Here's the press release from Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn.

Here's this weeks greetings from Scott, the pub quizzer at Rocky Sullivan's in Red Hook. He also performs as RebelMart at places like Freddy's Backroom. This post is brought to you by Miss Wit, the t-shirt lady.

Greetings Pub Quiz Robocall Recipients…

Unless, of course, it's a real live person.  Which sometimes, you hope it is.

The National Rifle Association has been calling our house.  Thanks to Caller ID, I've seen their number come up time and again.  Probably seven or eight times.  It's a northern Virginia area code.

They're calling because they hate Mayor Bloomberg for his anti-gun stance.  Don't know if they realize they're asking voters to side with Bill Thompson or the Rev. Billy Talen.   Don't know if they care.  The NRA's pretty myopic.  Must come from generations of squinting through rifle sights.

the NRA has many allies…

But they did perform the insanely impossible — made me side with Michael Bloomberg for once.

Instead
of telling them "I despise Michael Bloomberg.  I want you to understand
my full meaning when I tell you I'd going with him over you," this is
what the woman from the NRA was told: "I want you to know that my
father committed suicide with a handgun, and I don't appreciate you
calling here."

Desperate times require desperate measures.  Nothing of the sort ever happened to my father.  See Times, Desperate and Measures, Desperate.

Flustered but sticking to script, the NRA caller said "oh, well, we're very sorry, and, uh, we'll update our records."

Click.

Honestly, I'd have respected the NRA caller if she'd really
stuck to script and said "guns didn't kill your father — your father
killed your father."  As I've learned, respect and utter contempt
aren't mutually exclusive.  In fact, they can be touchy-feely
hand-holders.

But no — the NRA caller just punked out and disrespected the memory of Charlton Heston,
whose hands couldn't be colder and deader at the present juncture but
who would be aghast at the scripted niceties being doled about by
today's NRA.  Heston wouldn't take this attack on the NRA lying down.

…well, actually now he would.

another
frustrated bitter gun owner realizing he'd have to vote for a black
liberal or an environmental anti-consumerist faux preacher with a big
church and a bigger hairdo.  Well, if that grip weren't so darned
tight…

And now, here in New York, we have the election-season
oddity of a wealthy immoral lobbying group trying to buy the election
from a wealthy immoral mayor who's trying to buy the election.

If I were feeling benevolent to the rest of the world, I'd chortle "only in America!"  But I'm not, and it's not.

* * * * * * * *

So what is Poetry Punch?

It's BRW's annual fun poetry party curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. She's
put together a GREAT line-up. And I'm gonna read, too. My only regret
is that  Michele won't be reading but I hope she reads something by way
of her introduction. 

How about a nice poetry punch?

When is it?

On
Thursday October 15th at 8 p.m. Come hear Edmund Berrigan, Louise Crawford, Bill Evans Sharon Mesmer, Wanda Phipps, Joanna Sit, Michael
Sweeney and Jeffrey C. Wright. It's an awesome group.

How about a nice poetry punch?

Where?

At
the Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park
Slope. Suggested donation of $5. includes punch, wine and snacks.
718-768-3195

How about a nice poetry punch?

This
is ALWAYS a fun, festive reading. A fun night out. These poets write
smart, interesting, juicy, and entertaining poetry. It's good stuff and
there will, of course, be good punch.

A friend wrote to say that she had a tasty dinner of gourmet Korean food at Moim, her favorite Park Slope restaurant and ran into various and sundry friends.

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's annual walkathon to raise funds for the legal fight against the Atlantic yards is on October 17th. Register here.

According to the Daily News via Ditmas Park Blog Joni Mitchel' song will be coming true once again.

From the New York Daily News:

The subway system will be thrown into mass turmoil this weekend as
nearly every line will see delays and diversions due to widespread
repairs.

Of the 20 lines that operate on the weekends, 18 will suffer some types of serious delays between Friday and Sunday, MTA officials said.

"I'll take my car this weekend — I'm not going to deal with it," said Norman Ellis, of Bayside, Queens.

He frequently uses the R train to get to work, but the line will skip
all stops between 34th Street-Herald Square and 36th Street in
Brooklyn.

