The Brooklyn Music Society’s Bohemian Festival opens its third day of music to a crowd that basks appreciatively in this suburbia-esque setting, in these last days of summer. The Historic Onderdonk House sets a tone of green, cropped grasses, white picket fences, and drooping hydrangeas, specimens that could have recently enjoyed a grooming by one of the neighborhood soccer moms. We can end our comparison to the American ‘burb here, however, as artsy hippies, bedecked in fairy wings and draped silks swoop and pose around the hydrangeas. A belly dancer, whose attire chimes with every nubile step, entertains the locals in their lawn chairs, while stage hands scuttle over the main stage in preparation for Los Mas Valientes.

There are burgers and beer, blow-up kiddie pools and face-painted children, but Fall is in the air. The sun is decidedly gone by half-past seven and I’m finally not sweating my tits off in a summer swelter. As Brooklyn-native lead singer Jessica Valiente mounts the stage, I sway to her Latin gypsy flavor and reminisce. What were the highlights of my summer?

Niko and Olivia, true American gypsies, man the only vendor’s table at the fest. They have spent the summer in and around Brooklyn, selling their wares (osseous hand-made jewelry and chai lattes) at events around the neighborhood. I ask them what their favorite shows of the summer were.

“Oh, the Gowanus Ballroom.”  Olivia names her favorite music venue of the summer. She also mentions the Acheron on Waterbury Street.

Niko speaks up from under her black blanket (also a harbinger of Autumn), mentioning that she liked a show at the Vice Gallery in Williamsburg. But her highlight of the summer was the Bushwick Block party.

Los Mas Valientes have switched out to welcome The Grand Masters of Gypsy, house band of the cosponsor of the event, the Mehanata, a nearby Bulgarian Bar. I’m captivated by Yuri Yunakov on the Alto Saxophone, my own weapon of choice when the mood strikes.

Raffael, a DJ at the Mehanata, smiles knowingly at my expression, “Yuri is a living legend in his own country.” He scrawls in my notebook. Raffael’s friend Lucho agrees. Lucho says his favorite show of the summer was the Gypsy Tabor Fest at the Mehanata. The two gypsies point me in the direction of their manager, who says fairly, “I’m drinking,” when I inquire about asking the living legend a few questions.

Instead, I’m happy to run into the beautiful, the exotic, Gamze Ordulu, lead singer of The Grand Masters of Gypsy. The student laughs when I tell her I didn’t understand anything she said on stage, but understood completely. Her first name means “dimple,” and I’m intrigued by her taste in music. Gamze’s favorite show of the summer was at the Millenium Theatre in May (Okay, so technically it’s not summer, but I was definitely sweating in May), where she saw Israeli vocalist Sarit Hadad.

The crowd is warm and smiling after the Grand Masters of Gypsy leave the stage, and the gypsies of the Mehanata have by now convinced me to take another shot of tequila. The women are dancing and the men are smiling, and I must jig in the grass before this Labor Day weekend is over.

By Katarina Hybenova

You’re walking down Flushing Avenue. The factories surround you, the road is busy, the heavy traffic of trucks and cars makes you want to explode. Additionally, the sun is frying your brain, and the sweat is dripping from your face. You keep on walking and walking. The only thing you wish for is an oasis to appear out of nowhere. A little white farmhouse surrounded by a green meadow…  And wait a minute, suddenly an 18th century Dutch farm manifests right in front of you. No, this is not a lucid dream. This is reality, and you just came across Onderdonk House on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. In fact, the rock to mark the border is right there in the garden of Onderdonk House. So called Arbitration Rock.

Arbitration Rock Festival borrowed its name from it, and will very likely be one of the nicest events of the summer in the area. The large green meadow surrounding this magical building is perfect for summer gatherings, which get exponentially better once you add really good music, beer, food and great people. The headliner of the festival is a cult Bushwick band Pass Kontrol that actually rehearses in the attic and the Farmhouse has a very special meaning for them. So we are expecting nothing less than a really amazing performance from them. Other bands that we can’t wait to see include Not Blood Paint, Backwards or Springs.

