The Green Building

Have you ever wondered what that green building at the corner of Hoyt and Union Street is. I drive by there all the time and I always see a vintage truck out front with beautiful flowers. At night, the room looks really pretty. Sometimes I think it’s a film set, sometimes I think it’s a wedding or a party space.

It’s really cool.

Well, it’s called the Green Building and it’s an “elegant multi-use space located in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood.”

Once a brass foundry, The Green Building is now a 4,000 square ft. raw space with brick walls exposed beam ceilings, fabulous chandeliers, and a kitchen.

Mystery solved.

Tuesday Night at 7PM: Only the Blog at Two Moon

 

“Overhead, the two moons worked together to bathe the world in a strange light.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Only the Blog at Two Moon presents The Family Thing with novelists Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright and Leora Skolkin-Smith.

In his gorgeous debut novel, Peter M. Wheelwright grapples with “The Family Thing,” the inescapable tangle of religion, genetics, geography, deep time, secrets and lies.

Leora Skolkin-Smith’s acclaimed novel, Hysteria, is set against the backdrop of the social turmoil of the 1970′s and tells the story of a young woman suffering from a physical and sexual delusion. Publisher’s Weekly called it: “Poetic, strange and evocative…A poignant prose-poem.”

Come hear these two acclaimed authors read and discuss their work at the lovely Two Moon Art House and Cafe, Park Slope’s newest cultural spot with wine, coffee, delicious soups, sandwiches, salads and desserts.

Progress Report on Park Slope Whole Foods

Here’s an excerpt from a letter from Michael Sinatra, Public Affairs Manager of Whole Foods, to Craig Hammerman, District Manager, Community Board 6, that should answer some questions you may have about the progress of the Whole Foods store going into the lot at Third Street and Third Avenue in Park Slope.

There’s also an update of what’s going to happen to the landmarked (and curious) stone mansion on Third and Third, the Long Island Coignet Stone Building.

“After many years of hard work by our development team—and with the support of so many community members—we are now finally under way with the construction process and look forward to bringing Brooklyn residents their first Whole Foods Market next year! Since we’re sure you’re likely getting questions from area residents about construction timing, next steps, etc.

Remediation/brownfields cleanup of the property officially complete: While we had actually completed the physical remediation of the property some time ago, we were awaiting the final step in the cleanup of this brownfield site, which was the receipt of our official “certificate of completion” from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

We received the certificate earlier this year and therefore the site is completely and “officially” remediated and ready for construction.

Site preparation now under way: As our neighbors may have noticed, our contractor has completed demolition of the remaining deteriorating structures that were on the property and is now preparing the site for construction.

This first phase— including site surveys and test pile driving—should be completed in the coming weeks.

Construction to begin later this fall: Once the site preparation is complete, we anticipate beginning work on the foundation in late fall, with the store’s steel frame expected to start going up around the beginning of the year. Construction will then move ahead steadily toward our expected Fall 2013 grand opening.

Renovations to LI Coignet Stone Building: As you may recall, as part of our development plan we have committed to undertaking repairs to the landmarked Long Island Coignet Stone Company Building that is located adjacent to our site at 3rd and 3rd. Our architects are currently working on drawings for the renovation of the façade, which will then need to be approved by New York landmarks officials. Once approved, we will be able to move forward on exterior repairs to the building in conjunction with the store’s construction.

As questions are frequently asked, it’s important to note that while this building will be repaired and remain adjacent to our property, we do not actually own the building and it will not be utilized by Whole Foods Market.”

To see  more of this letter in PDF form you can go here. Thanks to Craig Hammerman for sending.

 

Park Slope Gooped by Gwyneth Paltrow

Actress and blogger Gwyneth Paltrow comes by her love of Brooklyn honestly because her dad was born at Brooklyn Jewish hospital in 1943. She writes, “A lot has changed…A lot of this has been good change in the form of art, culture, neighborhood-defining restaurants, shops and more.”

It also seems that the opening of the Barclay’s Center is now the new reason Manhattanites go cross the bridge. Unlike BAM, I don’t think they’re offering Barclay’s Buses. In other words: take the train. Paltrow writes: “This week, we’ve gooped Brooklyn, rounding up some of the best spots for your perusal/exploration (or in case you need a bite on your way to the new Barclays Center).”

