I went into Old First Church this afternoon and I couldn’t get over the transformation by the Transformers, the group from Gibbsville, Wisconsin that’s spent the week sprucing things up.

Chris Wensink, one of the Transformers, writes about the process on his blog.

“The single most important job that we are here for is to lower and clean up and fix the chandelier in the center part of the sactuary. This project is being led by Mike Navis, Jenn’s husband, who is an electrician. Monday morning the chandelier was lowered to a height where we could take the lower sections off, then support the main lighting section with some wood on the bottom.

Once that was set, we got out all of the scaffolding in the basement of the church, and began building the scaffolding around the areas of the chandelier. Once we hd that in place, we began unscrewing all of the bulbs, then slowly taking the 100 year old glass enclosures off of the chandelier that were around the bulbs. There was about 100 bulbs / glass shields that were taken down. Some people then that afternoon started carefully taking those over to the kitchen area and washing them back to a clean / shining state. Once those were all all out of the way Mike began inspecting all of the chandelier wiring and all of the sockets, testing them to make sure they work, and that they have adequate wiring standards in place.”

After days of hard work, the Transformers have returned the chandelier to the ceiling. All the lightbulbs are in. It’s shiny, shiny. And I’ve never seen the sanctuary look so bright. Not in years.

It is so BRIGHT!!

“Is there a dimmer on that thing?” I asked Pastor Meeter.
“No, but we can control which row of lights is on,” he said.

The Transformers are also cleaning the sanctuary and doing construction and restoration work in other parts of the church.

They’re using the big room adjacent to the santuary as a mess hall/social/rest area. They’ve got tables set up in there, some with Bibles. When I was in there, it was obviously snack time. Chris, the blogger, was blogging away in a private corner. I introduced myself. He said Brooklyn couldn’t be more different from where they’re from. But they’re all having a great time.

Go to Chris’s blog for a detailed narrative of the restoration work the Transformers have been engaged in.

I ran into Daniel Meeter, the pastor of Old First Reformed Church this morning. He had a copy of J.D. Salinger’s "Franny and Zooey" in his pocket.

"What a great book," he said. "I finally read it."

Pastor Meeter jokes that he reads OTBKB first thing in the morning. "After God " he says. "I turn to God then to Laurie." For some reason, he thinks my name is Laurie. It’s LOUISE, Dan. Louise.

Today he didn’t read OTBKB so it was nice to run into each other. I asked him how things are going with the Wisconsiners at the church.

"Have you been there yet? Have you seen the chandelier lowered to the floor?" he said with characteristic enthusiasm. Pastor Meeter loves the energy and generosity of the folks from Gibbsville, Wisconsin, who call themselves the Transformers. They have thrown themselves into the restoration of the chandelier: polishing it, replacing light bulbs, doing whatever needs to be done.

Meeter says that they can’t seem to drag themselves away from it: they stand, sit, talk, work around it all day.

"They are embracing the beauty of the chandelier," he says.

The Transformer’s one-week adventure in Brooklyn has been an eye-opening experience for many of them. Park Slope, Brooklyn couldn’t be more different than their hometown, but the Transformers are taking it in — hearts open wide.

Read the Transformers blog for a narrative of their days Brooklyn.

For details on what people are calling the first post-massacre Community Board 6 meeting, check out Gowanus Lounge’s report. Here’s an excerpt.

Community Board 6 held its first meeting since theAtlantic Yards/Gowanus Massacre by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and City Council Member David Yassky that ended the service of nine longstanding members. The Board voted down a resolution criticizing the dismissals and suggesting that the "independence and, indeed, the fundamental value of Community Boards are undermined" by removal of members based on their position on controversial issues. The Board voted against the measure by a voted of 14-6 with a large number of abstentions.

On bike lanes…
On congestion pricing…

Didn’t make it over there. But it looked like fun. Check out pictures at the Gowanus Lounge.

Oh and I’m such a fan of Aaron Neville’s falsetto.

He was in Park Slope last week at the Community Bookstore. They were giving out purple balloons. Not sure about this reading. But that’s okay. It’s in Soho.

