Monthly Archives: June 2013

Civics and Urban Life

Watch “Little Fugitive” on the Beach at Coney Island

This sounds like a perfect evening: a free screening of “Little Fugitive” at Coney Island Flicks on the Beach at 7:30 PM July 1.

The film was made by Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin and was filmed in Coney Island in 1953, It will be introduced by   Mary Engel. This is the 60th anniversary of the film, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. “Little Fugitive,” is about a little boy who runs away and hides out on Coney Island.

The film is co-sponsored by Rooftop Films and the Coney Island History Project.

arts and culture

Ground Floor Gallery: Works Under $200 for Art Collector Wannabees

Ground Floor Gallery, Park Slope’s newest art gallery opens, its summer show Small Wonder on Friday, July 12th, 6 – 8:30pm. Small Wonder is  juried exhibition of small works, all under $200.

“Small Wonder” features artists Adams Puryear, Alyssa Piro, Becky Yazdan, Brendan Newel, Corinne Odermatt, Elissa Swanger, Eliza Stamps, Jacobus Capone, Karen Schoellkopf, Lisa Wicka, Sean Gallagher and Thomas Hammer.

 

Ground Floor Gallery

343 5th Street (off 5th Avenue)

Brooklyn, NY 11215

F or R train to 4th Avenue – 9th Street

For more information: www.groundfloorbk.com

arts and culture

Fifth Street in Park Slope Welcomes Brave New World’s Street Scene

by Matthew A. Taub

Brave New World Repertory Theatre enjoyed a smashing success with their recent site-specific performance of “Street Scene,” a 1929 Elmer Rice play, using real residential buildings as an interactive set (OTBKB previewed the performance in an article last week).

Two performances last Saturday, at 1 and 5 p.m., went off without a hitch. Attendees quickly filled the available seating along Fifth Street in Park Slope (between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West) while an overflow crowd found comfort in the ornate, lavish Brownstone stoops just across the way.

For Shannon Sindelar, having just been named the Brave New World Repertory Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director this past February, nothing could make her happier.

“With a cast of 35 and entire street that needed closing, we were expecting a few hiccups— what we didn’t expect was no hiccups at all,” Sindelar said. “The community really came together to make this happen.”

Indeed, the entire block seemed peacefully enraptured by the performance; any complaints were hard to come by.
Emily Glinick, Secretary of the Repertory Theater’s Board of Directors, was also emboldened by the show’s success.
“We produce our productions throughout the borough, and try to hit under-served areas especially. Red Hook, Bed-Stuy, and Windsor Terrace are just some of the previous neighborhoods we have performed in.”

Though the Brave New World Repertory Theatre’s official “office” is in Ditmas Park, “our ‘venue’ is the outdoors,’” Glinick said.

“We love to do site-specific shows, especially in outdoor locations,” she added. “It’s a return to the way theater was originally performed.”

If you want Brave New World Repertory Theatre to perform “Street Scene” or another performance in your neighborhood, or even use your building, visit them at bravenewworldrep.org, contact them at theatre@bravenewworldrep.org, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

arts and culture

Multi-Media Artist Jill Kirschen at Yashar Gallery in Greenpoint

I love when stuff like this happens: an old friend finds my blog and actually CALLS to tell me that she has a great Brooklyn event to share.

Love it. 

I also love to hear the story of how she got here from there to here. From the mid-1980’s to the mid-1990’s, artist Jill Kirschen and I used to work together on videos. She was a master of music for video and I relied on her talents for many years when I was a video producer. It was always a blast to work with her  because she knew her stuff and we always had great conversations in the process.

Now she’s a visual artist with a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Recently she got her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and she’s currently in the midst of completing a masters degree in art education. Talk about reinventing yourself.

Love that, too. 

Here she writes about her work on her website: “I’m very interested in visually representing the idea of subtext, layering, lyricism and rhythm.  To best do this I work with a variety of media; paint, fabric, photographs, found objects, and most recently, remnants of clothing worn by people close to me.”

Jill  started out by making collages with paper, scissors, and glue. But then she got swept up into a love affair with digital manipulation. “However, I started to miss the pure physicality of making work and really getting my hands dirty, and am now happily once more back to my roots,” she writes.

You will have a chance to see Jill’s work at a show that’s opening at the Yashar Gallery (276 Greenpoint Avenue, Building 8 Ground Floor) on Thursday from 6-9PM. The show will run through July 24th.

