Transfer, NYC’s blogger of architecture bad, good, and otherwise had a post Monday about the new buildings going up at the corner of Sterling Place and 7th Avenue, where, in 1960, a United DC-8 crashed killing 135 people and destroying a church and a funeral home.

Construction on the new buildings is nearing completion and for the first time in 45 years, there will be buildings in that spot, instead of a vacant lot.

I can’t walk by there without thinking of that crash or the fact that an 11-year old boy by the name of Stephen Baltz survived for one day. He died at Methodist Hospital. There’s a bronze wall plaque near the hospital chapel made from the change that was in his pocket.

Hey, let’s put on a show. That’s been my mantra since I was 12 years old when my sister, Margaret Cohen, and I would lip synch to our favorite musical numbers, move to our own elaborate choreography and entertain our parents who were sitting on the living room couch.

And I’m talking "Mein Heir" from Cabaret, complete with chairs and fishnet stockings, "Flesh Failures" from Hair, and "Take back Your Mink" (Take back your poils)" from Guys and Dolls.

So my desire to put on a show goes way, way back. Years in the film business sort of satisfied that longing. But not really. Later, particpation in director’s workshops at Playwright’s Horizons and Ensemble Studio Theater filled a need.

Years later, my film background and my theater background merged when I worked with Batwin + Robin Productions to design projections for Twilight Los Angeles with Anna Deavere Smith, and Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk at the Public Theater and Swinging on a Star on Broadway.  Now that was cool.

Nuff said. I love the theater and always, always will. But these days I am wearing a different hat – a writer’s hat. Still, I do get exercise my producing chops with Brooklyn Reading Works, where I present writers of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, and plays at the Old Stone House.

So last March when I saw Louis Rosen and Capathia Jenkins at the Public Theater (one of my favorite venues in New York) I was so blown away by the songs and the singing that I got to thinkin’: It’s literary – the songs are based on the poetry of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Louis Rosen – it kinda fits the Brooklyn Reading Works model.

But it was after seeing another performance at Makor on the Upper West Side that I said to myself: I really, really want to bring this show to the Old Stone House.

"You’ll never get a piano into that room. The stairs or too narrow," Hepcat said knowingly. "Oh, I bet we can," I said without a clue.

Soon, Kim Maier, the board of the Old Stone House, and I decided to present Louis and Capathia in a benefit to support their cultural programming this summer.

There were a lot of conversations with Louis and Kim  about scheduling, budget, renting a piano (whatever you do DON’T get a spinnet), and all the other various and sundry details involved with putting on a show.

When we finally decided on the date (coordinating with three busy artists is no piece of cake), postcards designed by Peter Joseph were sent out and…

WE WERE PUTTING ON A SHOW!!!!

Saturday morning (the day before the show)  I walked over to the Old Stone House to watch the piano movers move the piano up the narrow staircase. They seemed to be having no trouble at all – aside from the usual trouble of carrying a piano up a flight of small stairs.

"It’s a spinnet," Kim said. "My husband saw it and said it’s a spinnet."

Ain’t that always the way, I thought. The one thing Louis kept warning us about –  here we were with our spinnet.

Later when Alex, the Russian piano turner and owner of the piano rental shop, was tuning the small upright upstairs I said:

"Too bad it’s spinnet."
"Eeets not a spinnet," he said commandingly
"Oh, I thought it was a spinnet," I said.
"Eeetss a console. Not a spinnet. Eeets a console," he said.

Relieved  I went downstairs and told Kim.
"My husband was pretty convinced it was a spinnet," she said.
"My husband said we’d never get the piano upstairs," I reminded her. "and your husband said it was a spinnet…"
"Why listen to husbands," one or the other of us said.

For more on the show see: Let’s Put On A Show #2

It took a few minutes for me to calm down after handing out programs and directing people to the coat rack, the wine. At 7:10 or so, I flashed the lights and asked everyone to go upstairs.

The room was packed. A few stragglers came in late. The audience was ready. Some had no idea what they were about to see. Some had dragged themselves from their Sunday evening comfort to see what was going on at the Old Stone House. People were even willing to miss "The Sopranos."

For me, it was a few minutes into the show, when I actually sat down and focused on the show.

Capathia started out with a couple of beautiful Langston Hughes songs. There was a palpable sense of relief in the room as the audience seemed to melt into her warm musical embrace. It felt easy: they were in good hands. She was about lead the way on an artistic journey and the audience was game.

Then Louis came on stage. He’s been called gaunt, angsty, and Jewish. My sister said he has a remarkable charisma on stage. We were meeting the man behind the music and hearing him sing, too, a masterful story-song about sleezy hotel in Chicago

Then it was time for "Southside Stories" his song cycle based on his book, "The South Side: The Racial Transformation of an American Neighborhood," Rosen’s 1998 exploration of white flight in Chicago’s southside after the neighborhood changed its racial makeup.

The song cycle is very personal but it is also, as Kerry Reid wrote in the Chicago Tribune,  "a somber portrait of heartbreak and survival,joy and its absence,and love that endures even when the objects of that love are long vanished."

The piece has an incredible mood and a very melodic  musical vocabluary that draws on a variety of 1960’s musical style. Different characters, voices and narratives are explored in each song. But they come together to create a wistful, sometimes nostalgic, often painful and ecstatic picture of a time gone by but still held onto fiercely.

In "On the Southside" and "If I Were a Reincarnationist" Rosen shows his skill at creating musical narratives that are like short stories. "Lucky Girl" found Capathia in a joyful, loving mood that was infectious.

From Chicago, we moved to the south of Maya Angelou’s youth. Capathia performed nine songs from the Angelou cycle, that were created expressly for her multi-timbered voice. With her subtle and persuasive sense of drama, Capathia gives life to Angelou’s women and becomes these characters in an instant – her stance, the way she holds her microphone or moves her hand. In tiny theatrical ways, she embodies these phenomenal women and stirs the room with virtuosic blues in a deep alto-to-high soprano range. Her earthy emotionality, full of pain and longing, belies a sophisticated vocal control.

