Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Marty Endorses Bill deBlasio for Public Advocate

I read it on my Facebook page. But then I saw it on the Brooklyn Paper. Here's an excerpt:

Borough President Markowitz heartily endorsed Councilman Bill DeBlasio for public advocate on Monday — the second time in as many weeks that the borough’s highest elected official has backed a Brooklynite for a citywide office.

Last week, Markowitz journeyed to City Hall to endorse Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights) in his run for comptroller.

A cynic would say — not this cynic, of course, but another cynic who looks like him — that Markowitz, the ultimate Brooklyn booster, didn’t look at resumes, but a map when he selected Yassky over his three Queens rivals John Liu, Melinda Katz and David Weprin; and then DeBlasio over his adversaries, Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens), and Mark Green and Norman Siegel, both of Manhattan.

“I must say that I know all the candidates [in both races] and they’re very good candidates,” Markowitz said at Borough Hall on Monday. “But I just think that David and Bill will do a better job.

“And the fact that they’re both from Brooklyn is just the strawberries on top of Junior’s cheesecake,” he added.

Gotham Gazette: Understanding the Ballot Petitions

The Gotham Gazette (GG) is a good, wonky read especially if you're trying to make sense out of NYC politics. The article excerpted below might even help you understand what all those volunteer petitioners are doing out on the streets of NYC.

Reading GG, I learned a thing or two.

The election laws we now live by were developed in the 19th century to make the process more democratic. Previously the system was controlled by party leaders who had complete control over which names appeared on the ballot.

Now thanks to those laws, there are petitioning requirements. According to GG, the purpose of these requirement is "to ensure that only those candidates with huge campaign war chests or party backing have the wherewithal to get on to the ballot -- and stay there. Here's an excerpt from a piece called Understanding the Labyrinth: New York's Ballot Access Laws by DeNora Getachew and Andrea Senteno:

In order to get on the New York City primary election ballot this year, candidates could begin collecting signatures for their designating petitions on June 9 -- 37 days[DMG3] before the last day to turn in designating petitions for the primary election

The law is very specific about how many signatures candidates must collect. They have to get 5 percent of the enrolled voters of the political party in the political unit covered by the office -- council district, borough or the entire city -- or the specific numbers enumerated in the state's Election Law, whichever is less. For a candidate for City Council, that number is 900 signatures, but as a cushion against petition challenges, the rule of thumb is to obtain at least three times the legal minimum.

The candidates also must figure out is who is eligible to sign the petitions and who can collect the signatures. While only registered voters who are members of the candidate's political party and reside in the district in question can sign the petition, any registered voter who is a member of the candidate's political party and lives in New York City can collect signatures. Voters are allowed to sign just one petition per office.

The candidate has approximately five weeks to collect all of the requisite signatures and file his or her designating petitions with the main city Board of Elections office between July 13 and 16, which complies with the state law requirement that designating petitions be filed between the tenth Monday and the ninth Thursday preceding the primary election.

That done, the challenge portion of the petitioning process begins. According to the board's rules, it conducts a prima facie "review [of] each cover sheet and petition to ensure compliance with the New York State Election Law." This marks the first round of challenges to the candidate's petition -- but definitely not the last. The law allows any voter registered who can vote for the candidate to file written objections with the Board of Elections challenging that candidate's designating petitions. Those challenges must be made within three days of the filing of the petitions. [DMG4]

Once challenges are filed, the board holds hearings to assess the validity of the challenges and issues a determination. In order to appeal the board's decision a person must commence an action in state Supreme Court – the lowest level court in New York's court system "within 14 [DMG5]days after the last day to file a petition or within three business days after the board makes a determination regarding the invalidity of such petitions, whichever is later."

If the appeal involves a determination about whether a candidate's name will appear on the ballot or a voting machine, the Supreme Court, if possible, is supposed to issue a final order at least five weeks before the day of the election. Candidates can appeal such decisions.

Tidbits: City Council Candidates: Discretionary Funds, Green Party Petitions, Sponge Parks, Stroll Polls

So far, it's a quiet week on the campaign trail. Not like the last weeks and months which were chock full of fun: petitioning, street fairs, LGBT parades, Howard Dean showing up in Park Slope and endorsing two candiates in the same race, forums, Superfund discussions, and more.

But the petitioning continues and for David Pechefsky, Green Party candidate in the 39th, it is just beginning. He has to wait until July 1 to petition for names to insure his name on the November ballot. If you want to see a Green Party candidate on the ballot, be on the lookout for one of his volunteers. They'll be wearing green t-shirt with a funny caricature of Pechefsky on the front.

Interesting piece in the Gotham Gazette about discretionary funding—who gets it and who doesn't. It cites Brooklyn City Council member Lewis Fidler as "The King of Discretionary Funding." Bill deBlasio is in the top 10.

Bob Zuckerman, a 39er, is very happy about the $300,000 in federal funding that was approved by the House of Representatives for the Sponge Park, which will use greenery to absorb and manage excess surface runoff and help improve the water quality of the Gownaus Canal. As currently planned, the design will include usable public space.  “I am so pleased that the House has approved funding for this innovative project, which simultaneously reduces contamination of the greater Canal area and creates public outdoor recreational space at the same time,” Zuckerman said.

Did I mention that he's been endorsed by the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York (SDCNY) and the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn (LID)?

And check out Doug Biviano, one of the 33's, who did a "stroll poll" asking pedestrians to write ona chalk board outside of his campaign office on Montague Street. Here's what he found:

1. 37% -- Healthcare   (57 votes)
2. 22% -- Education   (33 votes)
3. 18% -- Affordable Housing   (27 votes)
4. 15% -- Parks & Playgrounds   (23 votes)
5.   8% -- Corruption & Campaign Reform   (12 votes)

Park Slope's Simone Dinnerstein to Make Philharmonic Debut on July 7th

Park Slope's Simone Dinnerstein, who has won numerous awards and honors for her piano playing, will be making her New York Philharmonic debut on July 7th and 8th at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Summertime Classics series.

Be there for the music and to take pride in this native Park Sloper who now lives here with her husband and son. She recently started a music series at PS 321 and next year, I hear, there are going to be four concerts with very top musicians; their performances are donated and all proceeds to P.S. 321.)

Found: Injured Baby Sparrow, Help Needed

I get a lot of emails from the New York Bird Club. But yesterday's moved me to post:

Yesterday,we brought home a baby sparrow that had fallen out of its nest.It was unconscious and barely breathing so we took it home to give it a safe place to pass on.

Surprisingly, it made it through the night and seems to be doing well today. We fed it a few drops of a RX nutritional supplement called Emeraid that we had fed to our cockatiels when they were sick.

Does anyone know what to feed a baby sparrow? How much? How often? We also have some Rx Benebac which is similar to the acidophilus in yogurt. We gave it to one of our birds after a course of antibiotics threw her own healthy bacteria out of whack. Thanks for any information anyone can provide.

To view the thread go to:
http://forums.manhattanbirdclub.com/post?id=3548966

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Prospects Heights Landmarking Approved: See The Video

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the 850-building Prospect Heights Historic District, the largest district designated in two decades.

Wow. That is big news.

The Municipal Art Society made a video about the process of creating the historic district. The act of engaging residents in the designation process brought the community together and provided a new sense of neighborhood identity.

 

The video features the following people:

Councilmember Tish James

Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Bob Tierney

Gib Veconi, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council 

And many local residents

 

The web page can be found here: http://mas.org/prospect-heights-the-making-of-a-historic-district

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Madoff

Madoff

Bernie, you're immortal now,
At least for 150 years,
Joining swindler Charlie Ponzi
On the trail--and trial--of tears.

Shall we call you Bernard Hood,
A modern Sherwood Forest elf,
Stealing from the rich (et al.)
And giving all of it to--yourself?

Or shall we make your well-known name
Synonymous with investment trade-off
And call the cur who transmutes others'
Fortunes into his a Madoff?

Bernard Madoff: 150 Years of Solitude

The story is in the headlines:

NY Daily News: Ponzi King Gets the Max

NY Post: Bernie Madoff to Rot in Jail

NY Times: Madoff Gets Maximum Sentence for Huge Ponzi Scheme

Gothamist: Finally: Bernard Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years for Ponzi Scheme

Tuesday: Spike Lee Day in Brooklyn

Marty Markowitz just announced it. My sister heard it on the radio.

Tuesday Night: Michael Jackson Memorial Loop of the Park

I got this yesterday in the old inbox:

Please join us this Tuesday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m., for a loop around Prospect Park to celebrate the music of Michael Jackson. Glittery costumes and/or wigs and makeup are encouraged (some of us will be going with the simple white t-shirt/black pants/black fedora combo), boomboxes playing the greatest hits will be carried, and when we reach the end of the loop we will organize a mass Thriller dance. Let's do right by MJ and make a spectacle!

 

Don't worry if you're not a runner; we'll take it slow.

 

We'll go for drinks afterward, of course, where we'll dance... on the floor... in the round.

