Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

OTBKB Music: First Acoustics in The Heights

There's an interesting series of shows show this fall and winter over in Brooklyn Heights. The First Unitarian Church, located at the corner of Pierrepont Street and Monroe Place (across from the courthouse and up the block from St. Anne's school) is hosting a series of shows titled First Acoustics.  The series includes both folk, folk-rock and jazz performers.  The next show features Kate Taylor and  is this coming Friday October 3rd.  Other performers of note appearing in the future include Patty Larkin, Christine Lavin, The Kennedys, Tom Rush and Livingston Taylor.  Check the schedule for the full line up.

First Acoustics, The First Unitarian Church, Pierrepont Street and Monroe Place (2, 3 or 4 Trains to Borough Hall; R Train to Court Street), $30 ($5 surcharge for tickets bought at the door).

 --Eliot Wagner

Thursday Night: BRW Presents Young, Gifted & Black (Men) Curated by Martha Southgate

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. This reading is curated by Martha Southgate.

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story. He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine. He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children. Signifying Nothing is his first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels, most recently Third Girl from the Left which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006. It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the rest of the fab schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

Phatush Diaries: The Edgiest Edgy Mom

My friend over at Phatush Diaries is FUNNY. And she's writing again. Which thrills me no end. You gotta read this woman who may be the edgiest mom around. Here's an excerpt but read the rest at her blog.

DEAR CLASS MOM:

Yes ....I know that we are planning to bring something in to celebrate our kid's birthday that both happen to fall in the month of September.

Yes, I know that your daughter has an allergy to wheat, dairy, eggs, milk, cheese, yada ......yada ....yada.....

Yes, I know that last year I made those great tasting rice crispy treats ......

BUT .....

I'M NOT DOING THAT CRAP AGAIN .... NO WAY ....

FIRST...

MY 2 high end Calphalon pots look like they were burned in Chernobyl......

Don't dismay ......the gym teacher is still getting good use out of the burnt rice crispy treats a full year later .... as sporting equipment for the 5th grade intramural soccer team.


Your idea of bringing in a healthy snack .........apples and honey (in honor of the holiday) to celebrate our kid's birthdays ....SUCKS ASS.

Who ever heard of blowing out a flaming apple????

Your other suggestion ...That I run out to Junior's, and pick your daughter up her own $13 dollar slice of cheesecake.....shows me one thing ....THAT YOU ARE A CRAZY MESHUGENAH CUNT!!!!!!!

Get this straight ......

You will eat the Betty Crocker Vanilla Cupcakes that I will frost in the back of my Jeep 15 minutes before the party ...

Oh....BTW ....you may want to brush off the ashes from my Camel Light ....(it's not sprinkles) ....and pick out some of the dog hair.

Tonight: Delta Blues at Bar Reis to Fund the Mississippi Project at CUNY Law

Tonight at Bar Reis playing Delta Blues: Moira Meltzer-Cohen and her dad, blues guitarist Andy Cohen.

Remember Moira? She's the awesome Bar Reis bartender who is now getting her law degree at CUNY Law School. She comes from a family of civil rights lawyers and blues guitarists and is really an awesome gal.

According to Mo, her dad is "one of the most seriously awesome guitarists you will ever see." Mo loves to sing and they're going to play a set of pre-war Delta Blues to raise money to benefit the Mississippi Project at CUNY School of Law.

There is no cover but they are soliciting donations (which can be tax dediuctible if you write a check) which will go to the material and administrative costs of sending 15 law students (including Moira) to the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans to volunteer with the ACLU and the Innocence Project to provide legal aid to citizens who need it most.

It's all happening on Wednesday night 7-9 p.m:
Bar Reis
375 Fifth Avenue near 6th Street in Park Slope

A Conversation with Tom Hayden at Park Slope Methodist Church

In the 1960's Tom Hayden was an anti-war activist at the University of Michigan, and a founding member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1961. He was one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement, described by Howard Zinn as "one of those historic documents which represents an era."

After forty years of activism, elected office (he was a California State Senator) and writing, Hayden is still a strong voice for ending the war in Iraq, eradicating sweatshops, saving the environment, and reforming politics through greater citizen participation.

The author or editor of thirteen books, he comes to the Park Slope Methodist Church for a conversation sponsored by Brooklyn for Peace.

Does U. S. foreign policy in Iraq, Afghansitan and Pakistan mean Endless War? on Friday, October 2, 7:30 pm at the Park Slope United Methodist Church, 6th Ave. and 8th St., Brooklyn

Q and A with follow the talk.
Free Admission, donations gratefully accepted
Reception follows the event.

Sponsors: Brooklyn For Peace
Park Slope United Methodist Church Social Action Committee
Info@brooklynpeace.org
718 624-5921
http://www.brooklynpeace.org

Democracy Forum at Old First Church with Lander, Pechefsky and Nardiello

The race for Bill De Blasio's seat in the City Council in the 39th district isn't over. Brad Lander may have won the Democratic primary but he still faces Republican Joe Nardiello and Green candidate David Pechefsky (pictured right) in the general election. On Monday October 5th, the three will meet at a Democracy Forum at Old First Church.

City Council Candidates for District 39 David Pechefsky, Brad Lander, and Joe Nardiello will lead a discussion on democracy following a free screening of the documentary Please Vote for Me (http://pleasevoteforme.org/index.html) a film about an election for class monitor in a third grade class in China, complete with intimidation, bribery, and vote rigging!  The film will be the jumping off point for examining democracy in New York City.

The screening and discussion takes place Monday, October 5, 7-9 p.m."
Old First Church,
7th Avenue and Carroll Street in Park Slope

Steve Levin: One of "City Hall's" 40 Under 40 Rising Stars

Learn more about Steve Levin, our 28-year-old candidate apparent for David Yassky's City Council seat in the 33rd district. According to the Brooklyn Bugle, there's an interview with him in City Hall's "40 Under 40: The Next Political Leaders of New York."

Levin is running against Republican Elizabeth Tretter in what is a largely Democratic district.

When asked how he was able to muscle out a bunch of challengers in a competitive Council race to fill David Yassky’s Council seat, Steve Levin gives one answer.

“My friend and mentor Vito Lopez,” he says. “I would not have been elected if it were not for him.”

Indeed, the former chief-of-staff for the Assembly Housing chair and Brooklyn Democratic leader says that his old boss has given him lots of advice over the years, but that he led more by example.

“He is a tireless worker and he always does everything he can for the people he represents,” Levin said. “It comes from the heart.”

But when the Brown University graduate was deciding whether or not to make a run for the Council, he did not only get heart-to-hearts from local political big wigs. His father’s first cousins, Michigan Senator Carl Levin and his brother, Rep. Sandy Levin, weighed in as well.

“They both encouraged me to go for it,” he said. “They said work hard, be true to yourself, and always try to do the right thing.”

But, he added, the real motivation came from within.

“I’ve always wanted to serve people and to make people’s lives better,” he said. “That’s been the goal all along.”

How did your past jobs get you to where you are today? My past jobs were as a community organizer and chief of staff to Vito Lopez, and there has always been a commitment to serving people and serving their needs.

If you were not working in politics, what would you be doing: Public interest law

Five years from now, what will it say on your business card: Councilmember for the 33rd district

Who would play you in the movie? Harry Connick, Jr.

Brownstone Voyeur: Life in a Stylish Shoebox in Boerum Hill

Back by popular demand, Brownstone Voyeur, a collaboration between casaCARA and OTBKB. For more pictures and text go to CasaCARA.

THIS APARTMENT IS REALLY SMALL. If you dance like a dervish, I wouldn’t recommend doing it in Jane Rosenbaum’s apartment.

