Tonight there are two performances of a play called Did You Hear the One About the Carp Who Hailed a Taxi by Anne Phelan at 440 Gallery in Park Slope.

Phelan’s boyfriend, Tom Bovo, is a photographer and for two years she has been staring at a photograph he took of carp and trying figure it out (it’s the one pictured on the right).

Bovo is having his first solo photography show, which opened on Thursday at the 440 Gallery. The work looks wonderful and it should be a great show. I’ll find out tonight when I go to see the play (and the photo show).

Bovo commissioned Phelan, a playwright, to write play about a photograph in the show. “I actually did have a difficult time deciding. I was all set to write about mannequins in a window (440 Gallery has some lovely bowed windows to put actors in), but I decided on the fish. The photograph is untitled, which kind of makes me crazy- playwrights don’t do that).” Phelan writes on her blog, Glamorous LIfe of the Theater.

Phelan started started writing in October and the play run for tonight only, Saturday, January 22, at 7:30 and 8:30. Melanie Sutherland directed and Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum plays Karl Carp and the lovely Cotton Wright is Mo Avakian the taxi driver.

I hope to be at the 7:30 show. See you there.

On February 17th at 8PM, Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents its 4th annual Memoirathon: Experience and Expression curated by Branka Ruzak with poet Howard Altmann, prose writers Mindy Greenstein, Chris Macleod, Sue Ribner, Andrea Rosenhaft, Elena Schwolsky, Beverly Willett and Annalee Wilson AND exhibition of works by photographers Jamie Livingston and Hugh Crawford and painter Kathleen Mackenzie.

The English noun memoir, comes from the French mémoire and the Latin memoria, meaning memory. In its very simplest form, one can look at memoir as a remembrance of something meaningful or significant in one’s life. Artists capture and explore personal memories in unique ways, dependent on how they choose to express themselves, whether it’s through painting, photography, poetry, essay, etc. This evening celebrates the expression of memoir in just a few of its many forms.

Click on read more to read about the  prose writers, poets, photographers and painters, who will participate in this year’s Memoirathon.

Continue reading Feb 17: The Memoirathon: Experience and Expression →

It’s Saturday and the subways are behaving badly. There is no Brooklyn bound service on the 2,3,4 trains at Grand Army Plaza. and no R service between 95th Street in Brooklyn and Whitehall Street.  Riders on the 4th Avenue line are advised to use the N train instead.  And to top things off, there will be no D service between Pacific Street and 34th Street.

Yeesh.

On Sunday in the Slope there’s Climate Awareness Day at Congregation Beth Elohim with keynote speakers and activities for kids is on Sunday.

Also on Sunday: Django a Go Go at Barbes. Click on read more for all the essential details…

Continue reading OTBKB’s Weekend Guide: It’s Saturday →

“McTeague remained stupidly looking around him, now at the distant horizon, now at the ground, now at the half-dead canary chittering feebly in its little gilt prison.”

From McTeaque by Frank Norris

The Old Stone House welcomes six artists from its surrounding community to exhibit and discuss the role of history, time and memory in their work.

This exhibition, which opens on February 1st at 7PM, is a collaboration between The Old Stone House and the G-Train Salon.

There will be an opening “salon” with artists Boris Rasin, Mason Saltarrelli and Karen Schoellkopf on Tuesday, February 1 at 7PM, which means there will be a Q&A with the artists. On Sunday, February 27 from 4-6PM, there will be a closing “salon” with artists Henry Chung, Robert Walden and Andrew Zarou (of the artist-run RHV Fine Art Gallery in South Slope).

The G-Train Salon made its debut in February 2009 from a living room on Atlantic Avenue.  A conversation-based exhibition series organized by a formerly Queens-based curator/saloniere and her Brooklyn-based partners, the venture has evolved into a collaboration between Krista Saunders and Jill Benson (two Brooklyn-based, independent curators who met as docents at the New Museum of Contemporary Art) and the generous residents/businesses that continue to offer them space and opportunity.

Each season, the G-Train Salon presents a series of solo exhibitions featuring emerging artists.  Each artist designs a site-specific installation for the space in question and hosts a discussion with the audience on opening night.

This is their first collaboration with the Old Stone House in Park Slope.

The artwork pictures is by Andrew Zarou. Temperate Vacuum. 2009. Aluminum and paper collage. 19″ x 19″

It’s Friday and there’s snow on the ground. Lots of films worth seeing, music to hear and theater at BAM and Heights Players. Climate Awareness Day at Congregation Beth Elohim with keynote speakers and activities for kids is on Sunday. Click on read more for all the essential details.

Continue reading OTBKB’s Weekend List: Friday – Sunday →

Brooklyn’s Emily Zuzik brings a full band and a bunch of new songs into The Rockwood Music Hall tonight.  This show will preview the CD coming from Emily later this year, the one she keeps calling her rock record.  So expect a Emily to turn it up a notch at this show. But, as always, you will get tight songwriting, intelligent lyrics and strong vocals from Emily.  Don’t let a little bit of of snow or the expected cold keep you away.  Full details are waiting for you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Last night at the Old Stone House, Brooklyn Reading Works’ January offering, Truth and Oral History, the double life of the interview (curated by John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science) was  a fascinating exploration of oral history as practiced by Gay Men’s Health Crisis, StoryCorps, Columbia University, an author of non-fiction books and magazine articles, and an academic and public health researcher.

