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THERE’S A NEW PHOTO BLOG ON THE BLOCK
Welcome PARK SLOPE PHOTO BLOG and thank you for bringing your blogginess to OTBKB’s attention.
Your pictures are cool — black and white, very artistic. So far two interesting pix of store windows and one street scene.
HALLOWEEN HITLER MARCHES IN PROTEST AGAINST HIMSELF
November 7, 2006 — Students and parents at a Brooklyn high school
where a teen was removed from class for dressing as Adolf Hitler on
Halloween marched in protest of the costume yesterday – and were joined
by the teen.Walter Petryk, 16, and his parents strolled with about 50 people from
the Leon M. Goldstein HS community to the nearby Holocaust Memorial
Park."They called it a walk of tolerance and respect, so I
figured I would go and show my tolerance and respect for other people’s
views of my costume," Petryk said.
BROWNSTONER GETS A NEW LOOK
This will be of interest to the real estate obsessed who read Brownstoner.com. They’ve got a new design over there and the response has been mixed. In fact, Mr. Brownstoner is surveying his readers on which header they prefer. I actually prefer the old one. But I think the new, expanded space for text is a good thing.
The major change is that we removed the left-hand column and
enlarged the size of the editorial column by about 25%. We’ve already
gotten an email from Bob Marvin, who may have a year or two on our
average reader, expressing his pleasure at the fact that he no longer
needs a magnifying glass to read the text. We’ve also gotten an email
or two from people who don’t like the new look. We’re interested to
hear everyone’s feedback. Nothing’s set in stone so please let us know
what you like and what you don’t, keeping in mind, of course, that it
can take a few days to get used to a new design. (We’re not entirely
sold yet on the Arial font – maybe we should go with the font we use on
Brooklyn Record.) How many of you remember what the site looked like a
year ago?
Update: Vote on which header you prefer by clicking here.
SEEING GREEN SAYS: CHANGE THAT LIGHTBULB
This from our friend at Seeing Green
Change that Light bulb!
GE
claims that "if every household in America replaced one 100-watt bulb
with a GE compact fluorescent, the savings would be enough to power
more than one million homes for an entire year."Presumably non-GE bulbs cannot achieve a similar effect, but no matter. GE developed this campaign with the help of Green Order,
a New York based "sustainability strategy and marketing firm. " Green
Order has lots of top notch clients, Office Depot, General Electric and
GE among them, and has been named one of Inc. Magazine’s "Green 50" in
the November 2006 issue. The power of going Green is rapidly being
co-opted by the corporations to sell products, which may be the best
thing for the future of sustainability, given that our national leaders
are not doing much.
VICTIM CALLS FOR FEDERAL CHARGES IN TEEN HATE CRIME
A Pakistani man beaten on a Brooklyn street called for federal charges Monday against the five teens charged in the attack, speaking out for the first time since the attack two weeks ago. NY1’s Shazia Khan filed the following report.
"They were raising slogans, ‘Muslim terrorists,’” explained Shahid Amber, a victim of a hate crime. “[They] started cursing me, [saying] go back to your country, scum bags, you just messed this country up and all that."
Amber recalled how it all began. He was eating ice cream in front of a Dunkin Donuts in Midwood, Brooklyn on October 29, when a group of teenagers started yelling ethnic slurs at him. The 24-year-old immigrant from Pakistan said the verbal assault soon became physical.
“One of them, he spit on my face,” said Amber. “As I was cleaning my face, I see a punch coming on my face with a brass knuckle.”
Amber was treated for a number of injuries, including a broken nose, and soon after, the police arrested five teens, all of them Jewish, and charged them with assault as a hate crime. But on Monday, Amber and his lawyers joined several community organizations to say that is not enough. They want the teens to face federal prosecution.
“I would like to make sure that they would be used as an example, that if anyone else who wants to commit the same bias crimes, that there is very strict law that would be applied against them,” said Omar Mohammedi, Amber’s attorney.
Community leaders said Amber’s case is not an isolated incident. They said in recent years there has been an increase in the number of anti-Muslim complaints.
“There have also been many, many daily incidents of people who are facing discrimination in the work places, children who are being harassed at school, and women who are spit at or subjected to rude words on the street because of how they choose to dress,” said Katherine Metres of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
And, some community activists are holding the government responsible for these hate crimes.
