With support from the Park Slope Parents, Park Slope Civic Council and The Old First Reformed Church, The 9th Annual Jingle Bell Jamboree concert on Saturday
night, Dec. 19, at 7 PM, will feature performances from an impressive line-up of Brooklyn-based performing ensembles including: The MS 51 Show Choir, The ‘Old First’ Family String Band, Paradizo Dance, The Berkeley Carroll Rock and Soul Review, “Life Lines” Community Arts of Sunset Park, and the Brooklyn Community Chorus. 

In addition, Jingle Bell Jamboree founder and producer, Ethan Schlesser and Rev. Daniel Meeter host and leads a festive sing-a-long throughout the show.

Schlesser originally created as a way to bring healing after the 9/11 tragedy. He continues to produce the event with the support of the Brooklyn community, including Borough President, Marty Markowitz.  In addition, Marlene Clary, director of the Brooklyn Community Chorus donates her time to help make the event a success, the Berkeley Carroll school offers their choral risers, and The Civic Council helps defray the costs of the promotional materials and programs.  This year, Park Slope Parents is joining in and  promoting a ‘winter coat’ drive, collecting coats which will be donated to local shelters.

There is a  $5 -$10 (children/adult) suggested donation. 100% of the proceeds goes towards the minimal expenses of the production and to the non-profit arts organizations that provide services to our community.  Schlesser, who donates all his time and energy adds, “Take a break from the holiday stress and wander into ‘Old First’. It’s a fun way to spend an evening and join in the holiday spirit”. 

Date: Saturday, Dec. 19th @ 7:00 PM.  

Location: Old First Reformed Church is located on 7th Ave and Carroll St  (729 Carroll) in Park Slope.  

Info: For more information please contact:  (917) 514-4591 or Eon88keys@yaho

They're doing it again! This time Brooklyn Based and FIPS
are throwing a holiday "office" party next Wednesday, Dec. 9 at the Bell House. Left is pix of their last "meatup" which was, apparently, quite a big, fun bash with 600 attendees. They're doing the wet t-shirt contest for men and women again, as well as a Hottest Employee of the Year competition.

You can buy a ticket in advance (here) that will guarantee two things organizers say: "you’ll save $3, enough for one more Busch,
and you’ll allow us more time to do some expert matchmaking in advance."

The New York Times' reports that a production of The Nutcracker by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky for American Ballet Theater is slated for BAM in 2010.  Producers hope the Brooklyn production will be a hearty competitor to New York City Ballet's canonic annual production of the Balanchine classic at Lincoln Center, quite a schlep for Brooklynites.

The new version will be performed just days after Mark Morris' The Hard Nut, a more adult version that has graced BAM's stage before.

This should all make for quite a nutty—and fun—holiday season over at BAM, Brooklyn's capital of culture:

From the New York Times:

"The show will also give Ballet Theater a critical source
of income. A holiday run of “The Nutcracker” is generally the financial
foundation of an American dance company and an important introduction
to the art form for children, the ticket buyers of the future. Ballet
Theater’s touring “Nutcracker” usually runs a shortfall of up to
several hundred thousand dollars, said Rachel S. Moore, the company’s
executive director."

Journalist Lynn Harris has an interesting article on Salon.com called Everybody Hates Mommy: We're "stroller Nazis." We're whiny "breeders." Why is there so much contempt for mothers these days?

"Thing is,
that derision is not only about Park Slope, and it's not only about
strollers, which have somehow become synecdoche for the perceived ills
of indulgent parenting everywhere. And it's not only about "parenting,"
either. No, I am telling you, it's about mothers. (White mothers,
generally, and usually urban ones — if in part because they're out and
about on sidewalks and subways, not cloistered in carpools and
playrooms.) You know them, or at least their epithets: "Stroller moms,"
the "stroller mafia," the particularly objectionable "stroller Nazis"
— and while we're at it, the "helicopter moms" and "sanctimommies."
Along with the area blogs, the New York Times got in on the Maclaren
fun with a silly shark-bait story
on the allegedly "palpable sense of anxiety" the recall had wrought on
the "hyper-conscientious" Slope. Standard online comment: "If the
typical 'Slope Mummy' was not so hell-bent to get to her pilates
classes, yoga classes, or whole foods market to pick up her 'fair
trade, organic food items,' perhaps she would not be so careless as to
fold 'Johnny's finger tips' into the hinge mechanism and amputate them.""

