Saturday

December 26

Saucy salsa

Pick up the post-Christmas lull with a little Cuban salsa at BAM Café. Featuring an all-star world music ensemble, Brooklyn’s Charanga Soleil will be jamming with a mix of Cuban, Congolese and Haitan music that’s sure to get you moving. Bar opens at 8 pm, so you can light up the dance floor at 9.

9 pm. Charanga Soleil at BAM Café [30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 230-4100]. Free. For info, visit http://www.bam.org.

Tuesday

December 29

Pop some bubbly

The last thing you want to do is go into New Year’s with cheap Champagne. So preview your New Year’s Eve bubbly with a tasting at The Greene Grape. With real Champagne from France and an array of “sparkling wines” from the U.S. and Spain, you’ll have 11 chances to help envision your perfect countdown.

5-7 pm. Sparkling wine tasting at The Green Grape [765 Fulton St. between S. Oxford and S. Portland streets in Fort Greene, (917) 412-5901]. Free. For info, visit brooklyn.greengrape.com.

Wednesday

December 30

Banjo-kazooie

We always enjoy the weekly “Roots and Ruckus” American music jamboree at Jalopy every Wednesday. But this week’s show, led by the always interesting Feral Foster, will pay special homage to the kazoo with folk, blues, and old-time music guaranteed to get your toe tapping in rhythm. BYO washboard.

9 pm. Roots and Ruckus at Jalopy [315 Columbia St. between Hamilton and Woodhull in Cobble Hill, (718) 395-3214], $5. For info, visit http://www.jalopy.biz

Thursday

December 31

Happy new year

Finally, we get to bid farewell to 2009 — the year of the economic malaise, the health care debacle, rising unemployment (and rising seas!), another late-season collapse by the Cyclones and too many other disasters to list here. Let’s drum this lousy year out with one last (low cost) party. The best of the lot could turn out to be the cheap “Procrastinator’s Ball” at Water Street Restaurant or Borough President Markowitz’s free (but cold) fireworks in Grand Army Plaza.

Water Street Restaurant and Lounge [66 Water St. between Dock and Main streets in DUMBO, (718) 625-9352]; New Year’s Eve fireworks in Grand Army Plaza [Union Street between Prospect Park West and Flatbush Avenue, (718) 965-8999].

Friday

January 1

Resolve to be funnier

Got all your resolutions made? Then hit up the Brooklyn Lyceum for some more jokes. Improv troupe Sidecar and its female counterparts M.A.D. will host its first “Gentrify Brooklyn!” show of the year. Don’t worry; the comics are in on the joke (they all live in Brooklyn anyway).

10 pm. “Gentrify Brooklyn!” at the Brooklyn Lyceum [227 Fourth Ave. between Union and President streets in Park Slope, (718) 857-4816]. Tickets, $5