Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Tom Martinez, Witness: Bloomberg Arm Wrestles Female Champ

Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a surprise campaign appearance at the New York Arm Wrestling Association's outdoor competition in southern Brooklyn near Coney Island.  Here he is engaged in a mock battle with the women's champion, Joyce Boone.  The women standing in pink (Pascal, from Queens) was defeated in an earlier round. 

Photo: Tom Martinez

OTBKB Music: John Forgerty at The Seaport for Free

I'm giving you a few days notice on this.  John Fogerty, who usually plays arenas for big bucks will be playing Pier 17 at The South Street Seaport for free this coming Wednesday, September 2, at 7pm.

As you probably know, John was the leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival back then, and has also written one of the best ever songs about baseball, Centerfield.  He has a new country tinged album due out tomorrow, with the grammatically incorrect title of The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.  I've had a chance to listen to that album and it's flat out a lot of fun.

That album consists mostly of covers, with only one Forgerty song.  Among the songs are Rick Nelson's Garden Party (with Don Hendley and Timothy B. Schmidt of the Eagles) and When Will I Be Loved with Bruce Springsteen singing backup.

While I doubt Bruce will show (although you never know with him), plenty of other of your fellow New Yorkers will probably crowd onto Pier 17, so if you are planning to go see John, get there early.

John Fogerty, Pier 17 at The South Street Seaport, A or C Trains to Broadway-Nassau or 2 or 3 Trains to Fulton Street (exit at Fulton Street and walk east to Pier 17), 7pm, free.

 --Eliot Wagner

Tom Martinez, Witness: Bloomberg Arm Wrestles

Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the New York Arm Wrestling Association's outdoor contest with men's all around champion, Giorgi Gelashvili.   
Photo: Tom Martinez

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Damn Scamn

             DAMN SCAMN

I dreamed I'd suddenly grown old    
--Ancient, wrinkled,  hoary--             
And woke with a rotten feeling       
I'd been caught in a horror story.    

To reassure myself all's well                 
And merely had had a bad night ,                 
I looked in the mirror and spotted a plot--  
Someone colored my hair white! 

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

The Current Weather in Park Slope

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

Care Bear on Fires on Letterman!

I missed it because we were flying home from California. I just watched the You Tube video of the girls on David Letterman on Wednesday night and they really rocked performing their great song “(Don’t Want to Be Like) Everybody Else” from the new CD, “Get Over It.”

You gotta watch the video. It was the TV premiere of this band which is made up of two 14-year old girls from Park Slope and one girl (the new member of the band) from Manhattan.

Today is My Birthday!

And my sister's, too.

OTBKB Music: Saturday Night at The Rockwood Music Hall

A good place to hide out from the rain on Saturday would be The Rockwood Music Hall over on the Lower East Side.  It has a pretty good line up from 9 pm to 2 am.

9pm: Sasha Dobson: An OTBKB Music favorite, Sasha will be playing will a full band.  No doubt she will be playing songs from her upcoming EP, now scheduled for release in October. Mostly mid tempo rock with inventive, jazz-inspired vocals and some tasty guitar work.

10 pm: Fionn O Lochlainn: Fionn is a mostly acoustic singer songwriter with wonderful vocals.

11pm: Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds: A blues based rock band.  Pierre over at The Gigometer recommends their live show highly (I've heard them but not yet seen them).

Midnight to 2am: Brooklyn Bugaloo Blowout: A band with a floating memebership.  Tonight's edition includes Leah Siegel, Chris Cheek, Bill Sims Jr., Andrew Sherman, Tony Mason and Tim Luntzel.  Their songs include I Got Loaded and The Fkin'g Knicks.  As their Myspace says, "it should be a party."

The Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St. (F Train to Second Avenue, take the First Avenue exit, cross Allen St. and walk 1/2 block south).

 --Eliot Wagner

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Recession Bonus

            Recession Bonus

"Landlords" are gone, replaced by "owners."
"To Let" signs too, "For Rent."
Language changes with the times
So words don't mean what they meant.

Different too are available flats,
Once exceedingly rare;
Now apartments can be found
Just about anywhere.

All About Fifth: Interview with Stone Park Cafe's Josh Grinker

All About Fifth , the Fifth Avenue BID blog, has an interview with Stone Park Cafe chef and co-owner Josh Grinker about seasonal cuisines, challenging wines and more. Interviewer Rebeccah Welch asked Grinker: What are the greatest challenges and rewards of being a small business owner?

Grinker: I will give you a short answer to what I see as a very complicated problem. The system is not set up to support small businesses, despite what the politicians say to the media. The tax system is screwy, insurance is a nightmare and there is a maze of local agencies that make doing business very difficult. Both locally and on a Federal level there are inherent policies that if properly enforced would drive virtually all small business owners in this city out of business. This is a problem, because it means as a business owner you live with constant insecurity. Who knows when a Department of Labor officer will show up at your door and start harassing your employees or a Department of Sanitation officer will cite you for having some windswept papers at your doorstep. Immigration is another huge hurdle. I was a student of labor history in my younger years and owning a small business and employing and being basically responsible for the livelihoods of twenty five people has totally changed my perspective on the issues of advocacy. Advocates and bureaucrats have no idea what they are doing or how their actions impact the economy and ultimately people’s lives.

Read the rest of the interview here

Late Start: We Took the Red Eye From Oakland

The red eye just slays you if you don't sleep a wink on the plane...

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

I Finished Amy Sohn's Prospect Park West

I read the entire 379 pages of Prospect Park West, Amy Sohn's roman a clef about Park Slope moms, yesterday by the pool in California.

It's a quick read that's for sure. Especially if you're intimately acquainted with all the people and places Sohn satirizes in the book.

Is it insulting to Park Slope moms? You bet.

