March 2008
March 27, 2008
Flea Circus
Senor Flea is feeling a little discombobulado this week, what with the flea buzz approaching bee-swarm levels. But we would like to take a moment to thank the Academy, as well as the Daily News, the New York Times, the New York Observer, Brooklyn Based, and of course all of the vendors and pals who are turning April 6 into a true flea-for-all.
With all this coverage pushing our interested vendors past the 750 mark, and April 6 a mere 10 days away, our posts here may be a bit sporadic.
So let's get interactive: See the little guy up there to the right? (Yes, he's a flea.) We'd like to know what you think of this fella as our mascot, and to be one of our T-shirt and promo designs. Any and all thoughts are welcome.
March 24, 2008
New York, New York!
Own-horn-tooting alert: Something called New York magazine has a splashy feature on ze Flea that came out today. Senor Flea is a proud papa, seeing some 20 or so of our vendors showcased in all their splendor. It feels like a birth.
There's even a handsome map that the mag's designers expertly crafted from a lo-res e-fax we sent over with our barely legible rudimentary Flea layout. (This actually kicked our asses to concoct the market's design for opening day, which we'll make available here too.)
So for all the New York readers visiting us for the first time, enjoy our little hot mess, and find all our fierce vendors on the list to the right. And just wait til you see them all in the flesh.
March 17, 2008
Record Time
You got your furniture, your clothes, your tchotchkes, you even got your granola. What else could you possibly want? Exactly—records. A rifle through a crate of records is for many as addictive as looking for a Paul McCobb Planner Group label on a mid-century desk. We know, we've been there. We're still there now actually.
What kicked the Flea into high gear for the first time was when the Brooklyn Daily Eagle broke the news back in December that DJ $mall ¢hange would be unloading his vast rekkid collection at the market. (Full disclosure: $mall ¢hizz DJ'ed Senor and Senora Flea's wedding, as well as zillions of other weddings.) Then the New York Times City Section followed with a front-page story on $¢ a week later, and from there news of the Flea spread far and wide.
So we got some more folks who sell records (and CDs and music ephemera). Moosaka (aka Senor Flea's hermano) will join DJ Sportscasual (who moonlights as co-owner of Williamsburg's Lucky Cat, home to the rad FutureFunk parties) to unleash their deep crates of hip-hop, funk, jazz, and whatever else, including Sportscasual's crazy reggae 45s (below). Go SuperCool! of Staten Island's finely curated and esoteric selection of records and other media includes stuff like William Shatner reading Isaac Asimov (above). And ShoutShimmy Records will share space with his wife-to-be Jellyroll Vintage, mixing his sharp musical taste with her fine vintage-clothing selection. Cute!
We also feel lucky to welcome Trash American Style, a nice fella named Malcolm whose punk/hardcore and avant-garde record store in Danbury, Connecticut, recently lost its lease to an unsavory landlord after 18 years. (Brooklynites, not unfamiliar with real estate grief, will greet Malcolm warmly.) And Athan from Sepiatone has all sorts of music to share with Fleasters, mixed in with his collected finds of all kinds.
March 13, 2008
Food, Glorious Food
Long live the Red Hook ballfields food vendors! Phew.
Like other humans, we love food, want it to be one of the many discoveries for Fleasters. Our little "food court" is growing tastier by the day, and the folks who make prepared or packaged nibbles inside the market will create nice way-stations to fuel your grueling Flea stomp. (We're open to suggestions for naming the food court; submit them as comments, or email flea@brownstoner.com. Nosh Nook? Nibbles?)
Wafels + Dinges is tough to top (whipped cream excepted), but they'll make great partners with new Food Court friends like Choice Market (below), the Clinton Hill cafe whose pastries, scones, baked goods and strong coffee are as good as they come. Frank and Dean of Nikko Catering tracked down Senor Flea, demanded to serve their pulled pork BBQ and chicken sandwiches at his casa, and delivered on their promise of yumminess. Frank and Dean make a vegan BBQ sandwich too, and they'll be doing some sides like cornbread to round out their comfort food stand. We'll have more soon on our new pals Donna and Shauna's all-vegetarian soups, which are made with locally grown ingredients, once they sort out their paperwork with the city. But with their hot and cold soups, Fleasters will be in for a real treat.
