I love the Park Slope Civic Council’s Halloween poster created by Gerardo Blumenkranz.

If pressed to label himself for marketing purposes he would say he’s an art director. But he’s also an illustrator and the man behind these fun/funny posters about trick or treating on Halloween, where the kids get tofu, Veggie Booy and Quinoa Puffs.

Check out his website, it’s a really good one.

This year the Park Slope Civic Council is sponsoring a Costume Contest for big and little
kids!  There are a load of categories to choose from, so get out your
thinking caps and get started making your homemade costumes.  Winners
will be presented with a winner’s banner to carry at the beginning of
the Parade.

    * 4:00 Free Photos by Roberto Falck Photograpy
    * 4:00-4:55 Contest Registration
    * 5:00-6:00 Costume Contes

And then it’s time for the Park Slope Halloween Parade, which starts at 6:30

7th Avenue and 12th Street is the starting point (continuing to Union Street). This year’s parade will feature large-scale
puppets built by the Park Slope Parents’ Puppet Team with the help of
Theresa Linnihan from the Puppeteer’s Coooperative.

Make way for these new additions and join the parade at the back so you
can see it all before participating in the biggest childen’s parade in
the United States!

Good Head makes good hats. Good Head loves to knit, and especially to design interesting hats.

I bought one of her hats at Bar Reis where she works the bar (that’s me at left). I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on my hat. Hepcat says I look like Princess Leia from Star Wars. Teen Spirit said I look like Eeyore. A random friend of OSFO’s said I look like a Muppet.

It’s a great hat and so so warm. I’ve been wearing it almost constantly. I also get a lot of compliments. Plus it has ears, which is an especially good idea for a New York winters.

Good Head is making these hats constantly and her stock at her Etsy site is growing and growing. So check out the hats and gloves she has there. If you like my hat she’ll make you one. Or you can pick one of the hats she has in stock.

Good Head writes:

"I can’t keep everything I make, so I thought I’d give you an
opportunity to get some great winter-wear, and I’ll use your money to
invest in new yarn, to make more stuff! I support yarn companies that
use environmentally sustainable practices, are careful with their
animals, and as often as I can, I use fibers that are made by women at
coops in under-developed parts of the world. I guarantee everything I
make for life, but so far my products have turned out to be
unbelievably durable. Just don’t put ’em in the washing machine!"

Good  Head also makes fingerless gloves that are very sexy. Good Head writes: "These are fingerless gloves that stretch out long, or accordion to
short wristlets. They have an interesting shape, and they are not
itchy. They’re good for people who play music outside." The hat on the below is called the Soda Pop Jones. She writes, "The Soda Pop Jones is super warm hat, it comes in a ton of colors, and I will post more
pictures soon, but for now, this is the only pic I have. It is
basically a skully with a cute little brim. It’s a unisex hat named for
my bestie, who drinks a LOT of sodi, and wears one of these."

Check out Jeff Scher’s special Halloween animation, Remains To Be Seen, which was filmed in Green-Wood Cemetery. It is part of the NY Times series, The Animated LIfe. Here’s Jeff on the cemetery of his inspiration:

"A great cemetery feels like a world
unto itself: a kind of theme park of the departed, where everyday life
is left behind at the gate. A certain mood overtakes you when you
visit. You are simultaneously overwhelmed by the sense of being
surrounded by the dead, and seduced by the beauty of the place. This
creates a special flavor of melancholy, the inevitable feels present
and one’s own life all the more fleeting — as in Memento mori, “Remember that you are mortal.”

"Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where this was filmed, is home
to approximately 600,000 former (or permanent) New Yorkers, and was a
popular tourist attraction in the 19th century. Wherever you turn, you
are confronted by bigger-than-life angels, huge pillars topped with
stone carved urns or orbs representing departed souls, and countless
carved headstones and elaborate mausoleums (many bigger than apartments
I’ve lived in). Confronted by so many lives that have been lived,
speaking to you in memorial marble and granite, you feel the presence
of human history. It is a stunning oasis of timeless green and
Victorian dreams of eternity in the heart of Brooklyn. Only the passing
planes remind you what century you’re in.

"With this film, I tried to capture that special cemetery mood in the
form and spirit of a Danse Macabre. Shay Lynch composed the
appropriately haunting score. I wanted my cast to consist exclusively
of the memorial statuary. The over-the-top quality of these realistic
representations of grief and faith ultimately inspired me to make this
Halloween Valentine to them."

Marty Markowitz’s office sent this. I guess he figured out that I just turned 50.

    On Thursday, October 30, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will host a free Baby Boomer Retirement Fair at Borough Hall, with representatives on hand to answer questions on everything from Medicare, Social Security and reverse mortgages to money management, foreclosures and planning for the future in these uncertain financial times. Hard to believe, but the earliest baby boomers, defined as anyone born between 1946 and 1964, are beginning to retire.

    Exhibitors and workshops available to help boomers navigate this new phase of their lives will include New York City Department for the Aging; Social Security Administration; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; SCORE; Grimaldi & Yeung, LLP; Henry Street Settlement; Parodneck Foundation; Mass Mutual Financial Group; Brooklyn Public Library; MetLife Bank, N.A.; AARP Foundation Bill Payer Program; Citibank; Joint Public Affairs Committee for Older Adults (JPAC) and more

Great piece in the Atlantic Monthly by Andrew Sullivan called Why I Blog. Here’s an excerpt.
 

From the first few days of using the form, I was hooked. The simple
experience of being able to directly broadcast my own words to readers
was an exhilarating literary liberation. Unlike the current generation
of writers, who have only ever blogged, I knew firsthand what the
alternative meant. I’d edited a weekly print magazine, The New Republic,
for five years, and written countless columns and essays for a variety
of traditional outlets. And in all this, I’d often chafed, as most
writers do, at the endless delays, revisions, office politics,
editorial fights, and last-minute cuts for space that dead-tree
publishing entails. Blogging—even to an audience of a few hundred in
the early days—was intoxicatingly free in comparison. Like taking a
narcotic.

It was obvious from the start that it was revolutionary. Every
writer since the printing press has longed for a means to publish
himself and reach—instantly—any reader on Earth. Every professional
writer has paid some dues waiting for an editor’s nod, or enduring a
publisher’s incompetence, or being ground to literary dust by a legion
of fact-checkers and copy editors. If you added up the time a writer
once had to spend finding an outlet, impressing editors, sucking up to
proprietors, and proofreading edits, you’d find another lifetime buried
in the interstices. But with one click of the Publish Now button, all
these troubles evaporated.

Alas, as I soon discovered, this sudden freedom from above was
immediately replaced by insurrection from below. Within minutes of my
posting something, even in the earliest days, readers responded. E-mail
seemed to unleash their inner beast. They were more brutal than any
editor, more persnickety than any copy editor, and more emotionally
unstable than any colleague.

Again, it’s hard to overrate how different this is. Writers can be
sensitive, vain souls, requiring gentle nurturing from editors, and
oddly susceptible to the blows delivered by reviewers. They survive,
for the most part, but the thinness of their skins is legendary.
Moreover, before the blogosphere, reporters and columnists were largely
shielded from this kind of direct hazing. Yes, letters to the editor
would arrive in due course and subscriptions would be canceled. But
reporters and columnists tended to operate in a relative sanctuary,
answerable mainly to their editors, not readers. For a long time,
columns were essentially monologues published to applause, muffled
murmurs, silence, or a distant heckle. I’d gotten blowback from pieces
before—but in an amorphous, time-delayed, distant way. Now the feedback
was instant, personal, and brutal.

 

A Kensington shopkeeper stands knee-deep in floodwater to
clear a blocked drainage grate.                        Photo: Tom Martinez

Trick-or-treat at Babeland on Friday, October 31, 6-8pm, Free

Babeland Brooklyn, 462 Bergen Street
Tricks and Treats at Babeland are not for kids! Be one of the first 50
people to show off your costume and get a very sexy surprise.

And starting today: Sexy Jack-O-Lantern Contest, October 29 – 31

Have some naughty fun with a Halloween tradition and carve a sexy scene into your pumpkin! Bring your erotic pumpkin to Babeland SoHo to enter it in our 1st annual Sexy Jack-O-lantern contest. First place winner receives a $100 Babeland gift bag.  Second and third place winners receive Babeland gift bags worth $50 and $25, respectively. Jack-O-Lanterns are judged on creativity and craftsmanship. Drop off your entry at the SoHo store during business hours Wednesday, October 29th – Friday, October 31st

Looks like the Feldman’s have a a Fab New Feature on their weather blog. A live video taken from their rooftop.

How cool. Check out Current Weather in Park Slope and see the video.

They also have a 36-hour time lapse video of weather. It’s gorgeous. Watch it.

36 Hour Time-Lapse Park Slope Weather Movie

Some students in front of PS 321 were doing a survey. "Obama or McCain?" they asked as I walked by. When I said Obama one of the little girls jumped up and down, "We’re not getting any McCain’s."

Question: Does anyone know anyone voting for the John McCain/Sarah Palin ticket in Park Slope? Just wondering.

