Monthly Archives: February 2009
Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Someone Break It To Obama
House Approves Stimulus With No Republican Support
Someone Break it to Obama
"Bipartisan" has a uni-meaning, not bi-
And this is what it is: "I spit in your eye."
Smartmom Still Loves Hepcat
Sometimes. Just sometimes. Smartmom thinks marriage is a completely crazy concept.
Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you’re capable of sharing
a cramped, rent-stabilized apartment and raising a pair of iconoclastic
kids.
Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you can share a bathroom, a closet, and a checking account.
Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you’re proficient at conducting the business of your lives together.
In other words, just because you love someone doesn’t mean you’re any good at being married.
Twenty years ago this July, Smartmom and Hepcat got married at the
swank Lotus Club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It was a lovely
wedding complete with an African mbira player, a Mexican polka band and
a very angular jazz pianist.
Their friends had a great time. Their relatives had a great time. Even Hepcat and Smartmom had a great time.
But neither of them, for the life of them, can remember a word of
their wedding vows. Maybe it was nerves. Maybe it was because their
flower girl was having a hysterical crying fit during most of the
proceedings.
Smartmom thinks they signed on to love and honor one another. She’s
pretty sure interfaith Rabbi Bert didn’t saying anything about obeying.
Thank goodness.
Whatever they said, they said it in front of a loving community of
family and friends. Then, Hepcat, looking unbelievably handsome — and
young — in his father’s double-breasted tuxedo, stomped on the light
bulb (in place of the customary wine glass) that marks the end of the
ceremony and the beginning of the couple’s life together.
Trouble is no one ever sat them down and told them what to expect.
No one gave them the “Idiot’s Guide to Being Married” for a wedding present.
No one told them that sometimes they’d feel like a set of conjoined twins
No one prepared them for the fact that they’d spend a small fortune
on couple’s counseling. Or that one day, they’d be too tired — and
distracted — to contemplate sex.
Ah, back before their wedding day, it was all so simple. Who cared about hampers, invoices, and middle school applications?
They enjoyed the same East Village restaurants; dancing at the
Palladium and walking through the permanent collection at the Museum of
Modern Art.
And they had sex — and lots of it.
And then life happened. They lived through a high-risk pregnancy, an
economic upheaval or two; the illness and death of relatives and
friends; the continuing adventures of being parents; working too hard,
not sleeping enough, delayed paychecks, COBRAs and all the rest.
They learned that there was more to life — and marriage — than the
giddy fun of being a couple in the first throes of pre-marital love.
This was much on Smartmom’s mind recently in the aftermath of a
heated argument with Hepcat about, er, something — it has already
slipped her mind.
It could have been about cleaning up the living room, or that their
communication skills (even after all these years) are not exactly top
notch.
Smartmom got to thinking how hard it is, sometimes, to be married.
She even wondered why she bothers with the whole enterprise anyway.
Maybe it would just be easier to move to her own minimalist white
apartment with blank walls, white carpets and loads of sunlight.
So Smartmom took a long walk as she often does when she needs to
think alone. It was an icy cold January night and the temperature
outside was bracing. As she walked, she felt the rage dissipate and
some soft feelings return. She even found herself thinking about some
of the things she loved about Hepcat in the first place.
Miraculously, it all came back in a lyrical montage: Hepcat’s
distinctive square chin, intelligent face and wicked sense of humor;
the first time he showed her his family’s California walnut farm; the
hand-painted Ford pickup truck he used to drive around New York City;
the time he asked, just a few months after they met, what she wanted to
name their children; the way he held both of their children after her
C-sections in the delivery room. Singing softly, he stared into their
eyes; the way he … well that’s private. You can’t be a blabberpuss
about everything.
Sure, he drives Smartmom crazy. They didn’t fight over the silliest
things and lose sight of why they got together in the first place.
But it’s all part of the package. Part of that imperfect concept. Marriage.
Rose Marie Hester, Learning Specialist: The Mind’s Eye and Spelling
More learning tips from Rose Marie Hester, who runs a monthly Q&A session about learning issu on the first Monday night of the month at the Community Bookstore. She can be reached at rosemariehester(at)mac(dot)com.
Words like said, was, where and they can vex young students. Here’s a way to draw on the memory potential of the mind’s eye to make spelling easier.
