Outside.in, the brainchild of Park Slope’s Steven Berlin Johnson, author of Emergence and Interface Culture, and a generous sponsor of the Brooklyn Blogfest is launching Geo Toolkit, a major geo-analytics tool for local content publishers and bloggers. In this email from Outside.in, Josh Mack outlines what the Geo Toolkit offer place bloggers:

We’re launching with two key pieces:

* My Feed: We show you
your feed and posts and how our systems have geotagged them — we’ll
show you regions and places that we’ve found in your posts.  You can
add/edit etc…  In due course we’ll let you grab this new geo-enabled
rss feed for future syndication

* My Stats: We show you all the local metadata from your site:
what places and regions your write about most and how that compares to
other publishers in your area; how you rank in each market; which posts
get the most links from your others and to whom you are linking the
most.

We will be following up soon with some more features, like
embedable widgets that showcase this metadata in meaningful ways for
users (think "top places" and "nearby places").

But for now, we’re really excited about what we see as the first and only analytics tool focused on local publishers.

As anyone who’s ever worked at a computer start up knows, this launch follows several months of very hard work. But now they’re breaking out the bubbly to announce what they call the first and only set of tools designed specifically for local content creators.

Since the beginning, Outside.in has focused on celebrating and promoting placebloggers and
others who write about neighborhood faces and places.

They hope that by using GeoToolkit, bloggers and other Internet content publishers will become even better at what they do. Apparently, they’ve  got lots more goodies on the way, so stay tuned.

GeoToolkit
helps both publishers who write full and part-time time (the occasional
story about a diner, a local policy meeting, new construction,
playground moment, or great new local store) get better distribution on
our site and our partners’ sites, as well as amazing stats to get more
connected to their neighborhoods. Still to come: gnarly widgets and the
option to start making some money.

Okay. Show me the money, guys.

http://outside.in/toolkit

The Columbia Summer Winds will be playing at Old First Church on 7th Avenue and Carroll Street in
Park
Slope, Brooklyn at 8pm on Wednesday evening, July 16.  That’s tonight folks.

The Columbia Summer Winds was formed in 2002 as an offshoot of the Columbia
University Wind Ensemble.  Based in New York City, we have among us one of
the finest collections of talented amateur musicians in the world, from which we
draw our membership.  We thus strive to play the finest literature
available, from orchestra transcriptions to classic Sousa marches; from Broadway
showtunes to the most current movie soundtracks.  Since its inception, CSW
has been committed to playing free concerts of the best wind music in the parks
of Manhattan.  We have given concerts in such diverse outdoor venues as
Riverside Park, East River Park, Washington Square Park, Battery Park, South
Street Seaport, Morningside Park, and Columbia’s own Low Plaza.

This is a rare indoor performance for this group. The performance is free and open to the public.

An informative note from Tom Grey, District Director for City Council Member Bill de Blasio.

This is to inform you that MTA NYC Transit will be closing the Carroll
Street F station’s plaza entrance at 2nd Place and Smith Street on
Monday, July 28, 2008 due to the construction development which is
currently being performed by Oliver Developments at 360 Smith Street
(a.k.a. 131 2nd Place).  Because the safety of our customers is of
utmost concern, this closure will be in effect on a 24-hour, 7 days per
week basis for 6-8 months (subject to the progress of the construction
project).

Please note this is only an entrance closure, and the station will be
open for business at all times.  Customers will be asked to use the two
other station entrances at 2nd Street and President Street.  We have
installed two additional high-wheel entrances/exits for customer usage
at 2nd Street, and a station agent will be on duty at all times at the
2nd Street entrance.  We will be posting signs at the station in short
time which will notify our customers about the entrance closure and
alternate entrances.

NYC Transit will have an engineer on site at all times during this
construction project in order to ensure the structural integrity of the
station and the safety of our customers.  We will be happy to provide
you with periodic updates on the station-entrance reopening schedule as
more information becomes available.  In the meantime, you can always
contact me via e-mail or by calling me if you have any questions or
concerns regarding his project.

