Design directs everything: Architecture and Design Film Festival in Tribeca
Brooklyn brownstone bargains: Casacara
Milton Glaser podcast interview: Swissmiss
Welcome to the freakshow: Limestone Adventures
wedding portrait: My Coney
Inspiration from Ikea blog: Apartment Therapy
Wow wallpapers from house tours: Apartment Therapy
The tools you really need: NY Times
My good friend, Wendy Ponte, a certified life coach and founder of Clear Life Coaching, is running a short-term workshop called, Transform Your Divorce, to help you find positive ways to deal with the process of divorce and to come out the other side having done way more than just “survive.”
The workshop begins on October 27th and there’s still time to register for a spot. If you need more information shoot me an email or get in touch with Wendy at wendyponte(at)clearlifecoach(dot)com.
With Wendy you will:
* Learn exciting new techniques for coping with stress.
* Find out how some of the latest research on the brain can help you cope with divorce.
* Access dreams and ideas you may not have even known were there.
* Create an action plan that will get you through this transition and take you into your new life.
To get more details about this new workshop or one-on-one coaching with Wendy go to Clear Life Coaching’s website.
On Thursday, October 14 at 7:30PM, Gal Beckerman will read from his new book When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone, a history of the Soviet Jewry movement at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope.
Beckerman, a reporter for The Forward, writes about what happened after World War II, when nearly three million Jews were trapped inside the Soviet Union. Unwanted by the Stalinist state, they were forbidden to leave. Beckerman’s book tells the story of their rescue.
The author was a longtime editor and staff writer at the Columbia Journalism Review and has also written for the New York Times Book Review, Jerusalem Post, and Utne Reader, among other publications. He was a Fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Berlin and the recipient of a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. His first book, When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in September 2010.
As reported in the Science section of Tuesday’s New York Times, a filmmaker from Park Slope by the name of Luke Geissbuhler attached a video camera to a weather balloon and launched it in August from Newburgh, N.Y. for what would be a 90-minute journey. The seven-minute video went viral and the rest is history for the Park Slope resident.
SO what’s happening at Park Slope’s Community Bookstore, one of the mainstays of Brooklyn’s independent bookstore scene?
Lots.
For one thing: Catherine Bohne, the owner has moved to Albania and is in the process of selling the store to a wonderful man named Ezra Goldstein.
I know Ezra from the Park Slope Civic Council, where he is an active member, editor and web master. He is an accomplished freelance writer and journalist, who was at one time senior editor at Long Island Jewish World. Educated at the University of Chicago with a masters in journalism from Ohio University, Ezra has conducted extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors and has had articles on a wide variety of topics published in the New York Times, the Village Voice, American Heritage, New American Drama, Kirkus Review and many other publications.
A longtime Park Slope resident, he’s a very smart guy with a real passion to be the owner of Park Slope’s beloved bookstore. In these times, owning an independent bookstore may not be the most economical thing to do so it takes someone with passion and vision to do it.
Continue reading So What’s Happening at Park Slope’s Community Bookstore?
But they’ll be there at different times. See below:
Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season, will be be signing copies of her new book, The False Friend, at Park Slope’s Community Bookstore on Thursday at 4:30.
FYI: Myla has a very cool looking website where I learned that she plays banjo and accordion and sings in the Brooklyn art-punk The Walking Hellos.
And later that evening: Stephen O’Connor of New Yorker and Electric Literature fame, will read from his collection of haunting and surreal short stories, Here Comes Another Lesson, on Thursday, October 15 at 7PM.
Here’s the blurbage on Here Comes Another Lesson:
O’Connor, whose stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Conjunctions, and many other places, fearlessly depicts a world that no longer quite makes sense. Ranging from the wildly inventive to the vividly realistic, these brilliant stories offer tender portraits of idealists who cannot live according to their own ideals and of lovers baffled by the realities of love.
The story lines are unforgettable: A son is followed home from work by his dead father. God instructs a professor of atheism to disseminate updated Commandments. The Minotaur is awakened to his own humanity by the computer-game-playing “new girl” who has been brought to him for supper. A recently returned veteran longs for the utterly ordinary life he led as a husband and father before being sent to Iraq. An ornithologist, forewarned by a cormorant of the exact minute of his death, struggles to remain alert to beauty and joy.
