Marianne Gunther, a friend and fave of OTBKB, is starting a divorce group that will combine support with art therapy exercises. Read all about it in this week’s PS I Love You column in the Brooklyn Paper by another friend and fave, Wendy Ponte.

According to Gunther, divorce is a true grief process and people who are going through it need to experience all the stages of grieving, just as if someone dear had died. Unfortunately, most people sidestep those feelings and translate them into anger or diffuse the feelings with litigation.

“How do you make your life about more than this?” asks Gunther. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my days reacting to my ex-husband, so how can I mourn the loss and move on?”

When Gunther herself divorced back in 2001, she belonged to a women’s support group in Park Slope that saved her sanity. That group, which met at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, no longer exists. So she met with the director and offered to start up a new group.

This group will meet once a week at the Ethical Culture building on Prospect Park West, between First and Second streets. Women will get together and, guided by Gunther, support each other, get practical information and referrals, and use art-therapy techniques to both process and contain their feelings. The fee for each meeting is $25. If you are interested in joining this group, call (347) 628-9279 or e-mail listeningart@yahoo.com

LITERARY BROOKLYN: Award-winning authors, Paul Auster, Nicole Krauss and Rick Moody, who live and work in Brooklyn discuss the borough’s climate for writers and creativity.

Authors are interviewed by Bill Goldstein, founding editor of NYTimes.com/Books. For more information or to purchase advance tickets, which are $25 for each interview, please visit www.ArtsAndLeisureWeek.com

January 12th at noon at the new Times Center 41st Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan.

I heard about this from the woman in charge of development for Issue Project Room,.

The group we started on myspace is called the Cultural Emergency Action Coalition and it can be found on my space at www.myspace.com/culturalemergency

If you take a look at our friends list, Michael Moore, Yoko Ono, Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Neil Young, and New Sounds are just a few of our new incredible friends.

The Cultural Emergency Action Coalition is committed to the principle that experimental arts in New York City are necessary to keep New York’s culture open and vital, and to the proposition that experimental work must be funded to the extent that it will not merely survive, but that it will thrive in this generation and those to follow. Given these commitments, our mission is to determine what resources are needed to achieve and sustain a critical mass of artists and presenters in both established and emerging art forms and to successfully make this case to New York’s political, cultural and economic leaders. In particular the committee will work to secure resources adequate to generate and sustain small and mid-sized presenting organizations that ultimately drive large-scale culture to spur New York City to work with the real-estate community to provide world-class housing for experimental arts organizations and artists, and to secure resources that provide livelihoods for artists and presenters whose activities have over the past forty years have fueled billions of dollars of economic development in the city. Our ambition is not simply to protect for a while our waning resources, but to fuel a profound revitalization of the experimental arts in the world’s wealthiest and most creative city.

Over here at OTBKB, we are switching to moderated comments. At the moment, I am not accepting comments as Hepcat makes this change. Comments will return soon.

Truthfully, I really enjoy and believe in an unsupervised comments area. It’s usually such fun to see what pops up there, to read what all of you have to say.

I don’t even mind the silly commercial spam or the sometimes sharp criticisms of the Park Slope 100, my spelling and screw-ups with HTML.

Differences of opinion are also really important and interesting.

I also love when readers fact check and proof read me (it’s such a big help as I’m working so quickly here). I’ve always felt very strongly about letting it all hang out. Until recently, that is.

Thanks for your patience.

This morning I got this email from Fonda at Zuzu’s Petals.

Take a breath,
put aside that gift list you are almost done with,
start thinking about that centerpiece for your Holiday Table, or the ones you want to send to your friends and neighbors.
Call us…we’re on it.

We  are fully stocked and taking orders for pick up or delivery .

For clarity’s sake below are some examples of what you might select.

