People ask how I keep going day after day writing OTBKB but all it takes are the melifluous strains of the Famous Accordian Orchestra practicing in the front yard of Bob Goldberg’s apartment building on Third Street to send me running home to my computer.

Three members of the group were playing a nostalgic dirge-like melody that infused me with a sense of small village life in Eastern Europe.

Goldberg told me they were practicing a traditional Serbian tune called Kumen field (meaning carnation) that they will be playing on Monday as Part of Make Music New York.

The Famous Accordion Orchestra (plus multitudes of additional accordions) will present a massive accordion event, open to all squeezers and free to the general public!

Starting at 6:00, Soloists and groups of accordions will fill JJ Byrne Park to create “Accordion Forest 2”, in which listeners are invited to stroll around the park and here a mind-blowing collage of accordion styles.

At 6:30 or so, the players will collect at the park’s central square to perform “Square Dance at the Old Stone House”, a site-specific piece for as many accordions as are available,

Monday, June 21, 2010
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Old Stone House/JJ Byrne Park
3rd Street and 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

Accordionists are invited to participate in “Accordion Forest 2/Square Dance” a musical environment directed by Bob Goldberg. Accordion Forest 2 is a collage in which each player (or small group) performs from his/her/their personal repertoire. Square Dance creates an intense sustained texture as it moves around the Park’s central square.  Non-accordionists are invited to participate, provided their instrument can be heard along with accordions without amplification.

How To Join
For information, email famousaccordions@earthlink.net, identify yourself and describe what you do as an accordionist. Bob Goldberg (director of the Famous Accordion Orchestra) will contact you with instructions.

“Play Me, I’m Yours” is an artwork by British artist Luke Jerram who has been touring the project globally since 2008.

At 9am on Monday the 21st June, 60 pianos will be distributed and then unveiled across New York City by Sing for Hope. Located in public parks, streets and plazas the pianos will be available until 5th July for any member of the public to play and engage with.

While documenting each piano’s journey, the Play Me I’m Yours website will connect the pianos with their individual communities across the city. Following the artwork, the pianos will be donated to local schools and community groups. To volunteer as a piano buddy with Sing for Hope, please sign up by clicking here.

Play Me, I’m Yours is being presented simultaneously in London and New York. Here are the locations in Brooklyn:

1.    Brooklyn Bridge Park
2.    Columbus Park
3.    Coney Island Boardwalk
4.    Fort Greene: Myrtle Entrance
5.    Fort Greene: Visitors’ Center
6.    McCarren Park
7.    Prospect Park: Carousel
8.    Prospect Park: Grand Army Plaza
9.    Von King Park
10.    Willoughby Plaza

Louise has noted below on The Weekend List that tomorrow is the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade.  While not really a music event, this year Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson are the King and Queen of the parade.  And Brooklyn-based Phosphorescent has a song on their new album, Here’s to Taking It Easy, called Mermaid Parade.  So this is the day for you to download that song (legally, of course) over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Artist Jake Messing: Art in Brooklyn

The truth and fearlessness: Truth and Rocket Science

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan: The Written Nerd

So much infinity, so little time: Brooklynometry

Brooklyn Pride: Brit in Brooklyn

Play me, I’m Yours: Brooklyn Paper

Laying around all day: Water Over Rocks

Andy Warhol: The Last Decade: Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

Art Fair

Friday through Sunday in various locations: Bococacartsfestival.com, an annual fair in the Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens neighborhoods. Show times and locations vary.

Street Fair

Sunday, June 19: Seventh Heaven Street Fair on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope.

Mermaid Parade:

The Mermaid Parade in Coney Island happens every year on the first Saturday of the summer. On Saturday, June 18th come dressed up as a mermaid or merman or watch others “float by” in their parade-best mermaid or sea creature costumes.

