This from New York 1:
Beginning today, New York Water Taxi is expanding its service to
include more of Brooklyn, adding service to and from the Fulton Ferry
Landing in DUMBO.
A special fare is also in place for rides between the new stop and Pier 11 near Wall Street.
Riders will pay just two dollars each way until March 31st. For
this week only, the Water Taxi is offering two free one-way tickets to
a stop anywhere along the East River.
For more information, visit www.nywatertaxi.com.
Memories may be beautiful and yet…There are definitely some things you wish you could forget (so why am I reprinting this?).
Two years ago today, Smartmom, Hepcat, and Teen Spirit completed Teen Spirit’s public high school application. Now he’s a bubbly 10th grader at a small private high school in Bay Ridge. There are certainly many parents and kids going through this process right now. This goes out to them:
They did it: it’s done.
The application is filled out. Signed. Dated
Teen Spirit, Hepcat and Teen Spirit managed to select 12 public high schools and order them according to preference.
The guidance counselor has it.
Hepcat
didn’t sleep a wink last night. Teen Spirit’s high school application
was only part of the anxiety running rampant in his mind. Last week his
hard drive crashed. So in addition to worrying about Teen Spirit’s
future and the family’s money situation, Hepcat was trying to figure
out how he was going to print up 50 pictures or more without a computer
for this weekend’s craft fair.Smartmom popped up at 6:30 am and saw only OSFO in the bed — Clever Grandma was sleeping in OSFO’s room. No Hepcat.
Smartmom
looked everywhere for him. It’s not a huge apartment so that didn’t
take long. She checked Teen Spirit’s bed twice — maybe Hepcat crawled
in there. Nope. Was he on the green leather couch where he sometimes
ends up? Negative. She checked to see if his camera was in its spot —
was he out taking pictures of the dawn? Nope. Camera on the table in
the living room.Hmmmm. Where did Hepcat go? It’s time to fill
out Teen Spirit’s high school application. Procrastination time is
OVER. He wouldn’t run out over this, up and leave, end it all…Finally
the front door opened at around 6:45. Hepcat had to re-park the car
because the city is repaving Third Street and all cars had to be moved.Mystery solved.
So
they argued. Hey, isn’t that what everyone does when they’re stressed?
The argument didn’t take hold so they moved on. And thus began the
final lap of the high school application process. They started slow,
but gained momentum. By 7:15 they were really going strong.
Insideschools.com was open on the laptop, names of schools were being
bandied about: Ever heard of…what does it say about…what are the statistics on…oh shit, we still need an eleventh choice…Smartmom
and Hepcat were a walking, talking NYC public high school strategy
machine. And they worked like a team, a smooth, clean high school
machine—two heads better than one. Pencil sharpened, guide book open,
code numbers flying. They were working fast, they were working smart,
they were doing the public school hustle.And then it was done.
They could hardly believe it. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. They’d filled
in all 12 little boxes on the application form and there was nothing
more to do. The silence was truly deafening (no one was up yet). It
felt good, it felt right, it felt scary (hope he doesn’t get his 12th choice…)Then something akin to buyer’s remorse set in: Did we make the right decision? Why’d we pick that school? Should we re-order them? What the hell are we doing? But
that didn’t last long either. It was time to part ways with that
ominous piece of paper, that hideous reminder of a hideous process that
has permeated their lives these last two months.Shoo, shoo, time to fly. Be on your way high school application. Be on your way.
They
kissed the sheet of paper, said blessings over it, summoned every
Jewish, Presbeytarian, Buddhist prayer they could think of…Smartmom walked it over to the guidance counselor’s office.
–written November 2004
And so the waiting begins.
I learned this from this week’s Green News of the Week on Seeing Green. Speaking of LEDs…
Green Eyes Glowing Softly in the Night. Look around your
house at night and what do you see? Many, many LEDs glowing balefully
at you, each of them indicating a small but growing use of energyShut Windows to save power, urges industry:
Computer energy bills could be slashed by up to 40 per cent if Windows
had its power management settings turned on by default, according to a
leading environmentalist."PCs
consume 96% of their power in on-idle mode," said Catriona McAlister,
senior consultant for AEA Energy & Environment, speaking at an
Intel discussion on energy efficient computing. "You could save 40% of
annual energy consumption just by turning on power management on PCs
and monitors."
