Andy Warhol: The Last Decade at the Brooklyn Museum is certainly worth a look. NWDP and I were at the Media Preview on Thursday morning and thoroughly enjoyed his collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente, his large scale Last Supper and especially his Interview TV videos with Diana Vreelance of Vogue Magazine and abstract expressionist Larry Rivers. As you see in NWDP’s pictures there were lots of representatives of the news media there that day, which made a perfect subject for NWDP.

Long Island before the LIE: CasaCara

Melissa’s dungeon bedroom makeover: Design Sponge

10 colorful low maintenance window box plants: Apartment Therapy

Letter stool: Swiss-Miss

A sharp centerpiece: Adventures in Renovating a Limestone

Why?

Well, I went to the press opening of Andy Warhol: The Last Decade at the Brooklyn Museum. It’s the first U.S. museum survey to examine the late work of American artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987) and has been in two other cities before Brooklyn.

During his last ten years, Warhol worked on a very large scale and also created some interesting video work. An interview he did with Larry Rivers is on view and I found myself laughing hysterically.

Then I visited Lesley Topping, who videotaped the Brooklyn Blogfest and looked at her footage of the show and that was, to say the least, very interesting.

Then I went over to Root Hill Cafe on Fourth Avenue (not far from the Brooklyn Lyceum) and did some reading. Later I found out that tonight Root Hill is opening a night-time only bar called Trash Pony Bar. The name is  inspired by a stuffed animal pony the owners found in the trash can outside of the cafe…

Then I realized it was 5:30 PM and I hadn’t put anything on the blog. This has been a catch up week after the crazies of last week and the many weeks before — the preparation to and the aftermath of Blogfest.

Tonight I will update.

Walking south on Seventh Avenue last night I noticed that the old Zuzu’s Petals and Olive Vine storefronts, between Berkeley Place and Union Streets, are boarded up. In 2004, fire swept through that one-story building and it’s been vacant and untouched since then. The wooden rainbow  Zuzu’s Petals sign was visible until a few days ago. Olive Vine moved a few blocks away on Seventh Avenue and Zuzu’s moved to much bigger digs on Fifth Avenue..

So is something finally happening over there?

There’s a rumor that Petco is moving in, but the owner, David Chemtob, has not officially disclosed who or what is going in there.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, Chemtob bought the vacant storefronts in 2008 and was going to build to build residential housing and storefronts. He had a commercial tenant, I remember hearing that it was a health club or something like that, but then that fell through. Then the recession hit Chemtob’s big plans bit the dust.

Brought to you from the Feldman Family weather tower in Park Slope.

It’s that time of year again. Every Father’s Day, Seventh Avenue’s tube sock and roasted corn fest fills Seventh Avenue with huge crowds.

Organized by the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce, Seventh Avenue is covered in street vendors, craft merchants, music and food stations.

One of the things I like about Seventh Heaven—and the Fifth Avenue Fair—is that it does manage to convey some of the flavor of those avenues, in addition to the usual street fair fare.

I like to walk the fair early, just as vendors are setting up. By the middle of the day it gets a little zooey. But it is a great place to run into friends and neighbors and people you haven’t seen in a while.

The Community Bookstore is organizing a Scavenger Hunt for the second year in a row. That promises to be fun as the bookstore is very good at that sort of thing. Look for information at the Community Bookstore (on 7th Avenue betwen Carroll Street and Garfield).

At last night’s town hall style meeting  in Boerum Hill, City Councilmember Steve Levin vowed to open the D&D pool on Nevins Street between Douglas and Degraw Street for kids in the neighborhood.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, the Councilman from the 33rd district said:  “A lot of families depend on this pool for free recreation. We need the this pool for our kids to stay active and out of trouble.”

The city targeted the “Double-D” pool for closure because its attendance is lower than other local pools (37,000 swimmers last yaer) and immediate area is mostly industrial. The closing would save the city $200,000.

But people in Boerum Hill and Park Slope depend on that pool in summer as it is located near three large housing projects and Brownstone Brooklyn.

Lundy’s eyed for seafood/steakhouse: Sheepshead Bites

Big movies for little kids outdoors: Pardon Me for Asking

“Live within your means”: Bushwick BK

Start the day with smile: NY Shitty

3 newbie events in Coney Island: Kinetic Carnival

Where do you get your hair cut? Effed in Park Slope

Brooklyn Brainery is teaming up with Lauren Cucinotta from Pie in the Park to host a workshop that will conquer all your pie crust making fears.  Four pro crust makers will show you how it’s done, with plenty of pie tasting along the way.

