By Matthew A. Taub

This past weekend, Williamsburg hosted the (still ongoing) Northside Festival, which rounds out the remainder of its events over the next few days. Bands, food, film, art and a tech expo were all on hand at avariety of north Brooklyn venues, but the main attraction was the pavement portion of McCarren Park (North 12th & Bedford), with a bandshell, tech tent, and variety of food retailers.

Billed as a “super teeny mini multi-media SXSW,” or even a possiblealternative to same, Northside was competing for attention withBanaroo (occurring at the same time), and hoping to escape “the graveyard” that is New York music festivals as well as the naysayers who lamented the Great GoogaMooga’s horrific environmental destruction and perennial bad luck, including a canceled final day.

But other than a variety of confusing badges, everything seemed surpisingly well-managed— nothing overloaded, over-promised, or over-priced, making for an exciting yet accessible experience.

Saturday’s billing included Phosphorescent, who drew a nice crowd, followed by The Walken, who lit up the masses to close out the acts for the day, among a host of others.

Meanwhile, a tech tent provided all sorts of whacky activity, with a frenzy of workers furiously apace around obtuse, Rube-Goldberg-likecontraptions, such as drums that played themselves.

Food options were eclectic without being overbearing, including hearty tacos from Cemitas and crab boil from Bon Chovie.

The Northside festival, now in its fifth year, is run by The L Magazine. For further information, visit the festival’s website, “like” the magazine on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter.

 Matthew Taub is a writer and lawyer in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of “Death of the Dying City,” a novel.

Craig Hammerman, District Manager of Community Board 6 writes a monthly Email Newsletter called “The Sixth Sense.” In it he and CB6 staff provide local news and a cool list of activities. Below is a sampling. You have to go to the CB6 site in order to sign up and get the newsletter (with all the links). Incentive.

On Saturday June 8th (all weekends until June 16th) 1:00-6:00 pm, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC) presents “On the Waterfront: Zone A”: art exhibition. Come see BWAC’s post-Sandy rebuilt gallery in Red Hook, with the city’s best view of the Statue of Liberty. It’s a perfect destination for a spring weekend. 499 Van Brunt St./Red Hook.

 Also in Red Hook on Saturday June 8th, Brooklyn Based presents The Red Hook Total Immersion.: A day of exploring, drinking, brunching + shopping in Red Hook + Columbia Street. All day, various locations. Click to view map.

On Sunday June 9th, 4:30pm 440 Gallery presents Wine, Cheese Olives & Art Talk. The Sundays@440 is a free program of events ranging from talks, music, performances and readings, intended to bring the community together in a lively and casual exchange in the arts. For more information and to see further upcoming events, please visit www.440gallery.com

Continue reading Craig Hammerman: Cool and Unusual Local Activities in June →

When my sister and I were six, we had a swim teacher at Camp Yomi who used to call my sister Esther Williams because of the graceful way that she cupped her hands when she did the crawl (now called the Freestyle). My sister still does that.

“Hey Esther,” the swim teacher used to call out to her while she was swimming. “She looks just like Esther Williams.” The anology was lost on us at the time. But later we learned who she was. I can’t remember when I first saw Esther Williams on screen. But I’ve always been a fan. And not just because of my sister and this memory of an early childhood swim teacher.

Esther Williams died yesterday. The work she did with director Busby Berkeley was pretty darn brilliant. She once said her favorite co-star was the water. The aquatic star of the screen died in her sleep in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Matthew Taub is a writer and lawyer in Brooklyn, NY. He is the author of “Death of the Dying City,” a novel. He filed this report about how to make biking safe in our city, including insurance, licenses, helmets, and traffic law changes.

The debut of the “Citibike” program is an exciting moment for the City of New York, despite some predictable opposition. But many issues need to be addressed, such as insurance, licenses, helmets, and traffic law changes. Such reforms should apply not just to bike share programs, but possibly for all bicyclists in general.

*Note: on the web site Medium, this is a collaborative post where readers are invited to weigh in with commentary and suggestions, in addition to my proposed reforms (icons along the right margin of the Medium web site should allow this).

