Here’s what was in my Babeland goody bag:

–a pink plastic Slimline battery operated vibrator

–Babeland Massage Candle; mojito peppermint

–Babe Lube

–a silver egg shaped vibrator with a controller that looks like a dimmer switch

Just got this missive from Fonda at Zuzu’s Petals. Seems that a longtime employee has left the fold. Sad as they are to say goodbye to that person, they do need to find someone new. Anyone know anyone who might be interested?

we always hate when there is a staff change…we like our disfunctional family to remain intact. that said, we are looking for the next new zuzu.

we need a person experienced in floral design, with a working knowledge of garden plants and retail BUT we are not looking for an " end all and be all" designer, just an assistant….and not just for the summer…

we need a full fledged new member of the zuzufamily.
know anyone?

oh, by the way…MUST love dogs

The Metropolitan Transit Authority is set to announce the winners of the Music Under New York auditions. On May 1, 55 musicians and musical groups auditioned for the chance to
perform in the subway.

From this group, a panel of judges selected 23 ensembles, whose names were announced yesterday but I can’t seem to find that list.

The winning acts are supposed to represent a variety of styles, cultural bacgrounds and instruments. They will be able to perform on the subway legally.

Looking for the MTA list, I did, however, find this cool blog, Saw Lady’s Blog, which documents the life of a NYC subway musician and musical saw player.

Go to her blog to read about the musicians at the audition. There are great pictures, too. Here is an excerpt:

The annual Music Under New York audition attracts a lot of media – many newspapers and TV news shows have reported on it.

One reputable newspaper reported that:

“…was among 200 people who applied for this spring’s auditions, about 70 of whom were selected to play Thursday before a panel of 40 judges that included music industry professionals and transit employees. The judges were looking for perhaps 20 people to add to the subway soundtrack’s current roster…”

Actually, it was 230 people who applied, 55 of whom were selected to
audition in front of a panel of 20 judges. 25 to 30 people will be
chosen to join Music Under New York…

Of course the exact details in reporting on the Music Under New York
audition are not important, but it just makes me think how many details
newspapers get wrong in other subjects, and we believe everything they
say because they are a reputable newspaper…

Musicians who have passed the preliminary audition, which is by
recording, are invited to audition live at Grand Central Station. The
usual venue for the audition, Vanderbilt Hall, was unavailable due to
construction, so the audition took place at the North East balcony
instead (which is actually where I auditioned more than a decade ago).

Here’s the Brooklyn Paper’s kitchen sink on Blogfest:

Park Slope: The third-annual Brooklyn Blogfest at the
Lyceum on Fourth Avenue was lots of fun for the 400 or so people and
bloggers who attended. Sure, our editor put his foot in his mouth with
some poorly received comments about the downside of blogging, but he
was still feted like the star he is. Also, one of our favorite
bloggers, Katia Kelly from Pardon Me for Asking, was having such a good
time that she even admitted that she’d like to have dinner with her
bitter rival, 360 Smith St. developer Billy Stein! And our pal Robert
Guskind of Gowanus Lounge was revered as the blog-o-giant he is. …

Friday May 23rd marks the end of an era: Nancy Nancy, Fifth Avenue’s smart and funny gift and card emporium, is closing.

Nancy Nancy was one of the first shops to open on the new Fifth Avenue. They were pioneers back in the day (1998) when only the brave and adventurous had the guts to open a shop on Fifth.

And now they’re leaving.

They will begin selling off items from the shop in front of the store all day Sunday May 18th during the Fifth Avenue Fair. The good news is that Nancy Nancy will continue to sell her cool wares on line at their website, which will be updated contantly. Here is a note from Mary, the owner of Nancy Nancy, with some news about what’s on the horizon.

The good news is that Nancy Nancy will be selling her cool products on line at www.nancynancy.com, the site will be
updated constantly! Here’s a note from Mary, the owner of Nancy Nancy, with some news about what’s on the horizon for Nancy Nancy.

I am still blogging at the Nancy Nancy Blog. There
is a possibility that we will be opening at the beach, pioneering again, in
Mastic Beach; it’s a great little beach town with a bad reputation. Much like
5^th Avenue was when we opened
here 10 years ago!!

A day of learning, fun, games, music and action at The Old Stone House in JJ Bryne Park.

Join Brooklyn Parent, OSH, Park Slope
Parents, Park Slope Civic Council and

Recycle
This!, sponsors of for It’s My Park Day Eco
Fair

This Saturday, May 17,
2008 at the Old Stone House at
J.J.
Byrne
Park from 11 am until 4 pm.

