Monthly Archives: April 2010
Bklyn Bloggage: arts & culture
Artist open studios in Red Hook: Art in Brooklyn
No shadow, no story: Brooklynometry
Call for entries for Photo Bloggers: Brooklyn Blogfest
Free comic book day: The Written Nerd
Freddy’s last Friday ever: Found in Brooklyn
The Weekend List: Perverse Poet, Spring Food & Craft Market, Screwball Spaces
FILM
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Greenberg, Kick Ass and The Ghost Writer at BAM, as well as films by The Perverse Poet: João César Monteiro is, along with Manoel de Oliveira (whose films he occasionally acted in), one of the giants of Portuguese cinema. Born into a family that was fervently anti-fascist and anti-clerical, his work is deeply polemic in its criticism of repression within Portuguese society, yet also madly entertaining with its sexually explicit humor and intense disregard for conventional filmmaking. His body of work reveals a mind that was boundlessly intellectual, uncompromisingly nonconformist, refreshingly funny, and more than a little creepy.
THEATER
The Creditors at BAM. Directed by Alan Rickman, this fiercely modern battle of the sexes comes to BAM following a sold-out run at London’s Donmar Warehouse (RED, Jude Law’s Hamlet, Frost/Nixon). A darkly comic tale of vengeance, jealousy, and psychological warfare, Creditors unfolds as a young husband (Tom Burke, in his New York debut), anxiously awaiting the return of his new wife (Olivier Award-nominee Anna Chancellor), falls under the sway of a mysterious stranger (Tony Award-winner Owen Teale).
MUSIC:
Sunday starting at 1PM: The Bell House and Gowanus Music Club present and all-ages show on Sunday afternoon, May 2nd at 1 pm. This show represents the culmination of our 12 week program at the rock school, and also includes two adult rock bands! We will be showcasing nine bands from 1 – 5 pm, with each band doing a short set to showcase their talents. This will be a diverse and fun afternoon for kids and adults alike. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids under the age of 18.
Sunday at The Bell House at 6PM: Bad Teeth (myspace.com/badteethmusic) (mems: Mighty Handful, Crayons, Calamus), Red Dwarf (first show feat. members of Le Rug), Large Lady (myspace.com/largeladynyc) (mems. Radiates, Mother Courage), Slam Down Birthday Cake (myspace.com/slamdownbirthdaycake) (mems. Banzai, Fiasco, Phfat Raskals), Snuffy (myspace.com/snuffynewyork) (mems. of the best band ever)
$8
ART
Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum! Thousands of visitors enjoy free programs of art and entertainment each month from 5 to 11 p.m. All evening long, the Museum Café serves a wide selection of sandwiches, salads, and beverages, and a cash bar offers wine and beer. Parking is a flat rate of $4 starting at 5 p.m. All other Saturdays, the Museum closes at 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 1st and Sunday May 2nd, 2010 from 12–6 pm: Screwball Spaces, Gowanus Canal’s newest addition of artists’ studios in Red Hook, Brooklyn, opens its doors to the public for a rare glimpse into the work spaces of New York’s contemporary artists.
Saturday May 1st, 6-8PM: What happens when an artist goes into the studio without a plan? No Plans For Today. Fun Times Gallery. 257 3rd Avenue. Brooklyn, NY Opening Reception. Curated by Vicki Sher.
SHOPPING
May 1&2 11AM until 5PM: Spring Food and Craft Market at the Brooklyn Lyceum: Heighten your senses and usher in Spring with style. Expanding into both 4,000 square foot levels of the Brooklyn Lyceum – former NYC Public Bath #7 – we announce our heady new creation! The Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market will include all manner of “Handmade” to mean both Crafts and Edibles, as well as fun workshops for all ages. Our Market will feature over 100 talented vendors, both local and from cities like Chicago, DC, Boston, and Portland.
Everything You Need to Know About Blogging Class
A new session of my How to Blog class starts this Wednesday at BAX and continues for four sessions. I have to say it’s a great class because it attracts great people (i.e. YOU). I teach according to what the participants want and need. If you wanna learn the blogging ABCs I’m your gal. If you wanna talk design we can talk design. If you wanna learn about writing we do writing. If you wanna learn some techy stuff we do that, too. It’s all about who’s in the class and what works for the group.
Last session I had two women from the new Moms in Babeland blog and a knitter who has a book coming out in October. For the last class I had guest designer, Peg Patterson, discuss design for the web. She will be returning for the 4th class of this series, too. I may have another guest speaker as well.
$50 for workshop | No drop-ins
May 5, 12, 19, 26
Learn how to blog 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 montly literary reading series at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. 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 Writers-at-the-Beach in Rehobeth, Delaware.
This Weekend: Spring Food & Craft Market at the Lyceum
OTBKB is a proud sponsor of this weekend’s Spring Food & Craft Market at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Over the last few weeks I’ve been picking vendors of the week and that’s been fun. This weekend you get to meet the vendors in person.
On May 1 and 2, the Market will feature all manner of “Handmade” to mean both Crafts and Edibles, as well as fun workshops for all ages. There will be crafters from Maine to D.C., to ensure a fresh array of products, some represented in NYC for the first time.
The Market hopes to highlight the full expansive array of fantastic, artisanal goods available all throughout the Northeast, and get them into the homes, shops, mouths and consciousness of the thousands of discerning NYC patrons who will enter the Lyceum this Spring weekend, and exit with a healthy armload of gorgeous products they can feel good about. Clothing, clocks, art, gifts, jams, chocolates, cheeses, craft beer.
Current Weather in Park Slope
Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their weather tower in Park Slope.
Cool Architecture on Carroll Street in Park Slope
580 Carroll Street in Park Slope is gorgeous looking new building. I walked by there the other day. Today the NY Post has something about this building designed by Enrique Norten.
It’s Park Slope’s turn now, which is a good thing for the neighborhood and for New York. It’s about time people stop talking about baby carriages and problems with parking. It’s about time they start talking about how boroughs, such as Brooklyn and Queens, are just as important a canvas for modern architecture as Manhattan,in Buenos Aires, Shanghai or Paris.
If this neighborhood wants to be on the map as New York’s finest, then it has to look at this structure as crucial to its growth. It has to look past the butchery of Fourth Ave. by developers who put profit in front of quality, and pay attention to its most recently arrived development.
So far, it has. Everyone who walks by 580 Carroll can’t help but stare past the cedar fence up into the building’s concrete, glass and steel facade. Sitting back from the street, the building makes a peaceful, quiet and strong statement, a simple study of materials in their most natural elements.
“No Plans for Today” Show Opens at Fun Time Gallery
Interesting concept for an art show opening Saturday at the Fun Time Gallery on Third Avenue curated by Vicki Sher. What happens when an artist goes into the studio with out a plan?
No Plans For Today
Fun Times Gallery
257 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
Opening Reception
Saturday, May 1st, 6-8PM
Ky Anderson
Tyler Dobson
Franklin Evans
Joseph Hart
Shaun Krupa
Elisa Lendvay
Lauren Luloff
Brion Nuda Rosch
Vicki Sher
Daniel Wiener
OTBKB Music: May Music Calendar and The Last Milton for A While
It’s only hours away from May, so my May Music Calendar is up at Now I’ve Heard Everything for those of you who like to plan in advance.
But if you think that planing tonight’s entertainment now is advance enough, make it your business to get down to 92Y Tribeca to see the last full band show of Milton (both the name of the band and its leader) tonight. Milton has roots in Park Slope with several band members living here at some point in their lives, including Milton himself. Full details and a Milton video await you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
May 1 & 2: Sping Food and Craft Market at The Lyceum
OTBKB is a proud sponsor of this weekend’s Spring Food & Craft Market at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Over the last few weeks I’ve been picking vendors of the week and that’s been fun. This weekend you get to meet the vendors in person.
On May 1 and 2, the Market will feature all manner of “Handmade” to mean both Crafts and Edibles, as well as fun workshops for all ages. There will be crafters from Maine to D.C., to ensure a fresh array of products, some represented in NYC for the first time.
The Market hopes to highlight the full expansive array of fantastic, artisanal goods available all throughout the Northeast, and get them into the homes, shops, mouths and consciousness of the thousands of discerning NYC patrons who will enter the Lyceum this Spring weekend, and exit with a healthy armload of gorgeous products they can feel good about. Clothing, clocks, art, gifts, jams, chocolates, cheeses, craft beer.
