UPDATED 10:40 Friday night.

A large crowd of adults and children, some dressed as wizards, are lining up outside of the Community Bookstore in Park Slope waiting for the festivities to begin. Some are sitting on lawn chairs and some are reading Harry Potter books.

Hepcat reports that David Yassky is there dressed in a blond wig. "I don’t know if he is dressed as a wizard or he is just in drag," Hepcat says.  "The horses are going back forth. The riders are dressed as vikings or construction workers, I can’t quite tell. Helmets and hoods. That sort of thing."

Hepcat got a shot of Yassky and his family, as well as dozens of others. He set up his portable photography studio in from of the bookstore. Community Bookstore owner, Catherine, is in her owl costume.

OSFO just back from sleepaway camp is fast asleep on the couch in our living room. "You’re missing quite a show Hepcat said.

The store will open at midnight to sell the book. Advance tickets are required because the store has limited capacity. The owner and her staff have been working for weeks to create a magical party atmosphere. There is much theatricality planned, including two riders on horseback.

Tonight will be a big revenue night for the Community Bookstore, and other local bookstores. The store has been struggling financially in recent years. Things were beginning to look up even before this event, when many in the community banded together to create a viable business plan that would help the store survive in the longterm.

Tonight should be a much needed windfall for the store, which was featured in an article about local Harry Potter celebrations in today’s New York Times.

Hugh Crawford (AKA No Words_Daily Pix) will be taking pictures outside of the store of wizards and muggles alike. 

This from New York 1:

A new treatment center geared to help HIV-positive homeless women opened in Downtown Brooklyn Friday.

The Housing Works facility will offer day treatment, primary care, and dental services to patients free of charge.

Organizers and patients say that the center will help to improve the lives of underprivileged New Yorkers living with HIV.
“When the team came together we said we need to provide a top-notch place where women can feel at home,” said Dr. Marcelo Venegas of Housing Works. “So we really designed it to be a place that didn’t have that institutional feel.”

“As you know, Brooklyn is the epicenter of women of color and we are here to be their provider, their oasis, their safe haven,” said Rosalie Canosa of Housing Works. “It’s incredibly important.”

Hepcat and I wandered onto the grounds of the new Hotel Le Bleu on Fourth Avenue. A security guard named Wiley came out and in a very friendly way asked us what we were doing there.

He told us that the 48-room hotel will be open in a few days. He said it will be very nice and that the rooms are large. And there’s a restaurant and bar, too, He told us that the hotel is owned by a man from India. 

But boy is it pricey. It has nightly rates from $280.00 to $359.00.

I don’t envy Wiley sitting in that dark hotel all night on security duty. Hepcat took a great picture of the hotel. Maybe he’ll run it today.

Here’s a description of the hotel, which has a great view of the new apartment building on Fourth Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets. You may even be able to see MS 51 in the distance.

Experience the art of boutique hospitality at this all-new 48-room New York hotel located in the heart of Brooklyn? Just minutes from Manhattan, a haven of peace and privacy with luxuriously appointed guest rooms with modern features demanded of, by discerning travelers and globetrotters? comes hotel le blue.The compelling stark lines of hotel le blue are the perfect counterpoise to the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple. Making a bold dramatic statement of refined elegance, world class luxury, and crowned with the trendy restaurant and bar "Vue" on the roof which offers some of New York’s finest cuisines and spectacular views.hotel le blue? is the hallmark of luxury, style and glamour where guests are pampered to an extreme with specially designed ergonomic beds, orthopedic mattresses and topped with allergen free goose down comforters and Egyptian linens, for a perfect, restful sleep.

Funny story.

I met author Rudy Delson last night at a super fun apartment-without-a-garden-garden-party on Fourth Avenue. The building does have two hibiscus plants on their front stoop.

Rudy Delson’s novel, Maynard and Jennical, is coming out in the fall and he will be the featured author at the first Brooklyn Reading Works of the new season on Thursday, September 19th at 8 p.m.

We started talking and he told me a funny Gersh Kuntzman story. And since I love Gersh Kuntzman, editor of the Brooklyn Paper, and I love a good Gersh Kuntzman story, here goes. There are three chapters.

