Sorry for the dearth of content.

First I thought it was thunder. Then it sounded like an explosion that went on and on and on. Then I thought it was drumming, really, really loud drumming.

According to the Brooklyn Bugle the sound emanated from the Deepavali Festival put on by the Association of Indians in America at the South Street Seaport.

Fireworks, I guess.

You can catch the second day of the  annual Citywide High School Fair today,  Sunday, October 3,  at Brooklyn Technical High School (29 Fort Greene Place off DeKalb Avenue)

The fair is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both days.

This fair tend to get crowded and is a tad overwhelming and exhausting (for parents, anyway). However, it’s a good opportunity for parents and students to speak with representatives from the City’s public high schools.

There will also be various information sessions related to the high school admissions process. Translated materials and interpretation services will be available. For more information, visit the High School Admissions website.

The Ensemble Studio Theater’s Octoberfest 2010 presents an unstaged reading of a new play called Finks by Joe Gilford on Thursday, October 14th at 7PM.

Directed by Lonny Price, Finks is a drama about New York actors during the dark years of the 1950s blacklist. It is based on true events in the lives of Jack and Madeline Gilford. Admission is by your generous donation. For reservations & information: 212-247-4982 or at the EST website.

Interesting story in the Brooklyn Paper about a chemical company with plants in Red Hook that has agreed to help pay for part of the Superfund cleanup. Trouble is: the comapny is bankrupt. So how are they going to pay? Here’s an excerpt from the BP story:

A chemical company with two dirty Red Hook plants agreed this week to help foot the bill for the $1-billion Superfund cleanup of the Gowanus Canal — oh, but there’s one catch: the company is bankrupt.

Chemtura Corporation, a Connecticut-based specialty chemicals maker, agreed on Thursday to pay $3.9 million toward cleansing the fetid waterway, the Department of Justice announced.

No timetable was given for when Chemtura would pay, but the feds cheered the agreement — and said that they expect the sum to be “fully paid in cash.”

Movies

The Social Network, Wall Street Money Never Sleeps, The Town at BAM

The Social Network, Wall Street Money Never Sleeps, The Town, Easy A, Let Me In at the Pavilion

Next Wave Festival at BAM:

Now through October 9 at BAM: Pina Basuch’s Vollmond: “This season, Bausch’s splendid company Tanztheater Wuppertal (Bamboo Blues, 2008 Next Wave; Nefés, 2006 Next Wave) returns to BAM with the arresting Vollmond (Full Moon). The work shimmers—literally—as water runs in manic rivulets over a giant rock, rushes across the stage, and rains down, drenching the dancers. A study in Bausch’s unparalleled mix of abandon and supreme control, Vollmond is at once urgent, athletic, and sensual—channeling the unrelenting energy of its maker.”

Music:

Here is Brooklyn Vegan’s list of what’s going on Friday in the NYC music scene.

Friday, Oct 1 at 7PM at Barbes: Opera on Tap. “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.”

Saturday, Oct 2 at 7:30 PM at The Bell House: Van Dyke Parks. “Besides being Brian Wilson’s collaborator during the Beach Boys’ psychedelic period, he has worked with performers including Grace Kelly, the Byrds, Loudon Wainwright III, Ry Cooder and Joanna Newsom, and has released several of his own records (and a new record is in the works).”

Saturday, Oct 2 at The Rock Shop: Czech Legends Uz Jesme Doma

Stay tuned for more…

Here is an excerpt from Rabbi Andy Bachman’s powerful reaction to the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University. It is a direct address by the Rabbi of Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim, to the  youth of this community (and other communities around the world). You can read the rest at his blog Water Over Rocks.

I’m your Rabbi.  As such, I am occasionally asked to share a few words or thoughts when bad things happen to good people.  In this case, I want to write some words, directly to you, about Tyler Clementi’s tragic suicide last week.  If you haven’t read about it, you can read the story here from today’s New York Times.

