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This Group Wants to Unite Bushwick’s Longtimers With… Can We Say ‘Hipsters’?

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via Bridging Bushwick's Facebook page.

via Bridging Bushwick’s Facebook page.

No discussion of the state of things in Bushwick would be complete without a philosophical brainstorming session on what a “hipster” is, and whether the label applies to anybody or everybody around.  On Monday night, 22 people sat in folding chairs at The Living Gallery for a round-table discussion called Bridging Bushwick, an event meant to “erase stereotypes and negative energy that surround our community,” according to its Facebook page. Two friendly cats, one black and one gray, wandered around distracting everybody.
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City OKs Parts of Greenpoint Landing; Developer Will Give Millions to Park, School

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Stephen Levin at a City Council hearing last week. (Christopher DiScipio)

Stephen Levin at a City Council hearing last week. (Christopher DiScipio)

After a hearing that drew at least one celeb protester, the City Council has approved land use actions for several sections of the impending Greenpoint Landing development. The affected sites include a lot that has been donated by the developers for use as a pre-K-to-8th-grade public school. Greenpoint Landing Associates (GLA), the developers of the site, made several large modifications to their plan before the council approved it yesterday, due largely to negotiations with Greenpoint’s star Council member Stephen Levin.
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These Gents Will Serve Muffuletta Biscuits 24 Hours a Day

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Tsuna and Price as they prepare for their reopening.

Tsuna and Price as they prepare for their reopening.

Earlier this week, Empire Biscuit opened at 198 Avenue A, near East 12th Street, and began peddling biscuits in every imaginable form (as a sandwich, slathered in gravy, or topped with an impossibly eclectic selection of spreads and jams); the demand was so great that owners Jonathan Price and Yonadav Tsuna ran out of major menu items and had to close early. They’re taking the weekend to regroup, but come this Tuesday, with an expanded staff and a bolstered inventory, they’ll officially be open 24 hours a day.
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The East Village Just Got an Anti-Banker Bar Named After the Hero of Fight Club

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(Photo: Erica Martin)

(Photo: Erica Martin)

A Fight Club-themed bar called Durden opened last night in Nightingale Lounge’s former space on 13th and Second Ave (right near the forthcoming Westside Market), but don’t stop by expecting any soap outside of the bathroom or jeans stolen from a laundromat on display. The bar is movie paraphernalia-free, and the Master of Mayhem himself only appears once, as part of a mural that owner Eddie Sherman commissioned Masterpiece NYC to paint along the room’s right-hand wall.
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Domino Developers Ask City to Change Affordable Housing Rules

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DOMINO_BIRDS-EYE-VIEW

Demolition of the Domino Factory is just about underway, and Two Trees has every permit and rezoning it needs to move forward with construction of its waterfront apartments. But on Friday afternoon, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development held a hearing about a rule change proposed by Two Trees that would affect the tax breaks for developers who create affordable housing. This has agitated activists who oppose the “poor door” measures that some recent developments are accused of taking, from The Edge to Northside Piers to the impending Greenpoint Landing.
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The Closing Ceremony of The Portals Involved Gypsy Centries, Tallbikes and the Goddesses of Death

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“I’m a fire dancer,” said Susannah Pryce, who was lurking about the front stairs of the Sixth Street Community Center on Saturday night, dressed as the Goddess of Death. For her role as a macabre guide to the finale of the 13 Portals, she wore glowing face paint, a black cloak, and six-inch fingernails made of curling brown beans. After explaining how she regularly performs at bars with an on-fire instrument that looks like “the bones of a giant geisha fan,” Pryce told us: “Tonight’s portal is about rebirth. And that’s why I’m here. Because everybody has to die to be reborn.”
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This Fashion Editor Has a Need for Tweed, So We Took Him to Cadet

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We give fashionable locals a place to go and they get All Dressed Up.

When we met up with Benjamin-Emile Le Hay at the Williamsburg branch of Cadet, he was wearing a royal-blue blazer with a pattern of black paisley, a muted striped button-down, and a pair of very significant sneakers. We were lucky enough to catch Benjamin, who works at the New York Observer as a fashion editor and is a contributing columnist at Shindigger (meaning he gets paid to go to parties full of fancy, crazy people), the day before New York Fashion Week began. He’s attending Milan Fashion Week at the moment, tweeting about Ferragamo’s use of python.
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Fashion Weekend Photos: ‘Who Said Williamsburg Isn’t Cool Anymore?’

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On the second night of Williamsburg Fashion Weekend, Geary Marcello prepped his models while wearing a purple plaid schoolgirl skirt over his pants and a three-inch spike through his septum.

“It’s about New York in the ’70s, in the disco era, when everything was whimsical and a novelty, but still had edginess,” said the bubbly designer of his FoXXy Face Couture line. “My shows have been called controversial, but I’m not trying to be controversial about sexuality or politics or anything else. It’s about creating a feeling.”
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Party in the Face of Domino’s Impending Doom Tomorrow

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(image via Save Domino

(image via Save Domino’s press release)

The Domino Sugar Factory’s demolition is scheduled to start this month, but opposition organization Save Domino isn’t quite ready to throw in the towel. What to do when protests, community organizing, and dissident light displays have all failed to get results? Throw a rager, of course.
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