The NY Times’ reports that the conflict of Interest Board approved Marty’s Norwegian Cruise Line because, hey, he’s the borough’s official ambassador and he did a lot of work on board. He couldn’t have picked a better time to be away. The CB6 board controversy was raging and while he may have been in hot water in Brooklyn he was soaking up the sun on board the cruise.

Markowitz has long advocated Brooklyn as a logical home for the overflow traffic from Manhattan’s cruise docks, and he lobbied the mayor’s office long and hard to build a cruise terminal in Red Hook. His office also kicked in $1.5 million toward the terminal’s more than $50 million cost. (In return for renovations the city made to its terminals, the Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines agreed to pay the city at least $200 million in port charges through 2017.)

Gene Russianoff, a lawyer for the New York Public Interest Research Group, said that when it came to accepting a free ride on a luxury liner, “inevitably there’s an appearance issue even if you dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s.” But he said Mr. Markowitz had done everything that could have been asked of him to steer clear of choppy ethical waters.

Mr. Markowitz said that other than the cost of the cruise itself, he paid for everything on the trip, including the flight to London for him and his wife, and her boat fare.

Still, that Mr. Markowitz went on the free trip at all was enough to draw reproach from some quarters.

“It’s not something I would have done, even if the Conflicts of Interest Board says it’s O.K.,” said Chris Owens, a former Congressional candidate who is considering a run for borough president in 2009. (Mr. Markowitz is barred by term limits from re-election.)

Remember Stephen, who got me all dolled up for my high school reunion? He’s no longer at Frajean Salon. But he works a few blocks a way at 325 Seventh Avenue and his phone number is: 718-398-3900

He colored my hair during my blonde bombshell phase. He styled it and made me up for that big night. In case you’ve forgotten here’s that old reunion Smartmom.

On the day of the 30th high school reunion of the Walden School (a progressive private school on the Upper West Side that no longer exists), Smartmom spent many hours beautifying at the Frajean Salon on Seventh Avenue.

But even Stephen and the staff at the full-service hair salon/spa could not make her look like herself at 17, a hippie wannabe who longed to sing like Joni Mitchell.

(Come to think of it, what the hell was she doing in a hair salon. If she wanted to look like herself at 17, she would let it all hang out, split ends and all.)

The first order of business was highlights. Looking like Hellraiser with tin foil sticking out of her head, Smartmom laughed. In high school, she was the brown-haired girl with big brown eyes that all the boys wanted to be friends with, while Smartmom’s best friend was the blonde beauty whom all the boys wanted to sleep with.

But for the reunion, Smartmom would have blonde highlights! She knew that would throw her old high school friends for a loop. Maybe no one would recognize her.

After the highlights, Smartmom went downstairs for a waxing in a room with bright examination lights and “soothing” New Age music. Hot Wax Lady used boiling wax to shape Smartmom’s eyebrows (no Frida Kahlo unibrow like in high school) and rip off (ouch) the old-lady hairs that grow from her chin and make her feel like the witch in Hansel and Gretel.

Then it was time for her toes and feet, which had to look beautiful because she was wearing gold metallic sandals that made her look six feet tall. She may have been short in high school, but 30 years later, she’d be an Amazon.

The haircut and styling came next. After the cut, Smartmom watched nervously as Stephen got out his hair curler from the bottom shelf.

“Please, I don’t want Farrah Fawcett hair,” Smartmom warned.

“But the 1970s are very big right now,” Stephen said.

“Yeah, but Walden wasn’t that kind of ’70s,” Smartmom said. “We were very natural back then. We didn’t use make-up, or even shave our legs.”

This piqued the attention of Stephen’s 20-ish assistant.

“You didn’t wear make-up?” she said, shocked.

Clearly, she was too young to know of a time when women burned their bras and rebelled against the feminine mystique.

Finally, Stephen applied the make-up. It made Smartmom so nervous that she thought she’d throw up — but as he applied a smooth layer of foundation, he slowly erased 30 years of stress from her skin.

Gone were the lines from 30 years of laughing and crying; the dark rings under her eyes from a cumulative loss of sleep from all-nighters at college, 3 am breast-feedings and overheated arguments with Hepcat about money; the crows-feet next to her eyes that made her think of her mother; the scowly lines next to her mouth from feeling so much disapproval and pain; her sallow complexion from spending too many hours staring at her computer.

When Stephen was done, Smartmom looked great. But later when she and Hepcat took the F-train to the reunion, she realized that she had spent more than $300 for an impossible goal: she could never look like she did 30 years ago because she wasn’t the same person as she was then. For one thing, she would never have spent five plus hours in a hair salon in 1976. Not a chance.

The reunion passed by in a blur of open-hearted, Cabernet-fueled conversation. Most of her former classmates — financial wizards, psychotherapists, writers, lawyers, environmentalists, an op-ed editor of a national newspaper, an opera singer and a dress designer — seemed to be doing what they wanted to do. Everyone looked great (even if the men had lost most of their hair) and were as idealistic as ever — products of a school that taught them to question authority and make a difference in the world.

Smartmom was moved to tears (and skunk eyes from smudged eyeliner) when Opera Singer (the aforementioned blond best friend) sang “Our Love is Here to Say.” She even got flirtatious with some of the boys she had liked back then.

Later, in the cab back to Brooklyn, Smartmom thought about how much had gone on since graduation: there was college, a career, Smartmom and Hepcat’s trip cross-country in a 1963 Ford Galaxy; their wedding on a rainy day in July; the birth of Teen Spirit and the Oh So Feisty One in a Manhattan hospital.

Back in 1976, you could get a brownstone on Garfield Place for less than $20,000. It was before the AIDS crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bush 1, Bush 2, cellphones, compact discs, Jimmy Carter, the Intifada (1 and 2), the iPod, the L.A. riots, SUVs and Tiananmen Square.

Obviously, Smartmom knew she could never return to her 17–year-old self in the same way that the world can never go back to the way it used to be.

And then she understood: a high-school reunion is supposed to be a time to honor who you were then and respect who you are now.

And if Smartmom looked 30 years older that was OK. Everyone else did, too.

This from The Online Beat at the Nation.com by John Nichols. He wrote it last year.

The wisdom of wars can be debated on any day, and this column has not hesitated to question the thinking — or, to be more precise, the lack of thinking — that has led the United States to the current quagmire in Iraq.

But on Memorial Day, it is well to pause from the debate to remember those whose lives have been lost, not merely to the fool’s mission of the contemporary moment but to all those battles – noble and ignoble – that have claimed the sons and daughters of this and every land.

After the bloodiest and most divisive of America’s wars, the poet Walt Whitman offered a dirge for two soldiers of the opposing armies — Civil War veterans, buried side by side. His poem is an apt reminder that, when the fighting is done, those who warred against one another often find themselves in the same place. It is appropriate that we should garland each grave, understanding on this day above all others that wars are conceived by presidents and prime ministers, not soldiers.

It is appropriate, as well, and perhaps a bit soothing, to recall Whitman’s wise words:

The last sunbeam

Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,

On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,

Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,

Up from the east the silvery round moon,

Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,

Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,

And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,

All the channels of the city streets they are flooding,

As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,

And the small drums steady whirring

And every blow of the great convulsive drums,

Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,

(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,

Two veterans son and father dropt together,

And the double grave awaits them.)

And nearer blow the bugles,

And the drums strike more convulsive,

And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,

And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,

The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,

(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,

In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!

O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!

O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!

What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,

And the bugles and the drums give you music,

And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,

My heart gives you love.

This from NY 1:

With great weather expected for Memorial Day weekend, the Parks Department kicked off the summer beach season at Coney Island Thursday morning.

The beach has seen many improvements over the past few years, including performance spaces, new restrooms, volleyball courts and playgrounds.

“It’s safe. It’s clean. It’s exciting. And it’s nearby, for most everyone living in the region; it really is,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. “And it’s original. All those others amusement areas are manufactured. This isn’t manufactured. This is Brooklyn ambience at its best.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time recruiting lifeguards, and we’re going to a whole bunch of lifeguards on duty this weekend,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “And we’ve got big improvements at many of the beaches, and every beach there is something fun going on.”

But, this season could also be the last for Astroland, if plans go through for a new amusement park.

One local elected official says that may not happen, as the city and developer wrangle over a proposed rezoning for the area.

“If we are not ready to move forward on the Astroland piece, I really am working hard to see that Astroland stays open until it’s ready to be developed,” said City Councilman Domenic Recchia.

“I’d like to keep my employees employed, some of them have been there for 20 years or more,” said Carol Albert, the co-owner of Astroland. “We love it, there’s no way around it.”

The $2 billion project would include an indoor waterpark, luxury hotel, and shops.

“It does look a little depressing when you walk around the rest of Coney Island and see some of the businesses boarded up, but that’s all the process of change, and Coney Island will change and hopefully for the better,” said Deno’s Wonder Wheel co-owner Dennis Vourderis.

City beaches officially open when lifeguards arrive on Saturday. The beaches will remain open until Labor Day

Notes, Rabbi Andy Bachman’s blog, is a thoughtful, spiritual and sometime spolitical place, where Andy, who is the rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim writes about many of the things that interest him. Here he describes the five yahrzeit candles in his house and who they are burning for.

My father, whose temper flared in his children and grandchildren, long after his flame was extinguished on a cold March day in 1983?

My grandmother, whose lovely but depressed soul joined her beloved in the ground on a frozen January morning in 1979? Whose legends of milky kugel and being babysat by Golda Meir adorn the imaginations of my own children?

My grandfather, whose legendary generosity with medical patients during the Great Depression and beyond befuddled his aforementioned wife, whose book-balancing always found an admirable yet confounding loss in his hesed?

This from IVAW.org

New York, NY – In an effort to illuminate the true reality of the conflict in Iraq, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will engage in a series of street theater actions around the New York City area on Sunday, May 27. This day coincides with our national remembrance of Memorial Day on Monday, May 28, which bears particular significance this year as we are in the midst of the fifth year of a war that has claimed the lives of over 3,100 American service members and over 655,000 Iraqis.

Actual veterans of the conflict in Iraq will play the part of American service members – with reenactments that will highlight various aspects of life in combat in Iraq. The event will be treated like a military operation with participants in full military uniform, however, there will be no weapons used at any time.

Read more of this item and
Click here for more IVAW Updates

The Park Slope Courier is getting very aggressive about taking up space on the newspaper shelf at Key Food. Today, there were so many newspapers there, I couldn’t find the Brooklyn Paper.

Turns out, the Brooklyn Paper was running late and hadn’t been delivered yet. But by the time the delivery folks finally got to Key Food, I wonder if there was any room. Did they just put The Brooklyn Paper on top of the abundant copies of the Park Slope Courier?

Brooklyn Paper: I was looking for you all day. What caused the delay?

Readers, where do you get your Brooklyn Paper?

It is a living hell that Mooki and her family are living through. They’ve asked that neighbors and friends give blood for Toby. There’s more information about how to do this at tobypannone.blogspot.com.

i still haven’t posted that update, but wanted you all to know that tomorrow morning toby is going in for bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, to see if his marrows have responded to the 2 mega cycles of chemo so far. on tuesday we will start cycle 3 of chemo.

when toby had his first marrows done on april 21, i remember the doctor coming out of the operating room with gallon ziplock bags filled with vials and vials of toby’s soft spongy tissue. he told me that he could see tumor in the marrows with his bare eyes.

i can’t even think about tomorrow. i am so scared. and i pray that toby’s marrows are cleaner. our wonderful little boy who can tell you about every train in the subway system, who is beginning to add numbers, who loves tomato soup, who delights in birdsong, our little toby deserves to have clean marrows.

mooki

Before I say anything else, props and cheers to Judy Anteil for bartending at this great event. She made delicious and strong Cosmos that made for a warm and FUZZY atmosphere during the reading.

And what an event it was. Okay, it was a little long. But that was my fault for packing too much into one evening. Next year: Two Edgy Mom events. But how could I say no with so many great, edgy moms and one dad.

The evening got off to a great start with novelist Tom Rayfiel, who read the funny first chapter of Parallel Play, a must-read for all Park Slope edgy parents. Was he an edgy mom in another life?

a non-mom and journalist, read about a midwife and a mom, from her brand new non-fiction book, Pushed, about birthing in the USA. 

brought smiles and laughter with her beautifully written Shiksa From Manila blog schtick and a great piece about her passion for handbags.

Following Sophia, Alison Lowenstein read a hilarious and sharp excerpt from her novel, Mommy Group.

Then came Susan Gregory Thomas who read various excerpts from her book, Buy Buy Baby, How Consumer Culture Manipulates Moms and Harms Children. The title says it all. Gen-X moms have been branded by advertising execs who want them to spend gazillions on IQ enhancing toys for, like, 18-month-olds.

Smartmom was up next with a piece about parenting tips from a little yellow bird.

The crowd went gaga, as always, for an uproarious and expert poem by Michele Madigan Somervile called "Boob" about breastfeeding her newborn twins in the early morning hours while listening to a right wing radio personality.

had the audience laughing out LOUD about the Park  Slope mommy zeitgeist — and her own transition from sex columist to mommy (and mommy writer). Can’t wait for the book to come out.

Judy Lichtblau read a sad, lovely story about a pregnant tango dancer, whose partner partners up with someone new

gracefully closed the show with her beautifully rendered,  honest writing about life as a white single mom in East New York.

The Endless Feast, a PBS show
which devotes each episode to a different sustainable food system, has produced a Brooklyn show, which features a chef buying pork from Flying
Pig’s Farm and greens from Added Value.

The
show is co-hosted by Anna Lappé, the author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban, Organic Kitchen. She agreed to do the show on the condition that one of the feasts featured took place in an urban center like Brooklyn.

THe show sounds great. It features a big feast at Added Value for the teenagers who
work on the farm. The kids brag about having grown the tomatoes and
talk about how you can’t go back to fast food when you’ve realized how
good the real thing is.

The episode will air again in New York on June 24 on channel 13.

For more about  Added Value, check out their website and learn about the Red Hook Farm that employs teenagers and pays them for their work.

A bunch of locals spoke to Time Out Kids for an article called, Why Do People Hate Park Slope. The  article is out now in the June issue of the magazine on page 8.

The reporter, Lynn Harris, sent an email to those who were quoted to prepare them. She thinks that the tone of the piece was "far more snarky and anti-Slope than her original version." 

The word smugness managed to migrate into the piece and it wasn’t her word. I sort of expected snarky because of the subject matter. Here’s the lede:

"It had to happen, Now that Brooklyn’s brownstone-laden Park Slope is more fashionable, it has become de rigueur to bash, slam, and otherwise trash-talk the nabe. The Slope has arrived — with its famous authors and Hollywood actorsensconced in fancy fansions — and so have its detractors."

She talked to Steven Berlin Johnson, Susan Fox, Catherine Bohne, Peter Loffredo, a frequent commenter on OTBKB and Park Slope Parents and others, including me. What I was getting at was why Park Slope is easy to hate — because it seems like we’ve got it all. We were easier to love when we were scrappier, schleppier Legal Aid lawyers and social workers. Now it’s rich people in fancy brownstones with a great school and a small town feeling. It seems like we have it all.

Who wouldn’t hate Park Slope?

Parking suspended today. Things are  back to normal tomorrow until Monday, which is Memorial Day.

The following is from Wikipedia:

Shavuot, sometimes pronounced Shavuos (Hebrew: שבועות; Israeli Heb. [ʃa·vu·’ʕot]; Ashkenazi [ʃə·’vu·əs]; "[Feast of] Weeks"), is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, corresponding to late May or early June. It marks the conclusion of the Counting of the Omer and the day the Torah was given at Mount Sinai. It is one of the shalosh regalim, the three Biblical pilgrimage festivals mandated by the Torah.

The occurrence of Shavuot is directly linked to the date of Passover. The Torah mandates the seven-week Counting of the Omer,
beginning on the second day of Passover and culminating after seven
weeks, Shavuot. This counting of days and weeks expresses anticipation
and desire for the Giving of the Torah. At Passover, the Jewish people
were freed from being slaves to Pharaoh; at Shavuot they accepted the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.

Shavuot has many aspects and as a consequence is called by several names. In the Torah it is called Feast of Weeks (Hebrew: חג השבועות, Hag ha-Shavuot, Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10); Festival of Reaping (Hebrew: חג הקציר, Hag ha-Katsir, Ex. 23:16), and Day of the First Fruits (Hebrew יום הבכורים, Yom ha-Bikkurim, Numbers 28:26). The Mishnah and Talmud refer to Shavuot as Atzeret
(Hebrew: עצרת, a solemn assembly), as it provides closure for the
festival activities during and following the holiday of Passover. Since
Shavuot occurs 50 days after Passover, Christians gave it the name Pentecost (πεντηκόστη, "fiftieth [day]"). However, the actual Christian commemoration of Pentecost occurs on the seventh Sunday after Easter.

In the Land of Israel and among Reform and Karaite Jews, Shavuot is celebrated for one day. In the Jewish diaspora outside Israel, the holiday is celebrated for two days, on the sixth and seventh days of Sivan.

There’s a whole lot of visual stuff going on in it that he thinks is cool. Something about primary colors, triangles. Composition.

Hepcat is proud of this one.

Gowanus Lounge reports that there are  no demolition permits in place and plans for the building were disapproved
by the Department of Buildings on May 17.

Find out more over at his place.

Sewell Chan just emailed me and explained that the Blogroll on The Empire Zone page is an old one left over from May 2006 when the blog was a forum for coverage of state and local politics. I am excited to hear that the Times’ is developing a new site called CITY ROOM, which will include links to a wider variety of blogs.

Ms. Crawford,

I enjoyed meeting you at the blogfest in Park Slope you organized a
few weeks ago. Thank you for your hospitality.

I’m writing to respond to your post regarding the Empire Zone’s
blogroll. The Empire Zone began in May 2006 as a forum for coverage
of state and local politics, although its scope has expanded
recently. But you should know that the Empire Zone is being phased
out in the next few weeks; it will be replaced by a new site on
NYTimes.com, called City Room, that will focus broadly on all sorts
of issues in New York City.

The existing blogroll is a holdover from last year’s statewide races
in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. On the new site, we plan to
link to a much wider variety of resources and blogs throughout the five
boroughs and beyond.

I hope this addresses some of your concerns. Please feel free to post
this e-mail message on your blog, as I do think we deserve a chance
to respond.

Many thanks.

Sewell Chan

Gowanus Lounge reports that there’s been a purge of board members, as expected, at Community Board 6. Borough President Marty Markowitz removed five CB 6 members. Council Member Yassky removed
three CB6 members and Council Member de Blasio removed one.

According to GL, the purge was retribution for opposition to the Atlantic Yards.  Check back here and at at GL as this story heats up. GL also has the names of those who’ve been purged.

Lumi Rolley at NO LAND GRAB is hard at work collecting the Brooklyn Blog and local press response to the purge of board members at Community Board 6. The headlines say it all:

GOWANUS LOUNGE: Sharp Knives: Markowitz, Yassky and de Blasio Purge Community Board 6

BROWNSTONER: Marty Axes CB6 Members Who Opposed AY Project

THE DAILY GOTHAM: The Purge: Revenge of the Clown

ATLANTIC YARDS REPORT: The Ironies of the CB6 Purge, Jerry Armer, Flamethrower

ROOM 8: Marty’s Brooklyn CB6 Purge & Real Community Board Reform

PARDON ME FOR ASKING: Brooklyn’s Community Board 6 Gets Punished

There’s more, more, more at NO LAND GRAB. THANKS LUMI!!!

Get a load of the Blogroll on The Empire Zone, the New York Times’ metro/political blog. There is exactly one Brooklyn blog on there. Jeez. 

And Sewell Chan even came to the Brooklyn Blogfest.

Streetsblog made the list. That’s Aaron Naparstek’s stellar blog, which covers transportation issues. But nobody else rates inclusion on  The Empire Zone’s blogroll.

Come on. Alright, I’ll show you the damn list.

Continue reading THE EMPIRE ZONE’S BLOGROLL →

Here’s some info about CB6 from their website.

New York City is divided into 59 geographic Community
Districts, each one having an appointed Community Board. The Community
Boards are municipal bodies of up to 50 representative Board Members.
Board Members are appointed by their respective Borough President, half
of them at the recommendation of their local City Council Member. They
serve in a voluntary capacity for two year staggered terms. Board
Members are your neighbors – people who live, work, own a business, or
have some other significant interest in the Community District. The
Community Board hires a District Manager who is responsible for running
the District Office.

To see the official list of Board Members of Brooklyn Community Board
6, as supplied by the Office of Brooklyn Borough President Marty
Markowitz go to the CB6 website.
 
Brooklyn Community Board 6 (CB6) meets on the second Wednesday of each
month, except during July and August. All meetings are open to the
public. In an attempt to maximize accessibility, the general meetings
are held at different locations within the district.

Brooklyn CB6 represents the neighborhoods of Carroll Gardens/South
Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Columbia Street District, Gowanus, Park Slope
and Red Hook.  From the Buttermilk Channel to Prospect Park, 104,054
people (2000 Census figure) choose to call CB6 their home.

Community Boards in general have three distinct areas of focus – land
use, budget, and service delivery. CB6, in its advisory capacity,
sponsors public meetings where topical issues involving the projects,
programs and policies that affect the district will be presented,
discussed and, at times, debated in an open forum.

Friday night I attended the PS 321 school auction and dance at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I went to enjoy myself, to bid on some silent auction items, and to hang out with my school friends.

I could not help but reflect on last year’s auction when I wrote a Smartmom article about the fact that Forest City Ratner contributed money last year.  Many parents were angry about that. Some refused to come to the auction.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it but people got mad at me for even bringing up the contentious issue in my Smartmom column in the Brooklyn Paper.

I felt unloved in the school that I love.

This year, the auction was much less fraught. Forest City Ratner did donate money again. But no one made a big deal about it. Or maybe I just didn’t hear about it. It’s a fact of life now that FCR is here to stay, I guess. And if they’re doling out the cash…

The event was very nice. I didn’t know a lot of the younger parents: parents of kids in kindergarten and first grade. People were dressed very nicely. This was definitely NOT a frumpy crowd.

What could be nicer than a party in the Beaux Arts Court of the Brooklyn Museum with so many people that I like to talk to, to socialize with. The food, catered by Restaurant Associates, was quite good. The room and the tables looked beautiful (decorated by PS 321’s talented Dede Kavanaugh). So did the plants and flowers. The Cosmos and Mojito’s were plentiful. 

So was the conversation. During one conversation (I forget now what the topic was) someone turned to me and said, DON’T BLOG ABOUT THAT. I will, of course, respect her wishes. But I don’t even have a clue about what we were talking about.

Like I said, those Cosmos and Mojitos were plentiful.

Most of the conversations I had were not blog-worthy anyway. I told everyone — I’m not blogging any of this. You are off the record.

I was bidding for myself and a friend. Hepcat and I came home with a Chiliwich rug and a box set of Velvet Underground recordings. Happy to contribute to our great school.

The event is a laborious labor of love by members of the PTA, who work for months and months to bring it about. Thanks to them. It’s one of the school’s biggest fundraisers.

OTBKB fave Eef Barzelay will be playing a show with a full band at Joe’s ub on
Wednesday June 13th at 7:30. 

There will be a new lineup of musicians
and songs, but additionally the Clem Snide favorites will be
reconsidered and revived. (Does this mean that Clem Snide has disbanded?)

Barzeley recently did the score for a new film called "Rocket Science" directed by Jeffrey
Blitz of "Spellbound" fame.

Barzeley, who used to live in Park Slope, asks his fans to "please come
support the new sitch at Joe’s Pub on June 13 @7:30pm and make sure to
spend a random Tuesday in August watching "Rocket Science" in an
air-condotioned theater at your local Cineplex!"

If you don’t know the music, go to Clem Snide’s website. The albums are gorgeous.  Just my cup of tea. Your Favorite Music is one of my favorite CDs. It has a song on it I love called "Bread."

Bread
Cause you are the bread
And it’s never work
Warm buttered is good
Oh, let’s just digest

Those dishes are fine
They’re not going nowhere
So keep your hands soft
For high-fives and shakes

The bathroom’s a mess
Tomorrow we’ll clean
And the window won’t shut
But the breeze does feel nice

The stove can be used
To light cigarettes
Oh, let the tablecloth burn
It’s pretty that way

Because you smell like bread
And now the pillow does too
Has everyone left?
Were they even here?

Toby’s mom, Mooki, sent this comment after Diaper Diva said she’d be willing to donate blood. All blood types are acceptable. There’s lots more information about donating blood and Toby’s condition at the Toby Pannone blog.

i’m mooki, toby’s mom. thank you so much for considering a donation.
all blood types are acceptable. Any donation that does not match toby’s
will be exchanged with one from the general pool and the name of the
donor will be listed in toby’s blood bank. you can find out more
information here

http://tobypannone.blogspot.com/2007/05/blood-and-platelet-drive.html

I just found this on Andy Bachman’s website:

Many of you have been following the story of Toby Pannone’s heroic
struggle with cancer and have rolled up your sleeves in extraordinary
ways.

Here is another request from the family for blood and platelets during this crucial stage of chemotherapy and transfusions.

You can get the directions on how to contribute off of Toby’s blog.

This mitzvah of giving life to save a life is the highest deed we can perform.

Please help if you can.

I went to a fundraising BBQ for City Councilmember, Bill De Blasio on Sunday evening. My friends, Kim Maier and Mindy Goldstein, were the organizers and I’d never refuse an invitation from them even if I didn’t know what Bill is running for.

Turns out he doesn’t know either. The BBQ was raising funds for whatever Bill decides to do next.

There’s talk that he’s thinking of running for Borough President. Someone else mentioned Public Advocate.

I missed the speechifying — Bill and Kim on the stoop of Kim’s apartment building on Third Street. Kim told me later that he spoke about the importance of community.

And a solid member of this community he is. De Blasio is a long time resident of Park Slope and a  parent of two kids at the Children’s School. He was in Bill Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development and on a local Community School Board here in Brooklyn.

He is also a supporter of Forest City Ratner’s plans to develop the Atlantic Yards. Even so, there was open talk about the Atlantic Yards and obvious and loud conversational opposition to Ratner and his plan from some at the BBQ. To support Bill, I gather, you don’t have to support Atlantic Yards.

This terrible controversy has become so divisive in this neighborhood that you can’t go to an event without people bringing it up. While I’m fairly certain that most of my friends and neighbors oppose AY, sometimes you can’t be so sure.

So Bill is quite pro — and that’s disappointing.

I remember back in 2000, seeing him on crutches at the Park Slope Jewish Center, where Hillary Clinton was speaking. He was her campaign manager if I am not mistaken.

Once when Hepcat and I were house-hunting we looked at a house he was selling. It was a tiny, tiny South Slope house. A really cute one (we shoulda bought it). But tiny, tiny. I remember thinking, how does he fit in there — he’s so tall.

Yes, a very tall man.

Elected to the Council in 2001 and re-elected in 2003 and 2005, De Blasio represents the 39th District: Borough Park, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Kensington, Park Slope, and Windsor Terrace.

But in 2008 his term limit is up and he’s gotta make a change — time for Bill to move on.

The BBQ was very nice. Kim borrowed our Weber because her’s got stolen. We were happy to oblige. The burgers were great and there was more than enough beer and wine.

Bill is obviously a good guy — friendly, engaged, easy to talk to (I couldn’t get near him). It was an easy, social get-together; a chance to talk politics, to rub shoulders with local politicos, to hob nob with neighbors and friends.

When I arrived someone said, "Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn is here." I was holding a lemon tart and I felt kinda embarassed.

I don’t think many people heard that. I smiled, put the tart down, and got myself some white wine.

We found a bartender for the Edgy Mother’s Day reading. A volunteer. A friend. She likes to bartend and knows how to make Cosmos. I am very grateful that she came forward. THANK YOU SO MUCH, FRIEND. 

I am wondering how much vodka I should buy for the event — how much Rose’s Lime Juice, how much cranberry juice.

There could be a lot of people at this event.  There are 10 people reading. If everyone brings 2 people that’s 20. One writer thinks she’s bringing 10. Wow, it’s starting to add up. There are going to be at least 40 people in the room. And that’s a low ball estimate.

Not everyone drinks cocktails…

Brooklyn Reading Works Presents: THE EDGY MOTHER’S DAY EVENT

ON MAY 24, 2007 at 8 p.m.

THE  OLD STONE HOUSE IN PARK SLOPE
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
Contact: Louise Crawford: 718-288-4290
www.brooklynreadingworks.com

So what’s an edgy mom? Moms (and one dad) who write fiction and
non-fiction about motherhood with smarts, humor, creativity, and a
healthy degree of love, awe, skepticism, sarcasm,, irony, and
grumpiness.

Don’t miss this stellar group of fiction writers, journalists, poets, and bloggers:

Susan Gregory Thomas (author of “Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture
Manipulates Mothers and Harms Children”), Amy Sohn (“My Old Man” and NY
Magazine columnist), Louise Crawford (AKA Smartmom), Sophia Romero
(“Always Hiding” and Mom After-Hours Blog), Tom Rayfiel ("Parallel
Play"), Mary Warren (AKA Mrs. Cleavage’s Diary Blog) Jennifer Block
("Pushed"), Judy Lichtblau, Alison Lowenstein (“City Baby Brooklyn” and
“Mommy Group”), Michele Somerville Madigan (Wisegal).

Five bucks gets you in. Free cocktails. Great fun.

A friend sent this news of a city-wide town meeting on Thursday June 7th to help improve the  wages of domestic workers:

Many of us, as children or adults, have benefited from the services of a person who worked, parttime or fulltime, in our home as a cleaner or caregiver.  Or we will need such help in the future.

For these critical services, most domestic workers are poorly compensated and do not enjoy the same legal protections as other workers.

Concerned citizen-activists have organized a state-wide campaign to improve the wages, working conditions, and benefits of domestic workers through a new Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Support for this bill is growing, but this effort will not succeed unless many state residents publicly show their commitment to its purposes.

Please give a few hours of your time to join a city-wide town meeting that will enable public officials to learn more about the need and support for the Bill of Rights. Domestic workers and employers as well as civic and religious leaders will share their views.  The program will also include New York State Commissioner of Labor, Patricia Smith; New York State Assembly member Keith Wright; and acclaimed writer Barbara Ehrenreich.

Peace in the Home: Domestic Work in New York State
Thursday June 7th, 6:30pm
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
For more information, contact Danielle Feris: danielle@jfrej.org  or 212-647-8966 ext. 11

And here’s a comment from one of Brownstoner’s readers. Someone who liked my friend’s cool modern renovation of a carriage house on 4th Street.

Streetsblog reports that on Tuesday morning, " Mayor Bloomberg and Yassky appeared together on the Today Show
to announce the city’s commitment to establishing an all-hybrid or low
emission taxi fleet for New York City by 2012."

Go to Streetsblog to learn more.

Kensington Blog is a really informative neighborhood blog. Here the author muses about how she came to call Kensington home.

Ten short years ago we remember calling friends who lived in Prospect Heights out of their
minds. Later as we moved to Brooklyn as renters we felt lucky to have a
park and bars close to the pad and a decent commute for a pretty measly
monthly bill. As we grew up and saw the boom begin we were lucky enough
to buy a place in a quiet sleepy neighborhood that allowed us to bike
ride to those restaurants and still be close to work (we all actually work in Brooklyn now so have no commute complaints).

Thursday, July 5  THE PRINCESS BRIDE
Thursday, July 12  THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
Thursday, July 19 MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN
Thursday, July 26  BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
Thursday, August 2  HAIR
Thursday, August 9  ALL ABOUT EVE
Thursday, August 16  THE NATURAL
Thursday, August 23  WEST SIDE STORY