Monthly Archives: September 2009

Books

Read My “Review” of Amy Sohn’s “Prospect Park West” in The Brooklyn Paper

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Here's my review/think piece on Amy Sohn's new novel, Prospect Park West in this week's Brooklyn Paper.

Another Slope Swipe From Amy Sohn

So, can Park Slopers take a joke?

Absolutely.

And that’s the problem with “Prospect Park West,” Amy Sohn’s just
released satiric fiction about four clichés, er, mothers, whose lives
go into freefall during a long, hot summer in Park Slope.

The characters in the book are so busy being Gawker archetypes —
celebrity mom, sexy bad mom, former lesbian mom, frumpy supermom — that
they never take the time to laugh at themselves or make real
connections with each other.

And Park Slope is about making connections. You can’t step off your
stoop without having a conversation with a neighbor, a friend, a local
politician or a stranger.

Sohn, who used to pen a racy — and notorious — sex column in the NY
Press, also wrote for the NY Post where she once famously ogled the
penis sizes of various local baseball players. As the de-facto anti-Mom
of Park Slope, she aroused plenty of ire in her New York Magazine
“Mating” column when she wrote:

“Here in my neighborhood, Park Slope, I am constantly encountering
insane stay-at-home moms. And I have come to the all-too-un-PC
conclusion that stay-at-home motherhood, despite the way our culture
lionizes it, is bad for the child and bad for the mom. And bad for
society. It’s just plain bad.”

Sohn went on to say that most of the SAHMs she knows are really
miserable in a “neurotic, soul crippling, Zoloft-inducing, Yellow
Wallpaper-type way.” She also said that they have no opinions and spend
their time “talking about poop and pancakes with kale and Veggie Bootie
and natural Cheerios versus regular ones.” Nice.

Most shockingly Sohn recommended that college-educated women outsource their childcare:

“Childcare should be the province of immigrant women trying to get a
leg up. I do not believe it is ‘better for the child’ to be with his
mother. I believe it is better for the child to have a mother with some
modicum of a life — whether it’s volunteering, graduate degree, or
part-time work.”

So it should come as no surprise that Sohn’s fictional characters
are so similar to her public persona, isolated and angry and defining
themselves by choices they make about their clothing, their marriages,
their parenting styles and their careers.

It’s Park Slope as seen from a blog, not a stoop. And it feels like
a sexist war zone where what you wear to shop at Met Food or which
stroller you buy is referendum on your worth as a human being.

While the novel is full of jokes at the expense of Park Slope moms,
who are savaged by Sohn for being fat, ugly and uninteresting, the book
rarely shows anyone having fun or being self-aware.

And speaking of self-awareness, there actually is a culture of self-criticism
and satire within Park Slope that is alive and well — and completely
left out of Sohn’s book. How convenient.

What about Edgy Mother’s Day, an annual literary reading featuring
local authors like Mary Morris, Sophia Romero, Jenny Offili, Jill
Eisenstadt and, yes, Amy Sohn reading stories about motherhood without
sanctimony?

How about satiric bloggers like Blog Nigger and F—ked in Park Slope, the blog with the motto, “Embrace the hate”?

People in Park Slope do, in fact, laugh at themselves and think it’s
ridiculous that strollers cost $700. They actually make fun of the Tea
Lounge, the Food Co-op and all the other people, places and things
mentioned in the book. When the novel works well, it does so because
Sohn grounds it in an up-to-date Park Slope landscape.

But what about the places and activities that Sohn doesn’t mention —
places that really make Park Slope tick — like the Community Bookstore,
Old First Church and Snice; the various book, running, bike and writing
groups; the community board, Civic Council and political clubs; cool
musical venues like Barbes and Issue Project Room; and essential local
landmarks like the Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Museum?

Amy Sohn’s “Prospect Park West” isn’t the eastern strip of the real
Park Slope because her characters lack a sense of humor about
themselves and a meaningful connection to their community.

Which isn’t to say that there’s not a lot to satirize about this neighborhood.

Plenty of us are annoyingly obsessed with real estate and celebrity culture.