Turns out F.A.O. Schwarz (1836-1911), the toy store founder, is from Brooklyn. Maybe that’s why the company that bears his names wants to open a store in Park Slope. Or maybe it’s all the kid$, kid$, kid$. The New York Times ran this in the City Section on Sunday.
People in the neighborhood
have been buzzing about F. A. O. Schwarz since its chief executive, Ed
Schmults, was quoted this month in Crain’s New York Business about the
company’s expansion plans in the city. According to Mr. Schmults, F. A.
O. Schwarz is considering opening two smaller stores in New York, and
the publication named Park Slope, along with Union Square, as a
possible location.Mr. Schmults declined to answer questions
about the matter last week, but according to a statement issued by the
store’s public relations office, the company hopes to open one of the
new stores next summer and the other in 2008.In Park Slope,
where strollers rule the sidewalks, and nannies and young mothers rule
the coffee shops, some parents greeted the idea coldly.“I’ve
never been an F. A. O. Schwarz fan, so I would say, ‘Don’t bother
coming here,’ ” said Lauren Gropp Lowry, mother of Lila, 11 months, as
she sipped coffee outside the Connecticut Muffin on Seventh Avenue at
First Street.Ms. Gropp Lowry, who grew up in the neighborhood
and recently moved back from Manhattan, said that in her opinion, Park
Slope was all about smaller stores and personal service. “It’s not a
Park Slope place,” she said of F. A. O. Schwarz, before dashing off to
a mother-and-daughter music class. “The fact that we have a Barnes
& Noble now is a big deal.”F. A. O. Schwarz, which once
operated 14 stores nationwide, now has just two locations, in New York
and Las Vegas, after a bout with bankruptcy that temporarily closed the
flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan. Mr.
Schmults, who took over as chief executive last year, told Crain’s that
he hoped to streamline the business, making it less a toy-themed
amusement shop and more a profitable enterprise.At Lolli, a
children’s clothing store in Park Slope on Seventh Avenue, a co-owner,
Meghan Andrade, predicted that an F. A. O. Schwarz store would cut into
her business. “I feel like sometimes when I hear things like that, that
Park Slope is going to lose the charm that it currently has,” she said.
“There’s a loyalty amongst our customer base, so we would maintain some
of that, but people will always explore their options.”
There are a whole lotta literary magazines in this Brooklyn borough. And a bunch of them are getting together for their yearly shindig this coming Saturday at the ultra cool Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg. Sounds real interesting for those who are literarily inclined…
THE LEGION OF LIT MAGS event on Saturday, December 2, 5-10pm at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, New York.
Nine prominent literary magazines will team up to showcase the latest issues of their magazines, raffle off incredible prizes, and offer an opportunity to meet and talk with influential literary journal editors in a celebratory evening filled with readings and entertainment. Lit mags, Small Spiral Notebook and Ballyhoo Stories will host the event. Last year’s event was a smash success and we hope to rock out again!
The Legion of Lit Mags includes: Ballyhoo Stories, BOMB, Opium, Pindeldyboz, Post Road, Quick Fiction, Small Spiral Notebook, Swink, and Tin House. Readers at the event include: Noria Jablonski, Irina Reyn, Brian McMullen, Aaron Hamburger, Elizabeth Searle, Salar Abdoh, Brian McMullen, and others. Musical Performances courtesy of Pindeldyboz.
www.legionoflitmags.com
Every day a little more. It’s really not that hard stepping into every store between Flatbush and 15th Street on Seventh AND Fifth Avenue. Ha!
I do it in bits. As I take my walks, do my errands. The truth is I do get around. I will do the South Slope on Wednesday on the way to my shrink.
I will do Seventh Avenue on my way to and from my office.
I will do Fifth Avenue a little here, a little there.
I may even cheat: There’s a booklet around called SHOP LOCAL put out, I believe, by the Park Slope Reader. It’s got pix of gifts that look real nice.
The idea is to find one item in every shop worth gifting. Sometimes there are more. Sometimes there is only one. If I get carried away it means I found a lot in that particular shop. But if there is only one item, it doesn’t mean that that store is lacking. It just means that I found THE ITEM, the very cool, unusual gift item. Then I’m on my way.
