NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
HOLIDAY IDEAS FROM PARK SLOPE PARENTS
Park Slope Parents posted some great holiday activities to know about for Sunday, December 23, 2007:
Prospect Park. Ice Skating at Wollman Rink
Grand Central Holiday Train Show
The Station At Citigroup Center
Christmas Trees For Sale By Local Boy Scouts in JJ Byrne Park
Prospect Park – Lefferts Historic House Quilt Exhibit & Workshops
&
More!
The Red Balloon & White Main At BAM: 1 p.m. daily.
Prospect Park Audubon Center – Discover Tours
SPIRITO RESTAURANT FOR SALE
For $250,000 you can have an attractive Italian restaurant on 9th Street in Park Slope.
Spirito restaurant, a well-reviewed restaurant on 9th Street between 5th and 4th Avenues, seems to be for sale. An OTBKB reader sent me this tip. I walk by the restaurant often when I am on 9th Street and have been meaning to try it. Here’s what New York Magazine had to say about it.
What happens when three Italian expats (two of them restaurateurs, one a D.J.) get to know each other through their children’s school? They open a nice Italian restaurant, of course. That’s how Pierluigi Palazzo (owner of Gnocco and Perbacco in the East Village), Giovanni Caveggia (formerly a co-owner of Gradisca), and Mariano Franzese (one of the founders of Turntables on the Hudson) came to open Spirito in Park Slope. To keep it all in the (Italian) family, so to speak, they hooked up with Claudio Cristofoli of Cipriani Downtown to concoct a trattoria menu of classic and modern Italian dishes like bucatini all’amatriciana and prosciutto di Parma with fresh mango. There’s a piatti del giorno list, too, including Saturday’s polpettine (little meatballs with mashed potatoes), which must have been devised with the kids in mind. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld
Spirito for sale:
http://www.restaurants-for-sale.com/newsite/rro/listingview.asp?id=8980
WOMEN’S DIVORCE GROUP FORMING IN PARK SLOPE
Marianne Gunther, a friend and fave of OTBKB, is starting a divorce group that will combine support with art therapy exercises. Read all about it in this week’s PS I Love You column in the Brooklyn Paper by another friend and fave, Wendy Ponte.
According to Gunther, divorce is a true grief process and people who are going through it need to experience all the stages of grieving, just as if someone dear had died. Unfortunately, most people sidestep those feelings and translate them into anger or diffuse the feelings with litigation.
“How do you make your life about more than this?” asks Gunther. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my days reacting to my ex-husband, so how can I mourn the loss and move on?”
When Gunther herself divorced back in 2001, she belonged to a women’s support group in Park Slope that saved her sanity. That group, which met at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, no longer exists. So she met with the director and offered to start up a new group.
This group will meet once a week at the Ethical Culture building on Prospect Park West, between First and Second streets. Women will get together and, guided by Gunther, support each other, get practical information and referrals, and use art-therapy techniques to both process and contain their feelings. The fee for each meeting is $25. If you are interested in joining this group, call (347) 628-9279 or e-mail listeningart@yahoo.com
XMAS EVE AT OLD FIRST
For weeks, Pastor Daniel Meeter has been preparing for the Christmas Eve service at Old First. I hear it’s quite the event with gorgeous music. He tells me that the church fills with over 300 people. He encouraged me to come. I wish I could go but I’m having my father and stepmother over for Christmas Eve. Here are the details if you’re looking for something to do on Christmas Eve:
The Christmas Eve service at Old First, 7:30 PM will include candlelight, Lessons and Carols,Dr. Daniel Meeter, preaching on The Gift of Peace, festive Music For Organ and Brass, the Great Hymns and Carols, and congregational singing. Featured performers: Aleeza Meir, organist, the “Akida” from the Torah, sung by Emma Goldberg Liu, Nathan Warner, trumpet, Anneke El Hassani, soprano, Julia Hurn, soprano, Brian Nesby, counter-tenor, and Jeff Spurgeon, baritone.
JANUARY 12TH: PAUL AUSTER, NICOLE KRAUSS AND RICK MOODY
LITERARY BROOKLYN: Award-winning authors, Paul Auster, Nicole Krauss and Rick Moody, who live and work in Brooklyn discuss the borough’s climate for writers and creativity.
