TONIGHT: book launch party for Isabel Hill's new book for children about architecture called, Urban Animals
At the Old Stone House on Tuesday, September 22, 7-9 p.m (Fifth Avenue
and 3rd Street in Park Slope). Here's the publisher's blurb:

Isabel Hill is a
photographer, architectural historian, urban planner and award-winning
documentary filmmaker. Her photographs have appeared in many
publications. She is a principal in Building History Associates, a
small company specializing in reports, photographs and documentary
films on architecture and urban issues.

From the New York Times:

“It felt incredibly,
wonderfully surreal,” Ms. Danticat said in a telephone interview from
Miami. “What artists crave and need most is time. It will definitely
buy some time. It’s wonderful to have a sense of security, especially
in these economic times.”

You can see the entire list of the 2009 MacArthur Genuis Award Winners here.

A "Special Edition" of The New York Post hit the streets on Monday. Published by a group called the Yes Men, the faux newspaper focuses on global warming and other
pressing issues of national and international concern.

It looks like The Post but the stories take on global climate change–a subversive attempt to get people's attention. Photo by Tom Martinez.

This weekend: Greenpoint Open Studios, a 3 day
celebration of a burgeoning arts community in good ol' Greenpoint,
Brooklyn, starting with an evening launch at Transmitter Park with a
video screening, dance performance, and more!

Saturday and Sunday
artists open their studios in public engagement and collaborative
networking. Saturday evening there will be opening receptions at FOUR
galleries with exhibitions of participating artists. Sunday hosts an
artists talk followed by an afterparty at Coco66 with bands and drink
specials. We hope you can join us!

Now at the Old Stone House in Park Slope: Artists consider differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn

Utopia: An ideal place or state, usually imaginary; any visionary system of political, social, environmental, or moral perfection

What would a “Brooklyn Utopia” look like? What is the role of artists in shaping a more ideal Brooklyn?

Brooklyn
Utopias? is a series of art exhibits and public programs in Fall 2009
that engages artists, youth, and community organizations in an urgent
dialogue about Brooklyn’s future:

Group exhibit at The Old Stone House
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 17, 2009, 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibition Dates: September 15-October 31, 2009
Public Hours: Saturday/Sunday 11am-4pm or by appointment
Address: 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Public Program: “’Do it Yourself’ Utopias:” Artists and community groups consider sustainable Brooklyn Living: Thursday, October 8, 2009, 6-8pm

Thanks to Neil Feldman of  Not Only Brooklyn for this list of interesting cultural events today. If you would enjoy receiving NOB, email NOBevents@aol.com
with the message "Subscribe to NOB" and your first and last name,
so it is legal to add you to the subscription list.

Event: Silent Film Series with Theater Organist Ben Model
hosted by the Brooklyn Chapter, AGO

Place: The Brooklyn Baptist Temple, 360 Schermerhorn St. At Third
Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11217

Date: October 10, 2009

Time: 7:00 pm (film length 82 minutes)

Cost: $10 General Admission; $5 Seniors/Students

Website: www.brooklynago.org

 The Brooklyn Chapter of the American Guild of Organists announces
a showing of a series of silent films, accompanied by theater organist Ben
Model. This series highlights the early relationship between the organ and film
in the days before ‘talkies’ entered the American culture. The series begins on
Saturday October 10, 2009, with a showing of The Cat and the Canary (1927) at the Brooklyn Baptist Temple, 360 Schermerhorn St.
in downtown Brooklyn. The admission charge is $10, or $5 for
seniors/students.

The Cat and the Canary,
starring Laura LaPlante and Arthur Edmund Carew, is a film which was very
popular on its first release, and was re-made five times by Hollywood. This
slightly comedic horror film is a perfect way to get ready for Halloween. The
organ of the Baptist Temple, a 1918 instrument by JW Steere & Son, dates
exactly to the era of silent movies, making it the perfect instrument for this
series.

For the past 25 years Ben Model has served as resident silent film
accompanist for The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. He has played
for silents in many other venues around the U.S., has recorded numerous scores
for silent film DVDs, and produces The Silent Clowns Film Series with film
historian Bruce Lawton. For more on Ben, visit his website: www.silentfilmmusic.com

Future films in the series will be:

December 12, 2009, 7:30 pm: An Evening of Charlie Chaplin
Shorts

February 13, 2010, 7:00 pm: The Ten Commandments (CB deMille, 1923)

April 10, 2010, 7:00 pm: The Mark of Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks, 1920)

June 12, 2010, 8:00 pm: My Best Girl (Mary
Pickford, 1927)

The public is invited to attend this series.

Contact: Gregory Eaton, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church,
(718) 875-6960 – church; (212) 924-4686 – home

I spent the weekend in Mackinaw City Michigan and was fortunate enough to witness the 14th annual Parade of Lights.

What is the Parade of Lights?

It's sort of like the Park Slope Halloween Parade except the  semi-trucks getting dressed instead of kids and grown-ups and the drivers make a lot of noise honking their horns.

The sound is deafening and even unpleasant. But sometimes it sounds musical as the horns create interesting drones, harmonies and accidental melodies.

The semi-trucks with customized cabs, paint/art
work and neon light displays  drive across the famous Mackinac Bridge starting in St. Ignace and ending in Mackinaw City where locals line up hours ahead of time to get a great view.

We were told by locals not to miss the spectacular sight of hundreds of these lighted big trucks as they paraded through Mackinaw City's South Huron Avenue and
Central Avenue on Saturday night.

The Mackinac Bridge, which provide passage over the Straits of Mackinac, is currently the third longest suspension bridge in
the world. It is, however, the longest suspension bridge in the
western hemisphere. The total length of the Mackinac Bridge is 26,372
feet. The length of the suspension bridge (including anchorages) is
8,614 feet. The length from cable bent pier to cable bent pier is 7,400
feet. Length of main span (between towers) is 3,800 feet.

Neighborhood kids took advantage of block party in Kensington on Sunday. Photo by Tom Martinez

Citizen Daniel Meeter reflects on last week's primary election and specifically Brad Lander's win in the 39th City Council district.

It's a few days after the Primary election, and as a resident of the 39th
Council District, I am looking back and trying to understand how Brad Lander
won so convincingly and what it means for us if he goes on to win the
election.

I was a sidewalk volunteer for Brad on Primary Day, working two polling
places: 321 in the morning and John Jay in the afternoon. From these vantage
point, I was worried. At both locations there seemed to be more volunteers
for Josh Skaller than for Lander. Now it's true that I was working Park
Slope, where I expect Josh's support was especially strong, but still, there
were times when I was all the sidewalk presence that Lander had.

The Skaller volunteers seemed articulate and passionate, while the
volunteers for the other candidates seemed as shy and inexperienced as I
felt. Then I discovered that the Heyer volunteers were not really
volunteers, but union members who were ordered to work the polls. Well!

So how to account for Brad's win? Well, I have another vantage points, and
those are the neighborhoods outside of Park Slope. I know that all the
candidates worked my own neighborhood of Windsor Terrace, but the Lander
campaign canvassed it especially effectively. And I was with Brad when he
started campaigning in the Bengladeshi community on Church and McDonald.

So I'm suggesting that while Josh's support was highly committed and
passionate, Brad's support was broader and more inclusive. Sort of like
Obama's, if I may say so, including voters who do not think of themselves as
activists. Well, both Obama and Lander got their starts as community
organizers.

So this bodes well, I believe, for the 39th. While Josh Skaller is
insightful and articulate, who "calls them as he sees them," and while he's
been vocally and passionately on the right side on issues that I care about
(Atlantic Yards, the Gowanus Canal), in this campaign Brad displayed his
effectiveness in organizing the community. The reason that I had chosen to
endorse Brad early on is that, while Josh represented me and what I believed
in, Brad offers something beyond me and what I myself could not do, and that
is organize the population toward political power and effectiveness. It
seems to me that this was vindicated by the proportion of Brad's victory in
the election results.

