Monthly Archives: February 2008

Civics and Urban Life

NO MORE POLAROIDS

Hepcat was very upset about this news as well. Read Callalillie on the demise of Polaroid:

This is totally last week’s news, which should give you some indication on how behind I am on everything these days, but Polaroid has announced that they will stop producing classic instant film as soon as they have made enough of it to last through 2009. I guess this does not impact peel-back film that much, as other companies such as Fuji make compatible versions. But for regular instant film for cameras such as the SX-70, I guess we will have to rely on a different company starting to produce the packs. This happened with the Time-Zero film, which is made as a specialty item now- and is priced accordingly.

EDUCATION

INNER LIVES WRITING WORKSHOP THIS SATURDAY

This Saturday, Novelist Regina McBride, author of “The Nature of Water and Air,” “The Land of Women,” and “The Marriage Bed,” will offer a special one-day workshop in Park Slope. That’s this Saturday February 16th from 10 am until 5 pm.

Register now to reserve a place in this workshop that is designed for writers of all levels. The cost is $125.

NOTE FRM OTBKB: “I have studied with Regina McBride since 1998 and I recommend her classes to all writers wherever you are in your process. Using relaxation and sense memory, her technique is wonderful whether you are just beginning to write, embarking on a novel or memoir, or very experienced and in the midst of a novel or short story.

For inspiration, character development and incredible writing exercises, Regina’s course has been vital to my development as a writer as it always propels me to my best writing. Especially great when your work needs a little jump start.

If you are interested, please email nightsea21@nyc.rr.com

Inner Lives: Developing Characters

An Intensive Workshop with the Focus on the Fictional Character

With Regina McBride

Using relaxation, sense memory, and emotional memory (Stanislavski acting techniques transformed for the writer) a variety of exercises will be offered to enable the student to find a deeper, richer connection to the character he or she is creating.

Exercises will be followed by writing periods, and opportunities for people to read and share their work. The atmosphere will be safe, with the focus on exploration. The class is designed to help the student break into new territory with the character, and with the story itself.

STUFF AND THINGS

SWORD DANCING THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, many families will come out to watch English sword dancing
during the annual festival sponsored by a local women’s sword dance team,
Half Moon Sword. What is English sword dancing?

Well, it’s fun, flashy, interesting to watch, and — you’ll just have to come and see. All
performances at the festival are free. There will be 11 teams dancing this
year, most of them coming here from other states. Each team has its own
costume, or “kit.”

On Saturday, February 16, we will dance mostly in Manhattan, although
there will be one performance, at the Brooklyn Heights Library at 3 PM
(280 Cadman Plaza West). See our website, www.halfmoonsword.org, for
Manhattan locations.

On Sunday, February 17, there will be three locations for performances at
12:30 PM: In Park Slope at Old First Reformed Church (7th Ave. and Carroll
St.); and in Brooklyn Heights at First Unitarian Church (Monroe Place and
Pierrepont St.) and the Brooklyn Historial Society (Pierrepont St. and
Clinton St.). Each stand will feature three or four teams.

Then at 2:30, all 11 teams will dance one after another at the Brooklyn Museum (200
Eastern Parkway). While this performance is free, the Museum asks for a
entrance donation.

Civics and Urban Life

LOOKING FOR THE NEXT NEW THING

As every freelance writer knows, all good freelance jobs come to an end.

Still, it’s hard when a job you love goes away. And it takes a while to regroup and find something to replace it both emotionally and financially.

For 7 years, I have written and co-edited the Link, a 9/11 newsletter for FDNY families from the FDNY Counseling Service Unit.

It all started started back in 2001 when the city and the FDNY was in a state of shock. I got a call from the director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), who told me that the FDNY wanted to publish a twice-monthly grief and bereavement newsletter for families who lost loved ones on 9/11.

Over the years, the Link, which was paid for by the NFFF (an exceptionally nice group of people in Emmitsburg, Maryland) evolved into something very special. It was a privilege to work with the CSU under the wise and warm leadership of director Malachy Corrigan and clinical director Diane Kane.

Writing 131 issues of the Link, I learned so much about bereavement, grief, and trauma and the FDNY. I learned so much about the strength and resilience of the FDNY community after 9/11.

