Civics and Urban Life

DELSON GOES TO THE DOCTOR, AGAIN

Here’s another post from Park Slope’s own Rudy Delson. He will be reading at Brooklyn Reading Works on September 20th at 8 p.m at the Old Stone House. It should be a super fun reading with friends and other writers reading from his hot new novel, Maynard and Jennica. Catch him in between doctor’s appointments.

I’ve been visiting my doctors. On Tuesday it was Dr. Jane Kutsowsky, my ophthalmologist, over on President and Fourth. She shares a clean, spare office with three other doctors, and in their lobby is a large, flat-screened TV. Tuesday afternoon, it was tuned to The Young and the Restless. I was trying to be good, trying to ignore the TV and read my Robert Walser, but the commercials were distracting. Did you know that there is an ailment called Restless Leg Syndrome? And there are prescription drugs to treat it? And that those drugs are advertised on The Young and the Restless?

Dr. Kutsowsky determined that my eyes are no worse than ever, but, in pursuit of a ghostly floater, she had to dilate my pupils to an extreme. For four to six hours, she told me, I would have trouble focusing—which meant that reading and writing were out for the rest of the day. What to do with my sudden afternoon free?

Well, I decided to visit the Statue of Liberty. Liberty permits me write; I bring her, as offerings, copies of my books. So I got on the R Train to Whitehall and then got on the ferry to Liberty Island, carrying a copy of Maynard and Jennica in my bag. It’s a longish ferry ride, and—my eyes still teary with dilation—there was nothing for me to do but listen to the tourists next to me:

“There’s rum for you, Ted.” “Bill, make rum for Ted to sit.” “Oh, who wants M&Ms?” “Oh, ha ha!” “Ha ha ha! Jeanne sure loves her M&Ms!” “She sure does.” “There’s rum for you, Ted, Bill’s going to move over.” “I’ll take some of those.” “Who wants a soda?” “Ted, sit, there’s rum.” “No, I’ll stand. Gotta burn these calories!”

Did Ted suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome, I wondered.

But I don’t like to think mean thoughts about tourists. Because, frankly, they are so touching. Americans do such silly things with their liberty; but, for the most part, when they come to New York for the first time, they’re grateful enough for their liberty to take a trip out to visit the colossus that honors the virtue. We may be indulgent, but at least we’re pious.

Anyway, as of Tuesday, a free copy of Maynard and Jennica has been left on Liberty Island. If you find it, it’s yours.

Postcard from the Slope

JANE JACOBS AND THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK

Check out the new exhibition at the Municipal Arts Center about the legendary urban activist, Jane Jacobs.

The Municipal Art Society of New York is delighted to present an interactive exhibit that highlights the relevance of activist and author Jane Jacobs and the urban-design principles introduced in her classic text The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which had an immediate impact on how cities are designed and used. Though raised in a small town and lacking the credentials of a trained planner, Jacobs quickly became one of the century’s most influential writers on urban planning. With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Jacobs described a “ballet of the sidewalks,” an unrehearsed choreography of urban dwellers going about their business that, in her view, created the vitality of city life.

The exhibit highlights the context in which Jacobs wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities, while also illustrating the role of Jane Jacobs’s ideas in today’s New York. The exhibit is designed to prompt visitors to view the city through Jane Jacobs’s eyes and to empower them to take a more active role in advocating for a more livable city.

The exhibit will be on view at the Municipal Art Society’s Urban Center galleries at 457 Madison Avenue (at 51st Street) in New York City, from Sept. 25, 2007, through January 5, 2008.

During the exhibit, gallery hours will be extended to 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, and 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday

Postcard from the Slope

SOUTH SLOPE SOJOURN

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I was on Fifth Avenue above 9th Street yesterday wasting some time before an appointment so I walked up to Prospect Avenue just to see what’s going on. And I saw a whole lot of construction.

At 162 16th Street west of Fifth Avenue there’s The Vue, an 8-story building the advertising sign boasts views, parking, a fitness center, lush gardens and balconies.

At 560 Fifth Avenue (between 15th and 16th) there’s a nice-looking new restaurant called Sidecar Bar & Grille. From John W. on Yelp, I learned that it is owned by one of the owners of Blue Ribbon and is a bar with a great juke box and American food.

On Fifth between 11th and 12th Street there’s a new restaurant serving contemporary Mexican food. They opened yesterday. I didn’t get the name.