As playful as it is lyrical, Here Comes Another Lesson celebrates human hopefulness and laments a sane and gentle world that cannot exist.
The Madison Square Gardeners are a Brooklyn-based band you can find playing around NYC frequently. They have a brand new song, Young and In Love, and you can get a download of that song for free. You’ll find the details at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
The Amygdaloids are four scientists (Joseph LeDoux, Daniella Schiller, Tyler Volk, Gerald McCollam) who write song based upon their work. But not only are they a pretty good band, they travel in good company. See a video of their song Brainstorm with Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Band) and Steve Wynn (Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3, The Baseball Project and The Dream Syndicate) joining in on the guitar shredding here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
October 15-16: Jalopy, a vaudeville style music venue on Columbia Street, presents its third annual Djangology Festival honoring legendary swing guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Park Slope’s Franglais are on the bill, as well as Stephane Wrembel,who often plays at Barbes, Jack Soref, Hot Club Thing, Hot Club of Hell’s Kitchen, and Blue Plate Special, and more.
Gypsy jazz on violin, bass, and two guitars: Djangology Festival at Jalopy on Columbia St. between Hamilton Avenue and Woodhull Street in Red Hook, (718) 395-3214], Oct. 15-16 at 8 pm. Tickets $20 ($35 for the weekend).
This Sunday: Nieghborhood Classics at PS 321 presents a program of tango music, featuring cellist Maya Beiser and pianist Pablo Ziegler, who explore the ture sould of Buenos Aires tango. This family-friendly, one-hour concert will be hosted by Simone Dinnerstein. All musicians donate their performances, and all ticket sales benefit programs sponsored by PS 321’s PTA
When: Sunday, October 17 at 2 pm
Where: PS 321’s Auditorium, 180 7th Avenue, Brooklyn
Tickets: $15 Buy here
Not recommended for children under 6
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has some really great composting programming coming up this fall (through the NYC Compost Project in Brooklyn). They’re offering a wide array of hands-on classes: indoor, outdoor, for the composting novice, and for the composting buff.
Wednesday, October 13th | 6 to 8 pm
Mulch, Leaves, and Cover Crops: How to Protect and Improve Your Soil
The key to beautiful, healthy plants is the soil in which they grow. In this workshop, learn the basics of soil structure, organic fertilizers, soil amendment secrets, the underworld critters that abound, and the importance of organic matter and composting for healthy soil. As a fall focus, we will discuss what to do with leaves, the benefits of mulching, and which cover crops will protect and improve your garden’s soil.
Tuesday, November 9th, 6 to 8 pm
Composting Alternatives and Gathering Materials
Want to compost without giving up your precious garden space? This workshop will give you some options to make rich compost in your backyard, and a list of materials you can find in the neighborhood to balance your compost pile.
Tuesday, October 19th, 6 to 8pm
Composting in the City
Learn how leaves, kitchen scraps, garden trimmings, and weeds can all become garden gold through composting. Making dark, rich, crumbly compost doesn’t take much time, work, or space. This class covers the composting process, using finished compost, avoiding and solving problems, and helpful equipment and tools.
Tuesday, November 16th, 6 to 8 pm
Composting with Lovely Redworms
Did you know that redworms have five pairs of hearts? Come to this workshop to learn more about this unique species and all about vermicomposting (composting with worms), including how to make and maintain a home for redworms. Participants will receive a voucher to buy a pound of redworms and a plastic worm bin for only $44.
After taking a brief hiatus from performing (to get married), singer-songwriter (and model, voice over artist, writer of music for commercials and Fort Greene resident) Emily Zuzik gets back to music tonight. You’ll have to take the G Train, or something which connects with the 7 Train, and go to Long Island City, but Emily, and free food await you there. See the details over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 tore up The Living Room this past Friday. Don’t miss the review, set list and 15 photos of the show waiting for you here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
I’m dying to see: It’s Kind of a Funny Story (IKOAFS) the new film from Park Slope filmmakers Ryan Fleck Anna Boden, is based on a young adult book by the same name authored by Brooklyn author, Ned Vizzini, a semi-autobiographical account of his stay at a Brooklyn mental hospital. The movie, which was shot inside a hospital in Sunset Park, stars Zach Galifianakis and newbie Keir Gilchrist.
