FILM

Kick Ass, Greenberg and The Ghost Writer at BAM, Alice in Wonderland in 3-D, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, Too at the Pavilion

Screening of 59 videos, 59 seconds through May 15th, Wednesday through Sunday, noon until 6PM at the Spectre Gallery 287 Third Avenue between Carroll and President Street.

ART

Paintings, sculptures and drawings by Karen Gibbons at 440 Gallery in Park Slope

At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden works by Emilie Clark (pictured) inspired by the 19th-century natural scientist Mary Treat, an expert on carnivorous plants and the relationships between insects and plants.

THEATER

The Creditors at BAM. Directed by Alan Rickman, this fiercely modern battle of the sexes comes to BAM following a sold-out run at London’s Donmar Warehouse (RED, Jude Law’s Hamlet, Frost/Nixon). A darkly comic tale of vengeance, jealousy, and psychological warfare, Creditors unfolds as a young husband (Tom Burke, in his New York debut), anxiously awaiting the return of his new wife (Olivier Award-nominee Anna Chancellor), falls under the sway of a mysterious stranger (Tony Award-winner Owen Teale).

Asylum,  a new monologue by the very funny and smart James Braly, directed by Seth Barrish, plays tonight and tomorrow, Friday & Saturday, @ 8pm at the amazing NEW Dixon Place. Braly calls it “a darkly humorous autobiographical adventure into territory you may have visited in your own life: the place you go to escape it all. In case of terrifying flashbacks, the sedative effects of the delightful NEW Dixon Place bar are right upstairs.” Tickets ONLY $10 INCLUDING FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO TIME OUT NY if you use this link: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/722815/prm/Spring

MUSIC

At St. Ann’s Warehouse through May 1: The legendary Young@Heart chorus, whose members range from 73 to 90, along with No Theater have toured the world, united in their passion for performing rock music. Recently featured in a self-titled documentary (Fox Searchlight, 2008), Young@Heart’s repertoire is a set list of rock’s greatest hits, capturing the sheer joy of singing and the rapturous power of music to transcend age.

Sunday at 7PM at Barbes: Twenty Five Cent Opera of San Francisco: Theater slash performance slash entertainment brought to you once monthly by the playwriting firm of shulman delaney gassman kosmas and copp.
Featuring new works for the tiny stage by landscape artist Erin Courtney, theater architect Yelena Gluzman, & word contstruction worker Kristen Kosmas.

Sunday at 9PM at Babres: STEPHANE WREMBEL presents THE DJANGO EXPERIMENT: Stephane Wrembel presents the Django Experiment: French virtuoso Guitarist Stephane Wrembel seems to have channeled both the technique and the fire of Django Reinhardt. He studied for years with the manouche (the French Gypsies) but has also gotten deep into American vernacular musical styles. His weekly sets will mix up the traditional Django repertoire along gypsy swing re-interpretations of standards

SHOPPING

Brooklyn Indie Market on Smith Street near Union. Stylish, fun, handmade artisan goods.

Brooklyn Flea 176 Lafayette Avenue on Saturday and One Hanson Place on Sunday.

Something new: On Sunday 12AM until 5PM : Kings County General Store at South Paw on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

If you’re a cable subscriber with the Fearnet VOD service you have until April 30 to see a the little-known Pinocchio’s Revenge, a killer doll movie from 1996. It’s a dumb title and a Chucky rip-off, but it is also, surprisingly, one of the best arguments against the death penalty in any narrative film.

It’s a balancing act to get you interested in this film without leading you to expect anything. There are recognized masters like Samuel Fuller, who may require viewers to see past certain inadequacies in order to see the brilliance of his work. Kevin S. Tenney, director of Pinocchio’s Revenge, certainly does not have that kind of pedigree. Tenney is (un)known for being a director of B-level straight-to-video titles. His best known pictures are Witchboard, starring Whitesnake video vixen Tawny Kitaen (and another film with great subtextual value as demonstrated in the indispensible Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover) and a film of minor cult notoriety, Night of the Demons, a remake of which is slated for release in September. But beyond the T&A, the plodding narrative and the plausibility holes is something unexpected in Pinocchio’s Revenge.

