It's never too early to think about what your kids are doing this summer.

Now's the time to sign up for Piper Theatre Workshop at the Old Stone House for students entering 3rd through 10th grades.

This July at OSH & MS 51
Theater, Art & Film!
Performances Outdoors in Washington Park/JJ Byrne Playground
Call OSH for more information, (718) 768-3195

Here's a note from Michael Winks, one of the 2008 Park Slope 100, about the upcoming ethanol coop meeting:

This will be an ongoing column from Barry Weinbrom, an environmental educator, interested in helping others become aware of the
importance of promoting conservation and sustainability in their
everyday lives:

I thought  OTBKB
would be a great way  for Brooklyn to splash into the The Yes We Can
Save Water Research Project and start saving water one drop at a time.

Please
email me at baw441(at)aol(dot)com to get the data sheets and instructions for Yes We Can Save WATER and start making a difference in our world today.

I will be introducing Beth Harpaz at her reading on Feb 5 at 7:30 at Barnes and Noble on Seventh Avenue and 6th Street in Park Slope (down in the basement). It should be a fun reading for her new book, 13 is the New 18, which is essential reading for the parents of teens.

This event is a fund raiser for Beacon High School. That's the it-school of the moment for loads of kids in Park Slope. Participating in this event will not help your kid's chances of getting in there so don't even try (that's an attempt at high school admissions humor).

But come anyway. Please mention “Book
Fair” at the cash register and the school will get a percentage of the
yield on any book you buy ANY TIME that day or night, not just “13 Is
the New 18.”

Beth Harpaz figures there’ll be no Generation Gap when her kids become
teenagers. After all, she grew up in the ’60s and ’70s. She’s seen
everything!

But when her son has a bar mitzvah and turns 13, suddenly
her life goes from hosting pizza parties for 12-year-olds to monitoring
the MySpace page where he claims he’s 22 (even though his photo shows
him standing next to Bugs Bunny at Six Flags).

She joins Facebook to
spy on him, but he refuses to friend her. (No matter, she finds
hundreds of friends of her own and ends up addicted to it.) She
remembers being teased about her “highwater” pants as a kid, but she
just can’t accept her son’s argument that without $100 sneakers, he
might be bullied for having uncool shoes.

As she tries to decipher
lyrics to rap songs and text messages with mysterious codes like NM JC,
she starts wondering if she’s failed as a mother, or if all of this is
just a normal part of growing up in the 21st century.

When she finds
some scary secrets in her son’s room and starts getting calls from
school about his behavior, she’s afraid to ask the Perfect Mommies she
knows for advice, so she turns to a variety of unconventional sources:
the Sopranos, Erma Bombeck, and most of all, Google, her guru and
oracle. By the time her son turns 14, he’s grown out of a lot of the
things that worried her – and she’s learned a lot about raising
teenagers.

Finally. Finally. Finally. OTBKB has an advertising director and she is ready to meet with you online or face-to-face to talk about your advertising needs.  Her name is Mary Macrae Warren and she's ready to connect you to OTBKB's large readership!

With
3000-5000 unique page views daily, OTBKB has a committed and well-connected readership not only in Park Slope but
city-wide. Thanks to all of you, the  readership is educated, stylish, well-informed and interesting.

A presence on this site — with a clich-through link to your website, means positive exposure to the people you'd like to know about you.

For samples, rates and sizes for placement on OTBKB, please call Mary at 917-687-4201 or email her at: marymacraewarren(at)yahoo(dot)com.

.

OSFO,
A tween not caught in a fog,

Has lots of gripes & snipes

And deserves her very own blog.

A place to set things straight,

Unburden her teeming heart,

A space that could be called

Appropriately– Kidsmart.

Dumb editor should give OSFO a column. Here she takes issue with this week's Smartmom. on the Brooklyn Paper comment section:

Last week, Smartmom tried to wean herself from writing about her children — but it was just hopeless.

I mean, how do you stop fixating on the people with whom you share a rather cramped Park Slope apartment?

For one thing, they leave their clothing like a Hansel and Gretel trail from the front door to the bathroom to their bedrooms.