Vizzini says on the Focus Features website: “The book is from my own life. I’ve always been able to remember what it was like to be in high school, because I feel it was a very primal social arena. Real emotions come to the forefront in high school. When I write, I just try and not filter any of that, which I think readers appreciate. I also try very hard to have something funny on every page. If you keep people laughing, they will stick around.”
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden are the filmmakers behind the acclaimed Half Nelson, the story of a drug-addicted school teacher, which I loved and Sugar, about a Cuban baseball player.
I’m dying to see IKOAFS. It’s at the Pavilion in Park Slope. Let me know what you thought of it.
Today the Olivier Assayas festival at BAM presents Irma Vep: “Arguably the film that put Assayas on the international map, this clever meditation on French filmmaking confers a host of winks, nods, and cinephile in-jokes—on everything from Truffaut’s Day For Night and Fassbinder’s Beware of a Holy Whore, to the more populist offerings coming out of Hong Kong and the US at the time.”
New York Comic-Con is a huge comics and popular culture show at the Jacob Javits. They’ve already cut off Saturday and weekend-pass ticket sales but Sunday is still a possibility. Here’s what it is from their own blurbbage: “Our show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Our panels and autograph sessions give fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators. Our screening rooms feature sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either big or small screens. And with dedicated professional hours, New York Comic Con is a market place, bringing together the major players in the entertainment industry.”
OpenHouse NY:
openhouse NY Weekend (OHNY) is America’s largest architect and design event, opens doors throughout New York City all weekend. Your chance to go inside all kinds of interesting buildings, facilities, offices, home and more. Reservations necessary for many events so go to site and browse what you might want to do.
Movies:
The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street Money Never Sleeps at BAM.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story directed by Park Slope’s Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden with Zach Galifianakis and newbie Keir Gilchrist based on Ned Vizzini’s semi-autobiographical book. At the Park Slope Pavilion.
Through October 15 at ReRun Theater/Gastro Pub in Dumbo: Red White and Blue, “a vicious but oddly touching horror-thriller about the lives of strangers bound together in blood. The SXSW, Sitges and Fantastic Fest hit from British filmmaker Simon Rumley (THE LIVING & THE DEAD). Erica (Amanda Fuller, TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is a tough, troubled nymphomaniac with wounds across her soul. For Erica, trolling Austin’s dive bars and sleeping with multiple men forms the core of her life, until she meets mysterious Iraq vet Nate (THE PROPOSITION’s Noah Taylor, in a searing performance).”
Through October 28th at BAM: Post-punk Auteur: Olivier Assayas: Leading contemporary filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ films are thrillingly alive: rich, multi-sensory experiences that draw upon the work of Bresson, Asian cinema, and rock ‘n’ roll to address themes of youth culture, East-meets-West globalization, and the nature of cinema itself. Assayas’ simultaneously cerebral and entertaining films move restlessly and impressively between genres—from hip, hyper-sleek thrillers to intimate chamber dramas to his latest magnum opus: a staggering biopic about Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
And on Monday: Disorder from 1986: “Three young friends steal some music equipment for their struggling post-punk band and, in a panic, kill the shop’s owner. Assayas’ debut feature examines, with characteristic restraint and acuity, the psychological fallout as the band unravels—and each of its members grapple with their own feelings of guilt, paranoia, and despair. This film won the Critics’ Prize at the Venice Film Festival. In French with English titles.
Theater:
Extended through Sunday, October 16: Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot at The Church of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.
Music:
Music for kids this weekend: A Child Grows in Brooklyn
Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9 at the Bell House: Brooklyn Soul Festival
Art:
At the Brooklyn Museum now through January 2nd: a mid-career survey of Fred Tomaselli’s “unique hybrid paintings and collages from 1990 to the present. These layered paintings combine cutout images of plants, birds, smiling mouths, and hands (clipped from field guides and magazines) with passages of paint and actual prescription pills and hallucinogenic plants to create highly stylized, eye-popping compositions.”
