Posts by Josh

Something For the Younger Crowd, and the Older, at Ted & Honey

By Josh, 7 July, 2010, 1 Comment

Image courtesy the Brooklyn Paper

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Ted & Honey (Clinton St. next to Cobble Hill Park) is now selling its own homemade baby food. If you’ve ever tried your own kid’s mush, you’ll understand why. “If you’re not willing to eat their food, then why should they?,” Chris “Ted” Jackson remarked to the paper. The baby food is just one of a few new or recent developments at T&H. Others include the end of the strange “closed Mondays” policy and the acquisition of a smoker — bacon for sandwiches is now smoked on premises. And soon, perhaps the biggest change: beer and wine, and an evening menu.
Ted tells us that the process of getting approval from the city to serve alcohol has been a long one, but that it is in its “final stages.” He’s expecting to be serving a menu of beers and wine by August; he’ll also be making beer cocktails — michelada, snakebite, and a variation on an Arnold Palmer he has invented. The evening menu will be slightly more restaurant-y, with a cheese platter, a smoked fish plate, hummus, and pizza baked with special artisanal dough.

Hudson Steals our Fire(works) — Again!

By Josh, 30 June, 2010, No Comment

Courtesy Macys.com

As Brooklyn Heights Blog reports, Macy’s 4th of July fireworks will be exploding over the Hudson river again, not the East River as so many of us might expect. Macy’s has provided a strange explanation that indicates the show was moved because there are new effects that are more suited to the Hudson. And perhaps some day it may return to the East River: “innovation may lead to a change of venue in order for us to give a maximum number of spectators the opportunity to see the show.”

Doesn’t really pass the smell test, does it? The fireworks are in the sky. A lot of people in Brooklyn and Manhattan get a good view of them when they’re over the East River. A lot of people in Manhattan and New Jersey get a good view of them when they’re over the Hudson. If Macy’s want to move it to the Hudson because they reckon more people will see them there, then just say that, and admit that the change is (until further notice) permanent. Don’t give us some baloney about how there are new effects that would work better over the Hudson than they would over the East River.

The fireworks are in the sky. The river they’re over doesn’t matter.

And here is where I admit a little bit of cynicism — after being shut out of the jam-packed Promenade a few times, I gave up on 4th of July in Brooklyn. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who tried to watch last year’s show from here in Brooklyn — what could you see? Some of it? Most? Any? None?

The Hobbit Doors of Dennet Place

By Josh, 24 June, 2010, No Comment

Gothamist picks up a Brooklyn Based story about the somewhat mysterious “Hobbit doors” of Dennet Place, a one-block stretch in Carroll Gardens where the houses have four-foot-tall entrances, complete with four-foot-tall doors, beneath the front stoops. Neither Gothamist nor Brooklyn Based came up with any conclusive information, but commenters at Gothamist seem to have it figured out:

“The doors were there for getting coal in and out of the cellar. ”

“They were probably put there for storage under the stairs.”

“Could the street level have been raised at some point..?”

“I believe those may be coffin doors – in the Victorian era it was unlucky to pass the dead through the front door.”

“These small doors are just a quick fix. ”

“That extra cost to build the building a little higher just wasn’t worth it to the developer.”

“Maybe there used to be stairs down to a larger door,”

…mystery solved. Next!

“Yellow Submarine” Outdoor Screening TONIGHT!

By Josh, 24 June, 2010, No Comment

As we reported, the classic animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine will be showing in the P.S. 29 schoolyard in just a few hours from now.

FREE Drive-In Movie Night at PS29
Thursday, June 24th at 8:30pm
PS29 Schoolyard (425 Henry Street, entrance on Kane Street0

BIG MOVIES FOR LITTLE KIDS and ROOFTOP FILMS present an outdoor screening in the school yard. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets and picnic baskets and get ready to sing along as the Fab Four save Pepperland from the evil Blue Meanies. (1968; rated G; color animation; 90 minutes)

This is event is co-sponsored by The Cobble Hill Association and the PS29 PTA
With thanks to The American Beverage Center of Cobble Hill and The Moxie Spot

