Flavorpill's annual Halloween party is back and it's selling out.
The theme is "Gods and Heroes," and all proceeds benefit charity: water. They'll have The Very Best headlining along with Stoli, Dos Equis, and HobNob Wines open bar all night.
It's at a secret Brooklyn location (accessible by many trains) and they'll e-mail you the night of to reveal it.
Don't miss out – tickets are $35 and selling fast. Check it out at: flavorpill.com/halloween.
Here's an email from Jessica and Rebecca, the owners of the Greenlight Bookstore:
The big news:
Greenlight Bookstore is now open!
We started taking sales on Saturday, and we're thrilled by the response of the neighborhood already. We're still putting
out little fires and tweaking our system to make sure it's all set up
right (so bear with us if we have a few hiccups), but now that we're
open, we love visitors!Come see us anytime; our hours between now and
the end of the year are 10 to 10 Monday through Saturday and 12 to 8 on
Sundays.
Upcoming events in the race for City Council in the 39th: On October 22 at 8 p.m. Brad Lander and David Pechefsky go head to head at the Central Brooklyn Independent
Democrats (CBID). This is CBID's monthly meeting but it is open to the public.
The discussion will focus on David's strongest point: reform of the Council and
the role of the Speaker. This topic has generated a lot of press and is a
point where the two candidates strongly disagree, so don't miss it. The debate
takes place at the Park Slope Methodist Church, 6th Avenue and 8th Street.
October 29 there's a debate Sponsored by the Food Coalition and other community groups.
Topics to be covered include health, sustainability, school food and
curriculum, expanding access to healthy food, social justice for food workers
and consumers and local healthy food sources. The debate takes place at
PS 10 (7th Ave & Prospect Ave) in Park Slope.
In the past week there's been a lot going on:
Monday night's
Candidate Debate sponsored by the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association Democrat Brad Lander and Republican Joe Nardiello and David Pechefsky of the Green Party answered questions from
Carroll Gardens residents on everything from city budgeting to universal health
care.
Earlier in the day, all three candidates were
together for a photo-op because of a controversy over Mr.
Lander's write-up in the Voter Guide which 80,000 CD 39 voters received in the
mail last week.
Written in June when the focus was on the Democratic Primary,
Mr. Lander stated that he was the only candidate with children in Public
School. Although true for the Primary contest, that statement is
factually inaccurate for the general election where both David and the
Republican have children attending Public School. We organized a press
event to dramatize that fact in front of MS 51 where David's older daughter
attends.
A few days earlier the three candidates debated similar issues in
a private debate held in the offices of the Brooklyn Paper. Although the
subsequent write-up was not quite the endorsement we were hoping for, it does
give David's supporters, especially those of you who've missed the debates, to
watch him express his viewpoints in a live video. Click on the link below and
then follow the instructions in the article:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/42/32_42_gk_39th_debate.html
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this coming Saturday in Park Slope, ReadThis
will be collecting books for kids and teens, new and used, for three
NYC places that serve children.
Where: My place — 532 Fifth St. between 7th and 8th Aves., the same
block as the Rite Aid
What is needed: New and gently used fiction and nonfiction for ages 6
months to 18 years
Who will get the books:
– P.S. 307, a Bronx elementary school without a library
– Incarnation Children’s Center in Manhattan, which serves kids and
teens living with HIV/AIDS
– Jump-Start Child Development Centers for kids ages 6 months to 6
years in New York City’s homeless shelters
This is part of a wider book drive organized by ReadThis. More info,
including drop-off sites in other neighborhoods at other times, is
available on Facebook via the ReadThis group and the event “ReadThis
Book Drive for NYC Kids in Need.”
Greetings Pub Quiz Balloon Boy Hoaxters…
Holy crow!
It's not that the Heene family failed so miserably in the parents' shot at fame. Truth be told, they won that battle. Maybe it's Andy Warhol's
consummate "fifteen minutes of fame." Or maybe it's just that our
little club called "society" can never, ever get enough of this stuff.
Look at me! I'm writing about it.
Look at you! You're reading my writing about it.
Face it — seeing this thing flying through the northern Colorado sky last week was just plain weird. And kinda awesome, to boot.
Bruce Ratner solves everything — an arena designed by the firm of Gehry, Ellerbe Beckett & SHoP floating over Brooklyn, making eminent domain unneces– what? This isn't the new arena? Durn it!
I saw it on live t.v. and thought "good grief, the aliens have arrived, and they're driving an intergalactic Pinto." Then, the breathless newspeople said there was a young boy aboard this thing, and it got ookie and creepy.