Film:

Saturday at 9PM at BAM: Am I Black Enough for You? Described as the definitive profile of Philly soul legend Billy Paul, most famous for his Grammy-winning number one single “Me and Mrs. Jones,” released when he was almost 40. Yet his more “militant” records made him “a criminally unmentioned proprietor of socially conscious, postrevolution, 60s Civil Rights music” (Questlove of The Roots).

Opens Friday at BAM: Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work exposes the private dramas of irreverent, legendary comedian and pop icon Joan Rivers as she fights tooth and nail to remain the queen of comedy. Filmed as a cinema verite documentary, the film reveals a rare glimpse of the comedic process and the toxic mixture of self-doubt and anger that often fuels it.

Pixar’s Toy Story 3 IS playing at the Park Slope Pavilion. It’s in Disney Digital 3D
‎1hr 49min‎‎ – Rated G‎‎ – Animation/Comedy/Action/Adventure‎: 1:30  2:15  2:45  4:10  5:00  6:50  7:35  8:00  9:30  10:05pm

Music:

On Saturday, June 19th at Celebrate Brooklyn (Doors open at 6:30 PM) CB presents a dazzling, multi-generational lineup to explore the legacy of Miles Davis’ landmark album, Bitches Brew, on the 40th anniversary of its release. While the soul of the master is manifest in the project, the music stretches out into otherworldly territory, becoming “whatever it was Davis intended in 1969: spacious, black-magic stealth funk.” (NY Times) The night begins with the virtuosic Mike Stern, one of the premier jazz-fusion guitarists of his generation and a veteran of Davis’ band.

On Friday, June 18th at 10PM at Barbes: Kill Henry Sugar. Poised astride the epic time-line of life in the boroughs, Erik Della Penna and Dean Sharenow sketch moody musical portraits with what the Village Voice calls, “Cinematic gravitas.” Their ethic is subtle lines by modest means, employing a signature palette of drums, dobro, and voice to construct petulant yankee poetry—more Serpico than Grapes Of Wrath, more Olmstead than Moses.

On Saturday, June 19th at 10PM at Barbes: Slavic Soul Party will perform as part of the Carefusion Jazz Festival.

Art:

At the Brooklyn Museum, Andy Warhol: The Last Decade is the first U.S. museum survey to examine the late work of Andy Warhol (1928–1987). During this time Warhol produced more works, in a considerable number of series and on a vastly larger scale, than at any other point in his forty-year career. It was a decade of great artistic development for him, during which a dramatic transformation of his style took place alongside the introduction of new techniques.

Pray for good weather for this iconic event. A parade of people dressed as mermaid and mermen in Coney Island It is as wonderful and zany as it sounds and always worth a visit to Coney Island.

Coney Island USA, the organizers of the parade, have a very helpful Q&A on their website. Here’s an excerpt:

What day is the Parade?
Saturday, June 19, 2010, rain or shine.

Who is this years King and Queen?
Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson!

What time does the Parade start?
The Mermaid Parade starts at 2 PM!

What time does the Parade end?
Hard to say, but it usually all wraps up at around 5:30 PM or so. The winners in each category are announced as soon as the last entrant passes the reviewing stand. Immediately after, Parade founder Dick D. Zigun leads the King and Queen procession up 10st to the beach for the opening of the Ocean for the summer swimming season.

Where does the Parade take place?
The Parade will start on West 21st and the Surf Avenue. It will roll East to West 10th Street, where the cars and motorized floats will park. The marchers and push pull floats will go to the Boardwalk and march West to Stillwell Ave. where the Parade will Disband.

Where’s the best place to watch the Parade?
That’s entirely up to you.  Many people like to watch the Parade on the boardwalk, but the boardwalk only features marchers and push-pull floats.  Surf Avenue allows viewing of antique cars and motorized floats as well.

Where is the Reviewing Stand?
It is on Surf Avenue just east of West 12th Street, across West 12th Street from the Sideshow building.

