Eulogy
This is an excerpt from Marian Fontana’s eulogy for her husband Lt. Dave Fontana of the FDNY, who died on 9/11.
“Aidan, love is the only thing that lasts forever, and even though Daddy’s gone, I hope you will remember how much your daddy loved you and keep that in your heart for the rest of your life. I have tried hard to find the good to come out of losing the love of my life. This summer, Dave insisted on buying a hat that he saw his friend, Jerry, at the firehouse wearing. It read “Life is good” and for Dave it truly was, especially in his last months.
“Dave strove to live his life fully, to love his family and friends, to feel his feelings and be an honest and good man. I think he accomplished that. I hope everyone here will use Dave’s life as an example. I know I will. So tell the people around you that you love them, mend grudges, don’t stay angry with people, and be kind. Dave did these things. His heart was as large as his frame and I feel privileged to have called myself Dave’s wife.
“An excerpt from Marian Fontana’s eulogy for Dave Fontana spoken at his funeral on October 25, 2001.
Aidan, love is the only thing that lasts forever, and even thoughDaddy’s gone, I hope you will remember how much your daddy loved youand keep that in your heart for the rest of your life.
“I have tried hard to find the good to come out of losing the love of mylife. This summer, Dave insisted on buying a hat that he saw his friend Jerry at the firehouse wearing. It read “Life is good” and for Dave truly was, especially in his last months.
“Dave strove to live his life fully, to love his family and friends, to feel his feelings, and to be an honest and good man. I think he accomplished that. I hope everyone here will use Dave’s life as an example. I know I will. So tell the people around you that you love them, mend grudges, don’t stay angry with people, and be kind. Dave did these things. His heart was as large as his frame and I feel privileged to have called myself Dave’s wife.”
Last Picture of WTC by Bob Guskind
The late Bob Guskind of the late, great Gowanus Lounge, made this beautiful collage with the last photo he took of the WTC on August 24th, 2001, masking tape, and his typewritten words.
Remembering
Blighted Air
Your health
went to hell
after the terrorists
blasted our city
White ash spat
on your September Eleventh Street
sticking to sad shoes
The unmentionable odor of death
suffocated your lungs
delivering you
to the empty hospital
where the missing
were supposed to be
Inside the oxygen tent
W.H. Auden’s poem
lay open on your bed
We must love one another or die
seven words of resuscitation
for short, quivering breath
Only poetry can
restore
–Louise Crawford (with italicized lines from W.H. Auden)
9/11: I Can’t Believe It’s Been Ten Years
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is just a day away. A day, which many have been anticipating with anxiety and dread because of the onslaught of commemoration—media and otherwise. It is a day which will be filled with many still raw memories.
“I can’t believe it’s been ten years” is probably the most common response to the impending anniversary. “In some ways it feels like it just happened but in many ways it just feels like it was a bad dream so far in the past,” write Pat Tambour, a NYC performer now living in Nashville. “Witnessing the whole event outside my apartment window has made it difficult in terms of not dwelling on it too much.”
Many watched the towers fall from the rooftops. Dust, ash and debris from the fallen buildings floated over the neighborhood. People lined up to give blood at Methodist Hospital when they still thought there would be wounded survivors from the towers.
The local public schools stayed open until the early evening refusing to close until every child had been picked up by parents or guardians, who were stranded in Manhattan.
Some parents arrived with thick white ash on their shoes. Some parents didn’t arrive at all.
By evening there was a growing list of missing Park Slopers including 11 firefighters from Squad 1, but there was still hope that they would surface. In the days that followed those hopes were dashed.
In my apartment building on Third Street, many of us gathered in a neighbor’s first floor apartment to watch television while our young children played. We were desperate to follow the news of the day but also mindful that the images were disturbing and confusing to our children.
During the afternoon, a woman on my block set up a folding table on the sidewalk covered with yellow pads and pens. “It’s for people who want to write down what they are feeling,” she told me.
I spent that evening and many days after in the apartment of a friend who’s husband, a Squad 1 firefighter, was missing. We called hospitals in New Jersey hoping that he had somehow ended up there. At midnight, two firefighters, their skin bright red, reeking of smoke and covered in ash and debris, arrived to assure my friend that there was still hope. “There are voids, where the guys might be,” they told us.
In the days and weeks that followed, the neighborhood came together to mourn the dead and support the living.
