Trees, wreaths, garlands, winterberries, pinecones, maple syrup…

IDanika and Anners of Vermont Balsam will be set up on Union Street between 7th and 6th Avenues (just past the Park Slope Food Coop as one walks towards 6th Avenue) to sell trees, wreaths, garlands, maple syrup and other holiday products from Vermont.

CALL FOR YOUNG ARTISTS
YOUTHWORKS 2010
 A FREE Performance Program for Young Artists to Create and Present Original Work

YOUTHWORKS is a unique opportunity for young people ages 7- 18 to imagine, create and perform original short plays, dances, songs, poetry, and more. Each young performer or group works with various coaches to help develop their work. All of our coaches are professional artists working in their fields. BAX provides FREE rehearsal space to these young artists and the program culminates with a professionally produced performance.

On Saturday December 5 from 2:30-4:00 PM, there will be a mandatory orientation meeting for interested young artists, their parents, and coaches to learn about the program and the process of developing original work into a professional performance.

Coaching sessions will take place on Saturday and/or Sunday afternoons in December and January. Youthworks performances will be Saturday January 30 at 7 PM and Sunday January 31 at 5 PM.

ADULT EDUCATION PRESENTS: DEATH
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 – 8 pm (doors at 7:30)

Union Hall in Park Slope
702 Union St. @ 5th Ave
$5 cover
http://www.adult- ed.net

Adult Education is a Brooklyn-based monthly lecture series devoted to
making useless knowledge somewhat less useless. Each month is devoted
to a given theme, and 4 speakers will address some aspect of that theme
using visual aids.

DORIAN DEVINS, MARGARET MITTELBACH, & ANDREW TEMPLAR
(SECRET SCIENCE CLUB)
"Death and Taxidermy: The Ape That Launched 1000 Quips"
Devins, Mittelbach, and Templar discuss observations gleaned from four
years of Carnivorous Nights, an annual taxidermy contest held in
Brooklyn.

ALEX PAREENE
"Everyone Is Trying To Kill You: Analyzing Homicidal Tendencies In Electronic Information Networks"
The most dangerous people in America today are celebrities. And Arianna
Huffington is letting them blog. Alex Pareene assesses recent threats
to our national health from Suzanne Somers and Canada.

KATHARINE HELLER
"Le Petit Mort: Death as a Metaphor for Orgasm in Popular Culture and Literature"
Heller looks at the various ways in which death, much like everything else, is tied to sex

JOANNA EBENSTEIN
"Morbid Anatomies and Anatomical Theatres: A Guided Tour through the Macabre World of Medical Museums"
What is the difference between a wet and a dry specimen? Why did people
make life-sized, recumbent wax women whose insides could be taken apart
into dozens of pieces? Where did Gunther von Hagens (Body Worlds
exhibit) get his schtick? Joanna Ebenstein presents a virtual tour of
great medical museums of the western world.

WITH HOST CHARLES STAR

Brooklyn Heights pediatrician Stephen Turner,
MD, will conduct an additional session of H1N1 vaccination for children
AND adults. There is a $20 administrative fee.

Location: 185 Montague St., 4th floor
Time: 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009
No appointment is necessary.

The 3rd Annual Snowflake Celebration begins this week! The first
two Thursday evenings in December, Park Slope businesses will light up
with special sales and festivities like a [insert holiday-themed
light-up icon of your choice], all in the spirit of getting holiday
shoppers to spend more of their gift-dollars locally.  

Our
website, www.buyinbrooklyn.com, has a list of participants (and their
enticements), hard copies of which will be available at all Snowflake
Celebrating businesses.  Highlights include:

    Free childcare at Juguemos Spanish Institute from 5:30-8!

    Free wine and snacks, and a food drive at 4PlayBK!

    20% off all merchandise and free gift-wrapping lessons every half-hour at Lion in the Sun!

   
15% storewide discount on women's clothing, and a free raffle on a
women's custom design outfit of the winner's choice (have to choose
from the collection) at My Passion Fashion Designs!

    Some of Brooklyn's finest mobile food vendors (aka “gourmet trucks”) will make a special appearance in the Slope!

On election night David Pechefsky, Green Party candidate for City Council in the 39th district, came back from the polls with numbers that were somewhat higher than what was being reported in the media.

Katia Kelly of Pardon Me For Asking, the indispensable Carroll Gardens blog, came across a flock of Canadian Geese at the Parade Grounds.

Miracle Grill closed on Sunday but they weren't serving dinner on Saturday night so it was empty all weekend except at the bar.

I am wondering if the ever-crowded Barrio right across the street put them out of business or if it's just a sign of the economic times that they couldn't make it. I had lunch there in October and had an inkling that things weren't going well.

What's your theory?

Miracle Grill made a decent go of it for quite a few years. But prior to that, its location on Third Street and Seventh Avenue has had a high turnover. It was almost considered a doomed restaurant spot. Does anyone remember the names of all the now-defunct restaurants that have been in there going back to the 1980's. I barely remember any names at the moment but I remember the ethnicity of the food…

–Miracle Grill
–a Peruvian place.
–a Vietnamese place called Nam.
–a bar, burger and bistro kind of place (good for brunch).

  On Friday, December 4, 2009 from 8-11 PM there's an Old Stone House Fundraiser that sounds like a lot of fun: 

Fucked in Park Slope isn't very fond of them:

"All weekend long, our internet has been out.
So that's like going on SIX DAYS now. It was Thanksgiving weekend, and
my ass was stuck at home. There's only so much fucking leftover and
stuffing one can eat before feelin' the itch to watch Youtube videos
about cats or download porn, know what I'm sayin? Unfortch, that was
not an option.

"Ok, so let's play: guess who our cable provider is!???"

Anyone know? We're dying for some Thin Mints and Samoas.

An Interfaith Memorial Service at  St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church on Tuesday, December 1 (World AIDS Day) starting at 7 PM. 116 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope.

–Preparation Series, an exhibition of paintings by artist and educator, Maureen Mullen (left).

–Talks
by Pastor Daniel Meeter (of Old First Dutch Reformed Church) and Sister
Citarella (of the Gay & Lesbian Ministry of St. Francis Xavier
Church in Manhattan).

–Music by NYC Outloud

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND! Wednesdays  |  December 2 – December 16  |  7:00 – 9:00pm

Click here for more information. $45 for the workshop (no drop-ins)

Learn how to blog with Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, in 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 monthly literary reading series at the Old Stone House
in Park Slope. As 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 Rehoboth, Delaware.

The international World March Team arrived in Brooklyn on Monday, November 30: 35 countries, 4 continents and 60 days after setting out from New Zealand in support of "a new global consciousness based on nonviolence & the rejection of all forms of violence."

  With support from the Park Slope Parents, Park Slope Civic Council and The Old First Reformed Church, The 9th Annual Jingle Bell Jamboree concert on Saturday
night, Dec. 19, at 7 PM, will feature performances from an impressive line-up of Brooklyn-based performing ensembles including: The MS 51 Show Choir, The ‘Old First’ Family String Band, Paradizo Dance, The Berkeley Carroll Rock and Soul Review, “Life Lines” Community Arts of Sunset Park, and the Brooklyn Community Chorus. 

In addition, Jingle Bell Jamboree founder and producer, Ethan Schlesser and Rev. Daniel Meeter host and leads a festive sing-a-long throughout the show.

Schlesser originally created as a way to bring healing after the 9/11 tragedy. He continues to produce the event with the support of the Brooklyn community, including Borough President, Marty Markowitz.  In addition, Marlene Clary, director of the Brooklyn Community Chorus donates her time to help make the event a success, the Berkeley Carroll school offers their choral risers, and The Civic Council helps defray the costs of the promotional materials and programs.  This year, Park Slope Parents is joining in and  promoting a ‘winter coat’ drive, collecting coats which will be donated to local shelters.

There is a  $5 -$10 (children/adult) suggested donation. 100% of the proceeds goes towards the minimal expenses of the production and to the non-profit arts organizations that provide services to our community.  Schlesser, who donates all his time and energy adds, “Take a break from the holiday stress and wander into ‘Old First’. It’s a fun way to spend an evening and join in the holiday spirit”. 

Date: Saturday, Dec. 19th @ 7:00 PM.  

Location: Old First Reformed Church is located on 7th Ave and Carroll St  (729 Carroll) in Park Slope.  

Info: For more information please contact:  (917) 514-4591 or Eon88keys@yaho

They're doing it again! This time Brooklyn Based and FIPS
are throwing a holiday "office" party next Wednesday, Dec. 9 at the Bell House. Left is pix of their last "meatup" which was, apparently, quite a big, fun bash with 600 attendees. They're doing the wet t-shirt contest for men and women again, as well as a Hottest Employee of the Year competition.

You can buy a ticket in advance (here) that will guarantee two things organizers say: "you’ll save $3, enough for one more Busch,
and you’ll allow us more time to do some expert matchmaking in advance."

The New York Times' reports that a production of The Nutcracker by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky for American Ballet Theater is slated for BAM in 2010.  Producers hope the Brooklyn production will be a hearty competitor to New York City Ballet's canonic annual production of the Balanchine classic at Lincoln Center, quite a schlep for Brooklynites.

The new version will be performed just days after Mark Morris' The Hard Nut, a more adult version that has graced BAM's stage before.

This should all make for quite a nutty—and fun—holiday season over at BAM, Brooklyn's capital of culture:

From the New York Times:

"The show will also give Ballet Theater a critical source
of income. A holiday run of “The Nutcracker” is generally the financial
foundation of an American dance company and an important introduction
to the art form for children, the ticket buyers of the future. Ballet
Theater’s touring “Nutcracker” usually runs a shortfall of up to
several hundred thousand dollars, said Rachel S. Moore, the company’s
executive director."

Journalist Lynn Harris has an interesting article on Salon.com called Everybody Hates Mommy: We're "stroller Nazis." We're whiny "breeders." Why is there so much contempt for mothers these days?

"Thing is,
that derision is not only about Park Slope, and it's not only about
strollers, which have somehow become synecdoche for the perceived ills
of indulgent parenting everywhere. And it's not only about "parenting,"
either. No, I am telling you, it's about mothers. (White mothers,
generally, and usually urban ones — if in part because they're out and
about on sidewalks and subways, not cloistered in carpools and
playrooms.) You know them, or at least their epithets: "Stroller moms,"
the "stroller mafia," the particularly objectionable "stroller Nazis"
— and while we're at it, the "helicopter moms" and "sanctimommies."
Along with the area blogs, the New York Times got in on the Maclaren
fun with a silly shark-bait story
on the allegedly "palpable sense of anxiety" the recall had wrought on
the "hyper-conscientious" Slope. Standard online comment: "If the
typical 'Slope Mummy' was not so hell-bent to get to her pilates
classes, yoga classes, or whole foods market to pick up her 'fair
trade, organic food items,' perhaps she would not be so careless as to
fold 'Johnny's finger tips' into the hinge mechanism and amputate them.""

–Lynn Harris

An Interfaith Memorial Service at  St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church on World AIDS Day starting at 7 PM. 116 Sixth Avenue in Park Slope.

–Preparation Series, an exhibition of paintings by artist and educator, Maureen Mullen (see paintings above).

–Talks
by Pastor Daniel Meeter (of Old First Dutch Reformed Church) and Sister
Citarella (of the Gay & Lesbian Ministry of St. Francis Xavier
Church in Manhattan).

–Music by NYC Outloud

Meet Cynthia Maris Dantzic,  editor of 100 New York Photographers at a book launch and signing at the Community Bookstore on Wednesday, December 2 at 7 PM. A smattering of the photographers featured in the book will also be present.

LITIGATION NATION

By dread alone.

A Park Slope family taking a Beatles-like stroll through the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza. Pix by Tom Martinez. 

Remember Doug Biviano? He's the Brooklyn native who recently ran for City Council in the 33rd District.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents FEAST: Savory Syllables on Sustenance/Writers on Food curated by Michele Madigan Somerville with writers Peter Capatano, Greg Fuchs, Ame Gilbert, Nancy Garfinkel and Andrea Israel, Alexander Nazaryan, Sophia Romero and Michele Madigan Somerville.

A benefit for Helping Hands Food Pantry at St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Park Slope.

December 10, 2009 at 8 PM
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
$10 Suggested donation (but give what you can).