Say hello to Girls Like it Loud , the just-released EP from Care Bears on Fire. Now 15 and 16 years old, the three Brooklyn girls who make up the pop/punk band that originated in Park Slope, have appeared on Letterman, toured in Japan and play all over New York City now.
The new EP was 72 on the iTunes alternative album charts yesterday. it’s got five new songs including two covers: ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears For Fears and ‘Red Lights’ by the Marbles.
The Madison Square Gardeners are a Brooklyn-based band you can find playing around NYC frequently. They have a brand new song, Young and In Love, and you can get a download of that song for free. You’ll find the details at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
The Amygdaloids are four scientists (Joseph LeDoux, Daniella Schiller, Tyler Volk, Gerald McCollam) who write song based upon their work. But not only are they a pretty good band, they travel in good company. See a video of their song Brainstorm with Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Band) and Steve Wynn (Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3, The Baseball Project and The Dream Syndicate) joining in on the guitar shredding here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
The Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed expansion of the Park Slope Landmarks Historic District on Tuesday, October 26th at 12:30 p.m. on the 9th floor of the Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street in Manhattan. Additionally, CB 6 will be holding a public hearing on the proposed expansion on Thursday, October 14th at 6 p.m at Old First Reformed Church, 729 Carroll Street.
The Park Slope Civic Council supports the expansion of the current Historic District, to give more of Park Slope Landmarks protection. After surveying of the neighborhood, the Landmarks Preservation Commission proposed to expand the district (PDF). The proposed expansion includes about 600 buildings over 8 square blocks in the South Slope.
The decision to hold this hearing was in response to many months of organizing by community residents, led by the Park Slope Civic Council. As chairman of the City Council’s Landmarks Subcommittee (which will eventually hear and vote on the proposed expansion).
Continue reading Public Hearing on Expansion of Park Slope Landmark District
Yesterday I got this note from City Councilmember Brad Lander:
“Like everyone I’ve talked to, I was sickened to learn of the gut−wrenching hate attack in the Bronx last week, in which nine young men tortured and brutalized a gay man. This comes right after the painful suicide of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers, and the recent suicides of at least a half−dozen gay teenagers around the country after anti−gay bullying.
“And then this weekend, I was appalled at Carl Paladino’s shockingly insensitive, bigoted comments in Borough Park, claiming that he does not want kids “brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option.” As someone who (proudly) represents part of Borough Park and (proudly) believes in LGBT equality, I can assure you that even plenty of Orthodox Jews who don’t support marriage equality on religious grounds were furious at what he said – and where and when he said it – recognizing that neither politics nor religion can be an excuse for giving cover to violence and hate.
“And all of this less than a year after I had hoped we were on the cusp of passing marriage equality in New York.
“It sure doesn’t seem like so much to ask that our friends and colleagues could have the simple dignity of knowing that their government doesn’t think less of their love than of mine. Or that the many kids of gay and lesbian couples who are growing up in our neighborhood would know that their families are entirely welcome and equal. Or that teenagers discovering their own sexuality would feel safe in who they are, not bullied by their classmates, or brutalized by hateful thugs, or demeaned by politicians pandering for votes.
Continue reading Brad Lander: Standing with the LGBTQ Community
October 15-16: Jalopy, a vaudeville style music venue on Columbia Street, presents its third annual Djangology Festival honoring legendary swing guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Park Slope’s Franglais are on the bill, as well as Stephane Wrembel,who often plays at Barbes, Jack Soref, Hot Club Thing, Hot Club of Hell’s Kitchen, and Blue Plate Special, and more.
Gypsy jazz on violin, bass, and two guitars: Djangology Festival at Jalopy on Columbia St. between Hamilton Avenue and Woodhull Street in Red Hook, (718) 395-3214], Oct. 15-16 at 8 pm. Tickets $20 ($35 for the weekend).
