All creatures great and small in Prospect Park. Photo by Tom Martinez                                                 

Got this email from journalist Donna Minkowitz about a reading by feminist author, Alix Kates Shulman:

Just wanted to let you know that the wonderful feminist writer Alix Kates
Shulman is reading this Sunday in Brooklyn from her extraordinary new memoir
about caring for her husband after a traumatic brain injury.

Shulman, the author of the novel Memoirs of An Ex Prom Queen, is an old
family friend of mine. Her memoir is about having been passionate about her
independence all her life only to lose it (augment it?) when her beloved husband
needs her nearly constant care.

Please come and hear her this Sunday (I’ll be introducing her) at the
Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, 53 Prospect Park West between First and
Second Streets in Park Slope, 11:00 a.m.

Zagat has just released its 30th annual New York City Restaurants survey based on the collective experiences of a record 38,128 local diners. 

While this year’s Survey reflects current hard times, it also celebrates the enormous progress in the industry since Zagat Survey started in 1979.  To celebrate its 30th birthday, Zagat has launched zagat.com/celebrate, which offers a look back at the dramatic changes in dining over the past 30 years, while recognizing the original Zagat-rated New York restaurants (See attached). To lend a hand in tackling global hunger, Zagat is teaming up with Action Against Hunger this year. 

The 2009 New York City Restaurants guide covers 2,073 eateries across the five boroughs.  The surveyors ate out over 6.6 million meals this past year.  It shows that the number of restaurant openings declined for the first time since 2003 (from 163 to 119) and that diners are downsizing their restaurant-going by eating in less expensive places (38%), being more attentive to menu prices (35%), skipping appetizers or desserts (21%) and cutting back on alcohol consumption (19%).  At the same time, the demise of financial institutions such as Bear Stearns and Lehman and general belt tightening by many other companies are cutting into year-end party giving.

“Restaurants are clearly feeling the pinch from the economic crisis,” said Tim Zagat, CEO of Zagat Survey. “But in the long run they will weather this storm, just as they did after 1987’s Black Monday and 2001’s 9/11. The culinary revolution that began two generations ago and the demographic changes underlying it are now part of our culture.  While we foresee some hard times, New York is likely to remain the world’s leading restaurant city.”

And here are the "Outer Borough Stars:"

Once culinary backwaters, the outer boroughs are producing increasing numbers of Top Food-rated restaurants, e.g. Garden Cafe (28 out of a possible 30), Peter Luger (27), Di Fara (27), Trattoria L’incontro (27), Sripraphai (27), Tanoreen (26), Al Di La (26) and Roberto (26).  In various major cuisine categories, these restaurants are No. 1 Barbecue – Fette Sau; Hamburgers – DuMont; Mid-Eastern – Tanoreen, Pizza – Lucali (with Di Fara as No. 2); Southern/Soul – Egg; Steak – Peter Luger; and Thai – Sripraphai.  What’s more, these restaurants generally cost less than half of what their Manhattan counterparts do.

From Andy Bachman’s blog, Notes: Thoughts during a day in the life of Rabbi Andy Bachman building community at Congregation Beth Elohom..

At Tashlich in the Park on Tuesday, a young woman I had never met approached me and asked if we could remember her mother’s name at the service on Wednesday. “Of course,” I offered and we agreed that she’d write her name on a sheet of paper and hand it to me just before the service began. ( I was holding Collins in my hand when she approached the Bimah this morning.)

Toward the end of the service I realized I didn’t want her to feel too self-conscious about having her mother’s name read as the only name so I invited participants to stand and say the name aloud of those that they were thinking of in that solemn moment at the start of the year. Names rolled out across the room, like early tulip bulbs popping up from underground or the last pop and flash of 4th of July fireworks. A bittersweet surprise to hear the names said–as if they were back with us, only to fade immediately into the sea of silence in the sanctuary–the dark, dark ground where they now live.

In the display of names I heard the name of the young woman’s mother. Though the day before she asked me to read it, she had decided, spontaneously, to say it herself. And too soon after, her mother’s name was awash in the Sea of Names of Others. And we all were moved at the listening, finally rising together to say Kaddish.

Afterward, I saw her.

“So you decided to say your mother’s name,” I said.

“Yes,” she said, and her eyes filled with tears.

Again, Billy Collins:

“It’s anyone’s guess when the day will come
when there is nothing left of us
but the bare, solid plinth we once stood upon

now exposed to the open air,
just the wind in the trees and the shadows
of clouds sweeping over its hard marble surface.”

