B O O !

S p r i n g t i m e     S u r p r i s e

50 best blocks in Brooklyn.

well,
are they?

Cotechino

10 pounds of cotechino made yesterday @ D and G's for New Years Day dinner.  Woof!


steve.lewis@farawayhills.com. thumbtyped

Mark Naison's "Communalism and Cooperation in Park Slope in the 1970's and 1980's "

DW forwarded the text of Mark Naison's post to us a week or two ago.  Here it is, on Naison's blog, With A Brooklyn Accent.

The year Liz and I moved to Park Slope, 1976, was a tough time in New York City. The city had just been saved from bankruptcy by an Emergency Financial Control Board that just mandated draconian cuts in all city services, especially parks, education, fire and sanitation, a policy, which, coupled with the wave of arson and abandonment that had swept through the city’s poorer neighborhoods, created the atmosphere of a city under siege. Buildings and neighborhoods which could afford it hired their own security forces, others, like ours on West 99th Street created volunteer security patrols to protect residents during evening hours...

Fabricant Studio

Bumped into our friend, Jon Fabricant, this morning (me moving the car, him walking the dog) and he told me he has this new site for some prints he's working on, fabricantstudio.com, and now I've gone there and I am telling you you need to do the same.  Fabu.  I'm gonna buy a copy of the Bicycle Rider.  Nu?

Songs for Unusual Creatures

Songs For Unusual Creatures - The Robot Show from Michael Hearst on Vimeo.
Hey, clear your calendar for Monday night.  We're all going to Joe's Pub to see out neighbor Michael Hearst perform Songs for Unusual Creatures.  Descrip:

Michael Hearst (One Ring Zero, Songs For Ice Cream Trucks) celebrates some of the lesser-known creatures that roam the planet. From the Australian Bilby, to the deep-sea Magnopinna Squid, the songs are brought to life by a gaggle of bizarre sounds and instruments including theremin, claviola, stylophone, and musical instrument robots.

Song for Unusual Creatures is featuring Michael Hearst (theremin, claviola, stylophone), Ben Holmes (trumpet), Allyssa Lamb (piano), Ron Caswell (tuba), Kristin Meuller (drums), and gaggle of musical instrument robots provided by LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots.

Be there or be square.  Or be there and be square, but very, very happy. 7:00 PM - January 11.

from a tejano of our acquaintance...

comes this linkybit to share with thee, sort of a welcome to twenteeten as many folk be calling it. Esteban has met and shared a table with the esteemed C J, who oncet upon a time blogged regularly at BookNotes, now busy as one of the wizards behind the curtain of BookLab, out there deep in the heart of texas hillcountry with the fella responsible for sharing the link below, el ultimo dudo laid-backo, G. (for gimme gravy widdem grits...) McLerran. Un Feliz Ano Nuevo a ustedes, tejanos estimados!

y andale pues, chiquitos y chiquititas!, vamos a jugar con morecowbell.dj

btw, there's a picture of both G & C.J. from '06 via the post you'll find here

Dear 2010, so far you totally rock

It's true.  We're in love with you.   We even love your name.

Let's see, how did it begin?  Oh, yeah, just a couple of hours after a gaggle of friends left our place we were up @ Provini when Midnight opened the door and you came in, all whoopee and kissing.  Then we slid down the hill to Bar Toto and there was more whoopee and kissing.   Then we went sideways to Gingers for a while where it was orange light and thumpa thumpa thumpa.  Then we went deep to Sunny's and wasn't that fun!  What a crush!  Not sure how we made it home - must have bought a vowel or two along the way.

Then, a little cruelly maybe, it was up pretty early so we could clear our heads, find our orange invites, and make our way to the inauguration! Mayor Mike, our man and Public Advocate Bill De Blasio, and Comptroller John Liu.  That was glorious, sitting out there in the crowd in front of City Hall, the mix of folks who'd invested their time or money in pushing their ideas and wants through the political process. Racially & economically mixed, with the common thread of having opted in rather than having opted out. And hey, it was a little folksy - students from the newcomer's high school in Queens introduced the speakers & office holders & told jokes.  Small town New York.   (And this is the twin school that our neighbor Brooke Hauser wrote about in the Times.  Remember? This Thing Called Prom.)  Yada yada.  It was great fun, but cold and when it was over thousands of people who had been holding their pee suddenly needed a place to go, totally overwhelming the local coffee shops.