At Zora Space: One Generation – Seven Artists presents seven Iranian artists graduated from Tehran University, Faculty of Art, during late1960s and early 1970s. “Our group of seven does not claim to have a manifesto; rather we present a collective exhibition from artists who share a lot of similar experiences. We don’t ask why we are all together, but half a century of friendship is the best mortar for our bonding.” with artists: Nahid Hagigat, Hadi Hazavei, Shahram Kari, Abbas Kiarostami, Nicky Nodjoumi, Sudi Sharafshahi, Nasser Vaziri
I am still floating from the magic of last night’s show at Zora Space, a wonderful place to hear music on Fourth Avenue, the border between Park Slope and the Gowanus.
Magic.
Mark Geary, a Dubliner, was an unexpected thrill. His riveting stage presence revealed a gift for songwriting, acoustic rhythms, vocal drama and hilarious asides. He played with a talented drummer, who a lot to the songs with just a drum and what looked like a chair, an ambient electric guitarist who enhanced the songs immeasurably and a back-up vocalist, who added swelling harmonies.
Geary has opened for Swell Season, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Joe Strummer and others and has a new album out called Live, Love, Lost it, NYC.
Marketa Irglova‘s set began with a sound check that evolved into a full a capella performance of an old Irish folk song. Wearing trousers, a pretty sweater and a new, short haircut, the female half of the Swell Season proved that she’s a solo talent in her own right with a gift for piano driven songs with swooping melodies and a sustained, quiet intensity.
Comic Con New York
New York Comic-Con is a huge comics and popular culture show at the Jacob Javits. They’ve already cut off Saturday and weekend-pass ticket sales but Sunday is still a possibility. Here’s what it is from their own blurbbage: “Our show floor plays host to the latest and greatest in comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, toys, movies, and television. Our panels and autograph sessions give fans a chance to interact with their favorite creators. Our screening rooms feature sneak peeks at films and television shows months before they hit either big or small screens. And with dedicated professional hours, New York Comic Con is a market place, bringing together the major players in the entertainment industry.”
OpenHouse NY:
openhouse NY Weekend (OHNY) is America’s largest architect and design event, opens doors throughout New York City all weekend. Your chance to go inside all kinds of interesting buildings, facilities, offices, home and more. Reservations necessary for many events so go to site and browse what you might want to do.
Movies:
The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street Money Never Sleeps at BAM.
Through October 15 at ReRun Theater/Gastro Pub in Dumbo: Red White and Blue, “a vicious but oddly touching horror-thriller about the lives of strangers bound together in blood. The SXSW, Sitges and Fantastic Fest hit from British filmmaker Simon Rumley (THE LIVING & THE DEAD). Erica (Amanda Fuller, TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is a tough, troubled nymphomaniac with wounds across her soul. For Erica, trolling Austin’s dive bars and sleeping with multiple men forms the core of her life, until she meets mysterious Iraq vet Nate (THE PROPOSITION’s Noah Taylor, in a searing performance).”
Through October 28th at BAM: Post-punk Auteur: Olivier Assayas: Leading contemporary filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ films are thrillingly alive: rich, multi-sensory experiences that draw upon the work of Bresson, Asian cinema, and rock ‘n’ roll to address themes of youth culture, East-meets-West globalization, and the nature of cinema itself. Assayas’ simultaneously cerebral and entertaining films move restlessly and impressively between genres—from hip, hyper-sleek thrillers to intimate chamber dramas to his latest magnum opus: a staggering biopic about Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
Theater:
Extended through Sunday, October 16: Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot at The Church of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.
Music:
Music for kids this weekend: A Child Grows in Brooklyn
Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9 at the Bell House: Brooklyn Soul Festival
Art:
At the Brooklyn Museum now through January 2nd: a mid-career survey of Fred Tomaselli’s “unique hybrid paintings and collages from 1990 to the present. These layered paintings combine cutout images of plants, birds, smiling mouths, and hands (clipped from field guides and magazines) with passages of paint and actual prescription pills and hallucinogenic plants to create highly stylized, eye-popping compositions.”
At Zora Space: One Generation – Seven Artists presents seven Iranian artists graduated from Tehran University, Faculty of Art, during late1960s and early 1970s. “Our group of seven does not claim to have a manifesto; rather we present a collective exhibition from artists who share a lot of similar experiences. We don’t ask why we are all together, but half a century of friendship is the best mortar for our bonding.” with artists: Nahid Hagigat, Hadi Hazavei, Shahram Kari, Abbas Kiarostami, Nicky Nodjoumi, Sudi Sharafshahi, Nasser Vaziri
To commemorate John Lennon’s 70th birthday on October 9th, the Peace Monument designed by American artist Lauren Voiers, will be unveiled in Liverpool. Lennon’s son Julian and former wife, Cynthia, will be at the event along with dignitaries from around the world and civic officials from Liverpool.
