Writing for NYC Lifestyle Guide ChangeUpMag by Jordan Clifford

Sustainability means different things to different people. For instance, I sustain myself mostly on coffee and cookies, but so rarely does that consumption actually help Mother Earth. That's where Birdbath , the green  bakery,  comes in. Here you can indulge your cafeine and sugar addictions while contributing to the betterment of our planet, and you barely even know you're doing it. If you struggle with wanting to eat everything in a bakery, Birdbath is for you.  In this top-to-bottom green sustainability hub, eating literally everything entirely possible. The walls are made of wheat, the cups are made of corn, the countertops and shelves are made of presumably-edible recycled paper, and not unlike the lickable wallpaper of Willy Wonka's nightmare/candy factory,  the paint on the walls  is made from - you guessed it - milk proteins. But more importantly, the walls are also lined with cookies. Like, on shelves. Real, edible cookies. Oh my god, the cookies. I couldn't af

Habana Outpost Fortified by a large fence like a military base parking lot that you'd really like to get drunk and fat in, Habana Outpost - Fort Greene's earth-conscious eatery, unofficial summer headquarters for the thirsty and financially-impared - holds within it a one-stop spot for summer.  Their margaritas are frozen, their bathrooms run on rain water and their customers run on Six Point beers at $2.50 a cup.   The Cuban-Mexican cuisine comes out of a truck parked out back, next to a bunch of picnic tables and their famous make-it-your-damn-self  human-powered smoothie blending bicycle - if you like want to burn off your marg calories before drinking it. A packed seasonal schedule of fun includes block parties and free moonlight movies every sunday screening classics ranging The Last Dragon through To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar , which becomes a classic after a few of those bike-blended margaritas.  Hanana Outpost  ; 757 Fulton St. at S. Portland; Brook

NYC offers quite a lot of options for trendy dessertophiles, what with the recent boom in artisan and faux-artisan cupcake innovators. But for the one-two diabetes-enducing punch of dessert and alcohol, Sweet Revenge takes, as they say, the cake/beer combo. A cupcake is like sex  - even when it's bad it's good, as long as it's just moist enough with not too much frosting. So let's get this out of the way - Sweet Revenge has perfect cupcakes. But even more notable is their acute selection of paired beer and wine. The only thing missing is a place to nap when you finish.  I went for the original, the "Sweet Revenge," a peanut butter cake with chocolate ganache filling and peanut butter fudge frosting ($3.50, worth all 350 pennies), paired with a German Weihenstephaner Hefe Weiss beer ($8, rarely found in bars, gorgeous) and boy howdy... the flavor combination hit me like a peanut butter truck fueled with Hefe Weiss beer. Cupcakes and beer sounds like the concoct

Are a you creative, passionate, innovative, environmentally-conscious entrepreneur? Probably. But you're probably not as creative, passionate and innovative as the environmentally-conscious entrepreneurs being gathered together to finally put an end to all this bad stuff in the world at The Feast conference 2010.  With its vague mission statement saying it's a "a cross-disciplinary series of programs addressing social innovation and new ways to make the world a better place," which could as easily be from the website of any liberal arts college or Ben and Jerry's flavor label, The Feast sets out to open a much needed dialogue between the world's most important creative types, thinkers, and takers of action about just what's to be done about keeping Earth alive these days.  Worry not, potential conference attendee, it is called a feast not just because of it's feast-like quality where the hungriest thought-eaters come to dine on the tastiest ideas, but

*Mulhollands - Enjoying your hipster community can be hard if you also happen to enjoy sports - at least, beyond liking hats with sports logos from 1985. Good bar food, good bar beer, flatscreens in and outdoors, sports on those screens, and a fireplace just to throw everything off, Mulholland's is the place to go for a real sports bar experience in an otherwise sports-hostile environment. Mulholland's [ mulhollandsbklyn.com ]312 Grand St between Havemeyer St & Roebling St; Williamsburg; 718.486.3473 *Kettle of Fish - A greenwich village community staple with its roots in the Beat scene of the 50s and the gay community - opening on Macdougal St. but since relocated a number of times finding itself on Christopher St. - this is one of the few bars that will boast its counter cultural history as much as its diehard Packer fandom. It may be a New York bar, but when it comes to football it's Wisconsin all the way to it's Milwakee-imported Brat Wurst. A comfy, friendly zo

You may remember a scene from a movie where a bunch of radicals re-contextualize a stuffy old museum from a boring place for nerds into a veritable FunZone of fun, running around where signs specifically ask them not to run, dancing where signs should specifically warn them not to dance, and other such hi-jinks, probably while drunk. You probably thought to yourself, "never could I have that much fun in a museum." How wrong you were. Welcome to First Saturday's at the Brooklyn Museum. Every Saturday night beginning at 5 p.m, the reclusive Wonka-esque owner of the Brooklyn Museum opens the gates of his wonderland to the mischief-loving youth of New York for a night of entertainment, art and music programming, and free access to most of their collections, complete with cash bars for those that need a little help with their art appreciation. This week, on Oct 2nd, the Target-sponsored night will include live music from D.C. punk-hop A.D.M. (Architects + Demolition Men, a ban

There's now a reason to go to an art gallery besides drinking complementary wine. While the artistic value of art is subjective, the monetary value of art is really, really overpriced. The word 'affordable' is almost as subjective as art, and art collection, much like the drug game, is a dealer's market, and you're not not going to buy some drugs. So for the art collectors out there who have fewer than 2 sets of monocles and decorative canes, the Affordable Art Fair is your chance to invest in art that won't cost more than your entire apartment, and you can probably get some free wine. Attempting to take the elitism and financial restrictions off this activity of the pseudo-intellectual aristocrats of the upper east side, the AAF finally lets the starving artist be supported by people who should support them: the starving collector. With over 50 international galleries represented and art priced as low as 100 McChicken Sandwiches (that's 100 dollars in poor-

There are really only two reasons most people go to college: to play beer pong and to eventually be able to get a job. As anyone who's graduated college knows, the only thing an undergraduate degree qualifies you for is a job playing beer pong, and that job has no health insurance. So your best bet is to save yourself 150 grand, skip college all together and go straight to playing beer pong at bars, because that way at least you don't have to pay some nerd to write your term paper for you. Here some places you can either chase or relive your college dreams: WICKED WILLY'S The name Wicked Willy's may sound like a double entendre, but really it's just a single entendre. While STDs and date rape may not be the most appealing connections to make to bar name, they're all part of the total beer pong brand, so you take the good with the bad. This bar, which has 5 neon beer pong tables, is like a Dave Matthews Band concert - it sounds good, but the crowd of douches can

If Justin Timberlake will be remembered for anything, it'll be his efforts in fixing some of most significant issues of our day. The first was single-handedly raising awareness of the pandemic deficiency in sexy while simultaneously bringing it back. As if working for a Nobel, he's since set his sights to national diplomacy. Having never been to the South, I know for sure that they worship only one thing above God, and that's football. And right below God is BBQ. With his Memphis BBQ joint Southern Hospitality, JT (and some other guys) combined two of those things into a naturally great place to watch football in NYC, thus mending all problems still lingering since the Civil War. There's really only three things you need to know about Southern Hospitality: they have 14 flat screen HD TVs, DRINK SPECIALS!, and their BBQ chef is named - wait for it - Dr. BBQ. While the legitimacy of this chef's medical license or doctorate might be questionable, his practice is seems

The first thing you might notice when walking into Dessert Truck Works on the Lower East Side is that it's decidedly not a truck. It shares similarities with the Dessert Truck, most notably the desserts, but with one important difference. This distinction between food truck and pastry shop had to be made in 2009 when New York's ridiculously restrictive truck vendor permits basically put The Dessert Truck off the streets. And so goes the old adage, when NYC closes a permit, it opens a cafe. Everyone knows the best things are always sold out of a truck - food, Discmans, truck parts. So why not top notch pastries? The truck in question - initially put on the pavement in 2007, closed in 2009 and now reopened until the Man shuts 'em down again - sprung forth from the inspiration pastry chef Jerome Chang found in the Taiwan's street food scene, where, like some backwards opposite world, the restaurant-quality food is sold on trucks at street prices, and hamburgers eat people.

There are plenty of places to get a drink and see some art in Manhattan's famously art and booze-fueled East Village. And sure, there are probably a few places to get a drink and see some slam poetry in the East Village. But where else can you get a drink and see some slam poetry in non-profit arts theatre rooted in the early '70's Nuyorican cultural movement and the center of multi-cultural poetry in the East Village? Ok, sure, maybe a couple places. But where else will the poetry actually be any good? Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Ask anyone in New York, we've all run into the same problem - too many poets to fit in our living room. It's just kind of a New York thing. In 1973, poet Miguel Algarin actually did something about it and expanded his living room poet's salon into a full-fledged small poet's corner, and now an often over-stuffed stuffed poets café. As it is a non-profit organization, it thrives on nurturing the under-nurtured artists of all races and bac

Remember when you were a kid and you just wished you had your own store that had only your favorite things, where you and all your friends could hang out there all day and everything would be the coolest? For some kids that was a pizza and ninja turtles store, for others a Pokemon and WWE store, and for Dave Ortiz, it is a skateboards and sneakers store, and this wonderland of cool stuff is actually real. After spending years working in the meatpacking district with popular Zoo York graffiti-inspired skate brand, Ortiz opened his own store, taking the name of the neighborhood as literally as an actual meat packer. Dave's Quality Meat is a sneaker and skate boutique clenching tightly to the concept of the corner butcher, to the point where items hang from meat hooks, purchased are wrapped and boxed like beef shank, and clothes are kept in a refrigerated meat locker, which is presumably how Dave keeps all his threads so funky fresh. And freshness is key to DQM's commercial succes

If you've always wanted to feel like a junkie but never been man enough to try crack, Calexico food cart is here to help. There's a reason why they've named their special blend of chipotle and magic "crack sauce," and like real crack, you'll understand after you've tried it. That jones kicks in and you're back on the streets, checkin their twitter (like a real crackheads do), looking for that damn food cart with another helping of your fix. Started by three brothers from California, Calexico has earned the Vendy award for best street food and cheers from numerous publications, but has also stacked up its share of naysayers. Apparently a couple of white dudes starting a Mexican cart in NYC that attracts unfathomably long lines of hipsters strikes some as an inauthentic Mexican dining experience. Only two things can explain such blasphemous nonsense: they clearly haven't tried the carne asada, and/or are too old or ugly to be hipsters. Curmudgeonly M