–Lynn Harris

An Interfaith Memorial Service at  St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church on World AIDS Day starting at 7 PM. 116 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope.

–Preparation Series, an exhibition of paintings by artist and educator, Maureen Mullen (see paintings above).

–Talks
by Pastor Daniel Meeter (of Old First Dutch Reformed Church) and Sister
Citarella (of the Gay & Lesbian Ministry of St. Francis Xavier
Church in Manhattan).

–Music by NYC Outloud

Meet Cynthia Maris Dantzic,  editor of 100 New York Photographers at a book launch and signing at the Community Bookstore on Wednesday, December 2 at 7 PM. A smattering of the photographers featured in the book will also be present.

LITIGATION NATION

By dread alone.

A Park Slope family taking a Beatles-like stroll through the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza. Pix by Tom Martinez. 

Remember Doug Biviano? He's the Brooklyn native who recently ran for City Council in the 33rd District.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents FEAST: Savory Syllables on Sustenance/Writers on Food curated by Michele Madigan Somerville with writers Peter Capatano, Greg Fuchs, Ame Gilbert, Nancy Garfinkel and Andrea Israel, Alexander Nazaryan, Sophia Romero and Michele Madigan Somerville.

A benefit for Helping Hands Food Pantry at St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Park Slope.

December 10, 2009 at 8 PM
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
$10 Suggested donation (but give what you can).

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Wednesdays  |  December 2 – December 16  |  7:00 – 9:00pm

Click here for more information. $45 for the workshop (no drop-ins)

Learn how to blog with Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, in a hands-on
workshop covering technical, creative and conceptual issues. In this
class we will discuss blog design, how to write a great blog post,
top-ten tips for new bloggers, search engine optimization, social
networking platforms and more.

You don’t need to know a thing about blogging. All you need is the desire to blog!

Louise Crawford
runs Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and is the Smartmom columnist for the
Brooklyn Paper. She produces the annual Brooklyn Blogfest and Brooklyn
Reading Works, a monthly literary reading series at the Old Stone House
in Park Slope. As a freelance writer her work has appeared in Newsweek,
the Associated Press and BKLYN Magazine. She has taught How to Blog
workshops at BAX, Adelphi University, Baruch College and at
Writersat-the-Beach in Rehoboth, Delaware.

The 3rd Annual Snowflake Celebration begins this week! The first two Thursday evenings in December, Park Slope businesses will light up with special sales and festivities like a [insert holiday-themed light-up icon of your choice], all in the spirit of getting holiday shoppers to spend more of their gift-dollars locally.  

Our website, www.buyinbrooklyn.com, has a list of participants (and their enticements), hard copies of which will be available at all Snowflake Celebrating businesses.  Highlights include:

    Free childcare at Juguemos Spanish Institute from 5:30-8!

    Free wine and snacks, and a food drive at 4PlayBK!

    20% off all merchandise and free gift-wrapping lessons every half-hour at Lion in the Sun!

    15% storewide discount on women's clothing, and a free raffle on a women's custom design outfit of the winner's choice (have to choose from the collection) at My Passion Fashion Designs!

    Some of Brooklyn's finest mobile food vendors (aka “gourmet trucks”) will make a special appearance in the Slope!

This Williamsburg show sounds like a hot ticket: 13 hours of every Beatles song on ukulele with special guests!

High marks for our dinner tonight at Buttermilk Channel, a popular and attractive Carroll Gardens restaurant with delicious food and excellent service.

For appetizers my sister and Hepcat shared oysters while my stepmother and I shared the fresh and delicious Autumn Salad with arugula, pomegranite seeds and walnuts.

For entrees, my step mom and bro-in-law enjoyed the  Rhode Island scallops (really big scallops); I had the delicious duck meatloaf, which came with yummy creamy parsnips, duck jus and an amazing onion ring (which I shared with everyone).

