DEVELOP DON’T DESTROY WALKATHON: OCT. 21
The court battle against the ‘Atlantic Yards’ hinges on our ability The walk is less than 2 miles, and starts at noon at the |
|
| Event Location: | |
|
Prospect Park Bandshell, Park Slope, Brooklyn.
|
|
| Event Schedule: | |
|
SMARTMOM: CALL HER SMART GRANDMOM
Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Papers:
Move over, Smartmom. There’s a new mom on Seventh Avenue and she’s
taking over your turf. And guess what? It’s Diaper Diva, your very own
twin sister.
That’s right. Diaper Diva — and her incredibly well-dressed
2-year-old, Ducky — are finding their way in Mommyland, even taking
over Smartmom’s bench at ConnMuffCo, and making mommyfriends at Music
Together, Tots on the Go, and swim class at Eastern Athletic.
As a result, Smartmom is beginning to feel left out and a little old
(even if she is actually two minutes younger than her twin sister).
Just the other day, Diaper Diva introduced Smartmom to one of her
new friends. “This is my sister,” she told her friend. “She has a
9-year-old and a 15-year-old.”
“A 15-year-old!” exclaimed Bubbly Mom, Diaper Diva’s new mommyfriend. Like, how could anyone have a child THAT old?
Smartmom wanted to be offended, but she quickly noticed that every
time she opened her mouth, she said something that reminded her of the
know-it-all jaded parents she used to hate.
To another of Diaper Diva’s new mommyfriends, whose 2-year-old just got a chic new haircut, Smartmom blabbed:
“You’re lucky your kid still listens to you about his hair. My son
only lets his friends cut his hair and it’s always in his face.”
Open mouth, insert Elephanten shoe. No mother of a 2-year-old wants
to hear about the trials and tribulations of life with a teen. That’s
too much information, thank you.
Diaper Diva smoothly steered that conversation back to toddlers. A
discussion ensured about the comparative merits of Lolli’s versus
Orange Blossom — two Park Slope stores that Smartmom never had when SHE
was a young mommy!
Later, strolling down Seventh Avenue, Diaper Diva ran into three
(count ’em, three) new friends on one block. In the same amount of
time, Smartmom ran into no one. Nada. Not even one vaguely familiar
face from the PS 321 PTA. In her heyday, her record was 10 friends per
block from Third Street to Union.
In front of Joe’s Pizza (which will forever be known as Big Pizza
Cafe to true Slopers), Smartmom waited impatiently, while Diaper Diva
chatted with yet another new friend. This one had just gotten word that
her kid had been accepted into the Beth Elohim Early Childhood Center.
“What days?” Diaper Diva asked excitedly.
“Mondays and Tuesdays.”
“We’re in the same class!”
Smartmom wanted to say: Your kids are in the same class, not you.
But she tried to be civil. She couldn’t think of anything to add to
their sidewalk squeal: it’s been five years since the Oh So Feisty One
was in pre-school. Smartmom was fairly certain they didn’t want to hear
about the fourth grade city-wide tests.
Clearly, Diaper Diva is excited about everything having to do with
Ducky — and the first experience in pre-school is one very big deal for
both of them. Not since college do you make as many friends as quickly
as when your kid starts pre-school. In the months to come, Diaper Diva
will probably know more people in Park Slope than she ever imagined.
Maybe even more than Smartmom.
Lately, Smartmom is feeling threatened. She wonders if Diaper Diva
will have time for her and her brood as her focus shifts to her own
nuclear unit. After years of being the world’s most loving aunt and
supportive sister, Diaper Diva is a mommy now.
Despite being identical twins, Smartmom and her sister have led
different lives. Smartmom got married when she was 30, while Diaper
Diva played the single scene for another 12 years.
Teen Spirit was born when Smartmom was 33, and Diaper Diva devoted
herself full throttle to her career in the film business. She married
when she was 42 and endured years of infertility. Ducky, who was
adopted in Russia, arrived on U.S. soil on Diaper Diva’s 47th birthday
(Smartmom’s birthday, too, because, remember, they’re twins).
So now it’s Diaper Diva turn: her adventures in Mommyland are just
beginning just as Smartmom is on the verge of sending Teen Spirit to
college (hopefully).
A few years later, OSFO will go. Then what? The empty nest? Retirement? Golf?