Pictured: Handmade decoupage light plate. Measures 3 1/2 inches wide and 4 1/2 inches tall, fitting any standard light switch. Each plate is an one-of-a-kind creation made from vintage papers and magazine clippings. This unique item will be on sale along with other items from Trixie and Radar. It costs $15 and Includes two screws to mount.
Pretty Poster for PS 39 Spring Carnival on May 8th
May 7-9: Bklyn Designs
Once again, BKLYN DESIGNS, an exhibition of designers of contemporary furnishings and home accessories made and/or designed in Brooklyn, will give thousands of visitors the opportunity to see Brooklyn’s cutting-edge design scene.
At BKLYN DESIGNS you can get a first look at new work from over 45 of the borough’s best designers including 10 never-before-seen exhibitors launching at the show. The three-day show, which takes place May 7-9 at St Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, will have something for everyone including an exciting roster of engaging activities, fun events, lively entertainment, and area dining specials. The full rundown of events and activities can be found at www.bklyndesigns.com/events.
Perks include free coffee from Crop to Cup every morning and on Friday, May 7 there’s an on-site happy hour with free Peak Organic beer sponsored by Inhabitat.com. On Friday and Saturday afternoons DJs Nick Chacona and The Schwartz from Halcyon the Shop will set the vibe and provide the perfect soundtrack to experience the show.
Kids are the focus at BKLYN DESIGNS this year. On Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 9, families are encouraged to check out the interactive BKLYN DESIGNS Kids Lounge featuring fun, functional, and fabulous children’s furniture by BKLYN DESIGNers. Don’t worry about your young ones getting bored at the show – the kids will surely keep themselves occupied as they enjoy the hands-on exhibit along with face painters, balloons and fun, kid-focused activities, including book readings from renowned children’s book author and Brooklyn Heights resident, Melanie Hope Greenberg.
Also on Mother’s Day, BKLYN DESIGNS will partner with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation for the Annual Spring Fling set to take place from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at Pier 1 in the newly-opened Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn Heights. Families can walk from the show to enjoy concerts, children’s book readings and drawing demos from children’s book authors and illustrators, arts and crafts activities, and parent-child yoga. After working up an appetite, you can relax at restaurants in and around DUMBO with specially-priced BKLYN DESIGNS(TM) Mother’s Day brunch menus.
FHA Approved Buildings
Apartments in Federal Housing Association (FHA) approved building can be had with as little as a 3.5% down payment. 500 Fouth Avenue is one of these buildings.
In an article in the NY Post today reports on a program that insures mortgages. In certain buildings that the FHA deems stable, banks are allowed to lend as much as 96.5 percent of the purchase price — 3.5 percent down payment, anyone? After the building and the buyers qualify, borrowers can buy much more than they could have otherwise.
Today: Bicycle Bells Giveabway on Brooklyn Bridge
On Thursday, April 29th, from 4:30-6:30pm, the NYCDOT Bicycle Program will be handing out bicycle bells and other safety materials to cyclists and pedestrians on the Brooklyn Bridge. The event will encourage cyclists and pedestrians to share the bridge. DOT staff will be on hand to give out bicycle bells to cyclists who lack them, and other DOT cycling materials including the 2010 bicycle map. Using a bell and calling out when passing makes for a safer ride for everyone. Bike bells are required under New York law.
The nearby Manhattan Bridge also has a bicycle path and provides a less congested alternative for cyclists.
Free bike maps, cycling safety tips and more information about DOT’s bike program is available at www.nyc.gov/bikes.
Register Today for the 5th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest
You can register today for the Fifth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest on June 8th, 2010 at 7PM.
“Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?” ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times
How many bloggers does it take to fill the Brooklyn Lyceum? Come find out on June 8 at 7:00 PM when the borough’s most opinionated and dedicated bloggers (and surprise special guests) step away from their keyboards to sound off about how and why Brooklyn remains such a rich source of material and inspiration.
But forget about filling the room. Here’s the real question the Brooklyn Blogfest will answer: How many bloggers does it take to wrap their arms around New York’s most happening borough? So, whether you are a blogger, wannablogger, reader, or media maven, you’ll want to come see for yourself. And meet up with this year’s most tenaciously keen tribe of bloggers as they gather to celebrate all the reasons Brooklyn is such a potent source of runaway creativity.