Rosalind Allen plays Jennifer Garrick, a defense attorney and single mother. She represents a murderer executed by the state. One of his possessions, a wooden doll winds up in the hands of Garrick’s daughter Zoe (Brittany Alyse Smith). Homicides and accidents pile up, all at the hands of the puppet, yet it appears that Zoe is likely pulling the strings. Meanwhile, Jennifer’s next client, another murderer facing execution, refutes an insanity defense because the voices in his head are so real, he believes them to be as such. Therein lies the film’s anti-death penalty stance. The film is quite subtle in drawing parallels between the murderer awaiting his sentence and the disturbed young girl, who we know is a troubled child, and how their psychological makeup is a factor in their actions and should be considered in the punishment. The film does not go to great lengths to make the acknowledged killers human or sympathetic. Yet, Zoe is very relatable as a daughter and the viewer must recognize the links.   Also, the Pinocchio metaphor, again applied subtly, indicates these are human beings and should be treated as such

It’s a leap of faith to recommend a movie that is almost certain to be dismissed (a 3.9 user rating on IMDB if you need metrics), but Pinocchio’s Revenge is a unique work and its appearance on television is a rare event. It’s a film I’ve talked about for years and hope is finally understood.

Today the King Tut Exhibit opens in The Discovery Center in Manhattan.  That’s a good enough excuse for me to post a video of Steve Martin singing King Tut on Saturday Night Live back in the day.  You can see it on Now I’ve Heard Everything here.

If you can make it down to The Living Room (154 Ludlow Street, F Train to 2nd Avenue, use the 1st Avenue exit) on Sunday night, you will find a a cast of thousands performing a Tribute to Alex Chilton.  I saw a similar show when I was at SXSW and all I can say is that it the music will make it worth your while to attend.

–Eliot Wagner

FILM

Kick Ass, Greenberg and The Ghost Writer at BAM, Alice in Wonderland in 3-D, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married, Too at the Pavilion

Screening of 59 videos, 59 seconds through May 15th, Wednesday through Sunday, noon until 6PM at the Spectre Gallery 287 Third Avenue between Carroll and President Street.

ART

Paintings, sculptures and drawings by Karen Gibbons at 440 Gallery in Park Slope

At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden works by Emilie Clark (pictured) inspired by the 19th-century natural scientist Mary Treat, an expert on carnivorous plants and the relationships between insects and plants.

THEATER

The Creditors at BAM. Directed by Alan Rickman, this fiercely modern battle of the sexes comes to BAM following a sold-out run at London’s Donmar Warehouse (RED, Jude Law’s Hamlet, Frost/Nixon). A darkly comic tale of vengeance, jealousy, and psychological warfare, Creditors unfolds as a young husband (Tom Burke, in his New York debut), anxiously awaiting the return of his new wife (Olivier Award-nominee Anna Chancellor), falls under the sway of a mysterious stranger (Tony Award-winner Owen Teale).

Asylum,  a new monologue by the very funny and smart James Braly, directed by Seth Barrish, plays tonight and tomorrow, Friday & Saturday, @ 8pm at the amazing NEW Dixon Place. Braly calls it “a darkly humorous autobiographical adventure into territory you may have visited in your own life: the place you go to escape it all. In case of terrifying flashbacks, the sedative effects of the delightful NEW Dixon Place bar are right upstairs.” Tickets ONLY $10 INCLUDING FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION TO TIME OUT NY if you use this link: https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/722815/prm/Spring

MUSIC

At St. Ann’s Warehouse through May 1: The legendary Young@Heart chorus, whose members range from 73 to 90, along with No Theater have toured the world, united in their passion for performing rock music. Recently featured in a self-titled documentary (Fox Searchlight, 2008), Young@Heart’s repertoire is a set list of rock’s greatest hits, capturing the sheer joy of singing and the rapturous power of music to transcend age.

8PM on Friday night at Barbes: Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade: Groovy, Modern-vintage, 20’s and 30’s, Swing-Blues Infused Jazz. Winner of the 2008 Boston Music Award “Outstanding Folk Artists of the Year.” Winner of the Eddie’s Attic shoot-out in Decatur.

8PM on Friday night at The Bell House: Victoria Bergsman, a Swedish songwriter, musician, and vocalist best known as singer of the indie pop band the Concretes from 1995 to 2006. Since announcing her departure from the band on 24 July 2006 she has been recording for her new solo project Taken by Trees. Bergsman also provided guest vocals for the hit Peter Bjorn and John single “Young Folks” from the album Writers Block.