The Community Bookstore became a community center, an information hub and a drop-off point for supplies needed at Ground Zero. The store’s front window was covered with supply lists, poems, hand-written notes and newspaper articles, including condolences and expressions of empathy people from all over the world. Indeed, for the first few weeks, before 9/11 was used as a reason to go to war, it felt like the whole world was in solidarity.
Across the street from the bookstore, Old First Dutch Reformed Church was kept open for prayer and reflection. One night that first week, there was packed service for the community where everyone rose to sing, “God Bless America.”
On the Friday after that terrible Tuesday there was huge candlelight vigil on Seventh Avenue, which ended in front of Squad 1 on Union Street, where locals paid their respects to first responders who had given their lives and those who had survived. The guys at Squad 1 were our heroes and every time we saw a fire truck we waved in gratitude, a local custom that went on for at least a year if not more.
When word got out a few weeks later that the Fire Commissioner was planning, in a budget saving measure, to close Squad 1, there was a huge protest in front of the firehouse. Before the demonstration was over, his decision was reversed to the relief and jubilation of the crowd.
Eventually, Park Slope got back to a new normal. The kids returned to school and the adults got on with their lives. The first few anniversaries were very fraught and very sad. More recently it has felt like just another day. Sort of. Those young children like my daughter who barely knew what they were seeing on the television back then are in high school now. The middle schoolers, who watched the towers fall from the windows of MS 51 are now in college.
For them, 9/11 must feel like a long time ago. For their parents, that’s not the case. Indeed, we are still experiencing the grief and loss. Yes, we are back to normal but the reminder of it is painful in a very profound way as it is a dark, traumatic memory. When I think about the anniversary I sort of wince. My instinct is to hide under the covers.
Others like Michele Madigan Sommerville, a poet and writer, believe that rituals are needed. “I think people are going to need ritual and poetry and song and the words of the most directly affected. I also think there’s a whole generation of children who were not old enough to be aware a decade ago—who will be very aware and very much in need of support.”
Facing the 9/11 Anniversary with Music and Prayer
Unbelievably, the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks is tomorrow. WNYC radio has been on all morning with its special ”Living 9/11″ coverage. The voices of family members who lost loved ones, survivors and witnesses is forcing me to re-live the day. Yet, I can’t turn it off.
In my quest to understand how people are feeling about the anniversary, I contacted clergy in the Park Slope area to see how they are approaching the anniversary of an event that changed New York City and the nation, and surely changed New Yorkers.
“It strikes me that we’re still in a case of low-level shock, and we still haven’t faced all the meaning of what we experienced,” Reverend Daniel Meeter of Old First Dutch Reformed Church wrote via E-mail.
Since the anniversary falls on a Sunday, the church will likely be filled with parishioners who, like Rev. Meeter, are still grappling with the enormity of that sunny, yet terrible September day.
“We are having special prayers and testimonies in our morning services,” he wrote. “Then we’re opening the sanctuary for prayer and meditation and hanging up the prayer sheets which people wrote the prayers on ten years ago.”
Indeed, in the days and weeks after 9/11, Old First opened its doors to the general public for prayer vigils and silent meditation. I remember those prayer sheets. They were white bed sheets, which men, women and children were invited to write or draw on. Their words and pictures were displayed in the church’s vestibule for months, a hanging vigil for all of those who were lost in the attacks.
On the first anniversary of 9/11, I remember spending my morning in the church listening to a program of classical music performed by local musicians.
Tomorrow afternoon at 5 p.m., Rev. Meeter will join Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim (CBE) at his synagogue, on Eighth Avenue at Garfield Place, for an interfaith service open to the entire community. Brooklyn Conservatory’s Community Orchestra and Chorale, the CBE Singers and the synagogue’s cantor, Joshua Breitzer will be on the program. At the service, Rabbi Bachman will deliver a sermon and the memorial will conclude with a group singing of “America the Beautiful.”
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann of Kolot Chayeinu will organize a different commemoration for the tenth anniversary of 9/11. The Eighth Annual Children of Abraham Peace Walk will begin at 2 p.m. on September 11. This walk is for Jews, Christians, Muslims and “all people who want to remember those who died on 9/11 and commemorate the spirit of friendship that supported so many thereafter” will commence at a the Dawood Mosque in Brooklyn Heights (143 State Street), cross the Brooklyn Bridge and conclude at Charlotte’s Place, a community center in lower Manhattan.
