Oh the humiliation. The sense of failure. The exasperation and the annoyance: getting suspended from the Food Coop is SUCH A DRAG.

This is an excerpt from Saturday's NY Times courtesy of Verse Responder Leon Freilich, who was obviously speechless.

I doubt he's ever been suspended.

The picture is pricelss.

"I BOUNDED off the Q train in Brooklyn one night last winter and
headed to Union Street, past the yogurt shop and the firehouse, to do
some grocery shopping. But my plans soon went awry.

“You’re suspended,” the entrance worker at the Park Slope Food Coop announced as I swiped my membership card. Some entrance workers speak
softly, but not this one. Worse, there were a dozen other shoppers
within earshot."

Flushed, defeated and taken aback — I knew I owed the co-op some work,
but I didn’t know I had been blacklisted — I slunk around the corner
for a takeout burrito. But no amount of mushrooms and spinach could
diminish my shame and guilt.

When I was a kid I LOVED The Soupy Sales Show, a real NYC local TV institution.

Soupy Sales, who died yesterday in hospice at the age of 83, was corny, funny, sweet and sometimes a little too adult for kids. But that was part of the fun. In fact, he was thrown off the air for a week because of a joke tellling listeners to go to their mothers'
purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of
the presidents.

The show included puppets with names like White Fang, Black
Tooth and Pookie, and off-camera characters, including the
infamous naked girl.

And the best best part of the show: when a co-star lobbed a pie into Soupy's face. According to Soupy, he was hit by more than
25,000 pies in his lifetime

I was just reminded of a classic Soupy Sales schtick: The Mouse. The Mouse was Soupy's dance. He would bare his upper teeth,
raise his hands to his ears and wiggled his fingers while chewing in
time to the music.

Omigod: I just remembered he was often a contestant on What's My Line? a local game show I used to watch, too. Great, great show.

In this Sunday's NY Times Magazine, an article about the Gowanus Canal. Here an excerpt:

MOVIES:  BAM: Amelia, The Informant!, Coco Before Chanel, Capitalism: A Love Story. Pavilion: Where the Wild Things Are, Toy Story, Toy Story 2 in 3-D, Amelia, Paranormal Activities, Whip It…

PERFORMANCE:  BAM: Meredith Monk: Songs of Ascension; The Legend of Ichabod Crane thru Oct. 31 at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Performances: Oct 17, 18, 24, 25, 31. $10 each, or $30 for 4.

MUSIC:  BAM Cafe: Cocomama, an international group of women based in New York City.
Originally from as far flung places as Cuba, France, Argentina, Israel,
Puerto Rico and Wisconsin, they play "hard-hitting", original Latin
music deeply rooted in Afro-Caribbean rhythms: Saturday at 9 PM.

Barbes: Ljova and Kontraband: Eastern-European and Gypsy melodies, Latin rhythms, Jazz-inspired
improvisations, and deeply rooted Classical forms are given new
meanings in original compositions with a nostalgic gaze towards the
past on Saturday night at 10 PM.

Union Hall: The Loom and Mia Riddle and her band on Saturday night.

At Irondale Center 85 South Oxford Street in Fort Greene on Friday and Saturday at 8 PM: Mississippi based artists
M.U.G.A.B.E.E  will
bring their unique blend of hip hop,
jazz, spoken word to the Irondale center for an exclusive, two-night engagement
.featuring exceptional jazz pianist Courtney Bryan and a host of guest
musicians in a return engagement to Brooklyn’s Irondale Center.

PARTY DATE/AUCTION: On Sunday at 7:30 PM at the Bellhouse: In the romantic spirit of Black Bag's latest film, "Single Male Survivor", we'll be hosting the Last Night On Earth Date Auction of eligible New Yorkers of all tastes and persuasions.  Free Lighthouse Ale. Each date comes with a fabulous prize, including donations from MoMa, Whitney, BAM, FreshDirect, Asics, MAKE UP FOREVER and more.  To find out more about who you can win a date with and how the auction works, check out http://www.blackbagpictures.com/Date_Auction.html

KIDSTUFF:  Monster Mash Festival at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Many events and parties, including storytelling, arts & crafts, and Where the Wild Things Are projects. Now through October 31st. Free with museum admission of $7.50. Not-so-Spooky Halloween at BAX for preschoolers on Sunday, October 25th at 11 AM. Songs and stories. $7.50 for one adult and a child.

On Saturday from 10 AM until 2 PM: It's
My Park! Day events bring thousands of New Yorkers to over 150 sites in
all five boroughs. Come pitch-in and keep Prospect Park beautiful! Meet
at Lookout Hill.
Click here for more information about volunteering.

