DOPE ON THE SLOPE had these photos and some reflections on the Underberg building.

One Hanson Place posted a depressing photo last night of the spot formally occupied by the Underberg Building.

The Underberg was vacant, and few would have argued that it was a
stunning architectural achievement worthy of preservation. However, it
was an "old timer," and as such, it had a certain appeal. I was
especially fond of its peculiar shades of green and light blue, and the
contrast between the meticulously painted signage and the equally
meticulous graffiti.  It also imparted a sense of graceful senescence –
what the Japanese might term "wabi sabi." This building wasn’t so much falling down as it was fading away, that is, it was until Ratner demolished it.

Why mourn the destruction of an abandoned building?

No reason, really, except that it was the most
aesthetically pleasing edifice in the immediate vicinity.  The Atlantic
Center and Atlantic Terminal are two of the ugliest buildings I have
ever seen anywhere. Now that the Underberg is gone, I guess the U-Haul
lot is the reigning beauty.

So here’s a last look for all you Underberg-o-philes out there. For larger view, click on the thumbnail below.

Today. (original photo here)

FOR MORE THAN FIVE HOURS, 12 HOURS, TWO ROOSEVELT ISLAND TRAMS HAVE BEEN WERE STUCK OVER THE EAST RIVER — BETWEEN ROOSEVELT ISLAND AND MANHATTAN. MORE THAN 80  69 PEOPLE ON BOARD. A POWER OUTAGE WAS THE CAUSE. PASSENGERS WERE RESCUED IN MANUALLY OPERATED RESCUE "BASKETS" 10 AT A TIME. PHOTO BY EYEONASTORIA. THIS FROM NY1:

Emergency responders worked overnight to rescue dozens of passengers from the Roosevelt Island tram after the cable car system lost power Tuesday evening, stranding 69 people.

By 3 a.m. Wednesday, rescuers had removed all 47 people from the Roosevelt Island-bound car, by transferring the passengers to a self-powered rescue gondola high above the East River.

Rescuers removed a window from the tram and used a harness to swing passengers across a two-foot gap to the rescue gondola. It took four separate trips to complete the harrowing process, with the rescue gondola carrying about a dozen passengers each time.

Once back on land, the passengers were examined by EMTs and greeted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who stood by to monitor the rescue operation.

With all of the first car’s passengers accounted for, rescuers were preparing to remove the remaining 22 passengers from the second cable car, which sat suspended above Manhattan’s First Avenue.

No injuries had been reported at that time.

The two tram cars became stuck shortly before 5:30 p.m. when the tram’s main and backup power generators both failed.

TRAM FACTS:

City officials say they’re looking into what caused the power failure.Here’s a quick look at the two Roosevelt Island cable cars stuck over the East River when they lost power Tuesday:

– Built in 1976 to shuttle Roosevelt Island residents to and from midtown Manhattan.

– Each of two cars holds about 125 people.

– Each tramcar travels about 3,100 feet at an average speed of 16 mph in 4 1/2 minutes, rising to a maximum height of 250 feet.

This should help. Subsidies to entice math, science and special education teachers to the New York City public schools.  Biggest housing incentive ever offered by BOE.

New York City will offer housing subsidies of up to $14,600 to entice new math,
science and special education teachers to work in the city’s most
challenging schools, in one of the most aggressive housing incentive
programs in the nation to address a chronic shortage of qualified
educators in these specialties.

To be eligible for the
subsidies, teachers must have at least two years’ experience. City
officials said they hoped the program, to be announced by the city
Education Department today, would immediately lead to the hiring of an
extra 100 teachers for September and, with other recruitment efforts,
ultimately help fill as many as 600 positions now held by teachers
without the proper credentials.

Under terms of the program, negotiated with the city teachers’ union, the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
will pay as much as $5,000 up front to the recruits for housing
expenses, including the cost of moving to the New York area, a down
payment on buying a home, or broker fees and security deposits for
renters.

The program will also pay a $400 monthly housing stipend
for two years. Teachers can live wherever they want within the
metropolitan region but must commit to work for three years in one of
New York City’s toughest middle schools or high schools. The city’s
effort comes as the nation faces a chronic shortage of math, science
and special education teachers that has sparked heavy competition to
court such educators.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake.  A major gathering at Lotta’s fountain commemorates the occasion. How many survivors are left? If they were newborns, they are now 100 year’s old.

Two New Orleans newspapers received well deserved Pulitzer Prizes for their unbelievably heroic coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

Two newspapers that covered Katrina against almost impossible odds,
The Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of Gulfport,
Miss., each won the prize for public service.

The Pulitzer
board cited The Times-Picayune for "heroic, multifaceted coverage" and
for continuing to "serve an inundated city" even after its own plant
had to be evacuated. The staff of the Times-Picayune won a second
Pulitzer, in the breaking news reporting category, for "courageous and
aggressive coverage" of Katrina.

The Sun Herald was recognized
for "valorous and comprehensive coverage" and for "providing a lifeline
for devastated readers, in print and online, during their time of
greatest need."

