Toni Rowe, a 97-year-young artist, loves to paint and create. She grew up in Greenwich Village above a blacksmith shop that repaired
wagon wheels and remembers gas lights prior to the dawn
of electricity.
She takes a weekly art class on 14th Street at her late husband’s Union.
She is a member of the All Souls Bethlehem Church in Kensington where Martinez is minister.
Buy Scout Tufankjian’s new book of photographs, Yes We Can, at PS 107, where she is doing a book signing, reading and slide show to benefit the school.
The Where and When
Tuesday, December 16
7-9 pm.
PS 107
8th Avenue at 13th Street
Go here for tickets
An ambitious American history Book Club is forming. Lloyd Miller, who is the founder of the club, sent me this information. If you are interested, read this post and get in touch with Lloyd. It looks like there are going to be two meetings — one in Park Slope and one in Ditmas Park.
I see that he wants to have kids at these events, which is an interesting idea. I wonder how that will work out in practice. Certainly older kids is a great idea.
Also, there will be a musical side of things. A sing-a-long. Lloyd is a member of the Deedle Deedle Dees, so it makes sense that music will be an important component.
Can’t wait to hear how it turns out.
A lot of people responded and so it looks
like we’re going to have two meetings sometime in mid or late January,
one in Park Slope and one in Ditmas Park. I’m going to let everyone
know about both meetings for this first month, then after that just the
one for your neighborhood. That way, if you have friends in the other
neighborhood who would like to come, you can let them know. Also, if
you’re unable to attend the meeting closest to you, maybe you can get
on the Q and visit the other group.The January book is The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
by Jonathan Alter. As I mentioned in my original posts to the Yahoo
groups, our meetings won’t feature traditional book club discussions.
Instead, we’re going to be singing songs from the FDR era, writing new
songs, and creating visual art, poems, and other projects that we can
use to teach kids and other adults about the book.I’ll be drawing heavily from a second book to help us with the musical side of things: Roosevelt’s Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR
by Guido Van Rijn. This book has a companion CD full of amazing songs
written for and about FDR — apparently more songs were written about
him than any other president. We’ll also sing more famous tunes from
the era ("Happy Days," etc) but my focus is going to be on more
overlooked music of the time. If you’re a musician, I’ll be posting
chords and, if possible, rough transcriptions of songs that I’d like to
sing at our meeting on my blog, www.teachddd.blogspot.com.
I’m also going to put updates about our book club there and links to
more music and things to read. This blog is a slowly-building resource
for teachers and parents, a digital musical American history textbook.
I write lots of songs with my band about American history that I bring
into schools and I also write songs with school kids in their social
studies classes and kids and grown-ups in other settings. This blog is
where I’m starting to gather everything into one central place.Some important questions:
When is the best time for you to meet? Please be specific (e.g., "Tuesdays after 8pm") and give two or three options in order of preference.
Should we have kids at our meeting? If yes, how can we make it work? Ideally,
I’d like this to be a family event that your kids can attend with you,
but obviously if your kids are young like mine (3 years and 10 months)
it would probably be useful to have two adults so that one can be
chasing the kid(s) while the other sings, plays, and makes stuff. Let
me know what you think. We could also do a grown-up meeting at night
and then have a family daytime meeting where we play and sing the songs
we’ve already learned and show off what we’ve made.Do you play an instrument? If so, which one? Do you read music? Can you read a simple chart? It’s fine if
the answer to all of these questions is no. I just want to figure out the best way to include everyone in our singalong.Are
you an artist? (the answer is yes) A poet? An HTML code goddess? What
kind of art would you like to use to teach others about the book? I’ll
be supplying the musical materials we need, I need you guys to bring
other stuff you’d like to use, be it watercolors and paper, recyclable
materials for a sculpture, theater games, etc etc etc.You can always write me at this address or thedeedledeedledees@yahoo.com if you have questions for me.
As a recipient of Zuzu’s "Ladies List" I received this email about what I guess is THE gift for the menopausal and peri-menopausal women on your shopping list Zuzu’s. She’ll be selling them tonight at the Snowflake (Buy Local, Buy Late).
Dearest Ladies List Ladies….
I’m almost a little late for work right now,
Lorraine will be there by herself in 15 minutes.
I couldn’t wait to send this email out to you.
