Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.
Yearly Archives: 2010
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
There’s a Tornado Watch in Effect in all Five Boroughs
My sister, who endured the worst of September 16th’s tornado in Prospect Park (!), just called to say that the National Weather Service has announced that a tornado watch is in effect for parts of the metropolitan area including all five boroughs of New York City.
The watch is also in effect for Nassau County, the entire state of New Jersey and, in New York State, as far north as Oneonta. It also covers the eastern quarter of Pennsylvania and parts of Connecticut, including Fairfield County.
The watch was issued at 11 a.m. and is in effect until 6 PM.
Says the City Room blog at the NY Times: “It is too soon to fear for reprise of the Sept. 16 tornado that wreaked havoc in parts of the city. A tornado watch means the conditions are conducive for a tornado, while a warning — which has not been issued — means that a tornado is already on the ground or that there is strong evidence that one will be.”
So it’s a watch and not a warning. Keep your ear to the Internet, the radio and TV for more.
Michael Ruby: Experimental Poet in Park Slope
He may look like just another interesting, artsy Park Sloper but the truth of the matter is: he’s an experimental poet with a bevy of books in publication and a pile of reviews that are pretty damn impressive.
His name is Michael Ruby and when he’s not being a poet (and a Park Slope dad) he’s an editor at a notable NYC newspaper.
But each summer he writes a book of poetry and every few years he’s got a book or two out. He tells me that summer is when he does his best work. I asked him to explain and he just shrugged said, “That’s when it gets done.”
Autumn brings two new books from Ruby, Compulsive Words and The Edge of the Underworld, both from BlazeVOX, an online journal and press in Buffalo that publishes experimental fiction and poetry
Continue reading Michael Ruby: Experimental Poet in Park Slope
Oct 11: Collector’s Night at the City Reliquary
I used to collect globes, now I just store them on high shelves and stare at an apartment full of them. So this event for and about collectors of interesting things caught my eye.
On Monday, Oct. 11th, which happens to be Columbus Day, the City Reliquary, a not-for-profit community museum and civic organization located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will present “Collectors’ Night” a celebration of eccentric collections, accompanied by the collectors themselves.
Through permanent display of New York City artifacts, the City Reliquary presents rotating exhibits of community collections, and annual cultural events like this one.
Up to two-dozen collectors from all over the city will display their personal collections; everything from an archive of newsstand paperweights to art museum dust to odd coin purses to souvenirs bearing the collector’s name.
But get this: you too can have your collection on display! Bring in your collection (anything goes) in a jar and display it at the bar! There will also be a Collector’s Cocktail available one night only!
Click on read more to read more about the evening’s highlights:
Continue reading Oct 11: Collector’s Night at the City Reliquary
Book About John Lennon’s Last Day by Windsor Terrace Author
I received, December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died (Backbeat Books), a soon-to-be-released book by my friend Keith Elliot Greenberg, in the mail yesterday and I can’t stop reading it.
Greenberg, who lives in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, is a producer for American’s Most Wanted and has also produced for VH1, 48 Hours, MSNBC Investigates, the History Channel and Court TV. In his downtime, he has authored more than 30 non-ficti0n books.
How in hell does he write so many books??? I always see him on Park Slope’s Seventh Avenue having long, interesting conversations with friends.
But I know he works hard and his writing is fast, fun and compulsively readable in this minute-by-minute chronicle of that terrible day juxtaposed with well-told biographical sketches of Lennon, Ono, the other Beatles, Mark Chapman and all the other players in this tragedy, a must-read for the Lennon-obsessed—and those who remember or are curious about those grief filled days and weeks after Lennon’s death.
Continue reading Book About John Lennon’s Last Day by Windsor Terrace Author
Take A Walk Around Greenpoint, Visit Artist Studios
On Friday, Oct 1, beginning at 7PM and running through the weekend: Greenpoint Open Studios celebrates a thriving creative community with over150 participating artists opening their studios to share their creative practice and engage in communal dialogue, collaboration and fun…
Continue reading Take A Walk Around Greenpoint, Visit Artist Studios
Drink Beer, Eat Bread & Support the Old Stone House
Ya like beer and ya like bread? You can taste beers and breads and support the Old Stone House in Park Slope in the process. Good deal. And it’s only $45 bucks per person. Good good deal.