For more information please visit: www.bigmoviesforlittlekids.blogspot.com

10 AM Father’s Day Photo Op for Douglas-Degraw Pool

By Josh, 19 June, 2010, 1 Comment

As you may know, the pool at Thomas Greene Park pool (Third Avenue between Douglas and Degraw) has been closed for the remainder of the year. Sunday at 10 AM, DD Pool lovers will be gathering for a press photo op in full swimming costume. Cameo appearance by Marty Markowitz. That’s right, if you’ve been wondering what Marty Markowitz looks like in his swim trunks, here’s your chance…

SUIT UP TO SAVE DOUBLE “D” POOL
Put on your bathing suit (bikinis, yes! Speedos, not so much) and join Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz (who will be donning his swimming trunks) and Councilmember Stephen Levin at a demonstration protesting the city’s decision to close of one Brooklyn’s most popular outdoor swimming pools!

Please bring inflatable kiddie pools, goggles, and inner tubes, beach balls and handmade, colorful (“SAVE OUR POOL”) signs to show the media and elected officials your support for the Douglass-Degraw pool, which serves thousands of local residents and inner city kids.

WHEN: Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 10:00 AM
WHERE: Thomas Greene Park in front of the Pool (Douglass Street between Nevins Street and 3rd Avenue)
WHO: All your neighbors including US Representative Yvette Clarke, Assembly Member Joan Millman, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, City Councilmember Stephen Levin, Boerum Hill Association, Friends of Douglass/Greene Park, Wyckoff Gardens Tenants’ Association, Gowanus Houses Tenants’ Association, Brooklyn Boulders, Homage Skateshop, PS 38, PS 261, Math and Science Middle School

Anarchy in the Upper New York Bay

By Josh, 17 June, 2010, No Comment

A follow up to our earlier post on Make Music New York — this Sunday, Governors Island will rechristen itself Punk Island, and from 10 AM to 5 PM over 130 bands will play very loud music on 17 stages. Starting at 11 AM, ferries to Punk Island will leave every 20 minutes from Fulton Ferry landing.

Could be just the Father’s Day treat for a dad who’s feeling a bit too … dad-like. On the other hand, it might leave him feeling even older and out of it than he had previously thought. Be careful.

Seven World Cup Wines, 80 Bucks

By Josh, 17 June, 2010, No Comment

Through June 27, Heights Chateau (123 Atlantic Avenue, between Henry and Clinton) is offering a seven-bottle sampler of wines from World Cup countries. Click the image for details on the selections.

Drinking your way through the World Cup is really the way to go, whether it’s with a game-appropriate bottle of wine at home or in a game-appropriate bar or restaurant, like the ones we told you about last week. You could also mix yourself a cocktail for each team in the tournament, as suggested in “Whirled Cups,” a project on another blog which I am now shamelessly self-promoting.

BoCoCa Arts Festival Starts Tomorrow

By Josh, 17 June, 2010, No Comment

From Friday, June 18 through Sunday the 27th, our neighborhoods will host the BoCoCa Arts Festival, a multifaceted, multi-venue, multi-disciplinary event. There will be plays, concerts and visual art in places you might expect (music at Ceol) and some you might not (sculpture at Vespa Properties). Some things you might consider “fun for the whole family” (Saturday at Carroll Park), others you might not (Michael McClure’s 1966 play “The Beard,” which was repeatedly shut down by obscenity police when it was first performed in San Francisco and Los Angeles). It’s an art bouillabaisse of sorts, to learn more about it visit the BoCoCa Arts Festival website.

Here is a strange little video that doesn’t tell you too much. But videos are fun to look at. So colorful.:

More Outdoor Music as Make Music New York hits DUMBO

By Josh, 14 June, 2010, No Comment

The Shinbone Alley Stilt Band, surely the greatest band on stilts

DUMBO is a little bit out of our territory, but there’s a ridiculous array of free music happening over there on Monday, June 21. As part of Make Music New York, live acts will be playing 10 venues around DUMBO — that’s 10 venues, with numerous performers at each. We count nearly 50 sets in all. Could this be… too much music? Cover your ears and run for your lives! It’s a music invasion!

(Invasion schedule, with description of invaders’ musical styles:

The Archway – under the Manhattan Bridge
1-1:45pm Lucky Chops brass band, blues/hip hop/jazz
2-2:45pm William B. Johnson’s Drumadics, percussion and horns
3:15-4:45pm DJs from halcyon the shop, DJ dance music
5-5:45pm Mass Appeal Percussion: Mantra Percussion, percussion with electronics
6:30-7:15pm French Horn Nation, french horns
7:30-9pm DJs from halcyon the shop, DJ dance music

Dumbo Arts Center – 30 Washington street
1:30-2:15pm Xenia Rubinos, experimental/pop/world
4:30-5:15pm Threefifty Duo, classical guitar duo
6-6:45pm Jody Redhage and Fire in July, classical/pop chamber vocal
7:30-8:15 Nathan W. McKee, live electronic

The Main Street portion of Brooklyn Bridge Park
10-10:45am Shake, Rattle & Roll, hands on family drumming (FAMILY PERFORMANCE)
11:30-12:15 Oran Etkin: Wake Up Clarinet!, children’s music/jazz (FAMILY PERFORMANCE)
1-1:45pm Famous Accordion Orchestra, quartet, from Bach to Kraftwerk
2:30-3:15pm Threeds, oboe trio
4-4:45pm Valerie Plauché, participatory singing
5:30-6:15pm UpBeat NYC, kids/world/jazz/classical
7-7:45pm Shinbone alley stilt band, jazz band on stilts
8:30-9:15pm William B. Johnson’s Drumadics, percussion and horns

Bubby’s – 1 Main Street
12-12:45 Rona Figueroa, rock/alternative/indie
1-1:45pm Dylan Rice, singer/songwriter
6-6:45pm Lale Sayoko and Kenji Williams, belly dance with violinist
7-7:45pm Raya brass band, world music
8-8:45pm Pete Sturman, singer/songwriter

Galapagos – 16 Main St
2pm Scott Alexander, nonrepetitive pop
3pm The Mighty Third Rail, spoken word/hip hop
4pm Joanna Parson, comedy singer/songwriter
5pm copal, violin and cello / world rhythms

Jacques Torres Chocolate – 66 Water Street
11-11:45am Floanne, French chansons
12:15-1:15 Hilliard Greene, jazz/bass
1:30-2:30 Fiona Crawford, singer
3-4pm Daniel Reyes Llinas, jazz quartet
5-5:45pm Vlada Tomova and Chris Rael, Balkan
6:30-7:15pm Issa Cabrera, jazz/latin/world

Bargemusic – 2 Old Fulton Street
7-8:30pm Voxare String Quartet, instrumental classical

Pier one – Brooklyn Bridge Park
12-12:45 Carolyn Enger, classical piano
1-1:45pm Tomasz Halat, classical piano
2-2:45pm Opera for Humanity, opera
4:30-5:15pm Gamelan Son of Lion, Javanese-Balinese percussion

Fulton Ferry Landing – 2 Old Fulton Street
3-3:45pm The Petr Cancura Band, sax drums and guitar trio
4-4:45pm House of Waters, world music – hammered dulcimer
5-5:45pm Dylan Rice, singer/songwriter
6-6:45pm Voices of Gotham, a cappella choir
9-9:30pm Cassis & the Sympathies, alternative pop

68 Jay St Bar at the corner of Jay and Water Street
6 & 9:30pm The Strung Out String Band, Appalachian old time jigs
7pm The Maybelles, “Up tempo soulful country”
8pm Will Scott, Americana Hill Country Blues
9pm Special Mystery Guest

You have been warned.)

Comfort Food for Uncomfortable Times

By Josh, 27 May, 2010, 1 Comment

Watty & Meg, courtesy burger blog A Hamburger Today

Brownstoner reports that the space at 548 Court St. (near 9th St.) will become a burger restaurant. This would be at least the fourth new burger place round our way; JB’s Burger on Smith (between Douglass and Degraw), Ultimate Burgers and Dogs on Degraw (at Clinton, in the former Chicory space) and the more stylish (or at least more expensive) Henry Public (Henry St. between Atlantic and Pacific, in a former TV repair store). There are certainly others. I’ve yet to try the burger at Watty & Meg, but my wife loved hers. And who cares if it’s a chain — Five Guys on Montague is always great.

My own favorite, alas, was Pit Stop — in summers past there was nothing like a Pit Stop burger, a glass of rosé, a few mosquitos, and the pleasant din of children throwing petanque balls at each other. But those days are over.

What’s your pick for the best burger in the neighborhood?