Not likely — and let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
While Smartmom is fretting about teenage sex, marijuana use and PSAT
scores, Diaper Diva is trying to figure out how to assemble that
ridiculously complicated Playmobil farm set that Ducky got on her
second birthday.
But she figured it out (with OSFO’s help). Alas, Diaper Diva doesn’t
really need Smartmom’s help anymore. Truth is, she’s way more efficient
than Smartmom ever was and always remembers to bring a Tupperware
container of Goldfish crackers to the playground AND a first aid kit.
She also knows all the songs on Dan Zanes’s “Rocket Ship Beach” by
heart; she stares lovingly at Ducky like she’s the Second Coming; she
thinks nothing of leaving her stroller blocking the baby wipes aisle at
Met Food.
And now, she has no time to be Smartmom’s shoulder to cry on. Worse,
the twin sisters can barely have a five-minute kvetchfest at ConnMuffCo
without Diaper Diva running into a half-dozen mommy friends (and
interrupting Smartmom’s monologue). Sigh.
But Smartmom should not despair as Diaper Diva makes her way as a parent and mommyfriend to half of Park Slope.
Eventually, when the chips are down, Diaper Diva will still rely on
her almost-over-the-hill, slightly jaded sis every now and then. She
will, right?
ALTERNATIVE FILMS FOR KIDS
Bookmark my friend’s blog, Alternative Films for Kids, a great resource for unusual films that kids will enjoy. Here’s the blurb on the blog:
Welcome to Alternative Films for Kids, a browser’s guide to some
independent films, world cinema and animations that will add welcome
variety to a Disney-based diet. Not all were produced with children in
mind, but all may be enjoyed by children. If your store doesn’t carry
it, ask them to order it! Quick searches should lead to online rental
options. There are recommended age ranges here, but remember to
pre-screen for your sensitive young viewer!
Some of the films discussed on this site include: An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car, The Bicycle Thief, A Portrait of the Dalai Lama, Making Grace, Primal Mind, a film about a deaf percussionist and even an animation made by my friend called, Love is Sweet.
A great way to think outside of the box when selecting films your kids.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
THE KIDS ARE PUTTING ON A SHOW
A benefit for homeless younth, Teens for the Phillippines gets underway in just eight days. Put it on your calendar, type it into your PDA.
The show is on October 14th from 6-9 p.m. Here’s the line-up: Zach Fine on sitar, RAPR, Tetsuwan Fireball, Somewhere There’s a Fix, and Cool and Unusual Punishment.
TICKETS ARE $10 dollars for adults and $5 dollars for kids. The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. For info and directions go here.
There will be food for sale as well as information about St. Martin de Pores, which is a home for kids and teens rescued from the
streets of Manila. Though many of them are not technically orphans,
they effectively are as living on the streets is often safer than
living at home. Many are abused by their parents, who more often than
not are crippled by their own addictions to drugs and inability to deal
with the pressures of extreme poverty. So at very young ages, children
head out to the streets to beg, collect plastic garbage to sell, shine
shoes, and scrape out a very meager living. They sleep wherever they
can and eat by scavenging through the garbage at outdoor markets and
picking through the dump. Not surprisingly many end up falling in with
gangs, resort to petty thievery and prostitution, and sadly many don’t
survive past their teens.
To help these kids, a priest born in the Philippines, Father Boyet,
has founded a home for them outside Manila, which my foundation, the
John D.V. Salvador Foundation, is raising money to expand. Not only did
he create a safe loving place for them to live, he and the house
parents and volunteers transport them to a local school, where they are
all learning and acquiring skills that will allow them to break free of
the cycle of homelessness and poverty. The proceeds from Teens for the
Philippines would go toward the construction of a dormitory for the
home’s teen boys, who have been sleeping in a former Manila city bus
that’s been outfitted with bunk beds. The dormitory is nearly completed
and construction set to begin in the spring on the girls’ dorm.
To buy tickets or donate even if you can’t make it go here:
FRIENDLY FIRE: SEAN LENNON’S NEW ALBUM
Sean Lennon’s CD is the one new album I’m curious about this week. This is from NPR.
The latest release from singer and songwriter Sean Lennon tells a very personal story of love, friendship and betrayal.
Friendly Fire, the second album from the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, is accompanied by a DVD of short films, one for each song.
The
largely autobiographical project is dedicated to Lennon’s lifelong
friend, Max LeRoy, who died last year in a motorcycle accident.Lennon
explains how he, LeRoy and Lennon’s then-girlfriend, Bijou Phillips,
were involved in a love triangle. LeRoy died before the two men were
able to reconcile. Lennon says that Friendly Fire explores the profound effect LeRoy’s death has had on him.Despite
growing up in the spotlight, Lennon says it’s very natural for him to
express such personal feelings in his art and music.What
strikes him as unnatural, Lennon says, is when people think of him as a
"cardboard figure" onto which they project their ideas of what John
Lennon’s son should be like.
GO GRACE: WE’RE PROUD OF YOU
Grace Bonney, the home design blog dynamo, has an online shope on her blog now. It was written up in the New York Times. And I’ll just quote Penelope Green’s piece in the Currents column of Thursday’s House and Home section. YAY GRACE!!
"Grace Bonney, the
25-year-old writer behind the 2-year-old Design Sponge
(designsponge.blogspot.com), a cheerful, boosterish blog devoted to the
sort of home props cherished by Williamsburg-dwelling, Rogan-clad
Domino readers, has opened a virtual store: designspongeshop.com. The
site will offer limited-run pieces by indie designers (Karin
Ericksson’s set of ceramic bowls, top, is $100; a trio of votive
holders by Amy Adams of Perch Design, above, is $73). Ten percent of
the site’s ad revenues will go to a charity (this month, the Humane
Society) and 40 percent to the Web designer. “I’m just trying to break
even,” Ms. Bonney said. “I’m so giddy right now I have to hold back my
giddiness.”"
OHNY! GO INSIDE CITY SPACES FOR OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK
THIS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY: openhousenewyork weekend, America’s largest architect and design event, opens doors throughout
New York City each October.
The 4th Annual openhousenewyork Weekend is tomorrow: October 7 & 8 and explore 180 sites from boardrooms to bedrooms,
crypts to clubs, factories to firehouses, lighthouses to lookouts,
monuments to mansions, skyscrapers to substations, and so much more!
Discover new neighborhoods, explore with friends and family, and experience New York City’s architecture and design in
all five boroughs. Use the search function, site listings,
activities listings, and updates to put together your adventure!
SLOPE CELEB FILM FESTIVAL
Imagine this; A film festival made up of films featuring the best from our groovy Slope celebs. What a line up and a real showcase of some of the best films of recent years.
Coming soon to a theater near you. We’ll start with the new arrivals, Maggie and Peter and move on from there to Paul, Jen, John, Barbara Sukowa and Paul Auster.
And I’m not even including films by the screenwriters, directors, directors of photography, documentary filmmakers and others who share our streets.
Maggie Gyllenhaal:
Secretary
Sherrybaby
Adaptation
Donny Darko
Peter Sarsgaard:
Jarhead
Kinsey
Garden State
Dead Man Walking
Flight Plan
Boys Don’t Cry
Shattered Glass
Paul Bettany:
Dogville
A Beautiful Mind
Jennifer Connolly:
Little Children
Requim for A Dream
House of Sand and Fog
Steve Buscemi
Big Fish
Ghost World
Living in Oblivion
Tree
Monsters, Inc.
Fargo
Trees Lounge
Mystery Train
Parting Glances
John Turturro
Barton Fink
13 Conversations About One Thing
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
The Big Lebowski
Grace of My Heart
Jungle Fever
Miller’s Crossing
Do the Right Thing
Resevoir Dogs
Barbara Sukowa:
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Lola
Marianne and Juliane
Rosa Luxemborg
Paul Auster:
Smoke
Blue in the Face
Lulu on the Bridge
The Music of Chance
MINI VAN KILLS MAN IN BOERUM HILL
This sounds awful. From New York 1:
A minivan jumped a sidewalk in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Wednesday afternoon, killing one person and injuring another.
The minivan was traveling on Atlantic Avenue when it tried to make
a right turn and was rear-ended by an ambulette, causing it to jump the
sidewalk.Witnesses say they were shocked at the crash.
"It’s terrible,” said one witness. “It was a big bang. I thought it was a bomb the way that car hit the building. Wow."
“The man who was killed — that’s a good friend. I know him for a
long, long time. He was a very nice, sweet man,” said an area resident.The drivers of the two vehicles and the injured pedestrian were taken to Brooklyn hospital with minor injures.
No arrests have been made.
