There’s a free panel discussion and musical performance about Bob Dylan and the Law tonight at Fordham Law School near Columbus Circle and Lincoln Center.  The discussion begins at 6pm and the panel includes:

Professor David Hajdu, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Professor Alex Long, University of Tennessee College of Law and Professor Abbe Smith, Georgetown Law School.  The Moderator is Corny O’Connell, Fordham Law Graduate and DJ with WFUV.  At 7pm the performance by The Kennedys of songs by Bob Dylan will begin.

The rest of the details are here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

No matter what it is you are looking for, musically, geographically or timewise, there is at least one show for you tonight.  There’s folk (Abbie Gardner), rock (The Madison Square Gardeners, Israel Nash Gripka), jazz/folk (Richard Julian), alt country (The Waco Brothers), pop/rock (Mike Viola), rock/Americana (Serena Jean) and rock/electro pop (My Pet Dragon).  So just don’t stand there; go out and see a show or two tonight.  You’ll find the details at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.

–Eliot Wagner

You all know what a big fan of poetry I am so here’s a big shout-out to A.A. Pritchard, a poet who was kind enough to send me a copy of his book, HOWL NOW! (Raw Nerves Verse VS. The Bloody Universe), published by Vox Pop Publishing with the help of Debi Ryan, manager of the late, lamented Vox Pop Coffee Shop on Cortelyou Road.

HOWL NOW! has been called “a Lower East Side Book of Revelations.”  Indeed, the Lower East Side is Pritchard’s inspiration, metaphor and site of his “mad visions of lost Americana (the last dirge beneath the words).”

From the Nuyorican Poet’s Café to Lucy’s Bar on Avenue A from Tompkins Square Park to La Plaza Cultural on Avenue C, beat poet Pritchard traverses a ragged world with a subterranean verisimilitude.

The book begins with an epigraph from What Happens to a Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes. Turn the page and you’re deep inside Pritchard’s explosive inner world, where his syncopated words give voice to the nameless faces on the street of veterans, prostitutes, drug addicts, the mentally ill and the dispossessed.

In Howl Now! Pritchards rails against America’s indifference to those it has abandoned.  A poet of the streets, Pritchard  is the real deal: a hard living poet with a bracing voice and a radical take on a cruel and heartless world.

To take a look at Howl Now! by AA Pritchard: go to Amazon. You can buy it there, too.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents a celebration of Asian and Asian-American writers on Thursday April 14, 8:00 pm at  The Old Stone House, Park Slope (336 3rd Street (5th Avenue) Brooklyn, NY 11215 718.768.3195).

Curated by Sophia Romero, author of Always Hiding and blogger (www.shiksafrommanila.blogspot.com).

Featuring: Ronica Dhar, Bino A. Realuyo, Thad Rutkowski, Joanna Sit, and Diana Son

$5 suggested donation includes refreshments and wine. Q&A will follow the readings. For more information go to www.brooklynreadingworks.com or www.theoldstonehouse.org

There’s been a lot of good music released in the last two months or so.  But out of all of it, this song, 1976 by The Baseball Project, keeps sticking in my head.  Ostensibly about Mark Fidrych, this song ponders memories, growing older and how “the camera lies and the mirror plays tricks.”  With an upbeat melody, nice lead guitar work (I think it’s a 12 string played by R. E. M.‘s Peter Buck) and bouncy harmonies and organ, it’s likely to stick in your head as well.

See the video at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.

–Eliot Wagner

Back in 1989 Dion put out a wonderful album titled Yo Frankie.  My favorite track from it was the song Written on the Subway Walls.  I never knew that there was a video for the song until yesterday, when I found this.  Not only will you find Dion here, but look closely and you’ll see Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Dave Edmunds and Joan Jett.  The video was filmed in a 42nd Street subway station (it looks like Time Square).

And there’s a Park Slope connection to this as well.  According to one of the Fiumefreddo brothers at The Park Slope Barber ( I forget if it was Angelo, Vito or John who told me), back in the 60s, the woman who was in charge of Dion’s fan club lived on 3rd Street off of 7th Avenue, and Dion was in the neighborhood to see her frequently.

The video itself is waiting for you at Now I’ve Heard Everything, just click here to see it.

–Eliot Wagner

If after the NYC area snow Wednesday night, you need something to keep hope alive that spring is actually coming, this should do the trick.  Here are Steve Wynn and Scott McCaughey of The Baseball Project singing The Star Spangled Banner at a spring training game.  The baseball season starts in less than two weeks.  Have faith! See the video at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.  And The Baseball Project will play The Bell House on April 29th!

Last night Bess Rogers, along with openers Katie Costello and Rachel Platten inaugurated the The Bell House’s new stage.  It’s located in the front of the club which is now designated The Frontier Room.  Bess’ first song last night was Come Home, and you can see a professionally produced music video of that song at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.

I’ve also posted seven photos taken at SXSW last week over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.  Included in this group of shots are Brooklyn-based musicians The Mastersons, The Madison Square Gardeners and Andy Friedman.  Just click here to see them.

–Eliot Wagner

SXSW 2011 is now history.  If you would like to read a day by day account of my time at SXSW which included seeing 51 performances by 48 different bands, just click here to go to the SXSW 2011 coverage at Now I’ve Heard Everything (hint: scroll down to start with the earliest post).

Back here in Brooklyn, tomorrow The Bell House will have its first show on the new stage just installed in its front room, now dubbed The Frontier Room.  Bess Rogers will be they lucky musician to kick things off.  Details will be posted tomorrow (Tuesday) at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Does your relationship or marriage need a tune up?

Imago couples’ therapists Joan Emerson, Ph.D. and Joan Zimmerman, LSW are offering a Couples Workshop to help remove some of the barriers between you and your partner and restore your emotional connection.

Learn how to use “Imago Intentional Dialogue”, an invaluable tool that will help you recognize, accept and learn to accommodate the differences in your personality styles that block good communication.

Learn how to prevent these differences from interfering with your closeness by practicing some proven communication skills that lead back to feelings of love and appreciation.

In the workshop you  will learn how to:

• Restore connection

• Learn skills that will help you transform conflict into growth

• Recognize the dangers of mind reading

• Show and be shown acceptance for who you both are

• Learn how to use mirroring, validation and empathy to enhance communication

Getting the Love You Want – An Introductory Couples Workshop

Date: Friday April 08, 2011 7PM to 9PM

Location:    
     The Old Stone House, 336 Third Street, bet. 4th & 5th Avenues in Park Slope

Cost: $25 (you can purchase tickets online here) You can also email the leaders at parkslopecouplesworkshop@gmail.com.

Get Your Irish Up! No Green Beer

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Blarneypalooza, a Celebration of Irish Writing and Fascinations

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 8PM, The Old Stone House

336 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215/ (718) 768-3195

What exactly is Blarneypalooza? It’s a celebration of Irish writers and influence planned with Saint Patrick’s Day in mind. The following artists will read/perform:

On Larry Honig: An avowed Situationist, this dude is way too old to behave the way he does. He’s wanted in 6 countries and wishes his epitaph to contain a line from the police report: “He was found without pants.”

Lynn McGee’s poems were just published in The New Guard, where one was a finalist and one a semi-finalist in that magazine’s contest judged by former U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall. Two of her poems are forthcoming in NYC Big City lit, and others have appeared in the Kennesaw Review, Ontario Review, Northwest Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Sun magazine, Phoebe, Brooklyn Review, Pittsburgh Quarterly, The Southern Anthology, Laurel Review and other journals. Lynn’s poetry chapbook, Bonanza won the Slapering Hol national manuscript contest, she won the In Our Own Write and Judith’s Room Emerging Writers contests in New York City, received a MacDowell fellowship, and earned an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. She spent over 15 years working in literacy, and works now as the Internal Writer for a CUNY college.

Barbara O’Dair is a long-time magazine editor and writer who lives with her husband and four children in New Jersey. She graduated from Barnard College with a B.A. in American Studies and from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina with a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry. She has edited two collections of writings, Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography and Censorship, and Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. In 2002, as the editor of Teen People, she instituted a regular poetry column and contest. Currently, as the executive editor for Reader’s Digest, she oversees poetry in the magazine. Her journalism, essays and poetry have been published in many magazines, newspapers, journals and online publications.

Pat Smith’s play Driving Around the House has been produced in theaters around the country and is published by New Rivers Press. He regularly posts new poems on his blog Not in the News Today. Recent work has appeared in the online journal Haggard and Halloo and is soon to be published in Used Furniture Review.  He will be curating a Brooklyn Reading Works program in September.

(Native) New York poet Michele Madigan Somerville is the author of Black Irish (2009), a book of verse about being a NYC Irish Catholic, and WISEGAL (2001) a book-length poem.  Her work has appeared in many literary journals and she has won a few poetry prizes including a Macarthur Scholarship for Poetry, Honorable Mention in Dublin Ireland’s Davoren Hanna contest (sponsored by Eason Books — judge: Charles Simic), First Place Prize in the 2000 W. B. Yeats Society’s Poetry Competition (judge: Billy Collins).  She written about religion for the New York Times, and her essays on religion and education appear regularly on her websites Indie Theology (www.indiethology.com) and Bored-O-Ed (www.bored-o-ed.com) respectively as well as regularly on Huffington Post’s religion and education pages (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-somerville).

Michael Sweeney a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, earned his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College and teaches at Fairfield University. In Memory of the Fast Break (Plain View Press, 2008).

By Dr. Amy Glaser

As parents we are constantly faced with the challenge of modifying our children’s behaviors. Whether it is the toddler throwing a temper tantrum in a grocery store, an older sib grabbing a coveted toy from his playmate, or a student taking hours to do a short homework assignment, our aim is to prevent physical harm, incorporate some lesson that will be taken into future situations, make the child feel stronger not belittled,  and hopefully, not alienate oneself as a dominating figure but instead remain emotionally connected.

With teens and alcohol during their years at home we can monitor parties at home, speak with other parents, maintain curfews, and most importantly, share our views on alcohol and our feeling for their welfare. We hope that we make ourselves understood so that the message will become ingrained for when their daily whereabouts are out of our reach.

Here are some facts that might help your children consider their behavior in context of what is known about neurocognitive development. They’re good kids. They want to have fun. They don’t want to make irrevocable mistakes.

As teens move from dependence to independence and self-definition there are physical changes within that are in flux. The portions of the brain that express emotions and seek gratification mature more rapidly than the parts of the brain responsible for planning and regulating behavior. Thus the impulsivity of the adolescent period has a biologic basis. . Through advanced imagery studies, we now know that the frontal lobe, the area of the brain that has inhibitory and planning functions, is still developing into the mid twenties as various synapses/neurons are eliminated or pruned.   And these changes are determined both by genetics and by interactions with the environment.

Much of the knowledge about the brain and human behavior is derived from laboratory studies of animals. These studies of both rats and humans show that the developing brain responds differently than the adult to alcohol. Alcohol has been shown to impair memory, cause more brain damage and cause cognitive impairment to a greater extent in adolescents than in adults, both in rats and humans.

Conversely drinking causes less sedation and motor impairment  in adolescents than in mature brains. Thus a teen with an  equivalent alcohol exposure to an adult is more likely to be awake and mobile and thus ready for more “action.” This exposure during adolescence to alcohol affects not only that moment in time but can also alter the way the person will respond to alcohol later in life.

Studies in rats who have “Chronic intermittent alcohol exposure” (ie  binge drinking) are more likely to  have withdrawal seizures on stopping drinking. Extrapolated to humans the belief of investigators is that repeated exposure to alcohol during adolescence could lead to loner lasting deficits in learning and memory.

Continue reading The Doctor is In: Talking to Teens about Alcohol →

The Music Festival portion of South By Southwest  2011 (usually written SXSW, which is what I will do too) held each year in Austin, Texas, begins with a few official events tomorrow night and in full on Wednesday.  It runs through Sunday.  During that time there will be approximately 2000 band performing at about 100 venues, plus perhaps another 500 bands performing unofficially.  I’ll be traveling down there tomorrow and posting daily reports about SXSW over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.  If things work as they have in years past, expect those posts to appear sometime before Noon each day.

But there’s a lot of music going on in New York City during that time. Click here for a complete listing of worthwhile performances by Jon Graboff, Poundcake, Julia Haltigan, Karla Bonoff, James Maddock (two shows), David Roche, The Bright White, My Pet Dragon, Ursa Minor and Alana Sveta.

–Eliot Wagner

Get Your Irish Up! No Green Beer

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Blarneypalooza, a Celebration of Irish Writing and Fascinations

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 8PM, The Old Stone House

336 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215/ (718) 768-3195

What exactly is Blarneypalooza? It’s a celebration of Irish writers and influence planned with Saint Patrick’s Day in mind. The following artists will read/perform:

On Larry Honig: An avowed Situationist, this dude is way too old to behave the way he does. He’s wanted in 6 countries and wishes his epitaph to contain a line from the police report: “He was found without pants.”

Lynn McGee’s poems were just published in The New Guard, where one was a finalist and one a semi-finalist in that magazine’s contest judged by former U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall. Two of her poems are forthcoming in NYC Big City lit, and others have appeared in the Kennesaw Review, Ontario Review, Northwest Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Sun magazine, Phoebe, Brooklyn Review, Pittsburgh Quarterly, The Southern Anthology, Laurel Review and other journals. Lynn’s poetry chapbook, Bonanza won the Slapering Hol national manuscript contest, she won the In Our Own Write and Judith’s Room Emerging Writers contests in New York City, received a MacDowell fellowship, and earned an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. She spent over 15 years working in literacy, and works now as the Internal Writer for a CUNY college.

Barbara O’Dair is a long-time magazine editor and writer who lives with her husband and four children in New Jersey. She graduated from Barnard College with a B.A. in American Studies and from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina with a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry. She has edited two collections of writings, Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography and Censorship, and Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. In 2002, as the editor of Teen People, she instituted a regular poetry column and contest. Currently, as the executive editor for Reader’s Digest, she oversees poetry in the magazine. Her journalism, essays and poetry have been published in many magazines, newspapers, journals and online publications.

Pat Smith’s play Driving Around the House has been produced in theaters around the country and is published by New Rivers Press. He regularly posts new poems on his blog Not in the News Today. Recent work has appeared in the online journal Haggard and Halloo and is soon to be published in Used Furniture Review.  He will be curating a Brooklyn Reading Works program in September.

(Native) New York poet Michele Madigan Somerville is the author of Black Irish (2009), a book of verse about being a NYC Irish Catholic, and WISEGAL (2001) a book-length poem.  Her work has appeared in many literary journals and she has won a few poetry prizes including a Macarthur Scholarship for Poetry, Honorable Mention in Dublin Ireland’s Davoren Hanna contest (sponsored by Eason Books — judge: Charles Simic), First Place Prize in the 2000 W. B. Yeats Society’s Poetry Competition (judge: Billy Collins).  She written about religion for the New York Times, and her essays on religion and education appear regularly on her websites Indie Theology (www.indiethology.com) and Bored-O-Ed (www.bored-o-ed.com) respectively as well as regularly on Huffington Post’s religion and education pages (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-somerville).

Michael Sweeney a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, earned his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College and teaches at Fairfield University. In Memory of the Fast Break (Plain View Press, 2008).

Tomorrow: Wide Open 2, BWAC’s second national art show opens its doors and Tom Martinez with his pal poet Albee Pritchard are included in the show. Pritchard’s book, Howl Now, published last year by Debi Ryan C.E.O. of VoxPop Cafe/Press Brooklyn, will be available for purchase.

Wide Open is a juried show, which received close to 1,600 submissions (of which only ten percent are accepted for exhibition). The works represent a diverse range of artwork. It’s a big gallery space good for wall pieces, sculptures and installations of a scale not often found in other shows. smaller works and affordable art (priced under $1,000) are also part of the show. .

The show takes place in one of Red Hook’s most historical and unique spaces. The gallery is in a Civil War-era warehouse located at a frankly luscious waterfront site overlooking the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor. It is across from the Fairway supermarket and down the block from IKEA.

Tomorrow at  3PM, the $1,000 Best in Show will be selected and presented by Trotman. In total $1750 will be awarded including the $500 People’s Choice award to be selected by gallery visitors over the three weekends of the show (and all are invited to come and put in their two cents).

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 12, 2011 from 1-6 P.M.

Tonight is like a music festival with so many good choices.  You can catch three (maybe even four) great bands without breaking into a sweat.  Pick from acoustic rock (Emily Zuzik), atmospheric rock (Ursa Minor), straight ahead rock (The Ramblers and The Madison Square Gardeners), instrumental music (Jesse Harris) and country and Americana (Li’l Mo and The Monicats).  There are early shows and there are late shows.  The stars don’t align like this that often so take advantage of  tonight’s bounty.  All the details are waiting for you at Now I’ve Heard Everything just by clicking here.

–Eliot Wagner

The Madison Square Gardeners went into the Daytrotter studios Monday and played three songs live: Lightning Don’t Strike Twice, Young and In Love and Miracle Mile.  The Gardeners and Daytrotter are offering this session to you free.  Get the details at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.

Seeing Black is a real rocker of a song from the new Lucinda Williams album, Blessed.  It also has some nice guitar work by Elvis Costello.  See it by clicking here.

–Eliot Wagner

Senior Moment is a new column by Katie Hustead, owner of Paper Moon Moves, a Brooklyn-based senior move management company that helps seniors get organized, downsize and move.

Just over a year ago, I resigned from one of those huge financial organizations that we’ve all had to read way too much about in the past few years. I was successful by the Company’s standards. I had been given a few promotions and had a nice sunny office and a title that seemed to impress some of my colleagues. The problem was that I was completely uninterested in what my department did and saw no value in our services. Even worse, I had become so disgusted by the Company that I didn’t even want it to succeed. I scoffed at the Code of Ethics we had all been required to sign. Senior executives had clearly been breaking the code for decades. I wasn’t the slightest bit impressed with my professional achievements.

Life began at 5 o’clock, when all of us corporate drones packed our bags and headed for the nearest exit. My path out of the office often took me to a nursing home in the East Village, where I lead a New York Cares volunteer read aloud to seniors. Six or seven of us organize a literature Salon, taking turns reading poems, short stories, or magazine articles to a dozen residents gathered in the library. Some seniors come for the literature, some for the company, and some for the snacks. I was coming to shake corporate life and its “values” out of my system.

On a friend’s advice, I finally took a step toward finding more meaningful work. I made an appointment to see her career psychologist, Alan. He started by having me describe, in great detail, a dozen achievements of which I was genuinely proud. Together, we dissected them. Then he took me through a series of tests and exercises. A trend began to emerge: I was clearly more interested in people than in profits. And the more we talked about my volunteer experiences, the more I realized I wanted to help seniors professionally.

Seniors are comforting and fascinating. Everyone — by the time they’re in the eighties or nineties — has lived through enough chaos, grief, and beauty to publish a bestselling autobiography. And they have so much to teach us. Happy seniors should be studied so we can all learn how to make it to eighty without regret.

The job market to work with seniors was tough, and my brief attempt to apply for a job led nowhere. But Alan helped me realize that I was in a decent position to try starting my own business. While researching business opportunities that would address real needs of New York City seniors, I stumbled across the National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM). This organization is made up of 500 independent companies all over the country that help seniors get organized, downsize and move. This was it – I had found it! Joining this profession was a no-brainer for a person who nags her husband regularly over the state of his bedside table and gets a thrill from organizing a messy kitchen drawer.

The best way to help someone let go of something that they no longer need and that has become a burden is to find out why they are keeping it. So you ask where they got a particular item and listen to their story. By telling you that they got a tchotchke on their honeymoon, and describing the trip, they are separating out the story from the item itself. Once the story is unlocked, the tchotchke often becomes irrelevant. So I get to listen to seniors’ stories all day. Heaven.

My business plan for Paper Moon Moves practically wrote itself. I quit corporate life just in time to attend the 2010 NASMM conference in Las Vegas, where I met hundreds of experienced senior move managers with critical knowledge to share. I learned how to help a senior make tough decisions about what to keep and what to give away, how to find local buyers or auctioneers for my clients, and how to pack up decades’ worth of possessions. I also learned how to set up a new apartment so that the senior can immediately feel at home. I returned to Brooklyn and launched my business.

It’s been the best, and most challenging, year of my professional life. The business is profitable (although believe me there have been days when the sound of the phone not ringing is almost deafening and I squirm a lot more when the mortgage payment comes due). For me, success is now measured by how many times I hear things like: “I can see my coffee table;” “I can’t believe there were eight bags of donate-able clothes in the back of that closet;” “I don’t know how I made it from Park Slope all the way to California to live with my son;” “I thought this move would be impossible.”

I’m sometimes asked why I chose to work with seniors. The real answer is that the profession, and the seniors, chose me.

R.E.M. has a new album, Collapse Into Now, coming out tomorrow, March 8th.  The reviews I’ve seen uniformly call it the best album by the band in 14 years (which, if you do the math, makes the last critically appreciated REM album New Adventures in Hi-Fi).  NPR is offering you the chance to listen to Collapse Into Now today only in its entirety or on a track by track basis; all you need do is to go here and click the appropriate link near the top of the page.

Over at Now I’ve Heard Everything, nine more shows for March have been posted; five by Julia Haltigan, two by Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds and one each by Li’l Mo and The Monicats and Lelia Broussard.  See those additions here.  The entire Now I’ve Heard Everything March Calendar is here.

–Eliot Wagner

The weekend is near. Either you’re booked or it’s time to start thinking about what to do. There’s a “knock your socks off reading” at Sunny’s in Red Hook, the St. Petersburgh Ballet at Kingsborough Performing Arts Center, and Treasure Island, a must-see production at the Irondale Ensemble in Ft. Greene. Click on read more for more and all the essential details.

Continue reading OTBKB’s Weekend List: March 4-6 →

Tonight is one of those nights when there are a number of good bands playing, any one of which I might have recommended.  But the band I suggest, make that urge, you to see is Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 (guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Dave DeCastro and drummer Linda Pitmon).  You won’t see a better live show anywhere else this evening, or the rest of this year for that matter.  They’re playing on the Lower East Side, just a short F train ride away.  Get all the details here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

However, if you insist on not leaving Brooklyn, you have a very good show over at The BAM Cafe, with Julia Haltigan and her band.  BAM notes that “singer and guitarist Julia Haltigan’s musical world is made from equal parts Americana, indie eclecticism, and Tom Waits.”  Details of this free show are here at the BAM Cafe website.

–Eliot Wagner

The weekend is near. Either you’re booked or it’s time to start thinking about what to do. There’s a “knock your socks off reading” at Sunny’s in Red Hook. The Irondale Ensemble production of Treasure Island is must-see. Click on read more for more and all the essential details.

Continue reading OTBKB’s Weekend List: March 4-6 →

by Amy Glaser

A mother called me yesterday wanting to schedule a pelvic exam for her 15-year-old daughter. The girl had confided to her that she was having sex with her boyfriend. The mom wanted her daughter to have birth control. The mom’s voice was low and hesitant. She seemed sorry that the time had come. She was also conflicted about whether she was doing the right thing. She feared she might be encouraging her daughter to have sex.

When it comes to their sexually active teen, many parents do not want to stick their heads in the sand. They want to be sure that when their children begin having sex, it is safe. Many want their children to avoid their own adolescent experience of anxious days visiting free clinics, hiding birth control pills or living with the fear of pregnancy. However, the opposite approach can seem risky. Willingness to provide birth control may seem to make light of sexual activity or even encourage it.

Sensing the mother’s concerns, I reassured her that studies demonstrate that offering birth control does not increase the likelihood of sex. Her daughter’s willingness to reveal her sexual activity was a manifestation of the strength of their relationship. The door was now open for the mother to discuss her feelings about sex, the role of sex in a meaningful relationship, the risks of sexually transmitted disease. Adolescents, who feel ready for sex but don’t have this kind of relationship with their parents, are potentially in a more risky situation.

Unfortunately this mother’s relationship with her daughter remains uncommon in my practice. Regarding matters of sexual reproduction teens are emancipated minors and can get birth control and treatment for sexual transmitted diseases without parental consent. They are most often choosing birth control methods based on what their friends are choosing. There are many good methods including safer pills with less estrogen and lipid friendly progesterone, the Nuvareen ring and of course the condom for both pregnancy and infection protection. And as a last resort there is the “ morning after pill” ,or Plan B. This is simply a pill containing adequate progesterone to induce shedding of the uterine lining before a potentially fertilized egg can become implanted and start to develop.

Perhaps this teen will use her mom’s support in making her decision. In any case the head in the sand approach is not very effective in protecting children from adverse outcomes related to sexual activity.

OTBKB is thrilled to feature The Doctor is In, a regular weekly column by Amy Glaser. Born in Brooklyn, Dr. Amy Glaser of Slope Pediatrics received her undergraduate degree from Smith College, her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at Montefiore Hospital. She started in Park Slope 25 years ago with a special interest in teens, after completing a fellowship program in Adolescent Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has brought her expertise in that area into the community during her career at the Door, El Puente, Elmhurst Adolescent Center and Barnard. Dr. Glaser has been named by NY Magazine as a “top pediatrician” and as one of the “Best Doctors in America”. She recently started a part-time practice for ages 13-22 called “Adolescents Only.”

The March music calendar is now posted at Now I’ve Heard Everything.  Just click here to see it and begin planning what you’ll see this month.  March is very busy at the beginning and the end, with fewer shows in the middle of the month.  Not surprising as the SXSW music festival will be held then, drawing many bands down to Austin.

One local band that I’ve been following is Brooklyn’s Madison Square Gardeners.  They have a new 5-song EP about to be released called Teeth of Champions.  Read the review of this wonderful record posted at Now I’ve Heard Everything by clicking here.

–Eliot Wagner

In early 2009, Israel Nash Gripka released an album titled New York Town.  It was one of my favorite albums of  that year which I described as a reach back to much of what was good in 70s rock.    Now Israel has a new album about to come out.  It’s called Barn Doors and Concrete Floors.  Tonight Israel and his band will play an early set at The Mercury Lounge.  I’m sure songs from Barn Doors, as well as New York Town, will be on the set list.  This is one show you should see.  Show details are available at Now I’ve Heard Everything just by clicking here.

–Eliot Wagner

From my very first day as dog owner I was warmly welcomed into into the “cult” of Third Street dog walkers. Well, it’s not really a cult, just an enthusiastic group of people who own dogs.

It was like meeting my neighbors all over again. I mean, I already knew many of these people by name but the fact that I was walking a dog brought new meaning to the term neighbor.

“You have a dog now?”

“What’s his name?”

“What kind of dog is he?”

“Is he friendly?”

I met so many new dogs (and people) those first few days on the street. One evening late I walked around the entire block with a woman and her two dogs. We talked dog: barking, eating, pooping, dog joys and dog woes.

I got to know Maximus, Petey, the two Rosie’s on the block, Monkey and countless other dogs whose names I learned and immediately forgot. Some dogs like to tease, some like to play. They can be shy, feisty, flighty, flirty, nutty or aggressive (and kept on a short leash by their owners).

I truly enjoyed my walks with Stanley. With each walk we got to know each other better and better. Over time I learned his rhythms, his habits, the way he liked to do things (i.e. poop and pee). He loved the snow and hated the rain. He had a penchant for sniffing various and sundry items on the street and loved to explore small holes, gates, leaves, pieces of gum and garbage.

Stanley was a good companion, fun to be with, funny to observe. He got very excited when he saw other dogs and was very friendly. He elicited smiles from strangers, exclamations of “cute dog” from adults and children. While he was a sweetheart most of the time, he barked at the United Parcel guy and the mailman.

On our walks, I learned that people enjoy walking their dogs — even if they do have to put the poop in a little blue plastic bag. I learned never to go out without one of those blue plastic bags.

I learned that people love their dogs fiercely, passionately, profoundly.

So what do you feed a dog anyway? The Sean Casey people gave us a big bag of dried dog food but is that what a dog eats all the time?

Can a dog eat carrots?

Can a dog eat Brussels sprouts?

Should a dog be eating RED MEAT?

I stopped this nice guy on the street. He’s got a big German Shepherd and we’ve talked before about life, veterinary medicine, becoming an EMT. I asked him what he feeds his dog.

“My dog weighs 99 pounds and he eats dry food and vegetables. No meat,” he said with great seriousness.

“Really?” I said seriously interested.

He even showed me a picture on his iPhone of his dog’s daily platter of food. And the name of the very best dry dog food (I forget now). It’s very expensive, but very good. Dry food and veggies. Very impressive.

Okay, the food thing is one thing. What about pooping and exercise?

“How many times a day do you take your dog out,” I asked a neighbor with a dog.

“It depends…” she said.

Another friend told me I was walking Stanley all wrong.

“Hold his leash tight and close to you so he knows you’re in charge. Don’t let him walk you.”

And what about the dog run. The one in Prospect Park, the one in Washington Park. What’s the story with that?

There really is a lot to learn about having a dog.

Can a dog eat Brussels sprouts?