Above is a picture of Jill. She looks exactly the same and I haven’t seen her in MANY years.

arts and culture

Riot of Spring and More at Hillstock

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By Matthew A. Taub

Friday was day 1 of Hillstock, an annual music festival in Clinton Hill founded by members of the Never Break Down music collective.

After earlier gigs at the Putnam Triangle Plaza, the evening’s events continued at “Free Candy,” an former-warehouse-turned-art-gallery-slash-part-music-venue-part-nightclub

Bands like The Toothaches got things rolling nicely— hovering over keyboards and other instruments with a dilligent sense of purpose, they nonetheless got the crowd pumped.

Next up were Eskalators, a Brooklyn-based steampunk and vegan musical collective, puppeteering ensemble, and experimental street mime troupe. Known for holding elaborate, public performances, fire poi artistry, and subway flash mobs without the formal written consent of the MTA, on this occasion their lead singer added an ability to simulatenously stage-dive while singing to their repertoire, while other members threw down in the mosh pit, unwieldy instruments in hand:

But the night’s events were by turns raucous and soothing, with a plethora of space for attendees to find their preferred environment:

Concluding the evening was Riot of Spring, a “rock band” ensemble consisting of two keyboardists, four guitars, two basses, drums and percussion, playing The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) by Igor Stravinsky (who says the kids aren’t cultured these days?)

The conductor, James Landrum, advised that the ensemble was composed of members primarily from two other bands: Turbosleaze and No One and the Somebodies. Not only did the group only rehearse a couple of times, the performance was pretty much the first time Landrum had conducted. And yet, the result was spectacular.

“Riot of Spring is the brainchild of our third guitarist, creative director, and head arranger Steve Yankou (No One and the Somebodies and TURBOSLEAZE) whose dream this has been for years,” write Landrum in a comment to OTBKB. “He put together the ensemble and we collaborated on the arrangement along with help from our second keyboardist Julian Bennett Holmes. He is not only the impetus, but the very spirit of this piece, and I couldn’t be more proud to work with him.”

Robert Dvorkin, a pianist and teacher in Brooklyn, contributed reporting to this article.

arts and culture

Gina Barreca: The Death of James Gandolfini

Gina Barreca, columnist for The Courant and author o It’s Not That I’m Bitter wrote this about the death yesterday of the great James Gandolfini. Here’s an excerpt. You can read the rest here. 

Losing James Gandolfini, star of “The Sopranos,” is like losing a favorite cousin. The sense of shock and grief over his unexpected and sudden death Wednesday has people talking, writing and — yes — grieving. This is more than the ordinary reaction to the death of celebrity. This is not an everyday, “Oh, too bad. He was only about 50, right?” shrug-and-switch-topics water-cooler conversation.

Our reaction to Gandolfini’s death is more along the lines of emails exchanged at midnight with subject lines like “It can’t be true!” and “I can’t believe how depressed this makes me …”

Maybe it’s because I’m Italian American. Or from the New York area. Or because I was enough of a fan of “The Sopranos” to edit a book on the show. Perhaps it was because the character he played, Tony Soprano, changed American television forever.

arts and culture

BAMcinemaFest 2013: Brooklyn Filmmakers Come of Age

At this week’s BAMcinemaFest 2013 there’s a fascinating selection of new films you’ve never heard of by Brooklyn filmmakers. Seems like there’s a veritable explosion of filmakers living in Brooklyn and all this creativity, fundraising and production is coming to fruition at BAM, the theater many of the filmmakers say is their favorite movie theater in Brooklyn.

I wholeheartedly agree. See the schedule and film descriptions here. 

The films that people seem to be buzzing about are  narrative features and docs: After Tiller, It Felt Like Love. These Birds Walk, Computer Chess, Drinking Buddies, Northern Lights Mother of George, Crystal Fair, Newlyweeds. Everyone wants to see Ain’t Them Bodies Saints with Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck directed by David Lowery.

Go Brooklyn!

 

Civics and Urban Life

Bands, Food, Film, Art & Tech at Northside Festival

By Matthew A. Taub

This past weekend, Williamsburg hosted the (still ongoing) Northside Festival, which rounds out the remainder of its events over the next few days. Bands, food, film, art and a tech expo were all on hand at avariety of north Brooklyn venues, but the main attraction was the pavement portion of McCarren Park (North 12th & Bedford), with a bandshell, tech tent, and variety of food retailers.

