Health Care Failed Folk Musician Vic Chesnutt
The start of the new decade brings a slew of new art shows to North Brooklyn in which landscape plays a central role. Here are some of our favorites.
North Third Comes Alive
The debate over whether chain stores in Williamsburg are good for the neighborhood is nothing new.

It’s always fascinating, if rare, when art and sports collide. Last night it occurred in a wildly committed play by play reenactment of the Super Bowl while it was being viewed on TV, in an old synagogue-turned-artists studio in East Williamsburg.
In their 100-year-old defunct synagogue, artists Matt Freedman and Jude Taillichet installed a mini-turf field stretching about 60 ft, with to-scale yard lines, goal posts scoreboard and all the leading characters of a super bowl—coaches, referees, owners, cheerleaders, sports commentators, halftime entertainment. All this with a backdrop of vaulted stained glass windows. [read more]

Photo by Carrie Beckman
Dominican Williamsburg helps Haitians [NYPost]
Metropolitan Bar, First Williamsburg Gay Bar [iheartnycbars]
East Williamsburg Photo du Jour [newyorkshitty]
Blogger at the forefront of Brooklyn’s pickle movement [nems360]

Photo by Carrie Beckman
Good Eat, refreshing, farm-sourced fare on Meserole Ave [NYMag]
The Utopia Williamsburg Vases [NBCNY]
For new development sites, affordable housing levels, point of contention [yournabe]
Odors, Construction Delays Rankle Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee [yournabe]
The word “gold” conjures images of Olympic victory, wealth, images on Lucky Charms cereal boxes and perhaps, wiretapped conversations involving deposed Illinois governors. It has served as a monetary standard as well as being a great electrical conductor. But for this discussion it is the color of chemical element number 79’s affinity for fashion.
I was moved to write about the yellowish metal after seeing this great little gold-sequined black chiffon dress from Greenpoint’s Dalaga (the store is covered in this blog here). The gold splashes out from the left shoulder across the bias over and over the rich black v-necked collar in a sartorial expression of a 1920s speakeasy. Pair it off with this flat-stitch studded clutch, also from Dalaga. 
Feeling radiant yet? Maybe you can feel it in your toes with Le Sportsac’s recent foray into footwear; namely this gold ballet flat, as profiled by Williamsburg’s Shoe Market store blog. After all, such a classic color deserves classic styling. 
In fact, keeping in the classic vein, check out online Williamsburg-based vintage marketplace Market Publique for a bit of a Midas touch. The store hosts the wares of several sellers: on Market Publique’s own online shop, I found this whimsical gold and black 80s sweater dress. Williamsburg brick-and-mortar vintage hotspot Rabbits NYC also has an online MP shop; offering these femme fatale vintage tortoise and gold specs from the label of former Balenciaga and Givenchy model Emmanuelle Khanh. 
If you want to put your money (color) where your mouth is, check out Refinery29’s primer on gold makeup trends, seen recently on runways. You’ll be walking on sunshine. Or at least singing the song.
Hey, you know where to get the decade-appropriate sweater.
This morning I read in the NY Times that there has been a drop in the unemployment rate, to 9.7 percent in January from 10 percent in December. Good news, right? Wrong. Economists are increasingly worried that growth will be slow, and many of them predict yet another downturn (with joblessness being at 11% by the end of the year).
Even lucky working folks are under pressure. The underemployment rate, which, according to the Times, “counts people who have given up looking for work and those who are working part-time because of a lack of full-time positions,” has steadily risen over the past year. Last month, it reached a whopping 16.5 percent. [Read entire post here]
Photo by Carrie Beckman
8 Pool Parties confirmed for 2010 in East River State Park [BrooklynVegan]
NYPD Denies Role in Another Pedestrian Death [StreetsBlog.org]
In Time of Record Box Office Revenues, Brooklyn Loses Movie Theaters [LMag]
After 1 Month Hiatus Greenpoint Food Market is Back [GreenpointFood]
Anella’s gets a new chef [BrooklynPaper]
Photo by: Kevin Demaria.
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