They don’t call it the Red Eye for nothing. I did not sleep one wink last night on the plane from Oakland to Kennedy Airport.

Part of the reason: I watched an incredible movie called "A Walk on the Moon" with Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber,
and Anna Paquin. That made the ride go really quickly. But no snoozing.

And then there were severe thunderstorms over parts of the Mid-west. Bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, bumpity

That lasted more than an hour. Finally we landed in New York and there was no gate for us, which meant waiting on the plane for another plane to vacate our gate.

We got home and I went straight to bed and I just woke up: it’s noon. That’s why there’s no mention of yesterday’s big Atlantic Yards meeting. Now for some blog reading….

After more than a week of swimming in the pool, diving, sitting by the pool, sunning, OSFO and Teen Spirit are now doing pool tricks.

Y’know: comic dives, falls into the pool that look accidental; play fighting that ends with a convincing one-two punch into the pool.

Sometimes they want an audience as in "Mom, look at me!" or "We’re putting on a show, WATCH." But most of the time they’re doing it to amuse themselves.

Here are some classics: you stare at your reflection in the pool and then fall in. Oops. Or you pretend to help your sister out of the pool and then throw her back in. "Yikes!"

All pool tricks are accompanied by silly yelps and "Omigod" or "Yowza." It’s amazing how long this can go on.

It’s the kind of stuff you can’t really do at a public pool where you’re not supposed to jump.

But here, we’ve got this pool to ourselves (it’s well supervised, you can be sure) and they’ve succumbed to endless prank falls, pratfalls, stunts. They’ve even tried flips.

Pool tricks.

This from Sunset Parker:

Last week we checked in with great Mexican restaurants on Sunset Park’s 4th Ave.  This time we’re heading east both culturally and geographically.  Local lore says that 8th Avenue was chosen as the main thoroughfare for Brooklyn’s Chinatown (third largest after Flushing and Manhattan) because it is an auspicious number in Ancient numerology.  Stretching from 42nd to 60th, 8th ave is a panalopy of Chinese businesses, Temples and Community Organizations.  Among these are numerous restaurants (representing Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam and , of course, the various schools of Chinese cooking).

Northern China Dumpling Company on 49th just west of 8th is exactly that.  Barely a restaurant (they feature a total of two small tables and three chairs), behind the counter at NCDC, they focus on dumplings, pancakes and soups.  A no-frills run down formica establishment, their dumplings have the substance to back up the spot’s total lack of style.  The flip side is: they didn’t seem to spend much money and they don’t seem to be asking you to spend much money:

A dollar gets you five dumplings (pork and leek, chicken and mushroom, vegetable) steamed or fried.  Five dollars gets you thirty frozen (or freshly-made) raw dumplings to be boiled, steamed or fried at your pleasure at home.  The dumplings are the exact same ones that you pay three or four times as much for in restaurants.  The difference is they usually don’t make them fresh in the restaurant.  They do here.  And if you really want to take seriously the difference between wontons and dumplings; five dollars gets you fifty frozen (or freshly made) wontons!

If scallion, pork or chicken fried pancakes are your thing, those are also a dollar each (and big).  Haven’t tried the soup, but it’s a dollar for a small and two for the large.  The green bean soup sounds good. 

Sodas are still 75 cents.  When was the last time you saw that?

The whole operation, front (customer relations) and back (dumpling making), is run by two cheerful ladies.  One speaks no English, while the other speaks virtually no English.  They’re cool and they switch off making and selling the dumplings.

Don’t get me wrong, you wouldn’t want to head up to Sunset’s Chinatown just to come here.  But you wouldn’t want to come up here and not stop through here (either for a quick snack- or long term thinking, grabbing a couple of different 30 packs for the freezer).  Northern China Dumpling Company is not necessarily a destination…but definitely a smart diversion.

This from the NYC Dept. of Health (I was alerted to this by an OTBKB reader — THANKS) The spraying to take place Monday, August 21, between 7:45 P.M. and 6:00 A.M the following morning, weather permitting. Here’s the Dept of Heath news release. Take caution.

NEW YORK CITY – August 18, 2006 – To reduce mosquito activity and the risk from West Nile Virus, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) will spray pesticide from trucks in parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn from 7:45 P.M. on Monday, August 21, to 6:00 A.M. on Tuesday, August 22. If weather doesn’t permit, spraying will be delayed until Tuesday, August 22, or the next possible night.