1. Mandatory (or at least optional) insurance requirements.

The fact that most bicyclists are uninsured is a gaping hole in the ability for accident victims to recover when they sustain injuries. Many pedestrians have been seriously wounded or even killed by bicyclists.

(Full disclosure: in addition to being a writer, I am also a personal injury lawyer. Though I often represent bicyclists as Plaintiffs when they are injured by motor vehicles, I also ocassionally sue bicyclists for striking pedestrians. However, unless the bicyclists are employed by a messenger service or restaurant, whereby they are in the scope of employment while making deliveries (and thus covered by the employer’s insurance), there can often be little ability to recover any verdict award from a leisure bicyclist’s personal assets.)

The Citibike program already charges user fees for riders to utilize the service. Like Zipcar, the car sharing program where insurance is automatically included, the Citibike fee should include the cost of insurance for any accidents. It seems unclear as to whether it does, but this should certainly be a mandatory component for allowing access to the “Citibike” bicycles.

The further question is then whether the state should also require insurance for all bicyclists, or at least make it available. Such insurance is often difficult to obtain— not always easily tethered to a renter’s or homeowner’s policy and rarely independently available (though this may change). In any event, this all leads to the next issue.

2. Should bicyclists be licensed?

This issue cuts a few ways. Along with a requirement (or at least an option) for insurance coverage, another issue is whether bicyclists should be licensed and/or be required to have small license plates posted on their frames. If plates were required, traffic cameras could then capture them with respect to cyclists who violate traffic laws,cause motor vehicle accidents, or are wanted in police investigations. Any bicycle without a plate could immediately be pulled over to enforce the rule, such as with motor vehicles presently.

Continue reading Matthew Taub : Making City Biking Safe (An Opinion) →

I told you about Bklnyr, a new and independent publication whose mission is to publish great journalism about Brooklyn. Capital New York called it an idea “so obvious it’s almost hard to believe it hasn’t already been done.”

In Issue 5, which came out today, there’s an article about Jumaane Williams called “Troublemaker: Can an activist turned City Council member survive at City Hall.” Hillary Busis writes about how the Park Slope Food Co-op became an institution that will outlast the punchlines. To read the article in full you have to subscribe to Bklynr for $2 dollars a month. Here’s an excerpt from the Food Coop story:

One does not simply walk into the Park Slope Food Co-op.

Before they’re granted entry to Brooklyn’s most talked-about grocery store, guests must first visit its membership office — a cramped facility that, incidentally, housed the entire co-op when it was founded 40 years ago. The office shares space with the co-op’s childcare center and a meeting room, which hosts events with names like “Gluten Intolerance: Fact or Fiction?” (Those events, unlike the co-op itself, are generally free and open to the public.) It’s located at the top of a narrow staircase lined with dozens of fliers advertising drum lessons, free guinea pigs, and cooking classes courtesy of something called Purple Kale Kitchenworks.

Once they’ve ascended the steps, visitors are given bright orange stickers indicating their non-member status — but only after they’ve handed over photo identification. The members working the desk are asked to cross-check outsiders with the co-op’s database, ensuring that guests aren’t secretly co-op members in bad standing. (After a ten-day grace period, members who have been “suspended” due to missing their work shifts lose their shopping privileges.) Members must also sign in all outsiders and promise, in writing, that the guests will not shop.

Have you seen the new Cheerios ad, “Just Love”? The ad features a interracial family like the one in the picture, and it’s got a lot of people upset; however, even more people are defending Cheerios’s decision to portray an American family in a realistic way.

I just got this note from Chirlane McCray, the wife of Bill de Blasio (he’s running for mayor and is currently the Public Advocate ). At first I was like, hey, are they the family in the Cheerios ad? Nope. They just made their own photo in their kitchen with a Cherrios box. Nice job.

The ad struck a chord with me, and I wanted to tell you why.

This may surprise you, but Bill’s age concerned me more than the color of his skin (he’s six years younger!). But I knew our age difference wasn’t the cause of stares on the subway, or why our families were so surprised when we brought each other home.

As an interracial couple, we sometimes felt conspicuous — which was painful. If you’re in love with someone, you’re in love with someone.

But Bill and I believed it would get better over time, and we hoped for our kids it would be easier.

That’s why the Cheerios ad is so refreshing.

19 years of marriage and two children later, this is the first TV commercial I have ever seen with a family that looks a little bit like ours. And it’s a big deal that despite some nasty criticism, Cheerios — a staple on American breakfast tables, spanning generations and cross-cutting just about every social boundary — produced the ad and stuck by it.

Bill, Chiara, Dante, and I are different parts (the kids would emphasize the “different”!) who make a whole.

Cheerios is recognizing the changing face of America, and celebrating that our differences make us stronger.

That’s what Bill is doing by fighting for every New Yorker — in every part of our city. Times are changing and we support the people who are changing with us.

Stand with us if that’s you:

http://billdeblasio.com/together

This one goes out in memory of my dad, a huge Louis Armstrong fan, something he passed on to me.

Three hot NYC jazz bands will play in Louis’s Garden this summer: Bria’s Hot Five with Bria Skonberg on July 4th – Louis Armstrong’s birthday, Jon-Erik Kellso and the EarRegulars on July 20th and Peter & Will Anderson Sextet on August 17th. Each concert is at 2:00 pm. Concerts include complimentary red beans n’ rice (Louis’s favorite recipe) & sweet tea. And, since Louis always celebrated his birthday on July 4th birthday cake will be served during the Fourth of July event to celebrate! July 4th is always a day-long marathon for Louis Armstrong on WKCR.

For the first time, the museum has launched advance ticket sales for this series. All advance tickets include a Historic House Tour pass (good for 6 months). Advance single tickets are $18. A series subscription is available for $45 and includes reserved VIP seats. Tickets at the door are $20. Advance tickets can only be purchased online at LouisArmstrongHouse.org.

This sounds really fun and I just might make it over there. For my dad. Not sure he ever made it over to the house in Queens…

(I do believe this photo is by the great Richard Avedon.)

This morning, I am happy to report, the initial monetary goal of the 27-day $100,000 Kickstarter campaign to save Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade was met. Through small contributions from people around the world, widespread attention from media, celebrities (Alec Baldwin, Darren Aronofsky, etc.), and, well, everybody, there was “a flash flood of support for the 30 year old event.”

Nice.

And why not. Everyone loves the parade and after Hurricane Sandy, there are a lot of extra expenses needed to put on the event. The parade was in jeopardy due to these rising costs. Funding the recovery and the Mermaid Parade has proven to be extremely challenging for the small organization.

“Let’s face it: we’ve had some hard times,” says parade founder Dick Zigun, speaking in Coney Island USA’s damaged headquarters, in the Kickstarter video. “Where I’m standing was up to here in floodwater—our headquarters was totally destroyed…We’re still recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, and it’s just beyond us. We can’t pull it all off this year.”

To aid the mermaids, the Kickstarter was launched on April 7th. The campaign features rewards that run the gamut from a set of pasties (unisex) designed by contributors to your own private air-conditioned porta potty to a (literal) Freak Flag.

Not surprisingly, Borough President Marty Markowitz is getting in on the act. In support of the grassroots campaign, Marty Markowitz will be offering a unique reward: the top two donators to the Mermaid Parade campaign will get to ride on a special float at the front of the Parade with Marty. That’s right. With Marty. “Anything for the Mermaids!” says Markowitz.

Even though the campaign has met its goal, there are four days to go and you can still add more money to the Mermaid Parade. They need it.

The Park Slope Dog Dash is coming!

On June 9th, Foster Dogs NYC is sponsoring a family-friendly (and dog-friendly!) scavenger hunt around Park Slope to benefit Foster Dogs NYC, whose goal is to facilitate the foster process with shelters and rescue groups around the NYC area. They also organize adoption events and help animal shelters improve their online presence.

The fun starts at The Gate on Third Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope at 11:45 AM on June 9th.

During the event, each team is urged to raise $300 to help Foster Dogs NYC provide foster care to a dog in need! Once there is enough funding, FDNYC can do AMAZING things to help other rescue groups in urgent need.

Funds will help:

–Pay for emergency vet care for NYC foster dogs

–Assist with dog training needs

–Pay for transportation of shelter dogs to adoption events

–Create foster marketing materials!

For more information about this event and to register, go to http://psdogdash.com.

Anne-Katrin Titze, a film critic and Park Slope local, filed this special report about Saturday’s Great Googa Mooga in Prospect Park. Due to rain, the event was cancelled on Sunday.

The NOT SO Great GoogaMooga is back in Prospect Park with the same false information as last year.

It is beyond the pale that after last year’s damage the Prospect Park Alliance would allow this again and in fact add a day, Friday this year. The arrogance of everyone involved is destructive to the park. They have their operation trailers all over Wellhouse Drive. What is going on is more than three Hollywood movie shoots at one time.

Not only is this a three plus weeks invasion of the park by a crass commercial operation being allowed carte blanche by the Prospect Park Alliance to do what they want, the Alliance is sending out false information with regard to access and the long term harm done last year by this fiasco.

The NOT SO Great GoogaMooga includes dozens upon dozens of poles stuck into the Nethermead Meadow and surrounding areas. Dozens upon dozens of boards and heavy plates crushing down the grass. This is going on in a public park when it should be held at a concrete parking lot, not harming a Prospect Park meadow.

This is another glaring example of how ineffectual the Prospect Park Alliance/Parks is when it comes to protecting the natural beauty we all enjoy. The NOT SO Great GoogaMooga is back and has already fenced off the Nethermead Meadow loading in huge refrigeration boxes, structures being built since last week.

After last year’s fiasco, the Prospect Park Alliance is allowing the disorganizers to add an extra day of events. The free tickets to allow you to wait on long lines to buy beverages and food are gone, unless you agree to become a member of the Prospect Park Alliance. They have closed off access to try to get naive park visitors to feel as if they are being treated special, when all they are doing is selling, selling, selling.

The Prospect Park Alliance closed the Boathouse/Audubon Center due to mismanagement of their own budget and for two years running turn over the park to a crass commercial misadventure. In addition, there is a lack of commitment of resources to maintain the lakeside and landscape. Allowing any entity to come in during the spring migration of countless species of birds through Brooklyn, is one more illustration of the disconnect from the beauty of Prospect Park shown by those who are paid to protect its value for all.

Photo from A Walk in the Park

I used to call Assemblyman Vito Lopez the Darth Vader of Brooklyn politics—and that was before I knew about the sexual harassment allegations. Many have charged that he is a Democratic kingmaker, a real old school party boss that rules the roost and is almost never challenged. Tish James told the New York Times in 2010, “Some people, when you mention the name Vito Lopez they quiver. They’re fearful.”

Lopez was first elected to the State Assembly in 1984 (representing Bushwick and Williamsburg) and since 2006 has served as the Chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party.

Last summer he announced that he would not seek re-election as Kings County Chairman due to allegations that he sexual harassed two of his female staff members and he was stripped of his committee chairmanship.

This week the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics issued a report outlining the sexual harassment of multiple women on his staff by Lopez. It sounds like there was a system of sexual harassment in his office. On Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo and many others recommended that Lopez be expelled from the Assembly.

On Friday, finally, Lopez, said he would resign his seat in the Assembly in five weeks. Five weeks? He should go immediately. But in an even more exasperating move, he announced that he plans to run for a City Council seat.

This guy is just unbelievable.

Steve Levin, a Park Slope City Councilman, issued a  statement today renouncing his former mentor. While I am a fan of Levin’s I always wondered why he never spoke out against Vito before. I think he’s either very naive or very beholden to the man who helped him get elected.

“I was shocked and saddened to read the findings in the JCOPE report on Assemblyman Lopez.  The findings detail behavior that is disturbing, indefensible, and constitutes a breach of the public trust. During my time in his office there were never any incidents or allegations of sexual harassment. If there had been I would have contacted the authorities immediately. Sexual harassment is unacceptable under all circumstances and I do not tolerate it. Due to the circumstances, I believe it is the best thing for everyone concerned that he voluntarily step down.”

