Cheap Chick NYC, Cheap and Free Weekend Event Picks, Oct. 1-3, 2010

Friday October 1, 2010

Galapagos is hosting GUMBO, DUMBO’s first gay party complete with DJ music and free haircuts! Email list@gumbonyc.com for the free vodka open bar from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., http://s80131.gridserver.com/public/, $5 before midnight, $10 after midnight.

Make your Friday night sizzle with Fall Fantasy Networking & Cocktails with Next Iron Chef Maneet Chauhan at Vermillion (480 Lexington Ave.)! 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., for more info and RSVP (preferred) here: http://silverplatternyc.webs.com/apps/webstore/products/show/1760988, $5.

The Neue Galerie is free tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. as part of its First Fridays program. http://www.neuegalerie.org/

Friday and Saturday October 1 and 2, 2010

Enter into Hunter S. Thompson’s world with midnight screenings of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Landmark Sunshine, https://tickets.landmarktheatres.com/Ticketing.aspx?TheatreID=256, $9.99

Saturday October 2, 2010

Explore Chinatown with Big Onion, and learn about the history of the neighborhood with stops at sites like the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, the Church of the Transfiguration, the Lee Family Association, outdoor markets, and the Lin Zeju and Confucius statues. 1 p.m., meet at the southeast corner of Grand and Chrystie Street, at Roosevelt Park, $15.

See Boris Karloff’s Before I Hang and the Boogie Man will Get You at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab! 2 p.m., make reservations here (required) http://wondertechlab.sony.com/pe-feature_screenings.html), free!

Find out how easy it is to be green at GreenHomeNYC’s DIY Green Block Party, where you can embrace your inner environmentalist with activities like free tours of the Gowanus Canal, and sustainable living spaces at Brooklyn Ecopolis and Third+Bond, and a visit to the Jerko, the Gowanus Canal Water Vacuum, where sustainable experiments are performed. Be sure to check out booths manned by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Recycle-A-Bicycle, and Brooklyn greenroof. The fair is being held on 3rd Street between Bond and Hoyt in the Gowanus/Carroll Gardens area of Brooklyn and is free to all.

The Brooklyn Museum is hosting its free First Saturday programs tonight including curator talks, art, music, and film with the theme of Shout Out Brooklyn, 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. http://wondertechlab.sony.com/pe-feature_screenings.html, free!

Find out what lurks in the hearts (and studios) of Brooklyn’s artists with the Gowanus Artists Studio Tour, where more almost 30 studios will be open to the public! 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., http://www.agastbrooklyn.com/index.html, free!

Think on your feet (literally!) with Improv Everywhere’s MP3 experiment, where you’ll join other New Yorkers in a wacky, offbeat prank. Info is available Friday, also check http://www.improveverywhere.com for info too! 6 p.m., free!

Nick Flynn, Marie Howe, and Kevin Young will be reading from The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing, edited by Kevin Young at Poets House, 1 p.m., http://poetshouse.org/programs.htm, $10, $7 for students and seniors.

No old spices here (or scary, posh, or ginger)! The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is hosting a Chile Pepper Fiesta where you can spice up your Saturday with cooking demonstrations, a chile/chocolate takedown, and music from chili-loving countries, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. , http://www.bbg.org/visit/event/chile_pepper_fiesta_2010/ , $15 (inc. admission to the grounds.)

Saturday and Sunday October 2 and 3, 2010

Visit the worlds of New York’s old money and noveau riche with Discovery Walking Tour’s “Old and New Money: Victorian Fifth Avenue and Central Park West,” which features “a tour of the two great boulevards of wealth—CPW and 5th Ave--and how their architecture reflects the social aspects of the Victorian communities that lived there. Stops include the Dakota, the Prasada, and the Payne Whitney and Henry Clay Frick mansions.” 2 p.m., $18, call 212-465-3331 for meeting place and reservations.

Check out the Czech Street Festival with food, music, dancing, and games, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., 83^rd Street bet. Park and Madison, free!

Sunday October 3, 2010

Take a sneak peek at the new Freshkills Park with all-day activities including guided walking tours, kite making, canoe, tram, and bird watching tours, and workshops on subjects such as puppet making led by Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater and green-friendly activities such as solar power and composting! 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., free!

Travel back in time (without visiting a restaurant!) with Fort Tryon Park’s Medieval Festival! This all-day event will include medieval music, dance, magic, performances, and knights jousting on horseback! Ladies keep an eye open for knights-in-shining armor, but I don’t know if there will be any damsels in distress on-hand! 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/forttryonpark, free!

Think you’ve got what it takes? Audition for the Apollo’s (Brooklyn) Amateur Night today at 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, More info here: Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, free-just bring your talent!

The Municipal Art Society is hosting the Jane Jacobs Tour: Battery Park City Evolving where you can “see architecture by Cooper, Robertson & Partners, Demetri Porphyrios, and Charles W. Moore, landscapes by Michael Van Valkenburgh, and Susan Child, and art by Tom Otterness and Martin Puryear, among others. Please note: Unlike previous tours of BPC, this one will focus on the northern section.” The tour will be led by architectural historian Francis Morrone. 2 p.m., $15.

If you have a favorite teacher, you may want to trek to Queens for the Queens County Farm Apple Festival where you can sample the fruit, sip cider, and partake in the world’s biggest apple cobbler! Queens County Farm Museum , http://www.queensfarm.org/events.html, free!

Housing Works Bookstore is having a 30% off sale Saturday and Sunday (http://www.housingworks.org/events/detail/monthly-30-off-sale-all-day-october-2nd-and-3rd/), and celebrate Oktoberfest with additional menu items and beer at the Shake Shack (http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/), and Greenpoint opens its studios to the masses (http://www.greenpointopenstudios.com/).

Also this weekend and through the 10th, enjoy Art in Odd Places (http://www.artinoddplaces.org/) and the New York Film Festival (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/2010/)