MUSIC

Saturday, February 6th  at the Jewish Music Cafe on 9th Street in Park Slope. 2 bands: C Lanzbom & Friends and Izzy Kiefer, Heshy R & Friends. Doors open at 8:30 PM.

Also Saturday: Opera on Tap at Barbes in Park Slope at 7 PM: “Opera on Tap has taken its act to barrooms where they found out that beer on tap enhances the operatic experience. The company is made up of young singers and instrumentalists who relish the direct contact with audiences not inhibited in their reactions by the looming menace of giant chandeliers.”

BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival with music shows at BAM and clubs all over Brooklyn.

MOVIES

This weekend: A Single Man at BAM, Crazy Heart at the Pavilion,

THEATER

Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Alice, Alice, Alice, environmental excursion into Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland.”Irondale Ensemble Project in Ft. Greene

Also Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Caroline or Change. Gallery Players in Park Slope

FOOD

SarahJames, a new bar and grill in Bed-Stuy with hamburgers, vegan and vegetarian options, beers, wines and a lounge downstairs where you can relax, watch a movie and use the free wi-fi.

Yamato, a popular Park Slope sushi restaurant has a new decor and a new menu.

ART

The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks at MoCADA through May 16, 2010 at MoCADA.

FOR KIDS

Saturday, February 6th as part of BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival: Dan Zanes and Friends with “a fun-filled show created just for BAM. Performing old favorites and new songs in English and Spanish, and featuring special guests.”

Saturday and Sunday: The Paperbag Players perform The Great Mummy Hunt at LIU’s Kumble Theater

White on white: Brooklynometry

Sentimental Journey: Brooklynology

Artist Malin Abrahamsson: Art in Brooklyn

Sculpture of birds made out of old records: Brooklyn Art Project Blog

DIY ZInes and Comics: Found in Brooklyn

MUSIC

Friday, February 5th at 8 PM, Classical ragtime guitar at Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society

Saturday, February 6th  at the Jewish Music Cafe on 9th Street in Park Slope. 2 bands: C Lanzbom & Friends and Izzy Kiefer, Heshy R & Friends. Doors open at 8:30 PM.

Also Saturday: Opera on Tap at Barbes in Park Slope at 7 PM: “Opera on Tap has taken its act to barrooms where they found out that beer on tap enhances the operatic experience. The company is made up of young singers and instrumentalists who relish the direct contact with audiences not inhibited in their reactions by the looming menace of giant chandeliers.”

BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival with music shows at BAM and clubs all over Brooklyn.

MOVIES

This weekend: A Single Man at BAM, Crazy Heart at the Pavilion,

THEATER

Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Alice, Alice, Alice, environmental excursion into Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland.”Irondale Ensemble Project in Ft. Greene

Also Friday, Saturday & Sunday: Caroline or Change. Gallery Players in Park Slope

FOOD

SarahJames, a new bar and grill in Bed-Stuy with hamburgers, vegan and vegetarian options, beers, wines and a lounge downstairs where you can relax, watch a movie and use the free wi-fi.

Yamato, a popular Park Slope sushi restaurant has a new decor and a new menu.

ART

The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks at MoCADA through May 16, 2010 at MoCADA.

On Friday, February 5th at 8 PM: the opening party of Spread Love: It’s the Brooklyn Way, a mixed media show at a new cafe called Breukelen Coffee House at 764 A Franklin Avenue.

FOR KIDS

Saturday, February 6th as part of BAM’s Sounds Like Brooklyn Music Festival: Dan Zanes and Friends with “a fun-filled show created just for BAM. Performing old favorites and new songs in English and Spanish, and featuring special guests.”

Saturday and Sunday: The Paperbag Players perform The Great Mummy Hunt at LIU’s Kumble Theater

There were 22 applicants and some pretty stiff competition, including Sharon Mesmer, Leon Freilich, Bob Hershon, They Might Be Giants, and Lynn Chandhok but on February 3rd during his State of the Borough Address, Marty Markowitz announced that Tina Chang of Park Slope is the borough’s new Poet Laureate, the first woman of the four poet laureates that have held the position.

“She has dedicated her life to poetry and is passionate about reaching and educating diverse communities. We heard from many talented and dedicated applicants for the position of Brooklyn poet laureate, and one thing is certain-our borough has no shortage of people with a gift for the written word,” Marty Markowitz said yesterday at the Park Slope Armory.

