1898 was the year Brooklyn, previously an independent city, merged with New York City. The merger was called the "Great Mistake of 1898" by many  newspapers of the day, and the phrase is, according to Wikipedia, used to denote Brooklyn pride among old-time Brooklynites.

The Great Mistake of 1898 is also the name of a local Williamsburg that plays around town, mostly at the Luna Lounge. They played Arlene’s Grocery on Saturday night. Photographer Cameron Justice is documenting their evolution as a band in a photo essay. He writes: 

The Great Mistake of 1898 is a small, underground brooklyn rock band that I have been photo-documenting over the last couple of months.
They are very talented and committed to their music, and are currently
recording their first full length album.  I hope to continue with this
project.

Has anyone heard them? I hear they’re great.

Photo by Cameron Justice

If you wondered what all those police helicopters were doing swarming over Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon, it was because of the demonstrations at the Brooklyn Bridge and other sites around the city protesting the Sean Bell verdict.

Reverend Al Sharpton, Sean Bell’s fiancee and hundreds were arrested at a Brooklyn Bridge protest and call to urge authorities to launch an investigation into Bell’s shooting by police. Here’s an excerpt from the NY 1 article:

The Reverend Al Sharpton and Sean Bell’s fiancée were arrested along
with about over 200 protesters shortly after 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, as
they blocked traffic on Park Row by the entry of the Brooklyn Bridge in
Lower Manhattan.

According to police authorities, the over 200 arrests were part of
a coordinated campaign organized by Sharpton to urge federal
authorities to investigate Bell’s shooting by detectives more than two
years ago.

Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who were injured during that
shooting, joined Sharpton and Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell,
lined up and peacefully put their hands behind their backs as police
put plastic handcuffs on them. Sharpton and Bell were placed in a
police vehicle.

Late Wednesday night, some demonstrators told NY1 that the protests
would be weekly, but there was no official confirmation of such
strategies.

I was glad to see a post on Brownstoner about office space at The Montauk Club. It even mentions my friend and landlord, Martin Goldin, a developer who bought the lower level of the club, which at one time was the club’s bowling alley.

When Marty bought the space in 2001 the space was a complet wreck. He preserved the details that he could  and turned the rest into a modern office space complete with a shared conference room,  kitchen, public restrooms and a recycling area.

Hey, did I mention that my office is in that building. I don’t know what I’d do without it. I was Marty’s second tenant and it’s my sanctuary; the place where I get the most work done.

The available spaces are $950 and $1200.

Yes, it is hard to find office space in Park Slope. There’s very little. I’ve had a few spaces in people’s brownstones. But this is the best situation yet. I had my attic garret on 17th Street and my basement mud room on 6th Avenue. But they were both freezing in the winter.

But this is the most professional and the best. I’ve been there since 2002 and I’m not going anywhere.

Part of the fun is walking into that building every day. It’s very Grand. The offices are in the basement and have no architectural detail but it’s still fun to be part of it all.

They were just a nice couple with kids. We liked that. (Alright, they were Hollywood royalty. She with an Oscar, he: tall, gorgeous and British. But they were nice).

They kept a low profile. We liked that.

They seemed smart. We liked that.

They covered their first floor windows with shades so we didn’t feel
too voyeuristic. But we could see the Calder mobile hanging on the
second floor. We liked that.

They filled their front garden with tulips. We liked that.

They made up feel like we were special because they chose to live here. We liked that.

She was the hometown girl who decided to come home after Hollywood success. We liked that.

They picked the prettiest house in Brooklyn to be their home. We liked that

They had good taste. We liked that.

She told Vogue Magazine that she loved Prospect Park. We liked that.

She biked in the park; went running; they played with their kids at the Third Street Playground and went to the Tea Lounge. We liked that.

They were just like us. Or so we could pretend. We liked that.

I just got an email about a new Kid’s magazine published in Brooklyn
focusing on spirituality. It’s a non-profit, unaffiliated with any
particular faith and 100% ad-free .

KidSpirit Magazine launches nationally this month and features the work of kids from New
York and around the country as they focus on a broad range of issues
they encounter in their daily lives.

