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Arts and Entertainment

It’s Back! Brooklyn Bridge Tattoo Special

May 9, 2011

On May 22,  folks at Brooklyn Tattoo [99 Smith Street] will be offering $28 Brooklyn Bridge Tattoo special to celebrate the historic span’s 128th anniversary.

The stunt started last year and was so successful they’ve decided to do it again.

Brooklyn Tattoo’s Adam Suerte comments via press release, ”We had a great time last year tattooing between 60-70 bridges on prideful residents of the County of Kings, and fans of the Bridge. I tattoo at least a half dozen Bridges on people every month, I would say it’s the most tattooed homage to Brooklyn and NY there is.”

This year adding to the festivities will be an accompanying art show at newly opened Urban Folk Art Gallery on May 20 from 7pm to 11pm.

If you’re not the tattooing type, there will also be signed and numbered “flash sheets” of this years designs available for purchase as well as commemorative t-shirts.


From the Web

Celebrity Residents, Music

Real Housewives of NYC Castmember Simon van Kempen’s Club Banger Unleashed on Unsuspecting World

April 26, 2011

It seems pretty logical that a guy who is best known for starring on a reality show about housewives, loves clothes shopping and wears leather pants would release a club banger.

Yup, Simon van Kempen former hotelier now social media maven and husband of Real Housewives of New York City’s Alex McCord makes his musical debut this week with a ditty called (naturally) “I Am Real”.   While it’s not “Tardy for the Party” or “Money Can’t Buy You Class”, van Kempen’s track could very easily have been a hit in the mid-80s alongside Haysi Fantayzee or Dead or Alive.   The track could be said to be the 21st century equivalent of “The Ballad of John and Yoko” with its cheeky jabs at the spoils of celebrity.

As for van Kempen, he thinks he more like  Jarvis Cocker than John Lennon.   In that case, might he offer a cover of Pulp’s “Common People” as his sophomore single?

From the Web

Food

Will Brooklyn Meatball Company Be America’s Next Great Restaurant?

April 25, 2011

NBC photo

The field was narrowed down to three on tonight’s edition of NBC’s America’s Next Great Restaurant. One of the finalists, who will get their own mini-chain of eateries, is Joe Galluzzi’s Brooklyn Meatball Company.

The restaurant, formerly known as Saucy Balls, will compete against Sudhir Kandula’s Indian themed Spice Coast and Jamawn Woods’ southern flavored Soul Daddy in next week’s finale. Food celebrities/judges/investors Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone, Steve Ells and Lorena Garcia will decide the winner. One of the three locations planned for the winning chain is at the South Street Seaport.

As for prognostication out of 3 experts interviewed by Nation’s Restaurant News, none picked Galluzzi’s concept as the winner.

Are you watching the show? Who do you think has the best shot at success?

From the Web

Sports

Hey Brooklyn – It’s Time to Take the Dodgers BACK!

April 21, 2011

For many it stil hurts to say it – “Los Angeles Dodgers”.

Today, that franchise is in such a mess that Major League Baseball announced that it is taking over the operation of the team. WTF? The last time this happened, MLB took over the Montreal Expos. Friends, the storied Dodger franchise is no Montreal Expos — or Washington Nationals for that matter.

The move was prompted after team owner Frank McCourt needed a $30 million dollar personal loan just to make payroll. This all hot on the heels of the very ugly beat down of a San Francisco Giants fan by Dodger “fans”.

The owner can’t run the team and the fans don’t deserve ’em.

We say BRING THE DODGERS BACK TO BROOKLYN.

Seriously.

As far fetched as this sounds, what do you think?

IT CAN BE DONE!!!

From the Web

Books

Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: A Visit From the Goon Squad

April 19, 2011

Fort Greene resident/author Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize today for her novel A Visit From the Goon Squad. She describes it a “Proust meets the Sopranos.” Some say it’s mixed up timeline feels like Back to the Future.

NY Daily News: “I thought, ‘How could a book work in the same decentralized yet powerful way as an excellent television show like ‘The Sopranos,'” said Egan, 48.

The Pulitzer committee praised Egan’s page-turner, calling it a “big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed.”

“It’s a crazy feeling,” Egan said of the honor. “It’s such a cliché, but it really does feel dreamlike.”

She said she received word of the prize when her publicist called her as she was eating lunch at the Fort Greene restaurant Olea.

“I was weeping and then I jumped up and told the waitress that we had to leave because I’ve just learned some news,” said Egan.

Have you read it? Discuss it here!


Photo by Pieter M. Van Hattem/Vistalux via jenniferegan.com

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: Elisapie

April 15, 2011

We welcome Canadian singer/songwriter Elisapie as the third performer in our Brooklyn Bugle Sessions.

She’s recently released her first solo album in Canada (out in the U.S. on June 7), There Will Be Stars and is currently on tour. Born to an Inuk mother and a father from Newfoundland, she was adopted by an Inuit family and grew up in the Great North of Canada.

Find out how her background influenced her music and more in our interview:

From the Web

News, Real Estate

Report: Marty Gets his Apple Store

January 14, 2011

All Marty Markowitz wants in Brooklyn is an Apple Store. Last spring, he created a “viral” video asking Apple honcho Steve Jobs to consider opening one of his glass Mac palaces here. Now, the New York Observer reports that Marty might get his wish. Continue Reading…

From the Web

Arts and Entertainment

For the Birds: Mike Tyson Returns to Brooklyn

January 9, 2011

Former heavyweight boxing champion/Brooklyn native Mike Tyson is returning home to Brooklyn.
He’ll be the star of Taking on Tyson a reality show on Animal Planet scheduled to premiere March 6.

Considering Tyson’s life has been a rollercoaster – his dominance of boxing in the 80s, a rape conviction, the Holyfield ear fiasco, his marriage to actress Robin Givens, his acting debut in The Hangover – following him around with a camera would surely produce some drama.

But this show is on Animal Planet, not ESPN or E! or Bravo. So, it will be focused on Tyson’s lifelong passion for racing pigeons. The six episode series will follow Tyson as he returns to Brownsville to prepare his birds for competition.

But the show won’t be all for…errr… about the birds.

“I have a pretty colorful past so you’re going to find out some interesting things about me too,” Tyson said at the recent Television Critics Association confab. “But the main insight is the birds and what they mean in our lives. Even though I might be out there fighting and getting locked up, this is what we do. This is no hobby.”

As a matter of fact as a teen Tyson gained notoriety in Brownsville for being a ferocious fighter after he beat the pulp out of a gang member who tortured and killed one of his birds.

When the show began filming last year, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes announced his office would be looking into whether or not the show violated gaming laws. Hynes was also said to be monitoring the show after PETA made claims of animal cruelty.

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: NEeMA

November 29, 2010

We kick off the first of our Brooklyn Bugle Sessions with Montreal born singer/songwriter NEeMA.

A frequent visitor and lover of Brooklyn Heights, she performs “Elsa’s Lullaby” from her second album , Watching You Think (available now on iTunes) while sitting on a bench outside of Middagh Street’s Van Sickel Salon.

Peformance video, produced by theshaltzes, after the jump. Continue Reading…

From the Web

Music

Brooklyn Bugle Sessions: Coby Grant Performs on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

October 27, 2010

Australian singer/songwriter Coby Grant is our latest guest on Brooklyn Bugle Sessions.  She’s in town for the big CMJ confab and will be playing live tonight (10/28) at the Rockwood Music Hall [196 Allen Street (between Houston and Stanton)].

In “honor” of Halloween, Coby performs “A Song About Me”  near the infamous “gates of Hell” at 10 Montague Terrace featured in 1977’s  horror masterpiece The Sentinel. Video after the jump. Continue Reading…

From the Web