Finally, after two hours of helicopter coverage and interviews with
the Heenes' neighbor, the balloon landed, and wasn't that a sight — a
uniformed officer (whose uniform, sadly, was a polo shirt — I'll be
sure to respect that when the grid goes down) lunging for the
guide wires we were told had given way and put the poor boy in danger.
The ground beneath them looked like the American farmland melded with a Japanese garden.
a new Olympic demonstration sport, slated for the London Games of 2012
Then, the huh?-ness of rescuers not feverishly ripping the hatch off the balloon to save the boy. Just standing around and by-golly not doing much of anything.
"THE
BOY'S NOT ON BOARD!" As though a contraption like this could have a
board to be on. Because newscasters will tell you — probably at the
next panel discussion at the Museum of Television and Radio — that they just had to bring it up ("it was germane," Anderson Cooper will probably say). Bring what up?
"HAS THE BOY FALL TO HIS DEATH SOMEWHERE ABOVE NORTHERN
COLORADO?!!" This followed theories that the balloon COULD COLLIDE
WITH JETS OVER DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT or that the balloon was HEADED STRAIGHT FOR DOWNTOWN DENVER!
Except for the part where it wasn't. "THERE ARE BUILDINGS IN
DENVER THAT ARE VERY TALL! WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THIS AIRCRAFT STRUCK
ONE OF THOSE BUILDINGS IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORKDAY?!!"
You mean, this aircraft?
and to think, the feds forgot to raise the Alert Level to…uh, what, silver?!
I dunno…it'd probably make us all forget 9/11 ever happened.
The
rest of the story you know. Boy not aboard. Boy not fallen to his
death. Boy "hiding in the attic." Boy claiming to be scared of
letting daddy's balloon get away. Boy spilling beans to Wolf Blitzer
that it was "for the show." Father acting indignant at suggestions
that this could be a hoax. Mother alternating 'tween teary and wacky.
Media irretrievably stuck to the story like an accident at the Elmer's Glue factory.
Now, it's Hoaxville for sure, and boy, are do the authorities have the Heenes in their sights.
I
don't much care that it was a hoax. Sure, the parents, and the father
in particular, are strung-out hi-test Grade A fame junkies. They also
have the disturbing habit of plopping their kids in the backseat when
they go driving straight at tornadoes. If I were Falcon Heene,
the boy with the perfect-for-television name, I'd be counting the days
'til I was old enough to kick Dad square in the weather balloons.
Falcon Heene: "Boy, do I know something you wanna know…"
Hoax or not, American t.v. media sure does love jumping up and
down, clapping its hands in over-excited glee, and unleashing an oddly
blended concoction of well-worn and heavily rehearsed clichés,
stuttering lack of comprehension, and queries for people in the field
who haven't any clue what's transpiring than the well-coiffed behind
the studio desks.
One network brought on an "expert" — someone who pilots hot-air balloons. Since the Balloon Boy balloon was a pilotless contraption filled with helium, the expert was reduced to answering most questions with well, I fly hot-air balloons, and this isn't one of those, so I can't say. But if I had to guess…
After a while, there was no story left in the story. That didn't
stop the news networks from bleeding what they could out of Balloon Boy.
There have been other hoaxes. Clifford Irving's Howard Hughes autobiography. The Piltdown Man. Affordable housing and jobs at the Atlantic Yards project. But not the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie is real, man!
Which of these things is real? Hint — it's not the one in the color picture.
As a rule, we like hoaxes. The best part is that they often make us believe harder. We're all Fox Mulder
— we all want to believe. Because we're ready to believe a hoax, even
root for it, it means we're more than ready for when it's the real
thing.
There's no surprise in any of this. There's certainly no surprise
in me getting all huffy about it, either. It'd just be nice, just
once, for the sky to really, truly be falling when folks on live
breaking-news t.v. tell us it is.
Next thing you know, they'll be going on and on that some basketball arena is getting built in the middle of Brooklyn.
Yeah, right…
* * * * * * * *
Thanks to everyone who turned out for the big Spunk Lads gig at Freddy's this past Friday. It was, as per usual and par excellence, a real 'loo wrecker. Bigger thanks to everyone who supported Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's annual Walkathon this past Saturday. Your donations and emotional support are appreciated beyond words.
Thank you.
My dad taught me that Doris Day is one of the greatest pop singers!
Her new album, As Normal as Blueberry Pie, is a tribute to Doris Day and it features The Very Thought of You, Do Do Do, Mean to Me, Crazy Rhythm, Send Me No Flowers, I Remember You.
