They’re getting quite a bit of buzz: I’m looking at a Village Voice review that says "Brooklyn-based Pinataland druge up forgotten historical oddities and pin them into songs…"
The New Yorker described Pinataland as eclectic with an oompah flavor "and an obsession with the overlooked, often bizarre, corners of 20th century history…"
I haven’t even listened to the album they sent me yet but I am intrigued. Will keep you posted.
Who says you can’t trust anyone over 30? The Center for the Urban Environment (CUE), a group that collaborates with with schools and offers tours of neighborhoods and parks, is turning 30.
Happy Birthday CUE.
They also recently underwent a name change. They were Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment. They are now: Center for the Urban Environment because they now sponsor programs throughout the city.
And CUE is also having a 30th anniversary shindig honoring Sarah Beatty of Green Depot; Ronald Chalusian of New Visions for Public Schools; Helena Durst of the Durst Organization; and Marcel Van Ooyen of the Council on the Environment of New York City.
The Brooklyn Eagle provides some history in an article in today’s edition.
The organization, originally known as the Prospect Park Environmental Center, was founded in 1978 in the living room of founder John Muir, who served as executive director until 2002. Muir, then a geography teacher, realized that “the students didn’t know much about their own city, and he had visions of taking them out and introducing them to the city,” says Ruth Edebohls, coordinator of Urban Tours.
Those were the days when Prospect Park was poorly maintained and crime- and trash-ridden. Many of its attractions, such as the Boathouse and the Carousel, were closed, and the Prospect Park Alliance was not yet on the scene.
The center first attracted attention with a walking tour called “Getting Acquainted With the Park.” Soon, another tour, of nearby Park Slope, attracted more than 200 people. Nowadays, the organization holds tours in four of the five boroughs.
In 1981, the organization hired its first director of education. Today, it sponsors many types of educational programs.
One is Urban Design, which helps students develop an awareness and appreciation of the environment through hands on programs.
The Picnic House (from 1984) was the original home for the Center. Then they moved to the Tennis House (from 1989). Now they’re in a LEED designed building: 168 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in the Gowanus neighborhood.
For the last few months, OTBKB has been pleased to collaborate with the center on monthly blog posts like Eco Lens and the Sustainability Beat, a snapshot of the sustainability issues that face the city.
What a win win for this blog. And I hope those posts are making even more people aware of the great work that’s being done by CUE.
Depressing/ interesting: Rachel Gets Married at 7:10 and 9:40.
Confusing/interesting: Synechdoche at 7 and 9:30
Funny/zany: Zach and Miri Make a Porno: 6:45 and 9
The day just flew away from me. Just flew. Woke up early and couldn’t take my head out of the teriffic book I’m reading: Free Food for Millionaires.
Then there was nothing in the fridge and I had to go out in the teeming rain to get the basics. I was all set to got but the exterminator came and ya can’t refuse the exterminator.
Before I left OSFO added some "essentials" to the list: don’t forget the double- stuffed Oreos, the caramel, the cookies and cream ice cream…
Out into the crazy morning rain, it was like a flash flood with huge pools of water in the curbs on Seventh Avenue, which inspired me on the spot to buy a pair of Hunter rain boots at Good Footing.
When I got home I realized that I didn’t even get the most important item on my list: Dawn dish soap. Back out in the rain with my sturdy new Hunter rain boots.
Back at home: food for the family. It’s like I’m a short order cook around here. Grilled cheese. Bacon. Eggs. Coffee. Toast. Do you want butter on that?
Then just as I was thinking about blogging sleep pulled at me like a tug or war. I tried to resist but the green leather couch beckoned…
Sleepy sleep sleep slumber. What better way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon…
How about seeing Rachel Getting Married tonight?
A few times a month I give money to Jake, the panhandler who stands in front of Ace Supermarket on Berkeley Place and Seventh Avenue. I’ve written about him before. I like his face, his personality, his joie de vivre despite his circumstances.
Over the years I’ve been quite generous to him. We’ve had nice conversations. He always looks expectantly when I walk by.
Certainly that becomes a pressure. Especially when I feel low on the dough. But I can be frank with Jake. I tell him when I don’t have any money to spare.
He’s always very understanding. But still.
One time we talked about the state of the economy.