The acoustics at the Old Stone House are astounding. It’s a wonderful place to hear music. And  there is  something about being in that little house in the middle of Brooklyn. The  incongruity of it makes for a magical time.  I have found that when people enter that room they are willing to really focus and listen. And that was truer than true last night. The audience was cradled by Capathia’s voice and big hearted personality.

A standing ovation was the least we could do to convey our apprecation and high regard for the night of fine music and performance we had just been given.

Crains New York reports that Whole Foods plans to build a bigger Brooklyn store:
by Catherine Tymkiw

Whole Foods Market said its new store in Brooklyn will be larger than previously expected, thanks to a redesign, but won’t require additional land.

The original plan called for a 49,000-square-foot store to be located near the Gowanus Canal on a 2.1-acre site at Third Street and Third Avenue. The retailer has three Manhattan locations: a 60,000-square-foot store at Columbus Circle, a 34,000-square-foot store in Chelsea and a 50,000-square-foot store at Union Square.

Published reports suggested that the Brooklyn expansion would require more land — a claim Whole Foods denies.

“It’s going to stay on that one lot,” said Whole Foods spokesman Fred Shank., adding that it was too soon in the redesign process to know the store’s exact size.

The store redesign and cleanup of the building site have prompted the organic food retailer to push back the grand opening by more than a year. It was originally planned to open this fall but is now expected to debut in early 2008.

The company said the new store would “reflect recent Whole Foods Market design innovations,” declining to provide further details. The retailer expects completion of environmental remediation by this fall, followed by 15 months of construction.

“A large portion of the cleanup work has already been completed,” said Environmental Conservation Department spokeswoman Gabrielle DeMarco. That work included removing contaminated petroleum storage tanks and excavating contaminated soil.

Ms. DeMarco said there’s no timetable for completion of the cleanup because Whole Foods voluntarily entered into the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which gives companies tax credits in exchange for cleaning up contaminated sites.

It was just a note on the mirror of my building’s vestibule. Now it seems like a whole lot more.

People’s lives. The man. The girl. The mother. They’re all locked in a  twisted tango. Who is telling the truth? What is the truth?

Reputation. Judgement. Craziness. I am hearing many things. Many. That the man is reputable. That the accusations are groundless. That he doesn’t deserve to have his life ruined this way.

It was just a note on the mirror. But so much more. Ambiguity. A mother’s attempt to warn and protect or a mother’s attempt to indict and ruin a man publically.

What could be her motive? What could be his? And who is telling the truth?

And then there’s my small role in all of this. Did I fan the flames by putting it on OTBKB. But I didn’t know anything – I just saw the note and wanted to share what I was feeling about that note: the fear, the uncertaintly, the sense that these things are complicated.  Wondering if it  true, or is it slander.

I may know Third Street but I didn’t know this man at all. Now I am hearing about him from neighbors and friends who care about him, trust him, want to belive that these accusations are simply not true.

This is my beat. And if I wake up in the morning and there’s news literally on my door step…

There were moments this weekend when I wondered whether I was the reason that note was left there. That the mother knew, somehow, that I would blog about it, that I would spread the word and be complicit in what might be a lie.

I don’t know the truth—only two people know. And the mother, too. How could I possibly know?

A jury will have to sit through a trial – and hear the evidence – and decide whether there is enough proof. I sat on a jury in a sexual harassment trial last July. I know what it is like. You go in with a whole bunch of preconceptions and the trial can really turn you around. It’s all very complicated. And finally when the jury is sequestered and it’s time to reach a verdict, there must be proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

For someone who purports to know Third Street, I guess I don’t know Third Street as well as I thought. We know what we know and who we know — beyond that we don’t know a thing. If I fanned the flames in this incident – I take full responsibility.

There must be an object lesson in all this. About journalistic ethics and blogging. About Brooklyn blocks and what you do and don’t know. About sexual harassment and the muddy  realm of statutory rape, endangering the welfare of a child. About lies, about truth. There must be an object lesson in this.

There must be an object lesson in all of this.

Continue reading JUST A NOTE →

The Daily News asked me why I put the child molester story on my blog. A reason didn’t come immediately to mind. When I am being interviewed I try not to speak too quickly, try not to speak too impulsively.

After thinking about it a bit, I told her that  I saw the letter at 8:30 Friday morning but didn’t blog about it until 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning (As I sometimes do,  I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote the posts).

"This is my beat. You just know when it’s a story you have to tell," I said.

My reasons for doing it had nothing to do with outing a man who may or may not be guilty or humiliating a 13 year old girl, who has already been humiliated enough. I certainly didn’t want to name names or print addresses.

My reason was simple: The note was on my mind and it felt like an important wake up call about the world we live in. This is an issue that sneaked into our idyllic little world on Third Street. Park Slope may seem like a smally town where this kind of thing doesn’t happen.

But it does. It can happen anywhere.

I keep thinking about that David Lynch’s movie, "Blue Velvet," which opens with a simple, idealized "technicolor" depiction of small town life. The slow-motion shots, however, suggest that there is something not quite right with what we are
looking at. When Lynch pushes his  camera through the soft
green grass of a regular front lawn and shows us the slithering insects
that hide in the darkness, we realize that we are going to enter a very dark
world.

There is darkness just below the surface — beneath the facade.

No matter how you look at this story – whether it’s true or not. Whether the man is guilty or not. Whether the mother is telling the truth or not – there’s darkness here. Sadness. Pain.

All my attempts to delay talking to my daughter about it came undone when I was being interviewed by the reporter. She sat down right next to me on the stoop and later wanted to know what was going on. I had to bite the bullet and gently tell her why the reporters were here. It’s hard with a 9-year-old because so much about sexual behavior hasn’t really been discussed in much depth yet.