Sincerely,
Tom Gray
District Director
City Council Member Bill de Blasio
(718) 854-9791
(718) 854-1146 Fax

In 2003, four Brooklyn personal trainers decided to leave their gyms behind and create a new kind of health club focused on one-on-one personal training and specialized exercise classes set in a
non-competitive environment.

Their brainchild, Fitness Collective, consists of a team of professional personal trainers, coaches, and nutritionists dedicated to motivating and inspiring their community to live stronger, healthier lives.

The Fitness Collective is opening its third location at 42 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Residents of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Fort Greene, and Boerum Hill are invited to take part in a grand opening celebration on August 2nd with fun activities and healthy snacks and beverages for the entire family.

Everyone is welcome to participate in any of the Fitclub exercise classes that day and also schedule a free, trial personal training session for the opening week!

They will be offering childcare services on-site from 12pm–4pm, and the service is free for the first 20 guests.

Tonight in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope. This critically acclaimed film, which is part of BFW’s Democracy in Action series, starts at sundown but there’s usually a fun short beforehand.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a Cold War political thriller film adapted by George Axelrod from the 1959 thriller novel, by Richard Condon.

It was directed by John Frankenheimer and stars Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh. T

Quick synopsis: The son of a prominent, right-wing political family has been brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for the International Communist Conspiracy. The Manchurian Candidate was nationally released on Wednesday, October 24, 1962, at the zenith of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Thanks to Not Only Brooklyn, the great, great weekly e-newsletter produced by Neil Feldman about free cultural events in Brooklyn and other parts of the city, I know about this event in Brooklyn Bridge Park. You too can get Neil’s fantastic cultural resource, which is a labor of love and a great service to everyone who loves the arts in NYC. In fact, I urge that you subscribe. Here’s Neil’s pitch:

If you know of anybody who might enjoy receiving Not Only Brooklyn, make sure to tell them to email me directly at arbrunr(at)aol(dot)com with the message "Subscribe to NOB" and their first and last name, so it is legal to add them to the subscription list.

6-9 p.m on Wednesday night, Brooklyn Bridge Park: Music At The Bridge Welcomes Zebulon  Rain or shine.

The Park continues its new music series, inviting Brooklyn’s best music clubs to curate an evening in the Tobacco Warehouse tent. Tonight, Zebulon the Williamsburg club owned by two French brothers presents Stuart Bogie reedsman and his Superhuman Happiness project; Charles Gayle at All About Jazz the avant-gardist who spent some twenty years homeless but often playing saxophone and bass clarinet on Lower East Side streets, accompanied tonight by Shanir Blumenkranz bass and Michael Wimberly drums; Colin STETSON master of the amazing bass saxophone and neo-folk singer-songwriter Sharon van Etten. FREE! Dock St & Water St

A slew of new burger joints are popping up all over the Slope. OTBKB friend and reader Elliot tells me that The Brooklyn Burger Bar on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street now has a new name and owner.

What is the name, Elliot?

The old place was owned by Greg, of Greg’s Express.

Then there’s Corner Burger which has taken over the space formerly occupied by Mediterra on Fifth Avenue and 6th Street.

Finally, who can forget Five Guys, the burger chain going into part of the vacated D’Agostino space on Seventh Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets.

Here’s a shout out for two new workshops that Jezra Kaye is running. One is on July 29th, the other is on September 13th. Take it from me, these are REALLY useful workshops. I took Presto Presentation and it was an immensely valuable three hours. Unforgettable.

Here’s the blurbage from Jezra Kaye who would love to help you become a great speaker:

Lately, I’ve heard from lots of people who think that, because they feel uncomfortable when they give a presentation, they must be doing it wrong.

The truth is, you should feel uncomfortable; you’re making a SPEECH!

Think about it:

There you stand in front of your peers.  Your boss.  A prospective client.  Your dissertation committee.  Your community group.

