That’s the topic of Pastor Dan Meeter’s sermon on June 17th at the Old First Reformed Church on Seventh Avenue and Carroll Street. Service begins at 11 a.m.

Read the Pastor’s blog about the Transformers, the young adults who came to Park Slope from Wisconsin to spruce up the church. The church looks incredible. Here’s an excerpt.

What a wonderful week it was at Old First. We hosted the Transformers, a young adults group from the Gibbsville (Wisconsin) Reformed Church. They refurbished our main chandelier, and did eight other projects too.

There are 108 light bulbs in that chandelier, but God’s love shone through 63 young adults from Wisconsin this week, filling our old church building with light and life and love. And music. And laughter. And scripture. And joy.

Let me recommend you go to a blog by Chris Wensink for more details.

I don’t want to make you to feel too bad if you missed the show — one of their best. I won’t go into too much detail about the incredible music, lyrics, piano, bass, and guitar…

I won’t attempt to describe Capathia’s breathtaking get-inside-the-emotional-story-of-a-song approach to singing that can make you cry, laugh, and kvell. Or mention Louis’ edgy and personal way with a song like “The Southside Jew Blues” or “Reincarnationist” two of my faves.

Or tell you how moved I was by the whole event, a benefit for the free summer arts programming at the Old Stone House.

You can catch them at Birdland next week or buy the CD. It is also sold at the Community Bookstore in Park Slope.

That’s all I will say.

A note from Kim Maier, director of the Old Stone House, about tomorrow’s concert at the Old Stone House and Sunday’s opening of the Farmer’s Market

Capathia
Jenkins, and Louis
Rosen are scheduled to perform their second benefit concert on behalf of The Old Stone
House this Saturday night, June
16th. The proceeds will go to supporting our rapidly growing arts
programming, including this summer’s concert and film series and Piper Theatre
Company’s production of Macbeth — all taking place outdoors in JJ Byrne Park.

 

The performance will
mark the Brooklyn concert premiere of songs from their recently released and
highly acclaimed debut recording, South
Side Stories, songs of youth, coming of age and experience, inspired by the
Chicago
neighborhood where Louis grew up.  They’ll also be offering a "sneak
preview" of a number of songs from Louis’s newest work for Capathia, Giovanni Songs, on words by the
renowned poet Nikki Giovanni. Capathia and Louis will be joined by two splendid
musicians, the pianist Kimberly Grigsby, currently the musical director and
keyboardist for Spring Awakening, and Dave Phillips on acoustic
and electric bass. 

 

There will be
champagne and dessert beginning at 8 pm, and the concert starts at 8:30
pm.  Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door.  Reservations can be
made by calling 718-768-3195, or tickets purchased on-line at www.nycharities.org.  Click on the
Event Calendar, View All, then click on June 16. 

 

On Sunday, June 17,
welcome the Park Slope Farmer’s Market back to 5th Avenue! Thanks to the Fifth
Avenue Merchants Association for once again sponsoring the market.  Hector
Perez was here last week with a preview of this season’s produce from Alex Farm,
so come down for more fabulous strawberries, as well as goodies from other
vendors including bread, chutneys, pastries, and pickles.

That’s because it’s the New York Aquarium’s 50th Anniversary this week. This from New York 1:

The New York Aquarium will hold a two-day festival this weekend to celebrate its 50th Anniversary at Coney Island.

City officials and wildlife advocates re-dedicated the aquarium Thursday morning during a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Sea lion Otis hammed it up for the crowd, and performed tricks that prove the aquarium can be both entertaining and educational.

“The animals are very intelligent,” said sea lion trainer Joanne Sottile. “They’ve learned a lot of different behaviors to help highlight the natural history of the species itself.”

As part of the weekend’s festivities, anyone turning 50 this year will be admitted free of charge.

Gowanus Lounge reports: No resolution yet, but it’s looking good…

Representatives of the Red Hook food vendors and City Council Member Sara Gonzalez met with Park Department Friday afternoon about the future of the vendors whose plight has drawn citywide attention. Red Hook Vendors Committee head Cesar Fuentes told GL that although “there is still no answer to our plight, we have good hope that there will be a positive outcome.” He described the meeting as “positive” and “good.”

This from New York 1:

The Fairway Market in Red Hook and the USO of Metropolitan New York launched a care package program Wednesday to support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As part of the launch, 75 members of the Coast Guard were treated to a luncheon.

For $20 to $69, customers can order packages like “Mulberry Street on the Go” with goodies like Hebrew National Salami, Black and White Cookies, and sweet peppers.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re for the war or against the war,” says Fairway Market owner Howie Glickberg. “This is going to the troops. They’re not politicians. They’re just over there doing all our dirty work.”

“When people get a package, even if you send it to an individual, they share it with everybody that’s with them, so it’s a great way to support the troops,” says Mike Berman of USO of Metropolitan New York.

A hundred percent of the proceeds go to the USO.

For more information, log on to: fairwaymarket.com.

This weekend is the third annual Brookyln Renegade Craft Fair. The annual DIY event, started in 2003 by Sue Blatt and Kathleen Habbley, welcomes over 150 vendors and thousands of shoppers from all over the country. Check out DIY knitting, jewelry, sewn items, paper goods, silkscreening, comics, zines and more. Saturday and Sunday, June 16 and 17, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., McCarren Park Pool, Lorimer Street, between Driggs & Bayard Avenues.

Dana Kochnower, a video producer,  got in touch with me today. Her film project about the Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest sounds really interesting. Email her if you’re interested in participating or just say hi when she’s on Fuller Place on Saturday.

Come take part in a short documentary about The Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest sponsored by Brooklyn Greenbridge the community horticulture program of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.   
I am a professional television news producer (10+ years in local and national news), and this documentary is a personal project I am undertaking as part of a professional level workshop at The New School University.   
I am interested in speaking with residents of Fuller Place, a longtime contender and runner-up for Greenest Block in Brooklyn about their gardens and their experiences in the competition, as well as other past and current participating block associations.   
I will be on Fuller Place tomorrow, Saturday, June 16th to introduce myself in person.  If you are interested, or know someone who might be interested in this project, please contact me at greenestblockdoc@yahoo.com.

Robert Guskind, who runs the Gowanus Lounge, took Pete Hamill to task for some comments he made on the Brian Lehrer radio show earlier this week.

Apparently Hamill doesn’t think there’s any real reporting or good writing going on in the blogosphere. He believes writers need to be part of the newsroom, with real editors; he believes they need to spend time rubbing elbows with the life of the city — not sitting at computers all day.

Robert Guskind was a perfect gent and a great guest on WNYC’s great morning talk radio show. He’s gentle, polite and also smart as a whip. A pundit in the making. He agreed that Hamill, Kempton, et al (he listed a bunch of Hamill’s journalistic contemporaries) are hard to top. That said, there’s still quite a bit of good reporting happening on blogs. Guskind, for one, doesn’t sit by his computer all day. Not by a long shot. He travels all over Brooklyn getting his stories, which focus mostly on development and city planning issues in Gowanus, Long Island, Park Slope, and Williamsburg.

Go to Gowanus Lounge for his story and the PODCAST.

This from New York 1:

As of Friday night, police in Brooklyn were still searching for a man
who sexually assaulted a woman in Prospect Park overnight.

Investigators say the attack happened at about 2 a.m.

The victim was reportedly approached near the ball fields on the
south end of the park by a man who either had a gun, or said he had
one. The man then sexually attacked the woman.

The victim then called for help after the attack and was taken to
Methodist Hospital. Doctors describe her as being in good condition.

Women who say they use the park every day said they were being extra vigilant following the attack.

“Precautions, you know, common sense,” said one woman. “I don’t
think things happen all the time, but I don’t want to be the next one
that it’s going to happen to. So, I think the park is pretty safe. I
feel very sorry for this woman. That’s awful.”

Police are unsure if the victim was at the park for a Neville
Brothers concert in the park’s band shell, but that concert wrapped up
at about 10:30 p.m.

“Well, two o’clock in the morning. Even though the concert ended
about 10, 10:30, no one should be in the park at two o’clock in the
morning,” said another. “It’s not a safe time.”

"I’m not saying it’s her fault, there is no justification for
that," said a third. "But, at two o’clock in the morning I would never
do that."

Police are not describing the attack as a rape, but as a sexual
assault. They have not yet released a description of the suspect.

I went into Old First Church this afternoon and I couldn’t get over the transformation by the Transformers, the group from Gibbsville, Wisconsin that’s spent the week sprucing things up.

Chris Wensink, one of the Transformers, writes about the process on his blog.

“The single most important job that we are here for is to lower and clean up and fix the chandelier in the center part of the sactuary. This project is being led by Mike Navis, Jenn’s husband, who is an electrician. Monday morning the chandelier was lowered to a height where we could take the lower sections off, then support the main lighting section with some wood on the bottom.

Once that was set, we got out all of the scaffolding in the basement of the church, and began building the scaffolding around the areas of the chandelier. Once we hd that in place, we began unscrewing all of the bulbs, then slowly taking the 100 year old glass enclosures off of the chandelier that were around the bulbs. There was about 100 bulbs / glass shields that were taken down. Some people then that afternoon started carefully taking those over to the kitchen area and washing them back to a clean / shining state. Once those were all all out of the way Mike began inspecting all of the chandelier wiring and all of the sockets, testing them to make sure they work, and that they have adequate wiring standards in place.”

After days of hard work, the Transformers have returned the chandelier to the ceiling. All the lightbulbs are in. It’s shiny, shiny. And I’ve never seen the sanctuary look so bright. Not in years.

It is so BRIGHT!!

“Is there a dimmer on that thing?” I asked Pastor Meeter.
“No, but we can control which row of lights is on,” he said.

The Transformers are also cleaning the sanctuary and doing construction and restoration work in other parts of the church.

They’re using the big room adjacent to the santuary as a mess hall/social/rest area. They’ve got tables set up in there, some with Bibles. When I was in there, it was obviously snack time. Chris, the blogger, was blogging away in a private corner. I introduced myself. He said Brooklyn couldn’t be more different from where they’re from. But they’re all having a great time.

Go to Chris’s blog for a detailed narrative of the restoration work the Transformers have been engaged in.

I ran into Daniel Meeter, the pastor of Old First Reformed Church this morning. He had a copy of J.D. Salinger’s "Franny and Zooey" in his pocket.

"What a great book," he said. "I finally read it."

Pastor Meeter jokes that he reads OTBKB first thing in the morning. "After God " he says. "I turn to God then to Laurie." For some reason, he thinks my name is Laurie. It’s LOUISE, Dan. Louise.

Today he didn’t read OTBKB so it was nice to run into each other. I asked him how things are going with the Wisconsiners at the church.

"Have you been there yet? Have you seen the chandelier lowered to the floor?" he said with characteristic enthusiasm. Pastor Meeter loves the energy and generosity of the folks from Gibbsville, Wisconsin, who call themselves the Transformers. They have thrown themselves into the restoration of the chandelier: polishing it, replacing light bulbs, doing whatever needs to be done.

Meeter says that they can’t seem to drag themselves away from it: they stand, sit, talk, work around it all day.

"They are embracing the beauty of the chandelier," he says.

The Transformer’s one-week adventure in Brooklyn has been an eye-opening experience for many of them. Park Slope, Brooklyn couldn’t be more different than their hometown, but the Transformers are taking it in — hearts open wide.

Read the Transformers blog for a narrative of their days Brooklyn.

For details on what people are calling the first post-massacre Community Board 6 meeting, check out Gowanus Lounge’s report. Here’s an excerpt.

Community Board 6 held its first meeting since theAtlantic Yards/Gowanus Massacre by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and City Council Member David Yassky that ended the service of nine longstanding members. The Board voted down a resolution criticizing the dismissals and suggesting that the "independence and, indeed, the fundamental value of Community Boards are undermined" by removal of members based on their position on controversial issues. The Board voted against the measure by a voted of 14-6 with a large number of abstentions.

On bike lanes…
On congestion pricing…

Didn’t make it over there. But it looked like fun. Check out pictures at the Gowanus Lounge.

Oh and I’m such a fan of Aaron Neville’s falsetto.

He was in Park Slope last week at the Community Bookstore. They were giving out purple balloons. Not sure about this reading. But that’s okay. It’s in Soho.

Ben Greenman, an editor at the New Yorker, will be reading tonight at
7 p.m. at McNally Robinson in New York (52 Prince St.) with Jack
Pendarvis and Pia Z. Ehrhardt. Mr. Greenman’s new book of fiction, "A
Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both: Stories About Human Love" has
been receiving rave reviews. Here are some:

"Love in all its complexities, disappointments and reversals…Just when
you thought there was nothing more to say."
–Chicago Tribune

"Accessible, beautifully written, honest, and hilarious…Greenman’s
knowledge of popular culture is thorough and his rendering brilliant.
The best stories I found myself wanting to read again immediately,
then read again to a friend. Highly recommended."
–Library Journal

"At their best, the stories in ‘A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass
Both’ are serious works of realistic fiction. But then, the stories of
Kafka are serious realistic fiction too."
–San Francisco Chronicle

"Wildly inventive, sometimes surreal, but tenderly told, these stories
give a glimpse of what Philip K. Dick might have written if he’d
allowed himself a sincere broken heart."
–Paste Magazine

"Like Green Day did for punk rock, and The Matrix for kung-fu flicks,
this new collection from New Yorker editor Greenman could well become
an advocate for the short story."
–Time Out Chicago

For more information, visit www.bengreenman.com. If you would like to
interview the author, contact Melissa Little (melissa@macadamcage.com;
415-986-7502).

Run don’t walk. CD. Download. Whatever your medium: Get it. It’s called The Reminder. They have it a Music Matters and yes, Starbucks.

I am so so so digging it.

Nyack Weed Killer, AKA Mrs. Deserter, used to live across the street on Third Street. She now lives in a beautiful Victorian house in Nyack that I still haven’t seen. I feel terrible that we haven’t made our way up there, yet.

How many years has it been since they vacated their Third Street apartment? How many years has it been since NWK’s window boxes stopped gracing that second floor window ledge?

We still miss them. But we also know that they’re tremendously happy in their big house on the river.

I’m sure she knows about this but just in case, here’s something from n 1010 WINS. It’s really creepy.

New York — Police are advising people in Nyack to lock their windows after three incidents of an intruder getting inside a woman’s apartment while she slept.

Orangetown police say the latest incident was early Sunday on North Broadway. A man removed a screen, entered an apartment and began touching a woman as she slept. He fled through an open window when the women awoke and she and her mother started screaming.

1010 WINS Audio: Terry Sheridan Reports

Police believe the same man severely beat a woman inside her Hudson Avenue apartment during the early morning hours of June 6th. And there was an unsuccessful attempt to open another woman’s window last month.

Police say they don’t have a good description of the suspect because he strikes in a dark room. They say he has large hands and wears a dark hooded sweatshirt.

Thursday, June 14th at7:30 p.m. at Community Bookstore.
143 7th Avenue, Park Slope. (718) 783-3075

Note from OTBKB: I’ve read much of the book, a collection of personal, honest, and inspiring essays by parents of special needs kids of all types. A must-read for all parents, special needs or not, because of what it expresses about parenting and love.

Community Books sent this:

Candid, passionate, personal, and heartbreakingly
funny, a view from within the whirlwind of parenting a
child with special needs
Three years ago, magazine editor Denise Brodey’s
precocious four-year-old son, Toby, was diagnosed with
a combination of sensory integration dysfunction and
childhood depression. As she struggled to make sense
of her new, often chaotic, often lonely world, what
she found comforted her most was talking with other
harried, hopeful, and insightful parents of kids with
special needs, learning how they coped with the
feelings they encountered throughout the day.
In The Elephant in the Playroom, moms and dads from
across the country write intimately and honestly about
the joyful highs and disordered lows of raising
children who are “not quite normal.” Laying bare the
emotional, medical, and social challenges they face,
their stories address issues ranging from if and when
to medicate a child, to how to get a child who is
overly sensitive to the texture of food to eat lunch.
Eloquent and honest, the voices in this collection
will provide solace and support for the millions of
parents whose kids struggle with ADD, ADHD, sensory
disorders, childhood depression, Asperger’s syndrome,
and autism—as well as the many kids who fall between
diagnoses.
Offering readers comfort, community, and much-needed
perspective, The Elephant in the Playroom is sure to
become essential reading for parents of all sorts of
kids.
We’d love to see you there! Thursday, June 14th at
7:30 p.m. at Community Bookstore. 143 7th Avenue, Park
Slope. (718) 783-3075