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Mini Me’s, Selfie Scanners and Other Futuristic Finds at Northside Innovation Expo

The Northside Innovation Expo features zero gravity chairs, umbrella vending machines, 3D selfie scanners and more. (Photos: Karissa Gall)

The Northside Innovation Expo features zero gravity chairs, umbrella vending machines, 3D selfie scanners and more. (Photos: Karissa Gall)

Dreamcrusher’s “nihilist queer revolt musik” and the other bands worth seeing aren’t the only innovators at Northside Festival this year. Today at the Brooklyn Expo Center, entrepreneurs, industry heavyweights and the b2b enterprises in between are on elevator pitch-mode from 10 am to 6 pm. Here’s a look at what constitutes cutting-edge this year, minus all the awkwardness of approaching a booth that ends up being of no interest, looking at the one eager staffer there and saying “hi” because now you feel like you owe it to them, taking one last look at the fanned out informational materials, feigning thoughtfulness, then distraction, and casually walking away.

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Feeling Down? Pop Into This Williamsburg Therapy Bubble

(Photo: Rob Scher)

(Photo: Rob Scher)

The doctor is in (a plastic igloo opposite McCarren Park).
As if feeding, entertaining and educating weren’t enough, earlier today Northside Festival added “solving existential ennui” to the list. Now you can duck into an inflatable plastic dome for the talking (or rather, messaging) cure.
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Will This Bushwicker’s Sharing App, Kite, Become ‘Instagram For News’?

Trond Werner Hansen. (Photo: Sam Gillette)

Trond Werner Hansen. (Photo: Sam Gillette)

Sure, Facebook is launching Instant Articles, and Apple News is also on the way — but a Bushwick resident is hoping the app he just launched at Northside Festival will be the future of news consumption.
“The big boys want to host your content and we don’t think that’s right,” said Trond Werner Hansen at the launch of Kite yesterday. The free iOS app allows you to share articles without the interference of algorithms and to view articles shared by those you follow without the clutter of sponsored content. In short, it’s “Instagram for news,” said Hansen.
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Sasheer Zamata and Ben Warheit Channel Reality and Surreality For Their Web Shows

Screen-Shot-2015-06-12-at-10.54.24-AMInstead of espresso, how about a shot of comedy? If you have to go to a panel discussion around 10 a.m., let it be one in which Brooklyn’s own Sasheer Zamata, of Saturday Night Live, and Ben Warheit, writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers, play clips from their Above Average shows. That’s what we were treated to yesterday at “Building Comedy and Growing America’s Best Comedy,” one in a series of Northside Festival talks continuing today at Kinfolk 94.
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Shows: Give in to the Festivities or Frolic with the Punks

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Northside Festival is here, which means all your favorite venues are going to be filled with butt loads of people. If you’re hitting up any one of your usual spots in Brooklyn for a show this weekend– even this year’s venue newcomers like Alphaville, Aviv, and Pet Rescue are in the fest’s fold– chances are it’s going to be a Northside joint. So if you’re gonna really get out there and do the damn thing this weekend, save yourself some trubz and grip a pass. You may lament the crowds, but you can’t deny that a festival brings something like pure joy to your usual Friday or Saturday night kicks.
Based on what we’ve learned from close observers of festival culture, you’re likely to see naturally occurring people dressed in cringe-inducing headdresses and bro boats shotgunning beers. But since this is North Brooklyn and not Bro-chella, we’re guessing the headwear will be a little more culturally self-aware (e.g. an ode to 19th century farmers who had it made or something) and at least those beers will be craft. But remember, Northside may be the thing to do, but it’s not all there is.
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Watch Lane Moore Channel John Waters in the Video For ‘Philadelphia’

Moore rocking out. (Photo Credit: Katia Temkin)

Moore rocking out. (Photo Credit: Katia Temkin)

It turns out Lane Moore isn’t just the host of comedy show Tinder LIVE! and the sex and relationships editor at Cosmopolitan.com — she’s also been a songwriter and musician since she was well under five feet tall. In 2009 (when she was a bit taller), she came up with the band name It Was Romance and then went on a hunt for the perfect bandmates. Together they’ve been creating music that Lane describes as “the Black Keys meets Fiona Apple meets 1960s girl groups, with some Yeah Yeah Yeahs in there.” If you’re curious to hear what that sounds like, check out the new video for the song “Philadelphia,” off the band’s self-titled debut album.
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Festival Frenzy: Northside Badges On Sale, Mexican Summer Launches ‘New Myths’

New Myths (main)Take a break from scouring Airbnb for remotely affordable places to stay during SXSW, cuz passes just became available for a couple of other first-rate festivals. First off, early-bird badges went today for Brooklyn’s own Northside Festival, set for June 8 to 14 this year. Prices are $25 for Film (around 50 films are expected), $70 for Music (around 400 bands), and $245 for Innovation (around 150 speakers).
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Soaking Up Rays (and Frozen Margs) With Bridey Elliott of Fort Tilden

Fort Tildenscreening tomorrow at Northside Festival, depicts a pair of naive, privileged, and self-obsessed friends journeying to the Rockaways. It’s a sunny, snarky quest to some very funny places.
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Innovation at Northside, or Maybe Not So Much

Innovation at the Brooklyn Brewery, photo: Nicole Disser.

Innovation at the Brooklyn Brewery, photo: Nicole Disser.

Northside 2014 broke ground yesterday with the start of its official programming, but the three Innovation talks we attended failed to do the same. It’s not totally weird the annual music and arts festival is broadly defined to include business innovators. We get it, these entrepreneurs have come come up with some new business models and original (though sometimes confounding) means of accumulating cash. And, after all, getting people to buy your products requires some semblance of creative thinking.
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At Northside Festival, Wondering ‘What’s Next’ For Brooklyn

Last week, after Petit Noir’s performance during the Northside Festival, Scott Stedman was lounging poolside at Williamsburg’s King & Grove hotel. Tanned, oiled legs circled the deck. Waiters brought menus to the white-cloth umbrella tables.

“In many ways, the essential player for our entire festival is the geography and psycho-geography of Williamsburg and Greenpoint,” he said.

By psycho-geography, he meant that Williamsburg is no longer just a place — it’s a brand. And it’s safe to say Stedman’s Northside Media Group — which owns L Magazine and Brooklyn Magazine, and produces the Northside Festival — has had a lot to do with that. “The entire goal of our company is to define and showcase Brooklyn as a national adjective for ‘what’s next’ through media and large scale events like the Northside Festival,” he said.
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