More Halloween events at Brooklyn Frugal Family Examiner.

So there's this cool new bar on Fourth Avenue called Pacific Standard, a Brooklyn riff on a Northern California micro brewery with a large room in the back decorated with bookcases, a California flag with a bear on it and a UC Berkeley flag all very evocative of a San Francisco area bar.

At the bar, there are not less than sixteen American craft beers, most
from western breweries, on tap as well as a selection of West
Coast wines and snacks "sure to please not only expatriates from that
pleasant, somewhat pointy shore, but even the most Trentonized East Coast
palates."

So it's all very convivial and cool in there. And in the back room, a standing room crowd gathered for Philip Levine, the Pulitzer Prize winning poet who divides his time between Fresno California and Brooklyn Heights. A master poet, he is the author of 20 superlative books of poetry about American workers, World War 11 soldiers, Detroit, the central valley of California and much subject matter in between.

He writes with a pure, joyous, universal voice that has a Whitmanesque sweep. His new book, News of the World from Knopf,  contains many great new poems, including one about Brooklyn called Islands. Here's an excerpt:

The room was packed so I stood in the back and couldn't even see the poet I had come to see. I stood next to the bathroom and the poems were punctuated by the toilet flushing and more people pushing into the large room.

No matter. It was a great night. A great reading. A great poet.

This special workshop is part of the free monthly Sexy Mom series at Babeland. i went last year and thought it was great and very thought provoking. I wrote about it in the Brooklyn Paper.

Sexy Moms: Raising Sex Positive Kids
Wednesday, October 28, 07:00PM, FREE!
at Babeland Brooklyn, 462 Bergen St Brooklyn

This
is one Sexy Moms meeting no parent should miss. Whether you're
expecting, a new parent, or raising teenagers, talking to your kids
about sex and sexuality is a crucial part of parenting. And October is
National Sex Education Month of Action, so there's never been a better
time to talk about educating your kids about sex.

At
this meeting, Sexuality Educator Amy Levine will talk to parents about
raising sexually healthy children and how to keep open lines of
communication about sex and sexuality. What's age-appropriate? What's a
teachable moment? How can you talk about sex without feeling
uncomfortable? Levine will answer these questions and more, at a
meeting that every parent should attend. For more information about
Levine, visit her website.

This meeting is co-sponsored by The New Space for Women's Health and Babeland. Free refreshments will be served.

 On October 23 and 24th at 8 p.m. at Irondale Center 85 South Oxford Street in Fort Greene, Mississippi based artists
M.U.G.A.B.E.E  will
bring their unique blend of hip hop,
jazz, spoken word to the Irondale center for an exclusive, two-night engagement
.featuring exceptional jazz pianist Courtney Bryan and a host of guest
musicians in a return engagement to Brooklyn’s Irondale Center.  M.U.G.A.B.E.E is the combined talents
of the brothers Carlton and Maurice Turner- singers, songwriters, playwrights,
producers and teachers, whose explosive style of performance is sure to
move your soul.

Cost: 20 bucks gets you in and one free drink.

The mission of
M.U.G.A.B.E.E. is to encourage and actively promote, through thought provoking
human interaction visualization and in turn an actualization of a just Earth
filled with equitable rights for all of its inhabitants. Through music,
workshops, lectures, open dialogues, spoken word and poetry M.U.G.A.B.E.E has worked
in numerous communities across the South with youth groups, adult learners,
community centers, churches and schools. Their work has taken them to the metro
areas of New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and to the
small towns of Putney, VT; Natchez, MS; Pine Lake, GA; and Bethlehem, PA.

Tonight: Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) sponsors a discussion between the Democratic nominees for City Council in the 39th district and the man selected by the Green Party.

That means Brad Lander (Dems) and David Pechefsky (Green) are going head to head tonight over at the Park Slope Methodist Church, 6th ave. and 8th Street at 8 p.m.

Should be thought provoking!

In case you want to know what's going on on Halloween (Saturday, October 31) in Prospect Park!

SATURDAY OCTOBER 31 & SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Creepy Crawly Halloween
12 – 5 p.m. Audubon Center
Take
a second look at the creatures that give you the creeps, you may find
you like them. Spiders and worms are just a few of nature's wonders the
would have a tough time with out. Crafts and experiments! Free.

Scary Stories from the Past
2 & 3 p.m. Lefferts Historic House

Make
sure you’re sitting next to someone braver than you! Form a circle and
listen to master storyteller Tammy Hall keep the tradition of scary
stories alive with tales from old Flatbush. Free.