In New York, there will be the usual birthday gathering in Strawberry Fields, across the street from the Dakota in Central Park.
Saturday night, there will be a free Central Park screening of “LENNONYC,” a new film by Michael Epstein with concert footage and home movies documenting Lennon’s life in New York after the breakup of the Beatles.
This film will be on PBS on November 22nd as part of the American Masters series.
The man who wrote: I read the news today oh boy, give peace a chance, ah look at all the lonely people, you are me and we are all together, and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make, take these broken wings to fly, all you need is love, there are places I’ll remember all my life though some have changed would have been 70 tomorrow.
Imagine.
For some reason I became obsessed with finding a raincoat for my daughter last weekend. Rain was in the forecast and she’s outgrown all her rain gear.
As I soon found out, autumn is not the season to be shopping for raincoats at the usual stores: Gap, Madewell, JCrew, Brooklyn Industries and the small boutiques in SoHo and on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope.
February and March, in anticipation of the April showers that bring May flowers, is the season to shop for a raincoat. I was striking out at every shop where I asked plaintively, “Do you have any raincoats?”
Walking past a fairly generic looking fashion boutique on Broadway near Broome Street in Soho I did see a cute purple trench coat in window. I photographed it with my iPhone and emailed it to OSFO.
“No,” was her swift reply. But I liked it enough (in black) to think that if she saw it in person…(Oh how we mothers deceive ourselves).
“Can I return this? My daughter has very specific tastes and she doesn’t usually like what I pick out,” I told the shop girl.
“You can return it within 30 days for store credit with a receipt,” was her swift reply. I asked her to try the raincoat on because she was tiny like OSFO. It looked really great and her and I was convinced OSFO would love it when she saw it.
Nope.
OpenHouse NY:
openhouse NY Weekend (OHNY) is America’s largest architect and design event, opens doors throughout New York City all weekend. Your chance to go inside all kinds of interesting buildings, facilities, offices, home and more. Reservations necessary for many events so go to site and browse what you might want to do.
Movies:
The Social Network, The Town, Wall Street Money Never Sleeps at BAM.
Through October 15 at ReRun Theater/Gastro Pub in Dumbo: Red White and Blue, “a vicious but oddly touching horror-thriller about the lives of strangers bound together in blood. The SXSW, Sitges and Fantastic Fest hit from British filmmaker Simon Rumley (THE LIVING & THE DEAD). Erica (Amanda Fuller, TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is a tough, troubled nymphomaniac with wounds across her soul. For Erica, trolling Austin’s dive bars and sleeping with multiple men forms the core of her life, until she meets mysterious Iraq vet Nate (THE PROPOSITION’s Noah Taylor, in a searing performance).”
Through October 28th at BAM: Post-punk Auteur: Olivier Assayas: Leading contemporary filmmaker Olivier Assayas’ films are thrillingly alive: rich, multi-sensory experiences that draw upon the work of Bresson, Asian cinema, and rock ‘n’ roll to address themes of youth culture, East-meets-West globalization, and the nature of cinema itself. Assayas’ simultaneously cerebral and entertaining films move restlessly and impressively between genres—from hip, hyper-sleek thrillers to intimate chamber dramas to his latest magnum opus: a staggering biopic about Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal.
Theater:
Extended through Sunday, October 16: Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot at The Church of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.
Music:
What’s going on the Brooklyn and NYC music scene on Friday: Brooklyn Vegan
Music for kids this weekend: A Child Grows in Brooklyn
Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9 at the Bell House: Brooklyn Soul Festival
Friday, October 8 at The Rock Shop: folk, ambient, a capella, experimental music from Sharon Van Etten and Julianna Barwick
Friday, October 8 at 8PM at Zora Space: Marketa Irglova and Mark Geary
Art:
At the Brooklyn Museum now through January 2nd: a mid-career survey of Fred Tomaselli’s “unique hybrid paintings and collages from 1990 to the present. These layered paintings combine cutout images of plants, birds, smiling mouths, and hands (clipped from field guides and magazines) with passages of paint and actual prescription pills and hallucinogenic plants to create highly stylized, eye-popping compositions.”