All the details:
What: Pie Crust Workshop and Tasting
Where: The Gowanus Studio Space, 166 7th Street, Brooklyn (near the 4th Ave stop on the F, G, M, and R)
When: Monday, June 21st, at 7:30 p.m.
No advance registration necessary, $15 gets you in, gets you a slice of pie, and helps support Pie in the Park and the Brainery.

http://brooklynbrainery.com/pie-crust-workshop

Sometime Friday a little before noon Con Ed cut the Time Warner cable that serves this area. There was the following sign:

“CUSTOMERS IN OR AROUND THE FOLLOWING AREAS MAY BE IMPACTED: THE 400-500 BLOCKS OF 3RD ST, THE 400-600 BLOCKS OF 2ND ST,  THE 300 BLOCK OF 6TH AVE” 

The Time Warner cable crew has been working on restoring service. It seems that not only is a cut cable involved but also freshly poured concrete on top of it.

As a temporary fix the Time Warner crew re-routed the cable to a lamppost, across the street to another lamp post, and then under a steel plate on the sidewalk. Of course in the middle of all this outage there was the gay pride parade on seventh avenue between the aforementioned lamp posts.

Now we are getting our Internet via this cable tied to two lamp posts getting pinched by a steel plate. That pinched coax can’t be very good for impedance, and every time someone steps on that plate it probably gets pinched some more. I guess it will have to do for now. I wonder, will they have to dig a new trench to fix this correctly?

H.C. on Sunday morning

The old BP gas station on Fifth Street at Fourth Avenue is raising the ire of Park Slopers. The Daily News has the story. Here’s an excerpt:

Residents say the dilapidated site of an old BP service station on Fourth Ave. reeks of oil and gasoline they want cleaned up.

“It’s a smelly example of urban decay,” said Jeremy Friedman, 27, a grad student who lives on Sixth St. near the vacant lot. “I wish somebody would take responsibility for it.”

For more than a decade, the BP service station leaked gas and oil into the ground, said state Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman Maureen Wren.

Now the oil company is on the hook for cleaning it up.

“We’re supervising BP’s cleanup of the site,” she said. “It’s an ongoing project.”

Neighbors say the trouble started in 2008, when Brooklyn-based Tona Development purchased the lot and demolished the BP gas station, releasing noxious fumes from the contaminated soil.

Tona planned to seal the oily ground with a 12-story condo built on a concrete foundation, but the project stalled last year when the developer ran out of money.

“Since then it’s been a stinking empty lot and an eyesore,” said Friedman. “You can smell it for blocks.”

Residents say the lot has stunk worse since the winter, when noxious fumes began wafting from an oily puddle.

The sounds of childhood. It’s not just the giggles and squeals of joy that warms the hearts of parents everywhere. Kids make a lot of racket, and from time to time, it can cause parents—neighbors and strangers—much consternation.

For 19 years, Smartmom has been trying to control the sound level in her apartment. Sure, the noise is sometimes just the effusive energy and activity of childhood. But there’s also the fighting and the crying and the yelling and the …

It’s been a while, but Teen Spirit and the Oh So Feisty One were crying babies once. Neither of them were particularly colicky, but they did do their share of crying. In the first few weeks of his life, Teen Spirit would get so hungry that he’d launch into an ear-piercing wail. Usually it would start with a benign whimper (hungry baby here), but it would quickly develop into an angry roar (HUNGRY BABY HERE!).

The Oh So Feisty One was also a big screamer. On her first morning home from the hospital, she woke with a huge shriek.

“Hey, mom, I like your new alarm clock,” the then-5-year-old Teen Spirit memorably said.

But you can’t really complain about a crying baby. It’s all part of the life cycle, the essential way that babies make their needs know before they learn language: dirty diaper, hunger, pain, fear, a call for love and attention.

But that doesn’t mean people don’t complain. Smartmom remembers airplane trips when a crying Teen Spirit or OSFO would inspire carping from other passengers.

“Can’t you do something about your baby?” another passenger once grumbled her way.