Since it was founded in 2005, the Brooklyn Blogfest has established itself as the nexus of creativity, talent, and insight among the blogosphere’s brightest lights. This year will be no different as a panel of blogging’s best disect the unique brand of entrepreneurial creativity flourishing here. Also on tap: a video tribute to Brooklyn’s most visionary photo bloggers, special networking sessions for like-minded bloggers (i.e. Blogs of a Feather), the return of the ever-popular Shout-out, when bloggers are invited to share their blogs with the world, and a roof-raising after-party with ABSOLUT® VODKA cocktails, food and music.
“The borough of Brooklyn has always been front and center in the world of blogging,” says Louise Crawford, founder of the Brooklyn Blogfest and onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com. “Whether you live by a blog, blog to live, or live to blog, you’ll want to come out on June 8.”
Fifth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest
The Brooklyn Lyceum 227 Fourth Avenue at President Street in Park Slope.
THE EVENT IS FREE
The 2010 BROOKLYN BLOGFEST is sponsored by ABSOLUT® VODKA
Tonight: Presentation on Prospect Park West Traffic-Calming Plan
Here is an email from Eric McClure, who runs Park Slope Neighbors about the traffic-calming plan on Prospect Park West. There will be a presentation at tonight’s Community Board 6 meeting. See details below.
In March of 2009, Park Slope Neighbors launched a campaign aimed at calming traffic on Prospect Park West, 8th Avenue and Union Street. Some 1,300 people signed our petition supporting the campaign, and not long after we kicked off the effort, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) announced plans to implement a significant traffic-calming plan along Prospect Park West.
While it’s not everything we asked for, it’s a giant step in the right direction that will make Prospect Park West safer for all users. Here’s the project summary from NYC DOT’s web site, and you can download a PDF version of the project plan by clicking here:
[Prospect Park West] currently is the site of chronic speeding which sometimes leads to injury-inducing crashes. The street is in a high bicycle use area, but does not have a bicycle facility, which can cause conflicts between cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles. This project will improve conditions for all users by installing a parking protected two-way bicycle path, removing one through travel lane and installing flush pedestrian refuge islands. This will enhance safety by creating shorter pedestrian crossings and reducing vehicle speeds. It will improve connectivity, mobility and safety by providing connections to existing bicycle lanes in Park Slope.
The need for traffic calming along Prospect Park West is clear. A team of PSN volunteers armed with a radar gun staked out Prospect Park West during the weekend of March 20th and 21st, and we found that nearly a third of all vehicles were traveling at 40 mph or faster, with the average speed of all vehicles exceeding 36 mph. The speed limit, of course, is 30 mph, but the extra-wide streetscape on PPW enables and encourages faster driving.
NYC DOT will be providing an update on the project (along with plans for some terrific improvements to the pedestrian, cyclist and driving environment within Grand Army Plaza) to a joint meeting of the Community Board 6 and Community Board 8 transportation committees tomorrow evening. Here are the details:
Thursday, April 29 at 6:30 PM
Brooklyn Public Library – Central Branch
Grand Army Plaza
2nd Floor Meeting Room
6:30 PMWe urge you to attend the meeting for two reasons: first, it will be a great opportunity to learn more about the details of the Prospect Park West and grand Army Plaza projects, and to ask questions. But just as important, those of us who want a safer, traffic-calmed neighborhood need to demonstrate support for the Prospect Park West project, since a small but determined group of opponents are doing their utmost to try to derail it.
Continue reading Tonight: Presentation on Prospect Park West Traffic-Calming Plan
78th Precinct Launches Newsletter
The NYPD’s 78th Precinct, which serves and protects Park Slope and Prospect Park, earlier this month launched an email newsletter. It provides helpful crime prevention tips, information on community events, important precinct contact information, and more.
You can subscribe to the 78th Precinct’s email newsletter, which is run by local business Mad Mimi, by clicking here, or you can send an email to 78precinctcrimeprevention@gmail.com for more info.
How To Contact Your Local Council Members
You should know how to get in touch with your local pols. Park Slope’s City Council Members Brad Lander and Stephen Levin, who took office in January, are easy to find:
Brad Lander (representing the 39th Council District)
456 5th Avenue, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Phone: (718) 499-1090
Fax: (718) 499-1997
email: lander@council.nyc.gov
Stephen Levin (representing the 33rd Council District)
114 Court Street, 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Phone: (718) 875-5200
Fax: (718) 643-6620
email: slevin@council.nyc.gov
If you’re not sure in which Council District you reside, you can find your Council Member by entering your address here.