LOVE AND DEATH FROM ANNIE LEBOVITZ AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
Annie Lebovitz’s show at the Brooklyn Museum is coming on October 20th. This from the New York Times:
IN the days after the death of Susan Sontag in December 2004, Annie Leibovitz began searching for photographs for a small book to be given out at the memorial service. She started with other people’s photographs of Ms. Sontag, then turned to her own, taken during the 15 years they spent together. That exercise turned into what she has described as an archeological dig: an unearthing and sifting of a decade and a half of work, love, family life, illness, deaths and births, adding up to “my most important work,” she said in an interview this week. “It’s the most intimate, it tells the best story, and I care about it.”
The photographs, published earlier this week by Random House in a book titled “A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005,” will be shown at the Brooklyn Museum in an exhibition opening Oct. 20. The collection interweaves the professional and the personal, the public and private, in startling ways. It includes many of the bold, often carefully composed portraits of celebrities, musicians, artists and presidents for which Ms. Leibovitz became famous at Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. There is Sarajevo in 1993, ground zero in September 2001. And there is previously unseen “personal reportage” on her big and exuberant family, her parents, her life with Ms. Sontag, the births of her three daughters, Ms. Sontag’s illnesses and death, and the death of Ms. Leibovitz’s father six weeks later.
THE LULAV
Last year at this time, I wrote this post about Sukkot. Actually, it was really about my irritation with the Lubavitch men and women who stop me on the street and say, "Are you Jewish?" I haven’t seen any of them this year – today will probably be the DAY. This year, I plan to say, "Yes I am Jewish, and I don’t want to touch your Lulav." Let’s see how that goes.
Yesterday, I found myself irritated by the Lubavitch men on Seventh
Avenue. Walking home at 6 p.m., I was asked at least five times by
different groups of men: "Are you Jewish?" Each time I said "No" and
they seemed to believe me. Maybe it’s the blonde hair. Surprisingly,
they didn’t seem to flinch at all when I said: "No."As a kid in a secular Jewish family, I loved the idea of Sukkot. I
knew what it was even though my Jewish education was somewhat spotty.
Building a Sukkah, a make-shift structure, out of branches, leaves,
shrubs, and straw seemed so cool. Who wouldn’t want to create a
beautiful little playhouse in the courtyard of our apartment building
or in Riverside Park.
In Park Slope, Sukkot means that there’s a rather impressive Sukkah
at Chai Tots on the corner of Prospect Park West and Third Street and
the men from an extremely evangelical wing of hasidic Judaism, the
Lubavitch sect, are out in droves in their dark suits trying to
pursuade Jews to shake the lulav.Most of the Jews I know have figured out a usable response to the
question from the men on the street. One friend says: "Yes I’m Jewish
but I already shook the lulav today." Another friend says: "Yeah, I’m
Jewish and please leave me alone."Lubavitch Hasidism is an international movement with headquarters in
Brooklyn. They focus on transmitting to others Jews the Torah way of
life and operate an extensive outreach effort to encourage a return to
traditional practices. Their Mitzvah Tanks are a frequent sight in New
York City.
My "Just Say No" tactic makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t like to
deny my heritage or hide who I am. We didn’t survive the holocaust to
lie to other Jews on Seventh Avenue about our identities. But it’s a
quick and easy way to be left alone. My irritation almost made me
forget the way I used to marvel at this holiday. And it got me thinking
about what the holiday is all about.Google is a wonderful thing. When I got home, I sat down at the
computer and in five seconds flat I arrived at Judaism 101 and got the
answers I was looking for. (I hear there’s also something called rabbi.com
for just these kind of questions.) I’ve also got the book I bought my
son for his 13th birthday: "The Jewish Book of Why," which is chock
full of interesting Jewish religious facts. So here goes:A lulav consists of fours species: a lemon, a palm branch (in Hebrew, lulav), two willow branches, and three myrtle branches.
The lulav must be waved in all six directions (east, south, west,
north, up and down), symbolizing the fact that God is everywhere. This
ritual is a key element of Sukkot, also known as the feast of the
tabernacles, which begins on the fifth day after Yom Kippur. Unlike Yom
Kippur, which is one of the most most solemn days of the year, Sukkot
is a joyful holiday and sometimes referred to as the season of
rejoicing.Sukkot has historical and agricultural significance. Historically,
Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the Jews were
wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. But it is also a
harvest festival, a celebration of nature’s bounty.