Ben Greenman, an editor at the New Yorker, will be reading tonight at
7 p.m. at McNally Robinson in New York (52 Prince St.) with Jack
Pendarvis and Pia Z. Ehrhardt. Mr. Greenman’s new book of fiction, "A
Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both: Stories About Human Love" has
been receiving rave reviews. Here are some:

"Love in all its complexities, disappointments and reversals…Just when
you thought there was nothing more to say."
–Chicago Tribune

"Accessible, beautifully written, honest, and hilarious…Greenman’s
knowledge of popular culture is thorough and his rendering brilliant.
The best stories I found myself wanting to read again immediately,
then read again to a friend. Highly recommended."
–Library Journal

"At their best, the stories in ‘A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass
Both’ are serious works of realistic fiction. But then, the stories of
Kafka are serious realistic fiction too."
–San Francisco Chronicle

"Wildly inventive, sometimes surreal, but tenderly told, these stories
give a glimpse of what Philip K. Dick might have written if he’d
allowed himself a sincere broken heart."
–Paste Magazine

"Like Green Day did for punk rock, and The Matrix for kung-fu flicks,
this new collection from New Yorker editor Greenman could well become
an advocate for the short story."
–Time Out Chicago

For more information, visit www.bengreenman.com. If you would like to
interview the author, contact Melissa Little (melissa@macadamcage.com;
415-986-7502).

Run don’t walk. CD. Download. Whatever your medium: Get it. It’s called The Reminder. They have it a Music Matters and yes, Starbucks.

I am so so so digging it.

Nyack Weed Killer, AKA Mrs. Deserter, used to live across the street on Third Street. She now lives in a beautiful Victorian house in Nyack that I still haven’t seen. I feel terrible that we haven’t made our way up there, yet.

How many years has it been since they vacated their Third Street apartment? How many years has it been since NWK’s window boxes stopped gracing that second floor window ledge?

We still miss them. But we also know that they’re tremendously happy in their big house on the river.

I’m sure she knows about this but just in case, here’s something from n 1010 WINS. It’s really creepy.

New York — Police are advising people in Nyack to lock their windows after three incidents of an intruder getting inside a woman’s apartment while she slept.

Orangetown police say the latest incident was early Sunday on North Broadway. A man removed a screen, entered an apartment and began touching a woman as she slept. He fled through an open window when the women awoke and she and her mother started screaming.

1010 WINS Audio: Terry Sheridan Reports

Police believe the same man severely beat a woman inside her Hudson Avenue apartment during the early morning hours of June 6th. And there was an unsuccessful attempt to open another woman’s window last month.

Police say they don’t have a good description of the suspect because he strikes in a dark room. They say he has large hands and wears a dark hooded sweatshirt.

Thursday, June 14th at7:30 p.m. at Community Bookstore.
143 7th Avenue, Park Slope. (718) 783-3075

Note from OTBKB: I’ve read much of the book, a collection of personal, honest, and inspiring essays by parents of special needs kids of all types. A must-read for all parents, special needs or not, because of what it expresses about parenting and love.

Community Books sent this:

Candid, passionate, personal, and heartbreakingly
funny, a view from within the whirlwind of parenting a
child with special needs
Three years ago, magazine editor Denise Brodey’s
precocious four-year-old son, Toby, was diagnosed with
a combination of sensory integration dysfunction and
childhood depression. As she struggled to make sense
of her new, often chaotic, often lonely world, what
she found comforted her most was talking with other
harried, hopeful, and insightful parents of kids with
special needs, learning how they coped with the
feelings they encountered throughout the day.
In The Elephant in the Playroom, moms and dads from
across the country write intimately and honestly about
the joyful highs and disordered lows of raising
children who are “not quite normal.” Laying bare the
emotional, medical, and social challenges they face,
their stories address issues ranging from if and when
to medicate a child, to how to get a child who is
overly sensitive to the texture of food to eat lunch.
Eloquent and honest, the voices in this collection
will provide solace and support for the millions of
parents whose kids struggle with ADD, ADHD, sensory
disorders, childhood depression, Asperger’s syndrome,
and autism—as well as the many kids who fall between
diagnoses.
Offering readers comfort, community, and much-needed
perspective, The Elephant in the Playroom is sure to
become essential reading for parents of all sorts of
kids.
We’d love to see you there! Thursday, June 14th at
7:30 p.m. at Community Bookstore. 143 7th Avenue, Park
Slope. (718) 783-3075

Gabriel Cohen sent me this book and it’s really good. I haven’t finished it but I highly recommend his reading tonight. Cohen, author of "Red Hook", reads from his new Brooklyn novel, "Boombox",

tonight, June 13th, at Community Bookstore at 7:30.

Black and white, young and old, men and women, they
live in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, sharing a courtyard in
relative harmony. It’s what a former mayor liked to
call “the urban mosaic.”

There’s Carol Fasone, a secretary enjoying her new
marriage to a Bosnian immigrant. There’s Mitchell
Brett, a Wall Streeter transplanted from Manhattan’s
Upper East Side, trying to get his wife pregnant.
There’s Grace Howard, hoping for a promotion in her
corporate job, surprised to find herself beginning a
romance with a member of the Board. And then there’s
teenage Jamel Wilson, who buys a big sound system to
impress his friends from the projects around the
corner, blasts gangster rap into the backyard gardens,
and—over the course of one hot summer—pushes the
block’s friendships and alliances past the breaking
point.

