Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

OTBKB'S ANNUAL GIFT GUIDE: JUST ABOUT DONE

The gift guide is just about done. I am only missing a few stores. In the next few days I will fill in missing stores. New this year: Honey Bee and Me on 5th Street off of Fifth Avenue. She has odd hours so check her website. The guide will permanently live at its own site. Click on the OTBKB Holiday Guide logo on the right hand column of this blog. One click and you're there.

5th Avenue 5th Avenue 5th Avenue 5th Avenue 

FIFTH AVENUE Bergen to St. Marks

Lulu's: Schylling tin toys -- robot, elephant, clown Jack-in-the-Box and more -- great for children and adults.

FIFTH AVENUE St. Marks to Prospect Place

Buttercup's Paw-tisserie:  coming soon...

Umkarna:   Necklace with black lava beads on a stretchy string. Red and black and Chartreuse and black. Very striking ($170). Silky slip shirts or lingerie by Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent in lovely colors ($160).

Gorilla Coffee: Wooden box with a red and black gorilla printed on it with three one pound bags of coffee ($38).

Tabeel Aromatherapy Gift Shop and Hair Locking Center:  last year I liked these  microwavable teddy bears for muscle soreness, arthritis, backaches, sprains and headaches ($35). Glycerine soaps by the slice in various flavors and colors including grapefruit (pictured).

FIFTH AVENUE Prospect Place to Park Place

Flirt:  coming soon...

 The Chocolate Room: coming soon

FIFTH AVENUE Douglas to Degraw

At Home: coming soon...

Wrappers Delight: OUT OF BUSINESS

FIFTH AVENUE Degraw to Sackett

Reverse:  coming soon...

FIFTH AVENUE St. Johns to Lincoln

Romp:    Giraffe and monkey wall animals hand cut from vintage wallpaper ($60-$80). Customized book about your family from Good Stock -- buy a book, pick out colors, fill in family tale worksheet, review up to three proofs. (All for $124). Pregnant Mommy mobile. The Time is Now -- Nikki McClure calendar. Water Wizard drawing board.

Body Essentials: coming soon...

FIFTH AVENUE Lincoln to Berkeley

Organic Cafe: OUT OF BUSINESS

FIFTH AVENUE  Sackett to President

Cog and Pearl:   Various lamps made from Hurricane Katrina debris ($100.).  Copper reliquary boxes -- ery beautiful ($70. - $170).  Distressed metal pocket mirrors by Vallerie Galloway with vintage looking photos of the Brooklyn Bridge, water towers, mannequins -- comes with a velvet pouch ($36). Hand printed vintage leather and suede gloves ($48). Decoupage paper weights and dishes by John Derain ($60. and up).

FIFTH AVENUE Berkeley to  Union

Extraordinary: Key rings with small metal high heels, wing tips, ballet slippers, high tops ($15). Small music box with Klimt painting and music from La Boheme ($20). Begamot bath oil in an interesting bottle with a purple synthetic orchid ($25).

FIFTH AVENUE Union to Carroll Streets.

Something Else: Rubber rain boots with black skeletons and red roses.

Bob & Judi's Coolectibles: Handmade in Brooklyn: Mah Jong tile Hanukkah menorahs ($42). Vintage Brooklyn news photos ($10). Tiny Betty Boo tea set. Vintage plastic charm bracelets ($10). Pool balls ($5). Vintage 1940's Santa wrapping paper ($3).

Goldy and Mac:

Beacon's Closet:

FIFTH AVENUE President  to Garfield Streets.

Matter:  Still life fruit bowl -- ceramic and wood ($79)

Scaredy Kat:

Diana Kane: The Hanky Panky silk lace thong in a multitude of colors. Everyone loves these ($18). Silver locket with yellow gold chain. Holds two pictures. ($196).

Eidolan:

Nancy Nancy:

Hers and Mine: OUT OF BUSINESS

FIFTH AVENUE Garfield to 1st Streets.

3R Living: Sweep Dreams Dust Pan and Broom ($15 and $22).

Lucia:

La Rosa Dance Supply:

FIFTH AVENUE 1st to Second Streets

Jonathan Blum: Paintings by Brooklyn's hometown artist.

FIFTH AVENUE Second to Third Streets

Zelda Victoria: To come.

FIFTH AVENUE 3rd to 4th Streets

Living on Fifth :

Serene Rose:

FIFTH AVENUE 4th to 5th Streets

Pink Pussycat:

Under the Pig Antiques:
 

FIFTH AVENUE 5th to 6th Streets

Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co:

Zuzu's Petals: Framed,  hand-embroidered  samplers
"Love me when I deserve it least, it is when I need it most." ($18-$60). Father Christmas figures in 3 sizes ($35, $48, $90). Woven  throws for cold winter nights; very frothy and snuggley ($75 and $85). Handthrown pottery: Nicholas Mosse from Ireland,  French from Provence ($25- $250).  Mistral soaps, bath and body products from France. Custom decorated fresh balsam wreaths and arrangements.

Honeybee and Me: fluffy wool coats, hats, mittens, scarves and pillows in fabulous colors. Range of prices. Nice jewelry from Turkey. Patent leather backpacks

FIFTH AVENUE 7th to 8th Streets

Office Equipment and Furniture: OUT OF BUSINESS

Save on Fifth: Assortment of cool alarm clocks and wall clocks.

FIFTH AVENUE 8th to 9th Streets

Galaxy Comics: 12 inch Yellow Submarine Beatle's figurines.

Record and Tape Center: Huge collection of used LPs and CDs.

Tip Top Gifts:

7th Avenue 7th Avenue 7th Avenue 7th Avenue

SEVENTH AVENUE Berkeley to Union

Orange Blossom Kids: Baby tee with Dalai Lama

Slope Sports: Running cap with sushi design

SEVENTH AVENUE Union to President

Blue Apron (just east of 7th Avenue): coming soon...

Newstand: Lottery ticket.

Facets: Colorful baubles and stones: necklaces by David Aubrey ($60 and up).

Area:  Radiant Baby wooden yo yo's by Keith Haring and French Yo yo's ($9 and $11). Wooden pens with funny faces ($5).

Aersoles:  To come

SEVENTH AVENUE President to Carroll

Loom: "Subversive Cross Stitch: 33 Designs for you Surly Side" by Julie Jackson ($14.95).

Lisa Polansky: Brown monkey scarf and matching hat.

Sound Track: Out of Business 

SEVENTH AVENUE Carroll to Garfield

Jack Rabbit: $250. buys any pair of running shoes and tuition in the Beginner Running Clinic.

D'Vine Taste: Dried Fruits. Halvah. Fancy olive oils. Proustian Madeleine Cakes.

Community Bookstore: "We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Non-Fiction
by Joan Didion ($30).

Little Things: Mini, posable Groovey Dolls ($4.99). Best Buddy monkey rolling backpacks ($24.99), Doodle Coloing Book by Taro Gomi -- author of Everyone Poops -- Chronicle Books ($18.95). Ugly Dolls ($5.99 - $100).

Back to the Land: Dr. Hanuschka, Avalon, Kiss My Face, California Baby, and other skin and hair care products.

Possibilities:

Garfield to 1st

Artesana: Square dog paintings by a Thai artist in a wide variety of breeds ($75).

The Clay Pot: cross, om, heart, and star pendant by Jane Diaz ($64).

Treasure Chest: Gold necklace with one of a variety of charms: pistol, handcuffs, wishbone, pineapple, dragon fly, seahorse, and eagle ($75). Menorah with nine small chairs.

Lolli: Sock monkey by Paul Frank ($15). Paul Frank sock slippers (price TBD).

Mr. Choi: Hot Sox in a wide variety of patterns including Hanukah menorahs, cappuchino, bandannas, and polka dots (3 for $15).

SEVENTH AVENUE 2nd to 3rd Streets

Seventh Avenue Books: "ABZ: More Alphabets and Other Signs" edited by Julian Rothstein and Mel Gooding. Chronicle Books. "Anthology of Graphic Fiction" from Yale University Press. "So What is the What" by Dave Eggers 

Park Slope Books: "On this Earth: Photographs from East Africa" by Nick Brandt (price TBD).

Good Footing: Kitson LA laceless sneakers (price TBD).

Tarzian West: Simplehuman brushed steel single pod coffee brewer ($129).

SEVENTH AVENUE 3rd to 4th Streets

The Cocoa Bar: Nicely packaged chocolate treats.