Ask your child about his/her favorite food. Then have the child close his/her eyes and draw in the air, pretending that the letters are the favorite food.
Start with a challenging word and say each letter one-at-a-time, as the child draws and names the letter. “S —- A —– I —– D.”
You will need to repeat the word several times until the child firmly sees each letter in his mind’s eye and is able to say the letters with you.
When he/she’s ready, ask the child to “skywrite” the whole word and say the letters one-by-one.
,
Then, with the child keeping his/her eyes closed, ask, “Which is the first letter?” “Which is the last letter?” “Which is the second letter?” “Which is the third letter?” “Spell from back to front.” “Say the letters front to back.” Repeat the questions a few times.
Work on only one word at a time and keep it light. Your role is to be a coach and cheerleader.
The next time you work together, review the previous word or words. Add only one word at a time. Review is key. Some days don’t add words. Just review.
It’s also important to have a child write the words on paper after visualizing. Putting the word in a sentence and drawing an illustration is also very useful.
Practice sessions can last five to ten minutes and are much more effective in the long run than having a child rewrite the word over and over, as the visualizing method brings ALL the child’s learning channels into play—hearing, saying, visualizing, writing, memorizing, drawing, discussing, emotional connection, creating, using color and associating with food!
Eventually, ask the child to write three-sentence story using a few of the words that had been challenging.
These kinds of exercises may seem tedious, but you can make them a party. In the long run, they will help a child’s growth as a writer tremendously and will also help to stimulate all the learning channels.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Changes on Seventh Avenue
Closed: No No New Orleans is out. Sadly. The restaurant located on Seventh Avenue near 7th Street was, I believe, a transplant from New Orleans, it was a lovely place.
Opening: Cohen's Optical on Seventh between 7th and 8th Streets.
Opening; On the corner of 8th Street and Seventh Avenue a new coffee shop is coming in place of the Laundry Center that was there for years. I hear Donuts was thinking of taking over the space but they're not going to do it.
Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Primal Screen
The web is the greatest procrastination device mankind has yet
invented. –Steven Johnson, self-described Park Slope "father of three
boys, husband of one wife, and author of five books
Primal Screen
The web's supplanted TV,
Which bores the viewer blind;
Computing's the opposite–
It caffeinates the
mind.
Nancy McDermott: Resist the Tyranny of the New “Science of Parenting”
My friend Nancy McDermott, is a writer and a moderator for Park Slope Parents. She writes for an British website called, Spiked.
Spike is an independent online phenomenon dedicated to raising the
horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against
misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and
irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms. spiked is
endorsed by free-thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, and
hated by the narrow-minded such as Torquemada and Stalin. Or it would
be, if they were lucky enough to be around to read it.
horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against
misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and
irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms. spiked is
endorsed by free-thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, and
hated by the narrow-minded such as Torquemada and Stalin. Or it would
be, if they were lucky enough to be around to read it.
She sent me this excerpt from one of her articles, Parenting: It's Not Scienc, which should be of interest to OTBKB readers. Read the rest here.
A few months back, I stopped to help a silver-haired lady in my
neighbourhood unfold a stroller. She balanced her granddaughter, a cute
girl who looked to be about a year old, on one hip, while struggling
wildly with her free arm to open a trendy but stubbornly folded
stroller.
neighbourhood unfold a stroller. She balanced her granddaughter, a cute
girl who looked to be about a year old, on one hip, while struggling
wildly with her free arm to open a trendy but stubbornly folded
stroller.
Having only recently escaped the stroller ghetto myself, I knew the secret:
that is, the button or lever or clasp hidden in plain sight on every
stroller manufactured in the past five years. The one that, with a
single touch, miraculously transforms 20lbs of metal and
water-resistant canvas into a chariot robust enough to do several miles
a day on the streets of Brooklyn.
She thanked me with a mixture of relief and embarrassment. ‘That’s
okay’, I told her. ‘Strollers are a lot more complicated than they used
to be. I only know about this one because I have one, too.’ ‘It seems
like everything is more complicated’, she sighed. ‘I sometimes feel
like I need a PhD just to babysit. I don’t know how parents today
manage.’
The idea that parenting is more complicated than ever before is an
observation I hear often from my older relatives, and even mothers with
children born only a decade earlier than my own. And though there’s
always something of a ‘generation gap’ between families as childrearing
fads come and go, I couldn’t help but think the silver-haired lady had
a point.