Six lines — the 5, A, F, G, L and E — will resort to free shuttle-bus service at various points along their routes.

Another seven lines — the 1, 2, 7, B, N, J and R — will skip a
section of stops, and the 4, 6 and Q lines will run express at times,
missing more stops.

Also, the D line will run on the N tracks during midday hours tomorrow, missing 12 Brooklyn stops.

The MTA says there are good reasons for the nerve-wracking diversions.

"At this time of year we're performing work along the outdoor lines
that cannot be done during harsh weather," said New York City Transit
spokesman Charles Seaton.

"It doesn't happen every weekend, but there are times when you'll see this much construction activity along the lines."

The E line will skip every stop between 34th Street and the World Trade Center Saturday and Sunday.

And F and G riders in Brooklyn will have to resort to free shuttle
buses instead of speedier subways for a combined 15 stops near Prospect
Park.

Also, hipsters beware: L trains will skip every stop between Lorimer Street and Myrtle-Wyckoff avenues over the weekend.

The editors of Electric LIterature, a bi-monthly anthology of short fiction, select stories "charged
with wit and emotional gravity right from the first sentence." You
choose how you want to read them. We deliver content in every viable
medium

Choosing from America's best contemporary
writers and embracing new forms of distribution the folkElectric Literature has big plans: to facilitate
a renaissance of the short story. Cool. For starters, there's a lunchtime event in Washington Square Park on October 13 and October 20.

Where: Washington Square Park, (west
of the fountain).

When: Tuesday October 13^th, 2009 and Tuesday October 20^th, 2009, Noon –
1:30pm

Oct 13^th:
Colson Whitehead and Carmiel Banasky

Oct 20^th: Stephen O’Connor and special guests

The Electric Literature Soapbox Reading
Series is exactly what it sounds like: Writers will read their work atop a box
in the middle of Washington Square Park.

Washington Square has a long and storied history of both arts and activism.
To celebrate the area, the Soapbox Reading Series is an inclusive event for a
diverse audience of passersby, office workers, cops, shoppers and literary
enthusiasts sharing in a common, transportive experience.

The Soapbox readings will entertain and promote literary fiction by
connecting authors directly with the public, while celebrating the diversity of
the city and its cultural wealth.

No rain dates, so pray for sun!

Colson Whitehead, a
2002 MacArthur Fellow, is the author of four novels and a book of essays about
New York City. His most recent book is Sag
Harbor.

Stephen O’Connor
is the author of Rescue, short
fiction and poetry; Will My Name Be Shouted Out?, memoir and social criticism; Orphan Trains, narrative history, and Here Comes Another
Lesson, short fiction, forthcoming from Free Press. His fiction and
poetry have been in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Conjunctions,
TriQuarterly, Threepenny Review, New England Review, The Missouri Review, The
Quarterly, Partisan Review, and many other places. His essays and
journalism have appeared in The New York Times, DoubleTake, The
Nation, AGNI, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe
and elsewhere. He teaches fiction and nonfiction writing in the MFA
programs of Columbia and Sarah Lawrence.

Carmiel
Banasky grew up in Portland, Oregon and received her B.A. in Creative
Writing from the University of Arizona. In Oxford, Mississippi, she taught
preschool and, in her spare time, attempted to organize a pro-choice movement.
She failed. Eventually, she found her way to New York City to finally focus on
writing. Currently, she is studying with Peter Carey and Colum McCann at Hunter
College, where she also teaches creative writing. She has two stories published
with Glimmer Train Stories, one of won first prize in their Family Matters
contest. Other stories can be found online at The Boy Bedlam Review.

Michael Chabon Read at Same Time as Amy Sohn

While Amy Sohn was serenading Richard Meier at his glass
shack Thursday night, Gersh and I were across the street–at the library–
listening to Michael Chabon reading from his new true-life
tribute to family life (his own). 

With his "Bad Mom" wife away–she admitted in NYT loving him more
than their children and got howls or protest along with a book
contract out of the remark–twenties women
felt uninhibited in drooling over the matinee-idol-looks
novelist.  Young men, who made up the rest of the
SRO audience, were equally fascinated, but by
Chabon's snapshot-to-generalization conclusions
about the rocky course of parenthood.