"Maybe with a new president. Obama…" he said. "Things will be better."
I liked his optimism.
A day or two before the election we spoke. I didn’t have any money on me. He understood. But then I told him this:
"If Obama wins I’m going to give you twenty dollars."
Jake smiled his warm wide smile, He’s got quite a few teeth missing.
I saw Jake a few days after the election opening the door at Citibank. He ran outside when he saw me and gave me a big enthusiastic hug:
"I never thought I’d live to see the day," he said.
"Isn’t it wonderful?" I said.
We continued to hug and then he popped the question:
"Can you spare anything now?"
But I didn’t have anything on me. Still, he knew I was good for it. When I saw him yesterday back at his spot outside of Ace I handed him a ten dollar bill decisively.
"That’s for our man," I said.
Jake smiled. He knows I’m good for the rest.
Gomez, the resident lizard at the Community Bookstore died last month. That’s my niece Sonya staring into her cage on October 5th just a few weeks before Gomez expired.
I overheard Catherine telling another customer. I told her I wanted to do an obit but she said she had one on the store’s website already. Here it is:
Dear Friends,
It’s with deep sorrow that I write to report the death on Sunday, October 27th, of Gomez, the Bookstore’s Resident Iguana.
She came to live with us when a desperate young man appeared in the
Bookstore one day. He rushed in the door, attacked the counter and
said “I don’t even know why I’m here, but I have to find a
home for my Iguana, I’m moving in five days, and I haven’t been able to
find anyone to take her.” A friend and co-worker took one look at him,
snorted and said “Boy, did you walk into the right place.”
Confusing Iguanas with Geckos, I agreed to take her — how much trouble
could one little Lizard be? Imagine my surprise when she turned out to
be a four-foot long, 11-year old Diva.
It was already too late to back out. We took Gomez on knowing next-door to nothing about keeping lizards, nothing about
lizards, but from the moment I went to her apartment to meet her and
she climbed onto my leg and fell asleep while I stroked her back, it
was love. She was an amazing creature. Iguanas make no
sound and have few of mammal’s tricks of communication at their
disposal. They speak with their bodies, with their color, and most of
all, with their eyes. And Gomez did. With her beautiful beautiful eyes, most of all.
Knowing Gomez was an education. She was not a mammal. She
wasn’t warm, or built to be cuddly, and yet she did cuddle. She
distinguished between people, recognized us as individuals. She had
moods, and made demands, and found ways to communicate with us from the
distance of her difference. I learned from her that there is some sort
of truth to, a character of, being alive — that there are certain
universals.
There were two occassions, when she was living in my apartment, on
which I returned home in tears, having been through some horrendous
personal loss. On both occassions, Gomez watched me carefully through
the glass of her cage, then beat patiently on the door until I stood up
from the chair where I was sitting and crying, and slid open the door
to her kingdom. I went back to my chair, and carried on crying. Gomez
dropped four feet to the floor, then crossed the room, sat at my feet
peering up at me, then climbed slowly, gently, up my legs, across my
lap, and climbed up to rest her head on my shoulder, spreading her body
across mine. She comforted me. Her choice.
She was a profound and mysterious creature.
When I brought her to live in the bookstore because I was almost
never at home and, with nothing to watch, she was bored, I thought the
neighborhood would revolt. I thought people’s fear of the strange and
unfamiliar would make having her in the store a liability. To my
amazement, the people of Park Slope — you — fell in love with her. For
the last four years, it has amazed me to hear small children who can
barely speak, lisping out “Ig-WANNA!” I have watched beautiful women
stroke Gomez’ spines with delight. I’ve seen with amazement this slow
and ancient, mysterious creature become the beloved mascot of the store.
I watched impatiently, as she grew older, and became slower. For the last year or so, she didn’t even want to leave her house (except to gobble up cat food), just wanted to lie basking under the warmth of the light.
Slower and slower, and skinnier, and perhaps sadder . . . . this
weekend, when we suddenly realized what was happening, and scrambled
round to try to pull her back from the brink of where she’d already
gone . . . she was blue — deep turquoise blue, which was always her
happiest color.
I think she suffered a great deal, in dying. I know we suffered,
watching her, and trying to help, and failing. And yet, she was blue —
the richest most beautiful blue she’s been in ages.