What is a goop, you ask? Goop is the name of the blog that Gwyneth started in the fall of 2008 “to share all of life’s positives.” It is a weekly email that contains all of Gwyneth’s must-see, must-do, must-haves, including the following that also happen to be on my list.

A. Cheng, a fashion forward shop featuring very wearable clothes on Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue

 

 

 

Al Di La Trattoria, everyone’s favorite Park Slope restaurant

 

 

 

Bird carries Philip Lin, Alexander Wang, JBrand, and up and coming designers, too. Pricey but fabulous on Fifth Avenue

 

 

 

Brooklyn Larder has the most fabulous cheeses, prepared foods, breads and so much more. On Flatbush.

 

 

Franny’s on Flabush serves innovative and delicious pizza in a noisy, fun atmosphere.

 

 

Smitten by the Voice of Jack Davenport

Standing in the Community Bookstore, viewing a shelf of new paperbacks with  my back to the front desk, I heard a familiar voice, a fabulous voice, a compelling voice discussing James Woods’ nasty review of Tom Wolfe’s new book, Back to Blood, in the New Yorker.

Who was that fabulous and handsome man, his voice so smart and sexy, discussing the New Yorker while  buying books?

Who was that man?

It was Jack Davenport, who is best known for his role in the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl movie. But I know him from Smash a fabulous television musical drama (fizzy soap opera) about the Broadway theater world that follows a fascinating collection of B’way professionals who live to have a S M A S H. The stellar cast includes Anjelica Huston, Katherine McPhee, Debra Messing, Christian Borie, Megan Hilty and JACK DAVENPORT, who plays the slightly sadistic, hot headed but equally fascinating theatrical director Nigel Wills.

Omigod, the voice is just seared into my brain.

Once Davenport left the bookstore, I asked Ezra Goldstein, c0-owner of the bookstore: “Who was that man?” He filled me in briefly. Turns out Davenport lives in Park Slope and shops frequently at the Community Bookstore. Goldstein suggested to me that Davenport is an avid and engaged reader. Obsessed, I did some research on the man. The voice was born in 1973 in Suffolk, England, and is the son of actors Maria Aitken and Nigel Davenport.

He studied Literature and Film Studies at the University of East Anglia. His first big break came after he wrote to John Cleese  to be a PA on Fierce Creatures and he ended up playing a zoo keeper. His first major role however was that of public school educated barrister Miles in the BBC television series “This Life” (1996). Film roles include Ultraviolet” (1998) where he played a modern-day vampire hunter, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) as Matt Damon’s love interest, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

I am literally counting the days until Smash returns. God, I love his voice.

Proposal for Rezoning School District 15: Download it Here

The following is information I gleaned from reading a PDF available on the Department of Education website. about the planned changes to the zoning in District 15, the school district that serves parts of Park Slope.

The map to the left shows the exisitng zones for PS 321 and other local schools with black lines showing the new cutoffs.

According to the Department of Education, P.S. 321 and P.S. 107 are over-utilized schools. Enrollment trends (i.e. lots of new residents in high-rise buildings on Fourth Avenue and elsewhere) are expected to further exacerbate the overcrowding conditions at these schools.

To address growing demand and prevent, reduce waiting lists and cap class size at P.S. 321 and P.S. 107, re-zoning will enable locals to take advantage of a NEW kindergarten through   5th grade chool and additional capacity at P.S. 10 :

Yes, a NEW SCHOOL. The DOE plans to open a new zoned K-5 elementary school in building K763, St. Thomas Aquinas, located at 211 8th Street (on Fourth Avenue)  in 2013

Because the St. Thomas Aquinas building is located within P.S. 39’s zone, the DOE is also proposing a modest change to P.S. 39’s zone lines, but no change inenrollment is planned for that school.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Prospect Park’s Music Island

Today the Prospect Park Alliance hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the dedication of Chaim Baier Music Island & the Shelby White and Leon Levy Esplanade at Lakeside. The event was a celebration of the recreation  of what is considered the most formal area of the Prospect Park, as designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1867.

Lovely.

The original Olmsted and Vaux landscape was dismantled in 1960 for the construction of the former Wollman Rink. The recreation of Music Island and the Esplanade is the first phase of a restoration project that will include, in the second phase, a new 25,000-square-foot facility and two skating rinks to be completed in late fall 2013.

