Brooklyn Artists Gym presents the topic: “How to Use Your Digital Camera.” $60 fee. Ages 16 and older. 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. 168 Seventh Ave. (718) 858-9069

You just gotta hear her at Park Slope’s  the Old Stone House on Saturday night July 16th at 8 p.m., because she sounds amazing in that room (without a microphone).

Jenkins, an acclaimed singer, was nominated for a 2007 Drama Desk Award for her performance in  Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me on Broadway. Her role in Tony Kushner’s musical, Caroline or Change, at the Public Theater, incited raves.

She is classically trained and church trained has diverse musical interests and unerringingly good taste. She is beautiful to look at and there is something so graceful and loving about her that it is a  joy to be in her musical presence.

She’s also a local girl. Born in Brooklyn, she attended public schools, including The Hgh School for Music and Art. She lives in Brooklyn and collaborates with Park Slope composer, Louis Rosen.
That she lends her talents in support of the arts programs at the Old Stone House is just one more song of praise to sing.

We are blessed.

Park Slope actor and OTBKB fave Steve Buscemi stars in one of the short films that comprise Paris, Je T’aime at BAM ROSE CINEMA

PARIS, J’TAIME
Brooklyn Exclusive!
(R) 121min
4:30, 7, 9:30pm

Directed by Gus Van Sant, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Alexander Payne, Olivier Assayas, Wes Craven, Gurinder Chadha, and others

With Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood

Offers a one of a kind look at what is quite possibly the world’s most cinematic city: Paris. —Interview

Brooklyn Exclusive!
(R) 121min
4:30, 7, 9:30pm

For the unique anthology film Paris, je t’aime 21 prominent directors contributed short films, each set in a different area of Paris. Featuring a cast of international stars, the result is a vibrant, eclectic portrait of one of the most exciting cities in the world. The vignettes display diverse themes, tones, and styles, moving between comedy and tragedy, fantasy and realism. In Paris, je t’aime a backpacker falls in love with a vampire, an immigrant commutes from the suburbs to work as a nanny, an American actress becomes involved with her drug dealer, a young man follows a Muslim girl to a mosque, and the ghost of Oscar Wilde offers relationship advice to a bickering couple. With performances by Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands, Elijah Wood, Steve Buscemi, and more, Paris, je t’aime perfectly captures the aura of mystery and striking beauty of the city. In French and English with English subtitles.

Two FREE and FANTASTIC events in Red Hook on Sun Jun 10 at 1pm. How LUCKY is that!

First, head over to the newly-reopened LUCKY GALLERY, where Kris Monroe, our latest NYC emerging talent ‘find’ (by way of Atlanta) has organized a reading that’s sure to get those neurons firing!

Featured writers include:

Kevin Freidberg has worked for the sitcom “King of the Hill,” written for The New York Times Magazine and volunteers on a regular basis for 826NYC and the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

Harris Bloom is a New York born and bred writer, stand-up comedian, and regulatory accountant. He eagerly awaits the day his fame will allow him to quit one of the three. Guess which one. He can be reached at harrisbloom@yahoo.com.

Richard Grayson is the author of several short story collections, including With Hitler in New York, I Brake for Delmore Schwartz, The Silicon Valley Diet, And to Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street and Eating at Arby’s: The South Florida Stories. He has received three individual artist fellowships from the Florida Arts Council and a writer-in-residence award from the New York State Council on the Arts. A native of Brooklyn, he currently lives in Williamsburg and Phoenix and teaches at the School of Visual Arts.

After that, head over to BWAC’s pier show, and pick up a map for the annual RED HOOK/CARROLL GARDENS OPEN STUDIO TOUR. This year, Ellie Winberg, Matt Tieman, and I have wrangled over 100 participating artists!

See more details here:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/05/prweb524905.htm

B61 bus to Red Hook from Jay St train in Downtown Bklyn is one way…or B77 from Smith/9th…see BWAC.ORG for more detailed directions.