Woodsy:
These arrangements come in a simple basket and are favored for their fragrant greens and texture. Combinations of Pines, Cedars, Junipers,Brunera,
Leucodendron can also include some seasonal color with a few Tabasco or Black Bacarra Roses.
$75.00 and up

Elegant in Glass:
For a simpler less outdoorsy look, we have some fabulous Amaryllis and Hydrangea complimented with a touch of seasonal filler.
$75.00 and up

The Hybrid:
A mix of Ornamental Cabbage, Roses, Leucodendron ,Brunera,
Pines, Junipers, and Cedars in basket or glass.
$75.00 and up

Just call one of the Zuzu’s.
The Big 718 638-0918
Little Zu 718 636-2022
open every day till christmas…

I got this funny email from a friend:

…you make tortillas for the 4th grade "Mexican fiesta!" and a
9-year-old girl asks you, "Is that organic beef?" and when you say no,
she doesn’t want one.

There’s construction work going on in the space where Inaka Sushi used to be (on Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets). Anyone know what’s going in there?

It also looks like they’ve divided the space where D’Agostino used to be. Wonder if a Bank of America is still going in there. What ever happened to rumors about Children’s Place.

Tempo Presto: They’re moving equipment out of there. In other words, they are officially closed. Word on the street says a full-service restaurant may be going in there. That means three corners of Third Street and Seventh Avenue will be restaurants (Miracle Grill, Sette, and ????

Speaking of Sette, sounds like there was a robbery in there after closing on December 9th. See the story at the Brooklyn Paper.

This from New York 1:

The New York Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission is expected
to discuss the possibility of tolls on East River bridges.

Some local politicians are taking exception to the renewed talk of
tolls. Queens Councilman David Weprin and Brooklyn Borough President
Marty Markowitz spoke out against the plan at City Hall yesterday.

Last week, the New York City Congestion Pricing Commission floated
the idea of simplifying the traffic plan by charging tolls on the
bridges rather than creating a network of traffic sensors within
Manhattan.

That would mean toll collection on the Brooklyn, Manhattan,
Williamsburg and Queensborough Bridges. But Weprin and Markowitz say
the tolls would amount to a tax New Yorkers who cannot afford it.

Read more here.

Brownstoner has the goods today about the 8th Avenue armory. I walk on 14th every so often  on my way to the Pavilion movie theater and I noticed that the interior lighting had changed.

They’ve also got really elaborate, fun holiday lighting out front.

Well, it turns out that the sports center is just about good to go. Brownstoner has a picture and a report. And boy, the track and field facility (and more) looks really nice.

You can bet that there’s going to be quite a political photo op over there when the place finally opens.

How many years did it take to happen?

The downstairs performance space at Union Hall, an intimate room with a bar in the back, is a very special place to hear writers reading. It was my first time down there and I can’t wait to see other performers there.

The room really does feel like the basement of a union hall in a small city somewhere. The Brooklyn Writer’s Space presented three excellent writers:

Sharon Guskin read a harrowing scene set on a train during the Second World War in Europe.

Honor Molloy read an uproarious, hallucinatory walk through the street of Dublin during Christmas.

Wendy Ponte read a story about a Portuguese immigrant family’s ill fated arrival on Ellis Island.

With green Christmas lights twinkling and the dark, vintage feeling of the room, it was an atmospheric night of fiction. The food, by the way, was very tasty. We ordered a platter of the mini-burgers Union Hall is famous for and some really good potstickers.

The special holiday edition of the Union Hall Spelling and Grammar Bee, hosted by David Witt, is on December 20th at 8 p.m.

There are often stacks of used books on the corner of Second Street and Seventh Avenue near the gate of the PS 321 playground.

My guess is that they’re the used books rejected by Park Slope Books. That shop is just a half a block away from there.

Picking up  books off the street is a pastime around here because people are always leaving books in front of their houses.

Yesterday, Hepcat grabbed a signed copy of a novel called, Jack Fish by J Milligan, which has a great cover: an orange tinted photograph of the Coney Island boardwalk and an illustration of Jack Fish, a secret agent in a bathing suit with a spear.

