Saturday night is Target First Night at the Brooklyn Museum. And you just know it’s going to be packed. A nice warm spring night. Dogs by Wegman. Music. Wine. Sounds real nice.

To my mind, the Seventies Dance Party in the Beaux Arts Ballroom is the ticket. From 9 p.m.–11 p.m., et down to classic disco, funk, and soul hosted by DJ Delmar Browne of KTU Studio 54 Clubhouse, Music Choice. But you be the judge, here’s the rest of the schedule:

5:15 p.m.–6 p.m.: Film
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

In conjunction with William Wegman: Funney/Strange, this family-oriented presentation of the artist’s film and video work includes a spoof on the Hardy Boys mystery series starring two curious dogs, and a compilation of Sesame Street segments with a troupe of canine actors.

6 p.m.–8 p.m.: World Music
Hall of the Americas, 1st Floor

Brooklyn band The WIYOS play old-time American music, early swing, and ragtime blues with a theatrical flair and a touch of vaudeville spectacle.

6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.: Hands-On Art
Education Division, 1st Floor

Create a colorful and abstract picture using a postcard as a starting point—inspired by William Wegman. Free timed tickets available in the Education Gallery beginning at 6 p.m.

6:30 p.m.: Family Films and Music
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

See "Silent Comedy Canines," a program of classic silent film shorts and live piano accompaniment that showcases famous comedians and their canine co-stars.

7 p.m.–8:30 p.m.: Performance by Upright Citizens Brigade
Throughout the Museum, 1st Floor

7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.: Drop-in Art-making
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 5th Floor

8 p.m.–9 p.m.: Dance Lesson
Beaux-Arts Court, 3rd Floor
Instructors from Stepping Out Studios will teach you the steps that got people
moving through the ’70s—just in case you’ve forgotten how to do the hustle!

8 p.m.: Curator Talk
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th Floor

Curator Marilyn Kushner leads a tour of William Wegman: Funney/Strange. Free tickets are available at the Visitor Center at 7 p.m.

8:30 p.m.: Film
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor

The Brooklyn International Film Festival presents Radiation (Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, 1999, 85 min., adult themes),

NOT ONLY is there a  great musical event at the Old Stone House this Sunday March 26th. Capathia Jenkins, who was acclaimed in the Public Theater and B’way productions of "Caroline or Change" will be singing songs by award-winning composer Louis Rosen based on the poetry of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Louis Rosen.

BUT GET THIS: STONE PARK CAFE WILL BE SERVING LIGHT SNACKS AFTER THE SHOW. NOW THAT’S REALLY COOL.  PLUS CHAMPAGNE IS ON THE HOUSE.

LOUIS AND CAPATHIA played to sold-out houses at Joe’s Pub last year and will be there again in the Spring. So catch them in Brooklyn first. It’s their FIRST BROOKLYN APPEARANCE EVER.

SUNDAY MARCH 26th at 7 p.m. Join the festivities. Wine, refreshments from the STONE PARK CAFE,  meet the artists afterward and socialize with your friends and neighbors. Promises to be a great night in support of the Old Stone House’s historical, educational, and cultural programs including Brooklyn Reading Works, Brooklyn Film Works, Piper Summer School and MORE!!!!

EMAIL ME: louisecrawford@gmail.com if you need info or tickets. For directions: The Old Stone House web site

The Brooklyn Underground Film Festival is just around the corner. It will be at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Fourth Avenue at President. April 19 – 23 are the dates. The following list
is just a sample of what you can expect to see at this event…

My Grandmother’s House
Adán Aliaga’s visionary documentary revelas two very distinct
characters: Marina, six years old, and Marita, her 75-year old
grandmother. As Marita tries at no avail to tame the spirited
youngster, the quietly omniscient camera follows them through their
days together, often accompanied by Marita’s clique of jaded,
like-minded grandmas. But what will happen to Marita’s emotional
impasse when she must give up her home of fifty years?

Lifelike
Meet four unlikely taxidermists or self-proclaimed Realist artists, and
one enthusiastic client. This documentary by Canadian filmmaker Tally
Abecassis will open one’s eyes to the profession of taxidermy—or how to
fall into it—as it traces the steps to the National Convention in
Alberta, where professionalism goes to the next level: showmanship.

High Score
A crowd favorite for all ages, filmmaker Jeremy Mack takes us on a zany
tour of classic arcade game enthusiasm, and in particular one die-hard
Missile Command fanatic who may or may not be just the one fated to
beat the game’s all-time high score.

Clever Monkey Pinochet Versus La Moneda Pigs
Weaving together improvisations of several groups of young people,
Bettina Perut an d Ivan Osnovikoff’s documentary tells an historical
event from the imaginations of those who grew up in its wake. The plot
of the September 11, Military Coup in Chile is portrayed in lively acts
by children and young Chileans, giving way to how history is processed
by the people.