A Sukkah means literally a booth and it refers to the make-shift
dwelling Jews are commanded to live in during this holiday in memory
of the period of wandering. The Hebrew pronouciation of Sukkot is "Sue
COAT." But the pronuciation I grew up with is the Yiddish one which
rhymes with "BOOK us."Sukkot lasts for seven days. I didn’t know this, but no work is
permitted on the first and second day of the holiday. That explains why
I saw many orthodox Jews walking in Prospect Park yesteraday. Work is
allowed on the other days of the holiday.The key to Sukkah construction is that it must be hastily assembled
like those temporary structrures the wandering Jews created in the
desert. It must have at least two and
half walls covered with a material that will not be blown by the wind.
The roof must be covered with tree branches, or other natural
materials. These materials must be left loose, not tied together
or tied down.Stars should be visible through the roof.
Even as I admire this beautiful ritual, I feel no real connection
with it. It wasn’t part of my family tradition nor does it answer any
kind of spiritual longing on my part. But as a symbol of the Jew’s
plight of marginality (what Hannah Arendt would call "the Jew as
pariah") throughout history: the wandering Jew, the Other, it resonates
with me.While learning about Sukkot is enormously interesting, I am very
uncomfortable with the evangelical aspect of Lubavitch Hasidism. Having
very strong beliefs is one thing but why must they insist on trying to
persuade others to have the same beliefs? It all seems somewhat
unJewish to me. What I like most about Judaism is the many ways there
are to be Jew: secular, athiest, intellectual, cultural, political,
reform, conservative, orthodox and hasidic, kabbalistic: there are
many ways to express one’s Judaism. Why is it necessary for
ultra-religious Jews to try to make other kinds of Jews more religious.
Why can’t they just let us be.
It seems to me that this sort of evangelism has
caused enough trouble. It’s bullyish, highly annoying, and dangerous
spiritually and politically. If I want to shake a lulav I will shake it
in my own way, in my own time. I don’t want to feel pressured, I don’t
want my Judaism questioned on the street, I don’t want to have to
express my Judaism the same way you do.So there.
–Written October 2005
MAGGIE AND PETER LAND IN PARK SLOPE
The Brooklyn Papers has the goods on Maggie and Peter’s new place in Park Slope. I think it’s cool that they picked a spot near Fifth Avenue.
Gyllenhaal and her actor fiance Peter Sarsgaard may have set a
record for cheapest celebrity lovenest last week, reportedly plunking
down $1.75 million for a townhouse on Sterling Place near Fifth Avenue.The four-story, seven-fireplace lair cost Gyllenhaal about half as
much as fellow star moms Connelly (who paid $3.7 million for a Prospect
Park West mansion) and Williams ($3.6 million for a townhouse on gritty
Hoyt Street).
Personally I’m a HUGE Sarsgaard fan. He got me at hello in "Garden State" and "Kinsey." I wouldn’t mind eyeballing those bedroom eyes of his: he is really cute on screen. But it’s not like I’m gonna stalk him or anything. I plan to be ever so discreet if our paths cross on Fifth.
Clearly, they’ve got good taste in Slope streets, as well. Sterling near Fifth is a lovely block and from the sounds of it they got quite a house – seven fireplaces and all. I gather they just bought it. So hold the welcome wagon. Who knows when they’ll actually be moving in.
The four-story, seven-fireplace lair cost Gyllenhaal about half as
much as fellow star moms Jenifer Connelly (who paid $3.7 million for a Prospect
Park West mansion) and Michele Williams ($3.6 million for a townhouse on gritty
Hoyt Street).
Let’s welcome our new celebs and give them plenty of space to just be. They’re new parents –baby Ramona was born this week — and I wouldn’t be surprised if they become regulars at Gorilla Coffee or even the Tea Lounge. They’re in major nesting mode so they’ll surely be shopping at baby shops like Romp and Area on Fifth, not to mention one of the groovy furniture stores like Posey Parker or Matter. They might even join Slope Sports like Jen and Paul.
Peter and Maggie: it’s no big deal, really. We’ve got lots of celebs around here and we don’t need to get all weird about it.
Movie stars are people like us. Only richer.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
BENEFIT FOR HOMELESS YOUTH: SAT. OCT. 14TH
Last year at this time, Teen Spirit’s band, Cool and Unusual Punishment, organized a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina at the Old Stone House called "Teens for New Orleans."
That show turned out great. More than 200 kids and adults showed up and it was a blast for a great cause.
This year the band is planning another benefit. This time, it’s "Teens for the Philippines" and they’re reaching out to street children in Manila. This benefit will support a home that is being built for these kids.
