Salt & Pepper Shakers at Carroll Park Flea
My friend, Betsy, is selling novelty salt & pepper shakers from her collection at the annual Carroll Park Flea Market today between 10AM and 5PM.
I remember years ago when Betsy was buying these vintage shakers at flea markets, antique stores, thrift shops. I was collecting globes then. Now she has so many and I have more globes than I can count. It was fun to have a collection when I was in my thirties. Now we have too much stuff and I need to get rid of THINGS.
She writes: “If you’re in town come on by … there are always some good tables of “stuff” at this event and it’s supposed to be a nice day for walkin around the hood.”
Carroll Park
Court St. between President St. and Carroll St.
F train : Carroll St. stop
see Park / Playground across the street
OTBKB Music: Stay in The Slope for Soul or Go to The LES for Pop Rock
Tonight two excellent but very different musicians play at the same time in different parts of the city and both are favorites around here. Choosing between them will be tough, but let’s face it, when you have two great options, whatever your choice is, it will be a good one.
Over at Southpaw in Park Slope, you will find Eli Paperboy Reed and The True Loves. The band is an eight-piece affair (guitar, bass, drums, keys, trumpet, sax, baritone sax and Eli on vocals and guitar). Musically, the band plays very good original soul numbers with some covers of some stuff going back to the 60s. The biggest strength of Eli and the band is in their live show. Eli, originally from the Boston area and now living in Brooklyn, is an engaging live performer.
Lelia Broussard plays upbeat pop rock which is never less than a pleasure. Even though Lelia lives lives out in Los Angeles these days, she tends to play New York City in general, and The Rockwood Music Hall in particular, frequently. And right now Lelia is on the cusp of something interesting happening: she’s one of the two finalists in a contest whose prize is your picture on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Get more details and links to videos at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
June 3-5: Hilstock DIY Music Festival
Hillstock, a DIY music festival in Williamsburg June 3-5, sounds like quite the fun event this weekend if you’re of a certain age in body or mind. My son’s new duo, Humbert Humbert will be playing there, as will his friend Jack’s new band, Sharpless (from Chicago).
So I’m just saying. Full disclosure: I know those guys…
Summer Drawing Program for 7-12 Year Olds
Here’s a shout-out to Juliet Borda, one of my advertisers, because she’s an amazing professional illustrator and she’s running a drawing class for 7-12 year olds in Park Slope this summer. It’s called Just Drawing for Kids.
Blue Bell Art Camp in Prospect Heights This August
Blue Bell Art Camp is for 4-6 years olds this August in Prospect Heights. The activities will be held at LAVA (I’m not sure what that is) and and it sounds very exciting and fun for kids. One program is called Amazing Animals and the other is called We Built This City. This is the camp’s first year so they’re trying to reach as wide an audience as possible.
I know August can be a bit of a desert when it comes to kid’s activities in Brooklyn so you might want to check this out:
OTBKB Music: Wonderful Park Slope Based Artist Plays Park Slope Tonight
Even though it’s officially my day off from OTBKB, I’ll sneak back to tell you that there is a wonderful Park Slope based musician, Dayna Kurtz, playing at Barbes tonight. I saw Dayna and her band at The Living Room last December and at The Bell House a few weeks later. Each set was mostly made up of songs from Danya’s forthcoming album, Secret Canon, Vol. 1, which consists of mid 20th century r&b, jazz and/or blues songs which have not been previously covered or covered only once. Dayna was able to infuse this material with enough passion to get an “Oh, Wow” from me and the crowd. Tonight’s set should be drawn from the same material; at this show Danya will be playing in a trio format with Peter Vitalone on piano and organ and Dave Richards on upright bass. The rest of the details are waiting for you at Now I’ve Heard Everything; just click here.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: Melody Kills Plays Tonight
Brooklyn-based Leslie Mendelson is a favorite singer-songwriter of mine. In years past you could find Leslie playing her original piano-based songs and some inspired covers around town often. But she took much of 2010, during which time she put together a new band called Melody Kills, which includes Steve McEwan and The Madison Square Gardeners. Melody Kills is full of fun and energy and is just top notch musically. Details about tonight’s show are waiting for you at Now I’ve Heard Everything when you click here.
