Due to today’s (Wednesday, January 26^th ) snowstorm, the Information Session for the Context program has been postponed to next Wednesday, February 2^nd. The location and time are the same: Congregation Beth Elohim, 274 Garfield Place, Brooklyn, NY 11215, at 7:15 p.m. We hope to see you there to learn about this wonderful community-wide educational opportunity. RSVPs are strongly encouraged: April Mellas: (718) 768-3814 or april.mellas@gmail.com

This free event will provide an introduction to a two-year Jewish studies program that is being co-sponsored by four Brooklyn synagogues, including Congregation Beth Elohim, East Midwood Jewish Center, Kane Street Synagogue, and Park Slope Jewish Center, as they partner to offer Context in Brooklyn.

The information session will consist of a mini-class with Dr. Ora Horn Prouser, who is the first semester instructor of the Context Program. Click on read more learn more about this interesting program.

Continue reading Context at Beth Elohim: Rescheduled →

Now check this out: something new and exciting at the Brooklyn Museum in February: adult programs and conversations every Thursday at 7PM free with museum admission.

As a component of this series, the Museum is partnering with the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and PBS’s award-winning independent film showcase POV. The Nuyorican Poets Cafe will present poetry and performance every third Thursday of the month and POV will present Brooklyn-related films every fourth Thursday.

Click on read more for all the essential details:

Continue reading New in February at the Bklyn Museum: Adult Programs on Thursday Nights →

The morning after ISSUE Project Room board member Steve Buscemi won the Golden Globe Award for his role as Nucky on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, I spoke with Ed Patuto, the new Executive Director of the acclaimed art and performance space currently located in Park Slope.

“We have a great board which now includes a Golden Globe winner,” Patuto told me.

It was certainly a thrill to watch Buscemi receive the Golden Globe, but it was also a thrill to talk to Patuto, who has relocated to Brooklyn after 25 years in San Francisco to run ISSUE, which lost its founding director, Suzanne Fiol, to cancer in 2009.

Indeed, Fiol left big shoes (or rather gorgeous knee-high boots) for Patuto to fill. Issue Project Room was a labor of passion for Fiol, who was a noted photographer as well as a director at numerous art galleries. In 2003 she opened ISSUE in an East Village storefront.

But that was just the first stop in ISSUE’s early nomadic journey. In 2007 Fiol moved ISSUE to a picturesque silo along the banks of the Gowanus Canal. Later she moved it to its current home in the Old American Can Factory on Third Street and Third Avenue in Park Slope.

Continue reading March 4: Benefit for ISSUE Project Room at 110 Livingston Street →

Brooklyn’s Leslie Mendelson‘s new project is called Melody Kills.  Leslie’s finished with the new record and is offering some tracks from that album to you absolutely free.  Nowhere Slow is the track I want to focus on.  It’s a totally infectious hook-filled piece of adult pop perfection.  For a link to get your own free and legal copy, click here.  Leslie is also playing a solo set at The Rockwood Music Hall this Saturday.

Each week the Brooklyn Lyceum hosts an open mic.  Currently hosted by Elizabeth Rex, the Lyceum Open Mic is a forum for budding singer-songwriters, performers, spoken word enthusiasts and, on occasion, comediens.

An added bonus is that the Lyceum has begun a curatorial process where we will look to the Open Mic in search of openers for some larger music events planned for the fall.

Mondays from 7-8PM
Signups @ 6:30PM.

Art in the House: A ten-week winter session of this after school course taught by my friend Debby Albenda starts January 31 so you better sign up NOW. Set in the light filled upstairs room at the Old Stone House, students have lots of FUN creating HISTORY inspired art projects, learning art technique and working in mediums like painting, drawing, sculpting, printmaking, comics and more.  The program includes pick-up at PS 321 and The Children’s School. For more info contact artinthehouse(at)gmail(dot)com or call The Old Stone House: 718-768-3195.

Art in the House meets Mondays 3:30 -5:30 for 2nd through 4th graders and Tuesdays 3:30 – 5:30 for 3rd through 5th graders.