"A wild ride" says the blurb by James Ellroy. Jonathan Ames liked it, too. "What an astounding, loony tour de force! Hard-boiled yet comedic, realistic yet absurd—Jack Fish is a noir story told in technicolor."

On the back, there’s this description of the book:

Secret Agent Jack Fish, an operative of the Elders of Atlantis is dispacted to New York City to locate a rogue agent and spear him. Washing up in Coney Island, first he must learn to breathe, then make his way through the strange streets of this crazy Topworld.

Inside the book, Hepcat found J Milligan’s business card. The book is out from Soho Press.
J Milligan has his own website.

If you want to write a review of this book, I’ll give it to you. Let me know. Here’s the first few lines:

Jack walked out of the sea. They had told him to take it slow, to appear to float in after a long swim. "Just sort of drift in to shore on your back," they had said, right before the Big Kiss that oxygenated his blood and the slap on the tush that sent him on his way.

Brooklynometry likes Nancy in front of the Fifth Avenue Key Food. What about you? Do you buy from the Boy Scouts in JJ Byrne Park like one of my neighbors does? What about that nice guy on 9th Street near the Y. He always plays jazz music on the radio.

Let me know. Which are the best tree sellers in Park Slope and why?

Yesterday Pastor Meeter, of Old First Blog, was telling me how much he likes Brooklynometry. I finally got over there and read that the donut shop on Fifth Avenue near Union is CLOSING. She has some great pictures.

The Donuts Coffee Shop, on 5th Avenue near Union St, will be closing at end of the month. This place and it’s neighbor Beso will be incorporated into the Associated grocery store when it expands. Big plans, people. More. Bigger. Better

Read more at Brooklynometry.

A film every child must see. You’ll never look at a balloon the same way again. Playing at BAM through January 1. And it’s playing every day of the school vacation at 1 p.m. daily. That’s COOL.

Classic Children’s Double Feature
(G) 74min
Dec 1—16 at 1pm on Sat & Sun only
Dec 22—Jan 1 at 1pm daily

The Red Balloon (Le Ballon rouge) (1956) 34min
White Mane (Crin-blanc) (1952) 40min
Directed by Albert Lamorisse

“An utterly charming, tender and humorous drama of the ingeniousness of a child…” —The New York Times on The Red Balloon

As a holiday treat, BAM presents a double bill of classic children’s films The Red Balloon and White Mane, both newly-restored for the big screen. The Red Balloon, winner of the Palme d’Or, follows Pascal and his shiny, bright balloon as they chase each other through the streets of Paris. The beloved White Mane, winner of the Cannes Grand Prix, depicts the friendship between a young fisherman and a wild stallion as they evade ranchers determined to capture and tame the horse. A Janus Films release.

“One of the most beautiful films ever made”—Pauline Kael on White Mane

Read the piece on The Red Balloon and White Mane in The New York Times.

Yesterday’s weather definitely put a damper on the Snowflake Celebration. But it didn’t stop the snow machine at the Community Bookstore.

Over at the Old Stone House a small crowd gathered to hear JASON WEISS, author of the novel, Faces by the Wayside about a traveling soul and Conversations with Steve Lacy (Duke University Press) and ROY NATHANSON, renowned jazz saxophonist, composer, and poet.

What a night! A chance to hear WEISS’S fiction, poetry translations, and interviews with jazz saxophonist, Steve Lacy and a private concert and reading by ROY NATHANSON.

January 17th: a staged reading of Side Street by Rosemary Moore

All info at Brooklyn Reading Works

This is from Rabbi Andy Bachman’s blog:

Come join us on January 28 as CBE and Old First participate in HOPE 2008, the annual city census of homeless individuals, organized by the NYC Department of Homeless Services.