Truth be told, Smartmom now rolls her eyes (inwardly) when she hears the sharp cry of a baby on an airplane. It may be perfectly natural, but it does put her nerves on edge when she flies.

And what about tantrums? The sound of a toddler wailing and hollering in fury must be one of the most unpleasant sounds of childhood — and a cause for neighbor’s complaints a-plenty. But what’s a parent to do? Tantrums also represent an important stage of growth and childhood expression.

But that’s nothing compared to the pitter patter of little feet also known as the unbridled — and high volume — energy of youth. Teen Spirit loved to run up and down the hallway playing his imaginary superhero games. The downstairs neighbors used to call him Thumper. Their chandelier would shake when Teen Spirit careened through the living room. At high speed.

“There goes Thumper,” they’d say.

But they didn’t complain too much because they had their own brood of three boys and one very active girl running up and down their hallway.

They were living in their own private cacophony — and causing havoc for their own downstairs neighbors.

Lucky is the family that lives on the top floor.

Kids growing up in apartment buildings have as much raw energy as their suburban (and brownstone) counterpoints. But they don’t have the backyards or the one-family houses to run wild in. In the cold weather, especially, it can be hard on the neighbors when kids use their apartments as winter playgrounds.

Active playdates and slumber parties also test neighborly patience. Smartmom remembers the time OSFO and Teen Spirit spent an evening making a action adventure movie in the apartment with friends, which entailed moving furniture, dramatic screams and leaping from one end of the apartment to the other.

ACTION.

Smartmom is humiliated at the thought that her neighbors had overheard all the parent/child battles of Teen Spirit and OSFO’s childhood and adolescence.

“I SAID WAKE UP!” and “I’M GOING TO GET THE ICE” and “DID YOU DO YOUR HOMEWORK, YOU LITTLE SO AND SO…”

Each age of childhood has its own distinctive racket. These days, Teen Spirit and his friends gather in the living room and have rowdy sing-a-longs. Then there’s the welcome sound (and racket) of OSFO practicing the piano and Teen Spirit recording his multi-track songs and singing in a loud stage voice while he’s doing it.

Smartmom wonders what it will be like next year without Teen Spirit. What will life be like with one less child to make noise? Will it be hard to get used to? Will it make her sad?

Let’s just say, there are some noises she’ll miss and others she won’t. But it remains to be seen. Or heard.

I want to make it very clear that Norman Oder did not suggest NEVER SUGGESTED that the Blogs Aloud excerpts—and the panelists—were chosen by Absolut. I know that Oder is dedicated to accuracy and I fully respect that. I am sincerely sorry that I did not issue this full correction earlier. I’ll let Norman Oder speak for himself:

This is the fifth time in two days–two emails, three comments–I’ve had to point out that you *invented* this sentence: “Norman Oder’s accusation that the bloggers on the panel and those included in the Blogs Aloud section were chosen by Absolut is patently ridiculous.”

I never made that accusation.

In the Times’s CityRoom blog, you said “I make every effort to attribute quotes accurately and not misrepresent people’s point of view” and “I love it when people fact-check me or send me typos. That’s a big help because I’m working very fast and mistakes do get made.”

Making such corrections–especially when the underlying error has no basis in fact–is not just a professional obligation. It’s a legal one.

Unlike kindergarten, public pre-kindergarten programs are not mandated by New York State so admissions are very limited and often by lottery. The program at PS 321 is very small (only one full day class and two half-day progarms) Still the acceptance rate hit a new low this year according to the NY Post:

…the acceptance rate at some schools hit record lows — with PS 321 in Brooklyn’s Park Slope at a jaw-dropping 2.5 percent. Ivy League Harvard accepted 6.9 percent of its applicants this year.

“This is such a great program, and I really hoped he would have gotten in,” said Mary Thaman, whose son was not among the 12 lucky tots — out of 475 applicants — to land spots at PS 321.

“We’re scrambling to see if we can find someplace else for him,” she added.

Families who snagged seats at the well-regarded school — which, like all of the programs, gives priority to kids who rank it as their top choice and have siblings attending the school — were shocked by their good fortune.

“It was just disbelief when we heard the news,” said David Criste, whose 3-year-old son, Neal, got into PS 321 with the aid of his older brother, a first-grader there.

“We decided to play Powerball the next day, just in case we were on a lucky streak,” Criste said. “But we weren’t that lucky.”

Among the 25,000 applicants for public-school pre-K slots, more than 18,000 got offers from at least one program, Department of Education data show. As for the 7,000 families that were shut out, they’ll get a new shot next month — when a second round of applications gets under way.

Norman Oder did not suggest NEVER SUGGESTED that the Blogs Aloud excerpts—and the panelists—were chosen by Absolut. I’ll let Norman Oder speak for himself. I know that Oder is dedicated to accuracy and I fully respect that. I am sincerely sorry that I did not issue this full correction earlier.

This is the fifth time in two days–two emails, three comments–I’ve had to point out that you *invented* this sentence: “Norman Oder’s accusation that the bloggers on the panel and those included in the Blogs Aloud section were chosen by Absolut is patently ridiculous.”

I never made that accusation.

In the Times’s CityRoom blog, you said “I make every effort to attribute quotes accurately and not misrepresent people’s point of view” and “I love it when people fact-check me or send me typos. That’s a big help because I’m working very fast and mistakes do get made.”

Making such corrections–especially when the underlying error has no basis in fact–is not just a professional obligation. It’s a legal one.

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

Full Disclosure: I received a promotional copy of Frederick Law Olmsted, Essential Texts Edited by Robert Twombley from W.W. Norton in the mail.

Frederick Law Olmsted, with Calvert Vaux, designed both Central Park and Prospect Park. Central Park came about because their firm entered  a competiion to design it. In 1865 they collaborated on Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

Quite a career.

The editor, Robert Twombley, writes in the introduction,

“His reputation rests not only on the quantity but also on the quality of the work he produced, which, even when neglected, altered, or executed improperly in the first place, remains a constant source of public and private pleasure. But the work itself was informed by his social and design philosophies, which are not always obvious in his writing but are nevertheless embedded there.”

These essays, dating from 1850s to the 1890s reveals Olmsted’s thoughts on park design, theory, landscape gardening and cities, are written in a slightly formal but clear style, and are very forward thinking about the importance of nature in the city.

In an essay entitled Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns included in the collection Olmsted writes:

“What I would ask is whether we might not with economy make special provision in some of our streets—in a twentieth or a fiftieth part, if you please, of all—for trees to remain as a permanent furniture of the city? I mean, to make a place for them in which they would have room to grow naturally and gracefully. Even if the distance between the houses should have to made half as much again as is is required in our commercial streets, could not the space be afforded?

…The change both of scene and of air which would be obtained by people engaged for the most part in the necessarily confined interior commercial part of the town, on passing into a street of this character after the trees had become stately and graceful, would be worth a good deal.”

You gotta have a tough skin to be a blogger and you gotta have a tough skin to be the organizer of Blogfest. And that’s the truth as Lily Tomlin used to say.

The day after Blogfest I was under attack for having a sponsor and for not disclosing that I was given a bottle of vodka, a Flip camera, access to a VIP gala, and linkage from the Absolut Facebook page.

There. I did it. Again. Now you know. And if you didn’t already know: a well-known vodka company sponsored Blogfest and sent some swag my way.

Yesterday I was tired from the event and from months planning the event. A live event is stressful, you never know how things are going to turn out. I am always primed for disaster, for things going wrong, for chaos.

There was a big crowd and getting them into the space, tagging them, etc. was time consuming and stressful. The show started 30 minutes late.

The Spike and Lemon portion was unrehearsed and I had no real idea how long it would run or what Spike was going to do when he got up to the podium. The vodka company said he’d be there for five minutes. I’m sure he exceeded that. He sort of bit my head off (humorously) when I tried to move things along (“I’ve got this covered. Chill miss,” was what he said).

The party was lavish and fun. I had two drinks. The martini was tasty. The cocktail was not my kind of drink at all. The combination of ginger ale and apple/ginger vodka gave it a funny taste. People seemed to prefer the martini.

The food by Oaxaca, a new Fourth Avenue restaurant (chosen by me) was wonderful and I am very happy that I chose them to cater the event. Jake, who is a part owner, is a good guy and he really came through. The food was delicious, warm, fresh and plentiful. The restaurant has a catering arm and they really know what they’re doing.

My feeling during the show, the Blogs-of-a-Feather breakout groups and the party was that people had a great time. The next day the naysayers were more vocal.