At the Urban Bird
Event at the Old Stone House from 11:00 – 12:30, learn
to identify local birds by sight and sound with Dan and Claudia Joseph,
sponsored by the Cornell Lab for Ornithology.  There will be
a music and bird song identification activity inside OSH starting at 11,
and  a bird walk and art activity outside.

FUN:

11:00 – 4:00  Face
Painting and Assorted Crafts

2:00 – 4:00 Monster
Making with Kathy Malone

GAMES:

11:30 to 12:30 Classic
Games on the Lawn

1:00 – 4:00
Ping Pong at the Old Stone House –
3^rd Street
side

1:45 – 2:15
Bend and Bloom Yoga with
Amy Quinn

MUSIC:

12:30 – 1:30 Royal
Pine

3:00 –  4:00
Sign-A-Song

ACTION:

Freemeet
– 4^th
Street cul de sac, sponsored by Recycle This
NYC!

ADVOCACY:

Brooklyn
Center for the
Urban Environment – Composting

Brooklyn
Greens

Freegans

Gowanus
Canal
Conservancy

Grow Baby
Grow

Ellen Honigstock RA,
LEED AP

Holistic Moms
Network

No Spray
Coalition

Park Slope
Greens

Parents for Climate
Protection

Wetlands

Yesterday an elm tree was removed from Third Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.

Old First’s Pastor Daniel Meeter, who seems to have had a special relationship with that tree, was there.

On his blog you can read his requiem for that tree, which was five stories tall. He describes it this way: "Its cloven trunk was
wonderfully vertical, in the manner of a deep forest tree. Urban elms
more typically have great spreading limbs, torquing and twisting like
great dancers in their places." Here is an excerpt:

"This spring it barely budded at all. And so they came to take it down. Today, Thursday.

 

The
tree surgeon was up in his bucket when I got there, but he asked me not
to take his picture. As they lowered him I thought of a preacher in an
old high pulpit, not least because of how loudly and confidently he was
declaiming to all the people standing round, both workers and watchers.
He announced that the tree had not died from Dutch elm disease. He said
it died from what "someday will happen to me, and to you, and to you,
and to you, and to every other living thing: old age." He knows a lot
more about trees then I do, but I don’t believe it died from old age. I
wonder how much of what I say my parishioners do not believe?

 

"Thank
you tree, for the wonderful beauty you gave us while you lived. Thank
you God for this tree. The birds thank you, and so do the bugs."

.

From the New Yorker’s Readings and Talks column:

“THE EDGY MOTHERS READING”

The writers Lenore Skenazy, Louise Crawford, Amy Sohn, Louise Sloan,
Christen Clifford, Michele Madigan Somerville, and Sophia Romero share
their jagged takes on motherhood. (The Montauk Club, 25 Eighth Ave.,
Park Slope, Brooklyn. No tickets necessary. For more information, call
718-638-0800. May 15 at 7.)

Here are more ‘tails:

The Second Annual Edgy Moms Reading

Tales of Motherhood without Sanctimony

Join eight notable and notably edgy mother-writers for a fun reading 
over a much-needed cocktail, just a few days after Mothers Day.  From 
single moms to sexy moms to moms who let their kids ride the MTA 
alone, these writers will shock and entertain you, and they won’t 
make you eat your vegetables before you get dessert.  They are:

Amy Benfer, essayist and Salon writer

Louise Crawford, Brooklyn Paper’s Smartmom and editor of Only the 
Blog Knows Brooklyn

Christen Clifford, writer/star of Off-Broadway’s hit show Babylove, 
true stories about sex and motherhood

Michele Madigan Somerville, poet and blogger, Fresh Poetry Daily

Sophia Romero, blogger, The Shiksa from Manila

Lenore Skenazy, controversial New York Sun writer

Louise Sloan, author of Knock Yourself Up:  A Tell-All Guide to 
Becoming a Single Mom

Amy Sohn, novelist, Run Catch Kiss and My Old Man

The Montauk Club

25 8th Avenue between Lincoln Pl. and St. Johns Pl. in Park Slope, 
Brooklyn

Thursday May 15th – TOMORROW!

7 p.m.:  Cocktails (cash bar)

7:30 p.m.:  Reading

Free and open to all (adults)

718-638-0800

For those of you sitting on the edge of your seat about the outcome of last night’s Community Board 6 meeting at Borough Hall, here’s the latest: Union Hall will have its bar/venue license renewed. Brownstoner writes:

Bumpershine reports that last night Community Board 6 dismissed the motion
brought forward last week by its landmarks/land-use committee saying
Union Hall shouldn’t receive a liquor license renewal. Instead, the
board introduced a new motion in favor of the bar/venue’s license
renewal that was overwhelmingly approved. Nearby residents charged that
noise from Union Hall was destroying their quality of life, while Union
Hall supporters argued that the business was a boon to Park Slope. "CB6
has dealt a blow against the residents they’re meant to protect," says
Jon Crow, one of the organizers of the anti-Union Hall faction, in an
email statement.

Read these blogs for more in depth information:

Union Hall Yays Have It on Brownstoner
Union Hall Wins on Bumpershine
Union Hall Wins Over the Board on Gothamist

Browsing around the Park Slope Civic Council website, I discovered that in 2008 the Park Slope Civic Council awarded 18 grants for 2007-8, totaling $9,878. The grants help fund
projects at schools, charities, cultural institutions, and other
organizations at work in Park Slope.

The grants are funded by money raised at the
annual Park Slope Civic Council House Tour, which will be held on May 18th from noon to 5 p.m. starting at the Berkeley Carroll School. For more
information, contact house.tour@parkslopeciviccouncil.org.

Here are the 18 grants approved by PSCC Trustees at their February 2008 meeting:

Park Slope Geriatric Day Center: Early Memory Loss Program.
The grant will buy kits, tools and supplies for the Center’s clients,
including its Early Memory Loss group, who will build doll houses that
will be donated to children’s programs in Park Slope.

Groundswell Community Mural Project: Department of Environmental Protection Water Mural.
In partnership with the Garden of Union and the Department of
Environmental Protection, the Groundswell Summer Leadership Institute
will create a large-scale mural exploring the water cycle and the
importance of green spaces in New York City on the site of the new
community garden planned for the water substation at 4th Avenue and
Sackett Street.

Spoke the Hub: Miles of Tiles Continuing Mosaic Project.
The grant will help buy material that people of all ages will use to
re-create mosaics lost in the renovation and expansion of this
multifaceted neighborhood arts center.

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking: Friday Movie Night at Reel Works.
This teen-curated series exposes young filmmakers to classics to
inspire their own creative cinematic journeys. Funding will be used to
purchase a movie screen, speaker set, and DVD player.

P.S. 321: Adopt-A-Tree-Well.
P.S. 321 classes will care for trees around the edges of the school,
encouraging children to appreciate the environment in their own front
yard. Children, parents, and staff will benefit from the improved
aesthetics of the trees in their environment. Consultants from Trees
NYC will teach the children how to care for the trees. Funds will be
used to purchase gardening tools for the project.

M.S. 447 Math and Science Exploratory School: School-Wide Recycling Program.
Although it’s the law, few New York City public schools actually
recycle. Our grant will help launch a school-wide recycling program at
MS 447, administered by students and led by a teacher who successfully
implemented a similar program at a Bedford Stuyvesant middle school.
Recycling will be integrated into the 6th-grade math curriculum.

Brooklyn Conservatory of Music: Civic Sounds. Our
grant will help fund the Civic Sounds summer community concert series,
Friday afternoons outside the Conservatory.  Genres will include Jazz,
Classical, World, Rock, Pop, and R&B.

Old First Reformed Church: Club Loco.
The year-old club, founded with the help of PSCC’s first Community
Builder grant, provides a venue for teen musicians and a place for
teens aged 14-20 to hang out in a safe environment away from parents
and authority figures. Our grant will be used to increase Club Loco’s
visibility and to increase the diversity of the teens that come to the
club.

Brooklyn Arts Exchange: Opportunities for Teens in the Arts.
The BAX Teen Arts Conference is celebrating 10 years of development and
support for young artists. Funding will help expand BAX’s Higher
Education Opportunities in the Arts program, which offers teens insight
into educational and vocational trajectories in dance and theatre.

Old Stone House: Education Program. The
Old Stone House is participating in a National Endowment for the
Humanities grant to examine the African and African-American experience
in New York in the years 1660-1875. Our grant will help develop a
drama-based curriculum for 7th graders exploring that subject.

Council on the Environment of New York City: Park Slope Computer and Recycling Day. Our
grant will help the Council on the Environment conduct an electronic
recycling day coinciding with our Spring Clean Sweep on April 19.
Electronic gear will be given to Per Scholas, which reconditions usable
equipment and recycles the rest in an environmentally responsible
manner.

Park Slope Senior Center: Park Slope Senior Center’s “Recipes from the Heart.”
The Center’s creative writing class will create a cookbook melding
memories and cultures through the sharing of traditional recipes. Our
grant will help with printing costs.