On Thursday, October 14 from 6:30 Until 8:30PM: explore breads and beers of the 18th Century at the Old Stone House of Brooklyn, created using traditional 18th century recipes. Taste a variety of delectable early American staples recreated by historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman and brewmasters Erik Olsen and Chris Prout.
This evening tasting event will include five courses of bread representing recipes from the olonial era including crisp, nutty waffles, savory rusks , citrusy cookies and spicy sweet breads. Each will be matched with a beer brewed by Olsen and Prout seasoned with flavors such as spruce, ginger, mustard and molasses.
Sarah Lohman, artist, food historian and chef, is the author of the blog, Four Pounds Flour. Erik Olsen and Chris Prout are avid home brewers and the managers of Brouwerij Lane, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn , which features more than 200 bottled beers and 19 taps.
Tickets, $45. Space is limited to 80, so reserve now at Brown Paper Tickets
Take the Religious Knowledge Quiz
Take this short, 15-question quiz about religion and see how you do compared to the more than 3,000 people who took the poll.
It’s fun!
This national poll was conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life from May 19 through June 6, 2010, on landlines and cell phones (in English and Spanish).
Bklyn Bloggage: neighborhoods
Joint public safety /human services meeting: NY Shitty
Bike lanes should not drop out of the sky: Sheepshead Bites
Raw sewage in Gowanus canal after storm: Pardon Me for Asking
Coasting on a custom bike: Bushwick BK
Prison yard potluck: Effed in Park Slope
Brooklyn’s mellow street party: McBrooklyn
Guide to finding an apartment: Bed-Stuy Blog
Celebrating Sukkot in Clinton Hill: The Local
CUNY & IBM To Open New Public High School, Early College
At a press conference on Monday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the City University of New York (CUNY) and IBM will open a new public high school, which combines high school with two years of college; students would earn an associate’s degree,
Sounds a bit like Bard High School Early College but maybe with a more technological bent. Graduating from this school will, according to Bloomberg, put students “first in line for a job at IBM,” Bloomberg said.
At the press conference Bloomberg also renewed his proposal to end automatic teacher tenure. Instead he wants tenure to be linked to classroom performance.
Remembering Suzanne Fiol of Issue Project Room
It is really hard to believe that come October 5 it will be one year since the passing of Suzanne Fiol, the founder and creative visionary behind Issue Project Room, the experimental music and performance space in Park Slope/Gowanus.
It’s a testament to Suzanne’s enduring vision, that Issue Project Room continues to thrive. In the year since Suzanne’s death, IPR has increased its financial, curatorial, production and promotion support for hundreds of artists performing in the space. They have also developed new programs such as Propensity of Sound, dedicated to the contribution of women in the experimental arts.
Continue reading Remembering Suzanne Fiol of Issue Project Room
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Oct 3: The VLP Liz Padilla Memorial 5K Race in Prospect Park
On Thursday, June 9th, 2005 Liz Padillla was riding her bicycle to work when she was killed on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.
A graduate of Cornell Law School, Liz joined the Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP) as a Pro Bono Coordinator/Staff Attorney in December 2004, where she provided direct representation and counsel to clients with family law issues.
During her life she enjoyed tutoring high school students, training as a tri-athlete, enrolling in a trapeze school, running the NYC marathon with disabled athletes as a member of the Achilles Track Club – and much more.
In the summer of 2005, Liz was planning a 5k race to benefit the VLP. This annual event, now in its fifth year, honors the memory of this remarkable young attorney and supports the VLP’s programs for low-income Brooklyn residents.
The VLP Liz Padilla Memorial 5K race will take place Sunday, October 3 at 10am in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. You can register online here: http://www.active.com/running/brooklyn-ny/liz-padilla-memorial-5k-2010. Or, check out our Facebook page for more information about this and other VLP events: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=51780222164&ref=ts.