Can’t wait for the  new skating rinks.

Who’s paying for all of this? The first phase was funded by a $10 million grant from the Leon Levy Foundation, with additional funding from other sources.

Music Island is being named in honor of Ms. White’s father, Chaim Baier, and the Esplanade is in honor of Ms. White and her late husband, Mr. Leon Levy.

Yup, Marty Markowitz was, of course, at the ribbon cutting: “Prospect Park is an urban emerald—a crown jewel—in our city’s park system, and I am thrilled that Music Island and the Esplanade have been restored to their original glory. The northern shoreline of Prospect Park Lake will be an oasis and gathering place for not only local residents, but visitors from around the world.”

Emily Lloyd, President of Prospect Park Alliance, said, “The completion of the Chaim Baier Music Island and the Shelby White and Leon Levy Esplanade marks a transformative milestone in the restoration of Prospect Park. For the first time in over fifty years, Prospect Park will have the gathering spot of extraordinary beauty that was central to Olmsted and Vaux’s vision for the Park as both a great gathering place and a place to reconnect with nature. Countless Park visitors will benefit from Shelby’s vision and the Leon Levy Foundation’s generosity for decades to come.”

Nice.

 

Binders: A Poem by Leon Freilich

Binders full of women–just the start!

Mittman’s got dozens of folders showing heart.

One’s for job opportunities for the poor–

Credit each million in tax cuts as jobs-four.

Another binder calls for moving the Treasury

To Switzerland, away from the D.C. Trashery.

Big and heavy’s the folder for civil rights

Proving the nonexistence of minority plights.

Don’t forget the personal gold-trimmed binder

Showing Mitt, not O, is more caring and kinder,

And when His Mittness is sworn in (could be liable),

Romney will take the oath on the Mormon Bible.

October 23: The Family Thing w/ Peter Wheelwright & Leora Skolkin-Smith

“Overhead, the two moons worked together to bathe the world in a strange light.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

Only the Blog at Two Moon presents The Family Thing with novelists Peter Matthiessen Wheelwright and Leora Skolkin-Smith.

In his gorgeous debut novel, Peter M. Wheelwright grapples with “The Family Thing,” the inescapable tangle of religion, genetics, geography, deep time, secrets and lies.

Leora Skolkin-Smith’s acclaimed novel, Hysteria, is set against the backdrop of the social turmoil of the 1970’s and tells the story of a young woman suffering from a physical and sexual delusion. Publisher’s Weekly called it: “Poetic, strange and evocative…A poignant prose-poem.”

Come hear these two acclaimed authors read and discuss their work at the lovely Two Moon Art House and Cafe, Park Slope’s newest cultural spot with wine, coffee, delicious soups, sandwiches, salads and desserts.

First Edition Book Club Launch Party at Greenlight

Are you one of those people who obsesses over getting a signed first edition of a new book? Then the Greenlight Bookstore’s First Edition Club, the first of its kind in New York City, is for you. Each month, subscribers will receive a first edition, signed by the author, of a newly released hand-selected book that Greenlight feels is both enjoyable and valuable.

To mark the launch, Greenlight Bookstore in Ft. Greene is hosting a discussion of the value of physical books with several experts on the subject on Friday night at 7:30 PM at the bookstore.

Erik DuRon is a member of Greenlight’s selection committee and a 13-year veteran manager, bookseller and book-buyer at Bauman Rare Books, the nation’s leading dealer in rare and antiquarian books. Heather O’Donnell, an alumni of Bauman’s, recently launched Brooklyn-based Honey & Wax Booksellers, dealing in rare books in literature and the arts.

Emily Russo is the chair of the Greenlight First Editions Club selection committee and a veteran of the stellar First Editions Club at Odyssey Bookshop in Massachusetts. John Freeman is the editor of Granta magazine and former president of the National Book Critics Circle, as well as the author of The Tyranny of Email.

A champagne reception will follow the discussion, during which questions will be answered and subscriptions purchased

.

Proposal to Redraw School Zones

For years I’ve been wondering how PS 321 would manage to fit in all the new families moving to Fourth Avenue.

Do the math.