Tyler was secretly filmed having a sexual encounter with another guy on the Rutgers campus and that scene was broadcast on-line, to his own humiliation, which authorities think was the major factor in deciding to take his own life.  Rutgers University, where Tyler was a talented, quiet and kind student, and the local police, are in charge of an investigation, the results of which we’ll keep reading about in the coming days.

But I want to address you directly, whomever you may be.  If you’re gay or straight or bi or transgender or you just don’t know, as a Rabbi in the community, I care about you as a person made in the Image of God.  It really truly doesn’t matter what other people think about your struggle to be who you are in the process of becoming.

Painter Arthur May: Art in Brooklyn

The golden apples: Brooklynometry

Awards, books, posters: Do the Math

Becoming a kidney donor: The Spiral Staircase

Prayer is asking for help: Old First Blog

What’s going on Friday: Brooklyn Vegan

Comic social club: Ditmas Park Blog

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

New York, New York it’s a hell of a town. Or a hellish town if your kids go to public school because they have to apply for school when they reach middle and high school age.

Why you ask?

Because there are no neighborhood middle and high schools (i.e. no Park Slope High or Cobble Hill Middle School, etc) where you can just send your kids as you would in a suburban area. No, they’ve got to apply and then qualify (based on test scores, assessments, portfolios, auditions, etc) to get into a decent (and competitive) school.

New York, New York, isn’t it fun?

It wasn’t always this way. As one woman said today on the tour of the NYC iSchool. “I grew up in New York. When I was a kid you either went to your zoned school or you applied to Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech…”

In my day we could also apply to Performing Arts (of Fame fame), Music and Art and Art and Design. Now there’s LaGuardia and many other art and/or science and math themed schools.

It was necessary to do this because if you lived in a good neighborhood you probably had a good school but if you lived in a poor neighborhood…

Change was necessary and choice is mostly a good thing. The problem is the complexity of the admissions process requires a lot of time, energy and smarts and those with less time and less money can’t always devote the time necessary to help their kids.

Truthfully, it’s a huge hassle for parents and kids to figure out which school to put on their list of twelve and that’s not even counting a separate list, which is for the “specialized” schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech, Brooklyn Latin, and others…

So it’s a lot of tours. The guidance counselor at my daughter’s school said you don’t want to put any school on your list of 12 that you haven’t seen because you don’t want a big surprise if, god forbid, your child gets their 10th choice.

So that’s at least twelve tours and probably more.

This morning we visited the NYC iSchool. Lest you think it’s a school filled with iPhones and iBooks: it’s actually a collaboration between the Department of Education and Ciscso Systems. You can see a video about is here though I think the tour puts it in a better light than this video does.

Inside Schools, the go-to online information resource about the NYC public school system, had this to say about the NYC iSchool: “What’s Special: Imaginative and creative projects combined with computerized test prep. Downside: Rundown building with no gym.”

The good thing about no gym is that kids can do physical education as an independent study and being on a team, taking a yoga or dance class, jogging, biking, works for credit.

Suffice it to say, I was very impressed by this small, rigorous school that seems to be doing things in a very creative and innovative way while still being quite organized and rigorous.

But don’t take my word for it, take a tour.

Next week: Edward R. Murrow High School!

When was the last time you had a check up? Have you been to the dentist lately? How are you feeling?

I always thought this “campaign” was a good idea, an annual wake-up call for people to remind each other (not just women reminding men) to take care of themselves and see a doctor or some kind of health practitioner.

According to the press release from the Borough President’s office, men are 70% less likely than women to visit a doctor. So that’s why it’s “take your man.” Another disturbing factoid: blacks and hispanics are 10% less likely than whites to have a primary care provider.

On October 6th, Borough President Marty Markowitz will launch his annual “Take Your Man to the Doctor” campaign with a press conference at Borough hall.

Participating hospitals, clinics and health professionals are offering free health screening for blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, diabetes, glucose, glaucoma, HIV, podiatry and free flu shots.

