Anguish Looms For The Hipster Express

Gothamist has unfortunate news for Billyburg nightlife:

Brokelyn reports that the L will not run overnight between 8th Avenue and Bedford Avenue on weeknights from March 24th to May 22nd. Indeed, it will turn into a pumpkin from midnight to 5 a.m., Tuesdays through Fridays, for six weeks. Hope you don't work in the service industry! And again, there will be no L service between 8th Avenue and Bedford Avenue on weekends from April 11th to May 18th. That joy kicks off at midnight on Saturday and ends at 5 a.m. Monday. The good news is, this track work will improve infrastructure on the L. And as always, there will be shuttle buses at Lorimer, and the JMZ/G trains will (hopefully) be running, but whatever, we're all dead when the East River overflows.

BROOKLYN: Two Williamsburg Artists Are Living In A Giant Hamster Wheel

Via Animal New York:

“A lot of people associate it with 2001: A Space Odyssey. Others think of a hamster wheel,” artist Ward Shelley tells ANIMAL, standing 25 feet above ground, perched on top of a large wooden wheel where he has been living for four days. Inside the wheel is partner artist Alex Schweder. For six days, the artists are eating, sleeping and pissing in/on the installation they’ve constructed at Williamsburg’s Pierogi Gallery. This is the fourth collaboration between Shelley and Schweder in a series they call “The Social Relationship Architecture Project.” Each time they’ve built a different dwelling space that requires them to work together in order to live. This time, they’ve arranged the various components and furnishings of a home on a giant wheel. “In Orbit is a two bedroom apartment, in a sense,” Schweder says. “One is on the inside and one on the outside.”

And you said art is dead.

BROOKLYN: Gay Man Claims Hate Crime Attack By Group Of Hasidic Men

A gay fashion student claims that he was attacked and beaten by a group of Hasidic men while walking on the street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The New York Daily News reports:

Taj Patterson, 22, was headed home to Fort Greene around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 1 when he says more than a dozen ultra-Orthodox Jewish men began assaulting him on Flushing Ave. and yelling, “Stay down, faggot!” “I’m walking down some block by myself and then the next thing I know, I’m surrounded by a group of Hasidic Jewish men and they’re attacking me,” Patterson said. “I was alone. I was an easy target. I’m black. I’m gay, a whole slew of reasons." The New York City College of Technology student left for a fun night out with friends, and returned with a broken eye socket, a torn retina, blood clotting, and cuts and bruises to his knee and ankles. He was rushed to Woodhull Hospital and is expected to undergo surgery to reattach his retina.

An NYPD hate crimes unit is investigating. The police report says that Patterson was "highly intoxicated, uncooperative and incoherent" after the attack. According to the Daily News, the attack was witnessed by an MTA bus driver.

Hipsters, Rejoice

After ten days of suspension due to hurricane flooding, as of this afternoon New Yorkers may once again travel the L Train between Brooklyn and Manhattan.  The next flood will merely be one of skinny jeans and trucker hats.

Sunday: NYC Zombie Bar Crawl

Details.

Afternoon View - Williamsburg Bridge

NYC's Naked Bike Ride

Yesterday a couple of hundred (mostly) naked bike riders rode from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to the Christopher Street piers and then to the United Nations as part a protest against BP. Cops made no arrests.

Photo Of The Day - Message To Hipsters

The pranksters at Trustocorp send a message to Williamsburg's hipsters. Other examples of their fake street signs at the link.

(Tipped by JMG reader Paul)

Ladies Of Williamsburg, Beware

Via Holy Taco, a warning to the women of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I'm reminded of a similar "community warning" flier that I ripped off a telephone pole in the Castro many years ago. "Warning! Do not give money to Danny or any of his friends at XXXX 17th Street! He is a thief and a bad drug dealer!" Almost every gay man that saw that on my fridge had to muse whether Danny dealt bad drugs or dealt drugs badly. We could never decide.