Billed as a “super teeny mini multi-media SXSW,” or even a possiblealternative to same, Northside was competing for attention withBanaroo (occurring at the same time), and hoping to escape “the graveyard” that is New York music festivals as well as the naysayers who lamented the Great GoogaMooga’s horrific environmental destruction and perennial bad luck, including a canceled final day.

But other than a variety of confusing badges, everything seemed surpisingly well-managed— nothing overloaded, over-promised, or over-priced, making for an exciting yet accessible experience.

Saturday’s billing included Phosphorescent, who drew a nice crowd, followed by The Walken, who lit up the masses to close out the acts for the day, among a host of others.

Meanwhile, a tech tent provided all sorts of whacky activity, with a frenzy of workers furiously apace around obtuse, Rube-Goldberg-likecontraptions, such as drums that played themselves.

Food options were eclectic without being overbearing, including hearty tacos from Cemitas and crab boil from Bon Chovie.

The Northside festival, now in its fifth year, is run by The L Magazine. For further information, visit the festival’s website, “like” the magazine on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter.

 Matthew Taub is a writer and lawyer in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of “Death of the Dying City,” a novel.

 

Food and Drink

Stay at Stove Dad: A Cooking Blog for Everyone

Father’s Day seems like a good time to write about Stay at Stove Dad, a cooking blog by John Donohue, who is the author of a wonderful cookbook called Man with Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for their Families.

I must say, Stay at Stove Dad is a terrific cooking blog. And you don’t have to be a dad to enjoy it. I hadn’t visited it in quite some time but I just took a look, motivated by Matthew Taub’s story about the Wordsprouts reading, and discovered fantastic recipes and great stories about cooking for one’s children.

I particularly like the way Donohue combines recipes with stories about his family, creating a sort of an on-going cooking memoir in the process.

I discovered a recipe for Bolognese sauce which may inspire me to make Bolognese sauce for Father’s Day dinner tonight. Donohue’s cookbook makes a great gift by the way.

arts and culture

Matthew Taub: Words Sprout at the Park Slope Food Coop

By Matthew A. Taub

On Friday night at Wordsprouts, the literary reading series at the Park Slope Food Coop run by Paula Bernstein (author of Identical Strangers) and John Donohue (author of Man with a Pan), three writers shared work that  touched on  love, romance, and personal responsibility.

First up was Barbara Agosin, who began writing as a means of therapy after her husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. An essayist and poet, her work focuses on everyday events as well as life within the circle of love and loss that is Alzheimer’s:

“The man continues to eat, seemingly oblivious to the difference between knife, fork and spoon. Soon morsels of chicken, tiny rectangles of rice and damp cake crumbs mix together on table, floor and the cuffs of his robe.

“The man is my husband. If he were not 77 years old I would put him in a high chair and teach him how to use a knife and fork. He is completely concentrated on the business of eating and unworried about the mess around and beneath him, which less than a year ago would have sent him running for the broom and dustpan.”

Next was Fran Hawthorne, the award-winning author of the new book, ETHICAL CHIC: an investigation of Starbucks, Apple, Trader Joe’s, American Apparel, Timberland, and Tom’s of Maine. Ms. Hawthorne has spent more than 25 years covering healthcare, politics, finance, and the nexus of business and social issues:

“Like people we meet, we fall in love with sexy, charismatic companies that ultimately break out hearts…we think we can have it all, but we close our eyes to faults and project [onto these companies] what we want them to be.”

Ethical Chic has been named one of the best books of 2012 by Library Journal. Hawthorne writes regularly for The New York Times, Newsday,The Scientist, and other publications.

Finishing up the event was Robin Bady an award-winning storyteller. Ms Bady has been called “gutsy, big hearted, and street smart,” and “a force of nature.” She draws from world tales, current events, oral histories, literature, ghostly experiences and her own life to create a repertoire shaped by her commitment to justice:

“At my thirty year high school reunion, because of all the pettitness involved in growing up, I realized that I couldn’t recognize people who came up to me independently— only when they were standing with the cliques that had defined who they were— way back when— could I put piece them together.”

Ms. Bady is the recipient of the 2012 JJ Reneaux Emerging Artist Grant Awary given by the National Story Telling Network.

