Monthly Archives: February 2009

Postcard from the Slope

Williamsburg Fashion Weekend: Inspire Us

Wfw-flyer4
Fashion Week in Manhattan is ovah, but things are just getting started in Williamsburg. See where up-and-coming Brooklyn designers are taking fashion. The
presentations are anything but ordinary or predictable, with
show-specific live music scores and artist performances.

When: Friday, February 20th, and Saturday, February 21st, 2009.

Featuring the collections of eight Brooklyn designers.

Four collections on Friday. Four collections on Saturday.

Where: At Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Doors open at 8 PM.

On Friday, fashion shows run from 9 PM to 11 PM.

On Saturday, fashion shows run from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM.

After party starts immediately after fashion shows.

The after party continues the fun into the night with killer bands and…  The Trilateral Commission DJ set.

Door Admission — for the public: $8.- on Friday.  $8.- on Saturday.
(Note: No advance ticket sales.)

Members of the Press and Buyers are strongly encouraged to RSVP to
"tommcalisternyc at gmail dot com".

This event is open to the public (i.e. non-press and
non-buyers) for the low-priced admission charge of $8 each night —
which entitles one to stay for the afterparty at no additional charge!
(no advance ticket sales).

Dress code: Inspire us!

Postcard from the Slope

Jordana Rothman on Ban on Israeli Food Proposed by Small Group of Food Coop Members

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Writer Jordana Rothman dropped me a note to share her published response in Time Out to news that a small group of Park Slope Coop members proposed boycotting Israeli products at the Food Coop at a recent Open Forum. They plan to bring it up at the upcoming General Meeting.

Funny that Jordana wrote in because I was already typing my own little story, which was basically a retread of the Jewish Daily Forward story.

Maybe this is developing into a big deal. Looks like I'll be going to the next general meeting, which happens to be at Congregation Beth Elohim.

Here's an excerpt from Jordana's funny post-Jewish response in Time Out ("we're putting our hooked noses
back to the grindstone. Though clashing politics may simmer in the
produce aisle at your local Co-op, for now anyway, your persimmons are
safe," she writes). Jordana, a self-proclaimed "angry Jewess," writes about food for Time Out New York. Browsing a list of her articles, it looks like good stuff.

We were kibbitzing with our local usurer earlier today, just
toasting a diamond sale over a brimming chalice of Catholic baby blood
when—with a click of his tongue—he drew our attention to yesterday’s
edition of The Jewish Daily Forward.
The story in question: a fracas among Park Slope Co-op members, a few
of whom have moved to ban Israeli products from their shelves. Despite
the wisdom and composure brought on by 2,000 years of scholarly
thought, we could feel our horns glinting in the sun. Where’s an angry
Jewess to turn in times of strife? Why, the media of course!

The irony that the place is essentially a neo–urban kibbutz (members
pledge to work shifts at the grocery, making the desert that is the
Slope’s affordable, responsible grocery options bloom…as it were) has
not escaped us, being neighborhood residents ourselves. But the motion
feels born from the very stiff and self-righteous soapbox awareness
that many naysayers feel makes the Co-op unpalatable under normal
circumstances.

The Forward quotes Rabbi Andy Bachman, whose synagogue
plays host to Co-op meetings: “It will remain an irrelevant gesture to
5 million Israelis and 2 million Palestinians, but it will make someone
in Park Slope feel really good about themselves. That’s what this is
about; it’s about the political purity, which is part of Park Slope’s
unique self-absorption.”

We’re inclined to agree. And while we support the Co-op’s open forum
for this kind of divisive dialogue, we’re also comforted by the seeming
smallness of the gesture—the Forward reports about ten members (a minyan, in Heeb parlance) looking to discuss the boycott at a future meeting.

Civics and Urban Life

Ban Israeli Products as Protest Against Gaza Attacks at Food Coop?

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It all started at the Park Slope Food Coop's Open Forum, that bastion of free speech and open expression. A coop member asked the group to consider a ban on Israeli products as a protest against Israel's attacks on Gaza.

