A month back or so I wrote a piece about a Danish Fullbright scholar and student at the School of Journalism at Columbia University, who interviewed me and No Words. She mentioned that Aaron Barlow, owner of Shakespeare’s Sister, a bookstore in Carroll Gardens, was writing a book about blogging. Here’s a comment from the man himself. Thanks for the clarification.

The book about blogging that the Danish Fulbright refers to is
called "The Rise of the Blogosphere: American Backgrounds." It will
appear in March or April from Praeger (and can already be ordered on
Amazon, but not on Powells, for some reason). What it is, really, is a
history of American journalism with an eye towards those trends that
led to the blogs. A second book of mine on blogging, "America Blogs,"
should appear this coming December. My last book, "The DVD Revolution:
Movies, Culture, and Technology," is a history of home viewing,
particularly in the last decade.

At Shakespeare’s Sister, we believe in the store as part of the
community–which is why our back room (the Artback) is available to
anyone for sitting, reading, and conversation, and for free. A number
of books have been written back there, for it is a quiet space,
normally.

However, on Friday nights, we do show a movie–and soon, on Sunday
afternoons, we will start a series of readings and discussions.
Probably, readings will occur every hour from two through four (three
poets, essayists, dramatists, or writers of fiction each week) and will
last from twenty minutes to half an hour. The remaining time will be
for informal discussion. We may also be starting a Saturday film
series… and who knows what else.

The Seventh Avenue Barnes and Noble infuriated local parents and caregivers by deciding to BAN PEOPLE FROM WALKING AROUND THE STORE WITH STROLLERS. They want people to park their strollers in a designated area upstairs.

It was just a simple note on the front door. And it got people pretty fired up.

Doesn’t sound that unreasonable to me.

Much ado on Park Slope Parents and elsewhere. Here’s a PSP post from an employee of Barnes and Noble AND a local mom.

Hi all - full disclosure, I am a Park Slope mom who also works for
Barnes & Noble, specifically for the website. I have followed this
thread with concern, because like many of you, I consider the Park 
Slope store to be an essential place to hang out with my kids, especially in
cold weather, in or out of their strollers. 

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have brought the community's generally 
negative response to the new rule to the attention of a director in the company
who is in charge of store operations, and she is working with the store
manager to find a better solution. 

I can't say for sure whether this means the ban will be lifted, but the concerns have definitely been
heard, and I'm hopeful that there will be more flexibility on this. If 
I hear anything more specific, I'll post the details. 

 

Scary, scary news from the world’s scientists. Thursday, they gave their STERNEST warning yet that a
failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions will bring devastating climate
change within a few decades.

Average temperatures could increase by
as much as 6.4C by the end of the century if emissions continue to
rise, with a rise of 4C most likely, according to the final report of
an expert panel set up by the UN to study the problem. The forecast is
higher than previous estimates, because scientists have discovered that
Earth’s land and oceans are becoming less able to absorb carbon dioxide.

Read Seeing Green on the carless life.

Car-free? or Carless? We’ve been without a car in Brooklyn for over
a year now and it’s great. Can’t say that I miss having a car except on
the rare occasions we leave NYC. And, of course, no alternate side
parking hassles and no tickets. Personally, as someone who loves to
drive, the only thing I regret is that I cannot rent a stick-shift as I
hate automatics…

But a truly car-free city is something else (Venice, of course) and
may never come to pass in NYC. Cities like London are implementing
stronger and stronger measures against the private automobile, while
Bloomberg waffles on congestion pricing, which could greatly alleviate traffic in Manhattan. That study indicating that half of the traffic in Manhattan is generated by Manhattanites
is also fascinating, showing that for even with our great transit
system (well, almost great,) people still use the car when alternatives
are available. Time for a stick; carrots don’t work.