Ten baking essentials: A Cake Bakes in Brooklyn
Community Cooking Club, lunch specials: 2 Cooks in the Kitchen
Dinner at Karloff: Eat It
Dinner with the butcher: Ditmas Park Blog
Baluchi’s cooking demo: All About Fifth
Cherry Tomato-Thyme Risotto with Shrimp: A Kitchen in Brooklyn
Mile End leads Bklyn’s Zagat listings: Brooklyn Paper
Sarah Brumble, an editor and blogger for Atlas Obscura, an online compendium of the world’s wonders, curiosities, and esoterica, passed along a link to a piece published not too long ago by Dylan Thuras a Greenpoint-based reporter titled: “Hail No — An account of the world’s biggest, deadliest hail storms.”
This Sunday: Nieghborhood Classics at PS 321 presents a program of tango music, featuring cellist Maya Beiser and pianist Pablo Ziegler, who explore the ture sould of Buenos Aires tango. This family-friendly, one-hour concert will be hosted by Simone Dinnerstein. All musicians donate their performances, and all ticket sales benefit programs sponsored by PS 321’s PTA
When: Sunday, October 17 at 2 pm
Where: PS 321’s Auditorium, 180 7th Avenue, Brooklyn
Tickets: $15 Buy here
Not recommended for children under 6
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has some really great composting programming coming up this fall (through the NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn). They’re offering a wide array of hands-on classes: indoor, outdoor, for the composting novice, and for the composting buff.
Wednesday, October 13th | 6 to 8 pm
Mulch, Leaves, and Cover Crops: How to Protect and Improve Your Soil
The key to beautiful, healthy plants is the soil in which they grow. In this workshop, learn the basics of soil structure, organic fertilizers, soil amendment secrets, the underworld critters that abound, and the importance of organic matter and composting for healthy soil. As a fall focus, we will discuss what to do with leaves, the benefits of mulching, and which cover crops will protect and improve your garden’s soil.
Tuesday, November 9th, 6 to 8 pm
Composting Alternatives and Gathering Materials
Want to compost without giving up your precious garden space? This workshop will give you some options to make rich compost in your backyard, and a list of materials you can find in the neighborhood to balance your compost pile.
Tuesday, October 19th, 6 to 8pm
Composting in the City
Learn how leaves, kitchen scraps, garden trimmings, and weeds can all become garden gold through composting. Making dark, rich, crumbly compost doesn’t take much time, work, or space. This class covers the composting process, using finished compost, avoiding and solving problems, and helpful equipment and tools.
Tuesday, November 16th, 6 to 8 pm
Composting with Lovely Redworms
Did you know that redworms have five pairs of hearts? Come to this workshop to learn more about this unique species and all about vermicomposting (composting with worms), including how to make and maintain a home for redworms. Participants will receive a voucher to buy a pound of redworms and a plastic worm bin for only $44.
My mother graduated from Brooklyn’s Midwood High School in 1943, when it was brand new. She has nothing but the fondest memories of her alma mater and she urged me to take OSFO on the admissions tour for a look.
We went. We saw.
Impressive.
Midwood appears to be a traditional, orderly, rigorous, large (4,000) urban high school with excellent facilities, strong sciences, humanities, PSAL sports and clubs.
Big as it is, the kids who spoke to the tour said over and over that the school has a “family-like” atmosphere and many ways to feel known through caring teachers and involvement in clubs
It’s a real school spirit kind of place where kids attend football games and other varsity sports and cheer for the home team.
Rah.
A senior from Park Slope told the group that she wanted to go to Beacon but that her mother secretly signed her up for Midwood. She couldn’t be happier as she feels that the school allowed her to grow and excel. “I would be different in another school. In a bad way,” she said.
We also met with this year’s mayor of Midwood, a fantastic, incredibly poised kid named Jules, who is on track for a four-year scholarship at a small liberal arts college.
The tour guide and the kids spoke of the numerous opportunities available at Midwood for those who work hard and seek them out.