CHAPTER ONE

Rudy Gelson writes,

I once met Gersh Kuntzman. It was years ago, at the Park Slope Food Coop. He was working at the check-out register, and he bruised my bananas. I am certain however that he doesn’t remember me.

Rudy told me last night that when he complained to Gersh that he’d bruised his bananas Gersh said, “I like bruised bananas.”

CHAPTER TWO

About a year and a half ago, Rudy noticed that Gersh was the editor of the Brooklyn Paper. He enjoyed reading Gersh’s articles but he took issue with the fact that Gersh mentioned his book, Chrismakah. frequently in the Brooklyn Paper. Rudy wrote an email to Gersh, which Gersh insisted on publishing as a letter to the editor, lambasting him for his shamless self-promotion.

Okay.

CHAPTER THREE

More recently, Gersh used a woman in a bikini photograph to illustrate a story on new books by Brooklyn authors. The article listed Maynard and Jennica. Rudy had to chuckle. Now he was the one who was being shamelessly promoted in the Brooklyn Paper. With a woman in a bikini shot, no less. He writes: “Who but Gersh could put a bikini shot into the book review section of a free neighborhood weekly? Perhaps you, Boris Kachka?”

 
Hugh Crawford (AKA No Words_Daily Pix and Hepcat) and his traveling photo studio will be
set up outside of the Community
Bookstore tonight taking his FABULOUS
portraits of Harry Potter revelers. Wizards and muggles welcome.

He was there two years ago and those unforgettable pictures will be on display, as well. Prints of  pictures can be easily ordered.

 
  See you on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll.  If you’d like to see the pictures from two years ago,  go here.

Here’s our pal Pete responding to this week’s Smartmom in the Brooklyn Paper.

Hi Louise – I just read your column in the Brooklyn Paper about not hearing from OSFO since she’s been at sleepaway camp, and all I can say is – Congratulations! If your 10-year old is successfully on her way towards healthy separation and individuation, then you have done your job as a mother. When we are at our best as parents, we are temporary custodians of those developing beings we call children, and from day one, our job is to help them to be more and more able to live without us in the world – to make their own friends, establish their own values, express their own unique gifts their way. Fear not, Louise, and remember, having just spent a week alone on Block Island yourself, blissfully separated and individuated from your kids, co-dependency is not love, or as Sting said: “If you love someone, set them free.”
Peter Loffredo

Get a sampler of the new book, Walking Brooklyn, on a Bay Ridge walk this Saturday with author and OTBKB guest blogger Adrienne Onofri.

I have not yet begun to walk.

This Saturday, July 21, at 11 a.m., I will be leading a walk in Bay Ridge that commences at the park beneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge named for naval hero John Paul Jones, famous for saying and shouting, probably “I have not yet begun to fight!”

He never made it to Brooklyn, as far as I know, but I guess a naval theme was appropriate for a park facing the entrance to New York Harbor and situated just a block from still-active Fort Hamilton.

The walk is one of several offered this weekend as part of Lighten Up Brooklyn, Borough President Marty Markowitz’s health and fitness initiative. (You gotta love the logo: a tape measure around a bloated Brooklyn Bridge.) Other walks during the weekend tour Coney Island, Hasidic Crown Heights, the Marine Park nature area and more. Go to brooklyn-usa.org for further information.

There’s no charge, and everyone—Brooklynite or otherwise—is invited to participate. For the Bay Ridge walk, we’ll start by going around John Paul Jones Park to see its various monuments (military and otherwise), then head down to the biking/walking path beside the bay. This is one of New York’s great places for a stroll. You’ve got views of that tremendous bridge, the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan’s skyscrapers, even the rides of Coney Island and you can smell the sea air!

When I was writing Walking Brooklyn last year, I had to sidestep some barriers on this path, but the restoration is now complete on the Bay Ridge portion, so walking there is even more of a pleasure.

After a fitness walk of about a mile and a half, we’ll cross over the Belt Parkway (don’t worry: a pedestrian bridge is provided) and go in and out some residential streets of Bay Ridge. Much of this part of the walk is waterfront, if not waterside. We’ll see mansions old and new and visit Brooklyn’s other botanic garden on our way to the photo-oppy 69th St. pier.

