Two yeas ago on OTBKB. This is the story of our great Valentine’s Day. Hepcat will never be able to top it.

Hepcat once staged the most wonderful Valentine’s surpise. Part
of the surprise was that he even did something at all—usually he’s a Valentine’s Day Scrooge, the guy who gets really put out with the
whole idea of  this Hallmark holiday. But that year he really rose above
his own objections to it and planned something big. He told me that
he was taking me somewhere but he wouldn’t say where. Ever curious, I
kept asking. "You’ll ruin the surprise," he said again and again.

My expectations rose sky high. Then he told me the location of where
we were going — somewhere downtown on the far west side. Hmmm. I
didn’t have a clue where he had in mind.

That night, we drove down the West Side Highway and parked on Varick
Street near Houston. When we turned down a side street, I saw a small
movie marquee in the distance. It said, "Grand Opening on Valentine’s
Day. Now Showing: L’Atalante by Jean Vigo.

I thought I was dreaming. This tiny, recently refurbished movie
theater, then called the Soho Cinema, was playing my favorite movie of
all time on their opening night. Made in 1934, this black and white
french movie is the story of Juliette who marries Jean. She comes to
live on his river barge along with a cabin boy and the strange
old second mate Pere Jules. Soon bored by life on the river, she slips
off to see the nightlife when they get to Paris. Angered by this, Jean
sets off, leaving Juliette behind. Overcome by grief and longing for
his wife, Jean falls into a depression and Pere Jules goes and tries to
find Juliette. When he finds her she too is eager to return to the
barge. Back together again, they resume life on the river.

It is a simple story told with grace and poetry. It may be one of
the most romantic movies of all time. Jean Vigo had tuberculosis when
he made it, and was dead just
after its release. He was
only 29, and had made only four films. A romantic
until the end.

We were the only ones in the theater other than the usher and the
popcorn guy. Sitting in our own private movie palace watching a
treasure of French cinema, it was a Valentine’s Day impossible to
forget.

OSFO and I have become quite the regulars at Sweet Melissa. It’s such a cozy, warm place to hang out on a winter afternoon after school.

Hot chocolate and a pommier, a buttery cookie sometimes called an elephant’s ear, is OSFO’s regular choice.  In fact, the other day before we sat down, a nice waitress said, "We don’t have pommiers today."

OSFO ordered a madeleine instead. I usualy get a small latte.

OSFO starts and sometimes finishes her homework while we sit there, which has provided me with ample time to reckon with the place.

First off, they seem to have an enormous daily selection of expertly prepared and delicious cakes, cookies, scones, and pastries. And every day there’s something new: seasonal specialties, holiday treats.

Right now, the shop is chock full of Valentine’s lollipops, candies, heart-shaped cookies and more.

How and where do they do it all? Turns out they have a large kitchen on Bond Street in Carroll Gardens where they do all the baking.

We’ve now got a bright new sunny kitchen with lots of room to create.  Melissa is able to oversee the production of all of her recipes on a daily basis, and personally train her pastry assistants on new products.  Here we can ensure the quality of baking everyday, and know that our customers are receiving the pastries which meet Sweet Melissa’s high standards.  Central also has a take away counter and a few tables outside.

The website doesn’t even mention the new Park Slope shop, which is curious. Clearly, the website needs an update. The Park Slope shop is so above and beyond the original shop in Carroll Gardens. That shop is a tiny, lovely tea room. A special ocassion place — kind of hushed and precious.

The one in Park Slope is lively, cozy, and fun and it attracts a wide variety of Park Slope types:

–After drop-off parents reading the newspaper
–The stroller brigade,
–New  moms dining with stroller baby and grandma (I think it is THE place to bring your mother).
–PTA moms making plans
–Friends meeting for serious conversation
–Acquaintances meeting to network
–Solo types with a journal
–Studious types with a book
–Dad and kid afterschool

It is not, by design, a wi fi hangout for people who want to spend the day with their lap top and a coffee.

You can get wi fi in there — but it’s linksys or stolen from a nearby signal and it’s not reliable at all. It’s also not a great spot for cell phone talking.

All good. Sweet Melissa’s has a slightly vintage feeling. An old fashioned place to meet friends and eat sweets. When all is said and done, it’s not inexpensive. That said, you can sit there with a $3.50 latte and enjoy a nice respite from the cold.

Today I discovered that Sweet Melissa has a website, which I now hear needs a SERIOUS UPDATE. Reading it confirms my belief that they are making a big effort to brand themselves and make themselves known to greater New York City and maybe the nation (think Sara Beths and Silver Palatte).