At the Brooklyn Lyceum April 19-23, the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival – call it BUFF. Here Lisa Curtis of the Brookyn Papers tells us all about it:

The Brooklyn Underground Film Festival (BUFF) surfaces at the Brooklyn Lyceum April 19-23 with films that range from "Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash," a montage of scenes from Japanese TV (pictured), to earnest, politically charged documentaries addressing Mexican immigration, such as "Letters from the Other Side" and "The Other Side."

The world premiere of "Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash," directed by an anonymous collective, according to BUFF programming Director Josh Koury, is April 22 at 10:15 pm. According to BUFF staffer Alex Smith, "The zany, mind-numbing world of Japanese television shall blow your f-king skull off."

In addition to screening 100 films, this year’s festival will also include an on-site group art exhibit, "In the Face of Mechanical Reproduction"; and performances by Har Mar Superstar, The Hunting Party, The Five O’Clock Heroes, and 33Hz at Williamsburg’s Northsix (66 N. Sixth St. at Wythe Avenue) on April 22.

The Brooklyn Lyceum is located at 227 Fourth Ave. at President Street in Park Slope. Tickets are $8 per screening and can be purchased at the Lyceum or on BUFF’s Web site, www.brooklynunderground.org. Tickets to the Northsix concert are $12 at the door. For a complete schedule, visit the Web site.

– Lisa J. Curtis

City’s first surveillance cameras set up in Bushwick.

The cameras along Knickerbocker Avenue are the first to be rolled
out onto city streets. It’s all part of a new high-tech police
surveillance program that will place 500 cameras throughout the city.

Each is equipped with two zoom lenses, and records street activity
around the clock. Police can check the tapes any time they need to.

A friend from my writer’s group told me about Joe Hay’s blog, Brooklyn and Beyond. Hays is a Pastor, who started a small church called Christ Church for Brooklyn, which meets Sunday nights at the Third Avenue YMCA. I had an interesting conversation with him for the "Shopping for Religion" piece I did for the Brooklyn Papers. Joe and his wife Laura are obviously incredible people (read about them on their blog). They’ve been through a lot this past year and are brave and inspiring in spite of it (or maybe because of it). Laura definitely deserves a surprise party. The surprise party pictured left is not Laura’s. Photo by Phrenophile.

Living Words by Laura

After
I left my surprise party Saturday night I felt like I was flying. Even
though it was midnight when we arrived home (I know this is not late
for some of you), I had a hard time falling asleep. If Joe had been
awake he probably would have said I was glowing in the dark.

Have
you ever had the privilege of sitting in a room full of people while
they shared kind and thoughtful things about you? Probably not. I
realized after the fact, that situations like I experienced on Saturday
typically do not occur while people are still living. We usually wait
until someone has passed away to sit around and say wonderful things
about them and the way they lived their life. Why do we wait until
they’re dead?

Are we too busy? Would it just be too awkward? Do
we feel like they probably already know whatever it is we would share
with them?

Let me speak from experience. I will forever cherish
the words that were spoken to me that night. I will remember who spoke
them and what was said. I will remember the way their words encouraged
me to keep living one more day; to be proud of the life I am living; to
recognize my worth as a mother, friend, wife.

I have walked
taller and prouder this week because of their words. Is there anyone
you could help live taller this week through your words? Why don’t you
share those words while they’re still around to hear them?

BTW, thank you honey for the party. It was perfect.

Rachel Vigier and Kim Larsen* will be reading at Brooklyn Reading Works this Thursday April 20th at 8 p.m. The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.
Tomorrow: an excerpt from Kim Larsen’s work. 

Remnants by Rachel Vigier

It’s what I have left to offer you —
    the ripple of a flax field in flower
the flow of a river slipping to sea
    the weight of a whale flipping over.
Say it’s images from a life left over
    or the lust of memory
wanting its place of origin
    before the blue fades, before
the heft and swiftness disappear.

Guilty by Rachel Vigier

A lunchtime crowd trickles to the steps of Federal Hall
while across the street a man in a tan coat stops to pat the bomb dog.
“Why shepherds? Can he do anything else?” The dog,
ears perked, sniffs, stands at the alert and sits down. All the tourists,
zoom lens extended or pocket cameras held high, look for the best shot.
The street worker sweeps butts into his dustpan
drags away the bin as the Hercules unit points down their guns.
A woman in a blue coat waves her hand, signs for lilies
from the guards at the Exchange. A man with a limp thumps his briefcase
against his leg. The keeper locks the dog in a cage and walks away
as someone stands on George Washington’s pedestal.
For a moment he’s declaiming Washington’s address to the troops
then becomes another tour guide stealing attention
from the stranger across the street preaching Revelation
“my name my word shuttedth and shuttedth.” Everyone walks
or sits or stands. It’s the law. The sound of pipes falling
echoes. Metal on metal rolling down the canyon
against the syncopated roll of corrugated metal rising from the back of a truck.
What happens if you shift your gaze to a small hole? The doubting Thomas
of Wall Street rises but it’s OK to proceed slowly, person by person.
Here’s a tourist with a cigar in his mouth, waving and coughing.
Here’s an orange-and-blue striped shopping bag strolling by.
Here’s a boy running round a pole as Mom and Dad study a map.
(Everyone’s always trying to orient themselves but it’s a proven fact
the map’s distortions are real. Just try to place yourself somewhere.)
And here’s a man posing sadly for himself. Flash. Oh look he wants another. Flash.
The sun keeps shining and you keep asking what’s here at this corner?
Until the body tells you to push off. There’s daylight elsewhere.
No one wants to tease out layers. Just keep stacking and stacking,
building and tearing down, building and tearing down
where George Washington keeps watch until today
when someone somewhere in a cell well hidden finally confesses
first to himself then to country “I didn’t mean any of this.”

By Oscar Wilde
Theatre Royal Bath / Peter Hall Company
Directed by Sir Peter Hall

Apr 18—22, 25—29, May 2—6, 9—13 at 7:30pm
Apr 22 & 29, May 6 & 13 at 2pm
Apr 23 & 30, May 7 & 14 at 3pm
BAM Harvey Theater
Tickets: $30, 50, 75, 85
Running time: approximately 2 hours, 20 minutes

What’s in a name, anyway? Plenty, it turns out, especially if you’re Ernest, the scandalous—and fictitious—brother/alibi of Jack Worthing, a strait-laced dandy in Victorian England just itching to have a bit of fun in London while away from his country estate. It’s a time when style trumped substance and—this being Wilde at his most incisive—Jack’s games soon spin hilariously out of control. In an effervescent staging by Sir Peter Hall, fresh from his definitive As You Like It that delighted BAM audiences last spring, The Importance Of Being Earnest is a delirious contradiction in terms.

Lynn Redgrave stars as the domineering Lady Bracknell, a font of outlandish quips in a work rife with witticisms, who is determined to have her daughter Gwendolen marry well. Her cunning and pompous pronouncements propel a plot as delightfully convoluted as it is ingenious. Identities are contrived and mistaken. Women fall in and, just as effortlessly, out of love. Egos are (slightly) wounded. And ostentation ultimately gives way to redemption.

Production design by Kevin and Trish Rigdon
Sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen
 

ISSUE PROJECT ROOM has been in Brooklyn just under a year but what a year it’s been. On the banks of the Gowanus Canal, they now inhabit that cool silo on Carroll Street between Nevins and Hoyt. Here is a year in review from IPR and a request for membership.

Dear Friends and Supporters of ISSUE Project Room,

We are pleased to report on the inspiring body of work IPR presented
since moving to Brooklyn in June 2005. Our exciting new space has been
home to a number of extraordinary performances and events unique to the
New York cultural arena. We are one of the few surviving experimental
performance spaces that provides music, sound, the spoken word, dance,
performance and artisanal cuisine for a nominal ticket cost in an
unusual setting.

Here are a few highlights of the year:

Installation:

* IPR introduces our revolutionary 16-channel hemispherical speaker
system with Spatio0silo, a 42-hour-long live collaborative sound
installation by Julian Ottavi & Dion Workman. This speaker system,
created by composer/audio engineer Stephan Moore, also serves as the
focal point for our burgeoning new Composer Series.

Events:
In September prolific indie icon and enigmatic recluse Jandek
performs his second-ever NY bill with two sold-out sets.

* In February actor/director Steve Buscemi co-hosts An Evening of
Beats with poets Anne Waldman & Bob Holman.

* Also in February, special international artist performances include
The Kusun Ensemble from Ghana, West Africa & the Indonesian Consulate
Gamelan and Dance Ensemble

* January through March, IPR hosts percussion classes with Billy Martin
in creative and rhythmic interplay and collective improvisation

* March, themed Solo / Duo Month, features performances by artists
including Marc Ribot & Henry Grimes, Shelley Burgon & Loren Connors,
Jim Thirlwell, William Basinski, Dorit Chrysler & DJ Olive, Ned
Rothenberg & Marty Ehrlich, and Leroy Jenkins.

* Spring 2006 initiates IPR artist residency with Ne(x)tworks

* In April, IPR & Domino Records present the debut performance of
legendary jazz drummer Steve Reid & Kieran Hebdena Exchange Sessions
Volume 1.

* IPR launches the Theremin Society, now being filmed on site for a
Dominic DeJoseph documentary film

Awards:
* ISSUE Project Room was named Best Avant-Garde Music Venue in the
Best of NYC Villlage Voice awards for 2005

* IPR is the proud recipient of recent grants from The NYC Department
of Cultural Affairs, Foundation of Contemporary Arts, mediaThe
Foundation, and The Edwards Foundation Arts Fund

Together, we have made ISSUE Project Room one of the most distinctive
institutions for experimental performance in New York City. In order to
continue to create and expand our programming we need your presence and your support.
IPR consciously keeps ticket prices low, so that our events are accessible to
all. We rely on generous financial support from members and need their
collective will and resources to fulfill our mission.