Please join us! You’ll even receive a flyer good for a discount on Walking Brooklyn at the Community Bookstore and other shops. To get to the walk’s starting point, take the R to 95th St. or, from Park Slope, the B63 bus on 5th Ave. Enter John Paul Jones Park on 4th Ave. at 101st St. or Shore Rd.

The widow of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped, tortured, and killed five years ago, filed a lawsuit against Pakistan’s largest bank in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.

In the suit, Marianne Pearl blames the company and more then a dozen alleged terrorists for her husband’s killing.

Read more at New York 1.

My friend who runs the C is for Cupid website has great news to share about C is for Cupid, the new dating service for people whose lives have been affected by cancer. Founded by survivors, the goal is to provide a comfortable and confidential environment for members to connect with compatible singles and friends.

There is a brief mention of C is for Cupid in this week’s Newsweek
article about another dating website for people with different
medical issues.

My membership has doubled in two days. Many younger
people are signing up who have/had cancer.

Hepcat used his iPhone to look for what movies are playing in town but we still couldn’t get excited about much that’s out there.

We considered Ocean’s 13.

We were curious about tear fest, Evening, based on the Susan Minot novel and starring Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Street, Glenn Close and every major female actress you can think of and her daughter.

The reviews were mostly awful.

There’s something called Meet the Dwights about a female comedian with English actress Brenda Bleythen.

Finally we noticed something about Rescue Dawn in this week’s Entertainment Weekly. It was number one on The Must List: 10 Things We Love This Week. Directed by Werner Herzog it stars Christian Bale and Steve Zahn in a gripping drama about Viet Nam era POW’s.

All I can say is WOW. This film gripped me from the get-go. A masterful portrayal of the eccentric POW Dieter Dengler and the relationship that develops with fellow POW Duane, played by Zahn, I was in "shock and awe" for much of the film, which has disturbing scenes of torture, worms, snakes, leaches, and human cruelty that is hard to take. 

Here’s what the Times’ critic had to say.

Mr. Herzog’s movie reimagines his 1997 documentary, “Little Dieter Needs to Fly,”
as a drama of imprisonment, survival and perseverance. Although
financed independently, it superficially resembles the likes of “Papillon” and “The Great Escape.”
With its straightforward narrative, which observes Dengler being shot
down during his first mission over Laos; surviving torture, isolation,
confinement and starvation; and hatching a daring breakout, “Rescue
Dawn” seems a departure from Mr. Herzog’s “Aguirre, The Wrath of God,”
“Fitzcarraldo,” “Grizzly Man” and other cautionary tales of visionary madmen.

A friend wrote to tell me about Myra Klockenbrink, a Holistic Health and Wellness Therapist, who leads prouduce tours around the Park Slope Food Coop. She also  writes a heath and wellness newsletter that you can subscribe to (718-858-0238).

Here is one of her poems:

Dinner is done
the birds chortle as they settle in
and the squirrels have ceased their scrambling
and gone — where is it they go?
here and there fireflies signal to one another
incandescent even with the moon shining huge
and improbable over the rooftops

Seize a reason to be outside
invent a cause, fulfill a fantasy
make a profit if you must
   but find a way out

Take your desk to the stoop
shower in the downpours
pull out a mattress
reinstate the constitutional
and walk in the evening
with someone you love
tell them what lies in your heart

It’s easy to cook out of doors
after dinner while the grill is still hot
lay some apricot halves on foil
and dot them with butter and
cane juice crystals

let them cook until the sugar bubbles
serve them with sheep’s milk yogurt
maybe a spoon of granola

You can feel the night grow still
the birds have stopped
the trees themselves seem to rest
talk about the meaning of this life
now is as good a time as ever

The City Room reports that Con Ed ssued a statement at 7:38 a.m. “urging all
customers in the East Midtown area of Manhattan to discontinue their
use of non-essential electrical appliances and equipment until problems
on electrical cables can be resolved following yesterday’s steam-main
rupture.” The steam-main rupture killed one person and injured 30. 

Although there are no power failures reported yet, the utility is reporting strains on its electrical system.

The area affected includes roughly 14,000 customers — a term that
includes businesses and apartment buildings as well as households —
from East 39th to 57th Streets and from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive
to Park Avenue.