The Hot Flash Flowerfans just came this week.
I figured out a while ago that the most important thing I can do everyday is make sure that whoever comes into the shop feels as good as or better when they leave as when they came in.
It’s good for business and good for my soul.
We try to make that the Zuzugoal, creed, mantra….
Of course it doesn’t always work.
It gets easier when we have good material:
Unusual fresh flowers, new table linens, special seasonal treats…toys.
The Hot Flash Flowerfan is good material.
When I ordered them I pictured Lorraine
selling them, making slightly off color jokes,
getting personal, cackling the whole time.
Times like this we need our Joy.
We need to laugh and be good to one another.
Everyday at work, I try to focus on how lucky I am to have
Zuzus: the shops, the people I work with,
the regular fans, the newcomers.
Tonight we will break out the Reindeer Suits
wine, bread and cheese till 10 P.M. at The Big.
Come down for some hanging out.
We can play with the Flower Fans and
tell funny hot flash stories…are there any?
Oh…they’re $18.
Love to you all
Fonda
As reported in the Brooklyn Paper, there is now a white painted ghost bicycle chained to a street sign on the corner of President Street and 8th Avenue near the site where Cobble Hill resident, Jonathan Millstein died in September.
Cycling activists locked a white-painted bicycle to a street sign at
the corner of Eighth Avenue and President Street in Park Slope on Dec.
2, turning the site of a fatal crash into a makeshift memorial.Biking advocates from the New York City Street Memorial Project
installed a plaque and a “ghost bike” — adorned with plastic flowers —
on the corner where 50-year-old cyclist Jonathan Millstein lost his
life after colliding with an empty school bus on Sept. 10.Picture by Don Wiss for the Brooklyn Paper.
Here are just some of Adrian Kinloch’s photo from the event yesterday commemorating the fifth anniversary of the announcement of the Atlantic Yards, where the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods called for a complete state and city audit of the stalled project
Speakers included NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery (pictured in the upper left photo on the far right) and NYC Councilmember Letitia James (upper left photo on the left) and Daniel Goldstein (below right) of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.
An OTBKB reader wrote in to say this.
On my way home tonight I noticed that the gate for Kiku Sushi on 7th
between 10th and 11th Street was halfway down–perfectly positioned to
hide the giant yellow CLOSED BY ORDER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH sign
that was posted on the window.It seriously grates (no pun intended) when restaurants try to hide their health code violations…so I came straight up and emailed you! Hope you can find some space to get this info out.
Note from OTBKB: I just want to add in the name of fairness that it’s important to find out what the actual violation was. It could be something gross or something like a problem with their garbage (which is gross) but it doesn’t mean there’s rodent poop in the soup or anything.
Anyone know the details?
Good question and one that Mlchelle Slatalla in today’s New York Times tries to answer.
SPEAKING as someone born the same year as Barack Obama, I was very happy after Election Day to hear various political analysts
and TV commentators describe him as our nation’s first Generation X
president.This could be a critically
important development for all of us born in 1961. It could be the
loophole we’ve been waiting for, the one that gets us out of the baby
boomer generation and gives us another shot at being young.“It’s so great to be a member of Generation X,” I said to my husband
last week on my 47th birthday. He’s 51, a member in good standing of
the baby boom generation.“What are you talking about?” he asked.
I’ll be listening to him on WNYC public radio!
Here’s more from Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook. He runs the weekly pub quiz over at that cozy bar and writes these great emails that I share with you.
What the hell’s in the
water that powerful people drink? Either it makes them arrogant and
corrupt, or it leads them down the path of Haircuts of the Damned.
With Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, it’s both…with a vengeance.
I and many of you live in Brooklyn, where both political malfeasance (see Yards, Atlantic, boondoggle) and bizarre coiffage are pretty common.
Chicago, with its infamous ward system, the place where
"vote early, vote often," if it didn’t originate there, it sure took
root. Chicago, the Second City. Chicago, in Carl Sandberg’s words:
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders
It’s all that. Not to conflate ol’ Big Shoulders with the Blaggy the
Governor’s operation in Springfield. Still, stormy husky brawling
apples don’t fall that far from the tree.