Perhaps it’s appropriate that Rabbi Lippmann’s most vivid recollection of Park Slope in the days after 9/11 was a candlelight vigil down Seventh Avenue.
“It was a Friday evening a few days after 9/11, and we were in Sabbath services,” she said. “We left, bringing candles, and joined what turned out to be a sea of people with candles all along Seventh Avenue as far as the eye could see, heading for the fire house on Union Street, I think, offering our presence in comfort for their many losses. What sorrow! What impact! What a sight!”
Also on September 11, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, on Seventh Avenue between Lincoln and St. Johns places, will hold a day-long 9/11 commemoration and the Brooklyn Art Song Societywill perform at noon. At 2 p.m., Ron Jackson will play guitar and recite poetry at the Community Bookstore. At 3 p.m., BaroQue Across the River and Dancewave will bring music and dance to the Conservatory.
In anticipation of the anniversary, I asked Rabbi Bachman what he best remembers about the aftermath of the tragedy ten years ago.
“As I’ve reflected on these last ten years,” Rabbi Bachman said. “I’ve been most impressed with stories of incredibly generous humanity that was expressed that day and in the following weeks and months—as if a hardened city was traumatized into softening its exterior, if only temporarily.”
Sylvia Harris, RIP
Sylvia Harris, a resident of Prospect Heights and a friend to many in Park Slope, died suddenly last week. She leaves behind a devoted husband and daughter. She was the founder and director of Citizen RD (formerly Sylvia Harris LLC), a communications and design firm that creates design and information programs with direct input from the general public.
In her work she created “strategic plans for user-friendly publications, signage, and media” displayed in public venues, universities, colleges and some of the country’s largest institutions or distributed by public services. It was her aim to make design that was “simple, seamless, and accessible.”
At the website there is a fascinating and inspiring video about Sylvia and her work. There are also tributes from friends and colleagues.
Park Slope and those who knew Sylvia have lost someone truly special and inspiring. She was a design visionary and a warm, lovely presence who will be missed by many. As one friend wrote:
The news of Sylvia’s death is devastating. She was one of the most vibrant people I’ve ever met. My condolences to family and friends whose loss of her will reverberate for as long as you live. I love this picture of her—it brings to mind her laugh, which was easy, hearty, and infectious.
There will be a memorial for Sylvia in the fall. You can read more about Sylvia at the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Brad Lander’s Shiva Visit to Leiby Kletsky’s Family
Earlier this week City Councilmember Brad Lander visited the family of Leiby Kletsky, the 8-year-old Borough Park boy who was brutally murdered last week. He wrote about his experience with the family and it is on his website today. I was in Europe during this terrible tragedy and I knew nothing about it until I got back to New York on Sunday night. I was moved by Lander’s reflections on his visit with the family and am reprinting it here for those who haven’t had a chance to read it.
No words can ease or describe the grief, or heal the wounds, but — like so many people I’ve talked to — I’ve been thinking about it constantly for the past week, and wanted at least to write down some of what I’ve been feeling.
We were all heartbroken by the tragedy — especially those with close ties to the Borough Park and Kensington communities, or the Orthodox Jewish community, or those of us with young kids … but really all of us, beyond Brooklyn, beyond New York, beyond the Jewish community, beyond parents. The killing reminded us that despite everything we do to keep our kids and each other safe, there are spaces of senseless terror, of incomprehensible evil. That the things that are absolutely most dear and precious to us can be taken away in a heartbeat, for no reason at all.
At the shiva, after talking to his parents, I met one of Leiby’s neighbors, who talked to me about how Leiby would play ball with the little kids in his building, about how rare it is for an 8-year-old to play with 4-year-olds, about how he had a heart of gold, living up to his name (Leiby is from the Hebrew lev, for heart).
While neither words nor actions feel meaningful in the face of the tragedy, the response of the Orthodox Jewish community has been remarkable. I’ve been deeply impressed over the past two years with the extraordinary voluntary (chesed) organizations and efforts in the community, for so many causes — taking care of sick families, helping kids go to summer camp, providing social and health and mental health services, and so many others. The past week showed that like no other.
Townhouse Art Gallery in Slope’s Most Intriguing Building
It is a rare Park Sloper who doesn’t have a story or a curiosity about the dilapidated building on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 2nd Street. Dubbed “the house that whimsy built” by the New York Times a few years ago (and later called The House of Whimsy by OTBKB), it is still owned by a woman named Dorothy Nash, who may or may not live in the building with her daughters.