Many of us watch the sex go out of our marriages as we devote
ourselves too vigorously to our children, our jobs and the logistics of
our daily lives.

Some of us exhibit strange — and exasperating — parenting habits,
like talking incessantly to our children or letting them sleep in our
beds until they’re 5.

Yes, Sohn does a good job of satirizing the Food Co-op, a certain
strata of frumpy mom, and even the fishbowl culture of Park Slope that
sometimes resembles a very small town.

She uses the Park Slope Parents Web site as a great narrative device
when Lizzie discovers a post about a couple looking for neighborhood
swingers — an actual post from a few years back. In the book, the
response on the list-serv is pretty Puritanical, though, in reality,
members had a lot of fun with it.

I also appreciate that Sohn puts to bed the sexist notion that
sexless marriages are always a woman’s fault. Probably the biggest
insight in the book is that men, after fatherhood, become less
interested in sex. And it’s not because their wives are a turnoff — but
because the pressures they face at work and home are a buzz kill.

“Rebecca saw what she’d been doing wrong all the time: She had been
trying to go through the front door when he wanted to be approached
from the side. He needed to be approached through the door marked
‘Father’ because the one marked ‘Husband’ was locked.”

But there are also lines in the book that really cross the line,
like the one about “adoption being the ultimate form of recycling.”

And while there aren't a lot of Park Slope mommies who dress like Angelina Jolie when they go to the playground, the women around here are as beautiful as anyplace else. I am, in fact, astounded at how many beautiful mothers there are in Park Slope. (note: this graph was left out of the article int he BP).

The real-life Park Slope just isn’t so mean spirited—and ugly—as Sohn’s.

Where’s the warmth and community spirit of moms like Susan Fox and
Rachel Mauer, who run Park Slope Parents and Kim Maier, executive
director of the Old Stone House?

How about dedicated community leaders like PS 321’s principal Liz
Phillips, Bobby Finkelstein, who runs the after-school program at Beth
Elohim and Nancy Romer, organizer of the Brooklyn Food Conference?

Or glamorous moms like author Elissa Schappell, who writes the Hot
Type column for Vanity Fair; Suzanne Donaldson, photo editor of Glamour
Magazine and Kathy Malone, founder of the Brooklyn Indie Market.

This Prospect Park West is made up of really interesting women, with a wide range of interests, passions and styles.

But the other “Prospect Park West” is too busy wanting to be the hit
show, “Sexless and the City” or “Actually Very Desperate Housewives”
rather than be a true mirror on a neighborhood that is still dying for
a real fictive takedown.

In “Prospect Park West,” the characters are at each other’s throats
and are only looking out for number one. In other words, they lack a
connection to community and the sense of how they affect the world
around them.

Civics and Urban Life

The City Council Race in the 33rd: What A Tangled Web We Weave

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Oy. The City Council race in the 33rd district. From my very first candidates forum/debate at St. Francis College, I could tell that this was a seasoned group with a lot of political baggage and history with one another.

Indeed, it was an interesting, contentious and even ugly race for David Yassky's seat in a district that spans parts of Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Navy Yard, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Indeed, most of the candidates were progressives who agreed on most of the issues. But their  "issues" with each other were personal, historic and much about who was controlling whom in the big picture.

—Evan Thies was portrayed as "Yassky's guy" because he worked closely with David Yassky for years. Yassky however decided not to endorse in this race. A politically motivated—and not very nice—move on Yassky's part. Thies is an independent thinker and clearly someone who is not beholden to machine politics or former mentors.

—Stephen Levin was portrayed as "Vito Lopez's guy" because he was Lopez's assistant for many years and Lopez is an important mentor as is Levin's cousin Michigan Senator Carl Levin (and Congressman Sander Levin).  Levin's ties to Lopez are deep and murky, but he does strike me as a smart guy who will grow as an independent politician over time. For an informative—and plenty opinionated—article about Vito Lopez's powerbroker politics, see this piece by Tom Robbins in the Village Voice.

—Jo Anne Simon has a long history in Brooklyn community politics and is seen as having ties to the Democratic machine. A well-respected disabilities lawyer, she is a tough campaigner who can be very divisive though she paints herself as someone who works well with everyone at the table. She managed to grab many key endorsements from Democratic clubs and even the New York Times. 

