At 5 p.m. Tuesday night, the weather channel was issuing warnings about  "severe thunder storms in our area." Kim Maier, Executive Director of the Old Stone House and I were trying to decide whether or not to cancel the outdoor movie. The sky began to clear around 5:30 and we said, ‘what the hey, let’s take a set up and see approach.’ If it started to pour at 7 p.m., we’d just pack up and try not to get hit by lightening.

By 6 p.m. Greg’s Rubbage Removal truck was already in place, the sky was clear and the humidity high. The Piper Theater troupe was rehearsing Much Ado About Nothing for their opening night Friday on the stage. We waited until they were done to hoist the screen up.

Our tech crew, 3 cool teens and a gaggle of friends, put up the cabana that houses the projector and carried all the equipment out to the lawn. Putting together the screen’s frame is like a giant puzzle. Ingeniously designed by Bob Usdin of Showman Fabricators, the aluminum pipes are well-labeled and must be attached with key clamps.

The screen itself is attached to the frame with webs and gromits. Over eighty ties were tied by a fleet of female friends of Teen Spirit, as well as the tech crew and OSFO. Meanwhile Projectionist Bill Lyons lifted up the 82 lb projector, set the sound levels, and cued up the movies.

The set up went fairly quickly and when the theater troupe was done it was time to raise high the screen.

It was so gratifying site to see people coming to the JJ Byrne lawn at 8:30 with lawn chairs and picnic baskets. One man came all the way from the Bronx because he read about the show in the New York Sun and he likes New York history and to go to new places around the city.

Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton in a silent short called "Coney Island’ with music by: The Alloy Orchestra. The documentary about Coney Island, made in 1991, was fascinating.

Watching a movie with neighbors and friends sitting underneath the Brooklyn sky on a steamy Summer night. Lovely.  Next week: Moonstruck with Cher. Short: Duck Amuck, one of the best cartoons ever made starring Daffy Duck. 8:30 p.m. July 18. JJ Byrne Park. 3rd Street and 5th Avenue. Park Slope.

Gowanus Lounge, like OTBKB, gets their daily news up before 9 a.m. and this morning I was interested to read that Martin Scorsece is shooting a new film with Leonardo DiCaprio in the Carroll Gardens/Gowanus area. Gowanus got the story from NewYorkology.  Here’s an excerpt from GW:

As a big fan of Ferdinando’s Focacceria at 151 Union Street in Carroll Gardens/Red Hook, Gowanus Lounge was amused to learn from newyorkology that Leonardo DiCaprio has been onsite shooting Martin Scorsese‘s The Departed.
If you haven’t been to Ferdinando’s, you should go, because this little
Sicilian place is the real deal…

Reporter Leon Neyfakh wrote a nice article in the New York Sun about tonight’s screening of CONEY ISLAND: AN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE in JJ Byrne Park at 8:30 p.m.

He did, however, get a couple of things wrong: Brooklyn Reading Works is a reading series for the public not a book club. And the subject matter is not Brooklyn-related. We have Brooklyn writers, Manhattan writers, writers from all over. Go to the BRW web/blog to see next year’s schedule. 

But other than that, Neyfakh wrote great story about a great event. Tonight. Be there. Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. Here’s the story:

The era of old-time Coney Island nostalgia may be all but over in light of developer Joseph Sitt’s $1 billion renovation plans, but tonight an open-air film screening in Park Slope’s JJ Byrne Park will give Brooklyn residents a chance to revisit the amusement park’s storied past.

"Coney Island used to be totally nostalgia — faded glory," says Louise Crawford, who organized tonight’s screening of Ric Burns’s documentary titled, "Coney Island: The American Experience" as part of her outdoor Brooklyn Film Series. "It was rusty and dirty. It just didn’t have its former luster. What I feel now is that it’s a real and living place. People have sort of rediscovered it."

In light of that resurgence — marked most recently by the relighting of the long-dormant Parachute Jump by Brooklyn president, Marty Markowitz — Mr. Burns’s film may serve as a welcome history lesson as it traces the park’s development since the turn of the 20th century.

This is the second Coney Island-related film Ms. Crawford has shown in her series, which had its inaugural screening last Tuesday with 1953’s "Little Fugitive." That film, shot in black- and-white on the streets of Brooklyn and Coney Island, follows a young runaway as he rides the rollercoasters, plays with animals, and eats the hot dogs that made the place such a glorious national attraction in its heyday.