Luckily, the snow managed to stay away until well after the show was over making everyone’s return trips home easier.

The participants were wonderful and so was the audience: we had a full house and there was an interesting Q&A. I realize now that we should have had a program for those who want to learn more about these individuals and their work. If you need more information, please get in touch with me: louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com.

[a] Brian Toynes and Luna Ortiz, with Gay Men’s Health Crisis, who have developed innovative community-level interventions that use personal stories about change and resiliency.  Luna is one of the few people documenting the “House and Ball” scene that came to general public prominence in the film, Paris is Burning, and in Madonna’s “Vogue – but which has also had a much more complex and international history over the last 100 years.

[b] Michael Garolfalo, a producer with StoryCorps, who will talk about the work of StoryCorps and the importance of collecting and listening to the stories we can tell each other about our lives.

[c] Mary Marshall Clark, Director of the Columbia Oral History Office.  Mary Marshall will concentrate on the stories of of 9-11 that her team collected here in New York and the process of working with these kinds of interviews in order to create a tangible and personal history of these events.

[d] Jason Kersten, author of “The Art of Making Money,” a true-crime story of a young counterfeiter and his life. Jason’s interviews with Art and his family reveal a host of issues that a writer must confront when getting so close to the subject while trying to tell a true story that is compelling, informative, honest, and in the end protective of the subject’s own history and privacy.

[e] John A. Guidry, who has used oral history and long-interviewing techniques in academic writing (community organizing and children’s rights in Brazil), community development research (all over the US), and public health promotion (HIV health and social marketing).

The next Brooklyn Reading Works is The Memoirathon: Writing, Photography and Painting as Memory on Thursday, February 17th at 8PM. So mark your calendars for what should be an absolutely wonderful evening. There will be a rare viewing of pieces from Jamie Livingston Photo of the Day project and that will be an extra added bonus to the event!

Todd Bieber was skiing in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and he found a roll of film. A real old fashioned canister of film. He had the film developed (developed! like the old pre-digital days) and it inspired him to make a wonderful You Tube video about the experience.

I’m guessing it’s making the rounds of the Internet right now in a very viral way.Maybe the original owner of that unprocessed roll of film will discover the video and be able to retrieve his photos of New York City in the snow.

Bieber asks that if you  recognize the people in the pictures to please contact him at:  brooklynfoundfilm@gmail.com

This is one heck of a great story and a very lovely video.

http://toddbieber.tumblr.com/

This Thursday at 8PM Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents: The Truth and Oral History or the double life of the interview curated by John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science.

This should be, as always, an interesting, compelling and entertaining night out. Wine, snacks, amazing authors and presenters, an interesting topic, group discussion. JOIN THE FUN!

Stories do not tell themselves.  Even once they are told and recorded, stories need some help to be heard and to live in the world.  This month’s Brooklyn Reading Works will look at the processes by which people collect stories and use them to tell stories.  We will have panelists who use oral history practices to document our world and the lives we lead, and the conversation will explore the work it takes to make stories interesting and give them legs to stand on, as it were.  Panelists will represent and explore several different genres and styles of the oral historian’s craft, from traditional first-person historical storytelling to the mediations of photography, academic writing, marketing, multimedia, and social advocacy—as well as stories of how collecting stories ultimately affects oral historians as authors and curators of the human experience. Click on read more for a list of the participants.

Continue reading Thurs: A Great Night Out at Brooklyn Reading Works →

There are two very interesting shows tonight; one early (8pm), one late (11pm) and both on the Lower East Side.  First up is I Beg Your Parton.  Addie Brownlee celebrates the birthday of Dolly Parton by covering a selection of Dolly’s tunes.  Joining Addie will be special guest, Martha Wainwright.  If you can stick around downtown until 11, you can see My Pet Dragon.  MPD is a band with some interesting 70s and 80s influences and whose live show is musically and visually inventive and fun. Their song, Lover in Hiding, is one of my favorite songs released in 2010.  Full details on both shows are waiting for you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

A great summer is in the works at Piper Theater, the program developed by drama teacher extraordinaire and director John P. McEneny, The Old Stone House and others, that brings theater education and outdoor drama with dash to Park Slope.

Indeed, the group has added so much to summer in Park Slope with their education program at the Old Stone House and their adventurous productions in Washington Park and it looks like they’re going to outdo themselves this summer with expanded programming for the kids and adults, including two musicals, an opera, three plays, and an art class in addition to the writing program.

They’ll  also be expanding the younger companies with a collaboration with the respected dance education company, Together in Dance and a garden workshop in partnership with the Old Stone House.

On the main stage, Piper will produce two Equity showcases — Moliere’s comedy, The Miser, adapted and directed by our guest artist in residence, Welker White, as well as the quirky romance, Harold & Maude by Colin Higgins.

Now that’s what I call a full summer.