Hepcat was pleased but not thrilled with the short rib stew, which is the Saturday night special and my sister had steak, which she was very quiet about and that usually means she's enjoying her dish and not sharing.

Reading the Times' review it sounds like we should have ordered the Pecan Pie Sundae for dessert. Instead we shared the bread pudding which I thought was amazing (the Times' panned it).  About the sundae, Frank Bruni raves:

It’s audaciously true to its name, a treat that might
have been invented by a toddler who smashed up his slice of pie and
stuffed it into a tall glass with butter pecan ice cream.

If that sounds haphazard and heedless, rest assured that the ice cream
is local, from Brooklyn’s own Blue Marble. Buttermilk Channel has its
pride, after all.

As Smartmom sat on the Townsend couch in Room & Board’s second-floor showroom waiting for Hepcat to arrive she had to laugh. How had this couch thing gotten so out of hand?
Was it really worth fighting about? For that matter, what was it really
about? Were they fighting about a piece of furniture or the state of
their lives?

Hepcat was late as usual. But no matter, Smartmom was determined to
enjoy what she hoped would be their final couch-shopping expedition.

While she waited, she wondered whether their couch drama had been a
power struggle or an aesthetic disagreement. Was it really about form
and function or the dysfunctionality of their 20-year marriage?

Good questions. Smartmom felt a pang of sadness. If the two long
marrieds had such a hard time agreeing on a new piece of furniture, was
there any hope for peace in the Middle East or the health care bill?

Sitting on the soft chenille of the Townsend, she realized what a
turbulent river she and Hepcat had crossed to get to the point where
they could agree to pay the $1,399, plus tax and shipping, for a new
couch to replace the 18-year-old Ikea divan that Hepcat loves.

When her hubby finally arrived, he and Smartmom walked around the
store and revisited some of the other couches they had considered:
there was the Andre, the Anson, the Metro and the York.

It didn’t take long for them both to agree that the Townsend was the one. It was comfortable, soft and easy on the eyes.

Then they got a phone call from the Oh So Feisty One saying that she was locked out of the apartment.

“We’ll be home in a half hour,” Smartmom told her. Sadly their shopping trip was cut short.

“So should we buy it?” Smartmom asked nervously.

"Let's pay for it," Hepcat said.

"Are you sure," Smartmom asked.

“Yup, yup, yup,” Hepcat said — it’s what he always says when he wants to sound agreeable.

Smartmom knew it was time to make a decision. She knew it was time
to let go of this disagreement and move on. Hand in hand (or was it
only Smartmom’s imagination?), they walked over to a sales associate,
paid for the couch and scheduled its delivery for exactly one week from
that day.

What a strange feeling to have finally made a decision. The couch dilemma was over. What an accomplishment: PROGRESS.

When they got home, they told OSFO and Teen Spirit the good news.

“So these are the last days of the couch?” Teen Spirit said dispiritedly.

“Why do we have to get a new couch?” OSFO whined.

“I protest the removal of our couch,” Teen Spirit said and walked into his room.

Smartmom hoped they’d eventually adjust to the new couch. But there
was an even more pressing matter to attend to. Smartmom e-mailed her
friend Brooke Dramer — who had earlier expressed an interest in buying (believe it or not) the ratty old couch — and asked what she’d be willing to pay.

“What’s it worth to us?” she wrote back in an e-mail. “Well, let’s
get together soon so we can look at (and measure) the Green Couch. It
would be especially fun if Dave and I could sit on it with Hepcat and
discuss how proud we are to be part of the .81 percent that voted for
the Rev. Billy for mayor.”

“We’re thinking $300,” Smartmom replied. But Brooke wanted a measurement before committing.

“It’s 88 inches wide and 37 inches deep. Can you come see it before Saturday?”

“Oh, no! Eighty-eight inches is too big to fit with our furniture!”
she wrote back. “Alas, the Saga of the Couch ends not with a bang, but
a whimper. I would never stoop so low as to throw you a headline like
‘Size does matter.’ But in this case, I need eight inches. Before you
say, ‘Who doesn’t?’ let me explain. The couch has to fit between an end
table and an antique trunk — a space of less than 80 inches.”

