Fashion Night Out in BK

More info here.

More info here.

More info here.

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Also check out Brooklyn Exposed’s guide to FNO in BK and this one here from Daily Candy.

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Music Round-up from FREE WILLIAMSBURG:

This Thursday is Fashion’s Night Out and My Social List is happy to partner with Freewilliamsburg to bring you our list of the best live performances.

6PM: James Murphy @ VPL Block Party – 5 Mercer Street (Soho)

6PM: Best Coast @ Helmut Lang (Soho) – FREE!

6PM: Real Estate @ Dirty Durty Party – 44 Mercer Street (Soho) – RSVP: rsvp.ashnyc@gmail.com

8PM: Beth Ditto @ MAC Cosmetics (Soho)

6:30PM: Theophilus London @ Tommy Hilfiger (Midtown) – VIP access to concert for those who spend more than $250

6PM: Mirror Mirror @ Gary Graham (Tribeca)

6PM: Andrew W.K., Alex Pasternak of Lemonade, Prince Language, GHE20 GOTH1K, Tim Barber @ Sak’s Fifth Avenue (Midtown)

6PM: Foster the People @ Lacoste Fifth Avenue (Midtown)

6PM: Justin Townes Earle @ Partners and Spade (West Village)

6PM: White Rabbits, Bear Hands, Lissy Trullie, DJ Keiichiro @ Rockefeller Center (Midtown)

7PM: Bubbles @ agnes b. (Soho)

7PM: Bret Dennen, Madi Diaz @ Moscot Gallery (Soho)

6PM: The Postelles @ Ted Baker London (Meatpacking)

6PM: Miami Horror, Free Energy @ VINCE. (Meatpacking)

6PM: Estelle @ DVF (Meatpacking)

6PM: School of Seven Bells @ Treasure and Bond (Tribeca)

6PM: Samantha Ronson @ Macy’s Herald Square (Midtown)

6PM: Ronnie Spector, Wytner Garden @ Bergdorf (Midtown)

7PM: U.S. Royalty @ American Eagle Outfitters (Soho)

7PM: The London Souls @ Morgan Le Fay (Soho)

7PM: Penguin Prison @ Allsaints (Meatpacking)

Still want more options? Check out My Social List’s database of Fashion’s Night Out performances.

My Social List tracks nine of the most popular music blogs and aggregates mentions of bands to create weekly Top 10 Lists of the city’s most exciting and highly-anticipated shows.

Lady Gaga at the VMAs (WTF)

Yes, I watched the VMAs on Sunday (or at least the first hour).  I blame Irene.  For those of you missed it, it was awful.  Lady Gaga opened dressed as a man, and I’m still a bit confused by her performance.  It was kind of good?  Mostly not.  I give her credit for shaking it up and being 9809890707 times better than Britney, but that’s not saying much (I want a Britney comeback as much as the next but let’s be honest, she is hurting).  Some say she was copying Annie Lennox, but to me everything she does is still a desperate attempt at soemthing Madonna-esque.

Slate pokes fun at Brooklyn + Irene

Photograph by Jake Beinecke

In the Aftermath of Irene, Brooklyn Really Out-Brooklyns Itself

By Julia Felsenthal

As Brooklyn residents steeled themselves for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, they were told to prepare for flooding, broken windows, loss of power, and fallen trees. But a bike ride through the borough’s Fort Greene Park on Sunday, when the worst of the storm had passed, revealed a subset of Brooklynites with a less practical sort of concern. On the southeast corner of the park, a branch had broken off from a large tree and fallen to the ground, where it had been cordoned off with caution tape. The real danger, however, lay in the jagged outcropping that remained attached to the trunk, high above the ground: a huge beehive that had been built in a hollowed-out portion of the branch.

A sensible response to the realization that you are within a stone’s throw of an active beehive would probably be to shield your face and be quickly on your way. But the crowd that had gathered around this broken tree branch (not in and of itself a crowd-worthy site on this blustery, post-Irene day), didn’t seem concerned about getting stung; in fact, they were huddled directly beneath the colony. The hubbub made this reporter curious enough to nervously edge closer to the scene.

The concern shared amongst the gathered onlookers was not how to safely remove the hive, which was situated at only a short remove from a playground and near a busy intersection, but rather, who had rights to add it to his or her personal beekeeping operation. Beekeeping (along with DIY endeavors of all varieties) has experienced a real renaissance in Brooklyn, especially since the New York City Board of Health voted in March of 2010 to lift a ban on the practice. The beekeeping community, though, is generally perceived as collaborative—as in, I’ll trade you some of my honey for some of those eggs your pet chicken laid on your roof this morning—not territorial.

But the vibe among these amateur beekeepers was bordering on hostile. As a city contractor made phone calls, several people in yoga clothes and a twenty-something cyclist with a moustache argued over who had spotted the hive first. A man in a beekeeping suit, sans hood, pondered preempting them all by scaling the wet, slippery tree trunk and snatching it, seemingly with his bare hands. And alongside them, a man in a tee-shirt that read “New York City Beekeepers Association”—whom Google has revealed to be Andrew Cote, a third-generation beekeeper and local expert who sells his honey at the Union Square Greenmarket, teaches beekeeping classes, and runs an organization called Bees Without Borders—stood by, shaking his head in bemusement at the bizarre and un-neighborly circus that was unfolding.