“Young people are not born to hate, they learn it someplace,” said Donna Lieberman of the New York City Liberties Union. “And when our government engages in profiling based on ethnicity, religion, and race then our young people learn very, very quickly.”
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League has joined others in condemning the attack. The suspects are due back in court next month
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NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
TOMORROW’S THE BIG DAY: VOTE
With midterm elections tomorrow, it looks more and more like it’s going
to be a big day for Democrats both in New York State and nationwide.Democrats are trying to take control of the House and Senate.
Candidates on both sides of the aisle around the state and the nation
are squeezing in as much handshaking and baby-kissing as they can.State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer appears poised to become the
next governor of New York. The latest New York 1/Newsday poll shows the
Attorney General with an incredible 50-point lead over Republican
challenger John Faso.The same poll shows Andrew Cuomo with a 28-point lead over Jeanine
Pirro in the race to become Attorney General. Cuomo was campaigning
with Senator Hillary Clinton this morning.But Pirro is not giving up her fight just yet. She has a full day
of campaigning scheduled for the Bronx, Manhattan, and Westchester. She
says she hopes all of her hard work pays off."It’s been 18 hours a day, but I’m a worker and I’m accustomed to
working and I’m very energized by the people who are here," said Pirro.
"And hopefully tomorrow is going to be a very good day."Back in September, Pirro was forced to disclose a federal
investigation into whether she wiretapped her husband. She said the
investigation was politically motivated.On the national front, Democrats appear ready to gain control of
the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years. Control of
the Senate is up for grabs with Democrats needing six seats to win back
control. Key races in Virginia, Missouri, and Tennessee could be the
deciding factors.President George W. Bush will be out campaigning today in Texas,
Florida, and Arkansas for Republican gubernatorial candidates. With the
president’s popularity dropping, many GOP candidates have kept their
distance from Bush.
ONE PLUS ONE MAKES THREE: LOUIS AND CAPATHIA
Here’s what I was thinking after Capathia Jenkins’ and Louis Rosen’s tight, moving, musically glorious show at Joe’s Pub last night: How lucky they are to be working together. And how lucky we are to witness the on-going story of their unbelievably fruitful collaboration.
For Capathia: Louis has created a personal repetoire for her that fits her vocal instrument and emotional range like a glove. How lucky she is. It’s like she has her own private George Gershwin, Steven Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Antonio Jobim, and Randy Newman rolled into one. She’s a lucky, lucky girl One plus one make three.
For Louis: Capathia is a perfect muse for his continuing evolution as an artist. Her voice challenges him to create incredible songs that express many sides of them both.
As a duo: They compliment one another. Louis with his edgy, intimate, low-tech voice is great alongside Capathia’s virtuosic intensity. Each enhances the other.
First he created songs on
Maya Angelou’s poetry. Then a song cycle about various
characters growing up in a neighborhood in transition on the South Side
of Chicago (based on Louis’ non-fiction book).
Now, he’s working on a song cycle based on the poetry of
Nikki Giovanni. They did one of the Giovanni songs as an encore and it was a standout.
Great, great show. I for one am going back again next week with some friends. For info and tickets, go to Joe’s Pub. To buy their debut album, Southside Stories, go to CDbaby.com
GOODFORM DESIGN: WHERE FORM MEETS FUN
The beautiful new poster and logo for Brooklyn Reading Works was designed by Goodform Design, a small and vibrant graphic design studio in the heart of Park Slope. They also designed my new business card. Check out the web site and see their teriffic work! They are a pleasure to work with!
As you can see, the next BRW is on November 16th with Elissa Schappell, Ilene Starger and Darcey Steinke.
The painting on the BRW poster is by Elizabeth Reagh. It is titled; Key Food.
Goodform Design is a collaboration of graphic designers, fine artists, and software engineers, working together to create print and web design that command attentions and delights the senses. Owner/Designer Elizabeth Reagh sees every project as a chance to bring her parallel backgrounds in fine art and graphic art to produce beautiful and effective communication.
BANK OF AMERICA MONDAY REPORT
The new B of A ATM on Union and Seventh Avenue was a mess this morning after the weekend. Receipts all over the floor, a plastic water bottle on the desk, miscellaneous flyers everywhere.
Could the problem be solved by a more conveniently located receptacle.
ROTTEN PUMPKINS
How long should people keep Jack-O-Lanterns? Many of them are rotting now. Their faces look all droopy and sad. Some are beginning to smell. They all look interesting and a little grotesque in a "I’m a rotted pumpkin" way. There were two spectacularly rotted pumpkins in the window of Slope Sports last week but I think they disposed of them.