According to Alan Zimmerman, who spoke with the Jewish Daily Forward, the woman who gave her name as Hima B. "spoke for less than 60 seconds."

News of this requestJewish Daily Forward includes quotes from Rabbi Andy Bachman:

“There are so many Jews who shop there, there are so many Israelis who shop there, there’s a huge number of frum
people from all over Brooklyn who shop there,” said Rabbi Andy Bachman
of Brooklyn’s largest and most active reform congregation, Beth Elohim,
“so my guess is that if it passes, and I want to emphasize that I don’t
think it will, they will lose a lot of members.”

Since the meeting others have joined Hima B's cause.They plan to put the issue on the agenda at the next general meeting. There have been thoughtful letters in the Coop's newsaper, The Linewaiter's Gazette.

Somehow this story found it's way to the Jewish Daily Forward, which was launched as a  Yiddish-language
daily newspaper in 1897 and made its name as a defender of trade unionism and democratic socialism.

Other Bloggers

Brooklyn Based: Places to Write in Brooklyn

Bws
I never saw the inside of the Brooklyn Writers Space, where quite a few of my friends do their writing. So I thought this was cool. This is from Brooklyn Based today, which features a piece by Jennifer DeMerritt on writing spaces around Brooklyn. She's got nfo and pix on writing spaces in Ditmas Park and Gowanus/Park Slope. Good reading if you're looking for a place to be productive.

Silence is golden at the popular Brooklyn Writers Space,
a 2,000-square-foot facility at 58 Garfield Place in Park Slope that
provides desk carrels, internet access, printers, a roof deck, and the
all-important free coffee for serious writers. Members mute their cell
phones and computers before entering the main work room (as a member,
I’ve been sternly shushed for inadvertent computer beeps) and talk only
in the kitchen or phone room. BWS’s formula of total freedom from noise
and distraction works for many notable Brooklyn writers, and monthly
readings at Union Hall, hosted by BWS’s founder, Scott, Adkins, let you
check out the talent lurking in those quiet cubicles. Full-time
membership costs $310 per quarter.

Journalists who like BWS’s affordable space but can’t work without their phones can try Room 58, located in the Brooklyn Artists Gym
at 168 7th Street in Gowanus. Co-founded by Scott Adkins of BWS and the
Brooklyn Artists Gym, Room 58 provides file storage, research
materials, and fellow members who won’t give you the fisheye when you
need to take that call.

Civics and Urban Life

Forgotten New York Does Carroll Street

Thanks to Forgotten New York for alerting me to this terrific post about Carroll Street. Here's an excerpt:

When the topic about Brooklyn's
longest streets comes up (and admittedly, that's once in a blue moon)
Flatbush, Atlantic, Bedford Avenues and Fulton Street come up most
often. But there are a group of streets that run from the waterfront at
Buttermilk Channel all the way east to Brownsville, running gthrough
Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Lefferts Gardens, and Crown
Heights: Union, President and Carroll. The latter is named for Charles Carroll
of Maryland, the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of
Independence, and Carroll's presence here in the atlas is quite
deliberate. A regiment of 400 Maryland troops, under Lord Stirling, assisted American patriots in a strategic retreat from British forces who vastly outnumbered them in the Battle of Brooklyn.
Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan's

Greetings from Scott Turner: A-Rod Edition

As always we are are pleased to present the latest virtuosic email from Scott Turner of Red Hook's Rocky Sullivans. And don't forget the pub quiz is every Thursday night!

Greetings Pub Quiz Cinematistas…

How perfect is Alex Rodriguez for Mike Bloomberg's New York City?

Today's press conference at the New York Yankees' spring training facility — where the main stadium has a been narcissistically named after fading-fast team owner George Steinbrenner — was a primo illustration of how the rich, powerful and offensively clueless dominate the headlines around here.