The areas to be sprayed follow (also see maps on DOHMH website [1] [2]):

Brooklyn     Greenwood Heights, Greenwood Cemetery, Windsor Terrace, Sunset Park     Bordered by 19th Street to the North; 4th Avenue, 44th Street to the West; 7th Avenue, 39th Street, 12th Avenue and 36th Street to the South; Tehama Street, Albermarle Road and East 4th Street to the East.     11215, 11232

For this application, the Health Department will apply Anvil 10+10 (Sumithrin), a synthetic pyrethroid used in mosquito control efforts. A final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), completed by DOHMH in the summer of 2001, found that there is no significant risk of adverse impact to human health associated with the proper use of pyrethroids. Go to www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/wnv/feis.shtml to read the EIS.

The use of pesticides in New York City is conducted in accordance with federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) guidelines.
DOHMH Recommendations to Reduce Exposure to Mosquitoes

    * Repair or replace all screens that have tears and holes.
    * Eliminate any standing water that collects on your property:
    * Dispose of containers that can collect standing water.
    * Make sure roof gutters drain properly and rooftops are free of standing water.
    * Clean and chlorinate swimming pools, outdoor saunas and hot tubs. Keep them empty and covered if not in use; drain water that collects in pool covers.
    * Vases are prohibited in cemeteries during West Nile virus season.
    * Use mosquito repellent when outdoors in areas where mosquitoes are active. Use repellents containing the active ingredients deet, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus that are approved by the U.S. EPA and New York State for protection against biting mosquitoes. Products containing oil of lemon eucalyptus should not be used on children younger than three. Always read the repellents label and follow instructions for use.

Recommendations to Avoid Direct Exposure to Pesticides

    * Persons with asthma or other respiratory conditions are encouraged to stay inside during spraying since there is a possibility that spraying could worsen these conditions.
    * Wash skin and clothing exposed to pesticides with soap and water.
    * It is recommended that food sold or prepared outdoors in the spraying area be covered with a non-porous material, such as plastic sheeting, during the spraying event. Always, rinse fresh fruits and vegetables with water before eating.
    * Air conditioners may remain on, but if you wish to reduce the possibility of exposure to pesticides, set the air conditioner vent to the closed position, or choose the "exhaust" function.
    * If outdoor equipment and toys are exposed to pesticides, they may be washed with soap and water to reduce the possibility of exposure.

To report dead birds or standing water, or for more information about West Nile virus, call 311 or visit http://www.nyc.gov/health/wnv.

This from NY 1:

            
            
            
            Hundreds of skateboarders converged on the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday night to save a legendary skate spot.

The "Back to the Banks" event raised awareness of the brick ramps below the historic bridge.

The parks department was planning to landscape the barren area, but skate officials convinced them to preserve the ramps.

Organizers say it’s become one of the few spots open to skateboarders in the city.

"The purpose of this event is to raise awareness for this spot,
that it is one of the original NYC spots that’s still around," said
organizer Steven Rodriguez. "It’s actually a legitimate spot that you
can skate at, not like a fabricated park and that gives it more value
to the kids."

Skateboarders who took part were competing for $4,000 in cash and prizes.

This from NY1:

15 years ago Saturday that rioting broke out in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Back in 1991, 7-year-old Gavin Cato was struck and killed by a car driven by a Hasidic man.

The incident sparked three days of riots. Close to 200 people were injured during the turmoil.

Lemrick Nelson was convicted of inciting the riots that led to the stabbing death of Yankel Rosenbaum.

Nelson was released in 2005 after serving a ten-year federal sentence.

For a fascinating and well-rounded treatment of this event, take this DVD out of the library and watch AnnA Deavere Smith’s one-woman show based on verbatim excerpts from interviews she conducted in Brooklyn.

ANNA DEAVERE SMITH: FIRES IN THE MIRROR (video; 90 minutes) 1993

One woman play conceived, written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith, based on her stage play. Directed by George C. Wolfe

A mix of art and journalism. The work is built on Smith’s verbatim excerpts of interviews she conducted with victims and eyewitnesses of the events, and adversaries and advocates of the issues that swirl around the 1991 conflicts that took place in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Anna Deavere Smith portrays all of these interviews, becoming nearly 30 characters.

"My goal is to create with the audience a state of `we,’ (Deavere) said in a telephone interview from her San Francisco apartment. "One thing live theater can and must do is to create communities that will not exist otherwise. It can put people together that ordinarily wouldn’t be found sitting next to each other. What’s valuable is for me to present people who have a very large will to communicate, a will that’s larger than the wall between us.

"If we are going to realize `We the People,’ we have to find out who `we’ are, she continued. "It’s crucial that we have a responsible American public, and to achieve that, more people have to be heard and more people have to be given the skills to speak." Smith quoted in the Oakland Tribune, 1/9/94

Snakes on a Plane opens nationally this Friday. I found this bit of trivia on IMDB. Some members of this family are eagerly awaiting the opening. I know three people who will never go due to a passionate fear of snakes. I will probably go just out of curiosity about the whole crazy blog-generated media event. Also, see next post by guest blogger, Nancy Graham, A Theory of snakes.

In March 2006 New Line Cinema, due to massive fan interest on the
Internet, allowed for a 5 day reshoot to film new scenes to take the
movie from PG-13 to a R-rated film (originally the film wrapped
principal photography in September 2005). Among these additions is the
Jackson character’s line, "I want these motherfucking snakes off this
motherfucking plane," a line that originated in an anticipatory
internet parody of the movie.
(more)

Quotes:

[from trailer]
Nelville Flynn:
It’s my job to handle life and death situations on a daily basis. It’s
what I do, and I’m very good at it. Now you can stand there and be the
paniced, angry mob and blame him, me and the government for getting you
into this, but if you want to survive tonight, you need to save your
energy and start working together.
Nelville Flynn:
[from trailer] You know all those security scenarios we ran? Well I’m smack in the middle of one we didn’t think of.
(more)

This from guest blogger, Nancy Graham, whose blog, Oswegatchie, is a constant source of  wonder. She recently spent some time at her family’s camp in the Adirondacks, where she wrote this post.

I keep hearing stories about aggressive snakes.

"At the swim hole we were chased out of the water by one. It slithered out of the water onto a rock after us and stared at us."

"They say they stay away from you but if you go in their territory they come after you. They’re not poisonous but they’re biting."

"Are there poisonous snakes down there? Because I was bit on the heel."

"This copperhead bit me three times and wouldn’t let me get to my studio."

Why won’t a copperhead allow an artist into his studio so he can get some good political art finished?

A friend and I discussed it this evening and decided they are out of patience with us. They know we’re the ones ruining the weather. They know it’s us dropping bombs on their sistren and brethren in the drier climes. Dirty bombs, yet. It’s over for your species, they are saying. We’re taking back the planet. Go swim in your toxic chlorinated pools and leave the swimming holes to us. Or else.

My birthday is just around the corner. Here are some ideas for those who are trying to decide what to get me (you know who you are):

1. A perfect watch. Very water-proof. Beautifully designed. Easy to read. Preferably with an underwater or night light. (I don’t have one in mind but Swiss Army is a good brand).

2. An iPod. But that’s not all. Please set it up for me (you know who you are) and put some music on it. You can start with Sufijan Stevens "Illinoise."

3. The Complete New Yorker. That’s every Page of every Issue on 8 DVD-ROMS with a companion book of highlights.  That’s 4,109 Issues. Half a million pages. WOW.

Even in California, I can read about the new bakery/cafe on Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue. Now I’ll walk up Sixth Avenue to 9th Street (stop at Colson) then go to the F-Train on my sojouns into Manhattan. Cool. A new route that ends in pastry. Woo Hoo. Here’s the word on Pâtisserie Colson from Francis Fabricant of the NY Times.

Hubert Colson owns a pastry shop in Mons, Belgium. Yonatan Israel, a
native of Paris, is a filmmaker in New York. Together they have opened
Pâtisserie Colson, a trim little pastry shop and cafe at 374 Ninth
Street (Sixth Avenue), Park Slope, Brooklyn; (718) 965-6400. Mr. Israel
was able to spend some time in Mons learning how to run a bakery
because his father is a business partner of Mr. Colson’s. Mr. Israel
hired Michelle Doll-Olson to do the baking, using some of Mr. Colson’s
recipes: pains au chocolat ($2 each); financiers, some topped with dark
chocolate (75 cents and $1.50); chocolate mousse ($3.50); an
almond-scented Belgian rice pudding tart ($3.50); and a folded brioche
with raisins or chocolate ($2.50). Homemade ice cream and waffles are
also served, along with sandwiches, salads and cheese plates, and beer
and wine.

PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY

A news conference will begin at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 16, on the steps of City Hall where a broad partnership of civic and community groups along with several elected officials will urge the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to extend the public comment period for the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement and General Project Plan for Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development proposal.

A number of city and state elected officials, local community boards, civic and community organizations, and local residents have already contacted ESDC Chairman Charles A. Gargano to request an extension of the review period. Among those scheduled or invited to attend tomorrow’s news conference are:

State Senator Velmanette Montgomery

State Assembly Member James Brennan

State Assembly Member Roger L. Green

State Assembly Member Joseph Lentol

State Assembly Member Joan Millman

City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn

City Councilmember Bill DeBlasio

City Councilmember Letitia James

City Councilmember David Yassky

Brooklyn Community Boards 2, 6 and 8

Citizen’s Union, www.citizensunion.org

Community-Based Planning Task Force

Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods,  www.cbrooklynneighborhoods.homestead.com

Municipal Art Society of New York, www.mas.org

New York Industrial Retention Network, www.nyirn.org

New Yorkers for Parks, www.ny4p.org

Women’s City Club, www.wccny.org

The impact statement and project plan for Atlantic Yards are among the largest and most complex documents ever released by the ESDC. They are hundreds of pages long and contain hundreds of tables, maps, graphs and technical studies. The 66-day review period set forth by the state agency is inadequate for a meaningful review of the project, especially coming as it does during the summer vacation period.

Change: it is tough. Property changes hands and things don’t look the same anymore. It had to be and yet…

This feeling of loss persists. The finality of it. The chopping down of trees. He takes long orchard walks and tries to reconcile the new with the old. The missing walnut trees were planted the year he was born. They were nurtured by his parents just like he was. Those deciduous trees: they were like friends bringing forth gifts harvest to harvest.

And now they’re gone.

He takes pictures in the orchard. Looking down he shows the cracked earth. Dry, pained, in need of sustenance. A common site around here.

The orchard has been replanted. Almonds now. We were hoping for pomegranites – so biblical, so strange. But the new owner has planted almonds and "his" orchard is covered in a new geometry of the fledgling starts of white-taped baby trees.

He takes his tripod, his camera. It’s his way of coming to terms — facing — what he doesn’t want to see.

The land is someone else’s but it will continue to grow. Someone else will nurture the trees, the trees that were planted the year he was born. And they will bring forth gifts…

But for someone else. Not he.

After spending days trying to come up with names for those two kittens, here’s what we’ve got. But no one agrees on which is the best. Vote on the one you like and help us make the decision. These kittens deserve a NAME.

Tin Tin and Snowy
Nick and Nora
Hansel and Gretel
Queer Eye and Straight Guy
Romeo and Juliet
Victoria and Albert
Tic and Tac
Chit and Chat
Thompson and Thomson (also from Tin Tin comics)
Quisp and Quake

Ya gotta check out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website for all the information about ‘Baby,’ their Corpse Flower otherwise known as Stinkpot. 

This plant may be the biggest show in Brooklyn evah. If you’re in Brooklyn you owe it to yourself to experience the putrid stink of Baby.

For us in California, the webcam is a great way to see if any of our friends or neighbors went to visit the big stinky plant at the BBG.

CHECK IT OUT:

There’s an up-to-the-minute web cam of people looking at the plant.

There’s information about  how to grow your very own Corpse Plant (Amorphophallus titanum).

History and botany of the plant

Fun Facts.

By Guest Blogger Eleanor Traubman, Editor in Chief of Creative Times

The day before the heatwave started, I told Mike about a memory I had
of a blind Osmond brother who used to play the vibraphone on the Donny and Marie
show, or at least on their holiday specials. Does anyone else remember this guy
or am I imagining that he existed?

The next day, when the heat wave
first started, I passed by a small porch sale in Park Slope. Something
brightly-colored caught my eye. I stopped to take a look; it was a child-size,
8-note rainbow xylophone. Better than a xylophone, really, because it was metal instead of
wood. So the sound was richer, more like that of a vibraphone. The Park Slope mom offered it to me for a
mere dollar. I snatched it up in a hearbeat.

This is a small instrument
that brings a big joy to our small apartment. I play it when I get up in the
morning and at night before I go to bed. There’s something about the
light-heartedness of the sound that brings my attention right to the present. I
always tell Mike that I have to come home for xylophone practice.

After
we’d had the xylophone for about a week, Mike handed it to me to play while he
put on a CD called Soul Sauce (say it five times, fast). He ordered
me to play the rainbow xylophone to accompany the late great Cal Tjader on the
vibraphone. The best number is the rough mix of Soul Sauce (Guachi
Guaro!), the song.

The text on the back of the CD reads: […]
as the years wore on and band personnel came and went, [the song Guachi Guaro!]
got funkier and greasier – so that by the time it was recorded for Verve in
1964, producer Creed Taylor dubbed it Soul Sauce. The single was a bigger hit
than it had ever been and the LP became an instant classic.


So I played along with Cal and danced around the livingroom.
You can’t help but grin when you’re playing a rainbow
xylophone.

Guest blogger, Chandru Murthi, just started a blog called I’m Seeing Green. Turns out he already had a Typepad account. So he’s good to go. The subtitle of the blog is this quote from Lewis Carroll: "The time has come, said the walrus, to speak of many things." His first piece is about the film, An Inconveneint Truth. Here’s an excerpt.

The highest number of tornadoes in the US was in 2004. The hottest
year on record was last year, 2005. This is 2006. Be wary, very wary.

Elizabeth and I went to see "An Inconvenient Truth" a few days ago.
Briefly, this is both one of the most informative and incredible
non-fiction movies, glorious and stunning in its sweep, and yet,
sometimes, one of the most infuriating. First, the good news: This
movie is based on several presentations that Al Gore had already worked
on, and that accounts for its power – the basic facts, the raw science,
the spectacular graphics, the compelling picture that emerges from it
all. Yes folks, it’s true. Global warming is here. You cannot ignore it
anymore.

CANDY GRAM BY ELEANOR TRAUBMAN (Check out her blog, CREATIVE TIMES):

Here’s three facts about my late Grandma, Matilda Jane Daugherty
Linn (1904-1999):

1. She was a flapper in the 1920s, which meant that she wore her
hair bobbed, frequented speakeasies, and smoked cigarettes. I still have the
beaded tassels which hung from the bottom of her dress.

2. David
Letterman bagged her groceries when he was a teenager.

3. She
adored See’s
Candy. At holiday time, she ordered so many boxes as gifts that See’s
delivered it all for free.

Here’s a great story about my gram and See’s
Candy: For a number of years, my gramma had a tough combo of being mentally
sharp but dealing with a number of physical ailments. During that stretch of
time, my mom flew out to Indiana to visit Matilda. She found that my gramma was
depressed and feeling that life wasn’t worth living. She told my mom that she
would stop eating and drinking. "Well," said my mom, "that’s going to put a
damper on our visit."

That night, as my mom and gramma were chatting, my
mom brought out a box of See’s Candy. My gramma saw it and decided to break her
"no eating, no drinking" rule. She started to eat pieces of candy and then moved
on to regular food. She decided that life was worth living after all.

After that visit, my mom wrote to See’s Candy and thanked them for
saving Matilda. See’s wrote the story up in their corporate newsletter and
gifted my gramma a box of treats for every month that she lived. Matilda passed
away a few years later.

Between you and me, I think it was my mom’s
company that perked my gramma up. Still, God Bless her, I hope my gramma is up
in Heaven right now, doing the Charleston and enjoying a big box of
See’s.

On Monday, Daily Slope featured a Best of Park Slope list. My opinion is in bold type.

BEST LOAF: Lopez Bakery – Fifth Avenue between 18th and 19th. WOW. I remember when Lopez was on 8th Street and Fifth Avenue where the Subway is now. They do have great bread – they bake for Eli Zabars. The seven-grain bread is fabu (or was five years ago). Glad to hear they’re still in business.

BEST BAKERY: Two Little Red Hens – 8th Ave and 13th Street. LRHs definitely has the prettiest cakes. I love the atmosphere, their cookies, cup cakes and iced coffee.

BEST BODEGA /SMALL GROCER: La Dolce Vita – 7th Ave. Don’t know this place at all. My favorite small grocer is Met Food on Seventh Avenue and 2nd Street. The produce isn’t very good but they’ve got all the breakfast essentials.

TOY STORE: Toy Space on 7th ave around 13th. Yeah, I like that place, too.

CHILDREN’S SHOES: Windsor Shoes on Prospect Park West. I’ve never been there but everyone says they have Stride Rite Shoes.

PIZZA: Pino’s La Forchetta – 7th Ave across from PS 321. I’ve eaten there so many times with my kids I can’t tell if it’s any good anymore. They actually have good ziti.  What about Frannys, Two Boots, the place on Fifth just below Union.

COFFEE SHOP: 6th ave and 12th St – Red Horse Cafe. Never been there.

SANDWICH SHOP: Pollios – 5th Ave – Good hoagies and specialty foods. They just moved a block north. Their new digs are nice.

Continue reading CHILDREN BORE HER TO DEATH →

Did I mention that HC and I checked out Union Hall a week ago Sunday. First off, it’s like no other place else in the Slope. The scale of it anyway. It’s one big huge space; a one story building on Union just up from Fifth Avenue that used to be an appliance showroom or something. It’s been boarded up for years. The front looks like the library in some WASY-y social club with bookcases, wing chairs, and faux fireplaces. In the back there’s a bocce court. Yeah, tat’s how big the place is. The bocce court just makes the place – in the midst of drinking, eating, socializing, there’s this bocce thing going on (and a waiting list of players). There’s also a well-staffed and well-stocked bar, a patio, as well as a performance downstairs.

And it’s a scene. For those who say Park Slope is just about self-involved, Yuppie parents and their annoying children, this place will come as a real shocker. It’s an honest to god cool bar; a real scene with great music and crowds of people checking each other out.

The kind of place where two or more hetero women in cool clothing go for a night out – to socialize, to look for guys, to find friends they know. Men, too, arrive in groups, looking to meet and greet.

HC and I sat at the bar. I ordered a Cosmo but was seriously impressed with the wine-by-the- glass list. HC was impressed by the beer list. There’s even food; we ordered mini-hamburgers, which are something of a fad right now. But totally delicious.

I practically fell over when Neko Chase singing "John the Baptist" from her new album was playing. The incredibly attentive bartender said that she was playing her own i-Pod mix and she and I seemed to be totally on the same page music-wise.

The juke box is full of Indie rock (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Stokes, Arcade Fire). A juke box Teen Spirit would love. They also have oldies like Burl Ives and Billie Holiday, and a whole bunch of stuff I don’t remember which impressed me at the time.

Most of all, it’s the kind of Park Slope place that proves that PS is one young, happening place. Where do all these people live? They’re young, good looking, and on the make…

Who said PS was square?

Gowanus Lounge does a nice rap up of the Park Slope mommy writers. Not only does he mention OTBKB and Smartmom but he’s got Amy Sohn and the new Diary of a Park Slope Mommy (on Gawker) in there, too. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I always say….

Park Slope moms that are writing and
blogging about their lives, either positively or negatively: we have Amy Sohn,
the former New York Mag sex columnist turned mommy who is turning her
talents as a writer to writing about how awful it is to be a Stay at
Home Mom and how all the Park Slope Stay at Home Moms are vaguely
insane, Zoloft eating zombies. One suspects more words in the
self-hating mommy genre will be coming from Gawker, which has just started up a "Diary of a Park Slope Mommy."
We’re definitely not expecting joyous odes to Park Slope motherhood to
be coming from this corner. Here’s a few words from the blog entry
introducing the new feature:

"Diary of a Park Slope Mommy" will chronicle the angst, despair, and corrosiveness to the soul that raising children and living in Park Slope engenders.

Check out the web exclusive: Tale of Three Community Boards in this week’s Brooklyn Papers.
Here’s a tasty tidbit:

It was neither the best of times, nor the worst of times, but three
community boards surrounding Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards
mega-development held hastily scheduled, little-publicized and legally
irrelevant public hearings last night (Thursday, Aug. 3) to give
residents a chance to vent. Little was said that wasn’t said before,
but racial and class schisms were reopened. Residents of Boards 2 and
6, which cover tony areas such as Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope and Fort
Greene, were almost entirely against the project. Residents of Board 8,
which covers a much-less-well-off area extending from Prospect Heights
to Brownsville, were far more supportive of the project. Virtually all
people who spoke in favor of the project were black. Virtually all who
spoke against it were white. In the style of The Brooklyn Papers’
triple-threat Brooklyn Cyclones coverage, we now offer a
menage-a-transcript from last night’s event.

You’re Invited to Participate in a Photo Exhibition Commemorating the 5th Anniversary of 9/11

From September 7- September 30th, "Here Was New York: Twin Towers in
Memorial Images," will be held simultaneously in various galleries in
Brooklyn, including 5+5 Gallery, Safe-t-Gallery, and Gloria Kennedy
Gallery, all located at 111 Front Street Galleries in DUMBO, to mark
the fifth anniversary of September 11th.

"Here Was New York" seeks photos that document the Twin Towers as
they appear throughout the New York Metropolitan region in vernacular
expressions such as wall murals, shrines, custom painting on trucks,
logos, graffiti, tattoos, merchandise display, window stickers, and so
on. Curated by BAC folklorist Kay Turner, the impetus for the exhibit
stems from a wish to acknowledge local forms of remembrance that keep
the Twin Towers visible to us as we go about our daily post- 9/11
lives. "Never forget" means never forget that day, but in another sense
it means never forget what was before that day.

This exhibit also serves as an homage and a counterpoint to "Here Is
New York," a photo exhibit which opened immediately after the attacks
in 2001. Held in a makeshift gallery in Soho, that remarkable exhibit
made it possible for anyone to hang their photos recording the events
of September 11th. Hundreds did so and thousands came to see the
pictures. "Here Was New York" acts upon the same democratic principles
as its predecessor and invites anyone in the New York area to submit a
photo documenting the Twin Towers as they remain visible in symbolic
form throughout the city.