Is it mean spirited?  You bet. At times gratuitously so. I lost count of the number of times she referred to the woman of Park Slope as fat, ugly and uninteresting. 

Is the book insulting to Jennifer Connelly? Not really. Sohn takes major poetic license with the character I thought was based on Jennifer Connelly. Melora Leigh is definitely not the smart, talented, Brooklyn-born Connelly at all. Sure there are some bits of Jennifer's bio in there (yes, she is married to a handsome, tall Austrailian actor and she lived in a PPW mansion, etc) but maybe Simon and Schuster's lawyer scared Sohn and her editors into making up the character out of whole cloth. Hey, Sohn had to use her imagination.

Is it truthful? The book is filled with cliches about the Bugaboo culture in Park Slope and the parents that live there. And you know what they say about cliches...

In my Smartmom columns, I have written about just about everything Sohn covers in the novel: envy and obsession with neighborhood celebrities and real estate; sexless marriages; the way that moms give over their power to their children; the tendency for women to go frumpy after childbirth; the thinly veiled racism that accompanies the obsession with certain schools;  the zany culture of the Food Coop and on and on.

Prospect Park West is chock full of real people, places and things (restaurants, playgrounds, Park Slope Parents, schools, etc.) about Park Slope and that makes it a fun read. The book works as well as it does because Sohn grounds it in an accurate and up-to-date Park Slope landscape (it's Park Slope circa Fall 2008).

Truth is stranger than fiction and you don't have to make this stuff up. It really exists.

Is it insightful? Sohn's portrayal of Rebecca Rose does contain some insights and psychological truths about a not very likable, non-maternal stroller mom with iffy parenting skills, who feels smarter, sexier and prettier than all the other moms in Park Slope.

How about the celebrity character, Melora Leigh? To me, she was the weakest and most superficial character in the book. She not really Jennifer Connelly at all. More like Brittany Spears and every other celeb who's had a public meltdown. Frankly, I just wasn't that interested in the faux and real celebrity name dropping, the made up movie titles and plots, and the US Magazine crap.

How about Lizzie (the former lesbian or "hasbian")? She's probably one of the most likable (?) characters in the book, though Sohn takes her through a weird—and out of character—sexcapade that includes a meet-up at The Gate with a couple of swingers, who happen to be the only good looking couple in Park Slope. Turns out they're really dumb and boring. Rebecca and Lizzie's brief sexual encounter is also turned into cliche fodder when Rebecca fears that the "needy" Lizzie will enact a "Single, White Female" scenario.

And Karen, the frumpy Park Slope mom? We all know many like Karen and Sohn writes good and nasty about this pathetic, unattractive supermom who is obsessed with buying a coop and getting her kid into PS 321. Karen ultimately morphs into a really scary psycho who is obsessed with the local celebrity.

How about the stuff about the Food Coop? Sohn does a great job satirizing the Food Coop (called the Prospect Park Food Coop in the book) by painting a truer than true (and only slightly amped up) portrait of what goes on in there, including a great take-off on the Linewaiter's Gazette.

How's the story? The plot, which strains credulity, reads like it was written to be a movie or a TV show. In fact, there are so many episodes in this silly narrative, the TV writers should be set for quite a while. 

Is it exasperating? You bet.

--Painting an entire neighborhood in broad, unflattering strokes is, well, a little nasty.

--Leaving out everything that is positive about Park Slope and its own culture of self-criticism and satire is a bit disingenuous. Saying that no-one in Park Slope makes fun of sanctimonious motherhood is pure nonsense. What about the Edgy Mother's Day readings that Sohn herself has helped to curate for two years? And are those moms ugly and frumpy? I don't think so.

--An OTBKB reader already wrote in to say that "It was like looking at a train wreck and after a while, complete with all the tacky racism tossed in for effect, it just made one disgusted."

--The book is a tad superficial unless you think that wearing Marc Jacobs and your prowess giving blow jobs is a true measure of your worth as a person.

So What Did I Like? 

--Sohn exposes some of the crazier examples of Park Slope parenting and highlights the "New Victorians," the current generation of parents who are like "factory workers on the same assembly line, watching the clock and thinking, Only eighteen years to go."  

--I liked all the references to "iconic" 1970's movies like The Stepford Wives, Klute, Coming Home, Blume in Love and The Tenant.

--The first chapter in which Rebecca mastrubates using a Babeland egg vibrator (good product placement) is well done. The moms kissing over white wine during a play date was also a nice touch. 

--I think Sohn puts to bed the notion that sexless marriages are always a woman's fault. Probably the biggest insight in the book is that men, after fatherhood, become less interested in sex. And it's not because their wives are a turnoff. It's because the pressures they face at work and home are a buzz kill. Theo, probably the most interesting character in the book, is an adoring father (and better at parenting than his wife). He loses interest in his wife sexually because she doesn't share his interest in parenthood.

"Rebecca saw what she'd been doing wrong all the time: She had been trying to go through the front door when he wanted to be appraoched from the side. He needed to be approached through the door marked Father becuase the one marked Husband was locked.

"...In so many ways, their relationship since Abbie's birth had been gender-reversed; he wanted her to touch him more, while she wanted him to have sex with her. It had never occurred to her that there might a a through line between touching him and sleeping with him. She had been so angry with him for witholding sex that she never felt affectionate enough to kiss him lovingly."

So Did I Like the Book?   I haven't decided yet. Stay tuned while I mull. But in the meantime I am wondering what the reaction in Park Slope is going to be. 

Park Slope Branch Library to Close for Renovations!

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Park Slope’s  public library branch will shut down this fall — perhaps for a year or more — while the city renovates the building to make it more accessible to the disabled.

The branch, located at Sixth Avenue and Ninth Street, is an important resource for the neighborhood and akin to an after school homework and reading center for local kids.

I wonder where the kids from local schools will go after school?

City officials said the project has a two-year maximum timeline. A contractor has already been hired for the $2-million renovation said the Brooklyn Paper. 

OTBKB Music: Norah Jones Moves Over to Guitar

As Yogi Berra once said, "you can observe a lot just by watching."  Over the past year, I saw a couple of Norah Jones (a Brooklyn resident once again) gigs with a mostly country covers band with Norah playing lead guitar.  What I've noticed over that time is how much Norah has progressed in her guitar playing.  And what kept running through my mind was "I'll bet that Norah's next album has her playing guitar and not piano."  Idle speculation, sure, but that's what I kept thinking.

Well, it's no longer idle speculation.  A recent press release confirms it: "Another noticeable change on Jones’ upcoming album is that she plays mostly guitar. 'I actually write more on guitar than I do on piano,' she says. 'It just felt more natural for me to play it on these songs.'   And, of course, Norah's new publicity photo (seen here on the left) has her holding a guitar, though not her usual candy apple red Fender Mustang.

Also interesting are Nora colaborators on this project: writers Jesse Harris (who wrote five of the songs on Come Away With Me), Ryan Adams and Okkervil River's Will Sheff, as well as producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits and Modest Mouse), and musicians Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.), James Gadson (Bill Withers), James Poyser (Erykah Badu, Al Green), Brooklyn's own Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) and Smokey Hormel (Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer).

The album is scheduled to drop in about two months.  We'll see what Norah has up her sleeve then.

 --Eliot Wagner

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

I Am Reading Amy Sohn's Prospect Park West

It arrived by Fed Ex this morning on the farm. You can't imagine a more out-of-context place to read Sohn's roman a clef about the mommy life in Park Slope.

Or maybe's it's not a roman a clef. More like a dramady/satire about Park Slope moms of many stripes, including a character more than loosely based on Jennifer Connelly, a character more than loosely based on Amy Sohn....

There's mommy mastrubation, mommy-to-mommy tongue kissing while drinking wine (with the kids in the other room) and a crush on a celebrity co-worker at the Food Coop.

Sound like fun? Stay tuned...

I Finally Read Sentimental Education...

...and the novel by Gustav Flaubert, the story of a law student in Paris, who is infatuated with an older married woman, is now on my top ten list of great books.

In 1864, while writing Sentimental Education, his last novel, Gustave Flaubert wrote:

 "I want to write the moral history of the men of my generation-- or, more accurately, the history of their feelings. It's a book about love, about passion; but passion such as can exist nowadays-- that is to say, inactive."

And remember Woody Allen's narration in Manhattan? Sentimental Education is the only book he mentions in his list of things that make life worth living:

"Well, all right, why is life worth living? That's a very good question. Well, there are certain things, I guess, that make it worthwhile. Uh, like what? Okay. Um, for me... oh, I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... um... and Willie Mays, and, um, the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony, and um... Louis Armstrong's recording of 'Potatohead Blues', ...um, Swedish movies, naturally... 'Sentimental Education' by Flaubert... Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra... um, those incredible apples and pears by Cezanne,  ...the crabs at Sam Wo's... Tracy's face..."

Here is a passage from the book that I loved.

"Besides, she was approaching the August of a woman's life, a period which combines reflection and tenderness, when the maturity which is beginning kindles a warmer flame in the eyes, when strength of heart mingles with experience of life, and when, in the fullness of its development, the whole being overflows with a wealth of harmony and beauty. She had never been gentler or more indulgent. Sure that she was not going to falter, she gave herself up to a feeling which struck her as a right she had earned by her sorrows."

There are many great passages in this book, which is a sweeping blend of love story, history and satire.

Bloomberg: Bring Back Gehry Design to Atlantic Yards

In a one-hour interview with the Brooklyn Paper and other representatives of the Community Newspaper Group, Mayor Mike Bloomberg discussed a wide variety of Brooklyn topics including his preference for Frank Gehry as the Atlantic Yards architect, the rezoning of Coney Island and more.

“If there’s any way Ratner can possibly do it, he should use the Gehry design, because he will get great events from around the world going directly to Brooklyn,” the mayor told a team of reporters and editors from the Community Newspaper Group, the parent company of The Brooklyn Paper. “Simon and Garfunkel on their tour would go to Brooklyn in a second before they go to Madison Square Garden. They’re New Yorkers.”

Now There Are Two: Vietnamese Sandwich Shops on 7th Avenue

The one that came first is called Hanco's and it's located in the old Tea Lounge spot on Seventh Avenue and 10th Street. The other is called Henry's and it's located in the old Slope Suds spot on Seventh Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets.

Both, apparently, serve delicious Vietnamese sandwiches. The Brooklyn Paper does a compare and contrast. There's also a bit of controversy because the owner of Henry's used to work at Hanco's. He's being accused (by the owner of Hanco's) of stealing the secret recipe.

I tried a sandwich and a bubble tea at Hanco's a few months ago and thought it was delicious!

Christie's Leases Warehouse in Red Hook For Van Goghs, Monets and Picassos

The New York Times' reports that Christie's a tony Manhattan auction house is leasing a loft building in Red Hook and turning it into "an enormous, high-tech warehouse with security worthy of James Bond, all to protect the multimillion-dollar artworks, manuscripts, furniture and even rare cars that Christie’s, the upscale auction house, plans to store on the docks."

The People Theater Company From Purchase: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

A group of students from Purchase College School of the Arts spent their summer in Times Square producing and rehearsing August Wilson’s play “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at the Sage Theater in the heart of Broadway.

Two of the students in the show, Caliaf St. Aubyn and Marcus Callender, are Brooklyn residents (Flatbush and Brownsville, respectively).

The cast and crew headed by director Tabitha Holbert call themselves The People Theatre Company and are drawn from the talent pool of actors and design tech students at Purchase College.

