All posts by louise crawford

Postcard from the Slope

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Mother’s Day

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2cbw7617As I was walking out of Possibilities, that chotchka and card emporium on Seventh Avenue, a father and son were walking in.

"This is a woman’s store," the father said. "It is?" the boy asked. "Yes, my son. You see there are only women in here…"

Aside from the sexist implications of that father’s remark, I knew that the two of them were about to embark on an important mission: buying a  Mother’s Day gift.

Ah, the pressure. The agony. The thump thump thump heart beating anxiety to locate a gift for mom.

As you can imagine, Mother’s Day is a big deal around here. Today there will be hordes of fathers with children making the pilgrammage to the Clay Pot, which will undoubted be filled to the gills with clueless men and kids struggling to find the perfect gift.

More than once, when shopping for a gift for my mother, I’ve been tempted to steer a particularly clueless man toward what I knew would be a more appropriate gift. But I resisted. It was not my place. If I did, however, run into a friend’s husband, I might make a small suggestion. But hey, it was all in the name of friendship and karma (and she could thank me later for the Lisa Jenks necklace).

While there are now more good stores to choose from (Living on Seventh, Loom, Bird, Nest, Shangri La) on Seventh Avenue. And too, too many places to name on Fifth Avenue (Diane Kane, Matter, Flirt, Cog and Wheel, Eidolan and on and on…), the Clay Pot is still, symbolically, the destination of choice, the holy grail of Mother’s Day gifts.

For one thing, they have a comprehensive selection of the best in contemporary jewelry design (at a variety of price points) and they feature an eminently tasteful selection of the best in contemporary home and gift items. As they say on their web site:

"The Clay Pot was established in 1969 as an urban ceramics studio by Robert and Sally Silberberg. Thirty-five years ago Park Slope was hardly the enclave for young professional families it is today, but it was always a neighborhood, and The Clay Pot is essentially a neighborhood store. Joined by their daughter Tara in 1990, the store now reflects her passion for jewelry and has developed into a nationally recognized source for America’s premier jewelry designers."

Plus, they make it so easy for men to find a gift that will make their wives swoon. The window is chock full of great ideas, as is the store itself. But more importantly, their long-time employees are the best at giving advice on gifts at every price range and style. They ask all the right questions (price, personal style of the recipient, likes and dislikes) and take the time to work with you. From hand crafted, simple and tasteful, high design or even something a little Blink, there’s something for everyone’s taste.

That brown Clay Pot gift box with a black ribbon is the de-facto Park Slope equivalent of the blue Tiffany box. To many a woman it means that her husband has done his job, that he’s reached to the sky and pulled down a star. Good work.

Some men even venture into the vaulted and expensive wedding ring department. Oooooooh. Now that’s a guy who really knows how to buy a gift.

That’s my kind of man…

My husband seems to have a mental block against Mother’s Day and that other holiday he hates to comply with (see Postcard from the Slope_Valentine’s Day). In his defence, I must add that on many a Saturday before Mother’s Day he has braved the Clay Pot crowds  and returned with a specially selected jewelry item pour moi. Why, I’m wearing one right now, it’s a silver Lisa Jenks ring he discovered on the sale shelf two years ago.  I happen to ADORE IT.

So you see, even for a man who has a major issue with these so-called Hallmark holidays, the Clay Pot is a marriage-saver and a sure fire way to please the mother of his children on Mother’s Day.

The shop is open on Saturday. All day. On your mark, get set…

Postcard from the Slope

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Crazy Guy

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2cbw7406There’s a crazy guy I see every morning as I walk to my office on Eighth Avenue. He’s been around the neighborhood for a few years and used to hang out near various playgrounds and places where parents and children congregate. Sometimes I’d see him wearing a children’s mask, which really freaked me out…

…completely!

Once I saw him hovering near a PS 321 class picnic in Prospect Park by the Picnic House. He was holding a Halloween mask over his face and just standing there.  It was really creepy.  I had him pegged as a deviant pedophile schizophrenic nut job.

Lately, he unnerves me less. Oddly, I’ve taken a liking to him. These days, he usually has a white Beanie Baby bear with gold angel’s wings, a Lambchop hand puppet, and two white gooey plastic finger puppets – space aliens, I think. A short black man, his lip is pierced with two small silver hoops and he says a friendly hello to me every morning like it’s the most normal thing in the world; like we’re office mates or something. He always waves his hand puppet at me (or maybe that’s Lambchop saying hello).

I find myself moved by this little man and his puppet. For those who don’t know, Lambchop was the sock puppet sidekick of Shari Lewis, the perky, redheaded puppeteer and ventriloquist who had a television show in the 1960’s. When my son, now 14, was a baby, she was still on the air.

Maybe the crazy guy is attached to his memories of watching the Shari Lewis Show as a child on television. I know I am.

The man with the puppet and Beanie Baby entourage usually parks himself near the tall, elegant newspaper man who sells the Times’ to the subway commuters as they rush by on their way to Grand Army Plaza, and the metal coffee cart, that says "We Made Best Coffee Daily" that is stationed every morning on Lincoln Place.

The tall newspaper guy and the coffee cart guy don’t seem to mind crazy guy

Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.

SCOOP DU FRIDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather.

FYI: Be one of the lucky 10,000 who will get emails from the MTA about
weekend subway schedules and delays. As part of a charter program, you
will find out if the F or the 2,3, is running on the weekend. Go to the
MTA  site and sign up now.

<>

_Hot Coffee Tip. Even OTBKB sometimes gets her news from the Daily News:  Painter Suzanne Meehan and sculptor Yasmin Gur have just opened the Crossroads Caf

Postcard from the Slope

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Sucker Punch

2cbw7104_std_1They say Brooklyn is the city of diversity and color. But omigod nothing says that better than two events that are going on right now on Eastern Parkway:

The cherry blossom extravaganza at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden AND the Jean-Michel Basquiat show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

My  husband and I took a little lunchtime sojourn to the gardens yesterday and whoa we’re glad we did. Not only are the cherry blossoms, those wild, sexy sirens of horticultural glory in full bloom but so are the lilacs and the tulips.

It is a color extravaganza over there. A veritable visual bounty for those who love to savor color, composition and fragrance.