FILED UNDER: Hurricane Irene 2011, ridiculous Brooklyn reactions to Hurricane Irene, Brooklyn DIY, Hurricane Irene Fort Greene, Hurricane Irene Brooklyn, Brooklyn beekeeping

how the borough fared…

L Magazine round up of Irene’s damage in BK:

Irene in Brooklyn: Hurricane News by Neighborhood

Bay Ridge: A few trees fell, judging by the photos on Bay Ridge Journal, occasioning one super-cute photoof a boy and a puppy.Brooklyn Heights: The East River flowed into Brooklyn Bridge Park. A tree fell on Joralemon Street, Sydney Place, and in a backyard, Brooklyn Heights Blog reported. It also took down an elm on Hicks Street that had been a cause of contention years earlier.

Carroll Gardens: The Carroll Gardens Patch got video of men scooping water off the roof of the newly opened Bar Bruno, on Henry and Union, with buckets.

Ditmas Park: A car on Argyle was an early victim of the storm, taking a branch to its rear window, the Ditmas Park blog reports.

DUMBO: Main Street flooded, DUMBO NYC reports, causing several children to frolic.

East New York: The Belt Parkway flooded near Pennsylvania Avenue, the Bensonhurst Bean reports.

Fort Greene: Winds split open a tree—and a beehive!—in Fort Greene Park, The Local reports, while the Fort Greene Patch checked in on the 128 evacuees holed up at Brooklyn Tech.

Gowanus: Well, duh! Raw sewage was released into the canal because of the rain, Pardon Me for Asking reports. The water level was high after some flooding.

Gravesend: Flooding affected the N line, whose track beds became standing pools, according to a photo released by the MTA and published on Bensonhurst Bean. The neighborhood also seemed to be one of the hardest hit by power outages.

Greenpoint: A small uprooted tree was the worst of it, judging by photos on Greenpointers.

Manhattan Beach: Several YouTube videos embedded on Sheepshead Bites show extensive flooding, with waters at least “ankle deep.”

Marine Park: Several trees were down, according to a mention on Sheepshead Bites.

Park Slope: A woman fell into a manhole, whose cover had been washed away, Fucked in Park Slope reports.

Prospect Lefferts Gardens: A 32-year-old man almost died when a tree came crashing down on his ’98 Sebring, which he’d just parked on E. 54th Street, the Post reports.

Prospect Heights: Critics assailed the Atlantic Yards project for not securing projectiles on its construction site, including loose lumber, Atlantic Yards Report reports.

Prospect Park: Fallen branches littered roadways, while large pools formed on the Long Meadow, according to photos on the Park Slope Patch.

Red Hook: Yup, it flooded. The Carroll Gardens Patch has photos of Van Brunt Street.

Sheepshead Bay: Waters pummeled Plumb Beach (where sand bags had been piled) and the Belt Parkway, though the highway was spared damaging flooding in that area.

Windsor Terrace: the Windsor Terrace blog has several photos of snapped, felled, and deracinated trees.

she’s coming…

TIME TO FREAK OUT

I’m loving NYMAG’s coverage of the storm:

Update XXV: Take a look at the line for Trader Joe’s in Chelsea, courtesy of @DaniellaAlony:

Apparently, nobody in New York has a two-day supply of food in their apartments.

Update XXVI: Chris Christie is angry at his people. “Get the Hell off the beach in Asbury Park and get out. It’s 4:30,” he said today. “You’ve maximized your tan.”

Update XXVII: So, not to ruin the fun, but the NOAA’s latest forecast predicts that there’s only a 25 percent chance that Irene will be a hurricane by 2 a.m. on Sunday. There’s a 59 percent chance it will have weakened to a tropical storm, which can pack winds of anywhere from 39 m.p.h to 73 m.p.h. Still a lot of wind, if you ask us.

Summer Sales this Weekend

get ready, missoni’s coming to target

Images via fashionista

Collection hits stores September 13.

listening to this nonstop

http://vimeo.com/24142968%5D

Probably not healthy.  Not exactly an upper of a song.

DIY Jewelry Branch

The video is a bit cheesy but the final product still looks great. Going to try making one this weekend…

Tonight (Part 2): Orcharding 101 for City Dwellers at BK Brainery

DETAILS:

This Thursday, August 25 at 7pm, join us for a free, awesome event with Red Jacket Orchards!

In Orcharding 101 for City Dwellers, Red Jacket Orchards VP of Farm Operations, Mike Biltonen, will discuss the ins and outs of starting your own backyard or rooftop orchard right here in New York City. From the fundamentals like pest management, fertility, basic physiology, and establishment to more esoteric topics like propagation (making your own trees), crop and variety selection, and permaculture, Mike will cover it all. Please bring your dreams and desires (as well as questions and quandaries) for what you’d like to achieve with your very own fruit trees.

This class will take place at the Brainery, 515 Court Street in Brooklyn. Give us a heads up at orchards@brooklynbrainery.com if you’re planning on attending!

More info here.