The New York Times Lede blog has information about what is going on in Iran.

More amateur video has emerged of Saturday protests. A clip posted on the BBC
shows a bus set ablaze and a throng of protesters in an apparent
standoff with security forces on motorbikes in Tehran. As with other
video and images of the unrest, the authenticity of the video could not
be verified.

There's also a article by Noam Cohen called Twitter on the Barracades. 

Social networking, a distinctly 21st-century phenomenon, has already
been credited with aiding protests from the Republic of Georgia to Egypt to Iceland. And Twitter,
the newest social-networking tool, has been identified with two mass
protests in a matter of months — in Moldova in April and in Iran
last week, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to
oppose the official results of the presidential election.

My cousin Meg Fidler writes:

Photo by Tom Martinez

Smartmom had two press tickets to the David Byrne show and the
“Celebrate Brooklyn” opening night gala, but she couldn’t go because
had to teach her invaluable “How to Blog” class at the Brooklyn Arts
Exchange.

“Why don’t you go with Teen Spirit?” she suggested to Hepcat. “It
might be nice for some father/son bonding. And if they give you a
problem, just say Teen Spirit is your photo assistant.”

Hepcat was game and he was also excited to take performance
photographs of David Byrne. Back in the day (30 years ago to be exact),
Hepcat was a music photographer for Rolling Stone.

The night of the show an excited father and son walked over to Prospect Park to attend the before-concert gala.

“Dad, you’ve seen Talking Heads before, right?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, I saw them for the first time at CBGB in
1976. They opened for The Ramones, and I’d never heard of them,” Hepcat
told Teen Spirit warming up for a long nostalgic tale.

“I drove to the Bowery from Bard College with a bunch of friends in
an old Volkswagen that had a dead battery. You had to push it to start
just like in ‘Little Miss Sunshine,” Hepcat laughed to himself.

“That night, we got to sit right in front of the stage. Everyone
knew to sit farther back because Dee Dee Ramone liked to swing his bass
over the first row. We ended up having to duck a lot.”

According to Hepcat, Talking Heads were amazing that night. David
Byrne clutched the microphone and only made eye contact with the
ceiling.

“His vibrato on ‘Psycho Killer’ was more a bad case of nerves than vocal technique,” he told Teen Spirit.

As they crossed Eighth Avenue, Teen Spirit interrupted Hepcat’s rock and roll reminiscence,

“I hear at these big shows that photographers can only take pictures during the first two songs,” Teen Spirit told Hepcat.

“They never did that back when I was doing concert photography,” Hepcat said.

Once inside the park, Hepcat and Teen Spirit approached the Celebrate Brooklyn press table

“Remember: we’re press and you’re my assistant,” Hepcat told Teen Spirit. He handed him a camera.

Photographer and assistant got into the gala without a hitch and were given green plastic press bracelets.

“No flashes during the show and photographers can only take pictures
during the first two songs,” the Celebrate Brooklyn official told them
sternly. Teen Spirit didn’t say, “I told you so.”

Finally, after some proclamations by boisterous local politicians,
Byrne came out on stage with white hair, a white suit, and a white
Stratocaster. When he started playing, the stage filled with musicians
and dancers. Byrne made a tangible connection with the crowd, which
spilled out across West Drive to the softball fields.

Listening to the music, Hepcat remembered the second time that he
saw Talking Heads, a few months after the CBGB show. He was listening
to the radio in his college darkroom and heard that they were playing
in about an hour at Joyous Lake, a folk/jazz club in Woodstock. He
decided to drive over with four of his friends to catch the show.

As it turned out, Hepcat and his friends were the entire paying
audience. When they left, Hepcat wondered if the band was disappointed
when their entire audience got into one Volkswagen like circus clowns
in reverse.

After David Byrne’s second song, most of the professional photographers, obeying the rules, stopped taking pictures.

“Two songs for the photographers,” Teen Spirit said.

Hepcat wondered when Teen Spirit became the concert etiquette know-it-all? Sure, he has his own band and all. But still…

“David Byrne sure looks spry up there,” Teen Spirit said.

“Does that mean I’m spry?” Hepcat asked Teen Spirit. They are, after all, the same age.

“No, Dad, you aren’t spry, you are …” Hepcat didn’t much like where this was going.

During breaks between songs, Teen Spirit and Hepcat discussed the altogether excellent music, stagecraft and choreography.

“It all seems so right, and somehow it all makes so much sense, all
this circling back, all the same only different,” he told Teen Spirit.
“You know, ‘Same as it ever was,” he said quoting a famous Talking
Heads song.

After the show, Hepcat and Teen Spirit tried to decide what to do.

“Are you going to hang out, or are you going to go straight home?” Teen Spirit asked his dad.

“I’ll probably stay a little while,” Hepcat said, energized by the great show.

“I’ll think I’ll skip the party,” Teen Spirit said.

“Too much rampant spryness?” Hepcat asked.

“I guess,” Teen Spirit replied.

“Hey, this was a nice pre-Father’s Day thing to do,” Hepcat told Teen Spirit. He touched his arm.

“Is it Father’s Day soon?” Teen Spirit asked. “When is it?”

“The third Sunday of June, same as it always is,” Hepcat told him.

“You know I’m playing a concert in East River Park that Saturday. That could be a Father’s Day gift!”

Indeed.

This Smartmom is based on writing by Hugh Crawford: hughcrawford.com/David_Byrne

The New Colossos

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command 
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

--Emma Lazarus

Photo of Lady Liberty being installed in her spot outside Vox Pop by Tom Martinez

This faux Statue of Liberty sculpture was vandalized while
outside Vox Pop recently. Rennie, a long-time Brooklynite, refurbished her and now she is newly equipped with a solar powered torch!.
 
 Witness
photographer Tom Martinez was on hand to help Rennie as he transported Lady Liberty through the streets of
Kensington to Vox Pop, a cafe, performance space and bookstore on
Cortelyou Road.

Sunday is the third annual Make Music New York celebration.  Previously noted in OTBKB has been the Accordion Forest and Singalong at The Old
Stone House, part of that celebration.  Pierre at The Gigometer has provided OTBKB Music with a list of some of the other better performances today:

Juliet Echo (8:00pm) – First Avenue and Houston Street
And The Revellers Fell (6:00pm) – Grand Ferry Park
Maggie Doucet (3:00pm) / Stephen Clair (4 – 5:30pm) – Kill Devil Hill
Joséphine (3:00pm) – Urban Cottage
Lili Roquelin (1:00am) – Astoria Music Shop
Alicia Jo Rabins (6:30 -8pm) – Riverside Park
Athena Reich (1 – 2pm) – La Perla Garden
Tamara Hey (4:00pm) – 2nd Ave and E 10th St
Joe Thompson and the Comfortable Catastrophes (1:00am) – City Hall Park
Cassis and the Sympathies (5:30pm) – Tavern on the Green
Karen Mantler (2:00am) – DeSalvio Playground
Bill Popp and The Tapes (3 – 4pm) / Little Kitten Space Girl (5:30
-6pm) – Washington Square Park
Stephane Wrembel (1:00pm) – Fada Restaurant
Venice Beach Muscle Club – Coney Island
Her Vanished Grace (11:30am ? 12:15pm) / Rebecca Pronsky (2:45 ?
3:30pm) / Sharon Van Etten (5:30 ? 6:15pm) – Sackett St Block Party
Daru Oda (noon – 3pm) – Inspired Design
Hot Box (5:15pm) – Spike Hill
Matt Singer (5:00pm) / Willie Breeding (7:30pm) – Bar Matchless
The Scandinavian Half-Breeds (4 – 6pm) – Lovin' Cup
Randi Russo (4:00pm) / Lorraine Leckie (5:00pm) – Pass Out Record Shop
Amanda Monaco (4:00pm) – The Creek

(For more information about the bands or venues listed above, check The Gigometer)

 –Eliot Wagner

The Community Bookstore has a  great lineup of children's book authors on Sunday! Come on out and join the fun, including these great
authors and the first ever 7th Avenue Scavenger Hunt!!!

11:00 

Emily Goodman :

Plant Secrets

11:30

Robert Weinstock :

Food Hates You, Too

Giant Meatball

12:00

Jenny Offill :

17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore

12:30

Marilyn Singer :

I’m Your Bus

City Lullaby

1:00

Pat Cummings :

Harvey Moon, Museum Boy

Our Children Can Soar

1:30

Anna Rich :

Under the Night Sky

2:00

Nina Crews :

Neighborhood Mother Goose

Below  

2:30

Barbara Ensor :

Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story)

Thumbelina, Tiny Runaway Bride

3:00

Johan Olander :

A Field Guide to Monsters

3:30

Melanie Hope Greenberg :

Mermaids on Parade  

4:00

Daniel Salmieri :

Those Darn Squirrels 

4:30 

Charlotte Noruzi :

Grow, Watermelon, Grow

News from Rose Water, Park Slope's seasonal American restaurant with a strong commitment to local and organic ingredients has news.

Today they sent out an email announcing the arrival of of a new chef. Formerly Chef de Cuisine at Los Angeles' renowned Campanile, Chef Bret Macris is now at the helm of Rose Water's kitchen.
 
"Bret
brings with him an affinity for all things seasonal and sustainable,
and a great love for the varied cuisines of the Mediterranean.  He's
been busy making friends with our farmers and suppliers,
and he's geeking-out over the late spring-early summer produce that's
starting to roll in.  You can check out his current dinner menu on the website.

Yes, there is more to the Seventh Heaven Street Fair than socks and zeppoles: The Park Slope Chamber of Commerce has decided that the Seventh Avenue Street Fair isn't nutty and goofy enough(yet!). That's why they've decided to sponsor and organize a massive scavenger hunt!

A Massive Scavenger Hunt? Why not?

Catherine Bohne says: "Simply stop by the Chamber of Commerce Booth the morning of
the Fair and pick up your list of Hunt Items. People are welcome to participate as individuals or
as teams."

Here's what it's all about:

–Find or Do as many of the Items as you can,

–Collect the required proof of completion for each Item

–Report back to the Chamber Booth when you're done as much as you can.

–Hunt Items earn you points, which can then be cashed in for fun prizes donated by local merchants.

Catherine Bohne wants you to know that Scavenger Hunt items are appropriate for sentient life-forms 12-132 earth years of age (anyone younger or older should be accompanied by a reasonably knowlegeable human), and may include but are not limited to:

–Taking photos around the neighborhood,

–finding things that can be only found in Park Slope,

–and completing tasks no less exciting than defending the avenue from zombies.

For more information:
Contact Walter Petryk at stuffwriter@aim.com
or call the Community Bookstore at 718.783.3075.
Sunday (aka Father's Day).

Seventh Heaven, the Seventh Avenue Street Fair, is on June 21
11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Stop by the Chamber of Commerce Booth, which will be located between Community Bookstore and The Little Things Toy Store (on 7th Avenue between Carroll & Garfield).

This week ctors and crew are shooting the pilot of HBO's new drama Boardwalk Empire at the Montauk Club in Park Slope. Martin Scorsese is the director and Terence Winter, a writer and producer of The Sopranos, is the writer. The series is being produced by Scorsese along with Mark Wahlberg and Steven Levenson.  Here is New York has photos. An outdoor set is being built in Greenpoint.

Here is the cast list: 

• Steve Buscemi starring as Nucky Johnson
• Kelly Macdonald as Margaret, an enterprising Irish immigrant
• Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody, an ambitious punk in Nucky’s gang
• Michael Shannon as federal agent Van Alden
• Stephen Graham as Al Capone
• Vincent Piazza as Lucky Luciano
• Aleksa Palladino as Angela Darmody, Jimmy’s wife
• Paul Sparks as a bootlegging funeral director
• Shea Whigham as Eli Johnson, a corrupt county sheriff
• Anthony Laciura as Louis Kessel
• Charisma Carpenter in an as-yet unnamed role
• Ann Marie Seall as Babette

From the  Boardwalk Empire website here's a plot summary of the book on which the HBO series is based:

A bustling little city by the seashore, totally dependent upon money
spent by tourists, Atlantic City’s popularity rose in the early 20th
century and peaked during Prohibition. The resort’s singular purpose of
providing a good time to its visitors—whether lawful or not—demanded a
single mentality to rule the town. Success of the local economy was the
only ideology, and critics and do-gooders weren’t tolerated.

By 1900, a political juggernaut, funded by payoffs from gambling
rooms, bars, and brothels, was firmly entrenched. For the next 70
years, Atlantic City was dominated by a partnership comprised of local
politicians and racketeers. This unique alliance reached full bloom in
the person of Enoch “Nucky” Johnson—the second of three bosses to head
the Republican machine that dominated city politics and society.

In Boardwalk Empire, Nucky Johnson, Louis “the Commodore”
Kuehnle, Frank “Hap” Farley, and Atlantic City itself spring to life in
all their garish splendor. Author Nelson Johnson traces “AC” from its
humble beginnings as Jonathan Pitney’s seaside health resort, through
the notorious backroom politics and power struggles, to the city’s
astonishing rebirth as an entertainment and gambling mecca where
anything goes.

Boardwalk Empire is a colorful, irresistible history of a
unique city and culture. Here is proof positive that truth is
stranger—and more compelling—than fiction.