We hope you can come! Gabriel Cohen, author of "Red
Hook", reads from his new Brooklyn novel, "Boombox",
tonight, June 13th, at Community Bookstore at 7:30.

New eats on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope:

–Oko, a new frozen yogurt shop with assorted teas, hot and iced, including a lip-smacking ginger with Asian pear, are $3 to $4 for 16 ounces. The name means “eco” in Hungarian. Oko is at 152 Fifth Avenue (DeGraw Street),
(718) 398-3671.

–A new bakery called Trois Pommes has opened at 260 Fifth Avenue (Carroll Street), (718)
230-3119.

An OTBKB reader needs information on local banking.

I need to open a new bank account and I had this idea that I should open it
at Independence Community Bank because their foundation funds so much
Brooklyn goodness, but they’ve been acquired by Sovereign and I don’t know
a thing about them. Williamsburgh Savings? Now HSBC.

So now I’m wondering, what do other Brooklynites do? Does anyone try to
bank locally? I’d go the credit union route, but they seem not to offer so
many interest bearing accounts. Or do they?

I’d love to hear from OTBKB readers about where they bank and how they like it.

I’m serious.

Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing reports that Forbes Magazine has put together a collection of articles about 21st century city, including Doctorow’s about the future of urban surveillance, called “Snitchtown.” Here’s an excerpt.

The key to living in a city and peacefully co-existing as a social animal in tight quarters is to set a delicate balance of seeing and not seeing. You take care not to step on the heels of the woman in front of you on the way out of the subway, and you might take passing note of her most excellent handbag. But you don’t make eye contact and exchange a nod. Or even if you do, you make sure that it’s as fleeting as it can be.

Checking your mirrors is good practice even in stopped traffic, but staring and pointing at the schmuck next to you who’s got his finger so far up his nostril he’s in danger of lobotomizing himself is bad form–worse form that picking your nose, even.

I once asked a Japanese friend to explain why so many people on the Tokyo subway wore surgical masks. Are they extreme germophobes? Conscientious folks getting over a cold? Oh, yes, he said, yes, of course, but that’s only the rubric. The real reason to wear the mask is to spare others the discomfort of seeing your facial expression, to make your face into a disengaged, unreadable blank–to spare others the discomfort of firing up their mirror neurons in order to model your mood based on your outward expression. To make it possible to see without seeing.

Math scores for students across New York State improved significantly in every grade tested this year, especially in New York City, according to results of the annual statewide math exam released by education officials yesterday. Read the Times here.

One of the members of the Transformers, the group from Gibbsville Reformed Church in Gibbsville, Wisconsin who are fixing the chandelier at the Old First Reformed Church, has a blog. His name is Chris and he’s blogging about the group’s experience in Brooklyn.

This is so, so cool. Chris writes,

Well, we had a wonderful second day in New York. We slept in to about 8AM, then had some breakfast, and did some worship songs and at 11AM, we participated in the church service of Old First Reformed. It’s a very traditional reformed church, every week they do communion, and most of us participated in it. We were also talked about by Pastor Dan, and the surprise and delight of our group, when Transformers were introduced to the rest of church, we were greeted with applause and excitement, what a blessing!

He’s added a vaguely European movie soundtrack feeling to my treks up and down Seventh Avenue. In front of Chase Bank, Old First, here and there, he has, in his own somewaht melancholy and musical way, altered the mood of Seventh Avenue.

Thank you Mr. Accordian Man. Dope on the Slope has a picture

Gowanus Lounge reports that Astroland may stick around for another year. You’ll have to go over there for the story.

Got this info today about a new online book discussion group, Brooklyn Book Talk, sponsored by the Brooklyn Public Library.

Want a new way to discuss books and literature? Can’t make it to your library’s book discussion? Join other readers online! Brooklyn Public Library has started an online book discussion.
We’ve kicked off with “Siddhartha,” Hermann Hesse’s exploration of the tensions between spirituality and worldliness. Future titles include “The Night Watch,” about four young Londoners struggling through World War II, by Sarah Waters and “The Lost Painting,” Jonathan Harr’s real-life detective story from the art world.

Via this online book discussion, BPL will offer entertainment and education by providing a platform for lively, engaging, friendly, and probing discussion and debate, 24 hours a day. All you need to participate is an enthusiasm for books and for talking about them. Discussions will change every month and are led by BPL librarians.

Go to http://brooklynbooktalk.blogspot.com/ for more information and to join in.