Smartmom is so sick of tripping over the Oh So Feisty One’s Uggs,
her silver Pro-Keds, and her black rubber boots in the hallway that
she’s thinking of leaving them on the street with a “Free Stuff” sign
when she’s away at school.

She knows she should write about the weightier issues on her “To Do”
list like the local group, Parents Against Climate Change, or whether
kids should wear helmets while sledding.

After all, when The Brooklyn Paper wrote a story
about Smartmom’s “To write or not to write” dilemma, almost two dozen
people wrote in (mostly telling Smartmom to stop writing about her
kids!).

She’d love to “move on,” as RK from Park Slope suggested, but
Smartmom gets creatively mugged when she sees what the kitchen looks
like after Teen Spirit makes an elaborate sandwich.

Look, she’s happy he didn’t ask her to make him “a little midnight
snack,” but couldn’t the kid learn to put away the Applewood Monterey
Jack cheese and the Trader Joe’s Not Mayonnaise?

Or how about Sunday night, when OSFO was making a photo album for
her Facebook page and she turned the apartment upside down looking for
her bright pink wig, kooky sunglasses and a pocketbook so she could do
a photo essay posing as Hannah Montana’s fictional cousin?

Sure, that OSFO is one heck of a comedienne — and those pictures are a stitch — but it’s really distracting.

After OSFO went to bed, Smartmom sat down at her computer fully
intending to write about something, anything, but her children when
Teen Spirit came home from who knows where.

No doubt she was miffed when he had no explanation for his lateness.
But it was the clip, clop, clip, clop of the black boots he bought at a
thrift shop on the hardwood hallway floor that drove her to
distraction.

Ah, inspiration! She began typing an ode to the annoying sounds
one’s teenager makes. But then she remembered the gag order and she
deleted all the words that had anything to do with Teen Spirit’s black
boots. Instead, she stared at a blank page on her trusty computer.

Nothing.

Nothing.

More nothing.

There was a Zen-like purity to the whiteness of the screen.

It made Smartmom feel calm, miles away from the chaos of her Third
Street apartment. Staring into that white screen, Smartmom felt like
she could reinvent herself. She could reinvent her children. She could
even reinvent her husband.

Why, her kids could be fictional characters with names like Phoebe
and Jasper. Hepcat could be a millionaire inventor named Zebulon and
they could all live in a huge house in Marin County, where Smartmom’s
writing room would have views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Mount
Tamalpais.

There would be no clothing in the hallway, no clutter on the dining
room table, and no makeshift wall separating Hepcat’s workspace from
the living room.

They’d have no money troubles and no arguments with Teen Spirit, aka, Jasper, about homework and college.

OSFO, aka Phoebe, would have as much space as she needed for her
imaginative art projects and clothing. And Jasper, would have his own
out-of-the-way wing of the house with a recording studio.

In Smartmom’s fictionalized world, Jasper would have rubber soles on his boots.

And Smartmom could have different name, too (and maybe a more
attractive illustration next to her byline). She would be 15 pounds
thinner and 10 years younger. She’d be a critically acclaimed — and
best-selling novelist — with two, maybe three, movie deals in the
works.

These characters would have to have all-new back stories, too. No turquoise turmoil, agita about a gap year, blues about leaving PS 321, angst about turning 50, ugly red chairs and trips to Babeland.

Smartmom liked the idea of creating a new life: a new self. New
kids. A new husband — and this one wouldn’t need to save every issue of
Wired Magazine since its inception in 1993.

But it made her feel sad, too.

Smartmom’s eyes fell on her messy desk, the El Pico coffee can full
of sharpened pencils, and the web of wires on the floor.

Fiction is one thing. But it’s the trials and tribulations of her
life as a parent in Brooklyn that she gets paid the big bucks for.

Sure, she could just make it all up. But what fun would that be?

Mayor Bloomberg's new city budget proposal includes cuts that will negatively affect life in our communities. Politicians and citizens around Brooklyn are responding. I got this statement from Council Member Bill de Blasio, who is running for public advocate.

