The Gate was quite crowded last night for its weekly showing of Breaking Bad.
This week I went with my son, who is officially 21. We sat at the bar. He had a PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon, I learned) and I had a glass of white wine.
The sound worked perfectly and everyone quieted down when the show came on. The episode was excellent. No spoilers here except to say that Marie is getting wackier, Skyler is going off the rails, Walt is inscrutable, Jesse is as tragic as ever and Mike is fascinating.
I just love Gina Barreca’s funny and smart take on the world.
On Huffington Post today, Gina Barreca writes a love letter to independent bookstores.
For those who don’t know, Gina blogs for the Chronicle for Higher Education, Huff Post and Psychology Today. She is also a professor of English and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut. Her books, which have been translated into seven languages, include They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted, Babes in Boyland, and It’s Not That I’m Bitter. Her latest book, Make Mine a Double, was published in September 2011 and includes an essay of mine in there called the Park Slope Stroller Wars.
Here’s an excerpt from a piece called Why Independent Bookstores Matter, which will resonate with Park Slopers, great supporters of indie bookstores like the Community Bookstore. Read the rest on Huff Post.
“Independent bookstores do everything big corporate bookstores do, with only one significant difference: Independents do it better.
“Without independent bookstores — meaning those places not owned by huge corporate chains or multinational conglomerates –there would be three, maybe four, books published a year.
“There would be a blockbuster thriller, a densely detailed romance, a pseudo-science exploration of a catchy phenomena, and a celebrity bio.
“And a diet book — there would be a diet book.
“So eventually, there would be one book issued per year: a densely detailed autobiographical and pseudo-scientific celebrity thriller containing recipes. Denzel Washington meets Stephen J. Gould meets Don Delillo meets The Naked Chef. Yum.”
File this under: I went with my family to see John Cage perform Empty Words at the Hunter College Auditorium when I was a kid. I was bored out of my mind but somehow I understood that we were seeing something amazing
On August 3, at 8PM at Roulette I will have the chance to experience all 12 hours of Empty Words again.
Varispeed, a group of composer-performers, will perform Part I of their 12-hour arrangement of John Cage’s Empty Words, a landmark text-based work from the mid-70s that transforms speech into music and brings to light the beauty and power of the human voice.
Performing this piece is quite an undertaking.
In Part I, Cage’s text “establishes a distinctly non-syntactical speech rhythm with words and phrases arranged through chance operations from Thoreau’s journals.” The vocalist-performer-arrangers of Varispeed (Aliza Simons, Dave Ruder, Paul Pinto, Brian McCorkle, & Gelsey Bell) and special guests augment their voices with a bevvy of electronics, “while spatializing sound and action into a Cagean feast for the senses.”
Varispeed is a newly formed collective of composer-performers from experimental theatre group Panoply Performance Laboratory, ensemble thingNY, and Why Lie? that creates site-specific, sometimes-participatory, oftentimes-durational, forevermore-experimental events. Their new arrangements in Perfect Lives Manhattan made Time Out New York and New York Times’ critic Steve Smith’s “Best of 2011” list.
Empty Words will continue in three more installments during the evening. Parts II & III will be performed at nearby Exapno (33 Flatbush Ave, 5th floor) at 11 PM and 2 AM, respectively.
And the final installment occurs at 5AM in the morning on the Brooklyn Bridge:
Part IV will be a sound walk across the Bridge at 5 AM. All parts are free and open to the public.
As we in Park Slope breathlessly await the release of Motherland, Amy Sohn’s sequel to her bestselling Prospect Park West, Nancy McDermott has published a positive review of the book in Spiked, a British website. McDermott gives the book high praise for its readability and satire: “Motherland is both lightning-fast beach reading and well-observed social satire. Though the book won’t last the summer, Rebecca Rose and company will stay with you well into the autumn.”
McDermott, a moderator on Park Slope Parents before she moved to rural Upstate New York, is an excellent writer and a cogent thinker on the culture of parenting in contemporary society. I love her blogs, The Brown House Years and The Parenting Mystique (Why America is Obsessed with Raising Kids). Here’s an excerpt from her review. Do read the rest of Park Slope Parents Behaving Badly on Spiked.
“Motherland is the sequel to Prospect Park West, Amy Sohn’s hyperrealist novel set in Park Slope, Brooklyn. In the first book of the series, Sohn used a mix of real and imagined people and events to explore the excesses of modern urban parenting culture. In Motherland, she revisits many of same themes and characters, but this novel is not so much about new parenthood as midlife crisis, two life events which, for the first time in history, are tending to occur around the same time.”
Seven years ago the Brooklyn Artists Gym opened. A resource for studio and exhibition space for local artists, the space has evolved many times to accommodate the ever growing number of members who made use of it.
As of this week, Brooklyn Artists Gym will operate under a new name, Brooklyn Art Space. There are two cogent reasons for the name change. “First, if the staff gets one more inquiry about fitness facilities, they may just lose it!” the new management writes in an email.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Peter Wallace, the founder of Brooklyn Artists Gym, is moving on to other pursuits and will pass the torch to his current staff: Rhia Hurt, Director; Ajit Kumar, Advisor; Mary Negro, Gallery Coordinator; Jannell Turner, Consultant; and Rachael Whitney, Marketing Coordinator.
I remember seven years ago meeting with Peter at the now defunct Perch to discuss his new venture, Brooklyn Artists Gym. Perch must have just opened around that time, too. Peter had a real vision about it and many creative ideas that would come to pass.
“Peter’s vision is what brought everyone here, and the staff will continue to expand upon this vision as Peter moves onto the next phase of his creative process. His insight, enthusiasm, and devotion to the studios will be missed!”
And so it is: Brooklyn Art Space is now christened.
Yesterday, a very reliable source reports that Kiernan Shipka, who plays Sally Draper on AMC’s Mad Men, was at ‘Snice having lunch. The Park Slope vegan lunch spot is on Fifth Avenue and Third Street. No word on what she ate or drank. We do know that she wasn’t there with her television parents, John Hamm and January Jones. And her TV stepmother, Megan ,played by Jessica Pare, was nowhere to be found.
No one shouted out: We Love you Kiernan Shipka. But we do.
Doesn’t he have the most perfect first name for an Olympic athlete? That said, Race Imboden is a fencer not a miler or a sprinter. But he’s our’s and we’re rooting for him as he competes for a an Olympic medal in the London Olympics, which start this weekend.
I can’t wait to spot him in the Opening Ceremonies on Friday night.
Today’s fun quote from Race is this. He’s talking about his English born mom, Fiona:
“She’s emotional about me competing. She’s always pacing back and forth in big rooms while I’m fencing,” he said. “But she has an assigned seat here, so we’ll see how that works.”
This quote is from an article is by Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports.
Also watch this cool video about Ryan by @radical media that I posted the other day.
A summer art opening? A little splashy fun?
Park Slope’s Vicki Sher, a painter in her own right, has curated an art show called Cannonball opening at Frosch & Portmann at 53 Stanton Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side on Thursday, July 26 from 6-8PM.
“It’s a collective jump into the pool. Each artist plunges into her/his subject while feeling the ripple of activity in the room. Each distinct body of work claims a piece of its own, and shared, area,” writes Sher.
Inspired by the iconic call of summer, the swimmers’ cry of “Cannonball!” as they jump into a pool, this exhibition brings together artists who dive into specific territory while maintaining a playful spirit. The show connects driven and deeply pursued paths to the lighthearted attitude behind summer vacation.
Many of the artists connect to the show’s title with strong black shapes that pack a punch. In Don Voisine’s paintings and Lauren Seiden’s dense graphite works on paper, the viewer is drawn into the black surface to consider questions of space, balance and rhythm. Denise Kupferschmidt’s black drawings on tile bring to mind icons and talismans; at the same time they act as a lighthearted reminder of the pool’s edge. Paul Wackers’ still lifes use black for contrast, to emphasize the plant’s strong silhouette and power as a signifier of interior life.
Park Slope’s historic district just got BIGGER.
New York’s City Council voted today to approve an expansion of the Park Slope Historic District, making it the largest historic district in the city. The City Council vote affirms the Landmarks Preservation Commission approval on April 17, 2012.
This expansion will include 580 buildings from approximately 7th Street to 15th Street (including the 7th Avenue frontage), 7th Avenue to 8th Avenue, and along 15th Street from 8th Avenue to Prospect Park West (including the western side of Bartel Pritchard Square). A map of the expansion is available at the LPC website.
The extension also includes the former Ansonia Clock Works factory, once the world’s largest clock manufacturer, as well as homes built for its workers.
Here is a statement from the Council:
“The Council’s action not only celebrates a storied part of the city’s industrial past, but the sensitive adaptive reuse of the factory complex and its contribution towards the vitality and historic character of the area,” the Park Slope Civic Council said in an issued statement. “The Civic Council is united in our desire to maintain the neighborhood’s quality of life and to ensure that it is preserved for future generations of Park Slope residents and visitors alike to enjoy.”
August 23 is the official date for Rosewater’s annual Salute to Swine Fest!
They’re firing up the Party-Que Spit and roasting a fine piggy from an upstate address over hardwood coals.
The pork will be served with cole slaw, corn on the cob, heirloom tomatoes, cold draft beer and fresh pink wine and you’ve got one swell porcine summer soirée. “We’ll have more fun than a possum in the corn crib with the dog tied up!” is what they’re saying.
Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 26th at 1pm. $78, all inclusive of beverage, tax and gratuity. Get yours quick – it’s always a sellout. 718-783-3800, phone only.
Named after a Jonny Quest character, Race Imboden moved to Park Slope when he was 10 and loves the penang chicken curry at Rice Thai on Seventh Avenue.
And he’s on the Olympic fencing team. His passions: fencing, of course, and hip hop. The Daily News has a story about local Olympic heroes today.
Have a look at the video by @radical media which follows Race while he trains for the Olympics, and sheds some light on his unprecedented rise in the world of fencing. It’s a really interesting piece so watch it and learn more about our Park Slope Olympic hopeful, Race Imboden.
Richard Grayson, author of Brooklyn Diaries, I Brake for Delmore Schwartz, And to Think He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street, and other titles, ventured to Park Slope this weekend to see Piper Theatre’s outdoor production of The Island of Doctor Moreau.
I love to read Grayson’s reactions to local culture. He’s smart and very knowedgable about art and theater.
He’s also an interesting guy. I’ve read the Brooklyn Diaries, which is compulsive reading (by a compulsive writer) for those interested in one young man’s college and post-college years in 1970’s and 80’s Brooklyn.
Grayson writes about his cultural wanderings in Williamsburg and other neighborhoods on his blog, Dumbo Books of Brooklyn. Just this week, he’s written about a zine fest at Pete’s Candy Store, Eugene Mirman in Williamsburg Park and a recent breakfast in Ft. Greene. He also takes pictures.
“Tonight we were mesmerized by a stunning performance of an innovative, visceral, and commanding adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau conceived and executed by the amazing Piper Theatre outside the Old Stone House in Park Slope’s Washington Park.”
You’ve heard of the State of the Union, the annual address by POTUS; the State of the State, an address by governors; the State of the City, the state of the borough…
On Thursday, July 26, Dick Zigun, considered the unoffical Mayor of Coney Island, will deliver his annual State of Coney Island Address, his annual wisecracking about the 2012 state of affairs at America’s Playground.
Part performance-art, part playful people’s politics, Zigun’s annual address is known for self promotional humor, as well as real insights into behind the scenes affairs at the poor man’s Riviera.
Zigun’s State of Coney Island Address will be delivered live, at the Coney Island Museum, 1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, NY on THURSDAY, JULY 26, 7:30PM. The General Public is welcome to attend for $5 (absolutely FREE FOR CONEY ISLAND USA MEMBERS). A brief Question and Answer session will take place immediately after the speech.
This morning walking into Forty Weight Coffee, the cafe that doubles as Sweet Wolf’s restaurant, the owner said, “Someone mentioned your blog yesterday.” Then he remembered that it was Alice at The Ploughman, the new cheese and gourmet food shop at 438 Seventh Avenue near 14th Street in Park Slope.
The Ploughman’s Lunch is the name of a 1983 film with Jonathan Pryce and Tim Curry, but it’s also a term for a cold sandwich served in British pubs with cheese, ham, pickle, apples, pickled onions, lettuce, bread and butter.
The Ploughman offers artisan cheeses, meats, sandwiches, chocolates and beers. It is in the space that used to be Grab. Alice has revitalzied the decor of the old shop by painting it a gorgeous shade of purple. Not hippie purple but an elegant purple (see picture of Alice in front of her purple wall).
Clearly, Alice has revitalized the shop with a foodie’s selection of breads, sandwiches, condiments and items perfect for a Celebrate Brooklyn picnic.
The Ploughman features Forty Weight Coffee and also has olive oils and probably dozens of other things that are delicious and wonderful. I will most certainly be back to explore.
Here’s a fun thing for teens and tweens to do this weekend. Great if you don’t know what else to do with all those special family photos, cards, and random pictures on your wall.
Join Ashley Lucas at Film Biz Recycling this summer to make something super cool with your finds at home + the wonderful recyclables at FBR! Register today for Saturday’s event.
Found Items Collage
Ages 10+ | Great for Tweens + Teens
July 22, 2012 | 1:00pm – 2:30pm
$15 Per Person
540 President Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215
The Gate,surely one of the best neighborhood bars ever, on Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope will air Sunday episodes of the fifth season of Breaking Bad.
