THREE GREAT WRITERS YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS ON NOVEMBER 16, 2006 at 8 p.m.

ELISSA SCHAPPELL, ILENE STARGER and DARCEY STEINKE

Elissa Schappell is the author of 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 EVERTYTHING. The  co-founder of TIN HOUSE with Rob Spillman and Win McCormick, Elissa 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 numerous other magazines.
She was a finalist for the 2005 Ann Stanford Prize.

Darcey Steinke is the author of SUICIDE BLONDE (chosen as a New York Times notable book of the year), UP FROM THE WATER and JESUS SAVES.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS  at the Old Stone House. Fiction. Non-Fiction. Memoir. Poetry. Drama. Curated by LOUISE G. CRAWFORD Go here for a map and directions to the Old Stone House.
The Old stone House is located in JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue between
3rd and 4th Street. 8 p.m. $5.00 includes light refreshments. Books are
sold at all readings.

Yesterday, the city unveiled crosswalk signals that count down the
seconds before the light changes.

In addition to the traditional dual display — a person walking and a
raised hand — the new signals contain timers that display the number of
seconds before the raised hand stops flashing and stays steady.

The signals will be
used at five intersections — one in each borough — in a six-month pilot
project. If the project is shown to improve safety, many of the more
than 100,000 pedestrian signals citywide could eventually be replaced
with the countdown signals.

Cities including Albany, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Las
Vegas and Washington use them, as well as smaller cities and towns. But
in New York City, crossing the street is no simple matter.

They’ve got them in San Francisco, too and they work beautifully there.

Standing
yesterday on a sidewalk at Kings Highway and Coney Island Avenue in
Brooklyn, where one of the first five signals had been installed, Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg
said, “It would take a world-class psychologist to understand and
describe the way New Yorkers cross busy intersections such as this one.”

At the Brooklyn intersection, pedestrians have 18
seconds. The length of time to cross — which is based on street width
and traffic activity — is not changing at those intersections.

The Mayor said: “We hope the countdown will
cause people who haven’t stepped off the curb to think twice before
doing so, and also reassure those who are already in the crosswalk that
they don’t need to panic, but should consider picking up the pace."

Yeah, right.

The four other intersections
with the new signals are Southern Boulevard and East 149th Street in
the Bronx; Avenue of the Americas and West Eighth Street in Manhattan;
Hillside Avenue and 179th Place in Queens; and Hylan Boulevard and New
Dorp Lane in Staten Island.

Karen Zukowski sent me information about her beautiful new book, CREATING THE ARTFUL HOME: the Aesthetic Movement.

This book is the first in-depth look at late 19th century American home design and its cultural context. Average housewives transformed the radical premise of the Aesthetic Movement — art for art’s sake — into beautiful, nurturing homes. They believed that artful homes made people better, families happier and society stronger.

You can purchase the book HERE.

Advice for your last run before the marathon on Sunday from the ING NYC Marathon website.

In this final week before the ING New York City Marathon 2006, you
should run no more than 15 or 20 miles all together, not including the
race, and take one or two days off completely. When you choose to do
your last run before the marathon is a matter of personal preference.
Some runners feel looser and more confident if they run the day before
the race, others find taking that day off gets them to the starting
line with maximum energy. Just make certain that you last run is as
planned and deliberate as all the training that has come before it.
Here’s how your last run can serve as the perfect cap to your months of
training.

Keep it positive. The last
run serves a few purposes, mostly mental. It can help you physically to
work out the kinks of waiting, and mentally to reconnect with your
inner runner. The final run warms up your muscles, says coach Mike
Keohane, but it also gives you a chance to soak in some of ambiance of
New York during race week. “Run a little of the course at the lower end
of Central Park—it’s exciting to see the banners up on the lampposts,”
he says.

On the ING New York City Marathon website, there have been daily tips for runner’s in training. Here’s today’s tip.

Last Minute Pick-Me-Ups

We’ve
already told you what not to do in these last days before the ING New
York City Marathon: no long walks through famous museums, no
experimenting with new shoes or energy gels, and don’t even think about
indulging in a new and exciting ethnic cuisine! But if you’re looking
for something to do during these last pre-marathon days, look no
farther than the ING New York City Marathon Health and Fitness Expo.

I found this on the New York Road Runner’s site: The big day is on Sunday. The runners run down Fourth Avenue…

ONE RACE: 37,000 STORIES
        [Watch]
        [Read the Stories]

Follow all the action of Race Week right here. [Gallery]

Have You Read Your Daily Tip? [Daily Tip #29 ]

Get official ING New York City Marathon 2006 gear now! [Store]

Our spectator guide is the insider’s way to watch the marathon. [Spectator Guide]

Race Day Tracker will be available on November 5

Look what’s happening next week:

GREEN BROOKLYN 2006:  The Sustainable City
Date: Thursday, November 9th, 11:30 am – 5:30 pm
Location: Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, NY)
Directions: Take the M/R Train to Court Steet, or the 2/3/4/5 Train to
Borough Hall

Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment is excited to present the
2006 Green Brooklyn Conference: The Sustainable City, sponsored by
Consolidated Edison. With keynote speakers, discussion panels, hands-on
workshops, and exhibitor tables; the conference will bring new energy
and excitement to discourse on the built and natural environments and
how to transform Brooklyn and all of New York into a more sustainable
city. Keynote speakers include: Jeffrey Hollender (CEO of Seventh
Generation) and Matthew Berman (Winner of Global Green USA Sustainable
Design Competition for New Orleans and co-founder of workshop/apd
architecture studio).

   The moderated discussion panels are entitled, "The Built Environment:
Sustainable Development for the 21st Century" and "The Natural
Environment: Conservation, Energy and Sustainable Food for a Cleaner
Greener Environment." Workshop topics are: Transportation Alternatives
and Worms: Turning Waste to Wonder. Panelists and Exhibitors will
include representatives from: Council on the Environment of NYC, NYC
Office of Sustainable Design, NYSERDA, Earth Pledge, Slow Food USA,
Bettencourt Green Building Supplies, Jonathan Rose Companies, Green
Maps, Food Change, Sustainable South Bronx, and many more. Product
donors include: 3R Living, Annie’s Homegrown, Equal Exchange, Keeper
Springs, and more.

   Admission is FREE.

For those who can’t make it to either of their shows at Joe’s Pub on Sundays November 5th and 12th, you can buy Capapthia Jenkins and Louis Rosen’s new CD, South Side Stories (Rose Cap Records) at Community Bookstore on Seventh Avenue. It’s got all my favorite songs on it: the first cut is worth the CD price alone: Lucky, Lucky Girl

To My
Brooklyn Friends,

 

Just wanted to let everyone know who’s interested that Catherine at the
Community Bookstore on 7th Avenue is generously stepping in and filling the void
left by the closing of the music store, Sound Tracks, and is now selling the new
CD that Capathia Jenkins and I just released, SOUTH SIDE STORIES. And of course, Capathia (another
Park Sloper) and I are very grateful for her support.

 

If you prefer to shop online, the CD will continue to be available at
http://cdbaby.com/cd/jenkinsrosen;
or
for those who don’t use a computer, at 1 800 BUY MY CD (1 800 289 6923),

 

By the way, for those who like to read what critics have to say, we just
picked up our first review for our current Joe’s Pub engagement from Jeremy
Gerard at BloombergNews.com—its Arts section comes under the heading of
"Muse"–and we’re delighted that he loved the show and the new songs.

 

Best Regards,

Louie

A groundbreaking for junior golf center in Dyker Heights. This from New York 1:

Local school children and avid golfer Mayor Michael Bloomberg were
on hand to break ground on the new project Wednesday. By next year at
this time, Dyker Beach Park in Brooklyn will be home to the first ever
public junior golf center in the city and in the nation.

“This is a great investment in our city’s future because for years
to come it’s going to help young New Yorkers develop their love for the
game and their sportsmanship,” said Bloomberg.

The 11.8 acre space will hold a six-hole golf course, driving
range, and practice facility with free golf instruction. A clubhouse
featuring a classroom learning center and an outdoor seating area will
also be in store.

“We now have a lot of kids that can really play the game,” said
City Parks Foundation Sports Director Mike Silverman. “We decided if we
could find a piece of land in New York that was available and free, we
would try to build a facility just for kids.”