Sprinkled throughout the market, we have a strong home team of fooders. The Salvatore Bklyn Ricotta gals have already made a name for themselves with their homestyle fresh cheese, and we're proud to be their weekly public home. Emily from Brown Bag Industries has been baking insane cookies, brownies, and granola for the office where Senora Flea works, and when Senor got a taste we knew we had a culinary start in the making. Her Ooey-Gooey-Nutty-Chewy Brownies are ridiculous. For a little competition in the granola category, the gals launching Three Birds Bakery have a secret recipe that will knock your morning socks off—a must-try.
Park Slope's Justine Pringle has been doing well with her new Nunu Chocolates, made here in Brooklyn, and you can sample her Earl Grey truffles, sea salt caramels, and prosecco bonbons (most of them organic btw) at the Flea every Sunday. Be warned! Keavy from Williamsburg's Kumquat Cupcakery makes some of the prettiest mini-cupcakes you'll ever see (above)—extra bonus, they're delicious too. And Deann from Brooklyn Cookie will be selling her local-pride nibbles alongside Maria Finn of City Dirt, who will have edible plants among her various gardening items. And don't forget about Eddie's sister, who will be baking cupcakes to go with his gorgeous mantels and doors. Enough to keep your entire palette happy!
What A T's!
In your best Tim Gunn voice, say it: Designers! The Flea is making it work, tapping some of our fair city's fiercest T-shirt mavens to bring their creations straight to the schoolyard. As a journo and politico (El-i-ot!), Senor Flea tries to stay objective when blogging, but with three of his T's he's simply overjoyed that Milton Carter's mesmerizing designs (right) will be adding the Flea to a list of outlets that also includes Barneys. Uh-huh.
We also sense that the hand-drawn T designs from Loyalty & Blood (formerly Bang) will be a big hit, along with their series of letter bags (right, "F" for Flea). Heavenly Bod-Tees has a whole line of T's that feature African-American hair styles, and Chor Bazaar plays around with traditional Indian and Pakistani images like Indian Cadillacs and Bollywood heroes.
Still on the small-batch/customized tip, East Village-based The Fair School mixes designs like the sign-language alphabet with ironic sayings and pretty horses and zebras. And Black Sheep Heap hand prints her eco-smart "Beet the System" vegetable design onto recycled or organic cotton, and even donates some proceeds to NYC community gardens. All the more reason for Flea time to equal T time.
March 10, 2008
Charming Prints
Not only will the Flea feature photographers with excellent eyes selling pictures for every taste, like Cobble Hill's Kate Glicksberg (above), who shoots regularly for the New York Times Real Estate section, we also have some fun photo projects on tap.
The Fort Greene Photography Organization, which has supported and exhibited local shutterbugs' work since 2001, will showcase members' pics at a collective booth. Jeanne Lopez will bust out her NYC and Brooklyn snapshots for the first time in a market setting. And David Sclarow will have his local-flavor photos, including groovy pinhole shots of places like Prospect Park.
We're also excited to see how Dave Bias' plan develops: He obsessively repairs Polaroid instant cameras (and co-founded SavePolaroid.com), which he'll be selling at the Flea next to his Polaroid photo booth. Dave will take fun, quirky Instamatics of interested Fleasters, then frame your photo on the spot for a cool little memento. We love the idea so much that when Prospect Heights' Riely Clough randomly approached us about setting up her own photo booth with a slightly more refined approach, we couldn't resist saying yes. (Riely and Dave will set up on alternate Sundays, so you'll have to come twice to check 'em both out.)
And once we're in full swing, we encourage Fleasters to submit their own photos to be posted that week on our Flea Flickr page. Get the picture?
March 7, 2008
Object Lesson
Senor Flea has been working overtime to find the most varied vendors to reward marketeers' curiosity upon Flea arrival. We sample granola recipes (approved!), leave flyers at Cog + Pearl, provide guided tours for New York magazine editors (on our laptop) of the best of the Flea—for their March 24 feature story on us!
Last week, we hit the Modern Show of 20th C. antiques at the Lexington Ave. Armory in search of top-notch furniture and objects, and were pleased to bump into fellow Brooklynite Fran Schreiber, whose biz Ornaments + Objects (based in the Heights) combines out-of-the-ordinary jewelry, pottery, glass and, yes, objects from the Victorian era up through Art Nouveau and Scandinavian Modern, like this '50s American metal sculpture (right). Fran's got an eye for pieces that you can't quite put your finger on, but just know they're special.
March 6, 2008
Local Yokels
We're starting to sense some serious enthusiasm (say that 5 times fast) around the Flea, especially in our home base of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill (represent!). Balancing the need to attract folks from all over to make the market a success every week with the community-building exercise that the Flea has become is part of our core mission. In a perfect world, a Fleaster would come in looking for a deal on a dining set, find one, and also walk out as a new member of the Fort Greene Community Supported Agriculture program.
The new Fort Greene CSA (a neighborhood program that gives city dwellers access to produce and meats from area farms) is hoping to include a lot of lower-income folks from the area—especially public housing residents near DUMBO and the Navy Yard. We're big fans of the local food thing for everyone, so we invited the CSA folks (and their Myrtle Ave. Revitalization Project partners) to have a Flea booth to help with their outreach. Check 'em out and sign 'em up!
Our new pals at the Fort Greene Association will also have a Flea booth, to spread the word about their good deeds, especially their burgeoning "Green Fort Greene" environmental initiative (compact flourescent lightbulbs, etc.) and their work to improve nearby PS 46 on Clermont Ave.
And it turns out that Mr. Kevin McGeary, the Director of Maintenance at our homebase Bishop Loughlin H.S., is a flea market aficionado, and will have a booth to show off his keen antiques eye (we want those glass lamps, Kevin!), and also raise a little extra dough for the school.
Throw in a big rummage sale/fundraiser for the Montessori Day School of Brooklyn on Washington Ave. (Apr. 13)—more on our stoop sale plan later—and the Flea is becoming doers, doodads and do-gooders.
March 3, 2008
Faraway, So Close
Like any good Brooklynite, the Flea proudly touts its local roots any and all the time. But we know that sustaining a market like this over the long haul (every Sunday!) means creating access to stuff you just can't get around here—Connecticut, upstate, Pennsylvania, Western Massachussetts, faraway places like that.
Take Colonia, one of the zillions of antiques shops along Warren Street in Hudson, NY. They'll be at opening day to try out the Flea, but we have a sense their mix of modern and country furniture and smaller items will bring 'em back sooner than later. Former Brooklynite Sarah Stoudt, whose snazzy design/crafts shop Birch opened recently in Catskill, NY, will be coming down every Sunday to dispense with her pesky collection of handpicked items found around the region.
In a nice twist, Karen and Amy from newly launched ama home will be culling furniture and other pieces from homes they're renovating upstate and selling them (sometimes modernized) at the Flea. Cool. And from further north, Salvage Fest veterans Fred and Camille from Silver Fox will be transporting truckloads of architectural salvage, reclaimed wood and antiques down from Albany for your decorating pleasure.
We're really into the folks at ReproDepot Fabrics, from the "other" Hamptons in Western Mass., who will be cutting bolts of their huge range of vintage and vintage-reproduction textiles (right, top) onsite every week at the Flea, in the Design*Sponge section. And in addition to reupholsterer Chairloom from outside Philadelphia, we'll have Philly's own Merchant Army, an upstart vintage housewares and furniture vendor with all kinds of affordable '50s and '60s stuff (right, bottom).
Onward and upward (and northward and westward).