Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper.

The middle school moment of truth is just around the corner.

Sort of.

In the next month or so, Smartmom, Hepcat, and the Oh So Feisty One will have to fill out OSFO’s application to middle school.

Da da da dummmmmm.

Since the fall, they’ve been attending middle school open houses and tours.

OSFO keeps tabs on Smartmom’s progress. She’s convinced that she isn’t doing enough to facilitate the process.

“Have you made appointments at all the schools?” OSFO asks frequently. “Isn’t there somewhere else we should be looking?”

Smartmom explains to her that they are only looking at public schools.

“Is Berkeley Carroll public or private? How about Poly Prep?”

Obviously, middle school is the talk of the playground — and the source of great anxiety for kids and parents alike.

In preparation for that big decision, the Smartmom Three (the whole family minus Teen Spirit) toured New Voices Middle School on 18th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues and got a really detailed sense of the place from the charismatic principal, Frank Giordana, who took them around. His shirt was lavender, the same color as the walls of the school.

Giordana prides himself on knowing the names of all the children in the school and seems to have created a cozy and nurturing learning environment.

It’s also a very creative place, where the arts are considered an important component of academic life. All sixth graders are required to take dance, drama, fine art, graphic design, and music. In seventh and eighth grade, they are required to specialize.

OSFO liked the idea that she’d have a chance to sample a variety of artistic disciplines. MS 51, another school she is considering, requires that you make a commitment to one of the arts and stick with it for three years.

It’s hard to imagine that a fifth grader would be prepared to make that kind of decision.

Walking back to Third Street after the tour, Smartmom knew better than to ask OSFO what she thought of the school. Sure, part of her just wanted to just blurt out, “So, is New Voices a top contender?”

But she knew that OSFO would bite her head off. A girl needs time to process her own thoughts.

Poor OSFO. She has to leave a school where she’s been comfortable and happy since kindergarten and make a choice about something strange and new.

By the time the Smartmom Three got to 16th Street and Seventh Avenue, OSFO did seem willing to share. She said that she liked the school, but thought it might be a little far away from the apartment.

She wondered if any of her friends would be going there. Obviously, she doesn’t want to make the transition from PS 321 to middle school alone.

Finally, she asked about lunch. She’s gotten used to going out to lunch every day with her friends at PS 321.

“They don’t let any of the kids out of their sight,” Smartmom told her.

“You mean we can’t even go out to get something to eat?” OSFO inquired somewhat incredulously.

“That’s weird.”

So geography, friends and lunch seemed to be OSFO’s main concerns about her future education. That seemed about right to Smartmom.

The three of them walked down Seventh Avenue and avoided the topic of middle school altogether. Mum’s the word unless OSFO brings it up — the subject is fraught with so much anxiety for everyone.

Will she get into the right school? Will she be happy there? Will she do well? Where will she go to high school?

“How about we get something to eat?” Smartmom asked as they passed Grab, the gourmet shop on Seventh Avenue near 14th Street that had some delectable looking pastries in the window.

But OSFO seemed eager to get back to her fifth-grade teachers and classmates at PS 321, the place where she belongs.

Who wouldn’t be in a rush to get back to the tried and true? The future is a giant white piece of paper with not even a stray number two pencil mark on it.

Smartmom looked at her precious child with the long brown hair, skinny jeans, and Uggs and felt an outpouring of love and empathy. How would you feel if you were being asked to leap into the unknown?

No doubt, she’s up for the task. In some ways, she’s ready and raring to go.

But still, change is never easy. Even for OSFO.

It’s been a busy couple of days. Aside from attending a Bar Mitzvah and a Brooklyn Blogade Breakfast in Clinton Hill, our Internet connection is down at home…

Thanks to those of you who checked in wondering what’s going on. I am fine. In fact, I am having a lovely, festive weekend.

Sorry for the brief hiatus.

On Martin Luther King Day,  Monday January 21 from 10 am until 7:30 p.m, Spoke the Hub Dancing and the Old First Reformed Church have come together to create an event dedicated to the idea of creating and sustaining peace.

This special event will be a day of participatory activities at Old First at Seventh Avenue and Carroll.

The event that intriques me is Six Chapels: Simultaneous interfaith
Meditation and Prayer for Peace right in Old First’s sanctuary.

Go here for a listing of everything going on at Old First on Monday.

SIX CHAPELS: INTERFAITH MEDITATION AND PRAYER FOR PEACE

Six sacred spaces set aside for simultaneous silent prayer
and meditation for Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh
faiths.

Over at BAM, they’ve added an additional Joanna Newsom show. The Friday Feb. 1, show has been sold out for quite some time. So here’s your chance to see her with the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Thu, Jan 31 at 8pm Just added!
Fri, Feb 1 at 8pm Sold out!
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Running time: 120min
$25, 35, 45, 55

Joanna Newsom’s The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004) announced the arrival of one of the most original and intriguing artists to emerge in the new century. A classically trained harpist with a poet’s imagination, Newsom makes folk songs filled with playful allegories and exquisite textures. On her next album Ys (2006), Newsom teamed up with Van Dyke Parks—a legendary composer who has worked with artists from The Beach Boys to Rufus Wainwright—and created a work of epic scope, lyrical insight, and lush orchestration. Newsom makes her BAM debut with a performance of Ys accompanied by Brooklyn Philharmonic, followed by a set with her band.

