Here’s an excerpt from Seeing Green’s review. And here’s the rest.

It’s a good thing that I didn’t read reviews of La Vie en Rose,
the biopic about Edith Piaf, before I went to see it, thanks to my
sister-in-law’s hearty recommendation.  After thoroughly relishing this
film, out of curiosity I went back to read some reviews and was, to say
the least, amazed at the one-sidedness of even famous reviewers.

by OTBKB guest blogger, Diaper Diva.

What a morning.

I woke up to a front page article in the City Section of the New York Times that is basically a tribute to the tenacity of my twin sister for starting a trend-setting blog.  Somehow, she’s at the epicenter of the brooklyn Blogosphere. Incredible.

She has  become famous and I don’t think it’s going to be for just 15-minutes.

I often feel like a celebrity look-alike since I am often mistaken for "Smartmom"  on the streets of Park Slope.

Growing up as identical twins, we always had a certain disdain for the idea of being twins. No cute matching outfits for us. We were always encouraged to exhibit our individuality. We even went to separate private schools.
We  also went to separate colleges,  but often visited one another traversing through the back roads of Upstate New York to see one another. This individuality never made us distant or remote. We were fiercely close,  although  I  often felt threatened by her new friends and experiences.

As is common with twins, a fight could ignite within seconds. But i would end just  as quickly. 
Nevertheless, we grew up and formed our  separate lives  and identities.

I paved out a life for myself in Manhattan on the Upper West Side  establishing myself in a career in the photography and later the film business.
I remained single longer than she did and toiled the single scene through my thirties.

Of course,   there were a great many fun times. Summer houses in the Hamptons, trips to the Carribean, exciting work on film locations. All the while, ny twin married and had two beautiful children. 

I kept a close eye on her life.

When her first child was born, it was as if I had my own. Teen Spirt was the most adorable thing I had every seen. I must have photographed every waking moment of his life from 0- 6months.
I wanted  children of my own. There were many men, and that oh-so-stubborn-one who wouldn’t marry me or "commit". We toiled together for five years until I had to say good bye to his cries of "I’m not ready…"

To Be Continued.

Continue reading SHE’S FAMOUS →

My neighbor Phyzz reports that Mekong, the Vietnamese restaurant on Fifth Avenue has suddenly closed.

Anyone know what happened? Do tell.

On July 13 join the, Brooklyn Food Group, the roving supper club, for a five-course summer meal, which includes cocktails, ceviche, and an ice cream
tasting, among other exciting features. They  request a $50 donation to
cover the costs of the evening.  Reserve your seat NOW.

Here’s the preliminary Tastes of summer menu:

Ceviche

Pasta with a summer pesto and vegetables

Quail with pickled green tomatoes, black mission figs, fingerling potatoes, pomegranate molasses

A tasting of ice cream sandwiches

Yup. To get some writing done. Should be interesting, eh? No kids. No husband. No friends. No Slope.

A few good souls have volunteered to sub for me while I’m gone and I’m excited about that. New perspectives, new locales, new subject matter. It’ll do the blog some good.

Don’t miss: Adrienne Onofri, Gilley, Au Contraire (Peter Loffredo), Dr. Robert Lifton, and Matthew Resnick.

If more of you are interested please email me or hugh<at>hughcrawford.com. Even if you have your own blog: I’d love to have you.

Should be an interesting week. I hear that the Internet service where I’m going is spotty so I am not sure if I will be reading these posts until I get back. But I thank you all for contributing your  creative services to OTBKB.

The guest blogging will officially begin on Monday June 9. I will be back at my computer on Monday June 17th.

Hepcat will be holding down the fort while I’m gone. He’s busy with freelance software architecting and will be home with Teen Spirit. OSFO will be at sleep-a-way camp.

Me? I’ll be on an island. Far from home and this blog.

Miss Heather at New York Shitty reports that Word Books is having an Adults Only Harry Potter party on July 20th. Here’s an excerpt.

Recently my buddy over at Word Books was in distress. She was perplexed by a rather snarky and peculiar quip Daily Intelligencer made about the sign she made advertising an “Adults Only” Harry Potter release party. She even asked me if I was responsible for this. I told her no. This is the truth.