Is this part of the symbolic fall ritual of death?
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
TONIGHT AT JOE’S PUB: CAPATHIA AND LOUIS
Here’s the review by Jeremy Gerard in Bloombergnews.com about Capathia and Louis’s show at Joe’s Pub.
There are two more shows at Joe’s Pub: Sunday November 5th and 12th, 7:30 p.m. And to buy the CD, Southside Stories go to CDbaby.com
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) — Eight times a week, Capathia Jenkins
belts out a funny, show-stopping number late in Martin Short’s
Broadway show, “Fames Becomes Me.” But there’s more here. If
you want the thrill of discovering an enthralling new talent,
spend next Sunday evening at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan’s East
Village.
Jenkins will knock you flat. Her gifts go well beyond
gospel-inflected roof-raising. I’ve never been so seduced by
music completely new to me yet as embraceable as any from the
classic American songbook.She is the muse to Chicago composer-lyricist Louis Rosen.
The two have already collaborated on a dozen poems by Maya
Angelou set to Rosen’s music. Now they have recorded his “South
Side Stories,” a song cycle that betrays influences as diverse
as Harold Arlen and Rickie Lee Jones. Yet what is so memorable
about this pairing is how unselfconscious and confident both are,
Rosen as composer and songsmith, Jenkins his joyous, hand-in-
glove interpreter.For an appetizer, she opens with Rosen’s exuberant scoring
of Langston Hughes’s equally exuberant “Harlem Night Song”:“Come/Let us roam the night together/Singing/I love you.”
They follow with several songs from the Angelou cycle,
ranging from humorous (“Preacher, don’t send me/When I die/To
some big ghetto in the sky”) to “Poor Girl,” a torchy ballad
in the tradition of “My Man.”Intimate Lyrics
The “South Side Stories” songs are scored in a more pop
idiom. Rosen, who accompanies on piano and guitar, has a James
Taylor-like talent for setting intimate lyrics over facile,
catchy melodies. This cycle includes numbers about the changing
social landscape of Chicago’s South Side; the first teen-love
song I can remember that ends not in tragedy but in enduring
friendship; the complicated relationship between parent and
child. The most beautiful number is the samba-inflected “The
Peace That Comes,” about the death of a father and the
ambivalent feelings engendered.Jenkins, 40, is at home with her audience (which included,
on opening night, Short, his show’s composer, Marc Shaiman, and
the entire cast and crew), speaking briefly and charmingly about
each song. In addition to Rosen, 51, her accompanists included
David Loud on piano and Dave Phillips on bass. Don’t miss this
show.Capathia Jenkins and Louis Rosen will appear at Joe’s Pub,
at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 and
12. Tickets are $20 with a two-drink minimum; food is available.
Information: +1-212-239-6200 or http://www.joespub.com .(Jeremy Gerard is an editor for Bloomberg News. The opinions
expressed are his own.)To contact the writer on this story:
Jeremy Gerard in New York at
jgerard2@bloomberg.net .
LAST CHANCE: SEE URINE TOWN IN PARK SLOPE
Playwright and blogger, Judd Lear Silverman, on his self-named blog gives a shout out for the Gallery Theater’s production of Urine Town with the disclaimer that his work has been produced there. TODAY at 3 and 8 p.m. For more information and/or
reservations, go to www.galleryplayers.com or call 212-352-3101.
FROM JUDD’S BLOG: I still recommend that you snap up the remaining seats for their
current production of URINETOWN. Gallery Players left the gate as a community theater years ago
and is now among NYC’s premiere showcase companies, attracting top
flight talent (and attentive audiences) to Park Slope and to it’s cozy
basement theater on 14th Street and 4th Avenue. The work is
consistently excellent and if you’ve missed a Broadway or Off-Broadway
hit (no matter how risky the subject), chances are you can catch it
shortly thereafter at Gallery Players in a sharp, highly professional
production–and for a fraction of the price you’d pay in Manhattan!
URINETOWN was the show I’d always meant to get to but somehow never did
during its Broadway run. (In brief, it’s a Brechtian send-up about a
metropolis with a water shortage that charges people to pee–and the
corruption and rebellion that ensues.) Here, it’s given a gifted
production–beautifully cast, sharply directed, well designed and
musically clean as a whistle. This Tony-winning show may not be high
art, but it is certainly witty, savvy and musically sophisticated, and
the GP production gets every drop of juice out of it (pun intended).