If you’re into Breaking Bad and you do not have cable television, this will be excellent news.
This is the place to wach the continuing mis-adventures of Water and Jesse played by the great Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. The show, directed and written by Vince Gilligan, airs at 10PM Sunday nights in NYC.
This is the fifth and final season and from what I’ve heard the first episode was INCREDIBLE.
This is what the sky looked like Wednesday afternoon. Thanks Weather Channel
2,000 signatures have been collected so far from neighbors in Windsor Terrace, who are opposed to a new Walgreens at the site of the old Key Food, that went out of business in 2012.
“Green Beans Not Walgreens” is smart and funny new slogan (and website name) the group has come up with. The site will be chock full of information and action to oppose the replacement of Key Food with a Walgreens pharmacy.
The neighborhood activists say the area needs a full-service grocery store and not another pharmacy/drug store. Read more at their website.
http://youtu.be/4Muf6Gl2pHM
This Thursday, July 19, one of the episodes of Louis C.K. shot in the Community Bookstore airs at 10:30pm on FX. So they are going to have a viewing party, of course. But where?
At last report, they were still trying to find a site with cable TV and plenty of space (and alcohol).
I will let you know where the viewing party is when I find out.
Tonight is Dancing Under the Stars, the Fifth Avenue BID’s summer music/dance program (every Tuesday evening in July and August).
Coincidentally, I just ran into Irene LoRe, who runs the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID at Forty Weight/Sweet Wolf’s on Sixth Avenue and 12th Street.
Tonight DJ Chris Style in Washington Park will be spinning the beats for great dancing.
Starting at 6, of course, Park Slope’s favorite rock band, Rolie Polie Guacamole, will do an hour of music for kids.
At 7, Dj Chris Style will spin the dance beats that will get Fifth Avenue moving!
About a month ago, someone on Third Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues in Park Slope) wanted to get rid of an upright piano. They wrapped it in plastic and left it in their building’s front yard. Perhaps they were waiting for someone to take it, to sell it, or for bulk garbage day.
The Department of Sanitation provides “free curbside removal of large non-commercial ‘bulk’ items (items that are too big to be discarded in a container or bag) from residential buildings.”
A piano is definitely too big to be discarded in a container or bag.
On Monday afternoon, in preparation for bulk garbage pick up, the piano’s owners left the piano on the curb.
A talented local musician I know tried to convince his father to carry the piano to the apartment where he lives. When THAT didn’t happen, he had the idea to make a video of himself performing two songs using that piano. A group of his friends arrived on Third Street with a video camera and professional recording equipment.
The shoot lasted an hour or more. The piano is broken and more than a little out of tune. The local musician was able to make the non-working peddles work.
It was, I thought, a sight to behold. In the golden light of a summer afternoon, a young musician sat on an old television set, playing an out-of-tune upright on the Third Street sidewalk, surrounded by friends.
The songs, they were beautiful.
Let’s throw some love over to Here’s Park Slope. He’s got pictures of some new signage on Seventh Avenue. The Community Bookstore has a new green awning with the lovely typography we wrote about a few weeks ago.
Also a new awning and renovations to the interior of Rice Thai Kitchen. Not pictured is a new hanging sign for Shawn’s Wine & Spirits.
How remarkable. That’s Venus and Jupiter out my bedroom window, visible in the predawn darkness and morning twilight. According to Earth Sky, you should be able to see two planets just before and after dawn throughout July.
I was having trouble sleeping and I popped out of bed.
Our bedroom window faces north but gives us a view of the east. Venus and Jupiter are the sky’s brightest and second-brightest planets. Very bright tonight!
Good thing I couldn’t sleep.
From my window, it looks like they’re straight up from Second Street and Seventh Avenue. It’s a sight to behold. Such bright planets, here in Brooklyn.
And there’s more planet watching to come. Earth Sky says: “mid-July 2012, the waning moon will pass the bright planet Venus and Jupiter, making for some spectacular predawn sky scenes.”
D. Nurske was the Brooklyn Poet Laureate two poet laureates ago (Tina Chang currently holds that honor). His books of poems are published by Knoph, which makes him an unusual poet because “major publishing houses” don’t publish much in the way of contemporary poetry.
He’s considered a major American poet, I guess.
A resident of Brooklyn, he is the author of nine books of poetry, including Voices Over Water, The Fall (Knopf) and, Burnt Island. He has received in Whiting Writers’ Award, two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Tanne Foundation Award.