Like last year, the Blogs-of-a Feather element impressed me. Bloggers and wanna-bloggers like talking to other bloggers to get advice, share insight and information. Some of the groups lasted until 10PM and I think that’s very cool.

Reading the comments on Brownstoner and the NY Times I found out what I already knew: some people like me (“You like me, you really like me,” as Sally Field famously said at the Oscars) and some people don’t (hey, what else is new? I’ve been slammed since I started this blog and the Smartmom column. I’m used to it).

Still you need a tough skin and fast fingers to defend yourself from unpleasant attacks of your character.

That said, it’s all food for thought. I got lots of useful comments, advice, criticism, complaints and compliments. I take everything that was said very seriously and I am really listening and wondering and pondering and thinking.

And that’s the truth.

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

I just got this press release from the organizers of The Children of Abraham Peace Walk:

The Children of Abraham Peace Walk is in its seventh year of building bridges of understanding in Brooklyn’s diverse communities.  Each year participants choose a different route for the walk, in order to visit local churches, synagogues and mosques in different Brooklyn neighborhoods.

This Year the Peace Walk will be in beautiful Sheepshead Bay. Local participants include such historic churches as St Marks Catholic Church, where the walk begins, and the First Methodist Church of Sheepshead Bay, who will host walk participants.  As in past years, prayers and story telling and food will help bring Jews, Christians, Muslims and all people of  good will together in spirit of peace.  The walk is modeled after a similar peace walk that was first held in New Mexico.  In past years we’ve walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, in Park Slope and Kensington.

“The Walk is not a political march but a walk together—at once a multicultural tour, a walking meditation and a movable block party,” stated Rabbi Ellen of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives, one of the founders of the annual event.

With heightened  tensions in the Middle East and a small group sparking local controversy around the building of the Sheepshead Bay Mosque, the Peace Walk seeks to bring people from different religious and cultural communities together amidst an atmosphere of mutual respect.

While religion is often times a source of division, the purpose of the walk is to harness religion’s capacity to awaken compassion and a sense of hospitality.   As neighbors within Brooklyn, we celebrate the opportunity to come together, to learn from each other, and to build a sense of community.

“The Children of Abraham Peace Walk is intended to promote dialogue and not provoke controversy,” stated Adem Carroll of Muslim Consultative Network, one of several sponsoring organizations. “Every community must work out its own issues, but the organizers of our Walk do see dialogue and trust-building among neighbors as essential to any community.”

Continue reading Walk the Peace Walk →

When Absolut Vodka, in honor of the release of Absolut Brooklyn and their collaboration with the Brooklyn Blogfest, asked me to write a post for my blog about the stoop life, this is what came to mind:

It seems like I’ve spent years of my life sitting on the limestone stoop of my apartment building in Park Slope watching the world go by.

From the stoop I’ve watched my children grow. Now 13 and 19, they’ve spent countless hours playing with friends, inventing imaginary games, and racing their bikes and scooters from one end of the block to the other.

On hot summer days we used to take the plastic turtle kiddy pool out of the basement and fill it with iced cold water. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t a lavish suburban pool. I could cool my toes and supervise the kids having plenty of splashy fun.

More meals than I can remember have been eaten on our Third Street stoop.  We’ve ordered Chicken Lo Mein from Szechuan Delight and pizza from Pino’s and enjoyed homemade barbecue grilled on the Weber that we keep chained to our basement gate.

Those summer barbecues are legend on Third Street.  Neighbors bring their salads, meats, fish, vegetables and condiments downstairs and everyone cooks and eats together. My neighbor on the first floor always mans the barbecue expertly grilling the food, his face sweaty and red by the end of the night.

After dinner, the kids roast marshmallows on the grill and make chocolate S’mores, which leave a sticky mess on the sidewalk the next morning.

On Halloween night, we have a VIP view from the stoop of the magical Park Slope Halloween Parade as colorfully costumed adults and children move past our building.

Throughout the year, I learn the news of the block, the neighborhood, the city and the world from the stoop.

I was on the stoop when I found out that a young mother in the building next door was dying of brain cancer. Neighbors and friends banded together to help the family through this unthinkable tragedy.

I was on the stoop when I heard the faint rumble of an airplane hitting the second tower of the World Trade Center. I wasn’t sure what I was hearing until my neighbor ran into the building with radio pinned to his ear.