New Superfund Site Designation Comes to Brooklyn!
Woo Hoo.
When the EPA adds the Newtown Creek to its list of Superfund sites, Brooklyn will have not one but two, count ’em two, Superfund sites. Because of its new status, the Creek will face a 10-year toxic clean-up that could cost more than a half-billion dollars.
It was just last March that the EPA declared the Gowanus Canal worthy of Superfund status. The Newtown Creek is an 3.8-mile waterway between Brooklyn and Queens.
Michele Madigan Somerville: Allen Ginsberg Buddhist Rabbi
Michele Madigan Somerville, the author of Black Irish and WISEGAL (2001), has written about religion for the New York Times (online) and the Huffington Post. She lives in Brooklyn. Here she turns her gaze to Allen Ginzberg, who is in the news these days because of Howl, a feature film about the poem and the censorship trial it caused.
One afternoon in fall of 1977, I sat in my college professor’s office talking about Yeats or Wallace Stevens when a fellow student poked her head into the open door to apologize. She wouldn’t be able to make it to Allen Ginsberg’s November 1st reading at the Neuberger Museum later that week. She was Greek Orthodox, and bound to observe All Saints Day with her family. I didn’t know the fellow lit major, but I’ll never forget the professor’s sotto-voce wisecrack as her footsteps faded down the corridor: “But Allen Ginsberg is a saint.”
A saint? No. An angel? Maybe. I know I “got religion” that night as I heard Allen Ginsberg read “Kaddish” in the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, N.Y. more than 30 years ago. The call came: a tap on the shoulder that doubled as a lightning bolt; an epiphany was had, and a conversion — not forced but seduced — transpired. I left the museum that night, on the Feast of All Saints, with a mission to “throw down” with life as a poet.
Amid the fresh fervor for Ginsberg and the Beats that is being fueled by the impending theatrical release of the motion picture Howl, I notice that my first thought — which Ginsberg might therefore insist is my best thought — is a of poet not so much hip as rabbinic. Schoolmarmish, even. Allen Ginsberg was my professor for two years in the late 1980s. He was a conscientious teacher. He came to class early, was always well prepared, made copious remarks on students’ work, and always wore a necktie. I had been a teacher for four years when I first began to study with Ginsberg, and it was clear to me, early on, that he had uncommon respect for educators. (Poet Louis Ginsberg, Allen’s father, had worked as a teacher for many years.) Read more at the Huffington Post.
Our Landlady Is Blaming Us for Tornado Damage
Brooke Dramer, an OTBKB reader and sometime contributor, needs advice about a vexing situation.
We rent a garden apartment on 6th Avenue between 5th and 6th Street—literally around the corner from the tree-crushed grey car that both HuffPo and OTBKB chose as the signature photo of tornado damage in Park Slope. Right after the storm, we telephoned our landlady (who lives in Bensonhurst) and briefly described the damage to her property.
Here’s the problem: my landlady is willing to believe that the devastation to the backyard—ie, everything’s been crushed by a tree that fell across four backyards–was the result of the tornado. But she has accused us of breaking the wrought iron fence in front of her house.
“You’re destroying my building!” she yelled at me over the phone a few nights ago.
I explained that the fence had been broken by a huge branch that fell on it—so huge that a neighbor had to help me lift it off the fence. I assured her that I’d put the broken-off pieces of the fence in a safe place in the basement, and that I’d wired the remaining pieces together so that they wouldn’t fall over on the sidewalk.“What branch!” she yelled at me.
“A branch from the tree in front of the building,” I explained.
“What tree?!” she yelled at me. She then ranted on about how I had broken her fence and the front of the building was a mess and I was destroying her building.Do any of your OTBKB readers have advice? Should we go to landlord tenant court if the landlady raises our rent as “punishment”—something she’s done many times before? We have photos of the tree with the torn-off branches, photos of us cleaning up in front of the house, plus photos of other damage on the block (including a bashed-in fence). We even have a video of Dave and me in the backyard with an electric saw, continuing to clear away branches. So far, we’ve put in more than 30 person-hours of work in an attempt to save as many plants as we can until the tree-trimmer comes next week. Would we be able to present any of this video in court?