Art Classes with Bernette Rudolph: A talented Park Slope artist, Rudolph has been an art teacher and art therapist for over forty years. She offers wonderful small art classes for children ages five and up. Classes follow the school calendar and there are only five children to each class. Basic mediums and skills are explored through varied art materials.

The class meets on Tuesdays 3:30 to 4:30. Class fee is $25 per class, which must be paid one month in advance. There is a $35 material fee paid once for the term paid the first month.

Your child is invited to a trial class for $25.  
If the child joins the class the fee will be added on to your first month. Classes meet in the Art Studio/Gallery of Bernette Rudolph in central Park Slope (very convenient).

For information and to sign up email: Bernette(at)earthlink(dot)net

Park Slope’s Paul LaRosa writes on his blog, Here is New York, about meeting Jack LaLanne. That’s Paul on the right with Jack. He calls it one of the thrills of his life and on his blog he shares his recollections of his day with the exercise pioneer who died at the age of 96 on Sunday.

I met Jack Lalanne when he was much younger — 82!

It was one of the thrills of my life to produce a television segment about him back in the ’90s. Along with then-correspondent Bill Lagattuta and a camera crew, I headed out to Lalanne’s home in Morro Bay, California, to watch his two-hour morning workout.

Lalanne began by jumping in his pool and swimming and doing special exercises. It was 5:30 a.m. and even in California, it was cold. While the cameraman videotaped Jack swimming his octogenarian head off,  Lagattuta and I watched in amazement.

“This is one of the best things about this job,” Lags said. “I grew up watching this guy on TV.”

I agreed. It’s not so often in life you can visit a legend in his home.  After the swimming, Jack hit the gym. It was his own gym of course and it was fully outfitted and as big as any sports club.

I’m always interested in what goes on at the Brooklyn Free School, which started in Park Slope and now resides in a brownstone in Clinton Hill.

The school, founded by educator Alan Berger, started in  early fall of 2003 with a mission: offer a real educational alternative to traditional  public and private schools in New York City.

What’s neat about the school is the way in which it incorporates freedom and democracy into the learning process. It truly is a free school without homework and traditional classes, though lots of learning goes on there. They encourage students to “develop naturally as human beings in a non-coercive educational environment where they are empowered to make decisions affecting their everyday lives and that of their community.”

Whoa. It’s an ambitious and adventurous idea for a school.

Every year they put on a show and this year it’s Little Shop of Horrors, which will staged at the Greene Hill School, 39 Adelphi Street in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn on Wednesday, February 2 at 1:30 pm, Monday, February 7 and Tuesday, February 8 at 7 pm. Admission is by suggested donation:  $20 for adults; $5 for young people.

Directed and adapted by Corinne Goodman, the show features a diverse cast of 23 students, ages 5-19 with choreography by Amy Kurzweil, piano accompaniment and arrangement by Aya Kato.

Greene Hill School is an independent elementary and middle school that serves the need of the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill and surrounding Brooklyn communities for affordable and progressive education.

Park Slope author, Paola Corso, has a new book out, Catina’s Haircut (published by the University of Wisconsin Press), her first novel and it’s already gathering acclaim for its portrayal of the  Italian American immigrant experience, its keen insight and haunting beauty.

The book, which Corso calls a novel in four stories, spans four generations of a peasant famiy in the poverty of post-Unification southern Italy and in an immigrant neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

The women in Corso’s book dare to cross boundaries by discovering magical leaps inherent in the landscape, in themselves, and in the stories they tell and retell of family tragedy at a time of political unrest.

Paola Corso grew up in the Pittsburgh area. She is a Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award winner, a John Gardner Fiction Book Award finalist, and author of a book of poems, Death by Renaissance, and a collection of stories, Giovanna’s 86 Circles. She lives in Park Slope Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.

Context, an adult education project of the Jewish Theoglogical Seminar, is holding an information session this Wednesday, January 26 at 7:15 PM  at Congregation Beth Elohim.

