We thought we heard fireworks on Sunday night. McBrooklyn knows the score. They were part of the Indian celebration of
Diwali, a festival of light. Read more at McBrooklyn.

The Daily News reports that the Brooklyn Museum is offering tours for the blind.

"The museum began offering Touch Tours last year, Flynn said, but so
far, attendance has been only fair. Next Tuesday afternoon, to
celebrate Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, the museum will host an
open house for adults who are blind or have visual impairments.

On the guided Touch Tours, visitors also can examine masks from the
museum’s African collection and feel textiles from the Peruvian
collection.

Annamarie Kaplon of Bensonhurst described her tour as “nothing short of fabulous.”

“I was floored,” said Kaplon, 51, who has retinitis pigmentosa. “The sculptures were so detailed, so vivid.”

I got this rather long email from a Park Slope woman who lives on 6th Street between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West. She obviously has a passionate interest in the well-being of Park Slope’s  pigeons and other local birds.

Recently she was told by a neighbor to stop throwing bird seed into the street. At first I thought her email was just a rant against a neighbor and a local hospital (which it is, I guess).

But it’s also a passionate defense of the benefits of feeding bird seeds to birds. Her neighbor has been calling the police on her and quite a conflict is emerging. There’s a lot of interesting information in this e-mail.

    We have sparrows, finches, pigeons, blue jays and an assortment of other wonderful birds in our area and as a member of both the New York City Audubon Society as well as a licensed NY State wildlife rehabilitator, I’m always cognizant that healthy bird seed keeps local birds healthy.  It prevents them from resorting to scavenging garbage and picking up the many illnesses that come from rancid or germ infested food. As I’ve rescued and rehabilitated dozens of birds (since 2005) in our area (including having at least 10 or more euthanized), I am constantly being told by the veterinarian that the cause of the illness is either starvation-related and/or bacterial.  By leaving clean bird seed, I am helping to keep the birds healthy and this means the local community does not have to stumble across sick, dead or diseased birds on their way to the subway. It also helps to keep pigeon droppings solid (the watery waste comes from bad diet) – in fact, when pigeons have healthy seed to eat, their droppings are exactly the same as gerbils – solid and much less acidic (they don’t do property damage).

    The “new neighbor” explained that his son has an allergy to pigeons and that since he owns the brownstone he can tell me not to put bird seed anywhere on the block, on either side of the street.  As a wildlife rehabilitator, I know the law.  There are no laws against feeding birds.  There is a law against littering.  People who leave stale donuts, spaghetti and/or other problematic food for birds should be reprimanded and/or fined.  But leaving clean and healthy (and $$ expensive) birdseed on the sidewalks near bushes/shrubs – is not littering.  In fact, a recent court case (August 2007) was dismissed and the judge wrote, “bird seed cannot be construed as rubbish and so the defendant was not littering.”

    However, as I am on the way to work (this is at 7:30AM), I cannot wait for him to call the police (which he does, on his cell phone) and have them come, then explain to them that I am not littering and/or have them issue a ticket for littering which would later (after much time consumption) be dismissed by a judge.  And so I hurry off to work.  As mentioned, he recently grabbed and held my wrist so hard it is black and blue.  Again, I’m not interested in involving the police as then the entire issue of feeding or not feeding birds becomes the focus – not the assault.  Considering bird seed could at worse be construed as litter, this would be a fine of ! $75.00.  Assault, however, is a felony which could carry with it jail time.  I do not have the time or energy to explain this to the screaming, bullying man on the street at 7:30AM…

    When I sometimes have walked on the Methodist Hospital side of the street (on 7th street, between 7th and 8th Avenues)  the hospital has sent maintenance staff driving mini motorized sidewalk cleaning jeeps to follow directly behind me, prohibiting me from leaving any bird seed anywhere near there.  This is a hospital that has special permission to dump biological waste into our Park Slope air and has paved over the green park area directly across from John Jay High School in order to make parking lots.  There was much press and publicity around Methodist’s hospital take over of Park Slope several years ago when they began their expansion.  Many reports showed the increase in carbon emissions and other air quality problems that resulted from this, but obviously Methodist has strong connections and/or agreements with local leaders.

    With all of the truly hazardous side effects of Methodist Hospital ’s emissions, and their encouragement of volumes increase in traffic (by provided expanded parking); the idea that they would resent anyone feeding a bird on the public sidewalk is almost hilarious.  As a pigeon expert, I can tell you that the dangers from emissions and/or biological waste far exceed any possible problems that come from pigeon droppings.

    As a graduate student at Hunter, I’m focusing on the incredible shrinking public sphere.  As you may know, because the city and state have left public parks neglected, private companies have jumped in to fill the gap and then proceed to use the space for commercial purposes. For example, Bryant Park — which was originally intended as a respite from the “hustle and bustle” of the inner city and had at one point boasted (via the New York City Audubon Society, http://www.nycaudubon.org/home/) a rich diversity of birds & squirrels; it is now privatized in partnership with the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, BPRC, which not only has added HBO to it’s list of funders, but is converting the one expanse of meadow into a tourist-attracting ice skating rink.  The park was already downgraded to HBO sponsored lunch time rock-fests with ear splitting music that no animal could possibly stand (or humans such as myself) but now the destruction of the only lawn by a sheet of ice will obliterate whatever was left of the the more beautiful and delicate birds.

    A year ago, BPRC proposed putting barbed wire on their trees and hired predatory hawks to circle the park intent on killing and/or scaring away the birds.  The hawk experiment ended unceremoniously when one efficaciously swooped down and “captured” someone’s unsuspecting Chihuahua .

    You may be thinking – Why don’t you just feed the birds in the park (Prospect)?  Because pigeons are not migratory birds – they do not fly more than a few blocks from where they are born. The pigeons that I come across on my way to the subway will live, breed and die in that area – they will never migrate over to Prospect Park . Would I prefer that all the birds were located in the park?  Of course I would!  But pigeons (brought here from Europe in the 1600s) are “rock doves” (“ Columbus livia”) and they do not make their homes in trees – they don’t have the DNA or instinct to do it.  That is why they roost in buildings.

    As a Buddhist, I believe in “accepting things as they are and attending to the alleviation of suffering”  In other words, I try to help the birds that I see where I see them – not hope or wish that they all lived somewhere else.  This is a “NIMBY” (Not In MY Backyard) syndrome where every single step that I take – everywhere I go – people will come out and say “Can you please just go feed these birds somewhere else?????”  Where else?  This is where they live and as a caring and humane bird lover, I try to do what I can for them when I see them.

    I would love for the city to adopt a plan where man-made fountains and/or water stations could be strategically placed in out-of-the way areas to attract pigeons which could also be bird feeding stations – this would be a step toward sharing and enjoying our urban environment together.  In addition there are pigeon cotes that could be provided – which, once pigeons have made them their “homes” – could be culled (volunteers could remove the fertile eggs and replace them with dummies).  The organization PICAS has been successful with this type of pigeon control in the UK for decades.  It has been reported that culling eggs is the only effective way to reduce and control pigeon populations in city areas.  Extermination doesn’t work as the birds then reproduce more rapidly to compensate.

    As of right now, I am at my wits end.  I have women screaming at me from windows, men lunging at me on the sidewalk and as I go about my day; my only interest is just to provide ONE small but healthy meal to the bird to keep them from getting ill.  Once they are sick, it has been my job to pick them up, shuttle them to veterinarians, nurse them back to health and/or have them euthanized.

The author of this email wrote to say that if anyone finds an injured or sick bird, please contact the Wild Bird Fund hot line which is staffed by volunteers who work with Animal General in the City. Their number is (646) 306-2862,  They can also ask for help on-line by going to any site linked to nycprc.org.  And/or they can email the author at fieldjo(at)aol(dot)com.

The Erklingen Brass Quartet
        A Pirate’s Booty of Brass
        Kyle Lane and Jim Lake, Trumpets; Amber Chisholm Lane, French Horn; Michael Canipe, Bass Trombone; and introducing Hope Harris as Baker Bobbie

Saturday morning at 10 and 11:30 and a Sunday afternoon performance at 4
p.m. Old First Church on Seventh Avenue at Carroll Street in Park Slope.

The
November 3rd and 4th concerts weave great music from Gabrieli to Joplin
and an original composition by the group’s leader, Kyle Lane, with
favorite pirate lingo and antics. The program opens with Baker Bobbie
donning an eye patch, sword, and sash, in addition to her usual chef’s
attire.  The baker’s introduction of the ensemble and
the rumor that they are arriving by pirate ship is interrupted by
strains of Handel’s Hornpipe from his Water Music Suite,
played by the quartet, processing. A spyglass allows Baker Bobbie a
closer look at the instruments comprising the brass family, which are
then demonstrated to the audience. Young listeners will have ample
opportunities to try their own swagger as they dance to pieces such as Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
by Henry Creamer. Slower selections conjure up images of gentle rocking
on board ship. As always, concert-goers will enjoy two treats at the
end of the performance: the chance to sample the instruments, and a
fresh – baked chocolate chip cookie.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the award-winning Brooklyn Paper.

Smartmom was pretty sure that Hepcat had read the article in
Tuesday’s Science Times. He always makes a point of reading that
section cover to cover.

The fact that he called on his way home
to see if he should grab anything from Met Food was another clue. It
had been months of too much work (and too much neglect of Smartmom, if
you ask Smartmom) since he’d thought to ask if she needed something
from Seventh Avenue.

And when he came home with six bottles of Yuengling Black and Tan and two cans of garbanzo beans, she knew for sure.

Hellooooo,” he cooed sweetly as he came in the door.

That
settled it. Hepcat may be irresistible, but he is rarely so effusive
when he comes home. He was scared. That was all there was to it. He’d
read the article about the health benefits of expressive fighting and
he wasn’t going to do anything that might cause an expressive — and
healthy — fight.

Smartmom decided to just come out and ask him if he’d read the article.

“Which article?” Hepcat answered. Smartmom smarted. He knew perfectly well which article she was talking about.

“The one that said it’s healthy to have fights,” she told him.

“Ha. Only you would construe that article to mean that it’s healthy to have fights,”

“So I guess you read it,” she said.

Gotcha.

“Yeah, I read it,” he said quietly.

“Listen
to this,” Smartmom gleefully opened the newspaper. “‘When you’re
suppressing communication and feelings during conflict with your
husband, it’s doing something very negative to your physiology. … This
doesn’t mean women should start throwing plates at their husbands, but
there needs to be a safe environment where both spouses can equally
communicate.’”

“See? Expressing yourself during a fight is good for your health,” Smartmom squealed.

“I
don’t think that’s what the study is saying,” he told her. Before she
knew it, they were having an argument about the article about marital
arguments.

Typical. Hepcat and Smartmom have been fighting for 20
years. She can remember where they’ve had fights the way some people
remember where they kissed when they were dating.

Stromboli Pizza: that’s where they had the fight about Hepcat being an hour late for their second date.

The
Sleepy’s Store just above Spring Street: that’s where they had the
fight about whether they should get a full- or a queen-size mattress.

In
front of Citarella on Broadway: that was the fight about whether they
should serve poached salmon or trout at Teen Spirit’s baby shower.

They’ve
fought in the Volvo, in a sleeper train enroute to Florence, on Seventh
Avenue, in the Third Street Playground, in front of their kids, in
front of their relatives, in front of PS 321, at the Pavilion after
seeing “The Squid and the Whale,” at Patois on Smith Street and at
their friends’ wedding at the Montauk Club.

They’ve had so many
fights over the years that they all just sort of blend together.
Sometimes it seems like what they’re really fighting about is how to
fight.

Smartmom comes from the Jewish, high-volume, high-voltage,
go-for-the jugular school of fighting. Say what you feel and apologize
later.

"Schools, there are schools of that?" Hepcat told Smartmom.

He hates conflict almost as much as
alternate-side-of-the-street-parking and will do almost anything to
avoid it, including parking himself on the other side of the apartment
when Smartmom wants to have one of her little talks.

To meet him
half-way, Smartmom has adopted a more WASPy, repressive style of
fighting. There’s less vitriol and more teeth-grinding. She has, in
fact, learned to suck in her feelings. But she has increasingly felt
that this is not a healthy situation. In fact, if the study in the
newspaper is correct, this repression is killing her (and necessitating
expensive root canals).

“‘In men, keeping quiet during a fight
didn’t have any measurable effect on health,’” Smartmom continued from
the article. “ ‘But women who didn’t speak their minds in those fights
were four times as likely to die during the 10-year study period as
women who always told their husbands how they felt,’ ” according to the
July report in Psychosomatic Medicine.

“I feel vindicated,” Smartmom told him. “How did you feel?”

“Left
out. When we fight, I can feel the negative hormones coursing through
my veins attacking all of my delicate organs. Repression makes me sick,
too.”

This stopped Smartmom in her tracks. He was actually
admitting that his tendency to suppress his feelings wasn’t good for
him — or the marriage. Progress.

“Maybe men put up with so much
stuff that the extra step of putting up with their wives doesn’t make
that big a difference,” he said.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” Smartmom said and they were off and fighting again.

According
to the study, the way a couple fights was a “powerful predictor of a
man or woman’s risk for underlying heart disease. Strangely, it’s more
of a predictor than smoking or high cholesterol.

“So this is
good. You don’t have to be so terrified of fighting anymore,” Smartmom
said expressively. She told Hepcat to think of it like jogging in
Prospect Park or going for a ride on his expensive Bianchi bicycle that
he rarely uses anymore.

“This argument could save your life,” she screamed with just the barest hint of victory.

Is someone in the Sweet Melissa’s building throwing dirt and cleaning fluids on people sitting on the bench outside the shop?

Is it intentional or an accident?

Does anyone know?

Two incidents have been reported this week. A woman on Sunday had dirt thrown on her head from above. A man I spoke to said that cleaning fluid dripped onto his fiancee earlier in the week.

We are mad for Sweet Melissa’s, which made the Zagat’s for it’s wonderful afternoon tea’s. Just sorry to hear that dirt is falling from the sky above its bench.

Cool and Unusual played their last set together at last night’s Teens for Darfur benefit concert.

It’s the end of an era. "We’ve been together since 8th grade," Jack Greenleaf told the audience before the band launched into a nostalgic rendition of the Pixie’s, "Where is My Mind," one of the first songs they played.

Apparently, they were thinking about playing, "Another One Bites the Dust," the first song they ever played but decided against it in favor of the Pixie’s tune.

It’s amazing how far they’ve come since 8th grade. In the last few months the band has really come into it’s own; each of the four adding something special to the mix.

Last night was probably their best show ever. It made their parents sad to think that the band would never grace the stage of the Old Stone House, Rocky Sullivan’s or the Cake Shop again. The music was exhilarating, tight and the set list perfectly paced.

Whey are they breaking up? The answer isn’t clear. Maybe they just need a break. Some of them may want to concentrate on other things (homework, college, other musical projects).

None of the parents really understand it. But hey, in rock and roll, they say, it’s good to go out when you’re at the top of your game.

The crowd loved the night’s spirited performance and sang and danced along, especially with their signature tune, "The Odyssey."

But when they were done: it was done. Another one bites the dust.

Check out the news I just got from Scot Adkins the literary dynamo behind Brooklyn Writer’s Space and Room 58:

Hey friends – there’s a new series in town, check it out.
 

Yours

scott
 
SIX COLD READINGS ONE HOT OPEN MIC

If you’re one of the first six writers to sign up,

hear up to 10 minutes of your work read by

actors.
 

Hosted by ROOM 58: a writers space and Erin Courtney
 

“6 Cold Readings, 1 Hot Open Mic” will happen at

Brooklyn Artist’s Gym (BAG) Gallery

MONDAY OCTOBER 15,

7:30p to 8:30p.

**Sign up is at 7p**

Admission: FREE
 

BAG is located at 168 7th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Aves.

(F train to the 4th Avenue stop or R train to the 9th street stop)

Luna Park Gazette will be hosting the next Brooklyn Blogade Road Show. A chance to meet other Brooklyn bloggers. A chance to see Bay Ridge through the eyes of Luna Park Gazette. A chance to learn blogging tips, network, and have fun. Here’s a note from Luna Park Gazette.

Greetings one and all,

Just want to see if I can get a head count for the Bay Ridge Blogade,
coming up on Sunday, Oct. 21.

I’m looking at a time frame of 1pm to 4pm. If that’s agreeable to
everyone, I’ll pass it on our to our host.

Once again, the location is Omonia Cafe, 7612 Third Ave. (between 76 and 77th Streets) in beautiful Bay Ridge.

Directions: Take the R-train to 77th Street and walk one block from Fourth Avenue.

Let me see your face at the place…

Take it light,

Rob

Hey all you journalists out there, Park Slope Parents has devised a formal protocol for Journalists and Media representatives, who want to have a  message sent to the PSP membership regarding a story they are researching by sending a
message to: 

journalists@parkslopeparents.com

These requests will be reviewed on a case by case basis and must be
related to parenting. In your request please give us your:

Name
Phone
Email
Topic of the story
Text of the message you’d like to post

By sending your request to the journalist address you agree to the
guidelines below

GUIDELINES
The privacy of our members, and the privacy of the discussion of the
topics on PSP, is important to our membership.  And it is because of our
members’ concerns about privacy that we ask you to take note. 

–No posting on PSP can be excerpted in any form without the permission
of its author.  This is true whether you quote the author in your
work, or not.  We take this rule seriously.

—If you are reporting on PSP please keep in mind that although
certain topics may appear inviting to use as illustrations about our
membership in general — Often following down that road, and generalizing about
PSP or about parents in our area, can be misleading.  Our membership
is made up of over 6,000 parents.  They are a diverse group of
individuals who live in and around Park Slope and Brooklyn.

PSP was formed in 2002 to be a resource for parenting in Park Slope,
Brooklyn. Topics on PSP range far and wide but are typically related to
raising children.  Many new parents, and not so new parents, have found
lots of help with their children on one topic or another on this group.
  It’s important that they feel protected to speak freely about
whatever concerns them.  We hope you understand and respect our privacy policy
as it relates specifically to journalists on PSP.

Does this mean that our pal Pete won’t be sending posts to OTBKB anymore? OTBKB’s loss and Full Permission Living’s gain. Stop on by every now and again, Pete.

My new blog is called Full Permission Living.

Full Permission Living is an approach to healing and self-actualization, but moreso, it is an approach to living life as it is naturally meant to be lived.

Full Permission Living is the based on the understanding that human beings are, by first nature, sane, loving, cooperative, creative, humorous, intelligent, productive and naturally self-regulating. Full Permission Living rests on the foundation of truth that all people are entitled to live pleasure-filled, spontaneous, lives without guilt, shame or oppressive inner rules and prohibitions.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are indeed our inalienable birthrights, and all human beings do have the potential to become “healthy, wealthy and wise,” as the founders of our country realized in writing about the nature of freedom and living according to natural law over two centuries ago. It is our accumulated oppressive beliefs, individually and en masse, and the suppression of emotions that has caused us to lead lives of “quiet desperation” or engage in destructive acting out. The good news is that now, we stand at the threshold of a new era in which humanity can realize itself to be a beautiful, magnificently designed, perfect expression of the great “I Am” of the Universe, living with full permission to be exactly who and what we are.

Some of the topics that we’ll talk about on the FULL PERMISSION LIVING blog will include:

– The true nature of the Self. Who we really are as human beings, and what our rightful place is in the Universe. We will look at a variety of ways that we have come to define ourselves and how those definitions influence how we experience our lives as a result;

– The nature of feelings. We will explore how emotions work and why we even have feelings. We will discover that our emotions, which are quite literally Energy-in-Motion, are a powerful force within us from where we create our personal and collective reality just like a perfect storm;

– How we do indeed create reality will also be one of our quite fascinating topics, incorporating not only ancient wisdom and intuitive knowledge on the subject, but also discoveries from modern quantuum physics, molecular biology and neuropsychology.

– We will even take a look at… You! Yes, you! We will examine each of the basic and quite uniquely different character structures that we form in order to adapt to and survive the slings and arrows of childhood, and how they effect everything from how much money we make and who we choose to love to the curvature of our spine and the shape of our upper lip. No one escapes from forming a character structure, but we will explore how we can escape from their crippling effects on our road to fulfillment.

Other topics will include:

– health, and how to live a vibrant, fully alive life from birth to death;

– adulthood, and what it truly means to be an adult in our times, and how to enjoy all the rights and privileges and powers of maturity;

– parenthood, and what children really need most from adults, and what parents really need to know about themselves in order to help children;

– dysfunction, and what forms our deformations take, as well as how to understand their usefulness in the healing process and in one’s own personal evolution;

– relationships, and how they are the cornerstone of a fulfilled life and how we can connect to the vastness of the Universe through our connections to other human beings;

– world events, and how each of our inner lives is reflected in the collective events that we find ourselves seemingly surrounded by;

– sex and sexuality, and how the forces of love, Eros and sex are the key and solution to every human problem there is.

This from New York 1:

Brooklyn’s biggest baby now has a name, and it’s a tongue-twister.

A walrus calf born at The New York Aquarium in June has been given the name Akituusaq. The name means “a gift given in return” and is taken from the Yupik language, indigenous to Eastern Russia and Alaska, where the walruses make their habitat.

Born on June 12th, the walrus calf weighed in at 115 pounds. Akituusaq will grow to be approximately 4,000 pounds.

The baby walrus is now on display at the aquarium. For an online peak, visit www.nyaquarium.com/babywalrus.

Gowanus Lounge has word of: "Scary Park Slope Incident #2: Dad & Baby Assaulted by Teen on Prospect Park West."

This follows a story that’s been on Park Slope Parents (and the Gowanus Lounge) about a family dispute that looked like a kidnapping. This incident occurred on October 10th around 5 p.m. in the Harmony Playground (also known as the 9th Street playground).

One reader of Park Slope Parents had this to say about that incident (I know the writer well and trust her account implicitly). She was there.

"I too was there and saw the whole thing happen. It
seems as if it is a family dispute. The father of the
two children was in the playground with the kids. The
mother, accompanied by 2 men, swooped in, pulled the
kids off the monkey bars, and took the two kids. She
ran out of the playground with them. The kids did not
cry–they obviously knew her. The father did not even
notice right away and when he did he, understandably,
freaked out.

A sad story for these kids and this family…but it
was not a stranger abduction so there is no cause for
community alarm. Perhaps a reminder, though, to speak
with your kids about dealing with strangers."

ON SATURDAY: HARVEST FESTIVAL IN JJ BYRNE PARK. Sponsored by Park Slope Parents and the Old Stone House. Saturday, October 13, 11 am – 3 pm in park on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street. Pony Rides, Petting Zoo, Face Painting and MORE FUN.

ON SUNDAY: WALK DON’T DESTROY
Join your friends
and neighbors to help stop eminent domain abuse, massive
over-development and the destruction of the Brooklyn we know and love. More at No Land Grab.

The walk is about 2 miles, and
starts at noon at Freddys Bar. The event will include hundreds of
walkers and a closing community party at Soda Bar.
 

NOON — 1 pm: SIGN IN:Visit our tables at Freddy’s Bar (on the intersection of 6th Avenue and
Dean Street) to pick up your registration (or to register if you
haven’t already done so).

1 pm — 3:00 pm:
Join the Grand Marshall to walk to Grand Army Plaza, around and back to the Soda Bar.

On October 13th at at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, join Cool
and Unusual Punishment for their annual benefit concert. This year’s
concert, Teens for Darfur, features a great line-up of local teen bands.

The Cool and Unusual benefit concert is an annual event. Teens for
Darfur follows last year’s Teens for the Phillipines, which raised
money for an orphanage for Manila street children, and 2005’s Teens for
New Orleans, which raised money for musicians after Katrina.

This year’s concert features: Cool and Unusual, Dulaney Banks, Post
No Bills, Banzai, and the newly re-formed, The Floor is Lava (Google
their MySpace pages for info on all bands).

It should be a great, great show. The minimum donation for adults is
$10. For kids: $5. There also will be refreshments for sale and plenty
of information about the situation in Darfur and the American Jewish World Service  Refugee  Relief Effort in Darfur, where the band is sending their contribution.

The show starts at 6 p.m. at the Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue and
3rd Street. For more information contact
louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dotcom).

Presented in Partnership with A Public Space 

WED, OCT 10 AT 8PM
       
Imagined hookers, the odds of getting a date in Belfast, and all
manners of literary hijinks are only the beginning when BAM and
Brooklyn cultural journal A Public Space kick off Between the Lines.

The night opens with Meehan Crist as she charts the intersection of neuroscience,
philosophy, and memoir. Wells Tower evokes the darkness and light that lie beneath the veneer
of convention with a style steeped in Southern story-telling tradition; and John Wray (Canaan’s
Tongue) plunges into the mysteries of the New York night with only the Kid Estados Unidos as
a guide.

Complementing these readings, artist Brent Green’s handmade animation of a singular family
history—screened with live narrative performance—shimmers with rough beauty; Sabrina
Gschwandtner creates new nonlinear forms combining video and textile art; and sculptor and
video artist Mac Premo shapes a portrait of Belfast from the city’s forgotten industrial fragments.

AT BAM. GO here for more info.

This sounds very cool:

Brooklyn Frame Works Custom Framing and Art Gallery,
is celebrating its new location and 10 year anniversary with a show entitled “Outer Space.” The show opens on Friday, October 19th at 7 PM in Brooklyn Frame Works’ brand new location:  142 5th Ave., Brooklyn NY 11217 (between Douglass & Baltic Streets at St. John’s Place).

Join us for a journey into “Outer Space”:
Human beings have long been intrigued with what lies beyond our own planet. Dating back to ancient times, our interest in astronomy, astrology and space travel have spawned legends, science fiction books and movies as well as real life ventures into the outer reaches of the universe.

“Outer Space” features antique astronomical prints, sci-fi movie posters and paperbacks and posters from space missions all brought together to stimulate the imagination and celebrate our fascination with the unknown.

Opening night party: Friday, October 19th starting at 7PM.  The show runs through November 19th.

About Brooklyn Frame Works:
Owned and staffed by artists and artisans, Brooklyn Frame Works is a full-service, custom picture framing business and art gallery; offering conservation framing services, art conservation consultations and the sale of antique prints. For more information about the “Outer Space” event, or our art gallery and conservation framing services, please contact George Winter at 718-399-6613 / BFW2@verizon.net.

Brooklyn Frame Works Gallery 142 5th Ave., Brooklyn NY, 11217

Store hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11-7, Sunday 12-6. Closed Mondays

For fans of the great Yiddish-American literary giant and this terrific photographer of NYC, I found this on Flavorpill and it sounds like a worthwhile show at the Jewish Museum:

Bruce Davidson’s 1972-73 documentary photographs of Polish Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer,
in his apartment and around town, capture old Manhattan. Singer on his
sofa, Singer in his study, Singer feeding the pigeons on Broadway —
these, along with Davidson’s photos of storefronts, merchants, and
denizens of the LES, tell the story of emigrants and Holocaust
survivors as they rebuilt their lives in New York. Next time you walk
down Orchard or Ludlow, think of the feet that once tread those streets
— which certainly weren’t clad in limited-edition Nikes. (EJ)

Note: Admission is free on Saturdays.

TEENS FOR DARFUR: a benefit concert at the Old Stone House with Cool and Unusual, Dulaney Banks, Post No Bills, Banzai, and The Floor is Lava.

6 pm at the Old Stone House at Fifth Avenue and Third Street.

$10 for adults. $5 for kids and teens. All welcome. Funds will go to the American Jewish World Service Refugee Relief Effort in Darfur. Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope.

Another great post from Mrs. Cleavage, one of the NY Metro Parents bloggers. Here’s an excerpt. 

If I had a rewind button, I’d use it.  Today was the sort of day one would like to erase.  Not all of it, mind you, just the good bits.

In particular, the part where my son screamed how much he hated me – at the top of his lungs.

Blip.  Gone.

Or the part where he told me he wished he was dead, tears streaming down his face.  This while standing by the sink where my very large and very sharp chef’s knife was lying in the drainer.

Blip.  Blip.

How about the part where he balled his hand into a fist and threatened to hit me?

Blip.  Blip.  Blip.

READ THE REST HERE.

Arts groups all over Brooklyn are bracing for the discontinuation of funds from Altria/Phillip Morris, as the company changes it’s philanthropic focus. From the New York Times:

The city’s arts world is bracing for the money to run out. Arts groups as varied as the Urban Bush Women in Brooklyn and the Dance Theater Workshop in Manhattan are hustling to find other companies, hedge funds or real estate developers to replace Altria’s grants.

Karen Brooks Hopkins, president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, said she was initially stunned when she learned that Altria would discontinue its funding, which included a $375,000 donation last year.

The company has been the primary sponsor of the academy’s Next Wave Festival since its inception in 1983, and Ms. Hopkins and her staff are seeking new sponsors.

“They did it because they saw the vision. They got it,” she said. “It’s hard to get money for the arts. It’s even harder the more experimental and unusual the program.”

The separated companies will continue to make charitable contributions but are expected to spend most of their money in areas other than New York.

October 13: INNER LIVES, DEVELOPING CHARACTERS is Regina McBride’s monthly writing workshop in Park Slope. 10 am until 5 pm. To register: nightsea21(at)nyc.rr(dot)com.

Using relaxation, sense memory, and emotional memory (Stanislavski
acting techniques transformed for the writer) a variety of exercises
will be offered to enable the student to find a deeper, richer
connection to the character he or she is creating.

Exercises will be followed by writing periods, and opportunities for
people to read and share their work. The atmosphere will be safe, with
the focus on exploration. The class is designed to help the student
break into new territory with the character, and with the story itself.

October 13: TEENS FOR DARFUR, a benefit concert at the Old Stone House
with Cool and Unusual, Dulaney Banks, Post No Bills, Banzai, and the
newly re-formed, The Floor is Lava. 6 p.m. $10 for adults. $5 for kids
and teens. All welcome. Funds will go to the American Jewish World Service  Refugee Relief Effort in Darfur. Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope.

Octobter 18: Centennial Celebration for Ladder 122. 11 am. In front of the firehouse on 11th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.

October 18: BROOKLYN READING WORKS
at the Old Stone House presents Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn. Several
poets from this great collection of Brooklyn poems will be on hand at
the Old Stone House: Phillis Levin, Andrea Baker, Patricia Spears Jones, and Tom Sleigh.  Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope.

October 20: JAMIE LIVINGSTON. PHOTO OF THE DAY 1979-1997. 6,697
Polaroids, dated in sequence. Exhibition runs from October 13-28, 2007.
Bard College. Bertelsmann Campus Center. Sponsored by the Bard-St.
Stephens’s Alumni/ae Assocationor more information, contact
info@photooftheday.net

October 20: BOB KLEIN AND THE ANCESTORS at the Cutting Room. 7 p.m.  19 West 24th Street.

October 21: BROOKLYN BLOGADE ROADSHOW in Bay Ridge. Location and time to be determined. Organized by Luna Park Gazette.