It started in Brooklyn Heights. For over two years a group of kids has been getting together to talk about life’s big questions, and now they’re sharing
what they found in the first-ever spirituality magazine generated by
youth.   Through its open submission
process, the magazine hopes to garner contributors from all over the
country and even the world. Here are the ‘tails.   

You can find out more at our website, www.kidspiritmagazine.com.  We’re
just launching our premiere issue, Roots of Spirit, which engages with
complex issues including the relationship between spirituality and
food, climate change, and Tai Chi Chuan, and presents aesthetic
endeavors like original poetry, book reviews, and more. Each subsequent
issue will tackle a theme chosen by the all-kid Editorial
Board—upcoming issues include Science and Spirit, Myth and Meaning,
Change and Loss, and Competition and Achievement. 

KidSpirit has a dedicated base of young writers, most who fall into
the 11-15 age range, who would love to share their thoughts and
experiences with you and your readers. We hope that as more people hear
about the magazine, KidSpirit will foster a real dialog between today’s
young people and create a new space for conversation about the role of
all kinds of faiths in the lives of the next generation.

My friend and fave poet, Michele Madigan Somerville, is starting a
brand new poetry reading series at an Irish pub on Smith Street called Ceol.

Come hear two GREAT poets,  Tony Towle and Michele Madigan Somerville, on Wednesday May 7, 2008 at 6:30 pm at Ceol: 191 Smith Street (between Baltic and Warren) 347-643-9911.

Michele writes: "Tony should be the Poet Laureate!  Honestly. 
His book, North, was the first poetry
collection I ever bought — @ Books & Co., Madison Ave. in ’78, with
waitressing money!!"

This sounds like a nice thing to do next Saturday May 10th:

Steven Clemants, Vice President of Science at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, will lead a Wildflower Walk through Prospect Park, a chance to see and learn about all the flowers we have right here in Brooklyn!

After the walk, come back to Community Bookstore where Steven will sign copies of his field guide, Wildflowers in the Field and Forest.

To join this terrific walk, meet at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 10th in front of the statue of Lafayette at Prospect Park West and 9th Street.

Dionne Mack Harvin, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Public Library, sent Gowanus Lounge a comment last week in response to their piece about problems at the Prospect Park Branch of the Library. To see the original GL post go here.

I frequently read through the Brooklyn blogs to find
out what the diverse communities in Brooklyn are talking about. In
reading through the posts here, I wanted to reach out and address the
discussion on the Park Slope Branch. Over the past year, we’ve taken
several step to improve our library services, including customer
service. I understand your concerns and have communicated to the managers at the Park Slope Branch the importance of making our libraries welcoming places for all to enjoy.

We are also in the initial stages of installing a ramp at the Park Slope branch.
We recently presented a design to Community Board 6 as well as the
Landmarks Commission and are working closely with the City to get this
project going. As with all of our renovations, ADA compliance is a
necessary component so that people in wheelchairs or with strollers can
easily access their Library. We will continue to update our website as
the ramp project at Park Slope takes shape. Please continue to support
your library – they are wonderful community resources for all
Brooklynities.

Tony Mansour and others turned the recently de-fenced square in JJ Bryne Park into a giant
Monopoly board with Park Slope locations filled into the board. 

Most of the squares are restaurants on Fifth Ave, but the "Community Chest" squares are Park Slope/Brooklyn blogs and websites.  Even OTBKB got a square on the final stretch, though the video goes over that square kinda quickly so you have to keep your eyes open for it. 

By late afternoon Sunday, some of the squares got washed away by some water balloon fights, but most of it is still intact.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wireful/sets/72157604892051756/
pictures above and the video below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GATdIXNCtpA

I’d love to hear how it went. I ran it three years ago and it was one of the peak experiences of my life. Here’s what I wrote back in 2005:

As I put on my sneakers this morning, preparing to take another run,
I took a long, hard look at those well-worn shoes. My blue and white
nylon Sauconys with the small hole in the right toe and the frayed
thread around the edges are like old friends. We’ve been through so
much together.

I also put on the official Brooklyn Half-Marathon T-shirt that I got
with the New York Road Runners Club registration bag. My race number is
already in the special cabinet in the dining room where we put small,
special things.