Authors are interviewed by Bill Goldstein, founding editor of NYTimes.com/Books. For more information or to purchase advance tickets, which are $25 for each interview, please visit www.ArtsAndLeisureWeek.com
January 12th at noon at the new Times Center 41st Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan.
CULTURAL EMERGENCY ACTION COALITION
I heard about this from the woman in charge of development for Issue Project Room,.
The group we started on myspace is called the Cultural Emergency Action Coalition and it can be found on my space at www.myspace.com/culturalemergency
If you take a look at our friends list, Michael Moore, Yoko Ono, Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Neil Young, and New Sounds are just a few of our new incredible friends.
The Cultural Emergency Action Coalition is committed to the principle that experimental arts in New York City are necessary to keep New York’s culture open and vital, and to the proposition that experimental work must be funded to the extent that it will not merely survive, but that it will thrive in this generation and those to follow. Given these commitments, our mission is to determine what resources are needed to achieve and sustain a critical mass of artists and presenters in both established and emerging art forms and to successfully make this case to New York’s political, cultural and economic leaders. In particular the committee will work to secure resources adequate to generate and sustain small and mid-sized presenting organizations that ultimately drive large-scale culture to spur New York City to work with the real-estate community to provide world-class housing for experimental arts organizations and artists, and to secure resources that provide livelihoods for artists and presenters whose activities have over the past forty years have fueled billions of dollars of economic development in the city. Our ambition is not simply to protect for a while our waning resources, but to fuel a profound revitalization of the experimental arts in the world’s wealthiest and most creative city.
December 23, 2007LARA WECHSLER AT 440 GALLERY
You’ve probably seen her blog, Park Slope Street Photography. But now Lara Wechsler is showing her wonderful Coney Island pictures at 440 Gallery on at 440 Sixth Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets.
The show is called Coney Island: The Lost Horizon. It’s open until January 6th. Saturday and Sunday the gallery is open from 12-6 p.m.
I plan to check out the show today. I’ve walked by and was very impressed with the size of the prints that are in the window. She seems to be showing quite a few of my FAVE IMAGES.
December 23, 2007NEXT BLOGADE ROADSHOW: FEBRUARY 10TH
I got this short note from Brooklyn blogger, Creative Times, about the next Brooklyn Blogade Road Show, which is a casual monthly gathering of bloggers in various nabes all over Brooklyn. Created at the 2nd annual Brooklyn Blogfest, the road shows are an attempt to spread the blogging gospel all over Brooklyn.
Hi All -
I am hosting the next blogade in the Carrol Gardens/Cobble Hill area
on Sunday, Feb.10 around 11:00 am.Hope to see you there!
Eleanor Traubman
Professional Organizer
Inspiration through Organization
etraubman@aol.com
917-499-7395
creativetimes.blogspot.com
AN AFTERNOON AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
It’s easy to forget that we live near one of the great museums in the world what with our busy lives in Brooklyn.
But in the last few months I’ve been spending more time at the Met. Yesterday a friend, an ex-Park Sloper and I, walked around the museum for a few hours. There is, as always, so much to see. I strongly suggest a visit. Saturday night the museum is open until 8:30. Here’s what we saw:
The newly expanded and renovated gallery for 19th and early 20th century paintings is just filled with great work from Prud’hon to Picasso, by way of Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Seurat and others.
The Age of Rembrandt is a knock out exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum’s 228 Dutch paintings (dating mostly from the 1600s).
Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendor is an amazing survey of 17th-century European tapestry, a large show, is also quite incredible.
My favorite space in the museum right now is the Greek and Roman sculpture gallery that is in the space where the old cafeteria used to be. It is a glorious space to be in. The sculpture. The light. The feeling of the room.
ENJOY!
SMARTMOM: HEPCAT LOOKING FORWARD TO REUNION
Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper:
Just the other day Hepcat received an invitation to his 30th college reunion. It left him feeling mighty old, but you can bet that Hepcat wants to be at Bard College to celebrate that milestone.
“The Hudson Valley in spring? What’s not to like?” Hepcat said nostalgically when Smartmom asked if he plans to attend.
Still, it’s hard to believe that Hepcat is old enough to have been out of college for 30 years.
Smartmom should talk. This June, it will be 28 years since the day the great I.F. Stone, that iconoclastic journalist and critic of the Cold War, McCarthyism, and the Vietnam War, spoke to her class of 1980 at SUNY Binghamton.
She can’t remember a word he said, but she does remember that his commencement speech was quite long and characteristically controversial, as it elicited boos from some parents in the audience. Their reaction disgusted and embarrassed her.
Smartmom isn’t sure whether she will be attending her 30th reunion in 2010. She keeps in touch with most of the college friends she wants to be in touch with.
Still, it would be interesting to see how the campus has changed and to say hello to some of her professors (if they’re still there), to have a cup of coffee at the Argo coffee shop and to visit the Salvation Army on the south side of town.
One thing’s for sure: Smartmom never wants to fill out one of those “So, what have you been doing since graduation?” questionnaires.
Smartmom thinks that those kinds of questionnaires are such a horrendous exercise in personal reductiveness.
A friend of Smartmom’s actually decided not to attend an important college reunion recently because she took one look at the questionnaire and knew that she was incapable of filling it out.
“I’m having a mid-life crisis,” she told Smartmom. “I wasn’t going to sit there and do it.”
Those kinds of reunion questionnaires invite boasting — about your career, your children and all your creature comforts. People feel like they’ve really got to impress all those people they went to college with.
So what has Smartmom been doing since that day in the Broome County Arena? What fabulous resume can she whip out to impress her peers, what personal biographical detail will just wow them all….
Hmmmm.
Well…
Ahhhh….
Seriously, how does one honestly characterize more than a quarter century of one’s life? Is it all really just a list of degrees, courses, jobs, projects, addresses, and names?
Are we nothing more than our resumes?
What about the interstitial life — the life that goes on between the lines of all the other stuff? The little discoveries we make about ourselves; the conversations we have with our friends and family on the phone; the surprising moments we have with our children on the way to the store; an inside joke told over and over; the words of a wise therapist; getting proposed to at Two Boots Restaurant on Avenue A; an epiphanic walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; stopping at the National Poultry Museum while driving through Kansas; hearing Caetano Veloso at Lincoln Center and Patti Smith at CBGB; a memorable meal in a small Tuscan town or at Al Di La; Teen Spirit and the Oh So Feisty One’s birth and their first words; OSFO practicing the piano, or Teen Spirit’s show last October at the Bowery Poetry Club; the day Hepcat made latkes (or the day he cleaned out the basement).
What of the life we live concurrent to the resume life? The life of our hearts, our minds? Our sensations? Our love and our pain?
Hepcat is actually looking forward to his 30th graduation. And he’s not afraid of those stupid questionnaires.
“Me intimidated? If someone asks me what I’ve been doing for the last 30 years, I’ll just say, ‘Funny you should ask…’”
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
STAYING OPEN ROUND THE CLOCK UNTIL XMAS
I guess the ease of 24-hour shopping on the Internet is causing retailers to change the way they do business. New York 1 reports that Macy’s won’t be closing until 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
‘Tis the season when holiday shoppers rush around for that last-minute
gift, and stores are staying open longer to help them out.This year, more and more stores are staying open 24 hours a day, right through Christmas Eve.
Macy’s Herald Square opened its doors at 7 a.m. Friday morning and won’t close again until 6 p.m. on the 24th.
Macy’s is also going ’round the clock in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island…
SWITCHING TO MODERATED COMMENTS
Over here at OTBKB, we are switching to moderated comments. At the moment, I am not accepting comments as Hepcat makes this change. Comments will return soon.
Truthfully, I really enjoy and believe in an unsupervised comments area. It’s usually such fun to see what pops up there, to read what all of you have to say.
I don’t even mind the silly commercial spam or the sometimes sharp criticisms of the Park Slope 100, my spelling and screw-ups with HTML.
Differences of opinion are also really important and interesting.
I also love when readers fact check and proof read me (it’s such a big help as I’m working so quickly here). I’ve always felt very strongly about letting it all hang out. Until recently, that is.
Thanks for your patience.
MEETING PETER LOFFREDO
I met Peter Loffredo for the first time yesterday in front of the Food Coop. He was with his partner, The Love We Make, who I know from another context.
I heard her say, "There’s Louise…"
I was standing there with my sister. Of course I recognized Peter’s face from the photo on his blog, Full Permission Living. It was really nice to meet him. But I wasn’t sure what to say standing out on the street in front of the Food Coop.
It’s always awkward to actually meet someone, whom you’ve been corresponding with but don’t know in person. At first, we smiled. I think we shook hands.
"Really nice to meet you," is what I hope I said. I know I said something like, "It’s been such fun…" What I meant: it’s fun to get your interesting emails and post them on the site.
I think I told The Love We Make, that I love to link to her blog, as well. What I meant: I think your pieces are unusually thoughtful and lovely.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Seeing Green. Loffredo and Seeing Green have had interesting and heated arguments on OTBKB comments.
Then I had a moment of panic. What if they start arguing right here on Union Street. I could tell that The Love We Make knew what I was thinking. But they’re both way more classy than that.
They shook hands. Peter said something like, "I’m the one with the big mouth." That seemed to neutralize any tension.
Peter and The Love We Make wished all of us a happy holiday and continued toward Seventh Avenue. Seeing Green went into the Coop with his snazzy little cart.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
RANDY KAPLAN IS IN LA LA LAND
Kid and adult performer, Randy Kaplan, is taking a break from the Slope in La La Land. Here’s a missive he sent this morning:
I’m out here in Los Angeles, working and writing and getting ready to release two records, Ancient Ruins & Loquat Rooftop in January (I know, I promised them by the holidays but things always take longer than promised). You can hear two songs from each of the CDs, though, on my two MySpace pages – my regular page and my kids’ page respectively!
And if you’re wracked with confusion about what to buy your niece, nephew, kid, grandkid, babysittee, or anyone else for that matter for Christmas (or if you’ve been remiss and are considering a belated Hannukah offering) why not pick up a copy of my critically acclaimed first kids’ record 5¢ Piece right here? There’s still time!
Also, peruse my newly renovated website if you get a chance. Check the schedule of live shows for details about my February Los Angeles concerts and my April New York kids’ extravaganzas. More shows for both children and grown-ups in both locales will be posted soon.
Enjoy the waning days of December and I’ll see you in Ought-Eight. And why not forward my newsletters to everyone you know?
Thanks, Randy
BAM CINEMA: FIRST-RUN FILMS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
All I know is I want to see Juno very much!!!! I also want to see The Diving bell and the Butterfly directed by Julian Schnabel. Hepcat liked No Country for Old Men.
Juno (PG-13) 91min
1:15, 3:20, 5:25, 7:35, 9:45pm
No Country for Old Men (R) 122min
3, 6:15, 9pm
Brooklyn Exclusive!
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (PG-13) 112min
1:30, 4, 6:45, 9:30pm
The Kite Runner (PG-13) 128min
1, 3:40, 6:25, 9:15pm
Classic Children’s Double Feature
The Red Balloon and White Mane (G) 74min
Dec 22—Jan 1 at 1pm daily
YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN PARK SLOPE WHEN…
I got this funny email from a friend:
…you make tortillas for the 4th grade "Mexican fiesta!" and a
9-year-old girl asks you, "Is that organic beef?" and when you say no,
she doesn’t want one.
SOMETHING NEW GOING IN WHERE INAKA USED TO BE
There’s construction work going on in the space where Inaka Sushi used to be (on Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets). Anyone know what’s going in there?
It also looks like they’ve divided the space where D’Agostino used to be. Wonder if a Bank of America is still going in there. What ever happened to rumors about Children’s Place.
Tempo Presto: They’re moving equipment out of there. In other words, they are officially closed. Word on the street says a full-service restaurant may be going in there. That means three corners of Third Street and Seventh Avenue will be restaurants (Miracle Grill, Sette, and ????
Speaking of Sette, sounds like there was a robbery in there after closing on December 9th. See the story at the Brooklyn Paper.
BEGINNING TO SMELL A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS
This morning I got this email from Fonda at Zuzu’s Petals.
Take a breath,
put aside that gift list you are almost done with,
start thinking about that centerpiece for your Holiday Table, or the ones you want to send to your friends and neighbors.
Call us…we’re on it.
We are fully stocked and taking orders for pick up or delivery .
For clarity’s sake below are some examples of what you might select.
Woodsy:
These arrangements come in a simple basket and are favored for their fragrant greens and texture. Combinations of Pines, Cedars, Junipers,Brunera,
Leucodendron can also include some seasonal color with a few Tabasco or Black Bacarra Roses.
$75.00 and up
Elegant in Glass:
For a simpler less outdoorsy look, we have some fabulous Amaryllis and Hydrangea complimented with a touch of seasonal filler.
$75.00 and up
The Hybrid:
A mix of Ornamental Cabbage, Roses, Leucodendron ,Brunera,
Pines, Junipers, and Cedars in basket or glass.
$75.00 and up
Just call one of the Zuzu’s.
The Big 718 638-0918
Little Zu 718 636-2022
open every day till christmas…
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
PANTONE COLOR OF THE YEAR
The New York Times reports that Blue Iris is the Pantone Color of the Year. A spokesperson for the Pantone Color Instutute told the Times: “Blue Iris brings together the dependable
aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast.
Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic."
KING AND QUEEN OF BROOKLYN?
Hope you are well and I have an odd question for you.
Do you happen to know who are the King and Queen of Brooklyn this year or know how I can find out?
LOCAL DJEMBE DRUMMING TEACHER WANTS TO SEND GIFTS TO SENEGAL
An OTBKB reader wrote in with the following request:
My Djembe drumming teacher is from Senegal and he is interested in providing for the children and adults of his community there.
He is requesting donations of clothing, household items, electronics, and toys, etc. that he would be able to ship back to Africa to help his community.
If you are interested, contact the Keur Djembe African Drum Shop to arrange a drop off at the store. The shop is located at 568A Union Street at Third Avenue. The phone number is 718-522-7324. www.keurdjembe.com
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
LANDMARKS VOTES TO DESIGNATE 20 BLOCKS OF DUMBO
More than 20 blocks of so-called prime real estate in the DUMBO section
of Brooklyn are one step closer to being off-limits to developers,
after the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously voted to
designate the area as the city’s 90th historic district.Ninety-one 19th and 20th century industrial buildings on and around
John, York, Bridge and Main Streets will be preserved, pending approval
from the City Council.The Landmarks Preservation Commissioner says the area was essential
to Brooklyn’s rise as a major manufacturing center and was home to some
of America’s most important industrial firms.
AU CONTRAIRE: THE OCCASIONAL NOTE FROM PETER LOFFREDO
Here’s a little something from our pal Pete of Full Permission Living, who finds himself agreeing with the New York Times’s Op-Ed writer David Brooks more and more.
Wow! I’m having trouble with these occasional pieces by David Brooks that I really agree with. Today’s latest, called "The Obama-Clinton Issue," is not just a great assessment of Obama’s appeal, but of the essential ingredients that make for a good leader. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/opinion/18brooks.html?ref=opinion]
Here are some excerpts from Brooks’ editorial:
- "With the presidency, character and self-knowledge matter more than even experience. "
- "Obama is an inner-directed man in a profession filled with insecure outer-directed ones. He was forged by the process of discovering his own identity from the scattered facts of his childhood."
- "He has a core, and was able to maintain his equipoise, for example, even as his campaign stagnated through the summer and fall."
- "Moreover, he has a worldview that precedes political positions."
- "In the course of this struggle to discover who he is, Obama clearly learned from the strain of pessimistic optimism that stretches back from Martin Luther King Jr. to Abraham Lincoln. This is a worldview that detests anger as a motivating force, that distrusts easy dichotomies between the parties of good and evil, believing instead that the crucial dichotomy runs between the good and bad within each individual."- "Obama also has powers of observation that may mitigate his own inexperience and the isolating pressures of the White House."
- "Obama reveals glimpses of the ability to step outside his own ego and look at reality in uninhibited and honest ways."
I repeat – Wow! Imagine having a leader in the White House who is actually self-aware and able to follow something more than ego? I’d almost given up.
BONUS NOTE FROM PETER: At this time of year, when so many are stressed, exhausted, financially stretched, and desperately hoping for that bonus check, and in the coming weeks heading towards the New Year, inclined to re-evaluate their lifestyles, I thought that this article I wrote on working (and not working) would be timely. It was originally entitled "Full Permission Working." You can find it on my blog at: http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com/
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
BROOKLYN VOICE: BLOG FOR YOUNG BANGLADESHI AMERICANS
Brooklyn Voice is a busy blog intended to create a platform for young Bangladeshis; to give them a voice and to give others an opportunity to learn from them and hear what they’re thinking.
Read the editor’s piece about Vox Pop