Lion in the Sun: Moleskin notebooks in all sizes.

SEVENTH AVENUE 4th to 5th Streets

Lumiere: Pylones lady in skirt cheese grater, cake knife, massage device, and other fun items.

SEVENTH AVENUE 7th to 8th Streets

Root Stock/Quade: What could be better than a " surprise " bouquet at your door on the 20th of the month!? Seasonal blooms chosen and arranged in a vase to complement the bouquet designed by Kerry Quade to arrive on your Brooklyn doorstep for three consecutive months. A one time delivery charge of $25.00 to be applied in addition. Delivery in Brooklyn only ($300). Floral Design Lesson with Kerry Quade ($350).

SEVENTH AVENUE 8th to 9th Streets

Brooklyn Industries: Thigh high tights ($12). Fargo Bomber Hat ($52).

Park Slope Stationers: Claire Fontaine notebooks.

SEVENTH AVENUE 9th to 10th

Otto:  Adorable Senger stuffed animals. "3 dots" polka dot cashmere sweaters (pricey). Bathing cap bags. Nethermeade Perfume from Brooklyn Apothecary Sexy underwear

SEVENTH AVENUE 10th to 11th

4 Play:  CP Cotton Phase camisole in variety of colors. Very simple, comfortable (2 for $30).

Park Slope Sports: Brooklyn tee's hoodies. Great scarf/hat for winter runners.

SEVENTH AVENUE 11th to 12th

Nest: Paper curtains

SEVENTH AVENUE 12th to 13th

El Milagro: Frida Kahlo earrings, necklaces, pins, bracelets, etc.

SEVENTH AVENUE 13th to 14th

Sweet Charity:

Neda:

Music Matters:

SEVENTH AVENUE 14th to 15th

Toy Space: Anatomically correct soft baby dolls ($10.00).

Baby Bird: Snoopy t-shirts for babies.

Bird:

15th to 16th

Rare Device: Black sake set ($72).  Elegant money clip($72). Pop-up Menorah card ($6).

Greenjeans: Handcrafted toys.

 

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

MAIL ORDER CROCODILE

Here's a story. This from NY1:

Police investigating a suspicious shoebox behind the Spring Creek Apartments on Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn were surprised to find a Caiman inside.

Caimans are part of the Crocodile family. Animal control officials believe the reptile was illegally obtained through mail order.

“I’m guessing that the owners of this pet realized that they got in far beyond what they can handle and they did not know how to properly deal with the situation,” said Ruth Allen of Brooklyn Animal Control. “So instead of trying to be a responsible pet owner and do the right thing, they decided to tie the animal's mouth and dump him in the garbage.”

Animal control officials say the animal was cold when it was brought in. They're keeping it warm under a heating lamp until they can give it to the proper recovery facility.

TONY SOPRANO ON SEVENTH AVENUE

So I finally got over to Fourth Street yesterday to check out the Soprano situation. The show was shooting all day in Inaka Sushi on Seventh Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets. The actors and crew may have been in the sushi place, but all the equipment trucks, actor's trailers, and Teamsters were lining Seventh Avenue; what a scene.

At approximately 8 p.m., a small group of local fans gathered in the Street at 4th and Seventh Avenue and waited for the wrap. A crew member came out of the sushi place saying "Cut" and it was determined that the shoot was over.

Fairly soon after, a very friendly Tony Soprano came out on the Avenue and graciously posed for pictures and signed autographs. The guys from the barber shop on Seventh Avenue near 4th Street brought a carousel horse out onto the street and asked Tony to pose in front of it. "Hey Tony, pose in front of the horse," one of the guys said. "I'm posing next to a horse's ass?" he said.

Tony, who is much taller than I expected, was in a good mood and seemed happy to pose for cell phone cameras. A festive atmosphere prevailed in the minutes after the wrap.  I had somewhere to be so I grabbed a few cell phone shots and was on my way.

REINVENTING THE HOLIDAY IN BROOKLYN

Last year we stayed in New York for Christmas for a change. And this year we're doing that again. Here's what I wrote last year. It still feels new and exciting to be here at Christmas.

We've decided to stay in Brooklyn for the holidays. Well, it was my idea. I told Hepcat I needed  to be here instead of on the farm, the walnut farm, in Northern California.

It took days to get up the nerve. I knew Hepcat wouldn't take it well. He looks forward to our visits to the family farm he grew up on. Our twice-yearly trips make him feel grounded; they connect him to his past. They're also a much-needed chance to spend time with his mother, his siblings, their children, and other members of his family.

For as long as we've been together, we've spent the holidays out there. That's a lot of years and a lot of Chirstmases with my husband's family. I don't even know what the holidays are like in New York with my family anymore.

I must say, Christmas in California is pretty special: a real goyisha treat for a Jewish girl from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. There's a tall Christmas tree festooned with family heirloom ornaments. The house, fragrant with mulled cider and eucaplytus branches, is decorated with colorful Mexican folkart Mexican nativity creches. There are hot cinnamon buns on Christmas morning.

Best of all, my kids get to spend days on the farm with their cousins in a kind of free-form indoor/outdoor existence that's so unlike life in Park Slope. Climbing a fig tree, taking walks in a walnut orchard, lighting sparklers in the backyard, it's all part of the Christmas they know.

So I finally blurted it out one night before dinner in the kitchen.  "I don't think I can go to California this Christmas."

There was a stunned silence.

I offered up my reasons like non-sequiters: My work. Teen Spirit's New year's Eve gig at the Liberty Heights Tap Room. Our new niece, Ducky.

Hepcat  immediately looked disappointed but he seemed to understand. "Well, I guess that means I'll be going to California with Teen Spirit and OSFO,"  he said.

Teen Spirit, who was standing by the sink, cleared his throat, "Um, Dad, if you don't mind I think I want to stay in New York with mom," To which Hepcat replied,

"Well, I guess it'll just be me and OSFO."

"I'M NOT GOING WITHOUT MOM," she shouted from the dining room where she was working on her homework.

"Well, I guess I'm going alone," Husband said sadly. "I'm sorry, Dad," Teen Spirit aid, giving his dad a big hug.

By morning Hepcat had decided that he was going to spend Christmas in Brooklyn with us.

"I don't want to go without my family."

So it was decided that we will spend the holidays in Brooklyn. Together.  We'll have to figure out what to do here: reinvent our holiday ritual as we rediscover New York at Christmastime.

Ice skating in Prospect Park, Christmas decorations in Dyker Heights, fireworks on New Years Eve at Grand Army Plaza, after the show at the Liberty Heights Tap Room...

It just might be fun to do something a little different.

--written in 2005

ALBERTS SELL ASTROLAND TO THOR PROPERTIES

This from Bloomberg Media:

Astroland Amusement Park on the Coney Island boardwalk, which offered rides and thrills to a generation of Brooklynites, was sold to a developer planning to turn it into a year-round resort.         

The park will close after the 2007 summer season as part of an agreement Thor Equities LLC, a New York-based development firm, according to a statement released by the sellers, the Albert family. Dewey Albert, father of the current owner Jerome Albert, opened the amusement park in 1962, the statement said.         

No price was given. The owners said they couldn't afford to convert the park to year-round operation. The Alberts will continue to operate the landmark Cyclone roller-coaster, which will be 80 years old next year, under a contract with the city of New York, according to the statement.         

dlevitt@bloomberg.net            .         

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

SOPRANOS: SUSHI, 30 ROCK: THURSDAY

HOT NEWS FLASH, 6 p.m., Tuesday: Rosemary writes—30 Rock is shooting today at the Grand Prospect Hall between 5th and 6th aves.  I saw Alec Baldwin in a tux at 8 a.m.

NEWS FLASH, 11:25 a.m., Tuesday: The Sopranos are filming in Inaka Sushi, according to Hepcat who just walked by. And he says 30 Rock won't be on PPW until Thursday.

Old Story:

A neighbor told me last night that The Sopranos are shooting on Fourth Street today. He saw a sign. I already knew but I acted surprised. It's boring always being the one who knows what's going on.

When Hepcat came home he said that 30 Rock, the new comedy show with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin about a Saturday Night Live type of show, is shooting on Prospect Park West today  on THURSDAY. He said he saw signs. That was news to me. I was surprised and I didn't know.

Funny coincidence. 30 Rock vs. The Sopranos. Shooting on the same day in the Slope.

GIVE THE GIFT OF GOOD KARMA

Today Gowanus Lounge is running a gift guide. But he's got an interesting theme. Give the gift of good karma, support an organization that you believe in that's doing good things in Brooklyn or the world.

Our focus in today's first installment will be memberships in or donations to Brooklyn organizations or Brooklyn-based groups that would make cool holiday gifts. The guide is very selective and we've probably left out obvious choices or favorites, but here goes...

Added Value. You can't become a member of Added Value--the good people that run programs for young people in Red Hook and operate a community farm and farmers markets--but you can certainly make a contribution to the cause in someone's name. They do good work. Helping them would make a cool gift. Check out their donation page here.

Slope Street Cats. No membership here, but you can donate to Slope Street Cats, a Park Slope group that works to control the population of feral cats and links a lot of people to adoptions of cats. They run educational programs and do a lot of good work and you can make a donation here in someone's name as a gift and get a big deposit of Good Kitty Karma to boot.

Check in on Gowanus Lounge all week to see what other gift ideas he has.

FAO SCHWARZ FROM BROOKLYN

Turns out F.A.O. Schwarz (1836-1911), the toy store founder, is from Brooklyn. Maybe that's why the company that bears his names wants to open a store in Park Slope. Or maybe it's all the kid$, kid$, kid$.  The New York Times ran this in the City Section on Sunday.

People in the neighborhood have been buzzing about F. A. O. Schwarz since its chief executive, Ed Schmults, was quoted this month in Crain’s New York Business about the company’s expansion plans in the city. According to Mr. Schmults, F. A. O. Schwarz is considering opening two smaller stores in New York, and the publication named Park Slope, along with Union Square, as a possible location.

Mr. Schmults declined to answer questions about the matter last week, but according to a statement issued by the store’s public relations office, the company hopes to open one of the new stores next summer and the other in 2008.

In Park Slope, where strollers rule the sidewalks, and nannies and young mothers rule the coffee shops, some parents greeted the idea coldly.

“I’ve never been an F. A. O. Schwarz fan, so I would say, ‘Don’t bother coming here,’ ” said Lauren Gropp Lowry, mother of Lila, 11 months, as she sipped coffee outside the Connecticut Muffin on Seventh Avenue at First Street.

Ms. Gropp Lowry, who grew up in the neighborhood and recently moved back from Manhattan, said that in her opinion, Park Slope was all about smaller stores and personal service. “It’s not a Park Slope place,” she said of F. A. O. Schwarz, before dashing off to a mother-and-daughter music class. “The fact that we have a Barnes & Noble now is a big deal.”

F. A. O. Schwarz, which once operated 14 stores nationwide, now has just two locations, in New York and Las Vegas, after a bout with bankruptcy that temporarily closed the flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan. Mr. Schmults, who took over as chief executive last year, told Crain’s that he hoped to streamline the business, making it less a toy-themed amusement shop and more a profitable enterprise.

At Lolli, a children’s clothing store in Park Slope on Seventh Avenue, a co-owner, Meghan Andrade, predicted that an F. A. O. Schwarz store would cut into her business. “I feel like sometimes when I hear things like that, that Park Slope is going to lose the charm that it currently has,” she said. “There’s a loyalty amongst our customer base, so we would maintain some of that, but people will always explore their options.”

Green News of the Week: Seeing Green

I learned this from this week's Green News of the Week on Seeing Green. Speaking of LEDs...

Green Eyes Glowing Softly in the Night. Look around your house at night and what do you see? Many, many  LEDs glowing balefully at you, each of them indicating a small but growing use of energy

Shut Windows to save power, urges industry: Computer energy bills could be slashed by up to 40 per cent if Windows had its power management settings turned on by default, according to a leading environmentalist.

"PCs consume 96% of their power in on-idle mode," said Catriona McAlister, senior consultant for AEA Energy & Environment, speaking at an Intel discussion on energy efficient computing. "You could save 40% of annual energy consumption just by turning on power management on PCs and monitors."

TWO YEARS AGO IN OTBKB: A PALPABLE FEELING OF RELIEF

Memories may be beautiful and yet...There are definitely some things you wish you could forget (so why am I reprinting this?).

Two years ago today, Smartmom, Hepcat, and Teen Spirit completed Teen Spirit's public high school application. Now he's a bubbly 10th grader at a small private high school in Bay Ridge. There are certainly many parents and kids going through this process right now. This goes out to them:

They did it: it's done.

The application is filled out. Signed. Dated

Teen Spirit, Hepcat and Teen Spirit managed to select 12 public high schools and order them according to preference.

The guidance counselor has it.

Hepcat didn't sleep a wink last night. Teen Spirit's high school application was only part of the anxiety running rampant in his mind. Last week his hard drive crashed. So in addition to worrying about Teen Spirit's future and the family's money situation, Hepcat was trying to figure out how he was going to print up 50 pictures or more without a computer for this weekend's craft fair.

Smartmom popped up at 6:30 am and saw only OSFO in the bed -- Clever Grandma was sleeping in OSFO's room. No Hepcat.

Smartmom looked everywhere for him. It's not a huge apartment so that didn't take long. She checked Teen Spirit's bed twice -- maybe Hepcat crawled in there. Nope. Was he on the green leather couch where he sometimes ends up? Negative. She checked to see if his camera was in its spot -- was he out taking pictures of the dawn? Nope. Camera on the table in the living room.

Hmmmm. Where did Hepcat go? It's time to fill out Teen Spirit's high school application. Procrastination time is OVER. He wouldn't run out over this, up and leave, end it all...

Finally the front door opened at around 6:45. Hepcat had to re-park the car because the city is repaving Third Street and all cars had to be moved.

Mystery solved.

So they argued. Hey, isn't that what everyone does when they're stressed? The argument didn't take hold so they moved on. And thus began the final lap of the high school application process. They started slow, but gained momentum. By 7:15 they were really going strong. Insideschools.com was open on the laptop, names of schools were being bandied about: Ever heard of...what does it say about...what are the statistics on...oh shit, we still need an eleventh choice...

Smartmom and Hepcat were a walking, talking NYC public high school strategy machine. And they worked like a team, a smooth, clean high school machine—two heads better than one. Pencil sharpened, guide book open, code numbers flying. They were working fast, they were working smart, they were doing the public school hustle.

And then it was done. They could hardly believe it. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. They'd filled in all 12 little boxes on the application form and there was nothing more to do. The silence was truly deafening (no one was up yet). It felt good, it felt right, it felt scary (hope he doesn't get his 12th choice...)

Then something akin to buyer's remorse set in: Did we make the right decision? Why'd we pick that school? Should we re-order them? What the hell are we doing? But that didn't last long either. It was time to part ways with that ominous piece of paper, that hideous reminder of a hideous process that has permeated their lives these last two months.

Shoo, shoo, time to fly. Be on your way high school application. Be on your way.

They kissed the sheet of paper, said blessings over it, summoned every Jewish, Presbeytarian, Buddhist prayer they could think of...

Smartmom walked it over to the guidance counselor's office.

--written November 2004

And so the waiting begins.

WATER TAXI TO DUMBO STARTS TODAY

This from New York 1:

Beginning today, New York Water Taxi is expanding its service to include more of Brooklyn, adding service to and from the Fulton Ferry Landing in DUMBO.

A special fare is also in place for rides between the new stop and Pier 11 near Wall Street.
Riders will pay just two dollars each way until March 31st. For this week only, the Water Taxi is offering two free one-way tickets to a stop anywhere along the East River.

For more information, visit www.nywatertaxi.com.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

Quite the hoopla inside Prospect Park at Grand Army Plaza. Klieg lights, a marching band, Chirstmas choirs, and a duo of Brooklyn Philarmonic trumpeters playing a festive fanfare.

What for?

It was a a big celebration for the lighting of the lights. Paid for by Mort Zuckerman of the New York Daily News, there are light installations at all the entrances to Prospect Park.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg introduced a host of city officials, commissioners. Notable in his absence was Marty Markowitz.

The Mayor led a countdown and then Abigail, the daughter of Mort Zukerman, got to turn on the lights with him. Maybe they wouldn't let Marty do it and he didn't want to come.