The looming question now is what next. Do I train for the New York
marathon or just keep on keeping on with light training three or four
times a week. There are shorter races and other half-marathons to do. A
friend mentioned a half-marathon in Central Park for women over 40 and
there’s always the Faster Five course at Jack Rabbit.

I told a stranger with a Caribbean accent I befriended on the course
as we turned into the final stretch: "Now that you’ve done this you can
do anything in your life."  She smiled and ran ahead to the finish. I
never saw her again.

It was only a matter of time before the City Section of the New York Times did a story about Bradley Feldman, the man responsible for OTBKB’s daily weather report, The Current Weather in Park Slope.

There’s  a nice picture of Bradley standing next to his weather tower on the roof of his brownstone. I’ve never actually met the man though we have emailed each other.

His son is in my daughter’s fifth grade class. The family moved here a few years ago from Seattle.

Mr. Feldman brought the station with him when he moved to Brooklyn from
Seattle in 2005. Such stations are relatively rare in New York, but
common in Seattle, with its abundance of rain and tech geeks. “There
were a lot more weather people because the weather is wackier out
there,” Mr. Feldman said. “When I was leaving, someone wrote me and
said, ‘I see your “For Sale” sign. Does that mean we’re losing the
weather station?’

As far as I know there aren’t many weather geeks in Brooklyn but I have a feeling that Bradley may start a weather fad. Everyone’s gonna want their own weather tower I can just tell.

Photo by Jacob Silberberg for the NY Times

I hear there may be some sun this afternoon for the Brooklyn Flea. And don’ forget the Fort Greene House Tour.

Brownstoner has been sweating the weather every weekend since opening the Flea.

We’d be lying if we said we weren’t just a little bit irked at Mother Nature right now. While precious few rain drops have actually fallen on the Brooklyn Flea during market hours, all four Sundays to date have had the threat of rain and have been unseasonably cold. And it looks like more of the same for this weekend. Argghh! Luckily we have a hearty bunch of vendors who roll with the rain-or-shine punches to get to what’s real. The organizers of this year’s Fort Greene House Tour must also be watching the weather report closely. Both events happen Sunday. The Flea runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 176 Lafayette Avenue. Closest trains are the C and G to Washington/Clinton. Or you can take any of the number of trains that go to Atlantic Station and make the 10-minute stroll up Lafayette Avenue from there. The house tour is from noon to 5 p.m.; you can pick up your tickets in the BAM Garden at Fulton and Lafayette or at the flea market.

We went last week and it was overcast but we had a good time. Hepcat and his cousins from Baltimore managed to buy a lot in the Flea’s photography department, which is near the front.

Reclaimed Home has a lot of cool stuff today. She also has these discoveries of other vendors at the Flea on her blog and some bitching about the dog situation there. Here’s an excerpt.

Ama Home debuted at the Brooklyn Flea a couple of weeks ago and they seem to be doing quite well for themselves. Amy and Karen take vintage furniture and modernize it by coating it with vibrant paint colors. Prices are not bad either.

Nightwood’s “reincarnated” furniture isn’t trying to be something it’s not. Myriah Scruggs and Nadia Yaron literally scrap together wood pieces to create functional furnishings. The patchwork look reminds us that not every piece of furniture has to be matched and sanded to perfection to be beautiful. Website not fully functional yet, but here’s a rave about their stuff.

Fonda, the owner of Zuzu’s Petals, has been observing the renovation of a new shop called, Brooklyn Bread on Fifth Avenue and 6th Street in Park Slope. They’re good neighbors, too. They asked Fond, who’s shop is on the same block, to service their floral needs. Nice.

we are getting a new neighbor on the corner of 5th avneue and 6th street. it is called brooklyn bread.

they have another place on court street. they have totally gutted the inside of what used to be a real estate agency and have done the sort of work on the outside of the building that only an owner might do…removing paint, resurfacing brick walls, repairing masonry from top to bottom… a former eyesore( to me) is now an attractive welcoming space.

inside looks as if no expense was spared. beautiful ceramic tiles, textured walls, lots of small tables. they bill themselves as a bakery and cafe…another destination if you have  time to spend over a cup of coffee or just want to grab a quick bite. i think they will be open early and close late…someone told me they would do 24 hours but i haven’t heard that from the owners. they plan to open with in the next week to 10 days.