I’m usually with the shopping adverse OSFO. Mind you, she’s only shopping adverse if we’re not shopping for her. If we’re in Little Things or some other kid-oriented emporium she can spend hours. That’s why I was able to select more than one thing at Little Things.
Because I’m with OSFO, sometimes I have to do it from the window. I’ll say, "Hey, what’s THE item in this window…"
The names are coming in. The list is growing and growing. The list will be rolled out during the first week of December.
The Park Slope 100 is a highly opinionated,
subjective list of the most talented, energetic, ambitious, creative
individuals with vision in the Greater Park Slope area who reach
outward toward the larger community to lead, to teach, to help, to
improve, to inform, to network, to create change.
Send your nominations to louise_crawford@yahoo.com and include a
short bio and your reason for selecting this person for the Park Slope
100.
Local Park Slope artisan, Susan Steinbrock, creates beautiful scarves and bedding. Her trademark silk hand painted scarves have been featured at the East Village Eileen Fisher for years.
Her debut collection of bedding was featured in Cottage Living Magazine. Go to her website for more information.
She will be selling her wares at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Amsterdam Avenue and 111th Street. Dec. 1-3.
In Park Slope on December 9: She will be at the PS 321 Holiday Craft Sale. Seventh Avenue and 1st Street. 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works presents an evening of poetry with 32 POEMS MAGAZINE.
32 Poems is a semi-annual poetry magazine
published in April and November. Each issue of journal contains 32 poems so you can give intimate,
unhurried attention to each. It’s easy to carry and
inviting to read.
The comfortable size of 32 POEMS
and the superb quality of the work therein provides an alternative
to larger collections and is attractive to new readers of
contemporary poetry. Publisher/poet Deborah Ager (pictured left), Daniel Nester and Theresa Coe will read their work.
December 14th at the Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. 8 pm. $5.00 with light refreshments.
Continue reading DECEMBER 14: 32 POEMS AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS
My cousin, who runs the Petra Foundation, which honors unsung
individuals making distinctive contributions to the rights, autonomy
and dignity of others, read this W.S. Merwin poem at Thanksgiving. I liked it a lot.
Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions
back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you
over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on the stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you
with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is.
W.S. Merwin
An email from a friend and neighbor on Fourth Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.
In case you missed the tangy fluorescent lime green posters, the Sopranos will be shooting on our street up the block on Tuesday afternoon…easy fodder for the "not on my block", anti film squads, but fun for the actor spotters among us…
Dope on the Slope has a post about the newish book, Brooklyn By Name, which he thinks makes an ideal gift for those who are Brooklyn obsessed. H
Here’s an excerpt from the entry about Charles Carroll (1737-1832) for whom a number of places in South Brooklyn are named:
When
he died at the age of ninety-five, he was the final surviving signer of
the Declaration of Independence. (Daniel Webster referred to him as the
"venerable old relic.") The naming of Carroll Street and Carroll Gardens
was likely influenced by the many Irish Americans who settled in the
area, as well as Carroll’s association with the heroic Marylanders who
defended the Old Stone House.
There is nothing un-American about spending Thanksgiving in a restaurant. It’s not like some weird cop out. It’s not a denunciation of the homey, good smelling preparations of the day. It’s not a thumbing of one’s nose at the traditionality of it all. It’s just another way. And when you’ve been to 48 Thanksgivings — change is welcome.
So eighteen of us gathered at BLT Prime on East 22nd Street, in an elegant downstairs party room that looked like a dining room you wouldn’t mind having in your apartment.
It was spacious, easy to wander around, trade seats, chit chat with family members, including my aunt and uncle, two graduates of James Madison High School back in the day, who told me that they were pleased as punch to be mentioned in an OTBKB piece about the famed high school, alma mater of three current members of the US senate.
Also there were a host of cousins and their children. Their children are articulate, graceful adults.
And it didn’t make me feel old as in I remember when you were born. Or you were only two at my wedding (that sort of thing). It made me feel grateful to have such a cool group of relatives
The children of my cousins are interesting people:
–A is in law school; her husband is a doctor and an opera enthusiast.
–AG is studying slavic languages, will travel to China, and is a delight.
–D is studying psychology in college and wants to go into clinical social work eager to help people.
–M loves Shakespeare and the idea of directing plays. She will to college in a year.
–J, a high school freshman, just made honor roll school, a cause for much celebration.