But no Que Sera Sera???
April Salazar at Super Vegan loves Doris Day!
If you're hanging around the nabe tomorrow, here's something that looks
interesting: Music in The Streets on Fifth Avenue. Here are the
details courtesy of the blog All About Fifth:
Just a reminder that this Thursday, October 22 from 6:30-8:00 PM, professional musicians from the Brooklyn Queens Conservatory of Music
will be playing jazz, blues, folk and classical music on just about
every corner of Brooklyn’s fashionable Fifth Avenue from Dean to 18th
Street.
The Park Slope 5th Avenue Business Improvement
District, in partnership with the Conservatory, are pleased to present
“Music in the Streets.” Visitors will experience many different kinds
of music as they dine, drink and shop their way along the avenue.
Music in the Streets , Fifth Avenue between Dean and 18th Streets, 6:30-8pm
–Eliot Wagner
I loved this note today from my friend Jezra Kaye. In addition to being a longtime opponent of the Atlantic Yards Project she's a wonderful public speaking coach and speech writer.
Last week, while I was delivering a new speech in Belgium, my neighbors marched for the 5th straight year to save our community.
We have until December 31st to stop New York State from seizing private
property and spending hundreds of millions of our dollars on an arena
almost no one wants. And, in the latest twist, the prime recipient of
that largesse would be (you can't make this stuff up) Mikhail D.
Prokhorov–reportedly the richest man in Russian–who's trying to buy
the team that would play 6 blocks from where I live.
This has always been a David vs. Golaith fight, and we would never have
made it this far without your support. If you are able to DONATE for this fifth and final time, any amount is important and appreciated.
Thank you for helping us win!
Jezra
![Mugabee promo [hi res][1]](http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/pictures/6a00d8341c5fb353ef0120a64c94b4970c-800wi.jpg "Mugabee promo [hi res][1]")
M.U.G.A.B.E.E will
bring their unique blend of hip hop,
jazz, spoken word to the Irondale center for an exclusive, two-night engagement
.featuring exceptional jazz pianist Courtney Bryan and a host of guest
musicians in a return engagement to Brooklyn’s Irondale Center. M.U.G.A.B.E.E is the combined talents
of the brothers Carlton and Maurice Turner- singers, songwriters, playwrights,
producers and teachers, whose explosive style of performance is sure to
move your soul.
Cost: 20 bucks gets you in and one free drink.
The mission of
M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is to encourage and actively promote, through thought provoking
human interaction visualization and in turn an actualization of a just Earth
filled with equitable rights for all of its inhabitants. Through music,
workshops, lectures, open dialogues, spoken word and poetry M.U.G.A.B.E.E has worked
in numerous communities across the South with youth groups, adult learners,
community centers, churches and schools. Their work has taken them to the metro
areas of New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and to the
small towns of Putney, VT; Natchez, MS; Pine Lake, GA; and Bethlehem, PA.
Freedy Johnston is originally from Kansas but he lived in this until recently, including Hoboken and Greenpoint. Although he's now living in
Nashville, he's back for a while and will be playing in the East
Village Tuesday. This video of Freedy (and guitarist Dave Schramm)
performing Bad Reputation was taken a few months back when Freedy
played Maxwell's in Hoboken. Don't miss this opportunity to see one of
the best and most underrated songwriters out there.
Freedy Johnston, 11th Street Bar, 510 E. 11th Street (F Train to 14th
Street, transfer to 14A bus to Avenue A and 11th Street), 10-Midnight
–Eliot Wagner
Truth and Rocket Science blogger, John Guidry, has been writing very interestingly about the Brazilian city, Brasília. There are now three posts on the subject, all worth reading. Guidry lived in Brazil for long periods of time while working on his doctoral thesis. He says that he considers Belém, the “cidade das mangueiras” at the mouth of the Amazon River, his second home town.
"From 1956 to 1960, Brazilian architects, engineers and peasant laborers called candangos built
a new capital, Brasília. This was the realization of a dream first
voiced in 1827, just 5 years after the country became independent, when
an advisor to Emporer Pedro I suggested that he move the capital from
the colonial city of Rio de Janeiro, on the coast, to a new city in the
interior."Brasília, as it eventually came to be called, was a Brazilian
version of Luso-Manifest Destiny. The new city was built on the legacy
of the Bandeirantes, slave hunters and prospectors whose
journeys into the South American interior in the 16th and 17th
centuries extended Portuguese holdings – Brasil – at the expense of the
Spanish crown."Read more at Truth and Rocket Science.
