Bklink: Sideshows by the Seashore

It’s that time again. Sidewshows by the Seashore opens on Easter Sunday. Come see Donny Vomit, Heather Holiday, Insectavora, Serpentina, Twisted Shockmeister Scott Baker and Nick Sin.–Kinetic Carnival

Opposition to Brooklyn Jail Proposal Organizes a Little

The Brooklyn House of Detention expansion proposal now has an organization called the Brooklyn House of Detention Stakeholders Group working to “keep the community informed of the ongoing struggle against expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention.” Their website is brooklynjail.org. Quite a few groups near the facility, which the city wants to reopen and double in size, bitterly oppose the plan. The group says the city ignored a “visionary plan” to redevelop the facility. The proposal from Time Equities and Hamlin Ventures would have added condos and rental housing, but replaced the jail with alternative incarceration and treatment programs. Groups involved in the “stakeholders” effort include the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, 53 Boerum Place Condominium, the Boerum Hill Association, Brooklyn Vision Foundation, Cobble Hill Association and State Street Houses Association.

Broolinks: Thursday First Day of Spring Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. We wish everyone a Happy Spring and note that the photo above is for celebratory purposes only, as it comes from Prospect Park last spring. Soon, though.

• End Nears for Koscuiszko Bridge [NYDN]
• Planner Amanda Burden Speaks [AYR]
• No Parking at Brooklyn College Dorm [Brooklyn Junction]
• Markowitz Chief of Staff is Stepping Down [NYDN]
• Wednesday Food & Drink Roundup [Brownstoner]
• Estelle Closing Its Doors [Kensington Brooklyn]
• First Look at Pomme de Terre [Ditmas Park Blog]
• The Hole in Carroll Gardens [Lost City]
• Who’s the Best Brooklyn Heights Dog Walker? [BHB]
• The Face of Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Brooklyn Lamp-Phone-Clocks [Pardon Me for Asking]
• Vid of Coney Historian Charles Denson from Documentary [Kinetic Carnival]
• Dumbo Cat & Dog Adoption Event, Sat. 3/22 [Dumbo NYC]

J. Fiber and Yoon Lee at Williamsburg’s Pierogi

With this post, we welcome the contributions of Owen Roberts. His task is clear–to supply us with posts about whatever moves him:

The crowd at the opening at Pierogi, on North 9 Street off Bedford Ave in Williamsburg last Friday night was consistent with expectations–older and very white–but the art was far from predictable.

The first room featured seven paintings by the San Francisco based artist Yoon Lee. From far away, the paintings all look fairly similar, but on close inspection each is based on a unique color scheme and architectural conception. Lee’s paintings are analog reproductions of images that originate on her computer, done with precisely layered, thick lines and dots of acrylic paint. From close up they look machine manufactured, but take a step back and you will see a more chaotic, expressive image.

In the second room, a husband and wife duo with a single moniker, J. Fiber—a concatenation of the two artists’ names: Jane Fine and James Esber—have fifteen works that combine acrylic, colored pencil, graphite and ink. Each work is a complex arrangement of limbs, flowers, guns and abstract shapes, along with a few phalluses thrown in here and there. The result is something consistent with many recent independent comic book artists’ interpretations of anatomy (see Dash Shaw, Gipi), M. C. Escher, and fantastic story telling. Each drawing presents a self-contained world, where violence and masculinity appear at war with feminine imagery.
–Owen Roberts

Bklink: Tip Sheet & Egg Hunt Guide

Trying to figure out what to do over the next few days? Perhaps you need Dine in Brooklyn info? Or want four choices for Saturday night? An Easter Egg Hunt perhaps?–Brooklyn Based & About Brooklyn

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Seventh Ave. in the Rain #2

[Photo courtesy of Anna Lewis]

If you catch the first Seventh Avenue photo below, this shot of a little girl in spring colors with matching balloons is a very different sort of rainy day Park Slope photo.

Bklink: Brooklyn Reading Works

You’ve heard me mention Regina McBride’s amazing writing workshops, Inner Lives, Developing Characters. Some of the best writers I know take her workshops. That’s why Brooklyn Reading Works is presenting a reading of work from these workshops called Inner Lives Out Loud on Thursday March 27th at 8 pm at the Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue @ 3rd Street in Park Slope. I will be reading an excerpt from my new novel, ‘The Last Sublet,’ at this reading!…”–OTBKB

Say What: Curb Your Piggy Edition

There are so many elements at work in this sign from Ten Eyck Street in East Williamsburg that it’s hard to know where to start. Well, we know that we need to start with the Curb Your Piggy element, which is superb, but we also have to note the damaged one-way signs and tagged Stop Sign. This magnificent specimen comes from the wide-ranging Miss Heather.

Bklink: Window Pains

The big new Williamsburg building known as 125 N. 10 appears to be done gobbling up the windows at 55 Berry, proving that once a construction project gets going–even if it takes a couple of years–it really gets going.–Curbed

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Seventh Ave. in the Rain #1

[Photo courtesy of Anna Lewis]

Old First Church on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope yesterday in the rain. After a short absence that began in November and a great deal of conversation, the homeless have returned to the church steps.