Just a heads up, this Saturday is Pete’s Mini Zine Fest. There will be $2 pints of Yeungling Lager and $3 pints of Brooklyn IPA and over 20 zinesters, graphic artists, photographers and bookmakers attending. PLUS performances by local singers, bands, bookmaking demonstrations and more!

FEATURING: Esther K Smith, author/designer of HOW TO MAKE BOOKS, Magic Books & Paper Toys and THE PAPER BRIDE

And music by Scott Magri

Rad Unicorn

sarah y su cochito

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Full attendance list:

Andria Alefhi – We’ll Never Have Paris (http://neverhaveparis.blogspot.com/)

Paul Assimacopoulos – Strangers Gate Books (www.strangersgatebooks.com)

Darryl Ayo – Little Garden (www.letsgoayo.com)

Joseph Carlough – Displaced Snail Publications (http://www.josephcarlough.com/)

Matt Carman + Kseniya Yarosh – I Love Bad Movies, Oh My / Oh No (ksen.tumblr.com)

Alexis Clements – Dance Away Your Debt, Your Own Personal Apocalypse (http://www.alexisclements.com/)

Marguerite Dabaie – The Hookah Girl (hookah-girl.margoyle.net)

Tea Fougner – Pygmalion, Different Comics (http://www.antagonia.net/)

Alan Grow – The Devil Made the Dinosaur Bones

Katie Haegle – The La-La Theory (http://www.thelalatheory.com/)

Andrew Hoepfner – All Kinds of Bees (http://www.facebook.com/andrew.hoepfner)

Lola Batling – Sweet Angel, Suicide Kiss (http://stores.lulu.com/inkigirl)

Josh Medsker – 24 Hour Zine (http://twentyfourhourszine.blogspot.com/)

James Molenda- FOUND Magazine (www.foundmagazine.com)

L. Nichols – Jumbly Junkery (www.dirtbetweenmytoes.com)

Rachel + Sari – Hoax Zine, You’ve Got a Friend (http://hoaxzine.tumblr.com/)

Redguard – Absent-Cause Zine (http://www.absent-cause.org/)

Kenan Rubenstein – Drought, Tick, The Oubliette (http://www.underthehaystack.net/)

Esther K Smith – Purgatory Pie Press (www.purgatorypiepress.com)

Joe Younglove – Oculomotor

Maybe it’s because I can’t resist a man in a muscle tee or because a dinner of beer, borscht, and blintzes seemed utterly irresistible, but I finally woke my lazy ass up on Saturday, hopped on the Q train and got off at the Brighton Beach stop. I didn’t have a plan (I never have a plan).


The subway doors open at the Brighton Beach stop. Go down the stairs and you’ll find yourself on Brighton Beach Avenue, house music pumping and used electronic stores aplenty.

They don’t call BB Little Odessa for nothing–one block south of Brighton Beach Ave is the boardwalk. I say start at the boardwalk. Here you can observe Russian elderly in their natural habitat; men in jumpsuits (or tanning topless) playing chess with their buddies and seagulls laying eggs in babushkas. Take a detour to the New York Aquarium if you’re into nature and not planning on swimming (walk towards Coney Island), but don’t forget your patience. Parents with little kids and strollers will get on your nerves if you’re not prepared.

Keep your eyes peeled!

The main drag
Brighton Beach Avenue
Fun spot
Definitely Coney Island. It’s literally a 5 minute walk down the boardwalk.
Shopping
Used electronics, gaudy clothing stores, pharmacies loaded with natural remedies, fur stores and storage. Basically, Brighton Beach has a store for everything you don’t need.
Eating
We just popped into the first crowded restaurant that we saw. It was called Ocean View Cafe and it was delicious and super cheap. I’d recommend the hot borscht and vereniki (like mini-blintz dumpling thingers filled with potato, cheese, fruit or meat). Everything comes with sour cream!

There is one thing that I didn’t get to do and that’s this:

Brighton Beach brings “Supper Clubbing” back in a big way. Showgirls, sequins, supper, VODKA! Who’s in?

Recently, I’ve become a little bit obsessed with Chasidic Jews and began reading up on different Ultra-Orthodox sects of which there are many. I found out that one of the most conservative of all, the Satmar Chasidim, live within walking distance of my home. So on Easter Sunday, while all of the Gentiles were searching for eggs, this mostly secular Jew decided to put on the most modest clothing she owns and go for a little walk.

This outfit consisted of opaque black leggings, a blue skirt that went down to my knees, a black coat that hit below my butt and covered my neck, and flat black boots. Basically, there was no skin showing and yet I had never felt like a bigger whore in my entire life. Every single woman around me was dressed like this.

In fact, the woman on the left is kind of pushing the limits and that little girl would sooo not have been wearing a cheery baby-blue coat.

If you too would like to experience this feeling for yourself, take the L to Bedford Avenue. Walk south on Roebling or Havemayer, towards the JMZ stop at Marcy avenue and under the rumbling overpass. You’ll begin to see storefronts with Hebrew lettering (Yiddish actually). Don’t stop now though. Keep walking! You may find yourself in the midst of the Jonathan Williams Houses, the last frontier of ethnic diversity in this part of the ‘burg. Look closer now at the playgrounds and the doors of the large overbearing projects. You’ll see broods of children, maybe a few women, and a man with payes (curls by the ears) and a streimel (a round fur hat). Just pick a family or brood and follow them further south, almost diagonal to the JMZ line. Walk maybe 4-5 more blocks across the BQE overpass. Now stop and do a 360. You are probably the only secular person around. If you are a woman wearing pants, you are the only woman wearing pants. If you are wearing color, you are the brightest thing around. Everyone is staring at you. Welcome to Chasidic Williamsburg.

Keep your eyes peeled!

The main drag
Division and Lee Avenues

Fun spot
There’s actually a permanent carnival ground near the main drag. You may actually see a secular family or two there. This spot was also featured in the documentary Trembling Before G-d.

Shopping
Pop into any one of the markets for a variety of spreadable smoked fishes in applesauce-like containers. Women’s stores sell head-coverings and tights with seams as well as flat black shoes. For the men-folk, purchase a streimel!

Eating
I didn’t notice any restaurants that were actually open. Maybe this isn’t the best neighborhood for the foodie in you.