SHOPPING

Brooklyn Indie Market on Smith Street near Union. Stylish, fun, handmade artisan goods.

Brooklyn Flea 176 Lafayette Avenue on Saturday and One Hanson Place on Sunday.

Daniel’s Swiss Family Robinson: Apartment Therapy

690 sq ft in Park Slope: Apartment Therapy

Easy Being Green Baby Shower: A Brooklyn Limestone in Progress

The Hotel Columbia: The Kingston Lounge

Best place to live? It’s all relative: NY Times

William Styron and Anatole Broyard are unquestionably on the short list of great literary figures of the 20^th century, but what was it like to grow up around such men – especially since they each held dark secrets?

Styron went through years-long periods of depression while Broyard kept the fact that of his African American roots from his family and the public.  On Wednesday, May 5th at 7:30 PM on the 4^th Floor of PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Alexandra Styron, a New Yorker contributor and novelist in her own right (All The Finest Girls), and Bliss Broyard, who wrote about coming to terms with an entire side of her family she never knew about (One Drop) will read from their works and talk about their experiences.

This reading will be held on the 4th Floor of PS 107, which is located at 13th Street and 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn at 7:30 PM. The event is open to the public and tickets are $10 online at www.ps107.org or at the door.

The PS 107 Readings on the 4^th Floor is a topical literary series that raises funds for the PTA of P.S. 107. It has featured authors such as Jonathan Lethem, Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Safran Foer and Pulitzer prize-winner Jumpha Lahiri and comedians like John Hodgeman, to leading journalists including George Packer of The New Yorker and 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Moss of The New York Times.

Today over at Now I’ve Heard Everything:

There’s a small performance space on the second floor of The Living Room called Googie’s Lounge, and if you climb the flight of stairs to it tonight you can see Monica “L’il Mo” Passin play there.  Details here.

I found a few more shots of my visit to SXSW 2010 last month in my phone.  You can see them too by just clicking here.

–Eliot Wagner

4/20 or April 20th is National Weed Day. Legend has it that back in the 1970’s, a group of students at San Rafael High School, who became known as the “Waldos,” met everyday at 4:20 p.m. to smoke pot in front of a statue.

Over time 420 became a code for getting high. It was conjectured that 420 is a police code for marijuana use, but this is not true.

4/20 is now a counter-cultural holiday. There are many “smoke-outs” held on this day around the world in protest of current marijuana laws.

I hear a lot of a band called The National around the apartment because they’re one of my son’s favorite’s. They will be playing a benefit for Celebrate Brooklyn on Tuesday, July 27th at 6PM and they have a much awaited new album called High Violet coming out in May that has been leaked out slowly.

All of the band members live in Brooklyn. Matt Berninger, the band’s singer and lyricist, lives in Ditmas Park and he had this to say about the band’s Brooklyn roots: “I don’t know how much of the music scene here has to do with Brooklyn, other than the fact that there are so many venues and places to grow and learn and perform in front of a crowd,” he says. “There’s a big difference between writing music in your garage and standing up in front of a hostile room of people who don’t give a shit about you, and doing that over and over again until someone, somewhere, finally starts to care. If we weren’t in New York, music might have turned into a dad-rock hobby, something to do on weekends. But here, there’s always new and exciting stuff you want to chase.”

Read more about the band in Black Book.

In January, I rented Made In U.S.A., a Jean-Luc Godard film I had never seen. I watched it and loved it. I moved on to the special features and loved the insights, both personal and aesthetic, offered by Richard Brody, a New Yorker writer and editor who penned a biography of Godard, Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard. I bought the book later that month and began.

April is now half-over and I’ve finally completed the book. I could have read it faster for a number of reasons, but mostly I didn’t want it to end.  Closing the book this morning was like ending a chapter of my life, like pulling away in the moving van.  The last few weeks, I commuted with it through New York, like a sign, practically begging for someone to comment and join me in this world. I got nothing.

Nothing but an education. I have long admired Godard’s revolutionary cinema—his reckless abandon and theoretical challenges to standard filmmaking rules, his disregard for narrative construction and his inability to separate life from the cinema, as the title of the book suggests. Yet, I had much to learn. The seminal works–Breathless, Masculine Feminine and the entire 1960s—are covered brilliantly, but Brody applies the same detailed, thoughtful study of later Godard, demonstrating value and Godard’s growth as an artist, a concept generally refuted.  Brody doesn’t buy into Godard being dispensable post-1968 because he understands the work. He nails that film critics—long thought to be the sector of the world who prop Godard up—are generally just as in the dark about his work as the uninitiated.  And while the book is not a journey of the writer’s personal opinions about the artist’s work, Brody finds himself in the position of defending Godard’s work against disinterested dismissal and lack of critical comprehension (King Lear, In Praise of Love), and does so the way a scientist might prove a theory.

Understand cinema. Read the book. Watch the films. Everything you can find. Or the ones you’ve never seen. Or the ones you think you’ve seen, but are different to you now.

As Brody states in its final paragraph, the cinema will live on as long as Godard does, as long as his films do.  And so it is that the cinema lives on at Cannes in a few weeks, where the latest film from one of the cinema’s true masters will premiere.  The trailer for Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard; 2010):

“Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?” ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times

How many bloggers does it take to fill the Brooklyn Lyceum? Come find out on June 8 at 7:00 PM when the borough’s most opinionated and dedicated bloggers (and surprise special guests) step away from their keyboards to sound off about how and why Brooklyn remains such a rich source of material and inspiration.

But forget about filling the room. Here’s the real question the Brooklyn Blogfest will answer: How many bloggers does it take to wrap their arms around New York’s most happening borough? So, whether you are a blogger, wannablogger, reader, or media maven, you’ll want to come see for yourself. And meet up with this year’s most tenaciously keen tribe of bloggers as they gather to celebrate all the reasons Brooklyn is such a potent source of runaway creativity.

Since it was founded in 2005, the Brooklyn Blogfest has established itself as the nexus of creativity, talent, and insight among the blogosphere’s brightest lights. This year will be no different as a panel of blogging’s best disect the unique brand of entrepreneurial creativity flourishing here. Also on tap: a video tribute to Brooklyn’s most visionary photo bloggers, special networking sessions for like-minded bloggers (i.e. Blogs of a Feather), the return of the ever-popular Shout-out, when bloggers are invited to share their blogs with the world, and a roof-raising after-party with ABSOLUT® VODKA cocktails, food and music.

“The borough of Brooklyn has always been front and center in the world of blogging,” says Louise Crawford, founder of the Brooklyn Blogfest and onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.com. “Whether you live by a blog, blog to live, or live to blog, you’ll want to come out on June 8.”

FIFTH ANNUAL BROOKLYN BLOGFEST 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 7:00 PM
Doors Open at 6:30 PM
The Brooklyn Lyceum
227 Fourth Avenue at President Street in Park Slope Brooklyn
$10  ($5 for students and seniors)

The 2010 BROOKLYN BLOGFEST is sponsored by ABSOLUT®  VODKA

A couple of useful lists are waiting for you over at Now I’ve Hear Everything: music venues in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan (provided by radio station WFUV to celebrate the fact that with changes to their antenna, the station can now actually be heard in those places, including Park Slope) and a calendar for this week which highlights many good but conflicting performances.

If that’s not enough, how about a video of John Hiatt and his top notch band performing the title track from his new album, The Open Road?

–Eliot Wagner

Yesterday at the sale of Catherine Bohne’s personal book collection on 8th Avenue in Park Slope I learned why she is selling her books and where it is that she’s going.

I will share just a bit of the story now and will continue over the coming weeks. Think of it as an unfolding. The facts will be told as the facts are known.

What Catherine told me yesterday is that she has fallen in love with a new place and a new man. The place is Albania and Alfred is the name of the man.

It is a very romantic tale of one woman’s serendipitous adventure that led her to what she’d always wanted.

Last January, after eight exhausting and laborious years of running Park Slope’s beloved Community Bookstore, Catherine decided to take a vacation. Two weeks away. Some time to relax, explore and think. As someone who has always loved travel it seemed like a fine idea.

So she drank a bottle of red wine, talked to friends and eventually cashed in a pile of air miles and booked a ticket to Albania.

“When I  was 11 years old, I was on a boat with my mother and father. The boat went past the most mysterious landscape I’ve ever seen and I wanted to get off the boat. I said “Dad – what’s THAT?” “That?” answered my father, “That’s Albania, Catherine. No one can go there,” she told me yesterday standing in front of her apartment building.