They’ve raised their own funds and pooled their resources to put on this show at the Sage Theater on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan. Performances are on August 21, 22 & August 28, 29 at 8 PM.  Tickets are $20, $15 with a student ID.

The Sage Theatre is located at 711 Seventh Avenue, 2nd floor (Between 47th & 48th Streets).  For tickets: Call 603-568-4737or visit www.smarttix.com

Richard Grayson: Trying To Get Into Caribbean Night at Wingate Field

by Richard Grayson: Although we'd read online that on the advice of doctors, an ill Sean Paul had pulled out of his appearance at the Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series tonight, we figured that would make Wingate Field easier to get into. Caribbean Night was supposed to go on with the replacement headliner, Machel Montato.

But along with hundreds of other people, we wandered around the area surrounding Wingate Field, unable to get in.

We got there around 7:45 p.m., walking up Winthrop Street from the subway on Nostrand Avenue. The usual hawkers of bottled drinks, food, CDs, etc., lined the nearby street, and we were prepared for the usual entrance to Wingate Field, but police officers had gated off the street and told us we had to enter a block north.

View Larger Map
Thinking that was strange, a group of us went up New York Avenue to Hawthorne Street, but cops had blocked that off too. Go one more block north to gain entrance to the field, they told us.

Okay, we thought, Wingate Field goes four blocks north of Winthrop, but the bleachers are on the west side and we didn't recall an entrance there. Perhaps we were remembering it wrong. So we walked another block to Fenimore Street, where a group of us were told we would have to go to East New York Avenue to get in.

That seemed very odd. East New York Avenue was another four blocks north, and two blocks north of Wingate Field's north side at Rutland Road.

We just followed everyone else who looked as if they were going to the concert. At each street, the road was blocked off, cops were checking the IDs of people who said they lived on the block and letting them in if they could prove it, and other cops were waving us north.

But at Maple Street, we saw the cops open the gate a block south of East New York Avenue, and a crowd of us went in. As we walked across, we discovered a mid-block little courtyard, a street really, only totally paved, called Miami Court, where neat little houses faced each other, and then two more, Tampa Court and Palm Court.

The indispensible blog Forgotten NY's feature "Lanes of Mid-Brooklyn" says:

These are three tiny pedestrian alleys that were constructed as part of a building project a few decades ago. They are lined with attached two-story units between Maple and Midwood Streets east of New York Avenue . . .

Anyway, we ended up on the corner of Midwood Street and Brooklyn Avenue, and it was still blocked off. People were getting annoyed, and there were a lot of them. When people asked, they were told Wingate Field was already full and we wouldn't be allowed in until people left.

We asked a cop frankly if he thought it would be just easier for us to go home. "Yeah," he said, so we walked back west, assuming we'd go to Nostrand and back down four blocks to the Winthrop Street station.

But at New York Avenue we saw crowds coming north, and they looked as if they were going to the concert. Most everyone we saw knew that Sean Paul wasn't performing and still wanted to go in for Caribbean Night. At every street - Rutland Road, Fenimore, Hawthorne - cops were still directing people north.

At the corner of Winthrop Street and New York Avenue, we spoke to three young women who'd been in Wingate Field. "It's not full," they told us. "It's like half empty, way less crowded than usual."

So we wondered what was up. We'd seen maybe 300, maybe 400 or more people trying to get in. Had they canceled the concert? It wasn't clear. So we just got on the subway - and yes, an officer was giving a young man a summons as we entered - and returned to Williamsburg.

It was all a blur, but we're grateful for the extra exercise and a chance to see more of the neighborhood, we guess. We would like to know what the deal was tonight at Wingate Field. Calling Marty Markowitz. . .

--Richard Grayson

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Restaurant Outrage

RESTAURANT OUTRAGE

My wife is married to a tightwad

--I must admit that here--

So when she ordered venison

I quaked, as venison's deer.

                        Leon Freilich

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Keep the Carroll Street Subway Station Open: Sign Petition

Here's the petition. Go here to actually sign it!

We, the undersigned, urge Chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger to stop the closure of the MTA Station Agent Booth at the President Street entrance of the Carroll Street F stop in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

The Carroll Street station is located in a densely populated area of Brooklyn, which translates to a consistently high volume of riders. Commuters and families utilize this station throughout the day. The station agents are necessary to the efficient operation of such heavily used MTA subway stops.

In light of the Culver El Viaduct Project, which will close the Smith-9th Street stop for an extended period of time, these station agents will be vital to overseeing the increased ridership at the Carroll Street stop. Furthermore, because of the safety concerns which accompany any major construction projects, having a MTA Agent on site will decrease the chances of any injuries to its ridership.

Greetings from Scott Turner: Quivery Convergence of Weirdness

Here's this week's greetings from pub quizmeister at Rocky Sullivans. He is also a graphic designer with a company called Superba Graphics.  He never told me that I just figured it out. So we might as well give credit where credit is due. This missive is brought to you, as always, by Miss Wit, the t-shirt queen of Red Hook. Check out her designs they're really FUN.

Greetings Pub Quiz Head Shakers...

Whoa!  If we'd had a devastatingly hot summer here in Brooklyn, this past week's quivery convergence of weirdness would make sense.  I guess it does, since none of this stuff happened in Brooklyn.

• A reality t.v. show dude, one Ryan Jenkins, murders his ex-wife, one Jasmine Fiore.  Cuts off her fingers and pulls out Fiore's teeth to make i.d.'ing her harder.  Authorities i.d. her anyway...by her breast-implant serial numbers.  Jenkins bolts to Canada, is checked into the Thunderbird Motel (you can picture the flickering neon sign) by a mystery woman, and hangs himself with his belt in a closet -- very David Carradine.

• The British government, via the Scottish sort-of government, releases the Lockerbie bombing mastermind.  Intensifying storm-clouds of controversy say that it was a hostage exchange for oil.  Gosh.  What government would do something that insane for oil?

• The Nymets baseball squadron continues to find new, astonishing ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Yesterday, they lose on an unassisted triple-play that ends the game -- on the second time in major-league history that's happened.

• Two companies -- one British, the other U.S. of A.-ish -- are in a jurisprudential battle to the death over who has the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell Michael Jackson hairpieces.  The British company got its start with those white wigs so popular in the UK court system and in movies about the Declaration of Independence.

• Mayor for Life Bloomberg, on his weekly radio show, pshaws criticism of the pharmaceutical industry by saying "Last time I checked, pharmaceutical companies don't make a lot of money. Their executives don't make a lot of money."  Bloomberg backpedals almost immediately, saying, in effect well, I dagnabbit, I guess they do!  Bloomie's disconnect from everyone less wealthy than he jumps to the fore once again.

• India’s rupee hits a one-week high as a worldwide rally in stocks and commodities adds to optimism a global economic recovery is gathering pace, according to this morning's media reports.  There's nothing undulatingly odd about this -- I just know none of us have paid close enough attention to the rupee lately.

• Mikka Shardai Cline, 23, of Waco, TX, and her sister try to take a soccer ball from a 13-year-old boy in a wheelchair outside of a Dallas hospital. In the struggle to get the ball, she punches the boy in the head.  No -- it gets worse.  the boy has a medical halo screwed into his skull.  According to police, that's exactly where Cline's punch lands on the boy, causing searing pain. Cline has been charged with child abuse.

• The best selling football jersey at NFL.com is...of course...Michael Vick's new Philadelphia Eagles jersey.

• And finally, from the AFP news service: "A Saudi businessman has purchased what is being described by the Canadian seller as the world's most expensive adult novelty item -- a solid 18-carat gold penis enlarger worth nearly 50,000 dollars. X4 Labs, a Canadian manufacturer of medical devices, received the unorthodox request and recruited a Montreal custom jeweler to help with its design and construction. "This male health accessory is the most expensive traction device ever produced and will likely become a historical benchmark for the adult novelty industry," the company said in a statement.   His glitzy new penis enlarger, however, is being encrusted at his request with 40 diamonds and several rubies and is to be delivered by armored car in October, said Rick Oh, X4 Labs co-owner.  Saudi law bans the import of adult sex toys, but the company insists its product is a US government-certified medical device.

[not an accurate depiction -- ed.]

So there -- nothing gripping, nothing mind-blowing...just the rich pageant of eccentricity and the little bonmots it's dropped in our lap over the last week.  Quiz-fodder?  Sure!  The fuel the March of Time runs on?  Absolutely.

A Brief Encounter With Michael Jackson (in the 1980's)

During the mid-1980s, L.B. Brown, owner of Brooklyn-based Clinton Hill Simply Art & Framing Gallery, experienced a brief encounter with Michael Jackson at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. She recalls her experience on their new blog site: http://clintonhillframe.blogspot.com.

Once his death was announced, she immediately wanted to help his fans preserve his image, legacy, and memory. As Michael Jackson's birthday approaches, L. B. Brown is extending an special offer exclusively to his admirers.

They want you to visit their blog site, read about her encounter and share your Michael Jackson experience, and save on sharing his memory with us.

Full disclosure: For any bloggers who post their Michael Jackson memory on their new blog, they will receive  a special offer of $10 off any art and framing services.

Photo of Michael Jackson sidewalk art by Tom Martinez. Prints available.

"Simply post your comment on our blog, http://clintonhillframe.blogspot.com, print your message and bring it to Clinton Hill Simply Art & Framing Gallery to receive your special Michael Jackson discount -- blogger's discount ends October 31, 2009. The gallery walk-in special offer ends August 30, 2009. 

Please be one of the first people to read our new blog and one of the first to share your fond Michael Jackson memories or experiences with other bloggers. A special offer is waiting for you, compliments of L.B. Brown."

Tom Martinez, Witness: Surfing After Hurricane Bill

Hurricane Bill produced some good-sized swells out at Rockaway Beach.

OTBKB Music Video: United Breaks Guitars Song 2

Back in the beginning of July, I posted the first of what musician Dave Carroll promised would be three videos about his futile battle to get United Airlines to pay for the repair of his guitar, broken when he flew with United from Chicago to Nebraska.

Dave has now posted the second video in his United Breaks Guitars trilogy and it does have its chuckles.  Keep watching to the very end for the payoff.

--Eliot Wagner

NY Times Endorses David Yassky for Comptroller

This morning the New York TImes' endorsed David Yassky, currently City Councilman in the 33rd district, for City Comptroller. 

We are particularly impressed with Mr. Yassky’s ability to think creatively and then implement his ideas. Mr. Yassky, who taught at Brooklyn Law School earlier in his career, has a somewhat professorial manner. But in his years at City Hall, he has successfully fought to control guns in the city, to lessen pollution from taxis and to ban illegal dumping in the waters around the city.

He has pushed for help for small businesses and for more affordable housing. His campaign has set up an inventive Web site — ItsYourMoneyNYC.com — that opens the city budget to more scrutiny, a preview of his promise for more transparency for city finances.

The other main Democratic contenders are Council members from Queens, and all have sound records. David Weprin, who runs the Finance Committee, has been an able Council member but is less creative in his thinking about how to do this job effectively. John Liu has represented his constituents intelligently and with great eloquence, but too much of his strength is at the microphone. Melinda Katz has been a smart, dynamic leader of the Land Use Committee, but we are less enthusiastic about her connections to the real estate community.

Of the four, Mr. Yassky makes the best case for making better use of the powerful tools handed a city comptroller. He promises to use the audit powers — including new ones overseeing the city’s education contracts — to increase productivity and efficiency.

We have seen in New York State the temptations and corruption that come with managing a multibillion-dollar pension fund — with huge fees handed out to political cronies and contributors. Mr. Yassky has promised to stand up to special interests and has embraced new S.E.C. rules that would block campaign contributors from doing business with the fund. For all of these reasons, we endorse David Yassky for comptroller.

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Tom Martinez, Witness: Red Hook Sunset

The day after a huge storm blew through (the one that did so much damage in Central Park), the sky was magnificent, though by the time I made it down to the waterfront in Red Hook I had missed the real blazing phase of the sunset.  I was making my way to the shore another photographer was coming the other way, having no doubt captured it all.  Wonder what her images look like.

Photo by Tom Martinez

TinTin Book Locked Away at Brooklyn Public Library

The Daily News reports that TinTin Au Congo has been removed from general ciruclation at the Brooklyn Public Library by the library's chief librarian.

I have been following this story with interest because both Hepcat and Teen Spirit are huge TinTin fans.

The book was locked away because it "had illustrations that were racially offensive and inappropriate for children," said Richard Reyes-Gavilan, director of the library.

"The book was recently reissued. It was so over the top racist, imperialist, and colonialist that nobody had much interest in publishing it," said Hugh Crawford, who has been reading the TinTin books since childhood. According to Crawford, "Author George Herge had terrible misgivings about it himself.  An early associate of Herge said that The Blue Lotos was Herge's attempt to make amends for TinTin Au Congo being so bad."

"I think the book shouldn't be banned. It should be held up as an example of that sort of thing. All the editions I've seen have been published as a historical curiosity rather than part of the TinTin canon," Crawford said.

To see the book you have to make an appointment at the library.

School Gets In The Way Of OSFO's Summer Reading Fun

Here's this week Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper:

Smartmom doesn’t get the point of summer homework. Isn’t summer supposed to be about recreation, relaxation and fun? Isn’t it a time to do things other than school work? Smartmom thinks there’s plenty of time for school work during the other 10 months of the year.

But Smartmom has nothing against summer reading. And the Oh So Feisty One has been reading quite a bit this summer. At the moment, she’s hooked on a book called “Peace, Love & Baby Ducks” by Lauren Myracle.

But every day she whines, “I have to find ‘Tangerine.’”

That’s the young adult book by Edward Bloor that is assigned to all the incoming seventh graders at her middle school. It sounds like a decent book. But why does she have to read it this summer?

In addition to “Tangerine,” OSFO has to pick from a list of approved books for another reading selection.

Unfortunately, none of the books she has read this summer are on that list. Sure, the list includes a great group of books. But she’s read a bunch of them and some of them don’t interest her at all. At least that’s what she tells Smartmom, who knows that the very fact that they’re on the list makes them less interesting to OSFO because she’s got that anti-authoritarian streak she inherited from Hepcat.

Whatever. Smartmom wondered if “Peace, Love & Baby Ducks” could be substituted for her summer reading book. Why not? It’s a perfectly fine book, maybe even a tad literary.

“No, it’s not on the list,” said OSFO, the oh so literal one.

“Well, maybe we should call the principal to get special dispensation …”

OSFO wasn’t having it. Finally, she did pick a book from that list, “The Cat Ate My Gymsuit” by Paula Danzinger, something she’s already read.

From Smartmom’s experience with summer reading (and she’s had plenty), it’s not like the books are integrated into the curriculum even though the kids are required to write a two-page essay about each book.

In fact, Smartmom has never heard about those essays once they’re handed in. Smartmom wonders what happens to those essays. Do they go into some gigantic folder called Summer Reading? Are they sent to the recycling?

More important, why do the schools insist on insinuating themselves into the lives of their students 24/7? OSFO’s life already revolves around school. So does Smartmom’s. But like OSFO, she enjoys the two-month break from school schedules and homework.

Sure, the American educational system is way behind other countries, which have longer school days and school years. But what’s wrong with letting life be the educator for a few months of the year?

That’s what summer is all about. It’s a chance to spend time with family and friends and to experience new people, places and things.

It’s also a time to discover the pleasure of unassigned reading.

Smartmom doesn’t remember any summer homework when she was a kid. But that was back in the 1970s when progressive education was in vogue. Summer meant family vacations on Fire Island, Maine or Martha’s Vineyard. During one memorable summer vacation, the family visited the Grand Tetons in Wyoming.

For years, Smartmom went to sleepaway camp, where she had the chance to exist outside of the strictures of family and school. There she learned to folk dance, to play the guitar and the lyrics to every protest song imaginable.

It was a great time — and a welcome break from school and family.

This summer, Smartmom decided to read Dostoyevsky. During the rainy days of June, she read “The Idiot,” the story of the epileptic Prince Myshkin (and Dumb Editor’s favorite of the enigmatic Russian’s doorstop books).

On Block Island, she dove into “Crime and Punishment,” the great novel about Raskolnikov’s remorseless crime. And in the bright California sun, she read “The Brothers Karamazov.”

It’s been a heavy summer full of nihilism, human psychology and the spiritual, political and social world of 19th-century Russia

What if Smartmom had required reading? She’d never get a chance to wrap her head around The Brothers K.

Luckily, Smartmom doesn’t have to write a two-page essay on her summer reading. But OSFO does and she better get going. It’s mid-August and it’s time for OSFO to get cracking.

Anyone have a copy of “Tangerine”?

Park Slope Awaits Scathing Put Down By Amy Sohn in Her New Novel

Amy Sohn's new book, Prospect Park West, comes out on September 1, and I'm dying to get my hands on a copy.

According to the Daily News:

"The book creates a scathing portrait of Park Slope's mommy brigade -- of which Sohn is a breast-feeding member -- as a parade of unsatisfied thirty- and forty-something moms sizing up their plights relative to all the other stroller-pushers at the playground. Few are having sex -- at least not with their spouses."

