Brooklyn Flea

Senor Flea's efforts at brevity generally fall short. (Wha?) But blog batman Brownstoner keeps telling him to do more quick posts, so here goes.

Senor owns three Milton Carter T-shirts (including the ram skull in last week's NY Times pic), and Milton's back in action this Sunday at the Flea, rocking his T's for guys and gals, as well as his cool new tote bags (right) featuring a highly subjective and geographically dubious map of Williamsburg/Greenpoint, his proud home. Not that our Flea Bags aren't perfectly captivating, of course (thanks again to Loyalty + Blood for the rad design).

Milton will be in L14, Lafayette fence, Vanderbilt side. He's a hoot!

Starting this Sunday, we are pleased to announce that bike parking at the Flea just got a whole lot easier. Bike valet is coming to the Flea! Even better, it's free.

We love folks to bike, walk, subway, bus, or blade-scooter to the Flea--and now you can just hop off your bike, park it with our trusty valet guy/gal right in front of the Lafayette entrance, get your ticket, and pick up your bike on the way out. No muss, no worries, no sweat.

The fine folks at Transportation Alternatives provide this service at a few spots around town, and we're hoping that this new partnership with the Flea will kick bike valet into high gear as a viable option for cyclists around the city at big or small events.

FYI: Bikes aren't allowed inside the Flea, and if you don't want to use the valet, please lock your bike to a nearby pole or the schoolyard fence. Please do not lock your bike to the scaffolding or poles in front of Queen of All Saints Church across the street. Thanks!

Maybe it was the rain, maybe the vendors hid the items too well, maybe it was just kismet. But none of the 3 Scavenger Hunt items was found this week. They'll be back again at a later date, look out for 'em.

This Sunday's items will be posted first thing Friday morning, check back then.

Week 3 of the Scavenger Hunt offers some pretty snazzy stuff, and a nice sampling of what the Flea has to offer every week. Antiques, munchies, rekkids--all can be yours with just a bit of hunting and pecking. See you at ze Flea.

From left:

1. Wooden box with decorative antique molding. Vintage

2. One jar each of Wheelhouse Pickles' "Wheelhouse Whims" (pickles featuring Red Hook's own Six Point Craft Ale) and "Irma's Pears," pickled in mirin, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, and soy, and accented with tangerines, scallions and black sesame seeds. Yum! Um, new

3. Original mono copy of the Rolling Stones' classic 1965 album December's Children (and Everybody's), featuring "Get Off of My Cloud" and "As Tears Go By." Vintage

Sure it's the heart of summer and the humidity has turned the city into a swamp of sweat--that don't stop new vendors from starting at ze Flea!

We welcome some seriously awesome folks this Sunday, from near and far.

Vintage Vogue, from way up in Saratoga Springs, do the Mid-Century thang with gusto and panache, can't wait to check 'em out. They sell wholesale to a bunch of top city shops (Lost City Arts, Wyeth), and will be bringing a wide range of treats. Say hi to Frank.

Wunderkammer Art + Antiques, a new shop (above) recently opened by Jefferson and his wife up in Sugar Loaf, NY, specializing in vintage kitchen and household items, antique American Furniture and picture frames, and a few contemporary painters. Sounds good!

Ramon Gomez sold in Chelsea for years, and has a really nice-looking setup and an excellent range of stuff. Psyched to have him.

Bayo's Corner (right) isn't exactly new, but big man Bayo brings in a rotating cast of vendors to his handball wall spots every week, all of whom have quirky-cool antiques and reasonable prices. Thanks B!

Treasures + Pleasures, a vintage boutique in Manhattan, is in L8 every week now, with a healthy serving of bedazzles like handbags, jewelry, and accessories. George and Carole are old-school marketeers, but new to ze Flea.

With an info table out front this Sunday, the upstart Brooklyn Wolverines local football program will be spreading the word about its efforts to get high-school Brooklynites onto the gridiron. (You may have seen them practicing in Fort Greene Park on weekday afternoons recently.) We hope they go long.

On the foodie front, we have a couple of newcomers:

WannaHavaCookie's Marisa makes her debut in the chocolate/ricotta/coffee/tea/cupcake zone, rolling out her smaller-size (thus the name) whoopie pies, cookies, and more. Scrumptious.