The Empire in Africa
The international reaction to the civil war in Sierra Leone has
resulted in one of the most devastating humanitarian disasters in
recent history, and Philippe Diaz’s narrative, important documentary
tells the inside story of the country’s victims.

The Other Side
This highly visual, personal documentary by up-and-coming filmmaker
Bill Brown explores the United States-Mexico border and its liminal
cinematic __expression. Talking to undocumented immigrants and border
activists along the way, the director sheds a new, poetic light upon a
landscape well-known to politicians and his Texas hometown.

Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash
is a no-holds-barred and often shocking montage of clips from popular
Japanese TV. But what happens when these clips are taken out of
context, presented before a disengaged Western audience, and become a
cult DVD success?

For more info, visit the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival website.

I guess we really love writers and books in Park Slope.

Tonight at 7 p.m.:  NIGHT and DAY restaurant presents Jonathan Baumbach reading from his  most recent book, On the Way to My Father’s Funeral: New and Selected Stories (Low Fidelity Press). The New York Times Sunday Book Review said of Baumbach: "an underappreciated writer [who] employs a masterfully dispassionate, fiercely intelligent narrative voice whose seeming objectivity is always a faltering front for secret passion and despair." He has also had cameo roles in the three films of his son Noah, most recently "The Squid and the Whale."

This Thurseday at 7:30 p.m. Elissa Schappel  presents Readings on the Fourth Floor, a benefit for the library of PS 107. Four, count em four Brooklyn winners of the Caldecott Medal & Honors: Betsy Lewin, Ted Lewin, Brian Selznick, and Mo Williams. $10  P.S. 107. John W. Kimball Learning Center, 1301 8th Ave at 14th St, Park Slope, 330.9340 

COME ONE, COME ALL:

Tonight at Brooklyn Reading Works: Nancykay Shapiro and Stefania Amfitheatrof read their fiction. At the Old Stone House in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets at 8 p.m. Refreshments and book signing.

A powerful debut novel in the tradition of Ann Patchett and Michael Cunningham, about a young man whose denial of his past nearly destroys the new life he seeks.

    Once safely out of Nebraska, Seth McKenna does everything he can to erase his oppressive hometown and abusive childhood, leaving his sister Cassie behind to fend for herself. Seth is making a new life for himself as an artist in New York when he falls hard for an alluring older man who is astonished to find in Seth the second love of his life. The couple’s relationship is complicated by Cassie’s unexpected arrival with significant secrets and plans of her own. Now Seth must confront his past and the consequences of the lies he’s told to move forward in his life.

    A gorgeous whirlwind of a family drama and an emotional, sexy love story, What Love Means To You People is rich with the atmosphere of New York and a cast of irresistible characters.

    "A powerful debut novel- smart, sexy and highly readable. NancyKay Shapiro’s characters are subtly observed and movingly human." —REGINA MCBRIDE, author of The Marriage Bed

    "Profound and moving. Shapiro dares to reimagine suffering and takes us on a journey to love and back. Seth McKenna will get under your skin. I am touched." —ABHA DAWESAR, author of Babyji

    "NancyKay Shapiro’s debut is a powerful and knowing look at what can happen to love when the past bubbles up into the present. Elegantly written, this is a moving and surprising novel that doesn’t let you go." —KATHARINE WEBER, author of The Little Women, The Music Lesson, Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

There's a 3-neighborhood Benefit Tag Sale this weekend in support of 
DEVELOP DON'T DESTROY, FT. GREENE PARK CONSERVANCY, AND THE BROWNSTONE
BROOKLYN GARDEN DISTRICT:

Two storefronts wide, two stories high, filled with mission furniture,
mint condition vintage handbags (Valentino!), antique lamps, vintage
linens, designer clothing, crystal, sculptures, art, jewelry and much
more!!!

The tag sale will take place:

Saturday Mar. 18, 11am-8pm
Sunday Mar. 19, 1-6pm

(with a preview sale Friday 3.17, 6-8pm - $5 at door, wine, music &
door prizes!)

104 So. Oxford St (Fulton/Lafayette)
Brooklyn, NY

In support of:

*Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn

*Fort Greene Park Conservancy

*Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District

A movie based on John Fante’s novel, Ask the Dust, opened last week in theaters. It was directed and written by Robert Towne, who wrote "Chinatown." It stars Selma Hayek. I happen to love that novel as well as Fante’s "Wait Until Spring, Bandini." He is one cool writer who has been bundled with Charles Bukowski. But I like him much better.

I found this bit of info on Boing Boing. There’s a also piece about Fante on Salon.