The Prospect Heights biennial house tour is TODAY: Sunday,
October 18th from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
Rain or shine.
Appease your curiosity. See how the other half lives. be voyeuristic. Get ideas. Dream.
The self-guided tour will
include 11 wonderful homes and apartments. As one of Brooklyn’s premier
brownstone neighborhoods, Prospect Heights’ historical and aesthetic
significance was recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on June 23rd when it created the expansive Prospect Heights Historic District. Prospect Heights was recently featured
on the show “This Old House” and was commended by LPC Chairman Tierney
for its “architectural integrity and diversity, scale, tree-lined
streets and residential character.” From restored Victorian brownstones
and limestones, to stylish new row houses and apartments, to the
impressively modern “On Prospect Park” by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier,
Prospect Heights is indeed an architectural smorgasbord.
The tour will
include all this and more and will showcase the unique character of
Prospect Heights even as the imposing and controversial Atlantic Yards project proposes to make its own mark on the neighborhood.
Here's this week's Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper:
So Smartmom popped the question by cellphone.
“You wanna go look at couches?” she asked.
There was a long silence and then a big surprise. He was all for it.
They decided to meet at 2:30 at Room & Board on Wooster Street.
Smartmom kept her expectations very low. She figured they’d look
around, Hepcat would feign disinterest, and they’d be on their way.
Smartmom got to Room & Board right on time. Hepcat didn’t. Great. Now he was going to make her wait.
So friggin’ passive aggressive, she thought.
At 2:58 she considered leaving just to spite him. Instead she decided to just be very Zen about the whole thing.
Hepcat walked in at 3:05.
“So where’s the couch?”
The Zen was working. She just browsed. Hepcat browsed. She didn’t
express any opinions. He didn’t express any opinions. They quietly went
from couch to couch. They sat. They looked. They moved on.
Indeed, Room & Board has many couches with many names and
personalities. There’s the Anson, which Hepcat thought looked like the
inside of a Lamborghini. The Brooks is post-Modern, while the Clarke is
slightly nautical. The Hahn is whimsical, while the Melrose is very
sleek. And the Kinsey is, er, very 1950s.
On the second floor, a rather friendly looking couch caught Smartmom’s eye — the Townsend.
“I may not be as stylish as the Andre or the Hutton,” the Townsend seemed to say. “But I’m very comfortable! Great for watching TV and reading.”
Smartmom was intrigued enough to sit down on the Townsend. It was low
and roomy in a soft chenille fabric with a classic modern form.tried lying down on it — it was perfect for napping.
She
tried reading on it — it was perfect for perusing The New Yorker and
The Brooklyn Paper.
Then she wondered what Diaper Diva, her sister the movie set decorator, and Manhattan Granny, who likes Bauhaus, say?
But Smartmom knew it didn’t really matter; this was her and Hepcat’s
decision. Besides, a couch is isn’t just about décor, it’s about
comfort and family time. It’s about intimacy and touch. It’s about
doing something different, having something new. Together.
“Hey what do you think of this couch?” she called over to Hepcat.
“Not bad,” he said sitting down. “It is very comfortable. And I like the arms. They’re flat. You can put things down on them.”
The longer they sat on the Townsend, the more they liked it.
“Let’s sleep on it,” he said.
“The couch?” Smartmom said.
“No. Let’s give it some time. See how we feel next week,” he said.
“You wanna come back next week?” she asked shocked that he’d actually return to a furniture store.
Smartmom couldn’t wait for their next date at Room & Board.
Join
your neighbors as we plant daffodil bulbs on Church Avenue and its side
streets. In the spring, watch the flowers that we planted bloom!
From 9:00 a.m. to noon, volunteers will
Wear clothing and shoes that you don't mind getting some dirt on. If you can, bring
We'll meet at 9:00 a.m. in front of Astoria Federal Savings, at the corner of Church and McDonald avenues.
Connie,
the owner of Connie's Cafe (corner of Church Avenue and E. 5th Street),
has graciously agreed to donate coffee and muffins for the volunteers.
This
neighborhood event is sponsored by KARMABrooklyn (Kensington Area
Resident/Merchant Alliance) and WKAG (West Kensington Action Group).
I know that this weekend there are NO F Trains between Jay Street and Church Avenue meaning that the F train IS NOT stopping at 4th and 7th Avenues in Park Slope. There are shuttle buses, however. Here's what it says about these other lines:
and 
possible delays due to necessary maintenance work
Until further notice
Due to necessary maintenance work customers may experience 5 to 7 minute delays
from the times listed in the published timetable.
That was accurate of the candidates for the Democratic primary but not accurate of the three now facing the general election. In other words: Pechefsky (Green), Brad Lander (Democratic) and Nardiello (Republican) have kids in public school.
They will hold a press conference on Monday, October 19th at noon in JJ Byrne Park (3rd Street and Fifth Avenue) to set the record straight.
To dramatize the fact. all three candidates will take a standardized test while sitting in school desks. It should be quite a sight. The event is just one block from MS 51.
Every Sunday 11am until 6 pm: curated makers market of art and design with lots of interesting artisans and designers including Miss Wit, the t-shirt queen of Red Hook, come together at The Makers Market at (OA) Can Factory on Third Street at Third Avenue. Check out these vendors and more:
Ugly Duckling Presse
uglyducklingpresse.org
May Luk Ceramics
takemehomeware.com
Christine Vasan Jewelry
christinevasan.com
Ugly Duckling Presse
uglyducklingpresse.org
Wabisabi Brooklyn
Jewelry
wabisabibrooklyn.com
Lynn Goodman Porcelain
lynngoodmanporcelain.com
Meow Meow Tweet
Soaps
meowmeowtweet.com
Swayspace
Letterpress
swayspace.com
SchoolHouse Kitchen
schoolhousekitchen.com
Pictured:
T-shirt: Miss Wit
Lamp: warpeDesign on Etsy
Plates: http://loisaronow.com
Necklace: http://louisefischercozzi.com
1) Join Us Tomorrow for Walk Don't Destroy 5
Many of our most beautiful plants came to us as gifts and
cuttings from people in the neighborhood, and we hope that we can give
back by distributing them throughout the area, for your tree pits,
front and backyards and decks.
Pictured below are some of the plants we'd like to find
homes for. We have many more, including day lilies, echinacea,
the amazing trumpet vine and wisteria vine, periwinkle, and bridal
wreath. There are several trees as well. Click here for a fuller
inventory.
We'd also like to share tools (rakes, shovels, trowels, a
wheelbarrow) and the pavers that make up the garden's
walkways.
The carefully tended soil, rich with frequent additions of compost
from our own bins, can enrich many gardens, containers and tree
pits.
The Baltic Street gardeners invite you to come on
Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11-5. The entrance is on
Baltic Street, just east of Fourth Avenue. We have some containers,
but if you can, bring your own.
It's the second transit snafu weekend in a row with most of the subway
lines not doing things that they usually do or doing things that they
usually don't do. Here in the Slope, the F and G trains are being
replaced by shuttle buses from Jay Street (F) or Bergan Street (G) to
Church Avenue. The festivities start at midnight tonight and last
though Monday morning at 5am, so be sure to check with the MTA before
you leave home. With that out of the way, here are some suggestions
for the weekend.
Friday – Sydney Wayser: Sydney's main instrument is piano and her band
consists of electric guitar, upright bass and drums. Her songs combine
elements of classical, show music, rock and chanson française (Sydney's
father is French and she spent some time in Paris growing up). But the
most impressive instrument in Sydney's band is her voice. Extremely
expressive and perhaps a touch breathy, it is the hook that ultimately
pulls you into her music.
Sydney Wayser – Mercury Lounge, 217 E Houston Street (F Train to Second Avenue, use the First Avenue exit), Friday 8pm, $10
Saturday – "Hans and Sven:" The website for The Rockwood Music Hall
lists Hans and Sven playing, but if you Google that name you will
quickly find out, courtesy of The Living Room's website that Hans and
Sven are really Pete and J. If a picture is worth a thousand words I
guess a video is worth, what, maybe 10,000? So here is one I posted
previously. Expect high energy pop rock, and since it's The Rockwood on
the weekend, a crowd.
"Hans and Sven" – The Rockwood Music Hall, 184 Allen Street, (F Train
to Second Avenue, use the First Avenue exit), Saturday 11pm
Sunday – L'il Mo and The Monicats: Monica Passin leads this excellent
band. Expect to hear country, rockabilly, blues, retro pop and
perhaps something else as well by the time the set is over. And I'll
repeat what I've said before, this year's L'il Mo and the Monicats
album, On the Moon, is one of the year's best.
L'il Mo and the Monicats – Spike Hill 184/186 Bedford Avenue (L Train to Bedford Avenue) Sunday 9pm
–Eliot Wagner
State registration stickers are
slipping off car windows. –news item
Gone With The Window
In Dublin "the centre cannot hold."
About that no one bickers.
Maybe
we're lucky in New York,
Where it's only DMV stickers.
Leon Freilich