There’s at least one new building per block between 12th Street and Prospect Avenue. But that’s a guess. I will be up there again and take better notes.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS

RUDY DELSON ON DERMATOLOGISTS AND ANTARTICA

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Rudy Delson, author of Maynard and Jennica, will be reading at Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House on September 20th. In the meantime, he’s been visiting doctors.

“Since my book will be published next week, I’ve been to see my doctors, and in particular, I’ve been to see my dermatologist. Because I have this spot here, and also this dry thing here, and also, here, can you feel that lump? Pace Susan Sontag and Illness as Metaphor, having the good luck to publish a book raises the risk of bad luck in the form of cancer. And also in the forms of (a) the Antarctic ice sheets collapsing the night before my book party, (b) the U.S. dollar collapsing the night before my book party, (c) global fish stocks collapsing the night before my book party, and (d) bedbugs.

So I went to see Dr. Mark Tesser, my dermatologist, up on Prospect Park West. We talked about Eliot Spitzer—we always talk about Eliot Spitzer—and then we talked about Chuck Schumer, and then Dr. Tesser told me to take my clothes off. Apparently the spots I had spotted were nothing to worry about, but Dr. Tesser was concerned about a freckle on my forearm, a dubious freckle:

“What’s this?” “Um, that?” “Yes.” “That’s always been there.” “Always this color?” “Um, yes.” “Always darker in the middle?” “Um.” “I want a biopsy.”

So he took a biopsy: punched a hole into my forearm, lifted the chad of skin away with a pair of forceps, and then sent it off to the lab for further study. The biopsy left an ideal wound, two millimeters deep, perfectly circular, and bloodless. While he cleaned me up, I told Dr. Tesser about my book—he wrote the title down on his pad, as though he were about to send me to the pharmacist with a prescription for Maynard and Jennica—and then hurried off to see his next patient.

His nurse gave me a pamphlet on “caring for your wound,” and I headed home, to consider the fate of Antarctica.”

Civics and Urban Life

DISASTER ASSISTANCE CENTER IN BROOKLYN

New York 1 reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has opened a disaster assistance center to help those affected by the tornado that tore through the city on August 8th.

FEMA has officially designated Brooklyn and Queens eligible for federal assistance. The center is located at 552 59th Street in Sunset Park. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Residents can register for assistance by calling 1-800-621-FEMA or by going to www.fema.gov.

Postcard from the Slope

A BLURRY MOON FOR SEPTEMBER 11TH

Oddly, it took a gloomy, rainy day for September 11th to feel almost normal again.

That bright blue sky, five anniversaries in a row, was a cruel reminder of that terrible Tuesday morning six years ago.

It felt impossible to move on faced by the menace of that blue sky.

Yesterday with its rain and thunder, its umbrellas, rain slickers and galoshes felt like any other day. I tried to connect to my pain and I wanted to cry — because I’d said I’d never feel normal on September 11th.

But I didn’t cry.

Maybe it was a choice and it wasn’t the weather at all. I didn’t listen to the names, I didn’t attend a ceremony or sit in Old First Church as I’d done before. I consciously thought about my friend who died many times and wondered what the family members, who I write the FDNY newsletter for, were doing.

But I didn’t cry.

Yesterday the grief of September 11 belonged to the family and friends who lost loved ones. It is and always was a private grief.

Which isn’t to say that there isn’t a public ache because there is. As New Yorkers we ache for what happened to our city and to our friends and neighbors. We also feel exasperation and rage about the  mid-guided and calamitous war that is being waged erroneously in the name of September 11th.

Last night I looked for the Tribute in Lights in the foggy night sky above Key Food but there was only the vaguest hint of a beam. Around ten, I noticed a blurry blob of white where the lights hit the clouds. It looked like a moon.

A new moon, I said to myself. At the end of a gloomy, wet September 11th, there was a blurry moon in the sky created by the lights that I could barely see.

 

GUEST BLOGGER

RICHARD WRITES: 9/11 Memorial Service in East Williamsburg

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By Richard Grayson

After spending hours watching General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker testify before the Senate on Tuesday, I walk down Conselyea Street to Graham Avenue – the street sign here also says Via Vespucci – by the side of Ralph’s Famous Ices, where a plaque honors the eleven East Williamsburg residents lost on 9/11.
By 7 p.m., eighty of us have tiny candles lit in plastic cups as a bagpiper plays “Amazing Grace.” High-pitched drilling from a condo under construction a few feet away competes with the hymn until a cop goes over and temporarily halts gentrification as we sing the national anthem.