Today is Diwali, a major Indian holiday; it also means you don’t have to move your car. Here from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Diwali (or Deepavali) is a major Indian holiday, and a significant festival in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ^[3] Many legends are associated with Diwali. Today it is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs across the globe as the "Festival of Lights,"
where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within
every human being. Diwali is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the
month Kartika.^[4]

In many parts of India, it is the homecoming of Lord Rama of Ayodhya after a 14-year exile in the forest, after he defeated the evil Ravana.^[5]
The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by
lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deeva), thus its name: Deepavali. This
word, in due course, became Diwali in Hindi. But, in South Indian
languages, the word did not undergo any change, and hence the festival
is called Deepavali in southern India. There are many different
observances of the holiday across India.

Jainism marks Diwali as the nirvana of Lord Mahavira, which occurred on 15 October, 527 BCE.

Among the Sikhs,
Diwali came to have special significance from the day the town of
Amritsar was illuminated on the return to it of Guru Hargobind
(1595-1644) who had been held captive in the Fort at Gwalior under the
orders of the Mughal emperor, Jahangir (1570-1627). As the sixth Guru
(teacher) of Sikhism, Guru Hargobind Ji, was freed from imprisonment –
along with 53 Hindu Kings (who were held as political prisoners) whom
the Guru had arranged to be released as well. After his release he went
to the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) in the holy city of Amritsar, where
he was welcomed in happiness by the people who lit candles and diyas to
greet the Guru. Because of this, Sikhs often refer to Diwali also as
Bandi Chhorh Divas – "the day of release of detainees."

The festival is also celebrated by Buddhists of Nepal, particularly the Newar Buddhists.

In India, Diwali is now considered to be a national festival, and
the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians
regardless of faith.

I just got this email from Helen, who works in the marketing department at
BAM. 

I was doing a little bit of research online, and I came across your
blog.  I couldn’t help but think that maybe your community might be
interested in some information about BAMboo!, BAM’s annual free Halloween
festival.  The festivities take place in front of BAM, on
Lafayette between
Ashland Place and
Fulton Street , from
4—7pm on Oct 31st.  There are games, candy giveaways, costume
contests, wandering performers, and a very popular moon bounce.  This
year’s theme is A BAM Before Time, exploring prehistory; there will be
fossil digs, cave art, and dinosaur treasures for everyone, young and
old. I also
encourage you to visit our website for more information: http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=400

Biographer Valerie Yow will read and discuss Betty Smith: Life of the Author of a Tree Grows in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Public Library Central branch.

The Where and When

October 29, 2008
7 p.m.
at the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza

Yesterday I heard from Caitlin
Dean, who is starting a non-profit outdoors program, Girl Guides, for sixth through
tenth grade girls.  She is launching a pilot group in Northwest Brooklyn, focused on Park Slope,
and trying to spread the word through as many community networks as
possible. She is hoping that OTBKB’s readers might be interested in the program for their daughters or
other girls they know of! There is a listing of information sessions below.

A bit of background: I graduated from Yale University in 2005 and was most recently
working for Sen. Dick Durbin on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., but I left my job to start
Girl Guides.  For years, my sister and I spent part of our summers in
Belgium, where we have family friends.  There, we participated in
summer wilderness camps with Girl Guides, which is the Belgian
equivalent of Girl Scouts (and actually the name of most countries’
Scouting programs for girls). 

In practice, it’s very different from
Girl Scouts here in America.  For one thing, Girl Guides is a youth
movement, which means that the groups are run by young adults (usually
college-age girls or recent graduates), not parents, and that over
time, the participants learn leadership skills and take on increased responsibility within the
group.  Girl Guides also puts a strong emphasis on outdoor activities
and environmentalism, and it encourages teamwork, cooperation and
communal living over individual recognition (there is no focus on merit
badges, for example).  Activities are held throughout the school year,
usually on weekends (afternoons, day trips and overnights), building up
to a two-week camp in the summer.  Our "camp" is actually just a field
that we transform into a community.  We pitch tents, build our
campsites (literally – the constructions are incredible!), cook over
open fires, hike, play games, sing around the campfire, and learn to
live in nature as a group.  For more information, check out our website at www.girlguidesusa.org.

I have long wanted to make it possible for American girls to
participate in such a wonderful program, and so I have decided to take
on the challenge of starting an American version of Girl Guides.  The
necessary infrastructure for the program is in place, and I am now
looking
for interested girls to participate and schools and community groups to
partner with.  There will be information sessions about the program at
local libraries in mid-November.

Girl Guides was without a doubt one of the best experiences of my
life, and I know it can be a life-changing experience for other girls
as well.  I appreciate your help in getting the word out about this new
and exciting opportunity.

The Where and When

Sat. Nov. 15 10:30-11:30am, Brooklyn Heights Library (280 Cadman Plaza West)
Sat. Nov. 15 2:00-3:00pm, Williamsburgh Library (240 Division Ave.) and
Wed. Nov. 19 6:30-7:30pm, Park Slope Library (431 6th Ave. at 9th St.)

Please RSVP to caitlindean(at)girlguidesusa(dot)org by November 12.