The food was delicious. FANTASTIC. Served home style, there was lots of variety: turkey, salmon, and prime rib. Incredible mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, string beans. I don’t think I saw sweet potatoes. There were carrots.
No sweet potatoes: now that’s un-American.
They served an incredible butternut squash soup with creme fraiche. Tres tres.
My children seemed to be holding their own. I was at the other end of the table so I didn’t really see/hear what they were doing. Teen Spirit was dressed to the nines in a spiffy tweed jacked given to him by my father. OSFO wore her most favorite worn jeans with lots of holes, embroidery, sparkles and colorful striped tights underneath.
My mother-in-law joined us all the way from California. A real pleasure. Hepcat talked politics and Wall Street with my cousin’s husband. That’s what they always do.
The upside of the restaurant Thanksgiving: no dishes to clear or wash. No dishwashers to load. No finding space for leftovers in the fridge.
The downside: No leftovers. Maybe four hours later we were hungry again (after seeing The Queen at Cobble Hill) and there was that longing for cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing, etc.
The names are coming in for the Park Slope 100. Send your nominations in NOW. Here are the guidelines.
The Park Slope 100 is a highly opinionated, subjective list of the most talented, energetic, ambitious, creative individuals with vision in the Greater Park Slope area who reach outward toward the larger community to lead, to teach, to help, to improve, to inform, to network, to create change.
Send your nominations to louise_crawford@yahoo.com and include a short bio and your reason for selecting this person for the Park Slope 100.
Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Papers
Smartmom almost fell over last month when Hepcat suggested they buy a new television. “There’s a big sale at Best Buy,” he said. “And 32-inch LCD flat screens are the sweet spot.”
Hepcat loves a new-fangled electronic toy and he was intrigued by the new flat-screen high-definition television sets.
But 32 inches? And this from the mild-mannered guy who, in a moment of acute exasperation, pulled the power cord of their old television and locked the set in the basement.
That was in 1999 and the TV-free life lasted for almost five years. Hepcat was sick and tired of the way his children turned into Zombies in front of the set. He hated the noise, the shows and, most of all, the wasted time,
In an instant, the television disappeared and Elaine, Jerry, George and Kramer were no longer nightly dinner guests.
The Teletubbies, Arthur, Barney, Marge, Homer, Lisa, and Bart, were also banished from the living room.
Smartmom, the daughter of an advertising copywriter who created the Quisp and Quake cereal commercials back in the 1970s (among other gems), wasn’t as anti-television as Hepcat. But, she went along with it because, well, everyone knows that less is more when it comes to television in the People’s Republic of Park Slope.
Still, there’s a downside to not having a TV. The idiot box is great for behavior modification. It can be a motivator: “When you finish your homework, you can watch Sailor Moon!” and a punishment: “No Drew Carey for a week!”
And as even many Park Slope parents know, the box also makes a terrific babysitter. Parking the two-year-old Oh So Feisty One in front of the cathode ray tube made it possible for Smartmom to boil the pasta, answer emails, and read her latest issue of The Brooklyn Papers (and the New Yorker, admittedly).
Sure, the apartment was quieter and less chaotic without the tube. Teen Spirit and OSFO were more physically active; time was no longer measured in half-hour and one-hour segments; and getting out of the house, getting them to do their homework and making dinner was a breeze.
But Smartmom couldn’t get anything done. Without her TV, OSFO became “Saran Wrap Girl,” clinging to mommy, mommy, mommy all the time.
It didn’t take long before she and Teen Spirit figured out how to adjust to life without the TV. It was actually eerie: One minute they couldn’t live without it, the next it was out of sight, out of mind.
But it was a myth: Smartmom discovered that her tots were merely slipping downstairs to Mrs. Kravitz’s apartment for their daily dose of the “Power Puff Girls” or “Seinfeld.”
Of course, they weren’t the only ones who missed television. Smartmom pined for her midnight liaisons with Charlie Rose (me-OW!) and Thursday night sob sessions during “ER.” From Diaper Diva she heard all about great shows she was missing like “Sex & the City,” “Six Feet Under” and “The Sopranos,” and had to settle for blow-by-blow retellings by her sis.