“Ever since Tiger Woods hit the scene, every city kid wants to
learn and play golf so this is meeting the need and it teaches them a
great sport for life,” said David Rivel, executive director of City
Parks Foundation. “And even if they don’t become great golfers, they
will become comfortable on the course and learn about etiquette and
sportsmanship.”

The $6 million Junior Golf Center is expected to be completed and
open to the public in September of 2007 and avid junior golfers are
already anxious to give this new course a try.

“I think it would be really great because I think we can now
practice during the whole year,” said Jessica Plotnikov, a golfer. “And
we don’t have to travel anywhere and it’s really close.

“It’s an active sport that kids like and they want to join it,”
added another young golfer, Elijah Broderick. “It’s a good idea for
them to build this place.

The City Parks Foundation has been sponsoring free golf programs
for kids since 1999. Come next fall, there will be a new place for kids
from ages five to 17 to swing away.

-Michelle Yu

Posted on Chowhound:

Just walked by the former Night & Day and noticed they had put
up the "Biscuit BBQ" sign and there was a notice saying they’re opening
for dinner tonight (Oct. 30th). Also included in the notice was a
lengthy explanation of why Night & Day was converting to Biscuit –
I can’t remember all of it but it basically said that they went through
several "self-important" chefs before hiring Cohen and seemed to
suggest that maybe he persuaded them to go the BBQ route since N&D
had never really turned the corner (to profitability presumably).
Anyway, looking forward to the reviews!

He was in London. This from New York 1:

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is in London this week to
encourage tourists to include a trip to Brooklyn on their New York
itinerary.

Markowitz will sell the land of fish and chips on Brooklyn’s great
fare and trumpet the borough’s museums, parks and diverse
neighborhoods.

He will meet with the London deputy mayor to share common successes and challenges.

He will also be doing a little touring. He’s been invited to attend
"Evita" at the Adelphi Theatre and also attend a New York wine tasting
event.

Did you see that guy dressed as Elvis Preslety in a red jumpsuit. It was City Councilman David Yasky.

No sign of Marty Markowitz at the parade.

Paprika, as always, played their percussive hearts out at the head of the parade.

Blinking devil ears were the hot $5 dollar item.

Funniest: The Devil in a Blue Dress (our friend and neighbor outdid himself).

OSFO added devil ears to her princess costume = devilish princess.

Was there more dancing than usual? I thought so.

Those skaters with the white masks, black robes, and long, extending arms were no where to be found.

Creative costume: Two girls: one washer and one dryer.

In a similar vein: Friend of OSFO dressed up as a box of Ritz crackers.

Best family costume: A leprachan holding a pot of gold; the baby as the gold, mom as the rainbow.

Best sandwich board costume: "Got kids into middle school and high school. Finaly have time but no energy left. Sorry no costume."

No Brooklyn Brides or Brooklyn Angels. Overall, the parade was low on architectural or anti-development costumes.

Razor Apple had this photo of Fort Green’s big rock all dressed up for Halloween. How cute.

This from New York 1:

Just days after fire gutted through
a Brooklyn church, parishioners gathered for Sunday mass. NY1’s Amanda
Farinacci was there and filed the following report.

Calling it God’s mission, some two dozen parishioners showed up for
mass at the Iglesia Presbyterian Memorial Church, only two days after a
fire burned through its doors.

“It was definitely a great devastation, but we’re hopeful that
everything is going to be restored and we’re still going to be coming
here and serving God the way we’re supposed to, so we’re happy about
that,” said parishioner Judy Reyes.

A three-alarm fire tore through the 125-year-old Park Slope Church
Friday, gutting its rectory and a community space used for day care and
local events. No one was inside during the early morning fire, but the
flames left the beloved church, home to hundreds of Hispanics in the
community, in ruins. Fire officials have ruled the fire an accident,
possibly a problem with the heating system.

Church organizers now say they believe in miracles, because two
irreplaceable Tiffany stained glass windows were undamaged in the fire
and a glass case holding the gifts of the communion went untouched.

“When we walked in the building, even the glass was out of smoke,
nothing has happened in that area, and God has preserved that because
it’s holy and to anoint the people,” said Pedro Montalvo of Iglesia
Presbyterian Church.

The church is classified as a landmark by the city Department of
Buildings. Organizers say the fire has taught them to appreciate the
historic building, and inspired them to expand its mission of serving
God and the community:

“We have so many plans for the future and god is going to use this
to help us obtain those goals and objectives that we have,” said Anna
Davila, who has been a parishioner of the church for 10 years.

Insurance appraisers are expected at the church this week to assess
the damage. Meanwhile, the church will keep to its normal mass
schedule, believing nothing can keep its parishioners from attending
services.

– Amanda Farinacci
            
            
       
   
 
 

Ann L. Buttenwieser, a former Parks Department
official, had the great idea 25 years ago of putting a swimming pool
on a barge and mooring it somewhere in the city’s 578 miles of
waterfront. Yesterday it became a reality. This from the New York Times.

Standing in a
terrace garden in Lower Manhattan yesterday, Ms. Buttenwieser watched
the Floating Lady float by after it glided under the Verrazano-Narrows
Bridge and past Governors Island. It is now more pool than cargo
hauler, but it is still not quite ready for its next life as a
destination for dog-paddling, backstroking New Yorkers.

It still
has to sidle into Pier 2 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, where the last of the
pipes and wires will be connected. And one more thing — it must be
filled with fresh water. It arrived full of rainwater from storms it
sailed through on the way north from the Louisiana shipyard where its
makeover began.

The pool is 25 meters long, or half the length
of an Olympic-size pool. For swimmers who never learned the metric
system, that works out to just over 82 feet. It will have seven lanes
and be four feet deep. Also on board will be dressing rooms with
bright-colored tops that look like outsize Legos.

It will not
stay at Pier 2 once the work is finished. The Parks Department, which
will operate it, has yet to decide exactly where it will go.

Ms.
Buttenwieser was excited as the Floating Lady passed yesterday. “It’s
like having a baby,” she said, “but there you only have to wait nine
months.”

Ms. Buttenwieser, 70, was so committed to the idea of
floating pools that she started a nonprofit organization, the Neptune
Foundation, to make them a reality. So far, the foundation has raised
$3 million of the Floating Lady’s $4 million construction cost.

Yes,
she was a swimmer in college, but her goal was to draw people to the
city’s underused waterfront. To design the pool she recruited Jonathan
Kirschenfeld, an architect who once designed a floating theater. (It
was never built, he said.)

As they explain it, wherever the
Floating Lady ends up, it will be attached to four uprights that will
hold it in place, sort of.

“If a fast ferry comes by and there
is a certain amount of wake, it will go up and down,” Ms. Buttenwieser
said. But it will not tilt much — seasickness is not expected to be a
problem on the Floating Lady — and the uprights will keep the Floating
Lady from drifting away from its pier.

Her idea for a floating
pool came along before the city turned a retired Staten Island ferry
boat into a jail. There has been talk of floating bus depots, floating
apartment buildings off Staten Island, floating lofts for artists off
Harlem.

“From the city’s point of view, the floating pool concept
is a very good one,” said the parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe.
“Building swimming pools is very, very expensive. And outdoor swimming
pools, they have a short life in the summer, and you have to find lots
of land for them, which can mean taking over park land that’s used for
something else. So a floating pool is an ideal solution.”

They found this big rock in Fort Greene while digging a sewer line on Vanderbilt Avenue. Here’s the story from the New York Times and a great pix by Richard Termine!

New York Times: The rock is jagged, seven feet tall, very roughly nose-shaped, and covered with a fine, tawny dust. A contractor digging a sewer line yanked it out of the street bed on Tuesday and plunked it down at the curbside near Park Avenue.

Since then, life on Vanderbilt Avenue has been subtly transformed. Adults study the rock. Children trace shapes in its dusty face. Its gravitational force seems to have slowed life a notch. For those who have come to love the rock, it is a reminder that under the crust of the city lies the entire planet.

“It’s really kind of a visceral thing,” said Christopher P. Moore, a member of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission who lives up the block from the rock. “You feel rocks, you feel the earth.”

Susan Raskin came home from work on Tuesday to find her dog barking at the rock in front of her house. Her cat seemed spooked by it, too. Ms. Raskin, a children’s social worker, was not scared. She thought the rock was one of the most lovely things she had ever seen.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal if I lived in Colorado and there were mountains,” she said yesterday morning as she stood beaming at the rock. “But I live here. This is a big thing.”

That it is, said the man who brought up the rock in the maw of his big yellow excavator.

“It weighs about 10 tons,” said the equipment operator, a scruffy man in a green sweatshirt named John, who declined to give his last name because of possible union difficulties. “I had to break the street a little wider to dig it out.”

This was Halloween last year.
   
   
      

 Halloween
morning, the kids popped out of bed early, ready for their breakfast
candy. "Stop stealing from the trick or treat bowl. That’s for later,"
Hepcat bellowed. Even Teen Spirit, who is historically difficult to
rouse in the morning, was up and ready for high school in record time,
his pockets stuffed with Hershey’s kisses.

The Oh So Feisty One
packed her cowgirl chaps in her pink backpack. "Just in case my teacher
lets us put on our costumes." This was unlikely because her school
prohibits any recognition of Halloween in sensitivity to the children
whose religious beliefs prevent them from participating.

Smartmom
tried to get some work done Monday but by 2 p.m, she
surrendered to the reality that Monday afternoon and evening were for
one thing and one thing only: Halloween.

First crisis of the day
was the case of the missing cowboy hat: OSFO searched the apartment
high and low. Smartmom finally unearthed it underneath Teen Spirit’s
bed.

Second crisis: Teen Spirit needed a shirt for his impromptu
pirate costume. "You can wear this black shirt of Dad’s." Smartmom told
him. "No he can’t," Hepcat screamed from the living room. "That’s my
special shirt."

"it’s alright, mom," Teen Spirit told Smartmom ever-attentive to Hepcat’s  moods.

They
did manage to find a billowy white shirt in the closet. Teen Spirit
strapped on his belt, plastic sword, and the pirate hat he’d purchased
at Rite Aid, ready to join a band of roving teenage pirates who were
waiting downstairs.

Aargh.

Trick or Treating on Seventh
Avenue, OSFO was, characteristically, driven to procure as much candy
as she could possibly fit into her shopping bag. They were joined by
Ducky, Groovy Aunt’s newly adopted one-year-old daughter from Russia,
who was dressed in a zip-up bunny costume with little paw gloves and a
cloth carrot.

Her first Halloween ever – god knows what Ducky
was thinking. Big brown eyes open wide, she inhaled the crazy costumed
scene from her stoller.

The group went back to Groovy Aunt’s
for some apartment-building style trick or treating. Volume is what
that’s all about. "Let’s see," OSFO calculated. "They’ve got six floors
and eight apartments on each floor…”

OSFO hasn’t learned her multiplication tables yet, but still, that’s a lot of candy.

Third Crisis: OSFO developed Halloween fatigue mixed with an acute case of "not being the center of attention."

That
darn baby in that darn bunny suit: Ducky was sucking all the attention
out of the room with a straw. OSFO ripped off her cowgirl chaps and
flung her Payless cowgirl boots across the living room and staged a a
world-class snitsky. Arms tightly crossed, she faced a wall and snarled. The only remedy: a large does of alone time.

Rejuvenated
by a few minutes of quiet and three mini Twix bars, OSFO was ready for
a little trick or treating and the Halloween parade. "The houses with
the Jack-O-lanterns are the ones with the candy," she said with the
assuredness of a seasoned navigator. Racing up and down the brownstone
stoops, she rang on door bells and filled her bag with more candy.

Crisis
number four: By the time they got to the parade, it was over. The
streets were filled with teenagers. Teen Spirit was spotted in front of
Starbucks with a can of shaving cream – horror of horrors. Strange to
say, with all her worries about sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, Smartmom
never once imagined he’d be a shaving cream trickster.

Live and learn. Hepcat trailed Teen Spirit and the teenage pirates to Barnes and Noble and insisted that he be home by nine.

Before
bedtime, OSFO weighed her Halloween treat bag on the bathroom scale:
"I’ve got five pounds of candy. Don’t anybody touch it," she screamed
and then proceeded to stash it in her secret hide-a-way.

Halloween
Crisis number five: The day after Halloween, Teen Spirit couldn’t keep
his eyes open during English class. He fell asleep on his desk.
Smartmom hopes he didn’t snore. Now that would be very distracting.

How was your Halloween?

–Posted November 2005

Picture from flickr