So how do people with kids in co-ops, condos and rentals co-exist with those without children, who don't appreciate the noise generated by the pitter patter of little feet, especially in public spaces?

A post on Park Slope Parents brought this vexing issue to light. One mom has resolved the problem she had with her neighbors by deciding  to "discontinue hallway play." She even had a revelation:

So I guess it's about communication. It sounds like the angry neighbors should have brought up the matter earlier. Guess what? The complaing couple is pregnant. The PSP member wonders:

I got this email from Robin Warren about an education advocacy coalition called Learn NY.

This is an artist I've always liked. Known for his nudes, he's having a retrospective at the Montclair Museum of Art that includes other works as well. Ken Johnson of the New York Times writes:

"Realism returned from the dead in the 1960s, and Philip Pearlstein was
one of its chief revivers. His seven-decade career is the focus of
“Philip Pearlstein: Objectifications,” a small, surprisingly varied
exhibition at the Montclair Museum of Art. The show offers proof that
Mr. Pearlstein, 84, has been an artist of greater range than his
signature nude works."

Political artist Randy Jones exhibits his work in the main lobby of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza:

This exhibition shows three aspects of my art: current (featuring
the long march of the 2008 presidential race), historical and the Inner
Circle Annual Roast for Mayor of New York City.

From food fights to lipstick, the first section features highlighted
events leading up to the memorable 2008 presidential campaign. It also
includes tear-sheets and original artwork from this long two-year race.

The second section features some of our favorite historical figures
such as Teddy Roosevelt, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Bud Abbott
and Lou Costello. It includes original art and the tear-sheets from the
publications in which they were printed.

Finally, work from the Inner Circle is featured. The Inner Circle
has been around since New York City Mayor Hylan (1918-1925) was in
office, and it continues to operate today. Its 100 members are
reporters who have covered City Hall and who are elected to join by the
standing members. I have created art that illustrates the songs about
the political year, from mayoral to national politics, written and
performed by the members of the Inner Circle. My first year doing so
was the last year of Mayor Dinkins's time in office in 1993.

Are you ready for Real World Brooklyn, which takes place in Red Hook? Tonight on MTV bringing you group dynamics, hook-ups, fights, and a hot tub.

Loads to do at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, including a special President's Week Arts Program for kids, programs for curious dults and the Deedle Deedle Dees (four guys raised on the Muppets, Tom Waits, Dr. John, and the
Pixies).

And check out these workshops designed for the curious, creative adult...

Then there's a series called January First Weekends, which highlights work by BAX’s Artists in Residence
and Artist Advisors

And one more thing:

The Jumpin' Juniper Show
Featuring the Deedle Deedle Dees!

Anyone know where an elderly couple might play bridge in Brooklyn Heights? An OTBKB reader posed the question and I'm just trying to help…

Last week in San Francisco we went to the gorgeous new deYoung Museum, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron and Fong & Chan, and saw an amazing—and very powerful—exhibit called In the Name of God: War, Religion and the Reliquaries of Al Farrow.

In this work, Farrow appropriates and reinterprets the iconography of Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic religious institutions. The Spine and Tooth of Santo Guerro (2007), which is pictured to the left, is an elaborate construction, which looks like a scale model of a European Gothic cathedral.

A closer look reveals
that the entire structure is fabricated from deconstructed gun
components, as well as bullets and steel shot.

I heard from Al Farrow today. He thanked me for mentioning him on the blog. It turns out that he was born and raised in Brooklyn and left 20 years ago for California, where he exhibits widely.

Sounds interesting: Brooklyn Songwriters' Exchange at Union Hall with Lucy Wainwright Roche, Rebecca Pronsky, Stephen Clair, Brooke Campbell.

The Where and When

Monday January 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Union Hall
702 Union Street
Park Slope
Free

Nerissa Campbell, an indie-jazz singer- songwriter originally from Perth,
Australia has been lving in Brooklyn, (Park Slope/Prospect
Heights) for over seven years.

She is set to release a new album next week. Check it out: there are a few tracks on her website at www.crookedmouthmusic.com.

