golden hour in The Hook

wherefore the fuzz?

No love for the fuzz twins? They just sit there on the wall, hungering for pizza. Maybe some chips or an Ultimate cheeseburger from Jack in the Crack.

But their legs are too short and they don't drive, so when they scootch on over to the The Crack' drive-thru, the pimply teenaged night manager is all like, "Naw uh, We can't serve you. you needs to be in a car, Bro. Sorreeezz"

Hungry. Sitting on the shelf. People passing them by every day, but no play. They're starting to descend into a spiral of doubt and self-loathing.

Poor little Fuzzes, never did hurt no one.

You don't like the Fuzz. You pretend they don't exist - talking about them like they're not even in the room.

Look what you've done. They have an eating disorder now... Body Image Dysmorphic Disorder or something. Now they're gonna need Meds which they won't be able to afford and the Cold Turkey withdrawal might make them suicidal.

You HATE the Fuzz. You want them to DIE and go away!

That is so wrong.

Poor little Fuzz.

MANIMAL totem!

6th largest snowstorm in 160 years...git some!

What is this... Buffalo?



Perma snow-devil near Fairway

right-sized hardwood tables

Whenever we go into furniture, antique or thrift stores, Mollie has come to expect from me Chimp-like behavior of pulling drawers out, crawling behind and under furniture, and shining flashlights at stuff - closely examining everything.

These new items in our store have been a transcendent experience for me to pore over and obsess about. (Seriously... I'm not shittin around)



Little end tables and coffee tables from Mi Mesita. Manny Flaherty's furniture collection right-sized for average NYC living spaces.

Like myself, Manny comes from a family of builders. I appreciate his skill and extreme attention to detail. The clean uncluttered lines and spare use of joinery for both structural and aesthetic effect, the natural flow of the trees own growth lines - all these factors merge into a striking minimalist balance.

I really dig his work. Plus he builds the stuff at his studio just a few blocks from our store.

(there. i got through that without using the word "synergy")

Check it out... I got some Wood P0rn for ya right here













More pictures soon.

Manny is available for custom work. His contact info is at his website.

Last Minute Holiday Shopping??

Santa on a budget this year? Belated Hanukkah Shopping? Searching for that perfect Kwanzaa gift?

In the words of Bob Barker himself, "Come on dowwwwwwwwwwwn!" ....to the Everbrite Mercantile store here in Red Hook, Brooklyn (totally improv'd that last bit)!


These one-of-a-kind Kreepy Dolls are great picks for the kids... Although Richard Balls (the little pink guy to the right with the... um... "chestnuts," if you will), might be a little more appropriate for the grown-ups with a great sense of humor.


Fish Mick Chicken here is a personal fav. Half chicken, half fish! Admired by many--snatch him up before he's gone!

The following items make great gifts and/or stocking-stuffers.


OutScent by Jao is a scented oil that both Buffalo Bill & the Brawny paper towel guy would sport while flexing for the ladies. It holds a natural, earthy scent reminiscent of the great outdoors. It also has the added bonus of repelling those pesky insects when outside in the summer. It's perfect for a special guy--boyfriend, Dad, bro, the boss (if you're working on that promotion... wink), and also works for the ladies!


The rabbit shot glass is one of our most popular items... these things have pretty much been flying off the shelves with their innovative inversive design that allows the glass to rest upside down. Other styles of the shot glass include a black moose, deer, and white rhino! C'mon... who wouldn't want a shot of Jack from a moose?


The Jao Lip Balm is made with 34% Shea butter and is petro-free. It's a great gift to soften up the lips!


The QUEUE Stick Lighter by Japan's Tsubota Pearl is a sleek piece roughly the size of a cigarette. It's available here in gold, silver, and black. You'll get a double take from the guy who just lit his cig with a zippo the size of a horse, while you look like you just made fire with your fingertips alone.

So stop on by! Check out the store, do a little shopping (or a butt-ton), and at the very least, shoot the breeze with a few hysterical crazies!

birds do it. bees do it...

Even horny Santa's reindeers do it





okee doke... to be clear - I know that "Vixen" isn't an official Santa reindeer name. But it sounds close enough to Blitzen, and I got enough ethanol in my veins to kill an ox so my opinion counts.

We call this "artistic license", bee-yotches.

Reindeer paper clips 16 bucks a jar. Git Some!


note: post inspired by Kim White's ribald and far more artistic paper clip item photos. Most of which have not been released for public consumption.

SUPERGRID

In honor of the universal obsessive need for web "feature creep"...

presenting a bit of completely unnecessary User Experience tomfoolery:

BEHOLD... the Mighty SUPERGRID !!!


to get to it on the site, there is a menu selection like hyaaaaaa:


I dunno. It's really not awesome or nuthin, but click me now to see SUPPERRRGRIDDDD

ode to Coco

So Kim, our talented in-house uber-designer who we've mentioned here more than a few times regarding all her creative contributions to the store... she comes in yesterday with a picture she drew of Conan O'Brien and asked me to come up with a caption for it. (Because as a naturally offensive a-hole, I'm just the one for the job)

This is the result:


the flickr page it's on

That's how we roll in EB-Merc Fun Land.

Dicken Around Friday Night

A new "Event" at our Red Hook store:

In which we hang out after normal store hours talking, drinking, listening to music, snacking, playing board games and video games, watch Popeye cartoons on the movie projector... burning away the time.

tomorrow and friday in Red Hook Brooklyn

Back in the 17th century when the Dutch were knee-deep in goo feeling for clams and oysters with their toes in the Roode Hoek mud flats, I'm sure the last thing on their minds was Yoga and Art.

but that's what we got lined up for you monkeys this week, so there.

Felecia Maria is back for Wednesday Yoga by donation,
and an opening reception for Jenna Kole's interactive paper sculpture on friday.

WEDNESDAY (all Wednesdays in December)


FRIDAY... this Friday, the 10th of December

efforts to quell my obnoxiousness have had mixed results

Christmas trees of the non-murdered variety

Inspired by Bobby's tree I made another in a truss planter.

$63 with the tree. In-store only.

aside

I really should be doing something constructive - like making a flashy and compelling blog post about Jenna Kole's Origamitron opening next Friday at the store. But no. Instead I'm dicking around with low-rez pix of a new toy waiting for me on the Left Coast.



What is it? It's a first generation Final Lap arcade game, that's what.

And come February/March, it will be at the Red Hook store having its cabinet refreshed and retro-fied into an Alternate History faux-1960's stencil treatment.

Tasty.

Bobby's little tree

A dude came into the store a few weeks back. When he said he was the Executive Chef at Fort Defiance, I was pleased to finally meet the man responsible for what I'd been blabbing about for weeks as the "best hamburger on earth". (Plus all their other stuff rocks too.)

Anyway, he carted off his newly acquired merch but left behind a truss planter... I promised to stuff a plant into it.

Just before my Mom returned home a few days ago, she helped me pick out a suitable plant from Liberty Sunset Garden Center. Mom raised her first garden with her sister Paula when they were 3 and 4 years old during World War 2. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor the family was relocated from Navy housing that was too close to the coast and considered too dangerous. In the temporary housing tract they took it upon themselves to start a garden, and both Mom and auntie Paula have been tending to plants ever since then.

So naturally I consulted her while she was here in Brooklyn about the proper method of choosing and re-potting plants.

This is the result: little "Tree-ey".

Let's join Tree-ey now as he bids a solemn farewell to all his little friends at Everbrite Mercantile Company.


He'll forever remember the after hours drinking with the wood table crowd. Their rambunctious hijinks and semi-homoerotic roughhousing will be sorely missed. Squirrel patch and the playing card twins are the ones who usually get in trouble, but deer paper clips is the real instigator. He's a rascal, that one.




Although often cliquish and mean, the girly jewelry and tchotchke gang who hang out on the big dresser could sometimes surprise you with expressions of deep empathy and compassion. Tree-ey never did like to hang out with them too much - for some reason he found their loud gum-chewing to be a bit off-putting. Despite their differences, the farewell party was filled with many tears and some inappropriate groping.




Mimmo Plane and Eames Blocks were over by themselves as usual, people-watching and making ironic observations... obviously the youngest siblings in their respective families. They're always good for a laugh. In fact, that's all they're good for.




There was a little bit of awkwardness with Eclipse Bottle Opener who had brought her boyfriend cottage incense burner to the party. That damned drunken idiot Moose shot glass opened his big fat mouth about the "incident in the bathroom". Crow bottle opener tried to cover it up with a loud story about a bad case of inner thigh chafing while wearing corduroy shorts in summer camp, but the boyfriend could sense that there was something fishy.

soooo anyways... Tree-ey makes a new home tomorrow at Bobby D's place.

Good luck Tree-ey.

Yoga is Baaaaa-a-aaaaaack!

Happy December!! Now that most of us are stuffed with goods from Turkey Day, join us once again here at Everbrite Mercantile Co. (351 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, NY) for yoga by donation with Felecia Maria! The class is from 7:30-8:30 pm.

The first night was a hit, so we'll be doing a one hour class every Wednesday in December starting tonight!

Come one! Come ALL! Don't forget to bring your yoga mat or equivalent! See you tonight!