Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless

01 Feb 2012

How to Get Over Your Seasonal Affective Disorder and Pretend Like It’s Always Summer

I know that NYC hasn’t been disgustingly cold this season, but someone’s still got the wintertime blues (that “someone” is me). This time of year, I always turn into a humongous B– cackling at any poor soul who dares approach me as I perform my cold weather rituals of swaddling

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31 Jan 2012

FREE Screening of “On the Street,” Tomorrow at the New York Public Library

Seriously, how cool is this– during 1980 to 1990, photographer Amy Arbus took pictures of local New York City color for the “On the Street” section of the Village Voice. Years later, as she was preparing to publish a book of her work, she wondered what happened to many of

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25 Jan 2012

Watching Your Priest Do “Jazz Hands,” and Other Reasons Why Community Theatre is Awesome

Gimme the ol’ razzle dazzle– the lights, the glamor, the glitter of show business.  Then take it down about 50 notches, put it in a tiny theatre in suburbia or in a high school multipurpose room, and make the actor playing the leading man double as my neighbor’s dad who

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24 Jan 2012

Learn About Dirty Words with the Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary– FREE in Greenpoint

Do you happen to be both a vulgar potty-mouth who swears like a sailor, and a linguistics nerd who loves to learn about the origins of words? Well, you’re in luck– Jesse Sheidlower, Editor-at-Large for the Oxford English Dictionary (and, awesomely, author of a book called The F-Word), will be

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18 Jan 2012

Celebrating Two Years in New York City: A Look Back at the Time I Got Punched on the Subway

Not to get all promote-y or anything, but in Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City (read it!), he compares NYC to a girl who you constantly chase, but is ultimately out of your league. I totally get this statement, but for me, New York City is

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17 Jan 2012

FREE Badminton at Open House Gallery’s Indoor Park

Ah, there’s nothing I love more than a relaxing afternoon in the park.  Basking in the sun like a lizard on a rock, creepily cat-calling all of the cute dogs on walks (“Hey, you!  Check out that strut!  Ooh, I like that smile!”), and wearing my one pair of workout

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11 Jan 2012

Why Slumber Parties Aren’t Just for Kids

Adult slumber parties are pretty much the best thing ever.  No, not those type of adult slumber parties– the slumber parties I’m talking about involve much more dorky jammies, and much less threat of unwanted pregnancy.  I’m talkin’ about old-school, “let’s do makeovers and watch Molly Ringwald movies and try

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