Car Free in America: The Alternative is Rail, Buses, Bikes and Just Plain Walking, an article by Jim Motavalli, makes some points:

Park Slope Neighbors has initiated a campaign asking Whole Foods to
make several alterations to the design for the market it plans to open
next year at the corner of 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street.

Whole
Foods, which has garnered acclaim for its commitment to organic and
natural food products, excellent employment practices and all-around
good corporate citizenship, plans to build a 64,000-square-foot store
along the Gowanus Canal, its first in Brooklyn.

PSN,
while welcoming Whole Foods to the neighborhood, is asking the company
to alter some aspects of its design. The requests include:

• A reduction in the number of parking spaces by at least 100 from the currently planned 420
• The elimination of the rooftop parking lot in favor of a green roof or solar panels
• The
  implementation of a comprehensive transportation-management plan,
  including jitney service to mass-transit connection points, free van
  service home for customers, and ample bicycle parking

SIGN THE PETITION.

IT was just a hunch. But that breast friend thing was just plain weird. I could tell there was something MORE going between those two moms. And they were inflicting their relationship on their babies.

I guess I assumed they were heterosexual. But still, I don’t think it’s a gay thing at all. Not at all. I think it’s just something very specific to this particular relationship.

Someone who didn’t leave his/her name left an interesting comment. Jennifer Baumgardner has a book out on bisexuality and in it you can read about her breast friend. To not mention that in the piece was just plain misleading, I think. Here’s the comment.

The funny thing is, you’re right about them — kind of. They’re exes! Not sure why Jennifer Baumgardner failed to mention that in the piece. And she’s not heterosexual either (though I guess you could easily assume she was). She just wrote a book on bisexuality. In it, I believe you can read all about her relationship with her "Breast Friend." There’s a Q&A with her about her book on Babble’s sister site, Nerve.com (http://www.nerve.com/screeningroom/books/interview_jenniferbaumgardner/).

This arrived in my inbox minutes ago (6:25 p.m. Friday evening) from Gersh Kuntzman at the Brooklyn Paper.

Barclays bank demands a retraction. The Brooklyn Paper does not comply (though, in a lengthy editor’s note, the Paper admits to one error).

Three-pronged coverage can be seen at the top of our homepage or by clicking below:

1. Barclays’ letter requesting a retraction.

2. The Paper’s response.

3. A news story on Barclays’ PR push.

Wow, busy day here, huh?

David Yassky calls on the city and state to divest from Sudan. Join representatives from the Sudan Divestment Task Force, leaders from around the City, and hundreds of concerned citizens and advocates this Sunday at a rally on the steps of City Hall to call on the Pension Boards of New York City and New York State’s various pensions to divest both the City and State of any investments made in targeted corporations doing business with the Sudan.

RALLY AT CITY HALL (MANHATTAN): Sunday February 4th at 11:30 a.m.

Marty Markowitz’s State of the Borough speech was yesterday and NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

After a musical tribute by Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Brooklyn delegation, Marty Markowitz took center stage at Steiner Film Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for his annual State of the Borough address Thursday.

He talked about Brooklyn’s renaissance and offered the 2007 Lonely Planet travel guide’s Best of 2007 list as proof of that.

"Lonely Planet only chose three destinations in America: Hawaii, they’ve got beautiful beaches just like Brooklyn; New Orleans, which has culture, wonderful food, granted; and, who would’ve thunk it, the city of Brooklyn!" said Markowitz.

Markowitz says Brooklyn will add a second cruise ship terminal in Red Hook, make the lighting on the Parachute Jump in Coney Island more dazzling, and celebrate a second Sundance Film Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

"Last May, where did Robert Redford commemorate the 25th anniversary of his Sundance Film Festival? If you missed it last year, Sundance and my ‘older twin’ Robert Redford will be back this year from May 31- June 10,” said Markowitz.

He also hopes to break ground on the new arena for the Nets this year, build a state-of-the-art amphitheater in Coney Island on the site where he holds his summer concert series, and transform the 1920’s Loews Kings Theater on Flatbush Avenue into a performance venue.