At Zora Space: One Generation – Seven Artists presents seven Iranian artists graduated from Tehran University, Faculty of Art, during late1960s and early 1970s. “Our group of seven does not claim to have a manifesto; rather we present a collective exhibition from artists who share a lot of similar experiences. We don’t ask why we are all together, but half a century of friendship is the best mortar for our bonding.” with artists: Nahid Hagigat, Hadi Hazavei, Shahram Kari, Abbas Kiarostami, Nicky Nodjoumi, Sudi Sharafshahi, Nasser Vaziri
Ghosts of the Siberian Gulag Along the Old Kolyma Highway: Art in Brooklyn
What’s going on Friday: Brooklyn Vegan
Downtown HS: Brooklynometry
Live in the land and befriend faith: Water Over Rocks
Prayer is projecting anger: Old First Blog
Ornette Coleman: Do the Math
Fela at St. Ann’s Warehouse: Self-Absorbed Boomer
My life with Robert Bolano; Truth and Rocket Science
Tonight it’s OK to leave Brooklyn. Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 (guitarist Jason Victor, bassist Dave DeCastro and drummer Linda Pitmon) play The Living Room tonight at 9pm; tickets are 10 bucks. You won’t see a better live show anywhere else this evening, or the rest of this year for that matter.
Just to make sure you don’t think that it’s the guy with the hotels, I’ve posted a picture of Steve. And that guy with the hotels? He spells his name with a “ph.”
All the details of tonight’s great show can be found here at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
Last night I sat at the bar at Rachel’s Taqueria while waiting for the take-out quesadillas I ordered for OSFO to be ready. I ordered a glass of Chardonnay but had to return it because it tasted bad. The bartender was eager to replace it with good glass of Pinot Grigio.
Sitting on either side of me, two people were deep in conversation. Obvious strangers they had struck up a conversation about being new in New York City.
The woman, who works in development at a local college had obviously been in New York for a couple of years. The guy, however, was a real newbie. It was an endearing conversation for me to overhear and eventually become part of.
The young man, who works in a bar in DUMBO, was talking about what fun it is to get to know New York City. “Doing the tourist stuff and then just walking around,” he said. “Part of me wishes I was here before it became so gentrified.
“Well, there are still places you can go to know what it was like,” she said.
At this point I couldn’t resist putting my two cents in.
“You know what they say,” I told them. I don’t think they were expecting me to chime in.
“What?” the guy said. He was an open and friendly person in his late twenties, originally from Arizona.
“Only the dead know Brooklyn,” I said ominously.
“Oooh. That’s good,” he said. “Only the dead know Brooklyn.”
“It’s the name of a short story…and a blog,” I said. “My blog.”
“Hey, what’s your blog?”
And so we were off and running. And I didn’t even bother to tell them about the story written in brilliant Brooklynese by Thomas Wolfe. There was something energizing about being around these new New Yorkers who were discovering the city for the first time. I had the vague sense that both of them would make their lives here. Marry, have children. Years from now they’d remember their early years in Brooklyn, when they were just defining this city for themselves. Maybe they’d remember the woman in the raincoat who told them about that Thomas Wolfe story.
Maybe not.
This morning OSFO, Hepcat and I toured Edward R. Murrow High School, a school for 4,000 students in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Murrow is high school on steriods. There’s an LED sign at the entrance with info and words of welcome, four floors in a building that takes up 2 city blocks, 9 gymnasiums, a black box theater, a huge auditorium, music and art studios, chemistry labs and on and on. You need an iPhone App just to learn your way around. It might also help with their unusual scheduling system – not days or periods but “bands.”
The kids, however, seem to have no trouble negotiating their way around this large and ambitious public high school. Beth Siegel-Graf, an assistant principal who led the tour, did an incredibly good job of explaining the school’s non-traditional culture (i.e. the kids get up to two optional periods a day, called OPTAs, in which they are free to study, do homework, get tutored, socialize or eat).
During the lecture portion of the tour, Siegel-Graf was able to dispel rumors that the kids have too much freedom at the school because of those OPTA periods. Students are required to stay in the school building and freshmen through juniors are required to be in a space where there are teachers. When they become seniors they are allowed to sit on the floor in the school’s hallways during OPTAs — a special Murrow-style privilege.