 

The group will meet at Prospect Park West & 9th Street, the same entrance used for access to the band shell.

http://www.prospectpark.org/visit/interactive_map?cat=most_popular_destinations&ll=40.663475,-73.976184&zoom=15&bid=bandshell#map

Adorable and Adoptable Coney Island Kittens

In a lovely homage to Gowanus Lounge's Adoptable Cuties of the Week,  the new Coney Island blog, Amusing the Zillion, will be showing pictures of adoptable cats. The kittens she's got there really are amazingly adorable:

Please help!

if you know anyone who is cat lonely and loves Coney Island:

http://amusingthezillion.com/2009/06/28/adorable-adoptable-genuine-coney-island-kittens/

$2.25 for a Ride on NYC Subways and Buses

Single-ride bus and subway fares went up from $2 to $2.25 on Sunday. One-day MetroCards are now $8.25 (up from $7.50), 7-day cards are $27 (from $25) and monthly cards are now $89 (up from $81).

According to the NY Daily News, if you average it out, an average fare, with the pay-per-ride bonus, is up from $1.74 to $1.96.

OTBKB Music Video: Leslie Mendelson - Easy Love

For some reason, June 30th this year has been divined as the date when potentially big CDs should be released. So although Leslie Mendelson's debut album, Swan Feathers, was originally scheduled to be released earlier in the year, it was held back for that magic date. Well, June 30th is tomorrow, so I'll celebrate by posting this video. This is Leslie as I've seen her for the past two and a half years: in her native habitat, The Rockwood Music Hall, and joined by Steve McEwan on the lower right and James Maddock, who takes the guitar solo out of the frame.

--Eliot Wagner

Michele Madigan Somerville In the New York Times

Michele Madigan Somerville, poet, friend, OTBKB contrutbutor and Brooklyn Reading Works Regular, has written a post for the New York Times blog, Happy Days. 

As described on the blog, " Happy Days is a discussion about the search for contentment in its many forms — economic, emotional, physical, spiritual — and the stories of those striving to come to terms with the lives they lead."  Here's an excerpt from Somerville's piece called, Born Again in Brooklyn:

About a decade ago, moved by a convergence of my longstanding fascination with religion and a time of great personal loss, I embarked on a search for a church and wound up a born-again Catholic. It was not a straight or untroubled path, guided as it was by both my attraction to and enmity for the Roman Catholic Church into which I was born and baptized.

Growing up Irish Catholic in New York City put me in a good position to experience the best and worst of the Church. Most of the Sisters of Charity who taught at my grade school were tyrants. In 1971 I knocked on the door of my parish rectory to inquire about becoming an altar server; I was advised that only boys could serve. Brides, said the priest, were the only females allowed on the altar. When my mother became critically ill at age 30, a Catholic priest administering last rites, refused to offer absolution when she, who had given birth to four children by age 25, refused to express contrition for taking birth control pills. People for whom I care deeply have been molested by priests.

.

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Another Cyclist Killed on Fifth Avenue

This from the NY Daily News:  http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/06/28/2009-06-28_brooklyn_bicyclist_killed_after_crash_with_van.html#ixzz0JkqnXyE9&C

An elderly bicyclist was struck and killed by a van in Brooklyn, police and witnesses said.

The 72-year-old man was riding south on Fifth Ave. in Park Slope Saturday morning when the maroon passenger van crashed into him, cops said.

"At the last moment I caught sight of him," said the 61-year-old van driver, a Vietnam veteran who was visibly shaken. "I tried to stop the vehicle."

It was too late.

The impact left the bicyclist, who witnesses said was not wearing a helmet, critically injured. Paramedics rushed him to Lutheran Medical Center, but he succumbed to his injuries.

Police did not identify the man because they were trying to locate his relatives. The driver of the van was not charged, cops said.

"The van had the green light," said Munique Lee, of the Bronx, who was getting her hair done on Dean St.

"The guy on the bike really wasn't paying attention."

Does Everyone Know About the MTA Fare Hike?

A word from Leon Freilich, OTBKB's Verse Responder:

Is this news to you?  Subway and bus fares rose today, Sunday, for rides both single and multiple.

If you've read today's Times--and only the Sunday Times--it's news to you because NYT is carrying not a word about the increase.  In fact, there's not a single news story about anything in New York City.

Features, yes, in the new Metropolitan section. These are stories that could have been written a year ago and could run a year from now. But today, last Sunday and the two or three Sundays before that, not a NYT word anywhere about what actually happened in the city the day before.  Isn't that classically what a paper--especially a Paper of Record--does?

Come Sundays, should the newspaper be calling itself a NEWSpaper? Should it be calling itself the NEW YORK Times and not the National Times?

When a print newspaper reader has to go to the Post or the Daily News to find out what went on Saturday, isn't that a story that should run in the Times?  Never, however, on Sunday.

July 7: Katha Pollitt at Brooklyn's Bookcourt in Cobble Hill

The great Katha Pollitt will be reading from her new collection of poetry, The Mind-Body Problem, on July 7th. 7-10 p.m. at Bookcourt (163 Court Street).

Katha Pollitt is coming to Brooklyn. Woo hoo.

Pollitt is perhaps best known for her column "Subject to Debate" in The Nation magazine. She has also published work in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Ms. magazine and The New York Times.

Her essays have been published in collections including, Learning to Drive; And Other Life Stories,  Virginity or Death!: And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Time and Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, nineteen essays that first appeared in The Nation and other journals. Here is the title poem from her new poetry collection

Mind-Body Problem

Katha Pollitt

When I think of myself I feel sorry not for myself

but for my body.  It was not so direct

and simple, so rational in its desires,

wanting to be touched the way an otter

loves water, the way a giraffe

wants to amble the edge of the forest, nuzzling

the tender leaves at the tops of the trees.  It seems
unfair, somehow, that my body had to suffer

because I, by which I mean my mind, was saddled

with certain unfortunate high-minded romantic notions

that made me tyrannize and patronize it

like a cruel medieval baron, or an ambitious

English-professor husband ashamed of his wife---

her love of sad movies, her budget casseroles

and regional vowels.  Perhaps

my body would have liked to make some of our dates,

to come home at four in the morning and answer my scowl

with "None of your business!"  Perhaps

it would have liked more presents: silks, mascaras.

If we had had a more democratic arrangement

we might even have come, despite our different backgrounds,

to a grudging respect for each other, like Tony Curtis

and Sidney Poitier fleeing handcuffed together,

instead of the current curious shift of power

in which I find I am being reluctantly

dragged along by my body as though by some

swift and powerful dog.  How eagerly

it plunges ahead, not stopping for anything,

as though it knows exactly where we are going.

                                                  
                                                  (first published in The Atlantic and the Oak Bend Review)

Maureen Dowd at her Best: Genius in the Bottle

Here is the NYT's Maureen Dowd at her smart/nasty/cutting/funny best; www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/opinion/28dowd.html

Tom Martinez, Witness: "We Want Our Liberty Back"

 Vox Pop Manager Debi Ryan (on the right)  and a young patron called attention to the loss of the coffee shop's Statue of Liberty by
dressing the part and proclaiming, "We want our liberty back!" 

Customers took turns dawning the crown and holding various
kinds of lights (including light beers). 

Rumors abound as to the statue's whereabouts with July 4th rapidly approaching.

Photo by Tom Martinez.

Smartmom: Teen Spirit's Surprise Party

Here's this week's Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper:

Teen Spirit turned 18 last week, but Smartmom and Hepcat couldn’t figure out how to celebrate the big milestone.

They suggested a birthday dinner at Daisy’s Diner, his favorite local restaurant, but Teen Spirit already had plans to party with his friends.

They suggested a birthday breakfast at Donuts Coffee Shop on Seventh Avenue, his favorite breakfast spot, but Teen Spirit had a gig with the Mighty Handful that day.

The birthday and the day after passed by, and Smartmom and Hepcat barely saw their son, who was now eligible to vote and serve in the military.

On Saturday night, Smartmom got an e-mail from one of Teen Spirit’s good friends. “Teen Spirit’s Surprise Party” was on the subject line. That got Smartmom’s attention.

“[Teen Spirit] requested that someone throw him a surprise party for his birthday and I said absolutely not. Naturally, this means that I am throwing one! I have an idea for a plan, but I have to run it by you first.”

Smartmom knew what was coming, but she was glad that her son’s friend was “running it by her first.”

“I am going to come over tomorrow in the late morning/noon and take him out of the house. Around 1:30, people will start showing up at the house. Then, at 2 pm, I will bring him back. Surprise! Then we will go to Prospect Park to have a picnic and play music for each other. Is this plan all right?”

Smartmom had a mixed reaction. Her heart was warmed because Teen Spirit told his friend that he wanted a surprise party. But then she wondered guiltily whether she and Hepcat should have planned one. But she knew deep down that he didn’t want his parents (gross, cooties) to throw him a surprise party.

Still, it surprised her that he wanted a surprise since he’d been playing his birthday down. Smartmom didn’t know that he cared.

Smartmom was also touched that his friend was going out of her way to give Teen Spirit his wish.

The only thing that made Smartmom nervous was that an unspecified number of kids were coming over to the tiny apartment.

Sure, Teen Spirit has a great group of friends. But the idea of 10 or 20 of them in her dining room was unnerving. What would they eat, what would they drink? Would they drink?

Smartmom got right back to the friend, telling her that she was on board with the surprise party, but needing more information — primarily, how many kids should she expect.

“Right now on Facebook, it says that 13 people are coming, but that’s just Facebook,” the friend wrote back. “It is safe to say somewhere between 13 and 20.”

Facebook? The invite was already on Facebook? And 13 people had already RSVP’d. Yikes. Now Smartmom was panicked. She immediately went out to Seventh Avenue to buy all of Teen Spirit’s favorite party foods: tortilla chips, spicy salsa and Mug Root Beer. Since he doesn’t like birthday cake, Smartmom bought two pounds of rainbow cookies at D’Vine Taste.

The next day, Smartmom had an early appointment and left Hepcat in charge.

“I’ll watch over this surprise party thing,” he told Smartmom bravely. The Oh So Feisty One was determined NOT to be home during Teen Spirit’s surprise party, and she scurried out of the house bright and early to be with friends.

Unfortunately, Smartmom wasn’t home at the moment of the surprise, but Hepcat said that Teen Spirit’s friend called from the street and the party of about 12 kids squeezed into Teen Spirit’s tiny bedroom with balloons and yelled, “Surprise!” when he came in.

When Smartmom got to the apartment, the kids were eating chips in the living room and packing up things like juice boxes (how retro) for their picnic in the park. Teen Spirit looked happy.

“This restored my faith in my friends,” Smartmom heard Teen Spirit say.

Smartmom was pleased. How lucky he is to have a great group of friends and one friend in particular willing to go the distance to make his birthday wish come true.

The party was over, but so was a lot more. Teen Spirit’s childhood was over, too.

Surprise.

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Sat: Gowanus/Love Canal Day of Spectacle at BKLYN Yard

The BKLYN Yard on Saturday June 27th should be quite a spectacle. Winkel and Balktick, the two masterminds behind the city's most outlandish underground parties, are bringing their crazy antics to the baks of the Gowanus Canal.

In a tongue-and-cheek celebration of the canal’s toxicity, they are inviting their vast community to descend upon BKLYN Yard… dressed up like the mutants that must surely live in the nearby waterway.

Expect a aquatic symphony of music, dancing, art, performance, friends, picnicking, imbibing, and all shades of hedonism.

 

Featuring:

Live mutant ragtime music from The Xylopholks

Heart-throbbing house, rare groove, disco and techno from DJs Joro Boro, DJ $mallchange,  Dhundee.

Atomic fire spinning and breathing by The PYROphorUS PiXXies

Performances and antics from Groovehoops

Please attend dressed as an undersea love mutant, or ambassador of humanity’s remaining freak population.  Or wear nothing and get bodypainted by friendly mutants.

ALL AGES!  Kids with parents are free!
Full cash bar.  Please, no outside booze.

3pm - 9pm

FREE before 4pm, $7 after!

FREE afterparty in secret location!

info@WandBnyc.com

Brooklyn Blogade This Sunday at Kush Hosted by Reclaimed Home

It’s Reclaimed Home’s turn to host the rolling Brooklyn Blogade.  It's at Kush in Clinton Hill and it should be fun and interesting. A blogade is like a mini-Blogfest. A chance to meet other bloggers, talk, and get inspired. It's open to anyone interested in blogging. See the details below:

Since this is not a neighborhood blog and since I’ve lived in just about every part of Brooklyn, I could’ve chosen any location.

I chose Kush in Clinton Hill because one, I can walk there from my Bed Stuy home and two, it’s one of my favorite restaurants in Brooklyn. Like, on the top three.

So anyway, what’s a blogade all about? Well, it’s a monthly gathering of bloggers who get together to exchange ideas, encourage one another and eat. There’s usually a theme. I wanted to talk about the technical aspects of blogging, so I’m getting my web designer to fill us in on blogging from different angles.

Vanessa of Noseround Productions will look at breaking away from your average post and making your blog more interactive. She’ll bring in examples of plug-ins, add-ons and open source platforms, such as web carts and forums. She’ll try to explain ways to make your blog both user friendly and also owner friendly.

Sounds good, no? So far there are about 20 of us gathering on the 28th. If you haven’t RSVP’ed yet just give me a holla to let me know you’re coming. I’m still working out the menu, but it’s a brunch thing with a vegetarian and a vegan option. Cost will be less than $15.

Hope to see you there!

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Sat: All Night Movie Marathon at BAM

This sounds so fun: Stay up all night and watch movies at BAM. And the price is right: $15 bucks, includes an all-night dance party and access to all screens.The marathons have really funny names and themes. Little did they know they'd be doing a memorial screening of The Wiz with Michael Jackson at 12 am on Saturday night.

 Four movie marathons that are sure to satisfy the popcorn flick lover in everyone (don't worry, there's one screen for arthouse lovers, too!). And if you need help keeping your energy up between film screenings, we'll also be running an all-night dance party in BAMcafé. Tickets are $15 and include access to all screens and dance party.

Marathon 1: Diana Ross Coming Out

Music, glamour, and 70s schmaltz collide in this pair of films featuring superstar Diana Ross. This double feature will have you in rapture from the moment the words "gowns designed by Diana Ross" hit the screen.

The Wiz
12am
(1978) 134 min
Director: Sidney Lumet.
With Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Richard Pryor.
We're definitely nowhere near Kansas in this urban re-telling of the classic tale.

Mahogany
2:30am
(1975) 109 min
Director: Berry Gordy.
With Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Perkins.
Ross, in glamorous 70s couture, is paired with Williams—the paramour to her rising fashion model—while Perkins is the disturbed photographer who tries to split them up.

Marathon 2: Before They Were Scientologists

BAMcinemaFEST presents three of your favorite stars as you'd like to remember them...before the couch jumping, Jenny Craig commercials, and, er, Battlefield Earth.

Top Gun
11:15pm
(1986) 110 min
Director: Tony Scott.
With Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer.
Tom Cruise stars as Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a hot-shot young aviator with a "need for speed" in this VHS classic featuring a killer 80s soundtrack.

Look Who's Talking Too
1:30am
(1990) 81 min
Director: Amy Heckerling.
With John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Bruce Willis, Roseanne Barr.
This sequel to Look Who's Talking finds toddler Mikey learning he's got to "fight for his right to potty."

Staying Alive
3am
(1983) 93 min
Director: Sylvester Stallone.
With John Travolta.
Travolta's crotch practically co-stars in this awesomely cheesy follow-up to Saturday Night Fever. Don't miss the climactic, psychedelic S&M-themed dance sequence.

Marathon 3: All Night Bong

Whether you're in the mood to see really good, funny movies, or feeling unusually relaxed, hungry, and/or paranoid, this screen is for you.

Smiley Face
11:15pm
(2007) 88 min
Director: Gregg Araki.
With Anna Faris, John Krasinski.
When Jane eats her roommate's pot-filled cupcakes, she stumbles through LA to find replacements. With subtle social commentary throughout, some of this is actually kind of deep, dude.

Pineapple Express
1am
(2008) 111 min
Director: David Gordon Green.
With Seth Rogen, James Franco.
Green revitalizes the classic pot plot in this 80s-action-flick-inspired comedy. "The Casablanca of pot comedies" (Cinematical).

Friday
3am
(1995) 91 min
Director: F. Gary Gray.
With Ice Cube, Chris Tucker.
Craig and Smokey share a joint and chillax in South Central when Smokey's dealer threatens to kill them if they don't pay their debt by the end of the night. Boyz in the Hood with bongs.

Marathon 4: BAMcinématek Favorites

Among the many films BAMcinématek has shown over the past ten years, these three hold a special place in our hearts.

In the Mood for Love
11:15pm
(2000) 98 min
Director: Wong Kar-wai.
With Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung.
Leung and Cheung star in this lushly photographed tale of unconsummated love.

Millennium Mambo
1:15am
(2001) 119 min
Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien.
With Shu Qi, Jack Kao.
A young girl drifts through endless parties and hookups in neon-soaked Taipei.

demonlover
3:15am
(2002) 115 min
Director: Olivier Assayas.
With Gina Gershon, Chloë Sevigny, Charles Berling.
A thriller about corporate greed, porn, and video games, set to a score by Sonic Youth.

Today on Breakfast of Candidates (33rd Edition): Ken Baer

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Baer.  He majored in psychology and sociology at Kent State University during the turbulent 1960's and was actually attending the school when four students were killed by National Guard during an anti-war demonstration in 1970. At the time, he lived with "a bunch of vegetarians" and tried to stay out of the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector (CO). It was during college, that Baer became aware of food and environmental issues: "answering questions on the CO form got me to thinking about killing humans and animals...so I became a vegetarian," he told me. A longtime member of the Park Slope Food Coop, Baer is also a member of the Sierra Club and has held various key positions at the city and state level. He was an early opponent of the Atlantic Yards Project and is a strong believer in community based development.