—Ken Diamondstone has major issues with Jo Anne Simon, who used to be a friend, because of her ties to "the Democratic machine." He can get plenty angry on the subject of Simon and Levin but mostly he carried himself as a genuine progressive with a very ethical core. He seems to be in politics for the right reasons — the desire to help others and make change.

–-Issac Abraham, a community leader and organizer in the Hasidic community of Williamsburg,  is at odds with Bloomberg, Yassky and many leaders in NYC politics for the way they ignore the needs of the Williamsburg community.

—Ken Baer, a leader in the Sierra Club, was also active in the fight against the Atlantic Yards and less of a political name caller.

And Doug Biviano. Ah, Doug Biviano. He was the true outsider candidate who used his campaign to formulate and articulate many important ideas about reform in city government and even national issues like war spending and healthcare. A very smart, energetic guy with interesting views, he ran a good campaign and was willing to speak truth to power and say plenty of unexpected things. I have a lot of respect for the guy.

The 33s (they're all here except for Issac Abraham):

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Stephen Levin.  A classics major at Brown University,  Levin has wonky good looks and a boyish, disarming
manner. His father's cousins are Michigan's Senator Carl Levin and
Congressman Sander Levin and he currently works as Vito Lopez's chief of staff. Lopez,
who is often portrayed as a Darth Vader figure in Brooklyn politics
taught the 29-year-old Levin about "knocking on doors, talking to as
many people as possible, the
importance of having a command of the issues, and having empathy for
the people," Levin told me. A pragmatist, Levin believes "that for for
every problem there is a solution that is not readily apparent."

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Doug Biviano. Expect the
unexpected from Biviano, who is a civil engineer with BS and MS degrees from Cornell
University. Biviano works as a superintendent in a Brooklyn Heights
apartment building and in 2008 was a New York State Coordinator for
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich , whose politics of peace are a
strong influence. Biviano has lived the skier's life in Colorado and
sailed the Inter-Coastal Highway with his wife installing solar panels
on a boat he barely knew how to sail.

Breakfast of Candidates: Jo Anne Simon. 
Her career trajectory from teacher of the deaf to disability rights
attorney can make you feel like a slacker  and
wonder how she had time to become such a strong voice in community
politics, the female Democratic District Leader and State
Committeewoman for
the 52nd Assembly District. A proponent of the art of listening, she
believes that there's a place for all viewpoints at the table and that
"someone who is elected to office can work with everyone."

Breakfast-of Candidates; Evan Thies.
A former aide to City Council Member David Yassky, Thies also worked in
Hillary Clinton's upstate senate office and for Andrew Cuomo. Raised in
New Hampshire, public service was the family business and his
grandmother was appointed by NH governor John
Sununu to be the state's Commissioner of Health and Human
Services. Struck as a child with Fibromatosis, a chronic disease, he
was
home-schooled during the worst of his illness. When he was 11, he and
his mother wrote and passed a bill about his disease.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Diamondstone: A lover of diner food, Diamondstone runs an affordable
housing business with an emphasis on "nice spaces for low prices." He
could have made a killing in the real estate biz but instead stuck to
his principles. Affordable housing is clearly Diamondstone's passion
and through his
business he has been able to translate ideals into action. He is
also a member of three local Democratic clubs and was an early opponent of
Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. For Diamondstone, who is
openly gay and lives with his longtime partner, Joe, the rights of the
LGBT community is high on his list of
priorities. But so is the environment. As chair of the Brooklyn Solid
Waste Council he was involved with the Zero Waste Coalition and passage
of NYPIRG's Bigger, Better, Bottle Bill.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Baer. 
He majored in psychology and sociology at Kent State University during
the turbulent 1960's and was actually attending the school when four
students were killed by National Guard during an anti-war demonstration
in 1970. At the time, he lived with "a
bunch of vegetarians" and tried to stay out of the Vietnam War as a
conscientious objector (CO). It was during college, that Baer became
aware of food and environmental issues: "answering questions on the CO
form got me to thinking about killing humans and animals…so I became
a vegetarian," he told me. A longtime member of the Park Slope Food
Coop, Baer is also a member of the Sierra Club and has held various key
positions at the city and state level. He was an early opponent of the
Atlantic Yards Project and is a strong believer in community based
development.