If you’re coming from downtown Manhattan, we’ve even alerted Water Taxi to Red Hook!

Mark your calendars for what’s sure to be a GREAT DAY!

TONIGHT. I can’t go. Maybe you can. Must pick up in Park Slope. $15.

About Nathan Englander’s first collection of stories, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, masterful short stories about Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn, Ann Beattie wrote: "It’s the best story collection I’ve read in ages." Mr. Englander reads from The Ministry of Special Cases, his first novel. A MacArthur fellow, Jonathan Lethem is the author of Motherless Brooklyn, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Fortress of Solitude and other novels. His most recent work is You Don’t Love Me Yet, a novel.

Read more about Nathan Englander on the 92Y Blog.

So much is happening at the Jewish Music Cafe right across the street from Barbes. This Saturday,
401 9TH STREET (Between 6th & 7th Ave.)

READINGS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR returns with what sounds like an incredible 
event, a great fundraiser for the PS 107 library AND an important way to 
acknowledge the beginning of the 4th year of the war in Iraq. 

Readings on the 4th Floor returns for its third season. It starts up
again March 28th with Reporting from Iraq, a panel discussion with
George Packer, author of Assassin's Gate, Jackie Lyden of NPR,
and Michael Moss of the New York Times. Moderated by Leslie Gelb from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Tickets this year can be purchased online at www.ps107.org.

All proceeds benefit the library at PS107.
.

Brooklyn Record is just a treasure trove of good Brooklyn events. Check this out:

The Transit Museum presents The L to the MMMMM Train.  Saveur
food editor Todd Coleman, a guy who really knows his stuff, will lead a
tour along the L and M lines to some of the best ethnic eateries in
Brooklyn and Queens. On this journey, you can expect to:

"Visit an ancient Sicilian dolceria for crisp-shelled cannoli. Warm your belly Puebla-style with a hot cup of creamy atole de arroz at a Mexican emporium of cookware, hard-to-find comestibles, and antojitos.
Shop for thick ropes of garlicky kielbasa, feast in a taqueria located
in a humming tortilleria where the tortillas are hot off the press, and
finish up among the steins and schnitzels in the vestiges of old German
New York. Wear comfortable shoes and loose clothing, as there will be a
good amount of walking and eating!

Pimps, Prostitutes, and Pigs: Shohei Imamura’s Japan: I’ve seen some of these films and they are incredible! For more info: BAM.org

A leading force behind Japan’s New Wave and one of only five directors to win the Cannes Palme d’Or twice, Shohei Imamura (1926—2006) rebelled against the classical themes of his mentor, Yasujiro Ozu. Instead, he embraced the darker side of Japan that simmers beneath the manners, order, and ceremony—focusing on the carnality, squalor, and violence within his country’s social periphery.

Imamura’s striking Cinemascope images can barely contain the creative anarchy unleashed within them. In fact, Imamura was famously quoted as saying, "I like to make messy films," but this quote belies the meticulous research, intricate design, and visual precision that went into his work. His films are rarely screened in North America; so don’t miss this chance to discover one of Japan’s great visceral filmmakers. Here’s the one I want to see:

Pigs and Battleships
(Buta To Gunkan)
(1961) 108min

 
Fri, Mar 9 at 2, 4, 6:50, 9:15pm
Sat, Mar 10 at 6:50, 9:15pm


› Buy Tickets

With Hiroyuki Nagato, Jitsuko Yoshimura
An allegory with clear parallels to today’s international situation, Pigs and Battleships
is set within the brothels and teeming alleys of a small port town
under US occupation. Amidst the black market, which supplies the
American sailors, a young street tough makes his way by selling hogs
(Imamura’s equating of animals to human beings has never been more
evident), but soon gets caught up with the yakuza. Imamura elevates
this simple gangland tale with an astonishing damnation of American
imperialism.