–Eliot Wagner
Coming to America at Brooklyn Reading Works on June 16
Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House in Park Slope PRESENTS “Coming to America” on June 16 at 8PM. This exciting reading curated by novelist Martha Southgate brings together three new and acclaimed authors, Teju Cole, Tiphanie Yanique, and Victoria Brown, who came to America from Nigeria, the Virgin Islands and Trinidad respectively. There should be an interesting Q&A after the readings.
When: June 16 at 8PM
Where: The Old Stone House in Park Slope on 3rd Street between 5th and 4th Avenues. Note: due to construction in park enter from west side of the house.
What else: $5 suggested donation includes wine and refreshments.
About Teju Cole:
“An indelible novel. Does precisely what literature should do: it brings together thoughts and beliefs, and blurs borders…A compassionate and masterly work.”
“Beautiful, subtle, and finally, original…What moves the prose forward is the prose—the desire to write, to defeat solitude by writing. Cole has made his novel as close to a diary as a novel can get, with room for reflection, autobiography, stasis, and repetition. This is extremely difficult, and many accomplished novelists would botch it, since a sure hand is needed to make the writer’s careful stitching look like a thread merely being followed for its own sake. Mysteriously, wonderfully, Cole does not botch it.”
About Tiphanie Yanique:
“The effects of colonialism throb in Yanique’s vivid debut collection. . . Yanique penetrates the perils and pleasures of lives lived outside resort walls.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
About Victoria Brown:
‘Nanny lit’ may have turned heads years ago in the publishing world, but there’s a new voice – and a new book – getting people excited about the genre. Trinidadian immigrant Victoria Brown worked as a nanny on the Upper East Side, and she talks with us about her new book, Minding Ben, as well as her own path to motherhood. -The Takeaway
Teju Cole is the author of Open City (just out from Random House). He was born to Nigerian parents and grew up in Lagos. He writes: “My mother taught French. My father was a business executive who exported chocolate. The first book I read (I was six) was an abridgment of Tom Sawyer. At fifteen I published cartoons regularly in Prime People, Nigeria’s version of Vanity Fair. Two years later I moved to the United States. Since then, I’ve spent most of my time studying art history, except for an unhappy year in medical school. I currently live in Brooklyn.” Teju is also a terrific photographer. He took the photo above. You can see more of his work here.
Tiphanie Yanique is the author of How to Escape from a Leper Colony. A fiction writer, poet and essayist, she is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the Kore Press Fiction Prize, The Academy of American Poets Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship in writing and the Boston Review Fiction Prize. She is the winner of the 2010 Rona Jaffe Prize in Fiction.
Her fiction, poetry or essays can be found in the Best African American Fiction, Transition Magazine, American Short Fiction, The London Magazine, Prism International, Callaloo, and other journals and anthologies. She has had residencies with Bread Loaf, Callaloo, Squaw Valley and the Cropper Foundation for Caribbean Writers.
Tiphanie is a professor of Creative Writing and Caribbean Literature at Drew University. She is from the Virgin Islands and lives most of the year in Brooklyn, New York.
Victoria Brown was born in Trinidad and at sixteen came alone to New York, where she worked as a full-time nanny for several years. She majored in English at Vassar College before attending the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. Eventually, she returned to New York, where she taught English at LaGuardia Community College. She is now completing her MFA at Hunter College. Victoria lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two young children. She has a part-time babysitter in her employ.
OTBKB Music: Old 45 Picture Sleeves; Video of The Baseball Project Covering R.E.M.
I found some long forgotten 45 rpm records in the back of a closet this weekend. In the interest of history, science and mainly because I think that these are pretty neat, I posted scans of five of them them today at Now I’ve Heard Everything. Click here to see them.
The Baseball Project is currently touring with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills pinch hitting for Peter Buck. Mike stepped up to the mike as The Baseball Project covered R.E.M.’s (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, MN on May 26, 2011. Click here to see it.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: Looking Forward to June and Back at Tuesday Night
The musical summer schedule starts in earnest in June with several of NYC’s outdoor festivals opening. All this adds up to more shows in more places, with too many of them opposite each other. I’ve compiled 53 shows which you can find on the June Music Calendar at Now I’ve Heard Everything, just click here to see it. And, as always, the calendar remains a work in progress with additions (and occasionally a subtraction) to be made further on down the road.
