My husband made me this Breaking Bad birthday card spelling out my age in bacon. I won’t spoil anything if I tell you that Skylar spelled out Walt’s age on a pancake on his 51st birthday a few episodes ago. That was significant because it confirmed that the timeline of the show has been exactly one year since it started four seasons ago.
Hugh will make you or your special someone a Breaking Bad birthday card. For a small fee, of course. Let us know if you want one.
Playing at BAM, Sleepwalk With Me, is an autobiographical film that was an audience favorite at Sundance and SXSW. It stars Mike Birbiglia, who plays a bartender at a Park Slope comedy club. He moves in with his girlfriend and struggles with relationship issues and career issues.
He also sleepwalks and acts out his dreams. At one point he throws himself out a second story window while asleep.
“Both earnest and surreal, this bitterwseet ciné-memoir won an audience award at Sundance and was a selection at SXSW. Features appearances by comics Kristen Schaal, David Wain, Marc Maron, Wyatt Cenac, Carol Kane and more…
There doesn’t seem to be too much subway mishigas this weekend. Translation: mishigas, a Yiddish term, roughly means Insanity or craziness.
I usually check for “service advisories” for the 2/3 lines on the weekends because I always go to the Upper West Side on Sundays to visit my mom to have a nosh and to kibbitz. Those lines seem to be running “normal” this weekend. Phew.
As usual, the F and G train will skip Smith-9th St. all times until fall 2012. Aren’t you getting sick of hearing that announcement?
Manhattan-bound A trains run via the F from Jay St-MetroTech to W 4 St.
Manhattan-bound B trains run local from Sheepshead Bay to Prospect Park.
Coney Island-bound D trains run express from Grand St, Manhattan to 36th St, Brooklyn.
Coney Island-bound Q trains run express from Prospect Park to Sheepshead Bay.
Coney Island-bound Q trains run via the R from Canal St to DeKalb Av.
Thanks to Park Slope Patch for this information
One time, though, after I’d been dreaming about an old crush, I actually did bump into him at the train station, and we ended up dating for a few months. …It was terrible.
With Facebook, you don’t wonder about people so much anymore. You know who has two kids, and who got transferred to London, and who’s forgone marriage and career for a life of mountaineering.
Liz Starin is an illustrator based in Brooklyn. She doesn’t believe in fate, but she does believe in probability. You can see more of her work at lizstarin.com.
To see the others in this series thus far:
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2012/08/28/what-are-the-chances-by-liz-starin-swimmers/
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2012/08/29/what-are-the-chances-by-liz-starin-street-corner/
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2012/08/30/what-are-the-chances-by-liz-starin-flowers/
The Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public library will finally reopen—after being closed since October, 2009—on September 13th, 2012.
Great news.
The building was closed while undergoing the following renovations:
–Installation of a new exterior, American Disability Act(ADA)-compliant ramp and entry door
–Replacement of the existing entrance door
–Installation of a new interior, ADA-compliant elevator
–Provision of new ADA-compliant bathrooms
–New floor finishes
–New interior finishes
–HVAC upgrades
–New lighting
–New public service model including self checks
–New furniture
Park Slope will have a library again. Can’t wait to see all the restoration that they’ve done. For those who don’t know, the library is located on Sixth Avenue between 9th and 8th Street.
It is, I might add, a lovely little library.
A report from Anne-Katrin Titze:
“Two additional human cases for Manhattan posted by the Department of Health. Cases of West Nile Encephalitis or Meningitis, or Acute Flaccid Paralysis (severe muscle weakness associated with West Nile virus infection).
“Did you know, the Department of Health is spraying Central Park for West Nile Virus? I predict, Prospect Park and the adjacent neighborhoods, coming soon to a spraying.
“Very little action taking place to eliminate stagnant mosquito breeding pools in Prospect Park. The double standard for our urban parks regarding following Department of Health rules and regulations (“Therefore we are encouraging City residents and business owners to take immediate action to eliminate standing water on their property.”) is alarming. West Nile Virus detected week after week in the neighborhoods adjacent to our parks, with no notification to park visitors, i.e. Prospect Park.”
“As you can see, my concerns are/were justified. If many more confirmed cases come this year, it would not surprise me.
BIO:
Anne-Katrin Titze lives in Brooklyn. She is a lecturer of fiction, film, fashion, and fairy tales. She curates film and theatre events, conversations with filmmakers, and panel discussions at Universities and various cultural venues on topics ranging from The Cinema of the 40s in Hollywood and Berlin, ”German Comedies, Are You Kidding? From Lubitsch to Wilder and Beyond”, “The Disquieting Traces of Ibsen in 20th and 21st century Theatre and Film”, to Fashion in the films of Jacques Demy, François Truffaut, and Hitchcock.