Just two rooms totaling 375 square feet in a pre-war State Street rental building, it’s nevertheless got a ton of charm and some good DIY ideas, yours for the copying. Such as:

• Limited color palette — white and periwinkle blue – keeps the tiny space from looking too busy. (This takes discipline! I intended to use only blue and white in my Springs cottage, but keep bringing in things that are red, brown, green, orange…)
• Secondhand furnishings were all painted periwinkle to unify them.
• Round table folds, below, to store against a wall. Open, it seats six for dinner.

• There’s a Murphy bed, below, behind a white curtain in the living room (and you thought they were only in Marx Brothers movies!)

• Salvaged chandelier in the living room is painted white and used with candles. Bookshelf up high makes use of every inch.

Moving on to the only other room, the kitchen:

• Galvanized buckets organize utensils, below.

• The cabinets are painted with chalkboard paint; Jane uses them to display the menu for dinner parties.

How Robin Met William: Clinton Hill Blogger Weds

OTBKB sends congratulations and best wishes to Robin Elizabeth Lester and William Gordon Kenton III, who were married Saturday at the Montauk Club in Park Slope!

Robin is the marketing and communications manager for the Project for Public Spaces, an urban planning organization in Manhattan. But she is also a pioneering Brooklyn blogger whose blog, Clinton Hill Blog, was one of the first local place blogs in Brooklyn. I love Robin's blog and especially enjoy her personal writing.

According to the New York Times wedding announcement, Robin graduated from Syracuse University and has a master’s degree in sociology from the New School for Social Research.

Her husband, William Kenton is an adjunct professor of English at Barnard College in Manhattan. He graduated from Ohio University and received a doctoral degree in English and American literature from NYU.

There's an adorable video in the NY Times about how Robin and William met.

Greetings From Scott Turner: Macho Aggressiveness Rarely Serves a Good Purpose

The Quizman Cometh and this week's greeting is all about football. This Thursday he does the pub quz at at Rocky Sullivan's. And don't miss Scott Turner's solo show at Freddy's on Friday at 9 p.m. Miss Wit, as always, is the sponsor of this post.

Greetings Pub Quiz Tough GalGuys...

Macho aggressiveness rarely serves a good purpose.  Bad enough when it's on the playground, in a barroom or the bedroom.  When it's culturally endemic, it's even worse.

But when it's the height of hypocrisy, that's really ludicrous.  As in, what's the point.

Across this country of ours, there's no more pointlessly macho realm than sports.  Across the sports landscape, there's no more pointlessly macho realm than American football.  And apparently, across the manifest destiny of the nation's collective gridiron, there's no more pointlessly macho realm than the first couple of weeks of the NFL season?

¿Por que?

It seems that the behemoths of the NFL -- men who often tip the scales at 325, 350, 375 pounds, giant specimens of testosterone intentionally jiggered to run wild, the standard-bearers of all that is ferocious, mighty, colossal and God-bestowed in the mightiest nation on the planet -- have a weakness that makes Achilles' heel seem a tiny scratch by comparison.

Yes, these men who growl, scream, punch teammates' shoulders and decimate opponents' various bones, muscles and sinewy parts, who taunt and trash-talk and spit on sportsmanship lest the slightest fissure of humanity costs them the game, and who insultingly misappropriate war imagery for their weekly athletic endeavors...

...cannot stand sunlight.

More to the point, many NFL home teams have started the season wearing white uniforms.  Traditionally, the home team wears a dark color at home -- the Giants, royal blue jerseys; the Jets, dark green.  And so on.

But apparently all the conditioning, all the weekend-warrior chants, all the macho hegemony of the NFL isn't enough.

Tough Texas's Texans?  White as the driven snow.

The man-eating Bengals, including macho trash-talker supreme Chad Ochocinco? White like Liberace.  Apparently, the extra couple of sunlight degrees is frightening, but not Great-White-in-Rhode-Island open flames.

Panthers so black they can sneak up on you with all of nature's stealth and end your life in a heartbeat?  Pale shades in Florida.

The Ravens?  The Ravens, of Poe's dark mysticism and linebacker Ray Lewis' murder charges?  Even the Ravens wore white tops.  Apparently, though, black isn't the death-knell it's made out to be -- the Ravens wore black helmets, pants, socks,  shoes and gloves.  Macho sure is selective when it wants to be.

And in week two, seven days further from summer's sunny death rays, even the New York Jets wore white because the life-giving ball of gas out beyond Mercury was just too scary.

With domed stadiums, Field Turf and state-of-the-art drainage systems, NFL players rarely end up with dirty uniforms these days.  The NFL won't even play its championship game, the Super Bowl, in a cold-weather city.  The league used to bill key games as the Irresistible Force Versus The Immovable Object.  Now it's The Irresista-- wait, Coach, it's too hot, can we wear white?

Hey, look.  I don't really care.  If NFL players wanna pound their chests and scream every time the receiver they're guarding drops the ball, be my guest.  If they wanna equate running a football with being stationed for a year in mountains of Afghanistan, go crazy.

But I don't wanna hear they're members of some über-ferocious fraternity, the toughest of the tough, John Wayne cut with Sun Tzu.  Not if they insist on wearing white jerseys on a sunny September afternoon.

Some have argued "what's wrong with gaining an advantage."  Nothing.  But most of football's advantage-gaining techniques -- good scouting, conditioning regimens, play calling, fast-thinking -- aren't based on tough-guy falsities. 

In other words, if football players weren't so obsessed with macho posturing, this little advantage wouldn't matter a whit

I'm not advocating for some pure versions of machismo.  For starters, we know what happens when "pure" and "human development" meld.  All I'm saying is that it's another indicator that men playing sports -- because of their own vanity and  fans' demands that they act a certain way for our entertainment -- are fatuous, flatulent and somewhat full of it.

Not just football, of course.  Hockey fights...that's another measure of wild-eyed male fury coddled by unwritten rules preventing anything that might actually expose the participants to things wild-eyed or furious.

You'd think that if these angry men on silver blades were that pissed-off at their co-combatants, they'd kick each other in the nether regions, shove heads through rink glass, use those blades in ghastly ways.

But they don't...there are parameters, something along the lines of Gentleman's Rules, that limit the violence of a hockey fight.

"hey, don't go too rough, okay?"  "yeah, sure..."

"Real men" who call themselves "real men" never are.  The insecurities that urge them to define themselves as "real" sink them from the get go.

American sports, particularly football, are filled to the brim with "real men" -- on the field, in the stands, parked on sofas across this great land of ours. 

Here's the skinny:  the Real Man can be found somewhere out there in the mysterious ether of the Legendary Unknowns -- Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and a contrite, compassionate Michael Bloomberg.

De Blasio Wins Run-off Against Green, Liu Beats Yassky for Comptroller

As reported by New York 1 News, the uncertified results of today's Primary Run-off Election for Public Advocate and Comptroller positions are:

Public Advocate - NYC
Bill de Blasio (Dem)	138736	62.50%
Mark Green (Dem)	83241	37.50%
Reporting: 6110 of 6110 precincts - 100.00 percent

Comptroller - NYC
John Liu (Dem)	127173	55.68%
David Yassky (Dem)	101215	44.32%
Reporting: 6110 of 6110 precincts - 100.00 percent

REMINDER: General Election is November 3, 2009.  (You can register to vote in the general election until October 9, 2009)

Click here for instructions on how to register, or use the following link:
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/register.html

Click here to find your local polling place, or use the following link:
http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm

This Friday: Don't Miss Scott Turner at Freddy's

Scott Turner, whose weekly Greetings From Scott Turner missives are a favorite on OTBKB, is playing a solo show, under the banner of RebelMart, at Freddy's (corner of Dean Street and 6th Avenue) this Friday at 9 p.m.