Seems that  Sarah Jessica Parker optioned the book for a TV series—not a movie as I previously reported.

The story is about a character named Melora Leigh, a two-time Oscar winner who lives in a mansion on Prospect Park West with her Australian husband. Sounds a little like Jennifer Connelly.

I heard Sohn read a chapter from the book at the Edgy Mother's Day reading in which Sohn parodies the Park Slope Food Coop, Park Slopers and local celebs.

Interestingly, most of the celebrities, in this celebrity strewn novel, are called by their real names.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Melora's arch rival and nemisis is described in the book (according to the Daily News) as a  "skinny hipster who was famous only because she'd flashed her t- -s in 'Secretary.' "

"I think we make it very clear in the disclaimer," says Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal told the Daily News. 

That provision partly reads: "Although several well-known people appear in this book, the references to them, their conduct and their interactions with other characters are wholly the author's creation."

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Carroll Gardens Dumpster Pools on NPR

In case you missed the story on NPR: here's an excerpt. Read the rest over here.

On an industrial lot in Brooklyn, N.Y., three garbage bins have been transformed into swimming pools. They're set in what looks like an urban country club — with tent cabanas, barbecue grills and a dozen plastic beach chairs.

The idea of swimming in a trash container grosses you out? Think again. They're clean. The bins are lined with thick sheets of plastic, and the water is chlorinated and filtered, just like what goes in an inground pool.

The company behind the pools is Macro Sea, a Manhattan real estate developer. Jocko Weyland, the guy in charge of the pool project, says Macro Sea got the idea from a rock musician in Georgia.

The pools are behind a chain-link fence in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood. The 5 1/2 foot-deep containers are in an H-formation with a wooden deck built around them. There's also a shallower kiddie pool.

News of the Brooklyn trash bin swimming pools first surfaced on a blog for ReadyMade magazine, which helps do-it-yourselfers use familiar objects in new ways.

"It's a Dumpster. It's not trying to pretend it's not a Dumpster, you know," Weyland says.

Sept 15-20: In-I With Juliet Binoche at BAM

In-I, the opening event of the  2009  Next Wave Festival sounds very interesting. It is directed and performed by Oscar-winning actor Juliet Binoche and choreographer Akram Kahn.

Sep 15, 17—19, 22—26 at 7:30pm
Sep 16 at 7pm*
Sep 20 at 3pm
*2009 Next Wave Gala: Patron Celebration

"I never know what I'm capable of doing before I do it." These words, spoken by Oscar-winning actor Juliette Binoche (Caché, The English Patient, Blue), capture the intrepid spirit—indeed the daring—behind In-I, an intensely visceral dance-theater work conceived, directed, and performed by Binoche and the adventurous British choreographer Akram Khan (Steve Reich @ 70, 2006 Next Wave Festival). Together, these charismatic artists arrive at something entirely new, as an actor dances and a dancer acts.

Incandescent and delicate, Binoche moves with surprising force, always in lockstep with Khan's virtuosity and power. Accompanied by an evocative, mercurial score and performed before a luminous wall designed by British sculptor Anish Kapoor, the couple's exchanges are thrust into relief, revealing the intricacies of a love affair, in all its glory and all its pain.

Aug 29: Michael Jackson Birthday Party in Prospect Park

What started out as a Fort Greene birthday party for Michael Jackson planned by Spike Lee will now take place in Prospect Park, because of the large number of people expected.

The Parks Department for the celebration in Fort Greene park allowed 2000 people but because of national publicity they're expecting a whole lot more. That's why it was moved. The event is set to run from noon to 5 p.m. next Saturday.

Councilwoman Letitia James told The Local, the New York Times' Fort Greene blog: “This was supposed to be a small-scale community event,” said James. “Now they’re concerned about crowd control.”

Aug. 29 would have been Jackson's 51st birthday. He was exactly one day younger than me.

Battle Week 2009 at the Old Stone House and Elsewhere

There's a whole  lot of early American history in the Park Slope/Gowanus/Sunset Park area. The first battle of the Revolutionary War took place in Washington/JJ Byrne Park and that's what's celebrated every year during Battle week. Marilyn Pettit, Chair of the Old Stone House Board of Trustees explains:

"The Battle of Brooklyn took place seven weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence and was the first battle of the United States.

"Even though the Americans lost the battle in the face of the overwhelming British forces, the bravery they displayed helped galvanize the Colonists and proved their determination to fight for the freedom and liberty which they eventually won seven years later in 1783.

"The Old Stone House is the place where 256 brave members of Captain Smallwood’s Maryland Regiment sacrificed themselves on August 27, 1776, to buy time for the rest of their American comrades to evacuate to safety during the Battle of Brooklyn."

Sunday August 23, 11 AM - 1 PM

Evergreens Cemetery Walking Tour
 

Evergreen Cemetery presents a walking tour of the revolutionary war-related sites of the cemetery. Meet at Evergreen Cemetery Main Gate, Bushwick Avenue and Conway Street, Brooklyn.
718-455-5300/www.theevergreenscemetery.com/

Wednesday, August 26, 6 PM
Gowanus Dredgers Estuary Tour

 

Canoe the Gowanus Canal and learn the history of this infamous escape route for American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. 2nd Street between Bond and the Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn.

718-768-3195/www.gowanuscanal.org/

 

Friday, August 28, 6 PM - 8 PM

Battle of Brooklyn Neighborhood Walk

Led by Old Stone House Board Member and Hunter College Archaeology Professor William J. Parry. Meet at Grand Army Plaza, entrance to Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn. $12 per person/$10 OSH members; includes light refreshments. Wear comfortable shoes.
Reservations and infortmation:
718-768-3195/info@theoldstonehouse.org

 

Saturday, August 29, 11 AM - 12 PM

Maryland 400 Remembrance Ceremony

Meet at the newly refurbished Maryland Monument in Prospect Park. Enter Prospect Park Southwest and 16th Street and proceed across to Wellhouse Drive, then uphill to the monument. Sponsored by the Maryland State Monuments Commission.
718-768-3195/info@theoldstonehouse.org

 

Saturday, August 29, 10 AM - 5 PM

Battle Days Reception

Old Stone House, JJ Byrne Park, 3rd Street at 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, OSH Gallery. Reenactors Welcome!

Sunday, August 30

Battle of Brooklyn Commemoration

  

The Green-Wood Cemetery, 5th Avenue at 25th Street, Brooklyn. 718-768-7300 for more information.

 

10 AM - 12 PM Green-Wood historian Jeff Richman and author Barnet Schecter conduct a trolley tour of the cemetery. Reservations necessary. $20 for the public, $10 for Historic Fund members. 718-768-7300

11:30 AM Tributes to George Washington's Irish Generals, The Bold Fenian Men/The Civil War, Irish Korean War Memorial, Matilda Tone

12 PM - 1:15 PM Re-enactment inside the Main Gate

1:30 PM Parade to top of Battle Hill

2 PM Memorial Ceremony at Battle Hill; Micahel Callahan, Guest Speaker
 

Southern BBQ In Northern California

 Hepcat decided that he wanted to BBQ spare ribs for Friday night's dinner with his sister, bro-in-law, his mom, OSFO and me. It was a lark, really. He'd never done it before and thought it might be fun.

Quick to the rescue, I emailed Mrs. Cleavage, my friend the southern gal blogger of Eat Drink Memory, who is currently residing in North Carolina and asked if she had a recipe.

Of course she had a recipe; she wrote this in her email.

Here's a link to a solid rib recipe that I love.  A BBQ sounds like a lot of fun about now.  We are going to my Uncle's Labor Day Weekend for a pig-picking and pool party.  I plan to lounge in the water until I look like a prune.

Luckily we took a look at the recipe, which is on Epicurious and originally from a cookbook called The Thrill of the Grill by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby (William Morrow and Company, 1990), early in the day because it required four hours of cooking time on the BBQ.

It's a dry rub recipe, which combines: 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons paprika, 2 tablespoons ground cumin, 1 1/2 tablespoons black pepper, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 tablespoon salt.

Hepcat is usually violently opposed to following recipes because he likes to improvise but he followed this one to the letter because he doesn't know squat about southern BBQ.

He did, however, substitute chipolte chili powder for regular chili powder and that was a tasty idea. Mid-preparation, he had drive to the store to get hickory chips and extra black pepper because he thought the rub and the basting sauce called for a whole lot of pepper. I see now he misread the word teaspoons in the basting sauce recipe for tablespoons. Maybe that's why it was so spicy.

Here's the recipe for the basting sauce: 1 3/4 cups distilled white vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon Tabasco, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper.

Correction from Hepcat: he says he did misread it initially but when he read it again he saw that it said teaspoon not tablespoon. "Still, I think it was too peppery and next time I'd do less pepper and more sugar."

Hepcat started preparing the ribs around 5 pm which put the EST for eating around 9 pm. While the ribs cooked we had a great time sitting around and swimming in the pool, listening to music, talking and drinking beer.

The ribs were spicy, savory and delicious and there were absolutely no leftovers. We served them with BBQed homegrown zucchini and eggplant and a salad. Even the veggies had a nice hickory smoked taste.

Good job Hepcat and thanks to Mrs. Cleavage for the recipe. I see that today on Eat Drink Memory she's got a recipe for Eastern North Carolina Pit Cooked BBQ. She writes:

When my Dad and brother cook a pig, they cook the whole behemoth - everything but the squeal.  Cooking a whole pig over coals is a lengthy process, with an average cooking time of between 10 and 12 hours. My Dad and brother used to cook pigs in lined earth pits but later fashioned cookers from metal drums.

Sounds great.  But tonight, we're cooking leg of lamb here in California.

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Aug 28 & 29: The Brooklyn Soul Festival at the Bell House

The Bell House has booked a couple of great shows featuring soul legends.

On August 28: “The Brooklyn Soul Festival will feature Barbara Lynn (best known for “You’ll Lose a Good Thing”), Roscoe Robinson (who played with Sam Cooke), and Hermon Hitson (who played with Jimi Hendrix and Wilson Pickett).

On the 29th: Otis Clay  and Maxine Brown (“Oh No Not My Baby” from 1964) will grace their stage.

“Brooklyn Soul Festival” at The Bell House [149 Seventh St. bet. Second and Third Avenues, (718) 643-6510], Aug. 28 and 29. Tickets, $15.

OTBKB Music: The Sandanista Project for Free

I recently received the following email from Abe Bradshaw at 2Minutes59 Records, a record company based in Park Slope which has released some very good music over the years:

Most of you know that the name of the record label, 00:02:59, is pulled from a line in the song "Hitsville UK" from the album Sandinista! by The Clash.  Hopefully more of you know that we released a track by track tribute (by 36 different artists!) to this strange and beautiful album called The Sandinista! Project back in 2006.

 

Jimmy Guterman - the guy who came up with the crazy idea of The Sandinista! Project just approached me with another crazy idea.  He said, "Joe Strummer's birthday is coming up on August 21st... let's offer a free download of the entire album on August 21st."

 

Because I'm crazy too, I said, "OK."

 

So - be sure to visit 2minutes59.com on August 21st for info on how you and all of your friends can download this sprawling, yet totally engaging, epic for FREE for 24-hours.

**************

I've visited the 2Minutes59 site and the URL for the download is there.  The problem with it is that it is not a link and you can't cut and paste it.  So I'll give it to you in link form:

http://blog.guterman.com/2009/08/20/sandinista-free

Remember that this link will only work today, Friday.

 --Eliot Wagner