[Photo courtesy of Gary Mirabelle/Mirabelle Photography]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. (Note: It appears Blogger is in major meltdown this morning. There are no updated RSS feeds and trying to access any of them results in a message that says “your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.”):
· How About a Video of the Red Hook Ikea Restaurant? [Eater]
· Basically, Williamsburg Wants a Rite Aid [Brownstoner]
· Tree Choppers [A Year in the Park]
· Land of Misfits and Toys [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· 2008 Lineup at The Yard on the Gowanus Canal [A Brooklyn Life]
· This pickup accepts Mastercard & Visa [stephenwilliams]
· End of Williamsburg? [My Memoirs]

Brooklyn Blogfest I started sort of as a “joke,” or at least, a casual effort to have a few people read from their blogs, but it ended up being a lot more than that. Here’s a reflection on Blogfests I, II & III, which is an event that became something a lot bigger than the original idea would have indicated.–OTBKB

With the Ikea Red Hook set to open next month, a documentary called A Hole in a Fence by D.W. Young will be having its first local screenings soon, including one in Red Hook on May 29 at the Waterfront Museum Barge on Pier 44 (next to the Fairway). It will also screen on Wednesday, May 21 at 6PM as part of the New Filmmakers Documentary Series at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.

For more about the film and the screenings click here.

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“So, this morning, at about 9:40 AM, I left with my cherub to greet the pouring rain and dash to the safe haven of our car….my heart sank. The ONLY double-parked car was in front of my car. At first I thought that I could maneuver my way around it and get out. But no. I checked the dashboard for a number. But no. I honked the horn – the friendly reminder honk – a couple of times. But no. So I waited, occasionally honking again. It was only at 10:05 AM that the owners of the car BEHIND me arrived and left. This gave me the room to back up and around the double-parker. Hooray! I could get to CostCo before it got too gross.”–Best View in Brooklyn

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Have you joined our new Gowanus Lounge flickr pool yet? Please do. And don’t forget to tag the photos you’d like us and other readers to see by tagging them “gowanuslounge.”

This gorgeous slice of spring comes from Green-Wood Cemetery, which is about so much more than being a final resting place. It comes from Lost in Brooklyn.

The view from the Brooklyn Weather Observatory is one of clouds this morning, but it looks like the sun is trying to break through and the forecast calls for “warmer with times of clouds and sun.” The high will be 65. Tonight will be clear with a low of 51.

This shot from the GL Photo Pool comes from Dalton Rooney, who simply calls it Bergen Street.

This is an experimental feature with some mainstream TV news reports about Brooklyn that we’re embedding. The playlist contains Channel 2’s report about Myrtle the Painted Turtle in Williamsburg.

[Image courtesy of Flatbush Gardener]

The Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest, or BBIII, took place at the Lyceum on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope last night. A very large crowd of nearly 200 bloggers and non-bloggers attended to hears a lineup of speakers and presentations. In our own remarks, we noted that the blogging world had changed dramatically in the 24 months since the first event was held and that the universe of blogs had grown so large that the very term “blogging” has been rendered almost meaningless. Like the label “indie music,” it has come to mean so much that it means almost nothing. There are distinctions to be made between online journalism, place blogs, personal blogs, niche blogs, advocacy blogs and other sub-genres we probably haven’t even thought of. Several speakers made the case that there needs to be more diversity in the ranks of bloggers, which do not remotely approach the great diversity of Brooklyn. We also made one of our favorite points: that there also needs to be more diversity of places that are blogged. While some neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Park Slope are written about at length, others, such as Sunset Park and Sheepshead Bay–where there are compelling community issues–are seriously “under blogged.”

As the only big annual gathering of Brooklyn bloggers, the meeting is an essential forum for meeting people and for sharing ideas. A big thank you goes to Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn for organizing it and to everyone else that worked hard to pull it off.

Related Posts:
· Brooklyn Blogfest [Reclaimed Home]
· Gratitude [New York Shitty]
· Brooklyn Blogfest 2008 [Sustainable Flatbush]
· Blogfest 2008 Coverage [Flatbush Gardener]
· Blogfest 08 Photoset [Flatbush Gardener/flickr]
· Brooklyn Blogfest is a Hit [Brooklyn Optimist]

A full slideshow, courtesy of Flatbush Gardener, ahead.

They’re doing way more than putting in new grease pans and booths at everybody’s favorite late night Burg greasy spoon, Kellogg’s Diner, at Union and Metropolitan Avenues in Williamsburg. (Which was shut down by the Health Department before going the renovation route.) In fact, if we hadn’t check the Department of Buildings records, we’d swear they were tearing it down, which would be a logical conclusion given that a large complex is going up around it.

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

Saturday, May 10, 2:00p- 4:00pm – with Dan Wiley
Gowanus Neighborhood Walking Tour

Dan Wiley will lead an interactive walking tour around CUE’s new backyard, to explore the legendary Gowanus Canal waterway and the area’s environment, history, architecture, and future plans. Meet inside the Center’s New Headquarters at 168 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. Free

Click here for info on the Richmond Hill tour.

Here, from the Prospect Heights Forum on Brooklynian is a tale of commuting woe that will be of interest to anyone that fear being on the subway and being on the receiving end of the Blowing of Chunks:

Hi all. First, hopefully the rest of you that got puked on at the E. Pkway stop managed to get off the train soon and were OK. Second, I am a-ok after getting puked on by that random MF, just had to go home, strip, exfoliate, wash my shoes and put on new clothes.

Hey, if you stared at me like I was gross, I did NOT puke on myself.

Well, the matter of that pimped Park Slope bus stop with all the seating has been solved. It’s part of the Sit Projects, which is designed to make a point about the lack of seating on public transportation and at stops. We know this because we were led to their MySpace page:

SIT Projects was fostered with the intent to provide individuals with a vehicle(a chair) to have some moments of rest, relaxation, reflection, a pause. Each session is site specific utilizing and recycling chairs that have been disposed of within neighborhoods. Phase 1: NYC of SIT Projects arose from the pressing need for an array of benches/seats at bus and subway stops within NYC.

Read the rest by clicking here.

This is the Decora, a building on N. 10 Street in Williamsburg that we have watched with fascination. The finish on the oval elements of the structure was supposed to be gold in some early renderings, but has turned out to be a kind of bathroom-like green tile. One thing we can say is that the building makes quite an impression. It is the work of Gene Kaufman, who has many other buildings around Williamsburg.

See more of the green tile detail by clicking here.

[Photo courtesy Mirabelle Studios]

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

· Plan to Move Homeless Intake to Bedford Armory Draws Protest [NYDN]
· Love Triangle Stab Twist: Deliveryman Stabbed by Jealous Husband [NYP]
· New PA Chief Wonders About Atlantic Yards & Frank Gehry [Daily Intel]
· Greenpoint Oil Spil Subway Art! [Gothamist]
· Downtown Development-Related Rally Coming [Brownstoner]
· Fun at the Post Office [Ditmas Park Blog]
· Get in the Pool on Frost Street! [New York Shitty]
· Treats for the Pregnant [Brooklyn Based]
· SE Prospect Park Redesign Meeting on Monday [Hawthorne Street]
· Fun with Soil Samples [GerritsenBeach.Net]
· PS8 Paddlewheeler Festival on Saturday [BHB]
· It’s 2008 Sailing Season [Sail Brooklyn]

Here, from the Daily News compilation is a list of upcoming community board meetings in Brooklyn:

Community Board 1, (Greenpoint, Williamsburg) will meet at 6:30 p.m. May 13 at Swinging Sixties Senior Center, 211 Ainslie St.

Community Board 2, (Fort Greene, Fulton Mall, Boerum Hill, Clinton Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn Heights, Fulton Ferry, DUMBO) will hold its next board meeting at 6 p.m. on May 14 at Muhlenberg Residence, Basement Cafeteria, 510 Atlantic Ave.

Community Board 6, (Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus) will hold its next regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m. May 14. The meeting will take place at Borough Hall at 209 Joralemon Street.

Community Board 14, (Flatbush, Midwood, Kensington, Ocean Parkway) will hold its monthly board meeting at 7:30 p.m. May 12 at Edward R. Murrow High School, 1600 Avenue L. For information, call (718) 859-6357.

The Hamilton Avenue Bridge is being partly shut down at night for more work. Per an email from Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman: “I thought you might be interested in the following announcement from the Department of Transportation…Reconstruction of the Hamilton Avenue Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. Two Week Partial Bridge Closure: Starting Sunday, May 18, 2008 and ending Friday, June 6, 2008, the northbound (inbound) Hamilton Avenue Bridge will be closed between the hours of 11 PM and 5 AM in order to perform tests to the electrical and mechanical systems. To accommodate northbound traffic, one inbound travel lane will be available on the southbound bridge.”–GL Inbox

This is a very nice chair that Miss Heather located for us on Richardson Street next to a restaurant in the making called Frankie’s, which has been “opening soon” for the last six months. And so, she called it “Frankie’s Blue Chair.” It certainly looks like the kind of seat that one might want to sink into and gaze up at the neighbors, the Finger Friends–Robert Scarano’s Luminous tower and the Karl Fischer Richardson Finger.

So, Pratt security is tooling around on the sidewalks of Clinton Hill in a Robocop looking golf cart device, possibly scaring little children. Apparently, there are several of them.–Curbed

Today’s street art comes from Carroll Gardens via a photo sent to us by a kind GL reader. She writes: “This is a ‘kitty moth’ as my 3-yr old calls it. It’s on the light at the corner of Court and 2nd Pl. Used to be on the wall by the Carroll St 2nd Pl stop (F train) but then Billy Stein covered up the wall w/ his construction. Gives my kids much pleasure to spot. Always stenciled down close to the ground.” Mr. Stein is the developer of the controversial 360 Smith Street building, which is now under construction.

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Among the city-sponsored electronics recycling events taking place is this one next week in Prospect Park. It takes place on Sunday, May 18 from 8AM-2PM next to the Carousel, which is located near the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard. It’s for both electronic equipment and clothing donations.

This gorgeous shot at Avenue U comes from GL Photo Contributor and Brit in Brooklyn blogger Adrian Kinloch.