It’s a mystery. Maybe not even a very nice one. More lessons, from Gomez.
Thank you all for loving her so much. We will not see her like
again. Gomez is dead. Long live Gomez. And long live what she taught
us. What she taught me.
We’ll keep her house in the bookstore. We’ll keep it ready, for the
next creature who needs help. If we’re very lucky, we may even meet
another such . . . Grand Diva.
An East Village boutique has opened its second location in Park Slope. Owner Grace King chose Park Slope for, you guessed it, its family friendly vibe.
Yes, Pink Olive has baby but they also spotlight the arts, indie designers, vintage finds, and home décor. Original artwork will regularly be exhibited, with the first being the whimsical work of Los Angeles-based painter Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday.
The new Park Slope space captures the essence of Pink Olive, with exposed brick, wooden floors, and original high ceilings. Inside the 700 square foot space, Pink Olive will carry an array of new designers, including Cocoon Couture from Australia, Pink Chicken, Dwell Studio, Kamibashi, Me! Bath, Nantaka Joy, and Blissen by Jill Bliss. For baby, Pink Olive carries brands BlaBla, Catfish, Jelly Cat, Trumpette, Amy Tangerine, Giddy Giddy, Zid Zid, and more. For gifts, selections from Erica Weiner, Beth Mueller, Leather Zoo, Knock Knock, Jenny Sweeney Designs, Snow & Graham, and My Favorite Mirror. For home & spa, Pink Olive features Matta, Lollia, Geodesis, Gianna Rose Atelier, and Soapylove. Pink Olive is also collaborating with Soapylove to be their US flagship store, carrying their entire line of Soapsicles in both boutiques as well as online. Another draw is vintage jewelry and accessories handpicked by Grace that will create a homey feel for the new store.
“My vision behind Pink Olive has always been to have little pink olives in different locations where local residents as well as visitors can find something unique for themselves and for gift-giving,” said Grace, previously a buyer for Barney’s New York and Bloomingdale’s. “The concept will continue to promote unique gifts for happiness and home.”
The Where and When
Pink Olive
167 Fifth Avenue
Park Slope, Brooklyn
Roofscape
Church spires and pigeons
Once hovered here,
Above the Park Slope
Roofs, everywhere.
Then up popped gray
TV antennas,
Bare, dead trees
Like Gehenna’s
These gave way to
Satellite dishes,
Fulfilling swollen
Cable wishes.
And now the Slope
Frowns and glowers
At the latest,
Cellphone
towers.
Adaptation,
Uglification,
All in the name of
Communication.
On Sunday, November 16th Israel
Siriri, a member of the Jewish community in Uganda, is going to be
speaking at Congregation Beth Elohim
Israel Siriri, Sunday, November 16, 7:30 pm
Israel Siriri, chairperson of the Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda,
will visit CBE on Sunday, November 16, at 7:30pm. He will speak about
Jewish life in Africa.Mr Siriri’s trip is sponsored by Kulanu an
organization dedicated to finding and assisting "lost" or dispersed
Jewish communities throughout the world, including those of Africa,
India, Burma, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. Kulanu’s activities
concerning these groups, include research, education, donation of
religious books and other materials, facilitation of Orthodox
conversion when requested, and help with relocation to Israel if
desired.
The Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) invites the public on November 18th to a morning meeting at the Brooklyn Public Library (details below) to a meeting with New York City Council Speaker Quinn to put forward ideas for legislation that would materially help small businesses in NYC to be competitive.
To participate, you must RSVP by Friday, November 14th, to register your attendance. You can do this by registering online at: http://www.bedc.org/roundtable.htm
Catherine Bohne of the Community Bookstore and the Buy in Brooklyn initiative had this to say:
Over the fall, the BEDC followed up on a request from NYC City Council Speaker Quinn for information about “What steps by city government would help small business compete and be successful?” The BEDC sent out a request for ideas to their membership. As a small business person, I reacted strongly to the most-voiced suggestion: Tax rebates for landlords who rent to local businesses. I was apalled to find that this was the only way anyone could think of to help small business — rewarding the fox for watching the hen house! I sent in numerous suggestions, all of which were incorporated into the BEDC’s summary of ideas, which you can view by clicking here: cedc_survey_answer.