This free event will provide an introduction to a two-year Jewish studies program that is being co-sponsored by four Brooklyn synagogues, including Congregation Beth Elohim, East Midwood Jewish Center, Kane Street Synagogue, and Park Slope Jewish Center, as they partner to offer Context in Brooklyn.

The information session on Wednesday will consist of a mini-class with Dr. Ora Horn Prouser, who is the first semester instructor of the Context Program.

Context is designed as an intellectual journey—a four-semester program conducted over two years—guided by leading Judaic Studies scholar-teachers from various academic institutions. The curriculum explores the span of Jewish civilization and focuses on two major themes: Jewish Text and Interpretation and Jewish Cultures and Communities.

The program offers adult students “a context within which to understand the Jewish past, refine their personal approach to the challenges of contemporary Jewish life, and develop their unique and informed outlook toward the Jewish future.”

They are asking people to  RSVP (though they won’t  turn anyone away!). RSVP to April Mellas, (718) 768-3814, april.mellas(at)gmail(dot)com

If it’s a Monday in January, it must be Martha Wainwright at The Rockwood Music Hall.  If you were at The Rockwood during Martha’s last two shows, you know that Martha will play some new songs, some old songs, and perhaps a cover or two.  Get all the details about tonight’s show here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

If you’d rather stay home, here are two music videos for you.  The first is from Harper Blynn,a four piece rock band with a pop sensibility and terrific harmonies.  They play New York City a good deal and have a large following here.   I used to see Pete Harper on 7th Avenue all the time (not lately though).  The video of  This Is It shows the one of the songs which I think shows off what this band can do; just click here to see it.

Next up are The Jayhawks, a band from Minneapolis formed in the mid-1980s.  Members Gary Louris and Mark Olson formed the core of the band until Mark left the band in the mid-90s.  The Jayhawks have reformed with their classic lineup and have a new record in the works.  In this clip, from about six months ago, The Jayhawks cover Bad Time which appeared on their now classic album, Tomorrow the Green Grass, and originally was a Grand Funk Railroad song.  Just click here to see this video at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Good Sunday afternoon to you. Today’s big news is Climate Awareness Day at Congregation Beth Elohim with keynote speakers and activities for kids is on Sunday.

About the subway: there is no Brooklyn bound service on the 2,3,4 trains at Grand Army Plaza. and no R service between 95th Street in Brooklyn and Whitehall Street.  Riders on the 4th Avenue line are advised to use the N train instead.  And to top things off, there will be no D service between Pacific Street and 34th Street.

Yeesh.

Also today: Django a Go Go at Barbes. Click on read more for all the essential details…

Continue reading OTBKB’s Weekend List: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday →

Tonight there are two performances of a play called Did You Hear the One About the Carp Who Hailed a Taxi by Anne Phelan at 440 Gallery in Park Slope.

Phelan’s boyfriend, Tom Bovo, is a photographer and for two years she has been staring at a photograph he took of carp and trying figure it out (it’s the one pictured on the right).

Bovo is having his first solo photography show, which opened on Thursday at the 440 Gallery. The work looks wonderful and it should be a great show. I’ll find out tonight when I go to see the play (and the photo show).

Bovo commissioned Phelan, a playwright, to write play about a photograph in the show. “I actually did have a difficult time deciding. I was all set to write about mannequins in a window (440 Gallery has some lovely bowed windows to put actors in), but I decided on the fish. The photograph is untitled, which kind of makes me crazy- playwrights don’t do that).” Phelan writes on her blog, Glamorous LIfe of the Theater.

Phelan started started writing in October and the play run for tonight only, Saturday, January 22, at 7:30 and 8:30. Melanie Sutherland directed and Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum plays Karl Carp and the lovely Cotton Wright is Mo Avakian the taxi driver.

I hope to be at the 7:30 show. See you there.

On February 17th at 8PM, Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents its 4th annual Memoirathon: Experience and Expression curated by Branka Ruzak with poet Howard Altmann, prose writers Mindy Greenstein, Chris Macleod, Sue Ribner, Andrea Rosenhaft, Elena Schwolsky, Beverly Willett and Annalee Wilson AND exhibition of works by photographers Jamie Livingston and Hugh Crawford and painter Kathleen Mackenzie.