Stick your nose in a lilac blossom. It’s a totally acceptable thing to do this week at the Gardens. Get close and sniff the glorious nose gay that is a blooming lilac. Go soon and swoon, they don’t last long and their fragrance, not to mention their sultry droopiness, are worth the price of admission. Ahhhh.

We then decided to check out the Basquiat show at the BMA that neither of us had see though it was very high on our "Let’s not miss another great NY art show that’s why we live in New York list."

We figured, we’re here already, let’s get our buttocks over there.

The EXPLOSION of COLOR. The SUCKER PUNCH of expression – color, cartoon, text, collage, stream of consciousness, Griot, jazz, anger, boxing, humor, identity, pain, and the power of diversity.

The Brooklyn-born son of a Haitian dad and a Puerto Rican mom, Basquiat was a student at St. Ann’s School and became a graffiti artist known as SAMO (for same old shit) in the late 1970’s.  He rose to fame in the 1980’s after befriending Andy Warhol and painting voraciously and passionately until his death of an accidental overdose in the late 1980’s at the age of 27.

My husband met him back then and says that while he’s a great artist he was a real pain-in- the-ass person. He saw him spontanously create a SAMO grafitti in a friend’s kitchen. Basquiat started out on the wall but when he ran out of room he sprayed over pots, pans, and the refrigerator. He then fell asleep in a bean bag chair.

A few years later my husband saw him wheel his bike into the Mary Boone Gallery and then roll it across the space so carelessly that a gallery worker had to rush to catch  it
before it hit a painting by another notable 1980’s artist. Everybody in
the gallery was like, WTF?

That aside, what a sucker punch of a show. In fact, there is a painting right at the entrance of the show called "SUCKER PUNCH."

Eastern Parkway awaits. What a duo. Stick your nose in a lilac blossom and then peel open your eyes to the wonder of Jean-Michel.

You just gotta.

 

Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.

SCOOP DU THURSDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather.

CITY NEWS: At approx. 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning, there was a small blast outside the British Consulate in mid-town. Two small bombs, make shift grenades filled with gunpowder, exploded at the consulate on 52nd Street. The NYPD says they have no motive. Note: Today happens to be the day of the British elections for Prime Minister. In a live press conference at 8 a.m., Bloomberg said that the subways are running normally and the streets around the consulate are open. He urged New Yorkers to go about their business as usual. "This is the world we live in now." he said. Police Comish Ray Kelly said that the investigation into the blast is in full swing.

_Freedom Tower must be completely re-designed due to security concerns.

 BROOKLYN BEAT:  On
Tuesday officials of the Coney Island Development Corp. unveiled a
draft plan to revitalize the historic seaside resort. The
transformation includes adding restaurants and cafes, movie theaters,
arcades and apartment buildings, as well as renovating the aquarium.

Civics and Urban Life

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_I Hate Brooklyn

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Bb_std_stdThe backlash continues.

I actually enjoyed the  "I Hate Brooklyn" piece in this week’s New York magazine. Passionately written by Jonathan Van Meter, his article may well become the Emancipation Proclamation for all those who refuse to budge from Manhattan.

"I have an irrational fear of leaving Manhattan. For one thing, it’s so difficult to get here, to get in- in the first place, it feels like you might lose your spot should you leave it unattended, even for a day. For another, there is the ever-present anxiety that, God forbid, you might miss something…"

This writer certainly has an ax to grind about Brooklyn. And a lot of anxiety. There’s a certain pathos to what he has to say. Born and bred in South Philadelphia, he wants no part of what he left behind in the old neighborhood.

"A class-jumper like me can’t go home again. You can bet that Saturday Night Fever’s Tony Manero did not move back to Brooklyn during the dot-com boom because of the "amazing deals" to be had on townhouses in Sunset Park."

Van Meter left Philly to meet the holy grail of career ambition in New York. But he was also lured here by the action. "I wanted to go where the people danced," he writes.

Clearly his dislike of Brooklyn is a little over the top. But it’s  partially due to the fact that he’s lost so many friends to what he calls the new suburbia: "I detest Brooklyn because it has siphoned off so many that I once held so dear and scattered them to the winds in a borough so huge that it has no center, no beating urban heart that I’ve been able to find."

Sawing away at the world’s littlest violin, Van Meter sounds a little lonely now that Brooklyn has become so in. Well, he can keep Manhattan as far as I’m concerned. Brooklyn is getting a tad crowded anyway (see Postcard from the Slope_Weekend Crowds, May 3) and we’re not recruiting to our side of the river anymore.

Na Na Na.

Speaking of sides: is their going to be a big Manhattan vs. Brooklyn baseball game? A color war?  Are people gonna start sticking their tongues out at each other?

Can’t we be adults about this?

Nobody ever said that Manhattan wasn’t way more exciting than Brooklyn. Or that Brooklyn culture surpasses the cultural landscape of the borough next door. We’re not knocking the Metropolitan Museum or Opera, MOMA, the Guggenheim, the Frick, the 57th Street galleries, Chelsea, or what’s left of SoHo.

Who doesn’t miss the ease of a quick walk or bus ride to some great Manhattan destination for shopping, eating, seeing movies or theater? And if you work in Manhattan, walking to and from work is utterly luxiurous. Being able to stagger home after a late night at Area, the Mudd Club,  or the Tunnel (ah, but I date myself) was essential back in the go go eighties.

Most of us aren’t doing that anymore.

What’s Van Meter getting so agitated about? We all love Manhattan and couldn’t live without it. Brooklyn wouldn’t be Brooklyn if Manhattan wasn’t next door: it’s our lifeline to the bigger world beyond our little brownstone paradise.

Some of us just don’t choose to live there anymore. Or can’t afford it. Or prefer the scale of Park Slope, Ft. Greene, Prospect Heights or Kensington. And the diversity. The public schools. Prospect Park. Three bedrooms.

Van Meter’s closing paragraph moved me because it reveals so much about the writer himself (and maybe all of us): "Despite all of Manhattan’s recent letdowns-the unbearable expense, the runation of great neighborhoods, the disappearance of favorite bars and friends – I keep choosing the First Borough again and again not merely out of habit, but because giving up on Manhattan would be giving up on the dream."

This Brooklyn backlash is about so much more than meets the eye. It is at the very core of what we dream about, long for, aspire to become.

It is so very New York, isn’t it?

Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.

SCOOP DU WEDNESDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather. 

