Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_SWEET AND LOW

The small and large ways that people look out for one another in a big city sometimes go unnoticed. But these efforts save lives and help make our city feel like a realy community.

Case in point. In a co-op apartment building in Park Slope,  a 77-year old man I'll call Mike, lives in a small rent-controlled apartment, which he has occupied for 40 years.

Mike has diabetes and in the last year his health has taken a turn for the worse. My friend who lives in the building, noticed the way his shoulders looked bony and sharp through his shirt and asked him  if he was okay. "They don't know what's the matter with me," he told her. "But I can't eat. Sometimes I go over to Methodist and have lunch in their cafeteria."

For a few days my friend brought him plates of roast chicken and spagetti. "Don't bring too much," he said. "My refrigerator is broken."

My friend then decided to contact Meals on Wheels. Mike now gets one hot meal a day delivered Monday through Friday.

The Department of the Aged, which administers Meals on Wheels, assigned Mike's case to the Prospect Hill Senior Center (PHSC) on Prospect Avenue. 

Last week, the case supervisor from PHSC called my friend to say that Mike wasn't answering his door when his food was delivered.  "Is there a problem with him?" she said. "Why don't you knock on his door."

My friend went upstairs and knocked on his door but there was no answer. She left a note that said "I've got your food."

The next day the note was still on the door. She asked the super if he had Mike's keys but he didn't. He did have the keys to the apartment two floors below Mike's and climbed up to his apartment on the fire escape in a teeming rain.

Mike wasn't there.

My friend called the case worker at the Prospect Hill Senior Center, who suggested that she call the local hospitals. "Don't call the police yet," she advised. "If they don't have a key they will just break the door down. And Mike doesn't need that on top of everything else."

A call to Methodist Hospital revealed that Mike was there. However, he didn't have  phone service in the room. My friend was unable to find out how he got there and why.

Another man in the building who I'll call Dave has also been looking out for Mike. He put a up a note near the elevator in the lobby that said:

Concerned neighbors: Mike is at Methodist Hospital. He would appreciate visitors. He likes his coffee light with Sweet and Low.

Dave later informed my friend that Mike had taken a fall and had a gash on his head. Another neighbor had taken him to the hosptial and waited with him there for six hours. My friend recognized that there needed to be more communication between the people in the building who were making efforts on behalf of Mike.

Mike is back home. But he'd probably still appreciate visitors. And he likes his coffee light with Sweet and Low.

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Celebs at the Playground

Today I saw two movie actors at the Third Street Playground. And I have to say they looked like incredibly nice and normal people.

Period.

They were sitting on the side of the sandbox just like all the other parents who sit on the side of the sandbox, watching their child play in the sand.

Period.

The guy, who is incredibly tall, looked like any Sunday morning dad, enjoying time with his son.

The woman, is every bit as beautiful  as she is in the movies. In fact, seeing her made me realize what a natural beauty she is. She glows. But she doesn't look particularly glamorous or celebrity-like.

She looks like a real person. A real person with really nice causual clothes. Great boots, a cool down vest, cashmere sweater, perfectly fitting jeans.

Period.

The other night, I watched "Requium for a Dream," the movie version of the Hubert Selby Coney Island novel. It's an intense and devestating movie. A really hopeless sad story told with an inordinate amount of style.

She is just incredible in the movie. So very real. I believed her completely as the character.

I think she's a teriffic actress. And he in  "A Beautiful Mind" is just magical.  They both were.

What a pair.

I for one am proud that they live in Park Slope and can go to the Third Street Playground without anyone making a fuss.

Yeah, I know I'm writing about it. And that's kinda making a fuss. I thought about that as I tried to keep my eyes off of them. I can't lie: I did observe them. Not in a stalkerish way. But in a -- "I just saw you yesterday in a movie I rented from Netflix and now you're in the sandbox at the playground..."

Truly, though. I think they're cool. They can afford to live anywhere in the world and they choose to live her. This is a nice place to make a life.

Even if you're a movie star.

NO WORDS_Daily Pix by Hugh Crawford

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_ONLY THE BLOG KNOWS HOW TO ADMIT THAT SHE'S WRONG

Only the Blog Knows How to Admit that She's Wrong. I stand corrected. I want to thank Eric Richmond, owner of the Brooklyn Lyceum, for  clueing me in on what's been going on at the Lyceum. I have attended a couple of events there -- a Polygraph Lounge show (and auction for MS51) and a fabu dance party. I love the space and love to hear that it is alive and well.  I apologize for saying that the space was underutilized. I don't know a whole lot about what's been going on there. Here's what Richmond had to say:

come on guys...

it appears that this "blogdoesntknow" and that the"blogdoesntresearch".

a cursory review of the events at the lyceum at the bizarre name of brooklynlyceum.com probably wouldnt turn up much.

not.. the brooklyn underground film festival
not...mum
not...cyro bptista(two runs)
not...the circus of vices and virtues(docuumentary on the bbc)
not...duck baker and marc ribot
not...dance theater workshop
not...the polyphonic spree
not...asbury shorts of new york
not...cmj music festival (2002 & 2005)
not...marshall arisman exhibt for 3 months
not...several weddings
not...fundraisers for a number of groups and schools.
not..the improv summit where the best improv groups in the city perform
not..the 6 month run of too much light makes the baby go blind.
not...the 500 people who visited it during open house new york 2005
not...posters for shows that have at times laminated park slope and ft greene and williamsburg.

maybe a perusal of one link on the brooklynlyceum.com website such as http://www.brooklynlyceum.com/before  might shed some light

maybe a perusal of another link http://www.brooklynlyceum.com/RE/photos

maybe  a litsearch on nytimes.com for "brooklyn lyceum" or "public bath #7"

maybe read one of the banners or signs or posters on the exterior of the building.

as for the scaffolding, until such time as we get a good contractor/architect combo up to the task, it will remain in place. a bit of an eyesore, but get a grip folks. of all the things in life to have an opinion on, isn't that a pretty superficial one. to come up with all that negative conjecture without ever visiting the buiding or its website and denigrating its based on its exterior and having no clue that it is a theater that has been attended by over 100,000 patrons in the last five years is pretty pathetic.

maybe the folks running the lyceum(me plus one other person) have figured out that the glib brooklyn faux-journalists are not the target market. the lyceum has been open for 5 years and has had over 75 productions and over 500 nights of events. and it is still here.

think about it. the tough marketing-phobic skin that park slopers have precludes many different experiences. a friend of mine nailed it several years ago when we were discussing the differences betwen new york and chicago. Chicago is a theater town, new york is a fashion town. paraphrased, chicagoans enjoy the hunt for art, new yorkers refuse to hunt. that is changing as new york is invaded with the rest of america, but not in time for you.

reviews and listings in the times, new york magazine, time out new york, the new yorker, the voice and others have completely passed beyond your view. more likely is that without a million dollar ad capaign to search you out you are completely unable to navigate culture at the sub-broadway, non bar-band levels.

i always find it humorous when i get european tourists who visit because they have seen footage of it on the bbc.

the lyceum is a wonderful building and a cultural resource in a resource starved region. too bad you missed it, you might enjoy it. but more likely those who supplant you in brooklyn will.

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_STRANGERS

Day after day, I see the same people on Seventh Avenue. They are not really strangers and certainly not friends; I don't really know them but they pass through the same spaces I do. We trade smiles and sometimes say hello. Sometimes, we even have short conversations.

There's the guy who introduced himself to my sister and me at the Mojo. He overheard us talking about "The Catcher in the Rye," and told us that it was his favorite book. Months later, I bought a shelf unit from him at a stoop sale. Recently, he told me about his plans to become a veterinarian.

Then there are the people that seem to keep the same schedule as me. Those I run into every time I go out. It can be embarassing to say "hi again," again and again. But I do.

Some of these "strangers" make me curious like the handsome PS 321 dad who looks like a gray haired Christopher Reeves. And the interesting woman some call "Skirt Lady:" she wears a hand-sewn black skirt and a white t-shirt most of the time. Her style could be described as minimalist/Amish. 

Then there are the ones I sort of know: the parents I see at drop-off and pick-up day after day, or run into at the Mojo; who I know through the PTA; whose children have been in classes with mine; those I see at the co-op, the playground, or running around the park.

Over the years, I have developed an easy familiarity with the people who work in the stores on Seventh Avenue: the helpful women at the Clay Pot, who cheerfully check the prices of jewelry I can't afford. The friendly woman at Cousin John's who always remembers how I like my coffee, the man at Sound Track who asks my opinion of the music I am buying.

To make a list of all these people would be impossible. First of all, I don't know their names. Secondly, if I did know, the list would be very long.

These are the people in my daily landscape, who make up the community that I am part of. Not really strangers, not really friends, they are the in-between people who people our lives as we walk to the places we are going; who show up at the same events we do; who happen to be on the street when we are.

There should be a word for it. Frangers. A cross between stranger and friend.