Skeleton Cut-Outs
1 – 4 p.m. Lefferts Historic House
Make your own Halloween headbands using the traditional Scharen-Knippen paper-cutting art form.

Haunted Carousel!
12 – 5 p.m.
Take a spooky spin on the Carousel. Creepy bats, scary cats, and spiders will watch you ride to the sounds of chilling Halloween music. $1.50 per ride.

Boo at the Zoo!
Come to the Zoo for a frighteningly good time with the animals.

Tonight Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Levine reads at Pacific Standard, the new California style micro brewery with an  excellent reading series. 82 Fourth Avenue between Bergen and St. Marks at 7:30 p.m.

NEWS OF THE WORLD is the 20th
collection of poetry from Philip Levine, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and two-time
recipient of the National Book Award. Joyce Carol Oates has heralded his work “extraordinary”
and the New York Times Book Review
has recognized Philip Levine as a true “great American poet.”

Born in Detroit, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Philip Levine met his
muse while working in the city’s auto plants in the 1950’s. “I saw that the
people that I was working with . . . were voiceless in a way,” he explained in Detroit Magazine. “And as young people
will, you know, I took this foolish vow that I would speak for them and that’s
what my life would be.” Five decades later, Levine’s vow has culminated in an
astonishing, award-winning and ever-evolving body of work.
 
In this latest effort, NEWS OF THE WORLD, Philip Levine brings us news from
everywhere: from Detroit, where exhausted workers try to find a decent
breakfast after the late shift, and Henry Ford, “supremely bored” in his
mansion, clocks in at one of his plants . . . from Spain, where a woman sings a
song that rises at dawn, like the dust of ages, through an open window. . .
from Andorra, where an old Communist can now supply you with anything you want—a
French radio, a Cadillac, or, if you have a week, an American film star. The
language continually skirts obscurity and remains accessible, clear and
poignant. As Richard Hugo noted in the American
Poetry Review, through Levine’s poetry “we hear and we care.” Publishers Weekly promises that “fans
will happily get what they came for” in this rich, deeply felt new collection.
 

Flavorpill's annual Halloween party is back and it's selling out.

The theme is "Gods and Heroes," and all proceeds benefit charity: water. They'll have The Very Best headlining along with Stoli, Dos Equis, and HobNob Wines open bar all night.

It's at a secret Brooklyn location (accessible by many trains) and they'll e-mail you the night of to reveal it.

Don't miss out – tickets are $35 and selling fast. Check it out at: flavorpill.com/halloween.

Here's an email from Jessica and Rebecca, the owners of the Greenlight Bookstore:

The big news:

Greenlight Bookstore is now open!

We started taking sales on Saturday, and we're thrilled by the response of the neighborhood already.  We're still putting
out little fires and tweaking our system to make sure it's all set up
right (so bear with us if we have a few hiccups), but now that we're
open, we love visitors!

Come see us anytime; our hours between now and
the end of the year are 10 to 10 Monday through Saturday and 12 to 8 on
Sundays.

Actor and playwright Wallace Shawn participated in a protest calling attention to the plight of former Brooklyn
College student, Fahad Hashmi.

Fahad was born in Karachi, Pakistan in 1980, the second child of Syed Anwar
Hashmi and Arifa Hashmi.

Fahad immigrated with his family to America
when he was three years old. The large Hashmi family settled in Flushing,
New York and soon developed deep roots throughout the tri-state area.
Fahad graduated from Robert F. Wagner High School in 1998 and attended
SUNY Stony Brook University. He transferred to Brooklyn College, where
he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2003.

A devout
Muslim, Fahad established a reputation as an activist
and advocate. In 2003, Fahad enrolled in London Metropolitan University
in England to pursue a master’s degree in international relations,
which he received in 2006.

On June 6, 2006, Fahad was arrested in
London Heathrow airport by British police based on an American
indictment charging him with material support of Al Qaida. He was
subsequently held in Belmarsh Prison, Britain’s most notorious jail. Since extradition to the United States he has been held in solitiary confinement in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan for two years without due legal process.

His parents
were at the vigil, along with activists from Brooklyn for Peace, one of
his Brooklyn College professors, and others.

Photo: Tom Martinez

Loom will be playing a shows in Ditmas Park and Park Slope this week, in honor of the CMJ music festival
(http://cmj.com/ – both shows are "unofficial" in terms of the festival) that's happening all around the city.