Everyone expects you to be brilliant (or, at the very least, superbly well-informed).

Everyone feels free to judge (or, at the very least, comment on) your performance.

And, just to add insult to injury, everyone thinks you should "act natural."

Could there possibly be a more twisted instruction than "act natural"?  I can’t think of one, except perhaps "be yourself"–something that people also think you should be able to do with a spotlight shining in your eyes!

I happened upon her music at the Zebulon website and then went over to her MySpace page. She’s got this sultry, low, expressive voice that blew me away immediately. Wow. There’s a song on her page called "An American in Paris" that is just gorgeous!

I’m not sure if she lives in Brooklyn but she does play in Williamsburg. According to her MySpace page, she travels to Paris and San Francisco (she’s got good taste places, that’s for sure).

Here’s a review by Margaret Coble from Curve Magazine:

With phrasing that reminds me of India. Arie, but with a much deeper,
smokier voice that sits somewhere between Nina Simone and Erykah
Badu–particularly on this six-song EP’s pop-friendly, lead-off track,
"I’ve Seen Days"–Krystle Warren totally does it for me. The Kansas
City, Mo.,-bred singer-songwriter uniquely melds jazz and folk in a way
that’s taken New York City by storm: Mark my words, she’s going to be
huge. This debut EP is just a teaser to get us going while Warren and
her band, the Faculty, finish their full-length album, entitled
Circles, to be released later this year. In the meantime, these six
songs (plus a few more on her MySpace page) will have to do. From the
languorous bass lines of the slow-burning, jazzy bump-n-grinder "The
New Astrologer" to the funkier tropicalia interludes of the more
up-tempo "A Song for Holly," the EP showcases Warren’s diverse skills
and instantly memorable vocals. Do yourself a favor and search YouTube
for her videos–she’s a hottie, too.

Sorry folks. But today is going to be a light day blog-wise, because I’m going off to have my first, yes my first, colonoscopy.

Why, in just a few hours, there will be a huge endoscope up my…

But it’s not necessary to explain any more.

No, I’m not going to be the Katie Couric of the Blogosphere and webcast my colonoscopy for all to see but I did think I would share all the excitement with you.

It’s the preparation for this exam, which can detect colon cancer and is prudent when you reach the ripe old age of 50 and/or have colon cancer in the family, that’s interesting.

In fact, the prep for the procedure is what everyone moans and groans about. Yesterday I was on a liquid diet which meant lots of water, green jello and chicken broth (leftover wonton soup without the wontons from Sczhuan Delight).

At 4 p.m. I had to take 20 huge laxative pills and 50 ounces of water. This was followed by a cleansing of my colon in the bathroom. At 8 p.m. it was 12 more pills and lots of water…

Now I’m off to the doctor office on the Upper East Side and should be back in Brooklyn by noon. Hepcat is all a-twitter because I’m going under anesthesia and that makes him very nervous.

"I’m used to you being the old reliable one," he cooed. It was very romantic and all.

For those of you putting off having this exam — don’t. Colon cancer is very treatable when detected early and colonscopy is the best way to find it.

Gowanus Lounge reports some very alarming news about my favorite place to get great meats, breads, ready-to-heat Italian dishes and sandwiches: A&S Pork, one of the last holdouts of the real Fifth Avenue. It is not, however, as GL reports the last butcher shop in Park Slope. Western Beef on Fifth Avenue near 7th Street is also a great option.   aclose in June (I just found out thanks to an email from Gowanus Lounge). Here’s an excerpt from Gowanus Lounge about A&S:

On Friday, we posted a photo of the A&S Pork Store on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. We put it up because it was a GL Flickr Pool picture and just thought it was a cool image. What we’ve learned since then is that the A&S Park Store, which is the last surviving butcher shop in Park Slope, will be closing soon. The blogger who does Adventures of a Gal, which often touches on Brooklyn real estate issues, emailed us to say that the stores, which has been in the same location since 1942, is being “forced to move out due to a skyrocketing rent, they only have 3 months to find another place.”