A little back story: Catherine’s mother is Italian/Croatian and her father is from Brooklyn. As a child she spent summers in Croatia and as a teenager she lived in Africa.  “I have almost always felt more at home in the world, than at that home in the home where I’m supposed to belong, she writes on her blog.

Thirty years after that boat trip with her parents, Catherine got to Albania. Most of all she wanted to see Northern Albania, a very difficult place to travel to. “Why do you want to go there?” she was asked constantly by the Albanians she met on her journey.

They could not understand why this solo traveling American woman wanted to see Northern Albania. But as those who know Catherine will attest, she likes to do difficult things and she likes adventure. Not surprisingly, Catherine did her research and found out (from a travel blog) about the Hotel Relindja owned by a man named Alfred in place called Valbona.

On her long journey north through rural Albania, which included long rides on small buses and ferries, she would tell the people she met that she was looking for a man named Alfred.

Coincidentally (or fatefully) she met Alfred’s cousin on one of those small buses and when they arrived at their destination she introduced Catherine to her cousin. “He is tall and regal looking. Like a prince,” she told me. He speaks good English  (after four years in England working at a German car factory), is in his mid-thirties and lives on his family’s farm.

Love. Destiny. Life on a small farm in Valbona.

But that’s not all. From the sounds of it, Alfred is the Catherine Bohne of Valbona. A man of the community, he is a trusted leader, a compassionate and helping person, a connector, a creative thinker.

Within days, Catherine was in love, helping Alfred on his rounds visiting neighbors and friends. She was learning Albanian. She was figuring out ways to make Valbona a tourist destination, which could be an economic engine for this impoverished and extraordinary region, which has little in the way of modern conveniences.

In the months since that first trip, Catherine has been back to Valbona more than once. She is planning to sell the bookstore, she is moving to Valbona for good and she started a  website about travel to Valbona called Journey to Valbona. Here is an excerpt from one of her blog posts:

Like all smart children, I have always wanted to run away from home.  Is this why my reason for traveling always seems to be to get away to somewhere?  I mean get away but also to GET to somewhere.  Be somewhere else.  Perhaps be someone else.  Live in a different world, but I mean live, not just visit.  I don’t want to go: where there are lots of tourists, to generic resorts that could be anywhere, to places that make me feel like I’m in a frozen, pre-prepared, pre-packaged museum (though those can be amusing), or to places which have been somehow warped by the traffic of tourists.  I do want to go:  to places which are really real, to places of that particular joyful solemnity that accompanies true beauty, to places where I can wander and get lost, to places where I will learn something, to places which are quiet and to places where I can know and be known.  I’m not very good at doing nothing, so I like joining in and lending a hand, being useful.  My idea of “doing nothing” is writing and drawing and having adventures, so I also like places where I am free to wander around and where people will allow me to prove myself, and just laugh if I seem a bit eccentric.

CHERRY BLOSSOMS:

They’re in bloom and you won’t want to miss them. Hanami is the Japanese cultural tradition of viewing and cherishing each moment of the cherry blossom season. At Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Hanami is a New York City “rite of spring.” You can stroll under a canopy of cherry trees, savor Japanese entrees at the Terrace Café.

FILM

Sunday, Apr 18 at 3, 6, 9pm at BAM: Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu sauvé des eaux) + A Day in the Country directed by Jean Renoir

THEATER:

Sunday 5:30 – 7PM at Proteus Gowanus: Shrink, a reading of a new play-in-progress by Lizzie Olesker, is inspired by the micro-universe of toy theater. Alice, of the traveling Tiny Universe Theater, faces another sleepless night as she waits for her teenage son to return home.  And it’s the anniversary of her brother Joe’s disappearance 25 years ago. As Alice waits at the kitchen table, the seemingly random objects in her old touring suitcase shapeshift into a world that seems small enough to hold in her hand.

MUSIC

Sunday at 8PM at Barbes: Dean Olsher. Funked-up ragtime. This is the music Scott Joplin would have written had he lived to the age of 143. With Dean Olsher, bass clarinet and accordion; Brian Drye, trombone; Kurt Hoffman, tenor sax and clarinet; Meg Reichardt, guitar and vocal and Suzannah Scott-Moncrieff, viola.

SHOPPING

Sunday at 11AM: Brooklyn Indie Market. Peruse your favorite indie designers at this open market on Smith Street.

I took the F train to Allen Street last night to cover the opening night of the long awaited Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2; Zach Williams and his band played.  I have full coverage of the new club and Zach’s performance at Now I’ve Heard Everything.  Be sure to scroll down to Thursday’s post for a music video inspired by the the opening.  It should put a smile on your face.

–Eliot Wagner

“The truth is that money is often a divisive influence in our lives. We keep our bank balances secret because we worry that being candid about our finances will expose us to judgment or ridicule—or worse, to accusations of greed or immorality. And this worry is not unfounded.”

–Jenny Offill and Elissa Schappell, Money Changes Everything (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. xi

Brooklyn Reading Works:
The Truth and Money

On April 15, 2010, the Brooklyn Reading Works will present its monthly writers’ program on “tax day.” This happy accident, observed last summer in a casual conversation with John Guidry of the blog, Truth and Rocket Science resulted in the idea for a panel called “The Truth and Money,” a reading and Q & A with three authors whose work has taken on money in some significant way.

Our three panelists are:

Elissa Schappell, a Park Slope writer, the editor of “Hot Type” (the books column) for Vanity Fair, and Editor-at-large of the literary magazine Tin House. With Jenny Offill, Schappell edited Money Changes Everything, in which twenty-two writers reflect on the troublesome and joyful things that go along with acquiring, having, spending, and lacking money.

Jennifer Michael Hecht, a best-selling writer and poet whose work crosses fields of history, philosophy, and religious studies.  In The Happiness Myth, she looks at what’s not making us happy today, why we thought it would, and what these things really do for us instead.  Money—like so many things, it turns out—solves one problem only to beget others, to the extent that we spend a great deal of money today trying to replace the things that, in Hecht’s formulation, “money stole from us.”

Jason Kersten, a Park Slope writer who lives 200 feet from our venue and whose award-winning journalism has appeared in Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, and Maxim.  In The Art of Making Money, Kersten traces the riveting, rollicking, roller coaster journey of a young man from Chicago who escaped poverty, for a while at least, after being apprenticed into counterfeiting by an Old World Master.

Please join us for the event at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 15, 2010, at the Old Stone House in Washington Park, which is located on 5th Avenue in Park Slope, between 3rd and 4th Streets, behind the playground.

“The truth is that money is often a divisive influence in our lives. We keep our bank balances secret because we worry that being candid about our finances will expose us to judgment or ridicule—or worse, to accusations of greed or immorality. And this worry is not unfounded.”

–Jenny Offill and Elissa Schappell, Money Changes Everything (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. xi

Brooklyn Reading Works:
The Truth and Money

On April 15, 2010, the Brooklyn Reading Works will present its monthly writers’ program on “tax day.” This happy accident, observed last summer in a casual conversation with John Guidry of the blog, Truth and Rocket Science resulted in the idea for a panel called “The Truth and Money,” a reading and Q & A with three authors whose work has taken on money in some significant way.

Our three panelists are:

Elissa Schappell, a Park Slope writer, the editor of “Hot Type” (the books column) for Vanity Fair, and Editor-at-large of the literary magazine Tin House. With Jenny Offill, Schappell edited Money Changes Everything, in which twenty-two writers reflect on the troublesome and joyful things that go along with acquiring, having, spending, and lacking money.

Jennifer Michael Hecht, a best-selling writer and poet whose work crosses fields of history, philosophy, and religious studies.  In The Happiness Myth, she looks at what’s not making us happy today, why we thought it would, and what these things really do for us instead.  Money—like so many things, it turns out—solves one problem only to beget others, to the extent that we spend a great deal of money today trying to replace the things that, in Hecht’s formulation, “money stole from us.”

Jason Kersten, a Park Slope writer who lives 200 feet from our venue and whose award-winning journalism has appeared in Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, and Maxim.  In The Art of Making Money, Kersten traces the riveting, rollicking, roller coaster journey of a young man from Chicago who escaped poverty, for a while at least, after being apprenticed into counterfeiting by an Old World Master.

Please join us for the event at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 15, 2010, at the Old Stone House in Washington Park, which is located on 5th Avenue in Park Slope, between 3rd and 4th Streets, behind the playground.

The PS 321 Neighborhood Concerts Series, directed by acclaimed Park Slope pianist and Sony Classical recording artist Simone Dinnerstein, is a fantastic, cultural win-win for the children and adults in this neighborhood.

The shows are short — just one hour—which is perfect for kids but they’re also very interesting for adults and a great introduction to classical music for all. Even if your kids don’t go to PS 321 or you don’t have kids at all you might want  to check out this enjoyable Thursday night music series.

This Thursday Dinnerstein, whose son is a student at PS 321 and who’s husband is a teacher, presents Face the Music, “Beating Down the Doors,” featuring the world premiere of  Liquid Timepieces, by PS 321 Faculty Member Joseph C. Phillips, Jr.

Did I mention that Dinnerstein’s mother used to teach at PS 321, too?

Clearly this is Dinnerstein’s way of giving back to her neighborhood elementary school and a marvelous way to teach children — and adults — to develop a passion for classical music.

Thursday, April 15th, 7:00 pm
PS 321 Auditorium, 180 7th Ave., Park Slope
Tickets are $15 and are available on www.ps321.org

Face the Music is an ensemble of astonishingly talented teenagers performing works by today’s most compelling and creative composers. In residence at the Kaufman Center, Face the Music breaks the boundaries of classical music education and performance. “Beating Down the Doors” brings Face the Music’s youthful energy to works by five living composers. The centerpiece of the concert will be the world premiere of Liquid Timepieces by composer and PS 321 faculty member Joseph C. Philllips, Jr. commissioned for Face the Music by Simone Dinnerstein and PS 321 Neighborhood Concerts.

Face the Music’s young players will talk to the audience between pieces and take questions at the end of the hour-long concert, making this an excellent opportunity for families with children.

There’s so much going on this week, which includes April 15th, the last day for you to file your tax returns,  that I think the best thing to do is to take a look at what’s happening in advance.  Starting Tuesday, there are 10 good shows over five days, including the opening of the new Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2.   And there’s also the last day to file your tax returns on Thursday, April 15.  Check the listings over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

According to blogger, Save the Slope, a blog dedicated to neighborhood preservation, Al Capone was a Park Sloper and he’s got the details and research to prove it. Here’s an excerpt from his interesting blog post:

Young Al is associated with two addresses in Garfield Place, and with P.S. 133. According to his Wikipedia article, his family first lived at 38 Garfield Place, on the south side of the block between 4th & 5th Avenues:

A recently completed mosaic called The Tree of Life created by artist Carlos Juan Pinto will be open to the public on April 23, 2010, on the rooftop playground of the Rivendell Montessori Pre-School, 277 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn at the corner of President Street.

Brooklyn-based artist Pinto, donated his work on the project, integrating designs by the school’s children into the mosaic, which honors the Montessori method of observing and supporting the natural development of children.

The project is a collaboration between the artist, The Rivendell School and Charas, Inc.

Pinto, originally from Guatemala, has lived and worked in New York City for ten years. His art is as expressive as his native and lush, colorful Central American nation and draws the viewer into a world of play, responsibility and seriousness. His legacy, as he sees it, is to be known as an artist who adopts a Green Revolution.

The Rivendell School was formerly known as The Children’s House of Park Slope. For over 25 years, it has provided Montessori education to pre-primary children, encouraging them to gain a sense of their own power and ability as learners, and as social and emotional beings.

Concurrent with the opening at the Rivendell School, there will be an exhibition across the street at The Crooked Trail Café 272 3rd Ave. (also, corner of President St.), featuring more of Juan Carlos Pinto’s work, and photographs by photographer Juan Noguera about the making of the mosaic.

I reported last December that The Rockwood Music Hall would soon be expanding into the space directly next door to it to the south.  According to several sources, that space, to be know as Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2, will be opening late next week, perhaps as early as Thursday.  More details at Now I’ve Heard Everything.  How will this affect the clubs here in The Slope?  Time will tell.

— Eliot Wagner

I came across the blog, Brooklyn Before Now and learned about this:

Walt Whitman is coming back to Brooklyn, as we’ve never seen or heard him before — but, perhaps, as he was always meant to be: Spoken and sung from the mouths of women and men and children. Sung from on high in Fort Greene Park, from down low at the Old Stone House, and from a barge on the East River.

For nine days in May, an international collaborative of performing artists known as Compagnia De Colombari will be presenting “More or Less I Am” — a theatrical and musical presentation of “Song of Myself,” arguably the greatest poem of Walt Whitman’s seminal Leaves of Grass, first published on July 4, 1855, out of a small print shop on Fulton Street in Brooklyn.

Read more here