How willing are Slopers to make sacrifices to ensure that Park Slope remains a special place to live? Read more in this article I wrote for Park Slope Patch.

Check out the Brooklyn Blogfest website which is now up and running with information about Blogfest 2011.

Come one, come all to the 6th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest on MAY 12, 2011 at 7:30 PM at The Bell House(149 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues) in the Gowanus/Park Slope neighborhood.

TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE HERE.

“Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?” ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times

Since it was founded in 2006, the Brooklyn Blogfest has established itself as the nexus of creativity, talent, and insight among the blogosphere’s brightest lights. This year will be no different as Blogfest presents keynote speaker, Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine and is director of the interactive journalism program and the new business models for news project at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jarvis’ must-see presentation, Will Blog for Food (or You Can Make Money Doing This!), will focus on new business models for bloggers!

Blogfest is for bloggers, social networkers, journalists and entrepreneurs. “Whether you live by a blog, blog to live, live to blog (or are thinking of starting a blog) you’ll want to join us on May 12th.

Also on tap: a video tribute to Brooklyn’s most visionary photo bloggers (by Adrian Kinloch of Brit in Brooklyn), Blogs Aloud (directed by Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls); special networking sessions for like-minded bloggers (i.e. Blogs of a Feather), the return of the ever-popular Shout-out, when bloggers are invited to share their blogs with the world, and a roof-raising after-party with a cash bar, food and music!

See you on May 12th at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7PM). Order your $15 tickets NOW HERE.

Tickets are now available for the Brooklyn Blogfest, the 6th annual gathering of Brooklyn bloggers, at The Bell House on May 12, 2011 at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7PM) in Brooklyn.

“Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?” ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times

Since it was founded in 2006, the Brooklyn Blogfest has established itself as the nexus of creativity, talent, and insight among the blogosphere’s brightest lights. This year will be no different as Blogfest presents keynote speaker, Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine and is director of the interactive journalism program and the new business models for news project at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jarvis’ must-see presentation, Will Blog for Food (or You Can Make Money Doing This!), will focus on new business models for bloggers!

Blogfest is for bloggers, social networkers, journalists and entrepreneurs. “Whether you live by a blog, blog to live, live to blog (or are thinking of starting a blog) you’ll want to join us on May 12th.

Also on tap: a video tribute to Brooklyn’s most visionary photo bloggers (by Adrian Kinloch of Brit in Brooklyn), Blogs Aloud (directed by Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls); special networking sessions for like-minded bloggers (i.e. Blogs of a Feather), the return of the ever-popular Shout-out, when bloggers are invited to share their blogs with the world, and a roof-raising after-party with a cash bar, food and music!

Click to here to buy tickets.

Tickets are now available for the Brooklyn Blogfest, the 6th annual gathering of Brooklyn bloggers, at The Bell House on May 12, 2011 at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7PM) in Brooklyn.

“Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?” ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times

Since it was founded in 2006, the Brooklyn Blogfest has established itself as the nexus of creativity, talent, and insight among the blogosphere’s brightest lights. This year will be no different as Blogfest presents keynote speaker, Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine and is director of the interactive journalism program and the new business models for news project at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jarvis’ must-see presentation, Will Blog for Food (or You Can Make Money Doing This!), will focus on new business models for bloggers!

Blogfest is for bloggers, social networkers, journalists and entrepreneurs. “Whether you live by a blog, blog to live, live to blog (or are thinking of starting a blog) you’ll want to join us on May 12th.

Also on tap: a video tribute to Brooklyn’s most visionary photo bloggers (by Adrian Kinloch of Brit in Brooklyn), Blogs Aloud (directed by Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls); special networking sessions for like-minded bloggers (i.e. Blogs of a Feather), the return of the ever-popular Shout-out, when bloggers are invited to share their blogs with the world, and a roof-raising after-party with a cash bar, food and music!

Mario Sepulveda, one of the survivors of the 2010 Chilean mine collapse, will speak at the All Souls Bethlehem Church in Kensington, Brooklyn, today at 10:30 AM. Tom Martinez, OTBKB’s Witness photographer, is the pastor of that church. Sepulveda’s appearance is part of the regular Sunday service.

According to his bio sent to me by Martinez, Mario Sepulveda was born in Chile on October 4th, 1970 in the Southern city of Parral. He was raised in a modest home and at the age of twenty he moved to the capital, Santiago. From 1990 to 1993 he worked as a street sweeper. In 1993 he took a job as a miner in the San Jose region in Northern Chile.

Who can forget what happened on August 5th, 2010?

The  San Jose Mine had a collapse and he and 32 fellow miners were trapped 620 meters underground for a total of 69 days. It took rescuers 17 days to find them and through an international collaborative effort the 33 miners were successfully rescued on October 13, 2010.

Sepulveda is married and has two children. Since his rescue, Sepulveda has decided to dedicate his life to help the needy. As part of this commitment he now heads the project “Miner’s Miracle.” The goal is to spread his message of international unity and cooperation and to help rebuild Chile after the 2010 earthquake.

The All Souls Bethlehem Church is located at 566 E. 7th St. between Ditmas and Cortelyou Road in the Kensington section of Brooklyn.

by Amy Glaser

Spring is here and out of the closet come bicycles, soccer balls, scooters, skateboards, lacrosse sticks to name just a few. I walk down Seventh Avenue in Park Slope with my eyes in temporary nystagmus noting helmets, or not, on bikers, toddlers, scooters; checking potholes as my potential victims cross the street.

My paranoia may be a professional hazard or personality defect, but many coaches, athletes and parents see young athletes as more indestructible than they should. In fact there is a popular misconception that a concussion should be “toughed out” as athletes are put back on the field way too soon. Young athletes are more susceptible to the effects of a concussion because their brains are still developing. And while it is the collision sports like football that are commonly associated with concussions, they are also common in sports not requiring helmets such as soccer, lacrosse and wrestling and outside the arena of organized sports.

A concussion includes five major features;

–An impulsive force delivered to the head

–The rapid onset of neurological symptoms that resolve on their own

–A change in what the person can do, or feel rather than structural changes to the brain.

–A concussion may or may not involve loss of consciousness.

–There is no standard abnormality on neuroimaging seen in concussions.

In animal models it is the disruption of the neuronal membrane that slows metabolism in the brain that causes the symptoms of a concussion. Physically a concussion may cause headache, nausea, vomiting, a change in balance or vision. Mentally the person may feel slowed down or foggy, have difficulty concentrating or remembering. Emotionally they may feel more irritable or emotional and be either sleepy or have trouble falling asleep. Symptoms may appear hours after an incident.

The bottom line is this: ALL CONCUSSIONS ARE SERIOUS and athletes with suspected concussions should not return to play until they see a doctor. There is no medicine. There may not be xrays. The goal of managing concussions is to avoid activities that may slow recovery. There should be both mental and physical rest. Symptoms may worsen with attempts to concentrate, be it a video game or math test. So the goal might be to re-enter slowly perhaps shortening the school day at first.  Physically the athlete should first be asymptomatic at rest. The next step would be to increase activity slowly, returning to less activity if the symptoms recur. Recovery time varies with the individual, the severity of the concussion and the history of prior concussions. Prematurely returning to play before a concussion is fully resolved may lead to another concussion or even death.

Not all concussions can be prevented. Protective gear is important. But it is equally important that the athlete report his symptoms and the surrounding adults take them seriously even if it means not returning to the field.

For more about Dr. Amy Glaser read her bio in our Contributor’s section

This sounds very interesting. And it’s with New York Times film critic, A.O. Scott, no less. I am definitely going to try to make it.

What: The Holocaust in Film with A. O. Scott
When: Sundays March 20, 27, April 3, 10 @ 7 PM
Where: Park Slope Jewish Center, 1420 8th Avenue (@ 14th St) Brooklyn 11215 718-768-1453
http://psjc.org/2011/02/march-20th-the-holocaust-in-film-with-a-o-scott
Tickets: $20/per session & $60/for the series. Contact the PSJC office to register: 718 768-1453 or office@psjc.org.

The Park Slope Jewish Center is proud to present The Holocaust in Film, a four-session lecture series taught by A. O. Scott, New York Times film critic, with illustrative clips.

More than a quarter-century after Claude Lanzmann’s landmark documentary “Shoah” and nearly twenty years after Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List,” the Holocaust remains a perennially popular subject in American and European cinema. This course will explore some of the ways that a uniquely horrific and painful historical experience has been commemorated, reconstructed and even turned into entertainment. We will survey the various genres of the Holocaust film–from documentaries and non-fiction-based dramas to fantasies and action-adventure stories–and address some of the ethical challenges they raise.

Each of the four sessions will be organized around a particular theme, with clips from relevant films. These will include well-known recent Hollywood productions (like “Inglourious Basterds,” “Defiance,” and “The Reader”) as well as European films (“Voyages,” “Fateless,” “A Secret”) that may be less familiar to American audiences.

* March 27: Reconstructing and Remembering: Documentaries, eyewitness accounts and survivors’ stories.

* April 3: Reckoning: Movies about the psychology of the perpetrators and the moral dilemmas of the victims.

* April 10: Revisionism, Resistance and Revenge: Movies as alternative history.

A rare opportunity to hear insights from one of the nation’s leading film critics on this important topic.

Sundays at 7:00 PM

Cost is $20 a session; $60 for the whole series for non-members.

Call the PSJC office to register: 718 768-1453.

For more information about the series, please contact Dale Rosenberg at adulted@psjc.org.

On May 12th at 7:30 PM come to The 6th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest* at The Bell House in the Park Slope/Gowanus neighborhood.

This year’s Blogfest will be a fun, back-to-basics affair with keynote speaker Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? Jarvis  blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com and is director of the interactive journalism program and the new business models for news project at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jarvis’ exciting, must-see presentation, Will Blog for Food (or You Can Make Money Doing This!), will focus on new business models  for bloggers!

Blogfest is for bloggers, social networkers, journalists, creative entrepreneurs and more. Whether you blog to live, live to blog, read blogs or are just interested in this thing called blogging it’s a great time for all.

Also at Blogfest: the annual (and always stirring) Tribute to Photo Bloggers by Adrian Kinloch (Brit in Brooklyn); Blogs Aloud written and directed by Elizabeth Palmer (Midnight Cowgirls); special interest break-out groups; tons of socializing and networking with a CASH BAR.

Admission is $15. Tickets will be available online at The Bell House starting March 25, 2011!

*The Blogfest website will be updated by March 25th!

I wasn’t at the bike lane hearing last night at the auditorium at John Jay High School (alas I have been busy with the classes that I’m taking) but I read all about it in the Brooklyn Paper and it sounds like it was quite a mash-up of disagreeing points of view.

So what else is new, this is Park Slope.

Y’know, some people REALLY hate the bike lane. Yet, others think it’s a visionary thing. I tend to agree with those who believe biking, walking and public transportation beats cars in a city hands down. But that’s just me, a native New Yorker who never really relied on a car in her life.

That’s me.

At last night’s hearing, bike lane enthusiasts wore florescent stickers and according to the Brooklyn Paper they outnumbered nay-sayers.

“The lane encourages us to use our bikes more often and our cars less often,” Alan Esner told the Brooklyn Paper. “We get better air quality and exercise.”

The group calling itself Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes says that the lane is dangerous to pedestrians, drivers and other living things. They’re so mad, they’re suing the city for installing the lane in the first place. They’re also charging that the DOT faked data in support of the bike lane.

Like a a any good Park Slope hearing I hear there was plenty of booing, hissing, clapping and shouting. It was Park Slope, after all.

The whole thing is boiling into a huge political broth. It will be very interesting to see what happens next. In the mean time, pick a side and start arguing!

How One New York bike lane could affect the future of cycling worldwide, an article in the Guardian today, is just one example of the worldwide coverage our local bike lane controversy is getting.