So if you’ve been putting it off…

On Saturday, October 2, 2010, Spoke the Hub (STH) is presenting a FREE program, sponsored by the American Red Cross in Greater New York, on emergency preparedness, to be held at the STH Re:Creation Center at 748 Union Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Park Slope. The program will last one hour, from 12:30-1:30pm. RSVP required.  Reservations for the free event can be made by calling Spoke the Hub at (718) 408-3234.

It is certainly prudent—and essential—for individuals and families, especially in New York City, to prepare for possible disasters and other emergencies. Both natural and human-caused crises can strike suddenly, anywhere and at any time.  This free workshop will provide participants with the crucial facts they’ll need  – before, during, and after a disaster or emergency situation. Attendees will learn how to create a family disaster plan, build and maintain a supply kit, and keep loved ones safe and informed.

Click on read more to see the topics that will be covered…

Continue reading Oct 2: Emergency Preparedness Workshop at Spoke the Hub →

Tonight see for yourself what the plaza of the Barclays Center is going to look like. From 6-8PM the public is invited as Forest City Ratner officials present the renderings to the public at Borough Hall (209 Joralemon St. between Adams and Court streets in Downtown Brooklyn).

So it seems, the activists were right all along and now developer Bruce Ratner is admitting the truth: the Atlantic Yards project will not be completed in ten years. There is just no way.

Now he’s saying that the 10-year-timeline that was bandied about was just a guess for environmental impact statements. Here Ratner is quoted on WNYC:

“That was really only an analysis as to what the most serious impacts [would be], if all the other planned development in downtown Brooklyn happened right away,” Ratner said. “It was never supposed to be the time we were supposed to build them in.”

That is so much balderdash:

Wasn’t it the economics of the 10-year-timeline that convinced the city and state that it was worth the mega milliions in direct subsidies the project got?

So the longer the construction takes, the longer it will take for the government to reap the so-called rewards in terms of income taxes from people who move in and property taxes.

Sounds like they were had.

Says Daniel Goldstein, an anti-AY activist, who had an apartment in the AY footprint, in press release: “What we have now is a site that was not blighted turning into a dormant site, nearly 20 acres of vacant lots and parking lots for 20, 25, 30, 40 50 years…What was not blighted has become blighted for a very long time.”

The following are facts about tornadoes from the FEMA website:

* They may strike quickly, with little or no warning.
* They may appear nearly transparent until dust and debris are picked up or a cloud forms in the funnel.
* The average tornado moves Southwest to Northeast, but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction.
* The average forward speed of a tornado is 30 MPH, but may vary from stationary to 70 MPH.
* Tornadoes can accompany tropical storms and hurricanes as they move onto land.
* Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water.
* Tornadoes are most frequently reported east of the Rocky Mountains during spring and summer months.
* Peak tornado season in the southern states is March through May; in the northern states, it is late spring through early summer.
* Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., but can occur at any time.

Click on read more to learn how you can protect yourself from a tornado:

Continue reading Tools to Fight Tornado Anxiety →

Thankfully there was no tornado yesterday despite word from the National Weather Service that a tornado watch was in effect in the five boroughs. There was, however, plenty of anxiety about the idea of another tornado fresh on the heels of the tornado that left much damage to trees and buildings in Park Slope, Brooklyn on September 16th. Thankfully there weren’t more casualties on that day. Sadly, a Queens woman died when a tree fell on her car.

My sister was in Prospect Park during the September 16th tornado and is still reliving the details of that terrifying afternoon. Her daughter and her first grade classmates and parents were in the park for a class picnic when the storm started. They left the park during the worst of the storm and saw a tree fall not far from them.

Yesterday her daughter’s class was told of the tornado watch during school and when they came out, her babysitter reports, the kids looks terrified and many were crying because they were “scared of the tornado.”

Obviously the kids were traumatized by the experience of being in the park that day. No wonder they were crying when they came out of school.