In many ways, writing the Link is what inspired OTBKB and the Smartmom column. For the first time, I felt like my writing was having a direct impact on people. This intimate relationship with the FDNY readership was very satisfying and meaningful. This project also helped me deal with my own anxiety and fear after 9/11. It created a nice balance with the websites, brochures, and annual reports I write for non-profits and corporations.

It’s hard to let go of this wonderful project but clearly it’s time to move on. So that’s where I am now. Moving on and looking for the next new thing.

If anyone has any ideas, do let me know. I am open to both freelance and more permanent work. louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com

EDUCATION

SUDDEN CITY SCHOOL BUDGET CUTS

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Last week the city suddenly cut the budget of every school in New York City. They made the announcement without warning and the very next day the money was extracted from the school’s bank accounts.

Gone. Poof.

PS 321’s budget was cut by $125,000. For a school that does not receive Title I funding, this accounts for a large amount of the school’s discretionary spending.

According to the school’s principal: “because the cut comes mid year when we have already spent more than half of our budget, we have limited areas we can cut from.”

This huge cut will have a serious impact on the school. Here is a list of where the cuts will come from:

–No new furniture

–Supply budget to be cut—no new math books

–Professional development costs will be cut

–When a fourth grade teacher goes on maternity leave in February, she will be replaced with a staff member who is currently providing academic intervention.

–Substitutes and paraprofessionals will be cut

–Literacy intervention teachers working 4 days will work 3; fewer periods for kids in need of intervention.

–Money set aside for “roll over” cushion will have to be used this year; negative impact on next year’s budget.

In a note to the parents in which she explained the budget cuts, Principal Elizabeth Phillips wrote, “I fear what this means for next year in terms of class size, intervention services and arts programming, which is where we put the largest amount of our discretionary funds.

There will be an information and strategy session about fighting back against the school budget cuts sponsored by Council Member Bill De Blasio on Wednesday. Here are the details:

Wednesday, February 13th, 2007
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Brooklyn Borough Hall Hearing Room
209 Joralemon Street
(Between Court and Adams Streets)
Brooklyn, NY

-Hear from teachers, students, parents, advocates, and
union leaders about how these sudden cuts will affect our schools
and our children’s education.

-Learn about what you can do to reverse these cuts NOW and
prevent future budget reductions.

-Discuss your concerns with fellow parents, teachers and
community members, and share your ideas about how we can fight
to preserve our children’s education and reverse the budget cuts
together.

For additional information or to RSVP please call
Phil Jones at 212-788-6969 or email
deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us

Postcard from the Slope

GOOD PEOPLE GUIDE: GOOD PEOPLE WHO DO GOOD WORK

What a great idea for a website: Good People Guide is a great site for finding and recommending contractors. This information was sent to me by a trusted neighbor who is friends with the people who started this web site. Thanks for the tip.

“Home projects should be exciting, not exhausting. The best way to make the experience (relatively) painless is to find good help, which is hard to do when there are thousands of contractors and few places to find the best ones.

That’s where Good People Guide comes in. It’s a single source for unbiased recommendations and critiques on contractors of all kinds; big jobs, small jobs and everything in between.

We make it easier to find good people who do good work.”

real estate

DUMPSTER IN FRONT OF MAGGIE MOO’S SPACE

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OTBKB saw workers carting the contents of the Maggie Moo’s space into a dumpster parked out front. Maggie Moo’s went out of business last spring and their space on Seventh Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets has been vacant ever since.

Across from PS 321, half the space used to be Who’s on Seventh, a vegetarian restaurant that was in the Slope for years. I believe the owner of the building was the owner of that restaurant. Next door was a news and candy store, who’s owner was the victim of an armed robbery back in the 1990’s.

Both spaces became a larger version of Who’s on Seventh and then an Italian restaurant. It was considered a doomed restaurant space for a few years.

The neighborhood was dubious about Maggie Moo’s from the start. However, school-age kids seemed to like their overly sweet ice cream flavors. The sidewalk in front of the shop became a weekend hangout for local teens, who spilled over from Pino’s Pizzeria.

The original franchisees couldn’t make a go of it and Maggie Moo’s corporate took it over.

Civics and Urban Life

ROOT STOCK QUADE OPENING IN CLINTON HILL

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Clinton Hill blog reports that Park Slope’s Root Stock Quade will be opening a location in Clinton Hill. This should make Lesterhead very happy.

Root Stock Quade is way more than a pretty flower shop. They also provide gardening services to many apartment buildings and houses in the neighborhood. The shop also has a great nursery in back.

It looks like my prayers are finally about to be answered. While I know there are far more practical needs for the neighborhood (cheese shop, bookstore, etc), I’ve been pining for a really pretty flower / plant shop since moving to the neighborhood.

Today, I received word that Root Stock & Quade (who already have a well-established Park Slope outpost) will be opening a store on Myrtle in the old one-hour photo place next to Move With Grace (Myrtle near Hall)!!!!!!

EDUCATION

VALENTINE’S DAY MARCH AGAINST SCHOOL CUTS

Join citywide students, parents, teachers, and principals for a march on the Department of Education to demand a restoration of the cuts. The march will take place on Thursday, February 14th at 4 p.m. at DOE Headquarters, 52 Chambers Street.

If you can’t make it to the march, you can write letters of protest to Joe Klein, or council members Bill De Blasio, David Yassky, Robert Jackson or Christine Quinn.

jklein@school.nyc.gov

deblasio@council.nyc.ny.us

yassky@council.nyc.ny.us

jackson@council.nyc.ny.us

quinn@council.nyc.ny.us

real estate

CHANGES ON SEVENTH AVENUE

Walking friends from Lincoln to Second Street, I made a list of what’s out and what’s going in:

Berkeley to Union, east side: Olive Vine/Korean Market/old Zuzu’s Petals spaces are still vacant.

Berkeley to Union west side: Peek-a-Boo Kids is out. Organic frozen yogurt going in.

Union to President, west side: old video store is out. Brown Harris Stevens is going in.

First to Second Streets, east side: Maggie Moo’s is out.

Second to Third, east side: Second Street Cafe is out.

Second to Third, west side: Park Slope Books about to go out; Seventh Avenue books out, Tempo Presto out.

Postcard from the Slope

BROOKLYN PAPER: HAS RUPERT MURDOCH EVEN BEEN TO BROOKLYN?

Gawker ran a piece on Friday saying that the Brooklyn Paper is in turmoil.

I have to say it’s the first I’ve heard about that and I work for them.

Today, Gothamisthad word from BP editor Gersh Kuntzman that the Gawker story is completely fabricated and that there’s nothing to worry about except whether someone’s gonna bid more on Gersh’s cast on eBay.

All I can say is: phew.

“The Gawker story is a complete fabrication. The Brooklyn Paper, which just won ‘Newspaper of the Year’ from a major national trade group, is certainly not going out of business. Brooklyn needs us too much right now, what with local papers being snapped up by billionaire moguls who have no interest in local news except maximizing classified ad sales. Has Rupert Murdoch even BEEN to Brooklyn? His reporters don’t know the territory, either.”

Postcard from the Slope

MORE GREAT MUSIC AT STEVEN DWECK CENTER AT THE LIBRARY

The Steven Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture at the Brooklyn Public Library is a real boon to culture in Brooklyn. What a great space to see/hear cultural events. And the BPL is doing a great job programming events.

The shows are obviously well attended and as the word spreads, this may be a standing-room only performance space.

I finally made it over there on Saturday to hear singer Amy Burton singing “Mr. Tambourine Man,” John Corigliano’s song cycle based on some of Bob Dylan’s best-love poems.

The house was packed and it was a really interesting show. Corigliano spoke about what led him to rewrite the music to some of Bob Dylan’s most well-known songs like Blowing in the Wind, Forever Young, Chimes of Freedom and Masters of War.

Amy Burton’s singing was incredible, especially on the ominous and powerful “Masters of War.”

This Sunday, catch the BPL Chamber Players. Check out the new space, hear some great music. This event is free.

This Sunday February 17th at 4 p.m. BPL Chamber Players

Adela Peña, Violin
Ah Ling Neu, Viola
Alberto Parrini, Violoncello

Schubert: Trio No. 1 in B flat Major
Dohnanyi: Serenade
Beethoven: Trio in G Major,
Op. 9, No. 1

Civics and Urban Life

A LETTER FROM FRANCE FROM ROSE WATER

Rose Water. You gotta love a restaurant that not only sends its customers a letter from Paris but begin the letter with this dashing quote from “An American in Paris”:

For a painter, the Mecca of the world, for study, for inspiration and for living is here on this star called Paris. Just look at it, no wonder so many artists have come here and called it home. Brother, if you can’t paint in Paris, you’d better give up and marry the boss’s daughter.
(Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986), U.S. composer, lyricist. Jerry (Gene Kelly), An American In Paris, voice-over introduction to the film (1951).

Here’s a bit of the note from the folks at Rose Water as they scour France for great wines and ideas. And don’t forget Rose Water for heart’s day on Thursday.

Hello again. I’m in Paris for a few days after an intense week of visiting winemakers from Muscadet to Cheverny. I had the good fortune to travel with a group of American wine professionals on a trip organized each February by Joe Dressner and his partners at Louis/Dressner Selections, a favorite importing company. Many of you already know that we feature many of their wines at RW. They import natural wines, mostly from France, as well as a growing number of Italian wines. They are particularly strong in the Loire.

Joe and Co. work only with winemakers who adhere to strict principles of natural winemaking that result in what is now commonly referred to as Real Wine. These vigneron use as little chemical contact as possible, usually none. They harvest by hand and ferment only with the natural yeasts, producing wines of great character and integrity.

It came as no surprise that the winemakers that we visited turned out to be of great character themselves. From Marc Olivier at Domaine de la Pepiere in Muscadet, (who prepared us pates of wild boar and pheasant to follow dozens of local oysters) to Nadi Foucoult at Clos Rougeard in Saumur-Champigny, to Jean-Marie and Thierry Puzelat of Clos du Tue-Boeuf in Cheverny (who made us a blanquette de veau!), and others too numerous to mention here. It was a privilege to meet them, to taste the new wines, some of which were still fermenting in tank or barrel, and to taste some recent and not so recent vintages. Our first night, for example, Marc Olivier opened nearly every vintage of his Muscadets going back to the late eighties when he began making wine. He then proceeded to taste us on nearly every vintage that his uncle had made from the mid-eighties back to the late sixties! They were fresh and astonishingly vital.

For the last three days of the trip I had the great pleasure of staying with Olivier Lemasson of Les Vins Contes (remember the P’tit Rouquin Gamay from last summer?), his wife Cecile and their beautiful daughter Mila. They live in the tiny town of Cande just outside Blois. Olivier is a young winemaker with a very bright future.

In all, we tasted hundreds of wines this week. You’ll be seeing a great number of them on the list at RW in the months to come, and see below for a special dinner featuring the wines of producers I visited.

Civics and Urban Life

SEND YOUR VALENTINE’S CARDS TODAY

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Just a little reminder to those of you planning on sending out Valentine’s cards.

My husband and I agree to differ about Valentine’s Day. He hates it and calls it a Hallmark holiday. Grudgingly, he will make or buy a card but his heart just isn’t in it. I don’t get hurt anymore but I do feel a twinge of regret that he’s not a flowers and chocolate kind of guy.

I happen to love Valentine’s Day: the cards, the silver-wrapped chocolates, the heart shaped gifts. It’s fun to browse the jewel-filled windows of The Clay Pot and Treasure Chest. Weeks ahead of time, they are harbingers of the big bright red spot in the middle of February.

As a girl, I enjoyed making valentines with white lace doilies or buying those tiny “Will You Be Mine” cards from Woolworths and giving them to each and every member of my elementary school class.

Even now, I shop for cards well in advance, carefully choosing the right card for friends and family. It is not lost on me that the stores are cashing in on these small gestures of love. I spent $39.99 at Possibilities, the newish card shop on Seventh Avenue (the closest thing we have to a Hallmark). That’s nearly forty dollars plus postage for this much maligned holiday.

Yeesh. The commercial nature of the day really is quite appalling. Shop after shop on Seventh Avenue has heart shaped decorations taped to their front windows — just another way to say: “Spend Money.” All the restaurants post signs announcing their Valentine’s Day dinners. It is said to be one of the two worst days of the year to eat out (the other is Mother’s Day).

But for all that it has going against it, Valentine’s Day does gently force us to acknowledge and say, “I love you” to the people we love in our lives. How bad can that be? It doesn’t need to cost a lot of money. But even when it does, it doesn’t hurt to spread a little love around.

Community Bookstore

PARK SLOPE BOOKSTORE’S SUCCESS: LOCAL SHOPPERS AND TWENTY INVESTORS

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The owner of The Community Bookstore has finally gotten around to her occasional newsy newsletter, The Slant. Here’s the latest from Catherine Bohne. It’s been a busy and exciting year since the store nearly went under. Bohne has much exciting news to report. Sales are up, inventory is up…Yay team!

The State of the Store. Hi Everyone! Greetings and salutations! The last time I wrote to you, almost one halcyon year ago, was to say that perhaps you’d heard we were in trouble (dire, grim, Dickens-worthy trouble), but not to worry (who me?), solutions were on the way. So many of you have been so kind, present, concerned, supportive, and often actively involved, that it hasn’t seemed urgent to sit down and actually write (haven’t I spoken to each of you, but recently?), but . . . it was one of my save-the-store resolutions of yester-year to be better about communicating. Here it goes, then – New Year, New Beginnings (autres temps, autres whatsits). So.
The financial news is that . . . . (fingers crossed and all that, but ) . . . it seems to be working. No, we’re not totally out of the woods, yet – although our rent is generous (or whatever the opposite is, rent-wise . . . . restrained?) by Seventh-Avenue standards, it does tend to go up every year in the manner of these things, and we do have only two years to build up reserves & repair credit before we’ll have to refinance our current situation, and the ambitious benchmark we’re boldly setting is that the business won’t actually be sustainably healthy until we can afford health insurance, which we can’t yet (crazy that in this day and age that seems like the dizzying heights of success . . . . did someone mention Dickens?) – but we’re definitely seeing blue sky through the trees.

Sales are up! (no, seriously – 40% over same period last year – that would be thanks to you, methinks?), and accordingly, inventory’s up! (50% over last year!), and not only are there more books, but better books! Just last week we ran out of room in literature and had to go through and weed out every weird old thing (you know, those in the ‘how did this get here?’ category) and send ‘em back to make room for the good books. It’s incredible to stand in the doorway, and look around the store, see the shelves jam-packed, and be able to reasonably suppose that there isn’t one dingy book in here.

How did this happen? How is it possible? Twenty Advisors, who came up with a plan, a dozen Investors, who bravely decided to put their money where their home is, one amazing neighborhood, and the determined support of the Community. On behalf of the bookstore, it feels a bit like having been a Dodo, translated (oh, Bottom!) to a Phoenix . What next? And what can I say, but: Thank you.

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FRIELICH

OTBKB’S VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

[A sincere tribute to our dashing older writer:]

Lavish Auster-ity

Happy birthday, Paul Auster,

Subject and object of romance,

Park Slope literary light–

Long may you dance to the music of chance.

A warm welcome to OTBKB’s new Verse Responder, Leon Freilich, who will be featured on OTBKB three times a week.

Brooklyn born and bred, Freilich reported for Star Magazine until it migrated to Florida. Since he’s not a sun worshipper and not (to my knowledge) moribund, he stayed behind. He’s lived in Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, attended Stuyvesant High School, City College and Boston University, majoring in Greek and Latin language and literature (explaining his subsequent difficulties with English). His first children’s book of silly verse went out to some ten publishers and aged more slowly than the kids it was written for. Most of the ms. took six months to hit his mailbox; maybe it was the extra burden of a rejection letter that slowed their passage. These days he’s getting even with the evil publishers by working on a second silly book.

Civics and Urban Life

ONLY THE BLOG LINKS

After the writer’s strike (NY Times)

Brooklyn Blogade Recap (Brooklyn Optimist)

An era of twins (NY Times)

Not just a couch: an entire living room (Gowanus Lounge Street Couch series)

Moore Street Retail Market (NY Times)

Diplomatic jam for Vietnamese adoptions (NY Times)

A flurry of picture taking at the Atlantic Yards (Flatbush Gardener)

What’s going on at the Seventh Avenue Launder Center (Brooklynometry)

His blog was on hiatus because he was spending time with his fiancee (Daily Optimist)

Photoshop master class at Mac Support Store (Bed-Stuy Blog)

Album of the Year: River: The Joni Letters (Herbie Hancock)

Whole Foods faces hurdles (Gowanus Lounge)

Marty’s aquarium plan rejected by city (Gowanus Lounge)

Smartmom

SMARTMOM: WHEN HEPCAT’S AWAY, TEEN SPIRIT TRIES TO PLAY

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

Hepcat is in California visiting his mom and life is different whenever he’s away. How so? Smartmom has to be both good cop and bad cop.

