This event is the bee's knees!

Happy bee-day!

On June 12, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden celebrates its 100th birthday the sweetest way it knows possible.

From bee-made and -inspired products to honey taste tests from local beekeepers, it’s an apiary extravaganza.

Fill up on honey products made by Liddabit Sweets and Sugarbuilt and the sweet stuff itself made by local rooftop beekeepers, who got a boost after the city made the practice legal in the city this past March.

Then learn where it all came from through talks with renowned apiarist Dennis vanEngelsdorp and nature writer Verlyn Klinkenborg, or how to do it yourself in a Beekeeping Boot Camp with Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries.

Throughout the day, sample sounds from local bands including soul revival act the Sweet Divines, performing with the queen bee herself, Maxine Brown; Brooklyn’s own kings of a cappella, The Persuasions; the gypsy jazz of Stephane Wrembel and his Django Experiment; as well as a special performance by Hiten Marimba Duo of — what else — “Flight of the Bumblebee.”

There’s a lot to bee excited about.

“Centennial Bee-Day Party” at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden [1000 Washington Ave. at Crown Street in Crown Heights], June 12, 11 am-6 pm. Free. For info, visit www.bbg.org.

Read more...

Coney Island Brewing Company in action

The opening of Luna Park may have made all the headlines last week, but another business made its debut in Coney Island last week.

Coney Island Brewing Company opened its doors for the first time last weekend, billed as the world's smallest brewery (that must be its freak show title).

They had Josh Knowlton from Bierkraft come through with Pete Taylor and John Livingston; Shane Henderson from Whole Foods Chelsea; and Shmaltz's Sean Lynch to make some brew. They're all currently in fermentation, and should be ready by June 19 for the Mermaid Parade. So be sure to get yours.

Read more...

The weekend: 6.4-6.6

The weekend is upon us once again. Here's a look at what's going on in a neighborhood near you:

Friday, June 4

Cobble Hill: Foodies wanted for the Omnivore New York Festival at Invisible Dog (also Saturday).

Red Hook: Celebrate the neighborhood in the annual Red Hook Festival (also Saturday).

DUMBO: VII Gallery's latest photography exhibition puts a spotlight on hunger, with photos that are both beautifully composed and harrowing to look at.

Brooklyn Heights: Express your love (or hate) for the Dodgers at the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Saturday, June 5

Bushwick: Bushwick is alive with art this weekend during the Bushwick Open Studios (also Sunday).

Boerum Hill: Atlantic Avenue is, too. (Also Sunday.)

Park Slope: Grab a drum and head to the Brooklyn Public Library for a drum call.

Williamsburg: Find the cutest things on Etsy, in person, at the Renegade Craft Festival. Sunday too.

Sunday, June 5

Red Hook: The circus comes to the waterfront with Showboat Shazzam.

Read more...

BKLYN Yard to close

Last weekend was the last time to party along the Gowanus.

News comes today that the BKLYN Yard, the popular event space along the Gowanus, known for its Sunday Best dance parties (and a feature in the New York Times just this past Tuesday), is closing, with all planned events for the summer canceled. According to MeanRed Productions, the producers of the space, their landlord was no longer honoring their lease (read more about the situation here).

To follow, an e-mail sent today from MeanRed and posted on their Web site:

BKLYN Yard is closing

with heavy hearts, a message from MeanRed

To our Yardies...

Over the past four years, we have worked hard to create BKLYN Yard. You watched us grow from a small unknown independent venue into a space that hosted the best tacos in NYC, incredible talent (Lee Scratch Perry, Kaiju Big Battel, Dan Deacon & Jose Gonzalez to name a few), the Sunday Best dance series, the Gowanus Harvest Fest, the BK County Fair, Score! Pop-Up Mega Swap, Parked: Food Truck Festival, and countless lobster bakes, pig roasts, BBQs and more. This past Memorial Day Weekend, we were so proud to open our doors and display all the hard work we have been putting into the space to make this summer even better…from our new bar, to our atm, to our bocce court. Thousands of you came out and supported us and made it one of the most beautiful weekends we have had yet, so we are sad to announce, that last weekend was the final weekend of BKLYN Yard in our Carroll Gardens home.

Our landlord of the past four years, who used to share our vision for BKLYN Yard, notified us on Tuesday May 1st, that they would no longer honor our lease which had been in place since early this year. They chose not to give us an opportunity to renegotiate, and requested that we take what we have built, and terminate all of our confirmed plans and schedule for BKLYN Yard this summer.

BKLYN Yard is a labor of love for MeanRed, rooted in our core company values: Love for artists, food, music and community. We are sad to see our passion project go in its brightest year, and are sad to let down all the people who have support and worked with us for the past 3 summers.