I know it’s a god-awful time, but this really is an important opportunity. Please come and be heard. For once, city government actually wants to know what they should do, what we want them to do — and they’re willing to act. Let’s come together to look after us all!
The Where and When
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
8:00 am to 9:30 am
Brooklyn Public Library, Business Library
280 Cadman Plaza West
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Rabbi Ellen Lippmann (right) of Park Slope’s Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive Jewish congregation, delivering signatures and resources to Ms. Deanna Bitetti of Congresswoman Yvette Clark’s District 11 office.
Rabbi Lippmann organized the meeting with support from the Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture.
Yvette Clark has been out front in her opposition to the US occupation of Iraq and it’s hoped that she will take a leadership role on the pressing human rights issue of torture.
I went to the Cynthia Ozick reading a few years ago at BAM’s Eat, Drink, Be Literary
It’s like being at a cool wedding, sitting at tables with interesting people you don’t know. Then you watch the author and an interviewer sit on stage and try to have a cogent conversation in front of an audience and take questions from the crowd. They the author signs books.
That’s my blurb, here’s their’s
A unique series for sophisticated writers, readers, and eaters, Eat, Drink & Be Literary brings major contemporary authors to BAMcafé for intimate dinners, entertaining readings, and engaging discussions. Evenings begin at 6:30pm with a sumptuous buffet prepared by BAMcafé’s acclaimed executive chef, Tim Sullivan, served with select wines provided by Pine Ridge Winery and accompanied by live music. Following dinner, authors read from and are interviewed about their work, take questions from the audience, and sign books to conclude an evening of candid glimpses into the creative process and the rich writings it yields
.
–Louise Erdrich
Thu, January 15
–Nathan Englander
Thu, Jan 22 at 6:30pm
–Art Spiegelman
Thu, Feb 5 at 6:30pm
–Jimmy Breslin
Thu, Feb 19 at 6:30pm
–A.M. Homes
Thu, Mar 12 at 6:30pm
–Germaine Greer
Thu, Apr 2 at 6:30pm
–Richard Price
Thu, Apr 23 at 6:30pm
–Ha Jin
Thu, May 7 at 6:30pm
The 92YTribeca is a cool new space in Tribeca with a screening room, a main stage, an art gallery, a cafe, a lounge. It is located at 200 Hudson Street at Canal and Hudson. It’s pretty easy for Brooklynites to get to so they’d love to see a lot of us there. And the programming should be of interest to many OTBKB readers. They also have classes in: cartooning, creative Hebrew, From Trash to Treasure: a recycled crafts sampler
These two events at the new 92YTribeca caught my eye. I particularly like the idea of the screening of Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film, Local Hero, with a tasting of scotch (I love scotch!).
Sat, Nov, 15 at 8 pm
SHORT SLAM #1
It’s a poetry slam for the screen! Show your film (10 min or less on DVD only, please) and pad the house with your friends—audience noise determines the winner. Sign-up is on a first-come basis and will begin a half hour before the screening. Hosted by ATO Pictures producer Jonathan Dorfman. www.92YTribeca.org/film
Sun, Nov 16, 5 pm and 7:30 pm, $12
LOCAL HERO
Join us for a special screening on this film’s 25th anniversary, complete with a scotch tasting (mmm). Q&A with star Peter Riegert at 5 pm screening and introduction at 7:30 screening. Director: Bill Forsyth. 1983. 111 min.
www.92YTribeca.org/film
Local merchants once again throw open their doors to stay open late and create a holiday atmosphere, enabling you, the people of Park Slope, to do your holiday shopping . . . here!
Each participating business will 1). Stay open until 10pm, and 2). Offer some special promotion – Could be a sale, could be a giveaway, raffle, carolers, snow machine (it’s been done!), mulled wine, special hors d’oeuvres, etc. etc. The listings of participants grows daily!!!
Last year there were 150 participating businesses — who knows what will happen this year!?! In the current and impending economic climate, it’s more important than ever to keep our local economy strong and healthy, so let’s get together and Keep it Local!
The Buy in Brooklyn webpage is updated to reflect the 2008 Snowflake Celebration (go to www.buyinbrooklyn.com).