Photo credit: Andy Arrow (Nashville drummer-turned-NY-video artist).
Tom Martinez, Witness: Brooklyn for Peace Block Party
Scenes from the Brooklyn for Peace block party, which was held on Saturday, September 25th on a Park Slope block.
Greetings from Scott Turner
Remember Scott Turner? Since he moved away from Brooklyn he doesn’t write much, he never calls. But he is coming back to the old neighborhood for a visit and a show. “I’m gonna be in Brooklyn for a few days early in October. The timing’s good for a show and the release of the new RebelMart album. I’m playing two sets at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook on Friday, October 8th. Show starts at 9pm. Lots of new songs, lots of old songs, and the always popular what-was-I-thinking? cover. Could be Tom Waits, could be Perry Como, could be the Spunk Lads.”
Click on Read more to hear more from Scott:
Sept 29: Easy Bake Orchestra at Lyceum
Catch Joshua Shneider’s Easy-Bake Orchestra, a 17 piece ensemble comprised of some of NYC’s most illustrious and adventurous improvisors, as they interpret the music and arrangements of Joshua Shneider at the Brooklyn Lyceum on September 29th at 8PM.
I’ve heard them and I loved it: Melodic, grooving, searching and harmonically inventive, the music draws inspiration from a wide variety of musical influences and includes Jazz, R&B, World and American Pop elements.
The Brooklyn Lyceum is located on Fourth Avenue and President Street in Park Slope.
Tom Martinez, Witness: Rally in Support of Sheepshead Bay Mosque
Rev. Matthew Westfox (Associate Minister at All Souls Bethlehem Church), playing the guitar and leading a sing-along of Woodie Guthrie’s, “This Land is Your Land” at the proposed building site of a Mosque at Sheepshead Bay. Rev. Westfox stepped into the controversial fray on the side of religious freedom.
The Watch List of Worst Landlords
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio today added 109 new buildings to his NYC’s Worst Landlords Watch List. These buildings were identified through submissions to de Blasio’s website. The Watch List now has 269 buildings representing 196 landlords and housing approximately 5,600 tenants.
Among the new landlords added to the Watch List is David Bistricer of Clipper Equity LLC, owner of the Flatbush Gardens complex in Brooklyn. 44 of the complex’s 59 buildings qualify for the Watch List, making him the landlord with the highest cumulative number of violations and buildings on the list. Combined, the buildings in the complex have 6,475 open violations with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), 827 of which are designated as “immediately hazardous” violations including lack of hot water, broken door locks, and peeling lead paint. There are approximately 10,000 tenants living in Flatbush Gardens.
The Watch List is available online at: advocate.nyc.gov/landlord-watchlist.
Bklyn Bloggage: civics & urban life
Flatbush Avenune gridlock: Atlantic Yards Report
Sports culture capper: Noticing NY
The essential Carl Paladino: NY Times
Paterson on SNL: City Room Blog
A race-colored map of New York: McBrooklyn
Newtown Creek to become Superfund site today: Brooklyn Paper
More Vito problems: Brooklyn Paper
OTBKB Music: Norah Jones Music Video
To start the week, I have another live recording plus still photo from the YouTuber known as Unreleased Original. This time Norah Jones provides the soulful lead vocals for The Little Willies on this version of Dolly Parton‘s classic, Jolene. This recording was made during a Little Willies performance at The Living Room in 2008. Just click here to see the video at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
Next Up at Brooklyn Reading Works: Brooklyn Playwrights, Writing by Vets
The next event at Brooklyn Reading Works, a monthly literary series at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, is on October 21 at 8PM: New Plays by Brooklyn Playwrights. This event, curated by playwright Rosemary Moore, will present unstaged readings of two plays by actors.