Is it ok to bring kids to the Parade?
The Mermaid Parade is an art parade and is for everyone, just keep in mind that some folks will be dressed as Mermaids and Mermen who, let’s face it, aren’t historically known for wearing much clothing. That being said, we’ve always had a ton of kids in the Parade, (even a little girl’s Birthday party or two!) but it’sentirely up to you as a parent or guardian to decide what you feel is appropriate for your kids.

Who puts on the Parade?
We do! Coney Island USA the resident not for profit arts center in Coney Island. We are headquartered at 1208 Surf Ave between West 12th street and Stillwell Ave. You can help support the parade by supporting all of our programs throughout the year, buying merchandise at our giftshop, having a beer, soda or bottled water at the Freak Bar! And another great way to show your appreciation is to become a member of Coney Island USA! Memberships start at only $25 and include free admission to the sideshow and museum!

I didn’t know anything about the 15th annual Poets Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge on Monday night.

Wasn’t anyone gonna tell me (or send me some PR?).

Actor Bill Murray was there as was  Brooklyn Poet laureate Tina Chang and poet Galway Kinnell, who read Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” at the Fulton Ferry Landing.

Poets House organized the walk and readings, which sounded great. This might be a good time to mention Broken Land, the  first poetry anthology dedicated exclusively to verse about Brooklyn edited by Julia Spicher Kasdorf and Michael Tyrell and published by NYU Press. The editors have collected 135 poems that convey the borough’s long history as well as the diverse mosaic of lives lived here.

Many of the poems recited during the Poets Walk, “A Coney Island From the Mind,” Allen Ginsberg’s “Supermarket in California” and Denise Levertov’s “The Rights.” and Walt Whitman’s Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” are featured in the anthology.

I’ve replaced the pocket camera that fell out of my pocket a few months back and have begun posting  pix of some of the shows I’ve attended recently at Now I’ve Heard Everything. You can see Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby, Charlie Faye with Will Sexton, Carolyn Wonderland, Davell Crawford and Allen Toussaint, and Rosanne Cash and the rest of the star-studded cast at the Benefit for Nashville Musicians.

As for tonight, Emily Zuzik is a Broolyn-based singer-songwriter who is a familiar part of the New York music scene frequently playing around town.  But the rest of 2010 is going to be busy for Emily with her day job (she’s a model) and another non-music project (it’s her wedding) keeping her busy.  So take advantage of Emily’s appearance at The Rockwood Music Hall tonight.  It’s a full band show and Emily will perform her own well-crafted songs and probably an inspired cover or two.  If you need more convincing, just check out the video of Emily posted here.  Details are over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Loom is a band I like very much. I’ve heard them at Vox Pop and Sycamore and this Friday they’ll be at Littlefield (see below) I’ll let the recent editorial raves about this band do the talking:

“To say that The Loom’s performance was a revelation would be to understate the significance of this unit. They combine musical talent, strong writing, and an abundant amount of band camaraderie into an intense amalgam.” – nyctaper

“Beloved Brooklyn sextet The Loom…have lately been guiding their chamber-folk sound to decidedly louder sonic territory.” – The New Yorker

Hear them at Littlefield with Damien Jurado this Friday at 8 PM.

Here are some summer reading suggestions from authors who have recently appeared at Brooklyn Reading Works, a monthly reading series at the Old Stone House. Readings resume in September 2010.

Fiction:

A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein: What happens when a successful doctor in New Jersey with a devoted wife and a young son finds out that his best friend’s daughter has a shocking and unspeakable past. Grodstein read a chapter from this novel at Fiction in a Blender 2010.

The Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick: A high-quality page turner set in 1907 Wisconsin about a mail order bride. Goolrick read his incredible memoir, The End of the World As We Know it at the Memoirathon in 2009.

Third Girl from the Left by Martha Southgate: A  novel about three generations of an African American family and the power of the movies. Southgate read the first chapter of this novel at Edgy Mother’s Day 2010.