In the Times’ article, Alison Statement wrote: “The structure radiates a mysterious, haunted quality that encourages local residents to wonder why the place has fallen into such disrepair and what, if anything, is to come of the valuable property.”
Over the years the storefront has been a boutique called the Baby Doll and the Landmark, a pub/performance space where you could find piles of old toys and doll heads and various local performers.
One of Dorothy’s daughters, Esther Nash, is currently running Townhouse Gallery (510 Second Street between 7th and 8th avenues) with her mother in a space that has more than a bit of a history.
Efrain Gonzolez met with Esther and her mom and took these pictures. Park Slope writer Brook Dramer shares some history about that building:
“In the 1980s it was The Iron Horse Tavern, which was quickly replaced by the Landmark Tavern. For a while it was the Babydoll Boutique (I don’t know if that venture ever got of the ground, but the sandwich board for that venture was out on the sidewalk for a while).
“The Landmark Tavern was a place where people somehow thought it was oh-so-Boho to sit in an unheated building, listening to Sailorman Jack sing as they banged toys in time to the music and drank cheap beer that was served by one of Dorothy’s beautiful daughters (I think she was about 8 years old) while the younger daughter slept on a couch next to a heater near the stage).
“The building drew some attention few years ago when a glass window felt out and sliced the cover of a parked convertible in half (fortunately, no one was sitting in the car).
“Years ago, Dorothy told people that she dreamed of running and art gallery. I wish her well–and I hope this incarnation of 502 Seventh Avenue generates enough income to finally fix up that building.”
Anthony Weiner is a Park Slope Boy
I briefly met Congressman Anthony Weiner a few years back at the Park Slope Pride Parade on Seventh Avenue. Born and bred in Park Slope, he’s a very personable guy and we got into a conversation about all the real delicatessens that used to be in the neighborhood. We were standing at the corner of Lincoln Place and I believe he was pointing at various small storefronts between Lincoln and St. John’s Place.
I don’t remember the details but he seemed effusive about his childhood around here (I’m pretty sure I wrote about our entirely wholesome encounter but I can’t seem to find it in the OTBKB archives).
Ever since then I’ve followed his political career sporadically and was pretty sure he’d be running for Mayor of New York City in 2013.
Well, I don’t think that’s going to happen. Not now anyway.
No one needs me to chime in about Weinergate or to bash the guy whose already been almost universally bashed. Nor do I want to be an apologist for my Park Slope landsman, but I do want to say something about yesterday’s speech in which he came clean about the underwear photos and his sexting history. IMO that was one heck of a apology: profuse, heartfelt, sad, specific, clear.
I would like to take this time to clear up some of the questions that have been raised over the past ten days or so. I take full responsibility for my actions. At the outset, I would like to make it clear that I have made terrible mistakes.
I have hurt the people I care about the most and I am deeply sorry. I have not been honest with myself, my family, my constituents, my friend and supporters and the media.
Weiner, who doesn’t have a lot of friends in Washington, asserted that he made “a regrettable mistake” when he lied that he’d been hacked and decided to stick to that story. Ya. But politicians always lie. At least at first. It must be in some politician’s handbook somewhere. Deny, deny, deny until you can’t deny anymore and then come clean.
You have to think that Weiner was engaging in some Spitzer style self-sabotage. I mean, you’re potentially running for Mayor while sexting with strangers? Nothing stays private on the Internet and he was playing with fire. What was this guy thinking?
What is it with these politicians (see Spitzer, Schwarzenegger, Cohen, Clinton, etc. etc.)? Do they get so deluded by all the glad-handing (and power) that they forget that all the stupid, self-destructive things they do will come back to bite them in the ass?
Is there a self-annihilating force in politicians that’s almost as strong as their ambition to be powerful and famous?
By the end of Weiner’s speech he was in tears and you could see that he knew he’d probably ruined his career and disappointed everyone in his life. I know I was relieved that his wife wasn’t there standing by her man. It remains to be seen whether their marriage will survive this episode but she has one of the best advisers in the world on the subject (she works for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton).
It remains to be seen what if anything of his career can be salvaged. Clearly, the guy needs to look deeply at himself and figure out his conflicting impulses. Still I was impressed with him the night I met him at the Pride Parade and as his career implodes I’m sorry for the potential that I saw that night that seems to have disappeared in a tweet of bad choices and an all-too-human lack of good judgement.
