Dondi Does Dumbo

We caught Dondi the Elephant at the Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival yesterday. We were transfixed. Dondi is a very, very smart creature and pretty darned cute too. Someone asked the guy who lays down under her at the end of the vid if he was afraid to do so, and he said, “I trust this elephant more than any person.” Watch Dondi in Dumbo.

Shroud Lifted from Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building!

Workers were busy yesterday lifting the black shroud that has surrounded the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building all year. The black netting was supposed to have been down by July 4, but there was a bit of a delay. Nonetheless, netting and scaffold removal was in full swing when we stopped by. This photo was shot around 3PM and there was significantly less netting than Friday evening around 7PM. So, who knows, there’s probably even less right now on Sunday morning.

Dumbo Under the Bridge Art Fest Pics

Here are a few photos we took at the Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival yesterday. It continues today and is very, very much worth checking out. We’ll have more pics and a full flickr set tomorrow.

Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist: Trashpicking Disco Balls on Flatbush

It’s time for another Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connection. This week’s top choice isn’t long, but it is certainly to the point. It’s also the first Missed Connection we’ve seen that has to do with trash picking:

trashpicking on flatbush – w4m

you gave us your discoball although you took scene it. we told you we planned to put the discoball to good use — send us your phone number so we can invite you to the party.

ps we won’t tell anyone that you took the tuna. even though it was for your ‘cats’.

Was it a sealed can of tuna?

Newtown Creek Nature Walk Opens

[Photo courtesy of newyorkshitty & chicapoquita/flickr]

We’ve poked some fun at the new park on Newtown Creek at the massive sewage treatment plant in Greenpoint, but if the truth be told we think it’s cool to have public access to that long-suffering body of water. Yes, there is irony in a nature walk at a sewage treatment facility and craziness that there’s a fishing area (we feel that any fish that lives in Newtown Creek should ever have to face a hook, even if it’s a catch it and toss it back situation…leave those fish alone). Regardless, New York Shitty paid a visit to the opening ceremony. You can check out her post her here and the excellent flickr set that she posted here.

Brooklinks: Sunday Reflections Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

• Time for Action on the Big Exxon-Mobil Spill [NYT]
• Who Needs Hollywood with Brooklyn Movie Shoots? [53 Boerum]
• Waiting for Landmark Designation in Midwood Park [NYT]
• This Week in Windsor Terrace History [Icky in Brooklyn]
• New York Shitty is a Terrific Blog [OTBKB]
• I Confess: I Almost Never Fart [Erica’s Blog]
• Opening Day at the Newtown Creek Nature Walk [newyorkshitty]
• Atlantic Antic Prep [BK 11201]
• Fixing the Public Space Around Borough Hall [NYT]
• Call 75 Smith the “Tutti Frutti Building” [Pardon Me for Asking]
• Attractive Eighties Women [lornagrl]
• Greenest Block in Brooklyn Awards Ceremony [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Downtown Brooklyn [seriously excited!]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• Ditmas Park Links [Living in Victorian Flatbush]

Get Frantic at the Atlantic Antic Today

In case you’ve been out of borough for months or in a place without internet access, today is the famous Atlantic Antic. The 33rd edition of the Antic stretches for 1.5 miles down Atlantic Avenue, from Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights to Fourth Avenue. It runs from 10AM-6PM. There is food. There is drink. There is entertainment galore. And, yes, there are tube socks. Also, The New York Transit Museum’s 14th Annual Bus Festival coincides with the Antic, on Boerum Place. A collection of vintage buses dating all the way back to 1917 will will be on display and ready to board, and there’s also free admission to the Transit Museum, which is a block away on Schermerhorn Street. For all the info you need, click here.

GL Sunday TV: Brooklyn Heights

A few vids from the YouTube of and from Brooklyn Heights, including one of Richard Thompson and David Byrne performing Psycho Killer at St. Ann’s in 1992.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Casting Call

Dumbo, Brooklyn

Greenpoint House Attacked by Truck (Doing Illegal Work) at Scarano Building

Paying attention to the rampant violations of work hours and stop workers can be a rich and rewarding endeavor, although not necessarily for the victims. Take the case of 53 Java Street, a project designed by Brooklyn architect Robert Scarano, in Greenpoint. What you are looking at is a photo of a truck that tipped over into a house while workers were pouring concrete at the site yesterday evening in violation of a stop work order on the Scarano building. Our Greenpoint correspondent captured this scene as it unfolded, phoning in a report and, then, writing:

As the fine chaps at 53 Java Street were violating a stop work order today (pouring cement), the truck turned overturned and bruised up the front right-hand corner of its neighbor, 51 Java Street. As of 6:42 this evening they were still busy extracting it.

Per the owner of 51 Java (who I spoke to this evening), this is the second time they have hit his property. This time he fears there might be structural damage. The first time (these people hit his property) was 3 weeks ago. That time it was an earth mover. They destroyed 1/3 of his garden.

A complaint was filed with the Department of Buildings at 4:53 PM:

CALLER STATES THAT THE BOTTOM CORNER OF A BUILDING AT THE ABOVE LOCATION, WHERE THEY WERE CONSTRUCTION GOING ON THE CONSTRUCTION TRUCK OVER TURNED AND HIT THE BOTTOM OF BUILDING CAUSING STRUCTURAL DAMAGE.

Can’t wait to see how this one does, or doesn’t, turn out. A pretty sunset shot of the house damaging truck, below.