Please make your tax-deductible donation to Issue Project Room here:

mail:
Fiscal Sponsorship
New York Foundation for the Arts
ATTN: ISSUE Project Room
155 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10013-1507

internet:
membership options:
http://issueprojectroom.org/support.html
make a donation:
http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=226&fid=1&sid=44

Looking forward to seeing you soon on the waterfront,

Suzanne Fiol, Jenni Knight & all the Staff of ISSUE Project Room

The lovely couple who own Slope Sports, on Seventh Avenue between Berkeley and Lincoln Place, had a baby boy last week. His name is on the window of the store – but I forget what it is. Ooh I just remembered: THURSTON (very Gilligan’s Island) his name is THORSTEN (Thor for short is very cute). And I do remember that he weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces. If he’d been a girl they were going to name her Dagmar.

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S !!

Two authors confront the fragility of life, the suddeness of loss. Poet Rachel Vigier and essayist Kim Larsen read on Thursday April 20th at 8 p.m. at the Old Stone House in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.

—Rachel Vigier,  will read from her new book of
poetry. She was raised on a farm in Manitoba and now lives with her
family in Brooklyn. Her book ON EVERY STONE was published by Pedlar
Press in 2002. She has a new book coming out this Spring. She is also the author of GESTURES OF GENUIS: WOMEN, DANCE AND THE BODY (The Mercury Press, 1994),

–Kim Larsen, will read "WHEN THE MIDDLE IS
THE END," a piece, commissioned for an anthology on middle age, about
the untimely death of her friend Laurel, and the 25-year friendship
that preceded it.

Kim Larsen has published essays and articles from
Burma, Congo, Japan, Nepal, and Zimbabwe — all pieces, in one way or
another, that look at the  intersection of culture, conservation, and
national identity. Her work has appeared in Discover, The Village
Voice, and OnEarth, among other  publications.

Gowanus Nursery — 102 3rd Street — is open. 

Buy flowers. Buy plants.

Let spring fever reign. Plant your garden, fill your window boxes.

I noticed a Park Slope man putting blue flyers on a lamp post on Sunday. Having spent the weekend reading about the retired generals call for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation; and fears that Bush is ready to stage an invasion of Iran,  I was happy to see that there is a huge demonstration planned for Saturday April 29th in New York City sponsored by United for Peace and Justice.  Here are some details from the planning committee.

We are happy to announce that an agreement has been reached with the NYC Police Department for our plans on Saturday, April 29.

The March for Peace, Justice and Democracy will kick off in Manhattan, just north of Union Square and proceed south along Broadway to Foley Square, where we will hold a Peace and Justice Festival. Please click here for more details.

End the war in Iraq — Bring all our troops home now!

SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2006
NEW YORK CITY

Unite for change — let’s turn our country around!

The times are urgent and we must act.

Too much is too wrong in this country. We have a foreign policy that is foreign to our core values, and domestic policies wreaking havoc at home. It’s time for a change.

    * No more never-ending oil wars!
    * Protect our civil liberties & immigrant rights. End illegal spying, government corruption and the subversion of our democracy.
    * Rebuild our communities, starting with the Gulf Coast. Stop corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy while ignoring our basic needs.
    * Act quickly to address the climate crisis and the accelerating destruction of our environment.

Our message to the White House and to Congress is clear: Either stand with us or stand aside!

We are coming together to march, to vote, to speak out and to turn our country around!

Loved the piece in this week’s New Yorker about Pete Seeger. And I’m real excited about Bruce Springsteen’s new album, WE SHALL OVERCOME: THE SEEGER SESSIONS, to be released on April 25th.

Makes me want to listen to some old Pete Seeger albums again and reminisce about all the times I saw him perform in the 1960’s at anti-war demonstrations and the time I saw him perform in Ithaca in the late 1970’s.

Don’t miss the New Yorker profile. It’s just great.

Continue reading PETE SEEGER IS COOL AGAIN →

The Sunday Metro section discovers the Brooklyn blogosphere (no mention, btw, of OTBKB).

But they’ve got all the other usual suspects: Aaron Naparstak, Daniel Goldstein, nolandgrab, plus quite a few that OTBKB was unaware of. I’m hoping to have all Brooklyn bloggers at the First Annual Brooklyn Blog Festival on June 22 at the Old Stone House.

When a state agency released plans for studying the environmental
impact of the proposed Atlantic Yards project, a vast residential,
commercial and arena development near Downtown Brooklyn, the response
from critics was swift, brutal — and largely online.

"Major
flaws in the final scope," pronounced Norman Oder, the proprietor of
the blog Atlantic Yards Report, pointing out that the agency, the
Empire State Development Corporation, had not examined the possible
security risks facing the 18,000-seat arena.

The architect Jonathan Cohn, who runs brooklynviews.blogspot.com,
noticed that the project’s developer, Forest City Ratner Companies, was
planning to use a part of the site as a temporary parking lot.

Another blogger, Aaron Naparstek, pored through the 41-page plan and
compared the project’s latest building designs to a "1960’s-era housing
project."

Like any developer, Forest City Ratner has had to
contend with suspicious community groups, concerned politicians and
skeptical editorial boards while seeking approval for the
8.7-million-square-foot venture.

But Atlantic Yards may well be
the first large-scale urban real estate venture in New York City where
opposition has coalesced most visibly in the blogosphere.

"If Jane Jacobs had the tools and technology back when she was fighting Robert Moses’
plans to bulldoze Lower Manhattan, I bet ‘The Death and Life of Great
American Cities’ would have been a blog," said Mr. Naparstek, 35,
referring to Ms. Jacobs’s seminal 1963 book criticizing the urban
renewal policies in vogue among city planners of that era.

About
a dozen blogs follow Atlantic Yards closely. The authors are usually
Brooklynites, some of them experts in fields like urban development.
But even the amateurs among them have boned up on arcane zoning
provisions and planning-law quirks that can induce headaches among the
less devoted.

The result is an unusual ferment of community
advocacy and opinion journalism, featuring everything from manipulated
caricatures of Forest City Ratner executives to technical discussions
of traffic flow.

There is also comedy: Last week, the Web site leathertomato.com
posted Atlantic Yards-themed versions of traditional Passover songs.
("Why is it that Brownstone Brooklyn consists of unleavened low-rise
buildings, but at Atlantic Yards Bruce Ratner wants to build 17
high-rise buildings?" asks a reworked "The Four Questions.")

"We
definitely follow the opposition Web pages," said Joe DePlasco, a
spokesman for Forest City Ratner and an occasional target of the
bloggers’ gibes. "They provide great access to clips and some of them
are pretty well written. There is, however, a sense of self-importance
and anger that often pops out." In November, Mr. DePlasco was the
subject of a 4,200-word blog item plumbing "the dark genius of Ratner
flack Joe DePlasco."

But the blogs more often focus on the project, which gained its own Web site — atlanticyards.com
— and recently had a list of what Forest City Ratner says are the
project’s benefits for Brooklyn residents. A day later, the site had
already drawn jeers from at least two blogs.

Mr. Cohn, the
architect, who lives in Park Slope, started Brooklyn Views this year
and quickly earned attention from other Atlantic Yards bloggers for his
analysis of the project’s floor-area ratio, a measure of density. His
argument — that the Atlantic Yards would be more dense than advertised
because it eliminated otherwise open city streets to create the
"superblock" on which the project will be built — was quickly added to
opponents’ talking points.

Daniel Goldstein, the spokesman for
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, a group opposed to the Atlantic Yards,
said that the blogs "have been a key part of the public education about
the project."

Lumi Michelle Rolley, a Web designer who lives in Park Slope, is one of four people who run nolandgrab.org,
a site that rounds up news articles about Atlantic Yards and other
projects around the country where eminent domain is an issue. Media
criticism is a favorite activity among Atlantic Yards bloggers. Forest
City Ratner is the development partner in building a new Midtown
headquarters for The New York Times Company, a connection not missed by
those who have asserted that this paper’s coverage is too friendly to
the developer.

Mr. Oder said he spent up to 25 hours a week on atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com,
a successor to his original blog, Times Ratner Report. Hardly a
hearing, community meeting or news story relating to the project
escapes scrutiny.

He started blogging last September, he said,
because "Brooklyn would be one of the largest cities in the country if
it were a separate city."

"Then," he added, "it would have its
own daily newspaper, which would pay a lot more attention to the
largest real estate development in its history."

Photographs by Alice Ethel Crawford

Check out Roxanna Velandria’s illustrations of the 10 Plagues of Brooklyn on the cover of this week’s  Brooklyn Papers available at Key Food, ConnMuffCo, Ozzie’s and elsewhere.

Editor extradonaire Gersh Kuntman asked Velandria to create a modern set of plagues suitable for 21st century Brooklyn.

"All your favorite pet-peeves about our Kingly lives are here – from the traffice we endure to the lice our schoolchildren pick up to the chicken bones that we find underneath the subway seat was didn’t get," he writes.

L’chaim

An Op/Ed in the Saturday New York Times by Eleanor Randolph about the Greenwich Village cat who garnered world attention when she got stuck inside a wall of a landmarked apartment building:

Perhaps it was inevitable that any event in New York City involving
both a cat and a landmark building would turn into performance art. By
the end of Friday afternoon, the well-publicized pursuit of a lost cat
named Molly had become a bizarre tableau that got more theatrical by
the moment. Molly, an 11-month-old mouser, was stuck somewhere under or
near a British food shop in Greenwich Village. A group of animal
control experts and a city building inspector were trying to extricate
the cat from the wall. But, like so many things pursued in the big
city, Molly always appeared to be close but somehow out of reach.

One small cat caught in a 157-year-old wall did attract the media, of
course. Among the crowd was a television crew from Japan and a seasoned
reporter who kept asking himself whether this was why he went to
journalism school. Another journalist, or at least someone who said she
was a journalist, arrived on the job in a white mouse suit.

New Yorkers, naturally, provided their own eccentric chorus. Cat owners
came out of the woodwork, as it were, to help. Pauline Zahlout, who
said she had been a resident of the area for 30 years, suggested that
they get a woman —"women are better at mimicking animal sounds" — to
make Molly think a fellow feline was in distress. "Maybe they should
get a foghorn and then get someone to mimic the cat sounds into it,"
she offered.

Josh Schermer, an animal rights activist who had
taken over the search, said he had heard every possible remedy. One
person had insisted that a ferret could get the cat out — one way or
another presumably. Another brought French cat food with the admonition
that American cat food was inferior. And Molly’s owner, Pete Myers, of
the Myers of Keswick shop where the cat is stuck, has had calls from
all over. Susan, a cat lover from Texas, left a message at 2:30 a.m. to
suggest catnip, fresh catnip. "It’s getting old," he grumbled as the
phone kept ringing. "Bloody old."

Outside, however, it seemed to
be just getting started for the weekend. Mary Edwards, a songwriter and
customer of Myers, said she thought the whole panorama was not an
animal story but an elaborate effort by the cat, the media, the shop
and the people "to get into the Whitney Biennial."

Curbed ran a listing from a Craigslist rental listing about Park Slope. The listing, they thought, showed real literary flair. Later, they were tipped off by a commenter that the words were ripped off from a Village Voice Feb. 2005 profile on the Slope. It’s still a nice piece of descriptive writing. And I love the mention of the cat, who sits on top of the copy machine at Park Slope Copy. What about the lizard at Community Books. Hey, isn’t there a lizard in a tank  in the window at Park Slope Copy, too. For $2000/month, you want local color- this neighborhood has local color up the wazoo.

<>

    Park Slope is an easy introduction to New York, a slice of Brooklyn where cats curl up on copy machines and young couples stroll arm in arm, bundled in scarves knitted for each other. No wonder As Good As It Gets was filmed here. $2000 / 2br – Two Bedroom Apartment Located on 7th Ave/President St… [CL]

In response to my post about the planned changes at Nelly Bly Amusement Park, Alexis Robie wrote to say that he hopes they don’t clean things up too much. He sent some photographic appreciations of the old park, which I publish here and on the original post. Check out his web site: Lex’s Folly.

More details from NY1 about the demonstration in front of the Secondary School for Law, Journalism and Research in Park Slope, which is in the old John Jay High School building on Seventh Avenue.

Police and students scuffled outside a Brooklyn high school Wednesday during a demonstration against the school’s enforcement of a ban on cell phones.

Five students were arrested during the rally outside the Secondary School for Law, Journalism and Research in Park Slope. Four were charged with disorderly conduct and one with assaulting an officer.

In all, about 150 students had walked out of their classes to protest the ban, which has been on the books citywide since 1987.

The students said they need their phones in case of emergency.

They were also upset about new security measures which they say slow them down when they’re trying to get into the building.

Once again Jeanne Ramirez, Brooklyn corespondent for NY1, delivers the goods. Here with a story about what’s going on at Nelly Bly Amusement Park.

The sign is spray painted black, and the gates are locked shut at Nellie Bly Amusement Park in Bensonhurst at a time when it would normally be kicking off a new season. But while it is the end of an era for Nellie Bly – after nearly 4 decades – a new, improved park will soon open in its place.

"It’ll be a little oasis right along side the belt parkway," says Martin Garin.

Garin is the new operator, after winning a bid from the Parks Department earlier this year. He has an extensive background in amusements, having run the old Adventurer’s Inn Park in Queens back in the 60’s and 70’s and most recently the New Jersey State Fair at the Meadowlands.

The Parks Department not only wants a total renovation of this site but also wants it to be up and running by Memorial Day weekend. Garin says he’ll make the deadline but only open partially.

"The time involved to do all of this stuff is enormous, and we’ll get it done," he says. "We’re going to operate the children area in the beginning, and then later on we’re going to gear ourselves for the adult area."

Garin plans to introduce adult rides to the park and change the name to Adventure Amusement, or maybe Jolly Roger. He also plans to restore a handful of kiddy rides he bought from the former operators, the Romano family who founded Nellie Bly.

The Parks Department says financial difficulties forced the Romanos to get out of their 10 year lease just 3 years in. Attendance wasn’t the problem, the rising cost of running the park was. But this native New Yorker says he’s ready for the challenges; he just signed a 20 year lease.

"Brooklyn is a very community type place and the word gets around. And I think that once they understand that we’re going to provide them with what they want and there’s nobody else around, we’ll do well," he says.

In addition to new rides, Garin says there will be new parking, new lighting and new fencing, and he says his new park will charm a new generation of Brooklynites.

– Jeanine Ramirez

photo: Alexis Robie

At Wednesday night’s seder, Teen Spirit was upset that we were using a new Hagadah. "What, we’re not using the one we always use?" he shouted out looking quite alarmed. "But it’s a tradition!"

"Tradition. Tradition!"  Someone started singing the song from "Fidler on the Roof." I probably should have consulted Teen Spirit. But honestly, I didn’t think he’d be disturbed by the change.  Secretly, I was pleased that the old book, "The Four Questions," meant so much to him.

A decision was made to alternate between "The Four Questions" by Lynn Sharon Schwartz and the Hagadah.

That worked fairly well. But at a few points, it did get confusing and repetitive. I’m pretty sure we did the plagues and the "This is the bread of affliction part" twice. My father accidentally turned the pages of the children’s book Hebrew style — going backwards.

"You’re going the wrong way," someone shouted out as if he were a car that had turned onto a one-way-street. "Go back!"

That explained some of the repetition and added to the general chaos. 20-month old Ducky had a hard time sitting still. She kept getting up off Diaper Diva’s lap and running into OSFO’s room. MiMa Cat, my stepmother, was up and down for cigarette breaks in the hallway and Mrs. Kravitz, my friend and downstair’s neighbor came up for a visit.

We took a break mid-seder for a brief piano recital by OSFO and then got back to the reading. When we got to the end, it was time for matzoh ball soup and gefilte fish. We were off and running…

The meal was, as usual, very filling. The menu: brisket, a Sephardic spinach, matzah and noodle kugel, beet salad. For dessert: Chocolate macaroons, middle-eastern pastries from a bakery in Bay Ridge. Throughout: Lots of wine.

At 9 p.m, Groovy Grandpa looked at his watch. "Omigod, omigod," he said. "We missed American Idol." Surprisingly, the man is hopelessly in love with the show. "I can’t stand it," Mima Cat said scowling. "Your father is turning into such a couch potato."

OSFO turned on the television and the show was still on. Relief. In a post-seder stupor, everyone sat in the living room and watched as Eliot, Ace, and Ducky, were revealed to be the night’s bottom three. Ooooh. Suspense.

Finally, it was Bucky who had to go.

"Bucky?" Teen Spirit shouted out incredulously from another room. He’s been nominally following the show but he liked the modest southern rocker. All of us did. The remaining contestants gathered around the tall, handsome fellow with the buck teeth and the long, blonde hair. Some cried; the bald guy gave him a manly hug.

After the show, a quick hunt for the afakomen (the hidden matzah), which OSFO found and took the prize: a small plastic bag full of Swedish Fish. Then the guests made a dash for the door. 

Next year, we’re using "The Four Questions." It’s a damn good Hagadah and a tradition around here. A tradition.

On Brooklyn Mama writes about a new restaurant in Windsor Terrace, on Prospect Park Southwest, called "Lonelyville." Here’s an excerpt:

So, instead of cooking anything myself today, I decided to give a review of one of the restaurants in my not-so-well-traveled area of Brooklyn.

Okay!  So!  Enough explanation and on to a review of the brand new Lonelyville Cafe in Windsor Terrace!  So new that I don’t have the exact address!

In my web browsing, I discovered that Lonelyville was aided by  a grant from the Brooklyn Public Library, and it is a welcome addition to the neighborhood.  There’s a wholesome vibe to the place, largely because of its nostalgic decor consisting of homey food-and-kitchen -themed antiques from the 1940s.  The walls are lined with antique thermoses…

There was a demonstration yesterday in front of the Secondary School for Law, which is, along with the Secondary School for Research and the Secondary School for Journalism, housed in the old John Jay High School on Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets. These kids, who are learning about law, staged a true demonstration about something that’s very important to them: being allowed to have their cell phones in school. School safety officers got involved and then the NYPD (who are often at the school). Things didn’t go very well after that. It’s too bad things got out of hand – it seems very positive to me that the kids organized a demonstration. As quoted below, one of the school’s social studies teachers, John Yanno, said he supported the students "100%." and saw the whole thing as a great civics lesson. This from the NY Daily News:

Brooklyn high school students sent a ringing message to administrators yesterday: Don’t dare take our cell phones.

More than 200 angry teens at the old John Jay High School building took
to the streets of Park Slope to protest a crackdown on the devices,
leading to clashes with cops and the arrest of five pupils.

At one point, officers scuffled with a youth, knocked him to the ground
and handcuffed him. Cops said the student, identified by classmates as
Maurice Reid, hit an officer and was charged with assault.

The busts further enraged the crowd.

"They threw him to the ground for protesting," Aundre Walker, 17, said
of Reid. "They treated him like a terrorist. All he wanted was his cell
phone back."

The teens were reacting to a school safety officer’s decision on
Tuesday morning to confiscate phones, other electronics and snacks
during scanning with a metal detector, delaying the line and making
many late for classes, students said.

"Everyone doesn’t live around the corner. We need our phones," said
Krystle Guzjuste, 17, from Brownsville. "How are our parents going to
be able to reach us if there’s an emergency?"

The students stormed out about 1 p.m. yesterday, chanting, "We want our
cell phones" and carrying signs reading, "This is a school, not a
prison."

They were followed by nearly two dozen school safety officers and cops
who tried to make them disperse. The other four arrested students were
charged with disorderly conduct.

The protests fell on deaf ears.

Principal Larry Woodbridge of the Secondary School for Law, one of
three mini-schools housed in the building, said administrators won’t
back down.

"They want to have their cell phones and they want to be able to use
them during the school day, but they can’t because it disrupts the
educational process," Woodbridge said.

The students will be penalized for cutting class, Woodbridge vowed, though he said administrators were still discussing details.

Cell phones and other electronics have been banned in city schools since 1987, although the rule is not always enforced.

Teacher John Yanno, who teaches sixth-grade social studies, said he supported the students "100%."

"This is a great civics lesson," he said. "I wish they got this involved in the war in Iraq or the immigration debate."

For the past two days, the Mojo has been boarded up. Closed.

So Mrs. Kravitz talked to the guy at the newstand next door and he said that Giancarlo, the new owner of the Mojo is selling. Just a month after the grand re-opening. Aren’t you supposed to stick it out for a year? You can’t expect a new business to be successful after a few weeks.

Well, that’s what I’ve heard.

But the same thing happened to the place that went in before the original Mojo/Carvel. The Rendez Vous. Does anyone remember the Rendez Vous?

The Rendez Vous came in after Ben’s Pizza. They spent months renovating. Expectations were high.  The owners wallpapered the space with sheet music. Promising.

Then they opened but there was no food on display. There was a menu board – tuna fish, egg salad sandwiches – but someone went into a mysterious backroom to get the food. I guess they had coffee.

I was afraid to eat the food. The Rendez Vous closed after a few weeks.

Then the Mojo/Carvel went in (pictured above). The first manager, Robert, was a rock ‘n roll cartoonist. The place looked great; it was clean. They did a classy renovation (must’ve taken a while to get that sheet music off the wall). Michael Gordon, and the other owners were in for the long haul. They worked hard and added features as they went along – Krispy Kreme donuts, wrap sandwiches, soups. The shop became an integral part of Third Street life – a great place for a coffee clatch, a PTA committee meeting, a before pick-up iced coffee, an after school ice cream cone. Corey, also a manager, was a beloved member of this community who, at one time, thoughtfully supervised the PS 321 kids who lunched there and taught them manners: "Throw out your food," he’d say. "Pick up after yourselves." There were other employees who made a positive impression on the kids (like Tito).

Mojo gave it the college try. The Carvel franchise was expensive, it was hard to make money with that as overhead. Michael decided he wanted a job in the corporate world – benefits, a salary, a different lifestyle.

Then came the (new) Mojo: Gianncarlo and his Ainsley cheesecakes of Brooklyn.  I was impressed with his cakes but I wasn’t sure if Giancarlo was up to the challenge of creating a follow-up to the Mojo. Getting rid of half the tables seemed a weird move. He lost the morning coffee clatch crowd and that always made the place look so lively.  The success of the nearby Cocoa Bar probably didn’t help. For the last month, they’ve been offering free coffee in the morning between 9 and 10 a.m. (I knew nothing about it).

So who is Gianncarlo selling the Mojo to? And what will it become. The people on Third Street are waiting with bated breath.

Gersh Kuntzman, editor-in-chief of the Brooklyn Papers, is one cool editor. He hired my friend Roxanna Velandria to do illustrations for his weekly. Last week she did two terrific illos for the the recent HAVE FAITH BROOKLYN issue.

For my article titled: "Looking for Religion: You Better Shop Around," Roxanna created a great picture of a very Park Slope-looking woman filling a shopping cart with churches and synagogues.

For Gersh’s article entitled, "Faithiests," about atheists who go to church, Roxanna created a great illo of a man in a "God is Dead" t-shirt reading Nietzsche in a church pew with devout worshipers all around him. (Above left: that’s the first sketch).

This week she’s created something really cool. And rumor has it that it’s going to be on the COVER of the Brooklyn Papers. I don’t want to ruin it – so just pick it up at Key Food or on the street wrapped in plastic – they’ll be all over the place. Also, read Smartmom – this week she’s got quite an exclusive.

By the way, you can read all of Smartmom’s columns at Brooklynpapers.com – at the top of the page look for Smartmom. Click on that and start reading.

An article about matzoh making in Brooklyn in the People’s Daily China.  Thanks Brownstoner for the tip.

In a Brooklyn bakery, each fresh batch of Passover matzoh was timed from the moment the flour touched water till the unleavened bread left the oven dough worked fast to keep it from rising.

It must stay flat "to remind us of when the Jews went out of Egypt and they didn’t have time to let the bread rise," said Chana Drizin, a 10-year-old bakery volunteer perched atop a woodpile.

With Passover arriving tomorrow at sundown, producing enough matzoh for the holiday meal without breaking tradition is a deadline met with religious fervour at this Brooklyn business.

Behind a windowless front, the boisterous, crowded bakery has churned out more than 80 tons of matzoh in the seven months leading to Passover. At US$33 a kilogram, the matzoh is shipped or hand-delivered to about 70 countries, from France, England and Greece to Congo, Viet Nam and India.

On a recent visit during the last week of production, one room in the bakery was alive with the chatter of women sitting around a long table, rolling out dough and announcing "Matzoh!" in Hebrew as they handed off the matzoh rounds ready for the oven.

Their voices, in Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian and English, mixed with the sound of clattering rolling pins in the frenzy to get as many matzohs out as possible in 18 minutes, when the dough starts to rise.

Eating leavened bread during Passover is forbidden by Jewish law, which is strictly followed in an Orthodox Jewish movement called Chabad Lubavitch that started in 18th-century Russia and spread worldwide.

Under the late Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, their leader in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighbourhood, the Lubavitchers became the most outward-looking of ultra-religious Jews, displaying giant menorahs in public places and building Chabad centres from Sao Paulo to Bangkok.

The more than 200,000 faithful use satellite and Internet technology to communicate their beliefs; even the matzoh can be ordered via the Chabad website, with recipes included.

"It’s been done the same way for 3,000 years," said Rabbi Mendel Feller, who was bringing the matzohs back to St. Paul, Minnesota