I saw this on Chowhound LA, who says that this location in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles will soon be the first west coast branch of OTBKB fave Two Boots.

"The owners of this commercial building on the southside of Sunset Boulevard between Lemoyne St. and Glendale Blvd. recently exposed part of the metal facade to reveal some of the original brick walls and stone arches of the building.

The owners, who also run the popular Echo nightclub, recently won the backing of the EPHS to remove a section of the facade as they renovate part of the building for a pizza parlor.

They need a final OK from the city before they can take off the rest. They do not have immediate plans to restore the arched windows or the remainder of the facade but we would expect the results will have nearby residents asking them to take the rest of that cheesey metal siding off and let that building’s historic beauty shine through. We hope they listen."

A Brooklyn Life like the new wine bar on Hoyt and Union.

There is something very magical about visiting a neighborhood business
when it first opens. The wait staff is not only friendly but downright
lovable, each dish is prepared with care, each drink poured with love,
and everyone (guests and staff) is relaxed, happy and full of optimism.
I hope that Black Mountain Wine House continues to have all of these qualities because tonight it was truly charming.

We’re in Sag Harbor again for our annual one-week family vacation with my sister’s family, my mother and my family. I wrote this post last August (2006).

We love Sag Harbor; it’s the un-Hampton (remember the un-cola?).
You don’t have to use traffic-congested Montauk Highway to get there –
a real blessing. Nor do you have to deal with all the Ferrari-driving
rich that habitate in the Hamptons.  Sag is a real place with hilly
streets, perfectly scaled architecture,  a charming downtown, loads of
churches and bay beaches that make it a lovely place to be.

Ten of us (husband, kids, sister, bro-in-law, niece,
babysitterandsomuchmore, mother, friend of son) shared two houses on an
idyllic street in the heart of Sag. We call it a family vacation

Yup, a lot has changed in Sag since 1991 when I spent a week
photographing artifacts at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum (for a
children’s film called Long Island Discovery). Back then the Paradise
Diner was a real, honest-to-goodness diner and there was a great
variety store. The variety store is still there – one of those now-rare
five and dimes where  you can get absolutely everything – almost. They
still have Old Gold Cigarette posters from the 1920’s and ’30’s hanging
on the wall. And the cashier has a real seen it all look on her face.

But the Paradise Diner is now an expensive bistro called the New
Paradise Restaurant, and there are one too many t-shirt shops and
high-end boutiques with hostess gifts and gifts for dogs. I used to
love to browse at Paradise Books (what the diner became before it
became the restaurant ). But that’s gone, too.

Still, Sag has a lot of charm, a lot of history and personal
history, too. This was our eighth summer renting there. Our first
summer, Teen Spirit was in second grade and OSFO was just a toddler. It
rained for most of the two weeks we were there but we still had fun.
This year, Teen Spirit brought a friend and they took long walks just
to get lost, went to the movies by themselves, jammed on their guitars
in the air conditioned bedroom, and spent hours in the ocean (when it
wasn’t too hot to go to the beach).

During the worst of the heat wave, a large grouping of us sat in the
air conditioned living room and moaned about how hot it was. "Ohhh,
it’s soooooo hot," someone would say. "Really, really hot."

In the back yard, we filled 2-year old Ducky’s inflatable swimming
pool with ice cold water. The boys had  water fights that devolved into
general mayhem. We took turns sitting in the tiny wading pool and
sprayed our heads with the hose. Anything to feel cool. Anything.
Thankfully, the refrigerator had one of those ice makers on the door.

Our haven for cooling off was Haven’s Beach, which we call the
Cheesy Beach, because it doesn’t have waves like Atlantic Beach. That’s
the Fancy Beach in Amagansett (they charge ten bucks to park but we
love it anyway). The Cheesy Beach, however, is an easy walk from the
house (when it’s not too hot to walk) and it has numerous charms; it’s
downright blissful at low tide when you  can walk a quarter mile out
without the water touching your knees.

One day at the Cheesy Beach, a group of teenage girls from Eastern
Europe in g-string bikinis that didn’t cover their buttocks at all,
chain smoked and took pictures of each other with disposable cameras.
They seemed to enjoy the stares they were getting from the boys
swimming in the bay.