Father Tony says a prayer; we all recite the Knights of Columbus “prayer for peace” and the pledge of allegiance; two neighborhood firefighters place wreaths by the memorial as names are read; we sing “America the Beautiful.” Tears come only when I notice two skinny hipsters remove their caps as they pass.
We begin our candlelight procession to church two blocks down. Most people here have lived in this neighborhood all their lives. At 56, I am one of the younger marchers.

Six years before I was living in the small Ozarks town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I had no TV and my radio could get only Christian and country music stations; on one, a DJ mourned, “They were Yankees – but they were our Yankees.”

But sitting in a back pew in a Brooklyn church, I find myself thinking not to that day but to another evening in church: March 2003 at St. Maurice’s in Dania Beach, Florida. Father Roger had called for an interfaith prayer meeting on the eve of the Iraq war.

Everyone there was from Peace South Florida: our leader Myriam, a Colombian immigrant; an old Jewish couple from Century Village; two elderly Quebecois snowbirds; three high school students; and two others I’d seen at futile meetings and marches.

Father Roger distributed prayers from various religions he’d gotten online that afternoon. For the first time since a 1964 performance at Flatbush Park Jewish Center, I got to recite something in a house of worship. That night I asked for peace about ten times in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

On this night, after church, I go home to find C-Span still on. A senator is asking a general if we are any safer now. I take the crumpled program out from my pocket and for the first time see tonight’s memorial had a theme: “Looking Back, Looking Forward.

Postcard from the Slope

SIX YEARS AGO TODAY

2cbw7448On that harrowing day, my father and stepmother watched the towers fall from the 27th floor windows of their Brooklyn Heights apartment with its stunning views of New York Harbor, the Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan.

What had once been the most beautiful urban view imaginable became the most horrifying.

I was over there today.   

"The lights aren’t in the right place," he told me. He’d seen them the night before when they were testing them.

"What do you mean?"

"They’re south of where the towers were," he said.

He was talking about the Tribute in Lights, the two blue lights that shoot up into the sky every September 11th now, a perfect memorial to the devastating loss that our city experienced on that day six years ago.

Nothing can describe that day. I spent the evening of September 11th, 2001 with a friend who’s  firefighter husband died at Ground Zero.

We were calling area hospitals looking for her husband. At midnight, a group of firefighters from Squad 1 in Park Slope showed up at the door. They were covered in dirt and dust and looked unbelivably tired. But they still held out hope that their fellow firefighters were alive. 

"There are voids down there," they told the group of us sitting in my friend’s Park Slope living room. "There are voids. The guys could be in one of those voids."

Voids. That’s what 9/11 created in this city. Friends, family and neighbors are missing. There’s a hole in the skyline where two towers used to be. A sense of "it can’t happen here" has left us forever.

We’re older now. If not wiser, at least we’ve come to understand that there are no exceptions to the violence that this world knows.

Civics and Urban Life

PRINTS CHARMING: NEW LOCATION FOR PARK SLOPE FRAME SHOP

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A longer post will follow in the next day or two.

Prints Charming used to be in a storefront on Seventh Avenue near Lincoln Place (now Olive Vine). Then they moved to the ground floor of a brownstone on Sterling Place.

Now they’re on Fourth Street just steps from Fifth Avenue.

YAY.

Some people thought they went out of business when they left Seventh Avenue but they never did. They were just operating out of a brownstone space.

There is life after Seventh Avenue. Just ask Zuzu’s Petals.

Prints Charming is a world class frame shop run by a highly experienced framer. They also have an outstanding collection prints with an emphasis on Brooklyn and NYC images.

So it’s a print shot AND a frame shop. With so many shops going out of business, it nice to see an old Park Slope business moving to a nice new space and expanding!

Brooklyn Blogfest

NEXT BROOKLYN BLOGADE ROADSHOW ON SEPTEMBER 30TH: DO COME

Everyone’s been asking: When is the next Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow (BBR)?

Well, Bed Stuy Blog is organizing the next one and she’s set the date for September 30th in Bed Stuy. Exact time and location to be announced. Look for information at OTBKB or on Bedstuyblog.com.

The BBR is an outgrowth of the Brooklyn Blogfest, which was a huge gathering of Brooklyn bloggers back in May. It’s a way for bloggers from all over Brooklyn to get together. Ideally, we hope to  encourage bloggers from underrepresented neighborhoods to start blogging.

These events are open to the public. In fact, we really, really, really want to see new faces at these events.

If you are a longtime blogger, a new blogger, a "I’m thinking about becoming" blogger, or a blog reader, you are welcome to attend.

What happens at this events? We gather in cafe or restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. Eat. Talk. Drink. The host blogger may present a program about the nabe or another topic of interest and then there’s the Blogger Shout Out, where everyone gets a chance to talk about their blog.

In June: we met at Vox Pop in Ditmas Park/Flatbush (hosted by Flatbush Gardener and Sustainable Flatbush)

In July: we met at Casa Mon Amour in Greenpoint (hosted by New York Shitty).

September: Time and location TBD (hosted by Bed Stuy Blog).

Civics and Urban Life

SEEING GREEN SEES THAT HIS SON IS GROWING UP

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Seeing Green’s son, Little D, is walking to school alone. He’s nine and his parents are sort of ready for this big change. Here’s an excerpt:

Elizabeth says that when she was in first grade in Los Angeles, she and a
friend would walk by themselves. And cycle in the streets. What have we lost by our perception that we can’t allow this anymore? And it is a perception more than reality
in the type of neighborhood we live in. Your child is statistically
more likely to be hit by lightning than be abducted (which I assume is
the most trenchant fear, you can after all teach your child to be
cautious about vehicles.) When D walks to and from school in Park
Slope, he probably walks by many of his friends and acquaintances. In
fact, one of our older neighbors said to Elizabeth yesterday, "He’s
growing up! Walking to school by himself." Talk about "eyes on the
street," she’s aware of a lot that happens in front of her house.

Postcard from the Slope

SEPTEMBER IS MEMORIZE POETRY MONTH

OTBKB fave, Deborah Ager, has declared September to be "Memorize Poetry Month.

It’s a cool idea. A great way to really get inside a poem. Deborah is the publisher of the highly respected 32 Poems. She also has a great blog, which I’ve been reading for a long time.

Since there’s April Poetry Month, I hereby declare September to be “Memorize Poetry” month. You don’t even have to memorize all the poems in the world — only four.

One poem per week…how difficult can that be? Here are rules:

1. One poem can be shorter than 10 lines. Ideally, the others should be longer than 10 lines.

Only one rule and four poems in month…easy, aye?

Go to her site for more details and ideas for poems to memorize.

Civics and Urban Life

WEATHER BY ROSE

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Dad_at_the_metropolitan_29
From her weather tower in Coney Island, here is the weather by Rose at 8 in the morning.

"It’s going to rain all day. It’s raining now. On and off all day. It’s in the 70’s now with chance of thunder showers. It’s terrible. The ceremony is going on. They’re setting up now. People gathering in the city for the  9/11 ceremony."

Postcard from the Slope

LAST SEPTEMBER 11TH

I wrote this last year:

I listened to the incantation of names; watched the spouses and
partners on television. Later, caught a few minutes of Bush using the
day as an opportunity to justify his war; watched ABC’s  fictionmentary
about real events, real people,

It was already 12:15 a.m. on September 12th when I took a walk down Seventh Avenue to see the lights.

The light was shooting up from the top of PS 321 in the midnight
blue sky. Above Key Food, Old First Church. The light walked with me
down the Avenue (shopping list:  Spoon size Shredded Wheat, Raisin
Bran, ballpoint pens for TC, orange juice).

The beam of light was sharp, beautiful (there may be two, but out
here in Park Slope it looks like a single beam).  I wish it was here
every night and of course I do not.

Presence. Absence. It speaks of loss, while introducing something dramatic and new to the city night.

The shop lights were on at Sweet Melissa’s, where a crew was busy
getting the shop ready for  its grand opening on Wednesday. Paper
covering counters, tools everywhere, the name being stenciled onto the
front window. Something new.

Except for the Korean Market on Garfield, Key Food, Pino’s, nothing
was open on Seventh Avenue; it was desserted. I saw a few stragglers at
Snooky’s (for a moment I thought I might go in and order a scotch, it
seemed like the appropriate thing to do). Workers standing outside of
Starbucks waiting for a car; voices inside the playground; a dog walker
or two.

Back on Third Street the light comes out from behind the limestone
buildings. Blue television light illuminates a checkerboard of
windows;  time to go upstairs. Wanting: to stand outside; to be the
only one there at that moment; quiet, alone.

Civics and Urban Life

BLOG OF THE DAY: DEEP IN THE HEART OF BROOKLYN

Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn, is a new blog from OTBKB fave and guest blogger, Brooklyn Beat. Here’s an excerpt from a post called "9/11: Metaphors for Living."

It would not be too farfetched to say that there was something
positively volcanic about the sight of the burning building in the
distance, as though a fault had erupted and some intense steam and fire
and brimstone from the bowels of the earth had been channelled to the
surface.I debarked at Union Square and began to make my way north and
west. My daughter was at a classmate’s apartment on 28th and 7th
avenue. When I arrived there were about a dozen girls hanging out, who
this mom had wonderfully rescued from the boredom of waiting to be
picked up at school. While there, I spoke to my mother. I knew the
address was familiar. She has a cousin who lives in the same building.
We managed to find her and check on her before my daughter and I
embarked on the trek home.We went to one train station but it was
closed. We walked further east and Union Square again had no trains
running. The transit workers suggested we try West 4th Street. As we
walked along the streets, the sky was filled with the huge plume of
smoke. My ears rang with the desperate clamour of the rescue vehicles
that would resound, non stop for what seemed like several days. There
was virtually no traffic in the street except the occasional emergency
vehicle.As we crossed Sixth Avenue, our faces were pelted with a fine
mist of grit and dust blowing from the southern tip of Manhattan. I
still don’t want to think what was in that fine power that we brushged
from our faces and clothes. Miraculously, the F was running and we took
it into Brooklyn to my old stop at 15th Street and Prospect Park West.

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK

WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK: THE MODERN MOM’S GUIDE TO DADS

I thought this sounded like an interesting book so I asked author Hogan Hilling to do a Why I Wrote this Book. Even Mothering Magazine liked the book and had this to say. "It is so hard to find a male perspective on fathering. I really appreciate your empathy for fathers’ feelings about pregnancy and birth—the sense of responsibility, fear, helplessness, and the drive to provide. I love the description of how men feel during childbirth classes, how they object to being called coaches as well as their reluctance to share their feelings in a room full of women."

The Modern Mom’s Guide to Dads: 10 Secrets Your Husband Won’t Tell You by Hogan Hilling and Jesse Jayne Rutherford. (Cumberland House, October 2007).

I’ve led fathering workshops over the last fifteen years, and during that course of time, I’ve heard a lot about what other dads are really thinking, feeling, and afraid of when it comes to parenthood—things guys don’t normally tell their wives.

The idea for the book came about when moms started asking me to give them workshops on fathering because they wanted to hear what men had to say about being dads! I did, and I also wrote a book to share this information with women everywhere and, I hope, make their lives easier.


Civics and Urban Life

WEATHER BY ROSE

Dad_at_the_metropolitan_29
From her weather tower in Coney Island, here is today’s weather by Rose at 7 a.m.

"It’s very, very foggy out my window. I can’t see anything. The weatherman says there’s a chance of showers this afternoon. It’s already 79 degrees. So it’s going to be hot and muggy today. And there may be some rain."

Postcard from the Slope

OTBKB HOT PICK FOR BROOKLYN BOOK FEST

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There are so many great readings and discussions (Dave Eggers, Paula Fox, The Two Jonathans:  Lethem and Safran Foer, Valentin Achek Deng, Kathryn Harrison, Colin Harrison, Joyce Johnson, Jacqueline Woodson, Elizabeth Strout, yada yada…) at next Sunday’s Brooklyn Book Festival but my hot pick for what to do:

AFRICA NOW
3:00 p.m. at St. Francis College at 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights. Presented by Tin House editor, Rob Spillman.

The continent of Africa is undergoing a literary renaissance, and this program highlights three of today’s most exciting young African writers: Uzodinma Iweala, Doreen Baingana, and Mohammed Naseehu Ali.

Civics and Urban Life

SEE MO WILLEMS, JON SCIESZKA, MYLA GOLDBERG AND BULLSEYE, THE TARGET DOG, AT BROOKLYN BOOK FEST

There’s so much to do at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday September 16. Too much even to mention here. So go to the website and check out the events schedule. You can also just walk around and see all the local book publishers and lit publications. Here are readings for kids ages 2 – 8 sponsored by Target. You can even have your photo taken with Bullseye, the Target dog.

10:00 a.m. Troupe Theatre— Performing Enchanting Children’s  Classics  by Ezra Jack Keats, Arthur Lobel

11:00 a.m.  Mo Willems—Elephant and Piggie; Knufflebunny: A  Cautionary Tale

11:45 a.m.  Jon Scieszka—Cowboy and Octopus; Time Warp Trio

12:30 p.m. Alyssa Satin Capucilli- Biscuit; Katy Duck

1:15 p.m.  Mari  Takabayashi–I Live in Brooklyn

2:00 p.m.  Myla  Goldberg—Catching the Moon

2:45 p.m. Randall de Seve—The Toy Boat

3:30 p.m. Tad Hills—Duck and Goose; Waking Up  Wendell

4:15 p.m. Kam Mak—My Chinatown; Moon of the Monarch Butterflies

5:00   p.m.  Pat   Cummings—Clean Your Room Harvey   Moon

Postcard from the Slope

ANYONE HAVE ROOM FOR MY FLYERS AT THE BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL?

Brooklyn Reading Works (BRW) wants to be represented at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday September 16th but there are no more tables for vendors.

Who’s more Brooklyn than BRW, a monthly reading series at the Old Stone House? BRW begins its 3rd season on September 20th with hot new author Rudy Delson reading from his hot new book, Maynard and Jennica. It’s his VERY FIRST READING!

BRW readings are a blast. Great authors. Great audiences. A social time afterwards for drinks and books.

So BRW want to be at the second annual Brooklyn Book Festival on September 16, 2007. The festival  presents fiction and non-fiction programs with author discussions and
reading.

Last year it was really fun. There were tons booksellers and thousands
of books, author readings, poetry slams and bookish activities for kids in Brooklyn’s Borough Hall Plaza and Columbus Park.  Even Target is getting in on the act. There are kids books at the Target Children’s Pavilion and books for teens at the Independence Community
Foundation Youth Pavilion.

Now for my request: I am looking to share a table with someone because all the vendor tables are booked up.

I called a self-published author in Midwood and she’s thinking about it. Let me know. It’ll be FUN.

Civics and Urban Life

JUMP START YOUR WRITING: THIS SATURDAY

Novelist Regina McBride, author of The Nature of Water and Air, The Land of Women, and The Marriage Bed, will offer a special one-day workshop in Park Slope on Saturday September 15 from 10 am -5 pm.

Register now to reserve a place in this workshop that is designed for writers of all levels. The cost is $125.

NOTE FROM OTBKB: I have studied with Regina McBride
since 1998 and I recommend her classes to all writers wherever you are
in your process. Using relaxation and sense memory, her technique is
wonderful whether you are just beginning to write, embarking on a novel
or memoir, or very experienced and in the midst of a novel or short
story.

For inspiration, character development and incredible writing
exercises, Regina’s course has been vital to my development as a writer
as it always propels me to my  best writing. Especially great when your
work needs a little jump start.

If you are interested, please email nightsea21@nyc.rr.com

Inner Lives: Developing Characters

An Intensive Workshop with the Focus on the Fictional Character

With Regina McBride

Using relaxation, sense memory, and emotional memory (Stanislavski
acting techniques transformed for the writer) a variety of exercises
will be offered to enable the student to find a deeper, richer
connection to the character he or she is creating.

Exercises will be followed by writing periods, and opportunities for
people to read and share their work. The atmosphere will be safe, with
the focus on exploration. The class is designed to help the student
break into new territory with the character, and with the story itself.

Civics and Urban Life

WE MISS CLAUDIA AT CARROLL CLEANERS

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How would you feel if your most favorite dry cleaning gals disappeared? Suddenly. Out of the blue. That’s what happened when I went to Carroll Cleaners all prepared to say hello to Claudia and was told that the business had been sold.

"Was it sudden?" I asked

"No," answered the nice young Korean man. "It’s been in the works for about a year."

I figure it was a condition of the sale that Claudia and Co. not mention the sale. I immediately called Diaper Diva and told her to sit down.

"I am sitting down," she said.

"Carroll Cleaners changed ownership."

"I’ve known that for two weeks," she said.

I saw RED. Why was she holding out on me? When I saw her next she told me what she knew.

Apparently Claudia was married to the son of the owner of the old Carroll Cleaners. His parents sold the business and she’s now working at a Lord and Taylor’s.

I loved Claudia and the other women at Carroll Cleaners. Walking in there was like being on the set of a Pedro Almodovar movie. The woman were beautiful. The Latin conversation spicy and fun.

Ultra stylish Claudia, with her multi-hued blonde, curly coiffed hair do, worked at the shop for 18  years. She always looked fashion forward, sexy and fun and she was just the warmest, best dry cleaning person I’ve ever known. She was also an ace at fitting clothing. You only had to watch her as she pinned someone’s pants or formal dress. She really cared.

I could tell that other people on line at Carroll Cleaners were a little shocked that they left so suddenly. Change is tough. Especially in Park Slope where we all get so attached to our stores and the people who run them.

Serving Park Slope and Beyond