I’m also really excited about a reading I’m curating, which falls on Veteran’s Day, November 11 at 8PM, featuring writing by veterans of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Writing War, Voices of Vets, includes authors Juri Jurjevics, Kevin McPartland, Roy Scranton, Matt Gallagher, Philip Klay and Jacob Siegal.
Click on read more to see the schedule for the rest of the series:
Continue reading Next Up at Brooklyn Reading Works: Brooklyn Playwrights, Writing by Vets
A Baby is Born
My cousin became a grandfather yesterday. What’s more: I was privy to the exact moment of birth via emails, that went out to the extended family.
First came this:
“She is giving birth. Right NOW…”
Then this:
“Push!”
Then this:
“She’s fully dilated. The baby is +2 (in the birth canal) and ready to push. Her doc is in the parking lot and hustling upstairs. IT’S ONNNN.”
Then I received a picture of the baby wrapped in the hospital receiving blanket and a message with her name and some physical details. Named after two beloved great grandmothers, she has strawberry blond hair and blue eyes.
“Can’t wait to introduce her to all of you,” was the final message from my cousin.
The Weekend List: Sept 25-26
Street Fair:
Sunday, Sept. 26: the 36th annual Atlantic Antic on the stretch between Hicks Street and Fourth Avenue, featuring more than 600 food, art and shopping vendors, 14 performance stages and even kid-friendly activities like pony-rides and a magician showcase.
Movies:
Wall Street Money: Never Sleeps, The Town at BAM
Film Festivals:
There are two count ’em two film festivals this weekend. For schedules and information:
Coney Island Film Festival and the Bushwick Film Festival grace the screens of Brooklyn this weekend.
Theater/Performance:
This weekend Laurie Anderson opens the Next Wave Festival at BAM with Delusion, “a phantasmagoric world made up of short plays, her latest work is activated by brooding, deeply affecting music redolent with Tibetan temple horns and Arabic strings, performed by Anderson on electronically enhanced violin with supporting virtuoso musicians. A simultaneously contemplative and whimsical epic about longing, identity, and memory, Delusion invokes both humor and terror, conjuring up elves, mysteries, ghost ships, and dead relatives to spin poetic stories and imagery into gold.”
Art:
The DUMBO Arts Festival will take over the waterfront community of DUMBO – its galleries, storefronts, performance venues, studios, and parks. More exciting names are expected to be announced over coming weeks.
Saturday, September 25, at the Morgan Fine Arts Building in Greenpoint, 40 Brooklyn artists open their studios to the public. From 5 to 10 P.M., 40 separate studios on five floors of the building will be open to the public, displaying fine art in every medium – painting, sculpture, silk screening, New Yorker cartooning, abstract photography.
BWAC’s Fall Group Art Show, Lineage, is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6pm, September 25 to October 31. 300 artists will be exhibiting 1200 works in all media, including those of Featured Artist, Anujan Ezhikode.
Muriel Guepin Gallery 47 Bergen Street Brooklyn, NY 11201
Group Show “Return us to Ourselves” Featuring the Artwork of Everett Aison, Matthew Conradt, and Jeanne Verdoux. On view from September 25, 2010 until November 7, 2010. Opening Reception Saturday September 25, 2010 from 6:30 – 9 pm.
Through Dec 12, Brooklyn Utopias Farm City at the Old Stone House curated by Katherine Gressel and Derek Denckla, featuring artwork by: Andrew Casner, Hernani Dias, Kate Glicksberg, Katherine Gressel, Hugh Hayden, Kim Holleman, Christina Kelly, Jess Levey, Mary Mattingly, Eve Mosher, Scott Nyerges, ORPH, Mathilde Roussel-Giraudy , Dan Sagarin, Eric Sanderson, Tattfoo Tan, Work.AC
Music:
Saturday Sept 25 at 8PM Barbes presents Laura Cantrell, the WFMU DJ and country singer. She has been called “the most vital new country voice in decades” by The Independent. She has just released her first album in three years, “Trains and Boats and Planes”, a digital download with songs about travel and the heartache of separation and loss. Laura’s fans include the late BBC DJ John Peel, who described her album “Not the Tremblin’ Kind” as “my favorite record of the last ten years and possibly my life,” and Elvis Costello who claimed that “If Kitty Wells made Rubber Soul, it would sound like Laura Cantrell”.
