New Kings Democrats is a progressive, grassroots political organization, which aims to bring “trans parency, accountability, and inclusionary democracy to the Kings County Democratic Party.” It was started by  veterans of the Obama campaign and is a training ground for those interested in getting involved in local politics.

Their goal: “To nurture a new generation of elected Brooklyn Democratic leaders.”

At their monthly meeting this Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 6:30 PM at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (334 South Fifth Street at Rodney Street) learn how you can run for office in September and how you can influence what proposed revisions to the NYC Charter get on the ballot.

Starting Wednesday, April 7 at BAX (Fifth Avenue at 8th Street):

Learn how to blog is a hands-on workshop covering technical, creative and conceptual issues. In this class we will discuss blog design, how to write a great blog post, top-ten tips for new bloggers, search engine optimization, social networking platforms and more. You don’t need to know a thing about blogging. All you need is the desire to blog! Taught by Louise Crawford

Register at BAX

Wednesdays | April 7, 14, 21, 28 | 7:30 – 9:30 PM

$50 for workshop | No drop-ins

Louise Crawford runs Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and is the Smartmom columnist for the Brooklyn Paper. She produces the annual Brooklyn Blogfest and Brooklyn Reading Works, a montly literary reading series at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. A freelance writer her work has appeared in Newsweek, the Associated Press and BKLYN Magazine. She has taught How to Blog workshops at BAX, Adelphi University, Baruch College and at Writers-at-the-Beach in Rehobeth, Delaware.

SIGN UP: It’s a blast!

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

I’ve been remiss about promoting this class I’m teaching at BAX. Omigosh, it’s already April and I’m starting this great class next week.

Learn How To Blog with OTBKB is great class for a whole lot of reasons! For one thing, it seems to attract amazing people, who are doing interesting things.

It’s also very inspiring to see how people develop and enhance their ideas from the first to the last of four sessions.

You will learn to blog and start a blog during the weeks of the course. I will talk about writing, design and technical issues that pertain to blogging  (but it’s not very techy at all so don’t let that scare you). I will also help you focus on your blog concept and help you refine it and make it even better.

Some people come to the class with a strong sense of what they want to do. Some have no idea other than an interest in starting a blog. Not knowing is a perfectly great place to start in this group.

Here’s the blurb from BAX:

Learn how to Blog is a hands-on workshop covering technical, creative and conceptual issues. In this class we will discuss blog design, how to write a great blog post, top-ten tips for new bloggers, search engine optimization, social networking platforms and more. You don’t need to know a thing about blogging. All you need is the desire to blog!

Louise Crawford runs Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and is the Smartmom columnist for the Brooklyn Paper. She produces the annual Brooklyn Blogfest and Brooklyn Reading Works, a montly literary reading series at the Old Stone House in Park Slope. A freelance writer her work has appeared in Newsweek, the Associated Press and BKLYN Magazine. She has taught How to Blog workshops at BAX, Adelphi University, Baruch College and at Writers-at-the-Beach in Rehobeth, Delaware.

SIGN UP: It’s a blast!

According to an article in the NY Daily News, the Working Families Party is not allowed to put this spoof poster all over the subway system. The MTA says it’s in bad taste. The Working Families Party is fighting back with an online petition.

The MTA is refusing to run our ad about their plans to raise fares and cut service.

We’re going to send a letter demanding that they reverse their decision on free speech grounds — but first, we want to show them how many New Yorkers are on our side.

If you agree that it’s ridiculous of the MTA to reject these ads, sign our petition:

Thanks to Leon Freilich for forwarding this link to the April Fools Day edition of the Linewaiter’s Gazette, the Park Slope Food Coop’s newsletter. The satiric issue is, appropriately, called, The Linehaters Gazette and is in PDF format. Headlines include:

–Coop to Purchase Key Food Property on Fifth Avenue

–PSFC Opens Childcare to Dogs

–Hash brownies cooking class

The list of new members is pretty funny, too. It includes Woody Allen, Maya Angelou, David Letterman, Sasha Obama…

