Brokelyn

You can be a TaskRabbit like Chris M. -- or hire one.

Maybe you’ve heard about TaskRabbit, the web site where you can post small jobs for pre-screened helpers to bid on. We’ve written about them; I recently reviewed TaskRabbit for New York Magazine. Since it was a positive experience, I’m happy to pass along a tip that you can get $25 off your first task through 1/22 by entering SCOUTMOB at checkout. (The deal isn’t on the app.) Also, if you have a van / toolkit / mad Ikea assembly skills (a top NYC request) the service is still hiring rabbits, especially “handymen, house cleaners and those with ready access to easy transportation (cars)” says Jamie Viggiano, head of marketing for the company. You have to be pretty hardcore to eek out a living as a full-time rabbit, but a few of the part-timers I met were profitably supplementing day jobs with a few TR gigs a week.

Cash > credit [The Atlantic]
Buy Nothing Day dinner in Flatbush (free, obvs) [DP Blog]
Terrible retailers reap terrible Black Friday karma [NYO]
“Producing artwork functions as a mating display” [L Magazine]
Build local: made in BK craft fair tomorrow [I Love Franklin Ave.]
Ikea: the melodrama [mcbrooklyn]
The real origin of “Black Friday?” The police [WNYC]
Bowl out your family rage for free today [BK Bowl]
Occupy Black Friday? [WaPo]

Not you too Ikea. Not you too.

With all the recent hubbub about the fate of indie bookstores (especially the sniping over a petition to save the city’s St. Marks Books), you’d think we’re nearing a critical choke point in the industry’s future. Discount furniture embassy Ikea is already betting against the printed book. The Economist reports Ikea is releasing a new, deeper version of its popular $50 “Billy” bookcase designed more as decoration to hold “ornaments, tchotchkes and the odd coffe-table-tome” — but not, notably, ye olde ink-and-paper bundles of words. Have you ever tried putting books on a too-big shelf? It messes up your whole literary feng shui! I can’t put Tom Wolfe behind Thomas Wolfe; they’d never get along! Also, some of us think pretty shelves packed with intriguing spines promising endless adventures is great decoration on its own, right? What say you?

you meat eaters sure love weird food

Not to overdo it on Ikea coverage this week, but here’s a very enticing reason to overdo it at Ikea tomorrow: the Swedish emporium of stuff white people like hosts a kräftskiva, an all-you-can-eat crayfish party at  only $9.99 per person and $2.49 for kids under 12 (it’s limited seating so purchase advance tickets). Plus, did you know kids eat free at Ikea through Sunday? And, in case you’re still unsure of what to expect at a furniture store doubling as a cafeteria, Gothamist runs down Ikea’s under-appreciated culinary delights. For instance, every Wednesday is Rib Night, offering a half rack of baby back ribs, fries and cornbread for just $7.99. Don’t get sauce on your Boliden.

Slightly creepy kid shot courtesy of Ikea.

We’ve been accused of nursing a little Ikea obsession, so if you’re not a breeder, you can skip this item. But if you are, and you join “Ikea Family,” you get 30 minutes extra at the Småland  play area (thank you cut and paste), the only reason why any parent might leave Ikea with their bookshelves and sanity in tact. Everyone else just gets an hour, according to the web site, though we swear it was 45 minutes on our last visit. Ikea Family is free and members also get discounts on some items, a chance to win a $100 gift card whenever you shop and free coffee or tea. We’re guessing they also get a chip embedded in the neck to track Karlstad purchases and meatball consumption but that’s only a theory and did we mention that extra half hour of play time? Join here, if you want. By the way, Ikea is open until midnight this Friday (8/19), with extended water taxi and shuttle service.

This here Oppdal bed is big news.

If you’ve been putting off a trip to Ikea for Billy bookshelves, this weekend they come with gratis gravlax. Yep, if you spend $100 or more, you get to eat in the cafe for free — so says the Ikea web site. BTW, the new 2012 Ikea catalog just came out, and if you can’t wait to find out what Torva, Tived, Isala and Oppdal (left) refer to, here’s a link.

A happy Erie Basin Parkgoer. Photo by Timothy Krause.

For no reason in particular, it’s double-shot-of-Ikea Friday! Even if tonight’s lingonberry meatballs aren’t your thing, you have all summer and beyond to explore Ikea’s adjacent Erie Basin Park, as it’s officially called, one of the most underutilized outdoor spaces in Brooklyn. We discovered it recently, and now no trip for particleboard shelves is complete without at least an hour lolling amid the reedy something-or-other grasses or taking a round-trip cruise on the (hello! free on weekends!) Ikea water taxi. Read the rest of this entry »

Deciding how to broaden the ol’ skill-set can be a daunting task. You could shoot for ninja-like office chops to get back in the game, or even put in the time for a job-magnet of a three-letter suffix (Your Name, Esq.?). But you could also try your hand at something a little more… handy. Brooklyn Woods, a Gowanus-based woodworking shop and training facility, is recruiting for its free full-time training program to put some fresh woodworkers and cabinet makers out into the job force. If you’ve had blue and yellow dreams of designing the next Hemnes or Aspelund, this is your chance. Read the rest of this entry »

MoMA-store looks, Ikea pricetag. The new Tradig Bowl, $24.99.

Even if your iPhone fund went to student loans and the price of a single Chanel clog is more than your share of the rent, there’s one product launch we can all get in on:  IKEA’s annual catalog release.

The print version, won’t be in local stores for a few more weeks, but the online 2011 catalog is now available for browsing.

New products officially launched in August have been quietly appearing in stores throughout the summer (some are not yet available online) while a few old favorites have dropped in price.  The highlights: Read the rest of this entry »

The author boards the bus. Photos by Eric Reichbaum.

Ikea is practically its own sovereign Swedish colony on the banks of the Gowanus Bay. So it only makes sense that the store has its own intricate system of transit involving everything save for aircraft (so far, at least). But which mode of transport is the best for you? And by that, of course, we mean: which one is the cheapest? Herein then we lay out the specific costs of all the different ways to transport your Ektorp or Aspelund back to your apartment so you can choose smartly, and not fall into the fjord of poor decisions. Read the rest of this entry »