It’s hard to expose ourselves to our own mourning, to say aloud what we most fear. But in such moments can be found small promises of redemption.

So how are the “Main Streets” in Brooklyn doing post Wall Street mayhem. The Daily News does a round up of various areas, including Park Slope. From the NY Daily News:

PARK SLOPE: “This neighborhood is kind of in a bubble.”

Park Slope’s Seventh Ave. is a rare island of stability in Brooklyn. Although well-to-do residents have become more cautious spenders, local fashionistas with money still splurge on trendy clothes and facials, merchants said.
“Women like to feel good [and] they like to look good. They may come in less now, but they still come in. It’s a more upscale neighborhood,” said Frajean Spa owner Jean Sopinko.
John Ciferni, who owns Tarzian Hardware, said he’s seen 5% bump since last year – in part due to economic woes. “In the past couple years people were paying contractors to come in . . . and now they’re doing it themselves,” he said.
And Good Footing Adventure owner Jose Alvarez offered a simpler explanation: “This neighborhood is kind of in a bubble,” he said. “People here are very stable moneywise.”

6:18 am: We woke up to the sound of circling helicopters. Anyone know what’s up with these early morning helicopters in Park Slope?

SEND IN THE BLOOM

Economic crisis.
Financial blizzard:
Gotta keep hold of
Municipal wizard.

Semper Bloomberg,
Gee, whaf a guy!
Forget the Marines
And semper fi.

He’s indispensable,
Shoulda been prez,
Fortunate city–
Or so he says

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Poetry Punch, a festive, fun, celebratory group reading of poets curated by Michele Madigan Somerville.

And, yes, there will be punch. Lots of punch.

This year’s reading really packs a punch with Bill Evans, Jeff Wright, Joanna Sit, Ilene Starger, Will Nixon, Louise Crawford and Michele Madigan Somerville. Says Michele: “The poets on the bill are all very high interest, high energy poets: juicy, libidinous, good performers, not dry.”

Bill Evans: “I always think if God were a New York poet he’d sound like Bill. Bill is funny and speechifying in a philosophical yet embracing way.

Jeff Wright: “He used to call himself a “new romantic” came up as a boy wonder among New York School and Beat legends, edited Cover Magazine for a long time, has a bunch of books and chap books out, and writes lush, sexy, surreal and funny — he’s a latter day troubadour! In sillier moments I have referred to Jeff as “The Dean Martin of the Downtown Poetry Scene”

Joanna Sit: “Chinese born Medgar Evers Professor Joanna Sit is a middle-aged knockout who writes like an Irish woman high on Absinthe.”

Ilene Starger A New York-born poet whose work has appeared in such publications as Folio, Georgetown Review, Paper Street, Oyez Review, Oberon and Ibbetson Street. Ilene’s brand new chapbook Lethe, Postponed will be published in August 2008 by Finishing Line Press. She is currently putting together her next collection of poems.

Michele Madigan Somerville: The author of Wisegal from Ten Pell Books: “A multilingual hardrock reverie…going upside your head to whisper whipsmart secrets about cracked-out big-city survival.” She runs the Ceol Poetry Series at the Ceol Pub on Smith Street.

Louise Crawford: Louise runs OTBKB and Brooklyn Reading Works. She will read from her unpublished collections, Therapy and Anarchists Don’t Return Phone Calls.

Will Nixon: His book, My Late Mother as a Ruffed Grouse (FootHills Publishing), offers poems inspired by his experiences growing up in the Connecticut suburbs, then living in Hoboken and Manhattan as a young man, and finally moving to a Catskills log cabin. His previous chapbooks are When I Had It Made (Pudding House) and The Fish Are Laughing (Pavement Saw). His poems have also appeared in many journals, including Rattle, The Ledge, Slipstream, Wisconsin Review, Tar River Poetry, and others. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and and listed in The Best American Essays of 2004. He now lives in Woodstock.

The Where and When

Thursday, October 16th at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
It’s the stone house in JJ Byrne Park
$5 donation appreciated. Punch and light refreshments will be served.

Pastor Meeter has word of this on his blog, Old First.

The Gettysburg College Choir will join us at worship on Sunday morning, October 12, at 11:00 AM (thanks to Jennifer Nelson).

They will sing these anthems during the service:

Parce Domine by Nowowiejski

Sicut cervus by Palestrina

I Went Down to the River to Pray arr. David Moore

Jeremiah’s Fire Dilworth

Everyone is welcome, church member or not.

The Where and When
Sunday, October 12 at 11 am
Old First Dutch Reformed Church
Seventh Avenue at Carroll Street

Brooklyn Based, the Brooklyn tip sheet/newsletter you need to know about has a piece today on how to win a Brooklyn cook-off. Sounds like these cook-offs things are quite the Brooklyn phenom. BB has this list of Upcoming Cook-Offs and lots of tips and links.

Oct 16: Enid’s Apple Pie Bake Off.
Oct 26: Barcade’s BRUCE Chili Cookoff.
Nov 10: Emily Farris’s Casserole Party at Brooklyn Label (her cookbook comes out today!).
Early-mid November: Fondue Takedown at Union Pool.

Go on over to the Old Stone House to see the visual artisty of the wildly creative and talented Park Slope artist, Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella (as if you didn’t already know the story), and her latest, Thumbelina, Tiny Runaway Bride.

The Where and When

Weekends: October 4-December 16
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets in JJ Byrne Park

The New York Times has decided to eliminate a separate Metro section and has moved local city news to the back of the A section.

Alas, the B-section is no more.

And the Metro section has a new name: New York.

The new name is fine. But I liked the Metro section as a separate, easy to grab section. Here’s how the Times’ described this big change.

Beginning today, The Times is consolidating some sections to increase production efficiency. What was The Metro Section is now the New York part of the main news section Monday through Saturday, after International and National news; New York will remain separate on Sunday. Sports will be in the Business Day section from Tuesday to Friday but will remain separate on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The Arts is a separate section all week, including on Saturday. There will be no reduction in any of the coverage.

Yesterday my niece Sonya and I spent some time staring at the lizard in the back of the Community Bookstore. I’ve never spent quite so much time with that lizard. It was fascinating and fun for 4-year-old Sonya. What a cool creature to have in a bookstore.

Kids can find out what lives in the waters under the Manhattan Bridge! Join experts from the Coastal Marine Resource Center and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy as we use a 30-foot seining net to catch fish and other remarkable East River creatures.

Families and kids can take a good look at the fish before we release them back to their homes and keep a tally of our catch. We provide field guides, identification keys, and plenty of fun to go around. Space is available for 30 kids plus their parents/guardians. To reserve a place, call Kara Gilmour, Education and Stewardship Coordinator, at 718-802-0603 x18, or email kgilmour@bbpc.net.

The Where and When

Saturday, Oct 11, 11:30pm – 1:00pm
Beach in Brooklyn Bridge Park
FREE!
www.brooklynbridgepark.org

It pains me these days to read the Goings On About Town listings in The New Yorker because my Dad personified those pages.

In his way, he was the ultimate appreciator of the arts in New York and always knew what was going on about town.

Not only that, he managed to see an awful lot of museum and and gallery shows, opera, orchestral and chamber music, film and Broadway shows. Even before he retired this was true.

For him, the arts were not an option, they were a necessity. I imagine they fed and sustained him; they kept his critical mind strong, his powers of taste and discrimination intact.  So as I look at The New Yorker it just doesn’t feel right that culture in New York City continues even though my father’s not around to enjoy it. Here is a sampling of this week’s listings that might have interested him:

KT Sullivan at the Algonquin Hotel singing the work of Jerome Kern.

Brazilian performers Romero Lubambo and Gal Costa at the Blue Note.

The Giorgio Morandi show at the Metropolitan

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night at MOMA

Kirchner and the Berlin Street also at MOMA

All My Sons at the Schoenfeld

Billy Elliot at the Imperial Theater

The Opera, The Philarmonic, Carnegie Hall…

I feel the need to check what’s going on even though I rarely get a chance (or make the time) to take advantage of all of  New York’s cultural bounty. Not like my dad did. He was an inspiration in that way. He’d get the cheap Family Circle seats at the Metropolitan Opera (which he claimed were excellent); he’d go to TKTS for Wednesday matinees; pay the minimum donation at the Metropolitan Museum (because he went there so often); he was a regular at the art galleries in Chelsea, at Christy’s.

He was a man-about-town making a serious effort to keep up with the arts: exactly the kind of person artists make art for. Those for whom art is a necessity not an option.

You’ve got to hand it to Helen Richman, who produces the Chocolate Chip Chamber Music series, which features professional musicians in engaging and interactive mini-concerts designed for 2-6 years olds.

The first show of the 2008 season, The Wonder Wind Saves the Day with the Sylvan Winds at Old First Reformed Church, impressed me very much.

Here’s the formula that works so well for this age group:

The concerts are comprised of an opening chocolate chip cookie theme song sing-along and a number of very brief musical selections performed by the musicians. "Baker Bobbie" (played by Jennifer Nelson) serves as the emcee and mascot and often finds her way out of a vexing situation with the help of the audience and the musicians. Performances end with instrument demonstrations, a hand-on experience for curious preschools, and a chocolate chip cookie for all in attendance.

I loved the script written by Charlotte Dooling, Hope Harris and Helen Richman and the clever, down to earth staging. Baker Bobbie’s sheet of cookies are stolen by Dr. Dissonance and it’s up to the Wonder Winds (Bassoon Boy, Friend or Foboe, French Hornet, Flute Lady and Captain Clarinet) to use their instruments to catch the theif.

In the process, the kids learned a little bit about each instrument, what dissonance is and listened to excerpts from a variety of pieces by Ligeti, Fancaix, Purcell, Nielson, Arnold, Lyadov and Farkas. There was plenty for the kids to do and at one point they were instructed to use their listening skills to really pay attention to a quiet lullaby by Anatoly Lyadov. All this in a half hour.

The musicians gave it their all: playing music, acting, even wearing superhero capes. And the audience seemed to enjoy just about everything. Especially the cookies at the end.

Kudos to everyone involved. I really think Helen and her team are on to something very special and educational for kids about classical music.

The next show is at A Pirates Treasure of Trumpets at the Dweck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library.

The Where and When

A Pirates Treasure of Trumpets
November 15 at 1 pm
Dweck Center at the Brooklyn Public Library (Grand Army Plaza)
 

34 years and still going strong: The Atlantic Antic is a Brooklyn Institution

Spanning 10 blocks of Atlantic Avenue, from 4th Avenue in Boerum Hill all the way to Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights, the Atlantic Antic is New York’s number one street festival, offering something for everyone!

Best known for its eclectic delicacies, the Antic features an exciting array of foods from around the world, from baklava and funnel cake, to grilled sardines and pulled pork sandwiches, to street fair favorites like fresh lemonade, fried mozzarella, and roasted corn. Go to their website to see a food map.

Ten live musical stages offer free performances all day, featuring blues, rock, country, R&B, jazz, music for kids, and belly-dancing.

Atlantic Avenue’s trendy restaurants and boutiques along with a host of local vendors, craftspeople, and nonprofits offer a hodgepodge of one-of-a-kind merchandise.

Kids and families enjoy plenty of pony rides, face painting, balloon sculptures, live storytelling, and more!

New York Transit Museum Bus Festival

The New York Transit Museum’s 15th Annual Bus Festival will also coincide with the Antic, taking place at the midway point of the festival, on Boerum Place. A collection of vintage buses dating all the way back to 1917 will be on display and ready to board, and visitors can also enjoy free admission to the museum, one block away on Schermerhorn Street.

All members of the Park Slope community are encouraged to attend a neighborhood forum on Traffic and the following question: Are Thorough-fares for Traffic, or Part of the Residential Landscape?

The forum will address:

–Given that we recognize the multiple uses of our streets, what is necessary, and what simply isn’t working? What abuses are happening, and

–What Existing Controls could be Activated to Counteract?

–What New Ideas might be Effective, and

–How do we Move Forward Together to Make Change?

Judging from response to the first forum, the neighborhood seems to be eager to address the question of who controls the streets: Should thoroughfares which are relatively quiet and one-way therefore be devoted to traffic trying to move quickly, or should those same streets’ residential character dominate? Given numerous recent tragedies, it seems hard to avoid the conclusion that current double-use is not working well. Of particular concern at the moment is Eighth Avenue , so we could well focus on this problem, but with the understanding that Eighth Avenue is an example of the larger problem.

We are reaching out to representatives from the Department of Transportation (DOT) to attend, as well as locally resident Traffic and Urban Planning specialists. Once again, Craig Hammerman will be on hand to guide us through who to appeal to for change, and how.

As ever, the point of this Forum is to draw together all parts of our Community – residents, merchants, landlords, electeds, non-profits, activists, and . . . . you! We aim to engage in productive discussion addressing issues of mutual concern, and to thus begin finding actual solutions. We believe that by coming together we can help each other and our neighborhood – Which is to say, our Home. What have you got to lose? Please come out, and join the discussion. Who knows? We could even make Something happen.

The Where and When
Wednesday October 15th at 7 p.m.
The Community Bookstore
143 Seventh Avenue in Park Slope
718-783-3075