Tuesday night’s live presentation of The Radio Free Song Club at The Living Room was a star-studded absolute delight. Backed by the house band, The Radio Free All Stars (Andy Burton, Doug Wieselman, Paul Moschella, David Mansfield, JD Foster and Dave Schramm), Don Piper, Jody Harris, Laura Cantrell, Dave Schramm, Kate Jacobs, Jennie Lowe Stearns, Victoria Williams and Freedy Johnston each played a new song for the show. Although they were not present, Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby, Peter Blegvad and Peter Holsapple contribute a pre-recorded song for the festivities as well. Nicholas Hill was the emcee/dj for the show, the 16th in the Radio Free Song Club series, which after a vote and discussion was dubbed the Sweet 16 Tons edition. See 11 photos of that show by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: The Jim Keller Band Plays Tonight
Back in the early 80s, Jim Keller wrote the still ubiquitous 867-5309/Jenny and was part of the band that recorded it, Tommy Tutone. That band broke up shortly after that and Jim kept working as musician. After a few years, he put his guitar away and ended up working for the music company of composer Philip Glass, licensing Glass’s music. About five years ago, Jim dug his guitar out of the back of the closet and started writing and performing again. The Jim Keller Band is made up of some of New York City’s musical mainstays (including Chris Masterson). One thing for sure, these guys know how to rock. See the details about tonight’s show at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: Going to Hell With Kathleen Edwards
I’ve posted a song over at Now I’ve Heard Everything from Kathleen Edwards that has yet released (although it might have already been recorded; a new album from Kathleen is in the works). The title of Going to Hell makes it somewhat timely given the goings on over the past weekend. Just click here to see it.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: Israel Nash Gripka’s Goodbye Ghost
Suppose back in 1971 that Neil Young and John Fogerty decided to put out a record together. It certainly would have been one of the best records of the year. That never happened, but Israel Nash Gripka‘s new record, Barn Doors and Concrete Floors certainly sounds like that pairing and is in the running for many best of the year lists. See the video of Goodbye Ghost from BDCF at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: New Video from The Little Willies
The Little Willies (Lee Alexander, bass; Jim Campilongo, guitar; Norah Jones, vocals and piano; Richard Julian; vocals and guitar; Dan Rieser, drums) had not played together since 2007 until they got together again about six weeks ago for two secret shows at The Rockwood Music Hall. There is a excellent video shot at their March 31, 2011 show which features some great vocal interplay between Richard and Norah waiting for you at Now I’ve Heard Everything. Just click here to see it.
–Eliot Wagner
A Letter To Tiger Mom, Wicked Stepmothers, Babeland and More at Edgy Moms
You won’t want to miss: A Letter to Tiger Mom from Anaconda Mom at this week’s Edgy Moms.
Also just added: Barbara Ensor, will read about the stepmother to end all stepmothers from Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story).
And as another added treat: we will be raffling off some interesting items from Babeland, including their fabulous new book, Moregasm: Babeland’s Guide to Mind Blowing Sex. Says O Magazine: “The writers are as down-to-earth and funny as your closest friend.”
So what is an Edgy Mom?
She’s feisty and fun and a little bit zany. She whines to her friends and can be a bit of a martyr. She fantasizes about taking long trips without her children. She lets her kids have dessert before dinner and reheated pizza for breakfast. And she NEVER remembers to bring Cheeros or tissues to the playground. Except when she does and then she feels victorious.
Her kids have seen her fight with their dad, yell at her mother and curse her sister on the phone. They’ve watched her cry. She’s been know to throw away her children’s old toys and art supplies when they’re not around. And then pretend she doesn’t know where they are when they ask.
And she knows NEVER to miss Edgy Mother’s Day because it’s a blast and the wine is free.
Join us for this stellar line-up of writers, including Paola Corso, Jennifer Hayden, Judy Antell, Nancy McDermott, Sophia Romero, Yona McDonough and special guests who will rock you and shock you, make you laugh, cry, cheer and look at motherhood in a whole mother way.
See you on Thursday, May 19, 2011
@ The Old Stone House
Third Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope’s Washington Park
Note: due to construction in the park enter on the Fourth Avenue side of the house
Curated by Louise Crawford and Sophia Romero
$5 donation includes free wine and snacks.