Photos will be accepted from Monday, July 24, 2006 until Thursday, August 31, 2006. Read guidelines below.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

1. Three photos maximum per photographer. You do NOT have to be a Brooklyn resident to participate.
2. Photos must contain an image of the Twin Towers as part of the
   photo document Photos of the Towers themselves taken before September
   11th are not acceptable for this exhibit. However, pictures of the
   Towers incorporated into another form of expression (e.g. a postcard
   image of the Towers incorporated into a memorial window display in a
   local neighborhood) are acceptable. Subject matter for this
   documentation project may be found anywhere in New York City and the
   Metro region including Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and beyond.
3. Photo PRINTS may be in any format (snapshots, digital prints, black and white, prints from slides, etc.) up to 16"x 20".
4. Each photo submitted MUST be identified on the backside in PENCIL
   with the photographer’s name, address, e-mail or phone, location where
   the photo was taken and date of the photo.
5. Each photo sent to us must be accompanied by a SUBMISSION FORM The
   form serves as a release and also makes it possible for you to create a
   label for your photo(s). "Here Was New York" Photo Submission Form
6. Framing and matting is not required, but pack photos carefully for
   mailing or delivery. PHOTOS will not be returned. They will be archived
   in the Brooklyn Arts Council Folk Arts Archive with eventual final
   archiving in an institution housing 9/11 materials. By sending a photo
   you accept and agree to have your photo archived.
7. Work in this exhibit is not for sale or purchase.
8. Photos will be accepted from Monday, July 24, 2006 until Thursday,
   August 31, 2006. Photos should be delivered or mailed to HERE WAS NEW
   YORK c/o Brooklyn Arts Council, 55 Washington St. Suite 218, Brooklyn,
   NY 11201.
9. The photos will be grouped and displayed simultaneously at various
   gallery spaces in Brooklyn. Further information about "Here Was New
   York" exhibit locations will be announced in early August. The photos
   will be on view from around September 7- September 30. We will make
   every effort to let you know where your photo is exhibited. For further
   information email ssturman@brooklynartscouncil.org or kturner@brooklynartscouncil.org Mark the subject heading Here Was New York Photo Exhibit.

This week, Brooklyn Paper’s reports that the Woody Guthrie family would like to set up a memorial for Woody in Coney Island. I think it is one fantastic idea. He is one of my heroes and a great American icon.

I did not know this but thanks to Gowanus Lounge now I do:  Woody and family lived on Mermaid Avenue. I do know that Arlo Guthrie attended Woodward Park School, which used to be on Prospect Park West and First Street (now the site of The Polyprep School).

The family is talking about a rock with the lyrics to "This Land is Your Land" on East 36th Street and Mermaid Avenue.

Continue reading THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND: CONEY ISLAND, TOO →

As if you didn’t already know how hot it is, this is from New York 1.

The city remains under a heat emergency Wednesday with temperatures
expected to climb as high as 103 degrees, pushing the demand for
electricity to record highs for the second day in a row.

Despite pleas from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Con Edison to
conserve energy, the city broke a record for power use Tuesday when
demand hit more than 13,100 megawatts at 5 p.m. According to the
utility, overall electric consumption has grown by nearly 20 percent
over the last 10 years.

The city is still asking New Yorkers to set air conditioning
thermostats at 78 degrees and completely turn the A/C off when no one’s
home. Heavy appliances like washers should only be used early in the
morning or late at night when demand for power is lowest.

There is also a state air health advisory in effect for today and
tomorrow. People with respiratory problems are urged to stay inside as
much as possible.

As was the case Tuesday, the city is doing its part to help people
keep cool, extending hours at its 380 cooling centers around the five
boroughs, keeping public pools open later than usual, and handing out
bottles of water in various locations.

With the scorching weather this week, the city’s power grid is being stretched to the limit.

Scattered outages are being reported all over the city and Con Ed
crews are out working in many neighborhoods, including Sunset Park,
Brooklyn where some residents stood around on the street, waiting for
Con Ed to restore power to their area.

Some said the prospect of getting up and going to work was pretty unbearable after suffering through Tuesday night.

"There’s no possible way to keep cool,” said Jason Cortes, who lost
power Tuesday night. “There’s no light whatsoever, the A/Cs aren’t
working. It’s just hot, disgusting. I gotta be at work in three hours.
It’s just hot, it’s horrible."

"It was just a big ‘kaboom!’ Everybody heard. The car alarms just
went off and all the lights went off completely," said Crystal Mendez
who also lost power.