I’ve been thinking about Nancy, Nancy, that shop on Fifth Avenue that closed on May 29th. I’ve been wondering what the owner is up to. Here’s her blog post about her final day. She’s still selling stuff on her website.

WELL… its all over but the crying. That never seems to end. The store is closed and we are packing it up into boxes to be moved into storage until it all gets unpacked again, probably at NancyNancy@theBeach. Thats not a site or anything, I just like the name. The official closing day, last Saturday the 24th was really nice, as closing your business after 10 years can be nice. There were lots of hugs and cupcakes and flowers and I’ve probably seen almost every special customer from the past 10 years. Just a few hold outs. It was really loving and satisfying. I actually showed up and experienced the entire day with the appropriate emotional responses. Quite Mature I must say. Maura and I even managed to go see London through the telescope at Fulton Landing, on the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge, very cool and to top off the Brooklyn experience we wandered into St. Anns Warehouse and  stumbled upon the tiny toy theater museum. What could make me happier than a combo, of miniatures and theater. Truly inspiring and an amazing way to end the Brooklyn Days of our lives… The next day I was “stupid tired” I couldn’t even string a sentence together.  It was a beautiful almost warm Memorial Day weekend. Enjoyed Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and a small town parade. How much better does it get? For the moment I am grateful.  Thank you to everyone who has bought a card or a fairy, or a mini jesus, or just wandered around and laughed. So many people talked about finding refuge in the store. So what if I didn’t make any money. I think I said before, how cool is it to be a fond memory in someones life? Very Very Cool. I humblyThank You.

Thanks to Gowanus Lounge, I am now happily aware of Adventures of a Gal. The blogger has lived in a Carroll Street apartment for five years, and is now looking with her husband, for a house or apartment in Jersey City. Here’s a post about the pain of being priced out of where you want to live.

I guess you get to a point with anything — when the love just stops. I have been thinking about it and I think Brooklyn has stopped loving me (for now). That’s not to say that we won’t eventually come back here because we love Brooklyn, I think it’s just the time to leave for a bit. It seems many others are having the same problems as we are and hence, the same thoughts.

When you are getting priced out of your own hood (happening a lot lately in my fine borough) it makes it hard to move on with future plans for your life. Yes, it’s convenient to travel to our jobs, but is that enough? It’s finally a time in our lives when we can buy a property and it’s hard to give that up just because the place we live is too overpriced and inflated to buy anything.

Park Slope, Red Hook, Williamsburg, DUMBO and BoCoCa have been referred to as Brooklyn’s “Creative Crescent,” do to a high volume of self-employed creative professionals. Park Slope is in first place with over 3,500 self-employed creative pros reported in 2003. Now, there are many more. Recently, with the strange shift in the NYC real estate market, this group is getting priced out of Brooklyn. Not long ago, many of people like these professionals and a large number of artists were priced out of Manhattan. It didn’t take long to price the whole population out of Brooklyn. This crisis is being called the “single largest challenge facing New York’s creative core.”

What would New York be, – hell, what would BROOKLYN be – without this “creative core”? If all of the artists and designers, etc. keep being priced out of this town, where will they go? We are going to Jersey City, but where are all the others going? And what will this borough be in a few more years? Without culture, without art (or maybe just without the artists)… Whatever the case may be, the prospect seems bleak.

Here’s something interesting for kids to do this summer. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, the New
York Audubon and the Coastal Marine Resource Center, invite children
(and adults) of all ages to experience the birds and marine life of
Brooklyn Bridge Park.

As most of you know, today (July 14th) marks the end of the Park Slope parking vacation. In other words it’s back to the tyranny of alternate side of the street parking. But there’s good news, too. According to a press release from the DOT, in many cases parking restrictions are being reduced from three-hour intervals down to two. Woo hoo.

In Park Slope, where the first phase of this
sign replacement project started on May 19 and is now complete, the
2,800 newly posted ASP regulations will take effect and become
enforceable on Monday, July 14.