“We’re being attacked.” he said.

News travels fast on the stoop, where we talk about our children’s successes and troubles. We share news of weddings, graduations, school admissions, reunions; it’s where we keep up to date on local politics and school life. We complain, whine, opine, brag, tell stories, joke and basically live our lives out loud on the stoop.

Continue reading Life on the Stoop →

Don’t miss this BIG musical treat at the Tea Lounge on Monday, June 7th at 9PM at 837 Union Street, Brooklyn, New York

The Joshua Shneider Easy-Bake Orchestra is a 17 piece ensemble comprised of some of NYC’s most illustrious and adventurous improvisors, interpreting the music and arrangements of Joshua Shneider.

The Tea Lounge gig is part of the Monday night Big Band series, Size Matters, curated J.C. Sanford. Please check the schedule for other great bands.

Josh Shneider and the EasyBake Orchestra will perform new compositions. The wonderful (and I mean wonderful) Saundra Williams will be singing with the band. Saundra has sung with Victor Wooten, Phish, and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings among many others. Saundra can currently be seen in the new movie “Phish 3D”.

One can safely assume that my husband’s 50th birthday cake for his birthday party on June 4, 2005, was probably the only cake EVER to have a Diane Arbus photograph painted on it in icing.

And that’s not all. The cake also had photographs by Muybridge, Stieglitz,  Julia Cameron, Ansel Adams, Feinineger and even Hugh Crawford,  painted in gorgeous sepia hues.

Created by Park Slope cake designer, Ruth Seidler, the cake was a vertible history of photography. And it was a smash hit at my husband’s 50th birthday party on Saturday night at The Old Stone House. An almond sheet cake with rasberry frosting on the inside and marzipany frosting on the outside, it was astonishingly delicious.

JollyBe Bakery is the name of Ruth’s baking business. A former art restorer, she makes all kinds of painted, stained glass and sculptural cakes. For my father’s 75th birthday she created a Matisse cake that was also quite wonderful (pictured above).

Last night, we had an impromptu after-party in our front yard on Third Street. The kids enjoyed singing Happy Birthday. Then they got to the part about “Are you 1?. Are you 2?   Are you 3,? Are you 4?…” etc.

Finally, my daughter shouted out: “Let’s just count by tens!”

And yes, that was a more expedient way to reach the momentous number.

Today – June 6th, 2010, is Hugh’s Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUGH!

Blogfest. Blogfest. Blogfest.

On Friday we closed pre-registration for the Brooklyn Blogfest, which is on June 8th at 7PM. That means we can’t guarantee seats in the Lyceum auditorium. However there are seats on the upper level where participants can view the event on video.

I suggest that people arrive at the event around 6PM and line up outside the Lyceum. After 6:50 we WILL NOT honor pre-registratiosn and if there are any seats downstairs those will go to the people waiting on line. Once we hit capacity (around 300) int he auditorium we will send people to the upper level at the Lyceum, where they can watch the event on video.

It’s always hard to predict how many people will actually show up for something like this. But this year we’re getting a lot of press and are expecting quite a crowd.

Still I encourage you to line up even if you haven’t pre-registered. It’s should be a great show and a really interesting time for all.

ArtWalk is a self-guided tour of open artist studios and area exhibitions, a range of public art projects, special events, and extensive local merchant participation. The tour provides a relaxed setting for dialogue, collecting, and for artists to discuss current bodies of work, while offering a glimpse into the creation process.

This weekend’s event includes artists across all media, participatory events, film, public art, live music, and activities for families and children of all ages. Visitors can enjoy exhibits, view and buy work, meet the artists and sample the Avenue’s restaurants, shops and bars at their own pace. To add to the weekend festivities, local businesses host receptions while area restaurants and bars offer special rates to ArtWalkers throughout the weekend.

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

Pre-registration for the Brooklyn Blogfest is now closed. Seating in the Lyceum auditorium is “sold out.”

There is room for the overflow crowd upstairs but you will be watching the event on a video monitor. Those who wish to sit upstairs should line up at 6:30 PM on the night of the event.

First priority for seating in the auditorium will be given to the people who pre-registered. We will wait until 6:50 PM for those who pre-registered to show up and then let people from the line take any vacant seats downstairs (if there are any) or go upstairs to the overflow area.

Thank you for your understanding

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