If any part of his Manhood for Amateurs reaches the screen,
as did his Wonder Boys, in which Michael Douglas riffed
on Chabon's autobiographical put-upon hero, a younger
and smoother-faced actor will have to be found.  Is there a
third-generation-acting Douglas emoting in the wings?

Oh, what a humble man. And god yes, he deserves this prize for beginning to change the world's perception of the US and its foreign policy.

Don't you just love our president?

I do agree with him that the prize is a call to action to pursue peace and justice around the world.

 

Straight No Chaser, a documentary about Thelonious Monk, will be at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Saturday night at 9:30 in celebration of Monk's 92nd birthday. I worked on an early iteration of this film as an assistant editor at Christian Blackwood Productions in the 1980's. That was my very first job after college (and a year in England and Israel).

Fourteen hours of European concert performances, as well as interviews with Monk filmed in 1967-68 by Blackwood, form the basis of Straight No Chaser.

In the 1980's, Blackwood and documentary film legend Charlotte Zwerin, who co-directed Gimme Shelter and other films with the Maysles, raised money to make this film about Monk. I assisted her when she was editing a trailer to show funders. 

At that time, they were having trouble getting the rights to Monk's music and that was a posing a major obstacle to getting the film made. Christian Blackwood died in the early 1990's before this film was completed.

With Blackwood, I attended Monk's funeral at St. Peter's Church in Manhattan. He filmed the funeral and it was an utterly amazing experience to be there. Our exposed 16mm film was confiscated at one point during the funeral. It was later returned and I believe Monk's funeral is included in this documentary.

Blackwood was a documentary filmmaker and gifted hand-held 16mm cinematographer, who was able to deftly interview his subjects while shooting them. It was quite a trick. Blackwood was an incredibly handsome, smart and charming  man with a special interest in tarnished celebrity and movie history. He was the most debonair of men, very elegant and a wonderful dresser (he wore white suits in the editing room). What a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with such a talented and stylish man.

While he may be best known for Straight No Chaser and film about the making of the Death of a Salesman movie with Dustin Hoffman,  Blackwood directed 80 films, mostly documentaries, over a 25-year career.

All By Myself, his feature length doc about Eartha Kitt, features several of her songs in performance, and
riveting interviews with the singer as she recounts the high/lows of her life beginning with the fact that her mother quickly abandoned and her blacklisting in Hollywood during the Vietnam War. He also made films about the making of films like Private Conversations and Observations Under the Volcano. Other films include, Memoirs of a Movie Palace, Tapdancin', My Life for Zarah Leander, and Roger Corman: Hollywood's Wild Angel.

Straight No Chaser will be at the Lyceum on Saturday night at 9:30.

Believe it or not, I've never see the film which I believe credits Zwerin and Blackwood as co-directors.  I hope to make it over to the Lyceum to catch it. They have a great screen.

"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"

Sharon Mesmer, author of "Annoying Diabetic Bitch" and "Holy Mother of Monkey Poo," is one of the poets reading on October 15th at 8 p.m. at Poetry Punch at The Old Stone House. Don't miss this great event,a fun, friendly and festive way to hear some great poetry. With punch.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, Mesmer is on the short list to be Brooklyn poet laureate.

Brooklynites are a demanding bunch — and they’re demanding a new poet laureate.

Last month’s death of the borough’s laureate, Ken Siegelman, has left the poetry world reeling, but after covering his death, and offering Borough President Markowitz a short list of candidates for
Verse Maker in Chief, The Brooklyn Paper received a stunning number of
e-mails — more, in fact, than we’ve ever received on a poetry-related
story.

Park Slope poet Sharon Mesmer, a lively poet who’s not afraid to
write poems with titles like “Annoying Diabetic Bitch” and “Holy Mother
of Monkey Poo,” is leading with 44 percent of the ballots. In second
place is fellow Sloper, Lynn Chandhok, with 36 percent.