But I kept it pretty simple: There’s a man who may have touched a girl in a way that was inappropriate. He was much older and it isn’t right for an older person to touch a child…

Just as was getting into it, we saw two police cars in front of the home of the alleged perpetrator. "What are the police cars doing there?" my daughter asked. "Are they coming to get him?  I thought he was in jail already? He should be in jail."

I explained the old "innocent until proven guilty" thing – one of the foundations of democracy. He will be tried in front of a court of law, he will not go to prison unless he is found to be guilty by a jury of his peers.

My attention turned to the door of the building. There was a sign on the door that said, "NEIGHBORS. THE LOCKS HAVE BEEN CHANGED. GO TO APT. X FOR YOUR NEW KEYS."

I walked back across the street and saw a couple, longtime residents of this street,  standing in front of their building across the street wondering what was going on. They were staring but clearly had no idea why the police were there…

"I guess someone tried to break in," the woman said. "Must’ve been an attempted robbery or something."

"No. I think it has something to do with that note on the door," her husband said.
"They’re all pointing to that note on the door. I think it has something to do with that note on the door."

I don’t know what that note on the door means. It’s amazing how much of this story is about notes on a door.

It’s a long, byzantine story of buracracy and disappointment for Sunset Park, which has been waiting for a high school for 37 years. And the residents are ANGRY and Mobilized. Here’s an excerpt from the story in the New York Daily News.

For the third time, the neighborhood was promised a high school in the latest five-year school construction budget, only to see it cut at the last minute because of budget woes.

“It’s been taken away three times, and now people are incensed,” said Julie Stein Brockway, chairwoman of the Sunset Park High School Task Force.

“If this was Park Slope, this wouldn’t happen. If this was Bay Ridge, this wouldn’t happen,” added Brockway, who also heads the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park. “We are going to get this high school this time. The community is way too mobilized.”

Sunset Park is one of only two city community districts without a high school, advocates said.

I was taking a nap on Saturday afternoon when Hepcat came upstairs. "The Daily News is downstairs, they want to interview you," Hepcat said.

I dragged myself downstairs. "Are you the blogger?" Daily News reporter Celeste Katz asked. there was a photographer there as well.  She said she saw my story on OTBKB and wanted to hear more about the alleged Third Street child molester.

"All of the flyers have been torn down," she said. "And I talked to a lot of people on the block who said they hadn’t heard a thing or seen the flyer."

The reporter did stop by the building where the man lives and rang his intercom. "Speak to my lawyer." he said.

The reporters asked me how I felt. I said that I was concerned, not about this man in particular but about the reality that this sort of thing happens even in the small town of Brooklyn.

And what really concerns me, I said, was how to talk to my children about it. I found a site on the Internet that offered some good advice.

The reporter asked all the usual questions. My age, how long I’ve been blogging. She gave me her card and asked me to give her a call if I found anything else out. Then she asked the photographer to take a picture of me. We decided that I should pose with my computer open to my blog.

A woman walked by who lives in one of the nearby co-ops. She told the reporters that this man works for their building and that he is a very nice man.

Clearly, the situation is tragic for everyone involved. I feel for the girl, I feel for mother. I feel for the man who either has terrible judgement or is emotionally screwed up.

If it is true, I will feel betrayed that one of our neighbors on this very neighborly block would do something to endanger the safety of a child.

If it isn’t true, I feel sick that this man is being subjected to groundless charges.

The scariest thing about all of this is that it is always someone nice, always someone who has won the trust of those around them, that commits this kind of crime.

That is the scariest part of it all.

.

Many residents of Third Street woke up on Friday to find a letter on the front door of their apartment buildings or in their vestibules from a mother who lives near here.

"This is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done, but if I heard that another child was molested because I kept my mouth shut, I would not be able to live with myself."

She described the man as someone who lives on this block, too.

"My family has used him for at least five years. He had keys and access to our building and has shown me on numerous occasion other keys for other building, many on this block."

She went on to write:

"(This man) has succeeded in seducing and molesting my 13 y.o. daughter, this apparently has been going on for a few months…I called the police and he was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse, endangering the welfare of a minor, and attempted rape. He is out of jail on bail."

I of course will not post the name of this man for a number of reasons even though she provided his name and address. I have no way of proving the veracity of this note. I don’t even know if the writer really exists. She did give an email address and I plan to get in touch with her. I am inclined to think the letter is authentic and that the incident occurred. But I really don’t know.

Some of the moms on Third Street are trying to figure out what to do. We feel the need to share this information with our daughters in an age-appropriate way. But just how do you do that?

The thought of something like this happening to our children is frightening. A neighbor spoke to the guidance counselor at PS 321 for advice in this regard. I look forward to hearing what she had to say. In the meantime, I am haunted by the last paragraph of the note written by this mother, who describes herself as a single mom and a neighbor with RN, BSN, CNM degrees:

"Please talk to your children, hold them close. I could not bear the thought of this happening to anyone else’s child."

This is from a site called:  National Center for Missing and Exploited Kids.
I think they have good information about how to talk to kids, and what parents should know. Scary stuff. But VERY IMPORTANT to be aware of.

What are the most important things a parent should know when talking to a child about this issue?

1. Don’t forget your older children. Children aged 11 to17 are equally at risk to victimization. At the same time you are giving your older children more freedom, make sure they understand important safety rules as well.

2. When you speak to your children, do so in a calm, nonthreatening manner. Children do not need to be frightened to get the point across. Fear can actually work at cross-purposes to the safety message, because fear can be paralyzing to a child.

3. Speak openly about safety issues. Children will be less likely to come to you if the issue is enshrouded in secrecy. If they feel that you are comfortable discussing the subject matter, they may be more forthcoming to you.

4. Do not confuse children with the concept of “strangers.” Children do not have the same understanding of who a stranger is as an adult might. The “stranger-danger” message is not effective, as danger to children is much greater from someone you or they know than from a “stranger.”

5. Practice what you talk about. You may think your children understand your message, but until they can incorporate it into their daily lives, it may not be clearly understood. Find opportunities to practice “what if” scenarios.