You will come away highly entertained.
SO GLAD THE O.C. IS BACK
OSFO and I are just so happy that The O.C. is back on television after a six month hiatus. We really missed all our O.C. pals. Especially Summer and Seth. I also like Peter Gallagher’s character (remember him from "Sex, Lies, and Videotape")
And the way last season ended: Boy were we on tenter hooks to see what was gonna happen next. What with Marissa’s death, and Seth not getting into Brown University, and Ryan deferring college for a year…
LOOK: next week "The O.C." is on Wednesday and Thursday. FUN.
TWO YEARS AGO ON OTBKB: THE BLOGGER FROM STUTTGART
In honor of Udgewink, I am re-posting this from two years ago. Udgewink was the first person I didn’t know who commented on my blog (I was on blogger then). We keep up with each other’s blogs. I even got him a piece of orange fabric from The Gate’s in Central Park. He thanked me with a delightful package of European chocolate.
A blogger in Stuttgart has been reading Smartmom’s blog. As far as she
knows he’s the only person in Europe who actually reads Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn. He’s certainly the only European ever to leave a comment:Hey
Smartmom, just wanted to say a quick "hello, yes, there is somebody out
here" and we are listening. I like your writing, especially your knack
for picking good anonyms. You could offer that as a service!And yes, I know and love "next blog." I spend far too much time in the blogger universe.
Smartmom visits the blogger from Stuttgart on a regular basis(udgewink.blogspot.com)
He writes nicely and seems to have a lyrical and eccentric take on the
world. In his blogger profile, he lists favorite movies (To Have and Have Not, Apocalypse Now, Stardust Memories), books (The Great Gatsby, Proust, The Alexandria Quartet) and music (Steve Reich, Sam Cooke, Brian Eno and Robert Johnson).Smartmom is fascinated to learn how Udge discovered OTBKB
in the first place. There are apparently tens of thousands of blogs on
Blogspot. Clearly, Udge spends a good deal of time browsing the Blog
Universe. Smartmom has also done a bit too much exploring herself and
has discovered that there’s mostly crap out there. But Udge is
different — he seems to have interesting things to say.Recently, before Udge went on vacation to Venice, he wrote a few words about that city:
I’m
off to Venice (and I don’t mean California), call it my summer holiday.
Seven whole days in the Pearl of the Adriatic (well, OK, two of them
spent mostly on trains) sucking down the Campari Soda and the Dolce
Vita in dizzying doses. Oh, and not to forget the cappucino, and the
restaurants. Ah, and the beach at the Lido. And the Biennale, of
course. Architecture this year, can’t be helped.I love Venice.
I’ve been there almost every year since moving to Europe twenty-seven
years ago. At a dinner party recently, a pretentious Parisian poseur
proclaimed that one cannot "love" Venice, no no, the city is so
terribly touristic and those tourists are such awful people (meaning:
not like us). But he was wearing yellow shoes and no socks, so we may
safely discount his opinion.Smartmom admires that city as well and swiftly sent Udge a response:
I
have always had a rather sentimental feeling for Venice because I was
conceived there. Yes, it’s true, my parents lived there for a few
months many (I won’t say exactly how many) years ago. In 1990 when my
husband and I visited there I just fell in love with the place as I
knew I would. You can tell that poseur with the yellow shoes to stay in
Paris and leave Venice for those who deserve it. And those who began
life there.To which he responded:
Being conceived in Venice has a certain cachet which even Brooklyn cannot top. You clearly chose your parents well.
In a post called "Starry Morning," Udge wrote poetically about the change of seasons in Stuttgart:
Ezra Pound said it best:
Winter is icumen in
Lhude sing Goddam!
Raineth drop, and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm!The
most obvious sign of impending winter is the darkness. As I began
blogging, the sun would be shining brightly at this time of day. This
morning, the sky is full of stars: Orion hangs low over the drugstore
on the corner.Talk about lofty — he even quoted Ezra
Pound. Smartmom is quite impressed. Clearly, there’s a qualitative
difference between Udge and many other bloggers on Blogspot. Udge’s
post inspired Smartmom to write her own (more pedestrian) reflection on
the coming of winter in Brooklyn which she sent Udge’s way:The
mornings are dark in Brooklyn these days. Steam hisses up the radiators
to our apartment as we pull our blankets up to our chins feeling cold
and not much like getting out of bed. We walk the kids to school
wrapped in long-forgotten coats, even gloves. None of us are pleased to
admit that winter is close at hand, that life is bringing us something
new. Soon we will get out the bag of winter hats, the scarves. We
wonder if this winter will be as fierce as last — a string of urban
blizzards in January and February.This Sunday or the next we
will set our clocks back. Fall Back, as they say. And we must accept
the changing of the seasons, the passing of time, the fact that even we
are aging. Saw the leaves yesterday driving upstate to see old friends.