Her show on Public Radio International about Disney and the Brothers Grimm won the Gracie Award for ‘Outstanding Talk Show’.
Anne-Katrin is a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator, and when she doesn’t chase leopards, she rescues urban park wildlife in Prospect Park and speaks out for the protection of their habitat.
To mark their 50th anniversary, the Rolling Stones are going to play two shows at the new Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. The Stones. THE STONES! I haven’t seen the Stones in years.
I saw the Stones at Madison Square Garden in 1969 on Thanksgiving with my father and sister. Janis Joplin, Ike and Tina Turner and BB King were there. I was 11 years old but I totally got it.
Mick Jagger wore his Jumping Jack Flash suit (see left). It was the most amazing concert ever.
More recently I saw the Stone in 1986 or so with Hugh at Shea Stadium and they put on the most awesome show.
I just read that they’re being paid 25 million to play those two shows and two in London. Still, it is the Stones (and Keith Richards) and I want to see the Stones. In Brooklyn. Yeah.
The dates of these two shows have not been reported yet. Truly, the list grows of shows I might want to see at Barclay’s: Neil Young and Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and now, the Stones.
I had no idea Drinking Liberally chapters was such a big deal. I thought it was a Park Slope thing, a group that meets monthly at the Commonwealth Bar on Fifth Avenue (497 Fifth Avenue at 12th Street).
I’m not sure they’re even doing it there anymore. The last meeting is dated 2009. Hmmm.
Turns out, there are 200+ chapters across the United States run by Living Liberally. At these far flung gatherings, liberal types are watching conventions and debates, hosting candidates and advocates, and serving as “a vital hub of energy and information during the run-up to November.”
If you are interested in hanging out with a bunch of liberals, you can find a gathering near you. Check out your nearby group to watch Conventions and debates with friends, learn about local races and get involved this political season.
A brand new Terroir, a wine bar with locations in Tribeca, the East Village, Murray Hill and the Highline, is coming to Park Slope.
Owners Marco Canora and Paul Grieco are bringing their wine bar to what was Great Lakes, a former dive bar on Fifth Avenue and Second Street. It should be open in early September. They’ve been working on that space for months.
This is no dive bar.
Terroir, whose slogan is “the elitest wine bar for everyone”, serves food and fine wine. I couldn’t find a menu but expect pig roasts, cheese and charcuterie.
Last night at the Republican National Convention, GOP Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan compared his iPod playlist to Mitt Rommney’s.
“We’re a full generation apart. And, in some ways we’re a little different. There are the songs on his iPod that I’ve heard on the campaign bus and on many hotel elevators. He’s actually urged me to play some of those songs at campaign rallies. I said, I hope it’s not a deal breaker, Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC and ends with Zeppelin.”
I looked at my playlist this morning. Mine starts with Adele (and then Adrian Hibbs) and ends with The White Stripes and Yo La Tengo.
What’s the A and Z of your playlist? And what does or doesn’t it say about you?
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and Thomas Farley, commissioner of the Department of Health, announced the most popular names registered in NYC in 2011.
Girls? Isabella Sophia, Olivia, Emma, Mia, Emily, Madison, Leah, Chloe, Sofia. And boys? Jayden, Jacob, Ethan, Daniel, Michael, Matthew, Justin, David, Aiden, Alexander.
Brooklyn, which was a popular name for a few years, didn’t make the cut this year .
And now this woman, a fellow illustrator. We’ve collided in Park Slope, where she lives, and downtown, I think, and at Brighton Beach. I used to wish to run into old friends. We’d laugh at the coincidence and strike up a warm conversation, happy victims of chance.
Liz Starin is an illustrator based in Brooklyn. She doesn’t believe in fate, but she does believe in probability. You can see more of her work at lizstarin.com.
To see the other illustrations in this series thus far:
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2012/08/28/what-are-the-chances-by-liz-starin-swimmers/
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2012/08/29/what-are-the-chances-by-liz-starin-street-corner/
When the Barclay’s Center opens next month, Levy Restaurants, its food and liquor contractor, will be allowed to sell alcohol but only until 1AM in the morning. Forest City Ratner, developer of the arena, had hoped for a 2AM cutoff.
Well that ain’t gonna happen.
On Wednesday, the New York State Liquor Board voted to approve alcohol sales at Barclays Center until 1AM and no later.
The cutoff is good news for those who live in the surrounding neighborhoods who fear the noise and disruption late night drinking will bring to the area. Like everything connected with the Barclay Center, the fight over the liquor license was contentious.