The show is on October 14th from 6-9 p.m. Here’s the line-up: Zach Fine on sitar, RAPR, Tetsuwan Fireball, Somewhere There’s a Fix, and Cool and Unusual Punishment.
TICKETS ARE $10 dollars for adults and $5 dollars for kids.
There will be food for sale as well as information about St. Martin de Pores, which is a home for kids and teens rescued from the
streets of Manila. Though many of them are not technically orphans,
they effectively are as living on the streets is often safer than
living at home. Many are abused by their parents, who more often than
not are crippled by their own addictions to drugs and inability to deal
with the pressures of extreme poverty. So at very young ages, children
head out to the streets to beg, collect plastic garbage to sell, shine
shoes, and scrape out a very meager living. They sleep wherever they
can and eat by scavenging through the garbage at outdoor markets and
picking through the dump. Not surprisingly many end up falling in with
gangs, resort to petty thievery and prostitution, and sadly many don’t
survive past their teens.
To help these kids, a priest born in the Philippines, Father Boyet,
has founded a home for them outside Manila, which my foundation, the
John D.V. Salvador Foundation, is raising money to expand. Not only did
he create a safe loving place for them to live, he and the house
parents and volunteers transport them to a local school, where they are
all learning and acquiring skills that will allow them to break free of
the cycle of homelessness and poverty. The proceeds from Teens for the
Philippines would go toward the construction of a dormitory for the
home’s teen boys, who have been sleeping in a former Manila city bus
that’s been outfitted with bunk beds. The dormitory is nearly completed
and construction set to begin in the spring on the girls’ dorm.
To buy tickets or donate even if you can’t make it go here:
NEW: STOOP SERIES TONIGHT
The Stoop Series
7 PM: As part of DUMBO’s “First Thursday Gallery Walk,” BRIC’s Rotunda Gallery and New York magazine present the Stoop Series — a free public program series features moderator Logan Hill, New York magazine Contributing Editor, in conversation with prominent and emerging guests from Brooklyn’s contemporary art, film, music, theater and literary scene. Each Stoop Series program will begin at 7pm at the Rotunda Gallery and be followed by the Stoop Slam at 9pm, an evening of the latest happenings in the global music scene, programmed by Knox Robinson. The series premieres tonight with a conversation featuring filmmakers Steven Shainberg and Dito Montiel.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
STEVE KEY LIME ON NORTH OF NEW ORLEANS RESTAURANT
Steve of Steve’s Key Lime Pies, Steve’s INCREDIBLE Key Lime pies, knows the chef who is opening North of New Orleans, the new Cajun food outpost on Seventh Avenue. Here’s what Steve wrote to OTBKB:
I know Greg (the chef) from his years at Delta Grill in Manhattan, great to see him headed out on his own. From what I recall speaking with Greg (Delta has been buying my pies for many, many years, and we’ve been doing the 9th Ave. Food Fest together as well), he worked for and trained under Paul Prudhomme. I’m looking forward to their opening, pie sales aside.
THE BROOKLYN APARTMENT
You can become immersed in someone else’s apartment – dirty dishes, laundry, clutter and all.
The Brooklyn Apartment is a digitization of Brooklyn. It is an expanding virtual tour of mine and my friends apartment. All environmental details are included, including dirty sink, weird 100-year old bathtub, the toilet, and views of brooklyn streets as well.
The whole point of this is to allow anyone to be immersed in the same environment as the one me and my friends inhabit. Recently, we have also been using the virtual tour as a platform for our art work and the second apartment in the tour(the one you take the city bus to) is primarily an art gallery.
Updates to this project are planned to occur once a month. Each month the territory will expand to include more of this area. Future updates will include digitizations of the East River waterfront, the basement, the subway and more.
If you link to us, we thank you, but please include a link to our the main site which houses all of our projects: Poland-Korea Relations by EmilHiri (http://www.polandkorearelations.com/)
BREAKING NEWS: THAT BUILDING ON 2ND STREET IS FINALLY FOR SALE
Thank you, Daily Slope. Thank you. I thought I saw some photographers out there yesterday. This is BIG NEWS: The building across from PS 321 and the Second Street Cafe — ON THE CORNER OF SECOND STREET AND SEVENTH AVENUE. THE EYESORE. The place that used to have the FUNKY/CRAZY cafe/club (if you could call it that). IT’S FOR SALE for $5.75 million!!!