She’s not used to being bad cop — but she’s learning. Oh, is she learning!

The Oh So Feisty One likes to do her math homework with Hepcat by her side and not having him home caused more than one meltdown.

“I don’t understand,” she screamed the other evening as Smartmom tried to explain how to find the common denominator for fractions.

Smartmom racked her brain. Ever so slowly, it came back. Smartmom may be a smart mom, but simple math can still flummox her.

Things got so bad that OSFO insisted she call Hepcat in California.

When he picked up the phone, he patiently explained how to do it. Still, OSFO was having a tough time. But thanks to Hepcat’s cross-country explanation, Smartmom figured out how to explain it to OSFO.

“I know how to explain this,” she told OSFO, who finally got the concept.

Teen Spirit hasn’t mentioned Hepcat much. That’s probably because he feels a little freer without his dad’s tough love of parenting (the 16-year-old Teen Spirit needs a lot of tough love).

Just about every morning while Hepcat was away, Teen Spirit feigned a real or imagined malady.

“I think I drank some curdled milk yesterday,” he told Smartmom clutching his stomach one morning.

“I am definitely coming down with something,” he told Smartmom on Friday morning, lying with his blanket over his head and the rain pouring down outside his window. “Can I stay home from school?”

Teen Spirit would never try such shenanigans if Hepcat were home.

“Don’t make me use the ice,” is what Hepcat would say if Teen Spirit was refusing to get out of bed in the morning. “Do you want me to get the weasels?”

That usually makes Teen Spirit pop out of bed and head for the shower faster than a speeding slacker.

But Teen Spirit knows that Smartmom is a world-class pushover. On more than one occasion, she had allowed him to stay home.

But she’s learned her lesson. He usually feels better by 3 pm. Much better. And then he has the nerve to ask if he can go out and see his friends. Grrr.

Smartmom may be a wuss, but she hates to be duped.

This week, Smartmom struggled against her pushover tendencies. She tried to channel Hepcat 3,000 miles away. “Don’t make me get the ice,” she whispered to herself. “Should I get the weasels?”

It worked. She felt emboldened by the fact that she was alone and she had to set down the law. Consequently, she and Teen Spirit had a huge fight on Friday morning. Smartmom wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Get up NOW. You’re going to be late!” she screamed and she really meant it.

“Two more minutes,” he begged.

“No,” she said.

“Please” he pleaded.

“NO,” she said it so loud the upstairs and the downstairs neighbors probably heard her. Luckily no one complained.

Finally, Teen Spirit got out of bed and grumpily got into his skinny jeans, his father’s old leather aviator jacket, his grandfather’s wingtips and stormed out of the house.

Smartmom felt a mix of triumph and pain. She hates when Teen Spirit leaves the house that way (it probably reminds her of the door-slamming fights she had when she was an adolescent). No doubt, that’s why she lets Hepcat be the bad cop while she gets to be the sympathetic one.

Indeed, Hepcat’s absence is forcing Smartmom to have one heck of an insight. When he’s not around, she has to exercise the parts of herself that she doesn’t bother to face when he’s around. Like remembering how to do math problems and giving Teen Spirit a piece of her mind.

Clearly, Hepcat not only comes in handy when Smartmom can’t quite remember something mathematical, but at those more-important times when Smartmom doesn’t want to face her anger. When Hepcat is around, she need use only a fraction of her power — just the way she likes it, apparently.

After Teen Spirit left for school on Friday morning, Smartmom felt lightheaded. There was a tingling sensation in her body mixed with a true sense of power.

She was a toughie and it felt really, really good.

Teen Spirit might even have gotten to school on time

Postcard from the Slope

UNION HALL STORY: NEW YORK TIMES GETS IT WRONG

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Last week NY Times’ reporter, Alison Stateman wrote an article about the building on Second Street called “The House that Whimsy Built.”

House of whimsy? Come on, it’s the building that a crazy lady refuses to take care of that causes much consternation to the residents of Park Slope.

Now there’s “Look Who’s Getting Rolled Out of the Bar?” by Alex Williams. It’s the Union Hall story that’s been blogged about ad bloggium but she left out one important detail. Union Hall plans on letting moms and kids into the bar.

In the afternoons.