October 24: Twin authors Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein read from their separated at birth memoir, IDENTICAL STRANGERS, at Barnes and Noble in Park Slope at 7:30 p.m.

Just checked Gothamist and learned that many of the locations in last week’s episode of Gossip Girl were filmed in Brooklyn Heights.

How ironic.

The Upper East Side school and the ivy league reception were filmed at Packer, which looks gorgeous. I’ve never visited.  Ironic isn’t it that they’re using Brooklyn to portray the Upper East Side.

While last week was definitely Long Island City week
on Gossip Girl, this week’s version of the "exclusive" Upper East Side
dropped squarely in Brooklyn Heights. The opening scene, featuring some
sort of perverted choir singing Fergie’s "Glamorous," was shot on
location at Packer Collegiate Institute’s
3rd floor chapel. The gang revisited Packer later on at the contrived
‘Ivy’ reception, which went down in the school’s backyard garden. From
there, the gang didn’t have to travel too far for their
extracurriculars. The fantastic field hockey practice/Serena-Blair
catfight took place only a few blocks away from the school at the base
of the Brooklyn Bridge in Cadman Plaza

Send in your choices for the 2007 Park Slope 100, the highly opinionated, subjective, obviously controversial list of talented, energetic, ambitious, creative
individuals with vision in the Greater Park Slope area who reach
outward toward the larger community and the world to lead, to help, to create, to teach, to
improve, to enhance, to inform, to network, to make change.

Those chosen for THE LIST are community
activists, good neighbors, entrepreneurs, volunteers, spiritual leaders, publishers,
bloggers, leaders of organizations, social workers, therapists,
artists, writers,
educators, politicians, retailers, thinkers, chefs and restaurant owners and whatever else
I’ve left out.

In other words: we cast a wide net. No one who appeared on last year’s list can be on the new list. You can leave a comment or send me an email: louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dotcom).

The list will be rolled out on December 6, 2007

Park Slope author and former assistant DA Rob Reuland published a crime novel and made a comment in New York Magazine. He was fired by his boss, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, who recently published his own crime novel.

This from the New York Times:

In 2001, Mr. Reuland, who had just
published a novel about the prosecuting life, was demoted and then
fired by Mr. Hynes after saying in a magazine interview that Brooklyn
had “more dead bodies per square inch than anyplace else.” Mr. Reuland
sued, claiming that Mr. Hynes had violated his free-speech rights. In
2004, a jury awarded Mr. Reuland $30,000. Mr. Hynes appealed to a
federal appellate court, then to the Supreme Court. On Monday, the high
court refused to hear Mr. Hynes’s case. Mr. Hynes said through a
spokesman yesterday that “the decision of the Supreme Court” — the
single word “denied” — “speaks for itself.”

Day 4 since the installation of the debit card machines and OTBKB wants to know how it’s going. The weekend is the busiest time at the Coop (I NEVER set foot in there on Saturday or Sunday). I would Expect extra long lines.

My guess is that it will take a few more weeks for everyone to adjust to this change. Don’t forget, Coop workers work every four weeks for only 2 hours and forty five minutes.  That means every three hours or so there are new workers doing check-out.

It’s like "Groundhog Day." Wake up and start  all over again.

I know the check-out folks have been trained. But it takes awhile to get the hang of anything new.

The Coop is a bit of a miracle in the way that it works as well as it does. It’s an amazing machine. I am convinced that this change will greatly improve the quality of service to members.

Eventually.

This from New York 1:

They may live in different buildings, in different neighborhoods, but some Brooklyn tenants share a common fear – displacement.

They gathered for a town hall meeting organized by local elected
officials and housing advocates Wednesday night in Fort Greene to share
their complaints and seek help.

"You have an affordable housing crisis that began in Fort Greene
and it’s sweeping eastward through Clinton Hill into Bedford
Stuyvesant,” said Brooklyn Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. “What started
in Prospect Heights is sweeping eastward into Crown Heights, and
long-term residents are being put out by landlords who are seeing
dollar signs."

Lucy Baker in the Brooklyn Paper asks the question and tries to eat her way to the answer. Every morning I see the very sophisticated version of the B/W cookie at Cousin John’s. I see but don’t eat. It looks good.

If there were such a thing as an official borough cookie, Brooklyn’s
would be the black and white. Part cake, part cookie, half chocolate
and half vanilla, the black and white has been my favorite dessert
since I was a little girl. On top of all that, the rumor that the
cookie was invented in Brooklyn makes it that much sweeter.

FIRST SATURDAY AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM from 6 p.m. at the museum on Eastern Parkway.