Monthly Archives: June 2009

Civics and Urban Life

Rain Stays Away for Seventh Heaven Street Fair

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I got out there at 11 am just as the vendors were setting up. It's my favorite time before the crowds. And crowds there were. My 1 p.m the street were packed and it looked like vendors were doing a decent business. 

Highlights:

–Music in front of Old First Church, including young folk singer/country wailer Michael Daves. There was also a group called the Meeter Soul 6. 

Bookman –Children's book authors in front of the Community Bookstore, including Nina Crews, Melanie Hope Greenberg, Barbara Ensor and Jenni Offill. 

–The very talented jeweler Rebecca Sheperd of the Urban Alchemist collective shared a booth with Nine Cakes, tiny, pretty delicious looking cup cakes. 

Misswit —Miss Wit was out there selling her original and custom designed t-shirts  including: Stimulus Bill, Nobody Like a Smart Alec and I'm a Big Fan of You Work. 


Artiste —Alexander Milenkovic had a nice booth of his paintings and prints (which he personalizes with a sketch on the back when you buy one).  

Ttintin –Kristin Raphael selling her handmade Ttintin children's dresses in beautiful vintage-looking fabric. 

Titi —Tiki Girl Shop with her groovy girl bellbottoms and dresses; also her American Girl Doll clothing. 

—Insiders New York with their leather accessories printed with New York City images like the Cyclone, Love Lane, Imagine, and more. 

—Bernette Rudolph with her graphically gorgeous prints.

–Kathy Malone was out there with her Fofolle designs and the Brooklyn Indie Market. 

— Moim was serving short ribs and kimchi with rice. Delicious for $8. 

—Jack Rabbit was selling high-end running shoes for $40. 

–Slope Sports was selling discounted merchandise and used toys to benefit the Park Slope Childcare Collective 

Bodega –Josh Goldstein and his Bodega NYC paintings was there as always. I love his work. 

–The petitioners were out in force.

–Many of the City Council candidates were out. I spotted Jo Anne Simon, Ken Diamondstone and Ken Baer. 

–Green candidate David Pechefsky, just back from Africa, was there in one of his fantastic green t-shirts. Where do we get one?

–Many friends and neighbors were out and about…

Music

OTBKB Music: An Evening with George Usher

GeorgeUsher George Usher is not a household name.  But he has been playing in
bands, writing songs producing other musicians since he hit the New
York area more than 30 years ago, including the
Decoys, Beat Rodeo, Richard Barone, Kate Jacobs, The
Schramms and Edward Rogers  George's songs work well no matter how they are arranged or
rearranged: Laura Cantrell chose George's song Not The Tremblin' Kind
to be the title cut of her debut alt country record.

George's work over the last decade has a decided power pop sheen to
it.  If you like The Byrds' brand of jangle, you'll definitely like
George.

Tonight George will play his songs on guitar and piano.  He'll probably
feature songs from his forthcoming album, Your and Not Yours, which is
due in September.  But I'm sure he'll also play some of his older songs too.  George up close and personal is always a worthwhile event.

George Usher, Lakeside Lounge, Avenue B and 10th Street, 9:30 (F Train
to 14th Street, transfer to either the 14A or 14D bus, exit at 10th
Street (14A) or 11th Street (14D) and walk to Avenue B). No cover.

 –Eliot Wagner

Monte Ghertler

Thoughts About My Dad on Father’s Day

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32_06_smartmomvictim03_i Father's Day without my dad. It's not easy. We always did something on this day. Often he and my stepmother would came over for dinner and we'd eat Hugh's risotto or lamb. My dad would take a few sips from Hugh's collection of scotch (some Oban, Balvenie or Laphraiog) and we'd stand in the kitchen and talk. I loved those dinners with my dad at my house. Especially when my father sat down at the electronic piano and played his free-form version of jazz. I usually bought him a book I though he'd enjoy from the Community Bookstore — something about philosophy, jazz, birds, or horse racing.

What did I get him last year?

Why can't I remember what we did last year?

Yup. I'm missing my dad on Father's Day. He told me that he wasn't a big fan of the holiday but that he appreciated the fact that we made such a big deal about it. I wonder now why he wasn't a big fan. Or if he was kidding.