Fante — the name rhymes with Dante, which must have afforded no end of
amusement to someone whose best-known character constantly proclaimed a
desire to be "the world’s greatest writer" — is one of the true bad
boys of 20th century American literature. Born in 1909 and raised in an
Italian American ghetto in, of all places, Boulder, Colo., Fante fits
into no particular niche. Many refer to him as the quintessential L.A.
novelist — not exactly the most glowing of recommendations, but one
that does take in, after all, Raymond Chandler and Nathanael West,
whose "Day of the Locust" was published in 1939, the same year as "Ask
the Dust." (Michael Tolkin, author of "The Player," is a longtime
admirer of Fante’s work. He recently told the Los Angeles Times that if
the Los Angeles school system was serious about its curriculum, it
would "make ‘Ask the Dust’ mandatory reading.")

Hey, all you WNYC listeners out there. Did you have trouble tuning in WNYC-AM radio on Saturday? This was probably why. I thought it was my radio or where it was in the kitchen. So I turned the thing on its head and tried to get it to play. To no avail. It was working fine on Sunday. I heard that service is not restored to all areas yet.

Damage to AM Transmitter
On Friday night, WNYC sustained damage to its AM transmitter. WNYC AM 820 is currently broadcasting at reduced power. We are working to restore full service to our AM820 listeners. You can still hear our AM programming through our web stream.

NOW THAT I HAVE MY TICKETS THANKS TO REAL FRUIT JELLY I CAN BLOG ABOUT THIS.  I DON’T THINK IT’S SOLD OUT YET.

TUES MAY 2 6:30PM
  *ARTS AT ST. ANN’S GALA BENEFIT CONCERT AND DINNER
  ROSANNE CASH BLACK CADILLAC IN CONCERT
  World Premiere Performance!
  Rosanne and special friends will bring to life music from her new album – and
  more – in an intimate, cabaret-style setting, up close and personal. Dinner
  and dessert to follow the concert. For benefit and ticket info call Marni Corbett,
  718.834.8794 x17
 
  THURS MAY 4 8PM | $40
  ROSANNE CASH BLACK CADILLAC IN CONCERT
  Throughout her remarkable, twenty-five year career, Rosanne Cash has connected
  with audiences both through #1 radio hits and critically acclaimed songs of
  personal honesty and emotional intensity.
  Never has her gift for story-telling
  been more fearless than in
  Black Cadillac, an album she describes as "a
  personal history, family tree and an archaeological dig into my own life."
  The Dallas Morning News calls the record "Chillingly beautiful",
  and
  Newsweek hails it as "Stunning…her best album ever."
  Heir to the Cash-Carter legacy, Rosanne’s live presentation of
  Black
  Cadillac in Concert brings the audience on a stirring trip through images,
  sounds, words and music for a graceful exploration of Cash’s rich musical
heritage.
www.rosannecash.com

"Black Cadillac flows effortlessly from intimate acoustic moments
to bluegrass-inflected songs…mirroring the scope and ambition of the lyrics." –The
New York Times

"True ‘soul’ music" –Chicago Tribune

To purchase tickets to the MAY 4 performance:TICKETWEB.COM
or BUY
      TICKETS through
our Box Office 718.254.8779

BAM Rose Cinema is showing the South African film that won Best Foreign Film and German one that was nominated.

SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE FINAL DAYS
Friday    2:00  4:30  7:00  9:30
Saturday    2:00  4:30  7:00  9:30
Sunday    2:00  4:30  7:00  9:30
Monday    4:30  7:00  9:30
Wednesday    4:30  7:00  9:30
Thursday    4:30  7:00  9:30

TSOTSI (R) 
Friday    2:15  4:40  6:50  9:00
Saturday    2:15  4:40  6:50  9:00
Sunday    2:15  4:40  6:50  9:00
Monday    4:40  6:50  9:00
Tuesday    4:40  6:50  9:00
Wednesday    4:40  6:50  9:00
Thursday    4:40  6:50  9:00

P.S.107 and Community Bookstore present the second annual for Readings on the 4th Floor. Please join Elissa Schappell of Vanity Fair and Tin House to welcome
2005 National Book Award Finalists Christopher Sorrentino and Rene Steinke

Tuesday, March 7th at 7:30pm

The event will take place at P.S.107
1301 Eighth Avenue, between 13th and 14th Streets in Park Slope, Brooklyn
F to Seventh Avenue (take the Eighth Avenue exit)

Admission: $10

All proceeds will benefit P.S.107’s library

"Like Don Delillo in Libra and Phillip Roth in American Pastoral, Christopher Sorrentino [in Trance] has opened the pages of his fiction to the breadth of collective memory, and the result is one of the most humane and haunting novels I’ve read in years." –Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude

"Rene Steinke’s Holy Skirts reeks of its flabbergasting era and milieu, and brims to overflowing with historical and literary pleasures."–Kurt Andersen.