The music is one-person/one-guitar punk folk reggae Irish songs about the surety of love and the lack-of-surety about politics...or maybe it's the other way around.

No RebelMart websites to direct people to.  This one's like the old days -- you get a worthwhile tip that, head down to the club to check it out, and make the call there.

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.

Oct 4: 35th Annual Atlantic Antic

Hang on to your hats, folks, it's the Atlantic Antic on October 4th!

Spanning from Hicks Street to Fourth Avenue, passing through Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, and Boerum Hill in the heart of brownstone Brooklyn, the Atlantic Antic is one of the largest street fairs in the country.

Closed to traffic for the day, the 2009 Atlantic Antic, which this year sold out available spaces in record time, will showcase the best of the rich cultural, culinary, and commercial diversity along Atlantic Avenue.

You already knew that Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President, would be there. But I'm excited to tell you that Kaity Tong, anchorwoman for PIX-11 10pm News and Mr. G, meteorologist for PIX-11 10pm News will also be on hand.

Do they live in Brooklyn?

Those celebs will be main press conference for the Atlantic Antic at 1:00p.m. on Sunday, October 4th. The Antic will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. All day for food, shopping and entertainment on the streets of Brooklyn.

Park Slope Pastor To Jews: What Joy to Celebrate Yom Kippur With All of Our Friends

"What joy to celebrate the Atonement with this people who embrace Atonement. What joy to celebrate the repentance of our sins from A to Z. That's a gift that Jews and Christians in unity can give our society, the good news of repentance, and just why that is good news," wrote Pastor Daniel Meeter on his blog Old First.

Indeed, it was a Yom Kippur to remember in Park Slope when the ceiling fell in at Congregation Beth Elohim and Old First hosted the high holy day services.

And in an unrelated incident: a group of bigots from a Kansas Baptist Church (godhatesfags.com) picketed outside of the synagogue on the Saturday morning before the start of Yom Kippur on Sunday.

"What a week," Rabbi Andy Bachman told the Yom Kippur crowd at the church. And they laughed knowlingly. The rabbi held a service on the steps of the synagogue on Saturday, blew a shofar while 200 congregants and Park Slope residents danced, sang, and laughed.

And now we hear from Old First's Pastor Meeter who graciously offered his church to the neighborhood Jews and made a wonderful statement about Christian/Jewish unity in the process.

But what even greater joy for us at Old First that we could enjoy the celebration of Yom Kippur in our own house. Last night and today our sanctuary, though still very much our sanctuary, wore different clothes. It was fully a synagogue, and the chancel became a bema and the altar became an ark.

Look, I'm proud and a little possessive. I admit that I think of our Old First pulpit as "my" pulpit, and the big chair behind it as "my" chair, and yet I can tell you how joyful it was to see "my" pulpit so thoroughly occupied by the Rabbi and the Cantor as if they owned the place. And for Rabbi Bachman, last night at Kol Nidre, from his (my) pulpit, to preach a sermon that I so admired and was inspired by. Yes, how joyful for us to be for them "Rehovoth."

Of course, every single scripture they read from the altar and the pulpit is scripture for us Christians anyway. And every prayer they prayed could be prayed by any Christian. So for us it was so easy. I am grateful that they did the more challenging thing of accepting our hospitality.

How joyful that for 24 hours these guests, these 1200 guests, took over our sanctuary in order to sanctify the Name of God. What a privilege for us.

Yes, I am ecstatic, and I guess I will come down from this, but I gotta tell ya this was for me a high point. And I am so proud of our congregation, Old First, who takes this kind of hospitality (and is willing to work for it behind the scenes) as a just plain "given."

Brooklyn Paper: Lots of Crime in the 78th Precinct Last Week

There was a murder at the Wyckoff Houses, a heroic cabbie who chased down his assailant; two, that's two iPhone stolen and loads of burglaries in the 78th precinct last week and it's all in the Brooklyn Paper Police Blotter.

--

Stone Park Cafe Team To Open a Traditional Chinese Place

Yup. The Two Joshes (Josh Grinker and Josh Foster who own Stone Park Cafe) are opening a new place in the space that used to be Tempo and before that Cucina. That's old news. It was reported on OTBKB quite a while ago.

And what's it gonna be?

Alright. Alright. Let the Brooklyn Paper have a piece of the story.

According to those BP guys: It's a Chinese place. And they're not kidding. They actually spoke to the Two Joshes. Now that's reporting!

“It’s going to be a traditional Chinese restaurant, not a fancy restaurant like some of the Manhattan places have tried,” one of the Josh's  told the Brooklyn Paper. “We’ll cut out the stuff that Westerners just don’t go for … but the food will be traditional in the techniques, the ingredients and the recipes.”

In the Brooklyn Paper article, however, there was no mention of a third partner, or the fact that she's related to the "Cucina Family."

That was the scoop you heard right here at OTBKB not long ago. Sounds like the Joshes are going for a very different cuisine than their New American style-place on Third Street.

And I for one am excited. I think they're really good at what they do and I can't wait for the new place to open. I've already had one person ask me when they're opening.

She wants to do her daughter's bat mitzvah there.

Today: Vote for the Home Team (Yassky and DeBlasio) in Their Run-Offs

GET OUT THERE AND VOTE! Yassky and DeBlasio need your vote. Every vote counts. The turnout is expected to be very low. It's 11:30 and I'm on my way to John Jay. See you there, okay?

It's the Bill and David Show once again. They've been Park Slope's City Council members for eight years and now they're running for their political careers in a special run-off election for Public Advocate and City Comptroller respectively.

OTBKB endorses the Park Slope team in today's race. Yassky runs against Queens council member John Liu and DeBalsio is running against Mark Green.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE HOME TEAM! GO YASSKY! GO DEBLASIO!

DO THE PARK SLOPE CHEER for David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio! And VOTE! The polls are open all day on Tuesday September 29th.

Awesome Brooklyn Reading Works Poster by Elizabeth Reagh

Elizabeth Reagh of Good Form Design has once again designed a beautiful poster for Brooklyn Reading Works.

This is the fourth poster she's designed for the series and I love them all. Indeed, it's hard to pick a favorite.  It is, however, worth noting that the one she did for the 2006 season won an award for poster design excellence. 

Good Form Design, is a small and vibrant graphic design studio right in the heart of Park Slope. It is a collaboration of talented designers, fine artists, and software engineers working together to create print and web design that really do delight the senses. Reagh sees every project as a chance to bring her parallel backgrounds in fine art (she's a talented painter) and graphic art together to produce effective and beautiful communication. Logos, websites, invitations and branding — they do it all.

Reagh is a wonderful designer and I always says she brings a great sense of humor, color and fun to her work. Check out her website and think of her if you have a design project.

Excitingly, she is in the process of designing the new masthead for OTBKB!!! Stay tuned for that when we roll out the OTBKB makeover.

Thursday: Young, Gifted & Black (Men) at the Old Stone House

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. This reading is curated by Martha Southgate.

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story. He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine. He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children. Signifying Nothing is his first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels, most recently Third Girl from the Left which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006. It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the fab schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

Read About Jonathan Safran Foer's Sukkah

In honor of Sukkot, which begins on Saturday, the 3rd of October and will continue for 7 days until Friday, the 9th of October, here's an excerpt from an interview in the current Forward with Park Slope author Jonathan Safran Foer and his brother, Josh Foer about a sukkah they built last year.

How did you decide where to build the sukkah?

J.F.: Our original design idea was a floating sukkah. It was going to have curtain walls and be suspended from above by cables.

JSF: Directly from God’s beard.

J.F.: Directly from Jonathan’s magnolia tree. I had four pieces of steel specially fabricated for the project. But that idea got nixed by a rabbi. You can’t build a sukkah under a tree, you know.

JSF: No. That’s not it. We decided the tree couldn’t support the weight.

J.F.: Right.

OTBKB Endorses Yassky and DeBlasio in Tuesday's Run-Off Election

Don't forget to vote today. To find your polling place, visit: http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm.

OTBKB is endorsing Bill DeBlasio for Public Advocate and David Yassky for City Comptroller in Tuesday's run-off election.

Based on his honesty and integrity, I believe that David Yassky has what it takes to be a great New York City Comptroller. His legislative successes, include putting hybrid taxis on our streets to fighting for affordable housing to creating thousands of jobs through the Film Tax Credit. He has a commitment to transparency, as he demonstrated by putting the City budget online at www.itsyourmoneynyc.org.

Yassky has lots of ideas he wants to implement once in the Comptroller's Office, including investments in biotech and cleantech, auditing the Department of Education, and cutting waste in the budget.

Yassky has been endorsed by Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Times, the New York Daily News and the New York Post. The Times said that David is the Comptroller candidate "most suited to do the job, with skill, intelligence, and independence."

The turnout for this run-off is expected to be exceptionally low. Every vote counts.  It only takes a few minutes to vote. 

Babeland: Sexy Moms Series on Lesbian Parenting

At Babeland on Wednesday, September 30th: this month's Babeland Sexy Mom's event will feature Lauren Abrams, a community health center midwife from Park Slope, who will speak about her experience as a lesbian partner raising two children.

 She'll discuss navigating the medical world as a lesbian couple, communication between the birth and non-birth mother, changing desires, "donor dads," taboos, etc.

Babeland Co-Founder, Claire Cavanah, will also speak about her experience as a single lesbian mom. Complimentary refreshments will be served. This event is jointly sponsored by The New Space for Women’s Health, Bump and Park Slope Parents. Complimentary refreshments will be served courtesy of Sip Wines and Joyce Bakery. No pre-registration necessary, just stop on by!

Wednesday, September 30 at 7pm.

Babeland Brooklyn is located at 462 Bergen Strett in Park Slope.

Richard Grayson: Look Back in Anger at the Old Stone House

I am always thrilled when Richard Grayson, author of "Who Will Kiss the Pig" and "And To Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street" and other titles from DUMBO Books, decides to share his thoughts with OTBKB readers:

We headed over to the Old Stone House in Washington Park on a dreary fall Sunday afternoon to see a first-rate production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger.

It was precisely the play needed for a dreary Sunday, as it has three crucial scenes set on dreary Sundays. But this drama's effect is the direct opposite of dreary. It's explosive.

We bought the Bantam paperback edition of the play from the old Bookworm Bookstore on Flatbush Avenue near Church when it came out in 1967.

We stayed up one night and read the play in one long gulp.

The book had amazing drawings of the scenes by Lee Gregori. But of course it was Osborne's words, even a decade after they caused a revolution on the London stage, in the mouth of his "angry young man," Jimmy Porter, that so excited one 16-year-old boy in Brooklyn:

I've an idea, why don't we have a little game? Let's pretend that we're human beings and that we're actually alive. Just for a while. What do you say?

The contemporary reaction to Look Back in Anger is more respectful than enthusiastic. It's impossible, given the past forty or fifty years, to recapture the response its got back in the day when it seemed urgent, an emancipation of drama from the restrictions of past generations, particularly in pre-Beatles, pre-mods-and-rockers, pre-"cool-Britannia" Britain, but also in fifties America.

Even by the time we read it, we'd already digested - devoured - Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which the emotional outbursts are even more extreme than the ones that are Look Back in Anger's most compelling moments.

The second floor of the Old Stone House is a great space for talks and the Brooklyn Reading Works but it's not ideal for theater. Yet this production, directed fluidly by Thomas Mulhare, managed to employ the space to maximum effect, effectively using the intimacy; at several points, sitting on the aisle, we could have reached out and touched the characters. Scene changes, which could have been jarring, were handled adeptly in an understated way with a character simply announcing them: "Two weeks later."

The cast was uniformly superb. The dialogue written by Osborne (for some reason, the program misspelled the author's name four times, adding a superfluous U, as if it were labour, honour or colour - but we guess it's great that that was our biggest quibble with the production) contains a number of monologues that could lend themselves to scenery-chewing. But here everything was controlled, restrained - even at the moments of highest rage and passion.

Alex Mills played Jimmy Porter with a vulnerability that made his sneering and sadistic tirades directed at his wife Alison and the other characters understandable. Mills' performance also emphasized Jimmy's high intelligence and educated background, which serve only to feed his frustration and bitterness and make him strike out at the world, including those who - almost unaccountably but not quite - love him. But he's also delighted with his own fury.

Yet it's hard in 2009 to take Jimmy's long, vicious riffs - like those against his despised mother-in-law - with the kind of shock that it generated decades ago. Look Back in Anger is one of those artistic works at the vanguard of so triumphant a revolutionary change that its innovations are impossible to discern for an audience who didn't live through its initial reception.

Today it's hard to imagine how some of us were affected by Osborne's plays - we also loved The Entertainer - and other groundbreaking British novels, dramas and films of the time: Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey, John Schlesinger's Billy Liar, anything by Alan Sillitoe.

Our dad once came in as we were viewing Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner for about the seventh time one week on Channel 9's Million Dollar Movie and said with a chuckle, "No matter how many times you watch it, he's never gonna finish that damn race." So we were thrilled to have this production come to the Old Stone House this weekend and delighted to get this kind of quality theater for just a five-dollar donation.

There's a tenderness in this Jimmy Porter that makes his unpleasant egotism understandable but doesn't veer into mawkishness. Alex Mills perfectly captured Osborne's stage directions' description of his antihero as "a disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness and freebooting cruelty."

In the squalor of Jimmy's Midlands flat - subtly suggested by a minimalist set, lots of newspapers scattered about (we admit being distracted by their being New York papers; maybe they could have gotten some London ones?) and a few stuffy furnishings, including an old record player from which very low-key background music which served the action of the play well - Alison, his upper-class wife, at first seems out of place.

Played by Katy Foley, who also was the producer here, this Alison seemed less Jimmy's punching bag and doormat than someone who's somewhat willingly taken on the role of wife as victim as a way of protecting the man she loves from turning his anger on himself. That is, Alison here appears very vulnerable but not bewildered; she's made her choices deliberately, even though she may not be aware of it. In Foley's portrayal, you can see why Alison is the squirrel to Jimmy's bear in their stuffed-animal avatars on a side table.

As Helena, Ruby Joy at first is outwardly brittle and somewhat manipulative, but in Act Two - there was a ten-minute intermission - it's obvious that she wears a protective armor and is also a lost soul, drowning slowly in what she once thought were safe waters. She doesn't lack compassion, but for Joy's Helena, everything else takes a back seat to self-preservation.

Daniel Kemper excelled as Cliff and was in some ways the pivotal character in this production. Jimmy's most ardent passion is devoted to his loyal crony Cliff, who's fiercely protective of him despite the mutual insults. Cliff is even more protective and tender toward Alison, whom he's so affectionate toward - the choice made to begin the play with Cliff and Alison in an embrace, as if they're having a furtive affair, was brilliant - that it would arouse the jealousy of any husband except Jimmy, who's incapable of jealousy.

Tolerant, patient, self-deprecating, funny, acutely aware of his limitations and lack of education, Kemper's Cliff is also quite needy, and we don't quite know how to respond to his perfectly-delivered speech announcing that it might be time for him to move on from Jimmy's sweet shop business and his friends' menage; this character's motivations are in some way the most complex in the play.

Like Jimmy's working class English accent and the posher accents of the other characters, Cliff's Welsh accent was effectively unobtrusive and unaffected.

Dan Odell as Colonel Redfern, Alison's father, gave an affecting performance as the representative of the establishment, no caricactured Colonel Blimp but a man plagued by self-doubt and second-guessing, as vulnerable as the young people, distracted and bewildered by the ground shaking underneath Old England's feet. In the way he muddles through, there's a sense of decency about him, and Odell struck all the right gestures for a man of his time and place.

Look Back in Anger is a period piece today, and this production emphasized not its blazing fury but the melancholy underlying the characters' lives. Osborne's words, even the ones that seemed vulgar and brutal in 1956, now seem elegaic and wonderfully poetic.

The sun was shining as we left the Old Stone House and we were really glad we got to see this production.

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Park Slope's Patrick Gaspard Called "The Karl Rove" of Obama's White House

In the last few days I have heard Patrick Gaspard referred to numerous times (in the press, on WNYC, in casual conversation) as the Karl Rove of Obama's White House. He is, apparently, behind the decision to give Governor Patterson the heave ho.

Karl Rove was was Senior Advisor and  Deputy Chief of Staff for former President Bush. He was considered the policy maker behind the scenes of that administration.

And what a mess this Paterson thing has become. News that the White House interfered with the New York governor race has created a sticky situation for the Obama administration.

It's too bad it wasn't handled in a more delicate manner.

Still, it's interesting to see that Gaspard is such a powerful force in the White House.

A former resident of Park Slope and PS 321 parent, Patrick Gaspard is the Director of the Office of Political Affairs for the Obama administration. A Haitian-American, Gaspard was also on his transition team after the election. During the presidential campaign, Gaspard was Obama's National Political Director.

Gaspard was the executive vice president for politics and legislation for the 199SEIU United Healthcare Workers, the largest local union in America.

His job at the union was to help coordinate political activity on behalf of 300,000 members. Gaspard worked for Howard Dean's presidential campaign and Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential bid and for numerous other congressional candidates and campaigns.

OTBKB Endorses David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio in Run-Offs Tomorrow

It's the Bill and David Show once again. They've been Park Slope's City Council members for eight years and now they're running for their political careers in a special run-off election for Public Advocate and City Comptroller respectively.

OTBKB endorses the Park Slope team in tomorrow's race. Yassky runs against Queens council member John Liu and DeBalsio is running against Mark Green.

You may have had issues with these men during their tumultuous times in the City Council. But they're our guys, like family. Let's hear it for the home team.

DO the Park Slope cheer for David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio! And VOTE! The polls are open all day on Tuesday September 29th. And the turnout is expected to be very low and every vote counts.

Kol Nidre at Old First Church

"Wow, what a week," Rabbi Andy Bachman told his congregation as they sat in the pews of Old First Dutch Reformed Church on the holiest night of the Jewish calendar.

And what a week it was.

It was the week that the anti-gay, anti-Semitic Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas decided to picket three synagogues in Brooklyn and Brooklyn Tech High School because Brooklyn has more Jews and gays than just about anywhere else in the United States.

The picketing was set for Saturday. But on Thursday (in an unrelated event), the ceiling over the mezzanine of  Beth Elohim's sanctuary collapsed, making it impossible to hold Yom Kippur services there. It will also necessitate a costly renovation. 

Luckily, Bachman and Pastor Daniel Meeter of Park Slope's Old First Dutch Reformed Church are good friends. Bachman called Meeter. Meeter said yes, of course the congregation was welcome in his large, beautiful church built in 1891. They wouldn't even have to cover any crosses. "There are none. We're Calivinists!" Meeter told me.

Meeter was over the moon to have the Jews at the church. That's the kind of pastor he is. He loves to bring people together. He loves inter-faith events. He loves to foster community spirit, religious tolerance and openness. Last year for Martin Luther King Day he organized a full-day program for adults and kids called "The Audacity of Peace," which included an interfaith prayer service for peace with Imam Salilou Djabi, of the Imam Ali Mosque in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rev. T. K. Nakagaki, of the Buddhist Church of New York, Rabbi Andy Bachman, of Congregation Beth Elohim and Meeter himself.

So having the Jews over for Yom Kippur was right up his alley and he welcomed the Park Slope congregation with open arms.

On Saturday, as has been reported here and elsewhere, the Kansans did picket Beth Elohim and the congregation's response couldn't have been more perfect. With dignity, humor and a great spirit of openness, the rabbi blew the shofar, spoke eloquently as members of the congregation and the community danced, sang and laughed. A lot.

Even snarky Erica of FIPS was moved by the counter-demonstration:

Cause it felt AWESOME to be there on the other side of the street from the Westboro-tards with a huge, loud crowd that included my husband, my Twitter friends, BREEDERS, BALLERS, politically active dogs, adorable kids (yes, you read that right), and loads of other peeps who were all spreadin love, Biggie style, the Brooklyn way.

Meanwhile, members of Old First Church and Beth Elohim prepared the church, which is in the midst of its own renovation, for the 1,000 expected guests on Yom Kippur. Indeed, the sanctuary looked gorgeous on Sunday night by the light of its incredible chandelier.

The events of the week were referred to often during the service. Rabbi Bachman thanked Meeter and the Old First congregation for their hospitality and generosity. Meeter told the crowd that he wasn't sure if he should wear his yamulke or his collar. "Wear them both," one of his church members reportedly told him. Rabbi Bachman praised the space saying it was a wonderful place to pray.

The Yom Kippur service traditionally begins with a mournful melody called "Kol Nidre." When the music began, a duet of bass cello and piano, the crowd gave itself over to the poignancy of the moment. It didn't matter that they were Jews in a Christian space or that they pray to a different God than their Christian hosts or use a different portion of the Bible. Old First Church was a hall of worship where Jews and Christians were gathered on one of the holiest days of the year.

And it was good.

In response to this post Pastor Meeter had this comment:

"But you know, we do pray to the same God. We tell different stories about
this God, and our stories clash, but it's the same God we tell the stories
about, like two siblings arguing over a story about their dad."

FIPS: Park Slope Vs. Westboro Baptist Church

Erica of Fucked in Park Slope was at Beth Elohim on Saturday and participated in the counter-demonstration when the anti-gay, anti-Jewish Kansas group picketed the synagogue. Here's an excerpt from her excellent report that also has great pictures.

I just got back from the hate parade that the Westboro Baptist Church staged this morning in front of Temple Beth Elohim on Garfield and 8th Avenue. There's a bunch of shit that I want to tell you about it, but basically this was my take away:

• As much as we may bitch around here, I'm so grateful and proud to live in a community that totally gets that these people are hateful, pathetic idiots.
• These people are hateful, pathetic idiots.
• Fuck yeah, Jews!
• Fuck yeah, Fags!
• Fuck yeah, counter protesting!

I have to admit, I gave some serious thought to Jake Taylor's comment on our original post about just ignoring these lowlifes--how getting all riled up about them is exactly what they want. However, after waking up early on a Saturday morn and hauling my ass down there, I have to say: I now totally disagree.

Cause it felt AWESOME to be there on the other side of the street from the Westboro-tards with a huge, loud crowd that included my husband, my Twitter friends, BREEDERS, BALLERS, politically active dogs, adorable kids (yes, you read that right), and loads of other peeps who were all spreadin love, Biggie style, the Brooklyn way.

Young, Gifted & Black (Men) with James Hannaham, Victor LaValle and Clifford Thompson

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. This reading is curated by Martha Southgate.

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story. He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine. He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children. Signifying Nothing is his first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels, most recently Third Girl from the Left which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006. It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Video: Westboro Baptist Church at Park Slope's Beth Elohim

Kansas Group Sang Filthy Abhorrent Lyrics to Havah Nagila

A reader of OTBKB sent in this report  about Saturday morning at Beth Elohim:

After much to-ing & fro-ing about whether to pay attention or ignore that hate group, I wandered up to the demonstration this morning.  When I saw the rabbi taking part I decided to stay - since it had been his suggestion that no one react to the provocation.  As your friend said, ours was a very quiet group.  The rabbi led us in a few chants & cheers, a small group did a hora on the steps of the temple & there was a general feeling of gemutlich.  The odious Kansans sang filthy, abhorrent lyrics to Havah Nagila & the Israeli national anthem but they were a pathetic, ugly assembly of sorry souls.  Marty Markowitz was inevitably there but very much in the background.  The police were pleasant.  I'd estimate closer to 500 of "us" but wouldn't bet on it.  Notably, there were no video trucks & not much media that I could see.

One does wonder why they choose to do this kind of thing unless they're hoping to recruit on the coattails of the far-right hate mongering that's been rampant recently.

Smartmom Wants a New Couch! Is That So Bad?

Smartmom wants a new sofa. She’s had the same green leather couch for, like, 18 years. She and Hepcat bought it just after Teen Spirit was born in 1989 at Ikea.

In those first months of Teen Spirit’s life, Smartmom and Hepcat spent an inordinate amount of time at IKEA in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They were nesting in Park Slope and they needed everything: a crib, a changing table, sheets, kitchenwares, and a couch.

Hepcat spotted a couch one day on the IKEA showroom. It was called the Tulka and he thought it looked like “the Warner Brothers couch.”

“You know,” he said, “the couch in the Bugs Bunny cartoons? When you think of couch, this is what you think of.”

Smartmom sort of knew what he meant. It was an Art Deco couch with a curved back that did have a kind of classic look.

They tested it out. Sat on it. Lay down on it. Stared at it and finally decided to buy it and then waited eight weeks for it to arrive from North Carolina. And when it arrived, they were thrilled.

Skip ahead 18 years. That couch has fared remarkably well considering that the Oh So Feisty One used it as a trampoline for much of her early life. Not to mention the meals that have been eaten on it; the bowls of popcorn consumed and the number of teenagers who have slept on it — and Buddha knows what else.

Needless to say, the family is very attached to the green leather couch. Trouble is, its springs are starting to stick out. And the fabric underneath the cushions is ripping and it’s a holy mess down there.

For those reasons and more, Smartmom wants a new couch. Is it too much to ask for something new?

When Smartmom told Hepcat, Teen Spirit and OSFO that she was thinking of getting rid of it, everyone got mad. There was an atonal chorus of “What? No! Are you kidding? You can’t!”

“Why don’t we just get it fixed? Do you want me to throw you out when you get old?” Hepcat said.

Smartmom knows that fixing the green couch isn’t the answer. It would probably cost around $1,000 to have the couch fixed, and that’s practically what the couch cost in the first place.

Smartmom did some Web window shopping and found a couch she liked at a store called Room & Board

It was called The Andre. The blurb on the Web site said it was “reminiscent of mid-20th-century modern furniture with its beautiful welting, tailored button back and dark wood stretcher base.”

Smartmom fell in love with the Andre and stared longingly at the pictures. She looked at in every color and every fabric texture.

Then last week, Smartmom just happened to be on Broome Street and made a bee-line for the Andre. She lay down on it just as if it was in her living room. She wanted to make sure that she’d be comfortable reading the New Yorker on it; OSFO and Hepcat would be comfy working on their computers on it; and Teen Spirit’s friends would be comfortable sleeping on it.

Before she knew it, Smartmom was buying it (She also found out that if everyone hates it she can return it and get her money back).

When Smartmom got home she told Hepcat.

“You what?” he screamed.

Smartmom was hurting. She hated the fact that Hepcat was so resistant to change. After a few days of arguing, Hepcat got even more adamant about not wanting the new couch. Finally, Smartmwom cancelled the couch and told Hepcat that she was leaving.

OK, she wasn’t leaving him. She was merely departing for a long weekend in Michigan with a friend. They would discuss the couch again when she got back.

Read all about it next week.

Even the Grass is Listening: Mamalama at Caravan of Dreams on Friday

My friend Henry Lowengard is a new member of this cool band from Saugerties, New York. It's an ethereal, psychedelic folk, world music kind of sound. I like it a lot and can't wait to hear them live at Caravan of Dreams, an East Village club, on Friday, October 2nd at 7 pm. 

They should really get a gig in Brooklyn. Dontcha think? Maybe Barbes.

Okay. Check out their songs on their Myspace page. The combination of instruments and players is positively enticing. There's composer and vocalist Elizabeth Clark-Jerez on harp; Tim Allen, an old friend and alumni of Jamie Livingston's Photos-of-the-Day playing ballaphone, frame drum and clarinets; Charlie Shikowitz on violin,chin cello,guitar,voice and let's not forget our soulmate Henry Lowengard on hammered dulcimer and pianica.

Caravan of Dreams is located at 405 East 6th Street, (212) 254-161

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Gilly Youner: Photos of Counter-Demo at Beth Elohim

O

This Morning at Congregation Beth Elohim

An OTBKB reader had this report about Saturday morning's protest by the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) at Congregation Beth Elohim.

"I was there this morning as the WBC folks—all 6 of them—arrived at the corner of Garfield and 8th Avenue. They held up numerous signs and sang ridiculous anti-semitic songs; one of which was even set to the tune of a John Lennon classic.

"The whole "event" was peaceful enough and actually rather un-eventful. Maybe 200 or so counter-protesters stood across the street in front of the synagogue shouting random things and chanting, etc.

"Frankly, I'm glad Park Slope didn't react to these morons in a grand manner as that would have been giving them too much credit and undeserved attention.

"I must commend Beth Elohim Rabbi Andy Bachman, who handled the situation gracefully and beautifully, by having the counter-protesters turn their backs on the WBC crew and join him in celebrating the Jewish new year as he repeatedly blew the shofar.

"He also put forth messages about inclusion and even managed to poke fun at the "small group of visitors" from Kansas, who he added "give the Midwest a bad name." Bachman apparently is from Wisconsin."

Oct 1: Brooklyn Reading Works Presents: Young, Gifted & Black (Men)

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. This reading is curated by Martha Southgate.

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story. He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine. He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children. Signifying Nothing is his first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels, most recently Third Girl from the Left which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006. It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

Momasphere: Here's Your Chance to Go Inside Meier's Glass Condo

Here's your chance to go inside Richard Meier's glass condo on Grand Army Plaza. Lots of people are mucho curious about what the apartments looks like and Momasphere (www.momasphere.com) had a great idea.

They're hosting author, Amy Sohn for a book reading of her latest novel Prospect Park West (Simon & Schuster; September 1, 2009; $25.00)  on  October 8th, 2009 from 7-9pm at the Richard Meier On Prospect Park (www.onprospectpark.com).  Book Court will offer discounted copies of the book at the event for $20.

Date:   Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Time:   7 to 9pm
Place:  Richard Meier On Prospect Park (1 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY) 11238)
Price:  Tickets will be $10 online & $15 at the door. For more information and to RSVP/purchase tickets please visit www.momasphere.com/upcoming-events.

Here's the blurb:

The event will showcase two Brooklyn icons in one exciting evening: a reading, signing and Q&A by Brooklyn mommy author Amy Sohn from her new book, Prospect Park West in the minimalist architectural masterpiece, Richard Meier On Prospect Park.  “I could not be more excited to be reading form Prospect Park West, a novel that takes place almost entirely in the Slope, in Richard Meier’s building- a setting that will surely complement my book.” Sarah Jessica Parker’s production company has optioned the story in conjunction with HBO for a half-hour show.  In the same way that "Sex and the City" examined the lives of four independent women who live and love in contemporary Manhattan, Sohn's latest novel delves into the scandalous, sexy lives of four different mothers as each goes through a crisis adjusting to parenthood in the picturesque haven of Park Slope, Brooklyn.  

Amy Sohn’s private reading of Prospect Park West is sponsored by Richard Meier On Prospect Park. The newly-completed condominium residences at Richard Meier On Prospect Park gracefully overlook the location of the book’s title, Prospect Park West, with spectacular cityscape, harbor and park views from the signature floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall glass. The building’s design by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier celebrates the convergence of classic architecture and modern living. Guests will be treated to an insider’s view of this modernist landmark while enjoying wine courtesy of Sip Fine Wine (www.sipfinewine.com) and sumptuous hors d'oeurves served up by Brooklyn's own Melt restaurant. (www.meltnyc.com).The evening will be capped off with live music by jazz guitarist, Chad Coe (www.chadcoe.com), raffle prizes and gift bags.   

 Momasphere creates innovative programs and events that serve to empower, enrich and enlighten moms, while giving back to the community.  Momasphere offers a forum for activities that promote personal growth, fun and replenishment, for moms at any stage of life. “Mom groups often focus on children of a certain age range, but we found that moms with children at any stage have so much to share,” said co-founder Melissa Lopata. The goal of Momasphere is to address the "whole mom" (mind, body, spirit) and reawaken & celebrate the multiple aspects of mothers as multi-faceted women with interests and skills that go beyond their roles as moms. “We're getting fabulous feedback. Our mantra, whole women make whole moms, seems to be striking a resonant chord,” said co-founder Ellen Bari.  A portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit www.childrenofthecity.com.  For more information and to purchase tickets please visit www.momasphere.com/upcoming-events.

How Low Will the Meier Glass Condo Prices Go?

The building sits grandly on Grand Army Plaza across from the beloved Brooklyn Public Library and diagonal from Prospect Park West. To me it represents the affluence and luxury mentality of this decade's real estate madnes. It is also a gorgeous building as far as I'm concerned and it manages to blend into its surroundings with admirable grace. Indeed, I have fantasized about having a little pied a terre in there for me and only me.

And maybe that will be possible if, as reported in today's New York Times, the prices are being slashed and the glass building remains half full. Here's an excerpt from the Times article:

But 10 months after the much-publicized — and much-debated — Meier building opened, most of that stage remains devoid of actors. On the side of the building facing their terrace, Mr. Vader and Mr. Henderson said, there is not a single person living on the 9th, 10th, 12th, 14th or 15th floors. While the developers say half of the building’s 99 units have been sold, the real estate Web site StreetEasy.com documents only 25 closings through public records. When the sun falls, the view from Mel and Bob’s terrace — or, for that matter, from the storied Grand Army Plaza — is not unlike a Christmas tree stripped of all but a handful of lights.

“You see that there are people there,” Mr. Vader said. “But you don’t see the amount of movement that you would normally see.”

When Seventeen Development L.L.C. announced in 2005 that Mr. Meier would erect one of his elaborate glass and steel sculptures on a $4.75 million parcel in Prospect Heights, it was seen as a test of New York’s real estate boom. Could the starchitect best known for designing Manhattan condominiums for the likes of Calvin Klein and Martha Stewart sell $1 million one-bedrooms in a still-gentrifying zone without a reliable public school?

Today, the Meier building — officially, On Prospect Park — is a wall of windows into the real estate bust.

Faced with anemic sales, the developers have slashed prices by as much as 40 percent. They combined units — there were originally 114 — to boost the percentage sold in order to ease the path to mortgages. But potential buyers have walked away from at least $20 million worth of contracts.

Dr. Philippa Gordon Answers FAQs Regarding Flu Season

Park Slope's Dr. Philippa Gordon has taken the time to answer some urgent questions about this flu season and the vaccine. This appeared on Park Slope Parents and with her permission is on OTBKB. She writes: "I am already working triple time fielding questions, and I anticipate it only getting worse as the vaccine is released and as flu cases start  occurring.   So the more info out there, the better.  I will continue to post answers to questions that psp'ers send me off line, and you may feel free to use them also, also to let me know if there's any other info you think is needed."

1.Why is this flu different from all other flus? 

The flu virus changes (shifts) slightly every year, enough to cause
annual  epidemics -- the normal community-wide outbreaks that we 
experience every winter.  But every once in a while -- 3 times per
century on average --a major change (drift) occurs, resulting in a 
novel strain.  It is so different from all other strains that even if
you've been exposed to or vaccinated against all previous flu strains in your lifetime, you are unlikely to be immune to it.  Therefore there are widespread outbreaks all over the world -- a pandemic.

2.  Will there be a vaccine for this novel pandemic flu?  Will it be
safe since it is so new?

Yes -- in October.  Since the strain was first isolated last year, the  vaccine makers have been working on it.  Although it is a new strain, the vaccine is made just the way other flu vaccines are made -- immunologically, every flu vaccine is specific to the strain expected to emerge that season, and therefore new every year --but the  basic recipe, if you will, for the vaccine is exactly the same.  So it is neither newer nor more experimental than the  annual flu vaccine, which has a good safety record.  Moreover, since the H1N1 strain has remained very stable since its emergence, we know that the vaccine is a good match for the virus, whereas the annual vaccine may sometimes miss the mark a bit.

3. Will there be special chemicals that are untested added to this vaccine?

No.   Some vaccines have immune- stimulating compounds called adjuvants added to them, and there was some discussion of adding these compounds to the H1N1 vaccine in the event that the vaccine supply fell short, butthe discussion was theoretical  only and these technologies have not been implemented in the US.

4.Does the H1N1 vaccine contain mercury or thimerosal?

All flu vaccines are available in thimerosal-free  formulations.

5. Who should get H1N1 vaccine and will seasonal flu vaccine protect
against the H1N1 strain?

Eventually, as supplies permit it, widespread vaccination will truncate this pandemic (the first of the century).  For the present, vaccine  is being triaged to pregnant women and children, as well as those with chronic illnesses.  This is because so far, more cases have been occurring in children, perhaps because older people have partial resistance, and because pregnant women are at higher risk for
complications.  An added benefit  is that the infants of vaccinated
women will be born with some immunity to this strain.     Seasonal flu vaccine is recommended for everyone age 6 months and up, especially pregnant women.  Seasonal flu vaccine does not appear to give any protection against the H1N1.

6.  Since seasonal flu is usually mild, and since so far the H1N1 is
tending to be clinically mild, is it necessary to be vaccinated?  Why
not just catch the flu, and  take anti-flu drugs such as Tamiflu
(oseltamivir)?

      Influenza is usually a mild and self-limited disease. It tends to be more severe in young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and
people with chronic illnesses. However, the majority of the 40,000
deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations  per year from influenza in the USA occur in previously healthy people.  Since flu is so highly contagious, eating well, taking supplements, and following guidelines for healthy living, are not helpful strategies for preventing infection , or for preventing complications of infection which may lead to hospitalization, severe illness, or death. In the current pandemic, more deaths would be expected in the pediatric age group as more cases are occurring in children.  Another factor in the estimated burden of disease has to do with the number of acute or intensive care beds available, and the number of respirator machines available throughout the country.  In a serious pandemic it is possible that the nation's  capacity for acute respiratory support  would simply be overwhelmed.

     Currently, anti-flu medications are recommended only for children under age 2, hospitalized patients, and those with underlying chronic disease. It is desirable to restrict use of these drugs to prevent viruses from developing resistance to them.  Widespread use of currently available vaccines will decrease the number of cases and the duration of outbreaks, and thus the overall burden of disease in our communities.

     In recent years, especially in Great Britain and the USA,
vaccination has taken on other social meanings, associated with fear of environmental toxins, suspicion of the government and pharmaceutical industry, fear of neurologic damage or long-term side effects, or the desire to raise one's children in a simple or more natural fashion. It is legitimate for individuals  to take these issues into consideration as long as the risks are clearly understood -- this is informed consent.  Those choosing, with full knowledge of the facts, to decline the flu vaccine, are making an acceptable decision both ethically and legally, as this vaccine is not mandatory.  Those who do not have such fears or objections should feel comfortable in taking the vaccine, because the more uptake of vaccine, the less disease, and the less  disease, the fewer adverse outcomes will occur. Widespread uptake of vaccine not only safeguards individual health, but contributes to the health of the community.

7.  How much will the vaccine cost?  Will insurance cover it?  How will it be administered?

All doses of the H1N1 vaccine have been purchased by the government, and  will be distributed through state and local health departments. 
Strategies for distribution will vary from place to place.  There is no charge for the vaccine itself, although there may be an office visit or administrative fee charged by clinics and private offices.

Both seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines are available in an injectable form which is made from killed virus, and in a nasal spray containing live virus which has been weakened, or attenuated, so that it cannot cause infection.  Nose spray can be used in healthy patients aged 2 through 49 years, who do not have asthma or egg allergy.

As regards co-administration of the vaccine, most patients age 9 and up will receive one dose of each vaccine, in either or both modalities. Children age 8 and younger will need 2 doses  of the H1N1 vaccine, and 1 dose of seasonal flu vaccine, and children receiving the seasonal flu vaccine for the first time in their lives will need two doses of that vaccine as well.  Final details regarding the timing of multiple doses in young children and the mixing of the two forms of the vaccine will be determined and made public when the vaccine is released for administration in the next few weeks.

Sources:  Red Book of the American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC.gov,
Mandell's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases,Elsevier 2005.

Submitted by Philippa Gordon

Today and Sunday at 3 pm: Brave New World Presents The Tempest in Coney Island

Brave New World is presenting two free performances of The Tempest by William Shakespeare today and Sunday afternoon on the Boardwalk and beach at Coney Island.

The Brooklyn-based company, which has done site-specific versions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "On the Waterfront" has made a name for itself performing plays in cool and unusual places around Brooklyn.

This time all the world's a stage, and Coney Island is the place. There will be 1,500 folding chairs on the Boardwalk near the NY Aquarium.

The BNW website warns audience members to remember that there's no Q train service and to leave plenty of time to get to Coney Island.

The show is at 3 pm today and Sunday.

Angels & Accordians at Green-wood Cemetery: Mark Your Calendars

On Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 at 12 Noon & 3:30 p.m:

Angels & Accordions, a site-specific, live music and dance performance will, held in conjunction with openhousenewyork, guides audience members through historic Green-Wood Cemetery’s rolling hills, highlighting its unparalleled collection of sculpture and monuments.

This unique event, choreographed by Martha Bowers of Dance Theatre Etcetera, features a cast of 30 dancers, original music by Guy Klucevsek and Bob Goldberg (played live by a band of accordionists), singing, and a visual installation inside the Catacombs designed by photographer Alexander Heilner. Several tombs will be open to the public.

More info here.

Mike McLaughlin in the Daily News: The Bible Teaches To Love Thy Neighbor

 Mike Mclaughlin formerly a reporter with The Brooklyn Paper is now a Daily News Writer. But he's still an avid reader of OTBKB, where he got tipped to this story.

The bible teaches to love thy neighbor.

That's exactly what one Brooklyn church plans to do Sunday for a synagogue that needs an emergency space for Yom Kippur services, the holiest day of the year for Jews.

In a show of interfaith unity, the Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope will open its doors to Congregation Beth Elohim Sunday after a ceiling collapse closed the temple's sanctuary.

"Hospitality is part of our church's mission," said the Rev. Daniel Meeter. "We didn't even have to think about sharing the space."

The synagogue, which counts prominent members such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, was sent scrambling when workers discovered Thursday that a chunk of plaster crashed onto the pews in the main sanctuary.

For help, they turned to Old First, which sits just an avenue away.

Read the rest at the Daily News.

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Yom Slippur

Reports from several synagogues across Park Slope
suggest that Crocs–rubber slippers, rather than forbidden
leather-soled shoes–will be the hot footwear on Yom Kippur.  
--news item

  YOM SLIPPUR

Forget the bagels,

Forget the lox;

On the Day of A

Don thy Crocs.

Roof Collapse at Beth Elohim: High Holy Day Will Be At Local Park Slope Church

As reported Friday morning on OTBKB, a large section of the balcony of the main sanctuary of Congregation Beth Elohim collapsed on Thursday. Services for the holiest day of the Jewish calendar have been moved to Old First Dutch Reformed Church. Here is a statement from Rabbi Andy Bachman's blog, Water Over Rocks.

Something happened today that presents challenges for us on so many levels as we prepare for Shabbat and Yom Kippur. Sometime last night, a large section of our Main Sanctuary's balcony ceiling collapsed. The pieces of plaster are large and quite heavy. We are all so extremely lucky that no one was hurt. After House Committee Co-Chair Susan Doban called in a structural engineer for a full assessment and recommendations for next steps, we were advised that several other sections of the ceiling are compromised and that it is unsafe to sit in certain sections of the Sanctuary until repairs have been made. As it has been in other times of crisis, we have rallied and are fortified by the good work and tireless optimism of so many people. Chief among them to be named upfront is our friend Reverend Daniel Meeter of Old First Reformed Church, who has cleared his congregation's own sanctuary for us to use for Yom Kippur. So much can be said about the spiritual implications of the events of the day, but that is not for now. This moment, we focus on where and when we gather to celebrate together.

Go to Water Over Rocks for a full schedule for Yom Kippur services.

Kansans Picket as Rabbi Makes Speech on Steps of Synagogue

The Kansans were true to their word. They showed up at Congregation Beth Elohim sometime between 9 and 10 am on Saturday morning and picketed, as promised, the Saturday morning service.

This topped off a three-day assault on Brooklyn, which started with a brief rally at Brooklyn Tech in Fort Greene on Thursday. They also planned to picket three other Brooklyn synagogues.

Apparently Brooklyn has been targeted because the borough has the largest Jewish population int he country as well as a huge number of gay people.

Double whammy for the Kansans who believe that Jews—and homosexuals—are the devil incarnate. You can read more about this group from the Westboro Baptist Church. The name of their website says it all:  www.godhatesfags.com,

Friends who were at Beth Elohim during the protest, said that the Kansans were spewing anti-Jewish slogans and holding anti-semitic and anti-gay signs. Rabbi Andy Bachman is said to have made an eloquent speech on the steps of the Garfield Place synagogue. I am hoping that the text of that speech will be forthcoming to OTBKB. 

Any first hand reports would be much welcome!

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford