Here’s a good option for Brooklynites
who can’t make it to DC but want to mark this historic presidential
inauguration in a meaningful way.

WNYC is presenting a free panel discussion
on Sunday at The Brooklyn Museum, which will feature an investigation of the
civil rights journey from King’s protests to Obama’s election. For more details go to wnyc.org

The timing was
uncanny. On August 28, 2008, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s
nomination for President on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s landmark “I Have a Dream” speech. 
Now, the annual Martin Luther King holiday falls on the eve of Obama’s
historic inauguration as the first African American President of the United States.

To mark this momentous occasion, WNYC will present its third annual MLK
event, “A JOURNEY OF HOPE: From Protest
to Presidency,” an afternoon of conversation, music and poetry
celebrating the vision and legacy of Dr. King and its most powerful
manifestation five decades later.

WNYC’s Peabody Award-winning hosts Brian Lehrer (The Brian Lehrer Show) and Adaora Udoji (The
Takeaway with John Hockenberry and Adaora Udoji) will lead a
discussion with an esteemed roundtable of academics, journalists and public
policy advocates about the evolution of American political thought and tactics
from King to Obama.

The conversation will explore three
primary areas:

WHAT ARE
THE NEW FRONTIERS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT?

Are we post-racial? If so, where does the struggle
against racism fit within a “postracial” society?  Has racial
equality been supplanted by gay rights, religious tolerance (particularly
Islam), immigrant rights at the top of the new civil rights agenda? What
exactly happened with Proposition 8?

TOOLS AND TACTICS OF CHANGE From MLK
to Obama

How did MLK use protest, and why is it no longer as effective? How has
the role of the Black church changed within advocacy and protest movements?
What is the new call to service?

A
CHANGING OF THE GUARD? Origins and Heirs of the Civil Rights Movement

What is the new role for the old guard of Black
leadership now that a Black leader will occupy the highest office in the land?
What is owed to those who brought us to this moment, and are they getting their
due? What do young activists owe the older generation?

Brooklyn Reading Works Presents
An Evening of New Work by Brooklyn Playwrights
Curated by Rosemary Moore   
with Lizzie Olesker, Gary Winter  Jessica Bauman  Scott Adkins  
Thursday, January 22nd, 8pm  Old Stone House
Fifth Ave. btw 3rd and 4th Street in Park Slope
718-768-3195   suggeste $5 donation incl. snacks and drinks

Check out the recipes on the blog Recipes for Young Chefs. Here's one for Chocolate Carob Bites. Garden Spider, the young blogger and chef, says they're tasty. His mom likes them, too.

Barbes will be screening live coverage of the day’s celebrations in its small back room. There are other options as well. BAM will have a free screening and according to Brooklyn Based:

And Tuesday night if you're not going to the PS 261 Inauguration Ball at The Bell House, celebrate at Barbes with the most festive band on earth (or in Brooklyn anyway):

This was on Park Slope Parents but was sent to me by an OTBKB reader.

 photo by Tom Martinez

From Brooklyn Based:

The Coney Island we know and love is gone. Even as building slows
across the city, demolition moves forward unchecked. The rocket has
been a Coney Island constant since Astroland opened in 1962 and last
week it was removed from its iconic perch.

Luckily for us, photographer Ellery Samuels organized
a Brooklyn Adventure for the Long Island Photographers Meetup and
snapped these shots. Here’s what it looks like to dismantle Brooklyn’s
storied past.

A member of a  newly formed Park Slope group — tentatively titled
Park Slope Bridge to Change — sent me info about a school book and school
supply drive on Martin Luther King Day, as part of the Obama
Transition's National Call to Service.

The group plans to actively man two
locations (the Coop and the Community Book Store on 7th Avenue) from
10 am until 4 pm on Monday January, 19th, with drop boxes at other locations.

The collected items will be donated to P.S.
41 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, a K-8 school that Congressman Yvette
Clarke's office recommended to us as being in need of assistance.

The event page for this group is on the Obama: usaservice.org.

James Braly has been mentioned on OTBKB numerous times because of his show, Life in a Marital Institution. Now he's back with a new show called The Monthly Nut. The following is a letter from James:Dea

Pastor Daniel Meeter at Old First Reformed Church sent this about a Martin Luther King Day Celebration at the church:

THE AUDACITY OF PEACE   
Peace-finding and Peace-sharing For the Whole Family

Monday January 19th, 2009, 10:00 am – 4:30 pm
at the Old First Reformed Church (7th Avenue at Carrol Street)
-and- 
at the Spoke the Hub Re:Creation Center (748 Union Street @ 6th Avenue)
Park Slope, Brooklyn

For Reservations, Directions & Information: 718.408-3234

Workshops, drama, dancing, meditation, yoga, and artwork for pre-schoolers through adults.
Hosted by Old First Reformed Church and Spoke the Hub.
Co-sponsored by Congregation Beth Elohim and The Interfaith Center of New York

At midday: “Four Traditions”: interfaith prayers for peace (and for our new president) led by
Imam Salilou Djabi, of the Imam Ali Mosque in Bedford-Stuyvesant,
Rev. T. K. Nakagaki, of the Buddhist Church of New York,
Rabbi Andy Bachman, of Congregation Beth Elohim, and
Pastor Daniel Meeter, of Old First Reformed Church

MORNING WORKSHOPS
CardioDancing:  Strengthen Your Heart! (Teens & Adults)
Prana and Prayer (Teens & Adults)
Make Your Own Mandala (All Ages )
Jump On The Peace Train (Preschoolers)
Ahimsa Yoga
Chair Yoga

LUNCH FOR ALL
AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS
Peace Is An Inside Job:  An Introduction to Meditation & Mindfulness Practice
Jump On The Peace Train (ages 6 and up)
Make Your Own Mandala (All Ages )

Suggested Donation:
$ 10.00 Adults;  $5 Kids & Seniors  (per individual workshop or lunch)
$ 25.00 Adults; $10 Kids & Seniors (for whole day, including lunch)
$ 60.00 Family Rate (siblings and parents, for whole day, including lunch)

Please make advanced reservations by January 16th  if you will be joining us for lunch:
718.408-3234  or spoke@spokethehub.org

On Simon Dinnerstein's new blog, Counterpoint: A Blog on the Visual Arts, he writes about a car ride to the Palmer Museum of Art: to visit his painting, The Fulbright Triptych.

On
December 9, Virginia Bonito, an art historian and former curator of the
Seavest Collection, Marshall Price, curator at the National Academy
Museum of Art, and Jhumpa Lahiri, a wise and gifted writer, accompanied
me on the four and a half hour car ride to the Palmer Museum of Art at
Pennsylvania State University. These three, along with about twenty
other contributors including the composer George Crumb, the actors John
Turturro and Alvin Epstein, and the art historian, Colin Eisler, will
be taking part in a really exciting project. (Also participating in
this upcoming publication are Anthony Doerr, author of The Shell Collector and the psychoanalyst/novelist Phillipe Grimbert, whose book, Memory, was recently made into the haunting film, A Secret.)

For
the last few months, Milkweed Editions, an independent publisher
located in Minneapolis, has been putting together an anthology of
writing based on my painting, The Fulbright Triptych.  In
the book, this major, fourteen foot painting will be seen and written
about from a variety of points of view: through the lens of an art
historian, a novelist, a composer, a pianist, a critic, a psychologist,
etc. Some essays that were previously published, including works by Guy
Davenport, Rudolf Arnheim, John Russell, George Tooker, Tom Messer and
Albert Boime will also be a part of this publication.

Brooklyn for Peace is calling a candlelight vigil and protest rally on Wednesday, January 14th, from 4:30 to 5:30  at Brooklyn Borough Hall (at Joralemon Street and Court) to oppose the bombing and invasion of Gaza.

After a bit of a hiatus, The New York Moon is back with itslatest edition:

www.nymoon.com

–A foreign dispatch from the diseased reservoir of the Tsarist city of Voronezh in Russia

–A trip down the Hudson with artists turned sailors + music from Dark Dark Dark

–and
a call for Wall Street to be rendered as Pompeii to warn future
generations of the "seminal lunacy" that leads our moneymen astray

There was a story yesterday in the City section about neighborhood blogs. No mention of OTBKB. But so be it. They did mention Gerritsen Beach, Gowanus Lounge, and Brownstoner (of course):

The growing number of New York neighborhood blogs — there are nearly
200, many in Brownstone Brooklyn, but there are others in communities
like Inwood, Harlem and Astoria,
Queens — has amplified the city’s already boisterous discourse, raised
the ideological stakes in discussions of even the tiniest issues and
turned upside down the old chestnuts about urban isolation.

Perhaps
most important, the city’s muscular and energetic blogs have provoked
questions about how to police raucous New York-style debate without
sapping its energy.

Today I posted about a Brooklyn for Peace rally against the war in Gaza, scheduled for  Wednesday late afternoon at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Intuitively, I am against this war for a variety of reasons. But I know the situation is complex and it causes me much pain and confusion. I went to Rabbi Andy Bachman's blog to see if he's been writing about the situation. I gather that he sees this as a just war. I was curious to read his point of view.

Last week I heard from the new folks over at kensingtonbrooklynblog.com.

I took a look and it looks newsy and interesting over there. Check it out.

.

I was worried about Get Fresh, the one-year old Park Slope market and online store
dedicated to creating prepared foods with fresh and local ingredients,
has reinvented itself over the holidays as a full-service restaurant
serving breakfast, lunch, weekend brunch, and as of January
16th—dinner, under the new name Get Fresh Table and Market.

I for one am glad to see they're trying something new. Now they're a cafe and restaurant.