S’Crapbook by Jennifer Hayden: Edgy Vibes
Do It Yourself Frozen Yogurt and Toppings at Yogo Monster
Yogo Monstor on Seventh Avenue near Union has partially reinvented itself and I love it. Same frozen yogurt, new style of service.
Think salad bar with frozen yogurt. You dispense the yogurt yourself (which is fun and reminds me of my days working at Broadway Smoothie back in the 1970′s). And them you get to put extra cool toppings on top, including mango chunks, strawberries, walnuts, cheerios, chocolate chips, flakes, coconut and more and more and more.
Okay, you can get carried away and it’s not the most frugal treat but hey…My friend Marian and I treated ourselves today and we were VERY satisfied.
Let me know what you think.
Brooklyn Community Chorus Sings at Old First on Saturday
La La La. It makes me happy just thinking about this:
The Brooklyn Community Chorus presents “These Delightful Grooves” on Friday, Saturyda, June 4 at 7PM. Hear the Chorus sing everything from Baroque to Broadway to Rock, including selections from Purcell, Bruckner, Little Shop of Horrors and Queen. Join the 50-plus member group on Saturday, June 4 at Old First Reformed Church, 7th Avenue & Carroll Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Then linger for refreshments and a light supper and mingle with the singers and conductors. Concert begins at 7 p.m. $10 for adults, $5 for children.
We Love Our Firefighters in Park Slope
We love our firehouses and firefighters in Park Slope because they’re such a vital part of life around here. That’s why there’s a big neighborhood rally tonight (Thursday) at 7PM in front of Engine 220 on 11th Street between 7th and 8th avenues, one of the firehouses that Mayor Bloomberg has slated for closure.
We need and depend on our local firefighters for emergencies of all kinds. They’re there. They’re on it. The response time is fast, their dependability is solid.
After 9/11, we truly understand their level of commitment and the profound, mortal risks they take for the public good. We vowed never to forget the sacrifices they made on that day (and on other days) and the men and women who were lost.
I remember in the weeks and months after 9/11 waving to the guys from Squad 1 and 220 every time they rode by in their trucks. It was such an emotional time.
Firefighters are, quite simply, part of the fabric of this place we call home. Sure, you can reduce what they do to a spread sheet. But that’s so reductive and short-sighted. Think about all they do:
Firefighters control and put out fires, they perform search and rescue at fire emergencies, provide pre-hospital emergency medical care, and perform fire safety education. Think of those class trips and the way they inspire children.
They also enforce laws, ordinances, rules and regulations regarding the prevention, control and extinguishment of fires and to non-fire emergencies including terrorist activity, hazardous materials incidents, vehicle accidents, water main breaks and utility emergencies.
Need I say more?
Politicians try to measure things and balance budgets. But the relationship between a community and its firehouses is special and hard to measure. They contribute in ineffable ways to the texture of our lives and the ways that we feel safe.
Come rally in support of Engine 220. They deserve it and so do we.
The rally is being held to demonstrate the depth of community outrage over cuts to public services that are basic to public wellbeing, while the Mayor refuses to lend his support to the millionaires’ tax that could mitigate some of the need for cutbacks. Join Assemblymember Jim Brennan, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Senator Eric Adams, Yvonne Graham, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President, Steve Buscemi, Marian Fontana, Al Hagan, President, Uniformed Fire Officers NS Jim Rallis, Former Captain, Ladder 122 at the 7PM rally.
Thanks for the Autograph (and Happy Birthday Bob Dylan)
Me and Bob Dylan go back, way back. I mean, not only is he the voice of my generation, he’s the voice of my life. I’ve been listening to his records and singing his songs for decades now. When I was 11, my parents gave me a vintage leather jacket (from Ridge Furs on 8th Street) and a Bob Dylan songbook.
I loved that aviator’s jacket. But that songbook. That was my bible for so many years because as a budding singer/songwriter, that was my music.
Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright. Bob Dylan’s Dream. All I Really Want to Do. Blowin’ in the Wind. A Hard Rains’ A Gonna Fall. These were the songs I sang sitting on my bed, strumming my Maderia guitar.
And the albums: Freewheeling Bob Dylan. Highway 61 Revisited. Blonde on Blonde. Self Portrait. Nashville Skyline. Blood on the Tracks: the music of my childhood.
I saw Bob Dylan and the Band at Madison Square Garden, at the Arena in Binghamton, NY, at Radio City Music Hall, at Madison Square Garden with Tom Petty, at Madison Square Garden during his born-again phase, at Madison Square Garden in concert with Joni Mitchell.
