As a big fan of Ferdinando’s Focacceria at 151 Union Street in Carroll Gardens/Red Hook, Gowanus Lounge was amused to learn from newyorkology that Leonardo DiCaprio has been onsite shooting Martin Scorsese‘s The Departed. If you haven’t been to Ferdinando’s, you should go, because this little Sicilian place is the real deal–a true taste of ungentrified Brooklyn that serves excellent food. The speciality here is the Panelle sandwich–deep-fried chickpea flour served on a house-baked roll with some of the best ricotta in New York City, topped with grated cheese. (If you really want to carb up, there’s also a Panelle with potato.) We get Panelle cravings from time to time. They’re that good.

Newyorkology quotes Historic Shops & Restaurants of New York about Ferdinando’s thusly:

In 1904 Ferdinando’s Focacceria opened in a Union Street storefront just three blocks from the waterfront, specializing in the little sandwiches that were sold by street vendors in the open-air markets of Sicily. For decades, the restaurant served up this Sicilian comfort food even as Red Hook began to decline along with the local shipping industry. Despite the intrusion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the 1950s, a devastating blow to the neighborhood that isolated the shops from their customers, Ferdinando’s remained in business.

Today, Frank Buffa, only the fourth owner of the focacceria, tends the place he inherited from his father-in-law. A little old country, a little New York, Ferdinando’s is a beautifully preserved gem, with its vintage tile floor, pressed-tin ceiling and marble-topped tables.

Thanks, Leo and Marty, for giving GL a reason to write about Ferdinando’s and reminding us that we need our Panelle fix.

(The photo above is from newyorkology.)

East River State Park in Williamsburg is moving a bit slowly thanks to all the rain, according to a well-informed source who went to people working on the new park to get the scoop. The mid- to late-July opening target is slipping because the rain has made the new lawns too soft for “the inevitable thousands of Chuck Taylors and platform boots tearing them up.”

The source’s source says that the state hasn’t said much about the park so as not to raise expectations about an opening date. As for the park’s barren look, that won’t change any time soon. The budget is exhausted and officials want to “preserve a decent amount of the site’s historical character.” The area is certainly historic, having served as part of a rail terminal from which Brooklyn’s vast industrial output was once shipped, but everything on the site was demolished and covered over long ago. So, it sounds like landscaping Williamsburg’s open space is not a priority. We would wager that once the luxury apartments that will soon rise south of the site open, the state will hire some landscape architects to make something more of East River Park.

Don’t get us wrong. We’re not making light of the need for more open space in Williamsburg and for waterfront access. In this sense, it doesn’t matter what the park will look like. It will be great to get to the river without having to crawl through holes in fences. Speaking of which, however, East River Park will be fenced in so that officials can shut it down at dusk. Workers have also been making progress on putting up a nice, black fence around the property.

Meantime, the huge concrete pads at Kent and North 7th will remain on the site, although they may be yanked in the future. As for the skate park that some thought would go there: No go. The State Parks Commissioner–who presides over one of New York’s most anal retentive, rule loving bureaucracies, doesn’t dig skaters or the anarchic vibe they exude. (We’re in shock.)

The interesting part will come when the park does open and Williamsburgers are introduced to New York State Parks culture and its rule-enforcing Park Rangers. Not too long ago, the Daily News wrote about complaints about tough enforcement of rules at NYC state parks like Empire Fulton Ferry Park in Dumbo and Gantry State Park in Long Island City, where offenders are routinely confronted by Park Rangers about their dogs, bikes, cameras and the like. (The rules say: No bikes. No dogs. No bridal pix without a permit. No cameras with tripods. No videotaping. Etc. And so forth.)

To keep all this in perspective, there was a time when the Pataki Administration was working on a deal with NYU to turn the entire property over to the school for sports facilities. So, what’s a Park Ranger chasing you down for walking your bike on a path?

(All photos are courtesy of 11th Hour Productions.)

Chalk up an early PR victory (moderated as the day goes on by skepticism) in the latest skirmish for the hearts and minds of Brooklynites over Atlantic Yards for Forest City Ratner. The developer can claim that it drew a crowd estimated at 2,500 people to the meeting it held on affordable housing at the Brooklyn Marriott. However, many of the attendees were frustrated at the long odds of snagging an apartment and surprised that “affordable” housing will cost so much.