And I'm feeling bad, bad, bad. Last year I didn't write a Smartmom column about about him on Father's Day. That's because early on he'd asked me not to mention his illness in the column and I guess I thought a Father's Day column might be maudlin and sad and too elegaic. In some ways, I never wanted to admit to my dad that I knew he was dying. I think we acknowledged it by not acknowleding it. It makes me sad to say that but it's true (I think we were very close that way). Also, Gersh, the editor of the Brooklyn Paper published, a piece by a dad about Father's Day instead of Smartmom. After the fact my dad said, "I thought you'd write a Smartmom about Father's Day." I was startled and stricken. There was something so poignant about him saying that. I forget now what I said. Now I just keep flashing on that conversation and feeling so very sad.

There's so much I'd like to ask him now that I never got around to say. That's life (or death) I guess.

Here is an excerpt from a  letter my lovable and funny dad wrote in
1958 to his parents just weeks prior to the birth of my sister and me.
My stepmother gave me boxes of letters from my dad to his parents. They
are absolute gems and I treasure them!

Especially this letter. It's amazing being inside his head just before that momentous event

Dear Folks,

Birth is expected in a couple of week and I am pretty nervous about it. Up until now the idea of a baby (babies) has been pretty much taking them to their first ballgame, dressing them in Eton suits and listening to their first gurgles of gratitude.

But now, the day by day reality becomes clearer, and I wonder how we'll handle such things as squalling nights, plastic ducks all over the bathroom and shelves full of those terrible picture books. To say nothing of colic, uninhibited bowel habits and stubborn refusal to eat. In addition, the idea of pacing the hospital waiting-room for hours, without knowing what's happening to Edna, doesn't strike me as better than going to the movies.

Oh, well, it will all be over soon and the joy of having them will, I suppose, put the doubts away. Did you like me at first or did it take a few years?

My job is about as eventful as Death Valley on a slow Tuesday. It's really the most boring place in the world and what reason I can't tell. The people are all nice, the accounts are not bad, the office is pleasantly bathed in southern light and the coffee wagon appears twice a day. But it's boring. I feel bored driving up in the morning and bored as I leave at night. Maybe it will get better. Maybe it's my mood about the babies that's causing it. The twins are all I can think of and writing ads only seems silly in comparison…

Photo of me looking at a picture of my dad, Monte Ghertler, from the Brooklyn Paper.

Civics and Urban Life

Steve Job’s Liver Transplant

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Like everyone else I've been wondering what's been going on with Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple Computers. Well, it turns out that he had a liver transplant. There's info at  Apple 2.0 blog:

Who leaked the story? Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, remarking on how unusual it is for the Wall Street Journal
to run a front page news item without offering any information about
its source, suggests three theories: 1) A healthcare provider, without
Jobs’ permission, 2) Apple’s (AAPL)
public relations department, with Jobs’ permission, or 3) someone on
Apple’s board of directors, without Jobs’ knowledge or permission.

It says something about the state of the news media today that it was a
blogger in San Francisco, not a reporter in Memphis, who seems to have
tracked down Steve Jobs’ Tennessee whereabouts.

Music

Today: Seventh Heaven and Make Music New York

–Today, rain or shine: Seventh Heaven, the annual Seventh Avenue Street Fair, is chock full of special events, including the Scavenger Hunt (go to the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce tent on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll near the Community Bookstore and Little Things). There will also be readings by children's book authors and
more local artisans than ever.

My
friend and neighbor Bernette Rudolph, will take to the street his
Sunday with her gorgeously graphic work (pictured). She writes: "The SUN WILL SHINE
!!!!! Come see me on 7th Ave. in the Slope between 2nd
& 3rd street."

–Also rain or shine: Sunday is the third annual Make Music New York celebration.  Previously noted in OTBKB has been the Accordion Forest and Singalong, now moved to The Bell House, part of that celebration.  Pierre at The Gigometer has provided OTBKB Music with a list of some of the other better performances today:

Juliet Echo (8:00pm) – First Avenue and Houston Street
And The Revellers Fell (6:00pm) – Grand Ferry Park
Maggie Doucet (3:00pm) / Stephen Clair (4 – 5:30pm) – Kill Devil Hill
Joséphine (3:00pm) – Urban Cottage
Lili Roquelin (1:00am) – Astoria Music Shop
Alicia Jo Rabins (6:30 -8pm) – Riverside Park
Athena Reich (1 – 2pm) – La Perla Garden
Tamara Hey (4:00pm) – 2nd Ave and E 10th St
Joe Thompson and the Comfortable Catastrophes (1:00am) – City Hall Park
Cassis and the Sympathies (5:30pm) – Tavern on the Green
Karen Mantler (2:00am) – DeSalvio Playground
Bill Popp and The Tapes (3 – 4pm) / Little Kitten Space Girl (5:30
-6pm) – Washington Square Park
Stephane Wrembel (1:00pm) – Fada Restaurant
Venice Beach Muscle Club – Coney Island
Her Vanished Grace (11:30am ? 12:15pm) / Rebecca Pronsky (2:45 ?
3:30pm) / Sharon Van Etten (5:30 ? 6:15pm) – Sackett St Block Party
Daru Oda (noon – 3pm) – Inspired Design
Hot Box (5:15pm) – Spike Hill
Matt Singer (5:00pm) / Willie Breeding (7:30pm) – Bar Matchless
The Scandinavian Half-Breeds (4 – 6pm) – Lovin' Cup
Randi Russo (4:00pm) / Lorraine Leckie (5:00pm) – Pass Out Record Shop
Amanda Monaco (4:00pm) – The Creek

(For more information about the bands or venues listed above, check The Gigometer)

 –Eliot Wagner

Civics and Urban Life

Violence in Iran

The New York Times Lede blog has information about what is going on in Iran.

More amateur video has emerged of Saturday protests. A clip posted on the BBC
shows a bus set ablaze and a throng of protesters in an apparent
standoff with security forces on motorbikes in Tehran. As with other
video and images of the unrest, the authenticity of the video could not
be verified.

There's also a article by Noam Cohen called Twitter on the Barracades. 

Social networking, a distinctly 21st-century phenomenon, has already
been credited with aiding protests from the Republic of Georgia to Egypt to Iceland. And Twitter,
the newest social-networking tool, has been identified with two mass
protests in a matter of months — in Moldova in April and in Iran
last week, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to
oppose the official results of the presidential election.

Simon Owens who runs Blogasm sent  me this email:

I read your post today about the massive twitter coverage of the Iranian
election protests. I conducted an experiment today where I attempted to
find out how many retweets an Iranian citizen would get when
documenting his experiences through twitter, and found that each tweet
receives an average of 57 retweets from other users:


http://bloggasm.com/tweets-coming-out-of-iran-are-retweeted-an-average-of-578-times

Anyway, I thought this was something you and your readers would find interesting.

My cousin Meg Fidler writes:

Truthout has Twitter feeds from Iran – I don’t even know what Twitter is –
most are sentence fragments essentially saying help, some are 30 second camera phone videos taken from rooftops of gun fire.

One is a jumpy close up clip of a strikingly beautiful young woman in blue jeans sprawled on her back in the street dying. as screaming men rush to her and surround her, her eyes roll up into her head and blood pours out of her mouth and nose.

I stumbled on it. and certainly don’t want you to go look.

I’m just wanting a third reconsideration of photography from susan sontag. maybe she’d distinguish between this and the “unreality” or movie-like shots of the planes and the tower. maybe she’d again

 

Civics and Urban Life

Smartmom: Hepcat and Teen Spirit Bond Over David Byrne

Smartmom_big8Smartmom had two press tickets to the David Byrne show and the
“Celebrate Brooklyn” opening night gala, but she couldn’t go because
had to teach her invaluable “How to Blog” class at the Brooklyn Arts
Exchange.

“Why don’t you go with Teen Spirit?” she suggested to Hepcat. “It
might be nice for some father/son bonding. And if they give you a
problem, just say Teen Spirit is your photo assistant.”

559001459_9QY2j-S-1 Hepcat was game and he was also excited to take performance
photographs of David Byrne. Back in the day (30 years ago to be exact),
Hepcat was a music photographer for Rolling Stone.

The night of the show an excited father and son walked over to Prospect Park to attend the before-concert gala.

“Dad, you’ve seen Talking Heads before, right?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I saw them for the first time at CBGB in
1976. They opened for The Ramones, and I’d never heard of them,” Hepcat
told Teen Spirit warming up for a long nostalgic tale.

“I drove to the Bowery from Bard College with a bunch of friends in
an old Volkswagen that had a dead battery. You had to push it to start
just like in ‘Little Miss Sunshine,” Hepcat laughed to himself.

“That night, we got to sit right in front of the stage. Everyone
knew to sit farther back because Dee Dee Ramone liked to swing his bass
over the first row. We ended up having to duck a lot.”

According to Hepcat, Talking Heads were amazing that night. David
Byrne clutched the microphone and only made eye contact with the
ceiling.