Maybe there was too much political star power. Maybe he has issues with Mort Zuckerman? Whatever. The lights are lovely. There's a Christmas tree made of lights underneath the Grand Army arch. The lights change color and it's very pretty. There are other lights decorating the top of the arch. Brooklyn Record had this to say about the lights:

"These aren't just normal Christmas lights either, but fancy LED ones that change color and do other cool things, designed by renowned lighting designer Jim Conti (who actually teaches Lighting at Parson's). The project is sponsored by New York's favorite paper (maybe), The Daily News, and also includes free trolley service on weekends around the park to see all the lights. They'll be up till January 7th, so if you aren't festive yet, you've got time (though, seriously, what's your problem?)"

It'll look great when that big Lubavitch menorah shows up for Hanukah. Lots of lights for everybody.

What fun to be in the Park in the evening. Bloomberg thanked God for the moon and Zuckerman and others for the lighting.  A lovely ceremony and I'm sorry I didn't know about it to blog about it so more people woulda known about it.

photo by www.flickr.com/photos/suzun

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

SEND IN NAMES FOR PARK SLOPE 100

The names are coming in. The list is growing and growing. The list will be rolled out during the first week of December.

The Park Slope 100 is a highly opinionated, subjective list of the most talented, energetic, ambitious, creative individuals with vision in the Greater Park Slope area who reach outward toward the larger community to lead, to teach, to help, to improve, to inform, to network, to create change. 

Send your nominations to louise_crawford@yahoo.com and include a short bio and your reason for selecting this person for the Park Slope 100.

DOING THE GIFT GUIDE

Every day a little more. It's really not that hard stepping into every store between Flatbush and 15th Street on Seventh AND Fifth Avenue. Ha!

I do it in bits. As I take my walks, do my errands. The truth is I do get around. I will do the South Slope on Wednesday on the way to my shrink.

I will do Seventh Avenue on my way to and from my office.

I will do Fifth Avenue a little here, a little there.

I may even cheat: There's a booklet around called SHOP LOCAL put out, I believe, by the Park Slope Reader. It's got pix of gifts that look real nice.

The idea is to find one item in every shop worth gifting. Sometimes there are more. Sometimes there is only one. If I get carried away it means I found a lot in that particular shop. But if there is only one item, it doesn't mean that that store is lacking. It just means that I found THE ITEM, the very cool, unusual gift item. Then I'm on my way.

I'm usually with the shopping adverse OSFO. Mind you, she's only shopping adverse if we're not shopping for her. If we're in Little Things or some other kid-oriented emporium she can spend hours. That's why I was able to select more than one thing at Little Things.

Because I'm with OSFO, sometimes I have to do it from the window. I'll say, "Hey, what's THE item in this window..."

LEGION OF LIT MAGAZINES: SATURDAY AT GALAPAGOS

There are a whole lotta literary magazines in this Brooklyn borough. And a bunch of them are getting together for their yearly shindig this coming Saturday at the ultra cool Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg. Sounds real interesting for those who are literarily inclined...

THE LEGION OF LIT MAGS event on Saturday, December 2, 5-10pm at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, New York.

Nine prominent literary magazines will team up to showcase the latest issues of their magazines, raffle off incredible prizes, and offer an opportunity to meet and talk with influential literary journal editors in a celebratory evening filled with readings and entertainment. Lit mags, Small Spiral Notebook and Ballyhoo Stories will host the event. Last year’s event was a smash success and we hope to rock out again!

The Legion of Lit Mags includes: Ballyhoo Stories, BOMB, Opium, Pindeldyboz, Post Road, Quick Fiction, Small Spiral Notebook, Swink, and Tin House. Readers at the event include: Noria Jablonski, Irina Reyn, Brian McMullen, Aaron Hamburger, Elizabeth Searle, Salar Abdoh, Brian McMullen, and others. Musical Performances courtesy of Pindeldyboz.

www.legionoflitmags.com

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

DECEMBER 14: 32 POEMS AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Brooklyn Reading Works presents an evening of poetry with 32 POEMS MAGAZINE.

32 Poems is a semi-annual poetry magazine published in April and November. Each issue of journal contains 32 poems so you can give intimate, unhurried attention to each. It's easy to carry and inviting to read.

The comfortable size of 32 POEMS and the superb quality of the work therein provides an alternative to larger collections and is attractive to new readers of contemporary poetry. Publisher/poet Deborah Ager (pictured left), Daniel Nester and Theresa Coe will read their work.

December 14th at the Old Stone House. Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets. 8 pm. $5.00 with light refreshments.

HAND-PAINTED FABIRC: QUILTS. Pillows. Scarves.

Local Park Slope artisan, Susan Steinbrock, creates beautiful scarves and bedding. Her trademark silk hand painted scarves have been featured at the East Village Eileen Fisher for years.

Her debut collection of bedding was featured in Cottage Living Magazine. Go to her website for more information.

She will be selling her wares at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Amsterdam Avenue and 111th Street. Dec. 1-3.

In Park Slope on December 9: She will be at the PS 321 Holiday Craft Sale. Seventh Avenue and 1st Street. 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

SOPRANOS SHOOTING ON 4th STREET

An email from a friend and neighbor on Fourth Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

In case you missed the tangy fluorescent lime green posters, the Sopranos will be shooting on our street up the block on Tuesday afternoon...easy fodder for the "not on my block", anti film squads, but fun for the actor spotters among us...

THANK YOU

My cousin, who runs the Petra Foundation, which honors unsung individuals making distinctive contributions to the rights, autonomy and dignity of others, read this W.S. Merwin poem at Thanksgiving.  I liked it a lot.

Listen

with the night falling we are saying thank you

we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings

we are running out of the glass rooms

with our mouths full of food to look at the sky

and say thank you

we are standing by the water looking out

in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging

after funerals we are saying thank you

after the news of the dead

whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

in a culture up to its chin in shame

living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you

in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators

remembering wars and the police at the back door

and the beatings on the stairs we are saying thank you

in the banks that use us we are saying thank you

with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable

unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us

our lost feelings we are saying thank you

with the forests falling faster than the minutes

of our lives we are saying thank you

with the words going out like cells of a brain

with the cities growing over us like earth

we are saying thank you faster and faster

with nobody listening we are saying thank you

we are saying thank you and waving

dark though it is.

W.S. Merwin

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

BOOB TUBE'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO THE HOUSEHOLD

Here's this week's Smartmom from the Brooklyn Papers

Smartmom almost fell over last month when Hepcat suggested they buy a new television. “There’s a big sale at Best Buy,” he said. “And 32-inch LCD flat screens are the sweet spot.”

Hepcat loves a new-fangled electronic toy and he was intrigued by the new flat-screen high-definition television sets.

But 32 inches? And this from the mild-mannered guy who, in a moment of acute exasperation, pulled the power cord of their old television and locked the set in the basement.

That was in 1999 and the TV-free life lasted for almost five years. Hepcat was sick and tired of the way his children turned into Zombies in front of the set. He hated the noise, the shows and, most of all, the wasted time,

In an instant, the television disappeared and Elaine, Jerry, George and Kramer were no longer nightly dinner guests.

The Teletubbies, Arthur, Barney, Marge, Homer, Lisa, and Bart, were also banished from the living room.

Smartmom, the daughter of an advertising copywriter who created the Quisp and Quake cereal commercials back in the 1970s (among other gems), wasn’t as anti-television as Hepcat. But, she went along with it because, well, everyone knows that less is more when it comes to television in the People’s Republic of Park Slope.

Still, there’s a downside to not having a TV. The idiot box is great for behavior modification. It can be a motivator: “When you finish your homework, you can watch Sailor Moon!” and a punishment: “No Drew Carey for a week!”

And as even many Park Slope parents know, the box also makes a terrific babysitter. Parking the two-year-old Oh So Feisty One in front of the cathode ray tube made it possible for Smartmom to boil the pasta, answer emails, and read her latest issue of The Brooklyn Papers (and the New Yorker, admittedly).

Sure, the apartment was quieter and less chaotic without the tube. Teen Spirit and OSFO were more physically active; time was no longer measured in half-hour and one-hour segments; and getting out of the house, getting them to do their homework and making dinner was a breeze.

But Smartmom couldn’t get anything done. Without her TV, OSFO became “Saran Wrap Girl,” clinging to mommy, mommy, mommy all the time.

It didn’t take long before she and Teen Spirit figured out how to adjust to life without the TV. It was actually eerie: One minute they couldn’t live without it, the next it was out of sight, out of mind.

But it was a myth: Smartmom discovered that her tots were merely slipping downstairs to Mrs. Kravitz’s apartment for their daily dose of the “Power Puff Girls” or “Seinfeld.”

Of course, they weren’t the only ones who missed television. Smartmom pined for her midnight liaisons with Charlie Rose (me-OW!) and Thursday night sob sessions during “ER.” From Diaper Diva she heard all about great shows she was missing like “Sex & the City,” “Six Feet Under” and “The Sopranos,” and had to settle for blow-by-blow retellings by her sis.

Then again, Smartmom did enjoy the moral high ground: “We don’t watch television,” she’d self-righteously tell people. That spelled a kind of disciplined parental style that, Smartmom figured, spoke volumes about her mothering capabilities.

Take it from Smartmom, it gets you a 10 in the Mommy Olympics. And it was a full 360-degree turn from her own television-drenched childhood.

Smartmom’s childhood memories are indistinguishable from Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Captain Kangaroo and Soupy Sales. She was even a contestant on “Wonderama” with Sonny Fox. Later, there was “All in the Family,” the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “Upstairs Downstairs.”

During high school, she and her pals would gather at someone’s apartment in time to catch the “Not-Ready-for Prime-Time Players” live from New York on Saturday night.

Current events happened right in the family’s Riverside Drive living room. When JFK was assassinated, her family’s black-and-white tube glowed non-stop for days.

In 1968, the sit-com Smartmom and Diaper Diva were watching was interrupted with an announcement bearing the unfathomable news of Martin Luther King’s murder in Memphis. And later, she remembers seeing Bobby Kennedy dying on the kitchen floor of the Ambassador Hotel.

In July, 1969, her family, along with the rest of the world, watched as Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind. How strange it was to see the surface of the moon on the TV set and the moon in the sky outside their window.

While Smartmom was willing to give her kids the TV-free life, there were some shows she refused to miss: What about the Oscars, the presidential debates, the World Series?

For these television happenings, Hepcat would be summoned to lug the television up three flights from the basement. After these television feasts, Hepcat insisted on returning the box to its home in the basement before dawn.

On Sept. 11, 2001, it was a mixed blessing not having a television. It meant that OSFO and Teen Spirit didn’t have to see the traumatic images of the towers falling over and over again.

But the family did spent much of the days that followed in Mrs. Kravitz’s living room waiting nervously for news of what was happening and dreading what was going to happen next.

After that, Smartmom knew that it might be a good idea to get a TV. Although she was comfortable getting most of her news from Satirius Johnson, the intelligent newscaster on WNYC, she thought that in a national emergency a television might come in handy.

A year ago, they brought the television upstairs from the basement to watch Jon Stewart on the Oscars and it never went back down again because Hepcat’s rotator cuff was hurting and he didn’t want to strain it.

At first, the television just sat there like an unwanted guest. But soon, Teen Spirit and OSFO started watching “Seinfeld,” “the Simpsons,” and even “Friends” again.

Eventually, Smartmom and OSFO moved to “The O.C.” Teen Spirit met “House.” And Hepcat got “Lost.”

Smartmom realized that there’s nothing cozier than sitting around the television hearth with her family and watching a good television show.

On the other hand, there’s nothing worse than crappy TV and too many commercials. Don’t tell anyone, but last spring, Smartmom, Teen Spirit and OSFO became addicted to “American Idol.” Ace, Bucky, Kellie Pickler and Taylor Hicks were like crack to their delicate sensibilities. Luckily, the family is now attending TA, a 12-step program at a local church for those unable to drag themselves away from brain-numbing TV shows.

Yet last week, the monster television arrived in an enormous box. Smartmom worried that it was going to devour the living room and her family. She wasn’t sure she liked her new identity as the kind of person who owns a 32-inch television.

As Smartmom watched her organic brownie points, moral superiority and Park Slope values fly right out the window, she lay down on the couch with the new remote control and watched whatever was on in all of its high-def glory.

For a few days, even Hepcat seemed to enjoy the techno-geek aspect of his new digital toy. Teen Spirit worried that they’d spent too much money on something so “stupid.” OSFO was just glad for the bigger, bolder images of Summer, Taylor, and Seth on “The O.C.”

As expected, after a few days, the television started to get to Hepcat, who coveted the big TV in the first place.

“I can’t stand that noisy piece of furniture that makes my children catatonic,” he said.

Smartmom hopes Daddy won’t take the T-bird away again.

If this family can just limit itself to shows that are well written, smart and only sometimes completely stupid, everything should be all right.

NAMES ARE COMING IN: THE PARK SLOPE 100

The names are coming in for the Park Slope 100. Send your nominations in NOW. Here are the guidelines.

The Park Slope 100 is a highly opinionated, subjective list of the most talented, energetic, ambitious, creative individuals with vision in the Greater Park Slope area who reach outward toward the larger community to lead, to teach, to help, to improve, to inform, to network, to create change. 

Send your nominations to louise_crawford@yahoo.com and include a short bio and your reason for selecting this person for the Park Slope 100.

RESTAURANT THANKSGIVING

There is nothing un-American about spending Thanksgiving in a restaurant. It's not like some weird cop out. It's not a denunciation of the homey, good smelling preparations of the day. It's not a thumbing of one's nose at the traditionality of it all. It's just another way. And when you've been to 48 Thanksgivings -- change is welcome.

So eighteen of us gathered at BLT Prime on East 22nd Street, in an elegant downstairs party room that looked like a dining room you wouldn't mind having in your apartment.

It was spacious, easy to wander around, trade seats, chit chat with family members, including my aunt and uncle, two graduates of James Madison High School back in the day, who told me that they were pleased as punch to be mentioned in an OTBKB piece about the famed high school, alma mater of three current members of the US senate.

Also there were a host of cousins and their children. Their children are articulate, graceful adults.

And it didn't make me feel old as in I remember when you were born. Or you were only two at my wedding (that sort of thing). It made me feel grateful to have such a cool group of relatives

The children of my cousins are interesting people:

--A is in law school; her husband is a doctor and an opera enthusiast.

--AG is studying slavic languages, will travel to China, and is a delight.

--D is studying psychology in college and wants to go into clinical social work eager to help people.

--M loves Shakespeare and the idea of directing plays. She will to college in a year.

--J, a high school freshman, just made honor roll school, a cause for much celebration.

The food was delicious. FANTASTIC. Served home style, there was lots of variety: turkey, salmon, and prime rib. Incredible mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, string beans. I don't think I saw sweet potatoes. There were carrots.

No sweet potatoes: now that's un-American.

They served an incredible  butternut squash soup with creme fraiche. Tres tres. 

My children seemed to be holding their own. I was at the other end of the table so I didn't really see/hear what they were doing. Teen Spirit was dressed to the nines in a spiffy tweed jacked given to him by my father. OSFO wore her most favorite worn jeans with lots of holes, embroidery, sparkles and colorful striped tights underneath.

My mother-in-law joined us all the way from California. A real pleasure. Hepcat talked politics and Wall Street with my cousin's husband. That's what they always do.

The upside of the restaurant Thanksgiving: no dishes to clear or wash. No dishwashers to load. No finding space for leftovers in the fridge.

The downside: No leftovers. Maybe four hours later we were hungry again (after seeing The Queen at Cobble Hill) and there was that longing for cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing, etc.

BROOKLYN BY NAME: CARROLL

Dope on the Slope has a post about the newish book, Brooklyn By Name, which he thinks makes an ideal gift for those who are Brooklyn obsessed. H

Here's an excerpt from the entry about  Charles Carroll (1737-1832) for whom a number of places in South Brooklyn are named:

When he died at the age of ninety-five, he was the final surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. (Daniel Webster referred to him as the "venerable old relic.") The naming of Carroll Street and Carroll Gardens was likely influenced by the many Irish Americans who settled in the area, as well as Carroll's association with the heroic Marylanders who defended the Old Stone House.

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

POEM FOR THANKSGIVING

I was in a waiting area today when a woman, about to go outside, asked if it was raining. As she put on her coat, her scarf, and her leather gloves to leave the building, this is what she had to say.  I put it into poetic form.

Today it was such
a dreary day
cold, wet
no sun
not even a sparkle

Heavy rain on Thanksgiving
Those balloons
will go flying about
unmoored

Bumping into things

Torrential rains, winds
that's what they're saying

But there's something to be said for
a cold, dark Thanksgiving
like an old friend
Hello, there you are

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

THANKSGIVING PARADE

The Thanksgiving Parade ain't what it used to be. But then, what is? We're not going. Again. I think we'll go skating instead.  Here's a post from last year about Thanksgivings past.

This year they're adding Dora the Explorere and Scooby Doo. Artist Tom Otterness has created a 33-foot-tall Humpty Dumpty, frowning mid-"great fall."  As usual,  the parade route begins at 77th Street and Central Park West, proceeds to Columbus Circle, and turns onto Broadway. It turns west on 34th Street (just past Macy's Herald Square) and finishes at Seventh Avenue.

Back when we aspired be the ultimate New York parents, the parade was a must-do activity. When my son was 3, we all bundled up and stood under a Broadway marquis on a freezing cold day. Friends brought a thermos of hot chocolate and it felt like the most essential New York childhood experience of all.

For a few years, my cousin rented a hotel room on the 5th floor of the Central Park's Mayflower Hotel, which provided a perfect, indoor spot for viewing the balloons. To watch the parade from indoors is one of the great luxuries of New York City life. A real perk. One windy year, we watched a ballon deflate before our eyes after it rammed into a lamp post.

When Diaper Diva lived across the street from the Museum of Natural History, she invited Teen Spirit and OSFO, who was only 2 at the time, to sleep over so they could watch the blowing up of the balloons the night before the parade, one of those great New York traditions. So great, that it's almost as popular as the parade itself and unbearably crowded.

My childhood memories of the parade are vivid. When I was a kid, I remember being bundled in a snowsuit on freezing cold Thanksgiving mornings and standing out on Central Park West too short to see the parade.

In fourth grade, a classmate invited a group of girls over to her 77th Street duplex for a sleepover. Her parents took us out in the middle of the night to watch the balloons - Underdog and Mickey Mouse being blown up on 77th Street. This was before it was a popular activity. back then, it was strictly for residents of 77th Street and 81st Street. How special we felt walking outside in our nightgowns and overcoats beneath a crystal clear night sky.

The next morning we were out early watching the parade in full swing. The foot of one of the balloons nearly touched my friend's little brother's head as he sat on his father's shoulders.

I asked my sister if she has plans to take her 15 month old daughter into Manhattan for her first parade. "Not this year," she said. They'll probably take her next year when Ducky is two. She can sit on her daddy's shoulders and watch the enormous balloons up above.

It's a New York tradition she won't want to miss.

--Posted in 2005

MUNICIPAL ARTS SOCIETY LAWSUIT AGAINST IKEA

This from New York 1:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is being sued for allowing furniture giant Ikea to build a parking lot over a Civil-War-era dry dock.

The Municipal Art Society lawsuit calls for a review of the effects the Ikea project will have on all historic properties in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The Society says the Corps' alleged failure to properly review the site will forever tarnish the neighborhood's historic character. But an Ikea spokesman says the project has undergone extensive review and this lawsuit is just an attempt to delay redevelopment.

The project is part of a $100-million plan to restore the Brooklyn waterfront that will be paid for by Ikea.

MRS. KRAVITZ IS NOT DOING THANKSGIVING

Mrs. Kravitz IS NOT doing Thanksgiving this year. She's been crazy busy with her new job, the kids, and everything else. Over the summer she donated a kidney. No kidding. To Mr. K. So she really needs a break. I think she should spend the day sketching, which is what she truly loves to do. For the feast, they should go to a  restaurant. Any suggestions? "We'll have dessert at home," she said. Last year she had 14 people over and she wore a green wool hat while she was cooking. Find out why.

Thanksgiving eve on Third Street. I visited with Mrs. Kravitz on the first floor who is having 14 people over for the feast.

I watched her whip up a pumpkin pie, a pecan pie, and cranberry sauce. while we drank wine and covered a free-associative spectrum of topics.

OSFO and Mrs. Kravitz's two kids swirled around noisily.

Mrs. Kravitz was wearing a woolen cap because she lives in fear that someone will find a hair in her cooking.

She's serious.

She told me that, as the day progressed, her husband kept calling with word of more  guests. What started as a small family Thanksgiving had evolved into crowd scene. Too many for her table. Worried that her 13-pound Food Coop turkey might not be enough. she had to add pork loin, ribs, and turkey wings to the menu.

Earlier, she phoned one of the guests, a good friend, and took her up on her offer to bring gnocchi and polenta with sage and butter sauce. "We need more food," she told her.

I think she'll have enough food.

Sitting and chatting in her apartment she seemed anything but worried about Thursday's feast. The meal was coming together slowly dish by dish.

The wine was helping.

She asked if she can borrow chairs. "Of course," I said. We're having Thanksgiving in a West Village restarant with 21 family members on my mother's side.

We won't need the chairs.

ROBERT ALTMAN DIES

Robert Altman, one of the great greats of American filmaking died yesterday at the age of 81. Look at the list of his movies (in no particular order): Nashville, Mash, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, the Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us, Popeye, Three Women, and more recently Shortcuts, Gosford Park, and A Prarie Home Companion, a film in which death was a major character played by the great, Kevin Kline.

"A risk-taker with a tendency toward mischief, Mr. Altman is perhaps best remembered for a run of masterly films — six in five years — that propelled him to the forefront of American directors and culminated in 1975 with what many regard as his greatest film, “Nashville,” a complex, character-filled drama told against the backdrop of a presidential primary," writes Rick Lyman in theNew York Times.

Genre-bending, free-wheeling and surprising, Altman employed a recurring ensemble of unpredictable  actors in movie after movie. Improvisation was key and sound was his forte: "Mr. Altman was celebrated for his ground-breaking use of multilayer soundtracks. An Altman film might offer a babble of voices competing for attention in crowded, smoky scenes. It was a kind of improvisation that offered a fresh verisimilitude to tired, stagey Hollywood genres," write TK in the Times.

Last summer at Brooklyn Film Works, an outdoor film festival in JJ Byrne Park, we showed, "The Long Good Bye," a kooky take on the Phillip Marlowe book by Raymond Chandler. It may not have been the best  choice for an outdoor film festival, but many in the audience declared it among their favorite movies for Elliot Gould's performance and a cast of incredible  actors, including Henry Gibson, Nina Von Pallant, Sterling Hayden, Arnold Schwarzenegger in a small part and others.

Now I'm glad we paid tribute to one of the greats while he was still alive. It isn't always popular to like Robert Altman's work but it can't be denied that he was a creative genuis who left his mark on cinema in a characteristically eccentric way. 

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

OTBKB HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: SHOULD I DO IT AGAIN?

I am trying to decide if I shoud do the gift guide again. Last year, I went to nearly every store on 7th and 5th Avenues from Flatbush to 16th Street that I thought might have interesting gifts. I selected at least one gift item per store that caught my eye. Sometimes I mentioned more. It was an interesting exercise: trying to zone in on the best and most unique gifts in every shop. In a few rare cases, it was difficult to find even one thing. Usually it was incredibly easy because there was so much good stuff to choose from. Question: Should I bother to do this again?

 

THE PARK SLOPE 100: SEND YOUR CANDIDATES

Atlantic Monthly is running a list of the 100 most influential Americans. Scanning it quickly, I was PISSED OFF to see only 10 women mentioned.

But the list did get me to thinking about the influential people in our midst. What defines an influential person?

So I've decided to create a year end list of the PARK SLOPE 100.

THE PARK SLOPE 100 will be a list of 100 interesting, creative, and dynamic people who are leaders in arts, politics, the environment, healing arts, medicine, education, commerce and other fields in the Greater Park Slope community.

WHO DO YOU THINK are the most influential people in the Greater Park Slope area? I have some  ideas but I want a fairly broad spectrum of people in a wide range of fields. They don't have to live in Greater Park Slope, but they need to have an impact here.

PLEASE SEND NAMES (and short bios) to  louise_crawford@yahoo.com. This list will be published on OTBKB in December.

Here's what New York Magazine on-line had to say about OTBKB's List: The Atlantic listed the 100 most influential Americans, and not one of them represented the Greater Park Slope Community. Outrageous. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]

BACH REDISCOVERED BY KRAZY KAT

A post-reunion dinner party with high school friends last night turned out to be quite the fun gathering. Spouses were invited and the conversation moved easily beyond the "What ever happened to...?" level to the more nclusive "So what do you do?"

