Artist open call and more in the QNYC Evening Edition for Tuesday Sept 18, 2012

Open call for artists from In Bloom Collective

The Astoria Art Festival is coming to Queens in November (11/9-11/11) and the In Bloom Collective has released an open call to artists (all media except for sculpture and large works, due to space constraints). Here’s their announcement:

We are thrilled to announce the first-ever Astoria Art Festival will be taking over the neighborhood on Friday, November 9-Sunday, November 11. For one weekend, restaurants and shops across Astoria will showcase the work of emerging and well-known local artists alike, complemented by an energetic kick-off party and several boozy receptions. It’s going to be an amazing collaborative opportunity to put the growing number of talented Queens artists in the spotlight.

Deadline for submission is September 30. More info here. Artists, we look forward to viewing your work in November!

Another twister watch in Queens? Yes, til 7pm tonight. 

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for Queens until 7pm tonight. Basically all of NYC is under a tornado watch til 7. Be careful out there – remember what happened last time we were warned about tornadoes in Queens.

Katch Grill and Brewery is coming to Astoria with a mondo beer garden and scads of taps

Thanks to a tweet by We Heart Astoria, we learned that Katch, a new grill and brewery is coming to Newtown Ave (31-19 Newtown – GMAP – this is a newer Pistilli building, AKA “Pistilli Tower”). We did a little digging and found that according to the Katch Facebook presence:

Will offer the most delicious food in the area, as well as 50 tap beers. Will also offer a 4,000 Sq. foot outdoor beer garden in the back as well as over 50 televisions!!

That sure is a lot of TVs, so likely it will be a good place to catch the game; this will also be home to a beer garden in central Astoria (there is Bohemian in the northern part of town and Studio Square in the southern). Looks like it will be very near the area of Newtown where the Astoria pedestrian plaza would have been. Anyway, their signage is up, which means they are probably going to open soon!

Where to shop for kids stuff – thanks, twitter friends!

This morning in our Question of the Day, we asked where people like to shop for kids stuff. Here are a couple of answers we got on twitter:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/harrisgraber/status/248065293170135041″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/nyc8675309/status/248071836791881728″]

LIC is a tech center in NYC, and here’s why

LIC is really becoming the place in Queens – as well as in the greater NYC area – for the tech community for several reasons. They would be educational programs; tech meetups/socials; startups are moving in; and then there’s the planned Tech Incubator at Anable Basin. It’s exciting to see LIC develop like that and we look forward to seeing more and more tech-related elements come to the neighborhood.