Cheap Chick NYC Cheap and Free Weekend Event Picks, June 3-5, 2011

Friday June 3, 2011
Travel through France via film tonight at Films on the Green, which is screening favorites from the country famous for its wines and cheeses! Tonight The Swimming Pool/La Piscine is on the marquee, 8:30 p.m., Central Park, Cedar Hill, free!

Stargaze down by the Brooklyn Bridge with telescopes and professional astronomers on-hand, 8:30 p.m. to Midnight, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 1 (A,C to High St., F to York), free!

“Drag” yourself to a screening of Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar starring Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo, 10:15 p.m., 92ndY Tribeca, 200 Hudson St. (at Canal), $10, buy tkts here: http://www.92y.org/shop/92Tri_event_detail.asp?category=92Tri+92YTribeca+Film888&productid=T%2DMM5FJ09

Plus the Noguchi Museum is pay-what-you-wish tonight as part of its First Fridays Program (http://www.noguchi.org/visitor-info/hours)!


June 3 and 4, 2011
Hook yourself up with dance performances, free kayaking, art workshops, photography exhibits and more during the Red Hook Festival! 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., P.S. 15,71 Sullivan St between Richards and Van Brunt Streets, free!


Saturday June 4, 2011
Explore the Upper West Side with Big Onion Walking Tours! “Stops could include: Lincoln Center, the Dakota and Ansonia apartment houses, Dante Square, and sites associated with Rudolph Valentino, Rabbi Stephen Wise, and the Parlor Mob,” 11 a.m., meet at the Northeast corner of 59th Street and Central Park West at Columbus Circle, at the US Maine Memorial, $15!

Give the New York Public Library a big hug today (literally!) as you form a human chain around the building to show draw attention to proposed library cuts! Please arrive before 2 p.m. and don’t be late-the hug will take place promptly at 2 p.m., Main Library (Main Library-with the lions-give them a pat for me!), 41st St. at Fifth Ave., free!

Learn how to samba with sea lions…and the percussion band Samba New York! You and the sea lions can jam Latin-style with the band! 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Prospect Park Zoo, Sea Lion Court, 450 Flatbush Ave., free with admission ($8 for adults!)


Plus The Brooklyn Museum is free (and open late) tonight as part of its First Saturdays program (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/visit/first_saturdays.php)!


Saturday and Sunday June 4 and 5, 2011
Celebrate the High Line’s second birthday with Discovery Walking Tours! Take the High Line Birthday Bash: The High Line and Meatpacking District Walking Tour, A walk through the gritty but hip Gansevoort Historic District, also known as the Meatpacking District with a special stop along the High Line – the public park now celebrating its second anniversary -- that once served as an elevated rail line. Other stops include the Titanic Memorial Arch, the “R and L” restaurant, and sites associated with Alexander Hamilton and author Herman Melville,” Sat: 1:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., Sun: 11 a.m., 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m., Call 212-465-3331 for reservations and meeting place, $18!

Get your art on, as Atlantic Avenue is transformed into an art lover’s paradise of pop-up galleries and performance art spaces during the Atlantic Ave. Art walk! 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Atlantic Avenue bet. Brooklyn Bridge Park and Fourth Ave., free!

Cavort in the Cloisters’ gardens this weekend! “Tours, family workshops, special gallery talks, and an embroidery demonstration” will be focused on the theme “Women and the Medieval Garden.” Cloisters Museum, 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, A train to 190th Street, free with museum admission ($20 recommended) Cheap Chick Cheap Tip: Also gets you same-day admission to the Met!


Plus watch films made in New York during 1911 at the Museum of the Moving Image (http://www.movingimage.us/films/2011/06/04/detail/making-movies-in-new-york-1911/)


Sunday June 5, 2011
Clear out the bookshelves (and windowsills, pantries, ovens, and bathtubs!) to make room for all the books, CDs, and DVDs you can get for just $1 at Housing Works’ Open Air Book Fair! Plus take a $20 and stuff it full of clothes from the thrift stores and enjoy music and eats! 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Crosby bet. E. Houston and Prince, free to look, pay for purchases!

How many single slices can you scarf down in a single sitting (quite alliterative, non?) during this pizza-eating competition! Find out today at the 7th Annual Brooklyn Pizza Eating Contest! 3 p.m., Rocco’s Pizza, 7818 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn, free to watch (contest entry closed)! For more info go here: http://www.roccospizzaon5th.com/

Tell the story of your life at Gotham Writer’s Workshop’s free Memoir Writing Class taught by Cullen Thomas! 6 p.m, McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St., bet. Lafayette and B’way, free!

Live out your Mary Poppins fantasy at the Williamsburg Kite Festival! Fly your machine on the Williamsburg waterfront, and if that tires you out, crafts, food, rides, and games plus music from AudraRox and Hungry March Band round out the affair, 12 p.m., CitiStorage, 5 N. 11th St., Brooklyn, free to enter, activities range from $1 to $5!

Israel gets its own parade today, with more than $30,000 participants expected! 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fifth Ave. from 57th to 74th Streets, free!

Dance the night away on the Hudson River waterfront with lessons on dances including salsa, cha-cha and bachata! 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Pier One at Riverside Park South, free!


All weekend long Bank of America cardholders get free museum admission at certain New York museums and cultural institutions (http://museums.bankofamerica.com/), visit artists’ enclaves’ during Bushwick Open Studios (http://artsinbushwick.org/bos2011), Croon at the moon while celebrating music, poetry, and dance during the Howl! Festival (http://www.howlfestival.com/), see what new movies are screening in Kings County during the Brooklyn Film Festival (http://www.brooklynfilmfestival.org/), the World Science Festival is going strong (http://worldsciencefestival.com/), and catch free concerts in each borough performed by St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble (http://www.oslmusic.org/)!