In many cases, residential street cleaning parking restrictions are
being reduced from three-hour intervals to just 90 minutes, and from
twice a week to just once a week, to ease parking for local residents.
On commercial corridors, some streets will now be cleaned more often
and regulations will be better coordinated to help ensure some curbside
parking for local shoppers. The new rules were established by the
Department of Sanitation.

Here are some of the specifics from the DOT website:

Monday, July 14, new ASP regulations will take effect within the following borders of Park Slope:

North: Pacific Street (included) from 4th Avenue to 6th Avenue
6th Avenue (not included) from Pacific Street to Flatbush Avenue
West side of Flatbush Avenue (included) from 6th Avenue to Plaza Street West

East: Plaza Street West (included) from Flatbush Avenue to Union Street
Prospect Park West (included) from Union Street to Bartel Pritchard Square
Bartel Pritchard Square (included) from Prospect Park West to 15th Street

South: 15th Street (not included) from Prospect Park West to 4th Avenue

West: 4th Avenue (not included) from 15th Street to Saint Mark’s
Place 4th Avenue (included) from Saint Mark’s Place to Pacific Street

For more information, please contact the Citizen Service Center at 311 or visit the Department of Sanitation’s web site at www.nyc.gov/sanitation, or contact Brooklyn Community Board 6 at (718) 643-3027 or online at www.BrooklynCB6.org.

I hope the rain stops so that the Philharmonic Concert tonight in Long Meadow in Prospect Park can go on as planned. Here are the ‘tails from the Prospect Park website.  I will keep you posted (with the help of the Park’s oracle, Eugene Patron, as to whether it’s on or off:

Monday, July 14, 8 p.m.
Each year, the New York Philharmonic returns to Prospect Park’s Long Meadow Ballfields for
an amazing free concert under the stars.  This year’s program will
include Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K.125a; Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 4; and Sibelius’ Finlandia.  Alan Gilbert will conduct; Sheryl Staples and Michelle Kim will be featured on violin.

A
fireworks display rounds out the evening. The concert space features a
state-of-the-art sound system with a wireless broadcast network and 24
15-foot speaker towers.  Park concessions will be on hand, selling hot
dogs, ice cream, and other great summertime refreshments.

Brooklyn Beat of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn filed this report.

At around 12 noon, a bucket that apparently dropped from the repair and construction work occuring at 66 Court Street (at Livingston Street) and crashed through the roof of a NYC Department of Environmental Protection vehicle parked in front of the building.

It appeared that the bucket contained construction mortar and demolished the roof of the car. It further appears that no one was hurt. Spectators, under the nearby scaffolding, gathered round to view the accident. Construction workers continued to do their job, apparently unaware of the mayhem the bucket drop had caused.

You’ve heard of the Brooklyn Writers Space in Park Slope, and Room 58 in Gowanus. Well, here comes the Ditmas Workspace set to open next week. Sounds like a great idea.

Ditmas Workspace in the heart of Ditmas Park, occupies a beautiful professional office space on the corner of Ditmas Avenue and East 17th Street, a short walk for Ditmas Park residents and just two blocks from the Newkirk Avenue B and Q stop, and three blocks from the Cortelyou Road stop.

Full-time and part-time members have access to all the amenities of an office: a desk, chair, wireless Internet, printer/scanner/copier/fax, tea and coffee, a quiet space to work, and a community of writers, editors, telecommuters, bloggers, graphic designers, and other professionals.

They are also considering making the space available in the evenings for meetings, classes, and other gatherings.

For tours, rates, and other membership information, please contact Liena by emailing LZS@ditmasworkspace.com.

I just got this from Verse Responder, Leon Freilich.

On Sunday, the Park Slope Food Coop is collecting food for CHIPS, the Fourth Avenue soup kitchen. Anyone who wants an instant reward for his/her good deed may claim an on-the-spot personalized quatrain from the Verse Responder, who’ll be on hand both mornings. Couples, of course, may prefer couplets.