The patterns of red, orange, yellow and green delighted us as we sped
up the New York State Thruway.–written in October 2004
UDGEWINK: MY FIRST BLOGGER FRIEND
I check in with Udgewink about once a week. He was my first friend in Blogland. He lives in Stuttgart and we started reading each other’s blogs in October 2004. I feel like I know him even though I wouldn’t recognize him in a line-up. He took this gorgeous picture on a recent trip home to Canada. Here is a recent post that I enjoyed.
Drunk Blogging
Hello and welcome, my dears.
It’s
2:13 am Saturday morning / Friday night and I’ve just got home from an
impromptu party-type event, my hands smell of perfume and cocoanut oil.
Ageing Yuppie
called me up three hours ago to ask whether I wanted to drop in for a
drink. I said no (too tired, too late) so he handed the phone to Jana,
the young (very) woman who is subrenting his apartment while he is at
the college Oop Noorth. She said that it’s her birthday, I should
please come by for a glass to celebrate. Such an invitation is of
course compulsory, one may not refuse a birthday drink. Three hours and
far too many glasses later, I’m home again drinking water and cooking
hot chocolate (the party continues without me).Jana is Russian,
studying something that I can never remember, pretty and sweet and very
high-maintenance. She requires constant attention: not just that she
dances on the table but that we must all watch and applaud. It’s at
moments like this that I realize that I am indeed getting older: the
young have so much energy, and they waste it on such futile things!
Pascal famously said that our miseries derive from being unable to sit
alone in a quiet room, and this is something that one can hope to
acquire with age. (AY hasn’t got there yet, he is if anything even more
frenetic than when we met twenty years ago.)Still, a happy and
pleasant event. It’s nice to associate with the young once in a while,
strenuous as they are. I got into a long discussion with a marketing
type from a Quite Well-Known Automobile Company about the meaning of
life, and why he is unhappy in a job that contradicts all of his
ideals, values, hopes and ambitions. Well. I tried as politely as
possible to suggest that maybe his unhappiness is a thing worth
noticing, and that the discrepancy between his job and his ideals etc
might just worth considering. What benefit it a man that he gain the
whole world but lose his soul? to coin a phrase.Actually it’s
not about age as such. (Stop reading, please! The drunkenness has
turned from merriment to pontificating (an interesting word, actually:
"to speak like a Pope." Before the Reformation, when the whole of
Christianity was Catholic, it must have been the highest of
compliments).) Jana is probably no younger than Noorster who said
"Given a choice, I’d rather watch an interesting biopic on TV than go
out to drink alcohol and rub up against strangers" and "if I fall
asleep after midnight, I’m knackered the next day." N has already
figured it out, while J and AY are still worrying about the
externalities.Enough. Sweet dreams be yours, my dears, if dreams there be.
THE PEN AND THE POOP: A BLOG THAT’S NEW TO ME
Heard about this Brooklyn blog, The Pen and the Poop, from Sunset Parker. The blogger is Elise Miller, the author of the Star Craving Mad, a book about "motherhood, minutiae and mayhem." Miller’s blog looks like fun. Here’s an excerpt:
This is what’s so special about blogging versus writing in a journal
the old fashioned way. In my journal I kvetch and whine and do the
whole self-loathing thing without anyone ever reading what I’ve
written, without any sort of reality check or rationality barometer.
With the blog though, I’ve got people to tell me, in a public forum no
less, how maybe I’m not in my right mind to think such horrible things
about myself and it almost brings me to tears of gratitude and regret
for all the ink I’ve used up on such matters. So thank you Hubby and
Amelia’s Plum. It really makes me uh, it just, I guess I am pretty hard
on myself. You should see my journals. Or maybe you shouldn’t. Some
entries have that psychological thriller look, you know those scenes
where the cops stumble upon the serial killer’s notebooks? Like that.
