Freaks Invade Flatbush!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN YOU FREAKS!

Groovy Stuff To Be Found In The Streets Of Brooklyn

Midwood High School After the Upgrade

Despite all my squawking about the inaccessible park, the Midwood High School Science Annex project proves to be a nice improvement.

The Crowd Awaits the opening "Fright Night" @ P.S. 139 - 11/30/08

"Fringe" Invades Ditmas Park -11/30/08

Scenes from Rugby Road filming 11/30/08

NYC Opera Presents "Looking Forward" At Brooklyn College the Sunday, 11/2/08, 4:00 pm.

I have no idea that this event was not more widely promoted but I think this event would be of interest to many FP readers.

From the NYC Opera Website:

City Opera Music Director George Manahan and the City Opera Orchestra, Chorus and soloists present Looking Forward, a concert program focusing on 20th-century classical music by such pioneering geniuses as Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varèse, and Lukas Foss. Between each piece, Maestro Manahan will comment on how this vibrant music reveals some of the key artistic developments of the 20th century, including minimalism, electronic music, jazz, and neo-classicism. City Opera will perform this concert in each of the city’s five boroughs, beginning with Staten Island’s historic St. George Theatre and culminating in Manhattan’s newly-renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The broad geographic span of these concerts and other events heralds one of new General Manager Gerard Mortier’s key initiative: to extend City Opera’s reach to diverse areas and populations across the city.

NEW YORK CITY OPERA PRESENTS "LOOKING FORWARD"

City Opera Music Director George Manahan and the City Opera Orchestra, Chorus and soloists present Looking Forward, a concert program focusing on 20th-century classical music by such pioneering geniuses as Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Edgard Varèse, and Lukas Foss. Between each piece, Maestro Manahan will comment on how this vibrant music reveals some of the key artistic developments of the 20th century, including minimalism, electronic music, jazz, and neo-classicism. City Opera will perform this concert in each of the city’s five boroughs, beginning with Staten Island’s historic St. George Theatre and culminating in Manhattan’s newly-renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The broad geographic span of these concerts and other events heralds one of new General Manager Gerard Mortier’s key initiative: to extend City Opera’s reach to diverse areas and populations across the city.
Whitman Theater at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts
Brooklyn College Campus
2900 Campus Road, Brooklyn
Tickets: $25
On Sale Now

In fall 2008, New York City Opera begins an exciting year of transition as the company’s home at Lincoln Center, the New York State Theater, undergoes major renovations in preparation for the arrival of our new General Manager and Artistic Director, world-renowned opera visionary Gerard Mortier. During the renovations, City Opera will take to the road, bringing live music and provocative cultural conversation to more than fourteen different venues in all five boroughs of New York City. Through concerts, showcases, multi-media presentations, talks, panels, and film screenings, City Opera will celebrate opera’s surprisingly central role in contemporary culture, and will provide a preview of future seasons. Click on any of the above icons to learn more about the diverse programs City Opera is offering during the 2008-2009 season.

Beautiful Views of Flatbush

The view from the prayer vestibule: 

 Image by FlatbushPigeon

Our Lady of Refuge R.C. Church

2020 Foster Avenue,

Brooklyn, NY 11210

This Weekend: Third Root Community Health Center Grand Opening Celebration.

This just in from the folks at Third Root Community Health Center:

THIRD ROOT GRAND OPENING PARTY!

Third Root has now been open for 2 months, and it's time to celebrate! We are committed to accessible, collaborative, and empowering healthcare, providing massage therapy, acupuncture, yoga, herbal medicine, and community health workshops. Please join us for an afternoon of free services and herbal teas, and then a celebration at 5pm!

Sunday, November 2, 12-7pm
Third Root Community Health Center
380 Marlboro Road (Q to Cortelyou)

Note that all classes for the day will be cancelled.

Schedule for the day (all free of charge!):
Open Yoga Class 12-1pm
Community Acupuncture 1-3pm
Open Yoga Class 3.30-4.30pm

Music, Slideshow, and Treats 5-7pm
With Dance Alisa Dance, Mark Lee, and all of the Third Root providers! Please come and share in our Grand Opening! Mark it in your calendars, make your travel plans if you live outside of New York, and invite friends!

For more info call 718.940.9343 or email info@thirdroot.org

So Why Is This Much-Anticipated Park Off-Limits to the Community?

I don't know. To me, the above image depicts a bustling open-air community center where young kids play on the jungle gym while their parents compare notes with those of their playmates, teenagers practice their skateboard stunts, college students read over their notes before class & other local residents simply enjoy the day.  

There had been much local blog press about the Midwood High School Park over the lengthy course of its construction. Both Brooklyn Junction and yours truly kept our Flatbush neighbors updated at nearly every phase. See here & here.

Why, oh why then does the park look like this everyday since its opening in early September?