The Where and When
December 4 and 11
7 p.m. until closing
Snowflake Celebration
Stores on Seventh and Fifth Avenue
Sputtering Toward Oblivion
Now that the GOP’s unmasked
In the boardroom and the lunch line
It’s clear the gland old party’s a joke
With Sarah Palin the punchline.
Don’t forget about: “Cosmopolis: Immigrant Writers in New York,” the free literary discussion series, which introduces three trendsetting fiction authors to Brooklyn readers, as they join WNYC talk show host Leonard Lopate at the Brooklyn Public Library for a reading and dialogue about their work.
Ya missed my fave Junot Diaz. And Dalia Sofer, author of The September of Shiraz.
But Lara Vapnyar, author of Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love, will appear on Saturday, December 6 at 4 p.m.
As the Associated Press recently observed, she is “one of a growing group of Soviet-born immigrants to emerge as popular writers in the United States. Mixing drama, satire and personal experience, they explore the bitter, confusing but often comic tales of Russian and Soviet immigrants stuck between their troubled homeland and the country where they long sought to live but to which they have not yet adjusted.”
Having learned to speak English after emigrating to the U.S. from Moscow in 1994, Vapnyar has been called “a talented writer, possessed of an ample humor and insight and a humane sensibility” (New York Times Book Review). Her story collection was released in hardcover earlier this year by Pantheon Books.
The Where and When
December 6 at 4 p.m.
Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library
at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn
(#2 or #3 train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum).
The event is open to the general public and tickets are free.
Just got this in my in-box and it’s really interesting!
November 11, 2008 – Well-known architects, historians, novelists, developers and amusement industry experts from New York and around the world offer their “vision” for Coney Island’s future in a new report being released today by the Center for an Urban Future, a non-partisan think tank based in Manhattan . The report includes fresh ideas for remaking Coney Island into a 21st Century amusement district from novelists Jonathan Lethem and Kevin Baker; amusement and carnival experts such as the CEO of Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens and the executive director of the Big Apple Circus; innovative New York-based real estate developers Irwin Cohen and Greg O’Connell; architects and architectural critics from Michael Singer to Paul Goldberger; historians such as Mike Wallace and Michael Immerso; urban planner Alexander Garvin; video game developer Eric Zimmerman; creative entrepreneur Dianna Carlin; and a number of other influential thinkers.
The Center for an Urban Future’s aim with this report is to inject fresh ideas into the city’s ongoing planning for Coney Island ’s redevelopment that, despite its clear benefits, has come up short of creating a bold vision for restoring the area to its historic place as a truly great entertainment district. The Center reached out to innovative and creative individuals from New York and around the world, most of who have not previously weighed in with ideas about Coney Island ’s future.
The report features 23 brief Q&A’s, with the following individuals:
Jonathan Lethem, author, Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude
Eric Zimmerman, founder of video game development company Gamelab
Alexander Garvin, president and CEO, Alex Garvin & Associates
Mike Wallace, author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
Michael Immerso, author, Coney Island: The People’s Playground
Lars Liebst, CEO, Copenhagen ’s Tivoli Gardens , the second oldest amusement park in the world
Irwin Cohen, developer of the Chelsea Market
Dianna Carlin, founder of Lola Staar souvenir boutique and Dreamland roller rink
Lisa Chamberlain, executive director, Forum for Urban Design and author, Slackonomics
Michael Sorkin, principal, Michael Sorkin Studio and director, Graduate Urban Design Program at City College
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic, The New Yorker
Kevin Baker, author, Dreamland: A Novel
Gary Dunning, executive director, Big Apple Circus
Greg O’Connell, Red Hook-based developer of Beard Street warehouse and Fairway
Martin Pedersen, executive editor, Metropolis Magazine
Charles Canfield, president, Santa Cruz Seaside Company
Sharon Zukin, professor of sociology, Brooklyn College , author of Loft Living
Charles Denson, author, Coney Island: Lost and Found; executive director, Coney Island History Project
Karrie Jacobs, founding editor-in-chief of Dwell
Ellen Neises, associate principal of Field Operations, a landscape and urban design firm
Setha Low, director of the Public Space Research Group at CUNY; author, The Politics of Public Space
Michael Singer, principal, Michael Singer Studio
Ron Shiffman, co-founder, Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development
This report and all of the Coney Island visions are available here:
http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/ConeyIslandVisions.pdf
OTBKB is proud to present another installment of Why Shop Local?