And in case you missed these from the 33rd (they're all here except for Issac Abraham):

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Stephen Levin.  A classics major at Brown University,  Levin has wonky good looks and a boyish, disarming manner. His father's cousins are Michigan's Senator Carl Levin and Congressman Sander Levin and he currently works as Vito Lopez's chief of staff. Lopez, who is often portrayed as a Darth Vader figure in Brooklyn politics taught the 29-year-old Levin about "knocking on doors, talking to as many people as possible, the importance of having a command of the issues, and having empathy for the people," Levin told me. A pragmatist, Levin believes "that for for every problem there is a solution that is not readily apparent."

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Doug Biviano. Expect the unexpected from Biviano, who is a civil engineer with BS and MS degrees from Cornell University. Biviano works as a superintendent in a Brooklyn Heights apartment building and in 2008 was a New York State Coordinator for presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich , whose politics of peace are a strong influence. Biviano has lived the skier's life in Colorado and sailed the Inter-Coastal Highway with his wife installing solar panels on a boat he barely knew how to sail.

Breakfast of Candidates: Jo Anne Simon.  Her career trajectory from teacher of the deaf to disability rights attorney can make you feel like a slacker  and wonder how she had time to become such a strong voice in community politics, the female Democratic District Leader and State Committeewoman for the 52nd Assembly District. A proponent of the art of listening, she believes that there's a place for all viewpoints at the table and that "someone who is elected to office can work with everyone."

Breakfast-of Candidates; Evan Thies. A former aide to City Council Member David Yassky, Thies also worked in Hillary Clinton's upstate senate office and for Andrew Cuomo. Raised in New Hampshire, public service was the family business and his grandmother was appointed by NH governor John Sununu to be the state's Commissioner of Health and Human Services. Struck as a child with Fibromatosis, a chronic disease, he was home-schooled during the worst of his illness. When he was 11, he and his mother wrote and passed a bill about his disease.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Diamondstone: A lover of diner food, Diamondstone runs an affordable housing business with an emphasis on "nice spaces for low prices." He could have made a killing in the real estate biz but instead stuck to his principles. Affordable housing is clearly Diamondstone's passion and through his business he has been able to translate ideals into action. He is also a member of three local Democratic clubs and was an early opponent of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. For Diamondstone, who is openly gay and lives with his longtime partner, Joe, the rights of the LGBT community is high on his list of priorities. But so is the environment. As chair of the Brooklyn Solid Waste Council he was involved with the Zero Waste Coalition and passage of NYPIRG's Bigger, Better, Bottle Bill.

And here are the 39ers:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Gary Reilly. At 34 he's not quite the youngest of the 39th candidates (John Heyer beats him on that score) but this intelligent and likable man is plenty wet behind the ears and full of enthusiasm about public transportation and other issues that affect voters.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Bob Zuckerman. A long-time politico, Zuckerman is currently executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.  He remembers the night Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 (he was 7-years-old) and one of his heroes is Harvey Milk.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Brad Lander, Lander has two master's degrees and a BA from the University of Chicago. He made his mark running community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and Pratt Center for Community Development, advocating for affordable housing and community sustainablility.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Josh  Skaller. A former computer music composer at Harvard, it was Howard Dean's presidential campaign that jumpstarted his interest in electoral politics. As president of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, he learned to facilitiate dialogue  and manage strong personalities. Running on a community empowerment platform with a strong interest in the environment and smart development, Josh is proud to be refusing donations from  real estate developers.

Breakfast of Candidates: John Heyer: An assistant to Borough President Marty Markowitz, Heyer is the only candidate for City Council born in the 39th district. A fifth-generation Carroll Gardener, his twin passions are politics and theology. He works as a funeral director at Scotto's Funeral Home and his knowledge of the history of the neighborhood runs deep though he is only 27-years-old.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: David Pechefsky. The Green Candidate, Pechefsky worked for 10 years in the central staff of the New York City Council. With a master's degree in public policy and experience advising local governments in Africa, Pechefsky knows how the City Council works from the inside out and has ideas about how it could better serve the people of New York City.

OTBKB Music: The Medicine Show Arrives Saturday Night

This Saturday night, the best rock band out there, Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 will be right here in Brooklyn at The Bell House over at 2nd Avenue and 7th Street, walking distance from wherever you are in The Slope.

Steve and the band will commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the release of “Medicine Show” by playing that classic album from start to finish for the first time. The Miracle 3—Steve’s long-time band of Jason Victor, Dave Decastro and Linda Pitmon—did similar shows for “The Days of Wine and Roses” in 2001.

“’Medicine Show’ is the weirdest, most idiosyncratic, nastiest, funniest and most revealing record the Dream Syndicate ever made,” said Wynn in the liner notes from the record’s 1991 reissue. “It’s also my favorite.”

If you're not familar with The Medicine Show, it has songs about life in the small town of Merrittville (if you lived there you'd probably want to leave), what thrills might await you at that traveling Medicine Show, about arson and the loss of faith and that's just the tip of the iceberg. 

Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 at The Bell House, Saturday June 27, 7:30pm. $12.

--Eliot Wagner

Breakfast-of-Candidates (33rd Edition): Ken Baer

Note: according to Baer, there are some small mistakes in my retelling of his bio. As I find them out I will change them.

It was like pulling teeth trying to get Ken Baer, candidate for the City Council in the Brooklyn's 33rd district, to talk about his childhood. Not because he has any secrets, it's just that Baer is awfully private for a politician.

Baer faced OTBKB's coffee cup in Cousin John's, a bakery/restaurant in Park Slope, where he ordered a three-egg breakfast and talked sparingly about his mother, who was a German Jewish refugee, his dad, who was a Harvard educated lawyer and almost nothing about growing up in Levittown, Long Island and later Huntington.

He did get a bit more verbal when I asked about his college years at Kent State during the height of the 1960s campus rebellions. In fact, Baer was attending Kent State, when four students were killed by National Guard during an anti-war demonstration in 1970. 

At Kent State, Baer majored in psychology and sociology, lived with "a bunch of vegetarians" and tried to stay out of the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector (CO). It was during college, that Baer became aware of food and environmental issues: "answering questions on the CO form got me to thinking about killing humans and animals... I didn't want to kill animals and became a vegetarian," he told me. He is still a vegetarian.

Baer got a second bachelors degree at Kent state in accounting and economics and later returned to New York to work at the Dime Savings Bank on DeKalb and Flatbush Avenue. I asked where he lived and quickly got the feeling he thought I was being nosy.

"That's what I do. I ask questions," I told Baer.

"I'm not big about talking about myself. I'm a doer," he said.

In 1972, Baer volunteered for George McGovern's presidential campaign. He also got a job as a budget analyst at the City's Agency for Child Development. Sometime later he received a mayor's scholarship available to city employees and went to Baruch College to study computer methodology.

During this time, he joined the Park Slope Food Coop, an organization that he is still a proud member of. "I became a Sunday coordinator; I deal with various strong personalities well," he told me.

In the 1980's Baer went to night school to earn an MBA and worked as an accountant at various firms. In the 1980's he also joined the Sierra Club and ran for a seat on the Executive Committee of the New York City group. He won by one vote in a fractious campaign. "I steer a center path between factions. I don't make enemies," he told me.

His volunteer involvement with the Sierra Club is, I think, the foundation of Baer's political activism. Clearly, Baer is genuinely dedicated to the core values of the largest, and most influential grassroots environmental group in the United States, and has had various roles within the organization.

At this point in our conversation Baer had to walk over to the Food Coop to meet one of his petitioners and I decided to tag along. Once there, we sat in the busy orientation room and spoke more about Baer's work with the Sierra Club.

He told me that he is proud of his work helping the New York State state and city chapters of the Sierra Club through a very difficult and fractious period in 1999 as the result of a misguided fund-raising effort by the NYC group. Due to this mistake, the NYC group's existence was in question. Mediation, a retreat and careful resolution techniques were required to help the parties heal and realize that they needed to stop fighting and start working together again.  "To bring together a national organization when they're having problems is significant," he said.

Our conversation zig and zagged but Baer did tell me that in 1996 he decided to throw his hat into the 52nd district  Assembly race against Eileen Dugin, who wanted to introduce a bill "to allow more smoking in restaurants." Dugan died before the Democratic primary and Baer ran, unsuccessfully against Joan Millman, who replaced Dugin in that race.

"I am not a typical politico but I love meeting people, I'm out on the sidewalks, I love people and seeing so many infants and toddlers. These young people deserve a quality education."

Baer was an early opponent of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. In 2004, he attended one of the very first meetings organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn at a local school and instantly had a bad feeling about the over sized project, which left the community out of the development process.

He continues to be an outspoken opponent of the project and has been endorsed by the highly respected Eric McClure, who runs the group Park Slope Neighbors. For Baer the overarching issue for Brooklyn and NYC are development. He believes that community-based planning must be the basis for all new development in NYC.

Baer and I walked downstairs to wait for one of his petitioners; we sat on the bench out front and I asked him to name his heroes. He thought for a long time and finally said softly, "Ted Williams. He was a great hitter. Because he was a World War II and Korean War pilot he lost five or six seasons in his prime," Baer told me emotionally. "He did it out of patriotism."

When I got home, Baer called me and told me to add Eleanor Roosevelt, JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. to his list of heroes. But I told him I was going to lead with the Red Sox hitter.

"A very domineering man, he wouldn't let anyone pick up a check. But he was a very skilled player and I admire that. A great ballplayer, a very humble, down to earth and approachable person," Baer told me.

Underground Sensualists: Blonde Redhead at Celebrate Brooklyn

Tonight at Celebrate Brooklyn, Icelandic crooner Ólöf Arnalds opens the show for "the vaunted NYC underground sensualists Blonde Redhead have shape-shifted from dissonant noise explorations to ethereal, dreamy pop over the course of their career, always inspiring intense devotion from their fans. PopMatters says of them, “It is as if they are pressing on piano keys and each key is a trigger that tugs a wire within the listener. There are keys for longing, possession, despair, and ecstasy—and Blonde Redhead travel fast and skillfully over the whole keyboard.”

Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Enter park at 9th Street and Prospect Park West.

The Day the 1970's Died: Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett Dead

At 5:45 my daughter and I were on our way to her piano lesson when she looked down at her phone and said, "Michael Jackson had a heart attack." I asked how she knew and she told me that a friend, who's father works in the White House, texted her.

"His dad found out because he works with Obama," she said.

I assumed that Jackson was in a hospital in Los Angeles; that he'd recover and we'd hear more later. I did think how strange that he had a heart attack on the same day of Farrah Fawcett's death. Much of the day I'd thought about the sad death by rectal cancer of Fawcett.

She was a very poignant figure.

The public loved her in television's Charlie's Angels but she quit after one season to be movie star. But one film after the next was a flop. A sex symbol who wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, she found herself immortalized by a poster image of her toothy grin and her body fetchingly positioned in a red one-piece bathing suit.

Later she proved herself a true actress with roles in The Burning Bed and other portrayals of tragic women. I was moved by her rekindled relationship with Ryan O'Neil, who  stuck by her in the end, helping her through the 3-year illness that would kill her.

After the piano lesson I overheard some men talking on Seventh Avenue: "Your favorite celebrity is dead," he said. "What are you going to do without Michael Jackson?"

Today was the day the 1970's died. In some weird way, these two iconic figures from the 1970's will be connected for me by the timing of their demise.

Michael Jackson dead? How is that possible? He's exactly the same age as me. In fact, were born one day apart in 1958 (me: 8/28, he: 8/29). During 6th grade my classmates and I listened to the Jackson Five during breaks in Miss Freston's class. This precocious superstar who never had a childhood spent the rest of his life obsessed with children and juvenile diversions.

In 1982 Thriller thrilled. Who can forget the impact of the best selling album of all time; it permeated popular culture for months and months with its constant presence on the radio and MTV, which was just a few years old. The 14-minute video of the title song was an expertly choreographed, filmic thrill.

Beat It. Thriller. Billie Jean. The album contained one great tune after the next: it did not disappoint from start to finish. And it was such a blast to dance to. 

Talent. Tragedy. Intensity. Weirdness. Maybe it makes sense that this man who never wanted to grow up and lived the life of a lost boy in his self-created Neverland complete with ferris wheels and chimpanzees died before he reached the age of 51.

And this woman who wanted to be remembered as more than a bathing beauty died bravely of rectal cancer just weeks after she "suffered in front of the camera, playing out her battle with disease, and even her decline - and, by doing so, outing her serious illness," writes internist/blogger Doc Gurley

Both will live on. She through that poster, the TV show, the film roles she was proud of and her brave documentary. And he with his bestselling music from the Jackson Five's ABC to to Thriller, We are the World and beyond: all petrified and ageless like Jackson wanted to be.

Change in Public School Calendar: School Starts September 9th

I just heard from a member of the United Federation of Teachers that an important change to next year's calendar was made late last night. Next year public school starts on Wednesday September 9th not September 8th as originally planned. Here's why

Okay, you may have heard this already, but I just got an email about this less than an hour ago.

 

The NYC Dept. of Education has just changed the school calendar for next year - tonight!

I'm a UFT member, and we signed an agreement a few days ago to change our starting day to the day after Labor day, as opposed to before Labor Day. This would put it in line with the way it used to be before our last contract.

But the principal's union objected, because that meant we were coming back the same day as the kids. So tonight, they signed a NEW agreement changing the day the KIDS start to the Wednesday after Labor Day. That's one day later than they originally planned on.

 

Here's a link to the official calendar. You'll notice it says "Revised as of June 25, 2009".

 

http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/F5C4C865-B4FF-45BE-A396-536C0695EEDB/64220/20092010SchoolYearCalendarRev.pdf

Luna Park Gazette: Neverland Farewell

I just read Rob Lenihan's post about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Ed McMahon. Here's an excerpt. Read the rest at his blog, Luna Park Gazette.

It didn’t take long, did it?

Michael Jackson was just dead for a few hours this evening when I witnessed a scramble for post-mortem memorabilia.

I stopped by a used book stand on W. 73rd Street and Broadway to see if I could add even more paperbacks to my already mountainous collection.

As I approached the stand, the proprietor—I guess that’s what you call him—a large African-American man, was arguing with a skinny middle-aged fellow with glasses who was clutching a copy of Jackson’s Thriller LP.

“I don’t want your money,” the bookseller declared forcefully.

“How much do--?” the other man tried to say.

“—I don’t want your money.”

Vox Pop: Return Lady Liberty No Questions Asked, No Charges Pressed

An undisclosed eyewitness now says that  Brooklyn's Statue of Liberty was stolen from the front yard of Vox Pop Coffee Shot at 4:57 a.m. Monday morning. The shop is located at 1022 Corteylou Road in the Ditmas Park neighborhood.

"We're hoping it's in the neighborhood," said Debi Ryan, who runs Vox Pop a popular cafe, performance space and bookstore. "I just want the statue returned no questions asked.  Just put it back and no charges will be pressed."

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Brooklyn Paper: Vote for The New Poet Laureate

Bob Hershon
Boerum Hill
ADVANTAGE: A great supporter and publisher of local poetry.
DISADVANTAGE: He’s too busy to be the poet laureate.


“The Driver Said”
Boerum Hill?
It used to be
Gowanus.
This ain’t no neighborhood.
If ya butcher
Comes to ya funeral
That’s a neighborhood.

Matthew Rohrer
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: Has published six books of poetry and sometimes evokes the Mets in his verse.
DISADVANTAGE: Sometimes evokes the Mets in his verse.


“Morning Glory on the Roof”
You have already noted the girlish beauty
Of the Morning Glory, 
The delicate lavendar panties.
Looking around you, 
As far as you can see,
Plants are imprisoned.
Each morning Morning
Glories open upstairs, 
Out of sight.
Each night the concrete lies
Like a hot compress on the dirt.
Thank you for your brief attention.

Sharon Mesmer
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: A funny, vivacious poet who studied under Allen Ginsberg.
DISADVANTAGE: Is liable to mention her sexual history. And she has a poem titled, “Holy Mother of Monkey Poo.”


“Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing In Brooklyn”
She’s a white girl dancing braless in his teenage basement bedroom. 
He’s a doughy-faced guy with his tonsils in a bottle.
She’s planning to seduce him on the Staten Island Ferry.
He’s marrow-close and loaded with his first true kiss.
She thinks, “You’re nobody ’til you remind somebody of their mother.”
He just wants to go to Bombay and be alone.
She just wants a few near-death experiences.
He’s hungry for a passion bitter and damp as a last cigarette.
She first saw him masturbating off the Brooklyn Bridge on Easter.
He first saw her face down on Christmas Day, repeating, “Don’t I know you from the Poconos?”
She imagined him blonde and bovine between the stale sheets of a Times Square Hotel.
He imagined his next confession.
He invited her over for some chicken pot pie.
He lived in his parents’ wood-panelled basement.
A plastic St. Anthony stood on the lawn.
His mother was on the phone with her sister Rosetta.
He had a low IQ, but figured he could hide it.
His parents being cousins was what caused it.
Someone once told him his dull look was sexy.
He thought he’d be smart to talk about religion.
Her cheap cologne was intoxicating.
His slow tongue was shaking in reverse: words frequent and forgettable as waves.
She was imagining a cocktail party diamond-high above Manhattan
He was imagining excitement like a biblical epic.
Her heart was breaking like an Arctic ice floe.
He put on his blond armor.
She felt numb as needles.
He felt like Longinus on the subway.
They went down to his basement and closed the door.
She spotted “Victoria’s Secret” catalogues under back issues of Intellectual American.
He said, “I only buy them for the articles.”
They watched “Star Trek” videos with the sound turned off.
They played old James Taylor records.
He said, “I’d like to explore the erotic aspect of this relationship.”
She said, “Can it wait ’til the commercial?”
He said, “Have you ever read ‘The Waste Land’”?
She said, “My last boyfriend took me to Hoboken for the weekend.”
They drove around on the Belt Parkway.
They parked in the shadow of the Verrazano Bridge.
They felt like tourists in a phantom America.
He put his hand inside her blouse.
He smiled and said, “You like that, don’t you?”
She felt hot and monotonous, like a country of no seasons.
She fantasized a bath and baby powder. 
He had the sensation of running hard on a dark suburban street, feeling skinless and full of eyes.
He said, “Be my Ariadne.”
Ten minutes passed big and slow like clouds.
She said, “What’s an Ariadne?”
He recalled a book by Aldous Huxley: “The Genius and the Goddess.”
He began eagerly to anticipate the terror in the morning, the terror in the evening, the terror at suppertime,
An abuse so true he would touch the stars.
Now she’s a white girl dancing braless 
In his teenage basement bedroom.
Now he’s a doughy-faced guy flying crosstown towards Canarsie.

Frank Hoier
Bushwick
ADVANTAGE: Singer-songwriter who can reach young people.
DISADVANTAGE: Has only lived in Brooklyn for four years.


“What Do We Do To Love, When We Talk About Love?”
Do we ruin and rip apart what we love best
When we spout little words about it out of our breasts?
As if a sentence could do a moment justice
As if a book could convey a minute of silence
As if a song could even touch on the sound of leaves
Blowing in breezes on high up in trees
As if a joke could remind ya of your natural smile
As if “I Do” will bring out all of the love in you
What do we do to love when we talk about love?
Are we similar to heart surgeons drunk on gin
Cutting love up to repair it again?
To show off our intelligence and skill to our friends
As we sit round a table as the sunset begins
And we all want to leave but nobody will say when
So we sit here in silence growing darkness surrounding
Do we think love is in the bottom of the bottle we are drinking?
What do we do to love when we talk about love?
Are we like phony fortune tellers predicting the future
So we can tell our friends, “See I told you so” sooner?
Rubbing a fake crystal ball, a patch over one eye
Saying your view of the world ain’t as clear as mine
Listen and learn whether the world is dark or is light
Are we trying to outshine when we try to shine bright?
What do we do to love when we talk about love?
Are we communicating or just vainly pumping our veins
Full of hot blood when we call out love’s name?
Are we sure we are sharing, are we sure we even know how
To show a sliver of who we are under the shroud?
Are our impassioned speeches just more feed for the cows
To get the attention we were never allowed
We call ourselves artists and sing thru our mouths
But where’s the line between art, preaching, and shouting out loud?
What do we do to love when we talk about love?

 Enlarge this image

The Brooklyn Paper / Mike Short

Leon Freilich
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: A parodist with a rapier sword and a witty epee
DISADVANTAGE: His poems are a bit of a joke, truth be told.


“A Cooler 13th”
Steel bars do not a prison make
When it’s bar mitzvah day
And Daddy’s obligated to
Celebrate and pray.
So Tuvia Stern, an inmate at
The fabled New York Tombs,
Transcended lockup etiquette
And ordered party rooms.
He had the gym festooned with bunting
And rocked with festive strains
Provided by an Orthordox group
That blew out everyone’s brains.
Kin and kith and friends galore
All danced and sang out lustily,
Serenading the bar mitzvah boy
Religiously and robustily.
They ate and drank like Rahm Emanuel
Or baseball’s Leo Durocher,
The food having been most carefully catered
To be ultra-strictly kosher.
Sixty guests held forth in the cooler
For fully six-plus hours
While eight correction officers
Kept guard over baskets of flowers.
The guards as well made sure the party
Remained a private affair,
Keeping other prisoners
From infiltrating there.
The only jailbird to be found
Was the influential dad,
Who may be a convicted scammer
But on this day wasn’t bad.

The fraudster’s now upstate and serving
Two-and-a-half to seven
But at least he gave his now-a-man son
A taste of party heaven.
And he’s done the same for his lovely daughter —
Stern showed his jailhouse dash 
Again when he had outsiders in
For her engagement bash.

Richard Bowditch

Lynn Chandhok
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: A bi-cultural poet who would add diversity to the male-dominated poetic world.
DISADVANTAGE: A bit academic, which could hurt her outreach efforts.


“Confetti, Ticker Tape”
I want to say they’re swallows. In September, 
when we were feeding everyone we could, 
we’d look for them above the tracks on Ninth Street. 
What startled me was how their undersides 
caught the light, flashed silver, how the group 
would swoop and rise like wind itself, the flock 
vanishing every time it changed directions,
how the birds hung on air and clung together
circling above us, silver, like the squares
we thought were bits of fuselage or flakes 
of skyscraper, falling, until they floated 
towards us, lower, landing on our front stoop 
and I picked the papers up, but they were blank —
one after the other, blank, burned at the edges.

C. Taylor Crothers

They Might Be Giants
Williamsburg
ADVANTAGE: Might be the single most-identifiable Brooklyn-based rock band. Ever.
DISADVANTAGE: Let’s be real: it is well documented why Constantinople changed its name to Istanbul.


“Ana Ng”
Make a hole with a gun perpendicular
To the name of this town in a desk-top globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for
My apartment looks upside down from there
Water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And her voice is a backwards record
It’s like a whirlpool and it never ends
Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen Ana, hear my words
They’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you
All alone at the ’64 World’s Fair
Eighty dolls yelling, “Small girl after all”
Who was at the Dupont Pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?
Or the time when the storm tangled up the wires
To the horn on the pole at the bus depot
And in the back of the edge of hearing
These are the words that the voice was repeating:
Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen Ana, hear my words
They’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you
When I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:
“I don’t want the world, I just want your half.”
They don’t need me here, and I know you’re there
Where the world goes by like the humid air
And it sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks until it goes away
And the truth is, we don’t know anything
Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen Ana, hear my words
They’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

go to Brooklynpaper.com to vote. 

Ohio Volunteers Paint Sanctuary of Park Slope's Old First Church

Kids Need Something To Do? Summer Stage Play at Brooklyn's Irondale

Register now for this  innovative summer theater program at the Irondale Center in Ft. Greene.

That's right. Irondale is offering performing arts workshops for kids 8-13 this summer. Starting July 13th, there are three fun-filled and affordable programs designed to let your kids experience acting, improvisation and the creation of original  works in a collaborative and supportive environment. 

Sounds cool and fun and creative. And it's right here in Brooklyn. 

To register go to http://www.irondale.org/ssp2009.html and download their summer brochure and registration form. For further information call 718.488.9233. 

Coverage of MTA hearing/Vote on Atlantic Yards, With Video

The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority met yesterday and voted 10-2 to allow Forest City Ratner to stretch paments for the Atlantic Yards over 22 years. Norman Oder at Atlantic Yards Report has coverage of the hearing and a video. Here's an excerpt:

A warning by veteran Assemblyman Jim Brennan that they were squandering their assets, a recommendation of caution by the Straphangers Campaign, and even a request by the Atlantic Yards-supporting Regional Plan Association that the deal be renegotiated, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday voted 10-2 to allow Forest City Ratner to stretch payments for the Vanderbilt Yard over 22 years, at a generous interest rate, and to build a smaller railyard worth $100 million less than originally promised. A diminished temporary yard could persist  more than twice as long as originally planned.

Scenes from Seventh Heaven Street Fair

Michael Cunningham & Jim Shephard Electrify New Brooklyn Lit Mag

So I ran into Scott Lindenbaum, one of the co-publishers of the newly launched Electric Literature No. 1.  On sale now at the Community Bookstore and elsewhere in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the first issue features fiction by Michael Cunningham and Jim Shepard

Some of you may know Scott because he used to work at the Community Bookstore. He got his MFA from Brooklyn College and is now teaching some interesting course over there.

What's neat about the publishers of Electric Literature is that they're strangely optimistic about literary publishing,

That's because they've got a multi-platform approach. Electric Literature No. 1 is "streamlined for all mediums: you can read it as a DRM-free e-book, wirelessly download for your Kindle, pop open on your iPhone on the way to work, or simply slip into your back pocket as a paperback.

Wow.

And what a line-up of good writing. Electric Literature’s Summer 2009 debut anthology features the first published excerpt from the forthcoming novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (The Hours, Specimen Days).

The issue also showcases new fiction by some of America's most innovative and important contemporary writers, including Jim Shepard, T Cooper, Lydia Millet, and Diana Wagman.

Stay tuned for a video blurb about Electric Literature No. 1.