The English noun memoir, comes from the French mémoire and the Latin memoria, meaning memory. In its very simplest form, one can look at memoir as a remembrance of something meaningful or significant in one’s life. Artists capture and explore personal memories in unique ways, dependent on how they choose to express themselves, whether it’s through painting, photography, poetry, essay, etc. This evening celebrates the expression of memoir in just a few of its many forms.

Click on read more to read about the  prose writers, poets, photographers and painters, who will participate in this year’s Memoirathon.

Continue reading Feb 17: The Memoirathon: Experience and Expression →

It’s Saturday and the subways are behaving badly. There is no Brooklyn bound service on the 2,3,4 trains at Grand Army Plaza. and no R service between 95th Street in Brooklyn and Whitehall Street.  Riders on the 4th Avenue line are advised to use the N train instead.  And to top things off, there will be no D service between Pacific Street and 34th Street.

Yeesh.

On Sunday in the Slope there’s Climate Awareness Day at Congregation Beth Elohim with keynote speakers and activities for kids is on Sunday.

Also on Sunday: Django a Go Go at Barbes. Click on read more for all the essential details…

Continue reading OTBKB’s Weekend Guide: It’s Saturday →

“McTeague remained stupidly looking around him, now at the distant horizon, now at the ground, now at the half-dead canary chittering feebly in its little gilt prison.”

From McTeaque by Frank Norris

The Old Stone House welcomes six artists from its surrounding community to exhibit and discuss the role of history, time and memory in their work.

This exhibition, which opens on February 1st at 7PM, is a collaboration between The Old Stone House and the G-Train Salon.

There will be an opening “salon” with artists Boris Rasin, Mason Saltarrelli and Karen Schoellkopf on Tuesday, February 1 at 7PM, which means there will be a Q&A with the artists. On Sunday, February 27 from 4-6PM, there will be a closing “salon” with artists Henry Chung, Robert Walden and Andrew Zarou (of the artist-run RHV Fine Art Gallery in South Slope).

The G-Train Salon made its debut in February 2009 from a living room on Atlantic Avenue.  A conversation-based exhibition series organized by a formerly Queens-based curator/saloniere and her Brooklyn-based partners, the venture has evolved into a collaboration between Krista Saunders and Jill Benson (two Brooklyn-based, independent curators who met as docents at the New Museum of Contemporary Art) and the generous residents/businesses that continue to offer them space and opportunity.

Each season, the G-Train Salon presents a series of solo exhibitions featuring emerging artists.  Each artist designs a site-specific installation for the space in question and hosts a discussion with the audience on opening night.

This is their first collaboration with the Old Stone House in Park Slope.

The artwork pictures is by Andrew Zarou. Temperate Vacuum. 2009. Aluminum and paper collage. 19″ x 19″

It’s Friday and there’s snow on the ground. Lots of films worth seeing, music to hear and theater at BAM and Heights Players. Climate Awareness Day at Congregation Beth Elohim with keynote speakers and activities for kids is on Sunday. Click on read more for all the essential details.

Continue reading OTBKB’s Weekend List: Friday – Sunday →

Brooklyn’s Emily Zuzik brings a full band and a bunch of new songs into The Rockwood Music Hall tonight.  This show will preview the CD coming from Emily later this year, the one she keeps calling her rock record.  So expect a Emily to turn it up a notch at this show. But, as always, you will get tight songwriting, intelligent lyrics and strong vocals from Emily.  Don’t let a little bit of of snow or the expected cold keep you away.  Full details are waiting for you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

Last night at the Old Stone House, Brooklyn Reading Works’ January offering, Truth and Oral History, the double life of the interview (curated by John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science) was  a fascinating exploration of oral history as practiced by Gay Men’s Health Crisis, StoryCorps, Columbia University, an author of non-fiction books and magazine articles, and an academic and public health researcher.