6. Teach your children that it is more important to get out of a threatening situation, than it is to be polite. They also need to know that it is okay to tell you what happened, and they won’t be a tattletale.

Back to the top

What are the most important things a parent should tell a child about this issue?

1. Children should always check first with you or a trusted adult before they go anywhere, accept anything, or get into a car with anyone.  This applies to older children as well.

2. Children should not go out alone and should always take a friend with them when they go places or play outside.

3. It’s okay to say no if someone tries to touch them or treats them in a way that makes them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused and to get out of the situation as quickly as possible.

4. Children need to know that they can tell you or a trusted adult if they feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused.

5. Children need to know that there will always be someone to help them, and they have the right to be safe.

What is the biggest myth surrounding this issue?

The biggest myth is that the dangers to children come from strangers. In the majority of cases, the perpetrator is someone the parents or child knows, and that person may be in a position of trust or responsibility to the child and family.

What advice would you offer a parent who wanted to talk to their child about this issue?

Parents should choose opportunities or “teachable” moments to reinforce safety skills. If an incident occurs in your community, and your child asks you about it, speak frankly but with reassurance. Explain to your children that you want to discuss the safety rules with them, so that they will know what to do if they are ever confronted with a difficult situation. Make sure you have “safety nets” in place, so that your children know there is always someone who can help them.

Tips reprinted from Know the Rules…General Parental Tips to Help Keep Your Children Safer. Copyright© 2000 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children(NCMEC). All rights reserved.

Sign your child up for Piper Summer School at the Old Stone House, Summer Shakespeare workshops for students ages 7-19. July 3-28.  Daily 9 am to 5pm.  (3 pm for ages 7-10).

I looked up Piper Theater online and found this about it and its founders John and Rachel McEneny. If McEneny rings a bell, he’s the beloved and WILDLY TALENTED theater teacher/director at MS 51. He’s obviously been doing a lot in Yonkers. AND NOW: he’s bringing PIPER THEATER TO BROOKLYN. WE ARE BLESSED.

Piper Theatre Productions was establishedin 2001 by John and Rachel McEneny to develop arts and culture in the City of Yonkers as a way to foster economic development, tourism, and an enhanced quality of life.

We work to develop emerging artists and produce artistic works for the entire community of Yonkers. In addition, through mentoring and collaboration with adults, we help young people to become creative, hardworking members of society.

For more information about PIPER THEATER AT THE OLD STONE HOUSE CALL: 718-768-3195, or e-mail oldstonehouse@verizon.net Public workshop performances will take place outdoors in JJ Byrne Park July 14, 26, 27 and 28.

In the Village Voice this week, a story called:  "Mutant Bike Gangs of New York:  Tall bike clubs live free, ride high, and don’t want your stinking logos"

Seems that Brooklyn Industries was the target of some rather agressive graffiti. Check this story out at The Village Voice.

"Bike Culture Not for Sale," read the runny white lettering found
February 23 on the glass at the four Brooklyn Industries outlets in
Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The Park Slope store’s assistant manager, McKenzie Rollins,
first spotted trouble when she came into work the morning before and
found someone had messed with the gate locks overnight. "They looked
like someone had inserted something—maybe a screwdriver—to screw them
up," she says, folding a retro ’80s T-shirt with a cut-out neck. "We
had to buy new locks."

The next morning, McKenzie found the graffiti. "They knew it
wouldn’t come off," she says. "This was malicious. They could have left
a note. They could have gotten in touch with us about their concerns."
But who could be so enraged by using a bike to pitch hipster duds?
Another saleswoman suggested something curious, that it was local
members of something called "tall-bike culture."

As part of my research for a piece I am writing about religion in Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Papers, I’ve discovered that Beth Elohim is getting a new senior rabbi and his name is Rabbi Andy Bachman and HE’S GOT A BLOG. How cool is that? A rabbi with a blog. Here’s a post from March 21st. I am hoping he’ll let me interview him for the Brooklyn Papers piece.

Today I was officially voted in as the new rabbi at Congregation
Beth Elohim of Brooklyn. Congregational by-laws require an election by
at least a quorum of its members for such large, transitional issues as
hiring a new rabbi. And so today, after hearing a thorough presentation
on the rabbinic search process from the committee chair, David
Kasakove, the shul’s president, Jules Hirsh, called for a vote.

It passed.  And in an instant, or so it seemed, my life and our life as a family changed forever.

Of
course, the community was stil humming along–there was Religious School
across the street in the Temple House; the choir was itching to
rehearse; traffic on 8th Avenue was speeding along outside. Our Irish
neighbors were preparing for the Brooklyn version of St. Patricks Day.
But our life was changed in an instant.

At the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, workers came across a stash of Cold War survival supplies: This from New York 1:

A historic discovery is made at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Workers inspecting the bridge on Tuesday stumbled on a Cold War stockpile of survival previsions. Among the supplies were water drums, paper blankets, medical supplies, and 350,000 crackers with higher-than-normal calories.

“It tasted like 44-year-old food," said Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall, who ate one of the crackers.

The vault is believed to have been built by the Office of Civil Defense in the 1950s. It is a reminder of a period of U.S. history when the country was at odds with the Soviet Union, and air raid sirens and fall-out shelters were common.

Got word of this from blogger, Emily Farris. Thanks Emily.

NYC Daffodils Photo Contest

From
March 23 to May 1 submit your photo of a blooming daffodil for your
chance to win $500, $250, or $100, and your photo featured on Daffodil
Project promotional materials. 

GO HERE ON March 23 at 9:30 a.m. to enter!

About the Contest

This
spring, nearly 3 million daffodils will bloom in New York City as part
of the Daffodil Project, a living 9/11 memorial. From March 23 to May
1, 2006, submit your photo of a blooming daffodil in any of NYC’s five
boroughs.

