One of the highlights of last night’s Brooklyn Blogfest was this piece, put together by Brooklyn Optimist and made up entirely of photos from lovely and talented Brooklyn photobloggers (including locals Flatbush Gardener and Fading Ad Blog). Take 5 minutes and have a look.
photo by Flatbush Gardener
When I attended last year’s Brooklyn Blogfest at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Sustainable Flatbush had been online for only a few weeks. Most of the names and people and language of the blogging world were very new to me, everyone at the event seemed to be from Fort Greene or Prospect Heights, and covering Atlantic Yards was the primary reason for many of the blogs’ existence.
This year’s Blogfest (held at the Brooklyn Lyceum) was much larger and more diverse, and the one topic we could all agree on was that the word “blog” has become inadequate to describe the many different forms an online journal can take. Brooklyn blogs range from highly trafficked sites that specialize in real estate trends to painfully personal virtual diaries, and everything in between. Text, drawings, photos, and video are all part of the expressive palette, and Brooklyn bloggers wield these tools with great expertise, creativity, and humor. It’s a pretty impressive bunch. Did I mention that I had a great time?
Like a true sustainability geek, I was thrilled to meet the Chair of Brooklyn’s Solid Waste Advisory Board and chat briefly about anaerobic digestion. But mostly it was great to get introduced to new people/blogs such as Brooklyn Ron, CyclechicNY, and Gardenfork; to see the faces behind recent favorites like Clinton Hill Chill Blog, BedStuy Banana, and Flatbush Pigeon; and to hang out with the folks from Reclaimed Home, Fading Ad Blog, and those perky youngsters from Supervegan. A lovely evening, and an inspiration to continue with this adventure of blogging.
… and just had to share:
Flatbush Gardener has a piece on Making Brooklyn Bloom, this Saturday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden…
Streetsblog, Brooklyn Junction and Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens on transit upgrades proposed in the recent State of the MTA address. Of particular interest is the idea of converting a “lightly used Bay Ridge freight line into a subway service that would run in an arc from southern Brooklyn to Queens to the Bronx”… yes locals, those are the tracks down by Avenue H…
This video illustrates why so few plastic beverage bottles get recycled in New York State, and why we need to update the Bottle Bill to change it…
Copenhagen Cycle Chic gives us the lowdown on Everyday Bike Culture…
Reclaimed Home on being Cheap and Green or, How I Learned to Get Past the Green Hype and Love Craigslist…
Streetfilms brings us more Livable Streets lessons from Bogota, Colombia: pedestrian-friendly streets, miles of bicycle paths, and free outdoor recreation for all…
A slice (and a sketch) of NYC subway life from Ami Underground…
P1010102, originally uploaded by Sustainable Flatbush.
Cargo bikes are very big here, carrying everything from huge bottles of water to sounds for the party!
Okay, so I’ve been a rather bad blogger for a week or two, but I have a really good excuse: I’m in Recife, Brazil for Carnaval!
Needless to say it’s crazy here (in a good way), but I have a few photos to post that are relevant to the sustainability discusssion… here they come!
Marlborough and Newkirk, artist’s storefront
Okay, you know you’re a Bad Blogger when other blogs write about your projects before YOU do. A few weeks ago I set up an online group called Flatbush Arts, and promptly notified a few local blogs. Brooklyn Junction jumped on this piece of local news and posted about it the next day (he’s a Good Blogger!); I, on the other hand, am finally doing so now.
Initially I was unsure of whether this blog was an appropriate place for me to promote a completely separate endeavor; however, I am now over this. After all, life without art is arguably not sustainable, or perhaps not worth sustaining! It is also clear to anyone who lives or spends time in Flatbush that there are MANY creative people here with no place to meet and work together in the neighborhood; in this respect the goals of Flatbush Arts are very similar to those of Sustainable Flatbush: doing good stuff right here where we live.
So, though this is old news by blogging standards, I am writing to let you know about the Flatbush Arts online community. The purpose is to create a place to develop and nurture an ongoing locally-based arts scene. As for what is meant by local, since the boundaries of Flatbush seem to be a difficult thing to pinpoint these days (as recently discussed here and here and here and here and here), let’s just say we’re talking about south of Prospect Park, and see how that goes! When this community of artists is so large that we feel the need to splinter off into Flatbush - East Flatbush - Junction - Midwood - Kensington - Prospect Lefferts Gardens… well, then we will have succeeded, right?
And as for what is meant by Arts, we are talking about:
music… dance… painting… sculpture… poetry… film.. theater… design… multimedia… graphics… photography… crafts… fashion… video… literature… (if I’ve missed anything let me know!)
Anyone with a Google ID is welcome to join in the discussion. Let’s see what we can get going.