"Times are tough and now more than ever we need to establish our
priorities.  Pulling cops off the street, removing firefighters from
stations and taking thousands of teachers out of the classroom will
take us backward, not forward.  These cuts will have far reaching
effects on our communities and could severely undermine the safety of
our citizens and the future of our children.  In the months ahead, I
will organize New Yorkers and fight to make sure their priorities are
heard."

I think Henry Lowengard deserves to be an occasional column on OTBKB. No Words Daily Lowengard? Postcard from Henry Lowengard? Smartlowengard?

He's just such an interesting guy. He told me about this show on radio station WFMU: 51 Versions of the Inaugural Poem Remix. There's one by Henry on there. Listen.

Complaints are piling up about lawyers/ billable hours.  –news item.

                       Clockster

If forced by Recession to give up his billable,

Which enables the lawyer to have his fillable,

He can always retain a by-the-hour fee

By punching a time clock in a
factory.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Cupid's Arrow: Writers on Love curated by Marian Fontana. Another on eof the great themed readings at Brooklyn Reading Works curated by interesting writers.

Marian  Fontana, author of The Widow's Walk; A Memoir of 9/11 and the upcoming from Simon and Schuster,  The Middle of the Bed, has gathered together some wonderful writers, including  Elissa Schappell author of Use Me and the upcoming Blueprints for Better Girls; Novelist, poet and editor of Teachers and Writers Collaborative magazine, Susan Karwoska; and Poets Ellen Ferguson and Ira Goldstein and memoirist, Mila Drumke. Marian will be reading an excerpt from her upcoming book.

It should, as always, be a great night. These themed group readings are fascinating as you see the subject matter shift, the approach, and the language shift from author to author.

Alison, the owner of Paper Love, the new card and stationery shop on Lincoln Place, is thinking of selling letter press Valentine's cards at the show. She happens to be a fiction writer and was very excited to be part of this event.

The Where and When:

February 12th at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets (in Washington Park)
A $5 suggested donation includes light refreshments and wine.
There will probably be candy hearts and chocolate as well.

I just heard a story on WNYC about Marine Lance Cpl. Julian T. Brennan, 25, who  when a roadside bomb exploded during a combat operation in Afghanistan.

If the war in Afghanistan seems far away, it's not. The family moved to Park Slope in 2003. They learned of their son's death when Marine officials showed up at their Park Slope door. Just like in the movies.

His parents also learned that he'd secretly married his girlfriend, Bettina Beard-Brennan, before he went to Afghanistan, so that if he should die, she would receive widow's benefits. A very loving gesture.

Julian, a handsome Brooklyn youth, was a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and an employee of the Martha Stewart show. As reported by Tom Witt on Your  Nabe, Julian, a singer/songwriterm often played at the open mic at Bar
47, 444 7th Avenue,

But it was his grandfather, James Brennan, a Marine who fought in Iwo Jima, who was Julian's hero. And he was the reason Julian wanted to become a marine.

Like many Park Slopers, Julian voted for Barack Obama and called his parents on Inauguration Day from Afghanistan. Here is the announcement that arrived in my inbox from Marty Markowitz:


“Brooklyn extends its deepest condolences to
the family, friends and fellow Marines of Lance Cpl. Julian T. Brennan,
who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation while serving in
Afghanistan. We grieve with
Lance Cpl. Brennan’s loved ones and hope they will be comforted by the
prayers and thoughts of millions of Brooklynites, New Yorkers and
Americans grateful for his valiant service.”

Survivors include
Julian Brennan’s wife, Bettina Beard-Brennan, his father Billy Brennan,
mother Thya Merz, a brother James, and sister Shannon.

Julian will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia next to his grandfather.

Speaking of windows (see story about Urban Alchemist below), there’s an Obama tree in the window of Lion in the Sun on Seventh Avenue at 4th Street in Park Slope and an invitation to write a letter to President Obama.

I haven’t gone in yet. I’m not sure if they’re sponsoring an event of if it’s an ongoing idea. I plan on going in and finding out.

Anyone know?

By the way, the shop is carrying Brenda Becker’s “A Year in the Park” calendar for 2009.

We are exclusively carrying the lovely, full-color “Prospect: A Year in the Park” calendar featuring 12 months of lush and evocative images from Brenda Becker’s adventures in Prospect Park as featured on her blog ayearinthepark.typepad.com.

I noticed hand written notes on the window of Urban Alchemist, the charming jewelry and craft cooperative on Fifth Street just east of Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, and made a mental note to go back and find out more.

Alas, I didn't make it back in time. And now I see that the Brooklyn Paper has the story.  Turns out that the store is inviting customers and passerbys to put their secrets on the window. And guess what? The Daily Intel ran the story, too with a link back to BP.

50 hand-written mysteries adorn the front window. Some are
innocuous (“I still sleep with my teddy bear” or “My resume is a
sham”), some are scandalous (“I once had sex with my teacher for an A
on a test”), some are just embarrassing (“I have a crush on Joey
Fatone”).

Others are just plain horrifying (“I voted for McCain”).

“The idea is to let people reveal their secret,” said co-owner
Rebecca Shepherd. “You have no idea how much better you feel when you
let it out, even anonymously.”

Shepherd said her favorite was the secret of the lowly worker at a
Soho gallery who felt so put upon by his bosses that when they went on
vacation, he urinated in their Snapple bottles and then watched in glee
when the bosses drank from them days later.

“It’s so delightfully devious and awful,” she said.

Get Fresh, the restaurant, take-out, cafe on Fifth Avenue between 5th and 6th  Street, has a new identity, which is a good thing because I don't think the first concept, a place to buy ready-to-cook organic ingredients to make at home was working for them.

And they've devised a way to help parents relax
and to celebrate Valentine’s Day, too. The idea is this: provide food in a romantic setting for the parents, and arts and crafts activities for the kids. They're doing it for brunch and early supper on Valentine's Day.

The restaurant is offering two
ways for parents to enjoy elegant dinners — in the restaurant with
“Hearts and Crafts,” a special event featuring activities designed to
entertain the children while parents enjoy their meals; and at home,
with a special take-home dinner that’s perfect for new parents!  
 

I am just now beginning to pay attention to the city council race. The primary is nine months away and the campaigns of an excellent group of candidates for Bill deBlasio's seat are beginning to heat up.

Thursday night, Hepcat and I attended Craig Hammerman's roll-out party at Magnolia, a cozy restaurant and bar on Sixth Avenue and 12th Street. It was billed as a Meet- the-Candidate event and it was a good chance to meet Hammerman supporters and those who were just taking a look/see.

Heck, the smart guy that works at the Community Bookstore was manning the door.

There was a pay-as-you-drink-bar and free shish kebobs, pizza, chicken wings and stuffed mushrooms that were tasty. Full discolure: I had one kebob and a stuffed mushroom.

At the friendly, small gathering on an icy cold winter night, Hepcat and I had the opportunity to grill Craig on the path that led him to city politics.

Craig has been District Manager of Community Board 6 for the last 19 years. Before that he was born in Brooklyn in 1965, attended Midwood High School and studied chemical engineering and history at Rutgers University. After college he taught high school science in Brooklyn. He told us that he was hired to teach biology at one school even though he hadn't studied biology since high school. Fortunately, his father, a professor of life science at Long Island University, was able to help keep Craig a  week or two ahead of the students.

He also worked for a small manufacturing firm, a valuable experience that convinced him that he was meant to work for the public good.

In 2001 Craig ran against Bill deBlasio. Well, that race didn't turn out the way he wanted. But he's at it again with plans to pound the pavements, ring the doorbells and meet the citizens one-on-one in his district which includes a large swath of Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Kensington.

I've gotten to know Craig a little bit of late because he shops at the Community Bookstore and we're often in there at the same time. Before Christmas he came in looking for a book to buy his mother or father for the holidays.

Catherine recommended The Economist Book of Obituaries because it's really a great collection of biographies of the famous and the unusual. It was an odd choice for elderly parents but Craig thought that once his parents got passed the title they'd really enjoy the book.

Later he told me that they did.

He was at the Community Bookstore on the night of Obama's inauguration and participated in the festive read-in  that was going on (Frederick Douglas, Thomas Jefferson) by reading excerpts from The Tempest. That's what I hear anyway.

A member of the Park Slope Track Club, Craig is an avid runner and has completed 7 marathons.

"I ran the Brooklyn Half," I told him proudly."

"Half-marathons are my favorite race," Craig told me.

So the guy knows how to run. But can he win?

Now don't take this for an endorsement. It's too early for that. And don't think I won't be running other stump speeches on this blog. It's just that I was there last night and was impressed with the words that Craig strung  together to get his message across.

"We're taking it back" is his campaign mantra. The phrase appears on his website, which is still being developed and is the 4-word refrain of much of his stump speech. So what is Craig taking back?

For the community activists who take time away from their family, their friends and their hobbies to get involved, people I’ve spent two decades of my life supporting, organizing, leading and admiring…we’re taking it back.

For the people who dare to speak out, whose views may be unpopular with the powers-that-be, who see things as they are and aren’t afraid to call the Emperor naked, who scare the establishment with their honesty and openness, you have my undying admiration for your commitment to the most basic democratic principles…we’re taking it back.

For the teachers and administrators entrusted with the education of our children, stuck between a community of frustrated and disempowered parents and students who care, and a centralized bureaucracy that never seems to care enough…we’re taking it back.

For our neighbors who want to enjoy an occasional visit to Prospect Park, bring their dog for an early morning run, picnic or barbeque with family and friends, bring their kids to little league or soccer, or perhaps even train for a marathon there, without fear or threat of being mugged or killed by a car…we’re taking it back.

For the pedestrians who would rather keep their gazes fixed upward taking in our beautiful brownstones, tree-lined streets and open sky, but instead must focus on the cracks in the sidewalk and the buzzing traffic in our congested streets…we’re taking it back.

For the butchers, the bakers, the candle-stick makers, and the restauranteurs, bookstore owners, and all the merchants we know by name – the people who make our shopping a pleasant experience with their street fairs, Christmas tree lightings, Halloween candy and Snow Flake festivals – things that Starbucks and Barnes & Noble would never do…we’re taking it back.

For the shoulders of giants we stand on today, the people who had dedicated an important piece of their life to building the communities we get to enjoy as their legacy – the Bob Acito’s, Ed Rogowsky’s, Peggy Buffalano’s, Stephen Foster’s, Anita DeMartini’s, Jackie Connor’s, Frank Verderame’s, Mary Allman’s, and Ernest Migliaccio’s…we’re taking it back.

For the average middle-class New Yorker, tired of seeing tax dollars wasted on projects, programs and policies that don’t work, aren’t needed, or can be done more efficiently and effectively, people who are worried about keeping their jobs, their home, and their lives in tact, people who are increasingly thinking that government must be part of the solution, not the problem itself – my friends and neighbors who despite their cynicism want something to believe in, are motivated to work for change, and have not given up…we’re taking it back.

We’re taking it back!

We’re taking back our community – building by building, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

We’re taking back our voice from those who have tried to silence us – the small-minded, scared politicians who fear what they do not understand and what they cannot control.

We’re taking back our government from the big-monied special interests who hijack public land for private use and create jobs for those with access instead of those with need.

We’re taking back our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness so that we can take care of each other and live in the kind of communities we get to design.

We’re taking it all back.

The pendulum is swinging.  Our new President cannot do it alone.  We must answer his call for communities to organize, mobilize, stand up and be counted.  This is our mission.  This is our campaign.  It starts right here and right now.

In 2010 we will have an incumbent City Council.  A City Council filled with third-term veterans who have been around for 8 years.  People who know how to get projects, programs and policies funded.  People who know how to activate City government.  People whom I’ve worked closely with – some I’ve even taught a thing or two.

This is no time to send an untested person to the City Council to represent our communities.  The situation demands an experienced person possessing not only an eagerness to do the right thing, but the knowledge and know-how to do it.  The situation demands strong, proven leadership.  The s
ituation demands that we put our energies into getting this message out there to every single one of our friends and neighbors.  They must know what is at stake here and it’s our job to inform them.  We have 9 months to get this done.

In 2008 we took back our nation.  In 2009, we’re taking back our community.  And together – we will!

What he does know how to do is write a good speech. I appreciated his words tonight and am glad to be able to post them here.

Just because I'm running Craig's speech doesn't mean I won't run your's if you're campaigning for City Council. Try me. I just might.

He knows how government works and believes that this community needs strong, experienced representation at a time when the City Council will be filled with veteran politicans.

A Man's Home is his Hassle

"No Chinese Menus" sign is gone,

No longer on the door, withdrawn,

And if you've been inside, you've seen

Pasted to the computer screen

A sign that spits out, like a curse:

"No More of That Constant Lighthead Verse!"

And it's worked, proof positive that when you

Speak out–it's goodbye Chinese menu.

More news from Paper Love, the little card, stationery, paper and MORE shop on Lincoln Place:  

Amelia Lukas, a fan of OTBKB, wrote in to tell me about a new performance venue in Bushwick. 
Cafe Orwell opened at 247 Varet St. one month ago. "We are dedicated to freedom, justice, equality, and coffee," she writes. 

Their goal is to provide Bushwick with a cultural center where locals can tap into cutting-edge art, literary and music scenes.  All events are free and begin at 7pm.

I was impressed with how much they've got going on already. And I love the name. 

Sunday Night Film Series: 
1st Sunday of the month - Documentaries
2nd Sunday - From Across the Pond
3rd Sunday - George's Picks
4th Sunday - The History of Cinema
The rare 5th Sunday - Pandering to the Masses

crowd (reading series): hosted by Douglas Piccinnini – 1st Saturday of each month
A community-based project to connect innovative artists, performers, and writers in the emerging creative hub of Bushwick, Brooklyn.www.crowdyourself.blogspot.com

Live Sound: hosted by Amelia Lukas – 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month
Concerts of contemporary and classical music featuring the city's most talented young performers.

New Sound: hosted by Nicholas DeMaison – 4th Saturday of each month
A new music forum where composers will present their work through recordings and live performance with the opportunity for questions and discussion. 

Open Mic: the 2nd Thursday of each month
All are welcome – the more original, the better!

Book Club: hosted by Taier Perlman – 3rd Thursday of each month
Please contact cafeorwell.bookclub@gmail.com for the book list.

FEBRUARY CALENDAR

Just got this missive from Eric Demby of the Brooklyn Flea. Just because it's the dead of winter don't think the Brooklyn Flea is closed. No, no, no. They seem to pop up everywhere.

ha
Once again the Brooklyn Based Tip Sheet arrives in the old inbox and we can all relax because BB has a host of suggestions for interesting things to do in the coming days. Phew.

This caught my eye right off the bat. The picture of handsome Sufjan Stevens, of course. Go to BB for more. Better yet, subscribe! Tell 'em I told you to do it.

• Sufjan Stevens has a brand new song so far heard only by his closest
  friends — and one lucky Brooklynite. Alec Duffy of the Hoi Polloi
  theater company was awarded exclusive rights to “The Lonely Man of
  Winter.” In an effort to combat the impersonal experience of
  internet-leaked tracks, Duffy is inviting fans to his home for a unique
  listening party, complete with tea and cookies. Three sessions (limited
  to four people) each Wednesday until Feburary 25. Email to reserve a spot, and bring your own headphones if you have good ones.

Helen Frank over at BAM just wrote in with this great news:

 
Many of you are probably starting to think about a Valentine's gift for your Valentine.

Well, I recommend simply gorgeous wearable minimalist art by my friend  Sheva Fruitman. Perfect for the Valentine in your life.

Shhhhhh. I happen to know that I am getting one of her rings from my Valentine. And I am very excited about that.

Actually he told me. Still. It's a surprise.

Check out her website. You can buy directly from the artist, who is located in NYC.

On Wednesday January 28th at 7:30 p.m. at Beth Elohim: What Parents and Students Really Need to Know: The College Admissions Process