Oh and the Good Coffee House is presenting Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. All in good fun at the PSFC.

http://www.foodcoop.com/files_lwg/10-04-01.M.pdf

The Brooklyn Paper has been running a series about the strange and grizzly goings-on in Prospect Park. There’s been blood on the lake shoreline, the slaying of turtles, the dumping of animal entrails,  dozens of chicken heads found, a dead duck, opposum and a swan It’s disgusting. What is going on? Here’s an excerpt from an editorial in the Brooklyn Paper:

None of these incidents would have come to light without the efforts of a small band of regular park-goers, who have adopted the swans and other waterfowl. Those visitors have informed the press, the Parks Department, the NYPD and their local elected officials — but only the local media seem to care.

If murder, blood, arson and death was stalking Central Park, it would be an international outrage. Mayor Bloomberg would summon his police commissioner to City Hall and demand accountability. Cops would be staked out. Waterfowl would be treated.

In short, there would be action.

But in Prospect Park? Nothing.

One problem is that operation of the park itself is largely parceled out to the Prospect Park Alliance, which is certainly a worthy agency, but one that has a vested interest in making sure that bad news about the park is kept quiet, lest a main source of revenue — donations from wealthy residents around the park — dry up.

Aside from the hunt in your living room or garden, there are plenty of public Easter egg hunts in Brooklyn this weekend and the Brooklyn Eagle has a list. Check it out. The knowledgeable Kristin Goode at About.com: Brooklyn also has a great list. blog Here’s an egg hunt you may want to know about. And it’s in Prospect Park sponsored by our friends at Park Slope Parents:

Park Slope Parents All Volunteer Easter Egg Hunt: Meet at Third Street and Prospect Park West entrance. 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Greeters will send groups of up to 20 people into Prospect Park. Each group appoints a hiking leader, entertainers, egg-hiders, etc. The group will keep their kids occupied with music, tattoos (provided by PSP) or other activity. The last group will be sent off at 11:30. Bring: 1) a dozen or so plastic Easter eggs filled with goodies. 2) props (Easter books, guitar players, shakers, etc.) 3) lunch and a blanket if you want to enjoy the park afterward.

From the NY Post:

A Park Slope woman is suing Williams-Sonoma for $2 million, claiming one of the high-end homeware company’s serving trays broke in her hand, slicing off the end of her left ring finger.

In her Brooklyn federal lawsuit, teacher Laurie Maher-Samra claims there were no warnings against heating the Deruta Simple Small Oval Platter, which she put in her oven to melt the cheese on her nachos.

Doctors tried to reattach the digit, but her finger became gangrenous and had to be removed, according to her lawyer.

Lawyers for Williams-Sonoma did not return calls for comment.

From the Brooklyn Paper’s Crime Blotter:

A thief with an eye for quality eyewear stole an assortment of sunglasses from the Park Slope Eye Optometrist on Union Street.

An employee of the optometrist, which is between Fourth and Fifth avenues, told cops that the slick eye gear was last seen on a display at around 7 pm on March 20. Two days later, at around 8 am, they noticed that a whopping $11,000 in “Chrome Hearts” shades had vanished.

From NYC.gov

Alternate side parking (street cleaning) regulations will be suspended Tuesday and Wednesday, March 30-31, for the first and second days of Passover, Thursday and Friday, April 1-2, for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and Monday and Tuesday, April 5-6, for the seventh and eighth days of Passover. All other regulations, including parking meters, remain in effect.

Find out why Brooklyn is the bloggiest—and most creative—place in America at the Fifth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest 2010 on June 8th, 2010 at 7:30 PM. Doors open at 7 pm. Location TBD.

“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

Brooklyn Blogfest 2010 presents: CREATE. INSPIRE. BLOG: A PANEL DISCUSSION; the popular BLOGS-OF-A-FEATHER, special small-group sessions led by notable bloggers in a wide variety of blog categories; and A VIDEO TRIBUTE TO PHOTO BLOGGERS.

Whether you live to blog, blog to live or are just curious about this thing called blogging, you won’t want to miss Brooklyn Blogfest 2010, the best Blogfest yet. Truly.