Breakfast of candidates

The Race for City Council in the 39th: A Stellar Group Sharp Elbows and All

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What a long, strange trip the campaign for City Council in the 39th district has been. As has been said by me and others, it is quite stellar group of candidates that decided to run for Bill diBlasio's seat for a district that spans Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, and Borough Park. 

Look at them: Brad Lander, Josh Skaller, Bob Zuckerman, John Heyer, and Gary Reilly. Any one of them would be a fine City Councilman. But only one can have the 39th seat.

Things were very civilized back in April and May. The forums/debates were good humored and convivial. It was clear that this smart and likable group of candidates agreed on most issues.

Indeed, it was clear that they all had interesting backgrounds and experiences that qualified them for the City Council, a position that is perfect step into politics for non-politicians.

Of course, there were plenty of sharp elbows and moments of contention. Plenty. 

—John Heyer was attacked for being against abortion and gay marriage. He managed to get the endorsement of a key Carroll Gardens Democratic club
and there was much sniping about the influence of Buddy Scotto, his
mentor and employer at the Funeral Home (he is also assistant to Borough President Marty Markowtiz).

–Attacks between Lander and Skaller,  in my opinion, were gratuitous—and desperate—jabs (by each campaign) at two men who's views are more alike than different.

—Skaller proved himself to be an aggressive—and at times—a sharp elbowed candidate willing to play the politics of attack for points with the voters.

–Former presidential candidate and Chairman of the National Democratic Committee Dr. Howard Dean came to Park Slope to endorse Josh Skaller but ended up endorsing both Skaller and Lander.

–The Superfund for the Gowanus issue was briefly a contentious litmus test for the candiates who all (except Heyer) ultimately agreed it was the right way to go.

—Zuckerman and Reilly managed to stay out of the negative frey for the most part. They conducted themselves with grace and enthusiasm for much of the campaign and focused on the issues that mattered to them. That said, Zuckerman did lead the charge against Heyer's anti-gay marriage views and that, in my opinion, was worth noting in a district that is largely progressive and pro-gay marriage.

So here we are just a week and a half away from the election. We've seen these guys under pressure; we've seen what they're willing to do to win the race. We've seen them speak their hearts and minds, we've seen them on good days and bad. And now it's up to the voters in the 39th to decide.

The 39ers

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Gary Reilly. At 34 he's not quite the youngest of the 39th candidates (John Heyer beats
him on that score) but this intelligent and likable man is plenty wet behind the ears and full of
enthusiasm about public transportation and other issues that affect voters.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Bob Zuckerman. A long-time politico, Zuckerman is currently
executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development
Corporation and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.  He remembers the night
Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 (he was 7-years-old) and one of his
heroes is Harvey Milk.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Brad Lander, Lander has two master's degrees and
a BA from the University of Chicago. He made his mark running
community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and Pratt
Center for Community Development, advocating for affordable housing and community sustainablility.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Josh  Skaller. A former computer music composer at
Harvard, it was Howard Dean's presidential campaign that jumpstarted
his interest in electoral politics. As president of the Central
Brooklyn Independent Democrats, he learned to facilitiate dialogue  and
manage strong personalities. Running on a community empowerment
platform with a strong interest in the environment and smart
development, Josh is proud to be refusing donations from  real estate
developers.

Breakfast of Candidates: John Heyer: An assistant to Borough President Marty Markowitz, Heyer is the only candidate for City Council born in the 39th district. A
fifth-generation Carroll Gardener, his twin passions are politics and
theology. He works as a funeral director at Scotto's Funeral Home and
his knowledge of the history of the neighborhood runs deep though he is
only 27-years-old.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: David Pechefsky. The Green Candidate, Pechefsky worked for 10 years in the central staff of
the New York City Council. With a master's degree in public policy and
experience advising local governments in Africa, Pechefsky knows how the
City Council works from the inside out and has ideas about how it could
better serve the people of New York City.