I’ll be honest; I find the fascination some adults (especially middle-aged adults) have for Ms. Rowling’s body of work a little creepy. Not unlike Star Trek groupies who elect to exchange their wedding vows in Klingon. Both of the previous types of people are beyond my comprehension.

That said, I know damn well that I am in no position whatsoever to judge people for what they read because my reading habits are pretty fucking peculiar
in their own right. Sex workers and sideshow freaks are of particular
interest to yours truly. Regarding the latter, I recently finished a
book entitled “The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton.” I
purchased this book from (where else?) Word Books.

New York 1 has the story. Here’s an excerpt.

Some cyclists are hoping a bike path in Brooklyn will eventually lead them straight to Staten Island.

The Shore Parkway bike path in Bay Ridge has seen a dramatic restoration over the last few years.

Now State Senator Marty Golden is proposing extending the bike path over the Verrazano Bridge into Staten Island.

The Verrazano Bridge is run by the MTA, but the agency says there are no current plans to connect the path to it.

New York Times’ reporter Greg Beyers emailed me to say that his article about the Brooklyn blogging scene will be in the City section this Sunday. He’s been working on it since before the Brooklyn Blogfest on May 10th. There was a New York Times’ photographer at the recent Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow at Vox Pop. I’m excited to see the article.

I’ll be on an island where they probably don’t get the City section and the Internet is spotty. Hmmmm. What’s a blogger to do?

Dang.

Got this from a friend whose husband composes jazz compositions for a 17-piece orchestra. I am adding this to OTBKB’s Summer in Brooklyn even if it is at the Bowery Poetry Club. Sometimes you’ve just got to go into Manhattan. It’s good for you from time to time.

Dear Friends and Others:
You are cordially invited to the inaugural engagement of my latest musical (ad)venture

The Joshua Shneider Easy-Bake Orchestra with vocal sensation Lucy Woodward

Original compositions and arrangements for 17 musicians,
featuring some of NYC’s most fearless improvisers.

July 11th
8:00-9:30  pm
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
212.614.0505
foot of First Street, between Houston & Bleecker
across the street from CBGBs

One more event for the OTBKB Summer in Brooklyn Guide.

For their latest event, Sustainable Flatbush is teaming up with the Green Edge 
Collaborative, a Brooklyn-based organization dedicated to community 
education about the impact of individual consumption choices on 
society and the environment. Green Edge’s previous events have 
included Eco-Eatery tours of local restaurants and Supper Club 
potluck-style gatherings with an emphasis on local organic ingredients.

WHAT:
Eating Sustainably
Meet-up and Discussion

Join your New York City neighbors in an open discussion about issues 
surrounding food and sustainability. The discussion will be moderated 
by Carolyn Gilles of the Green Edge Collaborative and Anne Pope of 
Sustainable Flatbush. Here is a great article to get you thinking 
beforehand, or a little fun education if you can’t make the event:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/fashion/01green.html

WHEN:
Wednesday July 11th, 8pm

WHERE:
Vox Pop Cafe/Bookstore
1022 Cortelyou Road
Brooklyn, NY 11218
Q train to Cortelyou Road

Sustainable Flatbush provides a neighborhood-based forum to discuss, 
promote and implement sustainability concepts in Brooklyn and beyond. 
We sponsor events and host a blog (http://sustainableflatbush.org) 
where topics range from local to global.

Celebrate Brooklyn on Friday night has something that sounds very unususal: REwind: A Cantata For Voice, Tape & Testimony / Richie Havens. Here’s the blurb.

