Deep In the Heart of Brooklyn: Court Street Construction Mayhem -"Hey, Dude, Where's My Bucket?"

Monday, July 14, 2008

Court Street Construction Mayhem -"Hey, Dude, Where's My Bucket?"

At around 12 noon, a bucket that apparently dropped from the repair and construction work occuring at 66 Court Street (at Livingston Street) crashed through the roof of a NYC Department of Environmental Protection vehicle parked in front of the building. It appeared that the bucket contained construction mortar and demolished the roof of the car. It further appears that no one was hurt. Spectators, under the nearby scaffolding, gathered round to view the accident. Construction workers continued to do their job, apparently unaware of the mayhem the bucket drop had caused.

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Current Reading

Oblivion - David Foster Wallace
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Netherland - Joseph O'Neill
Renegade - The Obama Campaign - Richard Wolffe
Mount Analogue - Rene Daumal
John Brown
Anathem - Neal Stephenson
7 Deadly Sins
ALEX COX - Alex Cox
FIASCO by Thomas Ricks
I, Fellini - Charlotte Chandler & Federico Fellini
Best of 20th century alternative history fiction
Judah P. Benjamin - Eli Evans
Moscow 2042 - Vladimir Voinovich
Gomorrah - Roberto Saviano
The Sack of Rome - Celebrity+Media+Money=Silvio Berlusconi - Alexander Stille
Reporting - David Remnick
Fassbinder
Indignation - Philip Roth
Rome
Let's Go Italy! 2008
Italian Phrases for Dummies
How to Pack
Violence - Slavoj Zizek
Dali: Painting & Film
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight - Jimmy Breslin
The Good Rat - Jimmy Breslin
Spook Country - William Gibson
A Blue Hand - The Beats in India - Deborah Baker
The Metaphysical Club - Louis Menard
Coast of Utopia - Tom Stoppard
Physics of the Impossible - Dr. Michio Kaku
Managing the Unexpected - Weick & Sutcliffe
Wait Til The Midnight Hour - Writings on Black Power
Yellow Back Radio Brokedown - Ishmael Reed
Burning Down the Masters' House - Jayson Blair
Howl - Allen Ginsberg
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
The Palace Thief - Ethan Canin
John Adams - David McCullough
The Wooden Sea - Jonathan Carroll
American Gangster - Mark Jacobson
Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien
Gawker Guide to Becoming King of All Media
Jews and Power - Ruth Wisse
Youth Without Youth - Mircea Eliade
A Team of Rivals - Doris Goodwin
Ghost Hunters -William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death - Deborah Blum
Dream -Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy - Stephen Duncombe
Love & Theft - Eric Lott
Exit Ghost - Philip Roth
Studio A - The Bob Dylan Reader

Current Listening

Alexi Murdoch Wait
Wilco Summer Teeth
Wilco The Album
Carmina Burana - Ray Manzarek (& Michael Riesmann)
Polyrock - Polyrock
96 Tears - Garland Jeffries
Ghost of a Chance Garland Jeffries
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Mustang Sally Buddy Guy
John Lee Hooker
Black and White Years
Together Through Life - B. Dylan
100 Days 100 Nites - Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
DYLAN: 3 disc Greatest...
Glassworks - Philip Glass
Wild Palms - Soundtrack -Ryuichi Sakamoto
Dinah Washington - Best of..
Commander Cody& His Lost Planet Airmen Live at Armadillo

And everything is going to the beat
And everything is going to the beat
And everything is going

And you said it was like fire around the brim
Burning solid burning thin the burning rim
Like stars burning holes right through the dark
Flicking fire like saltwater into my eyes
You were one inch from the edge of this bed
I dragged you back a sleepyhead
They couldn't think of something to say the day you burst
With all their lions and all their might and all their thirst
They crowd your bedroom like some thoughts wearing thin
Against the walls against your rules against your skin
My beard grew down to the floor and out through the doors
Of your eyes, begonia skies like a sleepyhead
Your head
Lyrics copyright 2007 by Passion Pit

Polyrock was an American post-punk/ new wave band formed in New York City in 1978 and active until the mid-1980s. Strongly influenced by minimalism , the group was produced by the composer Philip Glass and Kurt Munkasci. The band, led by singer/guitarist Billy Robertson (formerly of the group Model Citizen), had a keyboard-heavy, pattern-based sound strongly reminiscent of Glass's work; in fact, Glass performed on the group's album.

Polyrock's lineup also included vocalist Catherine Oblasney, guitarist Tommy Robertson, drummer Joseph Yannece, and keyboard player Lenny Aaron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyrock

Last chance to see The Color of Hope and put in a winning bid at the affordable Silent Auction (Bids start as low as $35)
With over 300 artists showing over 1600 pieces, BWAC's Spring Show is considered a not-to-miss event by collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts and a prime venue for collecting original art at bargain prices. It is a great chance to support and encourage artmaking by contemporary artists and discover the pleasure of appreciating a unique work of art in your own home/life.

Also this weekend: Red Hook Cine Soiree In the BWAC Screening Room, Saturday 3PM (I hope they take the Victrola out for a spin.)

Poet S. David and his dialogues on art and verse will be on hand to help close out the show, Sunday 3PM.

I am generally filled with “shock 'n awe” at something I have seen at the BWAC shows. This time, so impressed with the large scale work by Richard Todd whose ambitious, color drenched work, representational and abstract at the same time, seems primed for wider attention. Always an inspiring and stimulating show, on the water, in Red Hook.

Last Weekend – Saturday and Sunday 1-6PM
499 Van Brunt St./Red Hook, Brooklyn
718 596-2506/7 bwac.org

"The Strongest Man in the World": Rooftop Films This Saturday Evening

Rooftop Films (www.rooftopfilms.com), a summer film series dedicated to showcasing new, independent films andemerging bands in unique outdoor locations, this Saturday, May 30th, at8pm will be holding a screening of Strongman in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.Strongman is "a deeply personal portrait of Stanless Steel, "the StrongestMan in the World at Bending Steel and Metal." "A humorous but heart-wrenching verité documentary about Stanless Steel,the only man in the world who can bend a penny with his fingers."

Show Link: http://newyork.going.com/event-602716;Rooftop_Films_Strongman#

Date: Saturday, May 30th
Venue: on the roof of the Brooklyn TechAddress: 29 Fort Greene Place (Fort Greene, Brooklyn)8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Sound Fixpresents live music by Midnight Masses
9:00PM: Films
11:30PM-1:00AM: After-party:Open Bar at Crunch(691 Fulton St.) Courtesy ofRadeberger Pilsner
Tickets:$9-$25Presented in partnership with:Crunch, Cinereach, New York magazine& BrooklynTechnical High School
For more information about this event and the rest of our summer events,please contact: danielle@rooftopfilms.com

Va-va-va-vooom: Dumbo Burlesque (not an Oxymoron)

Brooklyn Blogfest 2009 : May 7 - 7:00 PM The Powerhouse DUMBO

It's here, it's back and it's bad. Real bad...And, oh yeah, it's in DUMBO. And it is brought to you by Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and her intrepid band of merry bloggers, as they bring on the latest and greatest in the Brooklyn Blogosphere. And it has Panels. Videos. And the cool yet interminable Shout Out. OK, you've been informed: Thursday, May 7, the Powerhouse in DUMBO, followed by a social hour at the Galapagos Art Space across the street. Details here:

http://brooklynblogfest.com/

Preserving the Vision: Brooklyn Bridge

An email from Daphne Willians included the video below about "a proposed development that can ruin the views of the Brooklyn Bridge. There's a vote on April 22 which can hopefully stop this from happening. Even David McCullogh , the famous author is advocating for this cause.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34eV2nz4Jvo "

Interested readers may wish to check out the video and can contact Council Speaker Christine Quinn cquinn@council.nyc.gov / Phone: (212) 788-7210

Conact brooklyndaphne@yahoo.com for more info.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34eV2nz4Jvo

Kids, POTUS in Space Chat

From TIME Magazine, Swampland, a pool report on the Prez with a group of school kids talking with astronauts over an earth-to-space link:

Questions from the kids included, "As an astronaut, what do you eat," "Have you found any life forms or any plants out in space," "When you say you exercise, what do you do," "How many stars are there in space" and "What do you have to study to be an astronaut?" POTUS relayed each question over the phone, in case the astronauts couldn't hear the kids, and interjected his own questions and wry remarks at times. (For instance, after the question about life forms, he nodded with mock gravity and said, "That's a good question," and after the one about stars, he added, "I'll be interested to hear the answer to that one.")

Full pool report here: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/24/president-obama-talks-to-space/

Pre-Weekend Notes

Excitement definitely in the air in downtown Brooklyn as we approach the holiday weekend. As the weekend before the big week unfolds, with, of course, the virtually back-to-back holiday celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the inauguration of the 44th Preident of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, there is palpable excitement and energy in the winter air. The opening of Notorious, which despite the cold, has lines outside the Regal Cinema on Court Street, just adds to the energy and excitement.