Here is the full line up:

10pm – PassKontrol

9pm – Not Blood Paint

8pm – Backwords

7pm – Bad Credit No Credit

6pm – Katie Mullins

5pm - Gunfight!

4pm – Springs

3pm – Uzuhi

2pm - Activists/Dictators

1pm – Winter Ring
12pm – doors open

Arbitration Rock Festival at Onderdonk House, 1820 Flushing Avenue, Ridgewood, this Saturday August 3. RSVP on Facebook. Admission is $10 and will be used to upkeep Onderdonk House. 

The long version Bushwick Open Studios 2012.  The world has changed in a generative way and they are  on the forefront of defining a new American culture.

By Sean Alday

I think I’m going to write a story about how the common thread tying the show together was ‘ego.’
-Sean Alday

An artist without an ego is a corpse.
-Michael Kronenberg

The thing that struck me as I wandered from place to place during Bushwick Open Studios was the field day Freudian psychologists would have with the percolating ego in every direction. Some obvious, some subtle, some well-intentioned, some well-executed and some none of the above.

Let’s start with the low hanging fruit as many of us are still holding on to our printed maps. It was large, as Jason Andrew pointed out it was almost the size of the New York Times. There were over 500 studios and galleries this weekend.

“The size is warranted.”

That was my first thought. Until I looked inside.

Something had gone awry with the design. The first page made sense, even if it was a tad sloppy. My only critique would be to have limited the existing text to one page. Following that were two pages filled with what looked like a whole bunch of nothing, two full pages promoting “Seeking Spaces” and several pages of promotion.

Finally a map appears. This is what many will see first when they arrive off of the L train at the Morgan Stop and it’s telling them that four air-conditioned stops ago is where the weekend began. Except for many of them the weekend began at No Name. Which is to say 56 Bogart.

After you make your way into the building a smorgasbord of art madness ensues. Everyone is talking about everything. There are four floors and a basement. You kind of want to take your clothes off. The galleries on the first floor stop you from going through with it. But you kind of want to all weekend. The older gallery directors are wiry and spry. You can feel them reflecting a lot of energy, they are usually artists themselves. The younger gallery directors are bursting with similar energy. The world has changed in a generative way and they are all on the forefront of defining a new American culture.

Peter Hopkins is filming a Bollywood Soap Opera with several of Emtee’s alter egos. Brendan Carney is considering his printmaking business with you. Marco Antonini will talk you through NURTUREart’s maze of videos. John Holt will draw you to C.C.C.P. by both of you haven taken a chance. Nathaniel Lieb will explain that life is fairly simple to complicate.

Once you’ve talked to a few people and get a sense of where to go, you may have spent two to three hours in 56 Bogart. So you might wander down to 117 Grattan where Austin Thomas had curated a show in Sharon Butler’s new studio. Good pieces by Larry Greenberg were found here. I spoke with a friend for a few moments and then wandered around the room, three drawings of incense smoke stood out for the artist’s choice of color. Next to her studio was Jae Song showing dual projections of a conversation between reflections. A building with open spaces on each floor, this will become de rigueur for your explorations.

Next stop seems to be Brooklyn Fireproof. Off the top of my head Holly Shen Claves, Matthew Brennan, Sarah Nelson Wright and Gili Levy were hosting people. The bar was ready for happy hour and the chefs were preparing to enter their zone.

The serendipity of curiosity worked well this weekend. If you’ve stepped into the unexpected places on your route then you’re starting to get a sense of how many artists are in this neighborhood. If you think about how much energy is going in to every single thing to make this happen, the map fades away and you are on your way.

You arrive at The Active Space on 566 Johnson. First of all there is the gallery itself. Deborah Brown made a huge leap in the past year. It felt like the world she painted became less romantic and more urgent. The landscapes matured in the right way and devolved in sublime manners. Looking at the card table makes you realize that her projects are all over. Remember to congratulate Ashley Zelinskie on her curation of this excellent show.

Katarina Hybenova is exhibiting the “Vegan Pizza Party” and the title piece is like a sculpture of a flashing .gif file. Turn around James George has taken pictures of the way a computer might see you. The studios around are fun and full of different kinds of approaches to art from J.R. Larson’s wooden bones on canvas to Cathy Choi’s tasteful resin on canvas works. This building is sunny and the name reflects what it feels like.

There’s the Onderdonk House up the road on Flushing. The Sculpture Garden show is in the expansive backyard. You can get a view of the skyline from the top of the hill and remember that you’re in New York City. There’s a home at the bottom of the hill built in 1709 where a band called Pass Kontrol is the real live session band for an ensemble of performances that can include you.

Head to 1717 Troutman for a wild session of studio hopping. Glass portraits, video, music, and paintings to say the least. Don’t forget to swing into galleries Parallel Art Space and Regina Rex. It was my first time in the building and I felt it. There was good energy touched with enough anarchy and bohemianism to keep the galleries from resting on their laurels. By the way, I’ve seen Rob de Oude’s small works before, but I was blown away by the large pieces in his and Enrico Gomez’s shared studio. There was a wall showcasing the evolution of the simultaneously-linear-and-swirling pieces.

From there I went to Wyckoff Avenue. If you’re hungry there are two good options: wait for a table at the Northeast Kingdom or wait at the tortilla factory and restaurant. Afterwards, it may be time for an iced coffee. Just to top off the great weather (including the quick rain shower on Sunday) stop by the Wyckoff Starr where Paul Rome and Roarke Menzies were set up on the sidewalk doling out coffee and water. If you go inside have a Grasshopper.

There is a studio belonging to an interesting artist named Myles Bennett. His painted canvases hung like shawls without a mannequin. This place reminded me of why it’s good to talk to the artist. He made these pieces to be worn, there was a look book, and there were canvases stitched into abstract figures of what it would look like to wear them.

Down to Norte Maar for original collages of Pass Kontrol posters by Oliver Ralli. Two that stuck out were a Warhol and Basquiat imagined conversation and a “Cut a hit record with Pass Kontrol” flier from Bushwick Open Studios past.

If you were even slightly cynical about Bushwick art before the weekend began, after that show it was hard to maintain that irony.

When I wasn’t running around I was around the corner at my space 950 Hart Gallery for our final gallery exhibition. We made a lot of new friends, sold some prints and wrote the showing artist’s names on the wall.

Down to Starr Street and stop at quite a few places along the way. The first stop was the huge warehouse with Julie Torres’s cooperative show ALLTOGETHERNOW and another several rooms of art. I could not figure out who was behind each room but there was always something around the corner. Mind your eyes and loose clothing; sculptures are coming out of the wall. From there it was off to the building that houses the Bushwick Starr. A collective that showed work featuring Christina De Roos and sculptures made with tenacity out of milk cartons and canvas. I even spotted a former roommate in one of the photographs. I recognized him looking right at home naked in the midst of a throng of moving people.

I stopped at Olivia Swisher’s home. She stood at the refrigerator with the door wide open when I walked in. I was puzzled. She offered me a beer and a series of poems by Chiara Di Lello written on eggs and milk cartons and packages of butter. I read everything in her fridge.

On Bushwick Basel, that was a name game and many people fell for it hook, line and sinker. But let me say that I enjoyed visiting NURTUREart, AIRPLANE, Studio 10, and Storefront Bushwick’s booth in that order. Norte Maar’s booth had a collage that summed up everything that I felt: “I am having such a good summer.”

Up to Wilson, past Miles and Cain’s Tavern. Two drinking spots with unique flavors that both appeal to me. I stopped at Storefront Bushwick to see what was happening. In the project space I saw celestial patterns by Paula Overbay and two new pieces by Matthew Mahler. This made me reflective as one of his older, angular pieces hung in my gallery. He is cornering his style, this is a part of the artist’s hunt.

From there I went to the arena that spoke to me more than anything else this weekend. It began in English Kills. First of all, Chris Harding puts on some of the best new exhibitions in this city. This show was no exception. David Pappaceno’s sculptures were arranged to give you a center of gravity and the bases were excellently arranged. The wall was a mind warp of colorful patterns and frames enclosing drawings similar to the sculptures. And don’t miss the paintings in the next room. Influences that are maturing shine through the originality of the compositions.

Across the street Don Pablo Pedro sat cross legged and conducted a court of Bacchus. His work is quite good. I hope that you didn’t miss the Dirty Little Cunt.

Next door I found myself in awe of Jim Herbert’s enormous paintings. I climbed to the second level for a different perspective. I can’t wait to see what he unveils for the next solo show. These pieces need light and their own company.

From there you’ll stroll up to Bush Gardens for a view of Centotto’s “Charting the Not” curated by Paul D’Agostino. Here you’ll run into Austin Thomas’s work and Gili Levy’s for the fourth or fifth time. Next door is Tim Kent’s studio. There was a piece entitled “Leviathan” made with charcoal and paper that I had been wanting to see for a long time. This studio did not disappoint. It’s hard to appreciate the masterful technique of his paintings of European Homes online. It’s instant gratification in person.

After all of that, I was a bit tired and went home to nurse a whiskey bottle and feel good about the world.

If the trend continues I’ll have to be fitter than Jason Andrew and his dog combined to see everything next year. In the meantime I’m keeping my eye on you Bushwick. Stay classy.

By Katarina Hybenova

Oliver Ralli likes to get his coffee at Wycoff Starr. He never sits inside; he prefers to occupy one of the chairs in front of the café, observing the autumn Bushwick when the color of things gets saturated and the air is crisp.

It’s year 2011, and a lot has changed in the life of the singer of a cult Bushwick band, Pass Kontrol, since he came to New York City in 1997.  “I never got tired of the City,” he says. We met up in front of Wycoff Starr, naturally. Oliver finished his coffee while I locked my bike. Adam, Oliver’s year-long friend and Pass Kontrol’s co-founder, who was just working his shift at the coffee shop came out to say hi. “This is what I love about this place. All the people you meet here,” Oliver smiles.

“I got keys from The Bushwick Starr. Another favorite place of mine,” Oliver says joyfully. Pass Kontrol used to rehearse at Bushwick’s experimental theater located in a huge loft. Last year in February, the band presented an apocalyptic play titled New Hope City there, which was a huge success. The play was very loose, “ragtag,” as Oliver says.

Oliver and I bike down Flushing Ave; we’re passing the factories, trucks parked on the side of the road, and the rest of the industrial wasteland. Suddenly, a white farm with a huge green yard emerges on our right side. The fairy tale-like house hits us like a miracle. “ Onderdonk House,” another place favorite place of Oliver. Four dogs bark at us, pretending to be mad to fulfill their guardian duty. They turn into lovable puppies as soon as we’re let in. The atmosphere of the Victorian house is magical. Oliver greets everyone. Pass Kontrol rehearses in the attic of the house several times a week.  “This is a very special place for me. Jessica and I got married here three years ago,” Oliver smiles about the unexpected discovery of romance in the industrial corner between Bushwick and Ridgewood.

Another favorite location Oliver wants to take me to is his home at Gates Avenue, Ridgewood.  The basement of the house is also the home to a famous gallery, Famous Accountants. Ellen Letcher, one of the founders is Oliver’s neighbor and a friend. Oliver says that on the 11th of September 2011, he wanted to take a flight to his home Chicago from JFK airport. Due to the circumstances we all know, the flight was cancelled, and Oliver was forced to return to New York. “I just took random buses, because the subway was shut down too,” says Oliver. Somehow he made it to Ridgewood. That was his first time there. He remembers a strange, good feeling. A couple of years after, Oliver was living his life in Ridgewood. Good, rich life, full of love and good people.

Music in the narrated photo-essays: Pass Kontrol: Twins, I’m All Alone, New Hope City, Amigos