Even before I read the website, I was getting the sense that they are  thinking big. BIG. Like maybe they have investors who want to see the shop reach the Sara Beth’s level or bigger. On the site I learned that they also have a shop in SoHo (woo). Here’s a blurb about the SoHo shop but now an OTBKB reader tells me that the SoHo shop closed when the Park Slope opened. WOW. That was fast. 

Sweet Melissa SoHo (NOW CLOSED) located at 75 West Houston Street (corner of West Broadway), is our beautiful new retail location.  A lot of attention was put into the design of the store, as we wanted to create a place worthy of showcasing our wonderful pastries, tarts and cakes.  Our talented designer and cabinet maker, Mel Jones of Myson Interiors, creatively incorporated our honeybee logo into the woodwork and cabinetry.  .

Interesting about the wood work, which is especially nice in Park Slope shop, which is full of clever details like a rolling pin for a door handle and other baking objects incorporated into the cabinetry.

If they continue to expand, the trick will be to sustain the level of quality. Melissa is still on site over-seeing all cake production. That’s a good thing. At this point, quality seems to be their middle name.

This from New York 1:

The new owners of Starrett City, the
nation’s largest federally-subsidized rental complex, say they are
committed to keeping the rent under control.

Clipper Equity bought the 140-acre site for $1.3 billion yesterday.

The complex, which recently changed its name to Spring Creek
Towers, includes 6,000 apartments for low and middle income families.

Tenants fear the huge price tag will cause the new owners to jack up the rent, forcing them to move out.

But Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says that won’t happen.

"Starrett City must always remain affordable it is the most premier
affording housing project in these United States,” said Markowitz. “I’m
happy it’s in Brooklyn and we have every intention that will keep that
way. Period."

Council Speaker Christine Quinn has also expressed concern over the
sale and says she’s anxious to see the buyer’s plan. She and city
officials have asked to meet with Clipper Equity to discuss the
company’s plans.

Here’s a post from last February 9th and things are still exactly the same. Hepcat has fallen into the rabbit hole of the working life. He’s working really, really hard these days.

Life is different now that Hepcat has a big job in Manhattan. Last
night he came home at 10 p.m. He’s back to his old tricks of working
late at the office. Back in the day when he was working for the
uber-computer corporation he’s stay until 3 or 4 in the morning. Just
you and the cleaning staff – I used to say.

Three years ago – he was outsourced from the uber-computer
corporation and we had him all to ourselves. First there was severance
– glorious severance. Then unemployment. Then Hepcat worked hard on
his photography career – something he’d wanted to get back to for years
– and was beginning to acrue a list of loyal clients.

But he was also around to prepare incredible dinners, pick OSF up from school, become a major role model to Teen Spirit. He was so around I
was happy to have my office out of the apartment so that we weren’t on
top of each other all day. But it was fun to meet for sushi lunch and
do other stuff during the day. Once, we went to the Brooklyn Museum
during the day. That was to see the Basquiat show and it was a treat.

But now…He’s distracted the way new jobs distract you. He’s
stressed in that way that new jobs stress you. He’s busy in that way…

Fortunately he’s still making time for the photography career. On Saturday he will be selling pictures at the Old Stone House…

The last there years were an experiment in trying to survive without
full time jobs. Both of us had lots of freelance work and were just
about making ends meet. Now we’re back in the race. Thanks to Hepcat’s
new job, we’ve got health insurance (starting in March), benefits,
retirement stuff, stock options and all the rest.

Consequently, we’re passing like ships in the night. The family
didn’t eat dinner together yesterday.  Husband even missed American
Idol. He came home late just like he used to – all tired and spent.

But hey, it’s a living.

This is the third year in a row that I’ve run this piece. Usually I put it up on February 3rd but I missed the day. Only seven days late. I wrote it in honor of my parent’s anniversary. They’ve been divorced for more than 30 years but February 3rd still feels like their day.  I wrote it when a guy in Yugoslavia asked me to be a guest blogger. I liked it and posted it on  Third Street as well. 

 Today is the anniversary of Smartmom’s parents. February 3rd. The date
is etched in her mind. She and her sister would go to the same gift
shop year after year to buy an anniversary gift for them. West Town
House smelled of bath soap and sachet. It was just a block and a half
from the Riverside Drive apartment. They’d browse for an hour or more.
And with only four dollars, they’d find something to buy: a stone paper
weight or a letter opener, which the owner would gift wrap in green
paper and a black ribbon bow.