Bklyn Bloggage: home & design
They said it couldn’t be done: Reclaimed Home
Leaving the city? Got what it takes? Reclaimed Home
No place too small to grow a garden: My Coney
Best sleeper sofa and beds: Apartment Therapy
A listing of home tours in the area: New York Times
What’s With That Brownstone on Garfield?
Brownstoner seems to know a bit about the derelict brownstone on Garfield Place in Park Slope. Slope City Council Members Lander and Levin are getting involved and trying to do something about it. Wonder if they can do anything about the eyesore on Third Street just west of Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. You know which house I mean.
Back in 2007, a reader posted a “What’s the Deal?” question about the boarded up brownstone in Park Slope. Today, the Brooklyn Paper tackles the topic. Neighbors have been complaining about the eyesore and potential safety hazard at 174 Garfield Place for many years, but now Council Members Lander and Levin are getting into the act, calling on the Bank of New York to force the owner, a real estate investor named Peter Saltina, to fix up or get out. “It is within the bank’s power to urge [Saltina] to fix it up, or put it in the hands of a responsible owner,” Lander told The Brooklyn Paper. “
Bklyn Bloggage: food & drink
Of course it’s good it’s my mother’s: A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn
Films on Fifth movies in restaurants schedule: All About Fifth
Mehmet’s Fruit Cart: Ditmas Park Blog
Karloff coming to former Tea Lounge space on Court Street: Pardon Me for Asking
Trois Pommes Patisserie in Park Slope: Brownstoner
Not eating out in Park Slope: FIPS
Specialities de Mason: Casa Cara
Current Weather in Park Slope
Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their weather tower in Park Slope.
Greetings from Scott Turner: Let’s Start Not Forgetting
Scott Turner is flying in from Seattle (where he recently moved) for Friday night’s closing party for Freddy’s Bar and Backroom. It’s like seeing someone at a funeral: great to see you, sorry it had to be for this. It is surely the end of an era for Freddy’s at its location on Dean Street in the Atlantic Yards footprint. The legendary bar will be moving to Fourth Avenue in Park Slope this summer.
Hi, all…
I’m a long way away — in a land where the daytime high in the mid-50s was swell in February and a drag in mid April. A land where bike riders think they’re Lance Armstrong, where it doesn’t rain as much as New York. A land where I can see and hear freight trains, cargo ships and landing planes out my front window. A land where here, too, a dumb-ass government has spent years shoving a rich-person’s development project down everyone’s throats.
…a land not too far to grieve over the passing of Freddy’s Bar & Backroom.
That would be this Friday, April 30, at the corner of Dean Street and Sixth Avenue — the future site of not a school, not a health clinic, not an AIDS or cancer research center, not a job-training facility, not an emerging small business, not an artists’ colony, not a community center, not one stitch of affordable housing, not open space or green space or free space or peoples’ space. The future site of some ancillary structure connected to a Russian oligarch’s basketball team’s arena.
Friday is the last hurrah for everyone who’s ever loved Freddy’s — the bands, the quizzes, the karaoke, the knit nights, the opera nights, the cringe-nights, the bartenders and staff , the Rev 99 video mixes on the corner t.v. set, the refusal to let people watch Nets games these last seven years, the characters who lived (and a few who stopped living) in the sturdy, eccentric latticework of raw emotions and creative fireworks exploding in Freddy’s every night.
Even when Freddy’s was dead, it was alive. And when it was alive, you could sometimes feel the dead brush up against you. Not to haunt or frighten. Just to join in the fray. The dead know something about fray-joining.
Because the Atlantic Yards project continues to be mired in controversy, failed promises, suspect financing and the utter lack of democracy and decency, these last nights at Freddy’s will feel, weirdly, like a victory. We know the battle was worth fighting. We know that fighting City Hall is A) the right thing, B) the fun thing and C) the necessary thing. Miscreants like Bruce Ratner and Michael Bloomberg, and their sycophantic successors, will never try this again. In spite of New York City’s notoriously short memories (“who’s this Robert Moses, again?”) and post-Bush-era self-absorbancies, folks will remember this battle.
Why? Because for generations, Atlantic Yards will be remembered as the Great White Elephant That Forgot — forgot to stop killing everything in its path.