Judi Pheiffer is co-owner of Bob and
Judi’s Coolectibles, and Co-Chairperson for the 5th Avenue Business
Improvement District (BID). She will be participating in the Snowflake Celebration
during the first two Thursdays in December (12/4 and 12/11) by offering
a 10% discount on all vintage holiday ornaments, xmas cards, and unique
mah jongg menorahs. She will also have yummy snacks to keep your energy
up for late night shopping.
Q: When did you open for business and why did you choose Park Slope?
A: We opened our business 11
years ago this December when Fifth Avenue was still uncharted
territory. We had bought our home a few blocks away between Fourth
& Fifth Ave years before, and kept hoping that Fifth Avenue would
begin to come back. We had been selling at the PS 321 Flea Market and
had developed a following. We wanted to open a store and figured we
should invest in our own neighborhood, so we followed our dream. And,
as they say, the rest is history.
Coolectibles Factoid:
We have always considered ourselves a “recycling” business. We live in
such a disposable world. There’s something so nice about giving an old
object a second, third or greater life span. Bob and I hand pick each
item for our store, and we especially love finding the items people
write down on our store’s “Wish List.”
Q: Which of the Sustainable Business Network NYC’s “Top Ten Reasons” to shop locally resonate most with you & your business?
A: Reason # 7. Local business owners invest in community.
From the moment we opened our store we knew we that our store’s
survival was tied into making our community better.
We helped re-start a defunct Merchant Association which has now become
a BID. We worked with our Community Board and elected officials to
plant trees, clean up graffiti, and get historic street lights.
Merchants like us support our local schools PTA, community gardens,
non-profits and neighborhood dance and music companies. It is all about
being a part of a neighborhood we love.
Shop Local Factoid: Local
businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less
likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
"Why Shop Local?”
is a communication initiative of the Buy in Brooklyn eam. To learn
more about Park Slope’s Buy in Brooklyn campaign, visit their website at http://www.buyinbrooklyn.com/— the site, with its ever-growing list of participants (and discounts!), will launch this weekend and be updated regularly.
Interview conducted by Rebeccah Welch
Just heard from someone who is starting Baby Butterflies, a bilingual music program at The Old First Reformed Church in 126 7th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn 11215 ( Side entrance 729 Carroll St.).
Baby
Butterflies wants to reach as many children as possible to educate
them through music, and different languages from a very early age.
These classes are very affordable because they want
to give every child the chance to travel the
world through the music.
Baby Butterflies is having two days of free Bilingual Spanish Music Classes on
Friday December 5 and 9 from 9:30 to 12:15. The classes will start on
January 8, 2009.
The Where and When
December 5 and 9 at Old First Church
729 Carroll Street
9:30am Caterpillar Music (0 to 5)
10:30am Butterflies Music, Theater and Movement (3 to 5)
11:30am Butterflies Artists and Chefs
An artist I love. She has a show opening on November 14th at 31 Grand in Williamsburg. in Manhattan.
I will be there. You?
The latest from Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook. Greetings, salutations, political analysis and news about the pub quiz at Rocky’s.
Greetings, Pub Quiz Election Merriment Mounters…
It’s over. In fact, it’s been over for a week as I write this.
It still feels good. It’s still momentous. It still ranks with those rarest of instants, the ones we play over and over when we need a lift. Or when we simply can’t believe it’s happened.
Yes, this is dangerous stuff, luxuriating in a man’s legacy when he hasn’t even taken office yet.
So what. A lot of us have never been happy — truly happy — over a president’s election. I’ve been voting since 1980. Never…ever…been happy. Relieved, sure. But it’s not the same, not even close.
There was dancing in the streets. On our way home from Rocky’s Election Night Party, total strangers were momentary cohorts. It was okay to make and break bonds just to feel the fidgety joy well up and overwhelm all over again.
How you reacted to this election is the clearest window into your heart and soul as any this country has ever produced. I know a lot of Republicans, a lot of Democrats, and a lot of socialists and communists. For those of us on the leftier side of the spectrum, this is the first time we’ve rejoiced when the Big Checkmark went up next to someone’s name. Democrats had Kennedy and Johnson, Carter and Clinton, and Republicans had them a whole bunch of Nixon, Ford and all manner of Bush.
