[Photo courtesy lornagrl/Gl Flickr Pool]

This street sofa, dropped into our GL Photo Pool by lornagrl, looks like the kind of couch that one would expect to find on Sea Breeze Avenue, if not a condo in Brighton Beach or Coney Island.

In honor of today’s Gowanus Goes Green event, here are some vids posted up on the YouTube related to Gowanus and the canal.

This is another work by Dain, whose work currently is everywhere in Williamsburg. This is from Berry Street.

“This f- – -ing crane – it should have been in the junkyard,” said master rigger Ali Bacchus, 48, who oversaw the day-to-day operation of the Kodiak 300 crane.–NYP

[Photo Courtesy of Adrian Kinloch]

This is a sunset over South Brooklyn as seen from Park Slope and captured by GL Contributor Adrian Kinloch of Brit in Brooklyn

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory, we can see that yesterdays problems are gone. Today will offer sunshine, with some patchy clouds, and a high of 80. Tonight will be clear with a low of 61.–Accuweather

Don’t you love street corner opera? Apparently, some Prospect Heights residents are especially feeling it. Here, from Brooklynian, is the account:

is anyone familiar with the opera man on st. mark’s near the corner of washington? he chooses to perform (practice) every afternoon and subjects the block to off-key notes and stains the neighborhood. i’m always down to support the arts and would love to hear Tosca or Carmen anytime – this just doesn’t even come close. this is closer to fingernails on a chalkboard. any suggestions on how to kindly subdue the prospect pavarotti?

There is also this subsequent detail:

Today I was gifted with a performance from about 7 to 9:30. He went for a good hour and then it was one and off for a good half. Sometimes it’s earlier in the afternoon and occasionally I get a repeat performance at night. Mockingbirds would be soothing compared to to this.

Eh, maybe not so much on the mockingbirds.

Here’s our regular weekly post from the Center for the Urban Environment about the great tours they run:

Walt Whitman’s Brooklyn. Saturday, May 31 – 2-4 pm – with Francis Morrone. Celebrate Whitman’s 209th birthday (5/31/1819)! The literary scholar Harold Bloom said that Whitman was the only American writer who could be put in the same class as Shakespeare. Whitman’s was an art that tried to encompass all the world around him, and it was Brooklyn, he said, that nurtured his spirit. America’s Bard is forever associated with the city in which he lived and wrote for so many years. On our walk we will take in sites associated with Whitman’s life and writings, architectural reminders of his Brooklyn era, and examples of his influences. Meet at the NW corner of Court and Montague Streets. Court Street/Borough Hall station 2/3/4/5 or R trains; Jay Street/Borough Hall station of the A/C/F trains.

A really cool tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Sunday

Here’s another GL Adoptable Cutie of the Week, information about whom landed in our inbox last night:

This is Gadjet, a cat that will be needing a home soon. Gadjet isn’t a shelter cat, but another one that is going to need a new place to live due to people circumstances. The email we got about Gadjet says that “an estranged friend has informed me she is abandoning a cat on my doorstep June 26th that belonged to me 4 years ago. We live in a landlord occupied brownstone where pets are not allowed…” If anyone would like to give Gadjet a new place to live or get more information, email kmalone70 (at) hotmail (dot) com. Gadjet will love you for it.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

· Rally to Oppose City’s Homeless Shelter Plan on Sunday [Bed-Stuy Blog]
· Relative Silence About Grossly Delayed Fort Greene Center [AYR]
· Pre-K and Irises [Brooklynometry]
· The Trailer Spot [New York Shitty]
· Brooklyn Film Works Back for a Third Summer [OTBKB]
· God vs. Satan in Graffiti [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Sunset Park Open Studios This Weekend [Best View in Brooklyn]
· Feathery Tree and Eagle Sculpture [A Year in the Park]

Here’s the second part of a compilation of historic footage of Coney Island shot between 1940 and 1956 that was posted to the YouTube this week.

This is the new Prospect Park T-Shirt, which is a joint venture between Brooklyn Industries and the Prospect Park Alliance. Per an email:

Brooklyn Industries and the Alliance collaborated to design a graphic t-shirt that shows support for one of Brooklyn’s most beautiful resources. Brooklyn Industries will donate 20% of the proceeds from the sale of the t-shirt to support the Prospect Park Alliance. The Prospect Park t-shirt will be sold exclusively through Brooklyn Industries retail stores and website and Prospect Park and its web site for $28.00.

Check out the Prospect Park website for more park paraphernalia.

Fans of Coney Island and of really weird and darkly funny incidents will no doubt recall the guy that fell through the floor of the crapper at Ruby’s on the boardwalk in Coney Island. He was originally said to have come out of the basement covered in poo, but it was later said to only be “mostly” dirt. Landlord Joe Sitt helped to pay to get the problem fixed quickly and we can report that Ruby’s reopened yesterday with a new and stronger bathroom floor. The “unfortunate accident” is now a memory.

Here’s Part I of a compilation of historical footage posted this week to the YouTube.

There’s another year of Stores in the Garden coming up at the Hoyt Street Garden (corner of Atlantic Avenue). Per an email:

We have a microphone and an amp, several benches and some mats to sit on. It is a very popular event, especially for families with young children. This year, besides the story reading, we would like to have some volunteer musicians, singers, clowns, and/or magicians to be a part of these events. We plan for two or more volunteers for each Tuesday event. Would you like to perform and/or read at one of our Tuesdays? Please look at the schedule below and e-mail me if you’d like to be a part of this great Brooklyn tradition. This year the FREE Stories in the Garden will be 7:00-8:00 PM on Tuesday evenings, June 24th to July 29th. Specific dates are Tuesday June 24, Tuesday July 1, Tuesday July 8, Tuesday July 15, Tuesday July 22 and Tuesday July 29.