Smartom’s parents aren’t married
anymore. They’ve been separated since 1976. But February 3rd still
stops her short. And while they’ve been separated for longer than they
were together, February 3rd means only one thing: the beginning of
something that later came to an end.

Manhattan Granny showed
OSFO her wedding album a few weeks ago. A large, white, leather-bound
book, the black and white photographs present Smartmom’s parents on
their ceremonial day. In a simple and elegant, calf-length gown, Groovy
Grandma looks like Audrey Hepburn; her hair is close-cropped like
Hepburn’s too.

Groovy Grandpa, with no trace of the beard that
would later define him, looks pleased with himself and his bride. Their
parents gather around them – mythical parents, they are all dead now.
They look happy for this union, for this coming together.

Later,
OSFO said, "Grandma doesn’t look like herself," Maybe she didn’t
recognize her 78-year old grandmother as a beautiful young bride. Maybe
she was surprised to see her grandparents together; she never seen them
that way. It probably seemed strange; a little out of whack.

The
separation came as a surprise, dramatic as it was. The rupture was
sudden: suitcases packed; black garbage bags, filled with clothing —
tossed. All traces of him were banished from the apartment;
an anguished wife’s ill-fated attempt at an exorcism.

Smartmom
was only seventeen, a senior in high school, on the cusp of going away.
It was awful to see her family bifurcated. She was in the throes of
first love, first sex, high school. Now this?

Like an ostrich,
Smartmom buried her head in her own sandy concerns while her mother
grieved and her father sublet a studio on the other side of town.

And
when her first love decided he didn’t love her after all, she
bifurcated too. “Don’t leave me,” she cried pathetically for days.
"It’s gonna take a miracle to make me love someone new cause I’m crazy
for you,” Laura Nyro sang, the song played over and over on the record
player in the living room.

But he left anyway.

February
3rd is just another day. But for someone whose family doesn’t exist
anymore, Smartmom will always honor the beginning of something that
later came to an end.

Someone is trapped in their parking space on Third Street and they won’t stop honking. It’s the oldest story in the New York City parking book.

It’s 8:59 a.m.

Shaddup or Would the person who’s blocking this car MOVE THEIR CAR!!!

On the Brooklyn Footprints website, there’s a list of all the artists from the original show. You can click on the artist’s name and see their work.

Some of these works will not be included in the Brooklyn Public Library show. There will be a show at Freddy’s of all the artists left out of the library show opening on February 22.

Salon des Refusés de las Bibliothèque de Brooklyn
OPENING THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2007 AT 5:30PM
Freddy’s Bar & Backroom
485 Dean Street (corner 6Ave and Dean)
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 622-7035

This from New York 1:

A three-year-old boy was killed in an apparent hit-and-run in Brooklyn Thursday afternoon.

Police say Edward Heredia of Massachusetts was run down just after 4:00 p.m. at 55th Street and Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park.

Investigators say he was hit by a red pickup truck which then left the scene. He was taken to Lutheran Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Police are still searching for the truck. It’s described as a four-door, extended cab and may be a new vehicle.

Police say it was being driven by an olive-skinned man who was carrying one female passenger.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.

This from New York 1:

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein got an earful Wednesday night from parents sounding off on the school bus route controversy and other issues that have come up since the school year began. NY1 Education reporter Michael Meenan filed the following report.

“I think it is a crock. First of all, how can you make a decision about what’s happening with the education of children, and you don’t involve the parents.”

That’s how community activist Denise Taylor of Brooklyn characterized the latest phase in the plan to overhaul the city schools, and at a packed town hall meeting in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn Wednesday night, she wasn’t the only one with questions for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

“There was one kid I just recently helped, who was signed out of school,” said Taylor. “He was a special ed kid. He had not been to school in three years because his mother died of cancer.

“If you ever had a kid like that again e-mail me,” responded Klein.

Klein’s mission was put to rest questions about last week’s school bus route change fiasco and get parents to concentrate on the big changes coming down the pike: redistricting, new funding formulas, outside partners coming into schools to help teach kids. But one woman said she had heard enough.

This story on the web site of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is charging censorship at the Brooklyn Public Library. The story from the Real Estate Observer is also posted.

A web of political fear seems to be widening across Brooklyn.

There is a an exhibition opening at the Brooklyn Public Library on February 13. It is a re-exhibiting of an art show called Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood which was on display in Prospect Heights’ Grand Space in November, 2006. According to the original show’s website statement:
The proposed “Atlantic Yards” arena and building complex in Brooklyn is poised to be one of the largest redevelopment projects ever undertaken in New York City. Its targeted 22-acre site is known as the “Footprint.”