TONIGHT: they'll playing at the wonderful Sycamore with their friends in the excellent Rescue Bird
(http://www.myspace.com/rescuebirds):

9 pm – Rescue Bird (http://www.myspace.com/rescuebirds)
10 pm – The Loom (http://www.myspace.com/theloommusic)

They'll also be  playing on Saturday night at Union Hall as part of a wonderful bill that also includes Mia Riddle (http://www.myspace.com/miariddle),
Pete and J (http://www.myspace.com/peteandj), Pacific Theater
(http://www.myspace.com/pacifictheater), and their riends in La Strada
(http://www.myspace.com/lastradanyc).

Says Loom guitarist & composer John: "This will be our last group of shows before we hole up in the studio
for the month of November to record our first full-length album, so we'd love it if people wanted to come out this week as we won't be playing again for a while and we'll also be playing all of the songs from the
forthcoming album."

http://www.myspace.com/theloommusic

Upcoming events in the race for City Council in the 39th: On October 22 at 8 p.m. Brad Lander and David Pechefsky go head to head at the Central Brooklyn Independent
Democrats (CBID). This is CBID's monthly meeting but it is open to the public. 
The discussion will focus on David's strongest point: reform of the Council and
the role of the Speaker.  This topic has generated a lot of press and is a
point where the two candidates strongly disagree, so don't miss it. The debate
takes place at the Park Slope Methodist Church, 6th Avenue and 8th Street. 

On Thursday, October 29 at 7 p.m. Thursday,
October 29 there's a debate Sponsored by the Food Coalition and other community groups.
Topics to be covered include health, sustainability, school food and
curriculum, expanding access to healthy food, social justice for food workers
and consumers and local healthy food sources.  The debate takes place at
PS 10 (7^th Ave & Prospect Ave) in Park Slope.

In the past week there's been a lot going on:

Monday night's
Candidate Debate sponsored by the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association Democrat Brad Lander and Republican Joe Nardiello and David Pechefsky  of the Green Party answered questions from
Carroll Gardens residents on everything from city budgeting to universal health
care.

Earlier in the day, all three candidates were
together for a photo-op because of a controversy over Mr.
Lander's write-up in the Voter Guide which 80,000 CD 39 voters received in the
mail last week. 

Written in June when the focus was on the Democratic Primary,
Mr. Lander stated that he was the only candidate with children in Public
School.  Although true for the Primary contest, that statement is
factually inaccurate for the general election where both David and the
Republican have children attending Public School.  We organized a press
event to dramatize that fact in front of MS 51 where David's older daughter
attends.

A few days earlier the three candidates debated similar issues in
a private debate held in the offices of the Brooklyn Paper. Although the
subsequent write-up was not quite the endorsement we were hoping for, it does
give David's supporters, especially those of you who've missed the debates, to
watch him express his viewpoints in a live video. Click on the link below and
then follow the instructions in the article:

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/42/32_42_gk_39th_debate.html

Greetings Pub Quiz Balloon Boy Hoaxters…

Holy crow!

It's not that the Heene family failed so miserably in the parents' shot at fame.  Truth be told, they won that battle.  Maybe it's Andy Warhol's
consummate "fifteen minutes of fame."  Or maybe it's just that our
little club called "society" can never, ever get enough of this stuff.

Look at me!  I'm writing about it.

Look at you!  You're reading my writing about it.

Face it — seeing this thing flying through the northern Colorado sky last week was just plain weird.  And kinda awesome, to boot.

Bruce Ratner solves everything — an arena designed by the firm of Gehry, Ellerbe Beckett & SHoP floating over Brooklyn, making eminent domain unneces– what?  This isn't the new arena?  Durn it!

I saw it on live t.v. and thought "good grief, the aliens have arrived, and they're driving an intergalactic Pinto."  Then, the breathless newspeople said there was a young boy aboard this thing, and it got ookie and creepy.

Finally, after two hours of helicopter coverage and interviews with
the Heenes' neighbor, the balloon landed, and wasn't that a sight — a
uniformed officer (whose uniform, sadly, was a polo shirt — I'll be
sure to respect that when the grid goes down) lunging for the
guide wires we were told had given way and put the poor boy in danger. 
The ground beneath them looked like the American farmland melded with a Japanese garden.

a new Olympic demonstration sport, slated for the London Games of 2012

Then, the huh?-ness of rescuers not feverishly ripping the hatch off the balloon to save the boy.  Just standing around and by-golly not doing much of anything.

"THE
BOY'S NOT ON BOARD!"  As though a contraption like this could have a
board to be on.  Because newscasters will tell you — probably at the
next panel discussion at the Museum of Television and Radio — that they just had to bring it up ("it was germane," Anderson Cooper will probably say).  Bring what up?