PS 321 is already overcrowded with over 1,400 students in six grades (pre-school through fifth grade) and bulging class sizes. With all the new buildings on Fourth Avenue that are currently in the catchment, it was obvious that PS 321 would need a new building or District 15 would need a new elementary school.

According to the New York Times, the Education Department is talking about a major rezoning which would determine who goes to PS 321, 107, 10 and a new school to be built on Fourth Avenue and Eighth Street.

This is, you might say, very big news in the neighborhood of Park Slope where parents are determined to send their kids to PS 321 or PS 107.

 “The DOE has not revealed which blocks would be rezoned, but in general, the proposal involves transferring the western end of P.S. 321’s zone, where Park Slope turns into Gowanus, to a new school to be opened on Eighth Street and Fourth Avenue. Some of P.S. 107’s southernmost blocks would be shifted to P.S. 10. The siblings of students already at the affected schools would probably be allowed to register at the same schools. The proposals were reported Monday by the news Web site dnainfo.com.”

Needless to say, people are a in a tizzy about this. I don’t know a thing about this new school on Fourth Avenue. Jim Devor, who runs the Community Education Council, had this to say about the situation.

“I don’t know how else you’re going to meet the needs of those children, unless we put saltpeter in the drinking water to prevent conceptions. Real estate brokers are going to go ballistic, but the alternatives we’re considering placing these children in are not exactly chopped liver.”

Liz Phillips, principal of PS 321, shared these thoughts about the rezoning.

“In the interest of maintaining the high-quality education we are committed to providing our students we are going to need to do something to keep our school from becoming so large that we are forced to have very high class size.”

 

We Return From California

A quick trip to California always packs a punch. We left Thursday morning at 5am for Kennedy Airport and have been on the go ever since.

First stop was the family farm in the San Joaquin Valley, a step into an alternate universe of farmland, artful gardens, eucalyptus trees, oleander bushes, grape vineyards, tomato fields, walut orchards and much more to tempt the senses.

What smells. What bounty. What beauty. Coincidentally, there was an interesting article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine special food issue about the Central Valley of California.

Next stop was Monterey, the small coastal city that rises out of Monterey Bay to pine forested hillsides and sweeping bay vistas. Home to a world renown aquarium, historic adobe architecture, the old sardine factories of Cannery Row that inspired John Steinbeck and a bustling fisherman’s wharf.

Our niece was married Saturday afternoon at the beautiful and historic Old Whaling Station not far from the Wharf. She was the flower girl at our wedding so there was a touch of the surreal about attending her wedding all these years later. Something very lovely and heartwarming, too.

On Monday we drove to San Francisco for a quick visit with relatives, lunch at a great pizza place off of Filmore Street and dinner at our favorite pan Latino restaurant Cha Cha Cha on the Haight.

Monday night we arrived at San Francisco Airport 8:30 o fly the red eye to Kennedy to find that the flight was delayed three hours. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds to waste five hours at the airport. We got home at 11AM on Tuesday morning.

Discombobulated and exhausted, we order Chinese for lunch and try to remember what we were doing before this whirlwind trip to California.

 

Poetry: A Cure for the Common on Thursday Night

Thursday, October 23rd, Brooklyn Reading Works presents Poetry: A Cure for the Common, the annual BRW poetry night curated by Pat Smith (pictured left at the Wonder Wheel) at 8PM at the Old Stone House (336 Third Street between 4th and 5th Avenues in Park Slope).

Sultry Michele Somerville gives you Sappho and some Black Irish smack, soulful Debbie Deane steals your heart at the piano, Alex Crowley brings the TV Personalities, Bourbon & Brutalism, Margaret Young spins scenes from show-biz and I do the news from the middle of my night. Five bucks gets you beer, wine, snacks and a nice break from all of your hair on fire anxiety. Oct. 18, 8PM at the Old Stone House.

Watching the Debate Tonight in and Near Park Slope

The much-anticipated second presidential debate with President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney will broadcast from Hofstra University at 9PM. The showdown will be watched by tens of millions of people.

But where will you watch it?

According to DNA Info, Drinking Liberally Downtown Brooklyn is hosting a debate-watch party at Pacific Standard on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope. There will be a pre-party at the 4th Avenue Pub next door at 7 PM before the main event. 82 Fourth Ave at 7PM.