That was something I reported in my front page article “State of the Union: Kids are back in the ‘Hall’ ” in the Brooklyn Paper.

While it’s true that Union Hall instituted a no stroller, no one under 21 rule for evening hours, the real issue was whether mommy groups could meet there in the afternoon. And it seems that Union Hall wants to welcome them in.

Hello?

Civics and Urban Life

TODAY: AMY BURTON SINGS CORIGLIANO AT BROOKLYN LIBRARY

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You won’t want to miss this musical event at the Brooklyn Library. TODAY at 4 p.m. although I may have to miss it because OSFO has a piano recital at 2 p.m across the street at the Senior Center.

Amy Burton, along with the Brooklyn Philharmonic will be performing Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, based on seven songs/poems by Bob Dylan.

Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan was a commission by The Carnegie Hall Corporation for Sylvia McNair and was premiered at her Carnegie Hall recital given March 15, 2002 with Martin Katz at the piano. Corigliano, who had never encountered Dylan’s own musical settings of the chosen poems, has given us new musical settings of icons of American folk music from the 1960s

Prelude: Mr. Tamborine Man (Corigliano)
Clothes LIne (Corigliano)
Blowin’ in the Wind (Corigliano)
Masters of War (Corigliano)
All Along the Watchtower (Corigliano)
Chimes of Freedom (Corigliano)
Postlude: Forever Young (Corigliano)

Audacious, yes. Rewriting the music to some of Bob Dylan’s best loved songs. Interesting, too that he’d never encountered Dylan’s own musical settings of these songs (he calls them poems).

But I love audacity. And I am dying to hear what Corigliano and the Brooklyn Philarmonic do with some of my favorite songs.

John Corigliano is considered one of the finest and most widely recognized American composers. Among the dozens of citations, doctorates, and other honors he has received are included all of the most important music awards — several Grammy’s, a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 2 (2001), a Grawemeyer for his Symphony No. 1 (1991), and an Academy Award for his score to Francois Girard’s 1997 film “The Red Violin.” One of the few living composers to have a string quartet named after him, Corigliano’s work has been performed by some of the most visible orchestras, soloists and chamber musicians in the world, and recorded on the Sony, RCA, BMG, Telarc, Erato, Ondine, New World, and CRI labels.

Amy Burton is no slouch either. A personal friend of mine, she has a busy and diverse career of opera, concert, and recital appearances throughout the United States and Europe. Recently she appeared in Kurt Weil’s Mahogonny at Opera Boston written about here on OTBKB.

Ms. Burton regularly appears on the stages of leading opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Atlanta Opera, as well as international houses including L’Opéra de Nice, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and Opernhaus Zürich. She has also performed with some of the world’s finest conductors, including Marin Alsop, James Conlon, Christoph Eshenbach, John Mauceri, Gerard Schwartz and Robert Spano. In the 2007-08 season, Ms. Burton can be heard in recital in Kansas City as well as in performance of Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man with the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the 2006-07 season, Ms. Burton appeared as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque and as Jenny in Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny with Opera Boston. Ms Burton returned to the San Francisco Symphony for performances of Handel’s Messiah and also performed the Governess in The Turn of the Screw with Opera Cleveland. Amy Burton returned to the Metropolitan Opera in the spring of 2006 to sing Marzelline in Fidelio. Other highlights of her 2005-06 season included her return to the Eugene Symphony in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and a performance with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. A regular at New York City Opera, her roles have included Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, both Susanna and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, and Alice Ford in Falstaff, in addition to several Handel roles.

Civics and Urban Life

BOB DYLAN REVISITED: TODAY AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Yes, composer John Corigliano, wrote his own musical scores to some of Bob Dylan’s best loved songs.

That is so “I’m Not There.”

As for me, I am completely fascinated by this. Apparently, prior to writing this song cycle, the composer had never heard the original Dylan tunes.

He must have been under a classical music rock. Still, these are his fresh takes on the lyrics.

Interesting. I can’t wait to see what he did with them.

So don’t miss acclaimed singer Amy Burton singing John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, as part of the Brooklyn Philarmonic’s 2008 Corigliano Festival at the Brooklyn Public Library (Grand Army Plaza branch).

What a show! This performance will be at the library’s brand new S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture (at the Brooklyn Public Library) on Saturday February 9th at 4 p.m.

Hear the wonderful Amy Burton in performance.