“Wait — does this mean I have to write a sonnet to Marty Markowitz?”
quipped Mesmer, author of three collections. “Oh well, a poet’s gotta
do what a poet’s gotta do. Problem is, the only thing that rhymes with
Markowitz is ‘have a schvitz.’” (Why is that a problem?)

Mesmer’s sense of humor was often cited by her supporters as
evidence that she belongs at the zenith of the borough’s long-clawed
poetry community.

Indeed, Maria Damon wrote us with her own poem about Mesmer:

Sharon Mesmer is the one

She’s the one who’s all the fun!

Sharon Mesmer, she’s your girl

What a fun event put  together by Momasphere at the Richard Meier on Prospect Park West. The reading/cocktail party with author Amy Sohn was VERY well attended by an attractive crowd of mostly women though there were some men there, too.

Amy Sohn read two very funny sections of her satirical book, Prospect Park West. One excerpt took place inside the Prospect Park Food Coop, her fictionalized version of the  Park Slope Food Coop. She also read a fun section about two moms talking at the Tea (or Teat) Lounge.

Sohn, who looked lovely in a champagne colored dress,  read very entertainingly with perfect comic timing and a terrific Australian accent for the male celebrity character.

During the Q&A, Sohn answered a question about the challenge of balancing motherhood with being a writer. She mentioned that she writes at the Brooklyn Writers Space and would talk to anyone who wanted to know about it.

Someone asked about reaction to the novel by Park Slopers. Sohn said that people come up to her all the time to say that they actually know the people whom the characters are based on. "But they don't," Sohn added.

Sohn was asked about Sarah Jessica Parker's optioning of the book. "It's a script option" for Parker's production company and HBO for a weekly television series.

Asked about her background Sohn explained that she was born and bred in Brooklyn Heights and has lived her entire life in Brooklyn. "I love Park Slope and I love living here," she said.

Sohn is currently at work on the sequel to PPW, that is due to be published next year. Crossing her fingers, she said that she's hoping to make her deadline. "This one will be called Richard Meier On Prospect Park West,"  she joked.

Proceeds from the event will go towards a Sunset Park charity called Children of the City

Since 1981, Children of the City has
been serving the underprivileged children in the inner-city communities
of Southwest Brooklyn. Starting out as a children’s prevention outreach
in the early years, our services have evolved to include trauma
intervention, counseling, an after-school and summer program, courtroom
and legal advocacy, social work, guardianship, financial counseling,
youth mentoring, and other as-needed services to help children and
their families achieve success in education, social relationships,
home, financial and career. Together we reach the children at home, at
school, on the streets and playgrounds, and at our facility.

Children of the City founder Joyce Mattera was at the event. She said that she lives "on the only brownstone street" in Bay Ridge and people tell her that she belongs in Park Slope. "After hearing the book, I'm not sure that's such a good thing," she said.

A representative from Corcoran spoke about the condos in the Richard Meier building, which range in price from the mid $700,000's for a studio to $5 million for something quite large. 

Oh, about the Richard Meier apartment: the event was in the living room/kitchen of a Plaza Street facing apartment on the third floor—a columned space that can comfortably seat 100 people. The kitchen had an enormous counter/island with some gorgeous looking appliances that sort of disappear seamlessly into the walls.

Dang it: I never made it into the bedrooms which were open for viewing and I hear the bathrooms were incredible—and very bright. 

But I did have two glasses of wine courtesy of SIP Fine Wine, poured by a bartender wearing a black Sipster t-shirt. The food was courtesy of Melt. Yum. There were sliders, summer rolls and AMAZING marshmallow, whipped cream and strawberry desserts.

Best of all: Mark Simmons, the ever so charming executive chef at Melt and a former Top Chef on Bravo TV's Season 4 was at the event serving sumptuous hors d'oeurves.

Kudos to Melissa Lopata and Ellen Bari, founders of Momasphere, for producing such a classy event. Momasphere is "an up and coming organization that creates innovative
evening events and programs for moms of all ages, while also giving
back to the community.  Proceeds of the events go to various charities
that use human rights to advance social justice for women."

Full disclosure I paid $10 for a ticket to this event and was given a cute red Richard Meier on Prospect Park West shopping bag with some goodies inside, including mojito flavored lickable oil from Babeland.