The Big Machine by Victor LaValle: His work has been called a mix of Gabriel Maria Marquez and Edgar Allen Poe. A funny book about a middle aged hustler who is inducted into a league of paranormal investigators. LaValle read the first chapter at BRW’s Young, Gifted and Black (Men) in September 2009.

Signifying Nothing by Clifford Thompson: Set in Washington, D.C., in 1979 this novel focuses on  Lester Hobbs, nineteen years old, mentally retarded and mute until the day he suddenly begins to rap at the top of his lungs about life with his parents and older siblings. Thompson read at the Young, Gifted and Black (Men) reading in September 2009.

God Says No by James Hanaham: a young black man strugglles with his appetites–for friendship and love, for religious experience, for corndogs, for illicit gay sex in Waffle House bathrooms, for acceptance. He tries everything to change himself…Hanaham read at the Young, Gifted and Black (Men) reading in September 2009.

The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel: A tale of food and friendship (the subtitle) told through letters and recipes. Israel and Garfinkel read at December’s Feast reading.

Tin House Summer Reading Issue edited by Rob Spillman: Short fiction by Lydia Millet, Steven Milhauser, Per Patterson and more. Rob Spillman curated January’s BRW, which featured three Tin House authors.

No Perfect Words by Nava Renek: In this East Village break-up book, the narrator addresses in second-person her longtime lover, a cultural critic of some renown who has recently left her and their seven-year-old daughter, Jenna. Renek read at the 2010 Memoirathon. 

From Rockaway by Jill Eisenstadt: “If Rockaway, at the Atlantic edge of New York City, were a state of mind, it would be energized despair. Or so it seems for the teenagers in this finely tuned first novel who have spent their lives in “Rotaway” and are unlikely to get out. They drink a lot, do a little dope, talk about sex more than have it and feel no more in charge of their lives at 18 than they did in Catholic grammar school.” — Publisher’s Weekly. The book is available from used booksellers at Amazon. Eisenstadt curated the Young Writers event at BRW in 2009 and read at Edgy Mother’s Day 2010.

Always Hiding by Sophia Romero: A coming of age novel set in Manila’s materialistic upper class under the Marcos regime, the main character deals with immigration to the US and her conflicted feelings about life here.Romero curated Edgy Mother’s Day and read at Feast 2009 and Edgy Moms.

Non-Fiction

Money Changes Everything edited by Elissa Schappell and Jenny Offill: An anthology of essay and memoir pieces on the subject of money. Schappell appeared at the Truth and Money reading and discussion on tax day 2010.

The Art of Making Money by Jason Kersten: The author traces the riveting, rollicking, roller coaster journey of a young man from Chicago who escaped poverty, for a while at least, after being apprenticed into counterfeiting by an Old World Master. Kersten appeared at the Truth and Money reading and discussion on tax day 2010.

The End of the World As We Know It by Robert Goolrick: A dark, captivating memoir about a southern family. Beautifully written with humor and depth. Goolrick read at the 2009 Memoirathon.

Dirt: The Quirks, Habits and Passions of Keeping House edited by Mindy Lewis: this book of essays and memoir pieces features an essay by Branka Ruzak, who curates the Memoirathon.

Poetry

Black Irish by Michele Madigan Somerville (Plain View Press)

The Virgin Formica by Sharon Mesmer (Hanging Loose Press)

Modern Life by Matthea Harvey (Greywolf Press)

Knock Knock by Heather Hartley (Carnegie Mellon University Press)

In Memory of the Fast Break by Michael Sweeney (Plain View Press)

You’ve  no doubt heard about the recent floods in Nashville.  Tonight there is a benefit to aid musicians hurt by those floods with an all star cast including Roseanne Cash, Greg Trooper, Jonatha Brooke, Laura Cantrell, Mary Lamont and many more.  The event takes place at Hill Country in Chelsea with a minimum (tax deductible) contribution of $25.  A complete list of performers, set times and further information is available at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner