NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL

The weeklong Northside Festival kicks off today, running through June 20, answering the big question, “What’s Next, Brooklyn?” with more than 350 bands, over 50 films, and some 70 speakers. Spanning music venues across Williamsburg and Greenpoint (and some secret spots, this is Brooklyn after all), headliners include Black Flag (June 14 at Warsaw), The Walkmen and Phosphorescent (June 15 at McCarren Park), and Solange (June 16 at McCarren Park), among others. Tonight starts with Mac Demarco at Brooklyn Bowl—and a “Swans” song at Warsaw.

Northside Festival

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FEAST ON THIS 

The Great GoogaMooga is back transforming Prospect Park into an amusement park of food, drink, and more. This year organizers have made changes to avoid the Disney-World-during-high-season lines and food shortage situations. This culinary carnival features some 85 food makers, 75 brews, 100 wines, and 20 musical acts, plus last-minute surprise pop-ups like Roberta’s Urban Ren Faire and trading cards. The food fest kicks off today with a hearty musical showcase featuring the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Flaming Lips. Go for the food, stay for the music.

GoogaMooga

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BROOKLYN ARTISTS BALL

You might not be able to attend the Costume Institute Gala on May 6—unless you’re a guest of a guest—but you can still live like a socialite at the Brooklyn Museum. Celebrate 20 artists and acclaimed contemporary figures, such as Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu, and Roxy Paine, with tonight’s after-party for the Brooklyn Artists Ball for $75 a ticket. Get down to the musical stylings of model/DJ Atlanta De Cadenet Taylor, whose mom happens to be fashion photog Amanda de Cadenet and dad is Duran Duran bassist John Taylor. It’s going to be out of the “Ordinary World.”

The Brooklyn Artists Ball

ALL BASSES COVERED

Have you been to Output in Williamsburg yet? Buzzed about for its epic sound system and massive space, the two-month-club is about music—minus club standards like bottle service and hassles at the door. Check out the new space tonight with legendary mix master DJ Shadow and his “All Basses Covered” tour. NPR once said, “DJ Shadow is a sort of sonic Merlin: He’s known and revered for his buoyant beats, hypnotic loops, and dark textural expanses, but he leads listeners to places where a nightlight, and even sunlight, can be glimpsed.” Follow him here—if you like to dance.

DJ SHADOW at Output

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BLOCK PARTY

The L magazine takes local pride to the street level with its 50 Best Brooklyn Blocks issue release party. Says the magazine’s editors: “In contrast to its grid-bound neighbor across the river, Brooklyn seems without borders, without end: just as you’re about to leave it, it turns you back, Borges-like, into a new, undiscovered neighborhood whose avenues radiate out into more and unknown places, secret interstitial tracts of immeasurable richness and vibrant character.” Head to Tutu’s tonight to sip complimentary Absolut cocktails and join the debate on best block supremacy. 

L Magazine 50 Best Brooklyn Blocks Issue Release Party

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IRISH POP

Hailing from the Emerald Isle, the Guardian called Little Green Cars “a Cranberries for Brooklyn veganites.” Label mates to bands like Mumford & Sons and Two Door Cinema Club, this Irish country-rock band heads straight for the American Heartland—and strums the heartstrings—with boy-girl harmonies and rousing melodies. Their debut single, “The John Wayne,” has made them ones to watch in 2013. Perfectly at home in New York City’s most hipster of hoods, the winsome quintet hits the stage at Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight with Rocky and the Pressers.

Little Green Cars at the Music Hall of Williamsburg

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TAKING BROOKLYN

After headlining the Gramercy Theatre last night, Demetri Martin heads over to the Bell House for a double header hitting the stage at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. for his Point Your Face at This Tour. The former Late Night With Conan O’Brien writer, who got his start making the rounds of NYC’s indie comedy nights, has since hit the big time with roles in Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s “Taking Woodstock,” his own TV show called “Important Things With Demetri Martin,” and a New York Times’ best-seller cleverly titled “This Is a Book by Demetri Martin.” Now this is Demetri Martin.

Demetri Martin at the Bell House

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STRIKE AN “IMPOSE”

Ten years, ten photographers: Brooklyn’s indie photojournalism site Impose is turning 10 this year. To celebrate a decade of documenting rollicking rock shows and hip cultural happenings, they’re going to party like rock stars with their first photo exhibit opening at BK’s Secret Project Robot tonight. See prints culled from the past 10 years by 10 up-and-coming photogs, including Nate Dorr, Sam Horine, and Joe Perez, among others. Check out more than 50 images, sip free Reyka cocktails, and catch a live performance by Alan Watts, plus visual projections by EyeBodega. Go ahead and Impose!

Impose Photo Show

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BROOKLYN NIGHT BAZAAR

Holiday markets are the original pop-ups if you ask us: Get back to basics and hop on the L train to the Bedford Avenue stop for Williamsburg’s version of a community fair inspired by the night markets of Asia. Every Friday and Saturday night now through December 22, the Brooklyn Night Bazaar offers up indie vendors, indie food stalls, and indie music curated by hipsters from establishments like Fader and Hype Machine—not to mention Ping-Pong and pick-up soccer matches in the backroom. This week’s installment features Rockie Fresh on Friday and Fatima Al Qadiri on Saturday. Party starts at 6 p.m.

Brooklyn Night Bazaar

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WONDROUS LIFE

Head out to Brooklyn tonight for MacArthur Grant-winning writer Junot Diaz’s discussion of his latest book “This Is How You Lose Her.”Once again honing in on the subject of love, a topic that made “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”a page-turner, Diaz’s latest looks at “the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart.”It’s a reflection on relationships “[taking] place in a floating world between the Dominican Republic and the Eastern Seaboard, between Spanish and English,”explains the New York Times. His first book in five years, and only his third, the Times put it quite succinctly, “It is, like the other two, excellent.”

November 15 at 6:30pm, Brooklyn NY

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