NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK: BRKLYN STORIES
Just heard from a brand new blogger. Her blog Brklyn Stories is today’s “new blog on the block:”
I started Brklynstories.blogspot.com a week ago from my neighborhood located at the foot of Prospect Park and was wondering if my blog could be cross-listed on yours.
Although I intend my site to be resourceful, I am basically a roving eye that captures cultural and social issues that occur both in Brooklyn- and city-wide, contextualizing these effects upon the area in which I live.
As a writer, I never thought that I would get involved with online publishing. But thanks to a good friend, whose focus is literally underground, I jumped into the blogosphere.
When I moved to Kensington in 2001, the area was bleak – an extreme margin of New York City. The Brooklyn Museum was very run-down and there was no cultural center except for bars and cafes in Park Slope. In addition, friends in Williamsburg either had no idea about the F-train or were too afraid to come this far out. The recent developments in Kensington have been almost unreal.
As the petition for the F-express subway line boomed in early Summer, Fresh Direct expanded its coverage into our area. I waited nearly 3 years for this service, which I have to say is close to white-glove. Granted, I’m not sure if they’re servicing all of Kensington but you might as well key in your address to check. If not, there are two great organic food stores along Cortelyou that deliver anywhere in Brooklyn: the Flatbush Food Co-op and the Natural Frontier Organic Market.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE AIR CONDITIONING LAST NIGHT?
An OTBKB reader just wrote in with a question:
Just wondering if you knew anything about a plan/campaign to have restaurants in Park Slope be air conditioning free last night.
My fiance and I tried to go to dinner, but every restaurant we walked into was sweltering with the doors and windows open. Among those we tried, Brooklyn Burger Bar, Park Slope Ale House, Belleville, Rachel’s Taqueria.
We sat down at the bar at Brooklyn Burger Bar before realizing how hot it was, and when we apologized to the bartender and told her it was to warm for her, she turned to the hostess and said with some obvious frustration, “We lost another customer.” Any idea?
MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI: ANOTHER CINEMATIC GREAT GONE
What is going on? Antonioni died on the same day as Ingmar Bergman. This great Italian filmmaker, who’s body will lie in state in Rome, is the directorial genuis behind: Blow Up, Zabriskie Point, Red Desert, L’Avventura, L’Notte and more.
“My subjects are, in a very general sense, autobiographical. The story is first built through discussions with a collaborator. In the case of “L’Eclisse,” the discussions went on for four months. The writing was then done, by myself, taking perhaps fifteen days. My scripts are not formal screenplays, but rather dialogue for the actors and a series of notes to the director. When shooting begins, there is invariably a great amount of changing. When I go on the set of a scene, I insist on remaining alone for at least twenty minutes. I have no preconceived ideas of how the scene should be done, but wait instead for the ideas to come that will tell me how to begin.” — Michelangelo Antonioni
There is a very detailed obit in today’s New York Times.
TOM SNYDER IS DEAD
Hepcat and I used to watch Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow Show, which was replaced by Dave Letterman’s “The Late Show” on WNBC back in the 1980’s.
Tom Shales has a nice piece about Snyder in today’s Washington Post with this quote from a CBS colleague. “The big man is gone,” said CBS News Vice President Steve Friedman, 60, who knew Snyder for 37 years. “Tom used to say, ‘Writers write, producers produce, and stars star,’ ” Friedman said, “but he only said that to make us feel better — because he was a better writer than any of us, a better producer than any of us, and the biggest star in our universe.”
Dan Ackyroyd did a hysterical impersonation of the talk show host on SNL. He really got the Snyder’s cadences just right. According to Lorne Michaels, producer of SNL, Snyder loved it.
Snyder interviewed everyone: John Lennon, Spiro Agnew, Marlon Brando, Charles Manson and Johnny Rotton. Defending himself against charges of pomposity and abrasiveness he told the New York Times:
“I’m a human being, I have opinions and biases and beliefs and standards and I have to inject them into that program. Otherwise we might as well have an empty chair and give the gues a list of written questions.”
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FROM THE CITY IN OUR DISTRICT
Some Requests for Proposals from Craig Hammerman at Community Board 6:
During the past few weeks the City has issued a series of Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) for 3 distinct, major contracts affecting our district:
1) Park Slope Armory Indoor Athletic Facility and Community Center, 1402 8th Avenue, Brooklyn. RFP for operation, management and maintenance of facility issued July 9, 2007, responses due September 27, 2007.
Click here, or use the following link for more information:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/announcements/#6
2) Public Place development, southeast corner of Smith & 5th Streets, Gowanus, Brooklyn. RFP for design and construction of high-quality mixed-use development issued July 12, 2007, responses due October 11, 2007.
Click here, or use the following link for more information:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/announcements/#7
3) Degraw Street Firehouse Redevelopment, 299 Degraw Street, Brooklyn. RFP for the development of the firehouse issued July 27, responses due September 17, 2007.
Click here, or use the following link for more information:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/announcements/#8
Given the open, competitive nature of the City’s RFP process please do feel free to proactively steer this relevant information into the hands of anyone you think might be interested and eligible to respond.
Your assistance may be the best way for us to ensure that the City gets a variety of proposals from the best and brightest respondents who will hopefully embrace our community’s values and vision.