The Mighty Handful of Brooklyn: Pistols and Doves
Check out the latest song by Brooklyn's The Mighty Handful. Play it loud and dance around your living room. It's oh-so-exuberant and FUN.
Listen to the original and the remix (one flows into the other I think).
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=311988556
I happen to know the lead singer and songwriter. But that's not why
it's here for Valentine's Day. It's here because I LOVE it.
Cool photo by Richard Gin
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Two Lovers: Gwyneth Paltrow in Brighton Beach
The New York Times' movie reviewer (and Brooklynite) A.O. Scott liked it and I'm hoping it's going to play in Brooklyn soon. Hello?
Shot in Brighton Beach. Looks interesting. A must-see for me.
“Two Lovers” deals with the romantic ambivalence of a young man in
Brooklyn, a description that might set visions of mumblecore dancing in
your head. But this movie, the director James Gray’s fourth feature
(after “Little Odessa,” “The Yards” and “We Own the Night”), is not
another low-key, closely observed study in bohemian diffidence. It
takes place in Brighton Beach, many subway stops (and sociological
light years) from the northwestern sections of the borough, where the
hipsters roam. And its palette of emotions, like its rich and somber
35-millimeter cinematography, departs from the hand-held, hi-def,
discursive style associated with directors like Joe Swanberg and Aaron
Katz, harking back to an older, artistically more conservative film
tradition of lush, earnest melodrama. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times
Brooklyn, a description that might set visions of mumblecore dancing in
your head. But this movie, the director James Gray’s fourth feature
(after “Little Odessa,” “The Yards” and “We Own the Night”), is not
another low-key, closely observed study in bohemian diffidence. It
takes place in Brighton Beach, many subway stops (and sociological
light years) from the northwestern sections of the borough, where the
hipsters roam. And its palette of emotions, like its rich and somber
35-millimeter cinematography, departs from the hand-held, hi-def,
discursive style associated with directors like Joe Swanberg and Aaron
Katz, harking back to an older, artistically more conservative film
tradition of lush, earnest melodrama. — A. O. Scott, The New York Times
Buffalo Plane Crash Kills 50
As reported on WNYC and in the New York Times, a Continental commuter plane from Newark to Buffalo crashed into a house in the town of Clarence, New York. All the people on board the flight and one person in the
house were killed.
My heart goes out to the the families of the victims. The Buffalo News reports that Beverly Eckert, the widow of Sean
Rooney, a Buffalo native who lost his life in the Sept. 11 terrorist
attack on the World Trade Center. She was Co-Chairperson of the group, The Voices of September 11.
Eckert was traveling to
Buffalo for a weekend celebration of what would have been her husband's
58th birthday. She also had planned to take part in presentation of a
scholarship award at Canisius High School that she established in honor
of her late husband.
A team of investigators arrived in
Buffalo on Friday morning.
Our City Dreams: Doc About Four Women Artists
Filmed over the course of two years, Our City Dreams
is a documentary by Chiara Clemente about four women artists: Kiki Smith, Ghada Amer, Nancy Spero and Marina
Abramovic, who live and work in New York City.
New York is the connective tissue of this piece and all the artists draw inspiration and energy from this city.
At the Film Forum in the West Village.
Valentine’s at Zuzu’s Petals
Fonda at Zuzu's Ps is getting in the mood for Valentine's Day and planning to serve red wine to Zuzu's Valentine's Day shoppers:
Hello all you zuzufriends and
lovers.
lovers.
If you aren't prepped and ready for
a Weekend of Love stop by, have a little red wine on us
a Weekend of Love stop by, have a little red wine on us
and pick out a treat for your significant
other.
other.
Besides an affection-inspiring selection
of Fresh Cut Flowers,we have some special offerings with that
zuzutouch…
of Fresh Cut Flowers,we have some special offerings with that
zuzutouch…
Call ahead and order to make sure you
don't miss out.
don't miss out.
Big Zu 718 638-0918
Little Zu 718 636
2022
2022
Last Night at Brooklyn Reading Works’ Cupid’s Arrow
Kissing Booth and Gift Deals at Urban Alchemist
This illustration is called "The Girls Next Door" and it is part of a series created by Brooklyn artist & co-op member Cassandra Quinn.