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_GUILT

Quite a few times a day I feel little wisps of guilt about things I probably shouldn't feel guilty about but I do.

I feel guilty every time I pass the panhandler who often stands in front of the Ace Supermarket on Seventh Avenue at Berkeley. He always looks at me so expectantly. That's probably because I once gave him $10 dollars.

He pissed me off, though. About an hour later he hit me up for more money. "I just gave you $10 dollars," I said. "That's right. Excuse me. Sorry, miss."

I read an article about him once in Stay Free Magazine and found out that he needs $20 dollars a day to pay for his room in a flop house somewhere in Brooklyn. He's got a handsome face; a winning smile. I feel guilty every time I don't give him some money. But I also want to disabuse him of the idea that I'm good for $10 dollars.

I feel guilty every time I walk past the coffee cart on Eighth Avenue at Lincoln Place holding a cup of coffee from Cousin John's. He's such a nice man and when I do buy coffee he always jokes: "You want it for here or to go?" I laugh and say, "I'll take it at the cafe table over there pointing to the sidewalk.

Sometimes I cross the street diagonally so that he won't see me. If I walk right by his truck, I try to hide my coffee under my coat.

I also feel bad not buying the New York Times from the nice man who stands on the corner near the coffee cart selling papers to the morning rush hour crowd. "I mostly read the Times on the Internet," I think guiltily. Sometimes I have to stop myself from blurting that out loud - revealing my patent disrespect for printed matter.

During Pledge Week on WNYC, I feel guilty the longer I put off actually making a pledge to my favorite radio station. Especially when they say stuff like "$100 dollars is what you might spend on a trip to the grocery, or a meal at a good restaurant." WNYC is on in our house practically all day - from Morning Edition to the BBC after 9 p.m. It really does make a qualitative difference in our lives. It is our main source of news and media entertainment. Yet, I always procastinate, waiting until near the end of the pledge drive to actually call in

Similarly, I feel guilty every time I pass the Candy Sale sign in front of PS 321 knowing that I missed  the deadline for orders. As one of the biggest PTA fundraisers, it brings a lot of money and programs into the school. Still, I was unable to motivate myself to find anything in there worth buying. Actually, I did make a list of things like magazines subsciptions and wrapping paper that seemed okay. But the order sheet is still in a pile of papers in the dining room.

Guilt is such an overused word. Is it guilt that I am feeling or just a kind of discomfort about these things. The word guilt is from the old English word: gylt, which means crime. In dictionary.com it is described as: "culpability for a crime or lesser breach of regulations that carries a legal penalty." It's not a crime to walk past the panhandler, buy the kind of coffee I like, read the Times' on the Internet, procrastinate about making a contribution to WNYC, or decide to ignore the Candy Sale. it's more like a self-reproach; I feel bad but not bad enough to do it differently.

Tomorrow I am going to buy my coffee where I want to. I will walk without guilt past the coffee man. If he wants my business, he's going to have to use a better brand of coffe. And that's final. 

NO WORDS_Daily Pix by Hugh Crawford

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_BOO

My daughter took it upon herself to decorate our building, an 8-unit limestone, with handmade Halloween decorations.

The first week of October, she made numerous drawings -- wonderful ghouls, howling dogs, witches, and devils -- and taped them on the walls of  the public hallway.

Earlier this week at Little Things, we found a soft Dracula candy holder she couldn't live without. I picked up some candy corn and Halloween signs at Save-on-Fifth. And the Food Coop had some of the most beautifully patterned gourds I have ever seen.

Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.  (that's the sound of an old fashioned cash register).

Last night, everything came together: we made a make-shift table out of grocery boxes and used a sparkly silver fabric as a tablecloth. We put it in the hallway by our front door and filled Dracula with candy corn and M&Ms, and little plastic pumpkins.

Voila. I think we're done. For now.

The sweet sweetness of the candy corn is already getting to me. The chaps for my daughter's cowgirl costume are at the dry cleaners getting hemmed. My son hasn't even mentioned his pirate costume (I guess at 14 you don't need to involve your parents anymore). We've got a heinously busy weekend planned.

Take a deep breath and get ready for Halloween.

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE EDGE_STEVE BUSCEMI SHOW IN GOWANUS AREA

Were you at the Issue Project Room last night? I wasn't. But I wish I'd been able to get in there.

My husband went but he couldn't get in because he didn't have a RESERVATION. They set up a space for some of the overflow crowd to view the event on video. But he couldn't even get in there. Located in a silo-like building near the Carroll Street Bridge in the Gowanus area, the Issue Projects Room is not a very large space.

But in the teeming rain, there was, of course, a huge crowd for local celebrity-hero Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci.

If you were on the e-mailing list of Issue Project Room, you might have known about this  special evening which presented Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci, reading excerpts from screenplays of current remakes of films by the late Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

Turns out Tucci was NOT scheduled to be there. "Stanley Tucci was rumored to be here," Buscemi told the crowd pre-show. "He was never planning to come. He hates Brooklyn. Actually he's working." (paraphrase by a friend who was there.)

Ida Tuturro was there and, according to my friend, delivered a knock out performance in "Blindate" with Steve Buscemi. My friend, whose boyfriend was smart enough to make reservations on Sunday, said that all the actors were top notch and that it was an incredibly great evening.  The surprise musical guests were Chocolate Genuis, but she didn't stay to hear them.

"Interview", directed by Buscemi, is the story of a star political journalist who must interview a popular soap opera actress against his will.

"Blinddate" directed by Tucci, tells of a grieving couple who cope with the loss of their child by acting out new identities through personal ads.

Excerpts were read from a third Van Gogh screenplay "06", a tale of two people who meet on a phone sex hotline and develop arelationship without ever meeting. Originally nominated for a Dutch academy award in 1994, "06" is set to be directed by Bob Balaban.

And it only cost $20.

ISSUE: Project Room provides "an open and versatile enviroment where both established and emerging artics can conduct, exhibit and perform new and site-specific work according to their respective vision."

Get on their mailing list and find out about innovative projects, rare artist appearances (I'll say),  first time showings, and multidisciplinary events.

ISSUE PROJECT ROOM
400 Carroll Street
(between Bond & Nevins)
on the Gowanus Canal
www.issueprojectroom.org
info@issueprojectroom.org

POSTCARD FROM TH SLOPE_OF POLAROIDS AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP

When Jamie Livingston, photographer, filmmaker, circus performer, accordian player, Mets fan, and above all, loyal friend, died on October 25th (his birthday) in 1997 at the age of 41, he left behind hundreds of bereft friends and a collection of 6,000 photographs neatly organized in small suitcases and wooden fruit crates.

Jamie took a polaroid once a day, every day, including his last, for 18 years.

This photographic diary, which he called, "Polaroid of the Day," or P.O.D., began when Jaime was a student at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. The project continued when he moved to apartments in New York City including the incredible circus memorabelia-filled loft on Fulton Street, which he shared with his best friend. That loft was the site of many a Glug party, an "orphans thanksgiving," a super-8 festival of Jamie's lyrical films, and a rollicking music jam.

The picture taking continued as Jamie traveled the world with the Janus Circus, his very own circus-troupe, and later when he became a much-in-demand cinematographer and editor of music videos back in the early days of MTV. He contributed his talents to the ground-breaking Nike "Revolution" spot and many other commercials, too. Through it all he took pictures, made movies, and loved his friends. And the polaroids reflect all of that: a life bursting with activity, joy and sadness, too.

Jamie brought his camera wherever he went. As one friend said, "It probably helped his social life because everyone wanted to be in a photo of the day." It was always interesting to see what Jaime deemed worthy of a P.O.D. My husband remembers his own 30th birthday party in his photo studio on Ludlow Street: "Hundreds of people filled my loft and the party snaked down Ludlow Street to Stanton. But what did Jamie take a picture of? A potato chip or something. It was a gorgeous shot, though."

But more often than not, the photos were of friends, family, himself, special places he had visited, or just something that caught his discriminating eye. And if he'd been to a Mets Game that day, that was it -- a Mets game was always a worthy P.O.D.

And the pictures are utterly gorgeous miracles of photographic artistry. The color, the light, the time lapse swirls, the unerring composition. Whether it was a still life of what he'd eaten for dinner, an unblinking shot of his beloved grandfather (Pops), or swooningly romantic portraits of his beautiful wife or ex-girlfriends, any one of these photographs should be in a museum collection. But perhaps more importantly, Jamie's friends and the world need access to these pictures, which is why his devoted friends have been talking for years about ways to exhibit this massive body of work.

Back in September at a bris for the son of a good friend, my husband and our friend Betsy, one of Jamie's still devoted ex-girlfriends, started talking about the P.O.D.s:  "Why don't we finally re-photograph all 6,000 of them and put them on a web site." And that's practically what they did. They spent many October days digitally re-photographing the picures. This labor of love was also exceedingly labor intensive and they only got up to 1990 (the P.O.D.s started in 1978). But they plan to finish the rest when they have some time again.

