This is one of those times. Can’t think about anything but the health of my Dad. I hope to resume the blog on Monday  September 8, Thank you for all your expressions of concern.

No Words Daily Pix will be posting. Hey, Hepcat get going!!!

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

I ran out at 7 a.m. to the newstand to get bagel lunch for OSFO for her first day at New Voices, a middle school on 18th Street between Seventh and Sixth Avenues. OSFO will take the bus by herself starting whenever she’s ready. Today we’ll bus together up there.

School starts at 8:30 on the nose.

Last week’s orientation with principal Frank Giordano was very organized and informative. Both the kids and the parents seemed comfortable to be at the school. I was relieved when both the principal and the assistant principal recognized OSFO by name.

I am very optimistic and excited about this new experience. I think OSFO is too. Best to all kids and parents who are off to school today.

Summer’s over. I guess.

Here’s an excerpt from author Richard Grayson’s post on the Literary Festival in Fort Greene on August 23rd. Read the rest on his blog Dumbo Books of Brooklyn.

We arrived right on time at 3 p.m. today at beautiful Fort Greene Park for the Fourth Annual Fort Greene Literary Festival. Having been to last year’s event (you can read our 2007 coverage on Louise Crawford’s Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn) as well as the one in 2006, we knew we were in for a treat. And we weren’t disappointed.

Much credit for the Festival goes to the New York Writers Coalition (NYWC), a neighborhood Fort Greene fixture at 80 Hansen Place, and under the direction of the dynamic Aaron Zimmerman, its founder and executive director, and many others, last year provided more than 1000 creative writing workshop sessions at more than 45 locations throughout New York City. (Thanks to NYWC for photos above and kids’ photos below; you can see more at their website.)

Kudos for their work on the Festival also go to these presenters: chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council and Fort Greene resident Johnny Temple’s indie publishing firm Akashic Books, “dedicated to the reverse gentrification of the literary world”; the Fort Greene Park Conservatory, who’ve done so much good work (those of Brooklyn natives know in what bad shape the place was before they came along); the well-known agency Global Talent Associates; and The Walt Whitman Project – a great Brooklyn organization known for events like tomorrow’s reading, “Walt Whitman in the Neighborhood,” at the Clinton Hill Art Gallery.

On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I went back to the archives and found this post from September 2005, when there were many posts about that terrible, terrible disaster. I often run old posts in color.

New Orleans has always been so vivid in my imagination. it is a place I always wanted to visit.

The birthplace of jazz, it is rife with stories of musical greats
like Buddy Bolden, Bix Biederbecke and Louis Armstrong. As the daughter
of a jazz afficianado, I’ve felt a kinship with that place where jazz
was born, where the music took seed and blossomed lusciously.

To read and see pictures of what is going on in New Orleans hurts. Reading this in the Times caused me to feel despair as well.

Despair, privation and violent lawlessness grew
so extreme in New Orleans on Thursday that the flooded city’s mayor
issued a "desperate S O S" and other local officials, describing the
security situation as horrific, lambasted the federal government as
responding too slowly to the disaster.

How
is it that our government can’t figure out how to help the people of
New Orleans?  It is horrendous that people haven’t been moved out of
the squalor of the convention center and the Superdome. The misery of
the people is almost too much to bear. They need sanitary conditions,
water, food, and safe housing. The so-called rescue effort is an
absolute disgrace. Our government acts so high and mighty fighting
unnecessary wars on foreign lands when we  have a refugee population in
our own country that truly needs help. NOW.

I read somewhere that New Orleans has seen more death
than most other American
cities, perhaps because it predates them, because disease, floods, storms
and war have ravaged
the city since its beginning, in the early 1700s.

But it is also a mythical place of the imagination and American
music and literature would be lost without it. New Orleans is the city
of Stanley and Stella. Of The Glass Menagerie. Of William Faulkner,
Lillian Hellman, Tennessese Williams and so many others.

These new images in the daily newspapers and on the news are such a
stark contrast to the magical ones in my head. So tragic. So hard to
see. Hundreds of thousands of people in dispair, in unhealthy
conditions, homeless now.

We must do everything we can to alleviate the suffering of our
neighbors in New Orleans. MoveOn.org just announced that it has set up
a Web-based hurricane housing service to
match people who have space to spare with Katrina survivors in need of
housing.

The woman who wrote this fully supports my posting it on OTBKB. It’s quite a story.

My husband was IMing and having a beer last night on our stoop after
Biden’s speech…NYPD roll up in a patrol car and busted him for an
open container violation for 25 bucks…he was very polite and told
the NYPD he was appreciative of their presence, but asked asked about
the public/private space concept, and he explained that if I was
behind a fence or gate I would be ok. Since we don’t have a gate, the
set-back from the sidewalk didn’t matter.

I was reading a bit about this online today…there is some opinion
that the officer needs to report the actual brand of the alcohol
being consumed or it won’t hold up in court. The cop actually asked
him "What kind of beer are you drinking?" which I thought was odd at
the time, but he didn’t write the brand on the ticket.

Anyhow, the cops were polite and my husband was polite and overall
just a goofy story…we’ll probably just write the check for $25 and
mail it in rather than burning up a bunch of time contesting the
thing… thought you all might like to know that you can get busted
for this sort of thing!  (oh and apparently you’re not supposed to
leave your seat during God Bless America at Yankees games…. but
that’s another story).

Thank you all for your lovely birthday greetings. It really made my day, my 50th birthday.

A note from a college friend brought a ray of light to my day.

I completely get your apprehension about turning 50. For me it came
with a recognition that I’m no longer YOUNG. That was no surprise, but
somehow shocking nonetheless.

But flip side is: We are no longer YOUNG. We have accumlulated
experience, history, friends, children and spouses. We’ve made choices
and have lives — full and engaging lives, (although life may not
always seem so great when life deals a bad hand). If we continue to
embrace our lives, (the good and the bad) with mettle and passion we
will not get any YOUNGER, but we will enjoy getting older and maybe
even a bit wiser.

Hope you have a great birthday and many more.

With one day left, a nice note from a friend sustains me:

Breathe Deeply. Just thinking of you and hoping that you have a wonderful day tomorrow. All the things that you are, that you mean to your friends, the good you’ve
done, and all that you will continue to become for a very long time are so
much more than a number.

As does this message from my cousin:

oh lou,
fifty is total grown up girl power and beauty – if you liked your forties,
you’ll love yr fifties, I promise.

It’s in the space that used to be Pizza on the Park. Right across from the illustrious JJ Byrne Park on Third Street west of Fifth Avenue.  Right around the corner from the Stone Park Cafe and the new Bird.

I don’t know what it’s called. If you do please write me or leave a comment. I saw something about it somewhere…

I guess I could get up off my almost 50-year-old BUTT and walk over there.

Maybe there’s something about it on  Gowanus Lounge

The Community Bookstore may have inspired this blossoming of community activism on behalf of another independent bookseller.

In this case, the store doesn’t exist yet but people in Ft. Greene are rallying behind Jessica Stockton Bagnulo (aka The Written Nerd) to help her open a shop soon. They’re even planning this bookstore Kickoff Event on September 16.

It’s a movement. Not only do Brooklynites organize to protect and support a beloved literary institution but they also organize to make a new one happen!

Last year the Fort Greene Association’s retail committee surveyed 380 locals about their shopping preferences. 75 percent of respondents (281) cited bookstores as a category in which they wanted more choices.

To meet this need, the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative (FGIBI) embarked on a campaign to find an independent bookstore. After months of talking with Brooklyn-based bookstores, the group met Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, a Brooklyn entrepreneur who won the 2007 Brooklyn Public Library PowerUp! Competition for her business plan to open a bookstore in Fort Greene.

To raise community awareness and rally support for Jessica’s independent bookstore, FGIBI is hosting an event in Fort Greene at the Cumberland Greene (237 Cumberland Ave) on September 16, 2008 from 7pm to 9pm. The event will feature local Brooklyn authors. Complimentary beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres from local businesses will also be served. RSVP required; email rsvp_fortgreeneindie@hotmail.com to be added to the guest list.

As reported in the Daily News, a Park Slope grandfather of 12 was mowed down by a car on Fourth Avenue. Here’s an excerpt from the article.

A grandfather of 12 – and a beloved fixture of his Brooklyn neighborhood – was killed Monday while crossing the street near his home.

Antonio Torres, 86, a Park Slope resident since 1960, was crossing Fourth Ave. at about 7:20 a.m. when Hyundai driver Edgar Marrero, 28, slammed into him, police said.

The
impact sent Torres flying into the air before landing underneath a
Dumpster. Medics rushed Torres to Lutheran Medical Center where he died
five hours later, his family said.

His legs were nearly severed. His heart nearly split in two, relatives said.

"It didn’t look like him," said Torres’ eldest son, Jaime Torres, 61, after leaving his father’s deathbed. "The only way I could tell it was him was by his hands. We have identical hands."

It
appeared that Torres jaywalked, witnesses said. But his family insisted
that a delivery van sat doubled park on the street blocking the sight
of traffic from the always cautious Torres, a World War II vet known
for feeding the local homeless and helping sickly seniors with their
groceries.

My friend, Henry Lowengard, is author of the newly-released SrutiBox, 
an application for the iPhone that simulates an Indian harmonium, used 
as a base tone in Indian music and in droning and chanting. You can 
also use it to tune an instrument. Handy!

If you have an iPhone or have friend(s) with one, I hope you will check 
this out and forward these links in case they are interested in it—a 
steal at $2.99.

The link below takes you Henry’s development blog where   
SrutiBox fans can read further and find out how to buy one.  Also feel free to email him with 
feedback.

New Gadget Madly In Hope blog: http://www.jhhl.net/nucleus/InHope.php

Here’s a direct link into iTunes’ App Store for SrutiBox

.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the award-winning Brooklyn Paper.

Smartmom did not go to the Bob Dylan show in Prospect Park last week. Instead, she was dining on grilled salmon, fresh corn and arugula salad in the backyard of a Sag Harbor summer rental while the world’s greatest songwriter was singing “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35.”

It’s not like she didn’t want to be there. When the tickets went on sale in June, she was quick to type “Tilden,” the special code that she read about on BrooklynPaper.com that enabled her to charge two $85 tickets to her credit card before the rest of the Dylan-loving masses could buy them.

Expensive, yes. But it was Bob Dylan in her own backyard. Who could resist?

Smartmom could tell that Hepcat was dubious about the purchase.

“That’s an awful lot of money,” said Hepcat, ever frugal. “Besides, aren’t we going to be in Sag Harbor that week?”

Well, yeah. But that didn’t matter. They could always Jitney back to the city for the night.

“It’s Dylan, after all,” she said.

“It’s Sag Harbor, after all,” he said.

In the end, Smartmom gave the tickets to Teen Spirit, a huge Dylan fan. In a sense, she was passing on the baton. Just like she’d given him her old acoustic guitar.

“You got tickets? Wow. Of course I want to go,” he yelped when she gave them to him. Clearly, he was expecting a life-changing experience. First, he had to choose whom to take. Then he decided that he was going to bring his guitar to the show.

Afterwards, he wanted to play Dylan one of his songs.

Smartmom and Hepcat did little to disabuse Teen Spirit of this wacky idea. A boy can dream. Besides, he never listens to them anyway.

In some ways, Teen Spirit is just like his mom.

Smartmom and Dylan go back, way back. Not only was he the voice of her generation, but he’s been the soundtrack of her life.

When Smartmom was 11, her parents gave her a vintage leather jacket (from Ridge Furs on Eighth Street) and a Dylan songbook.

Boy, did Smartmom love that aviator jacket. But that songbook was her bible for so many years. She was a budding singer/songwriter, after all. And he was her hero.

Smartmom saw Dylan at Madison Square Garden, in upstate Binghamton, at Madison Square Garden again during his Born Again phase when he sang with those great back-up singers. She saw him with Tom Petty and later with GE Smith and again at Madison Square Garden in concert with Joni Mitchell.

She even ran into him once on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope across the street from the Montauk Club on June 12, 2000, Teen Spirit’s ninth birthday. The musical legend was wearing a white cowboy hat and walking with a photographer.

“Omigod,” she screamed. “That’s Bob Dylan.”

“Who?” Teen Spirit asked.

Boldly, Smartmom asked Dylan for an autograph. He obliged and signed his name on the back of an American Express billing envelope she had in her bag. Luckily, she didn’t mail it.

That envelope, now framed, sits on the bookshelf in her and Hepcat’s dining room.

A few years ago, Teen Spirit bought Smartmom “The Definitive Bob Dylan Songbook” for her birthday. He dropped hints for days, “You’ll probably start to cry when you open my gift.” And he was right.

So fair is fair. Smartmom has had plenty of Bob Dylan in her life and last week was Teen Spirit’s chance to revel in the legend. He knows that Dylan can barely sing anymore. He knows that you can’t recognize the songs because Dylan changes the tunes; it’s a veritable game of “Name That Tune” when he starts to play.

Still, Teen Spirit was ready for anything (though he was, fortunately, talked out of bringing his guitar by a friend).

In Sag Harbor, Smartmom thought about her son at the show.

But she was there in a way. Through her son’s eyes and ears. Plus, she got to hear about it in the morning.

“He can’t sustain a note,” Teen Spirit said. “He basically just yells the words.”

And that was worth it all.

So the other day I walked up Fifth Avenue from Third and I missed the REALLY BIG NEWS. Bird, the much loved, very stylish women’s clothing shop that started in the South Slope is now on Fifth Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets. It was actually a pioneer in the South Slope and is now an iconic Brooklyn brand I’d say.

Well, they’ve closed their South Slope shop and are concentrating on Fifth Avenue, Smith Street, and an upcoming shop in Williamsburg.

The Fifth Avenue shop will sell men’s clothing as well as  Green Bird, their line of green clothing. I haven’t been over there yet but I am chomping at the bit.

For me the shop is on the expensive side and the sizes aren’t always to my body’s liking BUT they do have Petit Bateau t-shirts, great shoes, accessories and jeans. And lots, lots MORE.

Y’know, I don’t even know which storefront that is. I’ve been very out of touch with that particular block lately. Watch out every one, the storefront that was Lulu’s will also, finally, get occupied now.

316 Fifth Avenue
between 2nd and 3rd Streets

"How can he be sorry when I was the, I understand, the 12th victim?" said Lilian France at a press conference. Cornelius Abson, The man allegedly responsible for the attack is being held without bail.

2:10 a.m. Saturday morning: Teen Spirit just woke me up to tell me the news. Senator Joe Biden is Obama’s choice for VP.

I just got this email from the very talented James Braly. Just 10 more performances of his acclaimed Life in a Marital Institution at the Soho Playhouse.

The Off Broadway run of LIFE in a Marital Institution will end as scheduled, on Sunday, August 31.    Meaning, there are only 10 more performances of the New York Times and Time Out /NBC Critic’s Pick that inspired a woman in the front row last week to cry out, “Jesus Christ!”  It was a special moment, in a summer full of them:

    — The New York Times Reader’s Favorite Shows currently lists LIFE as #9 Off Broadway, a follicle AHEAD (!) of Hair.

    — NPR’s Brian Lehrer interviewed me on his show recently, as did New York media institutions Joe Franklin and Joey Reynolds, where I was paired with sex therapist Dr. Judy for a discussion about female anatomy, albeit she did most of the talking.

    — Producer Anna Becker’s hilariously repulsive “Got Breastmilk?” ad campaign was rejected by Facebook–at the start of National Breastfeeding Week, no less.  Evidently, the tastemakers at Facebook are not Lactivists.

    But I digress.  LIFE must end in New York City (a national tour is being planned), so now is your last chance to catch the show Off Broadway.  Details at www.jamesbraly.com.   Use discount code SEB for $15.00 off tickets to remaining performances.

    It’s been a great run, and if you haven’t seen LIFE–or if you haven’t seen it at Soho Playhouse–please come.  Director Hal Brooks joined me on this adventure almost two years ago, and his work has been nothing less than transformational.

You would be too if you were a blend of Chihuahua and Greyhound. He belongs to Hepcat’s sister and her husband.

They’ve got it all at BAM:

Elegy, Vicki Christina Barcelona and Man on a Wire. Go to the spiffy new BAM website for the schedule.

In just five more days. Here is today’s thought:

I don’t feel depressed today. Something has lifted. And I am starting to think about what I want to do on the big day. Meditate, run around the park, drink a beer sitting outside at The Gate, hang out with friends, watch Obama’s acceptance speech, have a good dinner with Hepcat and the kids.

These last gorgeous days of summer have me thinking about the busy Fall ahead. There’s lots of writing to do. A new school for OSFO. Senior year for Teen Spirit. Much to think about; much to do.

So there is life after August 28th: Loads to organize and plan…

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, there have been complaints about damage to trees due to the NYC Waterfalls. Here’s an excerpt from their article:

"The Public Art Fund’s dramatic NYC Waterfalls, a big tourist draw
throughout the summer, are scheduled to be turned off in October.

"But that may be too late for many of the plants and trees both near the
River Café and further down along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

"Two of the four dramatic waterfalls, designed by Danish artist Olafur
Eliasson, are near the Brooklyn waterfront, one under the Brooklyn
Bridge and the other between Piers 4 and 5. When they were turned on in
June, there was nothing but praise for them.

"‘An Environmental Assessment Study was done, and it was concluded that
there would be no lasting impact from the project,” said Rochelle
Steiner, director of the Public Art Fund.

"However, starting about a month later, there were complaints that the
partially salt river water that is being sprayed up through the
waterfalls was causing many of the trees and plants in the River Café’s
famed garden to become prematurely brown and yellow. Owner Michael
“Buzzy” O’Keefe planted the trees 32 years ago when he opened the
restaurant in the Fulton Ferry area."

The Brooklyn Paper also has a story today.

The Waterfalls have claimed another victim.

Trees, shrubs, and greenery along the fabled Brooklyn Heights
Promenade are showing severe signs of stress, and in some cases, death
— thanks to a constant battering of brackish East River water spewing
from Olafur Eliasson’s “New York City Waterfalls” project.

The Promenade foliage is just the latest victim of Eliasson’s four-headed killing machine. As The Brooklyn Paper reported earlier this month,
the waterfalls’ saline spray has severely damaged trees at the River
Café in DUMBO, turning their greenery a decidely autumnal hue.

Six more days and I will be celebrating a major milestone. Here is my thought for today:

With six more days until the big Five Oh I find myself feeling depressed. I’m not sure if that’s because of the forthcoming birthday or because my father is ill, Hepcat is in California and my good friend is in the hospital having her hip replaced (my second 65-year-old friend this summer to have a hip replacement).

I woke up early this morning to the cacophonous sound of garbage trucks with a hangover from last night’s Barrio margarita.

Underslept, sad, missing Hepcat, I am closing in on a big birthday.

Friday, August 22 at 6 p.m.

Battle of Brooklyn Neighborhood Walking Tour

Meet at Grand Army Plaza Arch, Brooklyn

6:00 pm. Ends at The Old Stone House @ 8 pm with light refreshments

$12/$10 OSH members. For more information call 718-768-3195

It’s for sale (and back by popular demand) at Zuzu’s Petals on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

Work is moving along swiftly in the storefront between 2nd and 3rd Streets on Seventh Avenue (formerly Seventh Avenue Books). A workman there tells me it’s going to be a woman’s clothing store.

Nice wood floors. New lighting. The space needed quite a bit of work.

NY 1 reports that $15,000 is being offered for help finding the horrible person who attacked an 85-year-old Brooklyn woman.

The attacker, who is thought to be responsible for 20 other similar crimes, was caught on tape
choking and robbing Lilian France in an elevator at a Crown Heights apartment building on Washington Avenue.

100 Blacks in Law Enforcement called Wednesday for the
installation of more video cameras around the borough.