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Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: The Kin

June 28, 2011

Aussie brothers Thorald and Isaac Koren along with a former subway performer/percussionist known only as Shakerleg make up the NYC based combo The Kin.

In our latest Brooklyn Bugle Session they perform their own “Downtown Train” along with a rousing cover of Bill Withers’ “Who is He and What is He to You”.

Check out our interview with them and learn more about the unique way they’ve invented to spread the word about their music. It might just surprise you!

The Kin are currently playing a residency at Rockwood Music Hall [196 Allen Street, Manhattan] every Thursday.

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Events, LGBT

Straight Guy Embraces Gay Pride Parade [Video]

June 27, 2011

What a glorious day on beautiful 5th Avenue on Sunday June 26th, 2011. If the annual Gay Pride Gala Celebration wasn’t enough to get your juices flowing, the newly passed gay marriage bill brought the festivities to a crescendo.

Individuals from all walks of life came out in large numbers to celebrate. Governor Andrew Cuomo lead the parade followed by many a New York politician. The political tide is turning rapidly on sentiment regarding gay marriage and it doesn’t take a clairvoyant to appreciate that this issue will be significant in upcoming elections especially in New York State.

The latest statistics estimate as many as 70% of individuals 18 to 34 approve of same sex marriage. Enough of the politics, please enjoy my attempt to capture the euphoria associated with this wonderful day in super New York City.

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Food

The Whole Schmear – Brooklyn’s Best Bagels Open Thread

June 15, 2011

La Bagel Delight crew with Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz

With all the recent fuss about Montreal style bagel joints opening around the borough, we figured it was time to get back to basics and talk real Brooklyn bagels.

What makes a good bagel joint? Well, first off, a shop with a steady supply of hot ‘n’ fresh bagels shoots right to the top of any list. Then there’s the variety factor – how may toppings and spreads do they offer? For some folks, hours are important because they want their fix anytime the urge hits. But most of all, size matters. Brooklynites like ’em big.

So as you contemplate your favorite bagel spot, check out  Yelp’s Top 10 list to get things started and then comment away below!

1705 86th St
Brooklyn, NY 11214
(800) 303-3001

 

2. Terrace Bagels
224 Prospect Park W
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 768-3943

3. Montague Street Bagels
108 Montague St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 237-2512

4. Dyker Park Hot Bagels
713 86th St
Brooklyn, NY 11228
(718) 836-6336

5. Bagel Boy
8002 3rd Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11209
(718) 748-0366


6. La Bagel Delight
252 7th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 768-6107 

7. La Bagel Delight
90 Court St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 522-0520

8. The Bagel Store
754 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 782-5856

9. Bergen Bagels
473 Bergen St
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 789-7600

10. Court Street Bagels
181 Court St
Brooklyn, NY 11201
(718) 624-3972

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: Locksley

June 12, 2011


Even if you’re not an avid follower of new music and bands, you’ve heard a Locksley song. “The Whip”, performed in our Brooklyn Bugle Session, has been used on many TV shows, movie trailers and commercials thanks in part to a licensing deal with MTV.

As for the song, “It’s about cool cars and Indiana Jones,” vocalist/guitarist Jesse Laz tells us half-jokingly in our Brooklyn Bugle interview. But seriously folks he adds, “It’s about a guy who’s under his woman’s thumb. ‘Whipped’ some might call it.”

The band was formed in 2003 while most of its current members were attending high school in Madison, Wisconsin.

They went their separate ways for college but quickly realized that “college sucks” and moved to Brooklyn to pursue life as a band. Jesse’s younger brother Jordan joined them three years later fresh out of high school.

Watch our full interview with Locksley here:

Bonus Track!

The band perform Bob Marley’s “I Need You So” –

Connect with the band:

Website: http://www.locksley.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/locksleymusic

Twitter: http://twitter.com/locksleymusic

 

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Food

Open Thread: Kings of Pizza – Beyond Brooklyn’s Best

June 7, 2011

By now you’re totally up to speed on last week’s “Pizza Summit” between TV personality/real estate developer/Obama’s punchline Donald Trump and  1/2 term Alaska governor/TV personality/not a presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  After eating at a La Famiglia chain pizzeria, Palin commented that it was “real New York pizza.”

Anyone who is even remotely from New York knows that’s as far from the truth as you can get.  The statement sent pizza aficionados into a tizzy – most notably  The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart.   The comic also noted that Trump had double stacked his slices and ate with a fork — something the Trumpster defended  to pizza blog Slice as a weight loss tactic.

In Stewart’s rant he mentions several of NYC’s best pizzerias including many in Brooklyn.

We all know the obvious go-to pizza places here:

  • Grimaldi’s Pizza DUMBO (Fulton Ferry Landing District for you sticklers)
  • Di Fara Pizza Midwood
  • L&B Spumoni Gardens Bensonhurst
  • Totonno’s Pizza  Coney Island
  • Lucali’s Carroll Gardens

But aside from these “Joe DiMaggio/Mickey Mantles” of abeetz we’re pretty sure there are some unsung heroes in Brooklyn.  For us, it’s My Little Pizzeria on Court Street in Brooklyn Heights or Sal’s Pizzeria in Cobble Hill.  Neither are the coal oven Nirvana that some of Brooklyn’s superstars are but they are solid above average go-to places.

What pizzerias would you put on an “undiscovered” list?  Comment away!

From the Web

Events, LGBT

Drag Rugby and More at Brooklyn Pride This Weekend

June 7, 2011

Photo: Brooklyn Borough President's Office

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and local LGBT community members raised the rainbow flag over Borough Hall this afternoon to kick off Pride Week. Brooklyn will host many events including a “Drag Rugby” Saturday, 5pm, at the Old Stone House (JJ Byrne Park, between 3rd and 4th Streets and 4th and 5th Avenues).

Beep Markowitz also took the opportunity of today’s ceremony to make his stand on Marriage Equality, saying, “We are engaged in a fundamental right for equal rights—the right of same-sex couples to enter in legal marriages,” said BP Markowitz. “Now I admit there was a time a few years ago when I was on the wrong side of this issue. But then it became clear to me—as it should be to everyone else—that love is love! It really is that simple.”

Here’s the official press release for Brooklyn Pride:

BROOKLYN PRIDE’S 15TH ANNUAL PRIDE CELEBRATION: “THE MANY FACES OF PRIDE” SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

 

Visit www.brooklynpride.org and www.lgbtbrooklyn.org for updates.

 

MONDAY, JUNE 6

7:00pm Interfaith Service

Union Temple of Brooklyn (17 Eastern Parkway)

A spiritual group comprised of many faiths comes together to a worship service of the LGBT community.

Speakers: Rabbi Linda Henry Goodman, Revs. Ann Kansfield & Jennifer Aull and Bishop Zachary Jones

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 9

Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street)

Pride Reception (by invitation only)

LGBT art exhibit, “Lights of Color,” in the Brooklyn Borough Hall Community Room

Hosted by the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 10

PRIDE Fundraising Dance at Langston’s

$10. All door proceeds go to Brooklyn Pride

10:00pm–4:00am

1073 Atlantic Avenue (between Classon and Franklin Avenues).

Sponsored and hosted by Club Langston

Co-Hosted by: GMAD (Gay Men of African Descent), Brooklyn Men (K)onnect and Shades of Lavender

 

SATURDAY, JUNE 11

Pride Day 2011

Prospect Park at Bartel-Pritchard Square

15th Street and Prospect Park West

Pride 5K Fun Run (registration begins at 8:00am)

A fun event for the LGBT community and friends in a festive, healthy and inclusive environment. A portion of the proceeds go to a local LGBT organization.

 

Multicultural Festival (11:00am–6:00pm)

It’s more than your usual street fair! Featuring stage performances, family zone, shopping and great food. Most importantly, it provides opportunities for the community to learn about community organizations, issues and business.

 

Kids Space (12:00pm–4:00pm)

Kids come join the fun at Brooklyn Pride with your own space! We will have sing a song, puppet making workshops, story time, bookmaking and much, much more!

 

Drag Rugby Game (5:00pm)

Old Stone House (JJ Byrne Park, between 3rd and 4th Streets and 4th and 5th Avenues)

Brooklyn Women’s Rugby and the Gotham Knight’s RFCs have teamed up with Brooklyn Pride to present a Drag Rugby Game at the Old Stone House. The game is free, but donations to Brooklyn Pride are always welcome. Come down for a fun time and a great sport.

 

5th Avenue Pride Happy Hour (5:00pm–7:00pm)

Brooklyn Pride and the Park Slope 5th Avenue BID are co-sponsoring the first ever 5th Avenue Pride Happy Hour. For two hours, participating bars and restaurants will offer food and drink discounts. Sit and grab a bite to eat while you wait for the parade festivities to start.

 

Night Pride Parade (7:30pm kickoff)

5th Avenue – from 14th Street to Sterling Place

Join the fun with the first “Night Time Parade in the Northeast,” a celebration of our pride and heritage

Grand Marshals: Revs. Ann Kansfield & Jennifer Aull – Greenpoint Reformed Church; Carl Siciliano, executive director, Ali Forney Center

 

 

THE BROOKLYN COMMUNITY PRIDE CENTER WILL BE SPONSORING THE FOLLOWING EVENTS:

 

MONDAY, JUNE 6

8:00pm, Brooklyn Arts Exchange (421 Fifth Avenue)

Benefit reading of “Sorry…” a new play with music by Steve Fisher inspired by the life of Tyler Clementi, the gay 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after his roommate live-streamed him having an intimate encounter with another young man. Donation: $50, includes wine and cheese reception with the cast and creative team. Tickets: http://lgbtbrooklyn.givezooks.com/events/benefit-reading-of-sorry

 

7:00-11:00pm, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (53 Prospect Park West)

In partnership with and held at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, BCPC will host “Out in Brooklyn,” a teen dance with food, music and safe solidarity for queer and questioning youth. Free.

 

SATURDAY, JUNE 11

Pride Day 2011 (Prospect Park at Bartel-Pritchard Square)

 

11:00am-6:00pm, Brooklyn Community Pride Center at the Festival. Representatives and volunteers from BCPC will be available to answer your questions about the Center and its programs.

 

1:00pm-4:00pm, Family Fun & Frolic in the Park. Join other LGBT families for an array of exciting activities.

 

7:30pm-9:00pm, Pride Parade. Join representatives from the Brooklyn Community Pride Center and partnering organizations as we march down 5th Avenue!

 

9:00pm-2:00am, Brooklyn Lyceum (227 4th Avenue between President and Union Streets)

Post Parade Pride Party. DJ, cash bar, prizes and a live performance by Brooklyn Indie band Tayisha Busay. $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Tickets: http://lgbtbrooklyn.givezooks.com/events/post-parade-pride-party

 

SUNDAY, JUNE 12

11:00am, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (53 Prospect Park West)

“Nurturing Pride in Brooklyn.” Brooklyn Community Pride Center Executive Director Marianne Nicolosi will share the growing pains and pleasures of establishing the borough’s first LGBTQ Center.

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 23

7:00am-9:00pm, Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture (53 Prospect Park West)

“Getting the Love You Want,” an introductory couple’s workshop for the Brooklyn LGBT community sponsored by BCPC.  For additional information, contact:jzimmerman@lgbtbrooklyn.org

 

From the Web

Music

Remembering Gil Scott Heron 1949 – 2011

May 28, 2011

Gil Scott-Heron, musician, has died at the age of 62.  He was best known for his seminal 1970 spoken word hit “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”   However it’s his influence on other performers – notably the hip hop movement that began in the mid 1970s  that will prove to be his legacy.

The release last year of his  first new music in 16 years — I’m New Here — was praiseworthy. While none of the tracks on that collection initially struck me as “Winter in America” or “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” did back-in-the-day, the mere fact that after a few stints in prison (drug related) GSH comes back with a collection of new music worthy of multiple listens is astounding. No, strike that… it’s testament to the strength of his vision and creativity.