In the midst of the debate over “Atlantic Yards” and Brooklyn’s future, local artists have banded together in an effort to move beyond the sound bites and take a closer look at this place, its community, and at issues surrounding redevelopment.

Their work may be viewed on this site, and will be exhibited at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Main Branch, on Grand Army Plaza, from Feruary 13 thru April 21, 2007.
It is now being reported on the Real Estate Observer blog that particular works in the show’s re-display at the Public Library have been excluded. That’s one word for it. We call it censorship. From the Observer:

He [original Footprints show co-organizer Dan Sagarin] said library officials saw the exhibit when it was up at Grand Space last fall, and decided then not to take the more overtly critical pieces, including one very large portrait his sister, Sarah Sagarin, painted of arch-opponent Daniel Goldstein, as well as other, more abstract work….

Two of the several works the library censored (or “refused”) for being “too critical,” include: an exquisite depiction of the proposed arena as a toilet bowl, by artist and manager of Freddy’s Bar and Backroom Donald O’finn; painter Sarah Sagarin’s portrait of DDDB spokesperson and eminent domain plaintiff Daniel Goldstein. Other “rejected” work includes this photo and this photo by photographer Amy Greer.

The Observer follows up its initial story with this statement from the Public Library which seems to attempt to explain themselves by stating it is publicly funded.

But the statement does not answer the question: how are these works “too critical,” and if they are “too critical” why would that prohibit them from inclusion as per the original vision of the exhibit’s coordinators which must have caught the Public Library’s eye. Everyone knows the “Atlantic Yards” project is controversial and has drawn a lot of public interest. We’ll assume that is precisely why the Public Library chose to exhibit the show. But why, then, have they chosen to cherry pick it and run from controversy?

As reported in the Observer story, Freddy’s will exhibit the “refused” art works, in a show opening on February 22nd with a reception on the 23rd. According to the Observer:
…Fortunately, one of the rejected artists, Donald O’Finn, knows some French, and he is mounting a “Salon des Refusés de la Bibliothèque de Brooklyn” at the condemned bar he manages, Freddy’s, with an opening Feb. 22…

This from New York 1 on the Exxon oil spill in Greenpoint.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a lawsuit Thursday filed against Exxon and several other companies for taking decades to clean up a massive oil spill in Brooklyn.

Although it was first discovered in 1978, the underground spill is believed to have happened decades before.

It is estimated that 17 million gallons were spilled under Greenpoint and so far just nine million gallons have been pumped out. Much of what’s left can be seen in Newton Creek, separating Brooklyn and Queens.

Other companies named in the lawsuit include oil companies Chevron and BP. Energy giant Keyspan and a now-demolished copper smelting plant are also being named for their contamination to the creek.

Cuomo says Exxon bears the most responsibility for the environmental impact to the area. Exxon officials say it is working as fast as possible to clean the area.

Okay, I’ve coined my own term for what we’re doing in the Brooklyn Blog Zone. Someone called it hyperlocal — don’t know who. And I wanted my very own term, my own jargon. So I’ve made one up. Deep Local. That’s my term. DEEP LOCAL.

It’s very local news. Very micro.

It’s what I see out my window, on my street, on the avenues of my neighborhood.

It’s everything: Mrs. Kravitz giving her kidney to Mr. Kravitz. The dead flowers in a vase that spent months on the window sill of my neighbor, whose husband died. The demonstrators who show up every Tuesday evening to protest the Iraq war at Brooklyn City Hall. The conflict that arose when a mother accused a neighbor of being a child molestor and posted it on trees and lamp posts. The teenager who plays sitar on our stoop.

It’s "Lost Boy’s Hat."

It goes from micro to macro. Sometimes the meaning of the stories ripple outward and touch on  significant themes: PS 321 around the corner to THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN THIS COUNTRY. Conversations overheard at Tempo Presto, Sweet Melissa’s, the Cocoa Bar to PEOPLE ARE VERY VERY ANGRY ABOUT IRAQ. The controversial Atlantic Yards development to THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK CITY AND URBAN AREAS EVERYWHERE. The boy who wrote a letter to Marty Markowitz about the B67 bus TO THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL WARMING. Whole Foods in the Gowanus to DO CITIZENS HAVE A SAY ON WHAT GOES ON IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS. My shift at the Food Coop to THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND HEALTHY FOOD. The arts event I thought was cool and smart to WHY CAN’T GOOD CULTURE BE POPULAR CULTURE AND VISA VERSA.