While it’s not one of the “specialized schools” the selective programs in the science and humanities have the feel of a gifted academy with their many Advanced Placement and College Now classes and internships. It’s all for the taking to those who thrive at Midwood.
The school is also a “zoned neighborhood school” for its local catchment (which does not include Park Slope) and admits 475 kids per class without the screening process.
Last week we toured Murrow and the two schools couldn’t feel more different. Murrow is high school from another planet. Big, with its own way of doing things, it has a fun, messy, creative feeling to it: a progressive school for 4,000 students, which is no small feat.
Midwood is more recognizable. It’s high school with a capital H. Serious, competitive and full of opportunities for the hard working student.
In an educational era where small is considered good, Midwood seems to suggest that big can work, too. For the right kids.
Straight from the oracle of Prospect Park, Eugene Patron:
On Saturday, October 30, from 12 – 3 p.m., the beloved Haunted Walk is back and more fun than ever at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park! Lurking high on Lookout Hill are zombies, wolf men, headless horsemen, good and bad witches, and other creepy characters. The Halloween Haunted Walk is suitable for young children accompanied by parents/guardians or older siblings. Suggested donation is $1. Enter the Park at the Prospect Park Southwest and 16th Street entrance.
October 30, from 12 – 3 p.m. is also the Haunted Carnival. This annual treat on the Nethermead in the center of the Park features games and music. Free. Both the Walk and Carnival are rain or shine.
Also on October 30: “Horses and Humans: A Celebration of Dancing and Healing.”
The Equus Projects, a professional dance company that makes performances with horses, and GallopNYC, an equine therapy program that works with children with disabilities, presents a series of performance staged in The Nethermead. 12 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Free.
Also on Saturday Oct. 30 AND Sunday Oct. 31:
- Haunted Carousel, 12 – 5 p.m.
Crank up the scary music on the Wurlitzer: our Carousel is haunted for Halloween! $1.50 per ride.
- Scary Stories from the Past, 2 & 3 p.m.
Meet the old ghosts of Flatbush in haunting tales passed down from Lefferts ancestors. Lefferts Historic House. Free.
- Skeleton Cut-Outs, 1 – 4 p.m.
Make your own Halloween headbands using the traditional Scharen-Knippen paper-cutting art form. Lefferts Historic House. Free.
- Creepy Crawly Halloween, 12 – 5 p.m.
It’s a critter-fest in Prospect Park with lots of spiders, worms, and other creepy creatures that are sure to make your skin crawl! Creepy crafts, live critters and hands-on experiments. Audubon Center. Free.
- Boo at the Zoo, 10 a.m. – 5: 30 p.m.
Go batty for Halloween with activities like face painting, craft making, encounters with “spooky” creatures and a trip through the Zoo’s legendary haunted barn. Free with Zoo admission.
Get your ghoul on – be a volunteer! Volunteers are needed to dress up and be scary, prepare meals for performers, assist with carnival games, load the sets, and much more. Call (718) 965-8960 or email volunteers@prospectpark.org for more information.
Did you know there’s a 5,000 sq ft community-run urban farm on Prospect Ave between Seeley and Vanderbilt Streets in Windsor Terrace called Prospect Farm.
On October 30th, they are are having a one year anniversary party, Harvest Fest and Soup Cook-Off (rain-date October 31st) at the Prospect Farm 11AM until 4PM. It will be a great way to learn about Prospect Farm’s work, member info, games, music, food, soup cook-off judged for prizes, raffle and more.
Yeah!
On Sunday, October 17 from 10AM until 2PM starting at MS 51 on Fifth Avenue between 4th and Fifth Streets join the Fall Sweep, a beautification, clean-up and recycling event sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council:
Put on your work clothes and you’ll be painting over graffiti, mulching trees, planting daffodil bulbs, raking leaves, picking up litter and other projects. You can also bring unwanted electronic devices (old t.v.’s, computers, toasters, etc.) for recycling by Greg’s Express.
