No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford



Today it’s Bklyn’s Turn: St. Patrick’s Day Parade

The Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade begins at 1 pm today at 15th Street and 7th Avenue. It goes down to Union Street and turns right ending at Prospect Park and Union.

Here is the schedule for the day:

9AM: Pre-Parade Mass
 at Holy Name Church
245 Prospect Park West (between Windsor Pl & Prospect Ave)

12 Noon: Parade Assembly Point: Prospect Park West & 14th St

12:45PM: “Re-Dedication Ceremony” to the Heroes & Victims of 9/11 – WTC
At Prospect Park West & 15th Street, before Parade “step-off”

1PM: Parade Route
 down 15th St to 7th Ave
Along 7th Ave to Union St
Up Union St to Prospect Park West

Street Closings

Seventh Ave. between 15th and Union Sts. and

Prospect Park West between President and 15th Sts.

Both streets are closed noon to 5 pm Sunday.

The Current Weather in Park Slope

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

All About Park Slope’s Tina Chang, Bklyn’s New Poet Laureate

An excerpt from today’s article in the NY Times about Brooklyn’s new poet laureate, who lives in Park Slope:

AFTER Tina Chang puts her 7-month-old son, Roman, to bed, she pads, barefoot, about three feet over to her office, where a desk cohabits with the changing table. She opens the window to take in the sights and sounds of her neighborhood, Park Slope — men arguing on the street, neighbors sipping wine on fire escapes, apartment lights twinkling. She opens a spiral notebook from the 99-cent store and begins scribbling. One night she started with a recipe for black bean sauce, another with the first line of a rejection letter from a literary journal, another with a to-do list.

“Then something takes over,” said Ms. Chang, 40. Over days, weeks, months, her stream-of-consciousness musings grow into poems like “Birthing a Boy”:

My child was once a thought and he had

no name, locked in the stall of my making.

The child was housed inside me for a long time,

held still in water, his limbs floating on a screen,

fingerprints intricate as aerial maps.

Ms. Chang is no ordinary journal keeper: She is a college teacher, published author and Brooklyn’s new poet laureate, the fourth person — and first woman — to fill the august, if odd, post. But don’t be intimidated. One of her chief goals is to “demystify the role of the poet.”

Brooklyn Bridge Park To Open on Monday

On Monday, Brooklyn finally gets a chance to park it on the stoop.

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The city announced on Thursday that the first phase of Brooklyn Bridge Park — featuring a vast green lawn and a granite front-stoop sitting area located on Pier 1 — will open to the public.

The public and a handful of elected officials — including Mayor Bloomberg, who allocated $55-million in city funds as part of a takeover agreement with the state earlier this month — will enjoy a “Great Lawn” with sweeping views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline, while children will take advantage of a small playground.

The newly opened area will be most-easily accessible from Old Fulton Street in DUMBO.

Smartmom is “Crazy Lady”

Smartmom has a brand new name: Crazy Lady. She gave it to herself because, lately, much of the time she really does feel crazy.

She feels crazy every time the Oh So Feisty One leaves her rock-heavy backpack in the foyer. How many times has Smartmom asked her not to do that? How many times has Smartmom stubbed her toe on that textbook-stuffed thing?

She also feels crazy when OSFO leaves a trail of towels in the hallway after a shower. For Buddha’s sake, how many towels does one girl need? And why can’t she pick them up?

But it’s not just OSFO. Teen Spirit makes her feel crazy every time he forgets his keys and buzzes at 2 am when she and Hepcat are in a deep sleep. Talk about murderously crazy.

And Hepcat makes her feel crazy, too! It’s like she’s speaking in tongues when she asks him to walk his dinner plate to the sink or load the dishwasher.

She might as well be Linda Blair in “The Exorcist” when she suggests that he make the bed or not leave his dirty clothes on the floor next to the hamper, but actually put them in the hamper.

Crazy.

And when she asks him to shop for dinner at the Coop or just to pick up milk and Tropicana at Met Food, it’s like she’s one of the Oompa Loompas in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Crazy Lady. The name fits because Smartmom feels crazy most of the time. And she’s starting to act that way, too. She’s been known to rant to herself when she does the dishes — and when Hepcat asks her what she’s saying she just pretends that she’s singing along to something on WNYC.

La La La.

Lately, her eye has been ticking and she’s even been stealing sips of the Sailor Jerry’s rum she keeps in the cabinet.

And it’s all because nobody listens to her or takes her needs seriously. She’s sick and tired of the adolescent rolled eyes, the exasperated stares, the walking away from her when she’s in the middle of a sentence; the not being paid attention to.

Don’t they get it? If something doesn’t change soon, she’s going to be Really Crazy Lady.

Unfortunately, the more she yells, the crazier she feels — and the more they ignore her. It’s like she’s a lunatic babbling on the subway and Hepcat and the kids are those passengers who don’t even look up from their iPods.

And if she doesn’t say anything, they just keep on keeping on with their annoying, crazy-making habits. What’s a smart mom to do?

And that’s when Smartmom had a great idea: She would treat Crazy Lady as just another persona. That way it would be Crazy Lady, not Smartmom, who was nagging her family all the time.

Crazy Lady would be the invisible and irascible houseguest who never leaves. She’d hover over the apartment like a ghostly super-ego making sure that everyone was doing his share.

With Crazy Lady around, Smartmom can go back to being the mild-mannered, loving wife and mother she wants to be. Crazy Lady could be the bad cop.

So the other day, Smartmom told Hepcat that Crazy Lady found his dirty laundry next to the hamper and nearly stashed it in the garbage. “The woman is a little crazy,” Smartmom whispered.

Hepcat looked nervous and quickly put his dirties in the hamper.

Later, she told OSFO that the sight of wet towels in the hallway nearly caused Crazy Lady to seizure. “And that’s not a pretty sight,” she added. OSFO immediately picked up most of her wet towels and put them on the rack to dry.

When she told Teen Spirit that if he wakes up Crazy Lady in the middle of the night, she might pummel him with a coat hanger, he searched his room for his long lost keys and vowed never to forget them.

So far so good.

It really is great to have Crazy Lady around and she doesn’t take up any extra room. Crazy Lady will be a good influence on the household because she’s just scary enough to keep everyone on their toes. Already, she seems to have had the desired effect.

And it’s nice to have super cool Smartmom back, too. Hopefully, she can go back to baking cookies and being everyone’s best friend.

Yeah, right.

Poets for Haiti on Monday, March 22 at 8PM

Support Haiti during its greatest time of need.

Poets for Haiti, is a series of “traveling benefits” curated by Louise Crawford and Michele Madigan Somerville.

On March 22nd at 8PM, poets/performers Sharon Mesmer, Joanna Sit, Wanda Phipps, Roy Nathanson, Bill Evans, Ellen Ferguson, Christopher Stackhouse and more will read at the Old Stone House in Washington Park in Park Slope (Fifth Avenue and Third Street).

Donation $10. for Doctors Without Borders.

Poster by Good Form Design. Photo by Hugh Crawford

Missing Man Found in Hospital

I just got this email from an OTBKB reader:

I just wanted to let you know, that Maxo was found last night at a hospital, and he is doing well. His family is eternally greatful to anyone, who helped out and spread the word!

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

March 22: Poets for Haiti

Poets/performers Sharon Mesmer, Joanna Sit, Wanda Phipps, Roy Nathanson, Bill Evans, Ellen Ferguson, Christopher Stackhouse and more will read at the Old Stone House in Washington Park in Park Slope (Fifth Avenue and Third Street). Donation $10. for Doctors Without Borders.

Poster by Good Form Design. Photo by Hugh Crawford

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Seasonal Changes

SEASONAL CHANGES

Today’s the vernal equinox,

Time to change my woolen sox.

Autumnal equinox’s leafs

Will signal change my cotton briefs.

Life’s exhausting, don’t you think?

Switcheroo & switcherink.

http://open.salon.com/blog/leon_freilich

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

OTBKB Music: Daily Coverage of SXSW Continues

My daily coverage of  SXSW continues at Now I’ve Heard Everything.  The difference between the day and night during Wednesday was, well, like night and day.  And then there was the sad news of the passing of Alex Chilton.  It took me three posts to cover everything.  You can read it all by going to Now I’ve Heard Everything and scrolling.

–Eliot Wagner

Monday, March 22 at 8PM: Poets for Haiti at the Old Stone House

On Monday, March 22 at 8PM at the Old Stone House, Louise Crawford and Michele Madigan Somerville present POETS FOR HAITI, an entertaining and inspiring benefit designed to raise funds for relief efforts in Haiti.

Poets/performers Sharon Mesmer, Joanna Sit, Wanda Phipps, Roy Nathanson, Bill Evans, Ellen Ferguson, Christopher Stackhouse and more will read at   the Old Stone House in Washington Park in Park Slope (Fifth Avenue and Third Street). Donation $10. for Doctors Without Borders.

Bklyn Bloggage: Arts & Culture

Call for submissions at Insight Magazine: Creative Times

House collection at Bard College: CasaCara

Unexpected encounter with John Lewis & Modern Jazz Quartet: Do the Math

Through the sea of steps: Water Over Rocks (Rabbi Andy Bachman)

Monk creates nce-secret concentric diagram at Berkeley Carroll: Brooklyn Paper

The Passage by Justin Cronin: The Written Nerd

Assortment: Brooklynometry

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