Then again, Smartmom did enjoy the moral high ground: “We don’t watch television,” she’d self-righteously tell people. That spelled a kind of disciplined parental style that, Smartmom figured, spoke volumes about her mothering capabilities.
Take it from Smartmom, it gets you a 10 in the Mommy Olympics. And it was a full 360-degree turn from her own television-drenched childhood.
Smartmom’s childhood memories are indistinguishable from Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Captain Kangaroo and Soupy Sales. She was even a contestant on “Wonderama” with Sonny Fox. Later, there was “All in the Family,” the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “Upstairs Downstairs.”
During high school, she and her pals would gather at someone’s apartment in time to catch the “Not-Ready-for Prime-Time Players” live from New York on Saturday night.
Current events happened right in the family’s Riverside Drive living room. When JFK was assassinated, her family’s black-and-white tube glowed non-stop for days.
In 1968, the sit-com Smartmom and Diaper Diva were watching was interrupted with an announcement bearing the unfathomable news of Martin Luther King’s murder in Memphis. And later, she remembers seeing Bobby Kennedy dying on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel.
In July, 1969, her family, along with the rest of the world, watched as Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind. How strange it was to see the surface of the moon on the TV set and the moon in the sky outside their window.
While Smartmom was willing to give her kids the TV-free life, there were some shows she refused to miss: What about the Oscars, the presidential debates, the World Series?
For these television happenings, Hepcat would be summoned to lug the television up three flights from the basement. After these television feasts, Hepcat insisted on returning the box to its home in the basement before dawn.
On Sept. 11, 2001, it was a mixed blessing not having a television. It meant that OSFO and Teen Spirit didn’t have to see the traumatic images of the towers falling over and over again.
But the family did spent much of the days that followed in Mrs. Kravitz’s living room waiting nervously for news of what was happening and dreading what was going to happen next.
After that, Smartmom knew that it might be a good idea to get a TV. Although she was comfortable getting most of her news from Satirius Johnson, the intelligent newscaster on WNYC, she thought that in a national emergency a television might come in handy.
A year ago, they brought the television upstairs from the basement to watch Jon Stewart on the Oscars and it never went back down again because Hepcat’s rotator cuff was hurting and he didn’t want to strain it.
At first, the television just sat there like an unwanted guest. But soon, Teen Spirit and OSFO started watching “Seinfeld,” “the Simpsons,” and even “Friends” again.
Eventually, Smartmom and OSFO moved to “The O.C.” Teen Spirit met “House.” And Hepcat got “Lost.”
Smartmom realized that there’s nothing cozier than sitting around the television hearth with her family and watching a good television show.
On the other hand, there’s nothing worse than crappy TV and too many commercials. Don’t tell anyone, but last spring, Smartmom, Teen Spirit and OSFO became addicted to “American Idol.” Ace, Bucky, Kellie Pickler and Taylor Hicks were like crack to their delicate sensibilities. Luckily, the family is now attending TA, a 12-step program at a local church for those unable to drag themselves away from brain-numbing TV shows.
Yet last week, the monster television arrived in an enormous box. Smartmom worried that it was going to devour the living room and her family. She wasn’t sure she liked her new identity as the kind of person who owns a 32-inch television.
As Smartmom watched her organic brownie points, moral superiority and Park Slope values fly right out the window, she lay down on the couch with the new remote control and watched whatever was on in all of its high-def glory.
For a few days, even Hepcat seemed to enjoy the techno-geek aspect of his new digital toy. Teen Spirit worried that they’d spent too much money on something so “stupid.” OSFO was just glad for the bigger, bolder images of Summer, Taylor, and Seth on “The O.C.”
As expected, after a few days, the television started to get to Hepcat, who coveted the big TV in the first place.
“I can’t stand that noisy piece of furniture that makes my children catatonic,” he said.
Smartmom hopes Daddy won’t take the T-bird away again.
If this family can just limit itself to shows that are well written, smart and only sometimes completely stupid, everything should be all right.
I was in a waiting area today when a woman, about to go outside, asked if it was raining. As she put on her coat, her scarf, and her leather gloves to leave the building, this is what she had to say. I put it into poetic form.