There will be refreshments and bluegrass music courtesy of Vincent Cross and Good Company and the PSCC will provide all tools and supplies. “I Made Park Slope Cleaner Today” stickers will be given to all volunteers. Community Service vouchers will also be available.
While you’re at it: stop in at the annual Harvest Festival next door in Washington Park from 11 am to 3 pm with pony rides, pumpkin painting and more family fun.Make a clean sweep of your home and your neighborhood by joining the Park Slope Civic Council at the Fall Civic Sweep, our annual autumn beautification, clean-up and recycling event:
How effective is 311? Don’t hold your breath: Sheepshead Bites
What to do about concrete blocks: Gerritsen Beach
Man shot dead in projects: Bushwick BK
What next locusts: Pardon Me for Asking
Under the rails: NY Shitty
Comedy show every Tuesday at South Paw: Effed in Park Slope
The day: The Ft. Greene Local
Just saying.
Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.
My neighbor actually measured the hail stones that dropped into our front yard on Third Street in Park Slope.
Hail stones the size of marbles battered Park Slope around 8:39 PM Monday evening. We were watching, House, our favorite TV show, when we heard what sounded like stones hitting our air conditioner.
Standing at the window, we took in the sight of a fierce rainn and hail storm that literally removed the leaves from the Third Street trees.
By 9PM the hail storm had passed but rain, thunder and lightening continued over Brooklyn.
After taking a brief hiatus from performing (to get married), singer-songwriter (and model, voice over artist, writer of music for commercials and Fort Greene resident) Emily Zuzik gets back to music tonight. You’ll have to take the G Train, or something which connects with the 7 Train, and go to Long Island City, but Emily, and free food await you there. See the details over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 tore up The Living Room this past Friday. Don’t miss the review, set list and 15 photos of the show waiting for you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
I’m dying to see: It’s Kind of a Funny Story (IKOAFS) the new film from Park Slope filmmakers Ryan Fleck Anna Boden, is based on a young adult book by the same name authored by Brooklyn author, Ned Vizzini, a semi-autobiographical account of his stay at a Brooklyn mental hospital. The movie, which was shot inside a hospital in Sunset Park, stars Zach Galifianakis and newbie Keir Gilchrist.
Vizzini says on the Focus Features website: “The book is from my own life. I’ve always been able to remember what it was like to be in high school, because I feel it was a very primal social arena. Real emotions come to the forefront in high school. When I write, I just try and not filter any of that, which I think readers appreciate. I also try very hard to have something funny on every page. If you keep people laughing, they will stick around.”
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden are the filmmakers behind the acclaimed Half Nelson, the story of a drug-addicted school teacher, which I loved and Sugar, about a Cuban baseball player.
I’m dying to see IKOAFS. It’s at the Pavilion in Park Slope. Let me know what you thought of it.
Today the Olivier Assayas festival at BAM presents Irma Vep: “Arguably the film that put Assayas on the international map, this clever meditation on French filmmaking confers a host of winks, nods, and cinephile in-jokes—on everything from Truffaut’s Day For Night and Fassbinder’s Beware of a Holy Whore, to the more populist offerings coming out of Hong Kong and the US at the time.”
New York Comic-Con is a huge comics and popular culture show at the Jacob Javits. They’ve already cut off Saturday and weekend-pass ticket sales but Sunday is still a possibility. Here’s what it is from their own blurbbage: “Our show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Our panels and autograph sessions give fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators. Our screening rooms feature sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either big or small screens. And with dedicated professional hours, New York Comic Con is a market place, bringing together the major players in the entertainment industry.”
OpenHouse NY:
openhouse NY Weekend (OHNY) is America’s largest architect and design event, opens doors throughout New York City all weekend. Your chance to go inside all kinds of interesting buildings, facilities, offices, home and more. Reservations necessary for many events so go to site and browse what you might want to do.