When we lived in Clinton Hill/Fort Greene in the 90s, it was a few blocks away from the late Biggie Smalls/Notorious B.I.G./Christopher Wallace's home on St. James Place. Our older daughter, now still studying in Europe, is pining for the fjords that she has to miss the premier of the film. As one of her teacher's said years ago, when another kid was trying to "explain" to our daughter some hip hop reference, "You don't have to explain that to her, Danielle grew up in the 'hood." Sort of. Not exactly. But, so it goes.

The late Christopher Wallace had brains, talent, and charisma to spare. Before he broke through, he survived the streets, drugs, and Brooklyn. He had a strong mom behind him. But I guess he couldn't survive his fame. The killing of Tupac Shakur was big news. But you could sense the murder of Christopher Wallace hit Brooklyn kids really hard with a heavy punch. If Barack Obama represents one story of remarkable success for Black Americans, the path taken by the late Christopher Wallace surely represented another. Rap, hip hop, or whatever you want to call contemporary Black music, has taken the world by storm. Wallace, yet another achieving kid from Brooklyn, made his mark.

I love these lines from Notorious:

Sean Combs: Yo, he got sex appeal like LL?
Wayne Barrow: A little bigger than that.
Sean Combs: What, like Heavy D?
Wayne Barrow: He's a little darker than that.
Sean Combs:: He look like Wesley Snipes?
Wayne Barrow: Oh, he ain't Wesley...

President-elect Obama is trim, vibrant, healthy, athletic, a brilliant writer, supremely self-confident. B.I.G. was big, robust, pleasure-seeking, a brilliant writer, and supremely self-confident. They each took their own path, both tinged with pathos and the blues, and each forged his own unique, individual brand.

Although President-elect Obama, clearly a brilliant, remarkable, charismatic, strong family- values-rooted guy represents a more familiar, comfortable model of success, America will always have room for and produce the creative, visionary, and healing artist, no matter how much that talent skirts with realms of danger, self-destructiveness, and violence.

Great Moments in the Sopranos #2 : We Have A Winner.

Angry mob boss Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) who got the squashed calabasa treatment lived in this lovely manse ostensibly located on Marlborough and Dorchester (according to the obviously prop street signs posted in front of the home.) Last week I asked if anyone had a clue where the real home stands? Well, ding-ding-ding !, we have a winner: E. Joslyn located a link, Sue's Soprano Sightings (see link below) which indicates, incredibly that the house is actually located in Newark, NJ. Ms Joslin, when beginning to poke around, thought it was in Staten Island. Others indicated it seemed like something from Dyker Heights. But apparently, Newark, NJ it is -- it sure could be a grand Flatbush home ! Thanks, Erin for the research.

My NY TIMES METROPOLITAN DIARY ARTICLE - JULY 11, 2005

NY TIMES - METRO SECTION MONDAY, JULY 11, 2005

Dear Diary:

My family was taking a stroll up Hudson Street on a beautiful evening. A young man approached, shirtless but wearing a very large snake draped around his neck and shoulders. The young man stopped to chat with an acquaintance while the snake slithered and slathered, taking in the street scene from its perch.

Close by, a mother with her 2-year-old son in a stroller was similarly engaged in a passing conversation. Her little guy, not yet jaded by the downtown scene, reached out to make nice with the undulating reptile.

Young mom, though seemingly oblivious and wrapped in conversation, didn't miss a beat, and corrected her son with downtown, seen-it-all aplomb - "Don't touch the big snake, sweetie, we're going out for pizza" - before they strolled away.

(Brooklyn Beat)

Prophetic Dreams

Last week I dreamed that my wife and I were on a fast moving train, speeding somewhere through the heartland, and the train was being chased by a tornado. Back in 1990, I had a vivid dream, never to be forgotten, that I was in my parent's apartment in Windsor Terrace, top floor, at 10th avenue and 17th street, really near the highpoint of Brooklyn. We could see the parachute jump tower in the far distance in Coney Island from that window. In my dream, from the distance, I saw a line of people, on magic carpets, flying by, hundred, thousands, millions of people, loaded down with material, boxes, weapons, etc. I will never forget that dream, and cannot think of it as anything except as a harbinger of the first Gulf War. It was essentially a huge carvan or transport of people, passing by my parents' window (I hadn't lived in that apartment for over a dozen years by that time) Do you recall any dreams that seemed to foretell the future in some cosmic and large way?

Deep In the Heart of Brooklyn

Monday, July 14, 2008

Court Street Construction Mayhem -"Hey, Dude, Where's My Bucket?"

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Current Reading

Current Listening

Coney Island of the Soul

Magic 8