Musings of a Telescopic Tree is described on the website as "an album of moodiness and of melancholy
– stories of desire and the sorrows of losing loved things, the weight
of depression and the lightness of being. The indie-jazz
singer-songwriter ponders a new approach to her music, – its roots in
jazz, it also ponders its way through somber pop-ballads, bluesy folk
songs, moody instrumentals and a lyricism full of thought and space."

"Her songs roil in the smoke of forgotten bars and express a love of
many styles and thoughts. Campbell composed these songs in her home of
Brooklyn, NY as well on travels across Europe, Australia and North
America. Drawn largely on her own life stories and from the tales of
the characters from those adventures, her songs are a manuscript of
insights to self and the world around her."

There's an album release gig  on January 15th at the 55 Bar in Manhattan.

The Where and When

January 15th
55 Bar
55 Christopher St (btn 6th and 7th av)
www.55bar.com
7 – 9pm
no cover

I got this helpful reminder from an OTBKB reader. It may just be an Internet rumor. Ahhhh…Hold off until I confirm. Thanks for all the comments.

.

Robert Guskind writes powerfully of the current state of Coney Island.
Read it and weep. Here's an excerpt but read the rest at his blog,
Gowanus Lounge:

"There were a lot of people in Coney Island on Saturday and most of
them were taking pictures of the mess it has become under the
stewardship of Joe Sitt and Michael Bloomberg. We stood on
Stillwell Avenue, freezing, with Mr. Sitt’s big empty lot on our left
and the vacant Beer Island on our right and wiped tears from our eyes,
not because of the cold but because of fond memories and a sense of
hopelessness and despair that those in charge of this process aren’t up
to the challenge of keeping it on life support while the economy works
itself out.

"What a sad, sad thing for a place that has suffered so much. We urge
the city to negotiate hard with Mr. Sitt. We hope all parties sit down
and come up with a realistic five year plan to keep Coney going. We
hope that Mr. Sitt shows that he has a shred of human decency in his
body and that “Joey Coney Island” helps save it instead of being the guy that pulls the trigger and inflicts the final fatal wound.

Time is running out."

Times Square Gaza Protest on January 3rd.

photo by Tom Martinez 

We only had one day in San Francisco during our Christmas trip to Northern California but we always cherish whatever time we have in that great city.

Part of the fun was that we took the BART into town. That means a 40-minute drive from the farm in Tracy to Pleasanton and then a 40-minute ride to the Embarcadero.

We went to the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, which meant taking the N-Judah Muni, which is both an underground and overground mode of transport. Cool.

We got off at Ninth Avenue in the Sunset district and walked into San Francisco’s awe-inspiring Park. Imagine our surprise when there was a one hour wait to get into the museum, which opened its new building in October. And that was the member’s line.

But it was a lovely day and we didn’t mind standing on line. Well, we minded a little. But it was worth it: the museum’s new digs are gorgeous complete with a green roof that reminded Teen Spirit of the Teletubby set.

In addition to a great aquarium, the museum features an elaborate rain forest exhibit, dioramas akin to those at New York’s Museum of Natural History, an albino alligator, a penguin exhibit and much more.

Worth the wait. But it was very, very crowded inside.

We also went to the gorgeous new deYoung Museum, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and Fong & Chan Architects, where we saw an amazing—and very powerful—exhibit called In the Name of God: War, Religion and the Reliquaries of Al Farrow, in which the artist appropriates and reinterprets the traditional iconography of Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic religious institutions. The Spine and Tooth of Santo Guerro (2007), is an elaborate construction appears to be a scale model of a European Gothic cathedral. Closer examination reveals
that nearly the entire structure is fabricated from deconstructed gun
components, as well as bullets and steel shot.

Afterwards, we made our usual pilgrimage to the City Lights Bookstore in North Beach, where I browsed their second floor poetry department—one of the best poetry selections I’ve come across.

We walked from North Beach back to Market Street passing the tail end of an Anti-Gaza  demonstration, which brought out a crowd of kafiah-clad protestors, police vans, news trucks and police helicopters overheard.

Later, we stopped in the Palace Hotel, our favorite bathroom stop in San Francisco. We also like to gaze at the Victorian Garden Court, and the wood-paneled Pied Piper Bar with its gorgeous Maxfield Parish mural over the bar. That hotel was built before the 1903 earthquake.

Then it was back to Tracy on the BART. 40 minutes and we were back in Pleasanton to begin our drive through Livermore and the Altamont Pass, a hilly area filled with graceful windmills generating electrical power.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brookyn Paper:

They had a little fight about it. Smartmom said they couldn’t afford
to go. But Hepcat prevailed. It had been two years since they’d spent
Christmas in California and Hepcat wanted to go.

Ultimately Smartmom gave in. She knows that Christmas means a lot to
Hepcat and it had been a while since he’d celebrated with his family:
last year, Smartmom’s dad was in Mt. Sinai Hospital between Christmas
and New Year’s. And the year before that, Manhattan Granny’s health
necessitated that they stay in town.

So it was decided. Hepcat charged the tickets ($2,000!) and they
were good to go. Smartmom knew the kids wouldn’t be thrilled at first
because they like to be around their friends during school vacation.
But they’d adjust.

Even Smartmom got used to the idea. She decided that loads of
together-time as a family was just what they needed. For seven days,
they’d be stuck in a big house in the country with nowhere to go;
they’d eat every meal together and have loads of time to talk, play
Scrabble and do jigsaw puzzles.

It sounded like heaven to her. 

Hepcat was thrilled to be going home for Christmas. That’s not to
say that he didn’t enjoy his two Brooklyn Christmases. He loved buying
Christmas trees from the handsome Vermonter who sells them on Ninth
Street from a tent blaring jazz music, and he loved the Christmas lox
and bagels brunch with Diaper Diva, Groovy Grandma and various members
of Smartmom’s extended Jewish family. And he always seemed to love a
Christmas Day movie at the Pavilion and Christmas dinner at Hunan
Cottage on Union Street.

But Smartmom wouldn’t be Smartmom if she couldn’t tell that her big
old California farm boy was homesick. He pined for the smell of
eucalyptus leaves in the garden, the whistle of the Southern Pacific
freight trains in the distance, the braying of his mother’s goats,
Flora and Miss America, out in the pen.

You can take a farm boy out of California, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy — especially on Christmas.

Teen Spirit and the Oh So Feisty One liked their Brooklyn
Christmases, too. It was fun to wake up on Christmas morning to find
their filled stockings tied to the dresser in the living room. No
matter that there’s no mantle. In Brooklyn, it is believed that Santa
Claus enters through the dumbwaiter or disguised as one of the delivery
guys from Coco Roco.

On the night before Christmas, Smartmom and family arrived on
Hepcat’s family farm (after an unusually long flight which included a
refueling stop in Salt Lake City) tired, hungry and ready for sleep.

For a nice Jewish girl from New York City, the scene couldn’t have
been more perfect. As always, there was a towering Christmas tree
festooned with vintage decorations; Mexican crèches placed tastefully
all over the house; and roaring fires burning in not one, but two,
fireplaces.

Yup, it was nice to be back.

OSFO popped out of bed Christmas morning. Teen Spirit was harder to
rouse (he’s 17 after all). They opened their gifts and hung out with
their cousins who they hadn’t seen in more than a year.

It was a jigsaw puzzle and Scrabble kind of day topped off by a
bountiful Christmas super, which included ham, oysters, sweet potatoes
and great conversation. Smartmom couldn’t stop eating the pannetone,
almond roca and coconut macaroons and swore to be back on Weight
Watchers by morning.

She could tell that Hepcat was enjoying himself big time. His mother
went through bags of old photographs while his sister regaled them with
hilarious stories about her new chihuahua.

In the days after Christmas, Teen Spirit and OSFO pretended to be
wildly bored. But Smartmom knew it was good for their creative juices.
Teen Spirit spent much of the holiday writing songs while OSFO
practiced a Bach minuet on the piano and used her grandmother’s
potter’s wheel.

As promised, the family ate every meal together, played plenty of
Scrabble and did jigsaw puzzles. They spent loads of time in each
other’s company.

Sure they got on each other’s nerves. 

Sure they had a few fights.

But it was Christmas in California. Seven days with nothing to do but be together. What could be better?

Well, they’re around. Their shop just in’t in Park Slope anymore. Here’s the Root Stock & Quade calendar of January and February events, where you can find out the latest about what they’re up to.