Best of all: I saw Bob Dylan on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope across the Street from the Montauk Club back in June 1999 on my son’s birthday. He was wearing a cowboy hat and was roaming around with a photographer, and stopping to chat with people. I asked him for an autograph and he signed his name on the back of an American Express billing envelope I had in my bag. Luckily I didn’t mail it.
About a year later my son bought me The Definitive Bob Dylan Songbook for my birthday. He’d told me for days that “I’d probably start to cry when I opened it.” And he was right.
Happy Birthday, Bob.
Save This Park Slope Firehouse: Rally Today at 11AM
Mayor Bloomberg has proposed closing 20 firehouses and 8 of them are in Brooklyn, including Engine Company 220, located at 530 11th Street in Park Slope.
The community is fighting it and there’s a demonstration this morning.
Join Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Councilmember Brad Lander, Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley and Borough President Marty Markowitz will join Park Slope and Windsor Terrace residents THIS morning to rally against the closure. If the Bloomberg Administration is allowed to proceed with this closure, response times at fires will increase dramatically for Park Slope and Windsor Terrace residents. Arrival of the second engine necessary to get water on the fire would rise from 4:08 to 5:24 (a 30% increase). The elected officials and residents will call on the Mayor to explore other savings or revenue options, rather than seeking to save $55 million by putting lives at risk.
WHEN: Wednesday, May 25 at 11am
WHERE: Engine Company 220, 530 11th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
WHAT: Rally and press conference
WHO: Residents of Park Slope and Windsor Terrace, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilmember Brad Lander, Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley, Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy, Uniformed Fire Officers Association President Al Hagan
S’Crapbook by Jennifer Hayden: Thumbs Down
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.
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
Transcript of Blogs Aloud 2011
Here is the transcript of Blogs Aloud 2011 directed by Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls. These parts were performed by Nancy Graham, Charlotte Maier and Elizabeth Palmer. And they were AWESOME. Thanks to all the bloggers whose posts were included in this performance.
Woman #1: My husband sometimes does not change his underwear for DAYS. He said his record is five days and he had, in fact, gone three the weekend before during the baseball tournament (in 500 degree weather and 100 percent humidity). It was so bad, he laughed, that he’d thrown the boxer briefs out rather than risk my finding them in the laundry basket. (Effed in Park Slope)
Woman #2: Lately, I’ve avoided writing about a lot of things that have come up for our family, just because I can’t get out of my head who might be reading this. Do I want all those folks to know some of the negative things I wish I could say? No. So I haven’t written them, and I’m not going to.
Woman #1: I do believe that this will be my last post. I would like to thank you all for stopping by, because you people out there are the only reason I have kept it up for the past year or so. There were times when I was really into the blog, but now unfortunately it has become more of an obligation and that’s no fun at all. I think I prefer to be a blog reader rather than a blog writer. (Found in Brooklyn)
Woman #3: You know how sometimes you go to the public library to do some work or hang out or whatevs. And then after awhile you realize that you’re not really getting anything done, and so then you start texting some friends, but no one is answering you back? So then you try talking to the dude next to you until you realize that he’s homeless and is having a convo with a head of lettuce that he’s dressed up with a
wool hat and drawn eyes on with a black magic marker? And then you’re just like: hmm…maybe I’ll just pull up some hardcore pantyhose porn and jerk off right here at the public computers? Just me? (Effed in Park Slope)
Blogfest 2011 Program
THE BROOKLYN BLOGFEST 2011
The Bell House
May 12, 2011
OPENING VIDEO by Gabriela Herman
WELCOME by Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn
BLOGS ALOUD with Charlotte Maier, Nancy Graham and Elizabeth Palmer
-With selections from: Brooklynometry | Found in Brooklyn |Truth and Rocket Science | Kensington Stories | A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn | Fucked in Park Slope | With Charlie | Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn | Midnight Cowgirls
INTRO TO THE BIG PICTURE by Atiba Edwards, Visual Stenographer and F.O.K.U.S.
THE BIG PICTURE produced and with music by Adrian Kinloch, Brit in Brooklyn
INTRO TO THE KEYNOTE by Max Robins, vice president and executive director of The Paley Center for Media’s Industry Programs, blogs at The Robins Report. He was editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable magazine and an editor and columnist at TV Guide and Variety.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?, blogs about news and media at Buzz Machine. He is director of the interactive journalism program and the new business models for news project at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.
CLOSING REMARKS by Louise Crawford
BLOGS-OF-A-FEATHER: Intro and Directions by Atiba Edwards
BLOGS-OF-A FEATHER: Special interest break-out groups for networking and information sharing in various parts of the room.
Eclectic with John Guidry | Journalistic Ethics with Brenda Becker & Eliot Wagner |So You Want to Blog: Louise Crawford & Cathryn Swan of Washington Square Park Blog | Parenting with Nancy McDermott | Place and Hyperlocal with Dan Myers & Joseph Teutonico Sheepshead Bites | Culture and Arts with Eleanor Traubman & Mike Sorgatz,| New Business Models for Blogging with Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine | Food, Craft, Fashion with Phyllis Bobb | Photo and Video: Atiba Edwards of Visual Stenographer
BLOGFEST CREDITS
Founder and Director: Louise Crawford
Event Coordinator: Atiba Edwards
Stage Manager: Larry Lopata
Blogs Aloud Written by: Elizabeth Palmer
Blogs Aloud Actors: Nancy Graham, Charlotte Maier, Elizabeth Palmer
Opening Video by Gabriela Herman
The Big Picture: Produced/edited/music by Adrian Kinloch
DeeJay: Sharrie Sutton
Webmaster and Photo Booth: Hugh Crawford
Poster designed by: Mike Sorgatz
BROOKLYN BLOGFEST WISHES TO THANK: Jeff Jarvis, Max Robins, The Bell House, all the BOAF facilitators, all the photographers in The Big Picture, 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 tonight!
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
This Thursday: Brooklyn Blogfest at 7:30 PM at The Bell House
You can still get tickets to the Brooklyn Blogfest at the Bell House website or you can buy them on the night of the event.
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.
Blogfest is proud to present 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!
Here’s a final list of the break-out groups, aka Blogs-of-a-Feather (see below):
Parenting with Nancy McDermott of Park Slope Parents
Place and/or Hyper-local Blogging: Dan Myers of Here is Park Slope and a writer from Sheepshead Bites
Photo & Video Blogging: Atiba Edwards of Visual Stenographer
Food, Craft and Home with Phyllis Bobb of Reclaimed Home
So You Want to Start A Blog: A general how-to with Louise Crawford of OTBKB and Cathryn Swan of Washington Square Blog
Eclectic with John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science and Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls
Journalistic Ethics for Bloggers with Brenda Becker and Eliot Wagner
New Business Models for Blogging with Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine and CUNY Grad School of Journalism
Culture and Arts with Michael Sorgatz of Art in Brooklyn and Eleanor Traubman of Creative Times
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
Marian Fontana: Our Lives After Bin Laden
Here is an excerpt from a piece Marian Fontana wrote yesterday for Salon.com after learning that Osama bin Laden had been killed by the US military.
Yesterday, the sky was a perfect, crystalline blue. The color blue that everyone remembers from Sept. 11, the day my firefighter husband was killed along with nearly 3,000 others. I remember how the black plumes of smoke looked against that blue sky, and I remember how that blue lingered for days and weeks and months as I attended countless memorials with empty coffins.
In the afternoon, clouds rolled in, the wind picked up, and by the time I got home, I was cold. I poured wine and put out cheese for friends in from out of town to attend a funeral. By 11 p.m., the first text came in: “Bin Laden dead. I’m sorry if it’s crass to text you this but I’m having real emotional reaction to this.”
There were more texts after that — friends sending love, thinking of my son, now 15, and me, wishing us well.
When my son finally went to bed, I reluctantly turned on the television and listened to Obama’s speech. He addressed the 9/11 families and our private grief: “the empty seat at the dinner table, the children who were forced to grow up without their mother or father … nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.” He went on to talk about bin Laden’s death in Pakistan, and I found myself feeling the way I often do when overwhelmed, looking through the camera of my life as if it were someone else’s, hoping to feel something other than numb.
Photo by Tom Martinez
Mourning Hope Reichbach
When I was covering the City Council race back in 2008, I would run into this incredibly smart and energetic 20-year-old on Seventh Avenue, who was campaigning on behalf of City Council Member Steve Levin.
Her name was Hope Reichbach.
Dressed with preppy pizazz, she was smart, cute and perky in a serious way like a a political character in a Hollywood movie played by Katherine Hepburn or maybe Reese Witherspoon (with her hair dyed brown).
She made an impression on me because she was young and outgoing and it was inspiring to see someone like her so serious about local politics.
She had FUTURE written all over her. Her future, our future, the future of New York City and the United States.
In a word, Hope was inspiring and she inspired hope in me about the state of local politics. And that was just a flash impression from running into her on Seventh Avenue a few times.
After Levin won the City Council race for the 33rd district, which includes parts of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Hope became his communications director. In 2010, she ran for District Leader alongside Stephen Williamson. I was sorry that she lost that race but assumed that she’d be on another ballot in an another election sometime soon.
Shockingly and sadly, last Thursday Hope was found dead at the age of 22 in her Boerum Hill apartment. An autopsy is being conducted. There is no suspicion of criminality. It seems likely that it was an accidental overdose rom prescription medication.
Today there were services for Hope at a synagogue in Brooklyn Heights. Kristen Brown at Park Slope Patch reports that there were nearly one thousand mourners in attendance, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and others active in Brooklyn and NYC politics and journalism.
Patch reports that her father, State Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach, spoke movingly at the memorial. “Perhaps she is not a star, but a comet, whose blaze lit up the sky, but was extinguished much too soon.”
Donations in Hope’s name can be made to: Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Memorial Foundation, Inc., 413 Baltic Street, Suite 1A, Brooklyn, NY 11217. (More information available at: http://nicholasheywardmemorialfoundation.org/)
Book of Essays and Show for Park Slope’s Simon Dinnerstein
The Fulbright Triptych and Related Works by Park Slope artist Simon Dinnerstein will be on display at the Tenri Cultural Institute at 43A West 13 Street in Manhattan. The opening is on Friday, April 29th from 6-8PM and the event is open to the public.
Advance copies of Dinnerstein’s, The Suspension of Time, will be available at the gallery. A collection of essays on Dinnerstein’s painting, The Fulbright Triptych, the book includes writing by a diverse range of contributors, including Jhumpa Lahiri, Dan Beachy-Quick, Colin Eisler, Albert Boime, Thomas M. Messer, George Crumb and John Turturro.
Here’s what Jonathan Lethem had to say:
“Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych is one of those singular and astonishing works of art which seem to imply a description of the whole world merely by insisting on a scrupulous gaze at one perfect instant. It functions as a time capsule and a mirror for its viewers’ souls, and so, despite personal and historical referential elements, has become permanently contemporary and universal. No surprise that it has now served as a point of instigation for a cycle of astonishing written responses; this book is like tuning the painting in like a radio, to a station where these responses were always already playing.”
Nice.
5th Annual Edgy Mother’s Day on May 19
This is not your mother’s Mother’s Day. Save the date for this annual reading of writing about motherhood and mothers by writers who use sharp pens and sharp wits.
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 such a blast and the wine is free.
Stay tuned for the line-up of writers who will rock you and shock you, make you laugh, cry, cheer and look at motherhood in a whole mother way.
On Thursday, May 19, 2011
@ The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope’s Washington Park
Curated by Louise Crawford and Sophia Romero
$5 donation includes free wine and snacks.
S’Crapbook by Jennifer Hayden: Absinthe-Minded
April 13: Brooklyn Job Fair at LIU
This sounds like an excellent idea if you’re unemployed.
Tomorrow, April 13 from 9AM until 3PM, there’s a Brooklyn Job Fair at Long Island University’s Arnold and Marie Schwartz Athletic Center at 1 University Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn. The event is free and open to the public. Nearly 80 employers will be on hand to offer hundreds of available jobs
If you need help prior to or after the job fair on April 13, stop in at the one-stop career centers at 9 Bond Street and 625 Fulton Street in Brooklyn, where they have employment counselors standing by, waiting to help you prepare for this job fair and for other opportunities in the future. Take advantage of our services—they are free and you can come as often as you like.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Brooklyn had the second highest employment increase among the nation’s largest counties between June 2009 and June 2010, but the jobless rate in Kings County remains well above the national and state average with more then 10 percent of Brooklynites—and in some neighborhoods, even higher numbers—out of work. Citywide, the unemployment rate held steady at 8.9 percent in February.
The Brooklyn Job Fair is presented by BP Markowitz in partnership with Citi, ResCare, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the New York State Department of Labor, and Workforce1 with the New York City Department of Small Business Services.
For more information on the Brooklyn Job Fair and a complete list of participating employers, visit www.brooklyn-usa.org/jobs.
