Goodbye 215, hello Caselnova

Realty Collective reports (via Twitter) that the sign is now up on the new restaurant moving into the former 215 Cucina Napoletana space. It is called Caselnova - the neighborhood trattoria. Its so exciting to see progress being made so quicky!


Image from @realtycollectiv on Twitter

New at the Art Lot on Columbia and Sackett

THE ART LOT

OUTDOOR SCULPTURE
IN BROOKLYN

MEDIA MIX x 4
Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo, Babs Reingold, John Roach, Mary Schiliro

September 12, 2010 – January 9, 2011

Opening reception: Sunday, September 12, 2–5 p.m.

The ART LOT is proud to present “MEDIA MIX x 4” featuring the work of Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo, Babs Reingold, John Roach and Mary Schiliro.

Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo starts with the notion of photography that can capture and freeze time. As a starting point, she photographs urban spaces such as airport terminals, busy city streets or any place that has a flow of people. She then layers images on Plexiglas, subtly capturing the flow of time.

Babs Reingold has made a large structure reminiscent of a clothes line, but suspended are not clothes but a variety of materials that act as signifiers for memory and time. The piece is a beautiful metaphor on the relationship of support and the supported.

John Roach has a long history with combining materials, processes and light/sound to create three-dimensional collages. In some way, his work is a comment on and a foil to the extraordinary mash-up of contemporary life, with no small dash of humor.

Mary Schiliro’s work poses the question, what is a painting? How does it work? And how far can one push that definition before it becomes something else? Her installation, a hanging plane of Mylar that she perforates and dips in paint, is sited in the corner, which is transformed into more than the meeting of two planes. The painting hangs like a three-dimensional object demonstrating gravity, all while inconspicuously functioning as her picture plane.

The Art Lot is located at 206 Columbia Street, corner of Columbia and Sackett Streets in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The exhibition is on view 24/7. Rain date for the opening is September 19.

Wine School with Botta di Vino

Bourbon and Cheese tasting

Heaven Hill Distilleries and BKLYN Larder Specialty Cheeses pairing at Char No. 4

September 14th, 2010

September is National Bourbon Heritage Month and dry dock wine+spirits is celebrating with Heaven Hill Distilleries and BKLYN Larder at Char No. 4 in Brooklyn, NY with an intimate American whiskey and cheese pairing on Tuesday, September 14th.

Featured whiskeys will include Elijah Craig, Evan Williams and Bernheim Wheat Whiskey. Sergio Hernandez, cheesemonger from BKLYN Larder and Jessica Butts, representative from Heaven Hill Distilleries, will be leading the cheese and whiskey tasting.

Tickets are $40 per person and space is limited.

Two sessions are available, 7pm and 9pm; please contact Char No. 4 for tickets at 718.643.2106.

dry dock wine & spirits, located at 424 Van Brunt Street in Brooklyn, is Red Hook's neighborhood wine & spirits store, offering outstanding value and high quality from smaller vintners, producers and importers from around the world. We offer over 400 hand picked wines with 50 choices priced $12 and under, as well as a beautifully edited selection of spirits. dry dock has been featured in both Imbibe and Out magazines as a destination shop with an eclectic collection of craft-distilled spirits including over 75 whisk(e)y choices.

Wine & spirits tasting weekly; open m-w 12-9, th-sat 12-11, sun 12-8.

BKLYN Larder, located at 228 Flatbush Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn specializes in hand crafted cheeses, homemade prepared foods, and special and sustainably produced grocery items.

Char No. 4 is a whiskey bar inspired by a passion for bourbon. It features over 150 American whiskeys and serves a menu of American fare with a Southern influence. Char No. 4 is located 196 Smith Street in Cobble Hill.

Brooklyn Book Fest event at Adam Frank Studio

As part of the Brooklyn Book Festival, Freebird and impresario Kevin Maher host a "bookend" event this coming weekend at the neighboring Adam Frank studio on Columbia Street, with refreshments from Calexico:

An evening with GENRE BUSTERS: Writers who refuse to phone it in

Saturday, September 11 @ 8pm

Cost: FREE

The Studio of Adam Frank Incorporated

203 Columbia Street (between Sackett and DeGraw)
Brooklyn, NY

Freebird Books and Kevin Maher present an evening with four authors doing amazing work in disrespected genres.

The presenters include:

Award-winning cartoonist TED RALL talks about cartoons, showing some of his favorite work. He's authored several comics collections, experimental graphic novels, a post-modern "classics illustrated" re-telling of George Orwell's nightmarish distopia , and the no-holds-barred illustrated memoir The Year of Loving Dangerously. After the show, Ted will be signing copies of his new book.

Jezebel.com's LIZZIE SKURNICK talks about the history of Y.A. books. She knows a lot about the subject, having written 10 teen novels, including Sweet Valley High, Love Stories and Alias. She is also the author of Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading. Her literary blog, Old Hag, is a Forbes Best of the Web pick. She's on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and has writen on books and culture extensively for the New York Times Book Review, LA Time and NPR.org.

REBECCA ROGERS MAHER embraces the melodrama of Romance Novels. Critics described her new book (I'll Become the Sea) a "beautiful heart-wrenching and heart-warming story." Rebecca will read an excerpt and talk about writing a traditional love story that includes family violence, urban school decay, Jungian psychology and heavy metal.

MIKE EDISON shares true-life tales from his days of editing wrestling magazines and writing 28 smut books. Edison will look back on his career exploits, bringing to life passages from his autobiography I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World.

And host KEVIN MAHER geeks out about his favorite genre busters in B-grade monster movies, gimmicky kids' records and 1950's pulp paperbacks.

The 90-minute variety show will include readings, mini-lectures, live music, video clips, audience Q&A, and more.

Plus prizes from local Brooklyn businesses, including food from CALEXICO (2008 Vendy Award Winner for Best Street Food in NYC).

Red Hook Jazz Festival at the Urban Meadow - Sept 19 - 12 to 6

Ideal Bread plays the music of Steve Lacy
josh sinton - baritone saxophone kirk knuffke - cornet

Marco Cappelli Trio
Marco Cappelli – guitar Ken Filiano - bass

Satoshi Takeishi - percussions

Ben Perowsky Trio

Chris Speed - saxiphone Ben Street - bass

Paul Kogut & Sheryl Bailey guitar duet

Willie Martinez La Familia Sextet

Latin-Jazz

Dan Loomis Quartet

$5.00 per adult/Free for Kids

The Urban Meadow is located at the corner of President St and Van Brunt St

For more info go to:

http://urbanmeadowbrooklyn.blogspot.com

Tumbling classes with Mason at Everyday Athlete this Fall

Yes it's true. Mason is back and ready to tumble!

Get a little taste of the Fall Tumbling Session
by visiting Everyday Athlete

on Sept 11 for an Open House
from 10:30 to 5:30pm.

snacks and fun will be provided

Click here to find out more about Tumbling classes for children from 2 to 10.

Everyday Athlete is located at 136 Union Street,
info@everydayathlete.com
(718) 852-6300

click to enlarge

Chef Alan Harding Dinner Party at Element - Saturday August 28th

Join Chef Alan Harding as he prepares a sumptuous 5 Course meal
for guests of the Element Dinner Party Series
on August 28th at 8pm!

Five course meal * $50 per person * Bring your own wine

MENU:

Amuse Bouche
pig in a blanket- Hoffman's of Syracuse Bratwurst
with Dijon Lentils & Frisee

1st Course
Greenmarket Gazpacho with Lemon Balm

2nd Course
Grilled Zucchini & Roasted Garlic Tian
with Warm Chevre and Basil Oil

3rd Course
Cured Morrocan Lemon marinated lamb with Fennel,
Cucumber & Cous Cous

Dessert
Vanilla & Star Anise poached peach with Local berries
and Sweet Cream Fraiche

Event Information:
Saturday, August 28th at 8:00pm
RSVP required by Thursday, August 26th

*Dinner to take place rain (indoors) or shine (outdoors)

Prepared by Chef Alan Harding

Element Natural Healing Arts
518 Henry Street @ Union St.
Brooklyn, NY 11231

Space is limited, call (718) 855-4850 to RSVP today!

Please note that there is no refund for cancellations made
with less than 5 days notice. All charges become final on
the evening of Monday, August 23rd."

Upcoming PortSide programs - Final week of season - get there while you can!

The next few days will be the last chance for the season to enjoy public access to the waterfront through PortSide's programs at Pier 11. In honor of the end of a great season, they have put together a full schedule over the coming days, ranging from kid-friendly educational events by day to risque performances by night. My family has greatly enjoyed every PortSide event we've attended in the past, so I strongly recommend you check it out before the season is over!

A summary of activities appears below with more details on the official site here

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Last TankerTunes Wed 8/18, 7:30 PM Jalopy Theatre hosts their lively “Roots & Ruckus” music event on the Whalen featuring: Two-Man Gentleman Band, Stephanie Nilles, Mamie Minch and Dayna Kurtz, and Feral Foster. All four bands just $10!! More info below or commit now at http://tankertunesjalopy.eventbrite.com

Tall Ship Gazela, Thurs 8/19-8/23, as featured in the NY Times, educational ship tours by day, pirate cabaret shows aboard at night. more info below

Last walking tour Sun 8/22, 11:00 AM, only two spaces left! more info below http://walkingtourlarsnilsen.eventbrite.com

Gazela Tall Ship – no reservation required for ship tours.
Advance ticketing recommended for Cabaret Red Light. Sell out is expected.

Thurs 8/19 -Mon 8/23

Gazela, Philadelphia's flagship and the oldest wooden square-rigger still sailing in the USA, has been trying to come to NYC for several years; PortSide is thrilled to be her host. She comes with daytime tours and two cabaret performances a night, THE SEVEN DEADLY SEAS, by Cabaret Red Light

Gazela brochure here.

Press release for their visit here.

Tickets for performances $25 here.

Built in Portugal in 1883, Gazela sailed from Lisbon across the Atlantic over 100 times during 70 years of hard work fishing the Grand Banks off Canada. Visiting the Gazela is a way to learn about life in the age of sail and about an environmental story: the once bountiful cod, the fishery of the Grand Banks and how it was decimated. Cod changed history, and for 1,000 years was live gold, as author Mark Kurlansky illuminated in his 1997 book “Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World.” It was the Gazela's job to bring in this cod and feed a European appetite for a fish that goes back to the Viking period.

Dog Day Afternoon at Freebird this Friday

Books Through Bars screens Dog Day Afternoon in Freebird's backyard this Friday
123 Columbia Street
August 6, sunset

As part of their "Summer in the City" series, Books Through Bars shows another classic film that epitomizes New York at its hottest, weirdest, and most anarchic.

Dog Day Afternoon's mix of comedy and tragedy would take its cues from a Life magazine article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore, based on a real life bank robbery at a Chase branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn, on August 22, 1972.

Al Pacino's character, Sonny, was inspired by John Wojtowicz, a Vietnam vet who was openly gay and in love with a transsexual whose sex change operation he desperately wanted to help fund. As the robbery escalated into hostage negotiation, Wojtowicz dodged in and out of the bank to speak with police while his partner Sal Naturile kept his gun on the employees. Wojtowicz soon revealed his motivation for the heist and demanded to speak with his wife, Ernest Aron, whom he had married months earlier in what Kluge and Moore dismissed as a Greenwich Village "drag wedding." TV crews and newspaper photographers reveled in the spectacle of Aron dressed in a hospital gown (he had been recovering from a drug overdose) being escorted to the scene by police.

Kluge and Moore, who prophetically compared Wojtowicz's "broken-faced good looks" to Pacino's, chronicled the siege as a sort of whimsical interlude in the lives of the bank's employees who never felt particularly threatened by John's "antics," his outbursts in a thick Brooklyn accent, or his odd sense of propriety (he insisted on paying for the pizzas that were delivered to the hostages). Even Barrett, the bank manager, scoffed at an easy escape while being examined outside by a doctor. He would insist on returning to his employees and the strange "camaraderie" created by Wojtowicz and Naturile.

On October 3, 1975, Wojtowicz was allowed to preview Dog Day Afternoon from his prison while sitting out a 20-year term. Though he found it "a very moving experience...[That] contains everything from laughter, tears, love, hate, devotion, religion, to hope, drama, and thrills," he felt it was "only 30% true." In an essay he sent to the New York Times in the hopes they would publish as a review, Wojtowicz bemoans the way his relationships with key people (his mother, his ex-wife, Naturile) were dramatized on-screen. He mixes exuberant praise with flat out anger--swinging wildly between labeling the picture "garbage" and demanding the Academy to acknowledge Al Pacino and Chris Sarandon at awards time. He saw no contradiction in calling Sidney Lumet's direction "fantastic," but the movie exploitative.

Needless to say, the New York Times passed up the opportunity to run the piece, its humorless Arts & Leisure editor issuing his verdict like a sentencing judge: "I just don't believe you have profoundly come to grips with the motives for your crime, and the complex relationship between art and reality."

In the end, however, Wojtowicz would have the last laugh. Despite his issues with the film and its producers, 70% falseness was trumped by 1% net of the box office. With the money he earned, Ernest Aron would finally get to become Elizabeth Eden.