PlanetEye

Springtime is perfect for changing your wardrobe and freshening up your apartment's interior.  So clear out your tired threads, sweep away the dust bunnies, and tear down those fraying posters.  In Manhattan's West Side, the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood encompassing West 34th up to West 59th Street, and 8th Ave. over to the Hudson River, contains Manhattan's highest flea market density.  

The Annex/Hell's Kitchen Flea Market (39th St between Ninth and Tenth Aves, 212-243-5343)   Open 10:00 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. & Sun.

Up to 170 vendors have been offering great bargains since 1976 from books to broaches...vintage clothing to Victorian couches....a healthy taxidermy inventory and everything in between.  Some tips for hunting down your coveted booty: Show up early because some vendors start packing it in at 4:30 pm; step up your efforts if the weather is lousy since sellers can be more desperate; the more things you buy from a vendor, the less you'll pay on the entire bill; and don't be shy about haggling.

The Antiques Garage (112 W 25th St between Sixth and Seventh Aves, 212-243-5343)  Open 6:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Sat. & Sun.

The Hell's Kitchen Flea Market shuttle ($1 per ride) moves you right on to The Antiques Garage attracting thousands of shoppers each weekend since 1994. More than 100 vendors packed into a two-story parking garage sell mid-century antiques, 1950's & 60's Americana, vintage clothing, furnishings, as well as a large selection of back issue magazines.  More unusual items include campaign buttons, pillbox hats & horn-rimmed glasses, and old specialty photos of pop culture icons.

West 25th Street Market (W 25th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves, 212-243-5343  Open dawn to dusk, Sat. & Sun.

Only steps away from the Antiques Garage, 125 vendors sell antiques, collectibles, and other types of vintage and retro decorative art. More avant garde of the three, there's a back alley filled with bins of rusty tools, cheap hard-to-find vinyl (the music variety), and offbeat knick knacks like carved stone statues and hand crafted wooden tribal masks.

Maybe you've driven over it, you might have walked over it soaking in the magnificent views, and you've most definitely seen it either in a picture or in person.  It's the Brooklyn Bridge of course!  Upon completion, the Brooklyn Bridge symbolized the beginning of modern New York. A monument to extraordinary engineering and perilous construction forged in steel and stone spanning the East River, its 125th anniversary celebration begins May 22 through Memorial Day weekend.  Join the party and revel in the following must-see, unusual, and entirely free events at Brooklyn Bridge Park:

Thursday, May 22

Celebration Kick-off: Concert featuring the Brooklyn Philharmonic followed by fireworks. A lighting ceremony illuminating the entire Bridge will remain lit every evening from 9pm-11pm through Memorial Day. Concert starts at 7:45pm.

The Telectroscope: A Window Through the World:  Did you know that a secret transatlantic tunnel now connects London and New York? After more than a century, it is now complete and as part of the festivities, Artist Paul St. George's public media project entitled the Telectroscope, an optical device installed at both ends of the tunnel, will allow viewers in Brooklyn to see all the way to London. (May 22 - June 15)

Friday, May 23

Film Series: Enjoy a picnic dinner and view the sunset at the foot of Brooklyn Bridge as DJs spin tunes. Stay for an open-air showing of two historic shorts:  Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903) and Manhatta (1921) followed by Enchanted, a modern-day fairy tale set in Manhattan. Music begins at 6pm, film starts at 8:30pm.

Think Bud and pizza is the only way to go in pairing your favorite cold one with cheese? Every other Tuesday at 7 p.m. starting May 6th, Bierkraft in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood hosts a free beer and cheese tasting.  Just get there before 6:30 to score your free ticket!  Brews like Ommegang, Butternuts Porkslap Pale Ale, or Lakefront New Grist Gluten Free Lager are matched by a handful of their 250-plus artisanal cheeses including Lincolnshire Poacher, Stilton with Mango and Ginger, or the Stinking Bishop.  Move over Chardonnay and Merlot! Bierkraft puts a well-stocked wine cellar to shame with a tasting room and Bud-free selection of more than 600 brews, arranged geographically from Louisiana's Abita Purple Haze to the Yuengling Lord Chesterfield.  For other countries, check out the listings on their website.  Perhaps you're in the mood for dessert....Bierkraft also has an extensive selection of chocolate bars as an accompaniment to what's on tap.  And again, these aren't Hershey bars or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Try a Dagoba lime or lavender bar and if you're feeling in the mood, a New Tree Sexy Chocolate. The flavor combinations are endless!  No worries for the unalcoholically inclined. Bubbly ciders, Ginger beer, and snacks like Asiago crackers and Zapp's potato chips are in stock.

Style, texture, and whimsy aren't exactly what you'd be obsessing over if you were an artist that just escaped from one of Latin America's strife ridden countries. Your immediate need to release anguish, express deep seated emotions, and share your jagged perceptions of life would take precedent.  El Museo Del Barrio's current exhibit:  Arte ≠ Vida, Actions by Artists of the Americas 1960-2000 gives artists an open forum to do just that. A veritable collage of military dictatorships, civil wars, disappearances, invasions, brutality, censorship, civil rights struggles, immigration issues, discrimination, and economic turmoil embody each work on display. Not merely artifacts or paintings displayed in a gallery, these pieces are performative, using video and pictures challenging the traditional concept that art is equivalent to life, and life is art. Instead, inequalities and conflict are brought to the surface demonstrating that real life endured under actual repression doesn't compare to art for art's sake.

Divided into four major decades, Arte ≠ Vida represents several themes often crossing national boundaries. 1960-1970 focuses on destructivism best exemplified by one piece consisting of a skeletal sofa without its customary stuffing or fabric; 1970-1980 exposes political protest, class struggle, happenings, land/body relationships and border crossings (one female artist covers her naked body with chicken blood & then writhes around in a pile of feathers); 1980-1990 examines anti-dictatorship protest and dreamscapes; and the 1990-2000 pieces are replete with multiculturalism, postmodernism, and endurance. An additional section highlights some actions artists have carried out on television over the past 20 years. Notable is a film showing broken white lines on a highway being made into crosses under cover of night.

Every Saturday until May 18th, free tours begin at 1 p.m. examining the backgrounds of these Latino artists from the United States, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Central and South America, and giving valuable insight into the specific context behind their works.

Like the idea of a film fest but feel daunted by all the choices?  Do not despair in the face of so many packages, many with hefty price tags at The Tribeca Film Festival. At The Tribeca Drive-In, the Festival's classic outdoor screening series, you can titillate your inner movie geek under the stars absolutely free!

Thriller Night - April 24

Join filmmaker and "Thriller" video director John Landis for a special 25th anniversary screening of Michael Jackson's epic 1984 music video, plus the classic Making of Thriller. The evening kicks off with a classic Solid Gold Dance Party. Become a zombie at the Thriller face-painting station, learn the Thriller dance, and take part in the world's largest zombie disco.

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins - April 25

As imaginative as any cartoon, lively footage of wild African meerkats along with Whoopi Goldberg's narration tells the story of Flower and her family.

Fans' Favorite Football Flick - April 26

In a head-to-head tournament which pits 16 beloved football films, including the winning film of the Tribeca/ESPN Fans' Favorite Football Flick competition, see which prevailing gridiron classic emerges.

Held in the World Financial Center's plaza, doors open at 6:30 p.m., with programs beginning at 7:30 and screenings at 8.

The Sixth Annual Drums Along the Hudson: A Native American Festival and Shad Fest will take place on Saturday May 3rd, 2008 in Manhattan's Inwood Hill Park at 218th Street, 4 blocks West of Broadway, from 11am to 6pm, rain or shine. Featuring world dance, drumming performances, as well as international and Native American foods, arts, and crafts, the festival is also renowned for hosting Manhattan's only open air Pow Wow. The Shad Fest portion includes tastings and planking (method of cooking) demonstrations teaching visitors how to cook this delicious fish for themselves. A key event sponsor, Lotus Music & Dance, established in 1989 by master Bharata Natyam dancer Kamala Cesar, is Manhattan's premier education center concentrating on traditional and indigenous performance arts. They are also the only institution in New York City where you'll find master artists from India, Korea, Burma, the South Pacific, Middle East, the Mohawk Nation, West Africa, and Spain collaborating under one roof.

The best thing about the Asian Cultural Festival's itinerary is that it's set up like an a la carte menu only better.  A wide selection of events scheduled for April 23-27th range in price from $35 for the opening event to absolutely free.  Hosted by Queens Theatre in the Park, the festival opens with Dulsori, a Korean ensemble, performing Binari: The Spirit of the Beat.  Dulsori means "heartbeat of the land" making it a good opening act since it was created to summon the spirit of ancient festivals.  Drawing on the traditions of Korean farmers who imitate the sounds of nature and praise natural forces with drums, Dulsori has been known to transfer this high-level energy to the audience.  Free events include Eth-Noh-Tec, a storytelling duo of Robert Kikuchi Tngojo and Nancy Wang weaving spoken word, music, rhythmic dialogue with modern dance technique and traditional Asian instruments including Taiko drums and Shakuhachi flute.  Their stories originate from China, Japan, Cambodia, and the Philippines.  Queens Theatre is located in the New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park (get off at the 7 line station of the same name) which was designed for the 1964 World's Fair. The Pavilion was converted to a theatre in 1972 and is now undergoing a $ 20.45 million transformation adding a new lobby, and a 75-seat cabaret performance space with full service café.