SATURDAY
10am-5pm: last chance to enjoy the brooklyn flea outdoors this season before it moves indoors to one hanson

1pm: enjoy an hour-long chamber music concert on a floating barge at the foot of the brooklyn bridge. free.

6:30pm: the zero film fest closing party features all flowers in time from tarnation’s jonathan caouette, starring chloë sevigny. plus musical guests school of seven bells, natureboy and a dj set from bear in heaven. bonus: free booze! nutroaster studios, $12 adv/$15 door. (more…)

Hear the flea calling. Photo via Brownstoner

You all know the Brooklyn Flea pretty well by now, we’re sure: the lick-smacking tastes of Asia Dog, the free samples of McClure’s Pickles, the guy with the REAL zebra-skin covered trunk and so forth (and if you don’t, Martha Stewart is way cooler than you). But how much do you know about the beautiful neighborhood that surrounds the flea? And even if you do think you know it, do you really pay attention to all its sights and sounds? Elastic City, a new walking-tour company, is kicking off this Saturday, May 1, with the first in a series of Flea Walks, and it’s free this weekend only. (more…)

You can’t tell this from looking at the picture, but hidden in the glare of the spotlight is Borough President Marky Markowitz being sworn in by Mayor Mike at the Park Slope Armory last night. The photo is so awful because we were actually on stage behind them at this fancy shmancy politico-love-fest! (more…)

The Flea in One Hanson Place, photo courtesy of Racked.com

Holy letterpress cocktail coasters! Racked, the essential NYC retail blog, has some choice photos from the Brooklyn Flea’s debut in One Hanson Place in Saturday, in all of its landmarked art-deco glory. Vendors in teller windows, pupusas in the vault—it’s all too too Brooklyn-fabulous. Izzy Greenspan of Racked (love her, btw) writes:

“The mix of vendors isn’t much different from other Flea locations—there’s the usual vintage coats, grandmotherly furniture, and pressed-tin mirrors, plus a sprinkling of young artisans with homemade bags and clothes. But all of it looks a hundred times fancier under the soaring ceiling.”

The photos from inside the 1895 building, former home to the Williamsburg Savings bank, certainly suggest as much. As Racked points out, it’s a “perfect marriage of market and location.” To us, it’s looking like the perfect place to lose your kids on a freezing Saturday. See more photos on Racked.

We get excited just looking at this photo of One Hanson Place.

Maybe  you’ve been to this building for a root canal or orthodonture. But put those painful memories aside, because starting tomorrow (Jan. 9), One Hanson Place—the dentistry capital of Brooklyn for reasons we don’t really know—will be hosting the Brooklyn Flea for 12 weeks, and the setup sounds totally whack, in a good way. From 10 to 5 Saturdays and Sundays, the flea will take over the ground floor and basement of the former Williamsburg Savings Bank building, where  “vendors will present their merchandise at teller windows, banking kiosks, secret rooms, and even the former vault located within the landmark space,” according to the press release. How cool is that? If you’ve never been, the Art Deco building, with 63-foot vaulted ceilings, giant stained-glass windows, and 40-foot mosaic of New York as a Dutch colony (OK, we took that from the press release too) is worth a gander, even without nitrous.

Martha with her niece Sophie Herbert, and her French bulldog Francesca. Photos by Mark S. Bernal.

Martha Stewart was all up in the Brooklyn Flea in DUMBO on this gorgeous Sunday, tasting some goodies and generally causing a big commotion with her camera crew, entourage and French bulldogs in tow. But what brought the queen of home craftiness into the county of Kings?

Turns out she’s doing a whole hour on Brooklyn, which may also include her stops at Marlow and Sons, Marlow and Daughters, a rooftop garden and some of the different food factories. Her posse said the show (doubly titled Martha: The Martha Stewart Show) is supposed to air Nov. 10, though it’s subject to change. “We love Brooklyn,” she gushed to us (but only because we stalked her all afternoon) after sampling the wares from a handful of vendors. So which ones will make the TV cut? (more…)

Martha is bringing her skillz to BK

Everyone loves the Brooklyn Flea—Thurston Moore, Neil Patrick Harris, that guy from Flight of the Conchords, and now… Martha Stewart!

We’ve got confirmation from two different vendors that the wreath-making-one herself is going to be popping in to the Fort Greene flea market on Saturday to film an episode of her show, the eponymously named Martha. Vendors said her staff stopped by on a recent weekend to sample some of the items and scope the place out.  She normally shoots at Chelsea Studios on West 26th Street, so she’s not that far away to begin with. (more…)

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Flea.

With the recent opening of Brooklyn Flea’s new location under the Brooklyn Bridge, it seemed like a good time to take stock of the flea markets that are sprouting up all over the borough—some two dozen in all, according to our rough count. Each one has its own personality (quirky antiques, homespun artwear, etc.), so every weekend we’ll be making the rounds, reviewing the merch, taking a few pics and rolling all of it into a map. Here, the first entries in an evolving project. And as always, we’d love to hear your favorites. (more…)