Lopez should leave the Assembly immediately and never run for another office. Systemic sexual harassment is not acceptable in our government, in our military, anywhere. Out with the bad. Time to go Vito. Someone show him the door.

Have you seen Bklynr? It’s a brand new web magazine offering quality journalism about Brooklyn. Founded by Raphael Pope-Sussman, who you may remember from the Park Slope 100 for his blog The Audacity of Pope, and Thomas Rhiel, it is  gorgeously designed and it features stories, smart and deep, about immigration reform, barber shops, the Gowanus Canal, and happens when the biggest Jewish cemetery in Brooklyn runs out of room and much more. Plus photojournalism, graphic stories and illustration.

The illustration is from “What You See Is What You Get,” a semi-autobio comic by Dean Haspiel featured in this month’s Bklnr.

Here’s the pitch from Bklynr, which costs $2 a month or $20 a year.

It’s harder than it should be to find quality journalism about Brooklyn. Certain aspects and areas of the borough are covered to death (you know which ones), while the rest of Brooklyn gets limited attention. We want to help change that. BKLYNR strives to produce thoughtful, compelling journalism that explores new narratives rather than retreading tired tropes.

Twice a month, we publish in-depth stories about the political, economic, and cultural life of Brooklyn. Each issue contains three pieces.

To read BKLYNR, subscribe. You can choose either a recurring monthly subscription, which is $2, or a one-time annual subscription, which is $20.

Thanks to all for Edgy Moms 2013. It was a great night with Sophia Romero, Karen Ritter, Lori Topoll, Susan Hodara, Vicki Addesso, Chris Nelson, Cathy Brown and Nicole Calihan.

I think we delivered on our promise of funny, poignant, frank and fresh writing about motherhood and mothers. It was truly a great night.

Last night’s mayoral forum, organized by the Park Slope Civic Council and other local civic groups, was set within the grandiose beauty of Congregation Beth Elohim’s sanctuary. Esteemed WNYC radio journalist Andrea Bernstein sat on the bema (stage) at a round table with a blue tablecloth. There were maybe two hundred people in attendance.

The idea was that each candidate, one at a time, would get their fifteen minutes or so to answer questions, some of which were submitted previously by members of the audience.

A fairly simple idea. But politics is always a circus, isn’t it? Apparently there were two other mayoral forums going on elsewhere in the city and the candidates were shuttling from one to the next.

Up first was City Comptroller (and former City Council Member) John Liu. Fresh on the heels of a conviction by a federal jury of two of his campaign staff on campaign-finance fraud charges, he came across as smart, direct, well-informed and a little defensive.

“I will defend Jenny Hu until the day I die ,” he said referring to the 26-year old staff member. He called the investigation into his campaign “basically a witch hunt.”

I couldn’t help but think he was making the old “I am not a crook” mistake. Let it go, Liu. Let it go and move on.

The Park Slope audience was pleased by his dis of the Barclays Center and disdained the developer’s use of eminent domain and the promise of affordable housing. “We got a stadium and jobs for popcorn vendors,” he told the crowd. “What else have we gotten but promises that were never met?”

He proposed ending all subsidies given to corporations for development,  including tax abatements. “We can develop without tax payer’s money if we’re getting little in return,” he said and many in the audience applauded.

In a moment of levity, he asked that the audience not hold it against him that he’s from Queens. Asked what he didn’t like about Bloomberg he said, “NYC is too much of a Nanny state,” citing the proposed restrictions on beverage drink sizes.

Asked about the Prospect Park Bike Lane, he said there was was “a paucity of outreach” and that many of the bike lanes around the city were eroniously set up as pilot programs that circumvent the community process. (In fact, the Prospect Park Bike Lane was supported by the Community Board process.)

Continue reading A Chance to Meet the Mayoral Candidates →

I hate blog comments spam. Hate it.

Those of you without a blog probably don’t realize that bloggers are constantly besieged with blog comments spam. This spam is a form of advertising, an attempt to sneak a particular company or website link onto a public page. It’s written in English, sometimes bad English and sometimes makes me laugh but mostly annoys me. A lot.

I obviously never approve these comments but I thought you might like to see what I have to contend with. I’ve deleted any references to stores or websites that the spam is trying to promote.

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Awful.

Wanna hear the mayoral candidates discuss parks, schools, transporation , development? Indeed, this could be a good opportunity to hear the candidates on issues of interest to Brooklynites.

WHAT: NYC Mayoral Candidates Forum

WHEN: Monday, May 6, 2013, at 7:00 –9:00 p.m.(doors open at 6:30 p.m.)

WHERE: Congregation Beth Elohim (274 Garfield Place at 8 th Avenue)

All the mayoral candidates as of March 2013 have been invited to attend the forum (Sal Albanese; Adolfo Carrion; John Catsimatidis; Bill de Blasio; Joe Lhota; John Liu; George McDonald; Christine Quinn; and Bill Thompson).

The forum will be moderated by Andrea Bernstein of WNYC and will be strictly timed. There will be 1.5 minute opening statements and 2 minute closing statements. We wish to extend an invitation to all interested voters to attend this forum, and hear the candidates’ vision for the future of Brooklynand NYC. All local news outlets, publications and blogs are also invited to attend.

You can even submit questions in advance at Google Moderator: http://go.gl/mod/8 pOB. The  forum is free and no RSVP or tickets are required. first come, first served seating.

My friend Branka just wrote to me about this cool activity on May 5th from 2-6PM. Spring is here and everything’s in bloom. Come discover what greens are growing wild in our back yard. Learn how to identify seasonal edible and medicinal plants in Prospect Park with locavore and urban gardener Leda Meredith. For more info and tickets go here. 

Learn to identify plants like: lamb’s quarters, burdock, pokeweed, plantain, mugwort, dandelion, peppergrass, epazote, sassafras, spicebush, sorrel, milkweed, garlic mustard…and many more.

Tastings will include – red clover blossom bread and a garlic mustard pesto spread, plus one other wild-food based dip or spread to enjoy.

Afterwards, sample tastings prepared by Leda, accompanied by your favorite beverage at Snail of Approval bar/restaurant Flatbush Farm.

Proceeds from this event support the programs of Slow Food NYC, including the Urban Harvest program of good food education for NYC kids at schools in the South Bronx, Harlem, Lower East Side, and Brooklyn, as well as a summer urban farm in Brooklyn.

I remember waking up at 4AM on October 30th and writing this.

The television was still on when I awoke Tuesday morning at 4AM after falling asleep exhausted at midnight during a Dave Letterman show recorded without an audience.

After Sandy.

A few hours of sleep and then it was time for an update on the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy’s landfall in New York City. The wind gusts are still fierce on Third Street; the trees sway violently. From my windows it looks like Park Slope made it through the storm very well. The same, of course, cannot be said for areas close by…

Walking though the apartment I see signs of yesterday’s panic/preparedness. The stove top is covered with pots filled with water. On the countertops are pitchers of water. The bathtub is filled with water.

The dining room table is covered with flashlights and batteries. A  Scrabble board with tiles of a game played last night next to a thousand jigsaw puzzle pieces, an image of Marilyn Monroe coming into view.

The refrigerator is filled with food; our rain boots and foul weather gear are at the ready by the front door. We never got around to creating “Go Bags” but I don’t think we’ll be needing them now anyway.

On the TV, a flooded Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, a dark Manhattan, a crane dangling from atop a NYC high rise under construction. New Jersey looks hard hit, weathermen and women describe weather conditions to come. More than 600,000 are without power in NYC and  Westchester.

Before sunrise it’s hard to even know how bad the devestation. The Gowanus just a few blocks away  flooded familiar streets near our home. Park Slope may have averted disaster but Manhattan, especially below 34th Street, wasn’t so lucky.

Shock. Pain. Incredulity. A native New Yorker I don’t remember a situation like this before. 9/11 comes to mind as a similarly disorienting and traumatic event. We know from that experience that we can pull together, that we are resilient, that we will get through this.

