The New Beer Garden

looks pretty cool.

Judith and Megc have more on it over here.

The details:

35-33 36th Street (between 35th & 36th Avenues)
Long Island City
Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. - 4 a.m.
Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays, 12 p.m. - 4 a.m.
718-383-1001

Future Planning

liQcity has a great list of upcoming events nearby:

Thursday 5/28

*It’s Ladies Night every Thursday night at Shi Restaurant, offering 2 for 1 drink specials. 4720 Center Blvd, LIC, 347.242.2450
*Manducatis Rustica is hosting live music from 7:30-10pm in the form of a jazz/funk band recreating classic old Italian songs. 46-33 Vernon Blvd, LIC, 718.937.1312
*‘Trans-positions along the Queensboro Bridge’ opens today, a contemporary art production in which 44 artists exhibit their work in 5 LIC venues: Henry DeFord III Gallery at CitiGroup (One Court Sq 44th Dr at Jackson Ave), Space Realty Group, Packard Square Lobby, Holiday Inn Manhattan View, and the Clocktower Building (29-27 Queens Plaza N, ground FL). On view 9am-5pm, Mon thru Fri at all 5 venues. Opening reception on Saturday, May 30, 6-8pm. Running through July 31. Check the website or PDF for more QB Bridge Centennial events.
*Enjoy 5 straight days of live original music in Astoria and LIC with the Astoria Music & Arts ROCK ODYSSEY event series. Thursday kicks off the ODYSSEY with music, dance, a short film festival, and DJing at Astoria’s Club SANM. Doors at 7pm, $5 cover. See flyer for details – ROCK ODYSSEY live music events run through Monday, June 1 at venues such as Hell Gate Social, Lucky Mojo’s, and LIC Bar. 35-15 36th Ave., Astoria, 718.786.0874

Friday 5/29

*Bar Domaine hosts the local Steve Blanco Trio twice a week on Tuesday and Friday. 9p-midnight. 50-04 Vernon Blvd, LIC, 718.784.2350
*Opening reception of Craig Stewart’s exhibition at Dean Project in conjunction with Queens Council on the Arts. 6-9pm. 45-43 21 St, LIC, 718.706.1462
*‘Queensboro Bridgescapes’ exhibition by artist Antonio Masi opens at The Space’s Fardom Gallery. Wed & Fri 12pm-9pm, Thurs & Sat 12pm-6pm. Through June 26. Reception and artist talk on June 3, 6:30-8:30pm. 21-17 41st Ave., LIC, 718.752.0331

New Terry Signs

The most romantic little mystery in the neighborhood is continuing, with a slightly new sign from the girl who is looking for Terry.

Coming Soon

That Sprint PCS Store seems to be on its way to opening.

Cleaning Up the Neighborhood

Here's the before-and-after of the wall along 39th Place just off Queens Boulevard, which used to have graffiti on it. Before I called 311 about it a few weeks ago.

Sometimes, the Pickups at the Bar

Work out well:

Jennifer, 36, director of communications at the Daily News, and Owen, 36, a computer programmer at Katz Media Group, met at a bar in Sunnyside, Queens, in January 2007.

After nine months, the couple started dating. Owen proposed on Sept. 1, 2008, while they were on vacation in the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland.

Take heart thirteenwinters.

The Race from Aubergine Cafe

Which starts here, and goes to Columbus Circle, was won by a guy on a bicycle, who beat out a guy in a taxi, and another guy in a subway.

The story:

NEW YORK—When you’ve been in a hurry to get to work or to catch a show, have you ever wondered what form of readily available transportation would get you there the fastest? That is the spirit behind Transportation Alternatives’ 8th Annual NYC Commuter Race, where three commuters-one by bike, one by subway, and one by taxi-raced to see who could make their commute the fastest. And in the end, the winner by more than 15 minutes was Bronx librarian Rachael Myers on her bicycle.

"As soon as I saw all the traffic backed up on the Queensboro Bridge, I knew this wasn't going to be a fair fight," boasted Myers, who rode her bicycle to victory. "I actually was able to finish a cup of coffee before anyone else made it to the finish line.”

Myers finished the four point two mile race from the Aubergine Café in Sunnyside, Queens to Columbus Circle in Manhattan in 20 minutes 15 seconds, beating out transit rider Dan Hendrick (35:16) and taxi rider Willie Thompson (47:11).

Replacing 'The Grind'

Will be a Sprint PCS store, and a health food store, according to one of the construction guys working on the place.

It'll be located at 39th Place and Queens Boulevard. The Grind is actually still in business, operating just around the corner.

More About Terry

I emailed the person who is looking for Terry, and she said:

If you see him, he is tall, light skin and black hair. I believe he has a Ukrainian background or similar. He's grown up in Queens. I am sorry I didn't ask for his contact that night....he was so sweet. he walked me home in the rain under his umbrella. i was soaking.

I'm not sure how successful this venture will be, but it strikes me as sweetly nostalgic. From another time way back when before people found other people
on jdate, craigslist, etc.

Looking for Love by the 7 Train

This flier was by the 40th Street station in Sunnyside this morning. Here's what it says:

Terry
Studying electrical engineering?
Walked with me home in the rain?
Crazy as this is, I’ve been looking
for you everywhere.
If it’s you, and by some random
Chance you see this, contact me.

J.
thirteenwinters@gmail.com

Resuscitate Journalism, and Coffee Shops

By combining them:

The newsrooms-cum-cafes are part of a new venture in so-called hyperlocal journalism, which aims to reconnect newspapers with readers and advertisers by focusing on neighborhood concerns at a neighborhood level: think garbage collection schedules, not Group of 7 diplomacy.

Hyperlocal publications have been springing up across Europe and North America as newspapers seek a formula for survival. But the Czech plan, the project of PPF Group, an investment firm, goes unusually far in its goal of weaving journalists into the communities they serve.

“There is no option to close the door” between the cafes and the adjacent newsrooms, said Roman Gallo, director of media strategies at PPF. “It’s a feeling for the reader that you can touch your editor and tell them what you want.

“The position of the journalist is not just to be observing and writing something on the newspaper or on the Web, but also to help people have the tools to do something in their community.”

Cleaning Up Barnett Ave. & 50th Street

The intersection of Barnett Avenue and 50th Street is so desolate, and out-of-the-way, that Google maps doesn’t even go there.

It’s also been a haven for illegal dumping, as the Times notes. It's been driving some people around here nuts, like community board 2 chairman Joe Conley, and the vice president of Friends of Sunnyside Gardens Park, Ciaran Staunton.

Buried in the story though, some good news:

Jennifer Manley, the Queens liaison from the mayor’s office, was able to cobble together some assistance for the area.

Some city agencies will be chipping in later this week, providing maintenance workers and machinery to haul away the heavy appliances that find their way onto the stretch, and to level out the soil enough to create a walkway. And on May 16, residents will clear out the remaining small litter and plant flowers and shrubs along the path.

Celebrity Blogger, Resident

Jessica Valenti, Sunnyside resident and founder of the influential site, Feministing, has an interview with U TV.

I meet Valenti at her pretty brick house in Sunnyside, Queens, a planned community that was built in the 1920s and was once home to the architectural historian Lewis Mumford. On the wall is an Edwardian poster claiming to reveal the inside of a woman's brain: chocolates, love letters, clothes, babies and puppies are rendered next to two dapper-looking men. "I often wonder about that," says Valenti. "Women think about what? Chocolate, babies and... homosexuals?" On the dining-room table is a pile of invitations to the wedding she is planning for October, an event that has garnered a great deal of commentary since she wrote about it in the Guardian last month. She will be wearing an off-white wedding dress, keeping her surname and asking guests to donate money (in lieu of a gift) to a charity fighting for same-sex marriage rights. Her fiancé, Andrew, 25, calls himself a feminist too and is the deputy publisher of a political blog, talkingpointsmemo.com.

"Want to see the dress?" Valenti asks, springing up in the face of superstition. On the back of a cupboard door in the spare bedroom is a beautiful, floor-length, white, appliquéd, organza gown with a dove-grey silk lining. The neckline and the back are cut into a deep V shape. I mutter something about not wearing anything underneath it and she replies: "Luckily the girls are still in pretty good shape." I am slightly flummoxed - was there mention of bridesmaids? Only later does it occur to me that she must have been referring to her breasts.

Valenti grew up in a shop that sold bras and she certainly saw no reason to burn them. That was one of the many small businesses her parents owned. They also sold, in her words, "old lady velour jumpsuits and bedazzled sweatshirts"; they now have a health-food store. She and her younger sister, Vanessa, who also works at Feministing, are part of a large Italian-American family, who all lived on the same block in Long Island City.

The View

A scene from the 40th Street Station.