The always experimental and often interesting Wooster Group presents, HAMLET, directed by Elizabeth LeCompte. The production reconstructs a hypothetical theater piece from the fragmentary evidence
of Richard Burton’s "Hamlet", a 1964 Broadway production which was
recorded in performance and shown as a film for two days only in 2,000
U.S. movie houses.

Previews start tonight and the show will run for four weeks only,
from Feb 27 – March 25, 2007 (Tues – Sat @ 8pm, Sun @ 4pm). At St.
Ann’s Warehouse *38 Water St. in DUMBO). Tickets for Tues Feb. 27 – Sun
March 4 only: $27.50. All other tickets: $37.50. For tickets and more
info: 718.254.8779, www.ticketweb.com, www.thewoostergroup.org, www.artsatstanns.org

FUN IDEA FOR VALENTINE’S DAY:

Saturday February 10th, 2006 at 7 pm: Cupid, Ceremony Couples & Single Friends of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture request the honor of your presence at a FUNDRAISING party/celebrating THE MARRIAGE OF LOVE TO EQUALITY.

Singles, Couples, LGBTQ, and Straight folks are all welcome! Bring your tux, wedding dress or veil if you got one! Jaqué Dupreé in concert, Matchmaking Foolishness. Music & Dancing And more!

Celebrate Valentine’s weekend by doing something to warm Cupid’s heart and support the right of all people who love each other to get married. $15 + donation plus any unused wedding gifts and/or food/beverages for our potluck supper & auction.

LOCATION:

Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture

53 Prospect Park West (at 2nd Street in Park Slope)
Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-768-2972

Proceeds benefit www.justmatrimony.org’s <http://www.justmatrimony.org’s> and other MARRIAGE EQUALITY advocacy ’07. For details & to r.s.v.p., contact bsecoffice@aol.com <mailto:bsecoffice@aol.com>, 718 768 2972.

There’s a lot of stuff going on at the Brooklyn Artist’s Gym. Check it out. They have a full range of activities.

Figure Drawing with Chris Weller.

Everyone can draw. Not everyone can see. Learn how to see. Basic figure drawing class for all levels.
Series Schedule:
Series 1 (daytime): January 17 – March 21: Wednesdays, 9.30-11.30am
Series 2 (evening): January 18 – March 22: Thursdays, 7.00-9.00pm
Class size is limited.

Boot Making with Keiko

Workshop begins Thursday, January 11th. After her very successful shoe-making workshop, we’re on to boots. At the end of the last class, you can walk out in style.
This class meets Tuesday and Thursday evenings, from 7- 10 pm, and continues for 12 sessions.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
LOOK SEE :: photographs on reflection

submission deadline: January 26.
medium: photography
gallery show dates: February 24 to March 4, 2007
opening reception: February 24, 6:00-9:00 pm
award: a solo show at BAG Gallery. Winner announced on night of group show opening.
Theme for show is reflection. Images created via any form of photography will be accepted for consideration (i.e. shot on film, shot digitally, unaltered shots, alternative process, mixed media, digital manipulations, montages, etc.), so long as part of the image is photographically created.

Look for our Call for Submissions to our second semi-annual Small Works Show coming up in March.

FIRST FRIDAY.

On Friday, January 5, from 5:00-7:30, we’ll have our first First Friday of 2007. This is a chance to come together with other artists, and enjoy some wine and some art.
MEMBERSHIP SPECIALS.
Join in January for great savings. Give us a call.
Brooklyn Artists Gym has 10,000-square feet of space in the warehouse district between Park Slope and Carroll Gardens that provides New York City artists with affordable studio space and a nurturing community in which to produce their work. Founded by Peter Wallace in early 2005, the group seeks to dispel old myths about artists struggling to produce work in small, cramped quarters. The group provides a bright, open, well-equipped community space, and rents the gallery to members for shows at reduced rates.