Luckily, the snow managed to stay away until well after the show was over making everyone’s return trips home easier.

The participants were wonderful and so was the audience: we had a full house and there was an interesting Q&A. I realize now that we should have had a program for those who want to learn more about these individuals and their work. If you need more information, please get in touch with me: louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com.

[a] Brian Toynes and Luna Ortiz, with Gay Men’s Health Crisis, who have developed innovative community-level interventions that use personal stories about change and resiliency.  Luna is one of the few people documenting the “House and Ball” scene that came to general public prominence in the film, Paris is Burning, and in Madonna’s “Vogue – but which has also had a much more complex and international history over the last 100 years.

[b] Michael Garolfalo, a producer with StoryCorps, who will talk about the work of StoryCorps and the importance of collecting and listening to the stories we can tell each other about our lives.

[c] Mary Marshall Clark, Director of the Columbia Oral History Office.  Mary Marshall will concentrate on the stories of of 9-11 that her team collected here in New York and the process of working with these kinds of interviews in order to create a tangible and personal history of these events.

[d] Jason Kersten, author of “The Art of Making Money,” a true-crime story of a young counterfeiter and his life. Jason’s interviews with Art and his family reveal a host of issues that a writer must confront when getting so close to the subject while trying to tell a true story that is compelling, informative, honest, and in the end protective of the subject’s own history and privacy.

[e] John A. Guidry, who has used oral history and long-interviewing techniques in academic writing (community organizing and children’s rights in Brazil), community development research (all over the US), and public health promotion (HIV health and social marketing).

The next Brooklyn Reading Works is The Memoirathon: Writing, Photography and Painting as Memory on Thursday, February 17th at 8PM. So mark your calendars for what should be an absolutely wonderful evening. There will be a rare viewing of pieces from Jamie Livingston Photo of the Day project and that will be an extra added bonus to the event!

Todd Bieber was skiing in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and he found a roll of film. A real old fashioned canister of film. He had the film developed (developed! like the old pre-digital days) and it inspired him to make a wonderful You Tube video about the experience.

I’m guessing it’s making the rounds of the Internet right now in a very viral way.Maybe the original owner of that unprocessed roll of film will discover the video and be able to retrieve his photos of New York City in the snow.

Bieber asks that if you  recognize the people in the pictures to please contact him at:  brooklynfoundfilm@gmail.com

This is one heck of a great story and a very lovely video.

http://toddbieber.tumblr.com/

This Thursday at 8PM Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents: The Truth and Oral History or the double life of the interview curated by John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science.

This should be, as always, an interesting, compelling and entertaining night out. Wine, snacks, amazing authors and presenters, an interesting topic, group discussion. JOIN THE FUN!

Stories do not tell themselves.  Even once they are told and recorded, stories need some help to be heard and to live in the world.  This month’s Brooklyn Reading Works will look at the processes by which people collect stories and use them to tell stories.  We will have panelists who use oral history practices to document our world and the lives we lead, and the conversation will explore the work it takes to make stories interesting and give them legs to stand on, as it were.  Panelists will represent and explore several different genres and styles of the oral historian’s craft, from traditional first-person historical storytelling to the mediations of photography, academic writing, marketing, multimedia, and social advocacy—as well as stories of how collecting stories ultimately affects oral historians as authors and curators of the human experience. Click on read more for a list of the participants.

Continue reading Thurs: A Great Night Out at Brooklyn Reading Works →

There are two very interesting shows tonight; one early (8pm), one late (11pm) and both on the Lower East Side.  First up is I Beg Your Parton.  Addie Brownlee celebrates the birthday of Dolly Parton by covering a selection of Dolly’s tunes.  Joining Addie will be special guest, Martha Wainwright.  If you can stick around downtown until 11, you can see My Pet Dragon.  MPD is a band with some interesting 70s and 80s influences and whose live show is musically and visually inventive and fun. Their song, Lover in Hiding, is one of my favorite songs released in 2010.  Full details on both shows are waiting for you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

A great summer is in the works at Piper Theater, the program developed by drama teacher extraordinaire and director John P. McEneny, The Old Stone House and others, that brings theater education and outdoor drama with dash to Park Slope.

Indeed, the group has added so much to summer in Park Slope with their education program at the Old Stone House and their adventurous productions in Washington Park and it looks like they’re going to outdo themselves this summer with expanded programming for the kids and adults, including two musicals, an opera, three plays, and an art class in addition to the writing program.

They’ll  also be expanding the younger companies with a collaboration with the respected dance education company, Together in Dance and a garden workshop in partnership with the Old Stone House.

On the main stage, Piper will produce two Equity showcases — Moliere’s comedy, The Miser, adapted and directed by our guest artist in residence, Welker White, as well as the quirky romance, Harold & Maude by Colin Higgins.

Now that’s what I call a full summer.

Today, Monday, is week two of Martha Wainwright‘s four week residence at  The Rockwood Music Hall.  If you do go to see Martha tonight, I suggest getting there early, as The Rockwood is very small.  Full details and a video taken at Martha’s show at The Rockwood last week can be found here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

On Thursday at Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House presents: The Truth and Oral History or the double life of the interview curated by John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science. This event will consist of a panel discussion and a Q&A.

Stories do not tell themselves.  Even once they are told and recorded, stories need some help to be heard and to live in the world.  This month’s Brooklyn Reading Works will look at the processes by which people collect stories and use them to tell stories.  We will have panelists who use oral history practices to document our world and the lives we lead, and the conversation will explore the work it takes to make stories interesting and give them legs to stand on, as it were.  Panelists will represent and explore several different genres and styles of the oral historian’s craft, from traditional first-person historical storytelling to the mediations of photography, academic writing, marketing, multimedia, and social advocacy—as well as stories of how collecting stories ultimately affects oral historians as authors and curators of the human experience. Click on read more for a list of the participants.

Continue reading Thurs: The Truth and Oral History at The Old Stone House →

Today we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. The biggest event (and the oldest) is at BAM starting at 10:30AM. Walter Mosley is the keynote speaker and that’s pretty cool. See below for other activities. Click on read more for all the essential info.

Congrats to Steve B for winning the best actor in a TV series Golden Globe Award tonight. Also in this hot category were all my faves: House, Don Draper, Dexter, the chemistry teacher in Breaking Bad. Whoa. What a category.

We in Park Slope are proud of Mr. B. Here’s a bit of his speech:

“I have to get my glasses on. Now I have to talk fast before the sad music comes on. I want to thank everyone at HBO. I am only as good as the people I work with. They’re saying please wrap up already? I want to thank the cast, the crew, the directors, Terence Winter. Martin Scorsese your genuis is only matched by your generosity…my family, my lovely wife, Jo. Lucian…to my whole family I wish you all the luck and joy in the world.”

Here is an excerpt of my Brooklyn Paper review of Women Behind Bars at the Heights Players on Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights, which you can catch today at 2PM (and tonight I think) through weekend. I was very pleasantly surprised by the raucous good fun of this production and the talented cast headed up by Michael Black cross dressing as mean Pauline. Ted Thompson directs and heads up a great creative team.

There is something slightly incongruous about seeing a production of “Women Behind Bars,” a 1975 Tom Eyen play that was a smash hit when it starred Divine and opened Off-Off-Broadway, in the former church on quaint (and historic) Willow Place in Brooklyn Heights that the Heights Players have called home since 1962.

The theater and its location are seriously cute and the audience — judging by a recent Sunday afternoon production — is north of 50. But this production of the camp classic about a group of inmates at the Women’s House of Detention, a send-up of 1950s movies about female prisoners, directed by the obviously talented Ted Thompson and his team of designers, is saucy, sexy, and seriously irreverent.

There is not a weak link among the ensemble of talented, perfectly cast actors, who devour the scenery out of a play that is a laugh-out-loud antidote to homophobia, misogyny and intolerance of all kinds…

You can read the rest of my review the Brooklyn Paper.