Photo of a lovely mermaid mom at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade by Hugh Crawford
Eszter Balint & Chris Cochrane at Barbès 8PM
Tonight at Barbes at 8PM, I can’t think of anything better to do than this:
Eszter Balint & Chris Cochrane: Jon Pareles of The New York Times has this to say about singer. songwriter and violinist Eszter Balint: “Miss Balint has her own film noir sensibility as a songwriter. She puts arty twists into back-alley Americana… but the cleverness is not the point. She slips inside her characters to project their restlessness and longing.” In addition to two releases of her own, Eszter Balint has also appeared on recordings by Michael Gira’s Angels of Light, Marc Ribot’s Los Cubanos Postizos, and John Lurie’s Marvin Pontiac’s Greatest Hits among many others. Balint recently toured with Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog, featured as special guest on violin and vocals. Eszter Balint will be performing some of her brand new material during this residency, accompanied by one of New York’s most inventive and fiercely passionate players, guitarist/composer/songwriter Chris Cochrane.
376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave.) Park Slope, Brooklyn
OTBKB Music: Joey Ramone and General Johnson Take a Ride to Rockaway Beach
It really felt like summer this weekend, so in honor of the warm weather finally finding us, I’ve posted a video of The Ramones‘ song, Rockaway Beach over at Now I’ve Heard Everything. It’s a classic soul rearrangement by General Johnson, lead singer of The Chairmen of The Board (their big hit was Give Me Just a Little More Time), and sung by him and Joey Ramone. To see the video, just click here.
–Eliot Wagner
The Brooklyn Eagle on Brooklyn Blogfest 2011
The following is an article about the Brooklyn Blogfest 2011 by Samuel Newhouse of The Brooklyn Eagle:
Who are bloggers, exactly? Well, they’re people who love to write about the little things that matter to them — whether it’s the unique behavior of a homeless person on the sidewalk or talking about how to bake the “Lazy Day” cake.
No one’s sure whether it’s the Brooklyn magic that makes borough residents blog about their day-to-day thoughts and observations or vice versa. But at the 2011 Sixth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest at the Bell House in Park Slope, bloggers of all stripes were in attendance.
Cooking and restaurants are popular topics for blogs, as is Brooklyn’s thriving music scene. Many bloggers just write about their little observations of life.
Some are dedicated, daily bloggers, while others are infrequent gadabouts.
However, the blogfest’s keynote speaker, Jeff Jarvis, urged attendees to consider the enormous potential for “advocacy blogging” and “citizen journalism.” He believes there is an untapped market for commercial networks to post their ads on blogs that could make blogging a real career, thereby improving the blog “eco-system.”
“Our holy quest is to try to find ways to support your work as a business because we believe if we can support it, more will come,” said Jarvis, professor of media at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism. Jarvis said the decline of print media has left, for example, dozens of former Star-Ledger journalists unemployed in northern New Jersey. Ironically, their area is woefully undercovered in media.
If there was a commercially viable way for these writers to cover their neighborhoods and make a living as “citizen journalists,” they would help the communities, Jarvis suggested, by providing in-depth coverage of everything from potholes to politics.
“The glory days of the Brooklyn Eagle are gone,” Jarvis said, possibly unaware of this paper’s existence. “You are the new Brooklyn Eagle.”
Speaking of the Brooklyn Eagle, read the rest of this article at that very newspaper’s website.
May 19: Edgy Moms at The Old Stone House
This is not your mother’s Mother’s Day, it’s Edgy Mother’s Day, an annual reading of writing about motherhood and mothers by writers with sharp pens and sharp wits (presented by Brooklyn Reading Works).
As an added treat: we will be raffling off some interesting items from Babeland, including their fabulous new book, Moregasm: Babeland’s Guide to Mind Blowing Sex. Says O Magazine: “The writers are as down-to-earth and funny as your closest friend.”
So what is an Edgy Mom?
She’s feisty and fun and a little bit zany. She whines to her friends and can be a bit of a martyr. She fantasizes about taking long trips without her children. She lets her kids have dessert before dinner and reheated pizza for breakfast. And she NEVER remembers to bring Cheeros or tissues to the playground. Except when she does and then she feels victorious.
Her kids have seen her fight with their dad, yell at her mother and curse her sister on the phone. They’ve watched her cry. She’s been know to throw away her children’s old toys and art supplies when they’re not around. And then pretend she doesn’t know where they are when they ask.