Alex Rodriguez — and you'll never see him sporting the ESPN-commodified
"A-Rod" nickname here…except just now — spent the press conference
in full Bloombergian mode.  Alex Rodriguez lied.  Alex Rodriguez
exaggerated.  Alex Rodriguez obfuscated.  Alex Rodriguez prevaricated. 
Alex Rodriguez pretended to be forthcoming.  Alex Rodriguez refused to
answer tough questions.  Alex Rodriguez blamed others.  Alex Rodriguez
surrounded himself with props — not Bloomberg's usual lumpen mass of
public officials, firefighters or annointed-for-the-day "heroes" — but
rather, Yankee teammates who were being good soldiers.


"At the 5:37 mark, purse your lips and look contrite."

Most
of all, Alex Rodriguez did all this with the entitled distance of a man
wealthy beyond belief.  Money doesn't buy you happiness, never mind
love.  It does reinforce in empty vessels like Alex Rodriguez and Mike
Bloomberg the notion that they're impervious to everyone else's anger
and disappointment at their actions.  Same for Bernie Madoff, Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, Chris Brown, the heads of the auto companies, and so many more.

In these terrible days of fiscal distress, warfare, disease and another endless season of American Idol,
Alex Rodgriguez doesn't count for much.  But here, in New York City,
he'll be the headline for the next six months.  I bet a few of those
headlines will include Mike Bloomberg's pontificatory, soulless and
trite condemnation of Rodriguez. 


"I offer you puppy dog eyes, a Yankee-color shirt, and a watch worth more than you.  Do you now love me?"

Bloomberg himself is flipping through City Hall's Tried And True
Cliches Handbook right now, looking for just the right bromides.  In
his unleaderly manner, Bloomberg will, at some point, gently chide
Rodriguez for letting down the children and setting a bad example. 
Bloomberg, who's treated Gotham's citizenry as pack mules to carry
billions of public dollars straight to America's wealthiest sports franchise, knows a thing or two about setting bad examples.

Mike Bloomberg and Alex Rodriguez run the same p.r. campaigns: find
a scapegoat….apologize in that non-apology way…blame "unavoidable"
circumstances…hire expensive crisis-management teams…fail miserably
at talking folksy to the little people…prevent the media from gaining
access to the truth…rig the game like an Atlantic City casino…and
above all else, spend more energy on denying the problem than fixing it.

Or not letting it happen in the first place.

http://mlb.mlb.com/images/jCZihU63.jpg
"Don't worry…it's not an uproar if I don't do anything about it."

If
Bloomberg's such a great mayor and businessperson, how come this city's
in such bad shape on his watch?  If Rodriguez is such a great New York
Yankee, how come they haven't won a World Series on his watch? 
To hear either talk, it's everybody else's fault.  On the rare
occasions when they admit culpability, it was just, you know,
unavoidable.  Rodriguez used the "I was young and stupid" like he was
in a John Huges brat-pack movie.

At the end of the day, Alex Rodriguez, like Mike Bloomberg, acts
like nothing's too terribly wrong.  Not with his own life or anything
else in the malestrom of this new century's first untenable decade.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090207/bba-rodriguez-steroids/images/775eccda-93ee-4283-bfdc-a5416c32867a.jpg
"…must…remember…to…mention…God…"

Do we, the populace of New York City,
deserve brigands like Bloomberg and Rodriguez?  The answer ranges from
"no" to "wouldn't wish them on our worst enemies."  But since both
Bloomberg and Rodriguez wrap themselves in societal bubble-wrap that
the rest of us, for bizarre reasons, refuse to step up and pop, we're
stuck with them.

Or, we could start poping those bubbles, one obfuscation at a time.

Postcard from the Slope

Babeland Workshop: Put the Zing Back in Your Sex Life

Sexy Moms Series: Sex and the New Parent
Wednesday, February 25, 7-8pm, Free
Babeland Brooklyn, 462 Bergen Street

New parents can discover how to put the zing back into their sex
lives, with tips and advice from guest speaker Jocelyn Hart, a midwife
at the Morris Heights Health Center. This topic is ideal for new moms,
moms-to-be, and parents of small children who are wondering why their
sex lives took a detour once the baby arrived! Complimentary
refreshments. The Sexy Moms Series is jointly sponsored by New Space
for Women’s Health

Community Bookstore

Tonight: Henry David Thoreau at the Community Bookstore

Henry-david-thoreau
Wednesday, February 18th @ 7:30 p.m.
The Nonfiction Book Group discusses
Henry David Thoreau's Walden

You've heard of Walden, but have you ever read it? 