Movies:
The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street Money Never Sleeps at BAM.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story directed by Park Slope’s Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden with Zach Galifianakis and newbie Keir Gilchrist based on Ned Vizzini’s semi-autobiographical book. At the Park Slope Pavilion.
Through October 15 at ReRun Theater/Gastro Pub in Dumbo: Red White and Blue, “a vicious but oddly touching horror-thriller about the lives of strangers bound together in blood. The SXSW, Sitges and Fantastic Fest hit from British filmmaker Simon Rumley (THE LIVING & THE DEAD). Erica (Amanda Fuller, TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is a tough, troubled nymphomaniac with wounds across her soul. For Erica, trolling Austin’s dive bars and sleeping with multiple men forms the core of her life, until she meets mysterious Iraq vet Nate (THE PROPOSITION’s Noah Taylor, in a searing performance).”
Through October 28th at BAM: Post-punk Auteur: Olivier Assayas: Leading contemporary filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ films are thrillingly alive: rich, multi-sensory experiences that draw upon the work of Bresson, Asian cinema, and rock ‘n’ roll to address themes of youth culture, East-meets-West globalization, and the nature of cinema itself. Assayas’ simultaneously cerebral and entertaining films move restlessly and impressively between genres—from hip, hyper-sleek thrillers to intimate chamber dramas to his latest magnum opus: a staggering biopic about Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
And on Monday: Disorder from 1986: “Three young friends steal some music equipment for their struggling post-punk band and, in a panic, kill the shop’s owner. Assayas’ debut feature examines, with characteristic restraint and acuity, the psychological fallout as the band unravels—and each of its members grapple with their own feelings of guilt, paranoia, and despair. This film won the Critics’ Prize at the Venice Film Festival. In French with English titles.
Theater:
Extended through Sunday, October 16: Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot at The Church of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.
Music:
Music for kids this weekend: A Child Grows in Brooklyn
Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9 at the Bell House: Brooklyn Soul Festival
Art:
At the Brooklyn Museum now through January 2nd: a mid-career survey of Fred Tomaselli’s “unique hybrid paintings and collages from 1990 to the present. These layered paintings combine cutout images of plants, birds, smiling mouths, and hands (clipped from field guides and magazines) with passages of paint and actual prescription pills and hallucinogenic plants to create highly stylized, eye-popping compositions.”
At Zora Space: One Generation – Seven Artists presents seven Iranian artists graduated from Tehran University, Faculty of Art, during late1960s and early 1970s. “Our group of seven does not claim to have a manifesto; rather we present a collective exhibition from artists who share a lot of similar experiences. We don’t ask why we are all together, but half a century of friendship is the best mortar for our bonding.” with artists: Nahid Hagigat, Hadi Hazavei, Shahram Kari, Abbas Kiarostami, Nicky Nodjoumi, Sudi Sharafshahi, Nasser Vaziri
I am still floating from the magic of last night’s show at Zora Space, a wonderful place to hear music on Fourth Avenue, the border between Park Slope and the Gowanus.
Magic.
Mark Geary, a Dubliner, was an unexpected thrill. His riveting stage presence revealed a gift for songwriting, acoustic rhythms, vocal drama and hilarious asides. He played with a talented drummer, who a lot to the songs with just a drum and what looked like a chair, an ambient electric guitarist who enhanced the songs immeasurably and a back-up vocalist, who added swelling harmonies.
Geary has opened for Swell Season, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Joe Strummer and others and has a new album out called Live, Love, Lost it, NYC.
Marketa Irglova‘s set began with a sound check that evolved into a full a capella performance of an old Irish folk song. Wearing trousers, a pretty sweater and a new, short haircut, the female half of the Swell Season proved that she’s a solo talent in her own right with a gift for piano driven songs with swooping melodies and a sustained, quiet intensity.