GET FRESH TABLE AND MARKET

 
Open daily for breakfast (available all day) and lunch (11am-5pm)
Weekend brunch (10am-3:30pm)
 
Dinner –beginning January 16–
Tuesday – Sunday, 5:00pm – 10:00pm
 
Dinner Entrees $16-$18
Appetizers $6-$7
BYOB
Credit cards accepted
Wheelchair accessible
 
Get Fresh Table and Market
Phone: (718) 360-8469
370 Fifth Ave (between 5th and 6th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11215
www.getfreshnyc.com <http://www.getfreshnyc.com>

   FRIENDLY FIRE

Homeowners and merchants who don't clear their walks    

On post-snow days

Are telling unfortunate passers-by,

"Have an ice day."

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

Smartmom and family are still on California time. But they better
switch their circadian rhythms to Eastern Standard Time. Pronto.

On Sunday night, Smartmom was in a panic. In the weeks ahead, there
was just too much to do and she wasn’t sure she had the stamina for it
all.

• Teen Spirit has a boatload of schoolwork to complete and a couple of college applications to get out the door.

• Hepcat has to finish a project he’s been working on for too long. And while he’s at it, he needs to see about getting paid.

• Smartmom still needs a job. Actually, she needs one now more than
ever (yeah, good luck with that — unless Obama creates a new WPA for
writers!).

• OSFO has to get back to the rigorous and overscheduled life of a Park Slope middle-schooler.

Couldn’t they just go back to the farm and hang out with goats,
Flora and Miss America? That was so much more relaxing than this.

Smartmom was stressing about getting her kids up in the morning in
time to get them to school. They hadn’t gone to bed before midnight
since before Christmas. Smartmom and the OSFO enjoy watching “Desperate
Housewives” and “Brothers and Sisters” on Sunday nights. They’re
addicted to both, and you’ve got to be kidding if you think they were
going to miss a new episode.

So much for early to bed, early to rise.

But on Sunday, OSFO had to miss “Desperate Housewives” because she still had an itty bit of homework left to finish.

“Why didn’t you do it out in California?” Smartmom bellowed.

“I forgot,” OSFO lied.

Smartmom was fit to be tied. The television stayed off until OSFO finished her reading logs. Damn those reading logs.

“Couldn’t I just watch a little,” OSFO begged.

“Read my lips!” Smartmom snarled.

Besides, there’s always Hulu for catching up on the latest escapades
of Eva Longoria Parker, Felicity Huffman and Terri Hatcher.

Thank Buddha, OSFO was done in time to watch how baby Elizabeth’s
illness and her uncle’s sacrifice caused an emotional confrontation
between Kevin and Tommy that threatened their relationship on “Brothers
and Sisters.”

And Smartmom thought her life was complicated.

At 11 pm, OSFO was in bed and Teen Spirit was already asleep after a
long weekend of revelry with friends after “solitary confinement” in
California. He was out like a light.

Mission accomplished. The children were sleeping. Smartmom practically patted herself on the back. Not so fast.

At 11:05, OSFO crawled into the parental bed and had an emotional
meltdown. It was like the beginning of the school year all over again:
tears, fears and apprehensions about going back to middle school.

“I miss PS 321,” she told Smartmom tearfully.

Smartmom felt like it was “Groundhog Day.” Hadn’t they gotten over
this back in September? Finally Smartmom managed to calm OSFO down: she
rubbed her back until she fell asleep.

“Set the alarm for 5:30,” OSFO told her drowsily before she dozed
off. She wanted to shower, do a tiny bit more homework and get herself
ready for her first day back after vacation.

Smartmom slept fitfully. Visions of all the bills she had to pay,
the phone calls she had to make in search of a job, and all the family
business she had to attend to danced like sour lollipops and broken
candy canes inside her head.

At 4:45 am, she gave up trying to sleep and waited for the alarm to ring at 5:30.

“Turn the shower on,” OSFO ordered from her bedroom as soon as it rang.

It was a bit harder to get Teen Spirit up at 6 am. But he did,
eventually, shower, dress and make it out the door, while listening to
“Talking Heads 77” at top volume.

Uh oh. OSFO needed lunch and there was nothing in the fridge. That
meant a quick trip to the newsstand on Seventh Avenue where the owner
knows to make a bagel with cream cheese for OSFO and a coffee with one
sugar for Smartmom. (It would be too easy to keep a steady supply of
bagels at home.)

When she got back home, Smartmom could see that OSFO was still
nervous about her first day back. Even as she brushed her turquoise
hair, OSFO looked fairly blue. Smartmom tried to cheer her up, but what
could she say. Smartmom was feeling pretty glum herself on this, the
first day of real life in 2009.

“Try to have a good day,” Smartmom said as she waved at OSFO as she
left the apartment. But she was really talking to herself. Because that
was what she was going to try to do. All day.

And they're having a liquidation sale. Everything 50% off. I spoke to the owner. He was hoping to sell the store and came very close. But the buyers backed out after speaking to the landlord who were offering a 10-year lease on a rent that would eventually be $18,000 per month. I'm not sure what the rent is now. But that's a lot of money.