And she knows NEVER to miss Edgy Mother’s Day because it’s a blast and the wine is free.
Join us for this stellar line-up of writers, including Paola Corso, Jennifer Hayden, Judy Antell, Nancy McDermott, Sophia Romero, Yona McDonough and special guests who will rock you and shock you, make you laugh, cry, cheer and look at motherhood in a whole mother way.
See you on Thursday, May 19, 2011
@ The Old Stone House
Third Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope’s Washington Park
Note: due to construction in the park enter on the Fourth Avenue side of the house
Curated by Louise Crawford and Sophia Romero
$5 donation includes free wine and snacks.
Photo of a lovely mermaid mom at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade by Hugh Crawford
2011 Brooklyn Blogfest Photobloggers Tribute
This year’s wonderful Photobloggers Tribute was produced/edited/and with music composed by Adrian Kinloch Click on the link and go to Brit in Brooklyn for this montage of photos of Brooklyn from some of the borough’s best photobloggers including images of Coney Island, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Atlantic Yards and the Federation of Black Cowboys and more. The video features the work of Jonathan Barkey, Tracy Collins, Hugh Crawford, Atiba Edwards, Efrain John Gonzalez, Jill Harrison, Fank Jump, Adrian Kinloch, Nathan Kensinger, Heather Letzkus, Tom Martinez, Matthew Nedbalsky, Claude Scales, Eliot Wagner, Lara Wechsler and Barry Yanowitz.
2009 Photobloggers Tribute Part 1
2009 Photobloggers Tribute Part 2
Big Fun Brooklyn Blogfest at The Bell House
I want to thank everyone who came out to the 6th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest last night. I really had a great time and I hope you did, too.
Much gratitude and appreciation goes to The Bell House. What an awesome venue, what a class act through and through. When I walked in at 4:30, the chairs were set up, the sound technician was good to go, and a lovely man named Kieran was there to facilitate whatever needed to be done. The woman at the box office was super great as were the bartenders and EVERYONE I came in contact with.
The Bell House is a special events producer’s DREAM COME TRUE. I can’t rave enough. I think they probably got sick of hearing me gush.
I must also thank Jeff Jarvis, our keynote speaker, who shared some very smart, interesting and thought provoking ideas about new business models for bloggers and journalists. We were lucky to have him. As one blogger said, “What a good grab.”
Thanks also to Max Robins, all the Blogs of a Feather facilitators, all the photographers in The Big Picture Video (which should be on You Tube today), all the volunteers, Atiba Edwards, Mike Sorgatz, Elizabeth Palmer, Adrian Kinloch, Gabriela Herman, Larry & Melissa Lopata, Sharrie Sutton, Lesley w, Marion Hart and Hugh Crawford, Charlotte Maier, Nancy Graham and everyone who came out.
A final note of thanks to Oaxaca, who brought deliriously delicious tacos to the event. If you don’t know the restaurant, it’s on Fourth Avenue between President and Carroll Street in Park Slope. The tacos, a choice of chicken, pork or potato (or all three as I had), were awesome. Their catering business (led by Jake) is delicious and dependable.
I’m trying to compile a list of everyone who was there so if you were at The Bell House last night please send me an email louise_crawford(at)yahoo.com or a message on Facebook (friend me if we’re not friends).
Each year Blogfest has a different feeling, a different vibe. This year there was a palpable sense of comradaerie and community. It felt celebratory and fun.
I hope it inspired you in some way. I’m so happy you were there.
Now We Are Six by AA Milne
When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I’m as clever as clever,
So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.
