A lot of New Yorkers have their own recession story to tell, whether it’s from the past year, the past decade or the accumulation of a lifetime.During this year’s Memoir-a-thon, you will get to listen to the personal reflections and insights on how some writers have managed to survive, preserve their sanity and even have fun during hard times.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents the 4th annual Memoirathon on February 11 at 8 PM at the Old Stone House. Third Street & Fifth Avenue. $5 suggested donation includes wine and snacks.
Curator Branka Ruzak had this to say about this year’s theme:

“You’ll be amazed to discover just how resilient and resourceful people can be, while still managing to find humor, cause for reflection and even gratitude, in some of life’s most challenging situations. Whether you found the past year “the year you’d like to forget” or “the year of positive thinking”, you will be inspired and entertained by tonight’s lineup of writers who talk about infinitely new ways of being.”

Here is a list of this year’s memoirists:
MARCO ACEVEDO
NELL BOESCHENSTEIN
JANET RAIFFA
NAVA RENEK
BETSY ROBINSON
DEBORAH SIEGEL

Guest Curator and Host:

BRANKA RUZAK A writer, producer and editor in commercial and corporate advertising, her own personal tales of recession began in the spring of 2001, when she was downsized and forced to go free-lance. This past year, she was most often found working at recession gigs that provided her with limited income, but an unlimited source of inspiration and writing material. She is working on a collection of essays about family, identity, culture and travel. Her essay “Hungry Heart” appears in the anthology Dirt: The Quirks, Habits, and Passions of Keeping House, edited by Mindy Lewis (Seal Press, 2009.)

Continue reading Thursday: Recession Stories at the Memoirathon →

Heart of Brooklyn wrote in with these Special Valentine’s events that will be taking place at the leading cultural institutions located near Grand Army Plaza in central Brooklyn through Sunday, February 14:

“Take the whole family to Prospect Park’s Wollman Rink for their Valentine’s Day Special. A treat for all ages, love is in the air and Wollman Rink, Brooklyn’s only outdoor skating rink, is cutting its admission prices in half! Sunday, February 14, 10am-1pm; skate rental charge not included.

“Hop on The HOB Connection old-fashioned trolley for a free guided tour between Heart of Brooklyn’s cultural partners and through Prospect Park. Learn some history about the area and enjoy free candy on board! Free between 10am-3pm February 14; visit Heart of Brooklyn’s website for routes and times.

“Animal enthusiasts can warm up at Prospect Park Zoo this Valentines Day with an “Animal Dating and Mating” program. Make valentines treats for Brooklyn’s furriest couples, discuss reproductive strategies on a zoo tour, and learn why size really does matter! Games, a live animal demo and tasty treats included. 2-3:30pm, February 14; advance registration required at ppzeducation@wcs.org or (718) 399-7339 x326. $10 non-members, $8 members; ages 18 and over. For loving families, be sure to visit a troop of Geoffroy’s tamarins, a favorite of Brooklyn families who can certainly relate monkey behaviors to their own.

Continue reading Hearts Day with Heart of Brooklyn →

If you attend a film series or frequent the revival circuit, there’s a good chance you’re usually seeing films that are in the canon.  There’s a communal feeling watching a work by Kurosawa or Hitchcock; whether you like it or not, whether you’re getting it or not, there’s still some sense that you’re part of the cognoscenti, aware that you are seeing a work by a great artist or that has an understood value.

A new series is challenging that notion, as the online film magazine Hammer To Nail has organized the Misunderstood Gems series at 92YTribeca, focusing on works that defy the notions “good” and “bad” with films such as The Real Cancun and I Know Who Killed Me. The series was put together with the idea that audiences will walk out having experienced something, but they may not be altogether sure what it was.  The selections also buck conventional festival-thought by focusing on films that are underappreciated contemporary works.  I spoke with series curator Michael Tully to understand that which is misunderstood.

What makes a misunderstood gem?

To be completely honest, I wanted to label this program something different, but the title I wanted to use for this type of film could be considered offensive to some people. To me a misunderstood gem is a film that succeeds on terms that it was not intending. Whether it be an unintentional comedy or a movie that has its sights set on a different side of the spectrum [while] it lands completely on the opposite side.