As
you may have heard by now — it’s today’s big breaking domestic news
story — Gov. Blagojevich has been arrested and charged with an endless
cornucopia of corruption allegations
One of Blagojevich’s transgressions was trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat. "Unless I get something real good for [Senate Candidate 1], s–t,
I’ll just send myself, you know what I’m saying?"
Later,
he fine tuned his message. The senate seat, he said, "is a f—ng
valuable thing; you just don’t give it away for nothing."
[Those timid hyphenations cleverly camoflaging out cuss words come from the transcripts of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s press conference today.]
Patrick f—ing Fitzgerald, f—ing bada-s stomping Blagojevich’s weak s—t press conference
Pretty sure the right-wing blogosphere’s collective head is exploding, trying to link Blagojevich
with our next prez. Well, it’s fun for ’em, like the sugar-rush
excitement of kids on a school field-trip, walking up to the museum’s
front door.
There’s plenty more in the Rod Blagojevich Bag of Goodies. So, so much more. Stuff about getting Chicago Tribune newspaper board members fired, something about the Chicago Cubs, a children’s hospital. Across the board wackiness.
Here in Brooklyn, there’s a valuable lesson in all of this: write laws that make corruption legal. Mayor Bloomberg
strongarms with money, power, greed, arrogance and pure all-out bully
tactics — seemingly all covered by laws written for people like him by
people like him. His beneficiaries include the Yankees, Mets, Bruce Ratner,
big developers, and local politicos willing to trade votes for pork, no
matter how few of their constituents get to actually feast on the pork.
What, him worry?
There’s
a second, sadder construct: people don’t get angry, so enjoy your
ill-gotten gains. We’ve let Bloomberg gut this city’s soul,
infrastructure, schools, budgets, social programs, and every
development site in the five boroughs. Some of us have risen up, but
not enough.
Blooomberg’s not as smart as everyone thinks — he’s certainly not
the big-business miracle-worker his carefully-cultivated image claims.
Tell me…what kind of society do we run when Blagojevic gets hauled in
for selling senate seats, but Bloomberg walks free after selling our
neighborhoods, infrastructure, our present and our childrens’ future
for far more than Blagojevic ever hoped to clear?
I was in Lolli’s looking for a holiday gift for my niece and the conversation rolled around to the Snowflake Celebration.
Lolli’s will be open late this Thursday night (December 11). One of the owners said that last Thursday night was slow but there were shoppers and she seemed to think it was a good idea for the neighborhood.
A customer in the store said that at PS 107, they’re having a movie and pizza night (showing Cars) so that parents can go shopping in the neighborhood.
Now that sounds like a great idea and a great way to get more people involved in the festivities.
She thought that they may be doing something at PS 321 like that, too.
Anyone know?
Sarah Pollock is the Director of Development for 826NYC. She
will be participating in Buy in Brooklyn’s Snowflake Celebration during
the first two Thursdays in December with the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company,
who will be keeping their doors open late for everyone with a superhero on
their list.
Q: When did you start your nonprofit and why did you choose Park Slope?
A: 826NYC was
founded in 2004 (We’re now in our 5th year!!) to provide creative writing
education free of charge to students ages 6 to 18. We host drop-in tutoring and
homework help, field trips and evening workshops, in addition to our in-schools
programming. We chose Park Slope because we needed a location with a
store-front (for the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company) in a neighborhood that
students could access easily, and teachers would feel comfortable bringing
their classes. Our location on 5th Avenue is fantastic, because of the
proximity to MS 51, among other public schools.
826NYC Factiod:
They never considered putting their organization, 826NYC, anywhere other than
Brooklyn. They are thrilled, happy and very proud to serve Brooklyn public
school students (who make up more than 80% of their programming).
Q: Which of the Sustainable
Business Network NYC’s "Top Ten Reasons" to shop locally resonate most
with you & your organization?
A: Reason #3 definitely!
Local business owners invest in the community! One of our board members,
Brenda Casimir, owner of the Park Slope Tea and Coffee, is our
neighbor, board member and fervent supporter. (Her son Alex, quite possibly
attended more of our workshops than any other student in our history). And as
local business owners ourselves, we like supporting local stores whenever we
can. Which is why we’re happy to be a part of the "Buy in Brooklyn"
Snowflake Celebration!
Shop Local Factoid: Local businesses
are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and
are more invested in the community’s future. Local business owners often serve
on the Boards of nonprofits, merchants associations and community boards.
"Why Shop Local?" is a communication initiative of the Buy in
Brooklyn team. To learn more about Park Slope’s Buy in Brooklyn campaign, visit
their website at http://www.buyinbrooklyn.com/
The site, with its ever-growing list of participants and partners is updated
regularly.
Interview conducted by Rebeccah Welch
Lots of news from the Community Bookstore. Sales are up 50%, which is amazing. They’ve got a new website. They’re going to be open late during the Snowflake Celerbation on December 11th and their website has a HUGE list of gift books. Oh, they’re having a holiday party on December 21st at 7 p.m.
Here’s the word from owner Catherine Bohne.
Ho, ho, ho (or hee hee hee and a bumper of ‘nog) . . . The season is upon us once again, and here is the bookstore’s quasi-annual round up of ideas for books we’d like to get, anyhow. We hope it may help you in list-making endeavors, but in any case, we had a lot of fun putting it together, and now it’s yours to do with as you will. It’s posted on our website (www.communitybookst ore.net, under “Messing About”) where you can download extra copies to print. ALSO, under the “Get Books” section (our new on-line store) there’s a ‘Holiday Newsletter’ link in the left-hand navigation, which takes you to the same list of books linked to books in print, with full ordering capability – so you can look at the covers, read more about ‘em and have things shipped directly to your friends, family, and followers all over the country. Any books ordered this way are 10% off, and orders costing more than $50 get free shipping
We will be having a Holiday Party, starting at 7pm on Sunday, December 21st. It’s the first day of Hanukkah, and the end of the last weekend before Christmas, so it’s going to be a bit of a funny catch-bag celebration, but what more appropriate for our extended bookstore family? I’ve been rereading Anne of Green Gables, and am accordingly a bit entranced with the idea of “Concerts” – evenings in which the community comes together and parades their various personal talents, whether for singing, reciting uplifting pieces, or setting “tableaux” (Faith, Hope & Charity, anyone?). Oh – speaking of which, there’s usually the premise that something’s being done for charity, so perhaps we could make the evening a drive for Toys for Tots?
Come one, come all, and bring a small gift to donate to the many in our city who can’t afford ‘em. So far, we know that there will be the obligatory (as far as I’m concerned) reading of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, and we have some rumors of music, too. I don’t see why we shouldn’t set aside a time for singing all together (what are holidays, without Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel stuck in your head?). Don’t forget we have a piano, too, so the possibilities are, if not endless, at least manifold! As you perhaps know, the bookstore staff are usually pretty much well on the way to comatose with exhaustion by then, so any help with setting up or pot-lucking would be appreciated – just email me at catherine@community bookstore. net if you’d like to be involved!
Of course, any production of the Slant is also an opportunity to update you on the State of the Store, about which so many of you are kind enough to enquire. I suppose that some of you reading this will have stumbled on it (and us) by chance, while some of you haven’t heard any news since the last Slant, whereas some of you may well be kindred spirits and bookstore habitués, and some of you are possibly already aficionados of our fourth, new, and finally functional website, so It’s a Little Confusing to know where to start . . . but the thumbnail is this:
This Bookstore, now in its 37th year of continual operation (well, I mean, we close at night, most of the time, but you know what I mean), is one of the oldest surviving Independent Bookstores in NYC. It’s a long and tangled (not to say sometimes garbled) history, with concomitant ups and downs, but the latest dramatic chapter began with the Great Crisis of 2007, in which we (I) admitted, somewhat inadvertently, to the world at large, that the store was in the last throes of complete failure . . . and what happens? The neighborhood rallied round emphatically and firmly. We found ourselves with 20 fabulous and self-appointed advisors, who put together a rescue package, which in turn led to 12 equally fabulous investors, and the short of it is that the store was put gently back on its (little cat) feet, and away we’ve sailed. After 7 quite horrible years of tightening every belt that exists in the complicated machinery of the store, mostly to no avail, the last year and a half has been a giddily unfolding dream of calmly proceeding modest success. Our inventory has been tripled, things are getting fixed, we’ve built a fantastic website, and sales are up almost 50% . . .
And it’s been a very great pleasure to use this success as a platform from which to think of creative new ways to give back to the neighborhood (which is our home, which is to say is we-all !) It’s been a ball to organize the Snowflake Celebrations, the First Annual RestaurantTour, to start the Community Forum, and to generally meddle with helping everyone undertake whatever good we can. Then what happens? The economy has to go and crash. It’s enough to make you quote Mehitabel (“Archie – why does life have to be one damn litter after another?”). Well, we’ll see. Sales do seem to be down a little, but in a business of our scale, that’s not hard to make up – research last year revealed that if our most loyal customers shifted an additional 5% of their book-buying to Community, that would be enough to put us solidly in the black. So without haranguing you to shop more than you want to or can, I would just urge you, as ever, to be quietly conscious that little decisions about where to spend what you do spend can add up to make a significant and effective difference on a local level. So without further ado . . .
Here are some big books a big special someone that the Community Bookstore is recommending. You can order online or just walk into the store and BUY.
Tales of Chekhov by Anton Chekhov (Ecco, $150.00): 13 Beautiful Books in a Big ol’ Box! The most comprehensive collection of his stories, including both the hits and
the brilliant-but- lesser-known, showcasing Chekhov’s humor and
insight. Featuring critical essays and reminiscences by the likes of
Nadine Gordimer, Susan Sontag, and Russell Banks.
Hidden Letters annotated
by Deborah Slier and Ian Shine (Star Bright Books, $35.00): A
profoundly moving collection of letters and photographs from a young
Dutch man’s life during World War II, found in 1997 after remaining
hidden for decades. This book details the war-time story of a family in a manner we have not seen since Anne Frank’s diary.
An Irish Florilegium by Wendy Walsh (Thames & Hudson, $125.00): A gigantic lapful of a book, requiring two strong arms to lift. 48 hand-tipped color plates reproduce delicate original watercolor illustrations of both wild and garden flora. Includes an introduction on the history of plant collecting and horticulture in Ireland and individual notes to each plate.
Lapham’s Quarterly, Vols 1-4 ($100.00): A
box set of the first four issues (Winter through Fall, 2008) of Lewis
Lapham’s newest and most ambitious enterprise, including the almost
immedjetly hard-to-find “States of War” issue (el numero uno).
Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry Selected and Translated by Vladimir Nabokov (Harcourt, $40.00): One of the great writers, critics, and minds of the 20th
century – Nabokov knew his Russian literature. For fans of poetry or of
Russia , this collection includes work most of us have never read.
Jewish Museums of the World: Masterpieces of Judaica by
Grace Cohen Grossman (Universe, $50.00): 10 lbs of beautiful book form
a comprehensive and staggering catalogue of myriad artifacts from
Jewish cross-cultural history, as well as the history of preserving
them, featuring beautiful full-color illustrations from museums spread
all over the world.
Lalanne(s) by Daniel Abadie (Flammarion, $125.00): An enormous and beautiful retrospective of the French sculptors who have been working and exhibiting together since 1964. It’s
all here, from the rhinoceros-desk and the onion-watch, to brass and
wool sheep benches, from bathtub-enclosing hippopotami, to the delicate
and weird finger sculptures . . .
The Complete Ripley Novels Boxed Set
by Patricia Highsmith (Norton, $100.00): Finally collected together in
a bea-yoo-tee- ful boxed set, these novels follow the chameleon Tom
Ripley through his thoroughly murderous and bizarrely seductive
escapades, which both implicate and goad us into sympathizing with this
most “debonair confidence man.”
The Printed Picture by
Richard Benson (MoMA, $60.00): Follow the physical, scientific, and
cultural evolution of the printed image, from the Renaissance up to
tomorrow, with this delectable art school textbook qua coffee table
book.
I got this in an email from Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.
Five years ago today, December 10, 2003, Forest City Ratner officially unveiled
its Atlantic Yards proposal. Bruce Ratner, joined at Brooklyn Borough Hall by
Borough President Markowitz, Senator Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki,
announced his plans to build the massive project extending east from the intersection
of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.(NoLandGrab
is
wishing the billionaire’s boondoggle a Happy Birthday Atlantic Yards, unfavorably
comparing the progress of the project to that of a five-year old child who would
be toilet-trained and in pre-school by now.)Bruce Ratner announced that his new arena for the Nets–the team he had just overpaid
to purchase–would open to the public in 2006. The project
overview released by Forest City Ratner on that December day read, on page
5: "Arena development to begin at the end of 2004, with completion
set for the summer of 2006."
Ever innovative, the Brooklyn Museum of Art is doing the social networking tihng:
A
first-of-its-kind new socially networked
Membership tier has been created at the
Brooklyn Museum and will debut on January 3,
2009 at Target First Saturdays. The
program,
known as 1stfans, will offer paperless
benefits through the social networks
Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, as well as
exclusive live events at the Museum’s monthly
Target First Saturdays, all for an
annual fee
of $20.Artists from Swoon’s studio will be on hand
to help
launch the initiative at the January Target
First Saturday, the Museum’s popular evening
of art and entertainment in which the Museum
is open until 11 p.m. with free admission
beginning at 5 p.m. They will create prints
on found paper to be provided that evening by
new 1stfans.
"Traditionally, Membership has meant a
connection between one person and an
institution," comments Membership Manager
William Cary. "By engaging our Members
through online social networks and with live
events at Target First Saturdays, we
have created a way for visitors to become
associated with
the Museum and with each other. 1stfans isn’t
just an online category of Membership; it’s a
completely new way of using Membership to
grow our Museum community."
A groundbreaking benefit of the program will
be a unique method of utilizing Twitter, the
free social networking and micro-blogging
service, to connect with 1stfans. Twitter
technology enables its users to send and read
other users’ updates, known as tweets, text
posts of up to 140 characters in length.
Each month, the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed will
provide original content from contemporary
artists exclusively to 1stfans, providing
them with unique access to the perspectives
of many contemporary artists. The January
Twitter Art Feed artist will be announced in
mid-December.
Did you know that the NYC Department of Education prohibits gifts from individuals of more than a modest nature to teachers in public schools?
While class gifts are permitted — although only modest amount should be asked from each family. — all names of families and children must be on the card whether or not that family contributed.
According to a note from the administration of PS 321, It is very important that you follow this regulation or else you put teachers in danger of violating conflict of interest regulations.
Below is the Chancellor’s Regulation C-110 with more information about gifts for teachers:
E. Gifts, Fundraising, and Celebrations for
New or Newly-Promoted Staff Member
1. Gifts and Fundraising
No student, parent, guardian, school class, official or employee is required or expected to contribute toward any gift or testimonial to an official or employee of
the Department of Education. No class, student, parent, official or employee shall be expected or required to
participate in any fundraising activity.
a. Gifts from individual students, parents
and/or guardians
Individual students, parents and/or guardians
may wish to make gifts to officials and employees at the end of the year and at similar occasions, such as holidays,
weddings, and the birth of an official’s or employee’s child. However, discretion must be used to ensure that
officials and employees do not accept gifts of value from individual children, parents or guardians. Only those gifts
that are principally sentimental in nature and of small financial value may be accepted.
b. Gifts from School Classes
In addition to individual gifts, sometimes an
entire school class may wish to make a gift to officials and employees at the end of the year and at similar occasions,
such as holidays, weddings and the birth of an official’s or employee’s child. Officials and employees may
accept gifts from whole classes of students, their parents and/or guardians, provided that each student, parent or
guardian in the class has the opportunity to sign the card or note that comes with the gift, whether or not the
student, parent or guardian contributed to the cost of the gift.
Amos Eno Gallery is pleased to present “Close,” an exhibit of new
photographs by Anthony Cuneo, on display from November 25 to December
20, 2008. A reception for the artist will be held December 4th from
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
There will be a reading by Ellen Ferguson, Marian Fontana, Louise Crawford and others as part of this opening in DUMBO.
Anthony Cuneo began work on the images comprising “Close” in
2007, shooting in venues as different as New Mexico and suburban New
Jersey, and exploring subjects as diverse as the birth scars left on a
landscape by seam volcanoes or the root systems of invasive plants.
Working digitally from film originals, Cuneo adjust his images, on
occasion combining them into pairs or triptychs, sometimes presenting
them in a straight-forward manner, sometimes manipulating their colors
and values in a tactile fashion.
An awareness of touch and texture is very evident in these new
photographs and the viewer frequently senses that the objects shown
echo other forms and traditions; the word “close” refers not only to
the distance from which the images were shot but the sense that the
resultant pictures contain meanings held close within, layered behind
the ostensible subjects and needing close reading to be understood.
Located within the shadow cast by the photographer (an homage to Lee
Friedlander), a pair of rocks read as a heart or lungs. Shot suspended
in space, roots twist and curl like capillaries. Elements of landscape
are treated as objects, the objects become bodies, the bodies reveal
their own internal landscapes. Closely observed textures and forms
paradoxically seem powerfully, palpably solid and dangerously fragile.
Cuneo received his M.F.A. in painting from the University of
Pennsylvania and has been exploring photography over the last several
years. With this exhibit, he begins to treat his photographic works in
a painterly way, manipulating and combining images. He has an extensive
national exhibit record and is represented in numerous private
collections. Cuneo’s work is remarkable for its compelling aesthetics
and expressive power.
The Amos Eno Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
The Where and When
December 13, 6 pm – 8 pm
Opening of Close and Reading
Amos Eno Gallery
111 Front Street, #202 In Dumbo
Brooklyn, NY 11201
A reading and discussion of the Brooklyn Historical Society’s newly published Park Slope Neighborhood and Architectural History Guide with OTBKB fave Francis Morrone, an architectural historian and writer.
7 pm. $10 suggested donation
The Where and When
Thursday, December 11 at 7 p.m.
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Washington Park
Last summer, my father ordered tickets for 8 operas during the 2008-2009 Met season. How optimistic that was. It makes me want to cry. I remember seeing the page of the Met brochure with his circlings of the operas he wanted to see.
When he was in the hospital last August he did say something like, "You guys are going to have to use those opera tickets."
We wouldn’t even discuss it. It felt too morbid, too unbearable. I remember looking away.
The opera tickets have become a bittersweet reminder of my dad’s influence. Every few weeks or so we figure out who gets to go.
Hepcat has been to the most operas so far. He saw Faust with my stepmother, Queen of Spades with my sister and Thais with me.
My father’s seats are in the Family Circle. He swore by those seats; the sound is very good up there even though it’s miles from the stage. For decades my maternal grandparents had season tickets in the middle of the orchestra but those were dropped a few years back.So as a family, we’re very spoiled about our seating at the Met. Still, my father liked those Family Circle seats.
"You know how he liked a bargain," Hepcat said last night as we trudged up the stairs. But it’s actually quite fun up there.
Thais is a late 19th century French opera by Massenet about a beautiful courtesan who is convinced by a monk to take the path of chastity and become a nun.
It is a lyrical and wrenching portrait of a woman, who is attached to the worldly notion of herself as an earthly and sensuous beauty — a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown who literally sees the light.
Trouble is, the monk falls in love with her…
Listening to the swooningly romantic music — sung by the great Renee Fleming — I was just dumbstruck by the power of this opera. At one point there’s a long and exquisite violin solo, it’s called the Meditation, that reminded me of something in a Charlie Chaplin film like City Lights.
Oh there was also a sexy belly dance and a kinky kiss on the lips between the belly dancer and a female singer.
So it was with joy not sadness that we sat in my father’s seats taking in the gorgeous singing, the stunning scenery and the sweeping lyricism of this opera, a Met Premiere.
I imagined my father circling this opera in that brochure: it was obviously something he wanted to see (the fact that it is rarely performed at the Met? Renee Fleming? Something else?)
I can’t say for sure what he would have said about it: his commentary was always informed and sometimes surprising.
But somehow I think he would have swooned over the voice of Diva Fleming and that violin solo that had me at hello.
Gorgeous.
Join the War Resisters League for a Celebration of Peace & Justice: The 43rd Annual Peace Award to the Grassroots Movement to Save New Orleans
Recognizing that the post-Katrina tragedy in New Orleans was made immeasurably worse by the diversion of U.S. resources to a cruel war and that the organizers struggling to recover the city for its residents are a part of the broader effort to resist that war.
And Special Musical Guests:
Steve Earle, Singer-songwriter and activist
Allison Moorer, Singer-songwriter
Atephanie McKay, R & B recording artist
Jan Bell & the Cheap Dates, Americana-folk-blues band
and more.
The Where and When
December 12, 2008
Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Avenue
Brooklyn , New York
42 -$60 General Admission; $25+ Low Income *
Reception with Stephanie McKay and Steve Earle: $150 (Event included)
Proceeds go to WRL’s work at home and abroad! Limited Space. To make reservations, call 212.228.0450 or visit warresisters.org
From the NY Daily News:
Brooklynite Scout Tufankjian, 29, knows something about foresight.
Tomorrow, photos she started taking two years ago featuring a political long shot named Barack Obama hit bookstores in a sweeping, intimate portrait ("Yes We Can," PowerHouse, $29.95) of the President-elect’s historic campaign.
But, as Tufankjian tells it, the opportunity to go behind the scenes with Obama is something she almost passed up.
A photographer for the Polaris Images agency, Tufankjian built her portfolio working in Northern Ireland and the Gaza Strip.
Assigned to cover what she assumed would be a "deadly-dull"
book-signing, she wondered if the event was worth the five-hour drive
from her home in Brooklyn to New Hampshire, where it was taking place.That drive, she notes, was "probably the best decision I ever made."
The man signing books was Barack Obama, who had at that time only
hinted at his presidential run. By the end of the day, Tufankjian was
on the phone with her editor, telling her that when Obama stepped onto
the road to the White House, she’d be with him.
Yes, I say. I like the idea a lot. This from the New York Times:
While Caroline Kennedy is maintaining her public silence about whether she wishes to succeed Senator Hillary Clinton, her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, has been working behind the scenes on her behalf, according to Democratic aides.
In recent days the Massachusetts senator has called Gov. David A. Paterson and Senator Charles E. Schumer, as well as Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who took over last month as head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee when Mr. Schumer stepped down.
Here’s a new concept:
Carrotmob, a NYC environmental group, is holding a "reverse boycott" at Tarzian Hardware.
So what does that mean?
The group will bring hundreds of shoppers to Tarzian on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, where they are expected to spend thousands of dollars at the family owned store.
Tarzian has agreed in advance to put 22 percent of the day’s profits towards energy improvements such as upgraded lighting and heating.
Carrotmob, a global volunteer group, has already staged events in San Francisco and other cities.
If you are interested in seeing this "reverse boycott" come on over to Tarzian on December 14th. See for yourself how Carrotmobbers green Tarzian.
In November we joined the Freelancers Union for a health insurance plan (Empire Blue Shield). We were desperate to find a new plan when Hepcat’s COBRA ended. Now I’m curious about interesting developments over at FU. They’ve started their own insurance company called Freelancers Insurance Company. The new plan, which has slightly higher monthly rates, starts on January 1.
On Thursday, December 11, Sara Horowitz, Executive Director of Freelancers Union and CEO of
Freelancers Insurance Company, will be answering members’ questions
about FIC during an upcoming webinar. Sara will talk about how FIC will
work, why Freelancers Union started the insurance company, and what FIC
means for the future of the organization. You must register in advance
to participate, and to foster an environment where you can get your
questions answered, space for each webinar will be limited to 75
members. For info go here.
The following is an excerpt from a story in today’s New York Times:
By many measures, the Freelancers Union
has been a success — the Brooklyn-based organization has 92,000
members; it provides health, dental and disability coverage to
thousands of freelancers; and its founder, Sara Horowitz, won a
MacArthur “genius” fellowship.As part of her vision to
create a safety net for freelancers, Ms. Horowitz had long dreamed of
creating a health insurance company that tailored its offerings to
freelancers, be they Web designers, jazz musicians, graphic artists or
dancers.In mid-November, she proudly announced that the
Freelancers Union had set up a state-approved health insurer — the
Freelancers Insurance Company — that offered significantly lower
premiums and better coverage than freelancers could generally obtain on
the open market.Numerous health care experts and foundations,
including the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, helped establish the
new company, and Ms. Horowitz was perhaps expecting widespread applause
over its formation. Instead she faced a surprising amount of carping
and sniping.A month ago, Ms. Horowitz wrote to 19,000 members
who had obtained coverage through the union’s current plan with Empire
Blue Cross and Blue Shield, telling them that they had to choose from
the new company’s five health plans — or look elsewhere for coverage.
That move sparked considerable criticism, and even inspired a Web site,
upsetfu.blogspot.com.