Continue reading High School Tour Confidential: Edward R. Murrow High School
Natasha Cooke Nieves, a teacher at Park Slope’s PS 282 on 6th Avenue and Berkeley Place, won a $25,000 cash award from the Milken Family Foundation (yes Milken of junk bond fame) for accomplished teachers. Nieves was among four other teachers from New York state to win the grant.
$25,000. Now that’s a very nice prize.
A science teacher at PS 282 for ten years, she now does staff development there. As reported by WNYC, today teachers and students gathered int he school’s gymnasium for the announcement. State Commissioner David Steiner, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, and Lowell Milken of the Milken Family Foundation spoke briefly before revealing the real reason for their visit. Nieves knew in advance but was sworn to secrecy.
Not surprisingly, huge cheers erupted in the packed gymnasium as the students and teachers cheered their own. Nieves reportedly told the crowd: “Without you, boys and girls, we the teachers would not be here. Remember that you are our future and you’re going to be teaching us some day.”
The baseball playoffs start today and The Baseball Project have a brand new song predicting the results of the playoffs and the World Series. Well, they have two predictions, actually: either the Twins beat the Giants or the Yankees beat the Phillies in the World Series. But keep in mind this is the same bunch of folks who predicted that the Cubs would go all the way this year and that the Phillies’ Roy Halladay would win 30 games.
You can listen to or download (free and legal) The Way It’s Gonna Be at Now I’ve Herd Everything by clicking here.
–Eliot Wagner
My friends Mike Sorgatz of Art in Brooklyn and Atiba Edwards of Fresh Industries are throwing an art show and party to celebrate the release of the third issue of INSIGHT: Volume III.
The opening reception will be on October 16th, 2010 at Triomph Fitness (540 President St., Brooklyn, NY 11215). Featuring work by Bishop203, Laura Galvin, Victor Giganti, Michael Malik Jones-Robinson, Jamie Killen, Rick Midler, Michael Sorgatz, John Tebeau, Johanna Treffy, Alejandro Guzman, Bud Ramsay, Maria Baraybar, Peter Patchen, Spring Hofeldt, Cat Celebrezze, Ward Yoshimoto, Steve Riley, Brian Dupont, James Chen-Feng Kao, Jisoo Lee and more.
Feast on delicious homemade Brooklyn ice cream from Phinizy & Phebe (free scoop of ice cream to the first 11 people), gourmet rice crisps from riceworks and refreshing beverages from Teany. Additional sponsors include Art in Brooklyn, Creative Times, Triomph Fitness and Fresh Industries.
It’s that time of year again: your chance to go through the doors of all the places you’ve been curious about in the city. OpenHouse New York (OHNY), considered one of the biggest architect and design event in the US, falls on October 9&10 this year.
For a full list of the sites you can see this Saturday and Sunday go to the OpenHouse New York website. But to whet your appetite, here’s a very partial list of what’s available.
3rd Ward Open Studios
African Burial Ground
Salmagundi House
American Irish Historical Society
Louis Armstrong House
The Apollo Theater
Architecture Research Office
AVAC System on Roosevelt Island
Scanian Glass
Baryshnikov Arts Center
And much, much more…
Zora Space opened on Fourth Avenue near Third Street just a few months ago but already it is evolving into a wonderful—and necessary— art, music, poetry and cultural space in Park Slope.
Zohreh Shayesteh, the founder and director of Zora Space, is bringing the world to Park Slope. Born and raised In Iran. She left Iran before the 1978 revolution and has been a permanent New York City resident since 1981. She studied film production at New York University, and has worked as a T.V producer and director for various Local T.V stations in New York City. Prior to her latest film “Picking apples, drinking tea” She has written, directed and produced two short films “Requiem” and “ Agha Joon . Her documentary Film “Inside out “ was the official selection of 2006 Tribeca International Film Festival.
Clearly Zohreh is infusing Zora Space with her knowledge of international music, poetry, film and art to the space and that adds a fascinating and unusual dimension to its nightly offerings.
