Craft Activism at Brooklyn General

A trip out to Brookyn General, a fabric/yarn/pattern/notion/craft supply out in Carroll Gardens, was full of patterns and inspiration.

We were out there supporting Gale Zucker, the photographer of Craft Activism, a gorgeous book that explores the power of handmade, handcraft, DIY and the people in the new community of makers. (The book was designed by Kara Pliaitis and Jess Morphew, who did a fabulous job capturing the spirit of the text.) We even got to make our own felted owls!

DUMBO day

Some shots out and about in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn. It was an especially good day for some very textured grafitti.
 

Sunny Brooklyn

Monday was the perfect day to run away to the newly opened sections of Brooklyn Park under the Brooklyn Bridge.

The railings featured some beautiful type and designs that echo the suspension cables of the bridge. They also cast lovely shadows along the pier.

We spotted what looked like a solar dumpster, but more research revealed that it is a solar-powered electric vehicle charging station built by the Beautiful Earth Group, a Brooklyn-based renewable energy company. According to their website, the station is the first solar-powered charging station in New York City and one of only a few in the world. Brooklyn Bridge Park will use the donated station to charge its electric service vehicles (EVs) using only the power of the sun.

[Bottom image from the Beautiful Earth Group website]

Cannot Complain Enough

Speaking of meerkats, or more precisely, lemmings (actually imprecisely, since lemmings don't actually do the thing that we all credit them with)—GRRRRR. A whole article in the NYTimes talking about how hipsters and the uninvited blogosphere is abuzz with secret pool parties in Gowanus where people are swimming in cleaned up DUMPSTERS?

[Yana Paskova for The New York Times]
Even if it was just me and Rob and Nina swimming around in a container in our yard with no filter, no chlorine, no oxygenation—how long would that water be clean!?
Hipster swimsuit salmonella? Rotavirus? Gangrene?
This secret club NY stuff (secret restaurants that are just someone's house, secret bars that just pretend, secret parties that are just simply private affairs)—secret plastic tubs full of water that are now secret swim clubs? I just can't take it anymore. Must we fetishize everything?
(Also, all this capital-D Dumpsters . . . are they a brand name?)