Like all Wordsprouts readings, a Park Slope Food Co-Op Membership is not required to attend, and admission is free. For more information about upcoming Wordsprouts events, Ms. Bernstein can be contacted at wordsproutspsfc@gmail.com.

Matthew Taub is a writer and lawyer in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of “Death of the Dying City,” a novel.

arts and culture

Rural Archeology: What Lies Beneath

Our friend (and OTBKB advertiser) Sheva Fruitman and her business partner, Joe Zenovic, got themselves a nice mention (and  a great photo) in the New York Times. The two are diggers for hire in the Hudson Valley. Their company is called Rural Archeology.

Here’s what they do: they will explore your property in search of coins buttons, jewelry and the detritus that people throw away, or more likely lost, that tell the history of that place. They have worked in Colorado, Connecticut and Massachusetts and in the Hudson Valley.

Sheva, who lives in New York City and the Hudson Valley, preserves and photographs the collection of artifacts and creates beautiful displays. She thinks they make a unique housewarming gift for someone’s new-old country home.  Antiques for someone who has everything, but doesn’t know it’s buried in their garden.

An artist and fine art photographer, Sheva is known for her jewelry-making; product design; set direction for commercials; and her work as a magazine stylist, photographer and art director.

arts and culture

June 20 at 8PM: The Buzzard’s Banquet at Jackie’s Fifth Amendment

Who knew there were literary readings Jackie’s Fifth Amendment. That’s the bar, if I’m not mistaken, that tried to secede from Park Slope. Am I right?

On June 20th, a cadre of cool writers will share their literary output with the public. The event falls under the rubric of The Buzzard’s Banquet and it sounds like it’s a monthly affair. The festivities begin at 8PM. The Fifth Amendment is located on Fifth Avenue and 7th Street.

Performers Include: Jesse Katz, Eric Nelson, Phil Nerges, Matthew Frazier, Scott Cheshire and Ed Kearns w/ music from Vic Ruggiero of The Slackers.

The photo is by Farrah Celler

arts and culture

On a Park Slope Stoop: Elmer Rice’s Street Scene by Brave New World Rep

This is a must-see and I for one can’t wait. I so enjoyed B rave New World’s production of The Crucible at The Old Stone House. Now Brooklyn’s acclaimed Brave New World Repertory Theatre is taking Elmer Rice’s 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Street Scene to the streets–literally…on the stoop of a Park Slope tenement.

The site-specific production will spill out the front windows and onto the front stoop and sidewalk of a tenement in Park Slope, which will serve as the stage with the audience seated in the street, which will be closed to traffic for the day. Brave New World’s multicultural production of this classic masterpiece reflects the full urban melting pot of New York City.

WHERE:

Park Slope, Brooklyn

5th Street between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park

(Directions: F/G to 7th Ave, D/N/R to 9th St, 2/3/4 to Grand Army Plaza, B/Q to 7th Ave.)

WHEN:

Saturday, June 22nd. Two performances: 1pm and 5pm.

(Rain-date: June 23rd)

ABOUT STREET SCENE:

Director Claire Beckman says, “With 20/20 hindsight, Brave New World’s site-specific production seeks to capture the restless summer of 1929… and the sense of unease that comes-especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid like the working class people in the play-when everyone is living beyond their means. These are the people, who a year or two later, will be jobless and penniless. Now living together in cramped sweltering apartments, they spend their summer days out on the stoops… Gossiping and fretting about any impending trouble, as titillated by, as they are terrified of the big domestic drama unfolding in their own building… An infidelity…and worse.”

Elmer Rice won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for his Broadway play about a New York City “village” rife with domestic quarrels, racial and ethnic tensions and economic anxiety. Street Scene was made into a movie in 1931, produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by King Vidor, and into an opera in 1946 with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Langston Hughes.

TICKET INFORMATION:

FREE (no reservation necessary) seating as available; unlimited standing room.

RESERVED FREE seating available in advance for elderly and disabled – limited.

RESERVED seating available: with online donations of $75 or more- limited.

For further info and reservations, visit: http://www.bravenewworldrep.org

Civics and Urban Life

Le Pain Quotidien Opening on Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue

Seems that Le Pain Quotidien, a cafe chain with 185 branches arond the world,  is opening on Fifth Avenue  and Carroll Street. Not only that: it’s opening in the space that was formerly Moutarde. And we all remember Moutarde’s claim to fame: it was the location used in Julia and Julia to impersonate a real Parisian cafe.