The selections are all contemporary films, released in the last decade.  In part, this seems to be due to the fact that after a period of time a movie eventually gains its own legacy and we’re more conditioned to know how to react to it.  Any other factors here?

Well, mainly it was for the decade.  We just finished this decade and all these lists are coming out and I thought it would be neat to celebrate films that first and foremost are very entertaining to watch with a crowd.  And secondly, these are not the types of films that will get mentions in decade wrap-ups that you’ll be reading. So, rather than doing the “Best Films of the Decade” I wanted to put a fun spin on it.

The next film in the series is The Real Cancun playing this Thursday. Give us a few words on how this made the cut and why we should see it.

You just really should see it! I, like many when The Real Cancun came out, planned to ignore it. But a recommendation of a trusted friend caused me to take the plunge at which point I was pretty floored by the experience. And, you know, I think now in light of the smash success of Jersey Shore, this is probably the most timely pick, if you will, in the series. I think what The Real Cancun did for the first time as opposed to the earlier incarnations of The Real World, was that the filmmakers were clearly heightening the absurdity, the lunacy, the idiocy of these people. The first few seasons of The Real World you were invested in the characters and you cared what would happen to them, The Real Cancun changed all that for better or worse. And for this experience I plan to bring a squeegee bottle of tequila–this is the part where you’re supposed to want to come see it now—and at any point if you are moved by what you see, almost like church, I will be there for you with a tequila squirt.

Was it just serendipity that one of the screenings—Lady In The Water—will take place on April Fool’s Day?

You have just blown my mind. I had no idea.  I realize these films are available on DVD and I realize it’s cold and dark at night, but these films play great with a room of open-minded viewers, so I’m trying to spice these screenings up.  To set the tone for that screening, I will be reading from choice excerpts, by way of introduction, from the M. Night Shamalyan book [The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career On A Fairy Tale, by Michael Bamberger] on the making of the film. The writer was a Sports Illustrated writer and he opens the book with, “I am nothing like a movie expert. Ingmar Bergman, man or woman? I don’t know,” and it just goes from there.

Hammer To Nail is an online magazine dedicated to independent and adventurous cinema. What’s next for you guys?

That’s a tough question.  We’re two years old and our plan was to build slowly and organically.  We currently don’t have advertising, but in this current climate if the films aren’t making money, online magazines (laughs) definitely aren’t making money.  But that said, our mission remains to be a positive voice and in such a cluttered world point you in the direction of movies that we love and think you should, too.

Misunderstood Gems are playing monthly at 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St.

The Real Cancun, Thu, Feb 11, 2010, 8:00pm

I Know Who Killed Me, Thu, Mar 4, 2010, 8:00pm

Lady In The Water, Thu, Apr 1, 2010, 8:00pm

I just stumbled upon this book, “On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York” and thought it might be of interest to OTBKB readers. I see that author, James T. Fisher, read at Sunny’s Bar in Red Hook last month. Here is the Amazon “product description.”

“Site of the world’s busiest and most lucrative harbor throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the Port of New York was also the historic preserve of Irish American gangsters, politicians, longshoremen’s union leaders, and powerful Roman Catholic pastors. This is the demimonde depicted to stunning effect in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954) and into which James T. Fisher takes readers in this remarkable and engaging historical account of the classic film’s backstory.

Continue reading The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York →

BARK SLOPE

Parking meters across New York
will have their heads hacked off
and be turned into bike racks.
–news item

Around the city parking meters
Are being converted to racks
For the use of savvy cycle riders
Who’ll soon be making tracks.

Too late, however, for Park Slope,
Where locals discovered niches
For their everpresent dogs
And already claim them for leashes.

A lot of New Yorkers have their own recession story to tell, whether it’s from the past year, the past decade or the accumulation of a lifetime.During this year’s Memoir-a-thon, you will get to listen to the personal reflections and insights on how some writers have managed to survive, preserve their sanity and even have fun during hard times.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents the 4th annual Memoirathon on February 11 at 8 PM at the Old Stone House. Third Street & Fifth Avenue. $5 suggested donation includes wine and snacks.