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Paul Auster Inducted Into Brooklyn Botanic Celebrity Path

Do you know the celebrity path in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

Since 1985, more than 160 Brooklyn notables, including Walt Whitman, Jackie Gleason, Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Norman Mailer and Gil Hodges, have had their names embedded in an 18-inch by 24-inch concrete paver and decorated with a stylized leaf outline cast in bronze. Each paver also contains a bronze medallion of the Brooklyn Bridge , encircled by the phrase, “The Greatness of Brooklyn Is Its People.”

I think Paul Auster was pleased: “I've lived in Brooklyn for the better part of my adult life and it’s nice to know that this paver will be sitting in the Botanic Garden long after I’m gone,” said Auster.

Moe, Curly and Shemp Howard, also known as The Three Stooges and former borough president Howard Golden were also inducted.

Brooklyn Docs at Dweck Center Tonight: Streisand, Librarians, Trinidad

Curator Aziz Rahman, director of the Brooklyn Film and Arts Festival, just called to tell me about his new series called "Brooklyn in Film." Great topic, don't you think? Tonight is the first event at 7 p.m. at the Brooklyn Public Library (central branch) in our all time favorite space, the Dweck Center.

This will be an ongoing series presented by the  Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Collection Department. The program is titled “Brooklyn in Film” and all screenings are at the Brooklyn Public Library main branch at Grand Army Plaza.

These remarkably compelling films have been selected by Aziz Rahman, director of the Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival from the BPL’s own Brooklyn Collection. The Brooklyn documentaries being screened vividly convey Brooklyn’s uniquely complex and vibrant cultural heritage through several decades, ranging from the 1960’s to 1980’s.

When:  Wednesday, June 24th, 2009, at 7:00pm – 8:45 pm.
Where:  Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture Brooklyn Public Library main branch at Grand Army Plaza

Trinidad in Brooklyn   -  (1985)   Experimental film shot by Sol Rubin in a hypnotic style documents the fervor of the Caribbean Day Parade in Crown Heights interspersing joyous celebrants, enthralled observers, local Hasidim and intermingled communities taking in the festivities.

Who Grows in Brooklyn  - (1969) Follows a bookmobile and the dedicated librarians who bring books to the inner city. Shows people of all ages using the bookmobile and becoming knowledgeable about the Brooklyn Public Library system.

Incident on Wilson Street  - (1964)  A special education teacher, Pegi Gorelick at P.S. 16 in Brooklyn and her fifth-grade students face a crisis when one of the students, a girl, assaults another teacher. The girl, who has a cleft palate, is often hurt by cruel remarks by other children. The story involves parents, teachers, and students as they gain an understanding of the causes of the crisis, and work to improve the situation.

 I Remember Barbara -  (1981) Director Kevin Burns  connects with Brooklynites of all stripes as they weigh-in on the legendary Barbra Streisand they once knew. Opinionated hairdressers, former schoolmates, music aficionados, beachgoers, cops, look-alikes, and others analyze and speculate about Barbra, and the influence of her Brooklyn roots on her persona.

Tidbits: City Council Candidates (Petitions, David, Brad, Doug and Evan)

You've probably seen volunteers all over Brooklyn (and Manhattan) with their brown clip boards and green petitions. 

Green candidate David Pechefsky (in the 39th district) was at Seventh Heaven on Sunday in his new green campaign t-shirt that has a hysterically funny illustration of him on the front. If you want to sign the Pechefsky's petition you'll have to wait for July 1. The Greens have to get a minimum of 2,500 names on their petitions, unlike the Dems and the Repubs who only need 900. If you would like to see Pechefsky's name on the ballot in November, here's what he thinks you should do: "In June when the Democratic candidates are collecting signatures, DO NOT SIGN their petition because the rules state that you can only sign the petition of ONE candidate!

Pechefsky is just back from two weeks doing consulting work in Nepal and Liberia. His assignment was to help strengthen the effectiveness of the national legislatures in those countries in their role in the annual government budget process.

Brad Lander, one of the 39ers, sent word that he is joining with a group of parent leaders from schools in Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Windsor Terrace will join together to highlight their efforts to make schools more sustainable, healthy places. It's at the Old Stone House on Thursday June 25th at 11 am. The group plans to call ont he DOE to adopt the following polices: Ban Styrofoam in the schools; Dramatically improve recycling; Get the junk food out; Support innovative efforts by students, parents, educators, and staff. The Old Stone House in on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.

Doug Biviano, one of the 33's, wants people to help him celebrate the end of the schoo year on  Friday, June 26th from 6:00 - 9:00 PM, at 89 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights (at the corner of Hicks St. and just a couple blocks from the beautiful Brooklyn Heights Promenade).  For a suggested donation of $10 come have some wine and hors d'oeuvres.

Jo Anne Simon, also one of the 33's, wants neighbors, who care about children with special needs, to sign COPAA's petition in support of the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act (H.R. 2740), a bill that would permit parents who prevail in due process and litigation to recover their expert witness fees. Few parents can afford the high cost of paying technical, medical, and other expert witnesses themselves; by contrast, school districts can use taxpayer dollar to pay for experts or use staff on their payroll. In 2006, the Supreme Court decided that parents could not be reimbursed for expert witness fees in Arlington Central School District v. Murphy. The Murphy decision has made the playing field unlevel and unjust for parents who are forced to pursue due process. H.R. 2740 will override this decision.

Tonight, Wednesday, June 24 at 7 p.m., Williamsburg residents will be joining together to help campaign, and organize in their neighborhood for Evan Thies, one of the 33's, at 187 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn

  

Greetings from Scott Turner: The Lessness of Senses

Here's the latest from our man in Red Hook, Scott Turner. Did I forget about you last week? Huge apologies to the quizmaster over at Rocky Sullivans. And did I mention, Scott Turner's column is sponsored by Miss Wit, maker of groovy t-shirts.

Greetings Pub Quiz Straphanger Renegotiation Combine...

On the first day of summer, which was also Father's Day this year, Google ran this cruel, taunting, graphic above their search-box:

No matter your start-date for summer -- the societal Memorial Day Weekend or the scientific June 21st -- this was supposed to be an oft-repeated tableau by now.

Instead, we've gotten a steady diet of this:

It's been so bad that they were squeegeeing putting greens at the U.S. Open out on Long Island.

I know the faithful at Bethpage Black were stressing something fierce.  Golf with squeegees.  What is  the world coming to?

Well, in Brooklyn it's coming to this: Bruce Ratner is really broke.  Or really arrogant.  I'm going with both.  Normally, you'd beat up a big shot with those two things. 

The MTA?  It's using 'em to beat itself senseless.

The lessness of senses covers the unbelievable sweetheart deal Ratner has conned the MTA's Finance Committee into giving him. For the rail yards Ratner desperately needs to build the Atlantic Yards project, the MTA now says he can pay taxpayers less, build less, and take forever on both counts.  This comes at the same time Ratner's lobbying for more tax breaks, tax-free bonds and direct subsidies.

...for a project that won't provide appreciable, if any, affordable apartments or newly-created jobs.

Ratner: "Listen, I'm really attracted to your daughter, Brooklyn.  Yes, I have beaten her, cheated on her, cleaned out her bank account, demolished her self-image, driven away suitors who truly love and respect her, and over the past five years lied, cajoled, exaggerated, broken promises, taunted and abused her."

MTA: "Well, yes son.  You're a fine young man.  Listen, we'll cover the cost of the wedding.  Run along, now, that pretty little thing's making a fierce racket."

MTA Chair Dale Hermmerdinger (r.), who busied himself with his Blackberry during DDDB's Dan Goldstein's presentation before the MTA board this week.  A real people's man, that Dale...

I'm amused these days thinking about a remark someone made at Rocky's a couple of months ago.  Things weren't going well for Bruce Ratner.  Community opposition, the crashing economy and Ratner's own incompetence had brought the Atlantic Yards project to a halt.  Hadn't killed it, mind you, but halted it was.

Noticing my Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn badge, a gentleman said "C'mon, man, whattya want?  The project's dead. You want his head on a pike, too?"

Only if it would end the madness that is the Atlantic Yards project.  Once and for all.  But Bruce Ratner, the zombie who doesn't know he's dead, just keeps coming and keeps coming, so selfish and self-absorbed is he.  And that's why the project's not packing the moving van for Kaputsville.

Mr. Beg Borrow and Steal himself -- life's easier without a sense of shame.

As it stands, the MTA -- the same one always threatening to cut subway and bus routes, services, repairs and new capital projects -- is feeling so flush and happy that it's letting Bruce Ratner pay $20 million for a property the MTA had originally valued at $214 million.

For a property that another developer offered $150 million for when Ratner was offering only $50.

For a property that currently has ten tracks and Ratner's design will leave a growing system with only seven.

For a property that Ratner will be allowed to pay off during the next twenty-two years as fare hikes jump and services get cut, so warns the same MTA honchos bending over backwards to accommodate Bruce.

Why do we stand for this?  Why do you?  Why do I?

Seriously.  It's never been legit to say "hey, I don't live anywhere near where this is being built.  It won't affect me."  An estimated $2 billion in taxpayer money being handed to Ratner says otherwise.  So does the MTA's budget gap -- or as the MTA's point person on this mess, Gary Dellaverson calls it, "a mismatch of receipts."

Gary Dellaverson -- smashing unions or smashing Brooklyn, it's all the same to him.

Other people in the world get super-duper loud when things go badly (see Iran, elections, ruh-roh!!).  There's no comparing the fight against Atlantic Yards to the fight for democracy in Iran, so relax, I'm not.

It'd be awfully swell, though, if straphangers just jumped the turnstiles en-masse and said "you know, MTA, your service hasn't been so good, lately.  I'm just re-negotiating my subway fare.  Just like Bruce Ratner did with you.  You understand, right?"

The tireless, smart folks at both NoLandGrab and AtlanticYardsReport make a good point: Ratner really frakkin' needs that rail yard.  The MTA doesn't need jack from Ratner.  So how come it's Ratner whose calling all the shots?

To quote Firefly's disturbed but prescient bounty hunter Jubal Early, "does that seem right to you?"

No...I didn't think so.  Me neither.

Jubal Early -- fictional, but still asking the right questions

It gets better.  According to today's Reuters:

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed selling $600 million of notes, its first short-term borrowing since the 1990s, according to agency officials at a Monday finance committee meeting.

The sale, if approved by the full board, would be underwritten by Barclays.

The debt would be repaid by some of the state tax revenue that the mass transit agency, the nation's biggest, shares in. That money mainly is paid to the MTA in December. The notes also would be backed by new taxes the state approved for the MTA, including a tax on the payrolls of local employers.

To review -- the MTA, while letting Ratner screw them, is employing cash-raising desperation measures not seen in twenty years. These fast-and-sloppy measures are being funded by Barclays, the same former slave-trade and apartheid enablers who are paying Ratner $400 million to put their name on now-Gehryless Nets arena.  And the MTA would pay off their debt to Barclays by dipping into state tax revenue meant to help the MTA operate.

Barclays helps out an MTA destitute in part because Ratner is stiffing it though he has plenty of money on the table from...wait for it...Barclays.

Who's outraged by this?  A lot of New Yorkers, actually.  One of 'em is Queens Council member Tony Avella, the guy the Democrats should be uniting behind to run against Mayor Bloomberg this fall.  Avella's campaign released this late today:

AVELLA CALLS FOR ATLANTIC YARDS PROJECT TO BE SCRAPPED

The MTA today announced that Bruce Ratner, the developer of the controversial Atlantic Yards project, will be allowed to defer $80 million of the $100 million total he has agreed to pay for the site. The final installments will not be paid until 2031. The MTA board members who will meet tomorrow to vote on the revised agreement were given only 48 hours to review the complex documents.

photo by Tracy Collins

“It only points out how this project should never have been approved in the first place,” said Council Member and Mayoral candidate Tony Avella. “It's time to kill this monster once and for all.”

“This project would tear the fabric of Brooklyn for many generations to come,” Avella said. “It must be stopped.”

Time to start talking re-negotiation, fellow straphangers.  Time to start talkin...

39 Volunteers from Ohio Begin Restoration of Historic Brooklyn Church

Park Slope's Old First Reformed Church will begin the restoration of its historic sanctuary with the help of 39 volunteer workers, from a sister church near Columbus, Ohio. The volunteers, 30 youth and 9 adults, from New Hope Reformed Church of Powell, Ohio arrived on Saturday, June 20, and will stay at the church for the week, where they will sleep, eat, and work, work, work on the restoration. They will also have some free time to enjoy the neighborhood.

Designed by George L. Morse, the large, gothic revival structure of Old First, was dedicated in 1891. The interior decoration is considered one of the finest examples of arts and craft design in the United States. Currently the renovation plan is to do some interior painting. Pastor Meeter with committee members, worked with local interior designer and church member, Elaine Beery, to select the colors. Ms. Beery researched historical church records, and evolved a plan to restore the walls to their original color and palette of earth related, Florentine tones. Paint hues of these exact colors still exist in historic collections by modern paint manufacturers and an exact matching has been achieved. We thank the group from Ohio for donating their time and donating the paint!

Through the Reformed Church’s Project Samuel, volunteer groups work both on church renovations and in shelters, soup kitchens, and mission projects. The Ohio group's first trip to Old First was in 2005. Two groups from Illinois have helped us, one from Minnesota, one from Ontario, and a group from Wisconsin made two trips, and renovated the church's majestic thirty-foot chandelier last year.

The massive structure is offered back to the community as a spiritual sanctuary for every person, and for hospitality for the arts. The community is invited to stop by the church and watch the renovation in progress this week. Those who have already visited have been amazed at the vaulted ceiling, coffered with intricate flocked stenciling and gold fleur de lis. Among the treasured stained glass windows, are two made by the Tiffany Studios. Come see and say hello to our volunteers.

Today on Breakfast of Candidates (33rd Edition): Stephen Levin

Today Stephen Levin faces OTBKB's coffee cup. A major in classics at Brown Univeristy, Levin has wonky good looks and a boyish, disarming manner. His father's cousins are Michigan's Senator Carl Levin and Congressman Sander Levin and he's Vito Lopez's chief of staff. Lopez, who is often portrayed as a Darth Vader figure in Brooklyn politics taught the 29-year-old Levin about "knocking on doors, talking to as many people as possible, the importance of having a command of the issues, and having empathy for the people," Levin told me. A pragmatist, Levin believes that for for every problem there is a solution that is not readily apparent."

And in case you missed these from the 33rd:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Doug Biviano. Expect the unexpected from Biviano. A civil engineer with degrees from Cornell University,  Biviano works as a superintendent in Brooklyn Heights apartment building and as New York State Coordinator for presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, whose politics of peace are a strong influence. Biviano has lived the skiers life in Colorado and sailed the Inter-Coastal Highway with his wife installing solar panels on a boat he barely knew how to sail.

Breakfast of Candidates: Jo Anne Simon.  Her career trajectory from teacher of the deaf to disability rights attorney will make you feel like a slacker  and wonder how she had time to become such a strong voice in her community and the female Democratic District Leader and State Committeewoman for the 52nd Assembly District. A proponent of the art of listening, she believes that there's a place for all viewpoints at the table and that "someone who is elected to office can work with everyone."

Breakfast-of Candidates; Evan Thies. A former aide to City Council Member David Yassky, Thies also worked in Hillary Clinton's upstate senate office and for Andrew Cuomo. Raised in New Hampshire, public service was the family business and his grandmother, Mary Mongron, was appointed by NH governor John Sununu to be New Hampshire's Commissioner of Health and Human Services. Struck as a child with Fibromatosis, a chronic disease, he was homeschooled during the worst of his illness. When he was 11, he and his mother wrote and passed a bill about his disease. Evan studied his twin interests, political science and journalism, at Syracuse University but knew that he was called to public service like his grandmother.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Diamondstone: A lover of diner food, Diamondstone runs an affordable housing business with an emphasis on "nice spaces for low prices." He could have made a killing in the real estate biz but instead stuck to his principles. Affordable housing is clearly Diamondstone's passion and through his business he has been able to translate ideals into action. He is also a member of three local Democratic clubs and an early opponent of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. For Diamondstone, who is openly gay and lives with his longtime partner, Joe, the rights of the LGBT commuity is high on his list of priorities. But so is the environment. As chair of the Brooklyn Solid Waste Council he was involved with the Zero Waste Coalition and passage of NYPIRG's Bigger, Better, Bottle Bill.

And here are the 39ers:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Gary Reilly. At 34 he's not quite the youngest of the candidates (John Heyer beats him on that score) but he's plenty wet behind the ears and full of enthusiasm about public transportation and other issues that affect voters.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Bob Zuckerman. A long-time politico, Bob is currently executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and  Gowanus Canal Conservancy.  He remembers the night Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 (he was 7-years-old) and one of his heroes is Harvey Milk.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Brad Lander, The intellectual of the group, Brad has two master's degrees and a BA from the University of Chicago. He made his mark running community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and Pratt Center for Community Development, advocating for affordable housing and community sustainablility.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Josh  Skaller. A former computer music composer at Harvard, it was Howard Dean's presidential campaign that jumpstarted his interest in electoral politics. As president of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, he learned to facilitiate dialogue  and manage strong personalities. Running on a community empowerment platform with a strong interest in the environment and smart development, Josh is proud to be refusing donations from  real estate developers.

Breakfast of Candidates: John Heyer: An assistant to Borough President Marty Markowitz, Heyer is the only candidate for City Council born in the 39th district. A fifth-generation Carroll Gardener, his twin passions are politics and theology. He works as a funeral director at Scotto's Funeral home and his knowledge of the history of the neighborhood runs deep though he is only 27 years old.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: David Pechefsky. The Green Candidate, Pechefsky worked for 10 years in the central staff of the New York City Council. With a master's degree in public policy and experience advising local governments in Africa, Pechefsky knows how the City Council works from the inside out and has ideas about how it could better serve the people of New York City.