They’ve got it all. Everything I want to see. I’ve already seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and LOVED IT. The others: I’m dying to see. Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men.

Check the schedule here.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents SIDE STREET, a staged reading (with actors) of a play by Park Slope’s Rosemary Moore directed by Ian Morgan of the New Group.

A woman discovers that her dead mother has been living in a studio
apartment on the Upper East Side for the last 30 years. And she’s still
the same age she was when she died. A mother/daughter reunion you won’t
want to miss.

Thursday, January 17th at 8 p.m.
at The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
8 p.m.
Your $5 donation includes wine and refreshments.

Today’s the big day.

The eagerly awaited Union Market, at 402-404 Seventh Avenue at 12th Street, is set to open. My prediction: the new branch of this locally owned upscale supermarket will be a huge success.

Up to now, South Slopers have had a long way to go for groceries. The excellent C-Town on 9th Street was the only game in town. Once there was a D’Agostino on 7th Street and Seventh but, alas, that’s gone now.

Opening the way for Union Market.

Key Food, the Food Coop are both a long, long way to go for dinner.

So hark the arrival of Union Market, which will change the grocery landscape above 9th Street and the price point. No one said it was cheap.

The excellent selection of prepared foods, organic produce, meat, bread and more should be met with great excitement.

I am curious to see how they’ve improved on the Union Street concept. Welcome to the South Slope, Union Market.

I got this email about a new show on the DIY Network. This one focuses on Brooklyn brownstone construction, which might be of interest to OTBKB readers. .

Brooklyn is all about renovation and now there’s a show that takes
people behind the Brownstone. It’s called Under Construction, and it
follows John DeSilvia and John Palanca, owners of Design Tech in Brooklyn,
as they build, demolish, renovate and refurbish projects all over New
York – especially Brooklyn. You can find more on Design Tech here:
http://www.designtechconstructionny.com/

The show premieres tonight at 9pm on DIY Network, and it’s part of a
weekday lineup called “Nailed at 9.” You can get more info about Under
Construction by texting “Under” to 59568, or check out the Nailed at 9
website here: http://www.diynetwork.com/nailed

Also, thought your readers might get a kick out of this video of the
guys on the job in Park Slope. Like Curbed says, It’s not the Mad
Crapper of Boerum Hill, but it’s pretty funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nI7_PZU4QU

This just in. Taj Mahal, a two-time Grammy winner, will perform at the Brooklyn Museum, in a benefit concert for the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 8:00 PM

To celebrate Black History Month, The Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music concert series Jazz at the Conservatory, in partnership with the Brooklyn Museum , presents two time Grammy award winning jazz legend Taj Mahal.

The legendary Taj Mahal has been playing his own distinctive brand of soulful music, variously described as Afro-Caribbean blues, folk-world-blues, hula blues, folk-funk, and a host of other hyphenations, for more than 40 years. In 1971 he released the influential album The Real Thing recorded live at the Fillmore East, where he was backed by four tubas. This concert reunites him with four those musicians, Howard Johnson, Bob Stewart, Joe Daley and Earl McIntyre (Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music’s Jazz Division Director), as well as veterans Buddy Williams, Earl Gardner, Victor See Yuen, John di Martino, Ron Jackson and Jerome Harris. Together these musicians comprise a living history of jazz.

The Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music has been serving the community for over a century promoting individual, professional and community growth through music, and making music accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels. One of the ways we fulfill our mission is by holding remarkable events such as this at affordable prices. Our commitment to the community and our world-class faculty makes these events a reality.

We are happy to have the Brooklyn Museum as our partner in presenting this concert and providing the venue for this extraordinary evening.

Please join us for what promises to be an unforgettable Jazz at the Conservatory concert event, and check out The Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music’s other great concerts, programs, classes and much more at www.BQCM.org

Ticket information:
General public $25 and $50; students and seniors $15.
Please go to www.BQCM.org or call Zerve ticket services at 212.209.3370 to purchase tickets.
Premium tickets $150 including a Meet-the-Artist post concert reception.
Please contact 718-230-5030, ext. 12 or ddean@bqcm.org for premium ticket information.

Some People Have Real Problems (Sia)

Call for Exhibitors at Bklyn Designs (Reclaimed Home)

Trench rescue at Brooklyn construction site (NY1)

Stuyvesant High School athlete paralyzed in car accident (NY Daily News)

Detective isn’t shy about  investigating local credit card fraud (Gowanus Lounge)

Photos of the three Cunard Queens (Self-Absorbed Boomer)

Inflation rate is worst in 17 years (NY Metro)

Two stars from the Times for those Bromberg Brothers (NY Times)

Real estate values start to flatten (NY Times)

RIP: Yuriy Vanchytskyy (NY Times)