Remember: this too shall pass—with a great deal of hard work by rescue workers who evoke our gratitude. But all of us will have to find a way to help those in need and muster our strength to get through this anomalous and disorienting situation.

I wrote this on October 30th, 2012 the day after Sandy hit.

We  waited and watched.

In Park Slope power outages and flooding never came (though the Gowanus overflowed just blocks away). But on the television we watched as Con Edision transformers exploded, Manhattan went dark below 34th Street; fires raged in Queens; and water flooded subways and tunnels.

We waited and watched as trees flailed violently outside our Park Slope windows and images from lower Manhattan painted a portrait of life after wartime. A flooded metropolis astounded us. Catastrophic was a word that was bandied about. A back up generator at NYU failed and patients were shown being transferred to other hospitals. On Twitter, incredible images of a submerged FDR Drive, a soaked Penn Station, a dark Tribeca, a flooded  Stuyvesant Town in the East Village.

At 4AM Tuesday morning, my city is in ruins. A million are without power, the subways are stilled, stations soaked. The streets are canals, fires rage and forecasters discuss a bizarre convergence of weather systems that left unseen destruction in its wake.

I wait and watch for the sunrise when my resilient city begins its slow recovery from this destruction.

A New Yorker editor Ben Greenman is known around Park Slope as a PS 321 dad and an author of some very interesting fiction, including the novels Superbad from McSweeney’s, Please Step Back and a collection of short stories called What He’s Poised to Do. 

So how’s this for a cool idea for a literary reading?

To celebrate the launch of his new novel The Slippage (Harper Perennial), Greenman welcomes students from Park Slope’s esteemed elementary school, PS 321, to read from their original work.

What a cool idea. It’s sure to be a great event. As a former editor of Pandamonium, the school’s annual poetry magazine, I know the kids do great writing at that school.

Greenman will also read from The Slippage, the story of a suburban husband and wife in the process of assessing what their relationship means to them, and if it will survive.

News of yesterday’s bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon hit me hard. With incredulity and anger, I watched the TV as the euphoria of a 26-mile run turned into horror and chaos.

Maybe because I am a runner and have run a half-marathon, I felt like it was my people who were targeted yesterday. Obama, who looked grim during his remarks yesterday said, “On days like this there are no Republicans or Democrats — we are Americans, united in concern for our fellow citizens.”

To which I might add, we are all runners, we are all citizens of Boston.

In January I attended a book launch at the exquisite Boston Public Library, the oldest library in America. I stayed at the Lenox Hotel and ate breakfast at the Four Seasons in Copley Square. Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood was vivid in my mind as I watched video of first responders wheeling runners on gurneys across bloody sidewalks.

Another day was vivid in my mind, too.

The weather was perfect, the sky bright blue just like the morning of September 11, 2001, when I felt the same sense of violation and loss. Just like that day, it was the second hit that convinced us that it was not an accident but an attack.

Yesterday afternoon the TV news played the same video over and over again, just like they did on 9/11. I knew from that time to turn it off and tune in to what I was thinking and feeling. Shock. Pain. Fear. Grief. Sympathy for the victims, hope for the injured.

To which I might add, we are all runners, we are all citizens of Boston.

You know I enjoy the work of James Braly. You’ve almost certainly read about him here before. He’s a laugh-out-loud kind of guy who was part of a great panel we did at Brooklyn Reading Works called The Truth and the Ghost Writer.

Today’s the news is that he’s just published his first book, a laugh-out-loud memoir based on his hit Off-Broadway Show Life in a Marital Institution. You don’t need me to tell you that James has a lot going on:

–He is a contributor to This American Life

–He is a frequent performer on The Moth, and its first two-time GrandSlam winner

–His hit Off-Broadway show has been optioned for television by Meredith Vieira Productions and received fantastic reviews from The New York Times, Variety and others.

From what I’ve read (and I’ve read a few hilarious chapters), Braly’s memoir is a brilliant expansion of his show, and a hilarious treatise on the endless battle of the sexes.

Here’s the quick synop: James and Jane are a 21st century Lucy and Desi: It’s a classic love story– a relatively conservative man marries an increasingly progressive woman with whom he tries (and frequently fails) to find middle ground. Eating placentas? Check. “Post-betrayal sex?” Check. Breastfeeding past the 1st, 2nd, 3rd… birthday? Check.

The culture is ready to be examined– and Braly’s memoir examines the clash, from a male perspective, between the old world and the new in the context of modern romance and timeless male/female dynamics and differences.

Sound like your cup of tea?

When I was in college, we listened to albums by The Persuasions non-stop. We Came to Play was one of my favorites with songs like Chain Gang, Man Oh Man, Gypsy Woman and more.

In my mind’s eye, I can see us in the big living room of the house on Mendelsohn Street in Binghamton listening to another favorite Persuasions album called Street Corner Symphony with songs like People Get Ready.

That’s why I am so excited to see that they’re coming to Park Slope where they’re going to raise the roof—literally and figuratively—of Old First Dutch Reformed Church.

On April 26 at 7PM come on out for Raise the Roof with A Cappella, a benefit concert featuring Brooklyn’s own, The Persuasions, the sophisticated harmonies of VOX BOP(including our own Jennifer Nelson), Old First’s in house ADOLESAINTS, PolyPrep’s UNACCOMPANIED MINORS, and musical interludes provided by the fiery fiddling of PITNACREE. Tickets:$30 adults, $25 children(12 and under), $35 at the door. Purchase at bpt.me/357326

All proceeds will be donated to the Ceiling Restoration Fund

Venue: Old First Lower Hall

Visit fourthmission.com for details.

It’s that time of year again. Time for a funny night at Brooklyn Reading Works. And if Marian Fontana is curating you KNOW it’s gonna be funny.

On April 18, 2013 at 8PM  join Don Cummings, Sarah Fearon, Marian Fontana, Deborah Goldstein, Martin Kleinman, Leah Mitchell, Anya Ulinich and Adam Waring for the Second Annual Funny Pages, an evening of music, mirth and merriment curated by Marian Fontana.

The Old Stone House, 336 Third Street in Park Slope between 5th and 4th Avenues. The $5 suggested donation includes refreshments.

FYI: Brooklyn Reading Books is now on Facebook. Please like us.

How audacious and what fun. L Magazine picked the 50 Best Blocks in Brooklyn but it’s really “the 50 best, worst, and most unusual we’ve encountered in our many perambulations around the borough and its many communities.”

The reporters didn’t just go to the usual gentrified locations. They went out far and wide. Props to L Magazine for a great list.

Some examples from Park Slope

Block Most Unlikely to Change

Sherman Place, between 11th Avenue and Terrace Place, Windsor Terrace

Lined with a mix of brick and limestone townhouses set back from the street, this block feels protected from any development. Strictly residential, it’s unlikely ever to undergo any changes other than the occasional new family moving in. But once they’re in? They stay. It’s that kind of place.

Most Obama Block

2nd Street, between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West, Park Slope

Our president, the cause of so much disillusionment, lived in a few apartments in Brooklyn during the 80s, including one on the top floor of a brownstone on this block off the park, where he used to jog. Given its location, we assume the block now is full of Obama-voting Democrats. We mean, that vegetarian Jonathan Safran Foer lives on this block!

Best Block to Get a Sandwich and Eat it at a Bar

Fifth Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd streets, South Slope

So, your friend wants a Cuban sandwich? She can get one at Guerrero Food Center, which makes one of the area’s best. And you want a delicious vegan burrito? Try Luna on the opposite corner. And then you can both meet back at Bar 718, one of our favorites, to eat them over Sixpoints. Then pop over to Mary’s before you go home, just for good measure.

Best Block for Unexpected Porches 11th Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, Gowanus There’re certain architectural styles you expect this close to Park Slope: brownstones, yes. Apartment buildings, sure. The occasional town house, why not? Even a warehouse or something. But porches?! Walk down this Gowanus-border block, and you’ll find many row houses not with front stoops but with honest-to-goodness porches: we’re talking decks and columns and roofs and shit.

You get the idea. Read lots more at L Magazine.