Thanks to Brooklyn Based for this schedule about Earth Day activities at Habana Outpost in Ft. Green this Saturday. Habana Outpost. 757 Fulton Street (corner of South Portland) Brooklyn, New York

Kid’s Corner-Saturday and Sunday 12-6
Throughout the weekend there will be free arts & crafts, games and entertainment
for children focusing on recycling and nature.

The ABC’s of Bees and Beekeeping – Saturday 2:00pm
Local beekeeper John Howe (the Brooklyn Bee) will explain how honey is made
with a live observation hive and arts and crafts projects.

Finders Keepers!!!! Tossers Weeepers!!!- Saturday 3-4 & Sunday 2-3
Recycling within Your Environment – This hands-on workshop will explore how to reuse what is in your home, community and environment.   On this day, that environment will be Habana Outpost!   Children will be asked to go on a scavenger hunt through the Habana Outpost area and use what they find to create new objects or give old objects new purpose and meaning. Brought to you by the Leadership Learning Lab

Composting With Red Worms – Sunday 1-2
Learn the basics of composting at home with live red wiggler worms! Use kitchen waste to make valuable, all natural plant food…compost.

Composting Workshops for Adults – Saturday & Sunday 2:00 & 5:00
Brought to you by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Department of Sanitation,
these fun workshops will teach you how to start composting at home.
Electronic Waste Recycling – Saturday & Sunday 10:00 – 4:00pm

Recycled Art Show- Awards ceremony Sunday at 4:00pm
Local high school and elementary students will create art out of trash. The work
will be on display throughout the weekend and the winners will be announced

Sunday at 4:00pm
Umbrella Recycling – Saturday 12:00 – 4:00pm

Umbrella Recycling: A BYOBU (bring your own broken umbrella) Design Project
Bring your own broken umbrella (BYOBU) to recycle, rehabilitate or re imagine. Learn how to craft a reusable (grocery) bag out of a dead umbrella. All other materials provided. Meet up under the solar panels with master tailor and sewing teacher Bonnie Barton.

Shop Green – Saturday & Sunday 12-6
Local vendors and designers will showcase green products and services in an outdoor market
Featuring: Trixe and Radar, Lower East Side Girls Club and Recycle a Bicycle.

Get Involved – Saturday & Sunday 12-6
Meet local eco-minded groups and individuals to find out how you can get involved!Participating Groups: Good Magazine, Green Home NYC, Green Brooklyn, Greenopia, Atomseco, The Society of Clinton Hill, Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance

Films -Sunday at 3:00 pm

The Water Under Ground: In spring of 2006, the Lower East Side Ecology Center partnered with
Center for Urban Pedagogy, City-as-School, and RECYouth to explore the Water Underground-the millions of gallons of water that enters the city, gets used in various ways and discharged to local waterways each day. The Water Underground video is a 25-minute student-led exploration of where water comes from, where it goes and what happens along the way.

Rooftop Bees: A film by Melissa Lohman Wild – John has an unusual hobby for a longtime resident of New York City. He maintains three beehives on his Brooklyn rooftop. This short doc gives a glimpse into the practice of urban beekeeping and shows how John’s bees are helping to pollinate the Big Apple.

Ever wonder what it looks like inside the Park Slope Food Coop? Check out my segment of A Walk Around the Blog.

Watch me interview Joe Holz about the elimination of plastic water bottles at the Coop. You can even see me shopping in the produce area.

It’s a fun piece; well shot and well edited. Watch all the other blogger sements, too. They’ve done Reclaimed Home, owanus Lounge, Sustainable Flatbush and Brooklyn Optimist. More segments are planned. I am too lazy right now to do links.

The Park Slope Civic Council is organizing a civic sweep around the neighborhood this Saturday.

Help us clean and beautify our neighborhood!  Put on your old clothes and come to the Park Slope Civic Council’s Spring Civic Sweep on Saturday, April 19, 10 am to 2 pm.  Meet us in front of the Prospect Park Y on 9th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

Tools and supplies will be provided to pick up litter, scrape signs and paint graffiti off lampposts, mulch trees and plant daffodils.  Community Service vouchers will be available.

Bring your non-working compact fluorescent light bulbs for recycling.  Bring your working and non-working electronics (computers, fax machines, shredders, scanners – no TV’s, please) for recycling by Per Scholas in partnership with the Council on the Environment of NYC.  Bring your kids to participate in the Center for Urban Environment’s Children’s Composting Workshop from 10 am to noon.

Enjoy traditional bluegrass “with a twist” by Vincent Cross and Good Company.

A Vermont man is researching a book about Brooklyn’s motorcycle history. He sent this request my way. If anyone has information or materials that might be use you might want to get in touch with him. I told him to speak with  Francis Morrone, who knows a great deal about Brooklyn’s history. He’s already in touch with the Brooklyn Historical Society.

