kickassNYC

C-Squat, one of the longest-standing squat houses, has been a part of the fabric of the New York Punk scene since the first squatters set down roots in the 1980s. In the early days, they moved through the burnt out walk-up on ladders. Then they renovated it, setting up a skate ramp, a punk venue, and a permanent homestead on Avenue C.

Now its history and the history of other New York squat houses is preserved in the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS), a living archive located on the ground floor of 155 Avenue C.

Playing monthly at The Rock Shop in Brooklyn, the Punk Rock Heavy Metal Karaoke band are a bunch of hard-hitters who have been rocking out to screaming crowds since 1999.

Check out their active song list. Requests are invited.

A “secret” restaurant. Fine dining. At Bloomingdale’s. Inside of a recreated train car of the 19th-century luxury French night express train, the Calais-Mediterranée Express.

1000 3rd Ave, Sixth Floor, New York, NY 10022

Lunch, Brunch, & Dinner. ~$30

An artist-run venue, the Slipper Room was the first space built to showcase performers in the burgeoning Burlesque and neo-Vaudeville scene. Oh, and it’s traditional to take a picture in the gutter outside.

167 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002

Tickets $5 to $30, 21+

Catland aims to be THE destination for Brooklyn witches, mystics, yogis, and otherwise occult-minded. The storefront boutique specializes in talismanic texts, spell supplies, and related esoterica. Spellworkers, diviners, and occult teachers can be consulted in the shop. The connected event space and backyard garden play host to a variety of events, including rituals, workshops, and parties.

987 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206

Free to visit! Prices of events, workshops, and readings vary.

“Part workshop, part cabaret, part madhouse.”

This uniquely New York event takes place approximately every two months in the back room of Jimmy’s No. 43, a cozy pub in the East Village. Expect strange new theatre pieces, comedians’ least-vetted sets, adventurous musical numbers, and every other flavor of artist taking risks and honing their talents on this small stage curated by Sam Reisman and Matt Herzfeld.

43 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003

$4 at the door, no drink minimum.

Russian banya comes to New York! The Russian & Turkish Baths in the East Village is an institution. Built in 1892, the authentic Russian bathhouse offers five different steam and sauna options ranging in temperature, including an oven-heated granite sauna, a Finnish cherry-wood sauna, and an aromatic white-tiled Turkish steam room, as well as an icy plunge pool and roof deck.

Don’t come expecting glitz and glamor, but this is the real Russian bathhouse experience. You bring: yourself, a bathing suit, and a sense of adventure. They provide: robes, towels, shorts, slippers, and lockers with locks.

268 E 10th St, New York, NY 10009

$40 day-pass. Memberships available.

A wild feline community lives on Roosevelt Island alongside abandoned smallpox hospitals and new developments on Roosevelt Island. Since 2005, a group of volunteers called the Island Cats has been helping maintain the cat sanctuary by maintaining the four existing cat colonies, providing food and medical attention, working with ASPCA to spay and neuter cats, and try to find homes for the adoptable animals.

Kenny Shopsin first set up shop in the Village, operating an eclectic neighborhood deli and grocery on Bedford & Morton Streets. Nowadays, Shopsin’s is a tiny diner counter / restaurant in the corner of the Essex Street Market. His family helps run it and everyone in the place swears like a sailor. And they have some firm rules. No parties larger than four. No additions, no substitutions, and no special requests. But you shouldn’t need any, since the menu is over 900 items long.

120 Essex St, Stall No. 16, New York, NY 10002

If you sit down, order food. Don’t expect to be mollycoddled.

The largest tax-funded cemetary in the world. More than one million are buried on the island, some by mass burial. Though the majority of the island’s “inhabitants” are anonymous, the Hart Island Project has worked to identify the dead, and some famous residents include Leo Birinski, Dawn Powell, and Bobby Driscoll. It has had a long history as a site for a workhouse, a hospital, prisons, a Civil War internment camp, a reformat, and a Nike missile base.