One last note. Two days before the election I got an email from Chris Owens
in support of Josh which was mostly an attack on Brad. I know that Josh
himself did not write it, but his campaign chief did. I found the vitriolic
tone and unfair content of the email quite disturbing. But then I came to
see it as old style Democratic Party tactics, like Bill Clinton against
Obama. So from where I sit now, it looks to me like Brad Lander knew his
message and knew his game and stayed with both. Let's hope he keeps on doing
that through November and, God willing, into his first term.

Daniel Meeter
from home

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) curated by author Martha Southgate. Don't miss the first reading of Brooklyn Reading Works 5th anniversary season on Thursday October 1 at the Old Stone House at 8 p.m.

See/hear Brooklyn fiction authors Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. Stay tuned for more info about this sure to be interesting event. And it's just the first of a great year of programming. Here's a quick look at the rest of the schedule:

October 1:  YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK (MEN) curated by novelist Martha Southgate
October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS JUBILEE curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.  Curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

The New York Times reports:

As reported in the Brooklyn Paper, Prospect Heights is set to become the city’s 97th historic district. Stay tuned for more reporting on this exciting development.

According to holistic psychologist Peter Loffredo dining with kids at La Villa, the nice—and noisy—Italian restaurant on Fifth Avenue is perfectly appropriate. But eating with the kids at Provini, the new Italian bistro for grown-ups with a fabulous wine list recently opened by the owners of Bar Toto and Bar Tono is a resounding NO. Here's why:

The Park Slope Restaurant Tour sponsored by Buy in Brooklyn is this TONIGHT from 7-9 p.m.

Remember last year? It was like trick or treating for grown ups.

Over 500 people lined up at 35 restaurants and food shops for the chance to get a taste of what they had to offer.

This year there will be even more participating restaurants and other special deals.

Restaurants
include all our favorites and probably quite a few that we haven't
tried, including Brook-Vin, Athena Mediterranean Cuisine, Cafe Grumpy,
Flipsters, Fonda, Gialeti's Cafe, Istanbul Park, Provini and more.

Go here for all the information you'll need, including the tour map and the list of participating restaurants and shops.

Click on the poster to the left to make it BIGGER.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) curated by author Martha Southgate. Don't miss the first reading of Brooklyn Reading Works 5th anniversary season on Thursday October 1 at the Old Stone House at 8 p.m.

See/hear Brooklyn fiction authors Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham.
Stay tuned for more info about this sure to be interesting event. And
it's just the first of a great year of programming. Here's a quick look at the entire schedule.

October 1:  YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK (MEN) curated by novelist Martha Southgate
October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS JUBILEE curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.  Curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

Yesterday I got this note from David Pechefsky, Green Party candidate for City Council in the 39th district.

Starting in January, Park Slope will have two new councilmen: Brad Lander in the 39th district and Stephen Levin in the 33rd.

I know that's the conventional wisdom, but why reinforce that
perception.  Be prepared for a very interesting general election.  Brad
appears formidable but I think I can beat him."

David Pechefsky, who I interviewed for the Breakfast-of-Candidates series is the candidate with 12 years direct experience in
City government. He has concrete ideas for reform and structural change in the City Council. He says he will be "a catalyst for a truly democratic City
Council, eco-friendly living, and the sensible use of our resources."

Pechefsky has worked with Council Members, advocates, city officials, and service
providers on a wide range of housing, youth, senior, health, and
economic development programs. He has also consulted internationally
working on democratic governance issues in Africa, Asia, and the Middle
East.

Pechefsky and his wife, Dr. Cena Tejani,
have lived in Park Slope for over 15 years. They have two children:
Shirin, age 5, who attends the International School of Brooklyn and
Tehmina, age 12, who attends MS 51. David is a member of the Park Slope
Greens and the Park Slope Food Coop and was recently appointed to the
Economic Development Committee of Community Board Six.

I apologize to Pechefsky for being a bit hasty in my assumption that Bard Lander would be the new councilman in the 39th. Indeed, he's just the Democratic nominee in a largely Democratic district. But Green candidate Pechefsky is running hard and OTBKB will be keeping a sharp eye on his campaign in the coming two months.