Cape Town composer Philip Miller’s extraordinary international collaboration is based on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings that led South Africa from apartheid to democracy. Opera superstar Sibongile Khumalo joins other South African soloists, a string octet, and a 100-voice chorus composed of Brooklyn’s Total Praise Choir of Emanuel Baptist Church, the Williams College Choir, and a South African ex-patriot choir led by Lion King choirmaster Ron Kunene. The music blends seamlessly with samples of recorded TRC testimony and stunning projected images. "The Cantata brought together the cry of our country—our pain and fears, our hopes and especially our triumphs and joys in the way we as South Africans can best express these emotions—in music and song. It was a deeply moving, most powerful and uplifting experience." (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)

The evening begins with an introduction by a very special surprise guest host and a performance by folk icon Richie Havens. Bedford-Stuyvesant born and raised, Havens has used his music to convey messages of brotherhood and personal freedom since emerging from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s. His fiery, soulful singing and guitar style remains unique and ageless, and his willingness to lend his voice to numerous worthy causes through the decades has made him one of the most enduring musician-activists of his generation.

Jen Chung, editor of Gothamist.com, joins The Brian Lehrer Show on
Thursdays in July to discuss New York politics, culture and everyday
life. Speaking of Gothamist, they had a great interview with our man Michael Hearst, who created the new album, Songs for Ice Cream Trucks, a Park Slope fave. They asked him to share his strangest only in New York" story:

Well, I don’t know if this is an "only in New York" story, but here
goes: I actually work one day a week at a small pasty shop in Park
Slope called Colson Patisserie. It allows me to get away from my
computer and music for a little while. Plus, they sell homemade gelato…
and copies of my CD. Anyway, one afternoon it was really crowded, and
there was this long line of people waiting to get coffees.

As I
approached the next lady in line, I noticed she was staring at my
"Songs For Ice Cream Trucks" CD, which was on display by the register.
She looked up at me and said, "You know, I was stuck in
traffic the other day and was listening to the radio, and I happened to
hear the guy who made this CD being interviewed. And I was thinking to
myself, ‘what kind of person has the time to sit around and write an
entire album of songs for ice cream truck??’" I shook my head at her
and said, "Man, whoever that is must be a complete moron!" She rolled
her eyes in agreement. I then took her order, and went off to make her
a double latte, or whatever.

Park Slope novelist Rob Reuland used to be a prosecutor in the DA’s office in Brooklyn. That is, before his crime novel, Hollowpoint, was published in 2001.

In February 2001, Reuland was interviewed by New York Magazine about his first novel and was   quoted as saying, "Brooklyn is the best place to be a
homicide prosecutor. We’ve got more dead bodies per square inch than
anyplace else."

I remember the incident well because I used to rent studio space in Reuland’s brownstone, which I shared with another fiction writer and a quilter. My office was an adorable and rustic mud room that led to the garden. Unheated, it was a little cold in the winter. But hey, it was my rustic writing room in the woods of Park Slope. The others were in a larger room. Rob and his wife had a big, fancy office in a big room closer to the street.

After about a year, they decided to reclaim the back of their ground floor and we all moved out. But I knew Rueland had a crime novel in the works and I kept my eye out for it. Then I saw the interview in New York Magazine. I thought it was a good quote. There was definitely some poetic license there  — I wasn’t sure if it was statistically correct. But I was surprised a few weeks later when the whole thing blew up.

Then again. Maybe I wasn’t so surprised.

The quote got him into trouble with his boss, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. According to an article in last week’s Village Voice, then State Senator Marty Markowitz wasn’t too pleased either.

Inveterate Brooklyn booster Marty Markowitz (then a state senator
and now borough president) demanded Reuland’s head. With Hynes out of
town, Reuland’s boss, Amy Feinstein (now Hynes’s top assistant)
summoned him, and Reuland told her he didn’t mean to piss anybody off.
He offered to write a letter to New York. Feinstein and another
boss in Hynes’s office edited Reuland’s meek missive, in which he
admitted "my hyperbolic remark" and said, "This was not intended to be,
nor is it, literally true. In fact Brooklyn’s murder rate has declined
more than 66 percent during the past decade." But Hynes wasn’t
mollified, taking Reuland’s comment as a personal attack on the crime
reduction that Hynes believed his office was instrumental in achieving.