But Markowitz also expressed his worry about development at Spring Creek, known to most as Starett City. The 6,000 apartment complex was bought by a developer and the borough president vows to keep the homes affordable.

"We will fight to preserve this development, which is the model for diverse, urban living in Brooklyn and America,” said Markowitz. “I’ve got a message: this won’t be Stuyvesant Town, part two!"

The borough president remembered prominent Brooklynites who passed away including Gilbert Rivera, founder of Park Avenue Home Center, and Carlos Lezama, the founder of the West Indian Day Parade.

In Lezama’s memory, Markowitz talked about opening a West Indian Museum.

After the New York City Blogger Summit I made a resolution to read more blogs. Here’s one that’s really fun called Modern Fabulosity. I’ve selected some excerpt from his list of ten things he learned at the summit. Read more at Modern Fabulosity.

New York Bloggers Summit, held last night at the studios of WNBC
at Rockefeller Center, featured over 130 bloggers and what seemed like
5,000 NBC employees, most of whom stood around nervously and made small
talk with all the grace of a concrete block. Theoretically, the Summit
was an opportunity to bridge understanding between "MSM" (as they
charmingly referred to themselves, like it was still 2004) and
bloggers, most of whom look like lifelong grad students. The event
taught us all, both TV folk and web folk, a few important life lessons.
To wit:

4) Give us your Content, We’ll Give You….?
The
"dialogue" began with eight different NBC executives telling us exactly
why we were there. Basically, they can’t keep up with the pace of news
in the internet age. So they’d like bloggers to email them "scoops"
(their word, not mine), and in return, they will give us "publicity"
and "traffic" and "credit" and "linklove" (again, their word, not
mine). They were deliberately vague on what "credit" meant, but we
guess that "publicity" meant links from their website, and the one word
we wanted to hear — "money" — was noticeably absent.

5) Arts?  Who cares about the arts?
As
the session began, the NBC’er who was most helpful, Erin, led an
informal survey with a show of hands. Political bloggers in the house?
A bunch. Sports bloggers? A few, and very popular. (Just like gym
class.) Gossip bloggers? Over a dozen. NYC-centric bloggers? In force.
So I waited to hear them ask for "arts bloggers" or "culture bloggers"
or "LGBT bloggers". And waited. And waited. Long story short, we were
never polled, or even thought of. Because clearly, the arts are not
news. (Later, in a discussion of Paris Hilton‘s
storage auction, "culture" blogging was used interchangeably with
"gossip" blogging. Because Paris Hilton IS culture, people, and the
sooner we all learn that, the better off we’ll be.)

7) ModFab is okay, but Gothamist is really the shiznit.
I
mentioned earlier that bloggers were allowed to ask questions. That’s
partially true; the moderator, WNBC technology reporter Sree Sreenivasan, wasn’t interested in anyone who wasn’t an A-Lister.  So while he went giddy over Anil Dash, Gothamist, Mediabistro, and Gawker,
software makers and every conceivable employee of NBC, those of us who
inhabit the B-List were left with our arms in the air, hoping we’d be
called upon. Oh, well yes, occasionally a smaller blogger was allowed a
shot at the passed microphone (our favorite: Varsity Basketweaving) but only if they were funny.

8) Bloggers don’t watch local news.  They watch Jon Stewart.
This
revelation also came by a show of hands. The NBC execs were too
petrified to ask why. Had they bothered to follow up, they would have
heard what I was dying to say: that the strength of blogging is
personality and niche subjects, two things that network news are weak
in offering…and that Stewart has in spades.

9) Bloggers are reaaaaaaaally white.
I
counted three people of color. Out of 130. Truthfully, there was more
diversity in the NBC staff. A disturbing, bothersome truth in a city
that thrives on its multicultural makeup.

10) I got a free hat.
Yes.  It even says "Blogger Summit" on it.  I may never wear it, but hey, free swag is free swag.