At the Rock Shop, Park Slope’s newest rock venue: Saturday, Sept 24: Hurricane Bells.
Sunday, Sept 26 at 9PM Barbes presents Stephane Wrembel presents The Django Experiment: French virtuoso Guitarist Stephane Wrembel seems to have channeled both the technique and the fire of Django Reinhardt. He studied for years with the manouche (the French Gypsies) but has also gotten deep into American vernacular musical styles. His weekly sets will mix up the traditional Django repertoire along gypsy swing re-interpretations of standards.
Cooking Demonstrations:
On Sunday, Sept. 26th from 2-2:30 PM at the Park Slope Farmers Market on 5th Avenue between 3rd and 5th Streets in Brooklyn.Farmers Market, Fumiko Akiyama, owner of Park Slope’s Kappa Sake House, will demonstrate how to make two different kinds of miso soup using local produce and seafood at The event marks the first in a series of weekly cooking demos given by local chefs at the Farmers Market. Each demonstration will be held from 2 to 3:30pm and will feature local, farm-fresh ingredients.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
School Food Rocks? Maybe Some Day Soon in Brooklyn
City Councilmember Brad Lander (Democrat, 39th District) seems to be taking on the issue of healthy food in the public schools. In the following email sent my way, he talks about salad bars in the schools, school gardens, getting rid of Styrofoam and more. And that’ s not all. He and other local school leaders are even planning a local food conference.
As I talk to the parents of public school students, one issue I’ve heard about often is school food – making it more nutritious and sustainable, and getting kids to eat healthy meals (not always at easy thing, I know, as the parent of a 7 year old and a 10 year old).
Many schools in our community have already taken some great steps forward – among other things, they’re putting in salad bars, planting school gardens, working with SchoolFood staff on menus, getting rid of Styrofoam, reducing waste, and planning harvest days. As I educate myself further, I’ve learned that there are many ways for schools to improve the food they serve and that there are many actions we can take, as a city, to do better in feeding our children when they’re not at home.
Toward that end, my office and parent leaders from local schools have been working together with the New York City Department of Education’s Office of SchoolFood, the Brooklyn Food Coalition, GrowNYC, the District 15 Community Education Council and other organizations on the “School Food Rocks” conference, to be held Saturday, October 23rd.
“School Food Rocks” will bring together parents, educators, students, SchoolFood staff, and food activists to discuss how we can work together to achieve healthier and more sustainable school food throughout District 15. The conference will help schools get started or take next steps in improving their food programs, and strengthen the network of parents and school leaders working on food issues.
The conference will take place on Saturday, October 23rd, from 10am-3pm, at MS 51 (350 5th Avenue). You can register through our website. The day-long event will include an expo fair of sustainable school food programs; workshops on a range of topics; and keynote speeches from Chef Jorge (the first executive chef of the New York City schools) and celebrated author and “Renegade Lunch Lady” Chef Ann Cooper.
Topics covered at the conference will include:
* starting a school garden
* working with SchoolFood on implementing salad bars and healthy menus
* improving your schools’ recycling programWhether your school already has an active sustainable food program, or is just getting started, this conference will be a chance for you to share best practices and collect new information.
Sat: Historic Baseball in Park Slope
You’ve heard of Revolutionary and Civil War re-enactors. There are also baseball re-enactors, who play the game the way it used to be played. Two teams will compete in historic baseball in Washington Park Third Street near Fourth Avenue (also known as the turf field behind the Old Stone House is Park Slope) where, the Brooklyn Dodgers, long long ago, used to play (or practice or…
Watch the Flemington Neshanooks and the New York Gothams face off in Washington Park playing by 1864 rules! Games at 11 am and 1 pm. Vintage snacks prepared by historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman will be available at the Old Stone House!