Tonight at the Community Bookstore join a discussion of one of the classics of American literature and
nature writing!

 In 1845, Henry David Thoreau quit working at his
family's pencil factory in order to begin a two-year experiment in
simple living, building a small cabin outside of town and living a life
of self-sufficiency. Join us for an evening of lively discussion as we
explore Walden Pond along with Thoreau, and learn about the pleasures
of "simplicity, simplicity, simplicity."

 
The group will be reading the Norton Critical
Edition, which includes commentary and other related texts.
 
Postcard from the Slope

3-Year-Old Rides The Subway Alone

I read about this in the New York Times this morning. Good New York story.

Apparently a 3-year-old Queens boy left his mom at a Roosevelt Avenue McDonalds, got on a subway train and rode alone for seven stations until he was tracked down by police.

The boy apparently walked to the Main Street stop of the No. 7 line at Roosevelt Avenue. There seemed to be three ways the boy could have gotten down into the subway system: by crossing a busy stretch of Roosevelt Avenue and entering there; by walking a full city block to entrances at Main Street; or by taking a long escalator located about 200 feet from the restaurant down into the station.
He somehow got by the turnstiles and boarded a westbound train, the police said.

According to the Times: a detective from the Vice Major Case Team was having lunch at that very same McDonalds when he saw a hysterical woman crying "My son. My son. What happened to my son?"  He issued an alert after checking the store's surveillance video. At around the same time, a subway passenger noticed the boy riding solo and told a transit worker who notified the police.

I love the quote from the boy's dad, Jose Lino Marquez, 40: “Everything now is O.K.. My son likes trains,: he told the New York Times.

Postcard from the Slope

Terms and Use: Whose Facebook Is It?

I checked my Facebook page this morning and found a Terms of Use Update at the top of my home page. Apparently, Facebook has received a lot of negative feedback about the new Terms of Use policy they posted two weeks ago. I wasn't aware of this because I'm a newcomer to Facebook.

Because of the negative response, Facebook has decided to return to their previous Terms of Use until they figure things out. There's a Facebook Blog, where there is more discussion of this. Big surprise: there is also a Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities group where Facebookers can share their thoughts.  

Facebook offered some clarification about the following issues that were brought up by Facebookers, who feared that Facebook was claiming ownership over people's content.

1. You own your information. Facebook does not. This includes your photos and all other content.

2.
Facebook doesn't claim rights to any of your photos or other content.
We need a license in order to help you share information with your
friends, but we don't claim to own your information.

3. We won't
use the information you share on Facebook for anything you haven't
asked us to. We realize our current terms are too broad here and they
make it seem like we might share information in ways you don't want,
but this isn't what we're doing.

4. We will not share your
information with anyone if you deactivate your account. If you've
already sent a friend a message, they'll still have that message.
However, when you deactivate your account, all of your photos and other
content are removed.

5. We apologize for the confusion around
these issues. We never intended to claim ownership over people's
content even though that's what it seems like to many people. This was
a mistake and we apologize for the confusion.

Civics and Urban Life

My Email From the President

I love getting emails from the President. This one linked to a new website called Recovery.gov and a video of President Obama talking about The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which, he says, will be carried out with "full transparency and accountability."

How?

A newly developed website called Recovery.gov is where you can track how the monies are being spent.

Louise —

Today, I signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law.

This is a historic step — the first of many as we work together to
climb out of this crisis — and I want to thank you for your resolve
and your support.

You organized thousands of house meetings. You shared your ideas and
personal stories. And you informed your friends and neighbors about the
need for immediate action. You continue to be a powerful voice for
change throughout the country.

The recovery plan will create or save 3.5 million jobs, provide tax
cuts for working and middle-class families, and invest in health care
and clean energy.

It's a bold plan to address a huge problem, and it will require my vigilance and yours to make sure it's done right.

I've assigned a team of managers to oversee the implementation of the
recovery act. We are committed to making sure no dollar is wasted. But
accountability begins with you.

That's why my administration has created Recovery.gov,
a new website where citizens can track every dollar spent and every job
created. We'll invite you and your neighbors to weigh in with comments
and questions.

Postcard from the Slope

To Benefit the Red Hook Initiative: Taste of Red Hook

 
Home-img
Red Hook Initiative is a group which works to confront and affect the consequences
of intergenerational poverty through an approach that offers support in
education, employment, health and community development. We believe
that social change comes from within individuals.

The momentum to
improve the quality of life for Red Hook's residents – as well as the
community at large – must come from the people living in the community.
Currently over 95% of our employees live in the Red Hook Houses. We are
creating a model for social change that does not exist anywhere else in
the city.

Presently, they are working
hard to create a new home by spring 2009. And they're getting help from a bunch of Red Hook restaurants who are generously donating each year to their Taste of Red Hook event.

Starting TONIGHT: Tuesday, February
17, 2009, five local restaurants will take part in TASTE OF RED HOOK
TUESDAYS. For the next four weeks, participating restaurants will
donate 10% of their Tuesday night proceeds to the RHI building fund.

 
So come out to
Red Hook for dinner or a drink and show your support by eating at these
great restaurants on Tuesdays: 2/17, 2/24, 3/3, and 3/10. Be sure to
mention that you're there as part of Taste of Red Hook Tuesdays.
 


Postcard from the Slope

Think Spring: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens Teams Up With Brooklyn Industries

BKI_desert_med
Just got word from Kate Blumm at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens that there are a couple of
exciting things going on over there.

BKI_bonsai_med
BKI_tropical_med
Seems that BBG is teaming up with Brooklyn Industries on a spring project called Think Spring.

Brooklyn Industries shot their spring catalog in the Steinhardt Conservatory (previewed here). BBG is also cohosting an event in every BI store in the city on Thursday Feb 26th 19th (THIS THURSDAY) with giveaways and refreshments. And there's more: the two Brooklyn biggies are co-designing a special toddler tee.

In other BBG news, BBG's molecular systematist, Dr. Susan Pell, is blogging her incredible research trip to Paupua, New Guinea on their website. (http://bbg.org/blogs/expedition/). 

 .

Postcard from the Slope

OTBKB’s CHEAP THIRLLS

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I was asked by Brooklyn Based to come up with a list of recession proof activities that are fun, easy and inexpensive.

—Brooklyn Reading Works, a monthly reading series at the Old Stone House that happens to be consistently fun and entertaining. Five bucks gets you a stimulating literary show with snacks, wine and some socializing after. Up next: The Memoir-A-Thon on March 12th at 8 p.m.

–Decent regular coffee and bagel (with cream cheese or butter) from the newsstand on 7th Avenue near Third Street.

–Saturday or Sunday Brunch at Grand Canyon on Seventh Avenue between 1st and 2nd Streets.

–Events at the Community Bookstore, including the Non-Fiction Book Group, Books Without Borders and the Modernist Book Group.

—Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the winter. Moody, beautiful, inspiring.

—Bar Reis at 375 Fifth Avenue near 6th Street in Park Slope. You can't beat the $7 wine and beer, the gypsy violin trio on Wednesday nights, the generally convivial crowd and the great bartenders.

–Park Slope stoop sales come spring can be a great resource for inexpensive clothing and home items.

–Walk the streets of Park Slope looking for boxes of books disposed of by residents. Just this morning I got Invisible Man, Haywire, Marry Me by John Updike and something called My Fight For Sanity with a fabulous pulp fiction cover (copyright 1960).

More to come

Other Bloggers

Brooklyn Based: Recession-Proof Brooklyn

Brooklyn Based has a great list of recession busters. Here are some examples in the Park Slope area:

—The Dweck Center for free music, readings, and cultural events.

–the monthly First Saturday parties at the Brooklyn Museum. Those are awesome free dance parties.

–Bierkraft’s Tasty Tuesdays:
Speaking from experience, these free cheese and beer tastings are
great. Enthusiastic guest speakers, you learn something about what
you’re eating/drinking and it’s totally free.

These two about sushi and donuts came from Fucked in Park Slope:

–Bonus: Yuppie Scumbag Luxuries that FIPS can’t give up (their own Recession-inspired list you must check out too):

Sushi. But you can go to places like Park Slope Seafood and get prepackaged, yummy (but way cheaper) sushi. If you are really Ballin’ it, I recommend the volcano roll at Jpan…it’s
in a friggin’ PANCAKE. Also, it’s not on the menu, so it’s kinda like
one of those super cool bars that doesn’t have a door.

FIPS also mentioned Donuts as a recession-proof eatery.

Atlantic Yards

Ratner Wants Bailout Money for Atlantic Yards

Check out the press release on the Develop Don't Destroy Website about Ratner's efforts to secure some federal bailout money for the ailing Atlantic Yards project. DDDB charges that this would turn Atlantic Yards into "the poster child for misuse and abuse of the recovery bill."

Read this excerpt and go to DDDB for the rest..

Developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) is reportedly lobbying federal and state officials
for a bailout to further prop up its heavily subsidized and massive $4 billion
Atlantic Yards proposal.



FCR is attempting to get a piece of New York State's share of the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (aka the "Stimulus Bill"). Former New York Senator
Al D'Amato is lobbying on the developer's behalf; presumably, other lobbyists
are hard at work talking with the Paterson Administration as well.



Bailing out the Atlantic Yards project with federal stimulus funds would turn
Ratner's project into the poster child for misuse and abuse of the recovery bill.
The project, of course, is already subsidized to the hilt at the expense of the
city, state and federal taxpayer, including the developer's effort to secure a
triple tax-exempt arena bond with a federal subsidy estimated to be worth $165
million.



FCR, apparently, is attempting to secure stimulus funds by claiming Atlantic Yards
is a "transit project," since they are obligated to construct a new rail yard.
They are arguing that this work is worthy of prioritization by the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority (MTA), which will oversee the disbursement of
a reported $1.3 billion in stimulus funds.


Postcard from the Slope

Symposium at the Brooklyn Museum: New Feminist Art Scholarship

This sounds interesting. A full day gathering of scholars at the Brooklyn Museum  discussing new feminist art scholarship.

Saturday, March 28, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Highlighting the work of emerging scholars,
Feminism Now presents contemporary,
groundbreaking research presented by graduate
and post-graduate students on a wide range of
feminist issues and topics that reflect new
directions and perspectives in feminist
scholarship. Featuring a keynote address by
curator and critic Carey Lovelace and two
consecutive panels moderated by artist
Nayland Blake and art historian Johanna
Burton. Free with Museum admission, but
registration is required via e-mail to:
academic.programs
@brooklynmuseum.org.

Civics and Urban Life

Some Place Like Home: Film About the Fight Against Gentrification in Brooklyn

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Splh
Fort Green Peace is presenting a screening and discussion of Some Place Like Home, a new documentary about the the fight against gentrification in downtown Brooklyn.

Some Place Like Home tells the stories of community residents and small businesses  that were displaced to make way for high-end retail
and luxury condominiums to the area. Small business owners, who have helped to make that area the third largest retail district in New York City talk about the deferment of their dreams as entrepreneurs.

The Where and When
Wednesday, February 25, at 7pm
Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church
85 South Oxford Street
(Between Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue)


Postcard from the Slope

This Thursday at the Food Coop: Memoir Writing Essentials

Everybody has a story to tell but most people don't know where to begin. This workshop with Paula Bernstein, the co-author with Elyse Schein, of Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited, will present an overview on the basics of memoir writing, including the technique of character development, description and narrative arcs. Bernstein will also discuss strategies for producing a book proposal and landing an agent.

This workshop is part of Wordsprouts, a montlhy series open to the public organized by PJ Corso for the Park Slope Food Coop.

The Where and When
Thursday February 19th at 7:30 p.m.
Park Slope Food Coop
782 Union Street in Park Slope

Postcard from the Slope

Yoga Sole: Light Your Life with Yoga

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A longtime OTBKB reader wrote in to kvell about a new yoga studio in Windsor Terrace. It reminded me that I want to do yoga this year, too.

The reason I’m writing is to mention a new place in the neighborhood, it’s a Yoga studio called Yoga Sole.

I’ve always had some resistance to working out so walking (not nearly enough) had become my main source of exercise in the past few years, but this past fall a yoga studio opened up right across the street from where I live – 11th Ave at Windsor Place -It was just too convenient NOT to check it out.

I have been going, more or less, since it opened and I really love it- the instructors are great (especially Evalena) and it’s an intimate comfortable space. They have great classes for beginners as well as more advanced Yogis.

They offer a Pilates class, which is great and Yoga for kids – which my 7 year old is really into and prices are reasonable if you buy a group of classes.

Full disclosure – part of me wants to keep it to myself so the classes don’t get too big – but for the sake of small businesses everywhere I will gladly pass on the word.

Postcard from the Slope

Hello/Good Bye: Little Zuzu Moving in with Big Zuzu on Fifth Avenue

Littlezuzu  
I kind of had a feeling that the recession might mean the end of Little Zuzu, the cute flower shop on Berkeley Place. Indeed, that's what's happening. Little Zu is moving in with Big Zuzu on Fifth Avenue.

I got the news this morning from Fonda, who also wrote to say that Zuzu's customers collectively "flipped the recession a big fat bird?"

In other words, sales were good?

I'm guessing it was good all around for other local shops.

That's good news for local shopkeepers who rely on Valentine's Day to get them through the winter. Here's the note from Fonda:

First, we want to thank all our
zuzushoppers for making this Valentine's Day such a great success.You
collectively  flipped this  Recession a Big Fat Bird!
Nevertheless…
From now until the end  of
February, Little Zu will  be packing  her bags
and by March First will move in with her
Big Sister on Fifth Avenue.
To help lighten her load, we are having a
moving sale.
Right now tablecloths, placemats,
throws
 and drapevine lamps are 15%
0ff.
By Thursday we will mark down other
items.
Some of the furniture will be for
sale.
We will have fresh flowers this week
coming in on Wednesday.
 
So much for the business end….want to
know how we feel?
Sad and relieved…two shops is like two
kids…more than twice the work.
 
We were offered the little shop on
Berkeley in May of 2005…9 months after the fire
on Seventh Avenue and 6 months
after we opened on Fifth. We felt it was a "no-brainer"…a way to
service our client base at that end of the slope…re-claim our
territory.
We had no idea we would fall in love with
the little shop and it would take on a life of its own
as  our sweet "Little Zu".
It was great fun dressing her up with our
pretty things…
she always wore them
well.
Little Zu has her fans, her regulars,her
devotees.
To them we apologize for the loss and the
inconvenience
of having to trek over to The
Big.
Her heart and soul will be
transplanted to Fifth Avenue
and take root there…the same way it was
for us after the fire.
With  slightly heavy
hearts…
Fonda and all the
Zuzus
 
Postcard from the Slope

Smelly Trouble on Third Street

A Third Street neighbor just wrote in with news of a rather unpleasant—and mysterious—crime:

usually it's good news, but this times I have a complaint that i hope you can share. 
someone
on our block has been throwing used diapers in the back yard, behind
our building (457 Street) and the abandoned one on 2nd street (address
not readily at hand).  it's a health hazard, and just plain gross.  we
don't know who it is, but someone around here does.  

Civics and Urban Life

PS I Love You T-Shirt From Bento Designs

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Isn't this an adorable t-shirt? It was created by Bento Designs, which is located in Park Slope.

A group of friends making stuff inspired by
food, fun and Brooklyn, the Bento designers say that they like making funny faces and eating cool food
from all over the world… a lot.

They ask:

"Do you like to eat, and make funny
faces? Are you awesome and creative? Then come along and join us! It's
fun – and so are we!"

You can reach them at studiobento(at)gmail(dot)com