–BROOKLYN READING WORKS ON MARCH 16 at 8 p.m. The Old Stone House in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.

A night I’ve been look forward to all year: Nancykay Shapiro and Stefania Amfitheatrof, two INCREDIBLE writers will be reading at The Old Stone House!!!!

Nancykay Shapiro reads from her brand new book: WHAT LOVE MEANS TO YOU PEOPLE.   

"A powerful debut novel in the tradition of Ann Patchett and Michael Cunningham, about a young man whose denial of his past nearly destroys the new life he seeks. A gorgeous whirlwind of a family drama and an emotional, sexy love story, What Love Means To You People is rich with the atmosphere of New York and a cast of irresistible characters."

–the very talented, Stefania Amfitheatrof will read her short story, "HOME SCHOOLED."

100 Days: A Place to Meditate, is a meditiation blog. A way to motivate people to meditate and feel part of a larger community around the world…

We’ve committed to one hundred days of daily meditation. If you want to
join us, welcome! It doesn’t matter what sort of meditation you do, or
what faith or tradition you hail from. All that matters is the
willingness to commit to daily meditation, and a desire to help others
keep their commitment to meditate. Join us at any time – you don’t have
to start at Day 1. We’d be delighted to have your company.

Come enjoy a festive and moving evening of music by Capathia Jenkins
and Louis Rosen. The two will be performing songs composed by
award-winning composer Louis Rosen set to
poems by Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes and Louis Rosen. 

On Sunday March 26th at 7 pm. there will be a fundraiser at  the Old Stone House .
Tickets are $40. per person ($50. at the door).

For that you get a
great show, a meet-the-artists, wine and cheese reception afterwards,
and a chance to support The Old Stone House.

Book a babysitter now.

Capathia Jenkins was acclaimed in "Caroline or Change" at the Public
Theater and on Broadway; she is a phenomenal talent. Louis Rosen is the
recipient of a Guggenheim and has won numerous awards for his musical
compositions. You will not
want to miss this evening, which will help support the educational
programs at the house, as well as all the arts and cultural
programming, including Brooklyn Reading
Works, Brooklyn Film Works (the new outdoor summer film series in JJ Byrne Park) and other amazing stuff.

SO PLEASE COME.  Go here for info and directions to The Old Stone House.

The room only holds 80 people. So make your reservation and buy your tickets soon:

Tickets are $40. in advance and $50 at the door. So please pay in advance. The house only holds 80 people and it’s gonna sell out.

For reservations and tickets, here’s what you need to do:
Make your check to The Old Stone House and mail to:

The Old Stone House

PO Box 150613

Brooklyn, NY 11215
See you there.

TELL THOSE FRIENDS WHO’VE ABANDONED PARK SLOPE FOR WESTCHESTER about Insights and Revelations, a theater series presenting cutting edge, world-class artists in an up-close and personal setting in Pleasantville, New York.

OTBKB’s friend from forever (and fellow blogger) Anna Becker, is dedicated to presenting world-class, professional
artists in an intimate setting. Provocative and inspiring material, as
well as audience access to the artistic process is central to The Deep
End’s mission. Anna Becker has produced for theatre, television and
film for more than twenty years. She served as Theatre Program Director
for the New York State Council on the Arts, and as a consultant for the
National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, AT&T
Foundation, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund

On April 29th, 2006 at 8:30.  A Spalding Gray Matter. Written/Performed by Michael Brandt.  Directed by Ian Morgan.  (running time 1:10)

The New Group, a Tony Award-winning theatre company, brings a  sneak preview of its upcoming production of A Spalding Gray Matter in advance of its premiere in New York City. 

On Saturday May 20th, 2006 at 9:00 p.m.: Life in a Marital Institution  (20 years of monogamy in one terrifying hour).  Written and performed by James Braly. Brookyn Reading Works will be presenting him in October 2006.

"If Walt Whitman had been straight, married, and hilarious, he would have been James Braly."  — Andy Borowitz, Contributor – The New Yorker

D’jew know about Threadless, a t-shirt competition site? It’s hard to explain exactly how it works but there are probably 100’s of interesting t-shirts designed by a variety of known and unknown designers.

This one is called ASHKEFARDIC ULTRA REFOCONSERVADOX by Schoompa

Teen Spirit loves their stuff. After buying him a bunch of t-shirts for Chirstmas, I now get their weekly newsletters.

Jo Irwin, owner of Prints Charming, a framing and print shop on Seventh Avenue, was forced by rising rents to move out of her shop on Seventh Avenue. She is now located around the corner on Sterling Place. A local shopkeeper for ten years, Jo was sorry to have to leave her Seventh Avenue location but doesn