Then home, dear Twentyten, where we did up a couple of sausages and had them on the last of the home made batards of ratty old 2009.   Jeez, that old year looks dreary already, doesn't it?  Dinner was with pesto Laurita put up during the summer on what was probably the best smelling day of Oh Nine. Then we hauled out a fresh ham we'd been hoarding, already slathered with the adobo sauce we'd mixed up earlier in the day, and got that into the oven. Couldn't go to sleep until it was out, and then almost couldn't sleep when it was out 'cause the air was so thick with pork.  But we managed, dear Twentyten, we managed.

I really just can't talk about this redding thing

Somewhere between $90,000,000 and $140,000,000 gets you 50,000 votes more than $9,000,000.  I bet that causes the spender some mixed feelings.

Anyway, right here in the hood, I'm way happy for Bill de Blasio and Brad Lander.  (Brad, update the site - you won!)  And for the health of both the NYC Dems and Working Families Party.

(I'm linking to the Post from the map, though it's a Times graphic.  You know, I tried real hard to find a link on the NYT site to the full NY election results, and couldn't - had to back into it from Google news searches.  Then I grabbed the graphic and altered it for posting and had to go through the Google search again and the Post results came up higher, etc.)

Proteus Gowanus

via brooklyn based

Our humble abode's Walk Score is 98. Shiny!

How about yours?

Via WebWorkerDaily.

Mos' wine time '09

Yes, ladies and gentleman, this past weekend was kick-off for wine time '09 on 11th Street in our little burg.

Here's what's happened:
B&L have dropped out for the year due to moves & timing complications.
M&P.S. have dropped in for the year.
Don Jaime, el zorro plateado, is in the hen-house.

M&P.S. put have crushed of central valley Grenache, and are also working with some Syrah juice from Lodi, aiming at a Rhone blend.

S&L and P have crushed together a 70% Merlot, 20% Cab. S., 10% Petite Sirah thang. And also a small batch of Muscat Alexandria - their first foray into white. All central valley CA grapes.

Along side the new mess we still have all of the S&L and P North Fork Cab. S. from 2008, and a carboy of Sangiovese from 2007, and a case or two of bottled 2006 Zin / Alacante blend. Oh, looks like we're gonna have to have another Puttanesca party in 2010!

Bird doo, grape skins, Labor Day

I walked out the front door yesterday just as Joanne was coming out of hers, and she said, Did you see?, and I said, The Orioles?, and she said, Yes!, and I said, You know, just last night I said to Lori, I have to ask Joanne if she's seen orioles back there, because first I saw some very gold finches and then I thought I saw orioles but worried, hey, maybe they're giant mutant gold finches?

Well, we went on and on and back and forth. And it's great. Don't know if they're still there, but they were for three or four days. And, Man! they love the grapes in our arbor. Wrastling around up there and eating out the insides of the grapes and shitting up a huge gooey white & lavender storm. They were even taking the grapes out of the arbor and back to the crab-apple above our favorite bench and were eating and psychodelicdoodooing there, too.

Can't remember what I was going to say about Labor Day. Let's take the afternoon off and try to remember.

Purple haze all in my eyes, uhh

September, it comes, the Jamboree

Kiddees, epst speptembster in bookwind - oomp meems do jamboree bepst beep spoon! Nu!?
September 11 & 12: Park Slope Bluegrass/Old-Time Jamboree @ Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. BSEC. Beeswax. Shampoo! Four strings six strings eight!

wishes for a fine frolic on friday...

to ye all...
via the living spectre that is Riley Dog @ Posterous,
Sotadic and Other Zones: The Cartography of Human Sexuality;
from the marvel that is Akkam's Razor,
the 50 Funniest Internet Infographics.
fyi, some content on that Coed site may be somewhat NSFW.

Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you read

Danny Kapilian (yes, Danny really looks like that, and there is always a swirling field of colored light surrounding him) and Judy Lieff (watch the trailer) gave us two books last month, Rick Perlstein's Nixonland and Joseph O'Neill's Netherland.

I started with Nixonland, which made me constantly angry, and was maybe 150 pages into it when S. Palin announced her resignation. Being immersed in what I was, I couldn't think of that move as anything other than the kick-off of her presidential campaign. Later that morning I tried reading more of Nixonland, flopped on the sand and mud by one of the Orient backwaters, and I just couldn't do it: just too much nastiness for too beautiful a place. More later.

And so I picked up Netherland, which I'll finish later this morning. Not funny. Fits on the same bookshelf as DeLillo's Falling Man. I'm at a point in the book where Hans has returned to London and is speaking about the differences in the London / English and the New York / American perception of September, 2001 and, more generally, life. Maybe those differences are mirrored by the NYT review of Netherland, above, and this Guardian review. Or maybe O'Neill's opinions are what the Guardian bloke all snarky.

happi holidaze!

some of us still be working on this Friday before the 4th, no biggie as ju ju works with great crew of people doing good work in this world, but he be looking forward to weekend with pals of many years duration as on Saddidey he heading up to D & M's aerie in the Berkeley hills to dine and watch fireworks (if our summertime fog doesn't materialize) and then come Sunnyday he planning get-together with Janey & Phil with plans to grill up some meaty goodness, play guitar and make a joyful noise (more like caterwauling) all afternoon.

Wishing alla ye an enjoyable weekend whatever it is you be up to, and here's a lovely little linky thing sent my way from Bruddah K,
R. McGuinn solo, Turn, Turn, Turn

performing one's civic duty...

jonny pea's pal Lee S. writes 'bout his jury duty adventures
in Superior Court, Oak-town, Ca.

good on ye, Lee, better thee than we...

Talkin' bout home made mayo

A friend I haven't seen in a bunch of years is in NY today from the Twin Cities, interviewing for a job that will move him back here. We got together for lunch at Mary's Fish Camp in the village, and who did we see there but Laura Comerford, Urban Home Free Range doyenne, who I hadn't seen in two or three years. Laura and her UHFR partner are working on a book. And here's one of her videos - chosen mos' specially because of the ukulele outro (and it's the first one on the site).

Random catch-up

Our lovely house-guests have headed back to Atlanta, and it's time to hit the groove again. Many wonderful things that won't be posted. But, randomly: a neighbor's construction project - Silverback Perch (Juju is not the only senior gorilla in the crowd); a new cousin's legal project - peer to patent; local photographer we met in a bar - Alex Bershaw.

(The Bike Thang at JJ Byrne was fun, and there was an orange and green fixie that Lori and I both ogled. Coinky dink, walking in lower Manhattan later that afternoon, I saw what had to be the same bike. I stopped the rider & asked. Yup, and a really big grin on his face.)

(Photo by Alex Bershaw)

some miscellaneous linkage from ju ju's desktop...

long been a fan of Chronicle columnist J. Carroll who delivered this to us yesterday and revisits the topic today;
then, there's an interesting story on the topic of self control provided us via the New Yorker's Jonah Lehrer entitled Don't!;
then, ya already know we pointed ye in the direction of the Morning News in yesterday's post, and that's where we found this piece on our (well, most of us in this category these days) penchant for collecting one thing or another;
and wrapping this up, something interesting and, mmmmmmmmm, well, hard to describe going on at Clusterflock today...
tiny wee bit of clarification necessary here:
today refers to the clusterflock posts of the 14th of May

p.s. ju ju's alter id jaypea be seriously considering resurrecting l'marquis d'monquis effort, currently in hiatus. Dis be sorta inspired by dinner conversation with friend last night 'bout all the hot air currently being expended on the topic of bush cadministration's torture policies,etc. without nary a word of the School of the Americas, and no, we not gonna get started on it here, but consider yerselves forewarned...