The Garden of Union: Sunday Afternoon Music Series.
Our grant will help fund live musical performances in the community
garden on Union Street between 4th and 5th Avenues (tentative dates:
May 31, June 21, and October 19).

P.S. 39: P.S. 39 Parent Involvement. Our
grant will help pay for the printing of handouts at a series of parent
involvement workshops ranging in subject matter from “How to Better
Communicate With Your Child” to “Discipline without Punishment.”

Park Slope Christian Help: Soup Kitchen and Pantry Program.
Funding will be used to purchase essential supplies for the CHIPS soup
kitchen, an honored Park Slope Institution serving 200-300 meals a day.

The Green-Wood Historic Fund: Serving Educators to Better Serve Students.
Our grant will help pay for lesson plans and guides for neighborhood
elementary schools that come to the cemetery for tours and instruction
from the cemetery’s Director of School Programs.

Prospect Park Alliance: Bartel-Pritchard Square Planting Project.
With help from our grant, an invasive species, Japanese Barberry, will
be replaced with native shrubs. The plantings will also beautify the
square and its World War I monument.

M.S. 51: The Partnership Gardens Program. Our
grant will be used to purchase plants and gardening materials for four
areas at M.S. 51 and four areas in J.J. Byrne Park that will be cared
for by M.S. 51 students.

Members
of the Grants Committee include: Chairperson Greg Sutton, Nathaniel
Allman, David Alquist, Nelly Isaacson, Ann Kalkhoff, Robert Levine,
Eric McClure and Lauri Schindler. Any community school or group is
welcome to apply for a grant. The guidelines may be read on our web
site, and downloadable applications for the 2008-9 cycle will be posted
in the fall. 

May 18th is the 49th annual Park Slope House Tour sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council.

I’ve done the tour a few times and it really satisfies those voyeuristic tendencies of mine. You get to walk around in beautiful houses and see beyond the bay windows.

What fun!

The 2008 tour showcases nine beautiful and historically fascinating homes in the northern part of Park Slope, plus the famous Montauk Club and performances at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

The funds raised by this self-guided walking tour are returned to the community as grants to local schools, charities, cultural institutions and other organizations.

You can purchase tickets online until 8 pm, Saturday, May 17. Your ticket(s) will be held for you on Tour Day, Sunday, May 18, at our starting point at The Berkeley Carroll School. You may also purchase tickets the day of the tour at the starting point, for $25.

Sunday, May 18, 2008
12:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Starting point: The Berkeley Carroll School
181 Lincoln Place
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Between 7th and 8th Avenues

There. I said it.

Last night on Brian Lehrer Live on CUNY-TV , Peabody Award winner radio/TV talk show host asked OTBKB if she blogs about her son’s breakfast cereal.

"Maybe I should," was OTBKB’s reply.

OTBKB and Gowanus Lounge were guests on Lehrer’s show. A lively discussion ensued about the Brooklyn Blogfest; the future of blogging; whether there’s money in blogging; and more.

Hanging out in the green room at CUNY-TV, Gowanus Lounge and OTBKB had a chance to catch up and talk shop. They were the second of three segments. The first was about whether John McCain’s has an conomic policy. The blogging segment was followed by one about Greenmarkets in NYC.

You can find that show here.

I thoroughly enjoyed my second appearance on the show, a live, hour-long weekly television program on CUNY TV. Check out the show’s new blog: Discuss the show.
   
   
      

I’m a big fan of Lehrer’s morning radio talk show on WNYC. He describes his TV show this way: 

Just like my WNYC show, we’ll be trying to get at the truth about life
and politics in New York City, and give regular New Yorkers a voice
through live call-ins and e-mail,” says Lehrer.  “We’ll be providing
direct access to mayoral hopefuls and other major newsmakers, and doing
New York television’s only ‘open phones’ call-ins.  We’ll also invite
people to send in photos and original videos that say something
meaningful about life in New York today.  And, as on the radio, we’ll
find our ways to sneak in some fun!”

The program is
cablecast in New York City on Wednesdays from 7: 30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.,
and is simulcast live and archived online at www.cuny.tv.

First you give us a vacation from alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules. Now we get a new public charter middle school. What is going on? Park Slopers have really won the lottery this week.

Big news. Big news for parents in District 15: There’s a new public charter school called Brooklyn Prospect will open in September 2009. A Community School District 15 school, it will strive "to create
a school population that reflects the diversity of the community." 

Brooklyn Prospect will be recruiting,
training and supporting educational professionals who model lifelong
learning and collaborative learning. 