You can also watch the debate at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO. This could be a fun place to see it, ase project the debate. onto a giant 14-by-12-foot screen for your viewing pleasure. Free. Doors open at 8 p.m.

Streisand at Barclays

I woke up at  6AM in California and checked Twitter to find out what the folks in Brooklyn were saying about last night’s debate.

Well, that was pretty predictable. Most everyone thought Biden killed it (as did I) except for the rare conservatives on my Twitter feed who thought Ryan was well-informed and persuasive.

Fair enough. You see what you want to see.

But there were more than a few tweets about the traffic patterns outside the Barclay’s Center, where Barbra Streisand performed her first Brooklyn show since singing for her mother in the living room of the apartment she grew up in.

“Traffic after Streisand concert made 11:40 seem like peek rush hour with angry honking…” read one tweet.

Norman Oder on Atlantic Yards Report said there was no carmageddon, his term for the traffic apocalypse, he expects the arena to create. However, there was  “lots of idling limos and noisiness/mess as crowd exits.”

Pretty much what you’d expect after a stadium show. And that’s not a good thing so near a residential area. This was Oder’s report:

Brooklyn native Barbra Streisand made a triumphant return to Brooklyn last night for the first of two concerts, bringing the boldface names out in force (as the Barclays Center Twitter account was sure to tell us).

Celebrities included Katie Couric, Woody Allen, Rosie O’Donnell, Sting, Calvin Klein, Barbara Walters, and Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The Daily News’s pop music critic was enthralled, as was the Times reviewer, who wrote: “Like few singers of any age, she has the gift of conveying a primal human longing in a beautiful sound.” (More coverage: NY Post, Associated Press, NY1, USA Today, WSJ).

While Oder admitted that traffic, did, for the most part move with ease. there were problems. ”

But–and this surely had something to do with the boldface names–there were an enormous number of limos looking for riders, idling and parking illegally in the streets around the arena, parking in the arena lay-by lanes, and double- and even triple-parking on adjacent streets like South Portland Avenue in Fort Greene.

Half a Day at the Mall in Tracy, California

In Tracy, California, the small city that used to be the small town where my husband grew up on a walnut farm, when you need to go shopping you go to the mall.

It wasn’t always like that. As in a lot of American towns, there was once a robust downtown: a main Street with stores, restaurants, hardware stores, a stationer, even a hotel.

Well, the Tracy Inn, a Spanish style hotel built in 1927 is still here, though it lacks it former grandeur. There is even the Grand Theater of the Arts that has actually revitalized the downtown quite a bit and offers some adventurous programming (as you can see, they’re having a haunted house there for Halloween).

The downtown is also the site of the annual Tracy Dry Bean Festival, a full day every summer of bean ice cream, bean chips, & of course chili beans.

Still, the shopping life of this community is at the mall, the West Valley Mall. And that’s where we went today to try to find a simple black skirt for my daughter to wear to her cousin’s wedding on Sunday in Monterey.

Well, many stores and four hours later we FINALLY found a nice black skirt at J.C. Penny’s. And I must say, it was a good find. Somehow, miraculously, this black skirt was marked down to $5 dollars.

Yes, you read that right. It’s better than Beacon’s Closet .And you know what? She looks like a million bucks.

My girl.

You Don’t Live on Flatbush, Do You?

Here we are in Hugh’s hometown in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. One of our nieces, the one who was the flowergirl at MY wedding, is getting married on Sunday.

Time flies, time flies.

We were dropping off some suits at a local dry cleaner called (and I’m not kidding) Park Avenue Cleaners, when Hugh ran into his history teacher from Tracy High School. They talked a bit, reminisced dropped names. Then Hugh told him we live in Brooklyn…

“You don’t live on Flatbush, do you?” he said.

Somehow that led to a quick discussion about the Barclay’s Center, the Brooklyn Nets. He’d heard about the Nets and he knew about the Dodgers and the pain their loss caused to Brooklyn. He is a history teacher, after all.

One never feels far from Brooklyn. Even on the other side of the country.

