the 8th Annual Renegade Craft Fair

We couldn’t be more excited to return to everyone’s favorite borough for the 8th Annual Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn on June 23 + 24, 2012 from 11am-7pm each day at the East River State Park, aka the Williamsburg Waterfront (just a few blocks from our old location in McCarren Park)! Join us as 300+ of today’s very best indie makers from the Empire State and beyond show their best handmade goods. Get creative at one of our hands-on workshops. Enjoy great music, tasty local food, and much more, all while enjoying a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline. Brooklyn, this is gonna be a good one.
Check out the mega-taleneted artists + crafters participating in RCF Brooklyn here!

More information here.

Via The Morning News

With blockbusters like Snow White and the Huntsman, Zombie Overkill, and Yahtzee: Alien Invasion, it’s already a smash hit for summer movies. But serious film buffs know Summer 2012 will be even better—and we’re not just talking about Jerry Bruckheimer’s live-action Hungry Hungry Hippo Apocalypse.

Justice League Avengers: Manchild Uprising
DC and Marvel Comics unite for the first time on the big screen. When an army of middle-aged men in Iron Man T-shirts storm the Justice League to avenge the heresy of merging the two comic book universes, heroes from DC and Marvel team up to protect superherokind. In addition to Aquaman, Superman, and Captain America, Justice League Avengers will feature less familiar superheroes such as Bolphunga, Cicada, King Tut, Poundcakes, Thundarr, Valerie Van Haaften, Ferret Boy, and the Green Juggalo. (Cameos by the Hulk, Thor, and Zach Galifianakis.)

Margot Tenenbaum vs. Max Fischer
In the tradition of Alien vs. Predator, director Wes Anderson plots Margot and Max—his two most memorable twee creations—in an epic battle to see who can be the most adorably precious. Early teasers hint at plotlines including a Trapper Keeper, a Bunsen burner, an extinct bird known as the Slender-Billed Curlew, alphabet refrigerator magnets, and Bill Murray in a tweed suit. With fonts including Rotis Semi Serif and Berthold Light Condensed Italic. Music by Sufjan Stevens and Crocheted Lampshade.

Read it all here.

Check out premiere New York City Reggae outfit The Frighteners taking over Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick last night. Below is a video edit of them covering Michael Prophet’s “Gunman”.

tntla's flickr

Last week we told you about a group using Kickstarter to help fund a major city art project. But if you want to give your hard earned dollar to simpler causes – like buying someone 50 lunches – then check out Indiegogo. The site seems to have blown up over night thanks to blogs jumping on a story about Karen Huff, a middle school bus monitor who was mercilessly bullied by students in a video that went viral. Someone got the bright idea to put together a fundraising campaign to give this woman a vacation. ”She doesn’t earn nearly enough ($15,506) to deal with some of the trash she is surrounded by,” the campaign’s creator wrote. “Lets give her something she will never forget, a vacation of a lifetime!”

But Karen’s going to get a lot more than just a vacation. The goal was $5,000, but in two days people have donated $387,399. Thatsuh lotta cake. The guy behind the campaign promises that all the money will go to Karen. And now someone has started their own Indiegogo page to raise money for the guy who started Karen’s campaign.

There’s nothing in the Indiegogo mission statement that encourages dumb projects. But it does emphasize the ease at which pages can be created, “no matter what you are raising money for.” The site has been around since 2008, as has Kickstarter. Of course Indiegogo has important projects also, and Kickstarter has dumb ones, but Indiegogo makes it easier for anyone to post anything, and people will pay up.

Does everyone just have all this extra money to throw around?

It’s hot as hell, but you can’t beat the price. More information about this free show at mysocialist.

Here’s a great short film on opener Johnny Corndawg:

Meet Jonny Corndawg from Miku & Ryan on Vimeo.

Christopher Lehault's flickr

In case you needed another occasion to drink, Smorgasburg will be selling alcohol beginning this Saturday. Gothamist has the pricing: beer for $6, wine for $11, booze for $12. Grub Street has more info: there will be a roped-in area – SmorgasBar – that features a changing lineup of local alcohol producers like Brooklyn Brewery, Kelso, and Sixpoint.

Last night unlikely collaborators Steve Aoki and Duran Duran hit the Trident / SOL Republic sponsored stage to celebrate the release of their “NEW” single “Hungry Like The Wolf (Steve Aoki vs Duran Duran – The New York Werewolf Mix)” (Which is available for a free download for a limited time) at Terminal 5. Here is a glimpse of what you missed:

Steve Aoki Fans:

More Pics after the jump! (more…)

Governor's Ball

As made evident by the content of this and the previous edition of “The Most Blogged About Shows This Week,” New York City is increasingly overrun by festivals.  There’s a few going on this week, most notably Hillstock (Bushwick), Rockstock (Rockaway Beach) and, with some of the biggest names to hit NYC this summer, Governor’s Ball.

Festivals can be a crap shoot… so many things can go right (Northside) and so many things can go wrong (Googa Mooga.)  Governor’s Ball’s lineup is awesome on paper and is well put together (more on that later), but the Randall’s Island location presented some issues last year (longggggggggg ass lines for the ferry.)

It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out this year.  There’s a shuttle bus running from Williamsburg this time around (right in front of Brooklyn Bowl, every hour from 11 am to 6 PM), but the price was steep ($50 round trip) and they’re sold out.  Last year, patrons reported waits of upwards of 2 hours for the ferry, so I’m a bit wary this year.  I’ll likely walk across the RFK Bridge from Queens, which takes about 30 minutes.  The temperature is supposed to drop about 10-15 degrees from the oppressive and record-breaking temperatures we’ve seen the last couple of days, so it should be rather pleasant.

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Make Music New York W&W BBQ Block Party 2012

As we mentioned yesterday, today is the Sixth Annual Make Music New York celebration. With hundreds of musical acts performing in the streets until 10PM, you may feel a bit lost as to where to begin. Here’s a great event to hit up: The Sixth Annual Williamsburgers & Wieners BBQ Block Party.

The event begins at 4PM and is held in the garden patio of Cyn Lounge, “so that the music spills out onto the sidewalk, and the dancing in the street” (did “Dancin’ in the Street” just start playing in your head too?).

FREE burgers and hot dogs will be served (while supplies last) with drink specials until 10PM.

The block party’s line-up includes:
Avi Wisnia
Golden Bloom
David Ladon of The Doctors Fox
Wojcik
Shira
3dCosby
The Great Apes
Prostitution
The Working Effective
…and many more!

So head over to Cyn Lounge at 4PM for free food, drink specials, and awesome live music (and maybe even some dancin’ in the streets – woo!). Happy Make Music New York day!

Dent May

Listen: Dent May: “Shakedown Street” (mp3)

via

We’ve been enjoying his new record Do Things out on Paw Tracks. Here’s the first single, ‘Home Grown’:

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