Today it was such
a dreary day
cold, wet
no sun
not even a sparkle
Heavy rain on Thanksgiving
Those balloons
will go flying about
unmoored
Bumping into things
Torrential rains, winds
that’s what they’re saying
But there’s something to be said for
a cold, dark Thanksgiving
like an old friend
Hello, there you are
The Thanksgiving Parade ain’t what it used to be. But then, what is? We’re not going. Again. I think we’ll go skating instead. Here’s a post from last year about Thanksgivings past.
This year they’re adding Dora the
Explorere and Scooby Doo. Artist Tom Otterness has created a
33-foot-tall Humpty Dumpty, frowning mid-"great fall." As usual, the
parade route begins at 77th Street and Central Park West, proceeds to
Columbus Circle, and turns onto Broadway. It turns west on 34th Street
(just past Macy’s Herald Square) and finishes at Seventh Avenue.Back when we aspired be the ultimate New York parents, the parade
was a must-do activity. When my son was 3, we all bundled up and stood
under a Broadway marquis on a freezing cold day. Friends brought a
thermos of hot chocolate and it felt like the most essential New York
childhood experience of all.For a few years, my cousin rented a hotel room on the 5th floor of
the Central Park’s Mayflower Hotel, which provided a perfect, indoor
spot for viewing the balloons. To watch the parade from indoors is one
of the great luxuries of New York City life. A real perk. One windy
year, we watched a ballon deflate before our eyes after it rammed into
a lamp post.When Diaper Diva lived across the street from the Museum of Natural
History, she invited Teen Spirit and OSFO, who was only 2 at the time, to
sleep over so they could watch the blowing up of the balloons the night
before the parade, one of those great New York traditions. So great,
that it’s almost as popular as the parade itself and unbearably
crowded.My childhood memories of the parade are vivid. When I was a kid, I
remember being bundled in a snowsuit on freezing cold Thanksgiving
mornings and standing out on Central Park West too short to see the
parade.In fourth grade, a classmate invited a group of girls over to her
77th Street duplex for a sleepover. Her parents took us out in the
middle of the night to watch the balloons – Underdog and Mickey Mouse
being blown up on 77th Street. This was before it was a popular
activity. back then, it was strictly for residents of 77th Street and
81st Street. How special we felt walking outside in our nightgowns and
overcoats beneath a crystal clear night sky.The next morning we were out early watching the parade in full
swing. The foot of one of the balloons nearly touched my friend’s
little brother’s head as he sat on his father’s shoulders.I asked my sister if she has plans to take her 15 month old daughter
into Manhattan for her first parade. "Not this year," she said. They’ll
probably take her next year when Ducky is two. She can sit on her
daddy’s shoulders and watch the enormous balloons up above.It’s a New York tradition she won’t want to miss.
–Posted in 2005
Robert Altman, one of the great greats of American filmaking died yesterday at the age of 81. Look at the list of his movies (in no particular order): Nashville, Mash, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, the Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us, Popeye, Three Women, and more recently Shortcuts, Gosford Park, and A Prarie Home Companion, a film in which death was a major character played by the great, Kevin Kline.
"A risk-taker with a tendency
toward mischief, Mr. Altman is perhaps best remembered for a run of
masterly films — six in five years — that propelled him to the
forefront of American directors and culminated in 1975 with what many
regard as his greatest film, “Nashville,” a complex, character-filled drama told against the backdrop of a presidential primary," writes Rick Lyman in theNew York Times.
Genre-bending, free-wheeling and surprising, Altman employed a recurring ensemble of unpredictable actors in movie after movie. Improvisation was key and sound was his forte: "Mr. Altman was
celebrated for his ground-breaking use of multilayer soundtracks. An
Altman film might offer a babble of voices competing for attention in
crowded, smoky scenes. It was a kind of improvisation that offered a
fresh verisimilitude to tired, stagey Hollywood genres," write TK in the Times.
Last summer at Brooklyn Film Works, an outdoor film festival in JJ Byrne Park, we showed, "The Long Good Bye," a kooky take on the Phillip Marlowe book by Raymond Chandler. It may not have been the best choice for an outdoor film festival, but many in the audience declared it among their favorite movies for Elliot Gould’s performance and a cast of incredible actors, including Henry Gibson, Nina Von Pallant, Sterling Hayden, Arnold Schwarzenegger in a small part and others.
Now I’m glad we paid tribute to one of the greats while he was still alive. It isn’t always popular to like Robert Altman’s work but it can’t be denied that he was a creative genuis who left his mark on cinema in a characteristically eccentric way.
