Brooklyn Halloween Parades

Want to join a Brooklyn Halloween parade? There are at least five that are free:

Carroll Gardens Halloween Parade: This is an early one! Gather at 12:30 p.m. in Carroll Park and parade up Smith Street toward Warren Street, then back down Court Street to the park. The first 100 kids to show up will receive free noisemakers.

Cobble Hill Halloween Parade, Cobble Hill Park, 4 p.m. Join the costume parade behind the Jah Pan Steel Drum Band, then trick-or-treat around the neighborhood.

Park Slope Halloween Parade: A Big One! this year’s theme is “Fairy Tales.” At 4 p.m. the Park Slope Civic Council’s Halloween Costume Contest will begin at 7th Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets. After the contest, enjoy Ethan’s Motley Rockin’ Show. The main parade kicks off at 6:30 p.m. at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 14th Street and ends at Washington Park (formerly JJ Byrne Park), where the revelry will continue until 9 p.m. with music by Paprika, Hearts of Steel and the Famous Accordion Orchestra.

Witches’ Walk Halloween Parade In Williamsburg: Kids activities from 2-4:30 p.m. Meet at Flying Squirrel (96 North Sixth St. between Berry Street and Wythe Avenue) to get a free portrait taken by photographer, Rachel Elkind. Witches Walk Parade from 4:45 to 5:15 p.m. from N. Sixth Street and Bedford Avenue towards McCarren Park. End of parade party at Play at 33 Nassau Ave., 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. Call the Flying Squirrel at (718) 218-7775.

Ditmas Park West Midwood Halloween Parade: Meet where B/Q train lets out at Glenwood Road off Rugby. Parade proceeds down Glenwood Road to Westminster Road, passing through heart of Ditmas Park. Sweets and cider at 6 p.m., parade begins around 6:30 p.m.

There are more Brooklyn Halloween events, parties, spook houses, etc. listed here.

Ernie and Bert by Chattingjason, Creative Commons license.

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Beware 3D Glasses, Hung S&M Jury, and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Hung jury in Henry Street S&M trial.  Brooklyn Eagle

- It is a dirty little secret in NYC African American and Latino communities: young children killed while under the care of the mother's male companion. Room Eight 

- The Fulton Mall will always be the Fulton Mall no matter how much you paint it.  Observer 

- Two elderly drivers send four people to the hospital.  Gothamist

- "Do-Gooder" awards announced.  Brooklyn Eagle  

-  You have more to worry about in movie theaters than bedbugs: 3D glasses are crawling with bacteria and fecal matter. Gothamist 

- Why you should vote NO on both charter amendments. Daily Gotham

- Paladino's handling of his aunt's house involved "a curious chain of transactions."  NY Times  

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Yesterday's Rainbow Ended at Concord Village in Downtown Brooklyn

 This is the first time we've ever actually seen the freakin' end of a rainbow.

Yesterday's gigantic rainbow stretched all the way from somewhere in Manhattan to smack dab on top of this co-op building, part of Concord Village in Downtown Brooklyn.


(Supply your own sound effects for this video.)

Photo and video by MK Metz

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Handing Over Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO 'Insulting': Flemming

 J. Peter Flemming has written a terrific letter to Nanette Smith, special assistant to Mayor Bloomberg, about the proposal to turn DUMBO's Tobacco Warehouse into a theater for commercial productions. 

Published in its entirety in the Brooklyn Eagle, it starts:

The idea that we should be grateful that your [Brooklyn Bridge Park] Board will have taken advantage of our communities’ and our then elected officials’ and the Landmarks Conservancy’s remarkable efforts in the late ’90s to save the Tobacco Inspection Warehouse as an historic and visually stunning “ruin” — to hand both the structure and the iconic site over to one private entity — for free — for it to construct a “cultural facility” now outside the Park, not a “part” of the Park, is completely disingenuous and quite insulting . . .

Read the whole letter here.

- RFP Issued for Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO
- Tobacco Warehouse, Acute Corner, DUMBO

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Dog Fight in Cadman Park, the Brooklyn Fare Affair, and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Community activists are urging DOT to fix the dangerous intersection at Atlantic and Washington Ave. Huff Post

- Jewish patrols still controversial in Crown Heights.  Brooklyn Ink

- Recap of Brooklyn Bridge Park Advisory Council Meeting.  BHB

- There was a ferocious dog fight in Cadman Plaza Park yesterday.  Brooklyn Eagle

- The top ten Eater comments on the Brooklyn Fare Affair.  Eater 

- A woman will sue the city after tripping and fracturing her hip on the cracked slate outside Brooklyn Borough Hall.  Brooklyn Paper 

- Bedbugs have taken over the U.N.  NY Post

- Video: Charlie Sheen gets CGI treatment, finally.  Gothamist


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Galapagos Art Space Is Sending an Artist to Switzerland for Six Months

Got this message from Galapagos Art Space:

Galapagos Art Space is sending an artist to Switzerland for six months. Are you that artist?