So who is Tina Chang?

Chang is the author of Half-Lit Houses and the editor of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond. She currently teaches at Hunter College and Sarah Lawrence College, and has collaborated with M.S. 51 through Poem in Your Pocket Day. She co-founded an annual collaborative reading series between the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Cave Canem, to bring together writers of Asian American and African American descent.

She takes over for Ken Siegelman, who died last year. He was poet laureate since 2002.

And who was on the selection committee?

Poets Tracie Morris, Jessica Greenbaum, Julie Agoos; coordinator of the MFA Program in Poetry at Brooklyn College, where she is Tow Professor of English; Robert N. Casper, programs director for the Poetry Society of America; Linda Susan Jackson,  poet and associate professor of English at Medgar Evers College; Dionne Mack-Harvin, executive director, Brooklyn Public Library; and Anthony Vigorito, poet and retired teacher who assisted former poet laureate Ken Siegelman with Brooklyn Poetry Outreach.

Verse Responder, Leon Freilich, who was himself a candidate for the poet laureate position, filed this report on today’s appointment of poet Tina Chang.

Park Slope’s own Tina Chang has been appointed Brooklyn poet laureate.  She’s lived in the Slope for 10 years.  A native of Queens, she’s the first woman poet laureate ever to serve the borough–a queen of quatrains.

Marty Markowitz told the Daily News of his choice, and one of its reporters called me for my heartbroken response.  Of course as a born son of Brooklyn baptized by the Dodgers and orphaned when the team deserted us for the lure of tinsel palm trees,
I had to say on behalf of myself and the others who failed  to make the cut, “We wuz robbed!

Acclaimed pianist Simone Dinnerstein and the acclaimed American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) perform tonigth at PS 321.

Awesome!

Tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the PS 321 Auditorium, 180 7th Ave., Park Slope. Tickets are available at www.ps321.org, and in the PS 321 lobby Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8:45 — 9:30 am.

The concert will be approximately one hour long and is not recommended for children under 6 years old.

Thursday is home and design day on BB:

Bedroom makeover in Ditmas Park: Better Home No Garden

She’s home from Spain and thinking about gardening: Casa Cara

Doing the math on a home sale: Reclaimed Home

Apartment rental round-up: Bushwick BK

She bought a Chrysler Building sweater: Brooklynometry

2 great DIY Valentine ideas: Design Sponge

Sitt wants to build dorms in Red Hook: Brooklyn Paper

Hidden Brooklyn Heights, a tour by Homer Fink: Brooklyn Heights Blog

I just got this announcement from someone at the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA), which is in the throes of a yearlong celebration of their 100th anniversary:

The BHA is sponsoring “Brooklyn in Prints: A Special Gathering”, a curated exhibit featuring rare and unusual prints and images tracing the history of the borough from its farmland days to the 21st century.  This exhibit, which will be held at the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS), will be open to the public for two weeks from Saturday, February 27 until Sunday, March 14. An opening night reception and gallery talk will be held Friday, February 26, from 6:30 to 8:30. Prints will be available for purchase with a share of the proceeds going to both Heights organizations.

This event will be held at the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS), will be open to the public for two weeks from Saturday, February 27 until Sunday, March 14. An opening night reception and gallery talk will be held Friday, February 26, from 6:30 to 8:30. Prints will be available for purchase with a share of the proceeds going to both Heights organizations.

Continue reading Brooklyn Prints: Rare & Unusual Images →

First the bad news:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Chiara String Quartet will not be able to perform at PS 321 this Thursday night.

Now the GOOD NEWS:

The PS 321 Neighborhood Concert series is not cancelling the show because the show must go on:

Acclaimed pianist Simone Dinnerstein and the acclaimed American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) have graciously agreed to step in, and will perform a new program.

Awesome!

The concert is this Thursday, February 4, at 7:00 p.m. in the PS 321 Auditorium, 180 7th Ave., Park Slope. Tickets are available at www.ps321.org, and in the PS 321 lobby Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8:45 — 9:30 am.

As always, the concert will be approximately one hour long and is not recommended for children under 6 years old.

You won’t want to miss this show. The last time they played together, I am told, it was ASTOUNDING.

Artist Marko Vuorinen wrote to tell me about his project, Sleepers, New York City, a website starring ordinary New Yorkers sleeping in public. There is currently a show of these photos in Helsinki but there’s no need to go there.

The whole thing is on the web.

Vuorinen shoots photos of people sleeping all over New York City. He writes: “A person sleeping in the public is irresistibly intriguing. In the public your fate lays in the hands of other. With each photo there’s a location, date and time and a brief explanation written by the artist. For one photo, the photographer recalls about one photo

“As I was adjusting my camera he woke up and wanted to know what I was doing. The fellow didn’t much appreciate my artistic intentions and suspected them to be sexually oriented. At the end of our brief encounter he asked for some change, or as an option he offered to give me a blow job for $20.”

He wrote nothing about this photo of the man with the shopping cart on the F-train.

February may be the shortest and coldest month, but it seems more musically abundant than usual.  See who is playing where this month and plan your musical nights out with this February music calendar.

Looking to go out tonight?  You can start the month off by checking out Richard Julian at The Rockwood Music Hall.

Details, as usual, at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

This Thursday acclaimed classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein presents the Chiara Quartet at the  PS 321 Neighborhood Concert Series. With this series, it is Dinnerstein’s aim to bring interesting and innovative classical programming to Park Slope.

What a gift that is to the neighborhood.

On Thursday, February 4th at 7 PM: Beethoven and Beyond, featuring the Chiara Quartet in the PS 321 Auditorium 180 7th Ave., Park Slope. Tickets are $15.00, available at www.ps321.org

The Seattle Post calls the Chiara Quartet “vastly talented, vastly resourceful, and vastly committed to the music of their time.”

The New York Times describes them as  “luminous” and “searing.” And Strings Magazine used these words: “soulful,” “biting,” and possessing a “potent collective force.”

Dinnerstein has more than a casual connection to Park Slope’s acclaimed public elementary school. Born and bred in Park Slope, Dinnerstein was a PS 321 student, her mother was a a teacher, her son is now a student and her husband is a teacher.  The PS 321 concerts, which feature musicians Ms. Dinnerstein has admired and collaborated with during her career, are open to the public and raise funds for the school’s PTA.

Talk about giving back!

The Five Boroughs Music Festival presents an intimate afternoon of vocal and piano music featuring the wife-and-husband team of soprano Jennifer Zetlan and pianist David Shimoni and the husband-and-wife team of baritone Tyler Duncan and pianist Erika Switzer.

Sunday, February 14, 4:00PM
General Admission $25 / Students & Brooklyn Residents $15
Advance purchase discounts at www.5BMF.org

South Oxford Space
138 S. Oxford Street in Ft. Greene

Having been a fan of filmmaker Frederick Wiseman for years, it is gratifying and somewhat astonishing to witness the success of his latest documentary La Danse, a portrait of the Paris Ballet that recently played for weeks at the Film Forum.

It’s usually a chore to find Wiseman screenings. Even a one-week-long run is rare; PBS airs his films, but rarely repeats them. Wiseman has also resisted home video formats, his documentaries remain primarily not available commercially. All this makes the year-long Wiseman retrospective at MOMA truly a celebration of the artist’s 40+ years of work.

Since screenings are rare people tend to know the Wiseman methods better than the documentaries themselves. Known primarily as the cinema verite guy his films are considered to be life unfiltered. With minimal crew, he films, fly-on-the-wall style, selected moments related to his topic, generally institutions. Titles like High School, Hospital and Public Housing help you get the picture. He edits his raw footage into films that paint a picture and may even tell a story, but without common narrative threads. The films also eschew common contextual aides that help shape a point of view. There’s no voice over, no interviews, the viewer is left to interpret the footage on his own.

Continue reading OTBKB Film by Pops Corn: Frederick Wiseman Retrospective at MOMA →

MUSIC: Saturday, January 30 at 8PM at Barbes: Park Slope’s Danny Kalb is the founder of the legendary 60’s band the Blues Project and has been credited has being one of the very first practitioner of Blues Rock and his sound has been widely immitated for over forty years.

FILM: Crazy Heart and Avatar 3-D at the Pavilion.

ART: Opening party on Friday, January 29, 6PM-9PM for the Black and White show at Metaphor Contemporary Art.

FOOD: Park Slope Farmer’s Market indoors at Makers Market on Sundays. Third Street near Third Avenue.

THEATER: Alice, Alice, Alice at Irondale January 29 through February 20th. The audience follows the ensemble down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, down the nooks, crannies, recesses, and lofts of the Irondale Center in its historic 19th Century building. Wear your most comfortable clothing and get ready to enter strange wonderful worlds that the general public seldom sees with the Irondale company as your guide.