The local is worldy. Especially around here with so many writers, artists, legal aid lawyers, non-profit  leaders, educators, political activists, social workers…

The personal is political. 

Deep Local means close attention to the substance of my life, your life, my friend’s life. Deep Local is what’s neglected by the local news.

Deep Local is the opposite of generic or stereotypic. It’s specific, detailed, full of contradiction and complexity.

Deep Local. It’s my term now.

I am gonna be so BUSTED if this State Senator’s measure goes through. I agree that crossing the street while using a cell phone is pretty dangerous. And IPods?  I guess people are pretty out of it when they’re listening to music. Look at this from New York 1:

State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn says he will introduce a measure
making it illegal to use electronic devices, such as iPods and cell
phones, when crossing the street.

The ban would include the use of cell phones, iPods, MP3 players, Gameboys, and BlackBerrys.

If the measure passes, anyone caught crossing the street while
using an electronic device would be fined $100 and would have to appear
in court to answer the summons.

Kruger says the deaths of two pedestrians in his district in the last five months led him to introduce the bill.

A significant relic was found on an archeological dig conducted by the Brooklyn Museum in Egypt. Here’s an excerpt from the report by the Brooklyn Museum of Art:

In late January, the
Brooklyn Museum’s archaeological expedition to the
Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut at South Karnak
discovered a relief—a decorated painted and gilded
lintel that once crowned the doorway of a religious
structure. The decoration of this object was
sufficiently unusual that local Luxor officials of
the Supreme Council of Antiquities sent photographs
to the main office in Cairo.

On February 1, Farok Hosni, Egypt’s Minister of
Culture, announced the discovery of the lintel as a
significant find. That day the lintel was
transported to the Luxor Museum of Ancient Egyptian
Art, where it will receive its final cleaning and
conservation and be placed on display.

Archaeologist Richard Fazzini, who has run the
excavation for the Museum since its inception,
comments, “Some of the significance of the lintel is
the quality of its carving and its gilding. A small
number of ancient Egyptian reliefs were gilded, but
that adornment has seldom survived. Equally
important is the unusual nature of its iconography,
which has its origins in the early first millennium
B.C. but which is here dated to the Ptolemaic Period
or early Roman Period (late fourth to late first
century B.C.) by the inscriptions.” READ MORE AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM

I don’t know about you but I was wondering why Seeing Green didn’t update his blog for more than a week.

Well, it turns out that he was in the hospital and he lived to tell the tale.

In poetry. Read more…

If you have a long Valentine’s Day shopping list like I do — you better buy those cards and get them into the snail mail.

It’s not because I have a long list of secret lovers. I just have lots of friends and especially family who I exchange cards with. And it’s a pretty serious obligation. Diaper Diva is super competitive about getting her cards to our parents FIRST. So the race is on…

Who sends the better cards? Diaper Diva or Smartmom?

And I found out where the best cards in the Slope are: Scaredy Kat on Fifth Avenue between Carroll and President.

I haven’t been there in ages and it was fun to chit chat with the owners, Nora and Damond (pictured with maple syrup to the left)

That store has been on Fifth Avenue for over seven years. They were part of the first wave of Fifth Avenue’s transformation along with Al Di La, Eidolan, Nancy Nancy and, of course, Bob and Judy’s Coolectibles. Here’s the blurb from their website.

Scaredy Kat is a neighborhood card & gift shop located in the 5th Avenue area
of Park Slope, Brooklyn. Catering to the local community since July 1999,
Scaredy Kat began as a way to combine our aesthetics, experience, and creative
energies into one project (and to try and make a living at the same time!). At
the same time, we started a line of greeting cards to satisfy our creative side
as well as keep us busy.

Beginning with our first set of wedding invitations
in late 1999, we’ve grown a varied portfolio including hundreds of custom
products such as invitations, announcements, and note cards. We continue to this
day producing orders from 15 to 200 or more cards. Weddings, baby
announcements, birthday parties, holiday cards – you name the event, and we’ll work with
you to create a set of cards as individual as you are.
To help you find the perfect gift or card, we also carry a wide array of fun
and playful products you won’t see in every shop.

There’s a little something
for everyone here at Scaredy Kat, so come on in and take a spin around the
store. You never know what you’ll find!

Scaredy Kat has loads of great cards and Valentine’s gifts. I just love their retro, edgy, fun and wacky taste in paper goods, books, jewelry, objects, etc.