Come for the Kissing Booth, stay for the amazing last minute Valentine's Day gift deals.
This Friday, the ladies of Urban Alchemist Design Collective host another sure-to-be memorable party with homemade Love Wine and chocolate treats galore.
What exactly is the kissing booth?
Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: A Lift for a Lift
Muzak has declared bankruptcy. –news item
A Lift for a Lift
What goes up must surely come down,
Muzak acknowledges with a frown.
Fifty years it filled the air
Of each business elevatair
With a tamped-down mellow
sound
Seeping in once leaving the ground
So by the time you reached your floor
Sleep had slipped down to your core.
Soon the muzak will be stilled,
Many folks are bound to be thrilled.
Sappy rides will be a thing
Of the past–Give a shout,
give a ring!
Silence filling every lift,
Haters of noise will hug the gift.
Time to rejoice, a momentous matter–
Till replaced by cellphone chatter.
A Red Hook Lunch: From Community Farm to PS 15
A note from Ian Marvy of Added Value in Red Hook arrived in my in box and I wanted to share it with readers of OTBKB
Kimberly Vargas' video "A Red Hook Lunch" has been chosen as one of five
finalists in the National Farm to School Networks 'Real Food Is' YouTube
contest. Now the winner will be chosen by the voting public – by you! The
winner will receive $1,000 for their cafeteria food project, and one
representative from the winning video entry and a select chaperone win an
all expense paid trip (registration, travel, and lodging) to the 4th
National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 19-21st.
finalists in the National Farm to School Networks 'Real Food Is' YouTube
contest. Now the winner will be chosen by the voting public – by you! The
winner will receive $1,000 for their cafeteria food project, and one
representative from the winning video entry and a select chaperone win an
all expense paid trip (registration, travel, and lodging) to the 4th
National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 19-21st.
As part of last falls City Wide Garden-To-Cafeteria project, Kimberly
followed the harvest of food from Red Hook Community Farm to the table at
PS15. Along the way she captured the story of how a collaboration between
local school systems and local urban agriculture initiatives can transform
our lives and the world in which we live
For Kimberly, it was the culmination of her work as an educator, farm
worker, and documenter.
Please take the 3 minutes to watch Kimberly's video and vote! I you love it
please pass it on to friends and colleagues and encourage them to vote for
Kimi. http://www.farmtoschool.org/vote.php
Tonight at Barbes: Songs From the Hudson River
Tonight (Fri 02/13) at Barbes:
One set at 8:00pm
Joy Askew and Pulse present Songs From the Hudson River.
Pulse is a New
York-based composers' federation dedicated to music that bursts through
categories, unconstrained by convention. Members Joseph C Phillips,
Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider and Yumiko
Sunami have chosen as their latest project a song cycle in honor of the
Hudson River Quadricentennial Celebration going on throughout 2009.
Songs from the Hudson River features singer Joy Askew with a 6-person
Pulse chamber ensemble in a dynamic melding of singer-songwriter and
classical chamber music sensibilities. Each original song is inspired
by historical, fictional, and contemporary life and communities on and
around the Hudson River. Joy Askew is an accomplished singer-songwriter
who has performed with Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Joe Jackson,
Jack Bruce and others, and also leads her own band.
Dan Willis (woodwinds),
Lis Rubard (horn),
Julianne Carney (violin),
Will Martina (cello),
Dan Loomis (bass),
and Diana Herold (percussion)
And our own Jamie Begian on Guitar
For more information please visit pulsecomposers.typepad.com
Barbes
9th Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn
(F train to 7th Ave)
www.barbesbrooklyn.com
Brooklyn Public Library: Love Gained, Love Lost, Love Imagined
On Valentine's Day: Medgar Evers College students and faculty share poems of love gained, love lost, love imagined.
|
Central Library, Dweck Center |
|
| When: |
Saturday, Feb 14 4 PM |
| Audience: | For Adults |
CasaCara: Brownstone Voyeur
Casacara, a fun new blog covers real estate, architecture, historic preservation and interior design in Brooklyn and elsewhere. Today she takes us on a trip inside a cool Park Slope parlor floor decorated by Zelda Victoria.