Rena Tom, owner of Rare Device, is closing the Park Slope branch of that shop, which features  artisan jewelry, housewares, home decor items, paper goods, books, and clothing on Seventh Avenue near 16th Street.

I met Rena back in the early days of blogging (2005). I actually became acquainted with her work online and introduced myself to her a day or two after she opened her shop in Park Slope.

"Hi Rena, it’s OTBKB," I said.

That’s all I needed to say.

Rena came to the first blogfest at the Old Stone House and was always a leader in retail blogging. A native Northern Californian, she moved back to San Francisco a year ago to open a Rare Device out there. She kept her Park Slope shop open.

Now she’s decided to focus on her California shop, which is doing very well. The painting pictured is by Betsy Walton, who is having a show at the Rare Device Gallery in SF. Here’s what Rena had to say about closing the shop.

After nearly three years in Park Slope, I am closing
the New York branch of Rare Device. I  moved to California a year ago
to open a second store and it has been a learning experience to operate
an East coast store from the West coast, to say the least, but it is
time for me to focus on the (larger) San Francisco store and gallery.

Everything in the Brooklyn store will be on sale beginning
Saturday, May 3. The sale schedule is as follows, with all sales final.
The discount does not apply to custom orders or web orders. We’ll be
open our regular days/hours (Wed-Sat 12-7, Sun 12-6) but may end up
staying a bit later in the evenings depending on foot traffic. We have
a great selection of housewares, books, home decor, jewelry, handbags,
and even a bit of clothing for men and women. We accept cash, Visa, MC
and Amex.

may 2 – friday – CLOSED FOR PREP

25% OFF
may 3 – sat
may 4 – sun
may 7 – wed
may 8 – thu

45% OFF
may 9 – fri
may 10 – sat
may 11 – sun
may 14 – wed

65% OFF
may 15 – thu
may 16 – fri
may 17 – sat
may 18 – sun

Sale location: 453 7th Ave (between 15th and 16th St), Brooklyn, NY 11215. Phone 718.301.6375.

Please
note that Rare Device in San Francisco is still going strong (we are
actually having an art opening tonight), as is the webshop, so New
Yorkers can still purchase items online at www.raredevice.net.

Craig Hammerman, District Manager of CB6, sent this missive about the Annual Five Boro Bike Tour on May 4th:

Sunday, May 4th, is the Annual Five Boro Bike Tour, please be advised that in our area the Brooklyn-Queens/Gowanus Expressways from the Atlantic Avenue entrance through the Shore Road exit on the Belt Parkway will be impacted as they are part of the route.

I thought you might be interested in the following announcement sent out by the Mayor’s Office…

Street Closings for Five Boro Bike Tour – Sunday, May 4
The Commerce Bank Five Boro Bike Tour travels through the five boroughs, starting in Lower Manhattan at 8:00 am, heading north to Central Park and continuing on to Harlem and the Bronx, returning south along the East River on the FDR Drive, crossing into Queens and then Brooklyn, before crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island. The detailed route of the Bike Tour is available on the DOT Web site in pdf format at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/fiveborobiketour.pdf.

The Bike Tour moves through the five boroughs on a timetable. The front of the Tour travels at 15 mph and the tail at 6 mph. The streets along the route will be closed during the Bike Tour.
The Staten Island Ferry will operate on a Saturday schedule, with half-hour service from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm.

More information about the event is available on the Bike New York Web site at http://www.bikenewyork.org or call 212-932-BIKE.
# # #

To all the cyclists out there — may the roads be smooth and the wind be at your backs!

There’s a little bit of Nolita on Lincoln Place. Now that Orange Blossom, the high-end kid’s clothing boutique is gone, we’ve got 1 of a Find, a vintage clothing store with style.

I love the name.

I don’t think it’s open yet but it will be soon. There’s something very Chanel in the window and I just have the feeling that the shop is going to be very chic in a vintage kind of way.

