The Weekend List: August 21-22

I scour the city’s cultural listings to find interesting movies, music, theater and art for the readers of OTBKB to do and see. This weekend’s treats include Battle Week a variety of interesting events including a 10-mile race on Sunday, commemorating the first battle of the Revolutionary War, Emotional Sloppy Loose Limbed Cinema at BAM , a film series curated by Benny and Josh Safdie at BAM and Non-native NY, a group show of art by artists from outside the US and more so keep reading…

Continue reading The Weekend List: August 21-22

Get Your Revolutionary War On With Brooklyn Battle Week

I’m rarely in Brooklyn during Battle Week, the annual commemoration of the Battle of Brooklyn. So I’m excited that I might get a chance to see the Revolutionary War reenactors do their stuff.

The Old Stone House, site of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, is the epicenter of all the Battle Week activities which begin on Saturday, August 21, 11 am – 3:30 pm
 with a Battle of Brooklyn Van Tour with NYC Urban
Park Rangers. Reservations necessary as the seating is limited.

Meet at the Old Stone House, 336 Third Street @ the center of
Washington Park/JJ Byrne Playground
Reservations Necessary: 718-768-3195/info@theoldstonehouse.org For more Battle Week activities (and there are plenty) keep reading…

Continue reading Get Your Revolutionary War On With Brooklyn Battle Week

Juliette Lewis to Play Music Hall of Williamsburg

Abe Gurko, who writes the blog I Mean..What??!?! wrote to say that Juliette Lewis will be performing in Brooklyn. “It is not often that I go to Brooklyn. Yes, I know how cool it is…and perhaps how cool I am not. Did I say that?”

Juliette Lewis has been on a worldwide tour for her new album Terra Incognita and she is making a a brief stop in Brooklyn at the  Music Hall of Williamsburg. For more details and a link to an interview with the effervescent Lewis (and Gurko)…

Continue reading Juliette Lewis to Play Music Hall of Williamsburg

OTBKB Music: Video of James Maddock’s Never Ending

Wednesday night’s James Maddock show at The Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 belongs in the “you should have been there” category.  It was it recorded for a live album (due around mid October), it was a sell out, it had the air of a party, and the band just nailed everything.  If you weren’t there, a video taken during the show of James and the band singing Never Ending is waiting for you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

OTBKB Music: James Maddock Records a Live Album Tonight

Tonight, James Maddock will be recording a live album at The Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2, and I think that this will be the first live album recorded in that new room.  James has been playing a bunch of new songs lately and his band, as always, has been tight.  So this is your chance to not only see a great show but to be part of history as well.  Details for this show are here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

OTBKB Music: Second Dan Plays Tonight, Photos of The Baseball Project and A Video from Eli Paperboy Reed

I originally discovered Second Dan through a bit of serendipity.   I was at a party a few months ago and after a while, the guy I was talking to told me that he not only was a photographer and a blogger, but he played in a band as well.  As you have no doubt figured out by now, that band was Second Dan.  They play tonight at Rockwood Stage 2 and you can find the details about the show here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

The Baseball Project played a spirited nearly two hour long show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken Thursday night.  You’ll find a dozen photos from that show here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

If you didn’t make it over to Le Poisson Rouge last Wednesday to see Eli Paperboy Reed you can see Eli and the band in action in this music video of their song Name Calling.

–Eliot Wagner

OTBKB Music: Photos of Eli Paperboy Reed and A Freebie from The Baseball Project

Wednesday’s Eli Paperboy Reed and The True Loves show at Le Poisson Rouge was another top notch soul dance party.  Unlike the show I saw at The Bell House earlier this year, this time I had my camera with me and was able to take a bunch photos to share with you.  You can see them here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

Back in March, The Baseball Project promised to issue a monthly topical song about the 2010 baseball season.  August’s contribution, (Do The) Triple Crown,  is now out.  You can listen to and download your very own absolutely 100% legal copy of that song here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Breakfast at La Bagel

Now I’ve Heard Everything and I were set to have breakfast at 9 this morning at Grand Canyon but when we got there the gates were closed.

Closed? What no breakfast at the only local diner we’ve got?

So NIHE and I schlepped up to Purity and guess what: it was closed, too. A sign on the door said that there was no air conditioning but there was also a notice from the Health Department, which gave it an unsatisfactory grade. They are temporarily closed to put their house in order, no doubt.

According to McBrooklyn, “The Purity Diner on 7th Ave. in Park Slope was inspected July 27, when it received 22 violation points. It hasn’t received an official grade, but if it performs the same on its re-do, it will get a B.”

So where did we go?