I’ve seen a lot of intriguing places in my work as a freelance field
editor. Some are just too quirky (read: creative, artistic) for the
mainstream magazines, like this no-holds-barred riot of paint and wallpaper in a limestone townhouse in the heart of Park Slope.
editor. Some are just too quirky (read: creative, artistic) for the
mainstream magazines, like this no-holds-barred riot of paint and wallpaper in a limestone townhouse in the heart of Park Slope.
It was masterminded by decorator Linda Spector of Zelda Victoria, the longstanding, beloved fabric and wallcoverings shop on Fifth Avenue and Third Street, now closed.
Tom Martinez, Witness: Low Flying Red-Tailed Hawk
A flock of geese showed some understandable agitation at the low-flying
approach of a red-tailed hawk on one of the athletic fields in Prospect
Park.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Atlantic/Pacific MoMA
I've passed that station a bunch of times lately, but I haven't stopped to look at the MoMA installation of more than 50 reproductions of MoMA's greatest hits including Gary Indianna's painting of the word LOVE and Warhol's Campbell Soup cans. I can't wait to get on over there.
I mean, I ride through there all the time but I'm hoping to get out of the train and browse in the subway museum.
It'll be up from Feb 10 until March 15.
My Father’s Valentine
I won't be getting a Valentine's Day card from my father this year. While that may sound pretty obvious because he died on September 7th, it just occurred to me yesterday as I was buying cards at Scaredy Kat in Park Slope.
My father never missed a Valentine's Day. Every year in the days before the big day, I would find a bright red (or white) envelope in my mail box.
Oh, how I loved my valentine from my dad. Sure, it was schmaltzy; that was de- rigeur. He may have been a UC Berkeley-educated intellectual but he was not adverse to a schmaltzy valentine.
And he'd always send a card thick with syrupy Hallmark sentiment. He never wrote his own. My dad, the award winning copywriter, author, lyricist, never wrote his own valentine to me.
I say that with regret but also love. I think he believed in schmaltzy valentine cards.
He did customize the card a bit. He'd write: "To My Dear Daughter" and sign off with an "I love you very very much" in his barely legible—but endearing—handwriting.
Those two verys meant the world to me.
I also looked forward to his tiny drawings on the envelope, where he doodled airplanes, elephants, hearts. Sometimes there were little jokes, exclamations or a make-believe postage stamp.
Already I am missing my valentine. I felt tears coming at Scaredy Kat talking to the nice owner. But I stopped myself. Not here. Not now. I wondered if a lot of customers spill their Valentine's Day-related grief at the card shop.
So no valentine from my dad this year. Just a mental image of him walking to the card shop, browsing through the Valentine's Day cards, searching for the perfect card for me, my son, my daughter, my sister. His quick script on the card and writing my address with care. The postage stamp; dropping the envelope in the post box.
Not this year. But in memory, I guess.
Tonight Cupid’s Arrows: Writers on Love
Brooklyn Reading Works
presents Cupid's Arrow: Writers on Love curated by Marian Fontana.
Another one of the great themed readings at Brooklyn Reading Works
curated by interesting writers.
Marian Fontana,
author of A Widow's Walk; A Memoir of 9/11 and the upcoming, The Middle of the Bed, has gathered together some
wonderful writers, including Elissa Schappell
author of Use Me and the upcoming Blueprints for Better Girls;
Novelist, poet and editor of Teachers and Writer Magazine, Susan Karwoska; and Poets Ellen Ferguson and Ira Goldstein
and memoirist, Mila Drumke. Marian will be reading an excerpt from her
upcoming book.
As
Marian writes: Join us two nights before Valentines as six talented
authors tackle the profound, challenging and even funny topic of love.
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." — Shakespeare
It should, as always, be a great night. These
themed group readings are fascinating as you see the subject matter
shift, the approach, and the language shift from author to author.
Alison, the owner of Paper Love, the
new card and stationery shop on Lincoln Place, will be selling
letter press Valentine's cards at the show. She happens to be a fiction
writer and was very excited to be part of this event.
The Where and When:
February 12th at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets (in Washington Park)
A $5 suggested donation includes light refreshments and wine.
There will most definitely be Valentine's chocolates and candy hearts.
Cordula Volkening: Still Painting with Nothing to Lose
There's an article about Cordula Volkening in the New York Times today, alongside this photograph by J.B. Reed and a video called "A Paintbrush and Nothing to Lose."
More than a year ago, I got an email from a friend about her Park Slope neighbor and friend, who had been diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer.
Doctors told her she had three months to live.
What sounded like a terrible tragedy was actually a life affirming story of art triumphing over adversity. Despite the cancer, Cordula was devoting herself to her wild, expressionistic painting; she seemed to have an incredibly passionate attitude about the end of her life.
For obvious reasons, I included her on the Park Slope 100 for being the inspiring artist—and person—that she is.
Here's her Park Slope 100 blurb:
Cordula Volkening because with a diagnosis of stage 4 brain
cancer you decided to quit your job and devote yourself to your
painting. "Hey, I got advanced brain cancer – my system kicks me in the
butt and screams: Be your authentic self or you are going to die sooner
not later. Any questions?"
I wrote about her again in June 2008 because she was having a show called Would You Like an Invitation to My Destination? at the Brooklyn Artists Gym.
At the time I wrote:
Cordula is real hero in my
book, a wild, brave heart, for not letting her disease get in the way
of her desire to make paintings. Sadly, the tumor makes it impossible
for her to speak.
According to the article in the Times today she has undergone two rounds of brain surgery and is currently in an
experimental clinical trial. The tumor has impaired her ability to
speak, but it has not kept her from making great art.
Ms. Volkening even tried a special experimental study at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell
hospital, which involved spending her days with electrodes attached to
her head. But by last March, the tumor was back and doctors operated
again, which damaged her speech capacity, and last September, doctors
found a second, inoperable tumor and said that heavy chemotherapy could
give her a few more months but probably would leave her without the
energy to paint.
Reading the article in the Times today I was heartened by the fact that she's still alive—and that she's still painting.
After all, doctors told her she only had three months to live. Cordula had other ideas.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
New on Fifth: Scandinavian Grace
There's a new cafe on President Street just off Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. Scandinavian Grace, owned by Fredrik Larsson and James Anthony, is a charming and stylish shop, featuring coffee, pastries, as well as classic and contemporary design items from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway. They also sell Scandinavian food products and condiments, including jams, olive oils, and mustards.
As they write on their website: "We love objects of artistic form
and practical function that become a vital enrichment to daily living
rather than mere status symbols."
The shop occupies the one-story building that used to be Oak, the pricey Williamsburg-based clothing and leather good store. There's a backyard that Larsson hopes to turn into an into an outdoor cafe.
The cafe/shop has been open for business for only three days. Cafe tables and a bench out front are forthcoming. And best of all, there's wireless.
Stop in and give a warm welcome to Fredrik, whose other shops are in Williamsburg (North 9th and Bedford) and in Woodstock, NY.
So Much To Do: I Made a List
WEDNESDAY: Special events, coupons and restaurant prix fixes on Fifth Avenue.
WNYC Presents a silent film masterpiece The Golem with new music accompaniment. Wednesday,
February 11th at 7pm. World Financial Center.
.
THURSDAY: Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Cupid's Arrow: Writers on Love the Old Stone House curated by Marian Fontana. With Elissa Schappell
author of Use Me and the upcoming Blueprints for Better Girls;
novelist, poet and editor of Teachers and Writers Magazine, Susan
Karwoska; poets Ellen Ferguson and Ira Goldstein
and memoirist, Mila Drumke. Marian will be reading an excerpt from her
upcoming book.
Silent film masterpiece: Man With A Movie Camera
– Thursday, February 12th at 7pm.
World Financial Center. 220 Vesey Street. Battery Park City Directions
Special events, coupons and restaurant prix fixes on Fifth Avenue
FRIDAY: Joy Askew and Pulse present Songs from the Hudson River.
Pulse is a New York-based composers' federation dedicated to music that
bursts through categories, unconstrained by convention. Their latest
project is a song cycle in honor of the Hudson River Quadricentennial
Celebration going on throughout 2009, Songs from the Hudson River
features singer Joy Askew with a 6-person Pulse chamber ensemble in a
dynamic melding of singer-songwriter and classical chamber music
sensibilities. Each original song is inspired by historical, fictional,
and contemporary life and communities on and around the Hudson River.
Joy Askew is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has performed with
Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Joe Jackson, Jack Bruce and others, and
also leads her own band.
SATURDAY: Valentine's Day