A year ago today there was a "Jamie Fest," a commemoration of the seventh anniversary of his death, a small group of friends gathered at the envy-inducing loft of one of Jamie's oldest, dearest friends in Tribeca and were treated to a veritable feast of PODs, films, good red wine, beer, and Chinese food. There was a warmth in that room, a convivial feeling of purpose, as the friends remembered their friend who left behind a journal of his life and their's too.

My husband set up a random, non-chronological slide show of these pictures, as well as a special "computer station" where Jamie's friends could browse the well-indexed shots year-by-year, month-by-month, day-by-day. Hunched over the computer,some pictures made them sad, some made them reflective, some made them very, very quiet. Others made them laugh or squeal with recognition of an almost forgotten face, a wonderful memory, a special time too, too long ago.

Jamie was the best man at our wedding. He was husband's tereasured co-hort since their days at Bard College. I met Jamie soon after meeting Hepcat, probably at the Great Jones Cafe, and always enjoyed our group adventures, including the annual walk of the elephants down 34th Street when the Ringling Brothers Circus arrived in town, the trips to photo shows to buy cameras and old photographs, their brunches at the Cottonwood Cafe, or seeing the Mets, and the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels tour at Shea Stadium. I remember when Jamie visited me at the hospital when I was having pre-term labor with my son and nearly lost him. I remember how he and Betsy carried a heavy gift of a vintage toy box to my son's first birthday party in Prospect Park.

At the "Jamie Fest" last year I located the stunning P.O.D. of our wedding day and marveled at how young and thin I was back then (marriage and kids really ages you). My husband looked so young and handsome in his father's tuxedo. I also found the picture from the night before the wedding when Jaime and Betsy joined at the emergency room at Beth Israel Hospital because my husband thought he had a broken his neck in a minor (okay major) car accident a few days before the wedding (pre-wedding nerves, no doubt).

Jaime and Betsy sat with us from mid-night until five a.m., while we waited for my husband's  neck to be X-Rayed. It turned out that he had a nasty case of whiplash and had to wear a neck brace at the wedding. When I suggested that Jamie and Betsy go home to get some sleep, Jaime refused to budge saying, "I'm your bestman. This is part of my job."

On this the 8th anniversary of Jamie's death:  Thank you, Jamie, for being our bestman. And thanks for giving us a stunning portrait of our lives. You gave us more than you can ever know.

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_What's With the F Train?

What's with the F-train? The fact that the Coney Island bound trains were running expess only from Jay Street to Church Avenue this past weekend certainly made weekend travel a nightmare. No trains from Jay Street all the way to Church Avenue.

So much for Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, the South Slope, Seventh Avenue, Windsor Terrace, Kensington and beyond...

In the Times' City Section on Sunday, Sewell Chan wrote: "Weekend service diversions - in which trains are rerouted, schedules altered and riders befuddled, all because of construction or repair work - have become a pervasive element of the subway-riding experience. Over the weekend, all 19 regular lines had at least one departure from their regular service pattern. (There are a total of 26 lines. The three shuttles had no diversions, and the B, V, W and Z trains do not run on weekends.)"

It's really getting to the point where I think twice about taking a quick zip into Manhattan. What should be a 40 minute ride can take much, much longer. It just isn't much fun. Besides, there's so much to do in Brooklyn these days who needs Manhattan?

Well sometimes you do. Today I had a lunch meeting in Manhattan. My friend arrived late because the F-train turned into a D-train and went up 8th Avenue line when she needed to be near Sixth Avenue. After the lunch meeting, I waited about a half hour for an F at Rockefeller Center. I finally got on the V train which only goes to Second Avenue and waited there for ten minutes. Finally a D-train came along that was making F-train stops.

The F-train. We used to call it the Fun Train. Now it's the dysFunctional train.

NO WORDS_Daily Pix by Hugh Crawford

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Cowgirl Costume

My daughter started thinking about Halloween 2005 on November 1, 2004. In the spring, there were causal musings about what she wanted to be.  By summer, she had narrowed her choices to three or four possibilities.

After Labor Day, when those Halloween catalog arrived in the mail, the urgency began: "When are we going to order my costume, Mom?" She circled everything in the catalog that she liked. But there was a double circle and stars around the costume she really coveted.

The cowgirl costume.

I have to say I respected her choice. Cowgirls are cool. And a nice contrast from last year's Snow Queen (which was lovely, I might add, with its sparkly white fabric and long cape).

But being a cowgirl is EXPENSIVE. I said "yes" before I realized just how expensive it was going to be. The a la carte style of pricing in that Halloween catalog can be a bit misleading.

Still. We needed to place our order in time for pre-Halloween delivery.

We ordered the brown hat, simulated cow hide chaps, suede fringed vest, suede gloves, and a bandanna. That ran us about $75.00 including shipping. There were other items like a pair of leather cow boy boots that were just too outrageous.

If it sounds frivolous to spend that much on a costume it is a frivolousness born of experience and lots of it. I have been doing Halloween costumes since 1993. A child's ontentment with his or her costume is key to an angst-free Halloween season. And that's worth a bunch. We've made many of our own costumes, some of which were quite impressive. But homemade costumes involve lots of materials and can be quite pricey, too.

I think the most "creative" and cost-effective costume we ever did was the year my son wanted to be "A Boy Caught in a Rainstorm." My husband took a black umbrella and attached long pieces of blue and silver string. Wearing a yellow slicker and boots, my son looked great. Just like a boy....

My son, who is now 14, was big on obscure and unexpected Halloween costumes. He actually liked it when people would say, "Who are you?" That happened when he went as TinTin one year and Thompson and Thompson the next from the Belgium comic book, "TinTin." In subsequent years he went as characters from "Alice In Wonderland." Two years ago he went as Quisp, the bright green 1960's breakfast cereal mascot.

At the Halloween parade, a few baby boomers recognized him and shouted : "I loved Quisp and Quake." or "Omigod, Quisp was my favorite breakfast cereal." But for the most part, he got blank stares. He liked it that way.

This year he and all of his friends are going as pirates. I think his costume may be a homage to Johnny Depp as Captain Jack (in "Pirates of the Carribean) by way of Keith Richards. It should be fun.

On Saturday, my daughter and I bought the finishing touches for her cowgirl costume: cowboy boots at Payless ($9.99) and blue jeans and a white button down shirt at the Children's Place ($26.00). I don't even want to add it all up this morning.

It's too much. But Halloween always is.

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Juniors

At 9:45 this morning, my daughter and I found ourselves in Junior's Restaurant taking shelter from the rain. We were  waiting for the Fulton Galleria Mall, which is next door, to open at 10 a.m. On a mission to buy a Tamogotchi, a wrist watch sized virtual pet that my daughter has been pining for, we were up and out early. I ordered a cup of coffee,  my daughter declined to eat -- so we stood in Junior's taking in the ambiance.

A visit to Juniors is a brush with Brooklyn history. The walls are covered with old photographs and the bakery display cases are filled with with a colorful multiplicity of desserts. The Baskin-Robbins of cheesecake, Junior's offers quite a selection:  Plain, Chocolate Mountain, Cherry Crumb, Brownie Marble Swirl, Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Swirl (pictured), Black Forest, Raspberry Swirl, and Sugar Free Low Carb.

The restaurant , with it's bright orange and white striped decor, is enormous and serves a diverse cross section of the people who make up the 4th largest city in America. The menu is a big glossy affair - a selection of Jewish delicacies, diner favorites, and multi-ethnic entrees.

Junior's is a throw back to another Brooklyn: the Brooklyn of the Dodgers, the cyclone, the parachute jump. Yet, it is a Brooklyn that still resonates with us - not just nostalgically but symbolically. The borough of ambition, of community, of diversity, of creativity, of  spirit. That borough spirit is a mysterious thing  - but it overtakes people and makes them feel proud to be part of this place.

Like Brooklyn, Junior's can be a joyous place. And their website, I discovered, is the source for cheesecake on-line and find out some interesting Brooklyn facts like...

In 1900: Brooklyn candy store owner Louis Auster invents the Egg Cream. Any relation to Paul Auster?

In 1928: The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island

In 1941: The Parachute Jump moves from the Lifesaver's Exhibit at New York World's Fair to Coney Island.

1950: Junior owner, Harry Rosen, perfects his famous cheese cake recipe.

1955: The Dodger's win the World Series.

1957: The Dodger's last season before they move to Los Angeles.

1970's: Junior's cheese cake voted Best Cheese cake in New York by New York Magazine. Crowds flock to Juniors.

1981: A fire blazes through Junior's and customers line the sidewalks crying, �Save the cheesecake!� The badly damaged restaurant closes for nine months.

1982: Junior's Re-opens.

1983: The Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Celebration.

1993: Presidential nominee Bill Clinton takes a detour from his campaign trail to visit Junior's and taste the cheesecake. 

I can't believe I only ordered a cup of coffee. My daughter was eager to get to Toys-R-Us to pick up the Tomogotchi I promised her. She better make sure that her little animated gnome is taken care of properly. Otherwise he'll die and we'll have a Tomogotchi funeral on our hands.

The coffee was quite good. I can't believe we didn't get something to-go. A cheese cake or something.

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_DIANE KEATON

I just read Daphne Merkin's piece in the Times' Magazine about Diane Keaton, one of my idols.

I surprise myself by writing that. And yet, really she is.

She is such a cool lady who encompasses so much: talent -- both comedic and dramatic; always deep. Style: visionary and way out there but pretty stunning just the same.And she's got creativity, brains and a real point of view. A stance, she might call it.

I once saw her waiting to get into the Performance Garage on Green Street in Soho and she looked ravishing and weird in an oversized bright orange spring coat. I think she was with a well-known photography dealer. And the fact that she was waiting to see a a play directed by the great avant-gardest Richard Forman...

Well, that's exactly what I mean. She's an interesting and unpredictable package with a history of cool choices: loving Al Pacino, photographing hotel lobbies, making a documentary film about heaven, appreciating mid-centruy architecture, adopting two children after 50. Merkin reports that Keaton is a loving and involved single-parent.

Of her relationship with Woody she says, "For a short period. He was the only one who would live with me while walking on eggshells, as he claimed I forced him to do." A little later in the article she admits that she's glad she didn't have children with any of the men she was involved with.

I think it's probably the way she wears her insecurity on her sleeve that  makes her both real and awe inspiring. Her unmet quest for a great love in her life, her uncertaintly about her own beauty, her sense that she should have taken more risks - been less inside of herself - speaks to something in all of us.

Like us all, she has regrets, a deep well of psychological baggage, and a laundry list of reasons why she is the way she is. As she says in the article: "I've been talking my life away about deep conflicts that don't go away," Keaton says of therapy. "I'm never leaving. It's like going to church. Whether I'm helped or not is not the issue. It's about trying to understand more about why something is the way it is, about my own participation in a problem."

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_Too Much Wine

It's been a week of too much wine and too little sleep. In other words, I had a lot of fun. But the way I felt in the mornings just may not be worth the frivolity.

Last Friday a friend invited us to celebrate her birthday ( a big one) at The Social Club on Smith Street. I started the night with a  Cosmopolitan and switched to a shot of Limonella courtesy of the bartender and a Diet Coke. I actually didn't feel too bad the next day so I forced myself to run in Prospect Park for the first time since August. 

Tuesday night after Writer's Group, some of us went out to Blue Ribbon for drinks and conversation. We ordered a good bottle of red wine (a Montepulciano, I think) and drank and talked until after mid-night.

The next morning I overslept and felt a heaviness in my head for hours. Starting the day like that is awful: pure and simple. I've decided to swear off red wine. It's just not worth oversleeping, getting my daughter to school late, buying an Oscar Meyer Lunchable at Met Food for her lunch, racing to the line up in the backyard...

Not worth the stress and the heavy feeling in my head. The pounding, pounding. Like Fiona Apple on her piano.

Last night at Brooklyn Reading Works at The Old Stone House, I drank two small paper cups of white wine at the event. It was nervous drinking. Being the hostess drinking, having to converse with a crowd drinking, speaking in front of an audience drinking.

At dinner at Belleville afterwards with writers Regina McBride and Nancy Graham, my sister, and my husband, I drank two glasses of a really excellent Chardonney.

I had no trouble waking up but I did feel unbelievably exhausted all day. I'm pretty sure it had  to do with staying up late catching up with Nancy combined with those four glasses of white wine.

Luckily there's a couch in my office. If my head keeps hitting the keyboard, I just lie down on the couch with the lights out and catch some mid-work zzzzz's. That happened twice today: I literally could not keep my eyes open

At the 7:00 p.m. screening of "Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Ware Rabbit" at the Pavilion, I could not keep my eyes open during what seemed to be a really good movie. My daughter poked me once or twice but she gave up after a while.

I guess I am reaching an age where I need to be more careful about what I put into my body. I need more rest and daily exercise. Probably need to limit my wine intake to two glasses at most. Three or four knocks me right out.

My bed sounds like a really, really good place to be right about now...

Good night and good luck.

FOOD CO-OP TO BUY ELECTRICITY FORM WIND FARM

The Daily Slope has the SCOOP on something interesting that's going on at the Park Slope Food Coop. Get this: they will be switching to 100% wind-generated electricity from New York and Pennsylvania. The co-op board voted 66-0 in favor of the switch.

This is the largest private purchase of wind power in Brooklyn to date. You can find out more about purchasing wind at Daily Slope, which is full of information.

GO THERE. NOW. READ ALL ABOUT THE NABE. BECOME A KNOW IT ALL. IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS.
 

NO PIX_DAILY WORDS BY HUGH CRAWFORD

NO WORDS_Daily Pix by Hugh Crawford

TONIGHT AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS: REGINA McBRIDE AND NANCY GRAHAM

TONIGHT, Brooklyn Reading Works presents Regina McBride and Nancy Graham. The Old Stone House in JJ Byrne Park. Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. 8 p.m. Free. Refreshments.

Books available including Nancy Graham's homemade book of poems: "BONEFIELD JACKET" and Regina McBride's THE NATURE OF WATER AND AIR and THE MARRIAGE BED.

FROM "THE MARRIAGE BED" BY REGINA McBRIDE

Caitlin came a year later, mewing like a lamb, a soft, temperate cry. She nuzzled up to my breast within an hour of her birth. For weeks I'd lie easy with her, startled from dreams, confused as to whether she was inside or outside me, so woven together were we two. She was a pet, smaller than Miaghread had been and marbled red with turfts of fair hair and a tiny pink mouth that puckered to a star shape when she sucked. She could not get enough of the milk from my body. She loved to be in my arms, yet there was a strength to Caitlin. She had more resources in herself. It confused me, and it took me years to understand that Maighread, the one most vexed with me, needed me the most. She had nightmares and the throes of half sleep clung to me with desperation that moved me like nothing ever had, the darkness between us filled with a kind of passion.

But children gown out of love with you. Slowly their growing is a process of cleaving away. It was meant to be this way Sarah Dooley once told me. They wanted the far reaches of the day and the night.

OVER TO UNCLE BOB'S ISLAND

a somniloquy by Nancy Graham

Until very recently, people
didn’t get across the lake by
motorboat, so I would ferry
them in my little red rowboat,
The Red Baron, which was not
a name I gave it. My dad named it.

In my rowboat, they twiddled
their thumbs and every now and then
they would crack up laughing.
It was not my rowboat either,
but I kind of liked the way it handled
in the water better than mine.

I’m making the water very shallow
by adding sand.

The four of us didn’t get along
on the boat, which was a great surprise.
The back porch couldn’t get across, so I would
certainly like to see that it exists,
but cutting a two by four to measure
is not going to be easy.

When the dark sky opened
people didn’t get across by wading
into the waters, so I ferried them
in my rowboat, called The Portable Red.
The Bloody Red Baron was not the name
I gave it. It was called The Ferocious Land
of the Beasts. My dad named it.

BIOS:
--Regina McBride has won fellowships from The NEA and the New York Foundation for the Arts.  She is the author of three novels: The Nature of Water and Air, The Land of Women, and The Marriage Bed, all published by Simon and Schuster. Her first novel, The Nature of Water and Air, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Book, an Original Voices selection from Borders, and a pick of the Independent Booksellers.  It was optioned for a film. Her books have been translated into seven languages. At the Old Stone House, she will be reading from her latest novel, "The Marriage Bed." Novelist Elizabeth Berg has said of this novel, "Reading The Marriage Bed is like reading one of the great classics.  I was  enraptured, transported..."

--Nancy Graham lives in Kingston, New York with her family and their cat, Pat Lavender Will. Currently she devotes her time to learning with her two unschooled children, Raymond and Ada, collaborating on animations with her husband, artist Henry Lowengard, and writing and performing her work. For news and outpourings, see her blog, Oswegatchie. She works as a community mediator and children's peer mediation trainer with Ulster Sullivan Mediation and is active in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills. She has performed her work at Deep Listening Space and Colony Café in Woodstock. Her somniloquies have appeared in Chronogram, Poetry Superhighway; Listening in Dreams; a Compendium of Sound Dreams, Meditations and Rituals for Deep Dreamers, by Ione; and Aught (Issue no. 14).

 

TO WED AND TO FAIL: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

The author of this article, Christian Lorentzen, is a former Park Sloper who now lives in Williamsburg. He is the film critic for N+1, a print journal as well as a website. My gratitude to him for sending this excerpt about Noah Baumbach's THE SQUID AND THE WHALE.