And it’s right there next to  Pickleboots and Stitch Therapy.

I walk on Lincoln Place every day and I watch those shops; I see the owner of that corner building apartment building with one Seventh Avenue store front and three small storefront on Lincoln Place.

For a little history, there used to be a teeny, tiny shoe repair shop there; it was so tiny you couldn’t even go in. It was just the size of a doorway, where you’d meet the shoemaker and he’d take your shoes and work on them in the basement, I guess.

There was something very Lord of the Rings about it.

For years, the stained glass store that’s now on Fifth Avenue near 1st Street was there. Then there was the letter press and wooden stamp store – that was way cool. Wooden stamps with illustrations, letters of the alphabet, paper, ink.

Then there was another custom sewing/curtain/fabric store. That was there for years. Before that Shangri La, the Tibetan import store owned by Mrs. Cleavage.

I notice the landlord every day. White hair, ruddy face; he wears green Wellington boots when it rains. He looks handy; happy with tools.

He seems like a very nice man. Just the other day, he was trimming the magnolia or some such blossomy tree he’s got in front of his red brick building over there.

He makes nice painted signs for the stores. He helps fix their places up. He seems very involved in the day to day running of his building.

Right now he’s got a Tibetan store in his Seventh Avenue storefront. It seemed to do good business during Christmas but sad to say I don’t think it’s long for this world.

Maxine DeGouttes’ Stitch Therapy is a cozy shop with loyal customers with a passion for knitting. She sells, she teaches, she has knitting circles, and more. It’s a way of life over there. So I think she’s doing well and she’ll be there for a good long time.

There’s never anyone in Pickleboots but I think she does a lot of custom business — blankets, quilts, bassinets, gift baskets, etc. Maybe there’s a website. Of course there’s a website for her custom bedding business.

And now 1 of a Find, which is the Slope’s version of one of those resale couture shops in Nolita. Maybe I’m reaching. But it looks nice, tasteful and fun.

I’ll be checking it out…

David Bukszpan, the publicist at WNYC, sent word this afternoon that it was all Brooklyn, all the time ont he Brian Lehrer Show today with a segment on Red Hook and one with our man Bill DeBlasio. Here’s the blurbbage:  

Ikea is opening its large new store in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red
Hook. We discuss the anticipated impact, as well as other community
issues in one of New York City’s fastest-changing ‘hoods, with three
guests: Robert Guskind, editor of the Gowanus Lounge blog; Lynette Wiley, co-owner of the performance space
Jalopy; and Ian Marvey, co-founded of Added Value, a community organization in Red Hook.

Then, we check in with councilmember Bill DeBlasio, who is sponsoring an event to discuss the future of the Gowanus Canal area and his outlook for post-industrial Brooklyn.

You can listen to the show here:
 http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2008/05/01/segments/97966

Someone wandered onto OTBKB today who was just "trolling the web to see if anyone knows which production is filming on Fifth Avenue today." Here’s what she had to say:

There are trailers up and down St. Johns Place. And I ran into your fun blog and enjoyed reading so much fun info about my neighborhood. Thank you!

So do you know anything about the filming? I see you had the skinny on 
a few other film productions that came to Park Slope, so I was hoping 
you also knew about this one.

Either way — thanks for the blog! Very fun!

What’s going to happen to all those vacant storefronts on Seventh Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets?

Second Street Cafe, and the two spaces that housed used bookstores are still empty. A beloved and sometimes not so beloved local cafe/restaurant, and two used bookstores are gone, just like that, in a matter of months.

So much for Seventh Avenue becoming a new used books mecca like Fourth Avenue in Manhattan used to be.

But Barrio, the new high end Mexican restaurant, is hopping and that should be grabbing the attentions of realtors all over town. Hey, hey, hey! Hot new restaurant on the corner of Third Street and Seventh Avenue!!!

I’ve noticed that Mark Ravitz, the artist who owns the building where Park Slope Books was located, has been showing the space this week.

For most of March and April he was using it as a gallery space for his sculpture and his large cyclops-octopus. He also changed the drips on his building to little cyclop octopus suns. For a few days he had these nice collage-y constructions, dedicated to his wife, with hearts and things.

I loved seeing the burst of creativity in that window for the last few months. So when I saw the place cleared out I knew he was getting down to the business of being a landlord again.

Off with the artist hat. On with his landlord hat. Ya gotta pay the bills.

An unusual and beloved figure of the South Slope passed away recently. Even the  The Daily News also has a story about him. Here’s an excerpt from what columnist Clem Richardson had to say about John Whitey Glendinning.

Six days a week, you can find John (Whitey) Glendinning working
his hustle on the west side of Seventh Ave. between 11th and 12th Sts.
in Park Slope. He keeps the sidewalks in front of businesses on that
side of the block clean.

Whitey also does other odd jobs, like sitting in double-parked cars
to ward off ticket agents while the car owner runs an errand or eats a
quick meal. He had more of a work load back when the South Slope was
more of a working-class neighborhood and more folks knew him. But many
of those people sold out and left.

Most residents who care to know Whitey have made his acquaintance –
on a good day, when his knees aren’t killing him, he’ll speak to you if
you don’t speak first. I can usually tell the new guys standing nearby
when I pass him because their eyes get really wide between the time I
say "Hey, Whitey!" and he replies, "How you doing, babe!" He knows my
wife and daughters well enough to notice when one of them has a new
hairstyle.

A few months ago, this column profiled another Park Slope resident
whom many of the folks on the block knew. The day after the column
appeared, Whitey stopped me as I was headed home and said: "Hey, Slim
(a variation of my name, no longer a comment on my girth). You write
for The News? You should do a story on me!"

On Park Slope Parents, there were comments about Whitey, too.  

I too, am so very sad to hear about Whitey. I talked with him just about every day for the past 10 years. What a dear and kind person! Whitey, you will be greatly missed by the community of 12th Street!!

There will be a memorial service for Whitey on Wednesday May 7th at the Naidre’s on Seventh Avenue in the South Slope. More details to come.

The Post  reports that Darren Star, the creator of Sex and the City, is teaming up with Sony and NBC for a series about upscale Park Slope mommies.

Set to write the script is Sue Kramer, a Park Slope resident and one of the Park Slope 100. She wrote and directed the film, Gray Matters with Heather Graham, a sexy and stylish screwball comedy about a brother and a sister who fall in love with the same woman. She told the Post that it’s going to be a  one-hour dramedy.

In the Post article she says:  "It takes place in Park Slope and Park Slope is one of the characters in it. Park Slope has so much juice, just like Manhattan. It’s got a lot of pizzazz and energy."

The Post reports that CB6 member Craig Hammerman
is thrilled and envisioning shots "of the Soldiers and Sailors Arch at
Grand Army Plaza, and long views of the stores on Fifth and Seventh
avenues."

Our friend Richard Grayson, author of Who Will Kiss the Pig, Sex Stories for Teens, and other books went to the Brooklyn Peace Fair and came back with this report.

I went to several of the morning workshops and wandered around the booths of various organizations and other groups (including the Brooklyn Public Library). It was nice to be on the LIU campus after 30 years — the last semester I taught there was summer ’78, and it’s very much nicer now.

A big presence was Brooklyn for Peace, formerly Brooklyn Parents for Peace, whose members introduced some of the workshops; they had three each at 11:15, 12:15, and 1:15.

First I went to “War and Warming: Environmentalism and the Iraq War,” presented by the New York State Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, business, environment and environmental justice organizations that is trying to fight global warming and for good green “clean energy” jobs.

Jeff Jones from the Albany area, who works a lot in the state capitol, said that most Americans oppose the war in Iraq even as our lifestyle based on fossil fuels demands it. He presented an interest talk with PowerPoint, as did Jack Dafoe of Urban Agenda, the local Apollo Alliance affiliate, who discussed creating clean energy jobs in the city and their involvement with the private sector and plaNYC. It was an interesting talk to the 25 of us in the lecture classroom. (Sitting across from me, I noticed, was Kathy Boudin — Weather Underground, West 11th St. townhouse explosion and Brink robbery are what first came to my mind, but I believe she’s become a public health expert since leaving prison.)

At 12:15 p.m., I went to the workshop “Media Criticism as a Tool for Social Justice.” Partha Banerjee, the immigration rights activist who’s a board member, I think, of Brooklyn for Peace, began by talking about the organization and then introduced Isabel Macdonald, communications director at Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), and Laurel Heisman of Paper Tiger TV, the video collective whose work analyzes and critiques issues involving media, culture and politics. They went over ways to detect media news bias, including sources, stereotypes, loaded language, double standards and false balance. This workshop had more audience participation in the form of questions and commentary.

The last workshop I chose to go to was “History Walks With US: Dialoging Across Racial & Gender Divides,” was facilitated by Daniel Jose Older, a lead organizer for Reflect Connect Move: Brooklyn Neighborhoods Against Gender Violence. He began by discussing gender violence, which he encounters working as a paramedic, and the tyranny of the passive voice in discussions of this issue. When we say that so-and-so was abused, it somehow lessens the importance that someone is doing the abusing (99.7% of abusers are men, he said) and prevents an honest examination of the reasons behind gender violence.

He asked audience members to brainstorm on male stereotypes and the workshop then got into deeper issues. For me, a lot of the stuff about male stereotypes and male violence against women was not new — I remember a very similar workshop at a 1973 Brooklyn College men’s consciousness-raising group I was a member of — but sadly, the issue of gender violence makes them still relevant 35 years later.

Unfortunately, I was unable to stay to hear featured speaker Debbie Almontaser, Marty Markowitz, or any of the other speakers, poets and performers. Perhaps someone else who attended will give a report.

This week, the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is in town. This year’s theme is Public Lives/Private Lives. Here is the schedule and locations.

How do we draw a line between our private and public selves? When must we tell private stories for the public good? How, as readers, writers, and citizens, do we confront threats to our privacy? What is still considered private in the Internet age? Do we need to redefine the meaning of public and private in the 21st century? The writers in this year’s Festival will mine this rich theme in a variety of literary conversations, panels, readings, and performances.

The Strong Buzz, a website for folks who love and live for food; love new restaurants and who “make it their business to keep their fingers on the pulse of New York City’s dynamic world of dining,” has the specifics on Barrio, the new restaurant on Third Street and Seventh Avenue, which is attracting a lot of interested diners in its first week of operation.

Here are the ‘tails:

The owner: Spencer Rothschild. He also owns Rain, Calle Ocho, BLT Prime, Yushi.

The Chef: Adrian Leon has been in the kitchen at Rosa Mexicano, Zocalo, Zona Rosa.

Perks: For another few days, the restaurant will be in preview mode, which means that until April 30th, they’re offering 15% off your entire bill (including booze).

The menu: black bean and sweet plantain empanadas with Oaxacan cheese and tomatillo salsa ($6,95), Queso Fundido in a traditional fondue set with rajas poblanas, mushrooms and homemade warm tortillas ($8.50), shrimp ceviche with crunchy jicama, chipotle chilies and fresh lime ($9.75), Puebla pork tenderloin with corn flan and finished in a chili arbol peanut mole ($16.75), and an open-faced chicken enchilada in charred morita salsa ($14.25). There are also Platos del Dia like short rib enchiladas (Thursday) and Yucatan achiote tuna on Tuesdays.

.

Reclaimed Home wants to know why I haven’t been there yet. Because our cousins from Baltimore are in town and they wanted to go so we’re meeting them for breakfast at Tom’s and then we’re off to the Flea. Afterwards they want to catch the Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum.

How’s that for a plan?

Here’s the word from Signor Flea about this weekend’s Flea:

We can’t seem to buy any sunshine at The Flea, but there’s a ton of things you can buy from the 175-odd vendors who set up every weekend in the 40,000-square-foot school yard at the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene. Last weekend saw the arrival of a ton of new furniture dealers (see above); this weekend there’s a whole ‘nuther wave of vendors (including A&J 20th Century Design, formerly of Lafayette Street in Manhattan!). For more details check out yesterday’s post on the Brooklyn Flea blog. The market is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located at 176 Lafayette Avenue. Closet trains are the C and G to Washington/Clinton. Or you can take any of the number of trains that go to Atlantic Station and make the 10-minute stroll up Lafayette Avenue from there.

Join ruckus rousing NY Sun Columnist, Lenore Skenazy, Amy Sohn, the controversial sex and mating columnist for NY Magazine, and the Brooklyn Paper’s tell-it-like-it-really-is Smartmom and others, who will will shock, amuse, and entertain you, and they won’t make you eat your vegetables before you get dessert.

Come to this reading/cocktail party (cash bar) at the Montauk Club in Park Slope on May 15th at 7:00 pm.

Deom single moms to sexy moms to moms who let their kids ride the MTA alone, these writers will shock, amuse, and entertain you, and they won’t make you eat your vegetables before you get dessert.

Readers include:
Lenore Skenazy (New York Sun writer, who let her 9-year-old take the subway alone),
Christen Clifford (writer/ performer of Off-Broadway’s hit show Baby Love, true stories about sex and motherhood),
Louise Sloan (author of Knock Yourself Up: A Tell-All Guide to Becoming a
Single Mom)
Amy Sohn (author of Run Catch Kiss and former columnist at New York magazine)
Louise Crawford (AKA Smartmom and OTBKB)

Location: 25 8th Avenue between Lincoln and St. John in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Date: Thursday May 15th
7 p.m. Cash bar for cocktails
7:30: The reading begins
Admission free

Nicholas Pekearo, an auxiliary cop, was murdered last year, at the age of 19, on the streets of Greenwich Village. A writer, Nicholas worked at Crawford Doyle Booksellers in Manhattan and lived in Park Slope.

Today, the United States Department of Justice announced on Thursday that the families of Nicholas T. Pekearo and Yevgeniy Marshalik, unarmed auxiliary police officers were entitled to federal death benefits. This is a reversal of past rulings which aroused public protest.

According to the New York Times:

The department said it would award about $300,000 each to the families of the officers, Nicholas T. Pekearo and Yevgeniy Marshalik, under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program, which is intended to compensate the survivors of police officers and firefighters across the nation who are killed in the line of duty.

Officers Pekearo, 28, and Marshalik, 19, were fatally shot on the evening of March 14, 2007, in a confrontation with David R. Garvin, who had fatally shot a bartender in a pizza restaurant. Evan Peterson, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said on Thursday that the decision to award death benefits reflected “the extraordinary efforts” of the officers.

A friend is looking for a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment to rent and wants to spend about $2,000. That’s why she’s hoping to find something in Kensington, Flatbush or Ditmas Park.

Contact louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com

Eliot sent me the summons he saw on the House of Whimsy, that notorious building on the corner of 1st Street and Seventh Avenue, owned by Dorothy Nash, that used to have a weird bar in the storefront (a weird vintage dress shop and real estate office, too) that is now the vacant, dangerous, eyesore of Seventh Avenue.

Here is a photo of the latest Notice of Violation dated today (Friday) and taped to the front door of the defunct Landmark Tavern. The Violation Conditions Observed reads: WORK WITHOUT A PERMIT. EXPIRED PERMIT. NOTED SIDEWALK SHED IN PLACE IN ACCORDANCE WITH PERMIT #302308599 EXP ON 12/31/07

Today, Brownstoner has the story:

Apparently the DOB affixed a notice to the building about a hearing that was supposed to take place on Monday regarding the structure’s latest violation, which involves having an out-of-date permit for scaffolding. The DOB also recorded a violation on the property last year due to its owner’s “failure to maintain bldg.” City records do not show that the owner, Dorothy Nash, did anything to remedy the infraction, which carried a $2,500 fine (amount paid: $250). The building is legendary in Park Slope because it’s been in decline for almost two decades. The Times published a piece about the property a couple months ago saying that it “radiates a mysterious, haunted quality.” At the time, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn noted that “187 Seventh Avenue is an ugly mess. Nash has been offered gobs of money to sell the place but has continuously refused. She also owns a building on Second Street between Seventh and Sixth Avenue, an eyesore in similar disrepair.