It's never too late to rediscover your passion for trick-or-treating. For those of your new to New York (or new to post-adolescent trick-or-treating), Brooklyn native Mariela Quintana has the scoop on the borough's best locations, as well as tips and tricks for uncovering the best candy. Tomorrow we'll hear from Upper West Sider Eliza Shapiro.

It would be impossible to attempt to tackle every neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn in one night, so here is a survey of some of its most noteworthy Halloween destinations.

Essentially, Brooklyn Heights is the Greenwich, CT of the borough. On nearly every residential block you'll find Saab station wagons double-parked outside of brownstones unloading gaggles of boys and girls clad in tennis whites. Although the WASP-factor is unusually high for a Brooklyn neighborhood, the affluence and family-orientation of the Heights' residents lends itself to Halloween. The best block to hit up is the lovely, entirely residential Garden Place. There is little traffic here because the street is only a block-long, which gives it a members-only feel.

Bwog's food editor Jon Hill travels this week to Brooklyn to find a taste of Australia.

Almost everyone these days seems to have a beef with beef.

Cardiologists blame it for clogging arteries, animal rights advocates don't like the way it's processed, and environmentalists resent its carbon footprint. Beef has become a bad guy in the culinary world, a symbol of the excesses and failures of the modern diet.

Yet even with red meat getting such a bad rap, U.S. beef consumption has remained fairly steady. Poultry and pork have come on strong, but as far as substitutes go, we Americans have not found a good alternative to the T-bone steak.

Maybe it's time to widen the search—to Australia.

Yesterday, in search of relatively cheap and relatively nice-looking dorm room staples, Bwog spent the dreary afternoon at Ikea, Red Hook's biggest and brightest mega-store.

And while the Ikea Red Hook was a sight to behold, the overall experience was a minor success for Bwog's dorm room and major's set-back for Bwog's budget.

Here are the pros and cons:

In celebration of the beginning of High Holidays, Bwog offers a roundup of the city's finest nosh purveyors. Spice up your Rosh Hashanah spread with some alternatives to Zabars.

Russ and Daughters
If Westside's lox doesn't do it for you, then head to the Lower East Side for delicious smoked salmon in addition to a wide selection of other fish, including stable, sturgeon and other standbys. The prices are high, so order carefully. This is also a great place to stock up on more affordable treats like tsimmis, kugel and herring.


Barney's Greengrass
Barney's claims it's the city's sturgeon king, but Bwog disagrees; your best bet is a Corned beef and sliced onion triple-decker. Prices tend to be high -- $12 for a sandwich -- but you're getting a lot of meat.

Bwog on a Budget, your wallet-friendly guide to living in the city returns this week, with a fall shopping guide for discount points of destination in and around the city.

Discount Department Stores
Don't let the promises of Dolce and Gabana and Manolos fool you. Invariably, you will search through piles of strewn polyester before you find any of the aforementioned treasures. Caveat emptor: low ceilings, dim lighting, and checkered linoleum floors induce migraines.

• Century 21 On a good day you might find some Betsey Johnson or Diane Von Furstenberg styles from last season for cheap. Any other day you'll just find very long lines and very small communal dressing rooms. 22 Cortland St. at Broadway
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Has your weekend been lacking a certain cultural, athletic or alcoholic satisfaction? If so, check out Bwog's mid-weekend guide to the weekend update.

Cultural
Danscores by Ofelia Loret De Mola
Shakespeare's Ophelia was not much of a badass. Rather than sticking it to the man, she let the man stick it to her. Not so with this Mexican-born Ofelia. In the final performance of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's "Sitelines" series, this choreographer expresses her rebellious anti-establishment opinions in performances that challenge the conventions of modern dance. Expect dancing in the street and lots of Mexican punk music.
City Park Hall; September 13-14 at 8; Free

Oresteia
Major Cultures, Global Core, there may be very little distinction between the two, but one thing we do know is that Columbia loves the Western Canon. The university's love fest with Greek tragedy continues with the Miller Theater's performance of Iannis Xenakis opera, Oresteia, based on Aeschylus' tragedy.
Miller Theater; September 13, 16 and 17 at 8

This weekend, America is turning 232, making it just slightly older than the Columbia College website. Traditionally, Americans celebrate their country's birthday by cooking meat on grills outdoors and then watching fireworks. For this week's Guide to the Weekend, we've consolidated a few events that will give you the opportunity to do just that.

Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular; 9PM
Prime Viewing Spots: Manhattan: East River Park, South Street Seaport, FDR Drive between 14th and 42nd Streets; Brooklyn: Greenpoint, Empire Fulton Derry State Park (in DUMBO), Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Brooklyn Independence Day Parade; Between 66th and 86th Streets on 13th Ave in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn
Head to 66th Street in Dyker Height's for the 103rd Annual Independence Day Parade! Who knew Brooklyn had a 66th Street? Featuring classic parade staples like floats and veteran marching bands.

Columbia Ping-Pong goes to the Midwest. Next stop: Beijing? No.

If an editorial doesn't express an opinion or make a point, is it still an editorial? No.

Columbia student locates Brooklyn, but is it "the new Broadway?" No.

Will any Columbia student go to this Soho restaurant for $15 Vietnamese tapas? Sigh.

A White House spokesman goes to ... a web forum... to insult Joe Stiglitz. And then George Bush calls him a "green eye-shaded accountant." Eye-shaded?

This is part two of a two-part series introducing you to the acts playing at this year's Bacchanal.

"Everything but country," is an all too familiar way for unimaginative people to define their taste, or lack there of, in music. Sure, we all like different kinds of music, but the ambiguity of that statement is preposterous and country is just not that bad. Like it or not, Grizzly Bear's music incorporates all sorts of genres and to some extent reflects that glib tag mentioned before. Their music has been described as everything from folk, country-folk, folk-rock and psychedelic folk-rock to electro-folk, post-rock and Baroque pop.

Fortunately, this Brooklyn based quartet coordinates their eclectic influences with dreamy cohesion. The pluck of acoustic guitars, reeds, retro organs and the occasional banjo articulate the soporific voice of the band's lead singer, Ed Droste. With breathy gasps and sighs, Droste's vocals give Grizzly Bear's songs a natural, nonchalant sound.

Bwog loves food, especially cheap food. Bwog also loves Brooklyn. Indeed, Bwog loves Brooklyn Restaurant Week. Here, Bwog offers a selective assortment of some Brooklyn Restaurant Week stand-outs. If lines are long at the participating restaurants, Bwog provides a few noteworthy non-participating restaurants.

Unfortunately the borough publicizes rather humbly and Bwog just learned of the event. But don't despair! Restaurant Week lasts until Monday night.

Participating Restaurants:

Bacchus Bistro: 409 Atlantic Avenue (718) 852 1572
Simple French fare in an elegant and understated atmosphere. As its name suggests, the wine list is excellent.

Blue Ribbon/ Blue Ribbon Sushi: 280 (718) 840 0408 5th Avenue
Large menus and large portions is the MO at the Brooklyn outpost of the Manhattan favorite by the same name. Bwog recommends their pulled pork sandwich!

Eschewing their own tradition of booking hip hop acts for spring, Columbia Concerts has booked awesome Brooklyn-based indie rockers Grizzly Bear and awesome Brooklyn-based indie rockers The National for this year's Spring Concert.

An anonymous source also informs Bwog that this year's Spring Concert will also differ from last year's because it's going to be indoors and tickets are going to cost a completely reasonable and completely worth it $5 fee.

The March issue is headed off to the printers, and you've already left for spring break. Still, please enjoy this preview feature from the next BLUE AND WHITE: A look at Brooklyn's next wave of debauchery.

24 Month-Old Party People

Rubulad, the infamous bi-monthly debauch at an apartment-building-turned-commune in the badlands of Brooklyn, is a decidedly grown-up affair. About an hour and a half away from Columbia, it's a converted warehouse that sits in the shadow of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, reachable only by switching from the 1 to the A to the G. After arriving at the Classon subway stop, the journeying partygoer must venture about half a mile past two stretches of housing projects, four gas stations and a structure behind a barbed-fence resembling a hybrid of a prison and a hospital.

What I remember of my last bender—ahem—evening spent at Rubulad are attempts to claw my way out through room after room of sweaty, writhing, half naked and less-than-half conscious bodies before my escape was almost thwarted by a man wearing noth- ing but socks. On his feet. Sort of like Resident Evil meets Fear and Loathing, or flophouse meets rave. It's been a while since I've been back.

From Wien to Woodbridge to Ruggles, we've explored many on-campus housing options this week. Now, it's time to go off-campus with Brooklynite Bwog editors Zach van Schouwen and Mariela Quintana where they will debate the pros and cons of shacking up in New York's better borough.

PRO: Hipsters and $2 Beer

Brooklyn! Behind every tenement door a hipster, and behind every hipster a wonderful electronic music ensemble. As one strolls down the storied streets and avenues of the fairest borough, occasionally one's mind is drawn back to the memory of living in Columbia housing. "Oh, yes," one thinks, "how strange a time that was. To think that I agreed to live in a 94-square-foot room with a complete stranger, wore shoes in the shower and woke every morning to the smell of garbage wafting up from One Hundred Fourteenth Street." Still, the memory is so distant that it may have only been a dream, an awful dream: you open a bar's door at random and find a beautiful girl singing clever progressive folk songs under soft lighting, and $2 beer. It is worth mentioning to visitors that there is, of course, no cover.

For careful listeners, the best soundtrack on campus is the rotation of Vampire Weekend, Radiohead and other indie darlings at Cafe 212. Bwog cultural correspondent Merrell Hambleton sits down with the man behind the mix.

I find Café 212 manager Robert Bell working to hang up two small bulletin boards. "I'm actually doing something with the music," he says. "The music" he's referring to is precisely the reason for our meeting—Bell, tall with longish brown hair, dark framed glasses, and a neatly trimmed chinstrap, has earned a reputation in his year at Columbia for playing some non-traditional Muzak. In fact, its not Muzak at all, it's actually, well, good. If you're haunted by memories of 212's old soundtrack, you'll likely be pleased to hear the likes of Radiohead, Cat Power or the of-late-ubiquitous Vampire Weekend while you wait in the sandwich line.

So what prompted Bell to buck the trend of non-descript instrumental world music and hit-or-miss pop (read: Ferris Booth)? The Virginia native moved to New York (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, to be specific) in 2004, where he first "got excited by working with food" while working at an Au Bon Pain branch. But chain stores don't offer a whole lot of flexibility. According to Bell, "One thing that really bothered me... was they had this Frank Sinatra thing going on. They had it very carefully orchestrated, so in Hong Kong they had an Au Bon Pain that was also playing Frank Sinatra at 8 AM."

It's a big city out there. Bwog continues its (fledgling) series of artsy picks to help you navigate the world below Morningside.

Orhan Pamuk

Pamuk--winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature--is taking time off from his part-time professorial duties to read from his latest, Other Colors: Essays and a Story, a collection of essays about his own life and, well, the world.

Barnes & Noble Union Square, 33 E. 17th St., (212) 253-0810, 7 p.m. Free.

The Brooklynites Party

Writer Anthony LaSala and photographer Seth Kushner have teamed up to present a documentary on the Brooklynite. Photographing people from Greenpoint, Coney Island, Flatbush, and beyond, the duo has sought to create a portrait of the borough in The Brooklynites. Works from the book will be on display; DJ J.Period and Maya Azucena will be performing.

powerHouse Arena, 37 Main St., Brooklyn, (212) 604-9074, 6-9 p.m. Free with RSVP.