Live Music at Le Grand Dakar

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This month... Infrequent Seams will resume in full force tonight, beginning a First and Third Thursdays schedule at Le Grand Dakar in Brooklyn.

And, next week, on Wednesday, a group of musicians from Germany, Sweden, Taiwan, India, Scotland, Kosovo, Serbia, Mexico, Colombia, and USA, will perform. We've been working together at Art OMI, a musicians residency upstate near Hudson.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 (8:00 pm - 11 pm) Artists from Music OMI Residency present an evening of improvised and semi-composed music www.artomi.org Ivo Bol, electronics + laptop + samples Vlady Bystrov, saxophone + electronics + clarinet Ziggy Campbell, guitar + laptop + electronics Julianne Carney, violin Monika Heidemann, voice + compositions Jasna Jovicevic, soprano saxophone + flute Udo Moll, trumpet + laptop

Thursday, August 21, 2008 (8:00 - 11 PM) Infrequent Seams Series::A new twice-monthly series of edgy, creative music, co-curated by James Ilgenfritz and Julianne Carney Pete Robbins Group James Ilgenfritz / Chris Welcome / Mike Pride Ideal Bread: Josh Sinton, music of Steve Lacy

Le Grand Dakar Restaurant www.legranddakar.com 285 Grand Avenue @ Clifton Place (near Lafayette), Clinton Hill, Bklyn. G train to Classon Avenue – head north on Lafayette, turn right on Grand; C to Clinton/Washington – head north on Washington, turn right on Lafayette, right again on Grand.

Don't Forget About Frank White!

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Frank White is, hands down, one of the most beautiful establishments in the neighborhood. They have a huge back patio area, and are now open later (7pm!) for people who want to swing in after work. mingling

They also have a greatly expanded menu!!! This is happy news:

Sandwiches, smoothies, waffles (which they've had for awhile and which are a-m-a-z-i-n-g). We must patronize our Atlantic Ave pioneers!

(Frank White is located on Atlantic Ave at St. James Pl.)

Book Store Coming???

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Been hearing rumors that the mysterious former bodega on Grand and Clifton will be a bookstore! Commenters are already hoping they serve decent coffee, too, so they can avoid the line at Choice. what will it be???

CHC posted some good snaps and hypotheses a few weeks ago.

Most intriguing, for me, is this children's drawing of a chameleon in the window: drawing

Any significance?

Exhibition at Clinton Hill Gallery

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What: Art Exhibition - "Portraits in Blue - Exploring the Relationship of Visuals and Jazz", part of the 8th Annual JVC Jazz Festival, produced by the Clinton Hill Art Gallery and IAM Inc. (Incorporation of Artists on the Move). Featuring 30 artists at the first/only Brooklyn location to host the artwork of the festival.
Where: Clinton Hill Art Gallery, located at 154a Vanderbilt Avenue in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn
Time: Gallery summer hours: Friday 3-8PM, Saturday 2-8PM, and Sunday 12-3PM. This exhibition will be displayed until the end of August.

This event is free to the public.

Contact: 718 852 0227 or 718 857 0074

August Events at Tillie's

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(a little late!)

August 08 at Tillie’s of Brooklyn

248 DeKalb Avenue

Brooklyn NY 11205

718 783-6140

www.tilliesofbrooklyn.com

Music

Seven Sessions with Nick Noir

Friday

8/1/08

8//15/08

8/29/08

7 p.m.

No cover

7 Summer Sessions will feature the best acoustic talent in NYC showcased at Tillies of Brooklyn in fort Greene during select Friday evenings in August and September 2008. Each evening will be themed and feature several artists’ performances. Planned evenings include: New York Muse; Spoken Word and Song; Political Satire; Alt Percussion; Cupids’ Corner, Love Songs; Jazz/Folk Fusion; and Emerging NYC Poets.

Seating is first come, first serve.

Nick Noir, the host of 7 Summer Sessions, has released over 22 recordings in various genres and on different recording labels. The prolific artist / producer's most recent, released on May 6 2008, is titled The Ultimate Most Relaxing Classical Chill in the Universe, for orchestral samples & synthesizers, on Denon Records/ Savoy. Nick Noir recently completed recording 13 Sonnets (lyrics by W. Shakespeare) set to alternative folk music, available this summer on Dark Celebrity Records and on Itunes. For more information see: www.sevensessions.com or info@sevensessions.com.

Friday

8/22/08

Chris Norris and Perpetual Motion Machine

8 p.m.

High-energy original compositions from progressive jazz band based in Melville, Long Island.

Chris Norris, sax

Andrew Ahr, guitar

Chris Davison, drums

Bob Dzieman, bass

Cover: $5; $3 with student I.D.

Art

The Exposure Project

8/18/08 – 9/20/08

This collective composed of Ben Alper, Anastasia Cazabon, Eric Watts, and Adam Marcinek showcases a diverse array of emerging photography. Since forming in 2005, The Exposure Project has released two self-published books, hosted several exhibitions throughout the greater Boston area and created a online photography blog dedicated to expanding the discourse of contemporary photography. The Exposure Project showcases the work of its members as well as projects from numerous photographers and will release its third self-published book this August in conjunction with the show at Tillie’s. The new issue will include photographs by Ben Alper, Anastasia Cazabon, Lauren Edwards, Kate Emerson, Adam Marcinek, Fran Osborn-Blaschke, Justin James Reed and Eric Watts. In addition, Jörg Colberg (founder and editor of the Conscientious blog) has written an illuminating forward to accompany the photographs.

For more information see www.theexposureproject.com or www.theexposureproject.blogspot.com

Reception

Monday 8/18/08

7 – 9p.m.

Open Mic

Open Mic will be suspended until mid-September.

For more information call Patricia Mulcahy at 718 783-6140 or mail@tilliesofbrooklyn.com.

'Hood in the News

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Some of this is old news now, since I drafted it up ages ago!  Sorry.

  • Compost used to nourish local community gardens [AM NY]
  • Composting in Ft Greene Park [Urbanite]
  • Newest crime: stealing iron gates! [NY Times]
  • CH G-train crusader [NY Observer]
  • Monthly dance party at Tamboril [TropicalFete]
  • Fallen woman saved on G train tracks [NY1]
  • Digital food kitchen in Bed-Stuy, first of its kind! [ABC news]
  • Progress for BAM Cultural District [Curbed]
  • Developer who tore down Associated on Myrtle may back out of affordable housing [Metro NY] (Apparently this guy will likely run for mayor! We need to be careful!)

Cabbie Shot

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Most of you have probably already seen this, but a cab driver was shot in the face early yesterday morning at Lafayette and Franklin. Some disturbing information has been updated, including that the suspects are three young women who hopped in the taxi on Flatbush Ave in Fort Greene, and the driver may lose both of his eyes.

Robbing someone is one thing, and it's wrong.  But imagining a group of young women acting so violently, in a way that prevents the driver from returning to his livelihood, really disgusts me.  What the fuck goes through people's heads?  It is worth a few bucks to ruin someone's life?

I try to stay neutral here in this space, but I just feel so bad that someone in our community did something like this to an innocent person.

(Also, can't find a single piece of info in the news about the shooting on Myrtle and Washington Pk!)

Links:

ABC News

Gothamist

TONIGHT: PACC Mixer at Moe's

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The PACC folks are nice, and they're having a little network-and-mingle event at Moe's this eveing:

What's Good? Thursdays is Moe's Happy Hour, so that means: $1 off all well drinks $5 frozen mojitos 2 for 1 on all draft beer...not including Guinness

Later on (around 8pm) an eclectic soul dj (DJ Dayo) will be spinning some lounge music, and there will be a selection of movies.

Where?

We're Mixing it up at Moe's

80 Lafayette Ave (at the corner of So.Portland/Near Fulton Street) Brooklyn, NY 11217

(near Atlantic Terminal and the C train, and B25,26,52,38 and 41)

When?

Thursday 6:30PM until we leave!

Peaches

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(ed. note: BrooklynJay has resurfaced with this review of Peaches in Bed-Stuy!)

Peaches.

393 Lewis Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11233

http://peachesbrooklyn.com/

I realize that Peaches is in Bed-Stuy and is quite a bit of distance away from Clinton Hill, it was like a 10-15 minute drive for me, but the food, the atmosphere and the service makes it a worthwhile trip. I really enjoyed my meals there - there were so many choices on the menu I went back to back nights just to try as much of the food as I can.

Peaches is owned by Craig and Ben of the infamous Smoke Joint and Little Piggy Market in Ft. Green. They took their years of experience in the restaurant business and finally opened up their own "sit down and be waited on" place using a similar formula that made the Smoke Joint and Little Piggy Market so successful - good home style food using fresh ingredients at good prices.

The indoor space (there's outdoor seating as well in a fenced in private area) is really pretty and nice with very high ceilings and lots of lights creating a very comfortable and welcoming feeling. I saw families there, people who were there for a romantic evening out, friends just getting together for a meal and to catch up - and it all worked. They all happily coexisted in the same space and everyone was having a good time.

The menu is very "New Orleans influenced" but will probably change as different items come into and fall out of season. It's priced very reasonable as there isn't any menu item over $20 and quite a few choices in and around the $10-15 range.

Sorry for the bad food photos but it's tough to take pictures of food and make it look good without staging the food properly. (Though the kitchen does do a good job on presentation don't you think?)

We've got the (l to r and top to bottom) Ceasar Salad, the BBQ Shrimp, the Fried Green Tomatoes, the Beef Short Ribs, the Brickhouse Chicken, the Gumbo and for dessert, the Mixed Berry Shortcake.

I really like Peaches. Everything I had was very good. I definitely think it's a great addition to the dining scene in Brooklyn.

What's other readers experience with Peaches?

Flea Stuff

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A commenter recently asked me why I haven't given any coverage to the flea controversies. Really, it's just because everyone else in NYC has already written about it. I'm not really interested in repeating stuff that's been posted in a zillion other places -- I'd rather observe quirky stuff and solve neighborhood mysteries -- but here is a link from the NY Times. When I first heard there would be a meeting to protest the flea, I assumed it would be an old-timer, new-timer thing. However, it sounds like the meeting was driven by the members of the church across the street. Some of their gripes sound legit -- having flea visitors use their restroom facilities and having parking taken up. Surely there could be a resolution there -- resident-only parking stickers (or not -- do the parishioners have the right to park over flea shoppers?), or welcome flea visitors into the church's facilities for a donation (hey, you have to pay in Coney Island to use most bathrooms! Why not raise some cash for the church?). One complaint is that church attendance has dropped since the flea began. Has the church polled it's non-attending members to see if this is the case? Perhaps it's due to the fact that people are out of town during the summer?

I wasn't at the meeting, but it does seem that the flea management has taken a lot of steps to accommodate feedback and complaints -- security, clean-up, an ATM, more food vendors. Plus, it seems like local businesses, especially restaurants, are benefiting from all the neighborhood visitors.

I'm not sure the chastisement of having the flea on the sabbath is all that valid. I mean, it's not the sabbath for everyone, and I'm just not cool with feeling like religious morales morals (whoops! sorry, multitasking at work! ) are being imposed on me outside of the church building.

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Dog Fight

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A neighbor informed me that a large dog attacked a small dog last night, near Clinton and Lafayette. The owner of the large dog could not make his/her dog release the small dog, and it was killed. The scene attracted cops and a large crowd. I'm told it was very graphic and disturbing. I don't even want to think about this, being the owner of a small dog.

Dog owners -- we are responsible for our pets. PLEASE exercise caution if you have an aggressive dog. No one should own a dog they can't control. Be a good neighbor, please. We must be accountable for the animals we house in our community.

Wallabout Memorial

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I'm feeling totally in love with city living today. Recently, I came across this on Washington Ave up near the Navy Yard:

in memory A small, subtle memorial that one can quietly come across if they're paying close attention. This little planter is certainly one of my favorite finds in the city.

I hope the loved ones of Reggie and Arlaine know that their small gesture gave me some peace today.