“His vibrato on ‘Psycho Killer’ was more a bad case of nerves than vocal technique,” he told Teen Spirit.

559001689_4y7fc-S-1 As they crossed Eighth Avenue, Teen Spirit interrupted Hepcat’s rock and roll reminiscence,

“I hear at these big shows that photographers can only take pictures during the first two songs,” Teen Spirit told Hepcat.

“They never did that back when I was doing concert photography,” Hepcat said.

Once inside the park, Hepcat and Teen Spirit approached the Celebrate Brooklyn press table

“Remember: we’re press and you’re my assistant,” Hepcat told Teen Spirit. He handed him a camera.

Photographer and assistant got into the gala without a hitch and were given green plastic press bracelets.

“No flashes during the show and photographers can only take pictures
during the first two songs,” the Celebrate Brooklyn official told them
sternly. Teen Spirit didn’t say, “I told you so.”

Finally, after some proclamations by boisterous local politicians,
Byrne came out on stage with white hair, a white suit, and a white
Stratocaster. When he started playing, the stage filled with musicians
and dancers. Byrne made a tangible connection with the crowd, which
spilled out across West Drive to the softball fields.

Listening to the music, Hepcat remembered the second time that he
saw Talking Heads, a few months after the CBGB show. He was listening
to the radio in his college darkroom and heard that they were playing
in about an hour at Joyous Lake, a folk/jazz club in Woodstock. He
decided to drive over with four of his friends to catch the show.

As it turned out, Hepcat and his friends were the entire paying
audience. When they left, Hepcat wondered if the band was disappointed
when their entire audience got into one Volkswagen like circus clowns
in reverse.

559003195_yFhoS-S-1 After David Byrne’s second song, most of the professional photographers, obeying the rules, stopped taking pictures.

“Two songs for the photographers,” Teen Spirit said.

Hepcat wondered when Teen Spirit became the concert etiquette know-it-all? Sure, he has his own band and all. But still…

“David Byrne sure looks spry up there,” Teen Spirit said.

“Does that mean I’m spry?” Hepcat asked Teen Spirit. They are, after all, the same age.

“No, Dad, you aren’t spry, you are …” Hepcat didn’t much like where this was going.

559003790_nYJU4-S-1 During breaks between songs, Teen Spirit and Hepcat discussed the altogether excellent music, stagecraft and choreography.

“It all seems so right, and somehow it all makes so much sense, all
this circling back, all the same only different,” he told Teen Spirit.
“You know, ‘Same as it ever was,” he said quoting a famous Talking
Heads song.

After the show, Hepcat and Teen Spirit tried to decide what to do.

“Are you going to hang out, or are you going to go straight home?” Teen Spirit asked his dad.

“I’ll probably stay a little while,” Hepcat said, energized by the great show.

“I’ll think I’ll skip the party,” Teen Spirit said.

“Too much rampant spryness?” Hepcat asked.

“I guess,” Teen Spirit replied.

“Hey, this was a nice pre-Father’s Day thing to do,” Hepcat told Teen Spirit. He touched his arm.

“Is it Father’s Day soon?” Teen Spirit asked. “When is it?”

“The third Sunday of June, same as it always is,” Hepcat told him.

“You know I’m playing a concert in East River Park that Saturday. That could be a Father’s Day gift!”

Indeed.

This Smartmom is based on writing by Hugh Crawford: hughcrawford.com/David_Byrne

Postcard from the Slope

Mermaid Parade = Umbrella Parade

4898_1164221302304_1131015473_30505738_2533725_n A picture from today's Mermaid Parade on Coney Island by Hugh Crawford. The rain stopped just in time for the actual parade. "At 2 p.m. it was raining cats and dogs," says Hugh Crawford. "And then it stopped. For most of the parade itself it sprinkled a little but it wasn't so  bad." Below: photo of woman with green umbrella by Tom Martinez.

Umbrella

ONLY THE BLOG KNOWS BKLYN RESTAURANTS

Reis 100: New Sandwich Shop on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope

Fans of Bar Reis will be thrilled to know about the new sandwich shop next door. I just got back from there because my friend, Mo, a bartender at Bar Reis, told me to come by and try a sandwich.

When I got there I met Reis Goldberg, owner of Bar Reis and Reis 100. He told me that the shop will be selling 100 varieties of small sandwiches. Reis showed me around the attractive new shop next door and even let me sample two delicious sandwiches. The bread, from Caputo's Bakery is a perfectly sized soft baguette. I had the gruyere, bacon and carmelized onion sandwich which was incredbily delicious. I also tried the cream cheese with Lemon rhubarb berry jam, also delicious. Stay tuned for my interview with Goldberg.

Reis 100 is opening soft with sandwiches at the bar but the new place opens officially on Thursday night. It is on Fifth Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets in Park Slope.

 I love it already.

Seems that Mo, that multi-talented young woman, is making the jams. Here's an email I got today from Heather, a friend of Reis.  

Reis Goldberg,
owner of 5th Avenue's Bar Reis, is preparing to open a new shop called
Reis 100, which will serve 100 varieties of small sandwiches, all
priced at either $3.50 or $5.00. The offerings, served on custom rolls,
specially baked by Caputo's in Carroll Gardens, will feature homemade
jams and kimchee and the delicacies from local purveyors, such as
kielbasa from Jubilat Provisions. Though Banh Mi is not on the menu,
there are some combinations that include veal or duck pate. In
adddition, there are some great vegetarian options, and a few sweet
concotions, including one with a homemade Lemon Rhubarb Berry Jam. Bar
patrons will be able to  enjoy sandwiches at the bar, or in the garden
that connects Reis 100 to Bar Reis, until the wee hours.
Civics and Urban Life

Sun: Mass Accordians Moved to Bell House Due to Possibility of Rain

300452578_N2seV-L Due to the likelihood of inclement weather MASS ACCORDIONS has been moved to an indoor venue.

Hats
off! to the good folks at Bell House, who are kindly lending their
space, last-minute, between their other already-booked shows, so the facility is asking that people not remove chairs which will be already set up for a later gig. Also: Everyone has to clear out by 7:00 pm. Here's more from Bob Goldberg, who's running this event:
THE BELL HOUSE (Main Hall)

149 7th Street (not the avenue), between 2nd and 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn. 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm. The event is still free, but now there's a bartender!!
Accordion Forest and Neighborhood Suite by Famous Accordion Orchestra
Main Squeeze Orchestra and Mass Accordion playalong. Players meet at 4:00 there.
By subway: 
Take F/M/R to 4th Ave-9th St.  
Walk north 2 blks + west 1-1/2 blks towards the Gowanus canal.  
Notes: The
Bell House is the former 1920's Gowanus printing warehouse, where MSO
played the Found Magazine party a couple months ago.  It also happens
to be a couple blocks from the park, and close to the subway.  Capacity
of the main hall is 200-300 people.

People
who still show up at the park tomorrow looking for Mass Accordions will
be re-directed to the Bell House.  Many thanks to the Make Music
festival volunteers, Parks Dept, and the Old Stone House museum for
their efforts to date.  If weather permits, there may be a parade back to the Old Stone House after the regular set! See you tomorrow!  And thanks everybody for supporting free music events for the public.

Photo by Jamie Livingston


 

Breakfast of candidates

Tidbits: City Council Candidates (Petitioning with Bob Z.)

This morning on my way to breakfast at Grand Canyon I ran into Bob Zuckerman, candidate for the 39th district, petitioning with a supporter. Actually he was standing out of the rain underneath the scaffolding of Park Slope's infamous House of Whimsy, the mostly unoccupied apartment building on the corner of Second Street and Seventh Avenue.

He reminded me that last week he along with a group of Brooklyn LGBT groups helped to organize a marriage equality rally in JJ BYrne Park. The rally, which was sponsored by the Lambda Independent
Democrats of Brooklyn, the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, Marriage Equality New
York, the Brooklyn Community Pride Center, and the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, was an opportunity for Brooklyn to demonstrate its support for marriage equality legislation. Zuckerman, who is hoping to be Brooklyn’s first openly LGBT legislator ever elected from Brooklyn, was the emcee.

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Edible Complex

EDIBLE COMPLEX

Everything's enhanced by food:

So observers might conclude

Watching people on the go

Bolting stuff wrapped up in dough–

Walking, talking, at a show,

Listening to the radio,

Glued to cable's status quo,

Waiting to see a medico,

Wondering–snackless!–how to bear

Sitting in the dentist's chair.

Nothing seems at all complete

If they lack a bite to eat.

See them on the subway train

Sucking on a candy cane;

On a line outside the opera


Munching on a mutton chopra;

At the airport, set to board,

Downing Coke they've quickly poured;

Touring Brooklyn's Museum of Art,

Sneaking in a chocolate tart;

Voting in an election booth,

Pushing in a Baby Ruth;

Pacing in the maternity ward,

Spooning out the goo from a gourd;

Christmas shopping, enduring a pitch,

Chewing on a Santawich.