The screening of "Little Fugitive" was a collaborative effort, Ms. Crawford says, made possible by a fleet of Brooklyn locals who helped secure and set up the state-of-the-art projector, the 12-by-15 foot screen, the garbage truck that supports it, and the lawn upon which the guests spread their blankets and watched the movie.

"Nobody had ever heard of the film, but they were game. It’s this big movie in the park — our park!" Ms. Crawford says, estimating last Tuesday’s turnout at about 100.

Ms. Crawford hopes tonight’s screening, which will begin after sundown, will attract locals curious to "learn the stories behind the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel, and the Parachute Jump."

Ms. Crawford’s fixation on Coney Island, which until recently was considered by some to be a rusty dump past its prime, is appropriate enough considering the location of the screenings. JJ Byrne Park, Ms. Crawford says, has enjoyed a renaissance of its own in the past two years.

The park, she says, situated on Fifth Avenue between Third and Fourth streets in Park Slope, has benefited from the gentrification of the surrounding area.

"Before, Fifth Avenue wasn’t happening. It’s gone through this major transition. As Park Slope’s star has risen, so has Fifth Avenue’s."

JJ Byrne, she says, has traditionally been "a really poor cousin of Prospect Park." In the past two years, the dust that used to cover the park’s main area was replaced with a lawn, and a dog run was built off to the side.

Now, Ms. Crawford says, there are activities being hosted there "pretty much three to five nights per week, whether it’s theater, readings, music, or stuff for kids."

The recent blossoming, she says, is owed in large part to the Old Stone House, a museum dedicated to the Battle of Brooklyn that has, in the past two years, started regularly opening its doors for community events.

The director of the Old Stone House,
Kim Maier, came up with the idea for the Brooklyn Film Series Works. Ms. Crawford
says. The concept grew out of the Brooklyn Reading Series Works, a book club   reading series curated
by Ms. Crawford (note: and supported by the Brooklyn Arts Council).

It has to be one of the great New York Post front page headlines: NYPD JEW.
I just love it. And it’s true. The NYPD recruited the first Hasidic cop. And he’s from Brooklyn. And he’s a Talmudic scholar. Here’s an excerpt from the Post’s front page story.

Joel Witriol, a 24-year-old Talmud scholar from Brooklyn, starts his training at the department’s Police Academy today. "I realized there were so many things you could do [as a cop] – everything from community service to fighting narcotics," Witriol said, coming off the heels of a stint with the department’s auxiliary police force. "There are a hundred things, and every day is different."

Witriol has a degree from United Talmudical Seminary in Monroe, where he studied "religious stuff, mostly."

He’s also held part-time jobs doing everything from driving a delivery truck to working for a furniture company.

But the Brooklyn native wanted something more – and believes he found it five years ago when, while volunteering for an ambulance company, he heard about the police auxiliary. "I decided to go and check it out," Witriol said. "I went for training and passed."

Growing up in Williamsburg, Witriol admitted that he had the same cops-and-robbers ideas about policing as many youngsters. "I thought it was only about arresting people," he said

In this week’s New York Magazine, Park Slope new mom Amy Sohn asks,  "Will Fairway Kill the Park Slope Food Coop?"

Kudos to Sohn, who used to have a sex column in New York but post-bebe seems to be switching to other topics, for coming up with a new way of describing Park Slopers that doesn’t use the words crunchy, lefty, or Birkenstock-clad. Instead her lede goes: "The scruffy, Michael Pollan–reading culture of Park Slope is probably
best embodied by the Food Co-op, the 13,000-member DIY grocery store
founded in 1973."

Okay. So, we’re scruffy. And she coulda said Elizabeth Royte-reading culture…to be more specific.  Still, later in the piece, jazz musician and former Coop member, Roy Nathanson refers to himself as an "old lefty." 

Yeesh.  You just can’t lose those cliches. Hippie era. Old lefty.

Nonetheless, her story was informative and on the mark. Are Food Coopers defecting to Fairway? Park Slopers want to know.

Sohn reports that the Food Coop dropped 300 members last month. Could Fairway be partly responsible for this?

Yes and no. The first-wave of Fairway defectors will be those who have a love/hate relationship with the Coop; those who are fed up with the workshifts; and those who have cars.

But they must have cars.

However, I don’t think people are leaving for Diet Coke and Twinkies as the article suggests. I do, however, agree that parking spaces will be a big pull for car people. The fact that Fairway has parking is very appealing and gives Brooklynites that fleeting feeling that they’re living in suburbia. 

A couple I know, recent Coop defectors, are now happily shopping at Fairway. They did say that they’re spending a lot more money there. They told me that the  prices are higher and you buy more because everything looks so good.

Spouses who have to work their spouse’s shifts, because of the rule that all adult members of the household must work,  will also be early defectors. Sadly, this is mostly women who work for their husbands. Those who join without mentioning their husbands are called Coop Widows. Over six hours a month is a big commitment.

Also, those who can only shop during Coop rush hour will probably choose Fairway to avoid long checkout lines. Again, if they have cars.

That said, many Coop members, myself included, enjoy the sense of community, the wackiness, and the great food at the Coop. It’s a shopping environment without junk food where there are warning signs about genetically altered foods.

Shopping there makes me feel like I am being more conscious about sustainable agriculture and healthy eating. I am constantly learning about new products and new things to eat.  I feel adventurous and willing to give new things a try. Like Vegan Hunan dumplings.

I also admire the way the Coop works; the system is quite an amazing thing. The fact that it works at all day in and day out is itself a miracle.

There’s lots to complain about. But Dag, Key Food and all the others have big, big problems, too. I guess I’m just really hooked on the Coop: the idea of it, the fact that it isn’t just Park Slopers but people from all over Brooklyn. As one member said the other day, "If people are willing to work here, it must be pretty good."

Finally, the PSFC has gotten too big; there are so many members that there aren’t enough for jobs for people to do. This could be addressed by reducing the number of work hours required. But it hasn’t been. About a year ago, when Whole Foods was said to be coming to the neighborhood, someone said that the Coop wasn’t dealing with the overabundance of members because they expected, yes expected, to lose members when Whole Foods and Fairway came in.

So maybe this is the shake-out that will result in shorter lines — a  win-win for loyal members.

The gas explosion that caused an Upper East Side town house to explode and collapse, was, most likely, caused by its owner who was attempting suicide.

What some people will do for real estate in New York.   Read all about it in the New York Times.

Dope on the Slope says there’s an exhibition of paintings of birds at Ozzie’s on Seventh Avenue and Lincoln. I haven’t seen them but I take his word for it. He says it’s a good place to stop on your way to batwatching in Prospect Park. Check out Dope’s posts about bats in Prospect Park.

Cousin John’s has an ever-changing exhibit of artwork by locals. Today I noticed that the work of a fashion illustrator was hanging on the walls. Pretty cool stuff.

At The Cocoa Bar, there are black and white photographs of Manhattan streets that are kind of interesting, too.

Art and coffee. There must be a connection.

Back in the mid-1980’s when I lived on the Northside of Williamsburg, I happened upon the Giglio Festival on Havemayer Street. I didn’t know what I was seeing but I could tell it was a tradition that had gone on for many years. There were so many mysterious and interesting things about Williamsburg and Greenpoint back then.  I used to spend hours just walking, thinking how exotic that neighborhood was. Most people spoke Polish, Italian, Spanish. I felt like a stranger in a strange land. And I loved it. It was very visual — the domed church, the aluminum siding, the low industrial buildings, McCarren Park, the bright lights on the baseball field.

This is way before it became a groovy place to live. When I lived there, Bedford Avenue had a bodega on North 6th (still there) a Salavation Army, Polish butchers, Polish bars, and a place to get pastry.

Gowanus Lounge took pictures of the annual "Dance of the Giglio" at the Giglio Feast on Havemeyer Street
on Williamsburg’s Northside took place on Sunday. He writes:

The Giglio Feast, now
in its 113th year, is sponsored by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and
parish priest Fr. Tom Conti called the Giglio Dance, in which dozens of
men hoist the three-ton, five-story statue and carry it up and down
Havemeyer Street–also turning it and lifting it up and down–"as
Brooklyn as it gets." Fr. Conti, the Bishop of Brooklyn and a brass
band rode on the platform as it was carried down Havemeyer through a
huge crowd.

One of those great New York things. I must have seen it more than 20 years ago, when it was just 93 years old.  How time flies.

You know that pizza place across from MS 51 on Fifth Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets?  Well, the pizza biz is out of biz and a hot dog stand is going in.

I’m guessing gourmet hot dogs. A friend asked the owner, who is also grip in the film business, if it was gonna be like Schnack, Red Hook and Union Street’s groovy hot dog place. The guy apparently said, the hot dogs will be much highter quality than Schnack.

Okay. Bring on the new hot dog place.