Other adults I spoke to were nervous about the possibility of another tornado. Some wondered if the National Weather Service was being more cautious this time around — better safe than sorry.

The September 16th tornado definitely gave people a sense of reverence for the power of nature to spontaneously wreak havoc and destroy.

As Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim said during his Yom Kippur sermon just days after the tornado: “We almost died yesterday.”

Indeed, it gave everyone new perspective on a lot of things.

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

Joint public safety /human services meeting: NY Shitty

Bike lanes should not drop out of the sky: Sheepshead Bites

Raw sewage in Gowanus canal after storm: Pardon Me for Asking

Coasting on a custom bike: Bushwick BK

Prison yard potluck: Effed in Park Slope

Brooklyn’s mellow street party: McBrooklyn

Guide to finding an apartment: Bed-Stuy Blog

Celebrating Sukkot in Clinton Hill: The Local

At a press conference on Monday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the City University of New York (CUNY) and IBM will open a new public high school, which combines high school with two years of college; students would earn an associate’s degree,

Sounds a bit like Bard High School Early College but maybe with a more technological bent. Graduating from this school will, according to Bloomberg, put students “first in line for a job at IBM,” Bloomberg said.

At the press conference Bloomberg also renewed his proposal to end automatic teacher tenure. Instead he wants tenure to be linked to classroom performance.

Woo Hoo.

When the EPA adds the Newtown Creek to its list of Superfund sites, Brooklyn will have not one but two, count ’em two, Superfund sites. Because of its new status, the Creek will  face a 10-year toxic clean-up that could cost more than a half-billion dollars.

It was just last March that the EPA declared the Gowanus Canal worthy of Superfund status. The Newtown Creek is an 3.8-mile waterway between Brooklyn and Queens.

Michele Madigan Somerville, the author of Black Irish and WISEGAL (2001), has written about religion for the New York Times (online) and the Huffington Post. She lives in Brooklyn. Here she turns her gaze to Allen Ginzberg, who is in the news these days because of Howl, a feature film about the poem and the censorship trial it caused.

One afternoon in fall of 1977, I sat in my college professor’s office talking about Yeats or Wallace Stevens when a fellow student poked her head into the open door to apologize. She wouldn’t be able to make it to Allen Ginsberg’s November 1st reading at the Neuberger Museum later that week. She was Greek Orthodox, and bound to observe All Saints Day with her family. I didn’t know the fellow lit major, but I’ll never forget the professor’s sotto-voce wisecrack as her footsteps faded down the corridor: “But Allen Ginsberg is a saint.”

A saint? No. An angel? Maybe. I know I “got religion” that night as I heard Allen Ginsberg read “Kaddish” in the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, N.Y. more than 30 years ago. The call came: a tap on the shoulder that doubled as a lightning bolt; an epiphany was had, and a conversion — not forced but seduced — transpired. I left the museum that night, on the Feast of All Saints, with a mission to “throw down” with life as a poet.

Amid the fresh fervor for Ginsberg and the Beats that is being fueled by the impending theatrical release of the motion picture Howl, I notice that my first thought — which Ginsberg might therefore insist is my best thought — is a of poet not so much hip as rabbinic. Schoolmarmish, even. Allen Ginsberg was my professor for two years in the late 1980s. He was a conscientious teacher. He came to class early, was always well prepared, made copious remarks on students’ work, and always wore a necktie. I had been a teacher for four years when I first began to study with Ginsberg, and it was clear to me, early on, that he had uncommon respect for educators. (Poet Louis Ginsberg, Allen’s father, had worked as a teacher for many years.) Read more at the Huffington Post.

Brooke Dramer, an OTBKB reader and sometime contributor, needs advice about a vexing situation.

We rent a garden apartment on 6th Avenue between 5th and 6th Street—literally around the corner from the tree-crushed grey car that both HuffPo and OTBKB chose as the signature photo of tornado damage in Park Slope.  Right after the storm, we telephoned our landlady (who lives in Bensonhurst) and briefly described the damage to her property.

Here’s the problem: my landlady is willing to believe that the devastation to the backyard—ie, everything’s been crushed by a tree that fell across four backyards–was the result of the tornado.  But she has accused us of breaking the wrought iron fence in front of her house.

“You’re destroying my building!” she yelled at me over the phone a few nights ago.
I explained that the fence had been broken by a huge branch that fell on it—so huge that a neighbor had to help me lift it off the fence.  I assured her that I’d put the broken-off pieces of the fence in a safe place in the basement, and that I’d wired the remaining pieces together so that they wouldn’t fall over on the sidewalk.

“What branch!” she yelled  at me.
“A branch from the tree in front of the building,” I explained.
“What tree?!” she yelled at me. She then ranted on about how I had broken her fence and the front of the building was a mess and I was destroying her building.

Do any of your OTBKB readers have advice? Should we go to landlord tenant court if the landlady raises our rent as “punishment”—something she’s done many times before? We have photos of the tree with the torn-off branches, photos of us cleaning up in front of the house, plus photos of other damage on the block (including a bashed-in fence). We even have a video of Dave and me in the backyard with an electric saw, continuing to clear away branches. So far, we’ve put in more than 30 person-hours of work in an attempt to save as many plants as we can until the tree-trimmer comes next week.  Would we be able to present any of this video in court?

Photo credit:  Andy Arrow (Nashville drummer-turned-NY-video artist).

Remember Scott Turner? Since he moved away from Brooklyn he doesn’t write much, he never calls. But he is coming back to the old neighborhood for a visit and a show. “I’m gonna be in Brooklyn for a few days early in October.  The timing’s good for a show and the release of the new RebelMart album. I’m playing two sets at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook on Friday, October 8th.  Show starts at 9pm.  Lots of new songs, lots of old songs, and the always popular what-was-I-thinking? cover.  Could be Tom Waits, could be Perry Como, could be the Spunk Lads.”

Click on Read more to hear more from Scott:

Continue reading Greetings from Scott Turner →

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio today added 109 new buildings to his NYC’s Worst Landlords Watch List. These buildings were identified through submissions to de Blasio’s website. The Watch List now has 269 buildings representing 196 landlords and housing approximately 5,600 tenants.

Among the new landlords added to the Watch List is David Bistricer of Clipper Equity LLC, owner of the Flatbush Gardens complex in Brooklyn. 44 of the complex’s 59 buildings qualify for the Watch List, making him the landlord with the highest cumulative number of violations and buildings on the list. Combined, the buildings in the complex have 6,475 open violations with the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), 827 of which are designated as “immediately hazardous” violations including lack of hot water, broken door locks, and peeling lead paint. There are approximately 10,000 tenants living in Flatbush Gardens.

The Watch List is available online at: advocate.nyc.gov/landlord-watchlist.

Continue reading The Watch List of Worst Landlords →

Flatbush Avenune gridlock: Atlantic Yards Report

Sports culture capper: Noticing NY

The essential Carl Paladino: NY Times

Paterson on SNL: City Room Blog

A race-colored map of New York: McBrooklyn

Newtown Creek to become Superfund site today: Brooklyn Paper

More Vito problems: Brooklyn Paper

My cousin became a grandfather yesterday. What’s more: I was privy to the exact moment of birth via emails, that went out to the extended family.

First came this:

“She is giving birth. Right NOW…”

Then this:

“Push!”

Then this:

“She’s fully dilated.  The baby is +2 (in the birth canal) and ready to push.  Her doc is in the parking lot and hustling upstairs.  IT’S ONNNN.”

Then I received a picture of the baby wrapped in the hospital receiving blanket and a message with her name and some physical details. Named after two beloved great grandmothers, she has strawberry blond hair and blue eyes.

“Can’t wait to introduce her to all of you,” was the final message from my cousin.

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.