Natural Selection: Artists in Residence.

Galapagos has partnered with IAAB, the International Exchange and Studio Program of the Canton of Basel, Switzerland, to each year offer an artist from New York City the opportunity to spend six months near Basel, in the Swiss countryside town of Riehen. In turn, we'll host a Swiss artist here.

The studio is situated in one of the old estate buildings on the "Berowergut", just next door to the Beyeler. When the barns located on the "Berowergut" were renovated and the Kunst Raum Riehen was installed, the old coach house at the back was converted into a two-story live-in studio.

The deadline for submissions is November 5th.

More here.

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'DUMBO Underwater' Up Now in DUMBO

Brooklyn-based artist Eric Corriel has a new video installation up in Dumbo called Dumbo Underwater.  Inspired by issues relating to climate change, DUMBO Underwater imagines what it might feel like if sea levels rose to the point where parts of New York City found themselves underwater.  

It will be up every night from sundown to sunrise until November 15th, 2010.  See Eric's website for more info.

VIDEO: http://www.vimeo.com/15409143

ON FLICKR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eric_corriel/sets/72157625105283748/

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Halloween Zombie Walk Over Brooklyn Bridge to Save NYC Public Libraries

 Those hungry Zombie Librarians from Urban Librarians Unite wrote to us to announce a Halloween Zombie Walk in support of New York City's public libraries, to be held October 31, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. beginning at Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn and continuing over the Brooklyn Bridge and ending at New York City Hall. 

The Zombie Librarians say:

The Halloween Zombie Walk brings library-loving New Yorkers together for a day of public theater to draw public attention to the mid-year budget cuts faced by New York City's public libraries. What does any of this have to do with zombies? Simple: without libraries there are no brains, and zombies need to eat brains to live. 

With libraries across the city closed on weekends there is a desperate zombie food shortage. So New York City’s zombie librarians will be walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall to protest the drastic cuts to their food supply. These zombies are starving and without the support of the public library their future appears grim.

New York City's three library systems serve 8 million residents from 212 locations, numbering over 43 million visits in FY'09. Since the economic crisis began, library use has been at an all-time high, with many New Yorkers depending on their local library for access to the information, resources, and programs necessary to conduct job searches, complete their education, navigate the Internet, and access public services.

20 Percent Cuts Since 2008

Mayor Bloomberg’s projected mid-year budget adjustment will cut funding for libraries by $16.5 million - 5.4% across the board. This comes on the heels of a devastating August reduction of $30 million that decimated weekend library service. Three years of brutal cuts during the biggest economic crisis in a generation have reduced public library funding by a shocking $74.5 million since 2008, or 20%. 

Unless Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council maintain funding, libraries' ability to provide New Yorkers with job search help, afterschool tutoring, computer access and instruction, English classes, and research assistance will be sharply reduced by December 2010.

Dress in your bookish zombie best and march/shamble your way to City Hall to support your local library and feed your brain.

For more information on the Halloween Zombie Walk, please contact savenyclibraries@gmail.com

Photo by reynolds.james.e, Creative Commons license

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Gowanus Canal Update, Goat Head in Prospect Park, and More Brooklyn Briefs

- How Jed Walentas spends his days in Manhattan. Observer 

- All about Monday's  DEP's presentation to Community Board 6 about the Gowanus Canal Facilities Upgrades which will be completed in 2013. PMFA

- Zombies stagger across the Brooklyn Bridge and attack a parked taxi in Midtown, and some people just ignore them.  Brooklyn Eagle 

- Don't eat the “Salted Holland Herring” from Brighton Bazaar as it may be contaminated by Botulism. Sheepsheadbites 

- Goat head found in Prospect Park.  Gothamist 

- 100 Clark Street has been sold.  BHB

- NYC doesn't want to assign races to students.  Gothamist 

- The secrets of Building 92. Observer 


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Gregory Brothers and More, 'Caught in the Act' -- Wednesday, October 27th

Tonight on Brooklyn Independent Television at 10 p.m., catch the Gregory Brothers plus other Brooklyn artists and producers in "Caught in the Act." Here's more about the show:

The Gregory Brothers: Following their YouTube hits, Double Rainbow and Bed Intruder, BIT visits the Auto-Tune masters – three brothers and one wife – in their Williamsburg studio.

Artist to Artist: Gustave Blache III’s paintings feature everyday people at work, in a light-filled style that takes you back 150 years. The photographs of his friend (and fellow School of Visual Arts alum) Kareem Black are as edgy and topical as could be.

Da Beatminerz: Hard at work in Da Bushwick, these Gold Record hip-hop producers have their own Beatminerz Radio station. Join them as they create one of the multitude of beats they’re famous for.

Sangram Majumdar: This painter—born in India, educated in Rhode Island and Indiana, living in Brooklyn – talks while he works out a new idea.

BIT is on  TimeWarner 56, RCN 84, Cablevision 69, Verizon 44

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