I am searching for information on Brooklyn’s history relating to motorcycles…….Brooklyn was the motorcycle mecca in the early 1900’s. Bedford Avenue had many motorcycle shops during 1905-1920. I’m looking for photos,literature,etc for a book project im involved in.

Scott
cycles past co.
cyclespast@vermonteldotnet

There are missing signs up all over Park Slope. The girl’s name is Maria Barrett and she’s 11-years-old born on October 18, 1996.

The sign says that she needs medical attention. She lives at 353 Second Street in Park Slope. I heard the PS 321 crossing guard talking about it. She seemed to know the girl.

Maria was last seen on Monday on Second Street between 6th and 5th Avenues. I am waiting to get a  hold of a picture.

She is 5’3" and 120 lbs with should length brown hair. She was wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt with short sleeves.

Her mother’s phone number is: 718-237-3400. Detective Gibbons is on the case. His number is 718-636-6483

Gersh Kuntzman is posessed by the spirit of Crazy Eddie in his funny webcasts with breaking news from the Brooklyn Paper.

I love how he introduces himself holding his fancy Editor of the Year Award (from the Suburban Newspaper Association). Today he and senior reporter, Mike Mclaughlin, had this big story: Ikea opens on June 15th in Red Hook.

That’s big news for Red Hook. The big box Swedish store will bring traffic, shoppers and loads of business to the Hook.

Opposed for years, it remains to be seen if the Ikea is a win win or something else for the name. Fairway certainly turned out better than anyone ever expected.

Yesterday after I put up the link to my appearance on a A Walk Around the Blog: Brooklyn Bloggers on TV, I heard from Park Slope author Elizabeth Royte, author of Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash and now Bottlemanai: How Water Went On Sale and Why We Bought It.

Just saw your interview with Joe Holz at the Park Slope Food Coop – that was great! Do you know when the vote is scheduled for? You may be interested in my latest book, Bottlemania: How Water Went On Sale and Why We Bought It (check out www.bottlemania.net).

I think the coop will sell it, certainly Community Bookstore will – should be on the shelves in another week or so. See you ’round the hood.

Produced by Nerina Penzhorn, the segment aired on Monday night on Brooklyn Independent Television and will be repeated is also on their website (see below)

I have to say she and her crew did an excellent job. The piece is nicely shot and edited.

Check out my interview with Joe Holz from the Park Slope Food Coop called, No More Bottled Water at the Park Slope Food Coop?

The segment is now online at:

http://awalkaroundtheblog.wordpress.com/

Lesterhead over at Clinton Hill Blog had RePop, a vintage furniture shop in Clinton Hill, redecorate her bedroom. She has before and after pictures on her blog and I’m intriqued.

We have way too much furniture in our apartment (and I’m not just talking about the red chair). Maybe I should see if these guys can help me out.

RePop
68 Washington Avenue

Ellie is a spiritual healer, teacher, author, and
psychic whose works and theories can be found on her website, www.crystalinks.com.

She’s even appeared on the Jon Stewart Show talking about creation!

Ellie believes that human DNA is encoded, as if a program, through which you consciously experience, and at some point awaken, to find the ultimate truth about reality and the evolution of consciousness!

Pretty heady stuff.

Ellie is offering a workshop at Seventh Avenue’s Elementi (I’m guessing it’s upstairs in the party room) that is intended to help you unravel your DNA codes and soul purpose. According to Ellie, your DNA patterns will be explored and shifted during the workshop: "You will see change all around you – old systems no longer able to support new fields of streaming energy that fill your body, influence your dreams, create synchronicities, and stir something within you that beckons change," she writes. 

Location: Elementi; 140 Seventh Avenue in Park Slope

Date: Saturday April 26, 2008
Time: 10:00 am – 3:30 pm
For information and registration go here.

I didn’t make it to the blogger talk with City Council member Bill de Blasio at the Tea Lounge last night and I’m sorry I missed it. Sounds like an interesting discussion ensued. De Blasio is running for Borough President and is a frequent presence around Park Slope. The fact that he gets the meaning of Brooklyn blogging and wants to reach out to the Brooklyn bloggers is pretty cool.  Brownstoner has coverage:

Last night Councilman Bill de Blasio held a meet-up for Brooklyn
bloggers at which he spoke for a couple of hours about development
topics including Atlantic Yards, rezonings, affordable housing, and
what he’d like to accomplish if he’s elected borough president.

Like Gowanus Lounge,
we were most interested in what de Blasio had to say about Atlantic
Yards: The councilman said he thinks there should be no more
demolitions in the Atlantic Yards footprint until Forest City Ratner
puts its current plans for the project into writing. De Blasio said he
was "livid" about the interview Bruce Ratner gave to the New York Times last month since the likely stall "calls the entire Community Benefits Agreement into question."

Gowanus Lounge was also there:

City Council Member and Brooklyn Borough President candidate Bill de Blasio is calling for a moratorium on demolition in the Atlantic Yards footprint.
Mr. de Blasio made comments deeply critical of possible changes in the
huge project as part of a wideranging discussion last night that
covered everything from construction safety as developers race to beat
changes in the 421a tax break program to zoning issues in Gowanus and
Carroll Gardens. (Check out Brownstoner’s excellent report on the discussion here.)