The rest of us here on the Freedom Road…nuthin’. ‘Til now, anyway. There have been other emotional, searing moments: Nelson Mandela walking out of prison, Stephane Matteau’s goal in ’94, the ball going through Bill Buckner’s legs.
That’s why pure joy is so much fun…because it happens so rarely.
Now the hard work starts, for all of us. In a final dip into the Big Kettle of Sports Parlance, here’s hoping that President-Elect Obama isn’t the highly-touted phenom who never measures up. Sure, he’ll do a lot of very centrist things. But there are centrists that govern and centrists too afraid to. For now, the President-Elect continues to get my support.
* * * * * * * *
Two sad losses last several days — the first, Studs Terkel, the amazing Chicagoan whose oral histories gave voice to working people when the halls of academia couldn’t be bothered. His books, including Working, Hard Times and The Good War were celebrated and reviled. Celebrated by people with hearts, reviled by stuffy higher-ed sorts who believed that only they controlled the keys that unlock history.
Terkel was vibrant, and he saw our march through time in bright, bold colors. “That’s what we’re missing,” he said, ruing our too genteel discourse. “We’re missing argument. We’re missing debate. We’re missing colloquy. We’re missing all sorts of things. Instead, we’re accepting.”
It blows, completely blows, that Terkel died before Obama’s stunning victory.
So good was Terkel that he was one of the few things my step-father and I could agree on. For Christmas one year I gave him The Good War, and he didn’t put it down ’til he was done. My step-father has never fully trusted the books I’ve given him. This one, there was no question.
“I want a language that speaks the truth,” Terkel once said. He not only found it, he wrote in it. Fluently.
And then, a couple of days ago, Miriam Makeba left the building. She’d just come off stage in Italy when she collapsed. She’d been performing at a benefit concert for Roberto Saviano, a reporter the local organized crime gang had targeted for death just for writing about them.
It’s Miriam Makeba. You know her history — fighting apartheid first at home and then, from 1960 ’til the ’90s, kept out by the spiteful and fearful Afrikaaner government. She could sing anything to anyone, make people dance and cry at the same time. Makeba’s voice was the perfect clarion call for the South African freedom movement — no mean thing, given the government’s banning of her music at home all those years.
“”I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa, and the people, without even realizing.” Makeba may not have…but in the townships in South Africa and people fighting to end apartheid everywhere else, everyone else realized, picking up the frequencies of freedom every time she sang.
Forgotten is the fact that South Africa wasn’t the only place her music was banned. In the United States, her marriage to Stokely Carmichael cost her record deals, concerts and t.v. appearances. And Makeba always protested that she wasn’t a political singer. That, of course, just made people pay closer attention.
The played-out metaphor about one door opening when another closes seems fitting here. Obama’s election is so electrifying and hopeful — at the same time we lose two of the world’s greatest hope merchants. Me, I think the door-closing-another-opening is a rationale to painful to evoke here. Sure, everyone dies. But it doesn’t mean the Big Clock has to be this heartless.
Time to immerse ourselves in Hard Times and sing “Pata Pata.” Might help in these days of hope and fear.
This week’s Rocky Sullivan’s Pub Quiz will be a not-long-’til-the-holidays General Knowledge affair. Come early for dinner, stay for the Quiz and attendant imbibing.
This week’s Guest Round is helmed by Amanda Hulsey, who asks only one thing from you — know all the ingredients in her Pot Luck for Masters quiz. This week’s Guest Music Round DJ is Lynley Wheaton, whose mix bases itself on a competition as old as the Pyramids…but fresh as today’s hit parades.
And…of course…there’s this great stuff.
* Individual potable prizes after each round;
* MissWit tee shirts — free tee shirts from Brooklyn’s most appropriately-attitudinal tee-shirt emporium.
* Rocky Sullivan’s Pub Quiz SuperMix Compilation CD — answer a super-tough question and win a mix CD of full versions of all the songs in this week’s Music Round;
* Special prizes from the Quizmaster’s Magic Bag Of Stuff You Can Live Without But Why Would You?