Overnight, the power was also knocked out to other parts of
Brooklyn and Queens. Firefighters were doing double-duty early
Wednesday morning in Ozone Park, battling a manhole fire and downed
wires.

Con Ed is reminding New Yorkers to conserve energy and asks New Yorkers to report any outages by calling 1-800-75-CONED.

The city has decided to make summer school attendance optional
Wednesday because of the blistering heat. The Department of Education
says while teachers and supervisors will be in schools and classes will
go on, students are not required to attend. In a letter to parents, the
DOE says no student will be marked absent for not attending summer
school for the day.

Continue reading MORE ON THE HEAT WAVE FROM NEW YORK 1 →

In August, OTBKB is going on vacation to California. Would you like to be a guest blogger? Please email me: louise_crawford@yahoo.com.

Your post doesn’t have to be long. Just a few interesting words about summer where you are. Unless you want to write about something else. Just let me know. Photo bloggers are welcome, too.

Dates needed: August 8-23, 2006.

No Land Grab has the real scoop on H and M. They are not moving.  Oops.

Since when does OTBKB report celebrity-gossip rumors from other blogs? 

Once you got the ball rolling by calling Heath a "Fair Weather
Brooklyn Friend," we checked it out and found out that Ledger and
Williams ARE sticking it out in Brooklyn despite Ratner and that their
Hollywood pad is just a local base for when they’re working in
California.

See NoLandGrab
to
read our scoop and foray into celebrity gossip. By tomorrow we’ll be
back to entertaining Brooklynites with very tall tales spun by Ratner
and his supporters.

On Tuesday July 25, come to the last outdoor movie of the summer at Brooklyn Film Works. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. Watch this 1973 classic by Robert Altman starring Elliot Gould. Here’s a blurb from Amazon:

Raymond Chandler’s cynically idealistic hero, Philip Marlowe, has been
played by everyone from Humphrey Bogart to James Garner–but no one
gives him the kind of weirdly affect-less spin that Elliott Gould does
in this terrific Robert Altman reimagining of Chandler’s penultimate
novel. Altman recasts Marlowe as an early ’70s L.A. habitué, who gets
involved in a couple of cases at once. The most interesting involves a
suicidal writer (Sterling Hayden in a larger-than-life performance)
whom Marlowe is supposed to keep away from malevolent New-Ageish guru
Henry Gibson. A variety of wonderfully odd characters pop up, played by
everyone from model Nina Van Pallandt to director Mark Rydell to
ex-baseballer Jim Bouton. And yes, that is Arnold Schwarzenegger (in
only his second movie) popping up as (what else?) a muscleman. Listen
for the title song: It shows up in the strangest places. –Marshall Fine

Note: The film has one very violent scene (a mobster smashes a glass into a woman’s nose). There is also a small amount of nudity. Parental discretion advised.

An explanation has been given for the listing of the Princess, the cruise ship docked in Red Hook: It was a junior officer’s fault. He made a really bad boo boo. This from ny1.

Reports say human error caused Tuesday’s frightening tilting of the Crown Princess cruise ship.

According to an Orlando TV news station, a junior officer
"panicked" while steering. In trying to disengage the autopilot, he
accidentally made the ship turn even further left, causing the
15-degree tilt.

The ship is now back at sea with new passengers, after being given
the all clear from the Coast Guard and the National Transportation
Safety Board.

It set sail from Red Hook, Brooklyn Saturday night.

Passengers who spoke with NY1 had mixed feelings about boarding,
including one man whose daughter was leaving for a honeymoon on the
Princess.

"We got a tour of the ship and if there was any damage on this
ship, you would never know," said Fred Smith. "The crew has done a
great job of cleaning it up, and we saw no evidence at all of damage to
the ship."

"To be honest I wouldn’t be afraid to go back on the boat if knew
whatever it was they figured it out and they corrected it, but I’m not
ready to get back on real quick," said former passenger Tony Brown.

The ship is now headed out to Grand Turk and Bermuda. It will return to New York in a week.

I’ve been hearing about this group. They’ve been performing at Freddy’s in Prospect Heights for a while. There was a piece about them in the New York Times. This Thrusday July 27 at 7 p.m. they’ll be at Park Slope’s Barbes.  Here’s their blurb:

OPERA ON TAP. Opera is fun. Most people don’t seem to realize how much fun it really is. In order to prove it, Opera on Tap has taken its act to barrooms where they found out that beer on tap enhances the operatic experience. The company is made up of young singers and instrumentalists who relish the direct contact with audiences not inhibited in their reactions by the looming menace of giant chandeliers.