To Wed and To Fail  by Christian Lorentzen

People over age 50 are signally absent from Park Slope, Brooklyn. It’s a neighborhood where members of the “creative class” move during their breeding years to mate, spawn, and keep house pets. The elegant brownstones are spacious and just barely affordable, grocery stores and veterinary clinics abound, the streets remain fairly safe, and a majestic park sits atop the hill. What better place to fall in love and raise a family? But here comes the paradox. No zone – besides perhaps a college dormitory – could be more hostile to monogamy. Or as an ex-girlfriend once put it to me, “I’ve always thought the point of urban areas is variety.” The density of the Slope’s educated, attractive, liberal-minded population translates – for the single person, or the wayward spouse – into a practically limitless array of analogous sexual options within walking distance. The lonesomeness of the uncoupled, or the isolation of marital strife, can be assuaged without difficulty. Someone else will always be thirsty too, and chances are he or she is pretty good-looking, attended a respected college, holds a really interesting job, has an intriguing ethnic background, and there’s always the thrill of seeing the inside of someone else’s apartment.

All three of Noah Baumbach’s films partake of the neighborhood and its pathologies. Kicking and Screaming – memorable for the apt phrase “Park Slope – division B Manhattan” – was about postcollegiate life, and Mr. Jealousy was a rather conventional romantic comedy – stilted for the most part but enlivened in its second half by a couple of ingenious twists. The new Baumbach feature, The Squid and the Whale, is far denser and more elegant than anything he has done before; as Jeff Daniels’s Bernard Berkman might put it, it’s the “filet” of his young career. It is hard, then, to ignore the presence in the opening titles of Wes Anderson, credited as a coproducer. Baumbach cowrote Anderson’s lackluster The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; there Anderson (and Baumbach) sailed into a stylistic Bermuda Triangle, allowing whimsy to overwhelm plot, character, even wit. From that angle, The Squid and the Whale plays like a correction. Indeed, our first glimpse of the Berkman family unraveling on a tennis court brings a gasp of recognition. The irony and the funny costumes have been stripped away. These are the real Tenenbaums.

The film’s didactic first line, “It’s Mom and me against you and Dad,” describes both the doubles match on the court and the way an impending separation and divorce will polarize the Berkman family. The Andersonian formula from Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums – whereby precocious children behave like adults and adults behave like naughty adolescents – seems to be in effect, but it soon enough collapses under pressure from each character’s peculiar pathology. Faced with their parents’ breakup, the Berkman children, high school-age Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and middle schooler Frank (Owen Kline), take sides and scold their parents. Their efforts fail, and the sexual restlessness at the root of the divorce infects the family like a virus.

Both parents are writers. Bernard, an experimental novelist, makes a modest living teaching creative writing, but his career has fallen on hard times: he’s agentless. He blames the failure of his marriage on his lack of commercial success, a view parroted by Walt: “The publishing industry often doesn’t recognize real literary talent.” Bernard’s wife of seventeen years, Joan (Laura Linney) is just starting out – “Dad’s the real writer,” says Walt – but with a bang, publishing a novel with Knopf, excerpted in the New Yorker. (Filmmakers, it seems, have trouble conveying literary success in any other way; the plot of last year’s We Don’t Live Here Anymore also hinged on an acceptance letter from the New Yorker. Why not Harper’s? Granta? Salmagundi?) That is not the only bang in her life. As a late-night phone call intercepted by her husband reveals, she’s been sleeping around the neighborhood...

GOWANUS OPEN STUDIO TOUR

This weekend (October 22-23) don't miss Emily Berger's (left) paintings and drawings at the Gowanus Artist Open Studio Tour. You can visit her studio at 94 Ninth Street. Her  work is also included in a group show of 30 Gowanus artists on view at 94 Ninth Street on the first floor.

Another friend, painter Elizabeth Reagh (painting below left) will be showing work at her studio located at 611 Carroll Street.

The 2005 open studio tour features over 115 Brooklyn artists at 26 locations. All participating 2005 artists are listed in alphabetical order on the  Gowanus Artists site where you can view a sample of an artist's work and download a tour map.

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_THE LULAV

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.    

          

ATLANTIC YARDS: QUOTE OF THE DAY

From an article in Thursday’s New York Times called “From Huge Project. a Mighty Anger Grows" by Nicholas Confessore:

“The  high-decibel hearing on Tuesday clearly demonstrated that the complexion and scope of that opposition has changed since the developer, Bruce Ratner, and his firm, Forest City Ratner Companies, unveiled plans for the office, residential and commercial development in December 2003. As the project has moved out of its conceptual phase, awareness of its sheer size - nine million square feet, the equivalent of four Empire State Buildings - and potential impact has spread across Brooklyn, charging a much broader debate about its virtues and flaws.

"I think people began to realize how big this is," said Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman, who, in a setback for the developer, announced at the hearing that she would oppose the project. The meeting also revealed that whereas early opposition was driven by a core of residents in Prospect Heights - the neighborhood that would bear the brunt of the new construction - opponents now draw support from a broader swath of neighborhoods in north Brooklyn and elsewhere in the borough, particularly Park Slope.

Residents of that neighborhood, south of the project site, accounted for an unusually large number of speakers at the meeting, as did residents from nearby Boerum Hill. Many of them did not talk about eminent domain, housing or jobs, subjects that dominated the first stage of debate. They spoke about the project's broader impacts on surrounding neighborhoods, including greater demand for day care slots, slower response times for the police and firefighters, and runoff into the Gowanus Canal, the object of a decades-long community revitalization effort. "Park Slope was out in force last night," said Councilwoman Letitia James, who represents Prospect Heights and was an early opponent of the project. "There's no question about it, they have brought more energy to the opposition."

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_HEARING ON ATLANTIC YARDS

In Wednesday's New York Times, Forest City Ratner tried to put a positive spin on Tuesday night's  contentious hearing at the New York School of Technology in downtown Brooklyn. "I think it's a wonderful discussion that we're having," said James P. Stuckey, Forest City Ratner's executive vice president for development, who spoke to reporters outside the hearing. "Given that there's been so much discussion about the public process, and so much discussion about whether or not people are going to be heard - here we are tonight, and hundreds of people have come out to be heard."

Yah. If Forest City Ratner is willing to modify and streamline their mega-development plan for downtown Brooklyn than discussions like this one will prove to be worthwhile. But if it's just an exercise in letting the people be heard while the developers and big money interests do what they will then...it's a sad state of affairs and a bloody waste of time.

Not surprisingly, things got a tad rambunctious at last night's public hearing about the environmental impact of a basketball stadium and 17 other buildings in downtown Brooklyn as proposed by Forest City Ratner.

Marty Markowitz, was one of serveral speakers who was shouted down. Markowitz, the borough;'s president and the project's leading cheerleader described the project as "a wonderful addition to Brooklyn."

But opponents outnumbered supporters. "If and when ground is broken for this project, there will be no turning back, no second chances. The surrounding community will feel its effects for decades." Eric McClure, a member of Park Slope neighbors a group that opposes the project, told the New York Times. "Nothing less than the future of Brooklyn depends on a thorough, comprehensive and effective environmental review."

There seems to be no end to reasons why the project, as it stands now, is a lousy idea. I happen to love the work of Frank Gehrey, especially his early work in Venice, California and I'd be  thrilled to to have something on the order of the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (2003) at Bard College in Brooklyn. 

However, I always felt there was something cynical about the way Forest City Ratner packaged their rather overbearing (possibly ruinous) vision for downtown Brooklyn in the fancy wrapping of a Frank Gehrey building. He knew the Frank Gehry name would entice a lot of people around here.   

Of course it would. Gehry is, in my opinion, a really interesting architect. His work would be a welcome addition to any cityscape (and New York City really should get one). But judging by the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Mall, architectural excellence is not Ratner's main interest. And issues of scale, contextuality, livability, light, and congestion just don't seem to factor into Ratner's frame of reference.

Street congestion, asthma and gentrification were only a few of the concerns raised. One speaker, Alan M. Rosner, said that the planned arena's soaring glass walls would endanger pedestrians on the street in the event of a terrorist attack. Another, Lumi M. Rolley, who has a blog devoted to the project, raised the issue of "reflected light," which she described as an environmental hazard rooted in Mr. Gehry's use of titanium panels in his buildings."

This was the first of two planned hearing, last night's hearing was sponsored by the Empire State Development Corporation, the agency charged with guiding the Atlantic Yards project along the long path toward final approval by the state.

PRESS RELEASE ABOUT EASTERN PARKWAY IMPROVEMENTS

MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND CONGRESSMAN OWENS ANNOUNCE THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EASTERN PARKWAY BETWEEN WASHINGTON AVENUE AND GRAND ARMY PLAZA

$5.9 Million Project to Improve Pedestrian Safety and add Landscaping, Lighting, and Benches

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Congressman Major R. Owens today joined Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall, Prospect Park Alliance President Tupper Thomas and Robert Witherwax of the Eastern Parkway Cultural Row Neighborhood to announce a $5.9 million reconstruction of Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway, between Washington Avenue and Grand Army Plaza. The reconstruction plan, developed with the Prospect Park Alliance, will restore Frederick Law Olmsted's and Calvert Vaux's vision of a beautifully landscaped median along the Parkway and Prospect Park that affords vistas of Grand Army Plaza.

"The reconstruction of this important stretch of Eastern Parkway will make it significantly safer for pedestrians and motorists and more attractive for residents and visitors alike," said Mayor Bloomberg. "After years of discussion and planning, funding is now in place to begin the process of narrowing some of the roadway and creating a more spacious, beautiful and accessible pedestrian space. I want to especially thank Congressman Major Owens and Tupper Thomas for their commitment and dedication to this important project."

"The proposed renovation will improve the safety and accessibility for pedestrians and bicyclists to three of the most magnificent institutions in Brooklyn: the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Public's Central Library," said Congressman Owens. "Supporting pedestrian and vehicular safety is crucial for these institutions that are witnessing a renaissance in Brooklyn."

The reconstruction plan is the product of over five years of discussions between the Prospect Park Alliance and the community, and will return approximately 1,700 linear feet of landscaped median to public use to make the area safer for pedestrians. The project is being funded with $4 million from the Mayor's Executive Budget and $1.9 million dollars of federal transportation funds allocated by Congressman Owens. It is scheduled to begin in fall 2007 and will be completed in 2009. New street trees, lighting, signage and benches will be installed to the medians and Parkway. The median runs past Brooklyn's major cultural institutions, the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Public Library, and was narrowed and partially removed years ago.

The Prospect Park Alliance is currently working with the DOT on a number of modifications to the traffic flow on Eastern Parkway and its cross streets to improve pedestrian, vehicle and bicycle safety. Currently, this section of Eastern Parkway consists of two wide roadways (a service road and a main road). When the reconstruction is completed the service road will be narrowed and the pedestrian mall widened to make the Parkway more pedestrian friendly and to reduce speeds on the service road. On the main road, traffic moving in opposing directions will be more significantly separated by removing a lane for westbound traffic. At Washington Avenue, the slip ramp between the main road and service road will be removed and replaced with an extended mall, slowing traffic and greatly enhancing the pedestrian connection between the adjacent neighborhoods and the Brooklyn Museum. Finally, a key feature of the plan is the connection between the existing bicycle path on the Parkway east of Washington Avenue and Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park.

"Not only was Eastern Parkway the country's first parkway, it was also one of America's first greenways, opening up a grand new thoroughfare for recreation in Brooklyn," said Commissioner Benepe. "Olmsted's and Vaux's design for the parkway, like so much of their work, laid the foundation for the development of parks and green thoroughfares in cities across the country and around the world."

"After working together with the community we now have the funding necessary to get started on the transformation of Eastern Parkway," said Commissioner Weinshall. "This project will dramatically improve conditions for all of the Parkway's users by expanding pedestrian space, calming traffic, and filling a key gap in the City's growing network of walking and cycling trails and paths."

"This part of Eastern Parkway is the front door to the Brooklyn Museum, Botanic Garden, Public Library and Prospect Park," said Prospect Park Alliance President Tupper Thomas. "We are so pleased that a restored Eastern Parkway will enhance the visitors experience to these great institutions."

"The project was initiated by residents of Eastern Parkway who were concerned about the deterioration of the median and the dangerous traffic flow," explains Robert Witherwax of the Eastern Parkway Cultural Row Neighborhood Association. "The Prospect Park Alliance partnered closely with us in the design process, and the community lobbied year after year for funding. This is a wonderful example of how neighbors can come together to make their little part of the City better."

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux are heralded as the creators of America's most celebrated parks, including Brooklyn's Prospect Park and Manhattan's Central Park. Less well known is that the two men also designed Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway, constructed between 1870 and 1874, which is considered America's first parkway. The term parkway was coined by Olmsted and Vaux to describe the landscaped road for "pleasure-riding and driving" they designed to provide scenic access to Prospect Park. Eastern Parkway was designated a National Scenic Landmark in 1978 by the United States Secretary of the Interior.

Some of Eastern Parkway's lesser-known features are bronze plaques set in the sidewalk to memorialize Brooklyn residents who died in WWI. The plaques, placed at the foot of trees planted after the war, are today nearly illegible due to years of foot traffic, past sidewalk repairs and grime. The plaques will be restored and reset as part of the reconstruction plan.

The Prospect Park Alliance, in partnership with the City of New York and the community, restores, develops, and operates the Park for the enjoyment of all New Yorkers. The Alliance is dedicated to serving visitors through its facilities and programs, caring for the Park's natural environment, and preserving its historic design. Prospect Park's 585 acres of meadows, waterfalls, forest, lakes, and athletic facilities comprise a masterwork of urban green space

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_NEW MUSIC FROM FRIENDS

SOUVENIR DE PRINTEMPS, a new recording from Harbinger Records, celebrates the music of Yvonne Printemps, an enormously popular French singer and actress from the 1920's to the 1940's.

Born in 1895, Yvonee Printemps was dancing in revues at the Folies Bergère in Paris at age 13. Nicknamed Printemps (springtime) by her fellow chorus members because of her sunny disposition, she started in operetta, appearing in such works as "Les Contes de Perrault" (1913) and "Le Poilu" (1916). Her voice and stage presence made her a great star at a young age, appearing as a teenager with Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett.

"She's long been my obsession," writes soprano Amy Burton in an e-mail to OTBKB, She developed a show based on Printemps and her music that has been performed in and around New York City. It has been a long wait since 2002 when she first recorded the album with pianist Yves Abel and composer John Musto, but it will be available November 15th at Tower Records, the Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop, and is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Amy Burton, a lyric soprano, has sung many starring roles with the New York City Opera. She has always had a passion for French music and specializes in the repertoire both in recitals and on the opera stage. Her husband, Brooklyn-born composer and pianist, John Musto was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for his orchestral song cycle Dove Sta Amore. He has also garnered two Emmys and two CINE Awards for his scores written for television. He has taught at Brooklyn College.

NO WORDS_Daily Pix by Hugh Crawford

ARTIST TALK TODAY AT BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY

Tuesday, October 18, 6-7 PM, sculptor Ellie Murphy will discuss bioGRAPHY, her site  specific installation  in the Lobby Gallery of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza.

"In June of 2005, I began to visit each of the 60 libraries of Brooklyn Public Library, starting with the DeKalb library, closest to my home. I took with me my partner, Simon, and our 4-year-old son Malcolm Edgar Heathcote.

I continued to take Malcolm to each of the Brooklyn libraries, checking out a book, which I read, and recording our visit with a photograph of Malcolm. The resulting sculpture, created from these borrowed materials, is meant to map the personal experience of one individual in the context of the common cultural community-fusing the stories we share with the ones that are ours alone."

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_GABBING ABOUT THE GAP

I was on Fifth Avenue above 9th Street today: my therapist is up in that vicinity. I didn't have time to go to 13th street to check out the vacant Salvation Army store but I did see it out of the corner of my eye from 11th Street.

After therapy, I ordered a latte at Cafe Regular and pondered the tragic events of a few weeks ago at the Delores and Alex Beauty Shop next door, where the owner was killed by a jealous lover who then proceeded to shoot himself. A murder suicide, it was a pretty grisly affair; very sad. People crowded across the street the day it happened. I overheard a number of them say that she was a very nice woman. There was a candlelight vigil for her organized by Safe Haven, a local domestic violence group, in front of PS 321 last Friday night.

On my way home from therapy, to decompress, I often stop at Jeans Express, my favorite discount, fashion knock-off clothing store on Fifth. The place pulls me in every time - their stock changes weekly and their prices... Everything in the store is under $24 dollars and most things are between $4.99 and $12.99.

I've bought corderoys, yoga pants, t-shirts, pajama bottoms, button down shirts and hippie skirts for me and boxers and socks for my son. If it's in "vogue," they've got it at cut rates.

I struck up a conversation with the young Indian man who is always behind the counter:

"Did you hear that a Gap is coming to Fifth Avenue?" I asked in a near whisper.
"No, I didn't know that," he said, his eyes lighting up.
"You didn't hear?" I said excitedly.
"No. Where is it going to be?" he said, clearly very interested.
"on the corner of 13th Street where the old Salvation Army used to be." I said.
"That's on the other side of the street, right?"
"Yes," I said realizing that he doesn't get out much from behind the counter if he has to ask where the Salvation Army was."
"Well, that's good for me. Very good for me. More competition. It's going to be good for me." he said.

Later at the playground in JJ Byrne Park I met my sister who was pushing Sonya on a swing and hanging out with a good friend who is a real estate broker in the neighborhood.