The Daffodil Project was originally created to
commemorate September 11. Now in its fifth year, the annual effort—led
by New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) in cooperation with the Department of
Parks and Recreation (DPR)—not only brings together volunteers and
raises the spirits of New Yorkers, but also draws attention to the
needs of neglected parks and open spaces citywide.

The
Daffodil Project is made possible in part by the generosity of a Dutch
bulb supplier, Hans van Waardenburg of B&K Flowerbulbs, who has
pledged to donate 500,000 daffodil bulbs to the project each year as
long as there are volunteers willing to plant them. More than 20,000
volunteers have responded to his challenge so far. And thanks to their
efforts, nearly 3 million yellow daffodils will bloom in over 1,300
individual sites across the five boroughs this spring.

 

Daffodil photographs must be taken in one
of NYC’s 5 boroughs in the spring of 2006. Other photographs will be
disqualified. Please provide the date and exact location (be as
specific as possible) where the photograph was taken.

Contest Eligibility
To participate in the Contest, you must (i) be a legal resident of the
United States including the District of Columbia, (ii) be at least 18
years of age at the time of entry; (iii) be or become a Shutterfly
member having a Shutterfly user account; and (iv) go to the Contest
website (the “Contest Site”) and following the instructions register as
a participant and complete and submit an entry as specified.

Only
one entry per person. Participants submitting multiple entries or
violating any of these Official Rules may be disqualified.

You
may not enter the Contest if you are an employee, director or other
representative (and their respective IRS dependents, immediate family
members (spouse, children, parents, siblings) and individuals residing
in their same household), of one of the Sponsors, their parent
companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, licensees, advertising, promotion
or production agencies.  The Sponsors reserve the right, at any time,
to verify eligibility requirements, in any manner they deem
appropriate. 

Back Story: Teen Spirit took my keys off of the dining room table and was planning to hand them to me when I met him at Smiley Face Pizza on Monday night before he was off to the concert. But he forgot. Then he handed them to his friend "for safe keeping."

Next Morning: "Sorry mom. You can use my key." Only problem: I need my work keys and they’re with those keys his friend his holding "for safe keeping."

No Biggie: The manager of the space where I rent my office has back-up keys. I get mine and decide to hang on to them since god knows when Teen Spirit will see friend with MY KEYS.

Dumb move: I leave the extra set of office keys on my desk at the office.

Next morning: I’m with my friend who I regularly meditate with on Wednesday morning checking my bag for that extra set of keys when I realize they’re on the desk in my locked office.

Not Very Calm: Searching through my bag, I realize that not only am I mit out keys but I am mit out cell phone.

Just in Case: I check with the office manager to see if they have ANOTHER set of extra keys.

No Such Luck: I walk up to my office mate’s apartment praying that she is home from dropping off her daughter.

VOILA: She is home. Surprised to see me, it looks like she is just going to hand me the keys at the door. I say, "I am coming in."

BEE-LINE: I make one to her dining room table, ask her to heat up my now-cold Cousin John’s coffee, and feel like crying. "I have a million things to do, I am overwhelmed, I am stressed, and I can’t get into the office…"

COMFORT ZONE: She offers to make me breakfast (eggs, bagel, toast?), and tells me she has already done one of the things I was so stressed out about ("I took care of it, do you want to take a look?")

RELIEVED: The sun pours into the dining room. It is, just maybe, going to be an alright day.

Dizzy’s, beloved finer diner on 9th Street and Eighth Avenue, is closed for renovations. It seems, from this picture, that a car crashed into the front entrance. I found this on Daily Slope along with comments/criticisms of Dizzy’s food and prices.

More info, please.

I was interested  to see that the contemporary anti-war movement isn’t trying to imitate the  anti-war movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

The Iraq War belongs to this generation and they are opposing it in their own way.

No sing alongs
No We Shall Overcome
No Give Peace a Chance
No folkies

Monday night’s show was decidedly 2006 with an inclusive hetero, gay, bi, trans-gender progressive feel. 

When Susan Sarandon, on stage to introduce Cindy Sheehan, remarked that there weren’t many parents out there, boy, was she right.

Some of us raised our hands — or our eyebrows. But it was mostly a young teenage through late 20’s crowd.

Someone shouted out "You’re hot" to Susan  Sarandon and she looked flattered. The crowd loved Susan and Cindy Sheehan who is one awesome, great speaker; an inspiration. A female Iraqi pharmacist spoke movingly of the pain and horror in her country.

Steve Earle:  Probably the oldest performer of the night sang two great songs. "Fuck the FCC, the CIA…" The kids loved it. A blend of Country Joe and the Fish and Hair. Then he sang a beautiful song dedicated to his sons. He said, "I opposed the Vietnam War from the beginning. But we didn’t end that war because of me. That war ended when my father opposed it, too. We have to welcome in the people who might have believed in the war at first but have now changed their minds…"

Margaret Cho: So, so funny, irreverent, says what she thinks great eyes, great presentation. Cool.

Fisher Spooner: Glam meets performance art meets Bowie meets Hedwig meets circus meets Broadway meets disco meets modern dance. Acrobats, dancers, singers, musicians in futuristic costumes.  I think they were the hit of the night.

Devendra Banhart: The 14-year-old girls from Long Island standing behind me ("My mother told me not to miss the 11:42) were out of their minds with joy when he came onstage. He’s bizarre, bearded, Jim Morrison and The Band…"We love you Devendra. We love you…."  Hot.

Moby: A surprise guest, he was very low key and came out with an acoustic guitar and introduced the song, "What is Happening Here?" this way: "It’s not Not that I’m a hippy but I went to a lot of anti-war peace marches when I was a kid and this was my mother’s favorite song. "Stop children what’s that sound…"

Peaches: To a disco/techno beat she sings about sex ("2 Girls one Guy") and "Fucking the War."  Performance art meets burlesque, in her gold lame leotard and gloves, she is indescribably ribald.

Rufus Wainwright: Utterly, totally adorable. He forgot the words to his own song, "11:11" and said he was "pulling a Judy Garland."