Best, Louise
OTBKB Music: The Amygdaloids Play Banjo Jim’s
The Amygdaloids are four scientists who play rock and whose songs are based on the work they do at their day jobs. Rosanne Cash appeared on their last album and they’ve recently played live with Lenny Kaye, Steve Wynn and The Kennedys. Tonight, in honor of it being Friday the 13th, they’ll be doing some fear songs to kick the evening. They’ve also promised to premiere some new tunes as well. See the details for this show at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
OTBKB Music: Phosphorescent at The Brooklyn Bowl Tonight
Phosphorescent‘s album from last year, Here’s to Taking It Easy, made the Now I’ve Heard Everything Best Albums of 2010 list. Their show at River Rocks last year was near the top of my list of favorite live shows for that year. So recommending tonight’s show at Brooklyn Bowl is almost a given. Musically, Phosphorescent reminds me a bit of early 70s Neil Young, (and I think that their song, Los Angeles, off of Here’s to Taking It Easy works pretty well with Neil’s Words (Between the Lines of Age)). Details of the show are available at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: Last Ulysses S. Grant for Now; 31 Free MP3s and A New Steve Wynn Video
Although Ulysses S. Grant was a great general, a bad president, is buried in Grant’s Tomb and is pictured on the $50 bill, none of that has anything to do with the show at 9pm tonight at The Living Room. The band named Ulysses S. Grant is made up of a number of New York musicians who all play in other bands: Pete Harper, J Blynn, Jim Campilongo, Rich Hinman, Chris Morrissey and Dan Reiser. This band was put together to play some country tunes. That’s what you’ll hear them doing tonight. This is the last of the three shows that the band is playing in the area right now, so if you missed them last week, jump on this chance to see them. Get the details at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
American Songwriter and CMT have teamed up to give away a 31-song sampler titled The Country Way. In spite of the title, I see all types of music here in addition to country: Americana, alt country, folk and even some rock. The artists include Caitlin Rose. Hayes Carll, Joe Pug, The Civil Wars, Matraca Berg,and Steve Earle. See the complete list, stream the songs, and download them by clicking here.
Finally, there is a brand new video from Northern Aggression, the latest album from Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3. If there is a song that pretty neatly sums up sonically what that band does, this song, Colored Lights, is it. The video is also rather psychedelic. See it by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
One Magazine, One Story
This was published on Park Slope Patch last week. Thought you might enjoy:
One Story, a literary magazine based in Park Slope, is a publication with a mission, talent, heart—and a great idea.
First, about the mission: in 2001, publisher Marybeth Batcha, a magazine circulation pro, and Hannah Tinti, award-winning author of The Good Thief and Animal Crackers, had the idea to start a short story magazine.
“After 9/11 everyone was having that moment: ‘If I’m going to do something I better do it now.’ We thought it would be a small thing that maybe 100 friends or ours would read,” Tinti told me over the phone. “But it took off in an enormous way. Now we’re one of the largest circulating magazines in the country.”
About the talent: One Story publishes some of the best established and emerging short story writers in the country, including Dani Shapiro, Ben Greenman, Kate Walbert, AM Homes, Michael Blumenthal, John Hodgeman and many more names that are not yet on best seller lists but may be one day.
About the heart: mentorship is at the center of One Story’s mission and it means that master writers and editors are teamed up with emerging writers as a way to nurture a community of up-and-comers headed for publication.
“We help writers build a reader base even after a writer publishes in One Story. They become part of the family, and we support them long after,” Tinti told me.
And what’s the idea? Actually, it’s a very simple one: putting the spotlight on one story per issue, 18 times a year in a small, pocket-sized booklet that easy to handle and easy to read.
I asked Hannah Tinti why One Story chose Park Slope as its home base.
“Our office is in between where we both live in Park Slope and the Gowanus,” she told me. “But there’s a definite Brooklyn sensibility to One Story. Something about the extremely high quality without the stuffiness of Manhattan.”
Clearly, an added perk is that office space in Brooklyn is far less expensive than in Manhattan and the local resources are top notch. “The skill level is high and of high quality,” Tinti told me. But there’s also the added sense of community. “Everyone on staff lives in Brooklyn and rides their bikes to work.”
Tinti also hinted at an effable Brooklyn vibe: “There’s an energy, a ‘we can do this” that made it all happen. It’s a very Brooklyn kind of thing,” she told me.
Not only does a veritable bibliography of writers of contemporary fiction live in Park Slope, including Paul Auster, Amy Sohn, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Kraus, but also quite a few literary magazine and publishers are setting up shop here. The ever growing annual Brooklyn Brooklyn Book Festival is also making Brooklyn a major literary destination.
I asked Tinti if she shares some of the gloom and doom, which surrounds the current state of the publishing industry.
“We’ve done well. Not gloom and doom at all. We’re on Kindle, Nook, and the iPhone. There may be different delivery systems but I think more people are reading,” she told me.
On Friday, One Story held its second annual Debutantes Ball, which is literally a “coming out” party for One Story writers, who are publishing novels and short story collections. It’s also an important fundraiser for the magazine, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, subscribers and the generosity of contributors.