"HAS THE BOY FALL TO HIS DEATH SOMEWHERE ABOVE NORTHERN
COLORADO?!!"  This followed theories that the balloon COULD COLLIDE
WITH JETS OVER DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT or that the balloon was HEADED STRAIGHT FOR DOWNTOWN DENVER!

Except for the part where it wasn't.  "THERE ARE BUILDINGS IN
DENVER THAT ARE VERY TALL!  WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THIS AIRCRAFT STRUCK
ONE OF THOSE BUILDINGS IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORKDAY?!!"

You mean, this aircraft?

and to think, the feds forgot to raise the Alert Level to…uh, what, silver?!

I dunno…it'd probably make us all forget 9/11 ever happened.

The
rest of the story you know.  Boy not aboard.  Boy not fallen to his
death.  Boy "hiding in the attic."  Boy claiming to be scared of
letting daddy's balloon get away.  Boy spilling beans to Wolf Blitzer
that it was "for the show."  Father acting indignant at suggestions
that this could be a hoax.  Mother alternating 'tween teary and wacky. 
Media irretrievably stuck to the story like an accident at the Elmer's Glue factory.

Now, it's Hoaxville for sure, and boy, are do the authorities have the Heenes in their sights.

I
don't much care that it was a hoax.  Sure, the parents, and the father
in particular, are strung-out hi-test Grade A fame junkies.  They also
have the disturbing habit of plopping their kids in the backseat when
they go driving straight at tornadoes.  If I were Falcon Heene,
the boy with the perfect-for-television name, I'd be counting the days
'til I was old enough to kick Dad square in the weather balloons.

Falcon Heene: "Boy, do I know something you wanna know…"

Hoax or not, American t.v. media sure does love jumping up and
down, clapping its hands in over-excited glee, and unleashing an oddly
blended concoction of well-worn and heavily rehearsed clichés,
stuttering lack of comprehension, and queries for people in the field
who haven't any clue what's transpiring than the well-coiffed behind
the studio desks.

One network brought on an "expert" — someone who pilots hot-air balloons.  Since the Balloon Boy balloon was a pilotless contraption filled with helium, the expert was reduced to answering most questions with well, I fly hot-air balloons, and this isn't one of those, so I can't say.  But if I had to guess…

After a while, there was no story left in the story. That didn't
stop the news networks from bleeding what they could out of Balloon Boy.

There have been other hoaxes.  Clifford Irving's Howard Hughes autobiography.  The Piltdown Man.  Affordable housing and jobs at the Atlantic Yards project.  But not the Loch Ness Monster.  Nessie is real, man!

Which of these things is real?  Hint — it's not the one in the color picture.

As a rule, we like hoaxes.  The best part is that they often make us believe harder.  We're all Fox Mulder
— we all want to believe.  Because we're ready to believe a hoax, even
root for it, it means we're more than ready for when it's the real
thing.

There's no surprise in any of this.  There's certainly no surprise
in me getting all huffy about it, either.  It'd just be nice, just
once, for the sky to really, truly be falling when folks on live
breaking-news t.v. tell us it is.

Next thing you know, they'll be going on and on that some basketball arena is getting built in the middle of Brooklyn.

Yeah, right…

* * * * * * * *

Thanks to everyone who turned out for the big Spunk Lads gig at Freddy's this past Friday.  It was, as per usual and par excellence, a real 'loo wrecker.  Bigger thanks to everyone who supported Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's annual Walkathon this past Saturday.  Your donations and emotional support are appreciated beyond words.

Thank you.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. this coming Saturday in Park Slope, ReadThis
will be collecting books for kids and teens, new and used, for three
NYC places that serve children.

Where: My place — 532 Fifth St. between 7th and 8th Aves., the same
block as the Rite Aid

What is needed: New and gently used fiction and nonfiction for ages 6
months to 18 years

Who will get the books:
– P.S. 307, a Bronx elementary school without a library
– Incarnation Children’s Center in Manhattan, which serves kids and
teens living with HIV/AIDS
– Jump-Start Child Development Centers for kids ages 6 months to 6
years in New York City’s homeless shelters

This is part of a wider book drive organized by ReadThis. More info,
including drop-off sites in other neighborhoods at other times, is
available on Facebook via the ReadThis group and the event “ReadThis
Book Drive for NYC Kids in Need.”

My dad taught me that Doris Day is one of the greatest pop singers!

Her new album, As Normal as Blueberry Pie, is a tribute to Doris Day and it features The Very Thought of You, Do Do Do, Mean to Me, Crazy Rhythm, Send Me No Flowers, I Remember You.

But no Que Sera Sera???

April Salazar at Super Vegan loves Doris Day!