Shop Proteus Gowanus for Cool Gifts this Sunday

Tired of the usual schlock? Want some thought provoking and also utilitarian gifts? Get away from the maddening crowds to the serenity of Nevins Street in Gowanus. Check out the art in the galleries while your at it...dig the list of examples below to get an idea of what the aesthetic of Proteus Gowanus is all about!

From their press release:

You are cordially invited to the Proteus Gowanus All Day Holiday Shopping Party!Sunday, December 19, 12-6 pm

"Are you searching for unusual, offbeat, unique or peculiar gifts to give for the holidays?

Are you dreading the slog through mall and mayhem with the accompanying auditory torture of repetitious holiday music?

May we suggest you attend our all day (12-6 pm) Holiday Shopping Party and solve your shopping problem while drinking grog and listening to unusual, offbeat and peculiar holiday music.

Shopping at Proteus Gowanus is intellectually stimulating, likely to result in conversation and often amusing.

Among the many gifts you might find here are:

Umbrella Bags made by the Fixers Collective - $25
Reflective Vests for Uninsured Bikers - $20
10 Postcards of the Gowanus from the past 100 years - $25
A Pocket Cloud, complete with silver lining - $18
Felted Angels- $25, Enameled Jewelry - $40 - $85, and Knitted Slippers - $35
from the Republic of Georgia
Taxidermy Mice adorned with wings and costumes - $70
Fone Art Figures - $50-$150
Miniature Library Furniture made from library catalogue cards - $20-$35
Songs of Lewis and Clark, a CD - $18
Colored Blocks from the Learning Materials Workshop - $30 and up
Handmade Book Brooches - $30
A wide assortment of new and rare books
Plus books published by Proteotypes, our publishing arm,
including the newly released:
A Little Common Place Book - $15.00
The perfect gift for the itinerant thinker"

www.proteusgowanus.com
Where: 543 Union Street down the alley off Nevins

Subway Lights

The Obama's in Bloomingdale's Window

Found in Manhattan

One of the stranger Christmas windows. The theme is great couples or something like that. Obama and Michele are in the window with Batman & Robin, Anthony & Cleopatra and I forget who else. I have to say, President Obama looks like a stand up comic.

Another Brooklyn Christmas....

F.I.B is always late to get into the holiday spirit and to quote from a blog post from last year where I said,
"I was raised in a house where we never got a tree until Christmas Eve. All my life I thought it was a quaint old world tradition (well, actually it kind of is) but a couple years ago I found out the real reason we did that was because the trees were half price on Christmas Eve.

Another childhood memory shattered."

If you want to read a a bit more about why I chose to divulge my saga to the world last year, click here!
And now I give you Christmas in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn USA!
President Street.Homer all alone on 1rst Place.Big drunk Santa!

Union Street

Have you noticed the holidays have rendered F.I.B speechless? Not much to say, except, my body sort of feels like the way this house looks after three days of holiday indulging (all good of course!).

P.S - Happy Boxing Day!

Yule Tidings from F.I.B!

This about the only decoration I put out this year and yes, it was found on the street a few years ago!

Peace Babies!!!

Robert Goulet on Third Place

Free Trees in Red Hook

Meanwhile back in Brooklyn...

Sheesh...I didn't expect the dialogue regarding the post below so I just want to bring us back to reality. I enjoy this type of Christmas display just as much as the bling of Manhattan, if not more so!So in the spirit of Christmas which I should hope we all practice all year round, let's Let it Go! and look for a free (ie:recycled ie: green (the buzzword of 2007) together on Friday night, shall we?

But you have to admit, that "boot" picture below was pretty hot, no?

Christmas In Money Makin' Manhattan

My sister told me the other night that I have a bad relationship with people who have "money" and that I should stop bashing them on da blog. I really don't do it too much, yeah I had a fit about the couple with the double baby stroller on the subway, and yeah I also had a melt down on Smith Street one Sunday brunch time afternoon but I wouldn't have a problem if the people that had money walked around looking like Rita Hayworth, as I would if I could afford me some Alexander McQueen! F.I.B went to the 57th Avenue area today and was quite impressed with the Christmas windows in the old school New York Department store windows this year. These in particular are from Bergdorf's dahling...Anyway, it was another world from the craftsy Brooklyn Christmas stylee, I felt like I needed a face lift, a facial and a haircut. This one is for you Eileen!!!!

A "Green" Christmas Tip

Kensington Lobby

I haven’t been much in the Christmas spirit despite living in one of the decorating epicenters of Brooklyn. There is a guy with a Christmas-ized working Ferris Wheel on his front lawn that I walk by everyday and even that doesn't affect me. I think it's because I was raised in a house where we never got a tree until Christmas Eve. All my life I thought it was a quaint old world tradition (well, actually it kind of is) but a couple years ago I found out the real reason we did that was because the trees were half price on Christmas Eve.

Another childhood memory shattered.

These days you can't even get a tree on Christmas Eve; I know because I've tried in the past. All the sellers are gone. But ironically the sidewalks are already full of discarded trees as so many people leave town over Christmas and don’t want to come home to a dead tree. So a tip from me, if buying a 75 dollar Christmas tree is something you can’t fathom or afford this year, you can get one for free quite possibly as early as next Friday. This town is going to be deserted as Christmas falls on a Monday and mark my words the sidewalks, particularly in the posh brownstone neighborhoods, are going to be littered with perfectly good trees (the poor dears!).