But if there is one thing we pride ourselves in, its our ability to think outside the box, to take a leap when there is no net, and to reach our highest visions. We wouldn’t be who we are if we let hurdles keep us down. If we can turn adim sum restaurant into a nightclub, a loft into a members-only club, and a toxic yard into a beautiful summer oasis... we can do anything.

Rest assured, our renegade spirit and love for pop-up spaces will come alive again this summer — very possibly with the same collaborators and programming you see on our current schedule... And very possibly even better than we had planned before.

Doug Singer, Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter's Sunday Best series will continue on at another location, including this Sunday with DJ Koze. You can keep an eye on them at www.sundaybestnyc.com

In the meantime, we want to say:

Thank you for sharing in BKLYN Yard. We hope you’ll continue on this crazy ride with us as we bring you what’s next. Stay tuned, we will pop-up where you least expect it, with the words:

“Built by BKLYN Yard”

With love,

MeanRed Productions

Read more...

DIY summer fun

Memorial Day is behind us, so it’s officially summer in our book. And that means grilling outdoors, downing a few beers and cooling off with a cone. But why have someone else do it for you, when you can do it all yourself — thanks to our first annual Do-It-Yourself summer guide? Inside, you’ll find tips on grilling, homebrewing and even making your own ice cream from local experts, including Phinizy & Phebe, two true Brooklyn DIY inspirations pictured above. We even got the general manager of one of the hottest bars in the borough to design a new drink, which we’re calling the “Brooklyn Summer.” Your next party won’t be complete without it, so read on!

Freeze it! Learn out to make fluffnut ice cream sandwiches.

Brew it! These places will help you do it.

Grill it! Make the perfect burger this summer.

Mix it! Here's the recipe for our exclusive cocktail - the "Brooklyn Summer"

Read more...

It's Brooklyn Film Festival time again

By Thomas Tracy

It’s the Sundance that spans the seas.

More than 100 cutting edge films lensed from as far away as Uruguay and as close as Union Street will premiere starting tonight through June 13 as the Brooklyn International Film Festival celebrates its 13th year at Brooklyn Heights Cinema and Williamsburg's newest theater, indieScreen (learn more about that here.)

There’ll be the requisite dramas, documentaries, eye-popping animation and short films of every stripe — and there’s even a flick about bloggers.

Hey, what would a Brooklyn-based film festival be without “Colin Hearts Kay” (pictured), a delightfully wacky live action/animation comedy set in Park Slope that exposes the true danger about blogging — it’s hell on relationships.

But that’s just one of 13 feature films set to be screened. There’s also “The Dark House,” a thriller billed as Poland’s answer to “Fargo,” and “The Welfare Worker,” where a Dutch money manager running a con game becomes the next Bernie Madoff.

Festival screening director Nathan Kensinger said that more than 2,400 submissions from throughout the U.S. and more than 90 other countries were sent in for consideration.

“It was an extremely tight competition, but we picked the ones that stood out, the ones that expressed the most current, exciting and newest ideas,” he said.

But you’re not going to need your subtitle reading glasses for all of them. Sixteen of the films shown were made by borough filmmakers. Twelve of those were set right here in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn International Film Festival at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema [70 Henry St. between Cranberry and Orange streets in Brooklyn Heights, (718) 596-7070] and indieScreen [285 Kent Ave. between S. First and S. Second streets in Williamsburg, (718) 388-4306]. Opening night party at powerHouse Arena [37 Main St. between Water and Front streets in DUMBO, (718) 666-3049]. For info, visit www.brooklynfilmfestival.org.

Read more...

Foodies wanted

Calling all omnivores!

This weekend, chefs from around the world will converge on The Invisible Dog, a Cobble Hill art center that’s playing host to master classes and dinners prepared by chefs of “The Young Cuisine,” for two days of inventive fare during the Omnivore New York Food Festival.

Learn from the masters during public classes on June 4, where six chefs, including Petter Nilsson of Paris’s La Gazzetta and David Kinch of Manresa in Los Gatos, Calif., pass the baton and show you how they make their creations.

That night, “The Friendly Dinners” pair chefs at restaurants including Roberta’s in Bushwick, as well as at The Invisible Dog, for rare culinary treats you won’t get again this side of the Atlantic.

Then on June 5, “Iron Chef” comes to Brooklyn, in a live cook-off between French chefs. Music will help you dance off all that you’ve consumed.

Omnivore New York Food Festival at The Invisible Dog [51 Bergen St. between Smith Street and Boerum Place in Cobble Hill, (646) 270-2550], June 4 and 5. For info, visit www.theinvisibledog.org.

Read more...