So for the first time, a woman was complaining about something being eight inches longer than she wanted.

Smartmom didn’t understand why they couldn’t just move the end table
and the antique trunk. But who was she to question the strange calculus
of any relationship?

Smartmom was glum. It wasn’t going to be quite so easy to sell their
green leather couch. Maybe they’d have to give it away. Or leave it on
the street. In less than 24 hours, their new couch would arrive from
Room & Board.

Smartmom was stressing. How would it look? Would it be comfortable?
At 92 inches, would it be too big for their own truncated living room?

And what would Teen Spirit and OSFO think?

Tune in next week …

From Brooklyn Frugal Examiner:

If you are trying to trim the fat on your spending, the Brooklyn Public
Library can be your new BFF. "Ever since the official beginning of…
Keep Reading »

From Leon Freilich, Verse Responder:

Two Slopers are part of what the Times Op-Ed page calls the laptop brigade.

Architect Bobb Jadhav at Tea Lounge and investment banker
Ruthie McCombs at the 7th Ave. Barnes & Noble keep regular
office hours at their chosen home-away-from-workplace
tables. Both are unemployed.

Smaller cafes, however, are fighting for their economic lives by
Un-Wi-Fi-ing, covering electric outlets & posting no-lunchtime-
computing signs. 

And so it goes, down with cups of  jobless java.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/27/opinion/28opart.html

Buttermilk Channel is a newish Carroll Gardens restaurant on that stretch of Court Street not far from the Smith and 9th Street F-train station. 524 Court Street (Huntington Street), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn; (718) 852-8490

Their website explains that the original Buttermilk Channel is the mile-long tidal strait between Brooklyn and Governor's Island. Walt Whitman wrote in the Brooklyn Eagle that farmers would walk their cows across there during low tide so the cows could graze on the Island's abundant grass.

The owner is CIA-trained chef Doug Crowell, a native New Yorker, who formerly managed Blue Fin and Blue Water Grill in Manhattan. Chef Ryan Angulo is a Rhode Island native, who was the Chef De Cuisine at the Stanton Social Club on the Lower East Side. 

The menu includes lots of tasty-sounding items with an emphasis on oysters and sausages, but also entrees like Warm Lamb and Romaine Salad, Caputo's Fresh Linguini, Bacon Wrapped Brook Trout, Rhode Island Day Boat Scallops, Duck Meatloaf, Fried Chicken…

Need I go on?

It's hard to imagine being hungry tonight. But it's the birthday of a special someone and we will CELEBRATE!

An Interfaith Memorial Service at  St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church on World AIDS Day starting at 7 PM. 116 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope.

–Preparation Series, an exhibition of paintings by artist and educator, Maureen Mullen (see paintings above).

–Talks by Pastor Daniel Meeter (of Old First Dutch Reformed Church) and Sister Citarella (of the Gay & Lesbian Ministry of St. Francis Xavier Church in Manhattan).

–Music by NYC Outloud

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Wednesdays  |  December 2 – December 16  |  7:00 – 9:00pm

$45 for the workshop (no drop-ins)

Learn how to blog with Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, in a hands-on
workshop covering technical, creative and conceptual issues. In this
class we will discuss blog design, how to write a great blog post,
top-ten tips for new bloggers, search engine optimization, social
networking platforms and more.

You don’t need to know a thing about blogging. All you need is the desire to blog!

Louise Crawford
runs Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and is the Smartmom columnist for the
Brooklyn Paper. She produces the annual Brooklyn Blogfest and Brooklyn
Reading Works, a monthly literary reading series at the Old Stone House
in Park Slope. As a freelance writer her work has appeared in Newsweek,
the Associated Press and BKLYN Magazine. She has taught How to Blog
workshops at BAX, Adelphi University, Baruch College and at
Writersat-the-Beach in Rehobeth, Delaware.

   Pix by Caroline Ghertler

  WHOLE MESS IN ONE

Drop the golfing lessons too,
She may putt you to Peru;
Stay away from swingers' bar–
Wives consider that sub-par.