In addition to renting work space, the studio also hosts bi-weekly figure drawing sessions, children’s art classes, and other programs, such as a boot-making workshop and an air brush workshop. All of these events are open to the public

Brooklyn Parents for Peace,  a group dedicated to  building an effective movement for peace throughout Brooklyn, will be featured on BCAT on TimeWarner Cable and Cablevision on Wednesday evening at 10 p.m. This monthly television show airs the second Wednesday of every month.

This Saturday: they are having a craft fair at the Society for Ethical Culture. All proceeds will go Doctors Without Borders work in Darfur.

War No More
Fourth Annual Brooklyn Peace Fair (highlights)
Wed., Dec. 13
10:00 p.m.
Channel 35 (TimeWarner)
Channel 68 (Cablevision)

Winter Crafts Fair

Sat. Dec. 16
11 am to 4 pm
Peace and justice resources
Art sale to benefit Darfur work
Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
53 Prospect Park West at 2nd St.

On December 17th, THE LADIES INDEPENDENT DESIGN LEAGUE will be at the MicroMuseum on Smith Street.

I got this email from Kopene, the founder of the League:

I’m pasting a little blurb about it below – it would be great if you cuold mention it.  We’re trying to get a lot of local mentions so that Park Slopers and Cobble Hillers will come check us out!  We are also going to be mentioned in the PS Reader holiday gift guide.  If you get the chance, please take a look at our site at www.designleague.org and let me know!  Thanks so much!

INDIE*LICIOUS HOLIDAY BAZAAR
For your last minute holiday shopping, join the party at Brooklyn ‘s MicroMuseum(r) Sunday, December 17th from 12pm – 5pm. INDIE*LICIOUS features 25 of NY’s hottest emerging designers. Savvy shoppers looking for a unique gift from flirty clothing to kidswear to stationery won’t go wrong here.

Featuring:

*Innovative womens’ sportswear from Mignonette, It’s By Erin, Black Rabbit and NY Couture

*Handmade precious and semi-precious jewelry from Luka, and Tider Design *Letterpress stationery from Nolita Graffiti *Handbags and totes by Sylvia Holden, Rowboat, and Reiter8

*Kidswear from:  Daisyhead, Items of Anymore, and Fofolle

Support local talent this holiday season – Be Indie*Licious
Visit the Ladies Independent Design League at http://www.designleague.org

TONIGHT HEAR THE WRITERS OF THE NYC WRITER’S COALTION READ FROM IF THESE STREETS COULD TALK AT  COMMUNITY BOOKSTORE. 7:30 p.m. Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll Streets.

NYWC’s first-ever book-length anthology of writing from our workshops. If These Streets Could Talk
brings together an impressive and eloquent sampling of NYWC’s varied
voices.  From children of recent immigrants in Queens to formerly
incarcerated men and women in Bed-Stuy to seniors in the East Village
to survivors of the World   Trade Center  (and many others), each contributor reveals their  talent  through unforgettable poetry and prose.
(-more, including upcoming events schedule-)

NYWC
creates opportunities for formerly voiceless members of society to be
heard through the art of writing. We provide free, unique and powerful
creative writing workshops throughout New York City for people from
groups that have been historically deprived of voice in our society,
including at-risk youth, adult residents of supportive housing, seniors
and others.

NYWC is one of the largest community
writing organizations in the country. NYWC creates opportunities to be
heard, through the art of writing, for formerly voiceless members of
society. Each year, we provide hundreds of free, unique and powerful creative writing workshops throughout New York City for at-risk youth, adult residents of supportive housing, the formerly incarcerated, seniors and others. 

  We’ve published numerous anthologies of writing by our workshop members as well as 3 issues of Plum Biscuit, an online literary magazine edited by our workshop members.  NYWC also produces the Writing Aloud Reading Series,
a monthly event featuring members of our community reading alongside
established and emerging authors, Write Makes Might, an annual marathon
reading by our workshop members; and is a partner in the annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival, a series of writing workshops for young people culminating in a reading by the young writers with literary icons. 

Our workshop participants have had poems, stories and plays published
and performed. Others have read their writing on NPR’s All Things
Considered, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show (listen here) and WBAI’s Global Movements, Urban Struggles. We’re also continually adding words from our workshops to this site, so we hope you enjoy reading our writers’ work! 

A reading you won’t want to miss. DECEMBER 7th at 7:30 p.m. at  Community Bookstore: Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll, Come hear Jason Weiss, Author of "Steve Lacy: Conversations"

Many of you make it so easy for me to spread great Brooklyn News. This morning this news arrived about water taxi service to DUMBO.

Dear Louise, Great news! New York Water Taxi will expand their daily commuter service to include a stop in DUMBO beginning Monday, November 27th. The better news is that they are offering a special $2.00 fare through the spring. And, to give folks a “taste” of commuting in comfort and style, New York Water Taxi will also be offering the “First Ride on Us” – 2 FREE one way tickets anywhere along the East River route from 11/27-12/1.   

Release cut & pasted below, and attached. I’m happy to send over route maps, photos of the Water Taxi – whatever you may need.   

Please let me know if you’re interested in running something on your blog after the 20th when commuters can get their free tickets online at www.nywatertaxi.com.  (I’m sending the info out early as a courtesy because of next week’s holiday) .

Got this email from a friend about tonight’s screening at the Avignon Film Festival of a film by Park Slope novelist and screenwriter, Jill Eisenstadt. I will make every effort to be there. Please join me. Here’s the email from my friend:

"Sorry to do a mass mailing but I’m helping to drum up an audience for my friend Jill’s film.  Jill is a novelist and her sister Debra is a filmmaker.  Together they wrote and produced this film and her sister directed it.  Jill had a really fun piece in the Sunday Times City section a month   about tips for making an independent film in New York City.

They especially need people to come to the Avignon/New York Film Festival Screening at Hunter College on November 16 and 18 since they will be screening in a 600 seat auditorium.

My husband and I have both seen the film and think it’s great otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this.  The film is about actors who are understudying an Off-Broadway play (hence the title) and events that occur during the run of the show.  It’s very well acted and very funny.  Production value is excellent.  So try to make it to a screening and bring some friends."

"THE LIMBO ROOM"

AVIGNON/NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
AT HUNTER COLLEGE
68ths st. & Lexington ave.
Saturday, November 18th @ 7pm – KAYE PLAYHOUSE
www.avignonfilmfest.com

written by jill eisenstadt & debra eisenstadt, directed by debra eisenstadt, produced by alessandra gatien, debra eisenstadt, dir. of photography- jay silver editing- debra eisenstadt, jen lilly with- andrea powell, melissa leo, jonathan marc sherman, zack griffiths, roger raines, richard vetere, cathy curtin, peter dinklage, & many more….

TICKETS CAN BE BOUGHT IN ADVANCE AT THE ABOVE WEB SITES
for info. and reviews about the limbo room
go to www.withoutabox.com then go to THE LIMBO ROOM’s audience page

This could be a fun thing to do with the kids during the Christmas holiday:

THE MAGIC FLUTE

Julie Taymor’s dazzling production has been abridged by the director into an appealing 100-minute version for The Met’s first holiday family opera presentation, with a new English text by J.D. McClatchy.
The Magic Flute features all the spectacular visual effects of Taymor’s original production, including flying birds, dancing bears and the magnificent star-shimmering Queen of the Night. The cast includes young Met stars Ying Huang as Princess Pamina and Nathan Gunn as Papageno, the birdcatcher. James Levine conducts.
Ticket prices range from $12 (Standing Room) to $125. Premium tickets, which include prime seating, a special photo opportunity with cast members and exclusive Magic Flute-themed merchandise, are $150 in the Orchestra and Grand Tier, and $175 in the Center Parterre.

This Thursday evening, November 16th, at 7:00 p.m., there’s a  community forum featuring an update on the proposed “Atlantic Yards” arena and high-rise development project.

The meeting will take place at the Hanson Place United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Hanson Place and Saint Felix Street in Fort Greene, just up the block from the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building.

The evening’s program will feature:

— An update on the recently filed Federal eminent domain lawsuit, and other legal challenges
— A presentation by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods on the project’s potential environmental impacts
— An Albany and City Hall update from local elected leaders
— Q&A session

Invited speakers include:

— Assemblyman-elect Hakeem Jeffries
— Assemblyman Jim Brennan
— Assemblywoman Joan Millman
— State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
— City Councilwoman Letitia James

Forum Sponsors:

Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association • Bergen Street Block Association • Brooklyn Bears Community Garden • The Brooklyn Christian Times • Brooklyn Vision • Carroll Street Block Association (5th-6th Ave.) • Dean Street Block Association (4th-5th) • Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn • East Pacific Block Association • Fifth Avenue Committee • Fort Greene Association • Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus • Park Slope Neighbors • Pratt Area Community Council • Prospect Place Block Association Atlantic Yards Task Force • Sierra Club • South Oxford Street Block Association • South Portland Block Association • The Society for Clinton Hill • Times Up! • Warren St. Marks Community Garden • Reverend David Dyson, Pastor of Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church • Reverend Dr. Daniel Meeter, Pastor of Old First Reformed Church

DON’T MISS a film written by my friend, Jill Eisenstadt.

The Limbo Room with a screenplay by Park Slope novelist, Jill Eisenstadt,
and directed by her sister Debra Eisenstadt wll be playing at the
Avignon/New York Film Festival at Hunter College in the Kaye Playhouse
on 69th Street between Park and Lexington Avenue.

Dates:
Thursday, November 16th at 1 p.m.
Saturday November 18th at 7 p.m.
for tix: www.avignonfilmfest.com

Also at the Queens International Film Festival
Friday November 17th at 7 p.m.
3412 36th Street
Astoria, Queens

A woman who looks vaguely familiar opened up a colorful, well-lit shop on 5th Street off of Fifth Avenue. Her shop, Honey Bee and Me, features fluffy, cuddly, colorful jackets for girls and boys that she designs and are made in Turkey.

The jackets come in 21 colors including white, light pink, hot pink, fuchsia, purple, lilac, lime, lemon, lily, black, aqua….

Here’s what she has to say about her wares on her website:

"We think about our creations the way you feel about your little ones sweet, cuddly, and unique.

"We pick the softest yarn when we knit our sweaters, the colors of the rainbow when we quilt our comforters, and the warmest fur for our leather jackets."

I was walking on Fifth toward Third Street and the shop caught the corner of my eye. I said to myself: "Hey what’s that?"  I love to make a new neighborhood discovery.

Boy am I glad I ventured a few doors off the Avenue to see. The coats are beautiful — they fit babies through size 8.  The cuddly jackets also come  women’s sizes, as well as gloves, scarves, hats. She also has beautiful shawls, really gorgeous hand-sewn satin quilts from Turkey and jewelry.

Fun, fun shop. 343 5th Street (btw. Fifth and Sixth Avenues). 718-499-5820
Open Tuesday to Friday 11-2 / 4-7 and 12-7 Saturday and Sunday.

Here’s the review by  Jeremy Gerard in Bloombergnews.com about Capathia and Louis’s show at Joe’s Pub.

There are two more shows at Joe’s Pub:  Sunday November 5th and 12th,  7:30 p.m.  And to buy the CD, Southside Stories go to CDbaby.com

 
      
   
 
 
   
    Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) — Eight times a week, Capathia Jenkins
belts out a funny, show-stopping number late in Martin Short’s
Broadway show, “Fames Becomes Me.” But there’s more here. If
you want the thrill of discovering an enthralling new talent,
spend next Sunday evening at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan’s East
Village.         

Jenkins will knock you flat. Her gifts go well beyond
gospel-inflected roof-raising. I’ve never been so seduced by
music completely new to me yet as embraceable as any from the
classic American songbook.         

She is the muse to Chicago composer-lyricist Louis Rosen.
The two have already collaborated on a dozen poems by Maya
Angelou set to Rosen’s music. Now they have recorded his “South
Side Stories,” a song cycle that betrays influences as diverse
as Harold Arlen and Rickie Lee Jones. Yet what is so memorable
about this pairing is how unselfconscious and confident both are,
Rosen as composer and songsmith, Jenkins his joyous, hand-in-
glove interpreter.         

For an appetizer, she opens with Rosen’s exuberant scoring
of Langston Hughes’s equally exuberant “Harlem Night Song”:         

“Come/Let us roam the night together/Singing/I love you.”         

They follow with several songs from the Angelou cycle,
ranging from humorous (“Preacher, don’t send me/When I die/To
some big ghetto in the sky”) to “Poor Girl,” a torchy ballad
in the tradition of “My Man.”         

Intimate Lyrics         

The “South Side Stories” songs are scored in a more pop
idiom. Rosen, who accompanies on piano and guitar, has a James
Taylor-like talent for setting intimate lyrics over facile,
catchy melodies. This cycle includes numbers about the changing
social landscape of Chicago’s South Side; the first teen-love
song I can remember that ends not in tragedy but in enduring
friendship; the complicated relationship between parent and
child. The most beautiful number is the samba-inflected “The
Peace That Comes,” about the death of a father and the
ambivalent feelings engendered.         

Jenkins, 40, is at home with her audience (which included,
on opening night, Short, his show’s composer, Marc Shaiman, and
the entire cast and crew), speaking briefly and charmingly about
each song. In addition to Rosen, 51, her accompanists included
David Loud on piano and Dave Phillips on bass. Don’t miss this
show.         

Capathia Jenkins and Louis Rosen will appear at Joe’s Pub,
at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 and
12. Tickets are $20 with a two-drink minimum; food is available.
Information: +1-212-239-6200 or       http://www.joespub.com            .         

(Jeremy Gerard is an editor for Bloomberg News. The opinions
expressed are his own.)         

To contact the writer on this story:
Jeremy Gerard in New York at
      jgerard2@bloomberg.net            .         

 
Playwright and blogger, Judd Lear Silverman,  on his self-named blog gives a shout out for the Gallery Theater’s production of Urine Town with the disclaimer that his work has been produced there. TODAY at 3 and 8 p.m. For more information and/or
reservations, go to www.galleryplayers.com or call 212-352-3101.

FROM JUDD’S BLOG: I still recommend that you snap up the remaining seats for their
current production of URINETOWN. Gallery Players left the gate as a community theater years ago
and is now among NYC’s premiere showcase companies, attracting top
flight talent (and attentive audiences) to Park Slope and to it’s cozy
basement theater on 14th Street and 4th Avenue. The work is
consistently excellent and if you’ve missed a Broadway or Off-Broadway
hit (no matter how risky the subject), chances are you can catch it
shortly thereafter at Gallery Players in a sharp, highly professional
production–and for a fraction of the price you’d pay in Manhattan!
URINETOWN was the show I’d always meant to get to but somehow never did
during its Broadway run. (In brief, it’s a Brechtian send-up about a
metropolis with a water shortage that charges people to pee–and the
corruption and rebellion that ensues.) Here, it’s given a gifted
production–beautifully cast, sharply directed, well designed and
musically clean as a whistle. This Tony-winning show may not be high
art, but it is certainly witty, savvy and musically sophisticated, and
the GP production gets every drop of juice out of it (pun intended).
You will come away highly entertained.

OSFO and I are just so happy that The O.C. is back on television after a six month hiatus. We really missed all our O.C. pals. Especially Summer and Seth. I also like Peter Gallagher’s character (remember him from "Sex, Lies, and Videotape")

And the way last season ended: Boy were we on tenter hooks to see what was gonna happen next. What with Marissa’s death, and Seth not getting into Brown University, and Ryan deferring college for a year…

LOOK: next week "The O.C." is on Wednesday and Thursday. FUN.

Tonight at Barbes (9th Street and Sixth Avenue):

Saturday November 4th at 8 p.m.      

ANDY STATMAN. A truly extraordinary artist, Andy Statman began his career in the 70’s as a virtuoso Mandolinist who studied and performed with David Grisman, went on to study clarinet with the legendary Dave Tarras and became one of the main architect of a Klezmer revival which started out 30 years ago and has since informed and influenced folk, Jazz and improvised music forms. Andy draws equally from hassidic melodies, folk tunes from new and old worlds alike and Albert Ayler-influenced free-improv. The result reads like a very personal search for the sacred based both on traditions and introspection. He will be joined by Greg Burrows on percussion. $8

The first Thursday of the month STOOP SERIES meets tonight.

7PM: At the Rotunda Gallery (33 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights), New York Magazine contributing
editor Logan Hill moderates a conversation with New York artists
Wangechi Mutu and Michalene Thomas. A set by Brooklyn’s own DJ
Naturally follows at 9PM. Free admission, and free beer from Brooklyn
Brewery.

I got this email about "The Limbo Room" from another friend who knows Jill Eisenstadt.

Jill Eisenstadt s a novelist.   Her sister Debra is a filmmaker.  Together they wrote and produced this film and Debra directed it.  Jill had a really fun piece in the Sunday Times City section a couple of weeks ago about tips for making an independant film in New York City.

They especially need people to come to the Avignon/New York Film Festival Screening at Hunter College on November 16 and 18 since they will be screening in a 600 seat auditorium.

My husband and I have both seen the film and think it’s great otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this.  The film is about actors who are understudying an Off-Broadway play (hence the title) and events that occur during the run of the show.  It’s very well acted and very funny.  Production value is excellent.  So try to make it to a screening and bring some friends.

Today is Halloween (although it’s been going on since Friday night). Get ready for an exhausting day. Don’t worry, it’ll all be over by 9 p.m. Thank goodness it’s a school night. The Park Slope Civic Council’s 18th Annual Park Slope Halloween Parade begins at 6:30 p.m. at 12th Street and goes down Seventh Avenue to Berkeley Place.

This from the Park Slope Civic Council web site:

This year the parade will be preceded by a party for children and their families at the YMCA on 9th Street.

Ours of course is not the only Halloween Parade in town. If you’re from, say, Oklahoma or some similarly obscure place, you will probably have heard only of the larger parade in our more ostentatious neighboring borough across the river. That’s good enough for us! What we lack in fame and sheer numbers, we more than make up for in local charm. We may not boast the extravagant crowds and costumes of the Village Parade, but we have a most impressive array of pint-sized witches and goblins -often accompanied by their proud parents as well as their family pets in unusual attire!

The Parade is clearly a hit with our neighboring Brooklyn communities. People have been known to come from as far as Windsor Terrace, and perhaps even beyond, to join in the festivities

What’s your favorite part of Halloween in Park Slope? Is it the after-school trick-or- treating along 7th Avenue, where we take advantage of the shopkeepers for yet another year? Could it be the Headless Horseman, rumored to be a charming woman named Fran from Kensington Stables underneath that scary exterior? Maybe it’s the in-line skaters, swooping ahead of the parade and looking like Black Bloc anarchists? Or is it the jazzy samba beat of Vanessa’s samba band, particularly, when the police don’t notice and shut it down, or the final, intense rhythm circle near the parade’s Berkeley Place terminus? For some it might be the animal companions in scary attire, together with their FIDO host humans. Or is it the parade itself?

The Parade continues to evolve, although thankfully at an appropriately glacial pace. It has already spawned several subsidiary traditions, such as the Black Light Puppet Show, a production of Theatre Group Dzieci, held each Halloween evening in Garfield Place. Several other local theater groups make irregular appearances in the Parade from year to year.