Brooklyn Flea

Saturday we had a winner but no magic phone captured her! Sunday was a different, sweet story.

Check back at noon Friday for this week's items.

From left (click to enlarge):

Sunday: Garrett (right) lives in L.A., works at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (cool), had been to the Flea once before. He likes to hit the market when he visits his sister, a Clinton Hiller and also a regular Fleaster (word). Garrett found the '60s deadstock frames before noon, and wouldn't you know he's probably gonna give them to his nice sister. No blurring of priorities here.

Garrett's posing with Maxwell, whose few-months-old Extinct Optics biz is essentially launching at the Flea. Max focuses on deadstock frames, as opposed to vintage, and he's got more than just the proto-nerd B+L's—YSL, Ray-Ban, Pierre Cardin, Cazal,

Yves Saint Laurent, Ray-Ban, Pierre Cardin, all the cool peeps' peepers. With us for a month, Max is already a staple, and making more of a spectacle of himself every week. Find him in G15 every weekend at Skylight One Hanson, and G20 at Gifted.

Yesterday our man on the inside, Kyle, scored an Iranian rug fresh from a U.S. Marshal sale of the Bernie Madoff estate! Apparently the small silvery rug's previous home was the notorious swindler's living room. Zach from Heirloom Rugs—located on the lower/vault level on Sundays—scored the piece at auction along with a much larger one for exponentially more. Ya never know what you'll find at the Flea!

Gobble up these Hunt items—Scavenging is technically exercise!

Note: The Flea is indoors at Skylight One Hanson Saturdays and Sundays on 3 floors (with food downstairs), 10am-6pm, through March 2011. The Fort Greene outdoor market is closed for the season and reopens in April 2011.

When you find one of the items above, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it's yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo with the generous vendor here on the blog on Tuesday. Only one winner per calendar month. Items posted every Friday around Noon.

From left (click to enlarge):

1. Saturday: Handblown fisherman's buoy. Vintage

2. Sunday: Deadstock eyeglass frames, in original packaging, circa 1960. Vintage

Message in a (1000ml) bottle + workin' on the (size 8) clampdown!

Check back at noon Friday for this week's items.

From left (click to enlarge):

Saturday: Renee Alfuso (left) is actually writing an article about the Flea for the NYU alumni magazine (cool), and she figured what better way to start her first-hand research than by coming early to try the Hunt. Whaddya know, she won! No need for an SOS or Police song on this one, just a cool German wooden ship inside an old chemistry bottle.

She's with big Zak (in tie and overalls), who with gal-pal Alicia are Daily Memorandum: burgeoning antiquers down in Philly who made the leap to the BK over the summer and haven't left the Vanderbilt fence since. Their stuff is right in what's become the Flea's pocket: industrial-modern, salvage, re-purposed, distressed-wood, heavy-metal (the material), quirky-American—all those hyphenated hits, they got 'em. Zak and Alicia are also part of our Next Wave of vendors in their 20s and 30s who are taking the collecting/dealing mantel from the longtimers and updating it for, well, folks just like you. They'll be in the vault in V7 for the winter at Skylight One Hanson—starting this weekend, Saturdays and Sundays, 10a-6p, through March—and in V20 for Gifted (Dec. 15-23).

Sunday: Donna (right) from Throgs Neck (the 'hood not the bridge!) loves fleas, but this was her first Flea. You know the rest: visited the website for the first time Saturday morning, by 10:30am she was a winner. Donna didn't mention what she'll do with the vintage metal c-clamp, but here's hoping she'll get it together. Ba-dum-bum.

Jon is another whose relatively young Flea biz, Brooklyn Cream, has in the last few months emerged as one of our best. Born and raised in Midwood, he's an artist and a junk collector. His booth is like a little world: old-fashioned turntable playing old tymey tunes, seltzer bottles, cookware, quilts, wire baskets, wooden casks, stray doorknobs, a couple stools, stacks of photos—you know the deal. Jon's doing a great job, and he's in the vault in V11 for, well, the foreseeable future. Plus, they're now on the Twitter @BrooklynCream.

Fort Greene was just an incredible market and place to be all through 2010. We can't thank you enough for making it great, for bringing your friends and family, and for generally creating a perfect vibe. Onward and upward!

For the Fort Greene's Flea's last stand, a message in a bottle to 2011: We'll be back at port next April! And for Sunday we go industrial modern.

Note: The Fort Greene market happens every Saturday outdoors, 10am-5pm; One Hanson is on Sundays indoors on 3 floors (with food downstairs), 10am-6pm. Starting next week, Nov. 27+28, the Flea moves indoors to One Hanson every Saturday and Sunday through March 2011, 10am-6pm.

When you find one of the items above, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it's yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo with the generous vendor here on the blog on Tuesday. Only one winner per calendar month. Items posted every Friday around Noon.

From left (click to enlarge):

1. Saturday: German wooden ship inside 1000ml chemistry bottle. Vintage

2. Sunday: Jorgensen Industrial Duty C Clamp, #8 size, '60s-'70s. Vintage

It's a little bittersweet around Flea HQ this week, what with the last week outside at Fort Greene coming up this Saturday. (Plus Sidekick Rob is leaving for honeymoon for two weeks with Sweet Jess.) Even if it somehow magically didn't rain on a single Saturday all year, or people from Sweden, Japan, and Australia hadn't flocked to the market every week, or our own baby didn't morph into a toddler/mini-human while dodging the massive Asia Dog/Pizza Moto/Milk Truck lines, the Flea still would have elevated to another plane in 2010. The best stuff, the nicest people and vibe, families, friends, food—it all just came together, and every week was better than the last. For us it's like a dream walking around that yard, for realz.

Above, just a random pic we took sometime over the summer: great booth setup, funky AlternAmerica flag, stuff we wanted and picked through, a nice couple we chatted with selling it, their baby along for the Flea ride. Nothing special, until we realize we sometimes take for granted just how special each little 100sf vendor booth is every single week.

Moving on! Starting Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 27+28, the Flea goes indoors Saturday and Sunday at Skylight One Hanson until March 2011, and the hours are 10am-6pm there now. Lots of food downstairs (where Jerry Seinfeld was last Sunday), awesome vendors on all 3 floors including the jacked-up vault (lots of big stuff like furniture down there) and mesmerizing mezzanine. And Gifted, which by now you've figured out is Dec. 15-23 and which really overflows into the 3 weekends leading up to it.