Teams of volunteers will canvass streets, parks, and subways to count the number of people living unsheltered in NYC. This important information will be used to help homeless people leave the streets for a better life.

In addition, we also need people to help staff the overnight shelter at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. Please do what you can.

Write me at here if you want to volunteer!

From the Brooklyn Museum website:

Infinite Island yet but the show, which is up through January 27th, presents some eighty works made in the last six years that reflect the region’s dynamic mix of cultures, its diasporas, and its socio-political realities, all of which are constantly transforming themselves. The forty-five emerging and established artists, who work both in the Caribbean and abroad, represent multiple perspectives as they explore the complexities of Caribbean history and identity. Including painting, sculpture, photography, prints and drawings, video, and installation, the exhibition is grouped around themes that encompass history, memory, politics, myth, religion, and popular culture.

Also at the Brooklyn Museum: Goodbye Coney Island? An exhibition of more than fifty photographs from the Brooklyn Museum’s holdings, Goodbye Coney Island? traces the evolution of this fabled part of New York over the past 125 years. Coney Island has undergone many transformations since it first became a popular resort in the nineteenth century, and in the near future a prospective redevelopment plan may yet again change this section of Brooklyn.

Goodbye Coney Island? presents images that depict the area’s early life and its landmarks and attractions from the 1870s to the present, including the Oriental Hotel, Steeplechase, Luna Park, the beach and boardwalk, and the classic Thunderbolt rollercoaster. The exhibition will include photographs by Breading Way, George Bradford Brainerd, Stephen Salmieri, Garry Winogrand, Lynn Butler, and many others.

Own an heirloom work of art from the incredibly talented Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story) and master with scissors and paper. She is selling gorgeous silhouettes at Brooklyn Mercantile.

She is also doing CUSTOM silhouettes!!! That means you can have your very own silhouette of you, your children, your spouse, your most special someone.

You could also have one made of someone you admire greatly like…your favorite author, artist, actor, dog.

As you can see, they’re very beautiful. Very dear, Very old fashioned. Yet also ravishingly new and original.

HERE ARE BARBARA’S PRICES.

The ready-made silhouettes are :

Small: $190
Large: $220

For custom made silhouettes of you or yours:

Small: $390
Large: $420.

For these: Ensor needs from you a suitable photograph of the subject in Jpeg format. She can produce a finished product within 3 days.

Slope Sports in their December newsletter says that if you sign up early for the New Year’s Eve fun run in Prospect Park you’ll get free running gloves.

Care to join me? It’s 3.3 miles around the park followed by hot chocolate and fireworks.

Sound fun?

BROOKLYN’S NEW YEAR’S EVE FUN RUN ( Prospect Park )
Monday, December 31 11:15pm

Ring in a happy and healthy New Year by joining us for the New Year’s Eve Fun Run in Prospect Park . Organized by Slope Sports and Brooklyn Road Runners. One loop of the Park (approx. 3.3M) Free pair of running gloves to first 150 registrants. Fireworks and hot chocolate at Finish Line! $20 registration fee before 12/31; $25 Race Day fee. Register in-person at Slope Sports; download an application at www.slopesports.com or on-line at www.active.com.

Tomorrow is the Snowflake Celebration, Park Slope’s first annual shop local/shop late event. To see a list of participating merchants and organizations—and their discounts for the evening—visit www.buyinbrooklyn.com. 150 merchants are on board.

The Buy in Brooklyn team has been working closely with the Sustainable Business Alliance and the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment for much of its educational material on shop local campaigns. The following is a list put together by the Buy Local team.

Top 10 Reasons to Shop Locally
1. Significantly more money re-circulates in Brooklyn when purchases are made at locally owned, rather than nationally owned, businesses: More money is kept in the community because locally owned businesses often purchase from other local businesses and service providers. Purchasing local helps grow other businesses as well as the Brooklyn tax base.

2. Non-profits receive greater support: Non-profit organizations receive an average 350% greater support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses.

3. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of Brooklyn’s distinct character: The unique character of Brooklyn is what brought us here and what will keep us here. Shopping at local businesses will help maintain Brooklyn’s unique urban landscape.

4. Reduced environmental impact: Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases, requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing in fringe areas.

5. Most new jobs are provided by local businesses: Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and provide the most new jobs to local residents.

6. Customer service is better: Local businesses often hire people with more specific product expertise for better customer service.

7. Local business owners invest in community: Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.

8. Public benefits outweigh public costs: Local businesses in urban commerce centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.

9. Competition and diversity leads to more choices: A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

10. Encourages investment in Brooklyn: A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.

Shop Local, Shop Late.

Thursday night is the Snowflake Celebration. Many stores will be open until 10 and will be offering wine, refreshments, and discounts.

The Old Stone House will be open. Brooklyn Reading Works will
present acclaimed Jazz artist, Roy Nathanson reading his jazz/spoken
word poetry and Jason Weiss reading from his new novel and his book, Conversations with Steve Lacy.

Tina Barry in this week’s Go Brooklyn section of the  Brooklyn Paper has the goods on the new Fourth Avenue boutique hotel:

Over the weekend, my husband and I were welcomed into the swank
Hotel Le Bleu on the border of Gowanus and Park Slope, which bills
itself as “a whole new world of uber-chic glamour and luxurious
living.” It’s an option for your discriminating in-laws or pals.

Opened
just last month, the first self-proclaimed “boutique” hotel in the
borough has found a unique spot for its discerning clientele: The
not-so-lovely Fourth Avenue. Flanking the shiny silver and white
building: a Staples store and a taxi depot.

While
the location is an unusual choice, hotel General Manager Robert Gaeta
maintained that the California-based Globiwest International is simply
“ahead of the curve.”

“Everyone knows the neighborhood is on the
precipice of change,” Gaeta said, noting that Novo, a multi-storied
condominium, is being built across the street. In addition to new
high-rises under construction, Gaeta cited Fifth Avenue as an
attraction.

An OTBKB reader sent this. Do you know what this is all about?

Can you
tap your sources to find out what the deal is with the new development
on President Street just below 5th Avenue (towards 4th Ave)?  You’ll
spot the rotating "Delicious in the Slope" sign… 

Is it a restaurant,
a bubble tea place, or WHAT?

Here’s what I got at yesterday’s PS 321 Craft Fair.

A decoupage box by Marlene’s Lost and Found as a gift. I love her art boxes. She takes vintage games, advertising, type books and other found items and decoupages them on rehabbed cigar boxes lined with cool fabric.

A Louise Brooks themed necklace from Marlene.

A beautiful silk scarf by Bill Peaks with a black and gold pattern that just spoke to me "Get this for you mother-in-law." So I did. It’s her birthday soon.

There was a lot of great food courtesy of local restaurants including Scottaditto, Second Street Cafe, sushi from the fish market on 3rd Street, Aunt Suzy’s, Olive Vine, two platters of cookies from Sweet Melissa’s, Taqueria and more…

The auditorium and the gym of the school were packed with shoppers. The craft area was filled with kids all day.

The PS 321 Craft Fair is happening today starting at 11 am at the school on Seventh Avenue and 1st Street.

This is one of the best craft fairs in Brooklyn. Typically a great many talented artisans show up there. I always spend too much. But that’s a good thing, I guess. Support the school, support the crafts people.

The fair is big fun for kids because there are tons of hands-on craft activities for kids of all ages. OSFO usually spends the entire day there making things.

My brain is mush and I can’t think of any names of the artists who are usually there but here goes:

There’s Susan, who paints painted scarves is usually there (She wasn’t there this year). Claireware (not this year) and the women who makes those groovy bell bottoms for kids (and American Girl Dolls). Tiki Pant, that’s it. (She was there). And the elegant European woman who make gorgeous painted wallets, photo books and card holders. Last year a teacher at PS 321 was selling adorable sock monkeys, and there’s the woman who sells exotic pictures from around the world. And my fave: Marlene’s Lost and Found with her cool, vintage looking decoupage boxes.

I am dumbed down and tired after the Park Slope 100, I guess.

On the evening of Thursday, December 13th over 100 businesses from 7th Avenue to 5th to Vanderbilt will stay open until 10 p.m. and offer special discounts, promotions, and in-store refreshments to local shoppers.

And tht’s not all.

According to organizers, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music will perform concerts in front of their building on 7th Avenue, carolers will wander the streets, and a handful of snow machines promise to dust the sidewalks with a wintry mix. Here’s the latest press release from the Buy in Brooklyn team.

“The Chamber of Commerce is proud to be able to organize an event that supports small businesses while fostering a sense of community,” said John Tarzian co-organizer and owner of Tarzian Hardware. Signs of that community feeling are everywhere. Many restaurants and bars, for instance, (already open late) have agreed to do special complementary cocktails or food ONLY if clients show a receipt from a fellow local merchant.

“People are really getting into the spirit,” said co-organizer Catherine Bohne and owner of the Community Bookstore—whose earlier recycling umbrella idea has taken a new and festive twist in this phase of the “Buy in Bklyn” campaign— “we’re hoping this becomes a very special evening.”

Conceived by a group of community leaders who wanted to translate the widespread concern over growing displacement of local businesses into action, the aim of the Buy in Brooklyn initiative remains high. Whether reintroducing Park Slopers to the quality services and products available just around the corner or—more ambitiously—raising awareness about the important role small businesses play in the local economy, organizers hope to build critical connections between merchants, non-profits and the communities they serve. “The Park Slope Civic Council’s joining with the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce demonstrates how easy it is for residential and business neighbors to work together,” argued Allen Brafman, owner of Little Things Toy Store. Buy in Brooklyn is inclusive by definition, forging new ties between North and South Slope and businesses along 4, 5th and 7th Avenues. Now all organizers need is for the community to come out and show their support.

“As I see it, in a few years the Snowflake Celebration will grow into a neighborhood institution in the same way that the Halloween Parade has developed,” said Brafman, “I am proud to say that Little Things Toy Store together with Tarzian Hardware were among the first retail sponsors of that parade. And again, today, I am proud that we are among the first to be involved in Park Slope’s next neighborhood tradition.”

“Pundits may have predicted that New York City will be steeped in chain stores by the year 2030,” explained co-organizer Rebeccah Welch, “but I think Park Slope can show the rest of the city another more inclusive and diverse vision of our future local economy.”

On Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of Notify NYC, a pilot program to deliver emergency public information by email, text messages and reverse-911 alerts in four City community districts.

You sign up for Notify NYC through www.nyc.gov and receive information about significant emergency events in four pilot communities: Lower Manhattan, the Northeast Bronx, the Rockaways, and Southwest Staten Island.

No Brooklyn? What’s the story here? After last summer’s tornado, we should have been included.

It’s the 25th anniversary of the best selling album of all time. Michael Jackson’s Thriller sold 104 million copies worldwide and includes the iconic songs Billie Jean, Beat It, and Thriller.

Does that make you feel old?

I saw the klieg lights on Monday night but I missed the ceremony. Were you there when Bloomberg flipped switch on a holiday lighting installation at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Park?

We love the GAP lights. And guess what? They’re energy-efficient LEDs. That’s right. The lights that are being used to illuminate the Bailey Fountain and a tree underneath the Sailors and Soldiers’ Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza are ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY.

Lights in the fountain create the effect of flowing water. Lighting of the tree features mutliple colors.

The lights will be shining through January 14, 2008.

The Fort Hamilton Marching Band and the All City High School Choir joined Bloomberg and Marty at the ceremony.