"Have you heard about the Gap going in on Fifth Avenue?" I said figuring she'd probably have even more info about it.
"I read about it on your blog, heard about it from you. I hope it's true. I've already told a lot of people."
"I have a great source. She lives on 13th Street."
"Did they take the For Sale sign down?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. I tried calling Gap public relations in San Francisco..." 

The conversation trailed off. She thinks I should rent a storefront up there and open a cafe.

I actually did call the Gap corporate offices in San Francisco before my therapy session and asked the receptionsit for the public relations department. She connected me to a voicemail in marketing. It didn't sound like the right person to talk to about a new location in Brooklyn.

I will call San Franciso later on, maybe tomorrow. As always, will be sure to keep everyone posted.

MORE ON ZAGAT AND THE "OUTER BOROUGHS"

I haven't gotten my hands on the new Zagat Survey 2006 nor have I been able to find out if any Brooklyn restaurants made it into the top 50. But thanks to to So New York, I was able to get a preview of what's in there. It seems that Park Slope's Applewood, Tempo, and Brooklyn Fish Camp (pictured at left) are mentioned this year.

I'm wondering if The Grocery, Smith Street's surprise winner from last year was a top contender again this year.  That was the big Brooklyn restaurant excitement last year. And you still can't get in there on a Friday or Saturday night. -OTBKB

From So New York: On Monday Zagat Survey released its 2006 New York City Restaurants guide. The newly-minted edition contains ratings and reviews for over 2,000 restaurant based on roughly 5.4 million meals eaten by a record 30,911 Zagat surveyors across all five boroughs. In addition, the guide spotlights new trends driving the world's finest culinary scene:

Big Winners: At the top of the charts are the "world class" Le Bernardin (Top Food for six of the last ten years) and the "magical" Gramercy Tavern (Most Popular for three of the last five years). Daniel placed first for Decor and second for Food. Most dramatically, Thomas Keller's per se in its first full year vaulted to number three for Food and number one for Service -- perhaps justifying Keller's recent decision to add an automatic 20% gratuity to all tabs. When Food, Decor and Service scores are combined, per se nets the highest overall average of any restaurant.

Restaurant Boom: It was an exceptional year for New York food lovers with 247 noteworthy restaurant openings compared to only 83 closings -- the strongest showing since before 9/11. Standing out among the newcomers are devi, The Modern, Alto, BLT Prime, Perry Street and Nobu 57. Moreover, survey participants report that they are eating out more and spending more than they did one year ago. "One of the great joys of being a food loving New Yorker is that the culinary scene is regularly being remade," said Tim Zagat, CEO of Zagat Survey. "There's a dynamism and creativity in New York that surpasses all of the seventy other major cities where we do surveys."

All Corners of NYC: Dining in the outer-boroughs has continued to soar. Fifth Avenue in Park Slope houses eight impressive newcomers including Applewood, Brooklyn Fish Camp and Tempo. The number of Bronx eateries in the guide has doubled from 12 to 25, in part due to an effort by borough president Adolfo Carrion. As a result, the new guide has added such Bronx standouts as Pasquale's Rigoletto and Jake's Steakhouse to the list, which is headed by perennial favorite Roberto's. Reflecting the improving quality of dining outside Manhattan, nine outer borough restaurants made it into this year's Top 50 Food rankings.

Dollar$ and Cent$: Don't for a moment think that New York's culinary vitality isn't costing somebody something. Even though meal prices only edged up a modest 0.4% in the city, the average meal price of $37.61 makes New York the most expensive restaurant city in the country. The average cost of New York's 20 most expensive restaurants is up nearly 25% to a stratospheric $112.49, due to the addition of per se and Masa. At the other end of the spectrum, New York leads the country in terms of the number of informal, modestly priced restaurants. For the cost-conscious, the Zagat guide includes three pages listing Bargain Prix Fixe Menus and Best Buys.

French Resurgence: Despite the demise of such French classics as Lutece, La Cote Basque, Le Cirque and La Caravelle, French fare -- albeit more casual and modern -- has bounced back. Five of the ten Top Food are French (Le Bernardin, Daniel, Bouley, per se and Jean Georges). Following on their heels, five of the top twenty are Japanese (Sushi Yasuda, Nobu, Sushi of Gari, Masa and Tomoe Sushi).

Service: Along with food quality and cost, one of the most important issues to diners is service. In fact, 49% of respondents say that poor service is their number one irritant when dining in New York (21% cited the noise level). New York has one of the top three service deficits (defined as the difference between average food rating and average service rating) in the country at 2.21. By comparison, the national average is 1.85.

Dressing Up and Down: Where it was once de rigueur to wear a tie in New York's finer establishments, that practice is now de rigor mortis, with only the Rainbow Room and 21 Club requiring such formality. But while diners are dressing down, Asian restaurants are dressing up -- with haute design at East Side newcomer Mainland and TriBeCa's 66 and Top Decor honors at Asiate, Kittichai, Matsuri, Megu, Spice Market and Tao.

"In this business we travel a lot, try a lot and frankly eat a lot, but there is nothing like returning home to eat in New York City's restaurants," said Nina Zagat, Co-Founder of Zagat Survey. "New York is simply tops for dining."

The Book: As with all Zagat Survey guidebooks, the New York City Restaurants guide is made by consumers for consumers. In addition to Top Lists for Food, Decor, Service, and Best Buys, the guide also includes such useful categories as Child-Friendly, Sleepers, Romantic, Private Rooms, Late Dining, Gardens, Winning Wine Lists and even Cool Loos. Restaurants are also broken out by cuisine, location, and dozens of other groupings.

The 2006 New York City Restaurants guide ($13.95) was edited by Curt Gathje and Carol Diuguid and is available at bookstores, by calling (888) 371- 5440, and online at zagat.com.

On the Web: Zagat.com will be hosting a week of free access from November 1-7 sponsored by CitiCards. During the week, zagat.com ratings and reviews of over 30,000 restaurants, nightspots, hotels and attractions in 94 countries will be available free of charge. Also in this year's guide -- a promotional code allowing consumers to try a sixty-day free trial of zagat.com.

NEW PAINTINGS BY DAVID KONIGSBERG

A new show by Brooklyn aritist David Konigsberg is always a cause for celebration. An artist whose paintings and prints I adore, his new show,   OVERLAND, opens at Chelsea's Allen Sheppard Gallery opening on November 3rd. Well worth the trip to Manhattan.

Allen Sheppard Gallery
530 West 25th Street
3rd Floor
Thursday, November 3, 2005
6-8 PM

Margaret Neill, curator, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn NY, wrote this about his work, and included him in a 2002 show called "4-Sight."

"David Konigsberg bridges the divide between art and real life in narrative paintings and works on paper that are both objective and conceptual. His style is soft and approachable, and he invites the viewer into an appealing pictorial landscape. Konigsberg comes to his art from the point of view of a writer and brings literary traditions to painting in the form of reoccurring symbols and characters. These take the form of airships, swimmers, men in suits and other figures, acting singly or in groups.

Nature is usually the backdrop, but sometimes it takes center stage in landscapes such as "Field Across the Road" and "Cloud Like Plummeting Sheep." His technique of using creamy paint scumbled over a warm ground is especially evident in works in which image and ground are embedded in an atmospheric space. His use of surface is also apparent in works on paper, including "Farm Rows" and "Snap, with Friend," two monoprints that have been layered with pastel.

Konigsberg's work occupies a nether world of image and memory in his very personal narratives, which are not meant to be deciphered but experienced as emotional possibilities. As viewers, we become involved in the artist's drama, a universal one, of what it means to be human. For Konigsberg, the path is pleasurable and visually enticing, and a journey through his work is worthwhile."

FRENCH MOVIE LEGEND LIVE AT BAM

Isabelle Huppert is making her New York theaterical debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in "4.48 Psychosis," a play by Sarah Kane. It is the story of a young woman's mental breakown and suicidal thinking. The playwright killed herself in 1999.

Isabelle Huppert is on stage for the entirety of the play, in what is being described as a "tormented performance."  "When desperation visist," the character says, "I shall hang myself to the sound of my lover's breathing."

Isabelle Huppert has starred in the films of Truffaut, Godard, Diane Kury, and other great French directors. Her films include (in no particular order): Heaven's Gate, Every Man for Himself, I Heart Huckabees, Entre Nous, The Piano Teacher, Going Places, The Lacemaker, Violette, Madame Bovary, and so many more. From October 17 to November 23, 2005, the Museum of Modern Art will be screening many of the films of this "intense, lithe, and passionate woman considered to be one of  cinema’s greatest actresses."

4.48 Psychose
By Sarah Kane
Directed by Claude Régy
Oct 19-22, 25-29 at 7:30pm
Oct 23 & 30 at 3pm

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POSTCARD FROM THE SLOPE_THE GAP COMES TO PARK SLOPE

A GAP Kids is coming to Park Slope. According to one source, a friend who lives on 13th Street, GAP had been looking for a large space in Park Slope for five years and have now purchased the building on the corner of 13th Street and Fifth Avenue that, until recently, housed a Salvation Army; they've  also purchased the building next door.

This may come as a surpise to those who think of Fifth Avenue above 9th Street as a strip of discount clothing stores, bodegas and credit furniture joints.

But the times they are a-changing on Fifth. Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins has set up shop between 9th and 10th. An Eckard Drugs is on the corner of 9th Street and Washington Mutual Bank,  a well-reviewed Indian restaurant called Kinara (between 10th and 11th) are also new arrivals, not to mention all the cell phone stores.

For years Slope residents have wondered why there was no GAP in Park Slope. To many, Seventh Avenue seemed an ideal location for a store. One explanation went that  weekday pedestrian traffic on Seventh was not sufficient to make it economically viable for a national chain.  Many local vendors used to complain that nobody liked to part with their money on Seventh Avenue (they saved it for shops in Manhattan). Back in the 1980's there was a Benneton on Seventh Avenue but it closed after a few years.

That was then this is now. Seventh Avenue has Aersoles, Rite Aid, Starbucks, Radio Shack, Barnes and Noble and...

I suspect that a lot of national chains are studying the new Aersoles shop on Seventh Avenue above Union Street. If that shop does well, my guess is other national brands will follow: the shopping malling of Seventh Avenue awaits us perhaps.

Fifth Avenue does have quite a few national brands like Payless, Mandee, Dunkin Donuts, and Eckerd Drugs, McDonalds (on 9th off of Fifth) and it seems to be a thriving commercial strip.

So here it comes: A GAP in Park Slope. I hope it's a good GAP and not one of those second rate GAPs like the one they had on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights for years. My guess is that it will be a good one, because it's going to get a lot of publicity as the first one in the Slope. It may well be one of the more sucessful Gaps in the New York City area.

And why not? There's a lot of money here and a lot of babies, kids and teens who need blue jeans, cool t's, and other up-to-the-minute garb.

A WHOLE LOTTA BROOKLYN IN 2006 ZAGAT

From the New York Sun. By Ruth Graham

The wait for a table at Sripraphai, a Thai restaurant in Woodside, Queens, could change starting today, when the 2006 Zagat Survey arrives in stores. On Friday evening it was less than 10 minutes, but this year, Zagat has put the neighborhood joint on its list of the top 50 best restaurants in the city.

Queens is not the only borough the new survey is likely to benefit: Nine of the 50 restaurants are in the outer boroughs, compared with six last year and three in 2004.

"The shift toward the outer boroughs has been accelerated in the past year," the survey's co-founder, Tim Zagat, said. "If you look at the indexes of Brooklyn, Queens, etc., it's a really substantial number. It wasn't half that a few years ago." There are 20 more outer borough restaurants listed this year than last - 256 out of 2,003 total.

The slim guidebook ranks restaurants on a scale of 30, as voted on by diners. Editors then sum up voters' comments in short, quotation-heavy paragraphs. Sripraphai (pronounced see-PRA-pi) has long received enthusiastic reviews from critics, good Zagat food rankings, and the adulation of diners. It's now likely to get a lot more notice, as a top-50 entry in the Zagat guide can turn a beloved local spot - even one that Manhattanites have to use a map to find - into a destination.

The Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrion Jr., says it's "great news" that the number of Bronx restaurants listed has more than doubled from last year, to 25 from 12. That's partly a result of his own very public campaign: Since restaurants are listed only when enough diners rank them, the Bronx Tourism Council handed out information cards at popular restaurants asking diners to vote online to get their favorites on the list. Mr. Carrion also took Mr. Zagat on a whirlwind eating tour, showing off 10 of the borough's best spots in a bid to have more included on the original ballot.

"Part of our challenge," Mr. Carrion said, "is getting people in our great city to leave the central business district, to go to places in addition to the center of Manhattan for entertainment and food and art and culture."

He said there's room to improve on the guide's Manhattan-centric listings. "Maybe what we need to do is do an 'Adolfo's list,'" he joked. "I think it'll have many more than 25 restaurants."

Despite the increased number of listings outside Manhattan, however, Zagat voters still like the island's restaurants best. On the Most Popular list, derived from voters' picks of their five favorite restaurants, Gramercy Tavern holds the top spot and Union Square Cafe is no. 2 for the second year in a row. In 2004, the restaurants, managed by Union Square Hospitality Group's Danny Meyer, were in reverse positions. Together, they've held the top two spots for the last seven years. Only two of the restaurants among this year's 50 Most Popular are located outside of Manhattan, and one (Blue Ribbon) has outposts in both Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Mr. Carrion soon will have another guidebook to monitor for signs of Manhattan favoritism. The prestigious Michelin Guide will publish its first-ever North American edition, a New York City guide, next month. It will boast a red cover just a few shades brighter than Zagat's familiar burgundy. Mr. Zagat said he is not concerned and has made no changes in anticipation of the European invasion. "I always think it's good to have more good guides come, but we haven't done anything differently," Mr. Zagat said.

When Michelin arrives, Mr. Carrion said he will be ready. "We're going to have to baptize them," he said. "Just as the Zagat folks got it, I hope they get it, too."

RAISING HIGH ACHIEVERS

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In the mood for another how-to parenting book? Two Korean-American sisters have come out with a new book that should inspire lots of conversation among the mom and dad set in Park Slope.

In "Top of the Class: How Asian Parents Raise High Achievers - and How You Can Too" (Berkley),  Dr. Soo Kim Abboud and Jane Kim, two Korean-American sisters, advise parents who want successful children to raise them just as their parents did - in strict households in which parents spend hours every day educating their children, where access to pop culture is limited, and where children are taught that their failures reflect poorly on the family.

This approach is common in Asian countries and among many immigrant groups in the United States. "It runs counter to an American culture that celebrates if not venerates self-expression and the freedom of youth. (This is, after all, the country that invented the teenager." writes the New York Times.

The sisters note that students of Asian descent make up about 25 percent of undergraduates at top universities like Stanford and Penn (and 41 percent at the University of California, Berkeley), even though Asians are less than 4 percent of the population, and that as of 2002 Asian-Americans had a median household income about $10,000 higher than the national average.

SUPERHERO FASHIONS

My only complaint is that they never do any of their groovy fundraising events in Brooklyn. Oh well. If you can't make it to the show, check out the new collection on Fifth Avenue.

The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, a drop-in tutoring center on Fifth Avenue between 5th and 6th Streets in Park Slope and sponsored by Dave Eggars' McSweeney's Magazine, unveils its "spring 2006 collection" at a benefit in Manhattan.

It's for a great cause. The drop-in tutoring center at the Superhero Supply Company is a great resource for school kids. The workshops for kids, teens, and adult are also said to be great.  And the shop is a wildly imaginative and fun place for kids and adults.

Participating designers at the Superhero fashion show include Zac Posen, Marc Jacobs, and Behna z Sarafpour. "Models" include Amy Sedaris and "Daily Show" correspondents Ed Helms, Samantha Bee, and Rob Corddry. The event also includes superhero-themed readings and come dy. Highlights include "Edna Mode," the cartoon fashion designer from "The Incredibles," who will deliver her predictions for the upcoming season.

Author and "Incredibles" voice artist Sarah Vowell relates her experiences of being invisible. Thursday, 8 p.m., Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, 212-864-5400, $25 general, $75 for event, silent auction, and wine reception.

THIS THURSDAY: PRINCIPAL FOR A DAY

650 business leaders and celebrities will participate in the annual principal for a day program. Organizers moved the date from April to October so partners can volunteer all year.

"It's not just skipping a day from work to do volunteer work," said Janet Corcoran, president of Public Education Needs Civic Involvement In Learning, the nonprofit that runs the program. "It is making a real difference."

For executives, getting into classrooms is a hands-on opportunity to help their future workers and customers. They see principals as fellow leaders in need of resources and fresh perspective that educrats can't provide.

At In-Tech Academy in the Bronx, a Microsoft manager signed up to be principal last April and, with the help of two colleagues, developed a summer program for students to visit his office once a week.

Stephen Gordon, senior business strategy consultant for the high-tech giant, will return as principal this week and plans to help teens upgrade their Web sites.

"We helped open their eyes to the possibilities in the business world," he said.

JetBlue Chairman David Neeleman paired with Beach Channel High School in Queens and advises staff on airline-career classes. In return, the school band will play at an inaugural flight.

At least three-quarters of the leaders at this year's events are repeating, Corcoran said.

Others who will participate Thursday are talk-show host Tony Danza, comedian Steve Harvey, Virgin Records CEO Matt Serletic, Nets President Brett Yormark and People magazine publisher Paul Caine.

ADOPT A PET FROM NEW ORLEANS

If anyone is interested in adopting a pet from New Orleans, a teacher at PS 321 knows a vet who is down there who may be bringing some cats and dogs back to Brooklyn. If you are interested, e-mail me at louise_crawford@yahoo.com.

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD