This from Sunset Parker. Read the rest over at his blog:

Ray’s Comedy Club in Bay Ridge has announced Brooklyn’s High School and
College Class Clowns and Funniest Teachers Contest. Starting Nov. 29,
Ray’s will put the best comic talent from any high school or college in
Brooklyn on stage; the winners will land a paid booking at Ray’s Comedy
Club and a big-time gig at the 1,000-seat Borgata Comedy Club in the
$2.2 billion hotel-casino in Atlantic City, where they’ll perform on
the same stage as the world’s comedy

To enter the Class Clowns and Funniest Teachers contest, e-mail rayscomedyclub@aol.com, visit www.rayslounge.com or call (718) 748-6400.

SAVE THE DATE: The Second annual Brooklyn Blogfest for bloggers and non-bloggers alike will be held on Thursday May 10th at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. You won’t want to miss the new, improved Blogfest. More food and drink, a theme, a shorter presentation period, less hot, more bloggers, more fun. Here’s my report for the first one, a historical event. Note: I can see that what I wrote about the bloggers below is already OUTDATED.

The first Annual Brooklyn Blogfest was a real extravaganza and quite a success. I certainly
didn’t expect so many people to show up. I’d say there were over 100 people
there and the room was packed.

I liked the geekiness of it. There was a video projector, a slide
projector, numerous lap tops, a microphone, amps, speakers. Bloggers
brought PowerPoint applications to show photographs and speech support.
There was even Live blogging demonstrated by Daily Heights.

No Words Daily Pix was the AV guy: y’know the guy who plugs things in, adjusts, fixes, figures stuff out…

Just before the show, he even figured out how to get the Old Stone
House’s wireless working. "I used to work for Cisco, you know."

Everyone wore name tags: Hello My Name Is_____. That helped. Non-bloggers wrote things like reader, wanna be blogger, etc.

In addition to those who spoke, there were other bloggers, too: the
Gothamist, Sunset Parker, 431 Smith Street, Weird Nylon, Callalillie,
Lex’s Folly. The editor of the Brooklynyte was there, as was a reporter
from the New York Sun and many others.

After the formal presentation, a party like atmosphere prevailed. Bloggers and others stayed around until almost 11 p.m.

Here is a list of those who spoke and a brief blurb about what they said:

A Brooklyn Life started
her blog as an excuse to write. Her husband is the webmaster, her
sister writes the Subway Reading column and a friend makes the music
podcasts.

Atlantic Yards Report
(Norman Oder) talked about the need for an alternative to the paltry
coverage of Brooklyn in the mainstream media. His web site offers
in-depth, comprehensive coverage of the Atlantic Yards Project.

Brownstoner, in disguise, talked about his new blog Brooklyn Record and the beginnings of Brownstoner, a real estate blog which is read by thousands every day.

Brooklyn Views showed PowerPoint views of the Atlantic Yards project.

Creative Time’s Eleanor
Taubman said the song that summed up her blog is "Funkytown." "My
passion lies in revealing the creative brilliance of people everywhere
and in connecting those people to one another," she writes on her blog.

Daily Heights revealed that he is actually moving to, of all places, Philadelphia. He is hoping that his great community blog will continue.

Dope on the Slope delivered a hilarious history of blogging complete with a PowerPoint speaker support.

Design Sponge charmingly
discussed her blog, which has caused quite a stir in the design world.
It all started because she was always telling her boyfriend about this nice chair, this nice pillow and that table.
Finally he said, "Why don’t you start a blog?" The rest is history. In
addition to blogging, she writes a column for House and Garden and has
a book coming out.

Gowanus Lounge
is a longtime journalist and the Brooklyn corespondent for Curbed. He
started a blog to showcase the gorgeous photographs he takes on
weekends. His writing is good, too.

Joe’s NYC presented a stunning slide show of his photographs, which, he said, depict places that will soon be gone.

Lost and Frowned projected
slides found on the street and told a hilarious story to go with them
"Gabor Cooking School." Her blog is also quirky and fun.

No Land Grab spoke passionately of the importance of blogging about the Ratner project.

OTBKB read an excerpt from the Thomas Wolfe story, "Only the Dead Know Brooklyn."

No Words Daily Pix spoke!  It was wonderful to hear him talk about his amazing photos that grace the pages of OTBKB every day.

Travis Ruse projected many
of the photographs he takes every day on his subway commute. He said he
started this project as a way to show people around the world the way
New Yorkers really live.

Not Only Brooklyn talked about his weekly e-mail newsletter which
features listings of the best music, theater, film, literature, and art
in Brooklyn and elsewhere.

Ariella Cohen has the story in today’s Brooklyn Papers on the Whole Foods planned for the Park Slope/Gowanus area. You can get your copy of the Brooklyn Papers at Key Food, Connmuffco, Ozzies, and other PS locations. More here.

Plans for Brooklyn first Whole Foods supermarket are getting bigger — and the gridlock won’t just be in the grocery aisles.

The epicurean grocer is adding a massive, three-story, 430-car
parking garage to its plans for a rooftop lot and a surface lot at its
planned mega-store at the intersection of Third Avenue and Third Street
on the Gowanus end of Park Slope.

Whole Foods’ glassy 68,000-square-foot complex could attract more
than a thousand new vehicles an hour to Park Slope and Gowanus, a
traffic expert said.

“If you have a vehicle turnover every 40 minutes, then you have … as
many as 1,800 new cars an hour,” said traffic engineer Brian Ketcham.

A similarly sized shopping destination in the suburbs would
typically be required to include spaces for 272 cars, he said. But with
all its lots, Whole Foods will provide almost three times that amount
in an area with fewer drivers.

“They are obviously planning to be a regional destination,” said
Ketcham, “and preparing for lots of auto traffic in an area that should
be catering to pedestrians and public transit.”

This from the New York Daily News. Which is the most sedentary nabe in NYC? They say Sunset Park.

A new city report found people who live in Sunset Park Brooklyn are least likely to exercise of all New Yorkers. In fact, 57% admitted
they are sedentary, while residents of Greenwich Village and SoHo hit
the gym on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, Staten Island is still the smoking capital of the city,
especially the South Shore and Mid Island sections, where 33% of
residents smoke,

The updated Community Health Profiles released by the Department of
Health use yearly phone surveys and other data to measure health
indicators such as depression, asthma, diabetes and smoking in 42
neighborhoods.

Some conclusions:

East Harlem residents may exercise a bit more than those in
Sunset Park, but they should lay off the fried foods – 31% say they are
obese.

 

Binge drinking – defined as having five or more drinks in a night – is highest in Chelsea.

But don’t drown your sorrows in a pint of beer or ice cream. There is some good news for New Yorkers.

More people have regular doctors – a key to staying healthy. And fewer people are likely to smoke.

"Our city is getting healthier, but we still see large differences
among neighborhoods," said Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.

While HIV-related deaths have dropped in recent years, they are still
10 times higher in the Morrisania and Highbridge sections of the Bronx
than in the borough’s more upscale neighborhoods of Riverdale and
Kingsbridge.

East Harlem has the dubious distinction of having the highest death
rate (1,084 per 100,000 people), while the rate in West Central Queens
is the lowest at 461.

"We know about one-fifth of all New Yorkers are obese," said Cari
Olson, a research scientist at the Bureau of Epidemiology Services.
"That is as low as 1 in 10 people on the upper East Side and as high as
3 in 10 in East Harlem. Those are major disparities and the condition
is rising."

Olson said the Health Department will use the information to direct
programming in certain areas and let health providers and community
leaders know what the issues are in their neighborhoods.

"We really want people to know about their neighborhoods and we have a Web site where people can do that," Olson said.

To find out more about a specific neighborhood or city-wide trends, check the Health Department’s Web site at www.nyc.gov/health and click on "My Community’s Health."

Most obese
East Harlem: 31%
East New York/New Lots, Brooklyn: 30%
Central Brooklyn: 39%

Least obese
Greenwich Village/SoHo: 8%
Gramercy Park/Murray Hill: 8%
Upper East Side: 10%

Highest smoking rates
South Shore, S.I.: 33%
Mid Island, S.I.: 33%
East Harlem: 27%

Lowest smoking rates
Chelsea/Clinton: 11%
Northeast Bronx: 11%
Southwest Queens: 11%

The most sedentary

Sunset Park, Brooklyn: 57%
Bushwick/Williamsburg, Brooklyn: 56%
Central Bronx: 54%
Highbridge/Morrisania, Bronx: 54%
Hunts Point/Mott Haven, Bronx: 54%
Western Queens: 54%

The least sedentary
Greenwich Village/SoHo: 16%
Gramercy Park/Murray Hill: 16%
Chelsea/Clinton: 25%

Yesterday I noticed a woman STRUGGLING to get into the new Bank of America – well, it has no door knob.  It looked even messier over there today. And the number of the building, 94, is written with a sharpie on a piece of paper and taped to the window.

Is it really supposed to be open.

A reader named Mary Lou brought the matter to the attention of the branch on Montague Street:

I went to the Montague branch this morning for something unrelated to
this and mentioned the state of this ATM center and they were
HORRIFIED. Got on the phone right away with the "big boss." It was
explained to me that they outsource the maintainance of these centers.
So maybe someone will actually clean it up quickly!

I too would be horrified. Glad to hear they’re going to do something about it. I guess running a bank without people is a little problematic. It’s not like those ATMs are going to tidy up or anything. The Citibank on President has the nicest guard who sits by the door and wishes everyone well. He’s very sweet.

The B of A looks terrible right there on the corner of Union and President. Hey guys, get your act together.

This list was compiled by Susan Fox, the list-serve dynamo and visionary behind Park Slope Parents.

There is so much, almost too much, to do in the next few days. Just about every kid-oriented venue you can imagine is doing something. And on Tuesday, don’t miss the Halloween Parade. That starts on 12th Street and Seventh Avenue at 6:30 on Tuesday night.

Here’s just one thing from Susan’s insanely detailed list of Halloween happening. Everything else is in the extended body of this post. Click below.

Prospect Park Is Haunted All Over!
Saturday, Sunday: October 28- 29th
Prospect Park celebrates Halloween with good old fashioned fright.
Deep in the Park, where there is no one to hear you scream, the
Woods are haunted by monsters of all shapes and sizes. There’s also
a carnival on the Nethermead, with all kinds of fun, games, seasonal
treats, and a puppet parade. Free. Begin at Prospect Park Southwest
and 16th Street.

Haunted Walk and Carnival
12 – 3 p.m.
Take a scary walk through Prospect Park’s woods, haunted by friendly
gouls and goblins. Explore Lookout Hill and emerge in the Nethermead
for a carnival full of fun, games, and surprises. Free. Begin at
Prospect Park Southwest and 16th Street. October 28 only!
Haunted Carousel

12 – 5 p.m.
Chilling music, ravens, bats, and spiders make a spin on the
Carousel the perfect Halloween treat. $1.50. Also October 29.
Scary Stories from the Past

2 & 3 p.m.
Meet the old ghosts of Flatbush in haunting tales passed down from
Lefferts ancestors. Free. Lefferts Historic House. Also October 29.
Skeleton Scharen-Knippen Cut-Outs

1 – 4 p.m.
Make your own Halloween headbands using a traditional paper-cutting
artform. Free. Lefferts Historic House. Also October 29.
Creepy Crawly Halloween

12 – 5 p.m.
It’s a critter-fest in Prospect Park with lots of spiders, worms,
and other creepy creatures that are sure to make your skin crawl!
Creepy crafts, live critters and hands-on experiments. For families
with children ages 3 to 12. Free. Audubon Center. Also October 29.
Boo at the Zoo
10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Go batty for Halloween with activities like face painting, craft
making, encounters with "spooky" creatures and a trip throught the
Zoo’s legendary haunted barn. Free with Zoo admission. Also October
29

Continue reading SO MANY HALLOWEENISH THINGS TO DO STARTING ON SATURDAY… →

Today, there’s a press conference at 1 p.m. at City Hall: Brooklyn property owners will announce eminent domain lawsuit.  Here’s the press release:

NEW YORK, NY— At 1pm on Thursday October 26th on the steps of City Hall, Brooklyn property owners and tenants, along with their legal representatives, and supporters will announce the filing of a lawsuit against the abuse of eminent domain and the taking of their properties by New York State for Forest City Ratner’s "Atlantic Yards" development proposal in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

WHAT:
Press conference to announce lawsuit against eminent domain abuse stemming from Forest City Ratner’s “Atlantic Yards” development proposal

WHEN:
Thursday, October 26th. 1pm.

WHERE:
The Steps of City Hall in Manhattan
(R/W train to City Hall, 4/5/6 train to Brooklyn Bridge, 2/3 train to Park Place)

WHO:
Brooklyn property owners and tenants threatened by eminent domain abuse, their Attorney’s and supporters

Photo from Flickr: flickr.com/photos/fiveoftoast/181206358/

First Pete Seeger, now Al Gore. Who’s going to be in my inbox next. Only 14 Days until election day. Support Democrats!

Dear MoveOn members,

If you want to solve the Climate Crisis, if you want accountability for Iraq,
if you want to regain our nation’s moral authority in the world, I have one request
for you—help us win on November 7th.

You can make a difference by supporting candidates who are in neck-and-neck races.
Can you contribute $25?

https://pol.moveon.org/give/keyraces6.html?id=9238-205923-n75tOyYx0vc1XCAVr6CDtA&t=2

After Katrina, after the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and
2,799 of our own men and women in Iraq, after six years of policy failures, and denial
of the climate crisis, it is time to hold the leaders of our nation accountable.

The opportunity for accountability is only 14 days away. If we want to change
course, we need to act right now.

I know firsthand how important your last-minute support can be—especially
to candidates like these who have the courage to say what they believe.  These
are good people and they will serve our country with integrity. By helping elect
them, you can help change everything.

Please contribute to these candidates. Just click here:

https://pol.moveon.org/give/keyraces6.html?id=9238-205923-n75tOyYx0vc1XCAVr6CDtA&t=3

To those who say that the problems we face are too big for us, I say that we have
accepted and successfully met such challenges in the past.

We declared our liberty, and then won it. We designed a country that respected
and safeguarded the freedom of individuals. We freed the slaves.  We gave women
the right to vote. We took on Jim Crow and segregation. We have won two wars in the
Pacific and the Atlantic simultaneously.

This is another pivotal time.  We need leadership that can rise to the demands
of history. That leadership is waiting to serve—but they need our help.

Help us take back our Congress and our country today. You can contribute right
now at:

https://pol.moveon.org/give/keyraces6.html?id=9238-205923-n75tOyYx0vc1XCAVr6CDtA&t=4

The Bible says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Together,
we have built a progressive vision—a vision for our country and our world—and
on November 7th, we must make that vision a reality.

Sincerely,

Al Gore

This from the New York Times:

A small group of active-duty military members opposed to the war have
created a Web site intended to collect thousands of signatures of other
service members. People can submit their name, rank and duty station if
they support statements denouncing the American invasion. “Staying in
Iraq will not work and is not worth the price,” the Web site, appealforredress.org,
says. “It is time for U.S. troops to come home.” The electronic
grievances will be passed along to members of Congress, according to
the Web site. Jonathan Hutto, a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., who
set up the Web site a month ago, said the group had collected 118 names
and was trying to verify that they were legitimate service members.

This from New York 1:

The Kings County district attorney said Wednesday that he is upgrading
the charges against three Brooklyn men accused in the death of a
28-year-old gay man.

John Fox, 19, and 20-year-olds Ilya Shurov and Anthony Fortunato,
are now being charged with Murder as a hate crime, as well as attempted
robbery as a hate crime. If convicted, they could serve 25 years to
life in prison.

Police say the men used the internet to lure Michael Sandy to an
isolated parking lot near Sheepshead Bay with the promise of a sexual
encounter.

But when Sandy got there, police say the men tried to rob him and
chased Sandy onto the Belt Parkway, where he was struck and killed by a
car.

I found this on my friend’s blog, Urban Seashell. It’s on Sunday the 29th of October (I know this is such a busy weekend).

I checked out Olive Design’s website, and her lamps looked fun.  What do people do at a lamp salon – talk about lamps? Buy them. I’m willing to find out…

Olive Design 2nd Fall Lamp Salon!
Sunday, October 29th
Brooklyn, NY
Oops there’s no time or address. I will add as I find it.

You’ve seen the double-decker tour buses on Flatbush Avenue.

And last night, I saw a Domino’s Pizza commercial about their new "Brooklyn-style" pizza. The ad is very New Yawk with taxi drivers and heavily accented New Yawkers.

Now this: Travel and Leisure has an article in its November issue about Brooklyn as a travel destination. I saw this excerpt on Gowanus Lounge (who found it via  Dumbo NYC).

I admit the borough’s new cachet comes as some vindication. (Taste it,
212!) And, sure, I love braised squid and fancy cocktails as much as
the next yuppie arriviste. Happy they showed up. But I wonder if
curious visitors aren’t coming with misplaced expectations. If someone
told you Brooklyn is "the next Manhattan," they got it dead wrong.
Brooklyn is nothing like Manhattan. Brooklyn looks and feels and is
like no place else.

The first thing you need to know about Brooklyn
is that it is huge: New York’s most populous borough, home to nearly a
third of its citizens. An independent Brooklyn would be the nation’s
fourth-largest city. Brooklyn is a vast metropolis blessed and cursed
to lie 500 yards from Manhattan.

The second thing you need to
know about Brooklyn is that it is small. Big in breadth and attitude,
but intimate in the height of its buildings, the modesty of its
storefronts, the compactness of its communities. Defined by the stoop,
the bodega, the bocce or basketball court, Brooklyn has an enduring
neighborhood-ness. Come to my block next month and they’ll be decking
the stoops for Christmas; come in June, and the kids next door will be
manning a lemonade stand.

In today’s Science section, a study gauges the risk to hearing posed by use of iPods.

The key to avoiding hearing damage, the researchers say, appears to
be limiting not so much how long one listens to music but how loud it
is played. The study was presented at a recent conference on
noise-induced hearing loss in children.

The researchers, who are
audiologists, concluded that the average young person could listen to a
player at 70 percent of full volume for four and a half hours without
much risk. They also said that if people used the earphones that come
with the devices they could listen to music at an 80 percent level for
90 minutes a day without great risk.

But listening to the music full blast for just five minutes can affect hearing, they said.

This story from the New York Times about meditation. Does it help people feel more focused and energetic, but are the benefits measurable?

 

A new study suggests that they
are. When researchers tested the alertness of volunteers, they found
that the practice proved more effective than naps, exercise or
caffeine. The results were presented at a recent conference of the
Society for Neuroscience.

The researchers, led by Prashant Kaul of the University of Kentucky, took 12 students who did not meditate and taught them the basics in two short sessions.

Then,
over a series of weeks, the students were asked to come in and take a
test devised to measure skills like reaction time. The tests involved a
series of visual cues on a display screen that the volunteers had to
react to by pushing the correct button.

The students were asked
to take the tests in mid- to late afternoon, when people tend to be
sleepiest. They did so before and after 40 minutes of meditating,
napping or exercising, or after taking caffeine. Napping produced poor
results, presumably because of “sleep inertia,” the researchers said.

Caffeine helped, and exercise was unpredictable.

Earlier
studies have found that people are awake while meditating but that
their brains undergo changes similar to patterns found in sleep. Some
studies have found that people who meditate a lot report sleeping less,
so the researchers were curious to see if meditation could serve the
same function as sleep. The results support the idea that it can.

In
fact, when some of the students were asked to skip a night’s sleep and
then take the test, the researchers said, meditation was even more
helpful.

They said they did not know if caffeine and meditation combined would be even better.

Then,
over a series of weeks, the students were asked to come in and take a
test devised to measure skills like reaction time. The tests involved a
series of visual cues on a display screen that the volunteers had to
react to by pushing the correct button.

The students were asked
to take the tests in mid- to late afternoon, when people tend to be
sleepiest. They did so before and after 40 minutes of meditating,
napping or exercising, or after taking caffeine. Napping produced poor
results, presumably because of “sleep inertia,” the researchers said.

Caffeine helped, and exercise was unpredictable.

Earlier
studies have found that people are awake while meditating but that
their brains undergo changes similar to patterns found in sleep. Some
studies have found that people who meditate a lot report sleeping less,
so the researchers were curious to see if meditation could serve the
same function as sleep. The results support the idea that it can.

In
fact, when some of the students were asked to skip a night’s sleep and
then take the test, the researchers said, meditation was even more
helpful.

They said they did not know if caffeine and meditation combined would be even better.

Dear Blog,

Chock Full o’Nuts is NOT coming to the store of the old Cinematique video store.
I know this because:

I OWN THE BUILDING.

please stop spreading silly rumors.

Thank you.

Respectfully,

Nicholas G Kotsonis

BAM is presenting a selection of Brooklyn-made indies: to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Mayor’s Office of Film,
Theatre, and Broadcasting, as well as the publication of "Scenes from
the City: Filmmaking in New York, 1966-2006 (Rizzoli)"

Letter from Greenpoint with Williamsburg, Brooklyn 95min
Mon, Oct 23 at 7pm
Directed by Jonas Mekas
Arriving in Brooklyn after WWII, Mekas began shooting film diaries that would make him New York’s resident cinema-poet-laureate. This program spans his life in the borough, from 1949 Williamsburg streets scenes shot on 16mm to his recent move to Greenpoint, shot on newly embraced digital video.

She’s Gotta Have It (1986) 88min
Tue, Oct 24 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
› Buy Tickets
Directed by Spike Lee
With Tracy Camila Johns, Tommy Hicks, Spike Lee

“Lee’s first feature posed him as a rival to Woody Allen, nearly equaling him in psychological authenticity, perhaps bettering him in virtuosity and sheer creative glee.”—Chicago Reader

Lee’s breakthrough remains a touchstone for New York film, and the street humor and Brooklyn flavor come through in every frame. Johns plays Nola Darling, who must choose between three distinctly different suitors.

Love & Diane (2002) 155min
Wed, Oct 25 at 7pm*
*Q&A with Jennifer Dworkin
Directed by Jennifer Dworkin

“immerses you so intensely in the problems of the Hazzards, a troubled New York family living on public assistance, that by the end of its two and a half hours you feel almost like a member of the household.”—The New York Times

An epic documentary, filmed in East New York, that centers on three generations: Diane, a guilt-racked mother whose daughter, Love, was placed in foster care, and Love’s own newborn son Donyaeh. Dworkin’s film probes the emotions of this family, while also presenting a harsh view of race, class, and government bureacracy. Q&A with Jennifer Dworkin.

Blue In the Face (1995) 83min
Thu, Oct 26 at 7pm
Directed by Wayne Wang, Paul Auster
The flipside to Wang and Auster’s Smoke, Blue in the Face is a free-form tribute to the joys of Brooklyn. Filmed off-the-cuff for a week after Smoke wrapped, the film weaves together a string of vignettes and characters, including appearances from Harvey Keitel, Lou Reed, Madonna, Lily Tomlin, and Jim Jarmusch. NOTE: Q&A with Paul Auster has been cancelled.

This was in the Daily News. How did I miss this? I’m only human. But still…–OTBKB.

While Brooklyn’s trendy new restaurant scene sizzles, the borough’s old standards are still drawing top honors.

Williamsburg’s pricey Peter Luger Steak House was voted the fifth best
restaurant in the city in the just-released 2007 Zagat Survey.

The secret to their success?

"We put our heart and soul into it," said Marilyn Spiera, whose family owns the eatery, which opened in 1887.

"Being in Brooklyn makes it possible to take the money we save and put
it on the customer’s plate," she said, comparing overhead costs to
those at Manhattan’s steakhouses.

Zagat rates restaurants based on a survey of restaurantgoers. This
year, the survey’s 28th, more than 31,000 diners participated, and not
all the borough restaurants that received top marks are expensive.

Midwood’s Di Fara’s pizza scored near the top, ranking just below
trendy Smith St.’s Grocery and Saul, and Prospect Height’s Garden Cafe.

Di Fara’s, where a slice costs $2.50, is touted in the Zagat guide as "da best pizza in Noo Yawk."

"I’m very proud," said pizza shop owner Domenico De Marco, who has been
tossing dough for 42 years. "It’s all over the world. Everybody reads
Zagat."

Di Fara made the iconic red book’s top 50 list for the second year in a
row – along with some of the borough’s top spots, like Park Slope’s
elegant Al Di La, and DUMBO institutions Grimaldi’s and River Cafe.

Many of the top restaurants are expensive, but their owners defended the high prices.

"It’s not inexpensive, but it’s not outrageous," insisted River Cafe
owner Michael (Buzzy) O’Keeffe of his famously romantic restaurant.

"It’s something people should experience once in a while," he said.
"It’s like going to the Metropolitan Museum or like taking a trip to
see the leaves change."

While eight Brooklyn restaurants – two more than last year – ranked
among the best citywide, the slim red book also listed what survey
respondents consider the best restaurants in some Brooklyn
neighborhoods.

In Bay Ridge, the list was topped by Areo, which serves up "old-world" Italian.

"It doesn’t surprise me at all," said real estate agent Naya Jeladze.
"They have good food, service and atmosphere – I go there as much as I
can."

Bay Ridge newcomer Agnanti, a Greek restaurants with roots in Queens, was noticed.

"We already had established customers who came from Brooklyn to
Astoria," said manager Fay Lambrianidis. "It was their idea to open
here."

Staten Island’s Denino’s Pizzeria got a nod from Zagat, as did
Bensonhurst’s L&B Spumoni Gardens, which opened in 1939 and
"screams Brooklyn" according to the guide.

Some of the borough’s newer and trendier restaurants also made the grade.

Prospect Height’s Franny’s, which opened two years ago, scored higher than some longer established places.

"We work very hard," said Franny’s manager-owner Francine Stephens. "We never serve bad food. That is not what we do."

Originally published on  October 18, 2006

I like the sounds of this. I found it on the DDDB website. But I saw something about it in the Village Voice or was it the New York Times?

Tuesday, October 24, 8pm. Heather Woodbury’s
Tale of 2Cities: An American Joyride on Multiple Tracks

Tale of 2Cities is a collision of life-stories from New York and Los Angeles spun into an epic mix by a young Echo Park DJ mourning his grandmother’s death. Flashing back to 1957 when the Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned one neighborhood while in LA another was lost to make way for the transplanted team’s new stadium, Tale creates a live séance among generations of interwoven characters on both coasts. From the rise of Senator McCarthy to the fall of the twin towers. Tale swoops through cities and drops into the minds of a mini-series worth of major and minor characters.

"Once again, Ms. Woodbury has built a sweet and sweeping play with breathtaking range"
-The New York Times

"Breathtakingly enthralling… bears comparison to the titanic undertakings of Anna Deavere Smith and Tony Kushner."
-The L.A. Times

"A triumph of unfettered creativity" – Variety

Heather Woodbury, winner of the inaugural Spalding Gray Award,
crafts an ambitious and touching journey animating the American Dream
and the immigrant

Tale of 2Cities is seen in two parts:

Part I "Grifters, Drifters and Dodgers"

Tuesdays and Thursdays:
Part 1 at 8 p.m.

$20, $15 (students/seniors),
$10 (members)

For Tickets:
www.theatermania.com or call 212-352-3101

More information:
www.ps122.org or 

www.heatherwoodbury.com.
PERFORMANCE SPACE 122
150 First Avenue

New York, NY 10009

This from Atlantic Yards Report:

The Walk Don’t Destroy 2 walkathon
fundraiser for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) yesterday raised
more than $100,000 toward legal battles over the Atlantic Yards plan.
The event at Prospect Park generated nearly double the amount raised at
the first walkathon last November. Organizers said that some 1100 people contributed, with more than 300 participants.

That
money should (presumably) help build a legal fund sufficient to get
fights against eminent domain and perhaps other issues off the ground.
But lawyers are expensive, so fundraising undoubtedly will continue.

I
missed the walkathon, so when I arrived at the corner of 9th Street and
Eighth Avenue–a block from the park bandshell–many people in yellow
DDDB t-shirts were making their way down the block to catch trains,
walk home, or go to a restaurant. So I missed the person who dressed up
as a Brooklyn bride–in a wedding dress–a commentary on Frank Gehry’s
planned "Miss Brooklyn" tower. A crew from the Castle Coalition, which takes a hard-line view against eminent domain abuse, showed up with t-shirts saying "Blight me."

(Top photos by Amy Greer. Castle crew photo by Daniel Goldstein.)

A lovely person found and returned a Moleskin notebook I lost a couple of years ago. My name and address were in the front of the little black book. I received the notebook in the mail today with a short note. Here it is:

Hi there

I saw this notebook when I was cleaning out the Lost and Found at Bar Toto. So I thought I would send it along to you.

P.S. Will the $1,000,000 dollar reward be paid in installments or in full?

I just looked in the notebook and  under reward I did write: $1,000,000.

Bar Toto is a restaurant/bar on Sixth Avenue and 11th Street. I was there maybe two years ago on a Tuesday night with two friends from Writer’s Group. In fact, the last note in the notebook says; "Sideways, Aviator, Montepulciano D’abruzzi"  (that must have been the wine we were drinking that night).

Thank you, Bar Toto friend. A small reward is forthcoming. I am very happy to have this Moleskin back.  There wasn’t much in the way of personal information or introspective poetry. But it’s chock full of reminders of what I was doing about two years ago, including:

Some really random thoughts, an accounting of all the money we spent while vacationing in Northern California; notes from an October trip to San Francico for a cousin’s wedding, information about writing for the OpEd column of the New York Times and the City section, phone numbers and emails I am happy to have, notes from a Community Bookstore meeting after the 2004 elections (adopt a red state, red state/blue state Penpals), drawings by OSFO, lots of lists, notes about high school admissions, sketches for handmade antidepressant cases I was planning to design and manufacture — man this notebook is a time capsule — and these words jotted down:

Pink clouds above Altamont Pass. High tech windmills spin like ballet dancers. Flying alone felt like an advenutre. Just me. Excitement. Freedom. A view different from Third Street. A break from teenage angst and needy children (love them as I do. I too need a little independence, a little space).

Hugh takes pictures out the car window. We’re caught in rush hour on the 580 to Tracy. One hand on the wheel, he clicks with the other capturing the light, the tilt up architecture, the suburban sprawl…

Someday you will see the farm (in pictures or for real) and you’ll understand the grip this part of the world seem to have on me, Brooklyn girl than I am.

This week’s mystery closing: NIGHT AND DAY at 230 Fifth Avenue. An OTBKB reader said the store looked boarded up. I was disbelieving. How is it possible, I said. Two professional restaurant owners: He from Cornelia Street Cafe, she from the Lion’s Head. Sure, there were ups and downs until they got that great chef from New Orleans last year. But hasn’t the back room been a much needed cultural space in the nabe? So what gives? I am utterly SHOCKED that they didn’t give it more than one year and a little more. I think the owners owned the building so maybe they just decided: who needs the bother of running a restaurant, be landlords instead. Maybe Robin Hirsh will still run the backroom. Do I know what I am talking about. Nah.

But I do know this: a reader wrote to say the Biscuit (formerly of Flatbush Avenue) is going in. One door closes another door OPENS. It seems that people have lots of OPINIONS about the old biscuit. Check out the Daily Heights message board to hear it all.

The new BISCUIT is “opening soon” at 230 5th Avenue.

Look what I missed? Brooklyn Beat sent me this report about the Annie Leibovitz opening at the Brooklyn Museum. I was up at 3 a.m. when HC’s cell phone rang with a wrong number and read it. I was at the museum earlier in the day. But I really missed something here. I CAN’T BELIEVE PATTI SMITH PERFORMED FOR THE CROWD. NOW THAT’S SOMETHING I WISH I’D SEEN. DANG.

I got home from the Office,  left my better half at home with a cold,  she was all cuddled up with our 11 year old twin daughters, and  Guinevere the Corgi, watching Dogs and Cats (or was it Cats and Dogs) and  I lit out to the Brooklyn Museum to see the Annie Liebovitz members opening  exhibition.

Unusual for me to be out solo in the evening, but here I was in the BM  parking lot, strolling to the entrance. The AL show was part mega media event,  seeing these remarkable photos that have graced books and magazines, only blown  up, printed exquisitely. Plus the enormous collection of her work, snapshots  really, works in progress, under glass. Some that have made their way into the  major show, others that reflect the artist and her process at work..huge  photos of Venice and Vesuvius were likewise fascinating.

I thought, I must come back to see this again for a leisurely perusal since  the opening was very crowded.. at the exit, we all crowded into the 5th floor  space (where the Rodins were previously on display..)

After a few minutes, the crowd roared with  appearance of Annie  Liebovitz and family. They moved backstage, but then reappeared, with Ms  Liebovitz casually sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall with a  daughter on her lap and family and friends nearby..

A second roar and Patti Smith appeared with her band (including Lenny  Kaye (guitar) and Jay Dee Daugherty (drums) (both members of the original  ensemble that played on Horses, her seminal 1975 album), Tony Shanahan (bass,  keyboards) and they proceeded to enthrall the audience with 5  songs..concluding with Because the Night, the Bruce Springsteen tune that Patti  Smith made famous, it was an unexpectedly lovely, soulful and energizing set..  Ms Liebovitz dancing, and Patti Smith introducing Because the Night as the song  that the late Susan Sontag liked to dance to..

I understand that the Brooklyn Museum is going through institutional  changes (ain’t we all?), and maybe it was an evening that was too pop for some  tastes and sensibilities,  but this was an exciting evening that made me  glad to belong to the Brooklyn Museum and, once again, glad to live in  Brooklyn. Peace Out.

P.S. – I brought Chinese soup home for the sniffling troops and later read  Twin 2’s essay on the day we brought Gwen the Corgi home.

–Brooklyn Beat

Has John Lennon’s sensitive spirit been reborn in the effervescent new album by Sean Lennon?
It’s called FRIENDLY FIRE, dedicated to a friend of Sean’s who died.

Sad. Lovely. Pognant. Melodic. Soulful.

Listen to it and SWOON.

John Brownstoner and his websites were called BEST EMERGING WEB EMPIRE in the Village Voice’s Best of NYC issue. Who can forget John’s disguise at the First Annual Brooklyn Blog Fest. Here’s what the VV had to say:

For all you suckers who think you have to ditch
your responsibilities and move to a monk’s cell in order to realize
your dreams, consider the case of "Jon Brownstoner." The lonely force behind Brownstoner Media
has started four websites since October 2004, two of them indispensable
to Brooklyn. Meanwhile, he’s been holding down a job in the canyons of
New York finance and sharing in the raising of his two small kids.
Sleep? Ha. Sleep is for people who don’t know how to set up a new-media
venture. Sometime next year, he hopes to become self-employed, on his
own terms. For now, he can’t reveal his identity for fear of getting
fired. So he just keeps working on his projects whenever and however he
can. The earliest and oldest of his websites, brownstoner.com, draws
60,000 unique visitors a month with its mixture of news and debate on
real estate developments, neighborhood issues, and renovations. The
latest, the news blog brooklynrecord.com, kicked off in April with a
paid employee; its monthly draw is now about 20,000 readers. Along the
way, he launched a Wall Street blog, underthecounter.net, and he
unleashed the full cattiness of real estate agents with the now much
curtailed brokerate.com. Brownstoner says he’s been surprised by the
range of people cruising through his flagship sites, just as he was
surprised by the viciousness of the brokers. "I overestimated the human
spirit," he says. Don’t underestimate him, though; watch for this guy
to go big in 2007. (Laura Conaway)

I still don’t believe it. Some OTBKB readers wrote in to say that Night and Day is closed. Reader Bob says, "Biscuit is moving in. Mmmmmmm BBQ!

I called over there yesterday and I heard Robin Hirsh’s theatrical voice on the message. There was  nothing about the restaurant being closed. But at the end he did say cryptically: "We’ve been having some problems with Con Edison."

Is Night and Day doing a BBQ thing? I can imagine that two pros like Robin and his partner would close up this soon. They only opened a year ago.

The club was really shaping up to be quite the cultural center with music, literature, theater, art, comedy and MORE.

And I liked the food at N&D.  ANYONE KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON?

Trying to get an edge, NYC parents are waiting until their children turn six to send them to kindergarten. This from today’s New York Times.

He has a lot more self-confidence if he tends to be the older one,”
said his mother, Charlotte, 37. “I wanted him to have an easier time.”

Jack
acquired his confidence and abilities thanks to an extra year of
preschool, or perhaps simply an extra year of life. He is not alone:
From Bronxville, where he lives, to Manhattan and beyond, parents are
strategizing more than ever to keep their children out of kindergarten
until they are nearly, or already, 6 years old.

Children who turn
5 even in June or earlier are sometimes considered not ready for
kindergarten these days, as parents harbor an almost Darwinian desire
to ensure that their own child is not the runt of the class. Although a
spate of literature in the last few years about boys’ academic
difficulties helped prompt some parents to hold their sons back a year,
girls, too, are being held back. Yet research on whether the extra year
helps is inconclusive.

Fueled by the increasingly rigorous nature
of kindergarten and a generation of parents intent on giving their
children every edge, the practice is flourishing in New York City
private schools and suburban public schools. A crop of 5-year-olds in
nursery school and kindergartners pushing 7 are among the most striking
results.

“These summer boys have now evolved to including
girls and going back as far as March,” said Dana Haddad, admissions
director at the Claremont Preparatory School, in Lower Manhattan,
referring to children who turned 5 in those months but stayed in
nursery school. “It’s become a huge epidemic.” In some corners, the
decision of when to enroll a child in kindergarten has mushroomed from
a non-issue into an agonizing choice, as anxiety-generating as, well,
the private school kindergarten admissions process itself.

“It’s
kind of crazy to hold them back,” said Jessica Siegel, 40, whose
daughter, Mirit Skeen is back for another year at Montclair Community
Pre-K in New Jersey, although she turned 5 in late August and the
public school cutoff there for kindergarten is Oct. 1. “Someone’s going
to be the youngest. Someone’s going to be the smallest.”

Ms.
Siegel and her husband considered the decision for months, waiting
until the week before public school started before making it final in
case Mirit “suddenly had some kind of huge emotional shift.”

“I
felt like her whole experience is about being the smallest and the
youngest, and I wanted to change that experience for her,” Ms. Siegel
said, adding, “The more people do it, the more people do it — partially
because you don’t want yours to be the last.”

To stave off
preschool fatigue, some city parents send their children to public
school kindergarten for a year, hoping to transfer them to a private
kindergarten the next year. Columbus Park West Nursery School on the
Upper West Side is considering opening a “junior kindergarten” to
accommodate children who in the past would simply have headed for the
real thing.

In the New York City private school world,
demographics play a role. Because so many children have applied for
kindergarten slots in recent years, schools can be picky. While most
city private schools maintain an official policy that kindergartners
must turn 5 by Sept. 1, many routinely ask children born in August,
July, and in some cases June to wait a year. Nursery school directors,
mindful of the trend, may also encourage immature 5-year-olds to wait.

It’s hotels a go-go in Brooklyn these days. This from Gowanus Lounge (Gowanuslounge.blogspot.com):

The new 106-room Comfort Inn, which is at 279 Butler Street, won’t be for the faint-hearted tourist, as it’s located on a pretty bleak (even to us) industrial block in Gowanus. Its closest neighbors in terms of residential real estate are the Gowanus Houses and Wyckoff Gardens. On the other hand, if you’re looking for gritty Gowanus cool, the Comfort Inn is going to have your name written all over it. We’re going to guess that rooms facing south should offer some nice Gowanus views, as the hotel is very close to the terminus of the canal and the pumping station that keeps “fresh” water flowing into it.

I found this in my inbox today from Christopher Wood, the son of Arthur and Cindy Wood, the owners and creators of Broken Angel. -OTBKB

Sadly 10/10/06 at 1pm Broken Angel caught fire by natural causes. No one was hurt and minimal damage was done. Many thanks to the FDNY for quicky putting out the fire. Any contributions are welcome addressed to Arthur Wood,  4 Downing St , Brooklyn  NY 11238 , to help us rebuild. Thank you Brooklyn for all of your support.

UPDATE:  I am Christopher Wood, son of Arthur (age 75)and Cindy Wood (age 65) the owners and creators of Broken Angel, . The New Yor City Building department is attempting to remove my parents from their home of 30 years, unless we immediately get an architect or engineer to bring the building to NYC  codes. We do not have the money to do this. If there is anyone out there who is qualified and willing to work Pro Bono we desperately need the help, contributions are also welcome.

You can contact my father. Arthur Wood at 4 Downing St , Brooklyn ,  NY 11238 . Also we appeal to David Chappelle and Michel Gondry.Our home became the backdrop for your wonderful concert film, please help us to save it now.
 
My parents, Arthur and Cynthia Wood have been living in fear of the building department after a threat this week to throw them out on to the street without even  their family possessions or artwork, and  destroy their home of 30 years "Broken Angel".

Last night someone placed a  broken angel statue in front of my parent’s door at 4 Downing  Street . http://www.flickr.com/photos/onebadapple Thank you to the anonymous donor, it meant the world to me and my parents as it gave us a spark of hope.
 
Many of you wonder what the hell my parents are doing with that building. They always were building an outline of a dream, a building that was different from the usual architecture of today. They did this while never having enough money to complete their dream. But that didn’t stop them from using found or discarded objects that we throw away ever day like the glass bottles that they used to create a stained glass windows. http://www.flickr.com/photos/onebadapple/sets  This is the interior and exterior of Broken Angel.

My name is Christopher Wood,  I  have worked  for B&H Art in Architecture (web site here http://www.bandhartinarch.com/) for the past 4 years. I am a  stone carver and have restored such landmarks such as the Cloisters Museum , Metropolitan Museum of Art , and Grace Church in Manhattan

My parents and I would love to give back to the community of Brooklyn and turn Broken Angel into a nonprofit foundation for music and the arts which would include a school and museum. There are also complete building plans drawn up by my father in which the first page can viewed at  http://www.flickr.com/photos/onebadapple/168044712/in/set-127493  But we need help from you, the residents of New York City . 
 
All of your comments and ideas are welcome
Donations can be sent to Arthur Wood at
4 Downing street Brooklyn , New   York 11238         
 
I am at work on a web site with friends of Broken Angel to accept PayPal donations