World Breastfeeding Week starts today and there won’t be any formula in hospital gift bags in New York City hospitals.

This week, moms will get:
–a breast-milk bottle cooler
–disposable nursing pads
–breastfeeding tips
–a baby T-shirt with the slogan “I Eat at Mom’s” across the front.

World Breastfeeding Week is part of a worldwide plan “to help initiate breastfeeding within one hour of delivery.”

Park Slope businessman Harry Tarzian, whose hardware store is a fave of many joins the Advisory Board of Develop Don’t Destroy. Author and poet Phillip Lopate, another Brooklyn fave, is also on board. The DDDB press release fills in lots of biographical details on both.

BROOKLYN, NY — Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is pleased to announce two outstanding additions to the 49-member DDDB Advisory Board — author Phillip Lopate and mom ‘n’ pop business success Harry Tarzian.

“I’ve decided to join the DDDB Advisory Board because DDDB is asking the right questions and demanding a more appropriate plan for Brooklyn than the over-scaled Atlantic Yards. I would like to support any effort that would send the project back to the drawing board to bring about a development over the Vanderbilt Yards that would most benefit the people and neighborhoods of Brooklyn,” said author Phillip Lopate.

Phillip Lopate, is a renowned essayist, novelist, poet, teacher and professor, editor, film and architecture critid. He is a Brooklyn native.

Mr. Lopate currently holds the John Cranford Adams Chair at Hofstra University, and he also teaches in the MFA graduate programs at Columbia, the New School and Bennington. His most recent book is an urban meditation titled, Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan. In addition to his writing, he’s an occasional guest on WNYC radio’s Leonard Lopate Show, whose host happens to be his brother.

Harry Tarzian may be best known to Brooklynites as the scion of the Tarzian family, Park Slope’s nearly century-old purveyor of hardware and housewares. But he’s also an acclaimed photographer, whose work is archived in both the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the collection of the New York Historical Society.

Tarzian Hardware epitomizes the mom ‘n’ pop neighborhood stores that drive Brooklyn’s commerce — the types of stores glaringly absent from Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal malls. In business since Harry’s father and uncle founded the original Tarzian’s in 1921, the hardware store is a Brooklyn icon.

One of Harry’s favorite pastimes is wandering Brooklyn’s neighborhoods, photographically chronicling the unrivaled spirit and energy of his hometown. For a look at some of his visit:
http://www.harrytarzian.com

“We’re very proud to have Phillip Lopate and Harry Tarzian join our Advisory Board. They’re support means a lot to us, and is further evidence that the opposition to the Atlantic Yards project is deep and wide,” said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s spokesman Daniel Goldstein. “Their support native Brooklynites and newer-comers alike believe that the Atlantic Yards project is not in the best interest of the community and the borough.”

Just thought you might like to know. See today’s No Words_Daily Pix.

Hepcat and I used to watch Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow Show, which was replaced by Dave Letterman’s “The Late Show” on WNBC back in the 1980’s.

Tom Shales has a nice piece about Snyder in today’s Washington Post with this quote from a CBS colleague. “The big man is gone,” said CBS News Vice President Steve Friedman, 60, who knew Snyder for 37 years. “Tom used to say, ‘Writers write, producers produce, and stars star,’ ” Friedman said, “but he only said that to make us feel better — because he was a better writer than any of us, a better producer than any of us, and the biggest star in our universe.”

Dan Ackyroyd did a hysterical impersonation of the talk show host on SNL. He really got the Snyder’s cadences just right. According to Lorne Michaels, producer of SNL, Snyder loved it.

Snyder interviewed everyone: John Lennon, Spiro Agnew, Marlon Brando, Charles Manson and Johnny Rotton. Defending himself against charges of pomposity and abrasiveness he told the New York Times:

“I’m a human being, I have opinions and biases and beliefs and standards and I have to inject them into that program. Otherwise we might as well have an empty chair and give the gues a list of written questions.”

This From New York 1:

Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette Clarke announced Monday that she is taking a six-week medical leave from Capitol Hill.

Clarke’s staff told the New York Times she’s recovering from surgery to treat uterine fibroids.

Aides say Clarke will be back in Washington when Congress reconvenes in September.

The former city councilwoman was elected last year to the 11th Congressional District.

An OTBKB reader wrote in today about the dukcs:

Thanks for posting about the guinea fowl.

I know you linked to the piece about the Prospect Park Ducklings –
but I am still trying to figure out what happened to them. Would you consider running a photo?

Here is the full story:
http://luma.typepad.com/photos/hudsonjane/index.html

There are more photos at the Gallery at the bottom

Picture New York Without Pictures of New York

Thousands of New Yorkers who love both their city and their cameras may face exactly that if the cumbersome, costly and unconstitutional regulations from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting go into effect this August as scheduled.

Picture New York is an ad hoc coalition of working artists, filmmakers, and photographers who’ve joined together to fight the proposed rules. These rules can be seen not only as a blow against New York as a place that welcomes and inspires art-making and documentation, but are part of a broader continuum of attacks against civil liberties and free expression

They have set up an online e-action form to make it as easy as possible. Just click here to submit comments to the Office of Film and to the City Council Committee that oversees that office. There’s a sample letter there, and you can add your own comments, then hit send. Voila!

Well, I’m doing it again. A guide to every day in August. (And I’m not even going to be here much in August.) Still, I toiled for OTBKB readers, wanting to bring them the best and the brightest events during those 31 HOT days.

Here are two great ideas for this week: Circus and Theater.

August 1: Cole Brothers Circus in Coney Island. Three shows per day. Check website for times and prices. Shows August 1-5.

August 2: Brave New World Repertory Theater: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry / Jenny Scheinman. The dynamic Brooklyn-based company follows last summer’s Bandshell production of “The Great White Hope” with an adaptation of Walt Whitman’s love song to the borough “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” that fuses poetry, projections, music, rap, and dance. Commissioned by Celebrate Brooklyn.

Our pal Pete hasn’t written a book. But if he did write a book it would be called The Truth About Everything. And here’s why he’s going to write it. So here’s the book he’s thinking about writing.

I hold these truths (among others) to be self-evident: that sexual repression and emotional numbness are the roots of all evil; that neediness and greediness are flip-sides of the same psychological coin; that parents are the least qualified adults to raise children; that all opinions and beliefs are based on a lack of true knowledge; that self-sacrifice and commitment are the ruination of all relationships; that what you eat is less important to your health than how you eat it; that the body never lies; that there is no inherently self-destructive force in human beings; that being in-love is always mutual.

Introduction

I am going to say some things in this book that some people may find provocative, radical or outlandish at best, offensive, immoral or ludicrous at worst. I will say these things with no claim of moral authority. I will merely claim that the statements I make will be true on the face of it, in and of themselves. Although I have a bachelor’s degree in sociology, a master’s degree in social work, post-graduate clinical training in several different psychotherapies, and I am a board certified, licensed practitioner in my field, this is not going to be a professional book. I am not going to back up anything that I say in this book with scientific research or statistical studies of my own, nor am I going to reference or footnote those of others. You and I do not have time for that, and besides, after having read such studies voluminously myself, all I have encountered are a few “facts,” but rarely any truth.

In this book, I am simply going to tell the truth as I have learned it – as I have learned it not just from the nearly three decades I’ve worked as a psychotherapist exploring the inner lives of other people, people of all ages and backgrounds, not just from the over two decades of personal self-work, self-work of a deeply psychological, emotional and spiritual nature, not just from the five-plus decades of being alive here on Planet Earth. I will be telling the truth as I have learned it from gaining access… to the truth – access available to anyone willing to know it.

Continue reading WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK: PETER LOFFREDO →

This from New York 1:

More than two dozen teams got their hands dirty Saturday for the 17th annual Sand Sculpting Contest.

Sculptors from across the city came out to build creations depicting everything from animals to Coney Island’s iconic Parachute Jump. The winner of the $200 top prize chose mermaids as his theme.

“They gave us some cash and we’re going to go have some hotdogs now,” said Tony Saunders, winner best solo adult sculptor. “And my sculpture was the sleepy mermaid. She’s still on the beach, and she had a hard night last night, so she’s sleeping today.”

“I like to put my hands in the sand and ground myself out and all the problems disappear,” said contestant Artie Knapp. “I’ve been doing it a long time, and it works. It makes me very happy, very calm, mellow.”

The city’s parks department delivered 50 mounds of sand for the event, which also included music and games.