It looks like any other East Village apartment building now, but over a century ago, 533 East Fifth Street, between Avenues A and B, was the site of what may have been the city’s first Bohemian National Hall. At the time, Czech and Slovak immigrants were so concentrated along Avenue B, between Houston Street and Tompkins Square Park, that it was called “Czech Boulevard.”  More →

“I’m completely hungover, I barely slept last night, I don’t even know how I managed to do this morning’s race!” Emily Palmer bursts out laughing, then avidly crunches into a slice of pizza, dripping with burrata. She has just finished a ten-mile race through Central Park. More →

Today is National Dress Up Your Pet Day— but then, you already knew that. Now that you’ve got Crackers done up as a tennis dandy, why not snap a photo for Ben Lenovitz, pet portraitist extraordinaire? More →

Kaleidoscopic colors illuminate the interior of Anshe Slonim Synagogue at 172 Norfolk St. on the Lower East Side. Sapphire, scarlet, magenta, and emerald take turns reflecting off peeling gold paint and the pulse of the Bee Gees’ 1977 disco classic “Night Fever” radiates from speakers facing the sanctuary. In front of the Ark—in most synagogues, the special cabinet housing the Torah, Judaism’s holy text—actors perform a musical based on New York City’s notorious Studio 54 nightclub. During the musical numbers, the audience members boogie on a square dance floor, lit from below with fuchsia and white lights. Above it all, a rotating disco ball flings sparks of light across the room. More →

The new Red Gate Bakery, which recently opened in the East Village, is guaranteed to bring you straight back to childhood. With an open kitchen and a warm exposed-brick wall, the bakery feels both bright and cozy. The sweets on display, which range from cookies to loaves to traditional celebration cakes, have a charming homespun quality. More →

From the far reaches of Red Hook to downtown Manhattan and back again to Bushwick’s warehouses, our New Year’s was a 36-hour race against time from one rager to the next. Follow along as we hit 20 parties across three boroughs. More →

Sydney Sabean basically lives out of a spin studio bathroom. She teaches up to nine classes every week—constantly in a cycle of showering, getting ready and sprinting out the door to her next job. She carries a backpack with enough clothes, food and work for the day, which sometimes includes three or four different outfits. More →

Brooklyn indie duo Drug Couple is a band marked by a series of contradictory facets. The band’s members, Miles and Becca (themselves a couple) are willing to talk about their past projects, while hesitant to delve into the specific details (or even provide their surnames). Becca is ever the optimist, while Miles is a pessimist to his core. Most notably, their forthcoming EP seeks to reconcile the process of finding love and romantic companionship in a time when the End seems increasingly Nigh.  More →

THURSDAY

SadBoyClub
Thursday, December 12 at The Deep End, 7:30 pm: $10 suggested donation

Lana del Rey talked about summertime sadness, but we all know that wintertime is when the blues truly come to stay a while. Though sure, the initial shock of seasonal depression is starting to wane a bit, it’s still dark and cold all the time. Rather than isolating yourself, bond with other bleak-minded folk who just happen to be talented performers at SadBoyClub, a “queer and weird” variety show at The Deep End in Ridgewood. Your $10 suggested donation gets you a cornucopia of drag, burlesque, sideshow, circus, and other surprises.

Omurice (a Japanese mix of the words “omelette” and “rice”) has been around for years, but viral videos have made it increasingly popular among New Yorkers. The clips show a sharp blade swiftly cutting through a wobbling bulge of scrambled egg, which releases into a cascade of runny omelette. Several Japanese cafes in New York serve omurice dishes; they vary in taste and execution, but they all start with a childhood love for the eggy plate of rice. More →