The Guardian also examines the New York Times’ coverage of the bike lane lawsuit. A front page article in yesterday’s NY times was, according to the Guardian, very partisan. And last weekend, a  profile of Janette Sadik-Khan, transportation commissioner focused mainly on the way she rubs many city officials the wrong way.

Clearly this is bigger than just a neighborhood battle about a bike lane. The future of biking in New York City is at stake. It’s cars vs. bikes. It’s congestion pricing, bike advocacy and all the other eco-visionary things that many in the city support (and many oppose). It’s also New York pols setting up the perameters for the next mayoral election.

No doubt about it: this is power politics getting played out on a bicycle path. As the Guardian writes:

Connect the dots, and this becomes a much more significant story than the future of one bike lane in Brooklyn, or even the career of one official. New York City justly sees itself as the world’s greatest city: here, in some sense, people live the way everyone would live if they had the chance. How New York – the city that still has a uniquely low level of car ownership and use – manages its transport planning in the 21st century matters for the whole world: it is the template. If cycling is pushed back into the margins of that future, rather than promoted, along with efficient mass public transit and safe, pleasant pedestrianism, as a key part of that future, the consequences will be grave and grim.

With the addition of Video Forum, there will now be 16 vacant storefronts on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope.

An OTBKB reader just informed me that Spice Thai is going into the Lemongrass Grill space. So no vacancy there. And not loss to those who enjoy Thai cooking.

Walking home from the Grand Army Plaza subway station, I noticed that Lemongrass, the Thai restaurant between Lincoln and Berkeley Place on Seventh Avenue is closed.

The windows are painted over and there is no sign that they are renovating.

Breaking: Turns out another Thai restaurant is going into the Lemongrass Grill space. It’s called Spice Thai. There is no sign on the window yet to explain the changeover .

Lemongrass Grill was in the neighborhood for many years. I remember eating there when my son, who is now 19, was just a toddler. They have a nice backyard and we sat out there one day when he was just a wee thing.

I always liked their food a lot and have eaten there many times, especially their Pad See Yew, which is one of my favorite dishes in the world. I also liked the restaurant’s decor and thought the service was good and fast. They were also very friendly all the many times I took food to go.

Good bye Lemongrass Grill. Hello Spice Thai.

Walking by Video Forum today, our beloved video rental place on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll, I saw a sign on the window that said “Store is Closing.”

Yes.

I almost fell over as I was returning the disk of “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.” Interestingly, that’s a film directed by Park Slope filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

This is not a funny story.

The last few months have been terrible for the video rental shop. Employees in the shop think the drop in sales is attributable to Netflix streaming video, a service that enables consumers to stream movies and TV shows  onto their television sets.

Sean, who has worked at the store of five years, says that rental revenue dropped precipitously in the last couple of months. When the lease came up, the  owner, who also recently closed his longtime stationery shop on Flatbush Avenue (near Seventh Avenue), decided “he was done,” Sean said.

The shop will officially close at the end of March. In the meantime they are selling off the entire stock of DVDs and VHSs.

I don’t have time now but I am brewing a response to the lawsuit to remove the Prospect Park West bike lane filed yesterday.

According to Park Slope Patch, Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes and Seniors for Safety have filed a lawsuit to remove the Prospect Park West bike lane.

Here’s an excerpt from the Patch article.

In the suit, the groups refer to the bike lane as “an experimental bike lane” and claim that the “configuration requires pedestrians to walk across inconsistent traffic patterns with limited visibility.”

They go on to claim that the city manipulated data and furthermore “conducted no meaningful study before installation of the EBL, no careful study after installation, and withheld any meager data collected until after the only public meeting to discuss their ‘study.’”

I’m becoming a member of the Park Slope bus culture. Most mornings I take the B67 bus to the Bergen Street stop of the 2/3 train. Never in all my years in Park Slope did I take the bus to a subway. I’ve always been a big walker. But since taking a course at 9AM Monday through Friday in Manhattan, I catch the bus on Third Street and Seventh Avenue.

Some days I catch the bus that goes to Downtown Brooklyn. Other days I catch the bus that goes to Ditmas Avenue.

Either way I can catch the same subway just at different station. The bus that goes to Ditmas Avenue stops at Flatbush near 8th Avenue just a hop, skip and a jump to the Grand Army Plaza Station. The bus that goes downtown stops near the Bergen Street subway station.

Some days I time it perfectly and there is one bus (sometimes two) just crossing Third Street to the bus stop. Some days I have to run like crazy to catch the bus. A few times I’ve had to wait a long time. If I leave early enough the bus isn’t too crowded. But as it gets closer to 8AM, the more crowded the bus with students, parents and commuters.

One day I ran into Rev. Meeter on his way to Old First Church. Today I talked to a woman who gets on at Third Street. I think she was freaked out when I asked her where she goes in the city. Just making conversation. She changed seats (then again she may have just been switching to a more comfortable seat).

On the Seventh Avenue bus, people read books, Kindles, iPhones, newspapers. People talk on their cell phones and talk to their children. Strangers smile at children. Stranger strike up quick conversations. Sometimes people are grumpy like the other day when a woman got very impatient to get off the bus and slammed into someone.

I like being part of Park Slope bus culture. I like taking the bus every morning.

A cigarette may be to blame for the fire on Friday morning that killed an elderly woman.

NY 1 reports that the fire in a brownstone on Fifth Avenue and Carroll Street on Thursday night may have been by a cigarette. The fire began around 6AM on the 4th floor of a brownstone at 254 5th Avenue in Park Slope. The woman was pronounced dead at the hospital. There were no other fatalities.

Bob Goldberg is playing his accordion on Third Street

Serenading the neighbors with his favorite tunes

Walking up and down the street

Playing his favorite tunes

Bob Goldberg is playing his accordion on Third Street

Many days of the week I walk up Lincoln Place from Seventh Avenue to Eighth Avenue to my office at The Montauk Club or to the subway at Grand Army Plaza.

Many, many of those days I see Warren Fox, the tall, stocky, white haired man who smokes a pipe. I’ve never actually spoken to Fox, the owner of the red brick building on the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and Lincoln, that houses the Tibetan store on the corner and three small storefronts, but we always nod politely to one another as I pass.

Two of those small storefronts (Paper Love and Fashion East) are vacant now and today I noticed a picture of Warren Fox standing on a rock smoking his signature pipe. It was taped to the front window of the empty Paper Love storefront.

In magic marker it said: Warren 5/39-2/11.

I stared at it incredulously and then noticed a black and white portrait of a much younger man, a slimmer man, with a goatee. It said: Warren Fox 1939-2011.

I was stunned because I feel like I just saw Warren last week. Or was it the week before. He was a constant presence, hovering over those small shops and often creating wood planters with customized wood embellishments for each shop.

Warren was an artist with wood, a neighborhood fixture, a landlord always tinkering with his building — painting this, fixing that.

I said to an older man, who happened to be walking by with a dog: What happened?”

“He died. Last month. Died in his bed. He’s been here for a long, long time.”

Strange. One minute here, gone the next. That’s the way of life, eh?

We woke up around 6AM to the sound of helicopters flying overhead.

“it’s either police helicopters or news helicopters,” Hepcat said.

“I think it’s news helicopters,” I said.

I was in the city most of the morning but found out just now from PS Patch that there was a terrible fire in a brownstone on Fifth Avenue at Carroll Street around 6AM, which left a 60-year-old woman critically injured. She’s now at Methodist Hospital.

According to Patch, 60 firefighters were on the scene and they had the blaze out within an hour. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

I went to class until 2PM but slept the rest of the day. Actually I’m feeling better now and am off to see Treasure Island at Irondale (read my review in the Brooklyn Paper next week). And then tomorrow: I am participating in a panel discussion presented by the Park Slope Civic Council at the illustrious Montauk Club: Growing a Business in Park Slope.

Sorry for the dearth of content. Hugh is away briefly but just noticed he gave me a NWDP to put up. Yipee. Thanks to Eliot and Now I’ve Heard Everything for posting about MUSIC.