—Caroline or Change at the Gallery Players in Park Slope January 29 – February 21.

ICE SKATE: On Sunday, January 31 from 2 PM – 6 PM, skate to Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five’s greatest hits at Kate Wollman Rink.

FOR THE KIDS: On Sunday, January 31 at 11AM  BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange presents The Wizard of IZ hosted by the lovable Jumpin’ Juniper (Playspace open until 1pm)

The PS 321 Neighborhood Concert Series is the ambitious brainchild of  Simone Dinnerstein, a celebrated classical pianist in her own right, who just signed with Sony Classical.

First and foremost, Dinnerstein aims to bring interesting and innovative classical programming to Park Slope. What a gift that is to the neighborhood.

Next Thursday, February 4th at 7 PM, Dinnerstein presents Beethoven and Beyond, featuring the Chiara Quartet in the PS 321 Auditorium 180 7th Ave., Park Slope. Tickets are $15.00, available at www.ps321.org

The Seattle Post calls the Chiara Quartet “vastly talented, vastly resourceful, and vastly committed to the music of their time.”

The New York Times describes them as  “luminous” and “searing.” And Strings Magazine used these words: “soulful,” “biting,” and possessing a “potent collective force.”

Dinnerstein has more than a casual connection to Park Slope’s acclaimed public elementary school. Born and bred in Park Slope, Dinnerstein was a PS 321 student, her mother was a a teacher, her son is now a student and her husband is a teacher.  The PS 321 concerts, which feature musicians Ms. Dinnerstein has admired and collaborated with during her career, are open to the public and raise funds for the school’s PTA.

Talk about giving back!

MUSIC
–Sounds like Brooklyn Festival begins Friday, January 29: Le Savy Fav & Vivian Girls at BAM. Check website for full schedule of all events.

–Friday, January 29 at 10 PM at Barbes : Brooklyn Qawwali Party. Hear what happens when New York jazz musicians play and improvise around the melodies of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

–Saturday, January 30 at 8PM at Barbes: Park Slope’s Danny Kalb is the founder of the legendary 60’s band the Blues Project and has been credited has being one of the very first practitioner of Blues Rock and his sound has been widely immitated for over forty years.

FILM: Crazy Heart and Avatar 3-D at the Pavilion.

ART: Opening party on Friday, January 29, 6PM-9PM for the Black and White show at Metaphor Contemporary Art.

FOOD: Park Slope Farmer’s Market indoors at Makers Market on Sundays. Third Street near Third Avenue.

THEATER: Alice, Alice, Alice at Irondale January 29 through February 20th. The audience follows the ensemble down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, down the nooks, crannies, recesses, and lofts of the Irondale Center in its historic 19th Century building. Wear your most comfortable clothing and get ready to enter strange wonderful worlds that the general public seldom sees with the Irondale company as your guide.

—Caroline or Change at the Gallery Players in Park Slope January 29 – February 21.

ICE SKATE: On Sunday, January 31 from 2 PM – 6 PM, skate to Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five’s greatest hits at Kate Wollman Rink.

Brave New World Repertory Company, is hosting a benefit salon reading of The American Clock by Arthur Miller, directed by Cynthia Babak. Proceeds from this event will help pay for their production of The Crucible in March.

When: January 30th, 2010, dinner 7:30pm, show 8:00pm
Where: The Old Stone House, JJ Burne Park on 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets in Park Slope.
More info: here.

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Brave New World Repertory Company will revive two Miller plays in the coming months. The company will perform a reading of Miller’s The American Clock on Jan. 30 in order to raise money for their production of The Crucible, Miller’s allegory of McCarthyism set during the Salem witch trials. This site-specific production, set for March 4-14, will be staged at The Old Stone House in Park Slope. The house, first constructed in 1699, seven years after the Salem witch trials, will host 10 intimate performances of the play using the ground floor for Act One and the second floor for Act Two. A prologue will occur outside the house when the evening begins.

Tomorrow night, Saturday, January 30, Banjo Jim’s, that OTBKB Music favorite over on 9th Street and Avenue C, will be throwing a rent party, and it’s a rent party steeped in history. Providing the music (and some history) will be David Amram, Lenny Kaye and John Ventimiglia, along with other performers.  More details over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

A lot of New Yorkers have their own recession story to tell, whether it’s from the past year, the past decade or the accumulation of a lifetime.During this year’s Memoir-a-thon, you will get to listen to the personal reflections and insights on how some writers have managed to survive, preserve their sanity and even have fun during hard times.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents the 4th annual Memoirathon on February 11 at 8 PM at the Old Stone House. Third Street & Fifth Avenue. $5 suggested donation includes wine and snacks.
Curator Branka Ruzak had this to say about this year’s theme:

“You’ll be amazed to discover just how resilient and resourceful people can be, while still managing to find humor, cause for reflection and even gratitude, in some of life’s most challenging situations. Whether you found the past year “the year you’d like to forget” or “the year of positive thinking”, you will be inspired and entertained by tonight’s lineup of writers who talk about infinitely new ways of being.”

Here is a list of this year’s memoirists:
MARCO ACEVEDO
NELL BOESCHENSTEIN
JANET RAIFFA
NAVA RENEK
BETSY ROBINSON
DEBORAH SIEGEL
Go over the hump for these writer’s bios:
Continue reading Recession Stories at the Memoirathon →

In their first show of 2010, Metaphor Contemporary Art, a gallery on Atlantic Avenue, celebrates a decade of innovative exhibitions of emerging and midcareer artists with a show called, Black and White, which brings together ten artists who utilize the spare means of only black and white “to create works that range from subtle white on white to bold graphic statements.”

The exhibition will include several works by each artist; drawings in graphite and charcoal on paper by Margaret Neill, Amy Talluto, and Katherine McDowell Patterson, mixed media works by Karen Revis and Marietta Hoferer, paintings by Mia Brownell, Kate Beck and David Atkin, large scale prints by Yashua Klos, and sculpture by Michael Kukla.

The opening is on Friday, January 29 at 6 PM. The show continues through March 6th.

Metaphor. 282 Atlantic Avenue

PEELING THE APPLE

So here it is at last,
Apple’s newest miracle,
Media savior
And other matters lyrical.

Bigger makes it best,
Biggest of the crop.
Living up to hype?
Call it the iPlop .

http://open.salon.com/blog/ leon_freilich

Tomorrow night, Banjo Jim’s, that friendly bar with music over in the East Village will host a Tribute to Lucinda Williams, with the usual cast of thousands…well, dozens, going from 8 until late for only $10.

Since Bill Withers was in Park Slope last night (attending the screening of the documentary about his life, Still Bill, held by Celebrate Brooklyn) and The Watson Twins will be in the nabe in about two weeks singing over at The Bell House, how about a video of Leigh and Chandra covering Bill’s Ain’t No Sunshine?

You find more info on the Lucinda-thon and the video over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

by Paula Bernstein

I haven’t yet set a date for my first-ever dinner party, but I’ve already enlisted a distinguished list of guinea pigs to get me ready for the big event. My new game plan is to invite one guest over for dinner each week to help me hone my skills. I’ve also begun soliciting advice from Brooklyn-based culinary mavens. First up is Giulia Melucci, author of the fabulous foodie memoir, “I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti.”

After reading her book, which chronicles her romantic and culinary adventures, I felt as if I already knew Giulia. So I did what any reasonable person would do. I stalked her on Facebook. Giulia was nice enough to reply to my message and to accept my dinner invitation. We had a wonderful meal at Fonda , the upscale Mexican place on 7th Avenue (between 14th and 15th). Since our first date was a success (the delicious margaritas didn’t hurt), I was so bold as to suggest a 2nd rendezvous. Last Thursday night, we had dinner at Provini, the newish Northern Italian Trattoria on 13th Street and 8th Avenue.

It felt a bit like a private party since I knew almost everyone in the cozy restaurant. In addition to the fellow P.S. 107 parents who congregated by the bar after the PTA meeting, one of my neighbors was celebrating her 40th birthday with a group of friends in the corner booth.

I introduced Giulia to everyone as “my new author friend who I met on Facebook.” As I gushed about her terrific book, Giulia kindly offered to go to her car and get some copies. The birthday girl was thrilled when Giulia returned and signed a copy of the book for her. Giulia and I enjoyed our prosecco along with a selection of appetizers, including grilled calamari and Malfatti. A perfect Brooklyn evening.

As someone who has thrown countless dinner parties, Giulia is just the person to give me advice. So I grilled her with questions:

Continue reading Undomesticated Brooklyn: Interview with Giulia Melucci →