the bell house

I had the privilege of getting to check out the new venue being built by the guys over at Union Hall yesterday. As you can see from the above photograph, it's a huge space which will surely bring some big name acts to the Gowanus. Located on 7th street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, it's convenient to the R/M and F trains as well as the super reliable G train at Smith and 9th. Construction is moving quickly and they are hoping to open by early September -- and you can be sure that they will be enforcing a strict no stroller policy at the door.

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third ave.

the new york times has an interesting portrait of third avenue. additionally gothamist has a piece on the new bbq (and pizza, although not yet) place on the corner of 3rd and 6th. the picture above is from the summer when the building was still the home of ephemera press.

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idiotarod 08

the race ran from chinatown over the manhattan bridge into dumbo and then through gowanus and carroll gardens before terminating on the edge of red hook.

full set over on the voice.com

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7th street / south slope news

according to a couple of sources, 7th street between 2nd and 3rd aves will soon be home to a new musical venue run by the good folks at union hall. given the problems that i've heard about with their current location - i.e. noise complaints, it makes sense to open something in a location where noise is not an issue. additionally moving the music aspect of their business down the street opens up the basement for quieter activities such as the brilliantly booked sunday night comedy shows - an example being:

Sunday, December 16, 7:30pm
TEARING THE VEIL OF MAYA
comedy with Eugene Mirman + Michael Showalter + Aziz Ansari + Jon Glaser + special guest
$7 : tickets available at the door

In the coming months, I expect a lot will change down on 3rd and 4th avenues. speaking of change, i noticed that the fencing has come down from the "no baby gap" building on the corner of 13th and 5th.



no idea if an actual baby gap is going to be the retail anchor for this new "green" condo project but it will be interesting to see what does open here in the next couple of months.

oh lastly - the union market on 7th and 13th looks like it's going to open any day now, beer table is still awaiting it's liquor license. a sign announcing a new tapas restaurant has appeared on the old aarons space on 5th and 17th. kitchen bar's "public house," the new pizza and beer location on 6th and 21st is looking like it's fairly ready to open as is the mystery restaurant/bar on 5th and 20th.

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3rd avenue

3rd avenue feels like a leftover from the 80's. an expressway rumbles above you while cars rattle by at top speed on hamilton avenue, which runs underneath. most of the business being done seems to revolve around gas stations, car washes and tire shops. at night and on weekends the area is especially desolate which can make for some interesting shooting. if you head north from here, you skirt along the waterfront, passing warehouses, factory's, box stores and a federal prison.





i really like how they took the time to give the garage some nice details.

continuing down 3rd on my way to the mugs record release party, i noticed that it looks like the new restaurant on 3rd avenue at 9th street was still progressing along at a fair rate. they had poured some new concrete in what looks like it could be an outdoor seating area.

lastly, a couple more pictures after the expansion.

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summertime

It's been really warm here the past few days, highs in the nineties everyday. Seemed like as good of a time as any to go and see for myself how people were handling it. the first stop was the brand new floating pool (and sandy beach) that had been created under the brooklyn heights promenade.


barge pool


sandy beach

the food situation at the barge, seems to be limited to hot dogs and ice cream at this point, but according to ny magazine, that may be changing very soon. they wouldn't let me onto the barge without a bracelet, so i set off towards the next destination. stop 2 was the double d pool, on third avenue near the gowanus canal.


double d pool


easy cool down

lastly, the kids on my street have been running the hydrant for the past couple of days.




21st street.

the only other news is that sidecar had taken down the paper covering the windows and appeared to be open as i drove past today...

sidecar (560 Fifth Ave., between 15th and 16th streets, Brooklyn, 718-369-0077)

sources report that a liquor license is "coming soon," for now it's B.Y.O.

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hello, brown.

the gowanus has always been one of my favorite neighborhoods, it's a nice mix of industrial and residential spaces. old and new, tucked away in the no mans land between park slope, carroll gardens and red hook. it has also been, these past few years, a great spot to check out some really great street art. on sunday i decided to take the bike out for a spin and as there were a couple of revs pieces that i wanted to shoot, i headed in the direction of gowanus. i was across the 3rd street bridge and about to make a right on bond street when i noticed that someone had come along with some brown spray paint and painted over an old elbow-toe . curious, i decided to look around the corner and check out another spot that had been appropriated. this one had also been sprayed with the same brown spray paint-- as had a gore b below it. continuing down bond, i decided to have a look at first street (which was a pretty busy street for street art last summer when the empty vessel project was parked at the end of the block). to my disgust, the same person had come along and hit the remains of a swoon, three elbow-toe's, a cheekz, teo and a clever stencil. they also defaced a small sign which read "toll ahead" in reference to the new toll brothers construction project going up at the end of the block. oopps. lastly, as i was riding off, i noticed that our friend "mr. brown" had hit up another swoon, the remains of an armsrock, an elbow-toe stencil and the elbow-toe pasteup that has graced the abandoned building on union, at bond, for almost a year.

after the splasher nonsense it's hard to get too upset about street art getting defaced, after all it (for the most part) is pretty temporary stuff that is put up without the property owners permission. but still, it's kind of upsetting that someone would go out of their way (and over a 10 block radius) to sloppily spray a can of brown paint for a few seconds on each piece. some people love street art and some don't, but personally i would rather see something interesting and thought provoking on the wall then a brown scrawl.

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