Smartmom

Smartmom: The Family Returns and Bonds with Teen Spirit

Smartmom_big8 Here's is this week's Smartmom from the award winning Brooklyn Paper:

Smartmom, Hepcat and the Oh So Feisty One got home from California
last Thursday at 7 am. They’d taken the redeye from Oakland and
Smartmom didn’t sleep a wink. Instead, she’d spent the entire night
alternating between 36 free channels of DirectTV watching mostly the
House and Garden channel and CNN.

Arriving home, she was exhausted — and nervous — about the state of the apartment after last week’s report of Teen Spirit’s raucous party. That’s why she told OSFO to go in first and report back.

“Everything is fine,” OSFO shouted down the stairs.

Phew. The apartment was tidy. All the dirty dishes had been put
through the dishwasher and all the dirty clothing that Diaper Diva said
she saw covering the hallway floor was in a big blue IKEA bag in Teen
Spirit’s bedroom.

Later, Smartmom told Teen Spirit what Diaper Diva had said about the
messy condition of the apartment. Naturally, he questioned her
judgement.

“Well, you know how neat she is,” he said.

Indeed, Diaper Diva and Bro-in-law are compulsively neat. Not like
the relatives over on Third Street who tend to be a bit more, er,
creative in the housekeeping department.

Smartmom was thrilled to be with Teen Spirit again. And she felt
like the time apart had done them a world of good. She had long talk
with him about his job, his plans for the year and a little about what
his friends are up to.

It was one of the best — and longest — conversations they’ve had in
eons. He also played three new songs for her and she was overjoyed.
They were so good, she wanted to cry. But she didn’t let on. Instead
she looked down at her lap and took in the magic of his music.

Smartmom felt very lucky.

The two weeks that Smartmom, Hepcat and OSFO were in California were
the first time Teen Spirit had ever stayed by himself in the apartment.
It was kind of a learning experience. Sure, he did all the typical
adolescent faux pas: he threw a party and caused a stir when a dozen
beer cans got tossed from the fire escape.

But a lot of good things happened, too.

Teen Spirit decided that he wants to learn how to cook.

“I want to be like Dad, the way he has a whole bunch of specialties,” he told Smartmom.

He also realized that he needs to learn some of the basics likes how
to boil eggs and rice. In general he needs to get better acquainted
with the kitchen.

“I never found the can opener,” he told Smartmom. “I mean, you left
me all those cans of baked beans, but I couldn’t find the opener.”

Male kitchen blindness strikes young.

Smartmom handed Teen Spirit three can openers that were in a
utensils jar on the counter. But she felt bad that his bean craving had
gone unmet.

Teen Spirit is learning about other important stuff, too, like, where to get a check cashed when you don’t have a bank account.

“These are life lessons,” Smartmom told him this morning when she
showed him where sign to on the back of a check, his first paycheck.

“My dad always used to say, ‘Remember to write “for deposit only” on the back,’” Smartmom told her son.

After their conversation, Smartmom decided that this Gap Year
University thing was going to be great. He thinks so, too. He told her
that doesn’t feel ready for college and that when he’s ready, he’ll go.

In the meantime, he says, he may want to take a course in Roman history at one of the city community colleges.

Smartmom smiled inwardly. She knows it’s super important not to meddle and to give him plenty of space.

Room to grow. That’s what she’s going to give him. Plenty of room to grow.

Jamie Livingston

Hugh Crawford and Photo-of-the-Day on A Standardized Test

Remember this article about Jamie Livingston's Photo-of-the-Day in the Guardian last year. Well, now this article is being used in an English language standardized test in Spain.

Instant Recall

I was idly flicking through blogs when I stumbled upon a website. It was a collection of
polaroid photographs and gradually I began to realize that there was one for every day
between March 1979 and October 1997. There was no way of telling who they belonged
to, no commentary or captions, just the photos, arranged month by month like contact
sheets. There was a sense, too, that I was not supposed to be there, browsing through
these snaps of friends and family, of baseball games and picnics, but they were funny.
There were pictures of things that did not exist any more as well as car parks and
swimming-pools.

Slowly it became apparent whose collection it was – friends would come and go but one
man regularly popped up over the 18 years documented, doing ordinary stuff like eating
dinner or unusual things in faraway countries. In one picture he is proudly holding a
skinned goat, in another he is on stilts. A lot of the time he looks serious while doing
ridiculous things. During the 80s there are lots of pictures of him playing music with an
avant-garde street performance outfit called Janus Circus. There are pictures of TV
screens – ball games, Frank Zappa’s death, president Carter, Reagan and Clinton.

Then, in 1997, events take a dark turn. There are pictures of the photographer in
hospital, then with a long scar across his head. He is gravely ill. For a short while his
health appears to improve and he returns home. In October there is a picture of a ring,
then two days later a wedding ceremony. But just a few weeks after that he is back in
hospital with some friends from the early photos. On October 25 the series ends. The
photographer has died.

Of course I was not alone in discovering this remarkable site. Since the end of May it
has been passed from blog to blog across America. “The first I knew about it was when all
my other websites started to closing down under the strain,” says New Yorker Hugh

Crawford, who was responsible for putting his friend’s pictures on line after his death.
“Initially it was not meant to be looked at by anyone. A group of us were putting on an
exhibition of the photos and the site was a place where we could look at the pictures while
we talked on the phone.”

The photographer’s name was Jamie Livingston. He was a film maker and editor who
worked on public information films, adverts and promo videos for MTV. Taking a single
photo every day began by accident when he was 22 and studying film with Crawford at
Bart College, in upstate New York. “He’d been doing it for about a month before he
realised he’d been taking a photo about one picture a day, and then he made the
commitment to keep doing that,” says Crawford. “That’s what he was like. There are some
people who have flashes of brilliance and do things in a huge rush or creative burst but he
was more of a steady, keep-at-it kind of guy and he did amazing stuff. Part of the appeal of
the site is that Jamie was not this amazing-looking guy. He led an incredible life, but
there’s an every man quality to the photographs.”

There are a lot of visual jokes, funny shots and fluted self-portraits, but the plan was to
take one picture and keep it no matter how it turned out. Once they found themselves
walking with a circus of elephants through the heart of New York, late at night. Crawford
turned to his friend and suggested this could be the picture of the day. “He was like, “No, I
took a picture of my lunch, it’s already been taken,” laughs Crawford.  […]

Only one mystery remains about Livingston’s life: “There’s one woman who appears a
lot (in the earlier photographs) who seems to have been a girlfriend but no one knows who
she is,” says Crawford, much of whose own life story is told within the pictures as well.
The more famous the pictures become, the more likely it is that one day he’ll find out.
© The Guardian 13.08.08

1) When looking at the photos, the writer
a) felt confused.
b) felt like an intruder.
c) saw they were focussed on places.

2) The protagonist of the photos
a) had a boring life.
b) had a varied life.
c) lived close to celebrities.

3) As far as the photo collection is concerned, Hugh Crawford
a) admits that its use didn’t turn out as planned.
b) claims that he published his friend’s pictures without permission.
c) is unhappy about the attention it is getting.

4) According to Hugh Crawford, taking a photo on a day-to-day basis
a) proved Livingston’s huge talent.
b) showed Livingston’s commitment.
c) was Livingston’s dream.

5) According to Hugh Crawford, when making his collection,
Livingston
a) didn’t like being given advice by others.
b) didn’t like taking surprising photos.
c) wouldn’t go back on what he decided.

Civics and Urban Life

American Girl Doll Lost in Park Slope

F8467_main_1 I saw this post about a lost American Girl Doll on Park Slope Parents. If anyone sees Josephina wandering around the neighborhood please let me know. She may be a bit disoriented. She thinks it's 1824 in New Mexico. 

"My daughter dropped her Josefina doll somewhere between Pino¹s on 7th Ave & 2nd St and PPW and 1st St.  It¹s a mini American Girl doll about 6² high with dark brown hair.  If anyone found it we would be most appreciative…"
Civics and Urban Life

Memories of My Dad From An Old Friend

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An old friend, who now lives in Northern California, wrote me a lovely email full of memories about my dad. 