It’s a wreck for sure. The woman who owns it has a daughter or two who lived there for a while and had a used clothing store in there.
More, including the full real estate listing, on the Daily Slope discussion boards.
OCTOBER AT THE BAM CAFE
|
Current Series:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
BAMcafé Live Curated by Limor Tomer
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEW JERSEY BLOG FEATURED IN NEW YORK TIMES
Baristanet, the Montclair/Glen Ridge, NJ blog that inspired and mentored OTBKB, made it into the New York Times. A new feature charts the town’s changing architectural landscape. Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times piece.
On Sept. 22, the Web site started a new feature to chart the town’s
changing architectural landscape — an interactive map that shows
teardowns, homes with historic designations and recent construction.“Maybe
something like this will give people pause,” said Ms. George, 39, in
her office at her gracious 100-year-old home. “Knowing you’re having
your house on the teardown map, knowing it will be part of this trend,
I don’t think it has a positive implication.”The teardown
issue has taken on a sense of urgency here after a developer bought the
blue-shuttered Colonial-style house, on North Mountain Avenue, for
$870,000 last fall and demolished it this summer with plans to build
six town homes. The action led town officials to rezone about 200 lots
— including the North Mountain Avenue property — from a designation
that allows up to eight units on a single lot to a designation that
allows only two. The developer has since dropped his plans and has put
the empty lot up for sale.“The fear is that teardowns, in a
long-established community with little space for new development, are
slowly changing Montclair’s character and ambiance,” Ms. George wrote
on the Web site.“Longtime residents often say the Montclair
they knew has changed,” she continued, adding that she envisions the
online map as serving as “an evolving document chronicling change in
Montclair.”A similar interactive map on WestportNow, a news Web
site in Westport, Conn., inspired the Montclair site, Ms. George said.
On that site, the “Teardown of the Day” feature includes photographs of
construction equipment razing Cape Cods, ramshackle ranches and
architectural gems.
MONTHLY CLASSICAL SHOW AT BARBES
SUNDAY OCTOBER, 8 at BARBES:
BARBES CLASSICAL. Once a month, Barbès and the Concert Artist Guild present a classical music concert featuring some of the best new talent in the classical world.
This month: SVET STOYANOV:
Bulgarian percussionist Svet Stoyanov was recently praised by the New York Times for his “understated but unmistakable virtuosity” along with a “winning combination of gentleness and fluidity". He has performed at venues such as Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, has appeared with top orchestras around the country and given world premiere performances of works by Phillip Glass and Steve Reich.
THIS SUNDAY FOR KIDS: FUN AUTHOR READING AT COMMUNITY BOOKS
Take your kids to hear/see Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story) at Community Bookstore. Ensor uses shadow puppets to dispaly the book’s fantastic cut-out illustrations.
Totally enjoyable for adults and kids.
Check out Ensor’s briliant web site: Barbaraensor.com
Community Books. Sunday October 8 @ 4 p.m. Seventh Avenue between Garfield and Carroll.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
CRIME ON SMITH STREET AND IN WINDSOR TERRACE
In Cobble Hill:
From New York 1: A man was shot and killed by police Saturday morning after he held two women at knife point in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill.
Police say they arrived on Smith Street to find the man holding a knife to a woman’s neck. The officers ordered the man to drop the weapon, but he cut the back of the woman’s neck and took off.
He then ran to a nearby supermarket where investigators say he took another female hostage.
The officers told him again to drop the knife and when he didn’t, police say an officer shot him once in the neck. He died at the hospital a short time later.
"He held a knife to her throat, and he kept saying ‘I’m going to kill her, I’m going to kill her.’ He then crouched down with the woman. Police officers fired one round, striking this individual. He was removed to the hospital where he expired," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Both of his victims were also taken to the hospital. Their condition is described as stable.
Police say the suspect was released from a hospital Friday after being treated for a psychological disorder.
