Archive for April 28th, 2006

The Cherry Blossom Festival is this weekend, and in an attempt to beat the crowds I decided to try and sneak a peek early.

What I discovered is that I love the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It’s beautiful and peaceful and a perfect place to spend a quiet afternoon. (Although I hear that when it’s busy — free days — the experience is not as pleasant. So stop being cheap and pay $5 to enjoy the serenity).

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You can also become a member for $40, which doesn’t seem like a great deal unless you plan on going a lot, but it really does change constantly, and you almost have to go once a week to see everything. (I’m not that into flowers myself, but some of you might be).

AND with membership you also get access to members-only events: first pick at the annual plant sale, extended hours for summer sunset picnics and a wine-and-cheese reception in the rose garden. How civilized of you.

AND you can impress your mom when you go home to visit, because membership at the Brooklyn Botanic gardens is also valid at almost any botanic garden in the country.

Last May one of New York’s best known secret society’s, The LVHRD Foundation (that’s pronounced live-hard), closed off it’s membership.

Normally UNCOOLKIDS wouldn’t really feel right about telling you about something so exclusive. That’s really more of a cool kids thing, isn’t it? But LVHRD throws a good party and it’s not as cliquish as it sounds. Even though the locations of the events aren’t disclosed until the day-of, there’s usually somebody who can get you the info, and it’s not like they have a member list at the door or anything. They even give tips about attending; if you check the source code of their website you find this message:

“Dear Mr. Snoopy Pants,

If you really wanna get in, do a google search for LVHRD, find somebody who has been to an event, and email them… they should be able to show you the way, or just attend an event and ask for chantal.

-Cliff Shelby
thecleaner@lvhrd.com”

LVHRD partys are not just a bunch of people standing around drinking (although that is a big part); they always have some sort of theme. Coming up on May 2nd is ACTHRD: Thespian Royale, a 12-man competitive acting event. And just to make sure everyone knows they’re welcome, they are allowing non-members to attend, provided they register (and pay) before-hand. (And the registration form for non-members looks exactly like the profile form for members, so maybe they’re really the same form? Are you secretly joining the secret society?)

Is it really bad that every time I see a preview of United 93 I get really excited because I think it’s going to be a preview of Snakes on a Plane? And then I get really dissapointed when it’s not.

I always think this:

is a scene from this:

Yeah, that probably means I’m an awful person.