Free cookies and lemonade.

[Photo courtesy of lornagrl/flickr]

This pic submitted by GL Photo Pool contributor lornagrl captures the very essence of the fun that one sees on the Coney Island Boardwalk in mid-step.

[Photo courtesy of Gary Mirabelle/Mirabelle Studios]

They’re not specifically Brooklyn photos, but they are pics of very old things taken in Brooklyn by our contributor Gary Mirabelle and they are very cool, so here they are. They might jog some memories for older readers and those who weren’t around when things like these were sold may have seen them in antique stores.

Some Dr. Pepper ahead.

While it’s looking good outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory right now, the forecast is calling for change. There will be “a few thunderstorms, some severe; storms can bring downpours, large hail and damaging winds.” These are expected to develop this afternoon. The high will be 79. Tonight there will be “an evening shower or thunderstorm around; otherwise, clouds breaking.”–Accuweather

Many works by Dain have appeared in the Burg over the last couple of months. This one is on N. 10 Street near Berry.

The controversial 110 Amity Street project in Cobble Hill won an important preliminary approval last night. In a surprise move, the developer Time Equities brought the project back before Community Board 6’s Land Use and Landmarks Committee for reconsideration. There was no public notice. The Committee, which had previously voted for a conditional disapproval of the revamped design, unanimously voted to approve the project. The renovation of the historic Lamm Building was approved without conditions. The addition of townhomes was approved, provided that no metal is used in the facades and that a story is shaved from the buildings (this was a condition the week before, but the developer did not comply. The resubmission of the revised, revised project came as a surprise to virtually everyone, as it was added at the last minute to a meeting that supposed to be about the unveiling of the city’s proposal for rezoning Gowanus. A CB6 Member said the board needed to act because the developer “has a tight schedule” with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which must approve the project. The tweaks removed zinc from the building exteriors and hid mechanical elements on the roof. The images here are photos of renderings that were shown last night. The developer has refused to release them publicly. There were no significant objections voiced about the project last night, but it is unclear whether anyone would have objected because residents were not informed of the redone plans or the surprise re-vote. The Community Board still wants back windows to look more like the neighborhood.

We have a very special Adoptable Cutie of the Week today: Boris the Famous Cat. He is desperately in need of a new home. He’s not a shelter cat, but is in private hands, so to speak. Here’s some info about him:

Like many Brooklynites, Boris is originally a Manhattan transplant, but has been in the borough for the past 10 years. His mom had to move overseas earlier this month, and because it was too tough to take Boris with her, she found him a surrogate mom. The problem? His new owner has realized her life isn’t suited toward taking care of a cat, and wants to get rid of Boris by this coming Wednesday, June 3.

There are so many things to love about this guy: he’s big, smart, playful, and completely devoted to whoever cares for him. He’s also famous–he appeared once in the Times, and the effects of this new-found fame formed the subject of the video that can be found here.

To learn more about this gorgeous boy, email boristhefamouscat@gmail.com, or forward this on to anyone you know who can adopt him.

Our totally unscientific Park Slope Parking Watch finds definite movement in the block that our Special GL Correspondent has been tracking since in the beginning of the temporary suspension of alternate side of the street parking regulations nearly two weeks ago. In this photo taken late yesterday, two spaces are available and one vehicle has just parked. It would appear cars are moving around.

There are an estimated 7000 languages spoken world-wide (174 of which are spoken in New York City, according to the Department of City Planning), and half of them are slowly disappearing. The Linguists, one of the documentaries being shown as part of the Sundance Institute at BAM — which began last night — follows Dr. K. David Harrison and Dr. Gregory Anderson to Siberia, India and Bolivia as they search for dying languages, some with only a handful of living speakers. Far from a dry treatise on sentence structure, the documentary was an instant hit in Park City and was one the first of the Sundance screenings to sell out at BAM. In response, an additional screening has been added to the festival roster, for Monday, June 2 at 9:40 PM. (bam.org/sundance/)

— Annaliese Griffin / Brooklyn Based

No, it’s not a new venue. It’s a music program for young people. (Sorry, club goers.) The email we saw about it said:

In case you hadn’t heard, I’m starting a rock school out here in Brooklyn with Tracy Bonham, Peter Brown, Tomas Marsh, and James Joughin. If you or anyone you know has a kid between the ages of 8 to 16, we’re running a 3-day intensive camp (July 22 -24) to kick off the school culminating with a performance on the evening of July 24th.

Group lessons run to $35 per student per one-hour class. It would appear from the website that the studio where lessons take place is actually in…gasp…Prospect Heights at 227 St. Marks Place.

More information ahead.

The prime areas of rezoning interest in Gowanus will be the area around the Gowanus Canal itself, where some of the biggest projects might someday rise. City Planning envisions a canal that will someday have a 40′ foot wide public esplanade on both side (a Sponge Park has also been proposed independently) and buildings rising up to 12 stories tall. The city divides the area into “Waterfront North” and “Waterfront South,” with the taller buildings being allowed in “Waterfront South.” The North part would run between the Canal and Bond Street, from Carroll Street to just north of Union Street. The South part would run from Third Avenue, across the canal to Bond Street and from Carroll Street South to Third Street. This is where some the biggest developments (such as the Toll Brothers plan, which is being proposed with its own zoning) and the former Gowanus Village might rise. Buildings here would go up to 12 stories in places. A city planning making the presentation said the plan would “create a sense of openness around the Canal that doesn’t exist” because it would require a public esplanade and setbacks. Residents, however, voiced concerns that buildings in this area would be too tall, out-of-scale with the surrounding area and cast the canal in permanent shadows in places. Buildings fronts along the Canal would be about six stories tall. Buildings in Waterfront North would top out at six stories.