Clearly, the One Story team knows how to throw a good party. Isaiah Sheffer, of Selected Shorts, a public radio staple for 30 years, was the MC and in his wonderful booming voice, he announced the names of this year’s debutantes. Scheffer recently invited Hannah Tinti and the magazine to co-host on his show.
Indeed, it’s been a great year for One Story and the ball was a celebration and a raucous good time.
“We’re celebrating mentorship, one writer doing it for the next. We don’t do it for money; it’s a labor of love for both of us. You do it to give back to the pool, to enrich the lives of others and it’s made my life very rich.”
S’Crapbook by Jennifer Hayden: Rattled
Next Thursday: Brooklyn Blogfest 2011 (Get Your Tickets Now)
I hope you’ve got your tickets to this year’s Brooklyn Blogfest.
Last year the Brooklyn Blogfest made headlines, including a special feature in the New York Times. Some called it a blast. Others called it a debacle. Some said it was a sell-out, others found it inspirational, fun, and a really good time.
Don’t you just LOVE controversy?
Find out what we do this year to top last year’s event, which featured Spike Lee, Lemon Anderson and all the flavored vodka you could drink.
Please buy your tickets today at the Bell House Website. We’re really looking forward to seeing on May 12th at 7:30PM.
“Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?” ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times
Since it was founded in 2006, the Brooklyn Blogfest has established itself as the nexus of creativity, talent, and insight among the blogosphere’s brightest lights. This year will be no different as Blogfest presents keynote speaker, Jeff Jarvis, blog visionary and author of What Would Google Do? Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine and is director of the interactive journalism program and the new business models for news project at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Jarvis’ must-see presentation will focus on new business models for bloggers (in other words: how to make money blogging!!).
Blogfest is for bloggers, social networkers, journalists, creative entrepreneurs and those who want to start a blog. Whether you live by a blog, blog to live, live to blog (or are thinking of starting a blog) you’ll want to join us on May 12th.
Recently announced: a stunning opening video by award-winning photographer Gabriela Herman portraying bloggers at night lit by the light of their screens (see photo above). Also on tap: a video tribute to Brooklyn’s most visionary photo bloggers (by Adrian Kinloch of Brit in Brooklyn), Blogs Aloud (directed by Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls), special networking sessions for like-minded bloggers (i.e. Blogs of a Feather), and a roof-raising after-party with a cash bar, food and music!
Just announced: A complete list of the break-out groups, aka Blogs-of-a-Feather (see below):
1. Parenting with Nancy McDermott of Park Slope Parents
2. Advertising: Leader TBD
3. Place and/or Hyper-local Blogging: Dan Myers of Here is Park Slope and a writer from Sheepshead Bites
4. Photo & Video Blogging: Atiba Edwards
5. Food, Craft and Home with Phyllis Bobb of Reclaimed Home
6. So You Want to Start A Blog: A general how-to with Louise Crawford of OTBKB and Cathryn Swan
7. Eclectic with John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science and Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls
8. Journalistic Ethics for Bloggers with Brenda Becker and Eliot Wagner
9. Blogging and Social Networking for social activism or business (leader TBD)
11. New Business Models for Blogging with Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine and CUNY Grad School of Journalism
12. Culture and Arts with Michael Sorgatz of Art in Brooklyn and Eleanor Traubman of Creative Times
OTBKB Music: Harper Blynn Plays The Apple Store
Harper Blynn is playing a free show tonight in an interesting venue: The Apple Store on West 14th Street in Manhattan. If you live in Chelsea or The Village, or you don’t like covers or minimums, this is the show for you.
Harper Blynn is a four piece band featuring high energy pop rock, lots of hooks and good harmonies. This past year they released a CD, Loneliest Generation, and a self titled EP. The band is in the studio right now recording their next album.
The rest of the details are posted at Now I’ve Heard Everything; just click here to see them.
–Eliot Wagner
OTBKB Music: Amy Speace Lands Like a Bird
If I had a favorite performance at SXSW this year, it was probably Amy Speace at St. David’s Sanctuary, where she performed songs from her new album, Land Like a Bird, with her new band. You can see a video of the moody, atmospheric but ultimately optimistic title track from that album posted at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
Tom Martinez, Witness: Cherry Blossom Beauty