Curator Branka Ruzak had this to say about this year’s theme:

“You’ll be amazed to discover just how resilient and resourceful people can be, while still managing to find humor, cause for reflection and even gratitude, in some of life’s most challenging situations. Whether you found the past year “the year you’d like to forget” or “the year of positive thinking”, you will be inspired and entertained by tonight’s lineup of writers who talk about infinitely new ways of being.”

Here are this year’s memoirists:
MARCO ACEVEDO
NELL BOESCHENSTEIN
JANET RAIFFA
NAVA RENEK
BETSY ROBINSON
DEBORAH SIEGEL

Read more about these writers

Today at 3PM there’s a literary reading at Sunny’s Bar, a beautiful old waterfront bar in Red Hook.

Today’s reading (which will be over before the Super Bowl even begins) will include a new batch of poetry from a Sunny’s alum, a nonfiction exploration of why it’s so difficult to talk about pain, and a funny and poignant true dating tale.

The February “Sundays at Sunny’s” reading will feature:

–David Biro, M.D.
Nonfiction writer, author of The Language of Pain: Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief and One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient

–Priscilla Becker
Poet, author of Internal West

–Marian Fontana
Nonfiction writer, author of A Widows Walk: A Memoir of 9/11

The series, organized by novelist Gabriel Cohen and  BookCourt will continue on the first Sunday of every month  at 3:00 p.m at Sunny’s, a legendary old bar on the Brooklyn waterfront in Red Hook at 253 Conover Street (between Beard & Reed Streets).

You can buy books and get them signed by the authors. Suggested donation: $4. The bar (cash) will be open. Free coffee and Italian pastries and cookies will be provided. Bar telephone (only available when the bar is open): 718-625-8211.

Yay. Richard Grayson was at the opening of the new show at the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MoCADA) and filed this report. You can read more on his blog Dumbo Books of Brooklyn.

Although lots of real reporters and professional photographers and video cameras from NY1 and other places were there, and no doubt you can find more intelligent commentary and journalism of this event elsewhere, we were privileged to be on hand for at least a little while at this evening’s very crowded opening reception for “The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks,” a long-awaited exhibition of the work of twenty artists.

Curated by Dexter Wimberly, this is the art show people will be talking about for a long time, and all we can say now is that we are going to return to MoCADA – the wonderful Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts on Hanson Place in Fort Greene – again and probably again to really take it all in when, hopefully, there won’t be as many Brooklyn art lovers (and movers and shakers) around. We may have a long wait.

Already there’s been coverage at The Daily News, The Brooklyn Paper, The Brooklyn Rail, the visual arts forum Daily Serving, The L Magazine, The Kings Courier, and other mainstream media outlets that we can’t duplicate.

As the promotional material notes, “The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks”

will examine how urban planning, eminent domain, and real estate development are affecting Brooklyn’s communities and how residents throughout the borough are responding.

The exhibition will include the works of several Brooklyn-based artists, as well as those who have been forced to relocate as a result of gentrification. In addition to works of art featured at MoCADA, there will be a schedule of public programs taking place throughout Brooklyn.

In addition, there will be a vignette of work on display from two local high schools (The Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School and The Secondary School for Research) where students have been documenting the impact of gentrification on their neighborhoods over the past few years through photos and essays.

You don’t need us to tell you what the incredibly gifted MoCADA director Laurie Cumbo (always an amazing presence keeping the annual Fort Greene Summer Literary Festival together), can when you see her on NY1.

You can see better representations of the fine work of the artists involved – Josh Bricker, Oasa DuVerney, Irondale Ensemble, Zachary Fabri, Michael Premo / Rachel Falcone, Nathan Kensinger, Jess Levey, Christina Massey, MUSA, Tim Okamura, Kip Omalade, John Perry, Adele Pham, Gabriel Reese, Marie Roberts, Ali Santana, Monique Schubert, Alexandria Smith, Sarah Nelson Wright – elsewhere on the Web, or better yet, close up at MoCADA.

Read more at Dumbo Books of Brooklyn