The utility said it had asked managers of big commercial buildings
to reduce their power consumption. Con Edison is asking residents in
the area not to use washers, dryers, air conditioners “and other
energy-intensive equipment” during peak hours of 1 p.m. to 6 p.m and to
turn off lights and televisions when not in use.

MORE AT THE CITY ROOM

It’s not the quickest way to get from point A to point B.

I know.

Readers, I’m married to one. A photographer, that is. Last night after Rescue Dawn at BAM, we slowly walked home after midnight. It was a night that said: take pictures of me. And Hepcat obliged.

It took forever.

Hepcat was stirred by the new buildings around BAM and the way the moon, the way the streetlights lit the scene.

Click click. He looked up at the sky…

Blue night sky, street light blur. Click. Click. Traffic. Color. Light. Click. Click.

Sometimes I get tired of waiting. I mean, COME ON: LET’S GET GOING ALREADY.  Often I am a half a block ahead by the time I realize he has stopped to take a picture.

This is our life.

We walked up Fourth Avenue and then traversed to Fifth. Past midnight, Fifth was quiet and dark for much of the way to Third Street. 

"Wait till you get to the number streets," Hepcat said knowingly.

Sure enough, at First Street Fifth Avenue livens up considerably with Bonnie’s Grill, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Blue Ribbon, Puppets, and other late-night spots.

Click. Click. Click. Hepcat clicked away. He walks, he looks, he takes pictures. That’s the photographer’s life.

Stop and go. Come on already. Impatiently standing on streetcorners. That’s the life of the  photographer’s spouse. My life.

That’s my life.   

I’ve been dying to try Moim, the new restaurant in a space that used to be a Chinese laundry on Garfield just east of Seventh Avenue.

I happen to love Korean food and frequent an inexpensive Korean lunch place near Union Square called Manna.

I was eager to see how Moim’s cooking compared to the food I enjoy over there. I was also dying of curiosity about the beautifully designed restaurant that quietly sprung up a couple of months ago.

I’d peeked in few times and it looked very intriguing.

Well, something very special has come to Park Slope and it has an interesting Park Slope twist to it.

Moim is owned by a Korean couple who live in Park Slope. He is a CFO of a Queens hospital and she is the restaurant’s chef. They bought the brownstone that Moim is in and did a MAJOR renovation to the space where the Chinese laundry used to be.

But that’s not all. The owners dug a new foundation in the former backyard and added an elegant back room for the restaurant and a patio for dining alfresco. The addition also houses the wife’s high tech kitchen.

Not only did this couple put an enormous amount of money into the restaurant but also real architectural elegance and Asian style. For the extensive renovation, they hired a well know Tribeca architect and he did an incredible job.

Stone, black brick, Asian screens: beautiful architectural touches abound. Moim, which means "gathering" Korean is an exceedingly nice place to be.

Enough about the decor. The food and service were very good. The moderately priced menu is a a mysterious collection of Korean classics and what I think must be new Korean cuisine.

We had a delicious crab salad as an appetizer but we smelled spare ribs and other delicious smelling small plates going to a table near us.

I throughly enjoyed my Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop, vegetables, meat and rice served in a steaming hot stone rice bowl. The food continues to cook while you eat. Unlike Manna, Moim stirs in a spicy red sauce and other condiments that you must add at the lunch place. I sensed that what I was eating was an authentic but slightly more sophisticated interpretation of what is basically Korean homecooking.

Hepcat had O Lee Gui duck breast with goji berry and asian vegetables. He didn’t give me a bite and it disappeared quickly. Usually a sign that he’s enjoying his food.

According to New York Magazine, "Chef-owner Saeri Uyoo Park has cooked at Spice Market, Café Gray, and
the Modern, but here she mines her own Korean background for dishes
like kimchee stir-fry with pork and tofu, and steak tartare with Asian
pear and pine nut."

The restaurant was lightly attended when we got there around 8 p.m. But at around 9 pm a group of about 20 mom friends gathered for a "mom’s night out" were sitting at a very large table near the front. The restaurant was quite full by the time we left.

Moim is still waiting for their liquor license but will have wine and cocktails. There’s a lovely bar near the front. The kitchen closes at 11 p.m., remarkably late for a Seventh Avenue eatery.