Tonight: Only the Blog at Two Moon with Emma Koenig and Small Wonder

Tonight Only the Blog at Two Moon Presents: Emma Koenig, author of the F*uck I’m in My Twenties tumblr and book (and sister of indie-fave Vampire Weekend frontman, Ezra) has immortalized the experience of overeducated, underemployed twentysomethings. Reading from the recent print release of her best LOL-inducing scribbles, graphs, and charts from the blogosphere, the former struggling New Yorker returns from LA to explore the post-grad woes in public. With Special Musical Guest Small Wonder

–Elana Leopold, Flavorpill

Teacher Appreciation Night (and discount) at the Community Bookstore

This Thursday night at 7PM, Park Slope’s Community Bookstore will offer a 30% discount on all books in the shop to teachers. As part of this special teacher appreciation night, the store wishes to lavish any teachers who show up (with teacher I.D.) with wine and refreshments.

A children’s books representative from Random House will be on hand, along with other educational professionals.

The 30% discount is one night only. The store does, however, offer 20% off at all times for classroom purchases.

TONIGHT: Food for Thought Fundraiser for Park Slope Civic Council

You gotta love The Park Slope Civic Council. Think about it: House Tour, Halloween Parade, Clean-Ups, Civic initiatives. They really are the civic heartbeat of this community and a vital organization in a strong and growing Park Slope. But guess what? They’ve never had a fundraiser.

So why now?

In recent years, the Civic Council, like so many other organizations, has been affected by our economic downturn. This fundraiser will insure that their numerous projects and initiatives throughout the community continue.

Which brings me to Food for Thought, their fundraiser. Tonight. Yes, tonight! Wed., Oct. 10, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.at the beautiful Prospect Park Picnic House (enter the Park at Third and go towards Long Meadow. It’s hard to miss). Forgive me friends for not posting about this sooner

Interestingly, the event will feature a new video created by StoryKeep for Food for Thought. Tonight, I’m guessing, will be fun night out because guests will be able to  sample an array of delicacies and beverages from popular local restaurants while they mingle with their neighbors and learn about the Civic Council’s many contributions to the community.

In addition to the food tastings, there will be short presentations made by top chefs, food critics, writers, and movers and shakers in the local farm-to-table food movement. If you appreciate fine food, fine dining, and are passionate about supporting your community, this event it not to be missed!

To Paint or Not to Paint: More on Park Slope Pink House

I wrote this back in 2009: It’s about the Pepto Bismol House at 233 Garfield Place that just got sold for a cool $2 million bucks. To paint or not to paint: that is the question.

You know the Pepto Bismol house, the pink brownstone on Garfield Place? Well, my sister walked by this morning and it’s for sale.

Now that’s a tip!

The Pepto Bismol house is the house people either love to love or love to hate. It’s been painted that shade of pink since before Park Slope was a historic district. That means its right to be pink is grandfathered in. If someone buys it they will have the choice to keep it pink or return it to its Brownstone grandeur.

Recently I was interviewed by a graduate student from the Netherlands who is studying Fifth Avenue and Park Slope for her thesis in urban planning. She asked me about the pink house and said that everyone she talks to brings it up or has an opinion about it. Many feel quite negatively about it.

I kind of like the Pepto Bismol house for its outsiderness, its expressivity, its wild and open uglinesss.

News Flash: Pepto Bismol House Sold for $2 Million

Just heard via Brownstoner that the Pepto Bismol House aka the pink house at 233 Garfield Place has been sold. Many of you will remember that the house was first listed in 2009 for $2.5 million but was swiftly pulled off the market. There was even a story on OTBKB. 

Last January it went back on the market for a cool $2.3 million. The new owners paid $2.075,000 and must now decide whether to keep it pink or repaint.

What do you think? Please leave your color ideas for the Pepto Bismol House in comments.

Bernie Henry is the man who painted his classic Park Slope brownstone salmon pink in the 1960s. I don’t know if he is still alive. He put the house on the market and then pulled it off back in 2009 because, as a real-estate source told The Brooklyn Paper, Henry’s grandson was under investigation for forging key documents that have put a cloud over who has legal ownership of the building.

At the time, Henry said he couldn’t speak about the matter because his ailing wife had just died.

Now that the house has sold, it is truly, the end of a Park Slope era. The era of the Pepto Bismol House. I wonder if the new owners will get tired of explaining the history of that house.

Or will they?

 

Call Me Exhausted: First Marathon Reading of Moby Dick

Now here’s your chance to finally read, in its entirety, Moby Dick. It’s the first-ever New York City marathon-style reading of Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby-Dick, Or, the Whale.

The event will span three days, three bookstores, two boroughs, and feature over a hundred readers, including authors Jonathan Ames, Rick Moody, Sarah Vowell, Touré, Mark Kurlansky, Joshua Cohen, Aryn Kyle, David Goodwillie, Will Hermes, Lev Grossman, Eileen Myles, Elissa Schappell and more; joined by booksellers, editors, bloggers, journalists, and other Melvillians. The full crew is listed and updated here.

This epic event will span three days over the weekend of November 16–18, chosen because the book was first published in the United States on November 14, 1851. The event will begin the night of Friday 11/16 at WORD bookstore in Greenpoint, where there will be a pre-marathon presentation of the “Etymology” and “Extracts” from 5PM to 6PM, with the event officially starting with the most famous first line in literature “Call me Ishmael”, at 6PM.

The night will be fueled by clam chowder from Littleneck restaurant. The marathon reading will pick back up on the morning of Saturday 11/17 at 10AM Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in Soho.

Around 11:30AM Amy Virginia Buchanan’s Pequod Players will present a dramatic performance of chapters 37–40: Ahab, Starbuck, and Stubb’s monologues and chapter 40, “Midnight, Forecastle.” Saturday will be fueled by more Littleneck chowder before moving back to Brooklyn to continue the night at Molasses Books in Bushwick (4PM–12AM) with clam and flounder chowder from Brooklyn’s Do or Dine. The marathon will finish back at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on Sunday 11/18 at 10AM, with the chase concluding around 4PM.

“To hear the book read aloud in its entirety is a wonderful way to experience it for the first time or anew—and the perfect opportunity to read Moby-Dick in a single weekend. It’s going to be a great celebration of a canonical New York City writer, and hopefully the inauguration of a New York City literary tradition. Though an urban reading of the book might surprise some, it’s an apt home, as the novel begins in the “insular city of Manhattoes” and the author was born and died here in New York City,” write the organizers Polly Bresnick and Amanda Bullock.

On the Radio: Nice Story about Brooklyn Creative League

This morning there was a nice story on WNYC about the Brooklyn Creative League. At the WNYC website, there is also a map of many “coworkin” locations around the city. In Park Slope alone there are many “coworking” locations, a place where you can rent a desk and have a place of work.

These spaces are ideal for the freelance writers or telecommuters or budding entrepreneurs, who don’t feel like setting up shop at the Tea Lounge.

Places like the Brooklyn Writers Space, Montauk Office and the Brooklyn Creative League offer individuals the advantages of an office job with a lot more flexibility. Perks like conference rooms, kitchens, companionship can make the working day that much easier for freelancers and the self-employed.

 

Norman and Jules: A New Kind of Toy Shop in Park Slope

Beautiful, beautiful toys.

Norman and Jules, a new toy shop named for the owners’ grandfathers, has opened on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. It’s the kind of shop you don’t know you need until you walk in and wonder how you ever existed without it.

It’s that nice. Sadly, my kids are too old for the toys they sell. But I did buy a bottle of Norman and Jules Soap Bubbles and a special beaded wand for my 15-year old daughter. She loves it.

I will admit I wondered why Park Slope needed another toy shop. With Little Things and Area, Park Slope has more than enough in the way of toys. But Norman and Jules is something quite different and something quite special.

Courtney Ebner and Avi Kravitz, the couple who own the shop, are parents to an adorable little girl named Charley, who was born 15 weeks early.

“We spent a lot of time in the hospital — and for five-and-a-half months we researched child development,” the couple told Park Slope Patch. “She had a lot of early intervention therapy and we learned how important it is to provide certain kinds of toys and even art to create an environment that helps them learn and expand their imagination at an early age.”

After her birth, Avi and Courtney decided to open a shop that would feature the kinds of toys they discovered, beautiful toys from artisans and companies who offer products that are carefully crafted from sustainable materials.

The shop itself is beautifully designed. The space used to be Slope Florist and it now looks much bigger, the space better allocated for the public and for its elegant display of exceptionally attractive toys. The inventory at Norman and Jules includes wooden kitchen sets, a wooden Noah’s Ark, lovely framed artwork for a child’s room, as well as fairy capes and fairy wands.

