SHOPPING: The (Makers) Market at the (Old) American Can Factory on Sundays 11 AM until 6 PM.  From Yelp: "The Market at The Old American Can Factory, Brooklyn's first ongoing Maker's Market, goes far beyond DIY.  Here, the fruits of cultural and intellectual productivity go directly from the hands of creative Makers into the hands of shoppers.  But it's not only about shopping–it's about reinvestigating our connection to how things are made."

Brooklyn Indie Market: Saturday and Sunday on Smith Street and Union Street in Carroll Gardens. Brooklyn Indie Market is a collective of fashion and product designers, who provide a connection between emerging designers and consumers,
retail buyers, stylists, personal shoppers and the press. "Our aim is to
connect one another and the greater NYC public to our traveling
markets, fashion events, showcases, workshops and more in and around
the New York area. We also welcome non-New York area designers who are
interested in our mission."

Laytner's Linens opens on Union Street west of Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. Just up the Slope from the PS Food Coop.

MUSIC: Saturday at the Bell House: 6 PM All Ages show with Banzai, Starscream, No One and the Somebodies, Hermit Thrushes, and Funky See, Funky Do.

MOVIES: Fantastic Mr. Fox at the Pavilion, Precious at the Pavilion and BAM, Scenes from a Marriage, Ingmar Bergman's television masterpiece at BAM Sun, Nov 29 at 2, 5:30, 9 PM.

THEATER: Streetcar Named Desire directed by Liv Ullman with Cate Blanchett. Nov 27—Dec 20 at BAM.

BOOKS: Lit by Mary Karr; Mill on the Floss by George Eliiot; Raymond Carver: A Writers Life by Carol Skelnicka all at the Community Bookstore. 

Jazz Bassoon with Park Slope's Daniel Smith at Puppets Jazz Bar
            481 5th Ave. (bet. 11th and 12th streets)
            Park Slope, Brooklyn, 11215
            718-499-2622
            www.puppetsjazz.com
            sets are on Wednesday, December 1:
                                       9 PM
                                       10:30 PM
                                       12:00 PM

$10 cover charge and a 2-drink minimum (well worth it!)

I just heard from a very reliable source that Miracle Grill, the Tex-Mex restaurant on Seventh Avenue and 3rd Street, will be closing. Sunday is their last day. My source was  told by an employee at the restaurant.

The original Miracle Grill opened back in the late 1980's on First Avenue in the East Village. Their first chef was Bobby  Flay, who later became a celebrity chef with his own upscale restaurants like Mesa Grill and Bolo. The first Miracle Grill restaurant was considered by New York Magazine to be "one of the city's pioneers of Southwestern cuisine."

Indeed, I remember loving the cozy Southwestern comfort and style of this eatery with its huge garden that was perfect for outdoor brunches and candlelit dinners.

I remember celebrating a friend's birthday there numerous times and lovely brunches with friends and family.

A restaurant on Bleecker Street in the West Village followed.  I was quite excited when they decided to open in Park Slope, right on our corner. While we were not regulars, I enjoyed Margaritas on the deck, their Southwestern salad and quesadillas. 

The Park Slope branch was the last remaining branch of the well-liked restaurant. A few years ago they were winners of the Greenest Block in Brooklyn Award in the commercial category. Just look at the picture of their well-tended deck garden!

I've been following the work of Louis Rosen and Capathia Jenkins since 2005 when I first went to hear them at Joe's Pub. Back then they were performing songs by Rosen set to the poems of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes. It was an exhilarating performance of indescribably beautiful and soulful art songs that tapped into classical, blues, gospel and jazz influences.

A year or so later they released Southside Stories, a song cycle about a white boy and a black girl growing up in a Chicago neighborhood in transition in the 1970's. The album gave Capathia the chance to do funky and fun but also to breathe life into deeply felt songs about love, life and death. With his Randy Newman cadences, Louis' songs were highly personal and perceptively political.

The next year the ever-evolving duo came out with an An Ounce of Truth, an album of songs set to the poems of Nikki Giovonni a poet whose deceptively light verse was a near perfect fit for Louis' musical intensification. Her sexy, smart and incisive poetry came to life with Louis' melodies, rhythms and repetitions. In each song, he seemed to zero in on the sass and singular voice of each poem. With these songs, Capathia's range multiplied again into the realm of Nina Simone, Laura Nyro, Bossa Nova, and her own special gospel infused theatricality.

Which brings us to this year's The Ache of Possibility. I was pleased to see that the album and the shows at Joe's Pub were mentioned in the "Brilliant/Highbrow" quadrant of New York Magazine's Approval Matrix, which confirms that the duo are finally being recognized as the New York treasure that they are.

 This album, yet another iteration of their ever-growing sonic adventure, features, in addition to Louis and Capathia, the contributions of a group of stellar musicians used to great effect. Right from the top of the album (and the show at Joe's Pub), the large musical group gets into a funky, horn-filled groove that brings to mind an updated version of the Stax/Volt sessions of 1960s Songs like "The Ache of Possibility," "How You Gonna Save Them," and "Love in Short Supply", are soulful and smart and in some cases bigger than ever in their scope and ambition. I Want To Live To Love You would live happily on the radio right next to productions by a number of R&B divas. 

That said, many of the songs, with lyrics by Rosen and Giovonni, are a complex and narrative stew that pull a punch so powerful that all you can do is hoot and holler when Capathia and Louis reach each dramatic and carefully rendered conclusion.

At one of this year's shows, Nikki Giovonni joined the group on stage and read two poems, "The Telephone Poem" and "The Black Loom" (dedicated to Nina Simone) as a lead-in to the songs. It was fascinating to hear Giovonni's rhythms side-by-side with the songs, which are a tribute to and a powerful adaptation of her work.

Today's No Words Daily Pix by Hugh Crawford is a picture of Louis Rosen (left), Capathia Jenkins (middle), Nikki Giovonni (right).

If you're staying in Brooklyn for the holiday, then here are some ideas for Brooklyn-based things to do (and eat) from Kristin Goode of  Brooklyn About.com.  Enjoy!

Kate Wollman Rink in Prospect Park opens for the season on Thanksgiving
Day, November 26 at 10:00 a.m. (weather permitting – call (718)
287-6431 to confirm)

Admission is:

• Adults: $5 (ages 15 and up)
• Children (14 and under) and Seniors: $3

Skate Rental: $6.50 (tax included)

Brooklyn Beat of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn writes:

From Brenda of Prospect: A Year in the Park:

"Funny you should ask. My teenage goddaughter has just developed a passion for mushrooms, so I went to Great Wall of China supermarket on Ft. Hamilton Parkway, where "gourmet" mushrooms (the $10/lb. kind) are apparently a staple to the Asian community and sell for $1.50 a package.

"Only in Brooklyn!

"I will be making a saute of portabellas, enokis, beech mushrooms, and stupendous-looking King Trumpets! (Oh, and lest I be mistaken for a vegan, turkey and all the fixin's…)

Have a happy!"

 

Brooklyn College Professor Jeanne Theoharris speaking at the weekly
vigil for Fahad Hashmi, a former Brooklyn College student who has been in solitary confinement for over two years without a trial (on
charges of terrorism). 

He was finally given a court date of Dec. 2nd
and there was a groundswell of support and organizing going on around
that date. 

Last night the date was suddenly changed to January 6th
with no explanation (advocates suspect an effort to thwart the strong
show of support that had been building on Fahad's behalf).

Photo by Tom Martinez. Go here for more info about Fahad Hasmi.

 
Elementi, the short-lived Park Slope Italian restaurant, closed many months ago. Time Out called the restaurant "the best thing to happen to Park Slope since Al Di La" but other reviewers weren't as complimentary. Locals, however, enjoyed their weeknight specials and pizzas.

Before Elementi, the legendary Snooky's, a Park Slope sports bar and restaurant, occupied that space on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll for many years. Many Slopers mourned the loss of that humble and authentic Park Slope watering hole.

Elementi's windows have been papered over for many months. But the For Rent/Restaurant For Sale sign has come down and work is being done on the inside. 

I'm guessing someone is opening another restaurant in that two-story space that includes a large party room upstairs.

Anyone know what's going in?

It has come to my attention that Living on Seventh, the stylish shop on Seventh Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, is closing.

Another sign of dark economic times?

Living on Seventh carried an unusually well edited selection of chic and well designed women's clothing, accessories, and home decor items. In fact, it was one of the most tasteful shops in Park Slope.

Signature items included Calypso dresses, nice shirts and sweaters, colorful Azerbaijani and Finnish
vases, neat tableware, bed linens, pillows, and beautiful lamps.

She then opened Living on Seventh, Living on Fifth and a shop called Lola in the South Slope. The Park Slope shops sort of morphed into clothing stores. Living on Seventh is her last remaining shop.

Eva is a lovely shop keeper and person. The customer service at all the Living shops was excellent. We will miss this ever-stylish woman and fun conversationalist on Seventh Avenue.

The good news: There's a BIG closing sale at the shop for the next two weeks.

Author Jonathan Lethem has added an event to his marathon reading of his new and acclaimed book, Chronic City and WORD, a bookstore in Greenpoint, is hosting. This relaxed brunch event is on Sunday after Thanksgiving.

That means that on Sunday, Nov.
29 from 12:30 PM until 2:30 PM, there will be a post-holiday reading in their event space.

Lethem will read about 40-60 pages from his latest
novel, but not continuously – he'll take breaks along the way to sign
books and chat with listeners about the book. Bagels, donuts, fruit, pie AND a great story.

link: http://wordbrooklyn.indiebound.com/event/leftovers-lethem-chronic-city-tour-comes-greenpoint

Just curious. Send to louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com

Having recently read Anna Karenina I can rewrite the opening line without shame: "Happy family businesses are all alike; every unhappy family business is unhappy in its own way."

Indeed, there is no shortage of stories about family businesses that go awry. And now Park Slope has its own dysfunctional family business, Cafe Regular (11th Street branch) which has become city-wide news thanks to loyal regulars who are keeping the local blogs apprised of the murky situation.

I just heard from Aileen at Grub Street and she's got deep local on the latest over there.

Apparently sister Anne wants to go a little upscale over at the Regular du Nord. She's talking computers and uniforms. The regulars of the modest and sort of perfect-as-it-is cafe are up in arms. Barista Martin, Anne's brother, has been ousted, probably for a host of reasons nobody even knows about.

The whole thing makes me kind of sad. It's sad when siblings don't get along. It's sad when mixing family and business gets ugly. It's sad, sad, sad…

And the regulars at the Regular are miffed.  That's for sure. Hell hath no fury like a bunch of local cafe fans deprived of their morning coffee (and pleasant place to sit all day…).

From Fonda, owner of Zuzu's Petals, which opened on Fifth Avenue five years ago after a fire ravaged their original location on Seventh Avenue.

If you LOVE Jonathan Blum's paintings as I do you'll LOVE this:

On December 3rd there will be an opening party for Jonathan Blum’s “Rabbis, Goats and Other Characters”
at the Green Building [450 Union St. at Bond Street in Gowanus, (917)
855-6564] from 6:30 pm to after midnight.

His work will be on display at the gallery Thursdays and Saturdays through Jan. 14, 2010.