And in our new rotating local food spot by the bleachers (where PaPa Lima Sandwiches have been), hot Bed-Stuy African-French bistro Le Toukouleur will be serving up a sampling of items from its wildly diverse menu. Oui oui! (The restaurant is at Bedford and Quincy.)

The second Scavenger Hunt lasted slightly longer than the first, but we broke our record for earliest find: 10:02am! (The snazzy blue tote bag was a serious find. Thanks to Areta from Papushka Vintage for hookin' it up.)

Here are this week's lucky winners:

Travis (our crack Flea staff didn't get his last name or neighborhood--or any of the other winners for that matter!) was clearly psyched to snag the blue Monarch flight bag from Papushka Vintage. Unfortunately, Papushker Areta didn't make it into this glamorous cell-phone photo--she's a cutey!

Lovely Jena scored the owl from Doug Anson, who's not big on photos. He's got great stuff in W12 though! (Please note Jena's owl pendant, which proves she was on the prowl for this bad boy.)

This fine fella (Brownstoner failed to even get his name!) was surprised to learn he won Mr. Robot, even though he had seen him on the blog last week. He's here with Futaba Sunderland from Futopiaco, who's in W38 or so every week. Cute!

Check back Friday morning for this Sunday's treasures.

Robot winner Barry Grossman of Flatlands dropped us a line to say that's him in the photo. Congrats Barry!

The Flea's illustrious Scavenger Hunt screams into Week 2 with a lovely assortment of treasures for Fleasters to scour the yard for. And wouldn't you know it--there's another cute owl among the Huntees! And we thought they were endangered or something. Luckily, owls are still very hip.

Happy scavenging!

From left:

1. Little Robot Guy--battery-operated, wheels around, flashing eyes and ears. Reproduction.

2. 1970's "Monarch" baby blue vinyl travel bag--great for guys or gals. Vintage

3. Ceramic owl on pedestal. Looks more serious than last week's winking owl. Vintage

Another new feature! Every Thursday (or thereabouts), we'll round up the various Flea posts from around the World Wide Web.

Coldwell Banker Property Listing (touting proximity to ze Flea) 7/13/08

Malia 7/13/08

Urbania.us 7/13/08

Stacey Snacks 7/14/08

Last week's Flea was packed with vendors and "regular" people, one of our finest days yet. (In case you're wondering the crowd approached 7000 for the day.)

Look out for more quickie, visual posts like this one as we try to convey the breadth of all ze Flea has to offer.

John Bal, an excellent chap who's a Senor Flea dream: you never know what he's gonna show up with, but you can tell he's searched far and wide for it--plus he's got that gruff exterior but friendly-under-the-surface thing that some of us go to markets to experience. Last week he had an insane amount of weathered leather belts (top left), a clump of mismatched silver, a heavy old rotary phone and so much more. John calls his biz eBuy/Sell (for unexplained reasons), you gotta check him out.

Across the Clermont aisle from John is Frank and Diego's colorful array of mid-century furniture, which they call Grandma's Attic. They have desks, dressers, storage units, you name it--most of it in bright primary colors and a little bit of '50s/'60s flair to boot (right. They had a great lamp last week that was gone before we could go back and snap it--turns out our friends bought it for their new baby's room!

The first Flea Scavenger Hunt was practically over before it started. By 10:30am we had two winners (the bowl and the owl) and by 11:15 all 3 items had been discovered. Keen eye, Fleasters!

So without further ado, here's who took home the goods:

Anna Gordon from Windsor Terrace plucked the porcelain bowl from the Greenjeans booth at 10:10am. She saw it on the blog and snatched it right up with a smile. Here she is with Greenjeans groovy gal Amy Shaw. (Greenjeans is relocating from its Park Slope shop probably in early fall--stay tuned for news.)

Sarah Schumann of Prospect Heights had been wanting the winking owl cookie jar for weeks now, then her friend emailed to say it was in the Hunt. She promptly snatched it from Amy Heath of Jellyroll Vintage as she was unwrapping it for display--at 10:30am. Wink wink, nudge nudge!

Smiley Emil Andresen from Aarhus, Denmark, didn't even know about the Scavenger Hunt until he tried to purchase Blondie's Parallel Lines, which he had been searching for, from Tequila Sunrise Records. Then owner Anthony Vogdes let him know he was a winner and Emil was, as pictured, all smiles. Congrats!