He then sat down at the piano and sang the almost operatic "Skunk Cabbage," which he said was the first song he ever wrote when he was at boarding school in Millbrook. And finished with an exultant version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with his mother, folk legend, Kate McGarrigle of The McGarrigle sisters. NO ONE in the audience knew who she was and she just slipped behind the piano UNNOTICED.

Bright Eyes: Connor Orbst, the next great hope of rock and roll if you believe the hype. Unbelievably young, Dylan-y, wordy rocker sang "When the President Speaks to God." He rocked the house with his plugged in acoustic guitar and the crowd loved it.

Michael Stipe: By then, I was sick and tired of standing. Plus I knew that Teen Spirit, who was standing right under the stage with two friends, did not want to run into me (so embarrassing) so I left mid-way through Stipe’s set (which was pretty mediocre to begin with). I did like his comments about his father and grandfather being soldiers and that being something he grew up with and respected.

All in all and incredible evening proving that this generation is defining their own opposition to the war and expressing in their own  unique way. 

The show was produced by my old friend, Chris Wangro, who did an incredible job introducing the acts. The show ran like clockwork and was really thoughtfully organized and paced.

I saw this picture of an old New York City public school door knob on Callalillie, one of the Brooklyn blogs I check every day.

Callielillie got it on e-bay. “When I look at it," she writes. "All I can think about is how little hands of history opened those doors each day.”

A nice note from the owner of Fidgets, who moved last year with her daughter to Atlanta, Georgia, got me thinking about Fidgets and how much things have changed around here.

Thanks so much for the kind words about Fidgets- I am the owner of
the former fidgets and have moved on to the Atlanta, GA area- I do
miss my customers and my store- but my daughter and I have gone through
this past winter without the blizzards of New York — hope to see
you all again when i pass through Park Slope.

Back in the days before the Bugaboo, and all the other designer baby products, gear, and what’ll-they-think-of-next products- there was Fidgits, meeting the more simple needs of Park Slope parents in the 1990’s.

Back then, it was all about black and white IQ enhancing toys and Fidgets always had those mobiles in stock.

Fidgets was a Park Slope original. It opened back in the days before people actually spent money in Park Slope. At least that’s what the merchants used to say in 1991. Park Slopers spend money in Manhattan. They don’t like to part with their cash here.

Grumble. Grumble. And it was probably kind of true.

But all that has changed now. There is MONEY to be made her and people are parting with it. Manhattan be damed.

So, Fidgets was a pioneer on Seventh Avenue, selling cool, comfy, and tasteful clothing for kids. Lisa, the owner, knew what the parents wanted. She totally GOT IT: Organic cotton. Low key style. A little funky. Not ostentatious. Comfortable. Easy. Fun.

Afterall, this was Park Slope not Soho or the Upper East Side.

My cousin used to make a pilgrammage to Fidgits every time she visited me (from the Upper West Side) to buy leggings and then corderoy pants and striped shirts for her son. Fidgets always had the BEST clothing for boys on a street that is a desert for clothing for boys.

Where else could you go to buy boy’s clothes? Other than the Gap. And that’s in Manhattan and who wants to go there?

Fidgets started out in the Fratelli Raviolli space – that tiny, tiny, space. But Lisa made it work and it looked colorful and playful, inviting and fun.  Then she moved next door when – what store was in that space before Fidgets – moved out.

A nice, easy to navigate shop, it came in real handy when OSFO needed tights, winter fleece hats, sun hats, mittens, gloves. There was always something we needed – and Lisa had lots of secret plastic boxes filled with exactly what we needed.

Speaking of thing we needed, I think we bought our first Groovy Girls there. Fidgets was way ahead of the curve when it came to Groovy Dolls.

And gifts? And gifts. How many baby shower and new baby gifts did I buy at Fidgets

Oh the fun of shopping for that newest, youngest thing. And picking out Teen Spirit’s cords and striped shirts, OSFO’s groovy skirts, cute blouses, bathing suits.

Simple, classic, cool.

Thanks Fidgets for dressing my kids. So, nu, are you opening a shop in Atlanta?

Here’s a note from a reader about Ainsley’s Cheesecakes, which are featured at the new Mojo Cafe. They are, truth be told, quite tasty. I went to the opening of the new Mojo a few weeks back and learned that Giancarlo, the new owner, bakes EVERYTHING, including the cheesecake, himself. I sampled some chocolate cheesecake and it’s delicious. The shop also sells cream puffs, cannoli’s, cookies, banana bread and MORE. They also have a chocolate devil’s food cake and carrot cake. Why do I have the feeling that this note was written by someone associated with the Mojo? Just a feeling.

NO MOJOS IS NOT LONGER AN ICE CREAM PLACE BUT IF THE DAILY CHEESE
CAKE EVEN COMES CLOSE TO THE HEAVENLY CHEESE CAKE THEY DELIVERED TO ME
FOR CHRISTMAS COMPLIMENTS OF MY SISTER, ID BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO SIT
THERE AND "BREAK CHEESECAKE" ALL DAY LONG!

IT WAS A OLD STYLE NY CHEESE CAKE TOPPED WITH CHOCOLATE MOUSSE COVERED IN A CHOCOLATE SHELL AND SPRINKLED WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS!

CHOCOLATE HEAVEN IN A BOX I TELL YAH! 

DONT BELIEVE ME? STOP BY AND TRY IT SOMETIME,I DIDNT NOTICE THAT YOU
HAD BOTHERED TO TRY THE CHEESECAKE SO YOU MIGHT WANT TO FOLLOW UP WITH
THAT SUGGESTION.

IF NOT ORDER ONE FROM WWW.AINSELYCHEESECAKE.COM! 

AND HEY IF THE ICE CREAM SHOP WAS DOING SO MUCH BUSINESS WHY’D THE GUY SELL THE SHOP FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE?

The Gothamist ran a piece on the Brooklyn Half-Marathon. I ran it last year and it was TRULY one of the GREAT, GREAT experiences of my life – right up there with – okay here’s the list:

1. The Birth of my children
2. My wedding
3. Ducky’s arrival in the U.S.
4. Seeing the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Ike and Tina Turner and B.B. King at Madison Square Garden when I was 11 years old.

Oh, the Brooklyn Half-Marathon.

The what?

Sigh.

Well, even if you didn’t know that the 13.1 mile half-marathon from Coney Island to Prospect Park existed, 3999 other people
(2352 men and 1647 women) not only did but managed to run the whole
thing yesterday. 23-year-old Felipe Garcia was the overall male winner
with a time of 1:10:22. 35-year-old Edie Perkins took the overall
female title with a time of 1:23:44. You can find more results here.

Want to run a half-marathon yourself? The next one is on April 29 in Queens and you can register here.

HERE’S A POST FROM ONE YEAR AGO – A FEW DAYS AFTER THE BROOKLYN HALF: 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 my 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 living 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." 

Why do some blogs get famous and others don’t?

In other words, how come no one’s ever done an article about OTBKB?  Grumble. Grumble.

Here’s a piece about blogging in NYC from AM/NY.

Not one word about OTBKB. What am I, chopped liver? Come on now.

His name is Patrice Evans, but you can call him The Assimilated Negro.

For the past six months, Evans has been blogging under his wry nickname, posting stories, comics and even self-produced hip-hop tracks about other blogs (theassimilatednegro.blogspot.com). He is a foot soldier in the growing army of New Yorkers battling for recognition in the blogosphere.

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"At the core of the blogging appeal is an independent sense of empowerment," he explains. "Blogs are very much at home in the New York City spirit of doing things yourself, instead of depending on a big name to back you up."

According to local blog registry nycbloggers.com, there are more than 6,250 independent blogs like The Assimilated Negro scattered throughout the five boroughs. Many others, like the 14 published by Gawker Media, are owned by commercial enterprises based here in New York.

Both independents and professionals (those who make a living through blogging), say that New Yorkers have been uniquely successful in employing this technology as a business and as an art.

"There are so many New Yorkers out there who write really well and tell stories really well," says Chris Hampton, who blogs at uffish.com. "More and more they are realizing that blogging is a good way to communicate with their audience."

Hampton hosts the WYSIWYG Talent Show, an all-blogger monthly review of readings and skits. Past shows have explored topics like "The City That Never Shuts Up" and "Worst. Sex. Ever."

Listening to tales of drug and sex-fueled romps at a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) show quickly dispels the still-lingering stereotype of blogger as super-dork, someone who stays at home on the computer in order to avoid actual human contact.

Hampton says she started blogging in order to have a creative outlet while stuck at an administrative day job. Others blog to flex their journalistic muscles without the constraints imposed by mainstream media outlets.

Whatever their motivation, there are bloggers in this town catering to every interest, written by every conceivable kind of person, and collectively working to create a 21st-century New York that is the country’s foremost Blog City.

Cultural Happenings

Blogs like brooklyn-vegan.com traffic almost exclusively in listing and reviews of upcoming music and dance shows. A similar service, though not technically a blog, is available through Web sites like thrillist.com. After registering, users receive emails with recommendations about things to do or see or eat around the city.

"Reading a bad review of something doesn’t really give you a whole lot," said Ben Lerer, co-founder of Thrillist. "We want to give people stuff they can really move on."

In a nod to the dynamic allure of blogs, the popular e-mail newsletter flavorpill.net is launching a redesign next week that will include daily updates on its Web site. Co-founder Sascha Lewis says it’s a way to stay current in a city where culture evolves faster than you can click the "refresh" button.

News and Gossip

They range from earnest reporting to posts so snarky that the irony becomes more compelling than the story itself. At the earnest end are news blogs like gothamist.com, which offer straight-shooting reports of politics and local culture that are "just trying to give people a sense of what the city is like on this day," according to editor Jen Chung.

"I think we tend to be straightforward … because we genuinely love the city and just want to share our enthusiasm about it," she explains. On the opposite end of the spectrum are gossip blogs like gawker.com and jossip.com, whose postings tend to value the scathing over the flattering. Still, snark is sexy, and blogs like gawker get an enormous amount of attention from the very same media sources they routinely criticize.

Real Estate

Topics that resonate with all New Yorkers — housing prices, new construction projects and gentrification — are fertile ground for commentary and speculation, making real estate blogs like curbed.com and brownstoner.com some of the more popular in the city.

"Neighborhoods mean so much in New York, more than anyplace else," says curbed.com senior editor Joey Arak. "Something as trivial as a Starbucks opening explodes into something huge, because people care about everything coming into their little parcel of New York City acreage."

Arak speaks of "niche neighborhood blogs," that focus on esoteric subjects like where to find the best bagel or what B-List celebrity might be checked into a particular hotel.

Blogs Stay For a Spell

Microsoft Word loves to underline misspelled words with angry red squiggly marks. But as of the 2007 edition, currently in beta testing, words like "blog," "blogger," and "blogosphere," won’t be singled out for the spell check treatment. Apparently "blog," at least as far as the programmers at Microsoft are concerned, is now part of the English language.

Apparently Microsoft Word now accepts the words:"blog," "blogger," and "blogosphere"  in their spell check. Doesn’t that make all you bloggers feel validated? This from AM/NY.

Microsoft Word loves to underline misspelled words with angry red
squiggly marks. But as of the 2007 edition, currently in beta testing,
words like "blog," "blogger," and "blogosphere," won’t be singled out
for the spell check treatment. Apparently "blog," at least as far as
the programmers at Microsoft are concerned, is now part of the English
language.

On Thursday at 6:30 p.m., Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is sponsoring a Community  Forum Forest City Ratner’s plan to build build 17 skyscrapers at Atlantic and Flatbush.

Francis Morrone, an urban historian, author, and columnist for the New York Sun will speak. At the First Unitarian Congregational Society 50 Monroe Place at Pierrepont, Brooklyn Heights, 624.5466 

Another story about Brooklyn furniture –  this time in the City Section of the New York Times, Kate Hawley wrote this piece called "Desk Dreams" for the column: "The City Observed."

Late in August, we heaved the few things I still owned into a rented
minivan and headed for New York. He drove the whole way. When we
arrived, he carried the heavy boxes of books and stereo equipment up
the narrow stairs to my new apartment, a small two-bedroom on Fifth
Avenue in Park Slope. The place was mostly furnished, but it was
missing one thing: a desk. We set out in search.

The desk had to
be perfect. I’ve always been particular about my work space, but my
standards shot up in proportion to my New York ambitions; I should be
able to run my fingers over the wood grain and feel ideas begin to
percolate. Aesthetics were important — no tacky particleboard. And
while I like modern design, I felt that this desk should breathe of
history, of greatness; it should probably, I decided, be an antique.

THERE
were also practical considerations. It had to fit precisely — I had
only three and a half feet of wall to play with — and I required
drawers as well as shelves. It also had to be ergonomically safe, as I
planned to sit at it for hours at a stretch. All this for less than
$100, which was all I could afford on my graduate student budget.

Sometimes being OTBKB is so easy. Eating a bagel with whitefish spread in the dining room listening to WNYC, I hear our local award-winning reporter Andrea Bernstein’s story on Weekend Edition about turning the Brooklyn House of Detention into a mall.

But what kind of mall? A food center, an upscale shopping mall,  a public space for weddings? All sorts of ideas are being considered.  And they’ve no intention of getting rid of the jail, there The jail will still be occupied upstairs. Feel like doing some shopping at the prison. Getting married in jail. Why not. It’s New York, full of lots of strange juxtapositions.

In another NPR segment, Elvis Mitchell, weighs in on the recent flurry of concert films, including Dave Chapelle’s Block Party, which is getting raves like this one from Entertainment Weekly:

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party is perhaps the first concert movie since Stop Making Sense to give you a blissful buzz. The buzz comes from the music, which has a loose, burning joy that’s rare to behold in a live rap performance, and also from Chappelle’s wicked prankster’s glee, which spreads through the movie like a happy virus.  —Entertainment Weekly

Now playing at BAM, here’s the blurb on their web site:

Did you miss Dave Chappelle’s once-in-a-lifetime Bed-Stuy block party in 2004? Never fear, this new documentary by Michel Gondry (music-video wiz and director of the 2004 smash Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) will take you there. After signing a $50 million contract with Comedy Central, Dave Chappelle celebrated his success by bringing together some of the most well respected artists in hip-hop for an unpublicized free concert on a regular street corner in Bed-Stuy. Chappelle and Gondry combine the footage of the concert with thoughtful interviews and asides that give the viewer a look at the daily lives of Bed-Stuy residents. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party features performances by Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Roots, Cody ChesnuTT, Big Daddy Kane, and—reunited for their first performance in over seven years—the Fugees.

Speaking of BAM, boy does New York TIme’s writer Charles Isherwood have it in for Cate Blanchett. He really attacks her performance in BAM’s sold-out production of Hedda Gabler.

Narsty. Narsty. 

In the beginning of his essay, he applauds Blanchett for "using her level of fame to bring her artistic clout to worthy projects." But then he goes in for the kill and grills her for a crowd-pleasing celebrity performance. He even accuses her of pandering to the audience and bringing out ill-conceived humor and quirky histrionics.

"She and her colleagues seem determined to infuse the play with quirky histionics, as if to let the tex speak sensibly for itself for a minute would risk hurling us all into a state of catatonia. The pfocution brings to mind a brood of sqawking chickens fussing about in the barnyard.

Isherwood, perhaps correctly, assumes that Blanchett was the animating force behind the production—which he claims would not be the centerpiece of BAM’s season without her. He also mentions that Andrew Upton, who adapted Ibsen’s work for the stage, is Blanchett’s husband. 

I found the tone of Isherwood’s essay to be unnecessarily nasty. I have not seen the play, but I doubt BAM thought, as Isherwood says, that they had to dumb the play down in order to coddle their audience. The BAM audience is an adventurous one and they have sat through many a long, difficult production as part of the Next Wave festival in the seats of the opera house.

Ms. Blanchett and Ms. Nevin may reason that audiences coming to see a movie star in a complicated play need to be coddled and cajoled into having a reasonably good tim. They are determined to give us a good one. But shouldn’t their first respobsibility be to what Ibsen wanted.

Okay. This is when I thought that Isherwood was WAY OFF THE MARK. Has Isherwood even looked at a list of the kinds of productions BAM is famous for. Think of all the experimental works of theater, music and performance that have graced the stage of the opera house, as part of the Next Wave Festival:  Einstein on the Beach. Still/Here, Karole Armitage, Laurie Anderson, Eiko and Koma, Pina Bausch, Mark Morris, and on and on and on.

A purist, like Isherwood, will always object to an experimental treatment of a masterwork. But in staging a new interpretation of a great play, a director will often  shed new light on its meanings and subtle shadings that sometimes even the author was unaware of. To say that this is being done just to coddle an audience is insulting the artists involved with this production.

What’s up with this? An aricle on the front page of the New York Times about a $65 dollar table that a Carroll Garden’s resident with the name Beau Willimon found on Craig’s List.

So is that a story for the front page of the New York Times?

Actually it’s my favorite kind of story. A simple situation – buying a table on Craig’s List – that’s not so simple afterall.  It includes an Orthodox Jew, a strange glass filled van filled too high and, inexplicablty: a murder.

The story takes our man Beau, who is a playwright and worked on Howard Dean’s presidential capmpaign, to Crown Heights where he meets Mr. Klein. Soon he realizes, "I’m like, this is a slightly eccentric New Yorker who I have to deal with to get this table."

Brooklyn Beau, needless to say, lives to tell the tale (and even considered writing a play about it). But Mr. Klein does not. But that comes later. It’s a strange story.  Read all about it in today’s paper of record.