On Atlantic Yards, Mr. de Blasio said, "I am livid at the New York Times interview with Ratner"
in which the developer announced that the project would be scaled back
and that massive amounts of affordable housing would be seriously
delayed or eliminated. "There was no discussion with the community
before he went on record," Mr. de Blasio said, adding that the changes
put "the entire community benefits agreement up for question."

It’s my turn for "A Walk Around the Blog: Brooklyn Bloggers on TV." Producer Nerina Penzhorn just emailed to say that the segement, which aired last night on Brooklyn Independent Television is online.

I have to say she and her crew did an excellent job. The piece is nicely shot and edited.

Check out my interview with Joe Holz from the Park Slope Food Coop called, No More Bottled Water at the Park Slope Food Coop?

The segment is now online at:

http://awalkaroundtheblog.wordpress.com/

Bloggers meet Bill De Blasio, Bill De Blasio meet the Bloggers…

Bill is inviting members of the Brooklyn blogging community to join him once again to talk about issues of concern to all of us as Brooklynites.

I appreciate the work you have done to inform the community about important issues; many of my constituents rely on your reporting and I am thankful for your voice in the discussion of these issues.
I hope to see you to tonight! Please feel free to spread the word throughout the blogging community.
When: At the Tea Lounge on 7th Avenue and 10th Street tonight from 6:30 to 8pm
Location: The Tea Lounge location on 350 Seventh Avenue, via the F train to 7th Ave

Maybe I’m imagining it, but on the last two weekends the PS 321 Antique Flea Market has been smaller than usual.

This longtime flea market, which is open Saturdays and Sundays, is located in the front yard of PS 321 on Seventh Avenue between 1st and 2nd Streets.

Like most flea markets, this one is a mixed bag of good junk and bad junk. They usually have an interesting selection of vintage furniture in front of the school’s entrance.

According to New York Magazine, the Park Slope flea market offers locals “a wide selection of shabby-chic furniture, clothing, and kitsch. A great place to look for currently stylish mid-century home furnishings, from $25. Bargain hard.”

I found a lectern from a church there two years ago that I bought for Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House.; I consider it my very best find from that flea.

PlanetMomTshirts.com, founded by two moms, sells tees, hoodies, hats, boxer briefs and more embroidered with irreverent, mom-centric phrases. I’m not sure if they’re Brookyn-based. But they got my name and sent me info about their t-shirts, which have been getting worn by the famous and not-famous alike.

Kathy Griffin wore her “Whine? No. Wine? Yes.” and “Botox Free” tees on Bravo’s “My Life on the D List.” Cindy Crawford wrote to Planet Mom that her “Secretary of Transportation” tee was very cute and Brooke Shields calls her “I need a playdate” tee “the perfect one for me!”

Might make a good Mother’s Day Gift. Speaking of Mother’s Day, Amy Sohn and I chatted today about an Edgy Mother’s Day Event around Mother’s Day this year.

Will keep you posted. Here’s a list of what Planet Mom’s T-shirts say:

Whine? No. Wine? Yes.
Star of my own Reality Show
Mother Superior
Nudity. Nature’s answer to laundry.
PTA Reject
Living for the next Girls Night Out
In my next life, I want to come back as my kids
Botox Free
Juice box for them, Cocktail for me
World’s Best Mom when my kids are in school
Kids are my Workout
Chicken Nuggets or Pizza?
Trophy Wife
Seeking Tall, Dark, Rich cup of coffee
I need a playdate
Chauffeur moonlighting as mom
Nanny Deprived

We go away for 26 hours from Park Slope and everything changes. At least on the facade of Mark Ravitz’s building on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope between 2nd and 3rd Streets.

That’s right, Ravitz repainted the drips to match the cyclops-octopus sculpture in the window

It’s big news around here for those obsessed with Ravitz’s drips, which have been many colors in the years I’ve lived here.

“My drips,” Ravitz writes on his website, “are an abstract expression of an other worldy entity making an unexpected appearance. They have made thousands of people smile.”

You got that right, Mark.

The drips on Ravitz’s building at 200 Seventh Avenue (between 2nd and 3rd Streets) have been blue, gold, mad cow, brains, florescent green brick, red and gold and glossy black. Now they’re painted like the cyclops-octopus sculpture in the window. Go here for a history of the drips.

No pictures yet. But it is so cool.

Have I mentioned that Ravitz is trying to rent out the storefront int he building?

An OTBKB reader wrote in to see if anyone else had noticed an increase in air traffic noise in the neighborhood.

I live near Grand Army Plaza and have noticed much increased air traffic here the past few months……..low fliers sometimes a 3 min intervals right over my bldg……..wonder if anyone else has noticed have been calling complaint line from 311…………..have a great day.