Dry, packaged food items only. Rhymes will also be dry though not packaged.

Sorry I didn’t put this up sooner. But it’s a really cool event and a great way to teach your kid to ride a bike!

WHAT: Ready to toss the training wheels? Take your kids to a free Bike New York class to learn the basics of biking in a safe, social setting. Best of all there’s no running behind the bike, strained backs, scraped knees, or frayed nerves. So far this year, more than 700 kids and their parents learned this method, and the program received the 2007 Best of Parks Best Partnership Award.
WHO: Children with their parents; recommended for ages 5 and up. Bikes and helmets required. Pre-register at http://www.bikenewyork.org/education/classes/teach_child.html.
WHEN/WHERE:
Sunday, July 13, 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m., Clinton Ave. between Myrtle Ave. and Willoughby Ave., Fort Greene, Brooklyn, as part of BAM’s AfroPunk Block Party. Closest subway: G train to Clinton/Washington Aves.

Well, people are writing. Actually, they’re typing away on their computer keyboards, They’re reading, thinking, researching, planning, organizing; doing what writers do every day, day in and day out.

The Brooklyn Writers Space is, from what a hear, a bee hive of writing activity. Located at 58 Garfield Place, the cost is  $310 per quarter for full time membership (24/7 access to the space) $180 per quarter for part time membership (weekday evenings after 6:00pm and anytime on the weekends) $220 per quarter for part time 2 membership (after 3:30p weekdays/anytime on weekends)

If you live in Ditmas Park, the new Ditmas Workspace is a great option for this kind of thing.

On the Brooklyn Writers Space website, there’s a list of some of the authors and their books. What a fun, interesting list. I’m sure there are plenty more writers over there, with published works. This is just a sampling.

Go to the site’s Made In Brooklyn section and see what these authors have published.

Paula Bernstein
Alexandra Chasin
Erin Courtney
Adam Davies
Adam Fawer
Marian Fontana
Alex Halberstadt
Aimee Molloy
Aaron Naparstek
Margo Rabb
Alexandra Schwartz
Jacob Slichter
Alison Smith
Amy Sohn
Susan Gregory Thomas
Jonah Winter
Alice Wu
Adam Zucker

Ann Farmer in the Times has a lovely feature about Brenda Becker’s fabulous blog, A Year in the Park. The article is called “Using Prospect Park as a Yearlong Oasis for the City Soul.”

Ms. Becker started her blog, “Prospect: A Year in the Park” (www.ayearinthepark.typepad.com) at the start of 2008 when she vowed to visit the park in Brooklyn every day for an entire year and tell or show at least “one cool thing” from each outing.

Ms. Becker, who is a writer, artist, bookmaker and a mother, has lived in Flatbush, less than one block from the park, for 21 years. But until now, she rarely visited. Her motivation was partly to upend her sedentary ways. But she also wanted to see what emotional effect the park might have on her.

“After a year,” she began her first entry, dated Jan. 2, “we’ll see if I am any less avoidant, mopey, somnolent and irritable; we’ll assess whether I can walk up a flight of subway stairs without gasping for breath at the tender age of 50; we’ll find out whether a daily encounter with the masterpiece of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux is better than Effexor.” (Effexor is an antidepressant drug).

More than 150 witty, engaging and informative postings (with photographs) have followed. And even though Ms. Becker has not completely fulfilled her vow to visit the park every day, her many visits have provided ample opportunity for foraging from one corner to the next, discovering much of its natural bounty as well as many of its man-made secrets

.

Hepcat and I were walking up Fifth Avenue and noticed that Mediterra Restaurant on Sixth Street has a new sign: Corner Burger, Park Slope Brooklyn.

I did a real double take. Huh. What happened to Mediterra. Never got a chance to try that place.

First it was the Indain food side of The Park Slope Chip Shop, then it was a Turkish place, then Mediterra, now this. It’s a troubled restaurant spot for sure. Some are calling it cursed.

Has anyone had a burger at the Corner Burger?