Well, here it is six years later and Charles Hynes is promoting his new book, "Triple Homicide." In early June, he had a reading at the Park Slope Barnes and Noble. Here’s the Village Voice again:

[Hynes} started expounding about this and that," says Reuland, "and
I just couldn’t stomach it." No surprise there. Six years ago, Hynes
tossed Reuland out of his job as a prosecutor in the high-profile
Homicide Bureau for doing exactly what the district attorney is now
doing: hawking a book.

Reuland walked out. I wish I coulda been a fly on the wall. But the Village Voice was there and tells the tale.

The New York TImes has the story of the avant garde violinist who lost his violin at the Clark Street station of the 2/3 train after playing a show with his quartet the Fluxus Quartet at Bargemusic, the floating performance space in Brooklyn Heights.

This is a Brooklyn story par excellance. The Times’ reports that the violin was found at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station.

Sometime after 10 p.m., Mr. Chiu said, he got a call from a transit
official at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station. “He asked if I
was missing something,” he said. “I described the contents of the
violin case. He said there were a bunch of bow ties in it and I knew it
was mine.”

The official, Mr. Chiu said, told him that the violin
had been sitting on a desk at the station for a while — perhaps days.
“He found something with my name and address on it inside the violin
case and figured it must mean something to somebody, so he called me.”

The
Coney Island station, however, does not house the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority’s official lost-and-found. “I think it’s for
things that were found on trains on all the lines that end there,” Mr.
Chiu said. The Clark Street station, where Mr. Chiu and the Scarampella
had last been together, is on the 2 and the 3 — which do not go to
Coney Island.

Mayor Bloomberg and his staff are moving to the city’s new Emergency Management Office in Brooklyn for two weeks while offices in City Hall are refurbished.

A friend, a former Park Sloper who now lives in Staten Island in a beautiful old barn, had a fourth of July BBQ. Lucky us.

Even in the light rain, it was fun to leave the borough and celebrate the fourth with a bunch of Brooklynites in a countrified setting.

The section of Staten Island near Snug Harbor is beautiful and historic. My friend’s house, a barn, belonged to the large 1859 house next door. It was converted into a home by a sculptor, who had a great architectural sense. Double height living room, exposed beams, lots of windows. A street near my friend’s house has numerous Stanford White houses.

The guest list was made up mostly of Park Slopers and some from Kensington, Old Mill Basin, and other spots in Brooklyn. There were of course plenty of friends from Staten Island.

No skinny backyard for this former Park Sloper. My friend has an acre or more with a stream, a pergola, a hot tub and more.

The food, chicken, dogs, hamburgers, pasta, salad and more was delish. The host and hostess asked everyone to bring "bevvies." And there were a lot of those. Bottles and bottles of wine and beer.

Typical Park Sloper’s, we were nervous about leaving the borough. Would there be traffic? Would we find the way?  Would we get back to Brooklyn in time for the fireworks?

Teen Spirit and OSFO opted to stay on Third Street for our building’s BBQ. Two other friends piled into the car for the ROAD TRIP adventure to Staten Island. Before entering the party exit plans were discussed.

"We have to leave no later than 6:30," I said.
"Give me a half-hour warning," my friend said.

It was just like the old days when I would would venture to a party in Brooklyn terrified that I wouldn’t know how to get home to Manhattan. Were there cabs in Brooklyn? Is  anyone driving? Parties would empty out at 11 pm as Manhattanites raced out if someone had a car or had called a car service.

It was like the last transport out of Saigon. 

We left Staten Island around 7 p.m. Scott Elliot, director of the Brooklyn Writer’s Space and his son came with us back to Brooklyn.

"I want you to know that I get car sick," his son said.

We braced for the worse but he fell asleep crossing the Verrazano Bridge.

Scott told us about the Writer’s Space baseball team. They’ll be playing Paragraph, a Manhattan writer’s space sometime in July. He also mentioned  Room 58, his new workspace designed for journalists and other
research-based writers on 7th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues in Park Slope/Gowanus. Soundsl ike a great space for those in need of work space (ahem: Hepcat: Can you hear me?).

Picture by Anonymous.

The Nathan’s contest glamorizes gluttony, says one of the signs that GL captured on his camera, as well as a person dressed as a pea with a sign that says, Give Peas a Chance.