More than 1000 locals residents signed a petition demanding that the cutoff time be 10PM.
Residents of north Park Slope are braced for the changes the opening of the arena will bring to that area. More than a few homeowners have put their homes on the market out of fear that the arena will change the quality of life over there.
It remains to be seen. The first show at the arena will be Jay-Z who is a part owner of the arena.
There’s a high school classmate, now a filmmaker, whom I see on the F train sometimes. I’ve come upon a former bandmate both at my grocery store and on a street corner in deepest Brooklyn, where he looked exceptionally lost.
Liz Starin is an illustrator based in Brooklyn. She doesn’t believe in fate, but she does believe in probability. You can see more of her work at lizstarin.com.
To see the others in this series thus far go to:
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com/2012/08/28/what-are-the-chances-by-liz-starin-swimmers/
1. Everyone is away. Or almost everyone.
2. There are parking spaces galore, especially on the weekends.
3. The driving is easy; not much in the way of traffic.
4. The streets are nearly empty; fewer strollers, kids, people (not to be misanthropic, it’s just different).
5. It’s easy to get into restaurants we’ve wanted to try like Bar Corvo and maybe Little Neck, which we’re trying tonight.
6. It’s fun to bop around in neighborhoods I’m not familiar with like Crown Heights.
7. The park is as beautiful as ever.
8. It’s less stressful because things don’t really get going until after Labor Day. No school means no homework which means no nagging, etc.
9. It’s okay to take a nap in the late afternoon when it’s hot.
10. The summer sales are fun, especially when the stuff is really cheap like the warehouse sale Bird had last week.
Last night, for my birthday, we went to Bar Corvo, Al Di La’s sister restaurant in Crown Heights. It is slightly more casual, slightly less expensive and no less wonderful than Al Di La.
The friends we went with were concerned that it would be crowded as it usually is. They’ve had to wait an hour to get in there, as you’d expect from a restaurant owned by Al Di La.
Well, because it was a Tuesday night during the last week in August, it was easy to get a table inside and out in their lovely back garden. And we parked our car right out front.
The food was fantastic. The service, by a waiter I recognized from the Fifth Avenue Al Di La, was fantastic. The experience was lovely. A really special birthday dinner. Funnily enough, it was the birthday of our waiter as well.
I ate the Confit of Duck Leg Confit with roasted peaches (yes, peaches) and it was sooooo delicious. We drank an excellent bottle (or two) of Rose. My husband had the Heritage Pork Chop with grilled greens and creamy polenta ($18). For an appetizer, we shared a Calamari Salad, which was also fabulous.
For dessert (with a candle) I ordered the Creme Freche Panna Cotta with rasberry. Yum.
Photograph from http://ruinista.com/2012/04/04/on-cheating/
Which borough had the most babies born in the last year? Brooklyn is the winner. There were 41,303 births in Brooklyn last year. Queens was second with 26,876. These stats were Tweeted by the NYC Mayor’s office.
pix from http://www.scoop.it/t/biracial
Seems that Louis CK is a real pop-up kind of guy. First he does a series of pop-up shows at The Bell House on Monday night. Then, as reported by the Community Bookstore, he pops up at the Community Bookstore.
Yesterday’s impromptu shows at The Bell House sold out in three hours. I saw loads of tweets about it and tickets required getting over to The Bell House mid-day. A whole lot of people managed to do that.
Today’s stopover at the Community Bookstore? Maybe he was just buying a book—or location scouting.
What’s all this I hear about the NYPD cracking down on stoop sales? Apparently, someone posted on the Brooklynian that police shut down a stoop sale on Sunday in front of a building on Flatbush Ave near Grand Army Plaza.
“I told them I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, and that we have a stoop sale every couple of years and have never had a problem. They asked where I lived and I gestured to my apartment building right behind me. I also said that I wasn’t blocking the sidewalk–since there was probably 10 feet open.
“Then the second cop asked, “Do you have a license?” I replied that I didn’t, but I also didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. I was calm, but after that I sensed that the cops were getting uncomfortable because people had gathered and were observing. So I said, “I’ll pack it up, no problem, officer.”
A license? I’ve never heard of a stoop sale license. I’m sure there’s something on the books about needing a license to sell items on the streets. But boy would it be crazy if they started shutting down stoop sales in Park Slope.
If this is yet another quality of life improvement that Bloomberg is pushing, I’m going to eat my stoop sale. I mean, come on. I know the cops have better things to do.
In this city of eight million people, I encounter a certain few with unusual frequency. Perhaps our habits fall into sync for a time.
Liz Starin is an illustrator based in Brooklyn. She doesn’t believe in fate, but she does believe in probability. You can see more of her work at lizstarin.com.
Tune into to OTBKB tomorrow for the next installment of What Are the Chances?
Bernette Rudolph, the elder goddess of the Park Slope art scene, just sent me a map that she made of the Park Slope artists participating in the Go Brooklyn Art Open Studio weekend September 8-9.
On September 8–9, 2012, from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm, nearly 2000 artists across Brooklyn will open their studio doors, so that you can decide who will be featured in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.
There are 80 participating artists in Park Slope. If you want a copy of this map, start your Go Tour at Bernette’s at #103 and you can get a map with a key of artist’s names.
For starters:
#3 is Simon Dinnerstein
#28 is Jonathan Blum’s storefront
# 35 is Hugh Crawford
# 103 is Bernette Rudolph
Standing behind artist Simon Dinnerstein in line at the Park Slope Copy Shop, we fell into a conversation about the fact that he’d been married twice.
“Oh?” I said.
“Twice to the same woman,” he told me.
“Ah,” I said with obvious interest. I added that I knew the date of one of his anniversaries because I’d once run into Simon and his wife Renee at Belleville Bistro. It was on August 28, 2005 when they were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and my twin sister and I were celebrating our 47th birthday.
“August 28th,” I said.
“Yes, that’s right,” he said.
He went on to tell an interesting story about what happened on August 26th in 1965. But first a little history…
The Vietnam War was in full swing in August of 1965 and 35,000 men were being called up each month. President Lyndon Johnson had decided to escalate US involvement. More soldiers needed to be found. The Department of Defense suggested that the President reverse an old policy which allowed married men a draft deferment. Thus, it was decided that the US would draft married men without children.
According to ABC News: “On Aug. 26, without any advance notice, President Johnson made it law. Anyone who was married before midnight that night would still be eligible for a deferment.”
August 26, 19655 happened to be two days before Simon and Renee’s planned wedding. The two spent the day painting their new apartment and returned to Renee’s parent’s apartment in Sheepshead Bay when they heard the news.
Once Simon and Renee heard the news that LBJ was going to change the draft policy, they decided to get married on the 26th so that Simon would still be ineligible for the draft. It was a no-brainer: either get married or risk being drafted to Vietnam, a hugely unpopular war. Panic ensued as they tried to find someone to marry them.
“I don’t care if it’s a Catholic Priest,” Simon told Renee. The comment apparently aggravated her Jewish parents, who were “not thrilled” with the “crazy artist” she was about to marry in two days. Finally, Simon called the rabbi who was going to marry them on the 28th and he agreed to marry them on the 26th.
Because they’d just come from painting their apartment “we were covered in splotches of paint! Simon did borrow a suit and squeeky shoes. I wore the veil from my bride doll. my mother got a migraine headache!” writes Renee in a comment to OTBKB. A few hours later they were standing in front of the rabbi (they already had their marriage license and blood test so they were good to go).
“It was a big thing. Lots of people got married that day as word spread,” Simon told me. According to ABC News, 30,000 people got married that day.
Two days later, they were married again by the very same rabbi at the fancy wedding planned by Renee’s parents. “By the way, the rabbi got paid. Twice,” Simon told me.
Darius, who runs the mailing department at Park Slope Copy (brilliantly, I might add) listened to Simon’s story.
“So according to the government you were officially married on August 26th,” he asked.
“Yes, that’s right,” Simon said.
“Otherwise you would have served in Vietnam,” Darius said.
“Yes, you’re right,” Simon said.
“August 28th, 1965 is my birthday. When you were starting your life, I was starting my life,” said Darius, who was born in Queens Hospital. He grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Simon was absolutely shocked by this information. As was I. Three people with connections to August 28th standing together at Park Slope Copy. What are the chances?
“We should all come back on the 28th and celebrate,” I said.
“I’m not going to be working on my birthday,” he said. “You know Martin Luther King’s I Had a Dream Speech was also on the 28th in 1963″ Darius said.
“Yes,” said Simon. “And I was there.”
“You were there?”
“I was in Washington listening to his speech,” Simon said.
Dinnerstein’s The Fullbright Tryptich (pictured above) will be on display at the German Consulate in Manhattan through 2014. Roberta Smith wrote in the New York Times: “This crackling, obsessive showboat of a painting, dreamed up during a decade when the medium supposedly teetered on the brink of death, is a three-panel autobiographical allegory of life, love and art that measures 14 feet across.”
I received this informative email from Anne-Katrin, who lives in Brooklyn, and keeps many abreast of the West Nile Virus mosquto problem in our midst. I am quite sure that she got this information from the Department of Health. She is very concerned about West Nile Virus and believes that it is time to take precautions (see below):
According to the Department of Health, two test positive for West Nile Virus in Brooklyn announced this afternoon.
For the fourth straight week, West Nile Virus detected in Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights.
What do these neighborhoods have in common?
They border the stagnant pools and swampy pits (“Female mosquitoes prefer to lay eggs on water that may be described as aged, stagnant and putrid.”) at Prospect Park where the West Nile Virus mosquito surveillance traps were placed by the Department of Health.
“Now is the time to take personal precautions to prevent mosquito bites.”
Eliminate any standing water that collects on your property.
Remind or help neighbors to eliminate standing water on their
properties.
Call 311 to report standing water.
I was waiting for the bus at Bartel-Pritchard Square-that-is-really-a-circle, when I saw her. Again.
Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of What are the Chances? Liz Starin is an illustrator based in Brooklyn. She doesn’t believe in fate, but she does believe in probability. You can see more of her work at lizstarin.com.
The Go Brooklyn Art open studio weekend, a Brooklyn-wide open studio event sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum, is just over a week away and Go is hosting a series of meetups to talk about the project, answer questions, and generally just say hello.
GO staff will be on hand and the meetups. You are welcome at any of these, regardless of neighborhood!
–Prospect Heights: Tue 8/28 6pm at The Way Station (683 Washington Avenue)
–Coney Island, Brighton & Manhattan Beach: Tue 8/28 6:30pm at Gambrinus Bar & Restaurant (3100 Ocean Parkway)
— Boreum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens: Tue 8/28 7pm at 61 Local (61 Bergen Street)
–Gowanus: Wed 8/29 7pm at Lavender Lake (383 Carroll Street)
–Prospect Lefferts Gardens: Fri 8/31 7:30pm at Lincoln Park Tavern (49 Lincoln Road)
Sadly, I wasn’t at the Patti Smith reading curated by the Community Bookstore at Brooklyn Bridge Park (as part of the Books Beneath the Bridge series curated by Brooklyn’s independent bookstore). I was on Block Island that August day so I missed it.
Today, I received a sweet reminisence of that event in the Bookstore’s montly e-newsletter, which I’d love to share with you. It was written by Ezra Goldstein, co-owner of Park Slope’s landmark bookshop and it provides a flavor of that event which was attended by 500 people. Here it is:
“When Patti Smith started cracking jokes at Brooklyn Bridge Park; when she paused in reading from her poetry and prose to turn and wave at a passing tugboat and 500 people waved with her; when she read or chanted or sang lines that reminded us of times and people long gone but also of feelings that never go away; when she mimicked Vanilla Fudge on acid, we began to breathe again, figuring things were going to be okay. Better than okay, because that August evening felt a whole lot like what Patti writes inWoolgathering:
“And a sum of us
will flicker
just a bit of dust, hardly noticed
but it fills the air with substance.
The immortal dream…”
The Brooklyn Ink, a blog which is affiliated with the Columbia School of Journalism, has an article about Congregation Beth Elohim and their use of social media and crowd sourcing to raise funds for the preservation of their synagogue.
“Last spring, several leaders at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope heard about a competition for a $250,000 grant being offered by Partners in Preservation, the first-ever citywide conservation campaign determined by online voting. The Reform temple indeed needed money to refurbish its 103-year-old stained glass windows. The chance of a congregation made up of 800 families winning seemed to be a long shot.
“But, following the example of their tech-savvy rabbi, Andy Bachman, the congregants launched a social-media campaign. One vote per person was allowed daily, leading the members to use Facebook to reach family in Florida or Twitter to remind their followers to vote for the synagogue. And in May, Beth Elohim was awarded the $250,000 grant, after gaining eight percent of the popular vote.”
File this under weird statistic of no particular value.
Brooklyn was ranked the #5 city of sleepless singles by some weird national ranking released today from Chemistry.com “that examined where its millions of single online members were most active during late night hours.”
Chemistry.com’s new ranking specifically shows the top 10 cities where singles are using late nights to find love online between the hours of 12:00 am to 6:00 am in each of the nation’s six time zones.
The Top 10 Sleepless Single Cities in the U.S.
1. Honolulu, HI
2. Virginia Beach, VA
3. Nashville, TN
4. Scottsdale, AZ
5. Brooklyn, NY
6. Long Beach, CA
7. Las Vegas, NV
8. Henderson, NV
9. Fresno, CA
10. Mesa, AZ