His name has not been released
In Windsor Terrace:
From Park Slope Parents: Last night a man was robbed at gunpoint in front of our house on Reeve Place between Prospect Park Southwest and Prospect Ave. It was around 9 pm. The victim managed to grab the gun at his head but was then beaten with it before the two young male suspects took off down Sherman Street towards Greenwood Ave.The victim, a middle aged man, was walking down Reeve while talking on his cellphone when he was accosted. He is okay but minus his wallet.Last night a man was robbed at gunpoint in front of our house on Reeve Place between Prospect Park Southwest and Prospect Ave. It was around 9 pm. The victim managed to grab the gun at his head but was then beaten with it before the two young male suspects took off down Sherman Street towards Greenwood Ave.The victim, a middle aged man, was walking down Reeve while talking on his cellphone when he was accosted. He is okay but minus his wallet.My husband called 911 when he heard the scuffle outside our door. Luckily, he did not open the door while the men were there but rather while they were running away. Our daughters were inside with him – ten feet and one closed door away from the men with the gun.Please be careful. We live in such a wonderful neighborhood and I know that I am guilty of forgetting that we do live in one of the largest cities in the world.
IN HER OWN WORDS: SMITH STREET HOSTAGE VICTIM
In this Daily News exclusive, writer and editor Phyllis Fine describes what it was like to be at the center of Saturday’s Brooklyn hostage drama – an ordeal that began with a psycho’s knife to her head and ended with a single shot from a cop with deadeye aim. Here, in her own words, is her stunning story:
No, my life didn’t pass before my eyes.
But I found myself thinking, "It must be a dream, please let this be a dream. …"
Your thoughts sound like a cliche when your life is being threatened. That’s what I found when I was taken hostage Saturday morning by a man who kept shouting, "Kill me!" to the cops surrounding us.
Okay, I thought, maybe you want to die, but I don’t. Why do you have to take me with you?
It all started with a simple morning errand to the supermarket two blocks away.
I was almost at the entrance when I saw people running from the opposite direction. I paused, confused, and that’s when my attacker, Joseph Bernazard (whose name I only learned later) must have grabbed me.
It took a minute to feel the menace and realize what was going on. I felt a tug to my hair, something against the back of my head – the knife.
Bernazard never spoke directly to me.
From what he was saying to the cops – "After what they did to me … Carlos told me …" – I thought I had interrupted a drug bust and the perp had glommed onto me to keep from being arrested.
But that was the standard "Law and Order"-style narrative, one that I could have been watching on TV – helped along by the police saying, "She’s innocent, don’t hurt her."
The other, more compelling narrative was the threat of the guns facing me and the knife behind me. I have to prepare for death, I thought. In the months after 9/11, like many New Yorkers, I’d reminded myself that death could come at any time, and that was okay.
But I was out of practice with such thoughts. I’m not a religious Jew, but later, I wished I had memorized the Hebrew prayer, the Shema, that Jews are supposed to say before dying.
I think it would have been comforting to me, as if I were my own priest giving myself last rites.
Then I heard the shot that set me free. I don’t remember him letting go of me, but he must have. My first thought was, had the shot hit me? Then I ran quickly away from the circle of danger without looking back.
I’ve learned two things from my ordeal: Life can be interrupted at any minute, so you have to enjoy it while you can. And if you see a group of people running wildly – and it’s not the marathon – don’t stop to figure out what’s going on.
Just run like hell.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
THE TALMUD FOR PARENTING ADVICE
Who nu? The Talmud provides good parenting advice. This from the New York Times:
In the third century, the rabbis who put together the Talmud
instructed fathers to teach their sons to swim. It’s safe to say that
most American Jews aren’t familiar with this directive, whether or not
they take their kids to the lake or the pool. But one morning this past
summer, a group of mostly non-Jewish parents puzzled over its meaning
in a classroom at the Carolina Day School, a nonsectarian private
school in Asheville, N.C.These mothers and fathers were
accidental students of Judaism. They had come together because they
often felt flattened by achieving the modern ideal of successful
children. They were seeking relief in a weeklong course based on the
book “The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise
Self-Reliant Children,” by aLos Angeles
clinical psychologist named Wendy Mogel.
Genevieve Fortuna, a 58-year-old former preschool teacher who
has been teaching classes on raising children for 30 years, wrote the
Talmudic quote about swimming in blue marker on the classroom’s white
board. The half-dozen or so parents, dressed in summer-casual shorts
and sandals, looked up at her from their seats around two
child’s-height tables. Fortuna opened her copy of Mogel’s book. “Jewish
wisdom holds that our children don’t belong to us,” she read. “They are
both a loan and a gift from God, and the gift has strings attached. Our
job is to raise our children to leave us. The children’s job is to find
their own path in life. If they stay carefully protected in the nest of
the family, children will become weak and fearful or feel too
comfortable to want to leave.”Photo from Flickr: flickr.com/photos/35074897@N00/257203165/