The high turnout was likely a reflection of the awful housing situation in Brooklyn for low- and moderate-income families. And, probably also the result of a mistaken belief that showing up would somehow give them a leg up on snagging an apartment that won’t even exist for 4-10 years, assuming the project is built.

As for the 2,250 rentals proposed for the Atlantic Yards site: 20 percent would be for households that earn $21,270 to $35,450 while 30 percent would be for families making $42,540 to $113,440. The remainder of the 6,860 units–ie. 4,610 of them–would be luxury/market rate. Distribution of apartments–if the project is built–would be lottery.Next up: The Atlantic Yards opponents are holding a rally at Grand Army Plaza, this Sunday, July 16 at 2:00. Will more people turn out to jeer Atlantic Yards than apparently showed at the Marriott last night to hear about affordable housing?

Stay tuned.

Update: This morning, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) announced it was adding eight new members to its Advisory Board. Included are former New York City Planning Commissioner and Pratt Institute Professor of Planning Ron Shiffman, author Rick Moody, playwright Lynn Nottage, Brooklyn singer Toshi Reagon, author Myla Goldberg, author and editor Philip Gourevitch, artist and architect Chris Doyle, and comedian and actor Michael Showalter.

Update, V.2.0: Check out Norman Oder’s thoughtful and comprehensive dissection of the media coverage of the event and his thorough reporting of the session itself. Forest City Ratner let Mr. Oder into this event as opposed to banning him. (He got an automated phone call confirming he was on the list, but then, the crush of people at the door was so great that they gave up on checking names.) As in Presidential debates, the press coverage determines whether you win or lose. And, there seems to be a great deal of spin away from Forest City Ratner, after an initial focus on the big turnout for the company’s affordable housing session. A number of articles pointed out that many people that showed up left disappointed, both at the long odds of getting an apartment if they’re ever built and at the high cost of what is considered “affordable” in Brooklyn these days. The New York Observer, for instance, wrote “a striking number of individuals in the largely black crowd who showed up at the Brooklyn Marriott were disappointed to find that ‘affordable housing’ was not that affordable, or accessible.” As for Mr. Oder’s perceptive take, he writes that “if project planners were looking to generate significant new support, as opponents plan a protest and the state environmental review hits its stride, they might try another tactic. The applause for the project was tepid; the strongest reaction came when people questioned the housing’s cost and timetable. A large portion of the crowd walked out after 40 minutes, before the 20-minute Q & A. Why? Perhaps because they had already learned some key facts: applications wouldn’t be available for at least three years, with occupancy a year later, and a lottery will assign two-thirds of the places.”

The Real Estate ran an item yesterday about Assemblyman Jim Brennan, whose district includes Park Slope and who chairs the Assembly Committee on Cities, and his support of the $300 million “Restoring New York’s Communities” state program. The program is supposed to “help restore blighted communities by funding the reconstruction of deteriorated real estate,” in The Real Estate’s words.

So far, so good. Brennan is quoted as saying, “Think of where the fire was in Williamsburg. The city can use this money to knock it down and prepare the land for development.” Now, we don’t want to be pedantic or picky, but shouldn’t an Assemblyman representing part of Brooklyn know the fire was in Greenpoint? As in, Greenpoint Terminal Market? Or is he talking about a different fire in Williamsburg that we don’t know about? (We know the neighborhood borders depend on who is defining them in places, but not near the Greenpoint Terminal Market.)

Assem. Brennan told The Real Estate that priority for grants will go to contaminated “brownfield” sites and said that former industrial sites in Red Hook, Gowanus and Williamsburg could benefit. “The city can do a $20 million project that would knock down some vacant industrial structures, acquire the land, clear the site of toxic contamination, and then have a development project,” he said.

Affordable housing, for instance, The Real Estate asked.

“Sure,” Brennan said. “Or a commercial development. Or a box store.”