I have been
thinking about our childhood together and your Dad today.  In
particular, remembering sometimes when I would come to dinner, and how
funny, and warm, and yet awe-inspiring your Dad was at the same time.
 Perched on the moderne black dining room chairs with the cold leather
and the wind whistling outside from the Drive, the Fiesta china, and
your Dad's understated and really keen questions, observations,
hilarious  jokes, until he had had enough, and his attention went on to
other things.  At those dinners, I  felt really intimidated and yet
excited at the same time.
Gosh, and then many
memories of your apartment in the 1960's  start to wash in, from the
texture of the carpet in the entrance hall, rough under the feet, and
the piano, that takes me to the bright sound of the Thelonious Monk
improvising on through the wall… oh too much to put  in email.   And
memories of you guys — though, I have those at least three or four
times a month, thanks to a Nika Hazelton cookbook of American food you
once gave me that is my Bible for good American home cooking- my
younger boy makes a mean chocolate cake from it…
Civics and Urban Life

What’s Been Up With Me?

What a week it has been. I have been tethered to my computer doing a very labor intensive and tedious freelance job.

I have also been working on the OTBKB makeover. I was hoping to launch the new design next week but it looks like the process may take a few more weeks. Elizabeth Reagh of Good Form Design is hard at work on our new logo and programmer/web designer Veronica Paez is hard at work on the new site.

Mid-September is also the 5th anniversary of OTBKB and I must say I am in a reflective state of mind. For the past five years I have rarely missed a day of blogging. Five years. Looking back and forwards, I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I want to go from here.

That said, I am strongly committed to continuing the blog in its new, improved form.

Labor Day is the first anniversary of my father's death. This has also put me in a very melancholy mood; I am having frequent flashbacks about his last days. There is much pain in those memories and it been an extremely difficult year. The loss of my father is a pain that deepens with time.

That said, I have great memories of my father and I miss him very much.

I wasn't planning to blog this Labor Day weekend because of all the above reasons but I know that the elections are coming up and people need information! So I will be back over the next few days with news about the upcoming elections and the candidates that have been vigorously fighting for the people's votes.

Civics and Urban Life

If You Haven’t Been Paying Attention to the Local Political Races: Start Now

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The Democratic primary is on September 15th. While many of us were off on summer vacation, the campaigns for Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate and City Council have been raging. 

There were debates and forums. Many were in the spring when the Democratic clubs were deciding who to endorse and few citizens were paying attention. 

During the summer, there was another set of debates/forums while the newspapers decided who to endorse. 

In June and July, the campaigns canvassed the neighborhoods in order to get Democrats to sign their petitions so that they could get on the ballots. Maybe you met the candidates then. 

Maybe not. 

At street fairs, parades, events in Prospect Park, JJ Byrne Park and on Seventh and Fifth Avenues maybe you saw the candidates there. 

But maybe you didn't. 

In recent weeks your mailbox has probably been full of campaign advertising from City Council candidates like Gary Reilly, Brad Lander, Josh Skaller, John Heyer and Bob Zuckerman in the 39th. 

Maybe you read them. Maybe you threw them away. 

Because the primary is on September 15th much of the campaigning goes on while citizens are in summer vactation mode. For those of you that think, hey, the 15th doesn't matter because it's just a primary think again. 

–This is a Democratic district and the Republicans don't have a chance in the general election. 

–That means, the winner of the primary election IS the de facto winner!
(That said, we have a marvelous Green candidate, David Pechefsky, running in the general election. Still, the Green Party has very little chance of winning). 

In the next week and a half while citizens return from summer vacation, the kids go back to school and real life starts up again, there is still time to catch up and decide who you want to choose for these important city positions. 

For City Council in the 39th district (the seat currently held by Bill di Blasio) there is a great group of candidates. You can read about them here. 

For City Council in the 33rd district (the seat currently held by David Yassky, there is a complex and interesting group of candidates. You can read about them here. 

I plan this week to do a follow up to my Breakfast-of-Candidates series. I am interested to see where they're at now just a week away from Decision Day. Certainly, they are much more seasoned than they were back in the spring when the campaigns were just heating up. 

Certainly, they have matured, focused their positions, become better campaigners. Certainly, they are more sure of themselves and seasoned. They have also sharpened their tallons and have spent much time attacking one another. 

In this the last week before the election all is fair in politics and war: the attacks are coming fast and furious. It is important to pay close attention and find out what is just gratuitous attack politics and what might be meaningful. I will try to keep you informed on this. 

My job now is to remind you that the City Council election is still wide open and it's up to YOU to decide who is the right person for the job. 
Civics and Urban Life

NY Times Endorses Jo Anne Simon for City Council in the 33rd

2 Comments

From the NY Times: 

District 33, Brooklyn (Downtown Brooklyn, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights): There are several excellent candidates vying to replace Councilman David Yassky, who’s also running for comptroller. Stephen Levin would be a prime candidate except for his entanglement in the Brooklyn Democratic Party machine. Evan Thies, an aide to Mr. Yassky, has been active on reform and clean-air issues. Jo Anne Simon has an impressive legal background and has been a strong community organizer who has done important work for the disabled. We endorse Ms. Simon.

Civics and Urban Life

New York Times Endorses Brad Lander for City Council in the 39th

1 Comment

From the NY Times:

District 39, Brooklyn (Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, Borough Park): The top three candidates to replace Councilman Bill de Blasio, who is running for public advocate, are a remarkable group. Josh Skaller, a former Harvard composer of computer music, has made a name fighting big development in the area. Bob Zuckerman, a former director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, is an activist for environmental issues and gay rights. But it is Brad Lander who has the stronger history of working with the diverse issues the Council addresses. As the former director of the Pratt Center for Community Development and longtime director of the Fifth Avenue Committee, Mr. Lander has worked for affordable housing and for more jobs, parks, mass transit and other community needs. We endorse Mr. Lander.

Music

OTBKB Music: Free John Fogerty at The Seaport, 7pm Tonight

Blue Ridge Rangers Rides AgainJohn
Fogerty, who usually
plays arenas for big bucks will be playing Pier 17 at The South Street
Seaport for free tonight at 7pm.

As you probably know, John was the leader of Creedence
Clearwater
Revival
back then, and has also written one of the best ever songs
about baseball, Centerfield.  He has a new country tinged album
released yesterday, with the grammatically incorrect title of The Blue
Ridge
Rangers Rides Again.  I've had a chance to listen to that album and
it's flat out a lot of fun.

That album consists mostly of covers, with only one Forgerty song. 
Among the songs are Rick Nelson's Garden Party (with Don Hendley and
Timothy B. Schmidt of the Eagles) and When Will I Be Loved with Bruce
Springsteen singing backup.

While I doubt Bruce will show (although you never know with him),
plenty of other of your fellow New Yorkers will probably crowd onto
Pier 17, so if you are planning to go see John, get there early.

John
Fogerty, Pier 17 at The South Street Seaport, A or C Trains to
Broadway-Nassau or 2 or 3 Trains to Fulton Street (exit at Fulton
Street and walk east to Pier 17), 7pm, free.

 –Eliot Wagner

Civics and Urban Life

OTBKB is Having a Makeover

In celebration of our 5th anniversary OTBKB is having a makeover. The full spa treatment:

A new look

A new logo

Improved functionality

Great new advertising capabilities

New writers

New content

And lots of the same old great stuff like No Words Daily Pix, Postcard from the Slope, Smartmom, Breakfast-of-Candidates, OTBKB Music by Eliot Wagner, Tom Martinez: Witness, Leon Freilich, Verse Responder, The Feldman Forecast, Greetings From Scott Turner and coming soon OTBKB Movies.

So this week will be catch as catch can while I work with my programmer and designer on all the changes. Hopefully the new site will be up and running soon.

In the meantime, if you're interested in advertising on the new OTBKB shoot me an email…

If you're a journalism student or just a smart person/writer who is interested in interning at OTBKB let me know about that, too.  Learn how to edit and run a sucessful blog from a pro: (louise_crawford(at)yahoo.com

I am also looking for a cartoonist.