Mrs. Kravitz IS NOT doing Thanksgiving this year. She’s been crazy busy with her new job, the kids, and everything else. Over the summer she donated a kidney. No kidding. To Mr. K. So she really needs a break. I think she should spend the day sketching, which is what she truly loves to do. For the feast, they should go to a restaurant. Any suggestions? "We’ll have dessert at home," she said. Last year she had 14 people over and she wore a green wool hat while she was cooking. Find out why.
Thanksgiving eve on Third Street. I visited with Mrs. Kravitz on the first floor who is having 14 people over for the feast.
I watched her whip up a pumpkin pie, a pecan pie, and cranberry
sauce. while we drank wine and covered a free-associative spectrum of
topics.OSFO and Mrs. Kravitz’s two kids swirled around noisily.
Mrs. Kravitz was wearing a woolen cap because she lives in fear that someone will find a hair in her cooking.
She’s serious.
She told me that, as the day progressed, her
husband kept calling with word of more guests. What started as a small
family Thanksgiving had evolved into crowd scene. Too many for her
table. Worried that her 13-pound Food Coop turkey might not be enough.
she had to add pork loin, ribs, and turkey wings to the menu.Earlier, she phoned one of the guests, a good friend, and took her
up on her offer to bring gnocchi and polenta with sage and butter
sauce. "We need more food," she told her.I think she’ll have enough food.
Sitting and chatting in her apartment she seemed anything but
worried about Thursday’s feast. The meal was coming together slowly
dish by dish.The wine was helping.
She asked if she can borrow chairs. "Of course," I said. We’re
having Thanksgiving in a West Village restarant with 21 family members
on my mother’s side.We won’t need the chairs.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is being sued for allowing furniture
giant Ikea to build a parking lot over a Civil-War-era dry dock.The Municipal Art Society lawsuit calls for a review of the effects
the Ikea project will have on all historic properties in Red Hook,
Brooklyn.The Society says the Corps’ alleged failure to properly review the
site will forever tarnish the neighborhood’s historic character. But an
Ikea spokesman says the project has undergone extensive review and this
lawsuit is just an attempt to delay redevelopment.The project is part of a $100-million plan to restore the Brooklyn waterfront that will be paid for by Ikea.
I am trying to decide if I shoud do the gift guide again. Last year, I went to nearly every store on 7th and 5th Avenues
from Flatbush to 16th Street that I thought might have interesting
gifts. I selected at least one gift item per store that caught my eye.
Sometimes I mentioned more. It was an interesting exercise: trying to
zone in on the best and most unique gifts in every shop. In a few rare
cases, it was difficult to find even one thing. Usually it was
incredibly easy because there was so much good stuff to choose from. Question: Should I bother to do this again?
Atlantic Monthly is running a list of the 100 most influential Americans. Scanning it quickly, I was PISSED OFF to see only 10 women mentioned.
But the list did get me to thinking about the influential people in our midst. What defines an influential person?
So I’ve decided to create a year end list of the PARK SLOPE 100.
THE PARK SLOPE 100 will be a list of 100 interesting, creative, and dynamic people who are leaders in arts, politics, the environment, healing arts, medicine, education, commerce and other fields in the Greater Park Slope community.
WHO DO YOU THINK are the most influential people in the Greater Park Slope area? I have some ideas but I want a fairly broad spectrum of people in a wide range of fields. They don’t have to live in Greater Park Slope, but they need to have an impact here.
PLEASE SEND NAMES (and short bios) to louise_crawford@yahoo.com. This list will be published on OTBKB in December.
Here’s what New York Magazine on-line had to say about OTBKB’s List: The Atlantic listed the 100 most influential Americans, and not one of them represented the Greater Park Slope Community. Outrageous. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Brooklyn Record pointed me toward today’s piece in the New York Times about the Brooklyn Free School, located in two floors of a Free Methodist
church at 120 16th Street. We know a bunch of kids there who seem to be thriving.
"At this school, students don’t get grades, don’t have
homework, don’t take tests, and don’t even have to go to class — unless
they want to… On any given day, a student might be playing chess,
reading a book, practicing yoga or helping mummify a chicken."
Students Rule at This New York School [NY Times]
Brooklyn Free School [Homepage]