2010-2011 BROOKLYN READING WORKS SEASON

All readings at 8PM

September 23: Young Writers curated by Jill Eisenstadt

October 21: New Plays by Brooklyn Playwrights curated by Rosemary Moore

November 11: Writing War Fiction by Vets of Vietnam and Iraq curated by Louise Crawford

December 16: TBA

January 20: The Truth and Oral History (the double life of the interview) curated by John Guidry

February 17: Memoirathon curated by Branka Ruzak

March 17: Blarneypalooza curated by Michele Madigan Somerville

April 14: In the Year of the Rabbit: Voices from the East curated by Sophia Romero

May 19: Fifth Annual Edgy Mother’s Day curated by Louise Crawford and Sophia Romero

June 16: Fiction in a Blender curated by Martha Southhgate

Movies:

Soul Kitchen, The Kids are All Right, Inception, The American at BAM

The Switch, Eat Pray Love, Avatar 3D, The American, Last Exorcism at the Pavilion.

Music:

Sept 3-4, 9-10 Help Save Puppets Jazz Bar Fundraisers 5PM until 3AM at Puppets Jazz bar 481 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

Friday, Sept 3 at 8PM at Barbes: Oran Ektin has been described as a “great clarinet player” and “excellent improviser” by the New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff and a “woodwind maestro” by PRI’s internationally syndicated show, Afropop Worldwide.

Saturday, Sept 4 at 8PM: New Model Army at the Bell House

Art

Healing the Wounds of War: The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair of 1864 at the Brooklyn Museum. This exhibition presents a selection of artworks and historical objects celebrating the contributions of women to the mid-nineteenth-century Sanitary Movement, particularly the highly important Brooklyn and Long Island Sanitary Fair of 1864. The genesis of the exhibition was a rare doll from the Museum’s collection featuring an elaborate trousseau made by a woman named Eliza Lefferts and sold at the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair. During the Civil War, sanitary fairs were held to raise money for the war effort in major cities in the Northeast.

Through September 30 at the Skylight Gallery in Bed-Stuy: Eyewitness to: Beautiful Black Brooklyn Photography exhibit at the featuring dozens of rare images from the 1960s to the 1980s Tues. – Fri., 11:00am – 6:00pm; Sat., 1:00pm – 6:00pm.

Through October 15th at The Pratt Institute School of Architecture and the Pratt Library: “Le Corbusier – Miracle Boxes,” a multidisciplinary, three-part exhibition on the work of renowned Swiss-French architect, urbanist, designer, writer, and painter Le Corbusier (born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris), who is considered by many to be the most important architect of the 20th century, starting August 30, 2010. “Miracle Boxes,” the first New York exhibition dedicated entirely to the work of Le Corbusier, is curated by Ivan R. Shumkov, Ph.D., adjunct associate professor of architecture at Pratt Institute. Shumkov will deliver an opening lecture that will be followed by a reception on September 13, 2010 at 6 p.m in Higgins Hall Auditorium located at 61 St. James Place in Brooklyn. The exhibition, opening lecture, reception, and an upcoming related symposium will be free and open to the public.

More to come…

At BC, the books are typically set in New York City and written by authors, who are available to speak on campus. Past books included: Frank McCourt’s “Angela’s Ashes” and Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”

It sounds like an interesting book. Maybe everyone in Park Slope should read this book too?

Etsy find: large e: Swiss Miss

Useful DIY sites: Reclaimed Home

Rebecca colors the white box: Apartment Therapy

My photos 1 year later: Brooklyn Limestone

Salt shaker lamp: My Coney (she’s back)

I’d like to share my bathroom with you: My Coney Twice because we missed you)

The audacity of taupe: NY Times

Yesterday a funeral mass was held at St. Francis Xavier Church in Park Slope, Brooklyn. A horse-drawn carriage accompanied by a police escort brought Ojeda’s coffin to the steps of the church.

So sad. Briana died last Friday of an asthma attack

Carmen Ojeda, Brianna’s mothers, says that she was driving the wrong way down a one-way street in Boerum Hill to rush her daughter to Long Island College Hospital, when she was stopped by a police officer, who stopped her car. The mother cried for help for daughter who was having a severe asthma attack. He claimed he did not know CPR (note:  all city police officers are trained in CPR).

Eventually, the officer did take the Ojedas to the hospital, but by driving behind them with his lights on. Briana, who was set to start sixth grade in a few days, died at the hospital about an hour later.

According to the NYPD, Officer Alfonso Mendez, 30, of the 84th precinct was identified as the man involved in the incident.

Police say witnesses were able to identify Mendez, who has been on the force for five years and works out of the 84th Precinct, as the officer who failed to help Briana.

Sources say he was suspended without pay Tuesday for failing to take proper police action. An internal affairs investigation is underway.

According to a notification issued on 9/1/2010 at 4:00 PM, the Department of Health will be spraying for mosquitoes to help prevent West Nile Virus from 8 PM on 9/2 until 6 AM on 9/3 in the following Brooklyn zip codes:

11210,11214, 11223, 11224, 11229, 11230, 11234, and 11235.

Department of Health recommends that whenever possible, stay indoors during spraying. Go to http://www.nyc.gov/health or call 311 for details.

It’s the Brooklyn Book Festival and it’s a little more than a week away. Now in its fifth year, the Brooklyn Book Festival is one of the top book festivals in the country.

With the extraordinary literary heritage, vibrant publishing community and international reading audience of Brooklyn and New York City as its backdrop, the Festival offers the best and brightest stars in contemporary literature. The hip, huge and free all-star literary lineup includes Salman Rushdie, Naomi Klein, Paul Auster, Venus Williams, Nelson George, Sarah Silverman, Gary Shteyngart, Mary Gaitskill, John Ashbery, Rosanne Cash, Paul Krugman, Colson Whitehead, Francine Prose, Dennis Lehane, Per Petterson, Esmeralda Santiago, Pete Hamill, Jennifer Egan, Russell Banks, Michael Connelly, John Hodgman, Kristen Schaal, Sam Lipsyte, Sloane Crosley, Maaza Mengiste, Paul Harding, Amy Goodman, Marlon James, Sarah MacLean, Jean Valentine, Elizabeth Nunez and many more, as well as children’s and young adult lit stars like Rebecca Stead, Sara Shepard, Jacqueline Woodson, Jon Scieszka, Jenny Han, Nina Crews, Mac Barnett, Tad Hills, Chris Raschka, Michael Rex, Matthew Reinhart and Francisco X. Stork.

At the Brooklyn Book Festival, you can see Venus Williams discussing sports and success, Salman Rushdie and young novelist Tishani Doshi discuss Pakistani/Indian literature and culture. Hear what Paul Krugman has to say about the economy. Get a peek into the masterminds of modern crime fiction Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and Alafair Burke, meditate on the insights of yoga-convert and humorist Neal Pollack, get cooking tips from the founders of Frankies Sputino and hear Sarah Silverman, John Hodgman and Kristen Schaal opine on life and comedy. See full list of programs below.

So much to do.

This year’s expanded festival includes weekend-long “Bookend” events at the coolest venues in Brooklyn, including BAM, Bell House, Brooklyn Bridge Park, The Brooklyn Kitchen, Brooklyn Public Library, Debut Lit, Freebird Books & Goods, Greenlight Bookstore, Irondale Center, Light Industry, Littlefield, Mainspring Collective, PEN American Center, Pizza D’Amore, powerHouse, St. Ann’s Warehouse, WORD and more!
Hear Russell Banks discuss books and film at BAM, dance as Rob Sheffield spins ’80s music at Bell House, hang with John Waters as he talks about his new book Role Models at WORD in Greenpoint. Check out the rest of the great weekend Bookend events—see list of Bookend events below.

Food Vendors: At the Festival this year, Green Pirate’s Community Juice Truck will dispense healthy, freshly-squeezed juices; PizzaMoto, with its famed mobile brick oven, serves up deliciously thin pies; handmade dumplings with a variety of tasty fillings—including a whole wheat-wrapped vegan variety—plus flavorful dipping sauces, will be available at the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck; and Red Hook vendor Solber Pupusas will offer their famed pupusas—hearty stuffed corn tortillas—and other Salvadoran-Dominican style fare. The perfect postscript to these savory munchies will be freshly baked cookies, brownies and other goodies provided by The Treats Truck and all natural ice cream from the Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream truck. Nearly all of the vendors also serve beverages, many homemade.
Bike Valet: Transportation Alternatives will provide bike valet service for attendees!
RENOWNED POET JOHN ASHBERY WILL ACCEPT BEST OF BROOKLYN “BoBi” AWARD

That exception to the slow week?  It’s An Evening with The Damnwells at The Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 tomorrow (Thursday 9/2) night.  The Damnwells had one of my Ten Best Albums of 2009, One Last Century, which was only available as a free download on the Internet. Their followup is now in the can and the band will be performing it live tomorrow.  There are two shows, a long sold out one at 7:30 and one at 10:15, which the band tells me is almost sold out.  So if you are interested in seeing that show, get your tickets now from The Rockwood’s website.

–Eliot Wagner

None of the recalled eggs was packaged in New York, but the eggs are shipped nationwide.

So how safe are the eggs in Brooklyn?

The eggs that are believed to be tainted were sold with 13 brand names: Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph’s, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemp. You can check the FDA website for specific instructions on how to spot tainted egg crates.

This recent episode really exposes the holes in our food safety system. How do we really know what we’re eating. It’s a pretty disturbing thing to contemplate.

More and more it makes sense to know where your food is coming from and buy from local food distributor and shops like the Park Slope Food Coop, that provide information about the sources of their food and produce.