The Brooklyn Paper has the story of the local historic preservationist who was almost decapitated by a guillotine of glass that fell from a decrepit building on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Second Street. She won a small victory in Small Claim’s Court against the tenements owner.

Read more at BP.

Brooklyn Reading Works Presents:
POETRY PUNCH, an intoxicating mix of language. With:

Lynn Chandhok
Zaedryn Meade
Marietta Abrams
Cheryl B.
Michele Somerville Madigan

The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street (it’s the house in JJ Byrne Park)
8 p.m.
Punch and light refreshments with the $5 donation.
718-288-4290
brooklynreadingworks.com
theoldstonehouse.org

Ed Levine of NY Eats says quite a few of the best pies in the NY area are in Brooklyn. Check out this great list.

Corner (formerly Yura), Upper East Side
Two Little Red Hens, Upper East Side [note: what about Lady Bird Bakery? in Bklyn]
Clinton Street Baking Company, Lower East Side
Community Kitchen and Juice, Upper West Side
Sweet Melissa’s, Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Trois Pommes Patisserie, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Soutine, Upper West Side
Little Pie Company, Hell’s Kitchen and Grand Central Station,
Sarabeth’s, Upper West and East Sides and in Chelsea Market
Duane Park Patisserie, Tribeca
Wimp’s, Harlem
Mitchel London’s, Fairway, Upper West Side, and the Upper East Side
Bubby’s, Tribeca and Dumbo
Baked, Red Hook (I had a killer piece of apple pie there recently)
Briermere Farms, Riverhead, Long Island
Round Swamp Farm, East Hampton, Long Islan

This from New York 1:

When New Yorkers think of Coney Island, they think of the summer – the
beach, the boardwalk, the rides – but now the city has plans to attract
visitors to the area during the winter too.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a sneak peak of the city’s plans for
re-developing Coney Island last week, and now it has been confirmed
that those plans include a 40,000 square foot skating rink that would
be bigger than Wollman Rink in Central Park.

The rink would be built at the base of the Wonder Wheel and will be converted into a sailing pond in the summer.

Don’t miss the tail end of the Station-Wide, Multi-Platform, Full Body Immersion into the Berlin Philharmonic and Its Extraordinary City

Friday, November 2 to Wednesday, November 14, 2007

WNYC salutes Berlin’s re-emergence with "Berlin Without Walls," an unprecedented 13-day multi-media festival celebrating the culture and music scene of this city. "Berlin Without Walls" complements Carnegie Hall’s "Berlin in Lights," an ambitious international festival built around the Berlin Philharmonic’s 17-day residency in New York, with Sir Simon Rattle conducting.

Schedule: A complete schedule of Berlin Without Walls on air programming
Soundcheck on Site: Berlin Blog: Follow Soundcheck in Berlin in a daily blog that gives a behind-the-scenes peek at their musical and cultural adventures.

"Berlin Without Walls" is made possible, in part, by the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This program is also supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Siobhan Sheils writes in an editorial in the Daily News (Be Our Guest) that it’s smart for upscale nabes like Park Slope to think about charter school. Let the discussion begin. Here’s an excerpt.

Leafy Park Slope, Brooklyn, full of strollers, dogs and pricey
stores, is the kind of place where you’d expect to find quality public
schools. So it might surprise you to learn that kids in District 15,
which includes Park Slope and surrounding neighborhoods, might be
better served by schools in places like the South Bronx or Harlem.

Both
of those neighborhoods feature charter schools that outperformed the
vast majority of schools in District 15 during the 2005-2006 year. KIPP
Academy in the Bronx outscored 13 of the 14 middle schools in District
15. In math, Harlem Village Academy also outperformed all but one of
those schools. Ten District 15 schools had passing rates that were far
below 50% in both subjects.

Families in Park Slope out-earn
those in the South Bronx and Harlem by more than 50%. So why don’t the
kids out-learn, or at least keep pace with, their counterparts who
attend quality charter schools in low-income neighborhoods?

That,
perhaps, is what Dan Rubenstein and Luyen Chou wanted to know – and may
explain why the two educators wrote a proposal to start Brooklyn
Prospect Charter School, which they hope to open in fall 2009.

This from the New York Daily News:

One of the city’s most coveted high schools initially earned a C
under the Education Department’s new grading system but was able to
prove that it really deserved a B, said Randy Asher, the principal of
Brooklyn Technical High School.

Even after boosting its grade,
the B still gives Brooklyn Tech the poorest showing so far among nine
top schools where students need high grades or scores to enroll.

Seven
other prestigious schools got A’s. An eighth, Bard High School for
Early College in Long Island City [note: it’s on East Houston Street in Manhatta, actually] is still under review.

Brooklyn
Tech was one of 23 whose grades were still "under review" last week
when Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein released the
grades.

The problem, Asher said, were students whose August
graduations weren’t submitted in time to be counted toward the school’s
graduation rate – a major factor in high school grades…

BROOKLYN READING WORKS PRESENTS:

POETRY PUNCH: a delicious mix of language

With Poets Lynn Chandhok, Cheryl B, Zaedryn Meade, Marietta Abrams, and
Michele Madigan Somerville

Thursday November 15, at 8 p.m. A
The Old Stone House
Third Street and Fifth Avenue
(it’s the stone house in JJ Byrne Park)
PUNCH AND REFRESHMENTS ARE FREE
with the $5 Donation.

INFO: Louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com
Brooklynreadingworks.com
Theoldstonehouse.org

Here is a poem by Lynn Chandhok, who will be participating in Brooklyn Reading Works‘ Poetry Punch at the Old Stone House on Thursday, November 15 at 8 p.m.

Her first book, The View from Zero Bridge, won the 2006 Philip Levine Prize and was published by Anhinga Press in October 2007.

Lynn’s poetry has appeared widely in journals including The New Republic, Tin House, The Antioch Review, The Hudson Review, The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, and Sewanee Theological Review.  2007.

Order of Magnitude
Brooklyn, 2000

Out too late, on the avenue, I imagine—
or hope for—stars arched over earth like flowers
on darkened branches; satellites that fall
like messengers of old catastrophes;
bright red planets. Any of these would do.
But here, midnight is never broad or black,
the rooflines halve Orion, and the moon
in halo backlights aging cornices.

Once, I climbed switchback paths till trees gave way
to glaciers melting into lakes they fed,
resurfacing as islands, mirror on mirror,
like ice clouds skipping off a soundless sky.
There, nights were brilliant. God seemed plausible.
The cliffs might block the view, the valleys narrow,
but at a turn, it all turned to expanse.
That day, I found myself surrounded, cupped
inside a glacial cradle, while the clouds
unrolled like bolts of quilter’s batting, fell
and hid the sky. I sat alone and cold,
a single goatherd’s bell in hollow choir,
and waited.
            Now, walking the avenue,
I know the clouds will lift. I know this too:
Orion cartwheels, vanishing in spring.
And still I find myself imagining
that city lights might falter, or just dim
one night, till constellations in their full
dimension brighten, as in heaven’s view.
That sky might hail some new catastrophe.
At least I’d comprehend its magnitude.

For the rest of this review, you’ll have to go to Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn. I am dying to see the movie and enjoyed BB’s review very much.

You might expect that the prospects of seeing the first dramatic film
on Bob Dylan might lead to nothing less than 99% aniticipation. And so
it was, when the lights went down at the screening of I’m Not There by
Todd Haynes , the audience excitment and anticipation was palpable. But
the film itself is not Ray or The Cole Porter Story or Walk the Line.
As much as fans would hope for something that would help unravel, or at
least prepare a Unified Field Theory of Bob Dylan, one must remember
that even his own two films, the 7os release, Renaldo & Clara, and
Masked & Anonymous which he co-wrote with its director, Larry
Charles, (who also directed Borat), merited "Turkey", "Bomb" or zero
stars in the leading film review texts.

Here’s Smartmom from this week’s Brooklyn Paper:

Smartmom’s 84-year-old Uncle Jay died last week and she couldn’t decide whether to take Teen Spirit and the Oh So Feisty One to the funeral.

While he wasn’t a daily part of their lives, they did see Uncle Jay every year at Thanksgiving and at other important family events like weddings and bat-mitzvahs.

A real kid magnet, Uncle Jay was a lovable guy who liked to sing, make pictures and tell stories.

OSFO would probably remember what a good artist he was. He loved to entertain his young relatives by drawing Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters.

And Teen Spirit would probably remember Jay’s stories about his cousin, jazz drummer Buddy Rich.

When she told Teen Spirit that Uncle Jay had died, he seemed very sad. But when she asked if he wanted to go to the funeral, he looked pained.

“I hate funerals,” he told her.

But as far as Smartmom could remember, he’d never been to one.

“I went to Uncle John’s,” he said.

Fact is, Teen Spirit didn’t actually attend the memorial for Hepcat’s Uncle John. But he probably heard so much about it that he thought he had been there.

Teen Spirit, like many people, probably just hates the idea of funerals and what they represent. Death. Loss. Grief.

What’s to like, really?

Smartmom gave the matter a good deal of thought and decided there was no need to force Teen Spirit or OSFO to go to her uncle’s funeral.

So, on what turned out to be the Mexican Day of the Dead, Smartmom and Hepcat went to the funeral of her Uncle Jay without their children.

Smartmom felt a little funny about it. She even felt a little guilty (what a surprise). Was it disrespectful not to bring them? For that matter, was she depriving them of an important life experience?

That was a good question. Smartmom went to a cousin’s funeral when she was about 10 and she never felt more awkward in her life.

Smartmom was terrified of death and didn’t know how she was supposed to behave. Needless to say, no one explained anything. She just sat through the funeral and felt plenty weird.

For years after, she was afraid of funerals. It wasn’t until her late-20s that she felt a little more relaxed.

Last Friday afternoon, a large crowd gathered for Uncle Jay’s funeral at a Westchester synagogue, where two rabbis and five family members spoke eloquently about this exceptional, larger-than-life man. He was alternately described as a movie star, a superhero, and a mensch.

Smartmom knew that her kids would probably get antsy listening to so much talk just like she had gotten antsy at her cousin’s funeral all those years ago. But she did wish that they could hear the beautiful — and funny — words her cousins had written about their father. It would probably surprise Teen Spirit and OSFO that there was so much humor at a funeral.

That would have been a good life lesson.

She wished that Teen Spirit and OSFO could have heard all the biographical details of her Uncle’s life. A leader in every sense of the word, he was a born athlete, a great storyteller, a World War II veteran,   boss, organizer for causes he believed in, loving father and grandfather, and a devoted husband to his high school sweetheart, Smartmom’s Aunt Rhoda.

Did Teen Spirit and OSFO know that their aunt and uncle attended Madison High School, where Jay (Class of 1940) distinguished himself in the arts and wore number 71 on the football team? Later, he went to Brown University and became a football star.

Smartmom sat childless in Diaper Diva’s green Jetta as they solemnly followed the hearse and a line of limousines to the cemetery, where her maternal grandparents are also buried.

She was relieved that her children didn’t have to endure the burial.

Death, of course, is a fact of life. And it’s not something to be ignored by or hidden from children. But, yes, OSFO would have been troubled by the sight of Uncle Jay’s huge coffin being lowered into the ground.

She knew that OSFO would probably have way too many questions — “Can he breathe under all that dirt?” “Isn’t it cold down there?” “Isn’t it dark?”

Each mourner placed a purple tulip in the grave. There was a chill in the air. Smartmom looked down at the large, pine casket and lingered for a moment of unthinkable thoughts. Sad. Scared. Where are we going?

Next came the thinkable thoughts: Had she made a big mistake by shielding her kids from the reality of death. Or was she doing them a favor?

Smartmom wondered that if by excusing them from the funeral, it would actually make them more afraid of death and the rituals that surround it.

Later, at the shiva at Aunt Rhoda’s, the conversations were rich, vibrant, full of life. “What are you doing?” “Where do you live now?” “Your children, what do they do?”

The voices were loud. There was laughter. Stories. Memories shared.

There was wine and good food. Rugelach, cheesecake, cookies, dried fruit. Friends and family caught up with each other.

When Smartmom was a child, she was surprised and even embarrassed that people were so festive after a funeral. Teen Spirit and OSFO might feel that way, too.

But that would be a good lesson, too.

Death is as much a part of life as a birthday party. It’s no different, really.

A ritual to commemorate the passage of time.

On the way home from Westchester, Smartmom decided: Next funeral, Teen Spirit and OSFO are coming. It’s a part of life just like everything else.

Another missive from our pal, Pete.

THIS FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TODAY: "The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia."

Latvia?! Shocking? Yes. Shocking. But why is this so, and more importantly, why do we deny it?

I have been writing from a number of different perspectives on the egotistical attitudes overlaying the insidious inadequacies of parenting in the United States. We chronically and tragically do too much of the things children don’t really need, and not enough of what would really benefit them. Yet, our hubris is off the scale. In the worst traditions of American consumerism, we act as if spending the most of any industrialized nation on cool strollers and hip clothes for kids, along with private schooling, nannies and viola lessons, makes us competent parents. Meanwhile we simultaneously remain ambivalent about fully embracing universal health care and alternative – i.e. – preventative – healing practices for our childrens’ physical and  emotional well-being.

Furthermore, we absolutely refuse, with a fervor that can only serve to confirm the resistance, to look at the ways in which we use our children for vicarious purposes, seeking to prop up our own fragile self-esteems and personal deficits. I have "listened to" numerous angry tirades on this blog when I suggest that parents should re-examine their reasons for not having fulfilled adulthoods (i.e. –  vibrant sex lives and gratifying careers), because they have kids. The negative reactions have totally outweighed the positive reactions to my suggestions that having children past infancy sleep in bed with parents is not good for the kids, and of course, parents have really clammed-up when I’ve challenged them with evidence of the dramatic harm done to kids by labeling them with bogus diagnoses like "ADHD" and giving them drugs as a solution rather than – again – re-examining parenting (and its derivative – teaching).

Last night, I was at a dinner party with a group of parents bemoaning the sullenness towards the parents of their children after they became adolescents. "Doesn’t it basically come down to genes?" was the hopeful cry of many of the guilty-but-not-that-guilty parents, trying desperately to let themselves off the hook. "No, it doesn’t." was my not-too-well-received answer. Genes are merely switches inside of us, of which we have many. It takes chronic assaults, often subtle to the untrained or disinclined eye, to turn on a gene for mental illness, or physical diseases, for that matter. While children are not at all born as "blank slates," the "nature-versus-nurture" debate will only be resoved when we realize that it is both.

What has any of this got to do with our unconscionable infant mortality rate? Everything, because as long as we let doctors, pharmocologists and politicians tell us what we want to hear, instead of learning what need to know to help our children, and challenging ourselves in the ways that make us most uncomfortable, our children will suffer.

Disagree? Blog me at: http://fullpermissionliving.blogspot.com

Tonight at Rocky’s Readings at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook:

HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG
The Secret Language of the Crossroads
by Daniel Cassidy
INTRODUCED BY Michael Patrick MacDonald
Special musical guest: Chris Byrne

"A thrilling read… this is a page-turner."
                     Frank McNally, Irish Times

" This book is truly amazing!"
                     Eamonn McCann, Belfast Telegraph

In a fast-paced spiel (speal, cutting, sharp speech) of monologues,
stories, and songs, the Brooklyn-born writer and musician Daniel
Cassidy slices through 100 years  of Anglo-academic baloney (beal
onna, foolish blather) which claims that the Irish have had no
influence on the American language.

This is no linguistic scam (‘s cam, is a trick, a deception, a
fraud), Cassidy’s jazzy (teasai, pron. jasi, hot, exciting) new book
proves that  the Irish language is a hidden strand of the lingo we all
speak today.  Ain’t dat swell (sóúil, grand)?

Brooklyn-born writer and musician Daniel Cassidy reads, performs, and
belts out a song or two from his swell  snazzy new book, How the Irish
Invented Slang: the Secret Language of the Crossroads, at Rocky’s in
Red Hook, where the old Irish slang was born!

Also this week at Rocky’s:

Every Saturday night, 9 p.m.
Seanchaí and The Unity Squad

Every Wednesday, 9pm
Soul Night with SUGARTIME

Every Thursday, 8:30pm
Pub Quiz with Scott M.X. Turnerr

Saturday & Sunday afternoons
Katie’s Brunch served

Rocky Sullivan’s of Red Hook
34 Van Dyke St
Brooklyn
718-246-1793

Here’s the latest from CLEVER DOC. Today she’s wondering if you’re eating right. CLEVER DOC is Dr. Linda Hawes Clever, founder of Renew and an internist who specializes in occupational medicine is one smart lady. This is the 6th of 10 questions she asks as a way to help you re-think your life style and find meaning and vitality in your life. Here are the first five if you missed them:

Do you Laugh Enough?
Are You Still Learning?
How Angry Are You?
Do You Feel Trapped?
Do You Talk to People?

Meals mean more than food.

Eating a reasonable breakfast, for example, tends to decrease our total calories for the day. That is why, strangely, a breakfast banana and bagel (hold the cream cheese) can help us lose weight.

A bag lunch discussion in kindergartens established some practical guideposts. The kids agreed that it was okay to share lunches or exchange lunches but it was not okay to steal lunches. They used mealtime to define real time ethics.

Time was when families gathered and settled in for dinner. Now, well, the table is more like an aircraft carrier with landings and take offs as the family hovers, touches down, scoops up and heads out — maybe checking in with flight control or glancing at TV on the way.

That means trouble because eating together develops a sense of belonging. We transmit news, stories, and values. Studies of teenagers show that frequent family mealtimes are associated with a lower rate of drug use, depression and eating disorders.

Knowing this, one working single mom I know takes her daughter out to dinner four nights a week. They choose a restaurant, pick healthy meals and sashay out, chore free. The mom has no retirement savings but believes her investment in her daughter is more important.

Question #6 spotlights a sensitive time of day. Be honest when you answer.

6.  How many sit-down dinners did you have with your family or friends in the past week?

0 (0 points)
1 – 2 (1 point)
3 – 4 (2 points)
5 – 6 (3 points)
6 + (4 points)

Community leaders, local businesses and non-profits in Park Slope are launching a Buy in Brooklyn shop local campaign to help support small businesses and the local economy. The kick-off event, geared towards local merchants, is taking place Tuesday, November 13th at the Community Bookstore on Park Slope’s 7th Avenue from 8:00pm-9:30pm. Here’s the PRESS RELEASE.

   

(Brooklyn, NY)  "We take community stewardship seriously, and want to support local entrepreneurs in the face of increasing displacement of locally owned businesses" says Ken Freeman, President of the Park Slope Civic Council whose Buy in Brooklyn shop local message began the campaign.  “The character of our neighborhood depends on a diverse mix of businesses.”

He is not alone. City-wide concern around the closing and displacement of small businesses has reached a tipping point. Neighbors across all five boroughs look on with increasing alarm as the doors of some of their favorite local businesses close, only to be replaced by the relative anonymity of chain stores and banks.

Launch organizer and Community Bookstore owner Catherine Bohne likens the context to "penguins on the edge of an ice flow."  "People are beginning to voice their concern and jump in," she says, "but here in Park Slope— with the generous support from the Park Slope Civic Council—we’ve been given the means to tap into local concern and pull together a critical mass of partners."

Co-organizer Rebeccah Welch agrees. "This launch has served as a lightening rod for local action," said Welch, adding "the issue resonates deeply in the community and the response has been heartening. There’s a groundswell of energy, a primed coalition of merchants, non-profits and activists who are eager to jump in and try to do something."

Part of the motor behind the shop local campaign is its heart and its neighborliness. "Many of our local merchants are our neighbors and friends—a salient part of the community," argues Melinda Morris, co-organizer and owner of Lion in the Sun.  "Local businesses give back to the neighborhood in myriad of ways, far beyond providing goods and services."

But what also makes this movement unique are its expansive goals—to build a coalition of local business owners, non-profits and concerned residents to continue to support small local business and the character of the community through action, events and education.

National research has shown that local businesses are a major source of jobs, innovation, and insight—and Buy in Brooklyn takes its broader campaign message seriously, working with organizations like the Sustainable Business Alliance, NYC (SBANYC) whose principal mission lies in educating the community about the benefits of local, green and sustainable economies.

"Shopping locally is simply good for the economy and overall health of the neighborhood," concurs Freeman. "Every dollar spent locally circulates 3 times in our local economy – it strengthens the entire economy of the neighborhood."

Organizers expect local politicians, merchants, and non-profits to come together and tackle this issue in the wake of the launch. [Stay tuned for the results.] Organizers have already set a date for shop local day on December 13th, sponsored by Seventh Avenue of Chamber Commerce. "We really want to show how shopping locally is easy and helpful," says Bohne, adding "a healthy community is one of the best insurances for the well being of its individual members."

Don’t miss the Klezmatics tonight at 7 p.m.

A Benefit Concert for
DDDB’s Legal Fund
Featuring the Grammy- winning world music of…
The Klezmatics

w/ special guests:
Kakande
Demolition String Band

Live at
the Brooklyn Lyceum
Fourth Avenue at Union Street
Thurs, November 8th

A 

Here’s the latest from CLEVER DOC, who wonders if you are stressed out and juggling too many balls in the air? Are you
looking for a sense of calm? Do you feel like you need to tap into deep
sources of energy, motivation, and talent? If you missed them: Here are the first four questions:

Do you Laugh Enough?
Are You Still Learning?
How Angry Are You?
Do You Feel Trapped?

Today she wants to talk about conversation…

THE WORD “conversation” has two Latin roots: “con” meaning “with”–as in “consensus”–and “versus” meaning “turn”—as in “reverse.”

When we enter into a conversation it means that we are willing to “turn with” someone else. We are willing to listen, to learn, to expand. Ideas and facts  come to the surface and sparkle and push. A conversation doesn’t just rearrange the furniture, it adds pieces. A conversation rarely fixes anything all by  itself, but it can start us on a new road to fixing, for example, a friendship or a neighborhood pot hole.

Over the years, RENEW has convened Conversation Groups© to tap into reservoirs of wisdom and to build communities. Guidelines are few. They include commitments to confidentiality, attendance, and honesty.  

Each group of 6 – 10 chooses its own topics: “Are we living our values?”; “What is success?”; “Barriers and boosters to change”;

“Making prayer or meditation part of a busy day.”  Some Conversation Groups have met about every two months for years because conversations can be life-changers and life-sustainers.

Without further ado, here is QUESTION NUMBER 5:

How often do you typically have conversations with people outside of your profession?

2 – 4 times a week (4 points)
Once a week (3 points)
Every 1 – 3 weeks (2 points)
Every 1 – 2 months (1 point)
Quarterly or less (0 points)

A good friend of  OTBKB, Clever Doc’s real name is Linda Hawes
Clever, MD, MACP and she is an internist and the founder of an organization
called RENEW. She is also an
occupational health specialist with a national reputation for activism
and for professional and community service.

Galvanized by the growing exhaustion she observed among fellow
health professionals and inspired by the work of John W. Gardner,
founder of Common Cause and former Secretary of Health, Education &
Welfare, Dr. Clever and colleagues formally launched RENEW in 2000.

In today’s New York Sun, Francis Morrone, addresses  the recent Internet-and press-backlash against Park Slope in a column titled, "In Defense of Park Slope."

For those who don’t know him, Morrone, one of the Park Slope 100, is a historian, journalist, author, lecturer, teacher, and blogger with
a special interest in the connections among architecture, art,
literature, urbanism, and social history.

He writes "Abroad in New
York," on New York buildings and history, that appears every Friday in
the New York Sun, and is the author of  five books, including
architectural guidebooks to New York City, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn.
He is a board member of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

In the Sun, Morrone cites an article in the London Daily Telegraph, that accused Park Slopers of being the smuggest New Yorkers of all:  "In a city of the smug, Park Slopers are reviled as the smuggest."

Ouch.

And that’s just the half of it.

In his New York Sun column, Morrone takes the high road and doesn’t even rail gainst all the snark that’s been flung at Park Slope’s lately. Instead, he write passionately of the architectural treasures that abound in this neck of the woods.

"When all is said and done," Morrone writes. "It’s hard to think of a city neighborhood in the country more beautiful than Park Slope."

It’s just one man’s opinion. A very learned and erudite man when it comes to urban architecture I might add.

But one man’s opinion all the same.

The new film by Park Slope born and bred filmmaker, Noah Baumbach, is having a SNEAK PREVIEW at the BAM Rose Cinema on Saturday Night November 10th at 6:50 p.m.

“Margot at the Wedding,” his follow up to the Slope-centric,” The Squid and the Whale,” stars Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black, about the relationship between siblings.

There was almost too much to do at last weekend’s Takeover event at BAM according to Brooklyn Skeptic.

There was a lot going on at BAM on Saturday night. Probably too much. BAM held their first annual Takeover event. It was a night that consisted of several series of films, rock concerts and various other forms of entertainment.

We arrived at around 9pm and waited in line for about twenty minutes before getting into the already crowded Peter Jay Sharp building. The films were about to start, as were the musical acts, but we decided to relax for a moment and get a drink at the beautifully decorated BAM Cafe. A DJ (who was very talkative) welcomed everyone to the event, where there were three dollar beers available all night and a lot of Brooklyn pride. Then it was time to check out some movies.

The only problem was, there was no booze allowed in the movie theaters or the opera house. We discussed how the entire event sort of felt like a party that was awkwardly chaperoned by your parents, or an overly cautious friend who didn’t feel like cleaning up the next morning. Nonetheless, we finished our drinks and proceeded to the movie theaters.

This weekend at BAM: Cast No Shadow is part of the Next Wave Festival

ISAAC JULIEN AND RUSSELL MALIPHANT
PART I: TRUE NORTH
PART II: FANTÔME AFRIQUE
PART III: SMALL BOATS
NOV 6, 8—10 AT 7:30PM
BAM HARVEY THEATER
RUNNING TIME: APPROX 70MIN
TICKETS : $20, 30, 35, 45

A spellbinding, collaborative multimedia evening both awe-inspiring and unnerving, Cast No Shadow captures the sensation of bodies negotiating alien landscapes. Lauded for his extravagantly beautiful film installations, visual artist/filmmaker Isaac Julien has re-imagined three epic journeys through very different landscapes, collaborating for the first time with choreographer Russell Maliphant—renowned for dance in which strength and grace are perfectly balanced.
Through spectacular footage of icebergs, waterfalls, and snow, True North draws inspiration from the first African-American’s journey to the North Pole; Fantôme Afrique evokes the pulse of the African city Ouagadougou; and Small Boats conjures the experiences of people escaping toward a better life. The powerful visuals and gorgeous slow-motion tumbles—enhanced by Paul Schütze’s original music and Andy Cowton’s beautiful sound score—add a visceral dimension to this gripping evening of film and dance.

This is a pretty absurd. But in a city where real estate prices are determined by the quality of the local public school it does kind of make sense. So here are Peggy Aguayo and Marc Garstein of Aguayo & Huebener and Warren Lewish Realty respectively with their thoughts in the Tmes.

A number of schools that are a key factor in real estate decisions did not get A’s. In Park Slope, Peggy Aguayo, the principal of Aguayo & Huebener Realty Group, said she did not think that P.S. 321’s B would tarnish its longstanding reputation as the holy grail for public school parents. She described her Park Slope clientele as “independent thinkers and highly intelligent, who I don’t think would necessarily trust a bureaucratic statistical analysis as being the almighty.”

Marc Garstein, the president of Warren Lewis Realty in Park Slope, suggested that the rating system could have more effect for schools just developing their reputation as up-and-coming than for traditional favorites. Mr. Garstein said he was particularly taken aback to hear that P.S. 154, which he said “has become a selling point for moving to Windsor Terrace,” had received a D.

Mr. Garstein said he thought the grades would just confuse parents, saying it was “bizarre” that schools were being judged against others with similar populations but in different neighborhoods.

Because school was out yesterday, some parents said they did not yet know their schools’ grades. Grades have been posted on the Department of Education’s Web site, schools.nyc.gov, and will be distributed at parent-teacher conferences next week

You can bet that the talk of the sidewalk outside of PS 321 today will be the B grade the school received from the Department of Education.

I’m betting that those in the know will be explaining what the criteria was for the grading system. That, it seems to me, is the most important thing.

Elissa Gootman and Jennifer Medina reported in Tuesday’s New York Times that the DOE’s calculations were complex and that the most weight was given to how students at each school IMPROVED in a year’s time on standardized tests. Final school grades were based on a curve. Most of the schools earned A’s or B’s.

Those that received F’s and even some of the 99 schools that received D’s, could be closed or have their principals removed.

Still, for Park Slope parents, a B is not a good grade. And many will want to know why the school they know and love didn’t receive an A.

I am guessing that Principal Liz Phillips has already written a letter to the parents with a thorough explanation of the criteria for the ranking. She is always sensible and smart about these sorts of things. The official report card will be given to the parents at next week’s Parent/Teacher conferences.

Some of the best schools in the city got B’s. PS 321 along with PS 234, 6, 87, 41. All B’s. Their student’s test score didn’t change enough from one year to the next. As if that were the only way to judge a school or a student.

For shame.

Everyone knows there is so much more to learning and so much more to being a great school. Report cards are reductive things. As are a buracricies reliance on quantiative ways of assessing things. Numbers, numbers, numbers.

How high did you score? How much did you sell? How much do you make? How much? How much?

It’s the American way.

On Thursday, November 8th, the world-renowned Grammy-winning band
The Klezmatics take to the stage of the Brooklyn Lyceum to play a special
one-night-only benefit concert for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

All proceeds from the concert will support both the community lawsuit challenging
New York State’s approval of Forest City Ratner’s "Atlantic Yards" project, and
the lawsuit in federal court seeking to stop the seizure of property via eminent
domain for the controversial arena and high-rise development. DDDB is funding
the two lawsuits entirely through grassroots donations and fundraising events;
a victory in either suit would stop the "Atlantic Yards" project from moving forward.

The Klezmatics, winners of the 2006 Grammy for Best Contemporary World
Music Album, will be joined by special guests Kakande–featuring cellist,
local activist and Duffield Street Underground blogger Raul Rothblatt–and the
Demolition String Band.

Tickets for this rare Brooklyn performance by The Klezmatics are available
online for just $20 ($25 tickets at the door should tickets
remain at show time). This is an excellent opportunity to see such an
extraordinary band as The Klezmatics, along with such a diverse line-up
of excellent, special guest bands!

Guarantee yourself a ticket by ordering today!
(Advance online ticket
sales will close at noon on Thursday, Nov. 8th)

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Green Brooklyn in Metro NY. They have a feature called Blogarithims I think.

How can New Yorkers help the environment?

It can be boiled down to the same three-word mantra that environmentalists have been saying for decades: reduce, reuse and recycle. When you go to the store, buy locally produced products and products that use as little packaging as possible. When you’re at home, reduce the amount of energy and water you use.

Electricity is obvious, but why is water important?

Most importantly, our water in New York is supplied from reservoirs [upstate], and using water reduces the natural water table there. Water use also greatly increases the amount of energy used to power water processing plants. Being environmentally friendly can be as simple as turning off the tap.

What do you find is the single most helpful way of being more thoughtful about the environment?

If everybody used the term landfill instead of garbage, they would think twice before throwing things away. You should recycle as much as possible, not just bottles and paper but even electrical goods, too. If you don’t know how to recycle things, do some research. Call the Department of Sanitation or look at the NYC Waste Less Web site (www.nycwasteless.org).

I missed the reading at Barnes and Noble. Dang. But there’s a story in the Daily News about Park Slope’s Louise Sloan, whose book, “Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem!” is in bookstores now.

When Brooklynite Louise Sloan finally conceived her longed-for baby, there were no scented candles flickering in the background or sappy love songs playing on the iPod.
Instead, she lay on an examination table, her legs in stirrups.

Two years on, Sloan joyfully totes 16-month-old Scott, conceived in the doctor’s office with a stranger’s sperm, and the wide-eyed inspiration for her new book “Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem!”

“I always wanted to have kids,” says Sloan, who originally hoped to raise a family with a female partner. “It didn’t happen quite the way I planned because I didn’t find the right person, but I am just so happy that I now have this beautiful little boy.”

The 44-year-old writer and editor is among an increasing number of women in New York City – mostly straight and some gay – known as “single mothers by choice.”

The Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest is planned for May 8th 2008. Mark your calendars now.

This Blogfest will be bigger and better than last year.

Sadly the Blogfest has to abandon its too small home at the Old Stone House, where we have been warmly welcomed for two years running. We are in the process of locating a new venue.

The Brooklyn Blogfest is an annual gathering of bloggers, blog readers, those who want to blog, and those who are interested in the future of Brooklyn.

A planning committee made up of those involved with the Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow will be developing this year’s exciting program. Please contact me if you are interested in getting involved.

Third Annual Brooklyn Blogfest
May 8, 2008
Time: 8 p.m.
Location to be determined

It’s bad for traffic but it’s great for spectators watching one of the world’s great sporting events. I got this info off of the IMG Marathon Website.

Most streets and bridges along the marathon route will be completely closed to traffic during the race.

Plan your travel—and have your friends and family plan theirs—accordingly.

The following closing times are among those planned for Sunday, November 4. These times are subject to change.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Staten Island-Brooklyn

Upper level (both directions): closed 12:01 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Lower level, Staten Island-bound side: closed 7:00 a.m.-Noon.
Lower level, Brooklyn-bound side: closed 8:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
Please note that the bridge allows vehicular traffic only. No spectators or pedestrians (other than marathoners) are allowed on the bridge.

Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn
Closed 8:15 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Pulaski Bridge, Brooklyn – Queens
Closed 9:00 a.m.-2:50 p.m.

Queensboro/59th Street Bridge, Queens – Manhattan
Lower level: closed 8:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Upper level will remain open

First Avenue, Manhattan, 59th Street – 125th Street
Closed 9:15 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Willis Avenue Bridge, Bronx – Manhattan
Closed 5:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m.

Madison Avenue Bridge, Bronx – Manhattan
Closed 8:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m.

Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
Closed 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m.

Central Park Transverse
79th Street Transverse: Closed to motor vehicles all day. Open to pedestrians.
86th Street Transverse: Closed to motor vehicles all day. Open to pedestrians.

East/West motor vehicle traffic will be detoured south to 57th Street or north to 138th Street.

My Uncle Jay, who died this week, wrote to the Metropolitan Diary in 1991. I found this yesterday when I googled his name. I love the word: laggard.

Dear Diary:

One recent evening on my regular Metro-North commuter train, the time for departure from Grand Central had come. A young conductor stood at a train door looking toward the ramp leading to the train.

The door warning bell sounded. The conductor called out loudly and impatiently to a laggard commuter, “Get on the train, stupid.” Whatever happened to “All aboard”? — JAY W. FIDLER

Does anyone have a good recipe for punch? I am serving poetry at Punch Poetry. I mean I am serving punch at Poetry Punch. Please send your ideas.

Poetry Punch, a delicious and heady mix of poetry at Brooklyn Reading Works on November 15th at 8 p.m. featuring Lynn Chandhok, Michele Madigan Somerville, Marietta Abrams, Zaedryn Meade (see below) and Cheryl B. at The Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope. The house is an old stone building in JJ Byrne Park. Don’t think you are lost. It’s a house in a park.

Here is a poem by Zaedryn Meade, which appears on NPR’s This I Believe website.

Me in a Nutshell by Zaedryn Meade

I believe love is the closest we get to divinity
I believe in waiting patiently on the corner for the light to change
I believe in being kind

I believe that as birds fly, and fish swim, humans create;
it is our ‘natural’ mode of operation
I believe the opposite of war is not peace, it’s creation
I believe creative expression is a way to get to know
what we don’t know
that we already know

I believe in finding common ground and elevating the discussion
in wanting what I have and giving what I need
I believe in asking myself how it is that I will come alive
because that is what the world needs

I believe in keeping rocks in my pockets
to remind me to stay close to the ground
I believe stones and aerial maps of the ocean floor
teach me to fly
I believe to be free is not merely to cast off one’s shackles
but to live in a way
that respects
and enhances
the freedom of others

I believe in leaving everything and everyone and everywhere
just a little better off then when I found it
I believe when we let go of who we are, we become who we might be
I believe in paying my library fees

I believe in psychics, astrology, epigraphs
crossing fingers at cemeteries
lifting feet when going over a bridge
ice cream on the hot days
I believe in swimming at the glacier in the summer
and chomping icebergs like snow-cones

I believe asking for – and getting – someone’s consent is sexy
and knowing the pleasure you want and how to get it
is subversive and revolutionary
I believe gender and power and play is what makes the sex hot

I believe stretch marks and scars are beautiful
because they tell the history of the body
I believe the body is a temple to be worshipped
that we are not separate than the earth, but rather from the earth
I believe it feels good to shit outside

I believe in cranberries, avocados and cashews
in redheads and black ink
in leaving a trail on an unmarked canvas
in drawings on skin
in tiny yellow flowers under the chin to check if I like butter

I believe in watching the media, pop culture, consumerism,
and celebreality with a critical eye
I believe in turning off the TV
I believe in accessories: shoes, belts, bags, scarves, glasses

I believe growth requires the temporary suspension of security
in second chances and red balloons
I believe in wishing on the full moon and faery rings
and dandelions gone to seed and eyelashes
and shooting stars and lovers’ laughter and birthday candles

I believe very few people are actually out to get us
but are rather just distracted by their own
human-drama-bubble of daily life
I believe differences are the only way we learn
I believe intentions do matter
I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt
but still protecting the gentle red ribbed cage
around my heart

I believe you and I are not mistakes, we are stardust

I believe in unfolding my own mythology
like an origami swan
asking every day:
what will I do with my one wild and precious life?