Food–there cannot be too much

When folks lean on an easy crutch.

Anything to them that's edible

Could only improve by being bedible.

Anybody wonder that

People "enhanced" are also fat?

I'm no better, for goodness'
sake:

Penning this, I'm munching on cake.

Civics and Urban Life

Lady Liberty at Vox Pop

June 19, 2009 31The New Colossos

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command 
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

--Emma Lazarus

Photo of Lady Liberty being installed in her spot outside Vox Pop by Tom Martinez
Civics and Urban Life

OTBKB Music: Sunday is Make Music New York

Sunday is the third annual Make Music New York celebration.  Previously noted in OTBKB has been the Accordion Forest and Singalong at The Old
Stone House, part of that celebration.  Pierre at The Gigometer has provided OTBKB Music with a list of some of the other better performances today:

Juliet Echo (8:00pm) – First Avenue and Houston Street
And The Revellers Fell (6:00pm) – Grand Ferry Park
Maggie Doucet (3:00pm) / Stephen Clair (4 – 5:30pm) – Kill Devil Hill
Joséphine (3:00pm) – Urban Cottage
Lili Roquelin (1:00am) – Astoria Music Shop
Alicia Jo Rabins (6:30 -8pm) – Riverside Park
Athena Reich (1 – 2pm) – La Perla Garden
Tamara Hey (4:00pm) – 2nd Ave and E 10th St
Joe Thompson and the Comfortable Catastrophes (1:00am) – City Hall Park
Cassis and the Sympathies (5:30pm) – Tavern on the Green
Karen Mantler (2:00am) – DeSalvio Playground
Bill Popp and The Tapes (3 – 4pm) / Little Kitten Space Girl (5:30
-6pm) – Washington Square Park
Stephane Wrembel (1:00pm) – Fada Restaurant
Venice Beach Muscle Club – Coney Island
Her Vanished Grace (11:30am ? 12:15pm) / Rebecca Pronsky (2:45 ?
3:30pm) / Sharon Van Etten (5:30 ? 6:15pm) – Sackett St Block Party
Daru Oda (noon – 3pm) – Inspired Design
Hot Box (5:15pm) – Spike Hill
Matt Singer (5:00pm) / Willie Breeding (7:30pm) – Bar Matchless
The Scandinavian Half-Breeds (4 – 6pm) – Lovin' Cup
Randi Russo (4:00pm) / Lorraine Leckie (5:00pm) – Pass Out Record Shop
Amanda Monaco (4:00pm) – The Creek

(For more information about the bands or venues listed above, check The Gigometer)

 –Eliot Wagner

Postcard from the Slope

Rain or Shine: The Coney Island Mermaid Parade Today at 2 p.m.

300439925_8w7sK-L 

 Rain or shine, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade is today. TODAY! It starts at 2 p.m. and King Neptune is Harvey Keitel and Queen Mermaid is Daphna.

Also: there's a new parade route for the Mermaid Parade this year:

–The Parade will now start at West 21st Street and Surf Avenue
–The Parade will roll east to West 10th Street
–at West 10th Street the Parade will turn south towards the boardwalk
–cars and motorized floats can park on West 10th Street
–At the Boardwalk, the marchers and push-pull floats will turn west and head towards West 15th Street
–At West 15th Street the Parade will disband
–The new route is much longer- about twice the size so wear appropriate footwear for a long walk on the pavement.

300437830_Nvedn-LInformation from Mermaid Parade Website:

Check In/Registration/Staging Area is at a new location!

PUSH PULL FLOATS AND MARCHERS will register at Surf Avenue and West 21st Street.

MOTORIZED FLOATS AND ANTIQUE CARS will register at Surf Ave. Side at West 19th and West 20th street.

The Soup Shop and Peggy O’Neill's will both sell FOOD on West 21st Street inside the staging area. There will also be WATER available for purchase.

If you plan on driving to the parade, you may purchase parking in the expanded KeySpan parking lot- conveniently located on West 22nd Street and Surf Avenue.

1992 and 1994 Photos of Mermaid Parade by Jamie Livingston

Civics and Urban Life

Seventh Heaven: Children’s Book Authors at Community Bookstore Tent

1 Comment

The Community Bookstore has a  great lineup of children's book authors on Sunday! Come on out and join the fun, including these great
authors and the first ever 7th Avenue Scavenger Hunt!!!

 

11:00 

Emily Goodman :

Plant Secrets

 plant secrets

11:30

Robert Weinstock :

Food Hates You, Too

Giant Meatball

  giant meatballfood hates you too

 

12:00

Jenny Offill :

17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore

17 things

 

12:30

Marilyn Singer :

I’m Your Bus

City Lullaby

city lullabyim your bus

 

1:00

Pat Cummings :

Harvey Moon, Museum Boy

Our Children Can Soar

 our children soarharvey moon

 

1:30

Anna Rich :

Under the Night Sky

 night_sky

 

2:00

Nina Crews :

Neighborhood Mother Goose

Below  

 neighborhood mother goosebelow

 

2:30

Barbara Ensor :

Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story)

Thumbelina, Tiny Runaway Bride

Thumbelinacinderella

 

3:00

Johan Olander :

A Field Guide to Monsters

field guide monsters

 

3:30

Melanie Hope Greenberg :

Mermaids on Parade  

 mermaids

 

4:00

Daniel Salmieri :

Those Darn Squirrels 

 those darn squirrels

 

4:30 

Charlotte Noruzi :

Grow, Watermelon, Grow

grow watermelon

Civics and Urban Life

New Chef at Rose Water

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50 News from Rose Water, Park Slope's seasonal American restaurant with a strong commitment to local and organic ingredients has news.

Today they sent out an email announcing the arrival of of a new chef. Formerly Chef de Cuisine at Los Angeles' renowned Campanile, Chef Bret Macris is now at the helm of Rose Water's kitchen.
 
"Bret
brings with him an affinity for all things seasonal and sustainable,
and a great love for the varied cuisines of the Mediterranean.  He's
been busy making friends with our farmers and suppliers,
and he's geeking-out over the late spring-early summer produce that's
starting to roll in.  You can check out his current dinner menu on the website.

 
"We
are so excited to have him with us, and the reviews he's getting from
our customers are positively ecstatic.  Please help us make him feel at
home here in Brooklyn!  We're hoping he's gonna be cooking here for a
good long while."
Postcard from the Slope

Seventh Heaven: Children’s Book Authors and Bernette Rudolph

Il_155x125.51685503Il_155x125.51658087As always, Seventh Heaven is chock full of special events this year, including the Scavenger Hunt, readings by children's book authors and more local artisans than ever.

–If you are in the mood to be read to by local children's book authors
this Sunday you will be in luck. In a tent outside Community Bookstore Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella (As If You Didn't Already Know the Story) and Thumbalina (Tiny Runaway Bride), and other authors (names to come) will be doing just that. Their names and other salient details will be posted here any minutes.

My friend Barbara Ensor will be reading at 2.30.

My friend and neighbor Bernette Rudolph, will take to the street his Sunday with her gorgeously graphic work (pictured). She writes: "The SUN WILL SHINE
!!!!! Come see me on 7th Ave. in the Slope between 2nd
&3rd street."

Bernette Rudolph, an internationally
recognized artist is always in the forefront of ideas, innovation
and exploration. Her love and skill with wood has earned her a
reputation for inspiring and captivating exhibitions. Passionate
collectors praise her work. Her personality, energy and timeless
creativity influence and touch the soul of the viewer's eye.

Postcard from the Slope

Second Annual Herring Festival at Two Boots

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2CBW6255
 On Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the Second Annual Herring Festival in Park Slope. Organized by Pastor Daniel Meeter of Old First Dutch Reformed Church with one of the owners of Two Boots, there was more raw herring than you've ever seen from Russ and Daughters on the Lower East Side.

"So what's the occasion?" I asked Meeter. He looked at me incredulously. "It's the celebration of the new herring," he told me.

According to Meeter, the celebration of the new herring is an old and treasured tradition in Holland. Sliding
a herring down your throat is just one way to participate in the festivities. As demonstrated by Meeter, you just pick up the little fish
by the tail and lower it into your mouth.

As Meeter explained, herring was a diet staple in the Netherlands for hundreds of years.


2CBW6248

It was always plentiful in the North Sea and Dutch fishing boats didn't have far to go for those little fish. But the tastiest
herring were the newly matured fish caught in late spring: the green,
‘new’ herring.