Continue reading Breakfast at La Bagel

Changes in the Neighborhood

Park Stationer’s on Flatbush near Seventh Avenue has gone out of business. A handwritten sign said that the rise in operational costs caused the closure after 25 years in the neighborhood.

The one-story buildings that housed Zuzu’s Petals, a Korean Market and Olive Vine on Seventh Avenue between Berkeley and Union before a fire that forced Zuzu’s and Olive Vine to move have all been demolished to make way for…what?

A Toys-R-Us has gone into the large space on Flatbush Avenue near 8th Avenue that was Blockbuster Video.

A new deli is going in on Seventh Avenue between Union and President Streets. It was a Korean Market briefly and before that…I forget.

The Rite Aid on Seventh Avenue and Fifth Street seems to be undergoing some sort of renovation…

OTBKB Music: More Soul with Eli Paperboy Reed

Did that spectacular Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings show at Celebrate Brooklyn last Saturday leave you in the mood for a little more soul?  Then check out Eli Paperboy Reed and The True Loves tonight at Le Poisson Rouge.  Eli, originally from the Boston area and now living in Brooklyn, is an engaging live performer.  I’ve seen him have the entire audience up and dancing.  Full details about this show can be found here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

In addition, you’ll find Steve Wynn getting ready for Northern Agression, information about an interview of former WNEW-FM DJ Rosko by Richard Neer (also a former WNEW-FM DJ) and information on free tickets for some upcoming musical performances on CBS’s The Early Show here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Wed Night: Jennifer Egan To Read at the Community Bookstore

Ezra, the soon to be owner of the Community Bookstore wrote to OTBKB about a great reading on Wednesday night. He writes: “It’s been a bit quiet of late at the old bookstore (celebrating its 39th year!) what with owner Catherine Bohne’s determination to park herself in one of the few remaining places on earth (Albania’s Valbona Valley) reachable by neither Internet nor cell phone. We are, however, regathering steam, energized by Catherine’s faith in us to run the store in her absence, and by the wonderful loyalty of our customers to our book-lined and somewhat Bohemian lair, as distant from a big box chain store as Brooklyn is from Bajrum Curri (the Albanian village where Catherine goes once a week to shop). What better way to get things going again than with a reading this Wednesday, 7pm, by Brooklyn’s own Jennifer Egan?…

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Exhibit in Bed-Stuy: Eyewitness: Black Brooklyn

Jacqui Wood, a longtime Bed-Stuy resident and the arts manager at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation curated “Eyewitness: Black Brooklyn,” a photography exhibit at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration complex’s Skylight Gallery featuring dozens of rare images from the 1960s to the 1980s…

Five award winning black Brooklyn photographers, capture the  people, spiritual life, community events and protests in Brooklyn from the 1960s through the 1980’s.

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Public Hearing On Proposed Expansion of Park Slope Landmark District

Thanks to the hard work of Park Slope residents,  the Park Slope Civic Council, and local elected officials, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted earlier today to put a public hearing on the calendar (date to be determined) to seriously consider the expansion of the Park Slope Historic District. The proposed expansion would add the blocks between Seventh and Eight Avenues, from Seventh Street through 14th Street , as well as areas adjacent to Bartel Pritchard Square (the full proposed boundaries are available on the LPC website.

Park Slope’s City Councilmember Brad Lander chairs the City Council’s Land Use Subcommittee on Landmarks. Both he and City Councilmember Steve Levin (33rd district, which also includes Park Slope) were thrilled about the decision and will notify the community as soon as they know the date of the hearing…

Continue reading Public Hearing On Proposed Expansion of Park Slope Landmark District

Tell DOT How You Feel About Ghost Bikes And Their Possible Removal

The Department of Sanitation is threatening to designate ghost bikes as “derelict bikes” that may be subject to removal.

How do you feel about these heartfelt and makeshift memorials to those who’ve died in bike accidents? Has someone you care about been remembered with a ghost bike?  Do you find this approach to increasing awareness and respect on the streets effective and sensitive?  Do you think it is important to remember those we have lost on unsafe streets?  Do you think this project has affected your experience as a cyclist or pedestrian in New York?

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Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Where Have All The Shrinkers Gone?

Where Have All The Shrinkers Gone?

Where have all the shrinkers gone,
This hot August?
Where have all the shrinkers gone,
When needed most?

Where have all the couch jocks gone–
Truro, Wellfleet, every one.
When will they all return,
When will they all return?

Where have all their patients gone
This hot August?

Where have all their patients gone,
Now August’s here?

Where have all their patients gone–
Had relapses every one.
When will the shrinks return,
When will the shrinks return?