I for one like Le Pain Quotidien and have frequently frequented the one on Madison Avenue and 83rd Street, the one in Tribeca, and the one in ABC Carpet and Home and Lincoln Center (they really are ALL over the place). The communal table is a nice concept and the atmosphere and decor are very appealing. The curried egg salad sandwich is excellent, as are the quiches, soups and the baked goods, including deliciously authentic French Croissants.

Welcome to the neighborhood: Le Pain Quotidien

The photograph is from a blog called Brooklyn Home Experts. 

 

arts and culture

Nelson Gelgud on John Turturro

I came across some illustrations by Nelson Gelgud on the BAM website. The project is called “The John Turturro Mid-eighties Hat Trick” and it’s about three films Turturro made before he teamed up with Spike Lee and the Coen Brothers.

Gelgud has an illustration blog called Take the Soda Free and Jet and another blog where he writes about movies. Tami Mnoian wrote about him for Print Magazine. 

Nathan Gelgud illustrates tiny collections of things, as if he has released the contents of his pocket and taken pen to paper. While the renderings are small, the subjects are certainly not: Steve Martin, Sal Mineo, and Spuds McKenzie (see above), or Felix Mendelssohn, Frances McDormand and Fred MacMurray—personalities  who share the same initials. This is Gelgud’s talent. He miniaturizes and contains so that his figures look like they belong in a curio cabinet, visible and ready for adoration.

Gelgud’s work is featured on a wall in Greenpoint’s In God We Trust, where he depicts the famous noggins of William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Philip Roth, to name a few.

 

arts and culture

Dancing with My Beer by Michael Pietsch and Mighty Squirrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNWAg-YRe4g&feature=share&list=PLlV3ytzv_SuJHlKYAKCvuCpyFS62LRNDQ

This video was produced by Brooklyn Social Media; shot and edited by Antonio Rosario and features Tom Martinez. The band featured in the video is Mighty Squirrel. The location is Red Hook Bait and Tackle.

Michael Pietsch is the CEO of Hachette Media Group. As the editor of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, he is a renowned executive in the publishing world. He also edited Pale Fire. which was published after Wallace’s death. Less well known is that Pietsch is a music lover. He is also a friend of author Gregory Spatz, who plays in a band called Mighty Squirrel which combines folk, klezmer celtic swing and world music. They really do.

Michael LOVES Mighty Squirrel and wrote the lyrics and music to this song and gave it to Greg to arrange and record out in Spokane, WA. There’s a shot of Greg’s new book Half as Happy in the video. See if you can find it.

Civics and Urban Life

Craig Hammerman: Cool and Unusual Local Activities in June

Craig Hammerman, District Manager of Community Board 6 writes a monthly Email Newsletter called “The Sixth Sense.” In it he and CB6 staff provide local news and a cool list of activities. Below is a sampling. You have to go to the CB6 site in order to sign up and get the newsletter (with all the links). Incentive.

On Saturday June 8th (all weekends until June 16th) 1:00-6:00 pm, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) presents “On the Waterfront: Zone A”: art exhibition. Come see BWAC’s post-Sandy rebuilt gallery in Red Hook, with the city’s best view of the Statue of Liberty. It’s a perfect destination for a spring weekend. 499 Van Brunt St./Red Hook.

 Also in Red Hook on Saturday June 8th, Brooklyn Based presents The Red Hook Total Immersion.: A day of exploring, drinking, brunching + shopping in Red Hook + Columbia Street. All day, various locations. Click to view map.

On Sunday June 9th, 4:30pm 440 Gallery presents Wine, Cheese Olives & Art Talk. The Sundays@440 is a free program of events ranging from talks, music, performances and readings, intended to bring the community together in a lively and casual exchange in the arts. For more information and to see further upcoming events, please visit www.440gallery.com

Continue reading Craig Hammerman: Cool and Unusual Local Activities in June →

Civics and Urban Life

RIP Esther Williams

When my sister and I were six, we had a swim teacher at Camp Yomi who used to call my sister Esther Williams because of the graceful way that she cupped her hands when she did the crawl (now called the Freestyle). My sister still does that.

“Hey Esther,” the swim teacher used to call out to her while she was swimming. “She looks just like Esther Williams.” The anology was lost on us at the time. But later we learned who she was. I can’t remember when I first saw Esther Williams on screen. But I’ve always been a fan. And not just because of my sister and this memory of an early childhood swim teacher.

Esther Williams died yesterday. The work she did with director Busby Berkeley was pretty darn brilliant. She once said her favorite co-star was the water. The aquatic star of the screen died in her sleep in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Civics and Urban Life

Matthew Taub : Making City Biking Safe (An Opinion)

Matthew Taub is a writer and lawyer in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of “Death of the Dying City,” a novel. He filed this report about how to make biking safe in our city, including insurance, licenses, helmets, and traffic law changes.

The debut of the “Citibike” program is an exciting moment for the City of New York, despite some predictable opposition. But many issues need to be addressed, such as insurance, licenses, helmets, and traffic law changes. Such reforms should apply not just to bike share programs, but possibly for all bicyclists in general.

*Note: on the web site Medium, this is a collaborative post where readers are invited to weigh in with commentary and suggestions, in addition to my proposed reforms (icons along the right margin of the Medium web site should allow this).

1. Mandatory (or at least optional) insurance requirements.

The fact that most bicyclists are uninsured is a gaping hole in the ability for accident victims to recover when they sustain injuries. Many pedestrians have been seriously wounded or even killed by bicyclists.

(Full disclosure: in addition to being a writer, I am also a personal injury lawyer. Though I often represent bicyclists as Plaintiffs when they are injured by motor vehicles, I also ocassionally sue bicyclists for striking pedestrians. However, unless the bicyclists are employed by a messenger service or restaurant, whereby they are in the scope of employment while making deliveries (and thus covered by the employer’s insurance), there can often be little ability to recover any verdict award from a leisure bicyclist’s personal assets.)

The Citibike program already charges user fees for riders to utilize the service. Like Zipcar, the car sharing program where insurance is automatically included, the Citibike fee should include the cost of insurance for any accidents. It seems unclear as to whether it does, but this should certainly be a mandatory component for allowing access to the “Citibike” bicycles.

The further question is then whether the state should also require insurance for all bicyclists, or at least make it available. Such insurance is often difficult to obtain— not always easily tethered to a renter’s or homeowner’s policy and rarely independently available (though this may change). In any event, this all leads to the next issue.

2. Should bicyclists be licensed?

This issue cuts a few ways. Along with a requirement (or at least an option) for insurance coverage, another issue is whether bicyclists should be licensed and/or be required to have small license plates posted on their frames. If plates were required, traffic cameras could then capture them with respect to cyclists who violate traffic laws,cause motor vehicle accidents, or are wanted in police investigations. Any bicycle without a plate could immediately be pulled over to enforce the rule, such as with motor vehicles presently.

Continue reading Matthew Taub : Making City Biking Safe (An Opinion) →

arts and culture

Mary Jo McBride at Two Moon: Born “My” Dentity

By day she teaches Music for Aardvarks at Two Moon Art House and Cafe on Fourth Avenue. By night she is developing a one-woman show that will make you laugh and make you cry. You might even sing along. What fun.

Mary Jo McBride with direction by Jennifer Tuttle will present Born “My” Dentity” her one-woman/all-woman/identity crisis. One part solo performance, one part  cabaret, one part stand-up and “entirely endearing” says the artist’s blurb, the show is this Saturday, June 8 at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7PM).

Joyce at Two Moon is really excited about presenting this performer: “She’s one of our children’s performers but is doing an evening “mom-along”.  It’s a one woman show – sort of a spoof on Lilith Fair- it’s going to be HILARIOUS.”

Saturday, June 8 at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7PM). Admission is $10 dollars. Two Moon is located at 315 Fourth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope. F train to Fourth Avenue, R train to Union Street.

Civics and Urban Life

Bklynr on The Park Slope Food Coop

I told you about Bklnyr, a new and independent publication whose mission is to publish great journalism about Brooklyn. Capital New York called it an idea “so obvious it’s almost hard to believe it hasn’t already been done.”

In Issue 5, which came out today, there’s an article about Jumaane Williams called “Troublemaker: Can an activist turned City Council member survive at City Hall.” Hillary Busis writes about how the Park Slope Food Co-op became an institution that will outlast the punchlines. To read the article in full you have to subscribe to Bklynr for $2 dollars a month. Here’s an excerpt from the Food Coop story:

One does not simply walk into the Park Slope Food Co-op.

Before they’re granted entry to Brooklyn’s most talked-about grocery store, guests must first visit its membership office — a cramped facility that, incidentally, housed the entire co-op when it was founded 40 years ago. The office shares space with the co-op’s childcare center and a meeting room, which hosts events with names like “Gluten Intolerance: Fact or Fiction?” (Those events, unlike the co-op itself, are generally free and open to the public.) It’s located at the top of a narrow staircase lined with dozens of fliers advertising drum lessons, free guinea pigs, and cooking classes courtesy of something called Purple Kale Kitchenworks.

Once they’ve ascended the steps, visitors are given bright orange stickers indicating their non-member status — but only after they’ve handed over photo identification. The members working the desk are asked to cross-check outsiders with the co-op’s database, ensuring that guests aren’t secretly co-op members in bad standing. (After a ten-day grace period, members who have been “suspended” due to missing their work shifts lose their shopping privileges.) Members must also sign in all outsiders and promise, in writing, that the guests will not shop.

Civics and Urban Life

Just Like the Cheerios Ad: Bill de Blasio and Family

Have you seen the new Cheerios ad, “Just Love”? The ad features a interracial family like the one in the picture, and it’s got a lot of people upset; however, even more people are defending Cheerios’s decision to portray an American family in a realistic way.

I just got this note from Chirlane McCray, the wife of Bill de Blasio (he’s running for mayor and is currently the Public Advocate ). At first I was like, hey, are they the family in the Cheerios ad? Nope. They just made their own photo in their kitchen with a Cherrios box. Nice job.

The ad struck a chord with me, and I wanted to tell you why.

This may surprise you, but Bill’s age concerned me more than the color of his skin (he’s six years younger!). But I knew our age difference wasn’t the cause of stares on the subway, or why our families were so surprised when we brought each other home.

As an interracial couple, we sometimes felt conspicuous — which was painful. If you’re in love with someone, you’re in love with someone.

But Bill and I believed it would get better over time, and we hoped for our kids it would be easier.

That’s why the Cheerios ad is so refreshing.

19 years of marriage and two children later, this is the first TV commercial I have ever seen with a family that looks a little bit like ours. And it’s a big deal that despite some nasty criticism, Cheerios — a staple on American breakfast tables, spanning generations and cross-cutting just about every social boundary — produced the ad and stuck by it.

Bill, Chiara, Dante, and I are different parts (the kids would emphasize the “different”!) who make a whole.

Cheerios is recognizing the changing face of America, and celebrating that our differences make us stronger.

That’s what Bill is doing by fighting for every New Yorker — in every part of our city. Times are changing and we support the people who are changing with us.

Stand with us if that’s you:

http://billdeblasio.com/together

arts and culture

After Isaac: Young Adult Book Set in Park Slope

Hey everybody, a new book that takes place in Park Slope! It’s a Young Adult book called After Isaac by yet another terrific Park Slope author, Avra Wing. And it’s available from Amazon. I’m not sure if the Community Bookstore has copies but you can check.

Here’s a quick synopsis: Aaron Saturn, 16, is an emotional zombie–stuck in grief for his little brother, Isaac, who died. Aaron longs for an escape, and thinks he’s found one when he meets Kim, a girl living on the streets of New York City’s East Village.

But the real upheaval in his life hits closer to home. When his parents reveal a startling plan to change their family, Aaron goes into a tailspin. He needs to learn that running away won’t heal him. For that to happen, Aaron must be willing to let love back into his life. Love that may lead him to a real adventure.

In addition to After Isaac, Avra Wing is the author of Angie, I Says, a New York Times notable book, which was made into the feature film Angie starring Geena Davis and James Gandolfini. Avra’s online memoir, Doorway on the Mountain: A Rehabilitation Journey, recounts her recovery from a devastating accident. In 2011, her poetry collection, Recurring Dream, won the Pecan Grove Press National Poetry Chapbook competition. She has published poems in a number of magazines, including Hanging Loose, Michigan Quarterly Review, Apple Valley Review and New Madrid. Avra is a workshop leader for the New York Writers Coalition, and was awarded a grant from Poets and Writers for her work.