Comic Con New York
New York Comic-Con is a huge comics and popular culture show at the Jacob Javits. They’ve already cut off Saturday and weekend-pass ticket sales but Sunday is still a possibility. Here’s what it is from their own blurbbage: “Our show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Our panels and autograph sessions give fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators. Our screening rooms feature sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either big or small screens. And with dedicated professional hours, New York Comic Con is a market place, bringing together the major players in the entertainment industry.”
OpenHouse NY:
openhouse NY Weekend (OHNY) is America’s largest architect and design event, opens doors throughout New York City all weekend. Your chance to go inside all kinds of interesting buildings, facilities, offices, home and more. Reservations necessary for many events so go to site and browse what you might want to do.
Movies:
The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street Money Never Sleeps at BAM.
Through October 15 at ReRun Theater/Gastro Pub in Dumbo: Red White and Blue, “a vicious but oddly touching horror-thriller about the lives of strangers bound together in blood. The SXSW, Sitges and Fantastic Fest hit from British filmmaker Simon Rumley (THE LIVING & THE DEAD). Erica (Amanda Fuller, TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is a tough, troubled nymphomaniac with wounds across her soul. For Erica, trolling Austin’s dive bars and sleeping with multiple men forms the core of her life, until she meets mysterious Iraq vet Nate (THE PROPOSITION’s Noah Taylor, in a searing performance).”
Through October 28th at BAM: Post-punk Auteur: Olivier Assayas: Leading contemporary filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ films are thrillingly alive: rich, multi-sensory experiences that draw upon the work of Bresson, Asian cinema, and rock ‘n’ roll to address themes of youth culture, East-meets-West globalization, and the nature of cinema itself. Assayas’ simultaneously cerebral and entertaining films move restlessly and impressively between genres—from hip, hyper-sleek thrillers to intimate chamber dramas to his latest magnum opus: a staggering biopic about Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
Theater:
Extended through Sunday, October 16: Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot at The Church of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.
Music:
Music for kids this weekend: A Child Grows in Brooklyn
Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9 at the Bell House: Brooklyn Soul Festival
Art:
At the Brooklyn Museum now through January 2nd: a mid-career survey of Fred Tomaselli’s “unique hybrid paintings and collages from 1990 to the present. These layered paintings combine cutout images of plants, birds, smiling mouths, and hands (clipped from field guides and magazines) with passages of paint and actual prescription pills and hallucinogenic plants to create highly stylized, eye-popping compositions.”
At Zora Space: One Generation – Seven Artists presents seven Iranian artists graduated from Tehran University, Faculty of Art, during late1960s and early 1970s. “Our group of seven does not claim to have a manifesto; rather we present a collective exhibition from artists who share a lot of similar experiences. We don’t ask why we are all together, but half a century of friendship is the best mortar for our bonding.” with artists: Nahid Hagigat, Hadi Hazavei, Shahram Kari, Abbas Kiarostami, Nicky Nodjoumi, Sudi Sharafshahi, Nasser Vaziri
My friend Michele Madigan Somerville has an epic poem on her poetry blog about reading an epic poem in the bathtub. It’s from her new (as yet unpublished) collection called Glamorous Life.
Le Bagineuse
Observe the baigneuse, nacreous as she steeps, sur-
rounded by heat on all sides
on a cold day as iridescent mean
curvature and prismatic spheres
which an equilibrium between outward air
pressure and inward surface tension form
wherein molecules tend to line up
with one end pointing inward
and the other out to render the liquid surface
more stable. Diffraction in soap film
causes light to be seen
and bubbles are possible.
An ingenious gleaming contraption
of horizontal chrome fit with nifty tips of
rubber transects pre-war porcelain
as a means for making viable the privilege
perusal is. The collapsible scaffolding stabilizes and
grips a a soap-white pair of symmetrical
swells, offers an adequate frame for keeping
the future artifact dry and free
of moisture and lavender surfactant…
Read more at Michele Madigan Sommerville.