Gil Scott-Heron will be remembered as a National Treasure who should have had many more admirers. Perhaps in death, hundreds of new, younger fans will discover this American genius. Undoubtedly,  some of his followers notably Common and Mos Def who are totally conscious and vocal about the influence the man has had on their music will continue to spread the word.  As for his impact on Hip Hop, Heron told New York Magazine in 2008, “I ain’t saying I didn’t invent rapping. I just cannot recall the circumstances.”

The article also quoted Princeton’s Cornel West who said, “His example has been a profound inspiration to me and so many others, in terms of fusing the musical with the prophetic and being willing to take a risk or pay a cost in order to lay bare some unsettling truths with such artistic sophistication.”

NPR’s All Things Considered profiles Gil last year.

Alan Light profiled him for Mother Jones last year.

 

From the Web

Existential Stuff, News

Hipster Rides Scooter on BQE

May 25, 2011

On our way back from Queens this afternoon around 1pm, we spotted a hipster on a scooter passing us on the right. Yes, traffic was crawling as usual. But still, what was a hipster (and another one ahead of him) rushing in that fashion on a major highway?

Turns out there was a car fire about 1/4 mile dead ahead of us and it appears they wanted to get some photos. FDNY was not on the scene yet but at least the two hepcats got to be the first to check-in from it on Foursquare errr sumthin’. And not for nuthin’ but if you see their pics online let us know!

From the Web

Books

Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn by Suleiman Osman

May 24, 2011

I’ve just started reading The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn by Suleiman Osman.   In the book, the Park Slope native now an Assistant Professor of American Studies at George Washington University, explores “Brownstoners,” the group of new arrivals to Brooklyn  who in the mid 20th century renovated old tenements, flophouses and townhouses.   Characterizing them as “urban pioneers” or “gentrifiers” is too simplistic, Osman says, and his book delves into who this group really were and how they interacted with others in their new neighborhoods.

Have you read the book? Discuss in the comments below.

Deliberately Considered notes about the book:

The model set in Brooklyn Heights — meticulous attention to period architectural detail, the maintenance of unique small-scale neighborhood amenities, an emphasis on “local color,” etc. — soon spread to other areas of what was once called South Brooklyn. Those areas are now known by often manufactured neighborhood identities that leapfrog over twentieth-century urban development to retrieve an array of ostensibly pre-modern references, for example, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens, both named for imagined aristocratic founding fathers while at the same time evoking Brooklyn’s rural past. In the process, the brownstoners’ (as they still call themselves) ideal of incremental growth clashed with both the managerial impulses of the welfare state as well as the parochialism of urban machine politics. It is to Osman’s credit that in recounting this history he takes pains to objectively represent the positions of all parties, even the much-maligned Svengali of modern urbanism, Robert Moses.

Bookforum writes:

The book might surprise readers living in the Age of Bloomberg: As Osman tells it, the gentrification of Brooklyn was the work not of banks, developers, and speculators, but of a grassroots movement waging war against those very forces. The movement began as a neo-romantic quest for authenticity. As of the late 1940s, members of a highly educated postindustrial middle class (lawyers, teachers, editors, architects) began to discover the borough’s once grand but increasingly dilapidated Victorian neighborhoods. Fashioning themselves pioneers in an “urban wilderness,” they saw Brooklyn’s distinctive brownstone-fronted townhouses as refuges from their monolithically modern Manhattan offices. “In a kinetic modern city,” Osman writes, “brownstones were anchors, their heavy facades giving new white-collar workers a sense of rootedness and permanence in a transient urban environment.”

Excerpt from The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn:

They first began to appear in Brooklyn Heights in the late 1940s. Artists, lawyers, bankers and other white-collar workers migrated to the aging Gold Coast district restoring old townhouses and moving into run-down tenements. By the 1960s, white-collar professionals priced out from Manhattan flooded into surrounding areas in search of cheap housing. “More and more people now are packing up, moving out of their aseptic uptown apartments,” explained New York about “brownstone fever” in 1969, “making new homes out of old, forlorn but solid and roomy brownstones, restoring them to pristine glory.”

As brownstoners spilled past the boundaries of Brooklyn Heights, they created new names for revitalizing blocks. “Cobble Hill” was named in 1958. “Boerum Hill” and “Carroll Gardens” soon followed. By the mid 1970s, few people remembered the name South Brooklyn. In brochures, newspapers, and real estate guides, the area had become “Brownstone Brooklyn” – a constellation of revitalized townhouse districts like Clinton Hill, Park Slope and Prospect Heights.

Brownstoners, however, believed they were involved in something more than a renovation fad. “Brownstoning,” as they called it, was a cultural revolt against “sameness,” conformity and bureaucracy. In a city that was increasingly technocratic, Boerum Hill was a “real neighborhood,” a vestige of an “authentic community” lost in a modernizing society. “On Wyckoff Street, an eccentric block of three-story workmen’s cottages have been rescued by young homemakers and turned into a happy, house-proud community,” described The Boerum Hill Times in 1974. “Indeed it’s quite possible to feel, while walking tree-lined streets, that one has broken through the time barrier and landed smack in the middle of the 19th century. Gentle ghosts of ladies in hoops skirts and gentlemen in frock coats can almost be seen among the leafy shadows.” (more)

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: MyNameisJohnMichael

May 23, 2011

The first question most interviewers ask John Michael Rouchell of the band MyNameisJohnMichael, usually, is about the 52 songs he wrote in a year on a dare. Sure it’s interesting but the primary reason for the initial salvo is the fact that it’s in the first paragraph of his official bio:

MyNameIsJohnMichael is a 6 piece indie rock band born and raised in New Orleans, which began as a solo project in 2008 when lead singer John Michael Rouchell accepted a friendly challenge to write, record, and release 52 songs in one year.

Easy question and lazy journos aside, it opened up a broader conversation about songwriting during our Brooklyn Bugle Session interview.  For example, in a week where the biggest karoke competition on the planet is about to crown a new American Idol it begs the question, “is songwriting dead?”

“I ask myself that question every morning.  I worry a lot that the concept of the song is dead, that it’s antiquated that people don’t care about stories.”

As a performer, John Michael presents as a mix of Elvis Costello, Joe Cocker, Billy Bragg as channeled by Thom Yorke. Out of all those, it’s Costello who appears to have influenced Rouchell’s wordplay the most — especially in songs like “Her, I Think” and his latest single, “Orphan”.

Rouchell readily admits to being a fan of Costello’s and has the singer’s TV show, Spectacle,  to thank for inspiring him to write one of the songs on 52.

Lou Reed discussed songwriting on the program and the flack he received for the dark themes he explored on his seminal album Berlin. Reed’s take on his choice of subjects, Rouchell says, “if Shakespeare can do it why can’t I?”

And that’s when he decided, “I’m going to kill someone off in a song. This is gonna be great.”  The result – the final song on 52 “Althea and the Company Store“, which took him 10 minutes to write.  However, it’s the one that sticks with him the most from that year of writing.

Diving deeper into the Costello connection, it’s his 1983 album Punch the Clock (which featured legendary jazz trumpeter Chet Baker) that is the most sonically similar to MyNameisJohnMichael. Makes sense since a key component of the band is its horn section.

John Michael says the idea for brass came from a conversation with  band producer Raymond Richards.   He wondered, what sonic element would  ground the band’s music in New Orleans and give it  a sense of place, much like Dylan’s harmonica puts you in 1960s Greenwich Village or  Clarence Clemmons’ sax roots Springsteen’s music in New Jersey?

“Brass. It was the color I grew up hearing,” Rouchell says. “So it just made sense.”

Stripped down to guitar and vocal for our Brooklyn Bugle Session Rouchell performs  “When I’m Older”. This intimate performance gives the song, which Rouchell says is more of a pop tune on record, a bittersweet spin.

Rouchell  says he’s “insanely proud” of the band’s untitled new album, out later this year, which mixes classic New Orleans R&B with indie and the band’s anthemic trademark sound.

From the Web