The short answer is depicted below:

Midwood HS park remains off-limits to the community two months after its completion

My guess as to the long answer to the question of why the open-space starved Flatbush community is being denied access to the new park has something to do with park maintenance or - lack thereof.  If this is the case, I (for one) have a few suggestions; Why not open the dilemma up to community? Perhaps there are residents, residents & more residents who wouldn't mind volunteering their time for clean up.  Maybe there is a Brooklyn College Student Organization that would want to help.  Or, maybe the Flatbush Development Corp., CAMBA or the Flatbush-Junction BID might offer some kind of solution.

At this point, the only people using the area are the students of PS 152 &/or PS 315 during their recess time.  While I'm very happy that the park is available to them for a short period of time during the school day, I can't see why these same neighborhood kids can't use the park after-school or on the weekends with their other friends and families.

FP would love to hear from the Flatbush community about the new park and our lack of access to it. Please leave a comment, explanation or suggestion if you are so moved.

LIVE 3rd Party Debate Tonight On C-Span. 9:00 pm.

Image from freeandequal.org

LIVE 3rd Party Debate Tonight, Ralph Nader (I) & Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party) meet in a 3rd Party debate, hosted by Free and Equal. This is Mr. Nader's fourth presidential campaign. Mr. Baldwin is a radio talk show host and Baptist Minister.

Image from C-Span.org

http://www.cspan.org/

This Weekend at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College

Re-live the Golden Age of Radio when music, sound effects, and great voices were used to create unforgettable theatrical dramas, as America's foremost radio theater company performs a double bill of science fiction classics. First, experience a live performance of Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, which terrified Americans with its harrowing account of a Martian invasion. Then journey back to a land that time forgot with Professor Challenger and his team of explorers in a new adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's prehistoric adventure, The Lost World.

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, adapted by Howard Koch; The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by John de Lancie and Nat Segaloff; Directed by John de Lancie .

For tickets to this and other Brooklyn Center performances visit:

http://www.brooklyncenteronline.org/

Gearing Up for the 2010 Census. Workers Needed.

I received this flyer in pdf form in my email this morning. Sorry that it's not really readable in this format. Visit the US Census website if your interested in working for them or know someone else who might be. Apply between 10/27/08 and 11/15/08. $18-$20/hr.

http://www.census.gov/2010censusjobs/index.php

Brooklyn Nostalgia: Ruby the Knish Man.

This in from life-long Brooklyn resident, Roy Becker:

Ruby serves a Canarsie local a hot knish outside Tilden H.S. in 1967

Roy gives a little history on the Knish Man:

"Ruby the Knish man was a street vendor who sold his mom's homemade knishes outside the schoolyards of Canarsie throughout the 60s & 70s. Ruby served anyone who could up the quarter. For those who couldn't pay up, Ruby would salt your hand for free! At least broke kids got to enjoy a little taste of something during recess."

Rumor has it that - unlike Roy Becker - Ruby became a very rich man off his schoolyard enterprise and retired to Florida. Becker is still working his butt off and adheres to a habit of salting his hand and licking it off several times each day.

The Pigeon welcomes comments from any of Ruby's former patrons.

Another Issue of Now Don't Go Telling Your Manhattan Friends: The Banya Wars heat up on the Kensington/Ditmas Park Border!

Coney Island Banya

602 Coney Island Avnue

Brooklyn, NY 11218

718.853.2525

Open 7 days a week . M - F 9:00 - Midnight . Sat - Sun 8:00 - Midnight

Touche Royal Baths...Take that Sandoony! Flatbush once again has a cozy little Banya of it's own and the Pigeon was lucky enough to be one of the newly renovated bath house's first customers under its new management. The establishment known as the "Coney Island Banya" is clean, affordable, welcoming and just what's in order for those of us barraged by the stresses of life in NYC. To top it off, the Banya also houses the excellent (and also very affordable) "Restaurant Hotspot" - which serves an array of international cuisine.

If you've been up on any of the neighborhood buzz, you know this banya has been the subject of some intrigue (and more intrigue) as it sat unused for a number of years. And if you're also up on your Pigeon trivia, you're well-aware that the Pigeon is no slouch when it comes to hedonism...So, of course I visited the banya four days after it re-opened. I have to say, the new owners were extremely welcoming to unknown patrons. (So much so that I even scored a free sample ventik/platza session from owner Stanley!)

Venik for sale displayed at the front counter

Now for the particulars:

Coney Island Banya offers both scorching wet and dry saunas, a fantastic eucalyptus-infused turkish bath, a comfortable jacuzzi and a small tile pool that is manually-fed chopped ice as needed. (Think you don't need an ice pool - ho, ho - then you certainly haven't experienced the heat of the dry sauna yet!) Massage and platza sessions available for an extra fee. As mentioned earlier, there is an excellent restaurant and juice bar on site.

The entrance fee to the banya is $25 for adults and $15 dollars for kids. Monday is women only day and is offered at a discounted price of $20. So what are you waiting for? Grab your bathing suit and get down there!

New to the banya scene and don't know what to expect? Click here for more about the experience!

Happy bathing.

~The Pige

Imagine Democracy