I've never run anything about John Musto, the highly esteemed classical composer, born and bred in Brooklyn. He's the husband of my  high school best friend. So here goes. His album, which garnered terrific reviews, is available on Amazon (see below).

His grandly jazzy Passacaglia for large orchestra (2003) sounds like Bach rediscovered by Krazy Kat. His Five Piano Rags (1995) cast the smoky nonchalance of Scott Joplin in a Rachmaninoff glow. His opera Volpone, which had an acclaimed premiere at the Wolf Trap Festival last March, employs everything from Broadway to bel canto in a ferociously clever musical adaptation of Ben Jonson’s play. Like Bernstein, Mr. Musto is not afraid to entertain."        -- Charles Michener, The New York Observer

"Musto spins flaxen pop into golden art, with an intuitive sense of how to make each instrument fill the others' gaps. The energetic coda at the end of the first movement prompted a burst of audience applause."
-- Ken Smith, New York Newsday

"Mr. Musto’s pianism was exquisite and exploratory.”
-- Paul Griffiths, The New York Times

"If there is a finer composer of song with piano alive and working in the world today, I would very much like to know his or her name." -- Graham Johnson
Koch International Classics

   Order from Amazon

Premiere Recordings
        Clarinet Sextet for clarinet, piano and string quartet
              Piano Trio for piano, violin and cello
              Divertimento for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, piano, and percussion       

Music From Copland House
            Derek Bermel, clarinet
            Michael Boriskin, piano
            Paul Lustig Dunkel, flute
            Nicholas Kitchen, violin
            Wilhelmina Smith, cello
            Leslie Tomkins, viola
          Jim Baker, percussion

           

 

GODS LOVE WE DELIVER NEEDS DELIVERERS

This is a great opportunity for parents who want to teach their children about service to the community. A wonderful family activity:

HOLIDAY OPPORTUNITIES: God's Love We Deliver needs people to deliver meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas morning. We need people with automobiles to deliver these meals in all five boroughs of Manhattan and Hudson County New Jersey. We also have a small number of meals that need to be delivered on foot (in Manhattan only).

If your interested in helping for the holidays call: 212-294-8169 and leave a message. We'll get back to you as soon as possible.

God's Love We Deliver is a New York City-based, not-for-profit, non-sectarian organization and the metropolitan area's leading provider of life-sustaining nutritional support services for people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses.

PARK SLOPE CHRISTIAN HELP

A lot of people in and around Park Slope volunteer, give money, or clothing to CHIPs on Fourth Avenue. While they may or may not need help on Thanksgiving or Christmas, they need volunteers all year round for their soup kitchen, the Frances; Residence for Homeless Mothers and their Children. Volunteers perform the various tasks needed to keep the soup kitchen and residence running smoothly: cooking, cleaning, pickups, painting, laundry, fundraisiing and supervising the residence 24 hours a day. For more information go to: chipsonline.ort 

Founded in 1972, CHIPS (a nonprofit charitable organization) has been dedicated to helping the poor, the needy, and the homeless as well as those in emergency situations. Also known as Park Slope Christian Help, CHIPS serves more than 70,000 meals annually and gives temporary shelter to more than 2,000 people each year. Located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, CHIPS is eternally grateful to the many individuals, churches, businesses, merchants, foundations and organizations, both local and nationwide who have helped make CHIPS what it is today.

BROOKLYN FREE SCHOOL IN THE TIMES, AGAIN

Brooklyn Record pointed me toward today's piece in the New York Times about the Brooklyn Free School, located in two floors of a Free Methodist church at 120 16th Street. We know a bunch of kids there who seem to be thriving.

"At this school, students don't get grades, don't have homework, don't take tests, and don't even have to go to class — unless they want to... On any given day, a student might be playing chess, reading a book, practicing yoga or helping mummify a chicken."

Students Rule at This New York School [NY Times]
Brooklyn Free School [Homepage]

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

TEEN SPIRIT IN THE TIMES

So Teen Spirit found out from a friend last night that he and his fellow band members are pictured in the Style section.

Silly me. I read the piece on-line and saw a pix of Care Bears on Fire and Tiny Masters of Today. A couple of kids I know were in the background. But no Teen Spirit.

Well, it was a picture taken outside of Liberty Heights Tap Room. It's a little hard to tell that it's Teen Spirit and his two good buddies.

TS sent me out last night late to pick up the Sunday Times. Got it at the Apple Market on Garfield. We're talking 11:30 p.m.

I was surprised we didn't hear from everyone we know. Hey, your kid is in the New York Times.

But I guess people didn't look that closely at the pix.

Oh well. Big excitement. Big fun. Get out the scrap book.

So

NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD

SAVE THE SNOWFLAKES AND THE PARK SLOPE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

I got this comment today from OTBKB reader, Fonda Sera, owner of Zuzu's Petals about the Seventh Avenue snowflakes and the need to  regenerate the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce.

The Seventh Avenue snowflakes are lit for the holiday season and maybe for the last time. With Soundtrack and thom spennotta out (his store moved off the Avenue), the last survivor of the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce is gone.

Unless a new group of merchants gather the spirit and energy to advocate for Seventh Avenue, next holiday season the street will be dark.

the Chamber was also responsible for the Community Council funding double trash pick ups six  days a week along the Avenue. who will make sure that doesn't disappear?

It breaks my heart to see how spiraling commercial rent has changed  the face and altered the spirit of seventh avenue.

The last time this happened Marty Markowitz called a meeting of merchants to try and generate new interest in the chamber. It worked.

I think it's time someone gave Marty a call.

Fonda

TIMES' STYLE SECTION ON PARK SLOPE TEEN ROCK SCENE

I knew this New York Times' piece in the Style section was coming. And here it is for all to read (if you missed it during the week. I did. DUH. Thankfully, Teen Spirit told me about it Saturday evening).

I noticed the Times' photographer at last week's Rockin' Teens Showcase at Liberty Heights Tap Room. Steve Depulla, owner of the place, mentioned that the Times' had interviewed him earlier in the week. The hype for Care Bears and Fiasco is pretty intense -- DO THESE KIDS HAVE PUBLICISTS OR JUST FAMOUS PARENTS?

The newly named "Kid-core" scene is no longer just cute -- it's a real scene with managers and coaches and publicists and everything. The fact that it's one more thing to analyze about crazy New York City parents just adds to its news worthiness for the Times and New York Magazine. Breast feeding, school frenzy, managing your kid's rock band...

The Times' piece was heavy on the 'children of celebrity angle.' It turns out that the band from Sag Harbor that showed up at Liberty Heights a few months back, Too Busy Being Bored, was fronted by Forrest Fire Gray, 14, whose dad was Spalding Gray. The Times' also name-drops that Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbin's son is in another Brooklyn teen band, The Tangents. The Times' is definitely going for the celeb angle big time.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: THE children whispering and fidgeting in front of the stage at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn, looked like any kids awaiting, say, a storyteller. Then Zora Sicher and Hugo Orozco, the two 11-year-olds who make up the band Magnolia, climbed onstage and broke into a hard-driving original song called “Volume.” It was clear this was not quiet time.

“Wooooo!” a dreadlocked woman shouted from the back of the room, where a crowd of adults, many in vintage concert T-shirts and cardigans, looking like kids themselves, cheered and sipped bloody marys.

A clump of teenagers looked on appreciatively during the set, part of a showcase of all-kid bands on a Saturday afternoon this month at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York. When the Magnolia duo paused to adjust their instruments — Zora on guitar, Hugo on drums — a babe in arms wailed. “Are you crying because they stopped, honey?” Mom cooed.

For this set of performers and audience members, indie rock is as familiar as a lullaby. “We like punk, classic rock, metal, riot grrrl,” said Hugo, an elfin-face sixth grader from Brooklyn, who was given her first drum set at 7.

Magnolia, like other bands on the Union Hall bill — Care Bears on Fire, Tiny Masters of Today, Fiasco, Hysterics — is more than a novelty act. It is developing a following on New York’s burgeoning under-age music circuit, where bands too young for driving licenses have CDs, Web sites and managers.

“Oh my god, there’s like a huge, huge kid-rock scene here,” said Jack McFadden, known as Skippy, who booked the show at Union Hall. “It’s really very indicative of Park Slope, since so many of the parents who live around here are hip and have these hip little kids that they dress in, like, CBGBs T-shirts.”

It makes sense: in this family-friendly part of Brooklyn every other brownstone seems to house creative professionals who urge their children to march to — or become — a different drummer.

Nearly every weekend 10- to 17-year-olds play shows in the afternoon at bars like Union Hall, the Liberty Heights Tap Room in Red Hook and Southpaw in Park Slope, which has begun a teenage rock series, the Young and the Restless. In Manhattan there are all-ages shows at the Knitting Factory in TriBeCa, Arlene’s Grocery and afternoon Death Disco parties at Cake Shop on the Lower East Side.

“They could call it kid-core,” said Rich Egan, the owner of Vagrant records in Los Angeles, who signed the New Jersey-based band Senses Fail as teenagers and is wooing a younger band he first heard on MySpace.

Preteens and teenagers have found success in bands almost since the birth of rock. The Jackson 5, Hanson and New Kids on the Block were all big-selling acts, formed by parents or impresarios. But those acts recorded mainstream pop. The latest kid bands are emerging in the traditions of garage, hardcore and indie rock, a reflection of their hipster parents’ tastes and their 1980s and ’90s CD collections.

Hugo’s mother, Molly Gove, who said she was in a few riot grrrl bands herself in the ’90s, enrolled her daughter in the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls in New York, where children 8 to 18 learn the playlist of bands like Bikini Kill and the Pixies.

Across the country kid-core acts have emerged, including a pair of brothers 8 and 11 in Detroit, who play with their father in the Jack White-produced band the Muldoons; sisters 12 and 14 who make up the Seattle-based duo Smoosh; and the Nashville-based band Be Your Own Pet, which toured with Sonic Youth in the summer.

Many teenage rockers connect through MySpace, where they post sample tracks, videos and announcements of gigs, as well as leave one another messages of support. In a message to Magnolia, Forrest Fire Gray, 14, whose father was the monologuist Spalding Gray and who is the frontman of Too Busy Being Bored, wrote, “Can’t wait to play with u guys.”

More than a few of New York’s baby-face rockers have famous parents in the entertainment business, who have encouraged their children’s artistic streaks and served as role models for professional success. Lucian Buscemi, 16, the son of the actor Steve Buscemi, along with Julian Bennett-Holmes and Jonathan Shea, both also 16, have become something like the kingpins of the Park Slope kid-rock scene, ever since their band, Fiasco — previously known as StunGun — became the first youth band to play the Liberty Heights Tap Room.

Pale and thin, with fluffy manes of rocker hair, Lucian and Julian are also partners in a record label, Beautiful Records, which has recorded Care Bears on Fire and Magnolia, using equipment that Lucian was given for his eighth-grade graduation, soon after a baby sitter introduced the two boys to ’80s punk.

   

“We were into, like, Rancid and Blink 182 at the time,” said Julian, cringing at his junior-high lack of cool. “That ended when we heard Minor Threat.”

Many kid-core bands cite that hardcore act from the ’80s as a big influence. The adults who attend kid-rock shows couldn’t be happier. This is the music they loved as teenagers. “This is the first generation of parents who have grown up listening to rock ’n’ roll, so they’re thrilled about it,” said Stephen Depulla, the owner of Liberty Heights Tap Room. Not least because it provides an opportunity for bonding.

Kathie Russo, Forrest Fire Gray’s mother, said she and her son swap music like friends. “I suggested he cover ‘Angie’ by the Rolling Stones, and he introduced me to Modest Mouse and the Vines,” she said. “Last night we were in the car singing along to Audioslave. I can’t imagine that with my parents.”

She also probably can’t imagine her parents acting as roadies, which many of the young rockers’ moms and dads do.

The most prominent band on New York’s junior-varsity rock scene is Hysterics, a “psychedelic” quartet founded at the artsy St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn. The week after performing at Union Hall at the CMJ Marathon, the band members gathered at the studio of Jeff Peretz, their manager. Mr. Peretz also guides the Tangents, whose bass guitarist, Miles Robbins, 12, is the son of Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.

Members of Hysterics discussed their coming gig, a party for a new Valentino perfume, which was organized through a friend of the fashion photographer Pamela Hanson, whose son, Charlie Klarsfeld, 17, is the group’s guitarist. The evening, at 7 World Trade Center last Thursday, turned out to be a pileup of celebrity children with music careers, including the DJs Lola Schnabel and Mark Ronson.

“Are we going to get swag?” asked Josh Barocas, 17, the quiet bassist, whose enormous Afro speaks of a somewhat louder interior personality.

“What’s swag?” Charlie asked.

“It’s free stuff they give to famous people,” Mr. Peretz said.

“Every teen band in New York wants to be Hysterics,” he added. The group was discovered two years ago, when a science teacher at St. Ann’s posted one of its songs on his blog, and its cool factor rocketed after signing a record deal with independent v2. The company took the musicians for cookies and milk at the City Bakery. As high school juniors and seniors, they are old enough for the gesture to be ironic.

NOT so the Tiny Masters of Today. On a Friday evening in November, Ada, the bassist, 10, a slight girl with a heart-shape face, was reading “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at Piano’s, a Lower East Side bar, while waiting to go on with her brother, Ivan, 12, the lead guitarist. (Their father requested that the family name not appear in print to protect the children’s privacy.)

After the set, during which they performed, among other songs, Ada’s mournful “Pictures” — “It’s about my friends in second grade and how awful they were to me,” she said — an adult in the audience called the band “the new Raincoats,” a reference to an experimental British act of the late ’70s.

Ivan is familiar with their music, although he said he prefers louder stuff like the Stooges. “And I’m really into Apollo Sunshine right now,” he said, perched on a bar stool and chewing thoughtfully on a cocktail straw. “I go through phases.”

Their father has worked for the indie label Caroline and once pulled the kids out of school early to see the White Stripes. His children’s affection for indie rock, he said, is a reaction to mainstream tastes. “They’re rebelling against, like, Walt Disney.”

Or maybe Britney Spears. “Our parents had the Clash, the Who, Bowie,” said Alana Higgins, 17, the bassist for the band Modrocket. She was at a Dunkin’ Donuts in the East Village near the space where her band rehearses.

“The scenes back then were so much better. Rock music now — it’s upsetting. Our kids are going to look back at our music and it’s going to be like —— ”

“Kelly Clarkson,” interjected Alice Blythe, 17, Modrocket’s singer.

The kid-core sound is far less slick than the pop and R & B that animates “American Idol,” either because the musicians are just learning to play or because their musical influences trace to the DIY roots of garage rock.

Tiny Masters of Today was on the Oct. 11 cover of the British magazine Artrocker. “They’re making this kind of primitive, unprocessed, unfiltered music,” their father said.

It was that sound that attracted Russell Simins, the grown-up drummer in Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, who found the Tiny Masters on MySpace last year. He now accompanies them on drums during live sets.

“They have this unadulterated way of saying things, ” Mr. Simins said, sipping a beer at Piano’s. “It’s perfectly not thought out. They don’t have angst. Or their angst is simpler: it’s about being precocious and being kids who want to have fun and eat ice cream or about being bored. They’re not asking why they’re bored,” he said with a laugh. “They don’t have, like, existential malaise.” When Mr. Simins plays with the group, his hulking 36-year-old frame is a perfect foil to the children’s Lemony Snicket-character bodies.

He insists that he is not actually in the band, even though he’ll be on their coming album, which will also feature guest appearances by Fred Schneider of the B-52s and the singer and songwriter Kimya Dawson.

And Mr. Simins occasionally practices with them at home in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. “Sometimes I’ll stay over for dinner — you know, pizza or spaghetti or quesadillas or whatever,” he said. “Like I’m a kid.”

WATER TAXIS TO DUMBO: STARTS NOV. 27th

Many of you make it so easy for me to spread great Brooklyn News. This morning this news arrived about water taxi service to DUMBO.

Dear Louise, Great news! New York Water Taxi will expand their daily commuter service to include a stop in DUMBO beginning Monday, November 27th. The better news is that they are offering a special $2.00 fare through the spring. And, to give folks a “taste” of commuting in comfort and style, New York Water Taxi will also be offering the “First Ride on Us” – 2 FREE one way tickets anywhere along the East River route from 11/27-12/1.   

Release cut & pasted below, and attached. I’m happy to send over route maps, photos of the Water Taxi – whatever you may need.   

Please let me know if you’re interested in running something on your blog after the 20th when commuters can get their free tickets online at www.nywatertaxi.com.  (I’m sending the info out early as a courtesy because of next week’s holiday) .