I
think WNBC was brave in recognizing their limitations, and smart to
reach out to bloggers in the spirit of partnership…their hearts are
in the right places. However, all joking aside — they fundamentally do
not understand the nature of the problem. Television and the internet
are getting closer together every day. To hope that bloggers will help
prop up an archaic system of delivering media — a nightly litany "of
tragedies and catastrophies, followed by the weather", as one blogger
put it — is to miss the point entirely. Today’s audience wants to
select their own content, about subjects they care about, in formats
that are useful in their lives…and to experience it on technology
that may or may not be a box in the living room. News, like life, is
changing. If they are willing to see that, I’m certain that bloggers
will answer the call.

Borough President Marty Markowitz is getting ready for his State
of the Borough Thursday night at the Steiner film Studios.

Here are some talking points:

He wants to turn Asser Levy Park in Coney Island, which is the site
of his summer concert series, into a state-of-the-art, all-weather
performance venue. He wants it to attract the same circuit tours as
Jones Beach and Westbury.

He’s also looking to transform the old Loew’s
Kings movie theater on Flatbush Avenue, which has been empty for 30
years. The majestic 1920s theater is one of the last of its kind that
has never been subdivided.

"So what did you think of the Blog Summit?" I asked Hepcat this morning.

"’We would like you to be our unpaid stringers’ is probably the simplest reading of the event," Hepcat replied sleepily. He went to sleep at 5 a.m. doing his "day job."

But what about the baseball caps? Those were really nice," I said. 

"But what’s that weird shape that looks like a flattened rat in the center lane of Second Avenue?"  Hepcat said.

"Actually, I really like the graphic on the baseball cap," I said.

"Let’s just say if it was a Rorschach test I’d probably say roadkill." Hepcat said.

Hepcat didn’t much like the reporter who spoke near the end of what was a very convivial event — a nice TV meets the Web kind of vibe — and said this: "We have a lot of standards and we’re not going to put unsubstantiated stuff up there."

That reporter was definitely playing the "journalistic standards card." He seemed a little alarmed by the whole thing. Not nearly as gung ho as the organizers.

The head of the news division was there and he seemed like a nice guy. Where was Sue Simmons and Ernie Anastas? Too busy getting ready for the 11:00 news?

Speaking of the 11:00 news it was fun to see ourselves on television. And fun to see Sree and the other reporters we met. The Conan O’Brian studio was a cool place for the event. It is MUCH smaller than I expected. They told us a bunch of times that it used to be Dave Letterman’s studio back in the day.

The people at NBC are really impressed with the fact that they work at NBC. The fact that the audience had little interest in local TV news was very surprising to them. As one blogger said, "I’m not that interested in fires and murders. So I don’t watch."

It was a typical blog crowd: white, equal number of men and women, average age: mid-thirties, snarky, smart, eccentric, off beat, outspoken. The whiteness of the crowd wasn’t really addressed. Interestingly, lack of diversity was a big issue at the Brooklyn Blogfest last spring. We were hoping to set up a forum to address that…

Sitting in Conan’s studio, I was proud that we bloggers have become such a force. I never dreamed I’d be sitting at NBC hearing that my hyper-local and personal approach to news and information was the wave of the future. I never dreamed that a mainstream media outlet like WNBC would want a piece of my action. It’s kind of exciting the way that blogging has plucked so many of us out of obscurity. It’s exciting to be considered a pioneer.

More Alternadad news: Babble.com ran a piece about "Alternadad," the new book by Neal Pollack, whose reading I attended at the Tea Lounge last week. I also wrote about it for the Brooklyn Paper.

Apparently, he’s writing a rebuttal to their review. Sparks should fly.

Here’s the original piece by Lisa Carver from Babble.com

Here’s Neal Pollack’s rebuttal on Babble.com

Here’s my piece in the Brooklyn Paper.