We are reduced to silence.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news article, blog items and images. The photo above pictures genuine Brooklyn-grown flowers:

Green Thumbs:

• Serra’s Carroll Gardens Rooftop [Apt Therapy via Brownstoner]
• Sandra’s Carroll Gardens Stoop [Apt Therapy]
• Brownstoner Garden: Now We Can Eat [Brownstoner]

Greenbacks:

• Video of the Day: Brooklyn Politician’s Bribe [Gothamist]
• Gordon and Norman [Daily Politics]

Controversy:

• South Slope/Greenwood Heights Condo Height Protest [NYDN]
• Unwarranted Traffic Chaos in Red Hook [Streetsblog]
• All Atlantic Yards, All the Time [The Real Estate]
• Thousands Attend Atlantic Yards Meeting [NYT]
• Water Fight at McCarren Park Pool [Bklyn Rail]

Food and Drink:

• Monday Night at L&B Spumoni Gardens [Bklyn Ramblings]
• Mr. Brownstoner Says Rice is Nice [Bklyn Record]
• Inside the Slope’s New Union Hall [Gothamist]
• Williamsburg: Brooklyn’s Beer Capital [Bklyn Record]

Gowanus Lounge must have been in a coma to miss this, but upon going through news of Brooklyn events from upcoming.org, we found a concert listing that is as obvious as it is fun: The B-52s will be playing Asser Levy/Seaside Park in Coney Island (at West Fifth Street and Surf Avenue opposite the Aquarium) on Thursday, August 10 as part of the 28th Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series. A free B-52s show in Coney Island? Rock Lobster by the sea? Oh, we will so be there.

Other shows include the Rev. Al Green, tomorrow, July 13 (competing against Yo La Tengo at Celebrate Brooklyn). And, if you’re into this kind of thing, Julio Iglesias on July 27 and Liza Minnelli on August 17. Liza Minnelli?

It has nothing to do with Brooklyn or Gowanus, but it does have to do with our hearts and our musical memory, so it is with sadness that we note the passing of Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd. From the BBC:

Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60 from complications arising from diabetes. The guitarist was the band’s first creative force and an influential songwriter, penning their early hits. He joined Pink Floyd in 1965 but left three years later after one album. He went on to live as a recluse, with his mental deterioration blamed on drugs.

Born Roger Barrett in Cambridge, he composed songs including See Emily Play and Arnold Layne, both from 1967. He also wrote most of their album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But he struggled to cope with fame and drugs. Dave Gilmour was brought in to the band in February 1968 and Barrett left that April, releasing two solo albums soon after.

The band’s biggest-selling releases, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, emerged in the post-Barrett era, with the band selling an estimated 200 million albums worldwide.

GL is sad.

First off, we’re very sorry not to have photos of last week’s sewage geysers that Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus emailed us about. (If you do, send ’em along and we’ll gladly publish a photo of this phenomenon.)

In any case, you might remember the monsoon-like rainstorm during the morning commute on July 5. Well, it inundated Gowanus. Sewers massively overflowed into the canal (which happens regularly), into streets and into homes (less frequent, but not unheard of). FROGG describes three-to-five-foot geyers of sewage shooting up from the manhole covers on Bond Street. We quote:

Even that wasn’t enough to release all the water pressure in the sewage system, as homes, more than a block from the canal, took on combined sewer overflow through house traps, rear-yard drains and ground floor plumbing fixtures, leaving many with several feet of combined sewer water to pump out.

Can you say, gross and disgusting?

FROGG sends this along as a way of pointing out that the effluent the massive Atlantic Yards project will spawn could leave Gowanus (and, clearly, not just the canal) literally swimming in crap every time it rains hard because the Red Hook Sewage treatment plant does not have sufficient treatment capacity to handle the project.

We’re no sewage treatment experts, but FROGG points out that “while the Ratner organization is busy patting themselves on the back for a planned rain water holding lot on Pacific Street that would contain 1.8 million gallons per year, homes and buildings in our neighborhood are being used by the DEP to hold that much combined sewage water–and more–during each rain shower…1.8 million gallons per day of waste water will be added into the sewer pipes running through our neighborhood. That will make for a much dirtier mix of combined sewer waste water sitting in the basements of our homes.”

A session to prepare residents to respond to the Atlantic Yards draft environmental impact statement is planned for tonight (July 11) at 7:00 at St. Cyril’s Belarusian Cathedral at 401 Atlantic Avenue at Bond Street.

(The photo above of Gowanus on a rainy day is courtesy of kirby10011 on flickr.)

Gowanus Lounge loves the summer vibe in Park Slope, including the overall quieter feeling and the fact that come late night on a Friday or Saturday, there’s so much parking around that you could dock an ocean liner on Prospect Park West and other streets. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn‘s Louise Crawford does a superb job of perfectly capturing that langurous Slope summer feeling in an item she posts today called Slope Summer Slow Down:

Slope summer is in full swing. Or should I say: in slow down mode. There are less people around; it’s a little easier to park. Seventh Avenue isn’t swarming with parents and kids at 8:30 in the morning, at 3 p.m. The Mr. Softee truck doesn’t park outside of PS 321 anymore. The ices guy and the man who sells cotton candy hanging from a stick don’t show up either.

Therapists are on vacation. Friends are in Europe, on Long Island. The girl next door went to Barcelona. The kid across the street went to sleep-away. Summer is a time for travel, for transitions….Slow, lazy days. It takes effort just to walk around. There is still much to do and it gets done but more slowly than usual. Over at JJ Byrne Park, the Piper Theater is going full tilt getting ready for their production of Much Ado About Nothing this weekend.

Energy.

On Tuesday night (July 11) we’re putting the big screen up and showing a movie; if it doesn’t rain, that is. We’re showing “Coney Island: The American Experience” the documentary by Ric Burns and Buster Keaton shorts.

Should be a fun night. I don’t think it’ll rain.

Hats off to Louise for making us smile this morning by so marvelously capturing the flavor of Park Slope come July.

Gowanus Lounge has long thought that live poultry markets were gross in an olfactory way and possibly troubling in a cruelty to chickens sense. We’ve seen poultry trucks hauling chickens around in milk crates and we’re either overly empathetic or simply weird, but we feel for the birds stuffed into tiny spaces. And, we don’t even particularly like chickens as creatures.

In any case, the city’s announcement of its Avian Flu Disaster Plan (not to be confused with the newly updated Hurricane Disaster Plan) got us to thinking about the live poultry markets scattered across NYC’s five boroughs. Could the markets serve as petri dishes for avian flu? In theory, absolutely. Ironically, as concern about H5N1 and an avian flu pandemic has mounted, the number of poultry markets has increased. (Los Angeles, Miami and New York are among the top US cities for them.) In New York, the number has quadrupled in four years.

Health and saftey standards at the live bird markets are not the highest. The USDA depends on self-regulation in most cases (there’s an effective mechanism for you) and New York State inspections are few and far between.

Googling “live poultry brooklyn,” produces more than 300 spots in the five boroughs and Northern New Jersey where you can score live chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. The Brooklyn markets are located on Columbia Street on the waterfront, on Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint, on Humboldt Street in Williamsburg, on 21st Street in Sunset Park and in other spots. The Gowanus Lounge Live Brooklyn Chicken Map, above, with thanks to Google Maps, shows some of the Brooklyn live poultry locations.

Cluck. Cluck. Cluck.

The Brooklynite, the wonderful and thoughtful Brooklyn magazine that was created by Daniel Treiman, but that has ceased publishing, held an “Unlaunch” party at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom on Dean Street in Prospect Heights last night. (Itself threatened with being swallowed up by the huge Atlantic Yards project.) While Gowanus Lounge couldn’t make it, we wanted to (again) express our dismay at the loss of this intelligent and important voice. The Brooklynite published two issues on paper before a lack of advertising revenue made it impossible to continue. The third and final issue is available online. It includes articles on Brooklyn’s Native American history, Mansoura’s Middle Eastern Bakery in Gravesend, Gowanus Water Quality and much, much more. The magazine’s first two issues are available online too, and include perceptive and well-researched articles, and some great photography.

All of which makes the loss of The Brooklynite harder to take. If it had been some slick and superficial magazine, you could shrug it off. But it wasn’t. And, in a borough on the cusp of historic change–much of it bad–the loss of The Brooklynite stings.

We hope that Daniel continues to make his voice heard as part of the ever-growing online community of Brooklyn bloggers.

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images. The photo is mom and baby captured at the McCarren Pool Party on Sunday in Williamsburg:

• $4.5 Million Makeover for Fulton Street [Brooklyn Record]
• Art for the Birds [Dope on the Slope]
• McCarren Pool Party Photoset [e-liz/flickr]
• Opinionist: Les Savy Fav at McCarren [Gothamist]
• 2006 Giglio Festival Photoset [rsguskind/flickr]
• Giglio: A Williamsburg Tradition [OTBKB]
• Bklyn Legislator Charged in Land Deal Bribe [NYT]
• Ungrand on Grand: $2,200 a Month for That? [Brownstoner]
• Atlantic Yards Affordable Housing Session: Why Now? [AYR]
• Walkabout: Dumbo/Heights [3Bikini]
• Jukebox Brooklyn–Jewish Edition [Sunset Parker]
• Daily Hook Weekly Podcast [Daily Hook]
• Drugs and Ho’s Bring Down Lefferts Hotel [Brooklyn Record]
• Feds Nix Bklyn Grand Prix at Floyd Bennett [NYDN]

The annual “Dance of the Giglio” at the Giglio Feast on Havemeyer Street on Williamsburg’s Northside took place on Sunday. The Giglio Feast, now in its 103rd year, is sponsored by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and parish priest Fr. Tom Conti called the Giglio Dance, in which dozens of men hoist the three-ton, five-story statue and carry it up and down Havemeyer Street–also turning it and lifting it up and down–“as Brooklyn as it gets.” Fr. Conti, the Bishop of Brooklyn and a brass band rode on the platform as it was carried down Havemeyer through a huge crowd. If you’re interested, you can check out our full flickr photoset here.

Those that attended yesterday’s cool free McCarren Pool show might have gotten a flyer on the way out from some people promoting a new group called Pool-Aid. Pool-Aid is having a meeting tonight at Union Pool (484 Union Ave.) at 8PM and the flyer invites interested parties to “Come plot and scheme. Help make some noise this summer.” At issue is the pricey concert series being produced by Clear Channel Communications subsidiary Live Nation, which controls a massive share of the live music market and radio in New York and other cities.

The flyer says, “Help Pool-Aid Man save McCarren Pool from the dastardly Clear Channel” and objects to “$52 tickets for shows in a public park.”

Since Clear Channel’s series at McCarren is a done deal this summer, we’re assuming the group is interested in protesting and in trying to find ways to prevent it from becoming a permanent thing because, as noted in onNYTurf, the pool’s future is still very much open for discussion.

Pool Aid’s website isn’t up and running yet, but we await news of the plans.

While Gowanus Lounge thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s free concert at the Pool and the friendly neighborhood vibe, more than once, we felt the strong sun, glanced about the pool and imagined it full of water. (This is not an unnatural reaction when you are standing in a huge, empty pool in July.) We also sat by the old diving pool, filled with dirt, and imagined a time when people jumped off the diving platform. GL thinks the pool’s ultimate destiny should be a community recreation venue that includes, well, a pool. Money the Parks Department raises through contracts with corporate heavies like Clear Channel should be dedicated to making McCarren a pool again. In this lifetime.

The free McCarren Pool concert series called Pool Parties got off to a rocking start with a triple bill headlined by Brooklyn stalwarts Les Savy Fav. LSF tore through a blazing set that featured Tim Harrington’s frenetic vocals and Seth Jabour’s searing guitar. Harrington made good use of the vast McCarren Pool space, venturing into the crowd a half-dozen times and inviting people onto the stage. At one point, he sprinted to the dodge ball court set up in a corner of the former pool and invited the players to throw balls at him. At another point, he balanced atop the railing set up around the empty pool. Harrington opened the show wearing red body paint to simulate a sunburn and closed it by pouring water over himself and covering himself in confetti.

Dragons of Zynth opened the show. They were followed on the stage by Holy Fuck.

While McCarren Pool is an excellent venue on a beautiful summer day, GL kept looking at the vastness of the pool as the sun blazed down and imagined it filled with water. Alas, the only H2O around was the stuff being sold in bottles and the water used to wet down a water slide. There are also some cool photos especially of the dodge ball set-up shot by e-liz at burntsienna.nu.

Overall there was a very cool and friendly vibe at the show. Hats off to JellyNYC for producing a community-friendly series and for being so, well, nice to deal with and having everything decently organized. Something gives us the feeling that the cool nabe vibe of the Pool Parties won’t carry over to the Clear Channel-produced corporate concerts that kick off soon.

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories and blog items:

• Happy Italians [A Brooklyn Life]
• Brooklyn Celebrates Italy’s Big Win [Bklyn Record]
• Ciao France [z.madison]
• NYC Erupts as Italy Wins Cup [AMNY]
• Bensonhurst Celebrates the Big Win [PlanetPLG]
• France-Italy Borders in NY [NYT]
• Teens Sell Panini in Park Slope [NYT]
• Third Street in the City Section [OTBKB]
• Darkness at Busy Red Hook Corner [NYDN]
• Union Street Bridge Over the Gowanus [mlik]
• Brooklyn Summer Park Shows [NYDN]
• Hot Dogs on Fifth and Fifth [OTBKB]

Gary Jarvis is a very new Brooklyn immigrant who moved here from Iowa City on June 20, but it hasn’t taken him long to get people to pay attention. That’s because he has a wonderful new blog, Runs Brooklyn, and the ambitious goal of running every street in Brooklyn. He’s using the blog to document the runs with words about and photos of the neighborhoods through which he passes. Last week, he was profiled by Jotham Sederstrom in one of his excellent Brooklyn articles in the Daily News. Mr. Sederstrom writes:

Each jog will culminate with Jarvis heading home and mapping his route, which he said will be chosen on a whim each morning when he heads out the door. He’ll post the routes and his observations on the Web later in the day…Jarvis has already clocked about 45 miles in parts of Crown Heights, Flatbush, Greenwood Heights, Kensington, Midwood, Park Slope, and Sunset Park. He has also seen some of the borough’s best-known landmarks, such as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, Green-Wood Cemetery and St.Michael’s Catholic Church. As for Brooklyn’s 4,440 acres of parkland, Jarvis has already circled the perimeter of Prospect Park and plans to duck inside the borough’s other pastures along the way.

“As long as pedestrians are allowed, I’m going to do it,” said Jarvis, who tends to jog alone. “Obviously, I won’t be jogging the BQE, the Gowanus or the Belt, but everything else is fair game.”

A sample run was the one Mr. Jarvis called Wave Fences and Jimibeetles. It took in 7.97 miles through Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay in a little more than an hour. Of the scenery, Mr. Jarvis writes:

The run included a nice mix of residential streets (with lots of larger apartment buildings) and small businesses. Still, the sight that struck me most was the fencing around the sewage treatment facility (officially the Coney Island Water Pollution Control Plant) over by Shell Bank Creek — along part of Knapp the fence curled over above the sidewalk like a breaker, while down the street and around the corner the top was scalloped in an abstract representation of individual waves.

Each of Mr. Jarvis’ posts includes photos that he’s taken along the way, making his Brooklyn Runs a compelling read indeed.

Gowanus Lounge went out of borough yesterday and put in some late afternoon time at Rockaway Beach, where we loaded a bunch of Ramones tunes into the MP3 player and sat in the sand, rocked out and reflected on what a beautiful voice Joey had while watching an amazing number of surfers do their thing in the waves. If you haven’t been out to Rockaway in a long time, there’s been an amazing amount of construction, including hundreds of new units in the Arverne by the Sea development, which will eventually occupy hundreds of long-vacant beachfront acres. (One of New York’s more inspiring post-appocalyptic spots, anywhere, complete signs on streets to nowhere where long-demolished bungalows once stood.) There’s also an article in today’s Daily News about the crappy condition into which our beloved Federal government has allowed the Riis Park facilities to deteriorate. Below are a few more photos of our afternoon at the beach in Queens.

Last weekend’s Billyburg Short Film Fest was the beginning of summer programming at McCarren Pool, the long-closed Williamsburg/Greenpoint WPA-era pool turned ruin that has, for the time being, morphed into an entertainment venue. There will be shows produced by corporate conglomerate Clear Channel Communications this summer as well as more community oriented events.

Well, the free rock programming, which is produced by JellyNYC, starts on Sunday at 2PM with the first Pool Party at McCarren. (There’s one every Sunday for the rest of the summer and they’re all free). Sunday’s fun includes Dragons of Zynth, Proton Proton, Beans with Holy Fuck and the very cool Les Savy Fav.

JellyNYC describes the free Sunday Pool Parties thusly:

You and some of the best bands and DJs from Brooklyn and beyond will sweat together in the city’s most spectacular new venue — the 50,000 foot refurbished ruins of a community pool. As at any good pool party, there will be plenty to get you hot and keep you cool: when you’re not pogoing, you can try your hand at full-court dodgeball, get a cold cup of Brooklyn’s finest, grab a burger from the hut, set up a towel and tan your tatoos, or slide your way down a 27-ft inflatable slip n’ slide.

The schedule of free shows is available here.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog items and photos. The photo above is from Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg, scene of the ongoing Giglio Festival:

• Goodnight Brooklynite [Gothamist]
• Fiat [Runs with Scissors/flckr]
• We Go to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory [burntsienna]
• Turn of the Century Bklyn Map [Bklyn Ramblings]
• Prospect Park Lake Attracts Anglers [NYT]
• Brooklyn’s Eiffel Tower Gets Light [mlik]
• Parachute Jump Lit Up (Check photostream for more great shots) [Your Pal Matt/flickr]

The historic Parachute Jump was lit last night in Coney Island, with Boro Prez Marty Markowitz presiding over the ceremony at a private “Marty’s Party” he hosted on the Steeplechase soccer field. (Gowanus Lounge didn’t have an invite and wasn’t in the mood to grovel to get in, so we watched from the beach, which offered a nicer vantage point for the Friday Night Fireworks show that followed.) Late into the night, there were people with laptops under the Jump directing the light show.

All six lighting schemes were featured last night, and we have to say that while we wished the lights were brighter–they are a little dim from a distance–the overall effect is wonderful. Up close, the Jump looks stunning. The flashing LEDs that circle the Jump are definitely the crowd favorite. When all is said and done, it is a magnificent thing to see this Brooklyn landmark–that came so close to demolition so many times–finally restored and now lit up for all the world to see. We wish it many, many decades of lighting up the Brooklyn night sky and serving as the Beacon of Brooklyn and of Coney Island.

Brooklinks is our daily selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog items and images:

Camera in the Kitchen: L&B Spumoni Gardens [Gothamist]
Coney Star Shines [NYPost]
Flower of a Tower is Relighted [NYT]
Friday Night in Park Slope [OTBKB]
Woman Hit in Red Hook [Bklyn Record]
Weekend with the Gowanus Canal’s Empty Vessel [Bklyn Ramblings]
W. Side Railyards vs. Brooklyn Railyards: Double Standard [AYR]
Heard on Third: The Brits are Coming [Brownstoner]
Newsflash: MTA Discovers L Train Sucks [Curbed]
Color Wars in Williamsburg [Transom via Bklyn Record]

on the walk home, originally uploaded by sixeight.

Gowanus Lounged is biased, but we are not the ones that have named the Gowanus a “romantic symbol,” which is a designation with which we wholeheartedly concur. No, the title has been bestowed by the Brooklyn Downtown Star and the Greenpoint Star, which have published a rocking “Best of Brooklyn List.” The papers chose to eschew traditional “Best of” lists in favor of “bizarre, peculiar and downright unique outer borough experiences. From the best place to see a truly perverted movie to the most delightful public restroom, to the likeliest place to score a kosher breakfast.”

There are excellent entries on the list, like naming the entrance to the private Sea Gate community on Coney Island as “Best Place to Feel Like You’re in Berlin, Pre-Fall-of-Communism.”

Then, sadly, there is the “Best Transformation of a Waterway Into a Dumping Way.” That title goes to Newtown Creek, which is one of the few bodies of water in the world that can make the Big G look like the Alpine source from which Evian gets its H2O. If the South Brooklyn Seine can become a romantic symbol, however, Newtown Creek’s image can improve too.

Behold the J Condo in Dumbo, which will top out at 33 stories. It’s now around 25 stories and looking a little on the tall side from ground level. That’s the Beacon Tower–which briefly held the title of Dumbo’s Tallest Building–on the right.