And it takes up so much time and energy hating on myself, because then
I have to think up all the ways I can fix myself. And then I stress out
because the only way to fix the monster is to become Gwyneth Paltrow,
but without the fashion sense lapse. Or Kate Moss without the drug
habit. Or Angelina without the homewrecker rep. And I doubt that’s
going to happen. Although it is Halloween and I do have a long blond
wig somewhere, so you never know. This is just the possibly deranged
risk I take opening up about my insecurities, seeking some meaningful
connection in a hopefully artistic way, while fishing for subject
matter for a future novel. But I really do have a receding hairline,
with those shiny blue scalp spots where hair used to grow, which is
yucky. Will it grow back? I think it might.
NICE SHOUT OUT FROM GOWANUS LOUNGE: THANKS
Thanks Gowanus Lounge for mentioning BRW on your blog. This should be a red hot reading. Incredible writers! – OTBKB
Blogger and Smart Mom Louise Crawford emails to remind us (and posts about it over at Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn) that the next Brooklyn Reading Works is taking place on November 16. The featured authors are Elissa Schappell, Ilene Starger and Darcey Steinke.
Elissa Schappell wrote Use Me, which was nominated for a Pen/Hemingway
award. She is co-editor with Jenny Offill of The Friend Who Got Away
and the forthcoming Money Changes Everything. She also writes the Hot
Type column in Vanity Fair.
Ilene Starger is a poet whose work
has appeared in Bayou, Oyez Review, Georgetown Review, and other mags.
She was a finalist for the 2005 Ann Stanford Prize.
Darcey Steinke is the author of Suicide Blond (a New York Times notable book of the year), Up from the Water and Jesus Saves.
Brooklyn Reading Works–which is curated by Louise–takes place at the Old Stone House
in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Street. The event
starts at 8 PM. Admission is $5.00 includes some refreshments. Check it
out.
NO WORDS-DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
THIS WEEKEND: ROCK THE HOUSE WITH PHONE PARTIES
There are dozens of Rock the House (and Senate) Phone Parties in Brooklyn this weekend. Go to moveon.org and find a party near YOU. All you need is a cell phone to convince someone to vote. VOTER TURNOUT IS CRITICAL THIS YEAR. CRITICAL!
From Moveon.org: Dozens of congressional races are tied. We’ve identified over a million progressives in these districts who don’t always vote. If we call them and make sure they get to the polls, we’ll win.
Your host will provide everything you need. Grab your cell phone and join your neighbors on the weekend of Nov. 4-5, and again on Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 7) and help us “Rock the House (and Senate)” at a party near you.
ORTHODOX JEWISH TEENS CHARGED IN HATE CRIMES
Five Jewish teenagers are expected to appear in court Friday in connection with the beating of a Muslim man in Brooklyn.
The suspects were arrested Sunday after police say they shouted racial slurs before punching Shahid Amber with brass knuckles and breaking his nose outside an area Dunkin’ Donuts.
According to a court document obtained by NY1, the teens also shouted "…terrorist mother-[expletive,] you [expletive] our country. Why are you here? Go back to your country and never [expletive] with the Jews."
The District Attorney classified the assault as a hate crime, and three of the five suspects are being tried as adults.
"The man was attacked by these people who identified him as a Muslim and claimed that was the reason they attacked him and that’s of tremendous concern to us because he wasn’t attacked just as an individual, but as a member of the Muslim community," said Joel Levy of the Anti-Defamation League.
"We have to send out a message cohesively that this, we are not going to tolerate," said Mohammad Razvi of the Council of People Organization.
"We have been building a coalition in this community since after 9/11 and prior to as well – we are all Brooklyn – and we have been able to meet with and work with different leaders in the community and make sure that this sort of stuff just doesn’t hang," said Rabbi Bob Kaplan of Jewish Community Relations.
But, according to Ari Murkoff, who owns a nearby restaurant on Avenue A, this was not a hate crime and he said he did not hear any racial slurs.
“I saw a bunch of teenagers having an argument and one tried to have bravado and tried to call each other names and it escalated from names to hands,” said Murkoff. “This was definitely not racism; this was a bunch of wild teenagers.”
Razvi, on the other hand, said there are other witnesses who back up Amber’s account.
Amber was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he is awaiting reconstructive surgery. He is expected to make a full recovery.
TONIGHT: KLEZMER GENUIS AT BARBES
Tonight at Barbes (9th Street and Sixth Avenue):
Saturday November 4th at 8 p.m.
ANDY STATMAN. A truly extraordinary artist, Andy Statman began his career in the 70’s as a virtuoso Mandolinist who studied and performed with David Grisman, went on to study clarinet with the legendary Dave Tarras and became one of the main architect of a Klezmer revival which started out 30 years ago and has since informed and influenced folk, Jazz and improvised music forms. Andy draws equally from hassidic melodies, folk tunes from new and old worlds alike and Albert Ayler-influenced free-improv. The result reads like a very personal search for the sacred based both on traditions and introspection. He will be joined by Greg Burrows on percussion. $8
SMARTMOM: KEEPING TABS ON SLOPE’S AFFAIRS
HERE’S THIS WEEK’S SMARTMOM FROM THE BROOKLYN PAPERS:
The new film with Kate Winslet and hunky Patrick Wilson, “Little Children,” reminded Smartmom of something she’s known for a long time: extra-marital sex just isn’t worth the bother.
The film, which follows Sarah and Brad, two dissatisfied parents in a high-end suburb not unlike Brownstone Brooklyn, makes hanky-panky seem even more transgressive than Smartmom ever expected. Why, it’s right up there with being a pedophile or something.
Sure, “Little Children” is meant to be a broad satire about marital infidelity among the stroller set. But it’s also a watershed cultural moment for parents of small children: a referendum on what happens when privileged Yuppies let their mid-life blues and marital blahs get the best of them.
And the unmistakable conclusion is this: Don’t let your libidinous selves get carried away, Slopers. It won’t solve any of your real relationship issues: kids, money, sex, career unhappiness or bad communication.
In the film, Sarah married the wrong guy, an older man who’s obsessed with Internet porn. When she falls head over heels for Brad, a former jock, who is easy to talk to and easier to land in the sack, it’s just lucky she has a gigundo suburban house with a tiny attic room with a mattress on the floor.
There, Sarah and Brad can hump and moan as loudly and passionately as they want because their toddlers take long naps in the afternoon.
But life doesn’t imitate art.
When Smartmom’s pal Tofutta had a massive crush on a stay-at-home dad she met at Tots-on-the-Go, she barely had enough time to go to the bathroom, let alone plan an afternoon interlude.
And there was just nowhere to go for their intimate interactions. His wife worked at home and “doing it” in her marital bedroom would have been just plain weird. Plus, Tofutta’s husband’s dirty socks on the floor were probably not much of an aphrodisiac.
She considered trying the new Holiday Inn Express on Union Street, but realized that it was too close to the school where Mrs. Kravitz sends her children — and Mrs. Kravitz, with her vivid imagination, is always walking by that hotel.
Too bad The Lincoln Hotel got turned into condos. That old mansion/brothel between Seventh and Sixth avenues was no Brooklyn Marriott, but it did the trick. A friend (really, she was a friend) frequented the place when she was having an affair with You Know Who.
See, it’s tough keeping secrets in chatty Park Slope because all everyone does is talk, talk, talk and write, write, write. You can’t even have a juicy, tell-all conversation in the back room of Sweet Melissa’s without someone (sometimes even Smartmom herself!) running home and blogging about it.
Take what happened to Big Foot, when her husband had an affair with their babysitter while she was pregnant with their second child. She was devastated. But when she got back on her feet again, she started blogging about it big time. Everyone laughed — except her, of course.
Not everyone gets caught. But some get smart.
Stayathoma had a fling with that cute freelance writer with the lonely, bedroom eyes who picks up his third-grader at PS 321 every day.
Big mistake. They used to do it in his two-bedroom apartment every fourth Tuesday afternoon while his wife was doing a double shift at the Food Co-op and his son was at school.
Trouble was, Stayathoma knew three people who lived in his building and the walls were wafer thin. But that wasn’t all: the spark went out when she started to wonder why her lover wasn’t doing his own Food Co-op shift. She soon realized he was just as much of a do-nothing creep as her own husband. And not even as cute.
It would be so much easier to have a fling with another parent of the same sex. Who would suspect a couple of dads going off to “play tennis” at the Parade Grounds or “take a jog” in Prospect Park?
Or take the case of Jaded Mom and Lonely Mom, two heterosexuals — at least they were, until they became disciples of Sappho while their workaholic husbands were working late and their toddlers were asleep.
They took a much-deserved “mom’s weekend” at a Dutchess County B&B for some R&R. Aroma therapy, pilates class, hotel sex, facials.
But then Lonely Mom’s husband found a torrid email from Jaded Mom on the computer desktop.
Things got ugly. Fights. Divorce. Loneliness. And to this day, Lonely Mom says she’s not gay. She just wanted a little love and attention.
And that’s pretty much what any marital infidel wants (plus, perhaps, the thrill of doing what you’re not supposed to be doing).
Still, Smartmom doesn’t need a movie to tell her that, in the long run, it’s plain stupid to fool around. Having an affair is a cowardly way to deal with the real problems in a marriage (and we all know Smartmom does the right thing, what with her once-a-week couples therapy and twice-a-night Cabernets).
Marital infidelity is really just a temporary escape from what ails a marriage. And boy is it tough to recover from such a tumultuous breach of trust.
As for the sex, the illicit thrill wears off after a while and then it’s just another relationship with all of the inherent problems that come along with that.
So Smartmom is going to stick with her “until-death-do-us-partner,” whom she loves and adores anyway.
It’s hard enough adjusting to someone new. Especially when you’re just getting used to your spouse’s snoring, toenail clipping, and annoying habit of leaving his dirty laundry on the floor next to the hamper rather than in it.
Imagine getting used to a bunch of new bad habits.
Tough to admit it, but marital life is much like it’s depicted in “Little Children”: the person who seems so right from a distance is probably an awful lot like the person you’re already married to.
TABLA RASA: TODAY: MUSIC TO MY EYES
Audrey & Joseph Anastasi, the couple who run TABLA RASA GALLERY IN SUNSET PARK, emailed me to say how happy they are that MUSIC to MY EYES was listed this week in TimeOutNY.
“In conjunction with the exhibition, we are pleased to host a presentation this afternoon, Saturday, November 4, 2006, at 2:00 pm, by Brian Young entitled, “With Thee I Swing, Poetry and Painting.” I hope you will join us for this event.”
Brian Young is a published poet and oil painter. Through humor and his bold use of color, Young paints an absurdist vision of the world that resonates with quirky innocence and pathos. In his unique artist’s presentation, Mr. Young will discuss the inspiration of his painting, “With Thee I Swing,” and also read poetry related to the painting.
CURRENT SHOW at Tabla Rasa Gallery
MUSIC to MY EYES
through November 19, 2006
Gallery hours:
THURSDAY through SATURDAY
Noon – 5:00 pm
Additional hours: by appointment
718. 833-9100
718. 768-0305
audfa@aol.com
http://www.tablarasagallery.com/
TABLA RASA GALLERY
224 48 Street
Brooklyn, NY 11220
North end of “R” train to 45th Street exit. Street parking is available.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
VOTE WORKING FAMILIES PARTY: ROW E
Peter Seeger, Gloria Steinem and others have emialed me about the Working Famiies Party. Remember VOTE ROW E ON TUESDAY.
Pete Seeger has recorded a special election message for you.
It’s 38 seconds long, and it’ll make you smile. Please take a moment to
listen to it, and if you agree with his message then forward this email to everyone you know.
You can hear Pete’s message at:
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/countonme/seeger.html
See who else is voting Working Families and why at:
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/countonme/endorsements.html
Vote Working Families!
Sam Williams, Bertha Lewis, and Bob Master
WFP Co-Chairs
Dan Cantor
WFP Executive Director
http://wfpjournal.blogspot.com/
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/
P.S. Check out our election event calendar and add election events at
http://freecal.brownbearsw.com/WFP
CHOCOLATE CHIP MUSIC
Parents with babies, toddlers, young children, and even older children won’t want to miss CHOCOLATE CHIP MUSIC at the Old First Reformed Church on Saturday.
Local piano and flute teacher and kid’s music dynamo, Helen Richman, put together this series of fun, informative, and entertaining concerts for kids.
What: How DOES an Elephant Dance? Featuring Classical Violin and Piano works with area
professional and student dancers
Where: Old First Reformed Church; Lower Hall; 126 7th Ave. at the corner of Carroll St. in Park Slope, Brooklyn
When: This Saturday, November 4th at 10 and 11:30 a.m.
Tickets: $5 each at the door (free for babies under one)– available 30 minutes prior to concert start times
More information available on our website: www.chocolatechipmusic.org
By email at: info@chocolatechipmusic.org or by phoning (718) 638-8300.
We hope to see you Saturday!