CITY NEWS: City Officials agreed
yesterday to let developers turn the north Brooklyn waterfront into a
neighborhood of residential towers with a parklike esplanade along the
East River. "The plan, which rivals the ambition and scope of the
creation of Battery Park City, would rezone a 175-block area of
Greenpoint and Williamsburg, two neighborhood that have surged in
popularity because of their proximity to Manhattan but whose
development has bee curtained becuase much of the area is now
restricted to industrial use." Read more about it the NY Times.

 BROOKLYN BEAT:  On Tuesday officials of the Coney Island Development Corp. unveiled a draft plan to revitalize the historic seaside resort. The transformation includes adding restaurants and cafes, movie theaters, arcades and apartment buildings, as well as renovating the aquarium.

Postcard from the Slope

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Weekend Crowds

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3121268_stdPark Slope has become such a crowd scene on weekends when the neighborhood fills with all the people who work in Manhattan during the week. Most noticible are the twenty-somethings, who come out for brunch, shopping, and group-promendading down Seventh and Fifth Avenues.

I am almost completely unaware of them until the weekends.

Husbands and fathers are also in full force. Often I’ll recognize a child or a baby in a stroller with his/her dad and say to myself: "So that’s the father."

The weekend pedestrian traffic jams are a stark contrast to the almost provincial pace of weekday life. Gone are the post-drop-off moms at Connecticutt Muffin or the convergence of Caribbean babysitters at the Mojo.

Weekdays have their predictable rhythms; Seventh Avenue street life ebbs and flows

Monday to Friday, there’s the school day rush, which brings crowds of parents and kids to and from PS 321, John Jay, Berkeley Carroll and St. Francis onto the Avenue. Lunchtime is a madhouse of PS 321 fourth and fifth graders at Pinos and Mojo and the MS 51ers galavanting on Fifth Avenue. Late afternoon, the high schoolers move in to shock the neighbors with their rock ‘n roll antics.

The evening rush begins around five. But all those commuters in their city clothes have a destination: groceries they need to buy, children that must be retrieved from afterschool or playdates. And then the Avenue clears again for the quiet weekday night.

But the weekend  crowds are another order of magnitude altogether.

Lately, I find myself retreating from the weekend shuffle. On Thursday or Fridays, I’ll often force myself to do an errand, like picking up the dry cleaning or going to Tarzian Hardware. Something I know will be difficult to do on the weekend.

I’ve actually got a growing list of activities I don’t even bother with on weekends:
–The Park Slope Food Coop is helaciously crowded; a must to avoid.
–I don’t go near the Second Street Cafe for weekend brunch;  it’s been the only game in town for so long and there’s always a big crowd outside.
–You won’t catch me in the post office or trying to get my hair colored at Michaels Hair Salon.
–Little Things is a nightmare zone of stroller gridlock and cranky birthday-gift-buying parents on a long cashier line.
–Starbucks, which I generally avoid anyway, is chock full of day sitters and crowds of who knows who.
–Going out to dinner on a Friday or Saturday night on Fifth Avenue

There are, however, distinct pleasures of the Park Slope weekend. Running in Prospect Park before 10 a.m. with the weekend runners can be eupohoric, as is shopping at the Farmer’s Market at Grand Army Plaza. Brunch at Beso is always a dependable treat; despite the crowd, it’s usually possible to find a seat for breakfast Cuban style topped off with a huge cafe con leche.

Stoop sitting is probably the perfect spring weekend activity. I watch the kids on Third Street ride their bikes, color the sidewalk with chalk, use garbage can lids for baseball bases, set up lemonade stands, and sell their old books and toys in front of their buildings.

They are virtually growing up before my eyes.

It’s also fun to converse with the grown ups as they pass our yard. Sometimes I see the same people many times in one weekend day. There they are with the dog, now they’re going out for a run, walking to the mailbox with the red Netflix envelope, time to pack the kids in the car for a slumber party…

For me the weekends are best viewed from our stoop; life slowly passing before my Park Slope eyes.

Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.

SCOOP DU TUESDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather. 

CITY NEWS: City Officials agreed yesterday to let developers turn the north Brooklyn waterfront into a neighborhood of residential towers with a parklike esplanade along the East River. "The plan, which rivals the ambition and scope of the creation of Battery Park City, would rezone a 175-block area of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, two neighborhood that have surged in popularity because of their proximity to Manhattan but whose development has bee curtained becuase much of the area is now restricted to industrial use." Read more about it the NY Times.

_On Monday, the MTA unveiled the new kiosks that will replace dozens of fare booths in subway stations around the city. The new booths, which will not have clerks on duty, are painted red to distinguish them from ordinary, staffed booths. There are signs explaining MetroCards must be purchased at vending machines and that the clerks are elsewhere in the station if you need assistance. The MTA was originally going to get rid of 164 token booths entirely. But that plan changed after a passenger was shot and killed earlier this year, and police were delayed reaching the platform because no clerk was on duty to let them in. The station customer assistance agents will be outfitted with new burgundy blazers or vests to make them easily recognizable, and they’ll still be able to access the booth to check on faulty MetroCards or to use the phone in case of emergency. Read more about it on NY1.

_Relatives of some firefighters killed in the September 11, 2001, attacks lost their appeal Monday against Motorola. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision to toss out a lawsuit brought against the company that makes the two-way radios used by the FDNY. The ruling praises the firefighters for making the ultimate sacrifice, but it agreed with the lower court

Civics and Urban Life

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Extremely Loud and Incredibly Big Deal

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2cbw6932Does anyone read the New York Sun? I do now that I spent part of the last three days checking to see if Meghan Clyne’s article, for which I was interviewed, made it onto newsprint (or more to the point, into the web edition).

And what do you know? Her piece,  "Envy is in Air Surrounding Writer’s House," is in the May 2nd issue of the Sun.

Clyne seems to have rounded up quite a few local authors for her piece about the scuttlebutt surrounding Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Strauss’ purchase of a house and two lots on Second and Third Streets.  Lynn Harris, author of "Breakup Girl to the Rescue! A Superhero’s Guide to Love, and Lack Thereof," told Clyne:  "I’m envious of him because his house is extremely expensive and incredibly close to mine."

The author’s age seemed to be a humorous (or not so humorous) bone of contention for Ms. Harris: "What is he, 19 now? He should at least have a starter mansion first." .

"To Ms. Harris Mr. Foer’s new mansion symbolizes the objectionable aspects of his fiction. ‘What people say specifically is that his writing is precious and self-important … and it just makes me think that therefore he must have a precious and self-important brownstone,’ she said."

Nasty, nasty.

Clyne’s article did provide some much needed facts about the real estate deal. Doulgas Ellman Real Estate confirms that the Foer’s new residence is 7000-square feet and that it occupies not two but THREE lots. The garden alone covers a pair of 40-by-100-foot lots. For Clyne’s article, Douglas Elliman would not comment on the sale. But according to one of Clyne’s sources,  "the closing on the townhouse was not yet final, but the payment negotiated was less than $6.75 million."

THREE LOTS. They may have gotten a good deal afterall.

According to Clyne’s piece, and something I didn’t know: Jonathan Safran Foer was listed as one of the 50 most Loathesome New Yorkers in the New York Press article of the same name in 2003.  "He’s so precious, over-the-top," Alexander Zaitchik, editor of the New York Press said of Mr. Foer. "You just want to punch the guy every time he opens his mouth for an interview."

It’s the New York Press that really has the low-down on Foer’s book advances and movie deals: Ready for some sour grapes, friends?  New York Press writer Harry Siegel, reported that the novelist received a $500,000 advance for his first book, "Everything Is Illuminated"; $1 million for the movie rights (the film is to be released in August), and another $1 million for "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

My quote seems to fit into the portion of Clyne’s article that begins:  "Mr. Foer’s purchase as a landmark event in a real-estate boom that has been sowing hostility in those it has left behind, writers or not:"

And here’s where I come in:

"A Park Slope writer who says she was inside the residence, pre-Foers, during a house tour, Louise Crawford, said: "It’s hard for those of us living in our little apartments, with all of our envy, … feeling marginalized by this real-estate climate, to see anyone in that house."

I guess I said something like that. I should have been taking notes. But being the interviewee and not the interviewer, I was a tad flustered.

I must say, Clyne did manage to pull an article out of her debatable premise that the Park Slope literati is fuming about the Foer/Krauss purchase. I think it’s a stretch, but it is definitely having its 15 minutes.   

And so am I.  I wonder if anyone else read the article in the Sun?

-Louise G. Crawford

Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.

SCOOP DU MONDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather. 

BLOGGERS IN THE NEWS: Scientists and engineers at Los Alamos, the
federal government’s premier nuclear weapons laboratory, have created www.lanl-the-real-story.blogspot.com, a blog that is threatening the tenure of its director, G. Peter Nanos. "Four months of
jeers, denunciations and defenses of Dr. Nanos’s management recently
culminated in dozens of signed and anonymous messages concluding that
his days were numbered. The postings to a public Web log conveyed a
mood of self-congratulation tempered with sober discussion of what
comes next," Read more about it at the New York Times.

CITY NEWS:
Thousands of anti-war protestors marched from the United Nations to Central Park on Sunday to denounce the Bush administration’s policies on Iraq and nuclear weapons proliferation.

_Emergency workers who responded to the 9/11 terror attacks gathered in Manhattan Saturday to learn more about the medical and mental effects of their time at the World Trade Center site. Organizers called on the federal government to expand its medical screening program for responders. Twelve thousand responders have already gone through the initial round of screening and can now get free follow-up exams, which officials say is critical to understanding the scope of the problem.  Saturday’s conference was co-sponsored in part by the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program, and the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control. Read more about it on NY 1.

_Police say 34 people were arrested for disorderly conduct and other
charges at Friday night’s Critical Mass bike ride. The event, which is
held on the last Friday of every month, has been at the center of
various court hearings in the past.
Citing public safety concerns,
the NYPD has been trying to force riders to seek a permit for their
protests. Participants say the rally is meant to promote alternative
modes of transportation. They say the events are peaceful and that the
city’s attempts to stop them violate their rights. Read more about it on NY 1.

_ The Parks Department is looking for 1,000 volunteers to help count
New York City’s street trees. The Bank of America announced Friday it
is footing the bill for the largest tree census in the nation. To get
the word out about the census, city parks officials gathered today in
Manhattan to plant trees for Arbor Day.

Civics and Urban Life

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Cool and Unusual

2 Comments

2cbw6893On Friday night, we could wait no longer. My husband, daughter, and I decided it was time to hear my son’s band. They’ve been practicing for months but he’d made it clear that he’d tell us when he was ready for us to come to a rehearsal. And that we weren’t to intrude before that time.

But we knew that all the other parents of band members had heard them play. It was time for us to have a chance too.

It was time.

Cool and Unusual Punishment is the name of my son’s band and they rehearse every Friday night in the drummer’s apartment. The drummer’s parents are extremely good natured about the noise. They actually keep the drum set in the living room.

Cool parents.

The people in their apartment building are good natured too.  Apparently last week they called while the group was rehearsing a song  called "Where is My Mind?" by the Pixies. the drummer’s mother came into the living room holding the telephone: "The woman downstairs would like to speak with you," she said ominously. The kids got nervous, of course, sure that she was calling to complain about the noise.  But it turned out that she loves the song, "Where is My Mind" and just wanted the band to play it again. And so they did.

Last night my son gave us the okay: he allowed us to come over and hear what the band has been up to. We sat on the couch in the drummer’s living room and listened for 15 minutes or more as the band played the four songs they’re been rehearsing for the gig at CBGB’s next month. They did two originals, "Where is My Mind," and the Queen classic,  "Another One Bites the Dust."

I don’t know what I was expecting but boy was I impressed. My son took up the bass less than a year ago. And it’s only since this CBGB’s gig that he’s gotten serious. He looked so grown up playing his bass, eyes closed, his long hair swinging into his face, moving his fingers up and down the fret board. As to the others, I really had no idea. But I have to say, they really blew my socks off. The music sounded great, the arrangements were interesting, and they play very well togther.

Walking home from the drummer’s apartment, my son kept asking my daughter what she thought of his band. She wouldn’t say at first, but later said it was too noisy and that she didn’t like it much.  I’d chalk it up to an acute case of sibling rivalry. Still, he looked a tad dismayed.

"What about us? We loved it," I said.

"I know, I know," my son answered. "That’s what parents are supposed to do. You guys love everything I do."  he said.

"Well, there are things I don’t love that you do like your grade in math," I retorted.

"Oh, I know. I meant the artistic stuff. You always like that…" he said.

Well, it’s nice to know he thinks I’m supportive.

We don’t know the date of the CBGB’s gig yet. I hope he decides to tell us because we’d like nothing more than to be in the audience rooting for the band. Then again, if he doesn’t invite us, that’s his perogative. This is something he’s really doing on his own. And like some very worthwhile things in life, sometimes you just don’t want your parents around.

Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.

SCOOP DU SUNDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather. 

BLOGGERS IN THE NEWS: Scientists and engineers at Los Alamos, the
federal government’s premier nuclear weapons laboratory, have created www.lanl-the-real-story.blogspot.com, a blog that is threatening the tenure of its director, G. Peter Nanos.

<>

"Four months of
jeers, denunciations and defenses of Dr. Nanos’s management recently
culminated in dozens of signed and anonymous messages concluding that
his days were numbered. The postings to a public Web log conveyed a
mood of self-congratulation tempered with sober discussion of what
comes next," Read more about it at the New York Times.

CITY NEWS: Police say 34 people were arrested for disorderly conduct and other charges at Friday night’s Critical Mass bike ride. The event, which is held on the last Friday of every month, has been at the center of various court hearings in the past.
Citing public safety concerns, the NYPD has been trying to force riders to seek a permit for their protests. Participants say the rally is meant to promote alternative modes of transportation. They say the events are peaceful and that the city’s attempts to stop them violate their rights. Read more about it at NY 1.

_From the Daily News: "the crew of the Circle Line made a dramatic rescue yesterday of a woman who plunged off the ferry into the Hudson River while stunned tourists watched from the decks. The pleasant afternoon trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island turned into a life-and-death struggle as the sailors raced to fish the woman from the choppy waters. "I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die," the woman moaned as she bobbed in the cold river before the lifeboat reached herThe woman, whose name was not released, plunge. d from the top deck of the boat five minutes after it pulled away from the Battery Park City dock. "The woman stood up on the railing and was trying to jump," said Matt Beyranevand, 27, a teacher from Lowell, Mass. "She looked like she was trying to catch a bird.

_District Attorney Morganthau wants statute of limitations on rape abolished.

_ The Parks Department is looking for 1,000 volunteers to help count New York City’s street trees. The Bank of America announced Friday it is footing the bill for the largest tree census in the nation. To get the word out about the census, city parks officials gathered today in Manhattan to plant trees for Arbor Day.

Civics and Urban Life

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Sour Grapes

1 Comment

2cbw6321I had a really sour taste in my mouth from those sour grapes I’d been eating. So I went for a run in Prospect Park yesterday around noon.

Oh the utter pleasure of running around the park on a sunny spring afternoon. Heart beating fast and limbs moving through air, many thoughts coagulated in my brain.

I found myself dwelling on the $6.75 million house that Jonathan Safran Foer bought (see Postcard April 28) as I was still struggling to put my finger on why everyone (including myself) is making such a big deal about it.

Sour grapes is definitely part of. That is, the natural tendency of New Yorkers (and other humans, too) to disparage what they cannot attain. The term comes from an Aesops Fables called "The Fox and the Grape:" 

"One hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard
till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which
had been trained over a lofty branch.  "Just the thing to quench
my thirst," quoth he.  Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and
a jump, and just missed the bunch.  Turning round again with a
One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success.  Again
and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to
give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I
am sure they are sour."

But I digress. My run, as it always does, managed to cleanse my mind of all negative thoughts and real estate regrets. I am at the top of my world – in my own private Richard Meier glass apartment (as it were), when I run around Prospect Park alone.

Ah the mastery, the sense of power, the feeling that I am joyfully alive.

After one lap of the park, I ran out of the park on Third Street and ran past the Foer/Krauss residence. And guess what? I saw Jonathan S. Foer standing in the yard talking to a workman who was cleaning the limestone house next store. I gathered that Jonathan was urging the workmen to use more plastic covering so as not to spray debris into the Foer/Krauss garden.

I backtracked a bit and made quick eye contact with JSF who is a small man with dark curly hair and eyeglasses. Not tall, he looks like a hundred brainy guys I grew up with on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Standing there in his voluminous backyard, he looked oblivious to the fact that all of Brooklyn blogdom is a-quiver about his multi-million dollar purchase. And of course he didn’t have a clue that the runner who’d just run by was…

…OTBKB!

When I got back to the apartment, I told my husband and he suggested we bring the Foer/Krauss’ a box of sumptuous chocolates from The Chocolate Room on Fifth Avenue. Send out the old Park Slope welcome wagon. Because none of this is really about them. Personally, I’m glad to have highly literate and interesting people in our midst.

It’s sour grapes, that’s all. And a healthy dose of anger at the rich person’s neighborhood that Park Slope has become.




	

	
	






	
	

				

			Postcard from the Slope
		

		
POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_In the Red Room

		

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2cbw6869_filtered_22cbw6873_filtered2cbw6874_filtered_1There was a nice vibe at Brooklyn Reading Works last night. Twenty or more people filled the cafe at Fou Le Chakra as two talented writers read from a make-shift podium in the candle-lit red room. 


It was cozy and atmospheric just the way I hoped it would be and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.



Pam Katz read two excerpts from her book AND SPEAKING OF LOVE (Aufbau-Verlag), her novel that alternates between the fictional voices of Lotte Lenya, Lenya’s mother, and a an American newspaper reporter. It is the vividly imagined world of 1930’s Berlin, the first performance of "The Threepenny Opera," and the complicated marriage of composer Kurt Weil and Lotte Lenya that jumps off the pages of this beautifully written first novel. 


Michele Madigan Somerville, read from her book-length poem, WISEGAL (Ten Pell Books), a language-driven, street-smart piece about teaching Shakespeare at a Brooklyn high school, that was not only hilarious but powerful and poignant too. Other work included "Bodies  of Water," a poem dedicated to her bother, one about motherhood infused with the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and a translation of a Sappho poem that she sang in Greek and English. Somervile is a poet with great stories to tell and a passionate way with words. 


As the organizer of the event, I was thrilled to pair up these two literary lights and to hear them in action. 


Now I am looking forward to next month’s event on Thursday May 26th at 8 p.m. when Marian Fontana reads from her memoir, "WIDOW’S WALK" (Simon and Schuster) about life before and after the death of her firefighter husband on 9/11, and Susan Karzowska debuts an excerpt from her work-in-progress novel, "THE RIVER FROM NOTHING."


– Louise G. Crawford

	

	
	




	
	

				

			Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.
		

		
SCOOP DU FRIDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

		

			 		

	


		

		
Secrets_2


BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather.  


FYI: Tuesday through Saturday April

26-30 alternate-side-of-the-street-parking is suspended due to

religious observance (Passover). All other parking regulations in

effect.


CITY NEWS: Revised plans for the Plaza Hotel were unveiled on Thursday. The hotel will now be turned into a mix of  guest

rooms and condos during the 18-month renovation. Originally, the hotel going to be converted entirely into condos, but the owners and the employee’s union reached a compromise. Now spaces like the Plaza’s Grand Ballroom, Oak Room and Palm Court will be preserved. Eloise will have a special suite dedicated to her. Will this suite be open to the public – or will it be a super expensive hotel room? Probably the latter. And what are they doing with Eloise’s portrait?


_The cab driver who caused Times Square pile-up wakes up from coma. He says there may have been something wrong with his car. He said he was glad that no-one died in the accident.  Read more about it at NY 1. 


_With state aid falling $1 billion short, MTA voted to cut subway repairs and froze major expansion.  Read more about it at NY 1.


_Police are searching for a robber who has hit 21 beauty salons citywide. Read more about it at NY 1.


_New York’s air quality is deteriorating. The American Lung Association says that more than half  the residents of New York face health risks just from breathing.  Read more about it at NY 1. 


_The NYC Department of Health is warning New Yorkers to use window

guards and to make sure they are installed properly after a 2-year old

boy named Jonathan Sanchez died  falling 6

stories when the window guard, which were improperly installed, gave

way when he leaned against the window.



 BROOKLYN BEAT:  A man’s body was found on Plum Beach near Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. Police are trying to figure out who dumped an unidentified body wrapped in a blanket and plastic bags. 


_Two bystanders attending a funeral were hit by a stray bullet intended

for someone else. Police are searching for  the shooter and the

intended target. One of the bystanders, a 14 year old girl, was seriously wounded. Read more about it at NY 1.


_The family of the 7-year-old Brooklyn

boy who died after crossing street to buy ice cream, died in the hospital on Wednesday is urging the hit-and- run driver to turn himself in. Charles Santiago, 7, was crossing Milford

Street in East New York around 7:45 p.m. when a 1997 white Chrysler

slammed into him, police said. Charles was taken to Jamaica Hospital in

Queens with multiple head injuries and two broken legs. Read more about it at NY 1.


You already knew about it but now it’s in the New York Post: "Architect Richard Meier has been hired to design a new residential project in Brooklyn that promises some of the city’s best viewsThe 15-story, 200,000 square-foot project will be called One Prospect Park. By the time it is ready in two years, prices should be well above $1,000 a foot. It will rise on the airy corner of Eastern Parkway and Plaza Street that is currently a vacant lot used for parking by the Union Temple. ‘It’s got Manhattan, it’s got the bay, it’s got the [Prospect] park, it’s got the Brooklyn Museum and the library,’ said developer Mario Procida. ‘You pick the direction and you got the view.’ Procida, a principal of GPG Equities, said he and partners Louis Greco and Sheldon Gordon bought the site earlier this week, and have commissioned a building similar to the Meier "triplets" ‘Being the fourth one, it will be even better.’"


From the New York Daily News: "A daylight sicko walked into the kids’ reading

room at a Brooklyn library yesterday and flashed his privates to a

13-year-old girl, police said. Then the perv began touching himself."The guy masturbated and the girl

saw him," said Detective Bernie Gifford, an NYPD spokesman. Police said

the girl was sitting at a computer about 12:30 p.m. when

the man slithered into the first-floor reading room at Flatbush Ave.

and Linden Blvd. 


IT’S FRIDAY: Mommy Matinee at the Brooklyn Heights Pavillion. Friday at 12:30. Call the theater for information. (718)596-5095



-Jean-Luc Godard : Before and After the New Wave at At BamCinematek



_Don’t miss the new French film "Look at at Me" now playing at At Bam. I saw it at the New York Film Festival (ooh la la)  and LOVED IT.


_St. Ann’s Warehouse: Filmmakers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen and Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman present "Theater of the New Ear," a

reading of two original radio plays set to music. Actors include Steve

Buscemi, Hope Davis, Peter Dinklage, Marsha Gay Harden, Meryl Streep. Call for dates and times. 38 Water St. (718) 254-8779.


 THIS SOUNDS COOL: Sakura Matsuri: The Cherry Festival in the Botanic Gardens is this Saturday April 30. 
 


_Walking tour of Whitman’s Brooklyn offered by the Brooklyn Historical Society. Meet at  128 Pierrepont Street at 2 p.m.


_First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum is Saturday May 7, 2005.


_Barbes is turning three. "We do feel much older. We can’t be thankful enough to all the musicians who have help us build the space and its reputation – and have made it possible to maintain a level of quality that still manages to astonish us. We’re lucky. To celebrate, we’re throwing ourselves a party this Saturday." The festivities will be broadcast from Barbes, live on WFMU from 8 to 11pm and will be hosted by Irene Trudel and Rob Weisberg. Music will be provided by The Zagnut Cirkus Orkestar, One Ring Zero,  Las Rubias del Norte, Bebe Eiffel, Stephane Wrembel’s HOt Club of NY. $10. 


_Brick Theater presents "Tupperware Orgy," a feminist play for chauvinist pigs. $10. 8 pm. 575 Metropolitan Ave. (718) 907-3457.




_"Around the World in 80 Days" at Puppetworks. 378 6th Avenue.

Saturday and Sunday. 12:30 and 2:30. Reservations advised: 718-735-4300.


_Got a guitar? Compete in the Brooklyn Battle of the Bands on June 5th at Grand Army

Plaza. Ten music groups of any genre will be selected to perform. Five judges

including Danny Simmons and Adam Shore will pick a grand prize winner

and runners ups. Sponsored by CMJ. Go here for information. Sign up

deadline is May 15th.


_On Sunday, May 15th, join Shorewalkers

on a six mile walking tour from Bed-Stuy to Brooklyn Heights.

Highlights include: Junior’s Restaurant, Fulton Street Mall and the

Brooklyn Promenade where you’ll break for lunch.  After lunch, explore

Brooklyn Heights, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge and quaint

carriage houses.  Take the J train to Gates Avenue in Brooklyn and walk

one block to McDonald’s.  Meet at noon in front of McDonald’s. Leader:

Lauri Hewie  (718) 455-3050.
 
_On Tuesday, May 25 from 7:00- 8:30 pm Marcie G. Roth, Esq. of Freedman Fish & Grimaldi LLP will present a Workshop on legal planning for parents with young children.

Ms. Roth will address the legal and emotional aspects of preparing your

Will, the New York and Federal estate tax, how to name a guardian,

trusts for minor children, avoiding probate, and living trusts.  This

workshop will also cover planning for your disability including Powers of Attorney, Living Wills and Health Care Proxies.

To register for this important workshop, call Families First (718)

237-1862. The fee for the workshop is $10 for members and $15 for

non-members.  Please register by May 15.  Families First is located at

250 Baltic St., Brooklyn, N. Y.  11201


WORTH TAKING A LOOK:  OTBKB Daily Pix

photographer, Hugh Crawford, has a show of portrait work on view at Fou

Le Chakra 411 Seventh Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets until May

16th.  


HEAR/SAY: 

You were never a water wimp.  

Even at Orchard Beach,  

you were good to go.  A natural swimmer,  

graceful and strong.  All of us were.  

Natural swimmers, that is.  

In water, that is.  

But I was afraid to be out over my head  

afraid to swim at dawn with you  

and Brutus out on 95th Street  

when the lifeguard chairs were still  

overturned in the sand  

on the Irish Riviera  

where we learned to tread  

water.  You always went way out.  

You were never afraid  

to get your ass kicked  

by a wave.  There was no fear  

of losing control, cramping up,  

no fear of water rushing to displace  

the spirit of your lungs.  No fear  

of the Earth’s humors, the protean   

green–the wet scary  

unknown, no fear of the curvaceous  

machine of the tides.  

And how you love baths!  

"Tropical Rain Forest:"  

smoke a joint, fill the tub  

with aromatic bubbles,   

darken the room, put music on,   

pull the curtain, turn the shower on 
and float away down the Nile   

in your vessel.


– From "Bodies of Water" by Michele Madigan Somerville

	

	
	






	
	

				

			Civics and Urban Life
		

		
POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Space is Power

		

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2cbw6798My post, "The House That Jon Bought" and Hugh Crawford’s photo of the Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Krauss’  backyard-to-be seem to be making the rounds in blogland. 


 I just discovered that Curbed the New York Times’ real estate blog, reprinted Hugh’s photo and an excerpt from this blog about the house having great bones and a block deep backyard. 


Brownstoner, a Brooklyn real estate blog, was the first to pick up the two photos and my comments. All this attention meant that nearly 1000 people have stopped by OTBKB in the last 24 hours.  


Wednesday afternoon, I got an e-mail from Meghan Clyne, a staff writer at The New York Sun: "I’m working on a story about Jonathan Safran Foer and his new house, and I read your blog about it," she wrote. "I’m wondering whether we could talk by phone. Could you give me a call as soon as you get a chance? I’d really appreciate it. Thanks much, and look forward to talking with you soon."


Meghan and I finally spoke Wednesday evening by cell phone.  "You’ve been there," she said. "is it, like, a really huge house?" I explained that I’d seen it many years ago on a house tour and that I didn’t have a good recollection of the layout but I did remember that it was a big, wide house. More like a mansion than a typical brownstone.  


Judging by her questions, Clyne seemed  to be working a very specific angle for her story. She wanted to know what the Park Slope literati was thinking about Jonathan and Nicole’s purchase. "Are the writers of Park Slope angry and/or envious that this young writer has the money to buy this big house?" she asked (I am paraphrasing here as I wasn’t taking notes).


Truth is, I really have no idea how the other writers of Park Slope feel about the Foer/Krauss purchase. I heard a non-writer today say, "What do they need with such a big house?" But I haven’t actually talked to any writers about it. 


But I’m sure envy is a factor. Envy makes this city go round. And writers can be an envious lot. But that wasn’t really my beef with the whole thing. Personally I’m not that high and mighty about the art and commerce thing. I don’t believe that true artists have to be starving in garrets. 


But a part of me feels  bad (but not that bad) that these two serious artists are going to be known as the couple who spent $6.75 million on a house in Park Slope. The timing seems really odd: they both have new novels out AND they decide to buy this mega house. Plus Nicole’s publicity photo is way too sexy, her blouse way too low. 


I’d fire their publicist. It’s too much at once. If it were me, I’d want people to focus on my literary accomplishments and not how much money my in-laws have or how much Jonathan has stocked away from his bestsellerdom or how gorgeous Nicole is.ou thi


Could it all be a marketing ploy?


God knows, it’ll probably sell books. And in this day and age, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?  The hokey pokey that is. 


I did tell Clyne that their reputations as serious writers may get blurred a little bit by this media frenzy. Clyne seemed excited when I said that. "You think their reputations are going to be blurred?" she repeated. It was probably the only thing I’d said that meshed with her story. 


I hastened to add that I think Nicole Krauss is a really talented writer and that the excerpt from her new novel, "The History of Love," published  in the New Yorker last year was absolutely spellbinding. Jonathan’s "Everything is Illuminated" was also a powerful work (I haven’t read the new one). Not only are they a real estate power couple, but they’ve got bucket loads of talent, too.


For me, what’s irritiating about the price tag on that house is that it epitomizes the state of real estate in Brooklyn right now. I’m probably not the only one who feels completely marginalized by what’s going on out here; the sense that this is becoming a rich person’s neighborhood. I will never be able to buy a house and that was always my dream. Being priced out of your own community feels very lonely and very sad. 


It seems to me that Brooklyn has moved beyond gentrification into the realm of big-money development (and possibly corruption). Just look at the condos on Fourth Avenue and everywhere else, the coming Whole Foods, Ikea, the Atlantic Terminal Mall, the proposed stadium and on and on. It’s all about money and politics now. Maybe it always was. 


Space is power in this city. Most of us are crammed into too-small apartments. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was jealous of all that space Jonathan and Nicole are getting.  And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was jealous of all the acclaim and money they’re receiving for their work. It’s a writers dream to be well-reviewed, read by the public AND paid the big bucks for what you do. 


And to have a big, big house to do it in: that’s making it in my book.    


From the sidelines, we gawk, we gossip, we kvetch. Our ambition is fueled by envy. Our satisfaction mitigated by the desire for more. And then we take the moral high ground when somebody actually makes it to the top and gets the perks we want. 


That’s the way it is in this town. At every level, I might add. At every level.   




 

	

	
	






	
	

				

			Postcard from the Slope
		

		
POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Brooklyn Reading Works.

		

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Ds013463_nwTomorrow is the first episode of Brooklyn Reading Works, a reading series curated by me at Fou Le Chakra. 


Brooklyn Reading Works is just a little thing I threw together at the urging of Mary Warren, owner of that tiny shop and cafe at 411 Seventh Avenue between 13th and 14th Street. 


Ms. Warren had the inspiration to turn her new cafe/clothing shop into a sometime salon. A salon! 


Whoo hoo: We were off and running with that concept: literary readings, art shows, portrait sittings, musical performances, stand-up comics, new age workshops, trunk shows…


We were down with that idea. 


And so Brooklyn Reading Works was born. Immediately I had a vision of what I wanted it to be: a cozy evening once a month for stories, memoir, and poetry in a candle-lit atmosphere with music, wine, tea, and succulent sweets. 


And I knew I wanted it to be a place for all the "underground" writers of Park Slope to come out of their writing rooms and share what they’ve been doing. It seems that there are plethora of readings by the usual suspects. And by usual suspects I mean our media-adored and much-esteemed  literary neighbors like Paul Auster, Jhumpa Lahiri, Siri Hustvedt, Jonathan Lethem, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Elissa Schappell. Love them all as I do, I wanted to make a space for all the others.  


Because there are so many other writers in our midst that nobody ever sees,  that nobody even knows are here. So I started making phone calls. And before I knew it I had a full roster of really interesting writers with published work or work-in-progress through July and a list of writers ready to go for next fall.


I even heard through the grapevine that Elissa Schappell is interested in doing a Brooklyn Reading Works and is wondering why I didn’t ask her.  Go figure.  


Of course, the first call I made was to the writer I’ve know the longest: Pamela Katz is my great friend and creative co-hort since fifth grade at the New Lincoln School in Manhattan. We even interviewed children’s science fiction writer Madeleine L’Engle in her office at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine when were in 7th grade. 


We’ve been putting on shows of one kind or another, running around town, makin’ michief, producing films, talking, talking, talking, and being the best of friends for 36 years now. 


A few years back, she wrote AND SPEAKING OF LOVE (Aufbau-Verlag) that was called by Jay Parini " a compelling and beautifully rendered novel about the astonishing life of Lotte Lenya." She is now revising it for its American publication. She also wrote the screenplays for the films "Rosenstrasse" and "The Other Woman," both directed by Margarethe von Trotta and shown at the Museum of Modern Art and on German television.  


When I told my very readerly and knowledgable friend Adam that I was doing this reading series, the first name that came  to his mind was the poet and fiction writer Michele Madigan Somerville. Her book-length poem, WISEGAL (Ten Pell Books) was described by poet Thaddeus Rutkowski as "a post-beat odyssey through present day New York…full of joy and

wonder at the sheer saltiness and sexiness of life." I was thrilled when she accepted with great enthusiasm my invitation to be part of the first show of Brooklyn Reading Works. 


It should be a great night. Come on down.


-Louise X. Crawford 

	

	
	




	
	

				

			Scoop Du Jour_Weather. News. Events.
		

		
SCOOP DU Wednesday_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

		

			 		

	


		

		
Secrets_2


BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather.  


FYI: Tuesday through Saturday April

26-30 alternate-side-of-the-street-parking is suspended due to

religious observance (Passover). All other parking regulations in

effect.


<>


CITY NEWS: The Daily News reports: suspicious material on a United Airlines

flight from New York to San Francisco prompted the pilot to make an

emergency landing Tuesday at O’Hare International Airport. The material turned out to be wires, an MP3 player and homeopathic

medicines, said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Ann

Davis. 




_11 injured in multi-car crash involving a taxi in Times Square. 


_City murder rate on track for 40-year low.  


_The NYC Department of Health is warning New Yorkers to use window

guards and to make sure they are installed properly after a 2-year old

boy named Jonathan Sanchez died  falling 6

stories when the window guard, which were improperly installed, gave

way when he leaned against the window. 


_In a

talk at the Tribeca Film Festival (which is in full swing), Actress

Maggie Gyllenhaal, star of a new flick

about the aftermath of 9/11, said that the U.S. "is responsible

in some way" for the devastating terror attacks. She is getting a

beating from the local press (Daily News, Post) for saying it. Slow

news weekend, I guess. Her new movie "The Great New Wonderful" has a plot centered on

the destruction of the World Trade Center – premiered Friday. 


"I think what’s good about the movie is that it deals with 9/11 in such

a subtle, open way that I think it allows it to be more complicated

than just, ‘Oh, look at these poor New Yorkers and how hard it was for

them,’" Gyllenhaal told the NY1 cable channel.   



BROOKLYN BEAT:  CHERRY BLOSSOMS ARE IN BLOOM IN THE BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDENS.  The garden has 200 trees – the most cherry blossom trees outside of Japan.  The Sakura Matsura Festival is this Sunday. 


_Jewish leaders in Williamsburg lash out at FDNY for slow response to fire that killed three boys.


<>


_A hit-and-run driver yesterday critically injured a 7-year-old Brooklyn boy as he crossed the street to buy ice cream, witnesses said. The boy, identified by his family as Charles Santiago, was crossing Milford Street in East New York around 7:45 p.m. when a 1997 white Chrysler slammed into him, police said. Charles was taken to Jamaica Hospital in Queens with multiple head injuries and two broken legs.


_Three boys died and

four other people were

injured in a fast-moving fire. Flames broke out shortly before 6 a.m.

on the second floor of

104 Ross Street, a six-story apartment building near Bedford Avenue in

Williamsburg, according to fire officials. Investigators say the fire

likely started in a gas stove, by

accident, but they don