Celebrating Community
For my book club, I suggested we read Cormac McCarthy’s newest novel, The Passenger. I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, what you’d call a McCarthy expert. Over the years I’ve taught The Road to great success in high school creative writing classes, and it remains the first and only McCarthy novel I’ve read. I am, however, very aware […]
After ten years working for a Brooklyn community news-paper publisher I started my own business in 1988. My company, Select Mail, provided, as I dubbed it with my first sign, “Computerized Public Relations and Marketing.” This was somewhat of a new idea back then, as businesses were only just beginning to replace type-writers with desktop computers. My boss at the […]
Iwas struck by a conversation I had with my friendly UPS driver the other day. I told him that I had just gotten back from a two week vacation overseas, and he told me he just did the same. He had spent a week in Poland and a week in Belarus visiting family. I’ve spent most of my life not […]
Last month the Brooklyn Parks Department gave an Zoom update on the progress of the Red Hook ball fields and the four phase construction project. Phases one and two are complete with the exception of a soccer field that will be finished this summer. Davey Ives, the chief of staff of the Brooklyn Parks Department, gave the update. Ball fields […]
Red Hook Mutual Aid calls themselves an “independent corps of local volunteers that helps connect community members to resources, information, and supplies in an accessible format.” I spoke to a few of them about their volunteer work. “I moved to Red Hook during the pandemic and about three years ago, I was sitting in Sunny’s and a volunteer overheard my […]
Another French airplane for Zelensky (to go to the G7)” states a comic strip on the French weekly Canard Enchaîné, portraying Zelensky getting on an airbus and a French politician telling him “We’ve agreed that it’s just a loan.” Far from being just a comic strip, this little joke shows how airplane diplomacy is having an impact on the country’s […]
Destiny Mirabel was working in one of the greenhouses when I walked up to the Columbia Street farm one afternoon in late May. I had imagined the farm’s Distribution Manager clad in overalls, perhaps wearing a pair of knee high rubber boots and wiping a moist brow on their shirt sleeve as they walked up to introduce themselves. Instead, I […]
Iwas invited by a friend to attend, on the evening of May 19th, a banquet to honor the work of German artist Gregor Wiest at The Wall Gallery located at 41 Seabring Street in Red Hook. The Wall Gallery is two years old and has had 5 exhibitions. It was established by myself and Franz Landspersky, two compatible Red Hook […]
Brooklyn’s Regina Opera, known in recent years for some heavy lifting in productions such as Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and dramatic turns such as Puccini’s Il Tabarro, has ventured into the light side with their production of Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince. Romberg was a prolific tunesmith in the early days of Broadway, but he is best known for the three […]
Cruel to be Khanate. The biggest news of last month, perhaps tied with Tina Turner and the debt ceiling, was the first new album by “drone doom supergroup” (so says Wikipedia) Khanate in 14 years. To Be Cruel popped up without prophecy on streaming sites on May 19, with a CD and the usual assortment of buy-me-please limited-edition vinyl designs […]