrainery27 at checkout for your 15% discount on any class or workshop through April 1st. Do it! 


Want to know more about Fluent City? 

Learning French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian or Hebrew is fun and affordable at Fluent City. Classes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Midtown, Manhattan are lead by engaging professors that make learning a new language accessible for any skill level. With a variety of class times including daytimes, weeknights and weekends, Fluent City has a class that will work for even the busiest of New Yorkers. In addition, your friends in other cities can now take classes in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia! Private lessons are also available. For full class schedules visit www.fluentcity.com.

 

This Thursday: Bach, A User's Guide

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Hey Prospect Heights (and all of NYC), we're super excited about this week's class on Bach taught by Scott Ordway. It's just in time for you to attend a performane of Bach's music at the NY Phil on Friday! Sign up


This quick course will provide students with an overview of the transcendent vocal and instrumental music of Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. It's designed for listeners, so we'll be looking at Bach's massive body of work and breaking it down into a few more approachable categories. In the end, you'll learn a bit about the composer's life, but a lot more about the incredible music he wrote and how to go about approaching it for yourself.

And, as chance would have it, the NY Phil is performing Bach's B Minor Mass (one of the truly great masterpieces in all of music history) this week as well, so students are highly encouraged to book tickets in advance for the Friday night (March 15th) concert at Lincoln Center. Students will also be encouraged to impress their friends by referencing choice factoids from Thursday night's class at intermission on Friday.

The Masters of Social Gastronomy Do Drugs

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At this month's Masters of Social Gastronomy, we'll look at the culinary world's experiments with illicit substances. 

Let's get high with the Victorians! From patent medicines to absinthe, Coca-Cola to laughing gas, we'll look at all the forms of socially acceptable substance abuse during the 19th century.

Later, we'll fast-forward to modern-day America, where quasi-legal marijuana has spawned an industry of cannabis edibles. We'll survey the range of altered-state culinary concoctions and see what both science and chefs have to say about epicurean euphoria.

For Storytime, we'll explore the 1971 cookbook "Supermother's Cooking with Grass," and this mama's not using lawn clippings. For those preferring to stay on the good side of the law, we'll also see if vodka sauce can make some seriously drunken noodles.

All the details:
Masters of Social Gastronomy
Tuesday, March 26, doors at 7pm
Public Assembly (70 North 6th Street)
Free, RSVP recommended 

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