Monthly Archives

September 2011

Books

Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, a retelling by Peter Ackroyd

September 30, 2011

Somewhat embarrassingly, I missed reading any of “The Canterbury Tales” during high school and college, so I was very happy when Peter Ackroyd’s version, retelling the stories in modern English prose, made its way into the house. It provided compelling beach reading for two family members before I got it; as my husband put it, “sex and violence, what could be better?”

And of course he’s right. The Knight’s Tale, for example, is a story of friendship and chivalry (as appropriate for a knight). There’s also a love story, and another of continuing conflict between friends. I now understand the expression the patience of Griselda, whose cringe-inducing martyrdom to her husband is the subject of the Clerk’s Tale. As I read I realized that I had read versions of the stories elsewhere, including the Wife of Bath’s tale, and Chanticleer and the fox from the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.

Despite the occasional striking anachronism (“No way”) Ackroyd’s version shows why these stories and characters till speak to us. Ackroyd is a biographer and historian, and his version has substantial literary merit of its own. One example. The Franklin’s Prologue ends:

Thing that I speke, it moot be bare and pleyn.
I sleep nevere on the Mount of Pernaso,
Ne lerned Marcus Tullius Cithero.
Colours ne knowe I none, withouten drede,
But swiche colors as growen in the mede,
Or elles swich as men dye or peynte.
Colours of rethoryk ben to me queynte.

(The Norton Critical Edition p. 213.) Ackroyd renders those lines as:

Whatever I have to say will have to be plain and simple. I never slept on Mount Parnassus, or studied under Cicero. I know nothing about flourishes or styles. The only colours I know are those of the flowers in the field, or those used by the dyer. I know nothing about chiasmus or oxymoron. Those terms leave me cold.

And in fact, as Ackroyd tells it, the Franklin’s Tale includes a nice chiasmus.

What’s your favorite of Chaucer’s Tales? How do you feel about modernizing and updating the classics? Translations? Discuss in the comments.

Have a book you want me to know about? Email me at asbowie@gmail.com

From the Web

Books, Podcast

The Brooklyn Bugle Radio Hour #1: J. Courtney Sullivan

September 24, 2011

Author J. Courtney Sullivan joins Loscalzo (aka Homer Fink) on the inaugural edition of the Brooklyn Bugle Radio Hour.

Sullivan discusses both of her best sellers Commencement and Maine.

Lily King writes in the New York Times about Maine:

Sullivan’s observations of the generational changes in desire among women of the past century are particularly astute. Alice, who had wanted to be a painter in Paris, wound up living not far from the city she grew up in, the mother of three children. “Maggie,” she observes, “was the artist of the family. Sometimes Alice thought Maggie was what she herself might have become if only she had been born a generation or two later. Timing was everything when it came to being a woman — the moment you entered the world could seal your fate.”

At the end of the interview enjoy a tune from My Name is John Michael.

MP3 Podcast

From the Web

Events, Food

A Feast for the Senses at TASTE Williamsburg Greenpoint

September 23, 2011

A strip of Williamsburg waterfront was transformed into a smorgasbord for the senses on Sunday, as
some 2,000 visitors from Brooklyn and beyond streamed into the CitiStorage lot at 5 North 11th Street to sample tantalizing dishes and drinks, dance to live music, and watch a butcher demonstration-cum-performance piece at the 2nd annual TASTE Williamsburg Greenpoint benefit that raised approximately $75,000 for the Northside Town Hall Community and Cultural Center.

“There is a really good variety – I love it,” said Greenpoint resident Erin Lee. “It’s like I’ve been all over the world.”

Switching the venue from last year’s block-long spot on Williamsburg’s public streets to this year’s location on CitiStorage’s private property gave event organizers the ability to feature an expanded lineup of restaurants and bands, as well as the addition of alcoholic beverages and the culinary performance piece.

“Being in a private location as opposed to being on a city street allowed us a little more freedom to do what we had envisioned for year one – that big block party feel,” said TASTE co-chair Melissa Estro.

Armed with festival maps and tickets (day-of prices ranged from $40 for 10 tastes to $90 for unlimited samples), attendees navigated their way around the event’s food stands and beverage tents manned by nearly 60 local restaurants, bars and businesses that doled out everything from wild boar ribs to absinthe milkshakes. With food and drink in hand, festivalgoers snagged seats at picnic tables with a waterfront view, while others stood in front of the music stage or gathered around the butcher demo/performance piece.

“There is a diversity of food… and everybody has been really nice,” said DUMBO resident Jack Berkowitz. “And the (butcher) demonstration has been spectacular.”

The inclusion of the culinary performance piece gave event attendees an up-close look at the “farm to table” process during a fascinating two-hour demonstration/discussion that involved anatomy lessons, proper butchering techniques, cooking tips and audience participation. While butcher Andrew Dorsey from Williamsburg-based Marlow & Daughters meticulously carved up a 110-pound half pig and described the various ways each cut could be prepared and served, performance artist Carrie Ahern discussed the animal’s anatomy in an interactive lesson that quickly attracted a small crowd.

“I’m hoping to get people a little more connected to where their food comes from,” Ahern explained. “The process of how we get our food is so slow and complicated, while our experience with it is one of convenience.”

“It is something greater than just a cellophane-wrapped Styrofoam tray in a supermarket fridge,” Dorsey added. “I hope (the performance) will bring more of an appreciation for the similarities between us and the animals that we raise for our nutrition.”

The pair led their audience on a sensorial journey through the butchering process, with Ahern using former dancer Rebecca Smith and volunteers from the crowd to draw comparisons between the anatomies of pigs and humans. As Dorsey cut into each part of the animal, Ahern touched related spots on her human models and discussed the functions of various muscle groups for both pigs and people.

Spectators were also given the option of participating in a tactile exercise when Ahern passed out disposable gloves and invited them to probe the glistening cuts – exposed muscles and all – that Dorsey piled onto platters.

“I thought it felt really slimy and kinda gross, but when you cook it into bacon, it tastes really delicious,” said one of the youngest audience members, 10-year-old Adrian Korin from Greenpoint.

“I like the fact that we are trying to connect the animal to what is on our plate, so from the standpoint of agriculture, we’ll hopefully have a little more respect for how we handle and treat animals before we serve them up as food,” added the youth’s father, George Korin.

Some curious passersby paused to watch and then quickly walked away in disgust, while others were impressed by the knowledge imparted by Ahern and Dorsey.

“I thought it was fascinating,” said Manhattan resident Sarah Chiapetta. “I think it is really important for people to see where their food comes from and not just see a piece of bacon on a plate. I think it is fine to eat meat as long as you have that understanding.”

The culinary performance piece also gave festivalgoers a glimpse into the range of cultural programming offered by the Northside Town Hall non-profit that benefited from the TASTE fundraiser. Proceeds will be used to redevelop Williamsburg’s shuttered firehouse at 134 Wythe Avenue into a community center focused on art and activism. Formed by local advocacy groups Neighbors Allied for Good Growth and The People’s Firehouse, Inc. who are heading up the renovation project, the non-profit has already staged performances at the site, which will be reborn as the Northside Town Hall Community and Cultural Center once the proposed $2-million revamp is complete.

“We have this Northside Town Hall Arts Happening Series that is now in its second year… and when we were looking for artists, we started talking with Carrie Ahern and the TASTE was coming up,” said Northside Town Hall board member and art committee chair Jaclyn Moynahan. “Since it is all about food, what better place to present her work? It became this perfect pairing.”

Ahern will premiere her Borrowed Prey show, which incorporates elements of her TASTE performance, at Manhattan’s LAB Gallery in April 2012.

Photos by Lori Singlar for the Brooklyn Bugle


From the Web

Books

Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: In “It’s Hard not to Hate You” Val Frankel Looks Back at Anger

September 22, 2011

If love and hate are the ace and king of emotions, inseparable but different, then anger has to be the Queen of Spades. It’s a crucial emotion, but holding on to it isn’t healthy, as Brooklyn Heights resident author Valerie Frankel is reminded at the start of her hilarious new memoir, “It’s Hard not to Hate You.”

And let’s be clear, Frankel has much to be angry about, including her young husband’s death from a freak case of lung cancer, leaving her the widowed mother of two very young daughters; her own family history of cancer and an early cancer scare of her own; and the daily aggravations of life in a large city: traffic, crowds, and unfriendly neighbors.

Starting from her awkward teenage years, through her awkward dating years, and on through her awkward medical complications in her forties, Frankel reports swallowing her anger, humiliation, and rage at life’s mishaps. She keeps it in as hate. When a doctor tells her to reduce stress, she figures, “Doctor’s orders: The hate in me just had to come out.” Over the course of a year, Frankel learns to express her anger, and getting it out makes the feelings manageable. She’s probably healthier. This book is a nice side benefit for the rest of us.

In story after story, Frankel revels in who she hated (hates), and why. She elegantly intersperses academic studies about emotions with the efforts she has made over the years to overcome the hate. One of the many funny examples in the book is the suggestion a couples counselor makes to help Frankel have fights that accomplish something with her (second) husband. “Ask questions. Pretend you’re on Jeopardy! And put everything in the form of a question.” This doesn’t work out quite as the counselor intended when Frankel and her husband get into a fight at Key Food, but the result works. “We weren’t engaged in a productive conversation about our conflict. But we were laughing together, which, unlike fighting productively, we were very good at.” (What is my favorite scene on page 116?)

Examples abound: the BBoA, the past boyfriends, BFF parents, and I kept laughing out loud as I read. You will, too. Anyone who has ever been a teenage girl, or who is a teenage girl, or who lives with a teenage girl, or anticipates having one around in a few years, should head over to BookCourt for insights and some useful truths. Oh, and did I mention? It’s very FUNNY.

What’s your best technique for day-to-day coping? Discuss in the comments.

Have a book you want me to know about? Email me at asbowie@gmail.com.

From the Web

Events, Kids

NY Transit Museum Announces Subway Sleuths Fall Session

September 21, 2011

The Fall 2011 session of Subway Sleuths, the New York Transit Museum‘s after-school program for students with autism and working at the 4th/5th grade level, begins Tuesday, October 4. A required introductory morning of fun activities will be held on September 24. Click here for more information. The New York Times covered this innovative program in a story in August.

From the Web

Celebrity Residents, Events, Profiles

Andrew Dice Clay is Brooklyn Bound, and Not Missing a Beat

September 20, 2011

If Andrew Dice Clay wears his heart on his sleeve, then his love for Brooklyn is the aorta pumping blood through that heart. And on Saturday, October 1, for the first time in his decades long career, the famously lewd, famously New York comedian will finally come back home. Continue Reading…

From the Web

Books, Events

Brooklyn Book Festival 2011

September 19, 2011

Take a beautiful day, throngs of book lovers, approximately 100 panels highlighting the work of more than 260 writers, plunk it into the center of literary America and you have the Brooklyn Book Festival.

There was a lot to choose from, and that doesn’t include the nearly 150 vendors, including my favorite NYRB Classics and BookCourt. Others present included literary magazines, small presses, and local university presses, including NYU Press and the New School.

This correspondent attended two panels, and I learned something useful: I should have done more homework when I picked my panels. I attended the panel titled “Extreme Weather, Scarce Resources, and Climate Change” and heard a clever but perhaps not entirely helpful reframing analysis asserting that global warming, combined with the end of the Cold War and what one writer called a “neoliberal economic restructuring” is creating chaos in the tropical zones. Already tense hotspots such as the Horn of Africa are seeing increasing conflict. All three writers (Christian Parenti, Mark Hertsgaard, and Anna Lappe,) and the moderator are from The Nation, and while the Nation is a great magazine, it might have been more interesting to hear a more nuanced discussion of the political issues involved in facing climate change in the US.

Later on I went to the “Politically Incorrect Parenting” panel, which included Adam Mansbach, author of “Go the F**k to Sleep” as well as Ta-Nehisi Coates and Alice Bradley, and enjoyed that a lot more. The St. Francis screening room was full, and the audience ranged from infants to grandparents. The panel concluded that men are increasingly able to express their ambivalence about the joys of parenting. There was an interesting discussion about talking with kids about issues such as race and class. I can’t say I came away with any useful parenting tips, but it was very healthy to hear as a response to the question “What parenting mistakes have you made?” the answer of, approximately, well, I can’t really think of any – I take each day as it comes. My first response was to think, of course you’ve made mistakes, but kids are resilient, they’ll get over them. On further thought, though, this attitude seems about right for parenting each day: here’s where we are, how we got here doesn’t matter, it’s what we do from here that counts.

So what’s to complain about if a discussion makes you think? Altogether it was a very satisfactory Festival.

From the Web

Events, Food

Flavor, Fun and Food at the Brooklyn Local

September 17, 2011

If you haven’t already been there, head down to the Tobacco Warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park for the Brooklyn Local. A fundraiser for City Harvest, it’s a festival celebrating local foods: chocolate, pickles, mustards, cookies, beef, seafood, and pies and more pies.
“Everything is so delicious and I want to try it all because it’s going to such a good cause!” said Marcia Ely of Park Slope.

Vendors include: One Girl Cookies, Ditch Plains Drop In (with tiny lobster rolls), City ‘Lasses, Sour Puss Pickles, the Pie Corps, Four & Twenty Blackbirds as well as local stalwarts Damascus Bakery, Sahadi’s, Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies and Jacques Torres Chocolates. A full list of participating purveyors is here.

“We use my great-grandmother’s recipe,” said Bob McClure of McClure’s Pickles, which is in Detroit as well as Brooklyn (his brother runs the Detroit branch.) “I wanted to come today because I’m part of a growing food community, and I’ve known the organizers since we began the business five years ago. I can get our products out to people who’ve never tried them. And I meet new vendors here.”

Many vendors are regularly at the Brooklyn Flea, the New Amsterdam Market, or the Brooklyn Foodshed Market. But not all those locations are walkable from downtown Brooklyn, so it’s a good chance to try some new vendors. I especially liked the apple cider syrup I got from Morris Kitchen, and McClure’s garlic dill pickles. In addition to the food stands, there are cookbook signings, a children’s room and, for $60, a tasting tent. The Brooklyn Local will go on until 4:00 pm today.

From the Web

Books

Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “Tolstoy and the Purple Chair” by Nina Sankovitch

September 15, 2011

Grief is universal, but we each respond to a death in our own way. Nina Sankovitch’s response to the harrowing death of her older sister, Anne-Marie, from cancer at the age of 46, was to run.

Sankovitch describes herself as sundered in two after Anne-Marie’s death. Part of her couldn’t wait to leave the room with her sister’s deathbed, rushing their mother out the door. And part of her carried the moment of learning of her sister’s death everywhere, so that the news was always fresh, the grief always sharp. She filled her days with activities, not too hard to do with four young sons, until she realized that she couldn’t run away from the sorrow.

Sankovitch had to stop to confront it, and she did that by sitting really still, reading a complete book every single day for a year (and writing about each). She read mysteries, young adult books, literary works, short story collections, novellas. All of it was fiction. At the end of the year, during which she experienced extravagant highs, other griefs, and some sheer escape through what she had read, she found herself at peace.

Sankovitch provides vivid descriptions of her family life and the purple chair itself moves beyond prop into metaphor. Sankovitch is even better at describing the searing emotions she experienced during the illness and at the death of her sister. Each chapter has an epigraph from one of the books as a signal of the chapter’s topic; each chapter circles back to Sankovitch’s main theme, that books have provided her with a path out of an all-encompassing grief.

Sankovitch is still reading (fiction and non-fiction) and blogging; you can find out about her recent favorites here. Which books saved you in moments of trauma and grief? Please share your favorites in the comments.

From the Web

Books

Video: Author J. Courtney Sullivan Discusses Her Best Seller, Maine

September 15, 2011

Park Slope resident/ NYT best selling author J. Courtney Sullivan sits in with the Brooklyn Bugle to discuss her latest novel, Maine.

Find out how she wove dollhouses, worm farming and real New England history into the book in our video interview.

Sullivan first gained notoriety with her debut novel Commencement in 2009, while still working as an assistant at the New York Times.

From the Web