Halloween isn’t for another week, but there are plenty of events going on before then. Here’s a list of Halloween-y events going on this weekend. Let us know if there’s anything happening that we’ve missed. Enjoy! Continue Reading →
Archive | October, 2009
Alex McCord on Castmate’s Pregnancy: It’s a Great Thing!
Cobble Hillbilly and Real Housewives of New York City castmember Alex McCord is happy that fellow housewife Bethenny Frankel is pregnant:
People Magazine: “One thing I found for me is that being a mom cut through the layers of priorities,” McCord told PEOPLE at the 26th Annual Princess Grace Awards Gala. “Being fully invested in your child helps you filter out some of that noise that just isn’t necessary and helps you to focus on what’s important.”
Frankel, who recently announced her engagement to boyfriend Jason Hoppy, is roughly two months pregnant, and McCord said she couldn’t be more thrilled for her friend.
Free book swap this Saturday
The Cobble Hill Association’s Book Swap that was postponed due to rain will take place this Saturday, October 24, at the Long Island College Hospital Sitting Park (at Henry and Pacific Streets) from 11 am to 3 pm. To get a book, all you have to do is bring a book (books will also be available for purchase for $1 or less). LICH staff members will also conduct free blood pressure screening and be available at an asthma information table at the park. If you’d like to volunteer, please contact Margaret Ablon or Judi Francis at 718-855-3982.
Gowanus Canal: an area of transition
Photo, New York Times.
The New York Times Magazine features a piece today on the Gowanus Canal, and the environmental debate surrounding it as of late. How great is the photo? It’s the canal like I’ve never seen it.
“It’s this area of transition,” a real estate broker named William Duke told me recently. It was a warm weekday evening in September, and we were standing at the trash-strewn terminus of a street that dead-ends into the waterway. “Between the old and the new, the natural world and the man-made world,” Duke went on. “It’s poetic.”
Jonathan Lethem Returns to the ‘Hood
From BK11201
Last night was an evening of celebrations. BookCourt’s expansion is celebrating it’s one year anniversary, and Jonathan Lethem’s newest novel, Chronic City, was released last week to mostly favorable reviews. In front of a packed house, the Lethem vs Chronic City tour brought Mr. Lethem back to the neighborhood for a reading, Q&A, book signing, followed by even more reading. The crowd was great, and the Q&A both humorous and informative. He also apologized to all Russian readers who might be offended by this book.
Jonathan is attempting to read the entire book, all 480 pages, over the course of eight nights. However, after two events, Mr. Lethem is only about 40 pages into it. With just five more stops before wrapping up back at BookCourt on December 4, don’t fret if you missed last night. The return promises to be an all-night marathon.
The Vanderbilt opens on Friday
The Vanderbilt, new venture from Saul Bolton of Saul, will open on Friday, October 23.
NY Times: THE VANDERBILT Saul Bolton, the chef and owner of Saul in Boerum Hill, will open this place, combining rustic and rich decor, on Oct. 23 with a menu of small plates and drinks. Ben Daitz is a partner; 570 Vanderbilt Avenue (Bergen Street), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, (718) 623-0570.
Open Thread Tuesday
Fixin’ to be a nice day, folks. What’s on your mind this this second-to-last week of October?
Cycle of Life
This photo just in from a CHB tipster. It suggests the cycle of life, eh?
Bullied Boerum Hill boy
The NY Post is running a story today on a boy named Eric Benson who claims he’s been getting beat up for the past two years at the New Horizons Middle School on Hoyt Street in Boerum Hill. The bullying escalated into Benson suffering a groin injury last spring that required surgery, and since then his guardians have been attempting to get him transferred to a new school, with no success, as New Horizons has deemed the incident “horseplay.” Anyone out there aware of the situation? Who’s telling the truth – the kid/his guardians or the school?
Eric’s grandma and uncle just want the boy placed in another school under what’s called a “safety transfer” — Department of Education-speak for “This school has a problem.”
The request was denied.
As eighth grade goes on without him, Eric sits, bored to tears, day after day in his grandma’s Cobble Hill living room, scrolling through the Internet and wishing he were in a classroom.
“The main thing now is I want to get in a school,” he told me.
The abuse “just happened out of the blue,” said Eric. “I didn’t know I was going to get hit.”
“What has to happen to get a safety transfer?” grandma Alice chimed in. “Does he have to get stabbed?”
Lethem leaves Brooklyn…
…in his latest novel, at least. Jonathan Lethem’s new book, “Chronic City,” tells the story of a man who lives in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. While this marks the third book in a row for Lethem that takes place outside of Brooklyn, Lethem says that it’s Manhattan from the perspective of a Brooklynite, in an interview with the Brooklyn Paper that took place at Building on Bond. “Chronic City” comes out tomorrow, October 20, when Lethem will read at BookCourt (163 Court Street) at 7pm.
Nabe Chatter