On so many levels, Moim may be one of the most sophisticated restaurants ever on Seventh Avenue. It’s bringing a cuisine unfamiliar to many in Brooklyn, lots of new flavors, new tastes, new textures.

I have nothing but high praise and high hopes for this lovely effort by locals to bring something so elegantly new to Park Slope’s main street with moderate prices and excellent food.

Moim is located at 206 Garfield Pl.,
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Just east of Seventh Ave.

718-499-8092

Caution. Don’t spend eight days alone on Block Island at the idyllic Sea Breeze Inn with its sunrise view of the ocean and salt ponds, a hammock, and a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit and muffins, if you ever plan on coming home.

Re-entry is pretty brutal.

The manager, Gaby, had to peel me out of there.

"Should I call you a cab," she said when it was time for me to go to the ferry.

"I guess," I said wanting her to do anything but.

Maybe I’ll miss the boat. Maybe I’ll have to spend another night. Maybe…

But it wasn’t to be. The driver showed up promptly and delivered me to the New London high-speed ferry at the docks.

The ferry ride is a perfect decompression zone. Out on the top deck, the wind blew my hair in all  directions and no one could tell that the tears in my eyes were tears of regret for having to leave my island paradise.

The Amtrak station in New London is just steps from the ferry and on the meditative train ride, I slept and read and thought back on my week spent finishing a new draft of my novel, eating delicious fish at the island’s best restaurants Eli’s and Harry’s), taking my rented Raleigh bicycle for a spin up and down the hills of the island, running 2 miles and back to the Southeast Lighthouse, writing daily postcards to OSFO at camp, and reading (The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud and Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirosky) sitting on an Adirondack chair at the Sea Breeze.

The cab I took from Penn Station with my big suitcase, computer, and bag of gifts for the family, took longer than the train ride from say, Bridgeport to Penn Station. First I thought the cabbie was purposely taking the longest and stupidest route to Brooklyn:

He went across some side street in the 20’s to the FDR and down to the Brooklyn Bridge. He said he was doing it because there was too much traffic on 7th Avenue and Broadway.

Duh, there was congestion a-plenty on the FDR and we were literally stopped dead in our tracks while a work crew on the Brooklyn Bridge packed up.

Finally got home an hour after leaving Penn. The meter read: $36.00, an unheard of fare from Penn Station to Park Slope. I mean, have you ever paid so much?

I tried to be very Zen about the ride, tried very hard not to lose it and say to the driver: serves you right for taking the FDR.

All of that did not bode well for my re-entry, which was pretty rocky. Things got worse before they got better. But seeing Hepcat and Teen Spirit (OSFO is still away at camp) and a glass of wine with Mrs. Kravitz at the Third Street Cafe, helped a bit.

A walk down Seventh Avenue. Dinner. The outdoor film in JJ Byrne Park. Slowly I got my  bearings.

Block Island is feeling farther and farther away. 

I stayed at the Sea Breeze, an idyllic inn on Block Island, in their one "group house," five rooms with two shared bathrooms.

It’s an absolutely lovely place and the shared bathrooms keep the price down.

It’s fun, too because breakfast is a nice social time at 8:30 or so when the guests come down to a a colorful buffet of fresh cantaloupe, blueberries, nectarines, strawberries, and kiwi, delicious coffee, and muffins, croissants, and bagels (with butter, jam, cream cheese).

And the breakfast even has a Brooklyn buzz: the Sea Breeze uses Claireware coffee cups!

Guests gather at the picnic table or Adirondack chairs in the outside area that faces the ocean. Need I say more?

The other morning, a nice woman came downstairs from the second floor. I had seen her husband a couple of days earlier. He had an urban vibe; a distinctly New York look. She was packing up, getting ready to leave after a week on the island.

"The party’s over," she said. "Time to get back."

Where do you live, I asked her.

I could feel it:  Brooklyn, she said. 

"I live in Brooklyn, too." I said excitedly. "Which part?"

Williamsburg, she said.

We talked a bit about re-entry. She said it’s hard to re-adjust to Williamsburg after Block Island. Quite a contrast.

"Williamsburg is fun, isn’t it?" I said.

"Williamsburg is basically a construction site these days," she said.

I know what she means.

Continue reading YOU CAN’T GET TOO FAR FROM BROOKLYN: WHERE ARE YOU FROM? →