The website states that the school will "serve students with a
broad range of academic and social competencies. Classes will be taught
so that each student is challenged where appropriate, and supported as
necessary, with the goal to maximize the success of each learner."

Differentiation of instruction will be emphasized, as will an effort to
ensure that the students have experiences that are complementary and
inclusive.

Nice NOT to hear the words: only for gifted and talented students. Sounds like this school can accommodate a wide range of learners.

That’s a relief. No one can deny that we need more middle schools in District 15 so we parents are curious, curious, curious about this brand new effort in our midst.

Thankfully, the Brooklyn Prospect website is quite informative. Here’s an excerpt from the mission statement.

Brooklyn Prospect  Charter School
students will achieve world class standards and participate, along with
their teachers and parents, as full members of a thriving model
learning community that prizes compassion, knowledge, and reflection.
Brooklyn Prospect Charter School seeks to prepare students in grades
6-12 from the diverse neighborhoods in Community District 15 with the
skills, knowledge, and habits of mind necessary for success in higher
education, the workplace, and life in the twenty-first century.

The school’s core values include:

Building foundational literacy and numeracy,
students will participate in collaborative curricular activities
designed to develop the skills and habits of mind necessary to
contribute to the global economy. Students will develop 21^st
Century skills which include: innovation, inquiry, creativity,
expression, critical thinking, problem solving, reflection and
teamwork. In order to maintain world class standards, Brooklyn Prospect
Charter School will become an accredited International Baccalaureate
school, and every student will complete the International Baccalaureate
Middle Years Programme, preparing them for success in the International
Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

Interesting that the school will be an accredited International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program. They’re going for world standards not just NYC ones.

I’m wondering what that means specifically in terms of curriculum. Language requirements, higher level of math and science training? World history? 

The planning team’s bios are on the website. The names include James Bernard, who was on the Park Slope 100 and is the founder of the Source Magazine and a member of Community Board 6. Here are the names of the Board of Trustees:

Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein (ex-officio)
Executive Director, BPCS

Luyen Chou
Chief Product Officer, SchoolNet

James Bernard
Founder, The Source Magazine
Member, Community Board 6

Anne Burns
Executive Director, Harlem Day Charter School

Elizabeth Varley Camp
Managing Director, HealthpointCapital

Roger Fortune
Senior Vice President, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

Pearl Rock Kane, Ed. D.
Director Klingenstein Institute
Teachers College, Columbia University

Candice Olson
Founder, iVillage

Eliza W. Swann, Esq
Partner, Shearman & Sterling

Continue reading A Brand New Charter Middle School in Park Slope →

Starting May 19th, alternate-side-of-the-street parking will be suspended in Park Slope until the end of the summer and Park Slopers feel like they’ve won the lottery.

So why is the Department of Transportation giving this gift to Park Slopers? The city is replacing street signage.

Throughout the Slope, this news is being met with cheers and tears. Long regarded as one of the worst neighborhoods in New York City for parking will, for a few brief months, be one of the best.

"My husband will be so thrilled," one friend told me. "He plans his day around moving the car."

Outside of New York City, it is probably hard to understand the joy that this brings Park Slope residents. But parking and moving one’s car from one side of the street to the other is a daily torment for New Yorkers, as is the interminable search for a parking space.

Park Slope drivers drive from one street to another – going in circles – on the hunt for legal parking spaces; a space where they won’t have to move the car in the morning.

"We’ll  be able to leave our car parked when we go to Germany this summer," another friend told me. Usually when they go away they have to leave their car at an expensive garage.

The downside of all this is that there will be no street cleaning this summer. This could be a smelly prospect in the neighborhood next to Prospect Park. Another friend wondered if people all over Brooklyn will leave their cars in Park Slope for the whole summer.

"Park Slope will become a gigantic parking lot for people all over the city." she said.

But let’s not get all negative. Rejoice: there’s no alternate-side-of-the-street parking for an entire summer.

Halleluah.

I get inquiries all the time. These came in yesterday. Because I believe in the interactivity of blogging, I send these questions out to you so please let me know if you know.

When is Seventh Heaven, the annual Seventh Avenue Street Fair?

When is the 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival?

Hey, were they shooting last night at South Paw? I saw a big movie light out front as I walked uptown from The Chocolate Bar.

Julie and Julia is a memoir that started as a blog. Blogger Julie Powell cooked all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume  I, in a period of 365 days and blogged about it daily.

A friend told me that Julie was a temp at an office in Lower Manhattan. My friend said it was fun while Julie was doing the blog because she’d bring in the food she was cooking for her friends at the office to enjoy for lunch.

The blog became a successful book and now it’s being made into a movie written and directed by Nora Ephron and starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child.

Not bad.

It sounds like the story has been really fleshed out. According to Velvet Sea, they were shooting at Moutarde and there were classic cars outside. Sounds like a little Julia Child bio-pic thrown in for good measure.

Here’s the report from  Velvet Sea, a New York City photoblog with words:

Today they were filming Julie and Julia in Park Slope.  The movie is based on this book about a woman who tries to cook all of Julia Child’s recipes from Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One
in one year in order to change her life. The film is based in the 50’s
in Paris and Cafe Moutarde was apparently a stand in for a French cafe-
hence the classic cars. The movie has a bunch of stars in it, most
notably Meryl Streep as Julia Child. I spotted Meryl today walking to
her oversized trailer (it looked like she had an entire huge trailer to
herself whereas the other "stars" had like 1/5th of a trailer each).
She was wearing a plaid suit with her hair tucked under a matching hat
and striped very high wedge shoes- at least 3-4 inches

Last night there was a meeting at Borough Hall about the fate of Union Hall’s liquor license. A small group of Union Street want to see that bar/music space closed down.

Union Hall says they’re doing their best to keep the noise at an acceptable level for local residents. Yesterday they printed signs that said. Union Hall is Park Slope: I Support Union Hall.

I wasn’t able to be at the meeting and there’s no news out there yet.

Can someone who was at this meeting please send a report?

Several Carroll Streeters, including Seeing Green, who work at home spent Wednesday watching the filming of Julie and Julia on Fifth Avenue and Carroll Street. Read Seeing Green’s terrific report. Here’s an excerpt:

I couldn’t resist hanging out on Carroll Street in front of my house yesterday to take in the shooting of the film Julie Julia
at Cafe Moutarde next door. Starring Meryl Streep and James Tucci,
Streep was shooting a scene with Jane Lynch, suitably decked out in
50’s garb and painfully high heels.

Of course, expecting any excitement at a film shoot is about what you
get watching paint dry. After checking out the mountains of equipment
and trying to watch the video monitors for any sign of activity for
what seemed an hour, I gave up and went in.

Then came out again, of course…had to have coffee from Tempo next door.

Several of us Carroll Streeters who work at home (or don’t work)
were lounging outside the restaurant Al-Di-La and talking loudly in a
Brooklyn-esqe way. Since we had identified Streep’s trailer, we pointed
it out, helpfully, to curious passers-by. Finally Streep’s burly
bodyguard stared balefully at us, and one of my neighbors shouted out
"Don’t worry, we’re not stalking her!" As if that would be calculated
to soothe him. But he merely continued to keep a watchful eye on us and
did not come over.

An OTBKB reader and rugby player sent this in about Brooklyn Women’s Rugby:

Women tackling each other is usually a crowd pleaser, but our team is much more than a gaggle of hyper-aggressive, unfeminine jocks.  Though our roster is small and constantly in flux our players represent our borough: locals and transplants, gay and straight, women who wear makeup to every game, and women who are at their most beautiful when they sprint, tackle, and execute plays.  We are the only women’s rugby team in Brooklyn , and our players represent many different neighborhoods. We accept players and supporters from all boroughs, but most exemplify the diversity and attitude of Brooklyn : aggressive, yet affable.

Brooklyn Women’s Rugby was formed only 16 months ago by five women.  Though two women’s teams exist in Manhattan , our players were looking for a more social league, one that allows its player to have a life.  Since February 2007 our numbers have gone from five to roughly 25, and we now have a certified rugby coach, Ms. Jaimee Lynn Nelsen.

In case you’re unfamiliar with rugby, it is a contact sport in which players, sans padding, advance a ball down a football-sized field by kicking or running.  The ball can’t be thrown forward, and once a player has the ball, they’re a marked man: only the ball carrier can be tackled, and any obstruction results in a penalty.  Penalties, of which there are many, are resolved through the intricate dog-pile known as a scrum, or the line-out, which resembles bloodthirsty cheerleading. There are rucks and mauls as well, methods of regaining possession through coordinated violence.  Injuries aren’t really that common, though they do occur; one of our players was recently sidelined after breaking a finger, though she was good enough to finish the game before going to the ER.  However, we tend to go through our lives with more bruises, scratches, and concussions than “normal” people.

Practices take place in Prospect Park on Thursdays at 6:30 and typically have games on Saturdays.  Please feel free to come to a practice and get a feel for our team.  I know Only the Blog Knows is busy, and we’d have no problem reporting the results of our games and general development if you’re unable to get away from the desk.  I’ve attached a schedule of our upcoming games, and also invite you to our First Annual Brooklyn Women’s Rugby Pub Crawl: as fundraiser and opportunity to raise community awareness of our team, it will take place in Park Slope during the afternoon of June 7.

Tonight at 7:30 Robert Guskind of Gowanus Lounge and I will be on Brian Lehrer Live discussing the Brooklyn Blogfest and the future of blogging in Brooklyn.

As everyone knows, Brian Lehrer is the popular host of WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show." But he also hosts a  live, hour-long weekly television program on CUNY TV.
   
   
      

“Just like my WNYC show, we’ll be trying to get at the truth about life
and politics in New York City, and give regular New Yorkers a voice
through live call-ins and e-mail,” says Lehrer.  “We’ll be providing
direct access to mayoral hopefuls and other major newsmakers, and doing
New York television’s only ‘open phones’ call-ins.  We’ll also invite
people to send in photos and original videos that say something
meaningful about life in New York today.  And, as on the radio, we’ll
find our ways to sneak in some fun!”

The program is
cablecast in New York City on Wednesdays from 7: 30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.,
and is simulcast live and archived online at www.cuny.tv.

Hey, this sounds cool. What 40ish woman didn’t come of age with Our Bodies Ourselves in the 1970’s? Back then it was THE go-to book for all the information we needed, including how to use a speculum and more. How I pored over this book, which has been reissued and revised countless times.

Join Judy Norsigian (Our Bodies Ourselves co-founder and co-author
of all OBOS titles) for a discussion about pregnancy and birth issues
Thursday, May 22 from 7-9pm in Brooklyn, NY.  Sponsored by Planned
Parenthood, the event will take place at the Old Stone House, located
on 5th Ave in the Park Slope neighborhood between 3rd and 4th streets.

Forget just knowing what to expect–learn what to do during pregnancy and beyond.

From choosing a provider to coping with labor pain, this comprehensive
book will help women make informed decisions and guide them through
pregnancy, birth, and the "fourth trimester" of early motherhood. 

"The trusted Boston Women’s Health Book Collective has written a
comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date book for expectant mothers.
It balances important facts, scientific date, and evidence with the
voice of the "wise woman"; and it provides questions to ask, issues to
think about, and options to consider and discuss. This is the #1 book I
am going to recommend to my patients."

–Timothy R.B. Johnson MD FACOG, Bates Professor and Chair of
Obstetrics and Gynecology and Professor of Women’s Studies, University
of Michigan

"As a new mother myself, I appreciated all the scientific evidence
that was used to back up recommendations or to question standard
practices. And yet this book manages to be a smart, readable guide that
is not preachy — a rarity for pregnancy books."

–Tina Cassidy, author of Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born

It should be quite a Community Board meeting tonight.

On one side of the ring: A small group of Union Street neighbors, who claim the club noise is unbearable; that it’s ruining their lives.

On the other side of the ring: Union Hall, the popular library-style bar/restaurant/music club on Union Street near Fifth Avenue.

The neighbors want to take away Union Hall’s liquor license.

Union Hall is trying to pull together a big crowd of support. They’ve even got a logo: Union Hall is Park Slope: I Support Union Hall.

The meeting is at 6:30 tonight at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

Louis Rosen’s musical settings of poems by the contemporary black poet Nikki Giovanni are a great leap forward in a career already sparkling with high points.

For those who are fans of Rosen’s song cycles based on the poetry of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes—and his own South Side Stories—the Nikki Giovanni songs will be yet another revelation.

Last night at the CD release show for One Ounce of Truth: The Nikki Giovanni Songs (on PS Classics) at Joe’s Pub, the audience knew they were witnessing something very special. Indeed, a chance to hear Louis Rosen and Capathia Jenkins is always a treat but the added bonus of a  6-piece band (including Louis on guitar) made this performance something even more interesting and complex.

The new songs swirl through a variety of musical styles and moods, including blues, R&B, funk and the smooth Brazilian vibe of The Moon Shines Down and The World, two ravishing love songs. The Laura Nyro-esque Telephone Song is a joyous and giddy swoon of musical pleasure.

There is darkness in You Were Gone and One Ounce of Truth and humor and a sassy sexiness in a songs like, I Wrote a Good Omelet and That Day. The Black Loom, from a Giovonni poem dedicated to Nina Simone, is a showcase for the funky, soulful side of Capathia.

Not enough can be said about the smarts, musicality, and 2-octave
interpretative genius of Capathia Jenkins. She is a treasure to behold,
on CD or on the stage of Joe’s Pub.

One Ounce of Truth, is another chapter in Rosen’s musical exploration of black American poetry. The deceptively causal,  often funny and wise verse of Giovanni is a perfect companion to Rosen’s multi-timbered musical settings. Here’s what Nikki Giovanni had to say about the recording:

"I’m just a girl who writes poems and was lucky enough to find someone who writes music who found someone who sings like an angel so my work once again has this wonderful opportunity to reach out and embrace and tickle and lovingly dance with you. I hope you like it. The moon is still against the night singing loves songs to the stars."

Luckily, you have 3 more chances to catch this go-round of performances by Louis and Capathia: May 18, 19, 26 at Joe’s Pub

The Brooklyn Paper reports that alternate-side-of-the-street (ASOTS) parking will be suspended on
residential streets in Park Slope starting on May 19. This means that there will be no residential street cleaning at all this summer.

What’s the reason for this summer vacation from ASOTS parking for Park Slopers?

According to the Brooklyn Paper, the Department of Transportation needs to install
street signs explaining new street-cleaning regulations that will
reduce “No parking” times on residential street-cleaning days from
three hours to 90-minutes.

In the commercial zones, streets will
be cleaned as many as six times a week, up from four or five, and at
staggered half-hour cleaning schedules.

So Ikea will offer free ferry service from Pier 11 in lower Manhattan to its dock in Red Hook. It will be for shoppers and anyone else who wants to take the ride to Red Hook.

Ikea opens on June 18th in Red Hook.

Tim Murphy of New York Magazine’s Daily Intel cornered Maggie Gyllenhaal about the recent move Tribeca flight by Jennifer Connelly and Paul Brittany at the 4th Annual Design on a Dime benefit for Housing Works, an organization devoted to fighting the twin crises of AIDs and homelessness.

So what
does Gyllenhaal think about her fellow Brooklyn celebs, Jennifer
Connelly and hubby Paul Bettany, fleeing the borough? "I don’t know
her" — we found that a little suspect, because we know all about that
SlopeCelebs Yahoo group where they all conspire about the best times to
hit the food co-op without being spotted — "but everyone’s telling me
that she’s leaving, she’s leaving. But she lives in a mansion, like a huge house, and we don’t…"

Our eyebrow involuntarily took flight.

"I mean, we live in a brownstone, it’s huge, it’s big, believe me,
I’m grateful for all the space we have. But I think [Connelly] was
saying that her house was kind of too much. Our house, like, it doesn’t
feel like too much."

She then reiterated that she was glad to be out of Manhattan. And
then she dropped the bomb, one in a string that may eventually restore
Park Slope fully to the unboldfaced, if not the unfinanced: "To be
honest, I’m thinking in the next few years of moving even further
away." Like … to Gowanus? we asked. "To the country," she said…

In response to my post/column about Jen and Paul moving from their gorgeous Prospect Park West mansion to Tribeca, I received this interesting email from a Park Slope resident, who is also selling a home. Reason: unbearable noise pollution.

I live on Fifth Street between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West and I am also putting our house on the market as Jen and Paul Bettany did, because of the unbearable noise pollution from the major air traffic that passes over our homes on route to LGA airport.   

    Since last summer there was a drastic change in all flight rotations and air traffic patterns that had a tremendous impacted on the quality of life for many Park Slope residents.   Despite letters to politicians and FAA/ Port Authority to remedy the situation, we got no relief.

    We approached Senator Schumer with several communications to his DC office and never got any reply.   We saw him on TV waving a loaf of bread during congressional hearing to illustrate how much he cares about the middle class but so far he didn’t do a thing for the community he lives.

    So I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the reason why they are selling their beautiful house: they have two young kids and they stay home a lot and who wants to live with this nightmarish noise that starts at 5:30 AM and goes on till 01:00 the following morning.

The Food Coop accepts plastics that NYC Department of Sanitation does not. My question is this: Does the Food Coop accept plastics from non-members? Here’s the blurb from the PSFC:

We’ve expanded the Saturday and Sunday recycling hours. See below for details.

Bring clean, dry plastic to the Coop’s sidewalk during monthly
recycling hours. We close up promptly. So, the final drop offs will be
accepted 10 minutes prior to our end time to allow for sorting:

2nd Sat., 10 AM-2 PM
3rd Thur.,  7 PM-9 PM

Last Sun., 10 AM-2 PM.
 
We accept…

* #1 & # 2 (where mouth is wide or wider than the body, meaning NOT bottles) plastics
* #4 plastics
* #5 plastic tubs, cups & specifically marked lids and caps (discard any with paper labels)
* Plastic film