Here’s what’s happening at Zora Space this week:
Arts:
On view now: One Generation – Seven Artists presents seven Iranian artists graduated from Tehran University, Faculty of Art, during late1960s and early 1970s. “Our group of seven does not claim to have a manifesto; rather we present a collective exhibition from artists who share a lot of similar experiences. We don’t ask why we are all together, but half a century of friendship is the best mortar for our bonding.”Curate by Nahid Hagigat
Participating Artists:
Nahid Hagigat, Hadi Hazavei, Shahram Karimi, Abbas Kiarostami, Nicky Nodjoumi, Sudi Sharafshahi, Nasser Vaziri
Poetry and Music:
On Tuesday, October 5th at 7PM: Darryl Alladice is a writer and author of Jaundice, a collection of poems some of which focus on Sickle Cell Anemia. Born and raised in New York his works have been read at various events and clubs around the city including Bowery Poetry Club, Brownstone Books, City College of New York.
Vo-Duo, a duo group with Markus Schwartz and Monvelyno Alexis
Jazz duo interpreting the sacred rhythms and melodies of Haitian Vodou for electric guitar, voice and drum set. Monvelyno Alexis (electric guitar, voice) & Markus Schwartz (drums). This show will be the debut performance for this project.
Music:
October 8th at 8PM: Marketa Irglová of Swell Season will perfrom solo. She appeared in the film Once, about an Irish street musician and the young pianist he befriends. Among the songs Irglová wrote with Hansard for Once was “Falling Slowly,” which received an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Irglová became the first Czech woman to win an Oscar, and at age 19 she was the youngest person to win an Oscar in a musical category. Hansard and Irglová performed the song live on the Oscar broadcast at Los Angeles’ Kodak Theater on February 24, 2008
Wordsprouts, the Park Slope Food Coop’s Reading Series, presents a reading for teens and young adults with author Torrey Maldonado on Friday, October 15 at 7 pm at the Coop.
Torrey Maldonado will read from his first novel, “Secret Saturdays,” which was published in April by Penguin. Inspired by his life and his students’ struggles with bullying, “Secret Saturdays” is about tough choices, friendships, and wanting to fit in.
Also, note that while all Wordsprouts participants are Coop members, you don’t need to be a Coop member to attend the series.
The Brooklyn Rail, is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a fiction anthology, a non-fiction anthology and live special events.
Just out is The Brooklyn Rail Fiction Anthology edited by Donald Breckinbridge and Jen Zoble. The collection includes some familiar names like Jonathan Baumbach, Sharon Mesmer, Aaron Zimmerman (who runs the NY Writers Coalition) and Albert Moblilio and many more.
Here’s who’s included in the fiction anthology: Diane Williams, Brian Evenson, Caila Rossi, Lynda Schor, John Yau, Barbara Henning, Michael Martone, Jacques Roubaud (translated by Guy Bennet), Susan Daitch, Jim Feast, Martha King, Lynn Crawford, Lewis Warsh, Pat MacEnulty, Will Fleming, Carmen Firan (translated by Dorin Motz), Bart Cameron, Constanza Jaramillo Cathcart, Aaron Zimmerman, Sharon Mesmer, Jeremy Sigler, Jill Magi, Blake Radcliffe, Meredith Brosnan, Evan Harris, Douglas Glover, Johannah Rogers, Jonathan Baumbach, Marie Carter, Doug Nufer, Leslie Scalapino, Robert Pinget (translated by Barbara Wright), Elizabeth Reddin, Kenneth Bernard, Jean Frémon (translated by Brian Evanson), R. M. Berry, Thomas D’Adamo, Albert Mobilio, John Reed, and Kurt Strahm.
Also out is Pieces of a Decade: Brooklyn Rail Non-fiction edited by Theodor Hamm and Williams Cole
“Now I’m not going to tell you everything that’s in the collection, but I will say that it offers: Howard Zinn’s prophetic critique of the war in Iraq before it happened; Reverend Billy’s gospel alongside that of hardened, unrepentant Marxists; and a wide variety of Whitmanesque odes to Brooklyn’s past and present, as well as to the borough’s future that never shall be. Besides that, it’s the only time that Jane Jacobs and Jason Flores-Williams have been bound between the same two covers. And rest assured that Anders Goldfarb’s photos capture our world. So if you have balls, you’ll buy this book. And if you don’t have balls, you’re still welcome to purchase it.”