* Grand Prize — a thirst-slaking round for everyone on the winning team.DON’T FORGET: As is custom, somewhere in this e-mail is a clue for this week’s Pre-Quiz Bonus Question. Get it right and your team earns five points before the Quiz has started.
The Big Clock ticks away…but it stands aside when Quiz Time comes…
Scott M.X.
Rocky’s Quizmaster* * * * * * * *
Rocky Sullivan’s Pub Quiz
General Knowledge Night
with Quizmaster Scott M.X. Turner
This Thursday evening, November 13th
8:00 pm
free admission, potable prizes, per chance wearable winners and aural awards
Rocky Sullivan’s
34 Van Dyke Street
Red Hook, Brooklyn
F/G to Smith/9th Streer -or- F/R to 4th Avenue/9th Street Stations
transfer for the B77 Bus to corner of Van Dyke & Dwight Street, Red Hook
free Ikea shuttle buses and ferries, go here for more info: http://info.ikea-usa.com/brooklyn/
http://www.rockysullivans.com/quiz.html
The latest in Brooklyn Based ongoing series of old-school but useful services is the cobbler and leather repair guide.
Sure, you could go out and buy new $250 boots this fall, or you could cough up a week’s worth of coffee money to rework last year’s pair. A rip in your leather tote? Need a suede bag cleaned? We asked some friends of Brooklyn Based where they recommend.
They included my tip.
Brooklyn Heights Shoe Master
100 Henry Street, Brooklyn Heights
(718) 243-2355
A BB reader reports, “The shoe repair place in the Clark Street station of the 2/3 train is good.” Clear and to the point, enough said
This service is NOT in Brooklyn; it’s in Washington, DC. But I thought it sounded interesting and like something we should have in Park Slope.
Brighter Days Collective is a worker self-managed dog walking service. That means that the people who do the work make the executive decisions about how it’s done. In their own words:
"It also means that you as the client have a direct and accountable relationship with the person working with your companion animal. Your furry one is not out with just any yahoo; they’re out with the Top Brass, because here – we’re all Top Brass."
By removing that level of administration, Brighter Days has made their services far more affordable than the typical pet care company. Everyone at Happy Days has health benefits, paid vacation, and "the sort of control over our work that most folks dream about." In their own words again:
"We think life is about more than punching a clock. In a reasonable world, each of us would have the surplus time and energy to be fully realized community members, siblings, children, neighbors, lovers, intellectuals, parents, and whatever else our hearts might long for. And we’d have the opportunity to meaningfully determine the course of our lives and our communities.
Brighter Days is our way of putting that ethic into practice.
Whether it’s our commitment to workplace democracy, our commitment to ecologically sustainable tools and materials (relying on bikes rather than cars, using biodegradable waste bags, etc), our relationship to grassroots community organizations, or our commitment to empowering our workers and clients alike to pursue lives that go beyond self-interest and survival… This is more than just a job to us.
It’s an expression of our belief that each of us is capable of better. Our labor should enrich and celebrate our lives, not degrade and shorten them."
Here’s a shout out Cheryl Berkowitz, a graphic designer in Park Slope, who has designed a Hanukkah Card
especially for Brooklynites!
It is in a few shops including Scaredy
Kat, Artez’n, and 3R Living, and is sold online: http://berkowhat.com/hanukkah
These
100% recycled cards will show your local pride! Buy now using paypal,
or contact Cheryl about wholesale prices!
Set of Six Hanukkah Cards and Envelopes: $18
Next week at Brooklyn Reading Works:
Michael Winks’ absurdist comedy “Baby Love,” takes an acerbic look at two self-absorbed parents who can’t be bothered to tend to a cranky baby. They trade him for a “grownup” baby who progresses in his development at such a speed, they hope to have him off to college in a matter of months! But to quote Radiohead, the “Karma Police” will have their way with this couple. Oh, Baby!
Come to the reading, featuring Linda Larson, Broadway actress and Children’s School mom. This play will provoke laughter and sadness as the course of true love between a parent and child never was supposed to run smooth.
The Where and When
Thursday, November 20 at 8 p.m.
The Old Stone House
in Park Slope’s JJ Byrne Park Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
718-768-3195
Ego Central
Bloomberg Market Data, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg
Radio, Bloomberg Magazines . . .
The list goes on without pity;
Surprised he wants the next one
To be called Bloomberg City?