They also carry toys and instruments made by Fair Trade Federation companies — supporting artisans in developing countries with fair wages. The goal: to sustain long-term trading relationships in order to create economic stability in those places.

Clearly, a well-meaning mind-set accompanies the aesthetic and educational mind-set of Avi and Courtney’s shop. It’s worth mentioning that they are also co-owners of Casa Ventana, the restaurant on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Third Street that used to be Barrio. It now serves delicious Puerto Rican style food.

And to top it all off, a  percentage of Norman & Jules’ sales will be donated to the March of Dimes.

Nice.

Norman & Jules will be open every day from 9 AM until  7:30 PM.

 

 

Stitch Therapy is at Home in the Noella Brew Bar

In 2004, Maxcine DeGouttes opened the bricks and mortar fine yarn shop, Stitch Therapy on Lincoln Place in Park Slope. As described on her website, it really was “a busy hive of creativity, inspiration and support for Brooklyn’s community of knitters, crocheters, and weavers.”

Later, Maxcine moved her shop to Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue sharing a storefront with Brooklyn Mercantile, a sewing, craft and home goods store. In early 2012 when the landlord raised the rent, the two small businesses decided to move on. Brooklyn Mercantile is now online only and Maxcine went to the DeKalb Market, a terribly run market that is now, thankfully, closed.

Happily, Maxcine/Stitch Therapy has landed in the front part of Noella Brew Bar, an attractive, brick-walled cafe on Seventh Avenue near Berkeley Place. There you can find her  iridescent hues of kettle-dyed fibers, tweedy wool and hand-painted, hand-spun yarns. Maxcine is also on hand to teach the passion of her life, knitting.

At Noella, Maxcine has replicated the atmosphere of her cozy old store on Lincoln Place. Customers can still benefit from the encouragement and shared knowledge, which Maxcine loves to give. Even better, you can now get a nice cup of tea or coffee and a pastry or sandwich, while you ponder your next knitting project.

Atten to Your Children: A Subway Poem by Robin Hirsch

I got an email from Park Slope’s Robin Hirsch, who owns the Cornelia Street Cafe, a venerable and delightful restaurant and performance space in the West Village. Robin is also the author of a memoir, Last Dance at the Hotel Kempinski: Creating a Life in the Shadow of History and a book of poems, FEG: Ridiculous Stupid Poems for Intelligent Children

When he’s not running a restaurant or writing books, Robin also curates a vibrant calendar of music, theatrical and literary events downstairs at the Cornelia Street Cafe. He wrote to say that a poem he wrote was published in the Metropolitan Diary section of the New York Times. 

“In the old days (e.g., the last time I had something in this column), the Times used to send a bottle of Champagne. Now, malheureusement, one has to make do with ye olde fleeting fame–sans Champagne.”

Who knew they used to send out champagne? Times have changed.

Robin created a piece of found poetry based on the electronic signs in the subway. The poem is a literal transcription of an electronic sign at the Avenue of the Americas-34th Street Downtown subway stop. All spelling, capitalization, line breaks are as found. The only editing that Robin did was to take the first line, capitalize it and make it the title..Here’s the poem, which you can also find in the New York Times, that venerable and delightful daily newspaper.

 ATTEN TO YOUR CHILDREN

Adults hold handrail

attend to your

children avoid the

side of the escalator

ride safely escaator

are for passenger

only never run up or

down no large

packages should be

carried on escalator

step on and off

escalator never push

strollers on escalator

nevr sit on step or

handrail never put

umbrella on escalator

steps children should

hold adults hand not

handrail have a great

day

 

Josh Shneider’s Easy Bake Orchestra Tonight at Tea Lounge

Will the entire 19-piece Easy Bake Orchestra with singer Saundra Williams fit into Park Slope’s Tea Lounge, gathering hole of local laptop freelancers. Of course they will. It’s a spacious venue, with a full bar and a full selection of caffeinated treats plus snacks.

How to describe the Easy Bake Orchestra? It’s big band jazz infused with Latin, R&B and sumptous soul. A joyous melodic soup with complex harmonies and a sophisticated swing. The talented Saundra Williams (pictured left) s currently touring with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and will sing original songs by Easy Bake’s leader, Josh Shneider.

I saw them in DUMBO not long ago and was impressed. Very.

Tonight at Tea Lounge on Union Street.