The 5th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest
June 8th, 2010  at 7:30 PM
Location TBD

For information and interviews contact Louise Crawford (e:louisecrawford(AT)gmail(DOT)com, c: 718-288-4290).

It’s the first annual May Day Family Dance and Music ‘Jam’! on Saturday, May 1st – 6-10pm (or later if it’s ‘jammin!).

Organizers invite you to come sing, dance, and party at Old First. The event features: Music jammin’ with Ethan S. and the Bilger Family Rockin’ Dance Party Express!! There will be a DJ during breaks and other special musical guests!

This is a family friendly event. So bring the Kids! Bring the Neighbors!  Bring the whole family (child care provided upstairs for kids under 5).

It sounds like the high school letters have been mailed. Anxious students and parents should be getting them soon. Here from Inside Schools:

As thousands of anxious 8th-graders and their families await word on high school placement, Chancellor Klein today announced that acceptance letters have been sent to more than 70,000 students, about 90% of those who applied for next September. For the remaining 8,500 students, who listed one of the schools originally slated for phase-out as one of their 12 choices, the matching process will be done again, this time including those schools.

The chancellor’s statement follows Friday’s court ruling in a lawsuit brought against the Department of Education by the teachers’ union, the NAACP, and parents, which held up the mailing of high school acceptance letters. The state Supreme Court ruled that the DOE failed to follow requirements in issuing Environment Impact Statements on how school closings would affect their communities.

Students who applied for schools originally slated for closure will receive two match letters at the same time, the “main round match and a ‘December match,’ which would be the school originally slated for phase-out,” the DOE said. The student will be able to choose between the two matches. Some 916 students listed one of the “phase-out” schools first on their application. (See the full statement after the jump.)

What will happen if last Friday’s court ruling is overturned on appeal and the schools actually close? In that case, the student will attend the school he or she was matched to in the main round, according to the DOE.

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, Ringling Brothers will be a the beach. The beach at Coney Island, that is.

This year’s show is called “Illuscination” The Ringling Brother’s Web site describes the show as a “fantasy-filled world … with eye-popping illusions, mind-blowing transformations.”

Expect clowns, acrobats, animals and more.

The MTA cuts will affect life in Brooklyn. That’s for sure. They say they’re saving $93 million. But their “gain” is definitely going to hurt straphangers.  Here’s an excerpt from the Brooklyn Paper:

Lowlights of the agency’s most austere plan in 30 years include:

• The M train, which previously shuttled riders from Essex Street in Manhattan and Bay Parkway during the rush hour, will be eliminated entirely.

• Express bus lines in Williamsburg, Downtown and Bay Ridge will have their weekend service slashed, or be eliminated entirely.

• A bus line in Bay Ridge will be reorganized.

• Bus lines through Downtown, Red Hook, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Windsor Terrace will be reorganized, forcing straphangers to add an extra transfer to complete some trips — or hoof it.

• A bus line that connects Kensington to Borough Park will be eliminated entirely.

• A bus line connecting Homecrest and Marine Park to the Kings Plaza shopping mall will no longer operate on weekends.

Disgusting illegal dumping: Gerritsen Beach

Williamsburg furniture du jour: NY Shitty

Green Week at Pratt: The Local

Watercolor classes with Bonnie Steinsnyder: Pardon Me for Asking

Lana’s Barber Shop: The Carroll Gardens Diary

The matzo rush: Ditmas Park Blog

Brooklyn Bowl accepting summer interns: Free Williamsburg

From NYC.gov:

Alternate side parking (street cleaning) regulations will be suspended Tuesday and Wednesday, March 30-31, for the first and second days of Passover, Thursday and Friday, April 1-2, for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and Monday and Tuesday, April 5-6, for the seventh and eighth days of Passover. All other regulations, including parking meters, remain in effect.

Joan Jett was my Bowie.

In fact, when my orthodontist asked which band I’d like to see play my small town, I offered Bowie instead of Jett, whose mid-80s were so unpopular outside of my home I wasn’t sure he would remember who she was.

I have the greatest admiration for Kristen Stewart (more below). Dakota Fanning has long been a source of fascination. Since she was the youngest star in Hollywood, I’ve pretended she was my favorite actress as some sort of running gag. Friends I’ve lost touch with have been known to reach out to me after seeing her on a talk show the act was so strong.

Kim Fowley, the music biz figure who assembled The Runaways is on my short list of people I’ve most wanted to see a movie about because of his career on the edge of greatness and his over-the-line scumbag persona he perpetuates. Fowley is played by another actor I greatly admire – Michael Shannon. So, even the Twilight-obsessed have nothing on me when it came to waiting for The Runaways, the film about the teen girl rock pioneers. And the movie gets so much right. Carol Beadle’s costumes and Benoit Debie’s cinematography get the look and feel. But it’s the toilets and trailers, the chain link and leather that capture the real story. A perfectly framed gate closing on Cherie Currie (Fanning) once she’s stepped into the rock world, indicates director Floria Sigismondi understands that  rock music is not only about fulfilling your dreams, but also that those dreams are usually phony and often misguided.

The film also gets the music just right, celebrating the jams and providing the perfect links of glam and punk that define the sound of the Runaways and Jett’s career that would follow. Unfortunately, the movie hits a little soft. It’s more Almost Famous than Sid and Nancy – not necessarily a bad thing – but when we should be feeling the gut-punch of Currie’s family struggle, we’re back to everything since Jett’s own acting debut Light of Day. Likewise, Currie’s addiction story comes a few years after the parody Walk Hard confirmed that this has been overdone. But there is no denying Kristen Stewart. Rarely do rock biopics feature lead performances, like Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line, who created a real character rather than offering two hours of one spotlight-grabber impersonating another. Stewart manages both a spot-on recreation of Jett while also fleshing out a real character. I’m convinced she’s the future of Hollywood.

Crazy Lady has been busy lately. Just minutes after Teen Spirit left the apartment for his road trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas, she went into his room, popped his window open and unmade the bed.

“We need to fumigate in here,” she wailed.

Crazy Lady was right. But Smartmom promised Teen Spirit that she wouldn’t do anything drastic to his room. He was very firm with her.

“I will kill you if you redecorate,” he said.

Smartmom swore that she wouldn’t redecorate. But she did tell him that she had to do some cleaning in there. It had been ages since the floors were washed, the walls scrubbed and the whole room sanitized. He agreed, warily, to let her do some cleaning.

But Crazy Lady was going wild. She pulled all of his black-and-white marbled elementary school notebooks out of his closet. Same for his grade-school chapter books, video games that he doesn’t play anymore, clothing from when he was 8, infant snow boots, broken board games, jigsaw puzzles and ancient computers.

“Crazy Lady, don’t throw anything away. All that stuff needs to be packed up,” Smartmom warned her.

Crazy Lady had already created a mountain of detritus outside of Teen Spirit’s door.

Ever so carefully, Smartmom went through everything that Crazy Lady had thrown into the hallway. While she organized the clutter into piles, Crazy Lady moved the bed away from the wall, where she found all manner of food and garbage. She pulled his bookcase and his desk away from the wall and started scrubbing.

At one point, Crazy Lady went halfway under his bed, and pulled out a huge plastic box of action figures.

“Don’t throw those away. Those are his treasures,” Smartmom screamed from the hall. Smartmom was doing nothing wrong — it was Crazy Lady she had to worry about. Everyone knows that in order to clean, things must be temporarily moved; everything would be back to “normal” by the time he returned.

Meanwhile, Crazy Lady was tearing through weeks of dirty socks and clothing that carpeted Teen Spirit’s bedroom floor. It was like an archeological dig. She found dozens of ties; leather jackets and eight pairs of skinny jeans buried in the mess.

No wonder he told Smartmom that he needed new jeans. His “old ones” were lost inside his room.

Crazy Lady found enough quarters to buy a week’s worth of breakfast at Daisy’s.

When Crazy Lady saw Smartmom neatly packing up all of Teen Spirit’s clutter, she looked aghast.

“You should toss that in a garbage and pour kerosene on it,” Crazy Lady said with a demonic look on her face.

That scared Smartmom. What if Crazy Lady went too far? What if she did something that would compromise her delicate relationship with Teen Spirit?

“Back off, Crazy Lady,” Smartmom said. Every item was infused with memories from Teen Spirit’s childhood. It wasn’t up to Smartmom to decide what to keep and what to throw away. She could, however, organize it in such a way that Teen Spirit could look through it and decide for himself.

“But this is junk, garbage, things he clearly doesn’t need,” Crazy Lady told Smartmom.

“But it’s his junk,” Smartmom replied. “Hands off.”

Crazy Lady rolled her eyes and went back to work in Teen Spirit’s room. Now that there was less clutter, she could really clean.

At times like this, life with — or as — Crazy Lady is a mixed blessing. She’s a good motivator when a job needs to be done. But sometimes she goes too far. Smartmom has to keep her in line so she doesn’t destroy the family’s ever-tenuous dynamic.

In the days that followed, Smartmom and Crazy Lady worked side by side in Teen Spirit’s bedroom, which smelled of Meyer’s soap, Fantastic and Pledge. For the most part, they got along well, but there were some touchy moments. Smartmom thought she saw Crazy Lady eyeing Teen Spirit’s collection of Tintin books,

“Don’t touch those,” Smartmom told her.

“Just dusting around them,” she told Smartmom.

By the time Teen Spirit gets home from Texas, he may not even notice how extensively the room was cleaned. Smartmom will show him the boxes of childhood stuff that he can go through. No pressure. He can take his time. Just as long as Crazy Lady isn’t around

She gets a little carried away sometimes.

Save the date. The 5th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest is on Tuesday, June 8th at 7:30 PM.

For the 5th year in a row: Find out why Brooklyn is the bloggiest place in America on Tuesday, June 8th at 7:30 PM. Doors open at 7 pm. Location TBD. Admission: $10.

This year the theme is CREATIVITY and how Brooklyn and blogging inspires that.

Here’s your chance to meet your favorite bloggers; learn about blogging; be inspired to blog. This event is for anyone who blogs, who reads blogs, who wants to blog. It is also for those interested in the creative potential of blogging.

“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.

Spread the word.

OTBKB is a proud sponsor of the 2nd Annual Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market at the Brooklyn Lyceum on May 1 & 2 at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Fourth Avenue and President Street in Park Slope.

This year, the Market, a fully curated craft market with handmade wares, will occupy both floors of the historic Brooklyn Lyceum, formerly a public bath. Clocks, hats, art, bath and body, kids’ products, and much more, the Market will feature local, crafty food – artisanal delights like pickles, chocolate, jam and more, as well as classes and workshops both days

Should be fun!

This week’s OTBKB artist pick of the week is: Bicycle Paintings and Custom Bicycle Portraist by Talia Lempert.

You’ve heard of dog portraits, well this artist will do a portrait of your bike. What a cool idea. Describing her work, Lempert writes:

Bicycles are important, beautiful,
and worth a close look.

Most bikes I paint are, or have been, used daily
for transportation, recreation,
messenger work and/or for racing,
They are worn and customized uniquely,
being at once a specific bike
and a collective symbol of empowerment.

OTBKB is at Writers at the Beach. Content will be spotty this weekend! See you Monday.

All hail the WPA: CasaCara

What to do with built-in soap dishes: Apartment Therapy

Ikea bedside chair: Design Sponge

Details: Brooklynometry

Late Nigh bass player lives in Greenpoint: NY Post

Controversy at a Bed-Stuy playground. Should there be a jail in an imaginary play space for Brooklyn kids. Parents say no and they’re offended that the NYC Housing Authority put it there in the first place.

Here is the original post from Black and Brown News, which ran a photograph of a jail sign in a Bed-Stuy playground that has caused much consternation and controversy.The New York City Housing Authority responded quickly to these recent complaints and painted over the sign yesterday.

There is no kind, gentle, diplomatic way to describe the offense against a community by this ‘Jail Playground’ on a New York City Housing Authority property, located at Tompkins Houses (Park Avenue between Tompkins and Throop) in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where Black and Latino children live and play. (Disproportionately, Black and Latinos enter the criminal justice system. Encouraging young Black and Latino children to first play in Jail until they may actually get to jail or prison is playing loosey-goosey with their young, impressionable psyche and something no community should stand for or be subjected to).

Mr. Mayor Bloomberg, whether or not the word “Jail” was painted on after the City erected the apparatus or it came manufactured with “Jail” written on it, this egregious offense still falls on the City to take corrective action immediately.

From the NY Times:

But on Wednesday after the Black and Brown News article was picked up by Brownstoner and other sites, Housing Authority workers arrived to paint over the “Jail.” Later, another worker showed up in painter’s pants and began scouring off the word “Jail” and the fake bars, which appeared stenciled into the play set, with steel wool and paint remover.

The authority, Ms. Stainback said, “painted over the equipment as a temporary solution to replacing this part of the playground.” The authority is also looking into who ordered the equipment.

Anyone who has been through the public high school admissions process knows how difficult it is. But this new wrinkle takes the cake. On Wednesday 8th graders were supposed to find out where they will be going next year. But that didn’t happen. See this excerpt from the New York Times.

Eighth-grade students will indeed have to wait at least one more day before they can find out where they will attend high school next fall.

Admissions letters were expected to be handed out to students on Wednesday, but the Department of Education is under a court order not to distribute the decisions. The order stems from a pending lawsuit from the United Federation of Teachers and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People over plans to close several high schools in the city, and a justice in State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled this month that the city should not make the matches.

Here’s an excerpt from NY 1:

Facing severe cuts under Governor David Paterson’s proposed budget, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told the City Council’s Education Committee Wednesday that 8,500 teachers could soon be laid off.

The chancellor said in a worst-case scenario the department would be forced to lay off 15 percent of math, English, science and social studies teachers.

State law requires the teachers with the least experience get cut first.

According to a Department of Education analysis, no school district would be spared but the two hit the hardest would be District 7 in the South Bronx and District 2 on the Upper East Side, both losing about 20 percent of their teachers.

“These cuts would bring tremendous instability to our schools and students,” Klein said. “We’d be force to let go outstanding teachers, some of whom have been working in our schools for as long as four years.”

“The children of New York City schools are going to pay for the mistakes that adults made with the economy. And we have to do everything we can to stop that from happening,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

The Brooklyn Flea is tweaking their plans for the spring/summer season. While they won’t be doing a flea in Dumbo this season, they’re going to stay at the Wiliamsburg Bank Building and that’s a win win for everyone because it is such a great space to be in. From  Brownstoner:

If you could hang out at a landmark like One Hanson every weekend, wouldn’t you? So would we—that’s why the Flea is staying there (Sundays only) for the rest of the year! When we said “12 Weekends Only!” back in January, we had no idea the 80-year-old landmark bank would be such a perfect fit for the Flea. Now, thousands of awed visitors and hundreds of happy vendors later, it’s obvious. (Even the New York Times is psyched.)

And starting April 10, we’ll finally be back outdoors in Fort Greene every Saturday at our Bishop Loughlin H.S. homebase/flagship, can’t wait. From April 11 on, we’ll be at One Hanson every Sunday.

We love our new friends at Skylight One Hanson—you too can do events at the bank, just contact them!—and thank them for making our extended stay possible.

And we’re truly saddened that the Flea won’t be in Dumbo in 2010. We tried our best to make a market there happen, but it just didn’t work out. We hope to be back by the water again soon.

In case you got confused, here’s the cheat sheet:
The Flea will be at One Hanson Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next (April 3+4).

Starting April 10, we go back outside in Fort Greene every Saturday (yay!). Starting April 11, we’ll be at One Hanson every Sunday. Both markets will be open 10am to 5pm.