Let’s start not-forgetting by meeting up at Freddy’s this Friday, for Goodbye. All the Freddy’s musicians will perform. RebelMart will be flying in from Seattle for a few songs. It’ll be something to see, all those singers just nights before moving day.
We’ll be cradling these moments, ready to fashion new ones, and terrifying governments who always ignore the dangerous weapons that memories can be. In the words of Captain Malcolm Reynolds, “no, they won’t see this coming.”
OTBKB Music: New Song from The Damnwells
The Damnwells had one of my favorite albums of 2009, One Last Century, which was released free on the Internet. They are currently recording their follow up, which won’t be free, and has been financed by their fans (I’ve already ponied up). This track, No One Listens to the Band Anymore, will probably be on the new one. Just go to Now I’ve Heard Everything to see it.
–Eliot Wagner
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
New Blog on the Block: Moms in Babeland
Get out the welcome wagon and head on over to a new Babeland blog featuring the moms of Babeland! There are quite a few of them and they’ve spent a lot of time learning and thinking about sex, love, parenting, sex toys and so much more. If you’re a mom, or know a mom or want to some day be a mom, you should read this blog.
Here are some recent posts:
Are non-moms sexually happier?
Sex Questions: What do kids really need to know?
Parlour Games: Dancing in Brownstones with Tze Chun Dance Co.
Calling all dance buffs, real estate obsessed, historic brownstone types and fans of site specific artworks.
I just heard from someone at the Tze Chun Dance Company’s about their site-specific series called Parlour Games. They’ve been performing all across Brooklyn, and will continue to present the free event in historic Brooklyn spaces again this weekend and in June.
They passed along a short video trailer of the piece, filmed in one of our 12 historic Brooklyn locations- 105 St. Marks Ave (currently listed for $2.5M with Corcoran).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMp7g_zlzV4
The Local (the NY Times’ Ft. Greene blog also made a video article about the series:
http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes.com/tag/tze-chun-dance-company/
There will be a show this Saturday in Lefferts Gardens and Sunday in Stuyvesnt-Heights. We are also still looking for locations for our June 20th finale show. More information, videos, and photos can be found at www.TzeChunDance.com.
They’re hoping that OTBKB readers and other Brooklyn enthusiasts come out to these FREE shows.
Cool Murals by Shephard Fairey at Music Hall of Williamsburg
Last weekend artist and illustrator Shepard Fairey (designer of that iconic Barack Obama poster) took over the upstairs bar area at the Music Hall and created a one of a kind permanent installation of two murals on adjoining walls.
As he worked he listened to a playlist that included Metallica, Fugazi, and Band of Horses. Fairey created a collage that he says addresses the US’s dysfunctional democracy and the need for campaign finance reform.
Apparently, Fairey is creating murals all over New York City to support his upcoming exhibition at Deitch Projects, and as part of the OBEY phenomenon aimed to enhance the urban landscape.
Photo credit: Gregg Greenwood
Twenty Indie Films in Ten Days on Fifth Avenue
Films on Fifth joins local independent filmmakers with the Park Slope Community so they can share their powers of storytelling, facts and fiction on Fifth Avenue.
Here are some of the films that will screen:
Arusi Persian Wedding *** Half Nelson *** King Corn *** Lock, Load, Love *** Mardi Gras Made In China *** Misconceptions *** New World Order *** Darkon*** P Star Rising *** Reel Works ( Compilations of short films by student filmmakers) *** Sparrow *** Sugar (in Spanish) *** Sunday Dinner***When Broomsticks Were King***
Movies will show at the following restaurants: Apertivo, Aunt Susie’s, Balucchi, Belleville, Black Horse Taver, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Coco Roco, Gingers, Kappa Sake House, Melt, The Old Stone House, Pirimide South, South Paw and more. Short films will show at Le Chandelier, Lisa Lobue, Park Slope Eyeworks.
Screenings are free with a $10 minimum purchase.
More information at these sites: allaboutfifth.blogspot.com and parkslopefifthavenuebid.com
Some Scheduled Movies: Sunday May 2: Melt 440 Bergen St. Arusi Persian Wedding and at Belleville 332 5th Ave Alice Neel. Mon. May 3: Black Horse Tavern Lock-Load-Love and at Baluchi’s 310-5 Ave Darkon. Ginger’s Bar 363 5th Ave: Misconceptions; Old Stone House at Washington Park 3rd St & 5th Ave: P-Star Rising.