I’ve saw him read at Park Slope’s Community Bookstore in 2008 and he was quiet, thoughtful and compelling, as are his poems.
Now he has a new book out called A Night in Brooklyn, which you can get as a paper-and-glue book or as an eBook. Here’s the wonderful title poem from the book and it’s about a night of love in a narrow Brooklyn bed. I love it.
A Night in Brooklyn
We undid a button,
turned out the light,
and in that narrow bed
we built the great city —
water towers, cisterns,
hot asphalt roofs, parks,
septic tanks, arterial roads,
Canarsie, the intricate channels,
the seacoast, underwater mountains,
bluffs, islands, the next continent,
using only the palms of our hands
and the tips of our tongues, next
we made darkness itself, by then
it was time for daybreak
and we closed our eyes
until the sun rose
and we had to take it all to pieces
for there could be only one Brooklyn.
Talking to some longtime residents of my block, I have confirmed that there has never been an official block party with a street closing on Third Street between 6th and 7th Aenues.
“311 has made things so easy. Now you can find out how to do things we never knew how to do before,” said one Third Street resident of more than twenty years.
I’d always heard that you couldn’t close off a two lane street.
“That’s not true, we were lazy,” she said.
In the past there were mini-block parties, three or four buildings would get together and there would be food, music, musical chairs and a talent show.
“The woman who organized this, she did a good job,” another neighbor said.
Third Street between 6th and 7th Avenue is having its first block party ever. EVER.
Finally, after all these years, one of the newer residents decided to organize one and she did a great job.
She put together a planning committee, she got a permit from the city to close the street, she organized activities for children and, best of all, rented one of those spacewalks.
Bernette Rudoph, an elderly and talented artist, is doing a wood sculpture activity with the kids.
What’s really fun is that the street is closed to traffic and the kids can ride their biks and scooters up and down the streets. Also, there’s fire hydrant sprinkler, a time honored way for city kids to cool off.
Brooklyn Castle, a new documentary, is the story of a public school chess team at Williamsburg’s IS 318. With rankings higher than Albert Einstein’s and students from mostly low-income and immigrant homes, this dedicated chess team has captured over 26 national chess titles, more than any other middle school in the United States.
Facing budget cuts and the threat of losing the chess after-school program, the instructors students and parents band together to help save the program.
This uplifting, must-see film will be presented by Rooftop Films on their very own rooftop in Park Slope/Gowanus on Saturday, July 21. Location: The Old American Can Factory (232 Third St. @ 3rd Ave). Doors open at 7:30PM. At 8PM, there will be a mini-chess tournament. The film begins at 9PM.
MOVIE TO SEE
Beasts of the Southern Wild is playing at BAM starting Friday, July 13th. I saw the film last weekend and loved it. It is worth the price of admission just to see the performance by 8-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis. For all of its magical realism and visual “tropes” it manages to convey the gritty survivalistic life of the impoverished inhabitants of the Bathtub outside of New Orleans nd the horror of Katrina. This visually and viscerally powerful film will make you understand Katrina in a new way.
MUSICAL THEATER AL FRESCO
Friday, July 13 at 8PM: Piper Theatre presents Xanadu, a theatrical reimagining of the Olivia Newton John movie with a young, enthusiastic cast, flying beachballs, and roller skates. 8PM in Washington Park in Park Slope.
WATERFRONT WALK
Sunday, July 15 at 2PM: Francis Morrone, an architectural historian who has written for The New York Sun, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal begins a three-part Walking the Waterfront series (sponsored by the Municipal Arts Society). It starts at the base of Manhattan, where the initial phase of the new East River Waterfront Esplanade opened in July 2011, and continues through undeveloped sections of the South Street Seaport. The other two tours examine development along the Hudson (Aug 18 at 2pm) and the Brooklyn shorefront (Aug 25 at 6pm).
POETRY AND MUSIC
Sunday, July 15 at 6PM: The Return of Urban Michef with poets Bill Evans, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Joanna Sit, Michele Madigan Somerville and Mike Sweeney will read with percussionists Peter Catapano and Tony Cenicola. Cornelia Street Cafe
A representative from Team Pinkberry wrote in to OTBKB to say that there will be FREE frozen yogurt at Pinkberry during the Opening Celebration of the first Brooklyn store which happens to be in Park Slope on Seventh Avenue and Garfield Place. The festivities begin at 6PM on July 19th.
I’m not saying you’re gonna get BIG free sundaes and stuff. It might just be little taster cups. Maybe a rep from Team Pinkberry can chime on in.
But you don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.