The problem was figuring out how to preserve the new herring once the fishermen made their catch: Cleaning the fish on board ship and
salting it was the way to go.  According to an article on the About European Travel website, "as early as the 14th century
the Dutch made an important innovation. In cleaning, for the sake of
speed, they removed only the innards, and left the head, spine and
scales. But they did not remove the pancreas. Somehow they had
discovered that the pancreas contained enzymes that it continued to
secrete, even in the dead fish. These enzymes seasoned the meat, very
slowly, to render it tender and fit to eat raw."

So there you have it: the arrival of the "Hollandse Nieuwe" is a cause for joy all across Holland. And it looks like new herring is going to be an annual event here in Brooklyn, too.

Two Boots was a perfect venue for this burgeoning Park Slope tradition. Also on hand were bottles of Genever, an aged Dutch gin that is mighty good I can attest to that. "It's closer to Aquavit than regular gin," Hugh Crawford said. "Yummy stuff, though and good at cutting through the taste of herring which is quite a feat." In addition to the tasty herring treats and demonstrations of proper herring sliding techniques, friends and neighbors wandered in for a taste and spirited conversation.

See you next year!

Music

OTBKB Music: Weekend Music Freebies

There are a couple of events this weekend which will provide a variety
of free music.  First off is the J&R Music Summer Expo in honor of
the opening of the J&R Musical Instruments Store.  A variety of
musicians will play there at through Sunday.  Two worth your attention
are:

MarshallCrenshaw Marshall Crenshaw, Friday at 12:00 noon.  There's a good chance that
you've heard Marshall's signature song, Someday Someway (and if you've
heard it enough times you probably know the words).  Marshall has been
writing and performing for more than 25 years now, playing guitar and
writing great hummable melodies.  What's more, for a few years at the
turn of the 21st century, Marshall lived here in Park Slope.  J&R
Music, 23 Park Row, 1st Floor (A or C to Broadway Nassau, 2 , 3 or 4 to Fulton St).

LeslieMendleson Leslie Mendelson, Sunday at 12:00 noon.  I've seen Leslie play for the
last 2 1/2 years and I can tell you her adult pop songs are worth
catching.  Her album, Swan Feathers is due out on June 30th, but I
would not be at all surprised if there will be a few around for sale on
Sunday.  And after some time out of the center of the musical universe,
Leslie is a Brooklyn resident again.  J&R Music, 23 Park Row, 1st
Floor (A to Broadway Nassau, 2 , 3 or 4 to Fulton St; Note that A to Brooklyn is not stopping at Broadway Nassau and C not running on Sunday)

Sunday also is the third annual Make Music New York celebration.  Previously noted in OTBKB has been the Accordion Forest and Singalong at The Old
Stone House, part of that celebration.  Pierre at The Gigometer has provided OTBKB Music with a list of some of the other better performances today:

Juliet Echo (8:00pm) – First Avenue and Houston Street
And The Revellers Fell (6:00pm) – Grand Ferry Park
Maggie Doucet (3:00pm) / Stephen Clair (4 – 5:30pm) – Kill Devil Hill
Joséphine (3:00pm) – Urban Cottage
Lili Roquelin (1:00am) – Astoria Music Shop
Alicia Jo Rabins (6:30 -8pm) – Riverside Park
Athena Reich (1 – 2pm) – La Perla Garden
Tamara Hey (4:00pm) – 2nd Ave and E 10th St
Joe Thompson and the Comfortable Catastrophes (1:00am) – City Hall Park
Cassis and the Sympathies (5:30pm) – Tavern on the Green
Karen Mantler (2:00am) – DeSalvio Playground
Bill Popp and The Tapes (3 – 4pm) / Little Kitten Space Girl (5:30
-6pm) – Washington Square Park
Stephane Wrembel (1:00pm) – Fada Restaurant
Venice Beach Muscle Club – Coney Island
Her Vanished Grace (11:30am ? 12:15pm) / Rebecca Pronsky (2:45 ?
3:30pm) / Sharon Van Etten (5:30 ? 6:15pm) – Sackett St Block Party
Daru Oda (noon – 3pm) – Inspired Design
Hot Box (5:15pm) – Spike Hill
Matt Singer (5:00pm) / Willie Breeding (7:30pm) – Bar Matchless
The Scandinavian Half-Breeds (4 – 6pm) – Lovin' Cup
Randi Russo (4:00pm) / Lorraine Leckie (5:00pm) – Pass Out Record Shop
Amanda Monaco (4:00pm) – The Creek

(For more information about the bands or venues listed above, check The Gigometer)

 –Eliot Wagner