These Brooklyn Stars Are Small And Strange

On my "things I enjoy about life" list, getting free crap is pretty high up there. This has generally resulted in my accumulation of a lot of useless items (I have more commemorative lanyards than I know what to do with) and a few good ones (I still wear t-shirts from random high-school volunteer projects).

This sort of thing tends to run in my family; my dad's favorite pastime at baseball games, besides keeping score with me, is to sign up for credit card offers that he immediately cancels, just to get the free t-shirts and tote bags they hand out once you sign up.

So when my friend Alex suggested going to a giant exchange of free stuff in Brooklyn today, the idea was just too good for me to pass up. So I took the F train out to Carroll Street, promptly got lost, wandered around the adorableness that is the Carroll Gardens neighborhood, concluded I will live there forever, and finally ended up where I was supposed to be, at BKLYN Yard's Score, said free crap extravaganza.

As an aspiring hipster, BKLYN Yard is pretty much my natural home. It's essentially a lot right on the Gowanus canal, with corrugated-tin garages and overgrown grass and that whole faded-industrial-glory vibe. Score featured everything from cheap tacos to piles and piles of retro clothing to ancient cassette tapes to broken record players. There was also a book section, which pretty much made my day.

People-watching is also pretty high on my aforementioned list, and BKLYN Yard pulled through on those counts, too. From the standard hipster boys in sweater vests and Chucks to the woman wearing a bumblebee costume (there is photographic evidence of this somewhere, I swear), it was a good day all around.

I made out pretty well in terms of actual free swag, too. I don't like shopping very much unless I have something specific in mind, but I can spend hours going through piles of random free stuff, which proved pretty successful at Score. I am now the proud owner of two new sweaters, some ironically ancient t-shirts, a pair of stripey shorts, a few artsy prints, a pile of books that should last me through the summer, and this piece of utter brilliance:

Yes we can.