YVETTE CLARKE TAKES A 6-WEEK MEDICAL LEAVE FROM CONGRESS
Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette Clarke announced Monday that she is taking a six-week medical leave from Capitol Hill.
Clarke’s staff told the New York Times she’s recovering from surgery to treat uterine fibroids.
Aides say Clarke will be back in Washington when Congress reconvenes in September.
The former city councilwoman was elected last year to the 11th Congressional District.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PROSPECT PARK DUCKLINGS?
An OTBKB reader wrote in today about the dukcs:
Thanks for posting about the guinea fowl.
I know you linked to the piece about the Prospect Park Ducklings -
but I am still trying to figure out what happened to them. Would you consider running a photo?Here is the full story:
http://luma.typepad.com/photos/hudsonjane/index.html
There are more photos at the Gallery at the bottom
GUINEA FOWL DO NOT BELONG IN PROSPECT PARK
Someone by the name Wildlife Helper left a comment about the Guineafowl in Prospect Park, which I found interesting.
[Guinea fowl are] NOT indigenous to the Park and probably dumped/abandoned like the ducklings I encountered recently. People get these animals as ‘pets’ and then grow tired of them. “who knew” is right! Not me…
They have many predators to these guinea fowl: dogs, raccoons, oppossums, more. According to a wildlife rehabilitator I asked, they are like regular domestic chickens.
Should be brought to a sanctuary. If you see again, please email me: giveducksachanc (at) gmail dot com.
Thanks
PICTURE NEW YORK WITHOUT HEPCAT’S PHOTOGRAPHS
Picture New York Without Pictures of New York
Thousands of New Yorkers who love both their city and their cameras may face exactly that if the cumbersome, costly and unconstitutional regulations from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting go into effect this August as scheduled.
Picture New York is an ad hoc coalition of working artists, filmmakers, and photographers who’ve joined together to fight the proposed rules. These rules can be seen not only as a blow against New York as a place that welcomes and inspires art-making and documentation, but are part of a broader continuum of attacks against civil liberties and free expression
They have set up an online e-action form to make it as easy as possible. Just click here to submit comments to the Office of Film and to the City Council Committee that oversees that office. There’s a sample letter there, and you can add your own comments, then hit send. Voila!
REMEMBER THE PARK SLOPE BORDELLO?
Well Brownstoner has the word on the latest incarnation of what was the Park Slope brothel, which was in operation until a few years ago.
It’s a big hunk of house and it recently sold for five million. The developer is converting it into condos or market-rate rentals.
The building on Lincoln Place is pictured in all of its glory on Brownstoner.
COLE BROTHERS CIRCUS COMES TO CONEY ISLAND FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1938
This from New York 1:
The circus has all the most popular attractions with them, including clowns, animals, jugglers, acrobats and trapeze artists.
“We have performers from the Ukraine, from Brazil, from China, you know we have it all here,” said Cole’s Bros. Ringmaster Chris Connors. “Different cultures – we are a giant melting pot on wheels, just like new York City, and that’s what makes us so perfectly wonderful here.”
“A lot of people see elephants and all sorts of animals on TV, like on all the animal stations and everything, but when they actually see them in person, it’s like an overwhelming experience,” said Cole’s Bros. elephant trainer George Hanneford III. “It’s a sensation.”
The circus will be in Coney Island until August 5th
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
31 DAYS IN AUGUST: CIRCUS AND THEATER FOR STARTERS
Well, I’m doing it again. A guide to every day in August. (And I’m not even going to be here much in August.) Still, I toiled for OTBKB readers, wanting to bring them the best and the brightest events during those 31 HOT days.
Here are two great ideas for this week: Circus and Theater.
August 1: Cole Brothers Circus in Coney Island. Three shows per day. Check website for times and prices. Shows August 1-5.
August 2: Brave New World Repertory Theater: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry / Jenny Scheinman. The dynamic Brooklyn-based company follows last summer’s Bandshell production of “The Great White Hope” with an adaptation of Walt Whitman’s love song to the borough “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” that fuses poetry, projections, music, rap, and dance. Commissioned by Celebrate Brooklyn.
DUCK SOUP AT BROOKLYN FILM WORKS
This outdoor movie stuff is getting to be quite the fad in New York City and Brooklyn Film Works is still an undiscovered gem.
Did you see the piece in the Friday Times’ about outdoor movies all over town. They even listed Brooklyn Film Works.
What fun it is to watch movies under the stars. Not that you can see too many stars in Brooklyn. But it’s still idyllic.
Especially now that Hepcat, OSFO, and I don’t have to help put up the screen and lean it against the Greg’s Express truck and break it down after the movie and put everything away. A great team is taking care of it this year and we’re IMPRESSED. Thanks to all.
We’re just too old for all that heavy lifting.
So this year we’re enjoying the fruit of last year’s labors. “I’m No Angel” and “What’s Up Doc” were hysterically funny and fun to watch.
“Duck Soup, showing this Tuesday, is one of the GREAT GREATS. It’s at 8:30 p.m. in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue at 3rd Street. You can buy popcorn, drinks, chips, and hot dogs. Or bring a picnic.
This is the final show of the summer. Can’t wait until next year.
