Red Hook Star-Revue, March 2020

the red hook

THE GHOSTS OF CONOVER STREET - BACK PAGE

STAR REVUE

MARCH 2020 INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

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THE NEW VOICE OF NEW YORK THIS WAS ONCE A LINHART TOWN BY JACK GRACE

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plus our usual irreverent take on life in these here parts...

the red hook

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March 2020

Revel vs. the mob

I am Brooklyn born and have lived in Red Hook my entire life. It’s hard for me to get out much anymore so my granddaughter brings me my papers. You’re one of my favorites since it is local.

I would like to make suggestion for a local story that I think would be funny, historical and relative to what’s been going on here in a few Brooklyn neighborhoods and even Queens, my granddaughter tells me. They are doing a test run.

My granddaughter is always on her phone and showed me a very funny YouTube video about a local Red Hook dispute between some neighbors, local tough Italian tough guys and a corporation, which just moved its operations here.

The Revel scooter company moved to Red Hook and has taken many parking spaces away from local residents by parking their electric scooters all over. My granddaughter complains too every time she comes to visit. She calls them black and blue roaches that are all over.

I don’t drive anymore but I can remember the hell of looking for parking space. That’s why I think this story would really resonate with your readership. Many New Yorkers who own cars can relate.

This video says that some local neighbors, maybe some with Mafia connections through the decades here took care of a few of the scooters one night and since then they haven’t parked any more scooters on their block any more.

It reminds me of the old days how the Italians here in Red Hook and Carroll Gardens used to resolve problems. Very funny the way they tell the story in this video. And the mob element is another reason why I think it is a good story.

Who doesn’t like a good NY mafia story?

Well anyway that is my suggestion and my only information I can give you is the name of the scooter company: Revel Scooters. My granddaughter says they have a big garage by the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The name of the video is “In Red Hook... The Godfather Rolls Old School.” She said the channel name is 2JohnnyT. I hope it can be of use. It would really make me laugh if I saw my suggestion in print, but even if you don’t use it, keep up the good work because I really enjoy reading your paper with my coffee. - Dean Negri

SSTTAARR RREEEVVVUUUEEE d hook

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send them to george@ redhookstar.com or post on our website, www.star-revue.com.

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LETTERS

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RIGHT

Support local business

igh I love, love, love your paper! I just wantdHto shout out a well wa anger y to the RED HOOK (re)Zo ne have & THE VIL known staple in Red Hook whom we all know p. 5 and THREE PA LAGE GES OF ST ORIES AN adopted into our lives and hearts. I am talking about Stop PICTURES D , STARTIN G PAGE 34 1 Supermarket at 368 Van Brunt Street. That store has been Why are Th A there since I moved in in 1979! These owners came into Tenant Righe DemS Backi n ts ske ptic? / g play a few years ago but already had us at welcome. They p. 9 are a wonderful family from the father to sons. They are Neolib eralthough kind, respectful, cater to our needs and even they s the st agg pa vs. ty

by Roderi p. 22 hererare a ton of pa ck Thomas rtistop es that sprin don’t sell breakfast or fresh meat they are a great SPEC are a tug ofone g up (and war betwee disappear) n your FO options, yo throughou VALENTIAL MO (fear ur bed, tak t the city. In of missing eout and Ne clubb Ne INE shop. Sam and Mike are the best! Theseallguys rock! ou ing or bar-hI wish w t) York, plenty tflix usually and peste opping, bu the takeout, ring indec being a sta ofC weO eken VdsERAG 's t feeling up isiveness. with Netfli ple and co beat enou lounge ch There are x in bed fee mfortable E gh for a nig airs and mo so many on lin e. gs, If wh yo ht them continued success. Please continue to support vies, itsthem. u’re too laz ile curing out, head Mama D’s over to a ne your FOMO y to D goa Snea out w .

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“I’m here” Hello NYC.” ld make it to New Yor placed coc inkling ligh tall brown I texted. Ou ktail glasse k, tablish t over the Roderick: walked ont tside of the ment, I sto s, neon bar ; Tell me abo o a set of an od waiting cozy esit was like ut mu you ffle HB my r and d chatter of Mama D: Sneaky Spe I O show. As first cockta listening to Mama D’s guests and akeasy. the doo I took a sip il and the lowy Sneaky Spe then Mama of r. In fron couches, the sank into one of Ma akeasy is a D opened ma D’s pilevening was host of an, petite but t of me was a smilin The DJ beg g young wo off to a gre with a stro an her set, at start. mng and com scratching refreshing edic person on real rec departure alords, a from the You tube playlis t DJ’s

ting AnxietApp y...

Roses fo r Oldst ers...

And m uch, much m ore

Sincerely, a customer for life, Miriam Rivera

Likes Acme's Smoked Fish

NEW! c art

by Rishoons a

I read Erin's article about Acme Smoked Fish and Harry ...on P ages 15 Thru 1 Brownstein.

8 SCOTT P I want to tell you about Mr. Brownstein. He was my sister’sFAFFMAN IS EVER YWH neighbor when they lived on East 49th Street in Brooklyn. Interview page 25 Do ERE es NYC really need g Both Mr. Mrs. Brownstein were wonderful people. My sisraveya rd and go lf cours s ter was a young widow at 34 with two children. es?

Yates, page 3 So many times he would bring her lox, herring, white fish etc. He always said eat, eat.

I just wanted to mention it. Wonderful article. sta rts pa ge 23 Very truly yours, Marilyn Fisher (continued on

page 34

What ha ppened songs? to all the prot Jack Gr ace won est ders Long Ry de Marti Jo rs, Don Dixo n and nes, High Les Sans women Culott , es and Nick Lo we George Grella on Jaso n Mora n Show

Re: “Red Hook truckers”

A most excellent nostalgic look back when life was simpler and everything added up. I think the man crossing the street in front of 150 Van Dyke is the man who shot Liberty Valance. He was the bravest of them all. Keep on truckin’. Hope to read about some more trips to yesteryear

by Jumpin’ Joe Enright soon! -Peter S.

Re: “A disappointing endorsement in State Senate race” by Brett Yates

It was very sad that Senator Montgomery did not endorse her loyal staff member, Jason Salmon, who is well known and liked in the district. He grew up in Clinton Hill and has much support in the area where Tremaine Wright is totally unknown. Jason represents a young progressive future that is not kissing the ring of the political establishment.

-Lucy Koteen

We work hard to present you with an informative and entertaining package of news, events and advertising that makes living in the city a little more intimate and friendly.

We are also here to listen to you.

You can send us letters to the editor that we gladly print, we accept op-ed submissions on interesting topics, and if you have ideas for stories or tips we can use, please let us know. And if you have gonzo ideas about journalism, definitely get in touch!

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OP:ED

You can call us much of the time at

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Brooklyn has a new threat: PREDATORS

T

by Matt Lazarus

he acronym stands for Previously-Unknown DataDriven Transformer. PREDATORs are the latest “clever” scheme from real estate developers, like Mr. Dov Hertz. He’s found a way to avoid oversight by using an aggressively boring name for a new idea, calling it a multi-level distribution center (MLD).

Hertz just bought the historic Sunset Industrial Park. He’s working to evict all the tenants and tear it down, so he can slip in his MLD before anyone notices. So let me explain the three pillars of what makes a PREDATOR, how Dov Hertz’s MLD fits the mold, and why that’s a problem for all of us.

Previously unknown It’s impossible to ask someone their thoughts about Dov Hertz’s MLD without first explaining the concept, so please bear with me here.

The proposed MLD is a massive trucking facility. The fourstory, 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center would be the largest of its kind, built to serve full-size tractortrailers. It would occupy more than 22 football fields of land between 19th and 21st street.

Red Hook Star-Revue

I can’t cite precedent on what this will do to traffic, infrastructure, local business, property values, or air quality, because this is the first of its kind, but a second, similar facility is coming to Red Hook. Both are Dov Hertz’s projects, and both are in the 38th City Council District.

Councilman Carlos Menchaca refuses to comment on them, despite repeated emails to his office. You might also wonder what close Mencca ally, Community Board 7 President Cesar Zuniga, thinks about all this. I can’t get him on the phone.

Data-driven Data-driven thinking is part of a disturbing trend that creates “solutions” via algorithm, with absolutely no thought to the tangible effects on actual people.

Dov Hertz’s MLD is “data-driven” as well: he took a list of all existing obstacles to projects and reverse-engineered a concept to bypass them. The new project is complicated, which makes politicians and journalists avoid it like the plague. It’s novel, so there’s no playbook on how to op-

But probably the best way to grab our attention is by email, and here are some email addresses:

Publisher george@redhookstar.com Asst. Editor brettayates@gmail.com Music Editor michaelcobb70@gmail.com Advertising liz@redhookstar.com jamie@redhookstar.com George Grella george@georgegrella.org Erin DeGregorio erin@redhookstar.com Nathan Weiser nathan.weiser@yahoo.com Music Listings will.goyankees@gmail.com Circulation george@redhookstar.com FOR EDITORIAL, ADVERTISING OR EMPLOYMENT INQUIRIES, email george@redhookstar.com.

(continued on page 16) www.star-revue.com

March 2020, Page 3

1 2 in

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March 2020

YATES'S VIEW

The BQX runs on astroturf

A

t a Community Board 6 meeting on January 30, when representatives from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the Department of Transportation showed up in Red Hook to discuss the planned Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX), so many neighborhood residents stood up to register their objections that, after a while, it seemed easier to take a poll.

How many people opposed the streetcar? Nearly every hand in the room shot up. Still, the EDC visited Red Hook again only two weeks later, for a BQX “workshop” at PS 676, with snazzy posters and plenty of cheerful representatives eager to answer questions and offer information. The campaign continues. Don’t be surprised if real estate kingpin Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management enlists an army of Russian bots to push the project on social media.

For now, his Friends of the BQX, the developer-funded advocacy group that pitched the trolley to Mayor de Blasio (whose campaign nonprofit accepted $245,000 from the organization’s backers) in January 2016, is the next best thing. See, most recently, “BQX streetcar could be the great transit equalizer,” an op-ed published on February 13 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Its authors were Darold Burgess, the resident council president at NYCHA’s Ingersoll Houses, and Christopher Torres, the new executive director of the Friends of the BQX. Readers who’ve followed the light rail proposal closely through the years may remember an earlier, similar oped in Crain’s New York Business, “Why Housing Authority tenants desire a streetcar,” published back in January 2017. The byline purported that seven NYCHA resident association presidents in Brooklyn and Queens, including Frances Brown and Lillie Marshall of the Red Hook Houses East and West, had collectively authored the piece. The tenant leaders argued that the BQX would offer “safe, reliable and affordable” passage to new “employment possibilities” on the waterfront for job-starved public housing residents in outer-borough subway deserts.

Retraction needed?

If any Crain’s devotee happened to attend the BQX meeting in Red Hook on January 30, they may have experienced some surprise when Lillie Marshall – still the head of the Red Hook Houses West Tenants Association – began to rail against the project.

“It cannot be brought to Columbia Street, where the Red Hook Houses are. That’s a no. No way, no how. We do not need it; we do not want it,” she insisted.

Marshall warned that Red Hook Houses tenants would protest in the street. “We will fight. I have thousands in Red Hook, and we’ll be out there,” she promised.

Red Hook Star-Revue

At Marshall’s tenants association meeting on February 11, she passed out a petition. “We strongly oppose efforts by New York City to place the extraordinary expensive taxpayer funded BQX light rail in Red Hook,” it read. The other tenants passed the sheet around, and it collected signatures.

I asked Marshall after the meeting whether her opinion of the BQX – which planners had previously considered putting on Van Brunt Street, farther from the NYCHA campus – had changed since 2017. She assured me that she had opposed the project “from day one.” Advocates had sought her support, but she had told them to “stay out of my face.” When I showed her the Crain’s article, she called it a “lie.”

I don’t know how a pro-BQX op-ed

by Marshall ended up in print three years ago. By one method or another, I suppose Crain’s must have secured some kind of permission to use her name – although, if so, it seems that the magazine’s staff may not have clearly communicated the message of the obviously prewritten piece, which bears the unmistakable mark of the Friends of the BQX. In any case, the article evidently does not reflect Marshall’s actual views.

Frances Brown of the Red Hook Houses East, for what it’s worth, continues to support the project. (The Friends of the BQX have also pulled in Jill Eisenhard, the executive director of the nonprofit Red Hook Initiative, as an emblem of the group’s concern for the Red Hook Houses, giving her a seat on the Executive Board, from which she only recently resigned).

NYCHA tenants remain vital to the BQX’s public relations campaign, which mentions them in nearly all of its promotional materials. Given the streetcar’s conceptual origin as a mechanism to boost waterfront property values in Williamsburg and Long Island City, its advocates must fight their hardest to reframe what many skeptical New Yorkers regard as a $2.7 billion giveaway to developers from the public coffers. With enough persuasion, we may come to understand that the function of the BQX is not to accessorize yuppie condos but, in fact, to serve public housing – the precise opposite. And after all that NYCHA tenants have endured, how could anyone deny them the assistance of light rail?

Another important group is small business owners, whom BQX critics are likely to regard with more warmth and sympathy than they do big-time developers. If the BQX can bring new customers to lovable mom-and-pop shops and immigrant entrepreneurs (though with higher rents to match), we may forget that other, less appealing forces will benefit even more amply.

BQX courts local restaurant On February 7, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the BQX workshop at

Borough Hall (“City makes latest push for BQX streetcar”). “Some business owners and advocates see the BQX as an opportunity to boost economic activity, produce jobs and provide a new means of transportation to neighborhoods short of subway lines, such as Red Hook,” Charlie Innis wrote.

Tellingly, however, the Eagle’s only supporting quotation from a business owner arrived “through a spokesperson for the project,” not directly from an event attendee. Specifically, the article attributed an endorsement to Dawn Skeete (albeit with a misspelled last name), the owner of Jam’it Bistro in Red Hook.

“It’s my hope that the BQX would be a major boon for us and other small businesses in our neighborhood and along the route. It’ll increase foot traffic and allow more people to get here by mass transit,” Skeete supposedly stated.

I talked to Skeete a few days after the article’s publication, and she explained her somewhat complicated history with the streetcar proposal, which began when a representative from the Friends of the BQX visited her restaurant last year.

“When I first opened, this young lady approached me and asked me if I would go to a meeting at City Hall to talk about this project. And I’m trying to figure out, what does this have to do with me? I just got here,” Skeete recounted. “I’m working with limited

"The BQX has a long list of supporters in the business community, but they’re mostly enterprises like Brooklyn Brewery and Nitehawk Cinema – more symbols of gentrification" information.”

Skeete agreed to attend what she – a newcomer to Red Hook, who commutes to her restaurant from Westbury, Long Island, and hopes to become more immersed in the local community – understood to be a gathering for small business owners.

The BQX advocate typed a statement for her to read, which Skeete revised before reciting the testimony at City Hall. She watched as another business owner in the area offered a BQX endorsement with very similar wording to the comment with which she’d been provided.

Months later, Skeete received an

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email from Karp Strategies, an urban planning consultancy firm that was apparently helping to coordinate the upcoming BQX workshop in Red Hook. They placed a catering order, asking Skeete to provide the food for the event.

Soon after, the representative from the Friends of the BQX suddenly returned to Jam’it Bistro. Skeete asked whether she had referred her for the catering job, but evidently the woman hadn’t known about the gig. Still, she wanted another favor from Skeete.

“About half an hour after she left, she sent me a text message: ‘Hey Dawn, I’m wondering if we could submit this quote on your behalf for an article on the BQX.’ And she sent me the quote,” Skeete recalled. “What did I get myself into?”

The woman didn’t offer any kind of bribe – Skeete wouldn’t have accepted money if it’d been on the table – but Skeete was willing to assist her as a kindness, as long as it wouldn’t require her to misrepresent her own stance on the BQX. Again, she insisted upon a revision of the proposed quotation to better reflect her true feelings about the project, adding the phrase “It’s my hope that” to the beginning of the endorsement.

In fact, Skeete does hope that the BQX will help her restaurant if it’s built, but she’s not sure it’ll play out that way. The quotation in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle isn’t a lie – it just doesn’t fully show how skeptical Skeete remains. She’s still figuring out where she really stands.

Right now, Jam’it Bistro survives largely on its catering business. Skeete explained that, at the northern end of Red Hook, Columbia Street sees almost no foot traffic at all. The BQX, which would pass directly in front of the restaurant, would provide some “visibility,” but Skeete isn’t persuaded that riders will want to get off the trolley in Red Hook to visit her restaurant.

What if, instead of turning her block into a thriving pedestrian district, the streetcar only makes it harder to get to Jam’it Bistro by car?

“I just can’t visualize it running on this street here. Where are cars going to park?” Skeete wondered. “There’s a lot of uncertainties.”

The BQX has a long list of supporters in the business community, but they’re mostly enterprises like Brooklyn Brewery and Nitehawk Cinema – more symbols of gentrification. To win hearts and minds, the Friends of the BQX also requires the support of places like the Jam’it Bistro, a modest, woman-owned eatery in a struggling part of town. It’s revealing that this support hasn’t coalesced organically.

Good transit comes from good government Transportation projects don’t always require so much marketing and image management. In the end, all the propaganda makes the BQX feel even less like a legitimate civic undertaking.

(continued on next page) March 2020, Page 5

Yates

think it’s a scam, because in fact it is.

(continued from previous page

Is it possible to separate the potential merits of the BQX from the deviousness of its publicity campaign?

It’s true that, in the most basic sense, more public transit in Brooklyn and Queens would be a good thing.

THE BROOKLYN QUEENS CONNECTOR (BQX) is a City investment to provide better points of connection for communities with limited transit options.

These public workshops will provide an opportunity to learn about and discuss the BQX planning work that’s been done to-date, as well as the process moving forward.

Attend one of the workshops below from 6:30 – 8:30 pm:

March 3 Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bushwick Inlet Park 85 Kent Ave.

March 10 Long Island City, Queens CUNY Law School 2 Court Square West

For more information, and to register, visit: BrooklynQueensConnector.nyc/events For questions, or to request translation services at these events, please email: info@brooklynqueensconnector.nyc

At the Community Board 6 meeting in Red Hook, several residents raised thoughtful concerns about the streetcar’s design and cost, but even more of the objections related to the expected loss of parking and lanes for car traffic. Drivers make up a minority of New Yorkers, but the older, well-off people who have time to attend public meetings tend to own cars, and their voices disproportionately influence city politics. It almost made me want to speak up in the project’s defense.

But fixing transit deserts is a trickier endeavor than it might seem. When cities starve certain neighborhoods of public transportation for decades, residents of those communities shape their lifestyles around that absence by necessity. Many of them buy cars, even in low-income areas where affording a car isn’t easy, because they have no other choice. By the time the city decides to invest in a train or a trolley, it registers as an unwanted disruption to the existing pattern.

Drivers would rather keep driving.

In my view, the sooner New York City realizes that it was a mistake to bring cars into urban areas in the first place, the better. But the BQX isn’t the project that’ll convince Red Hookers of the merits of public transportation. They

Would the BQX help some residents of Brooklyn and Queens get around?

Of course. One could argue that it doesn’t matter where the idea for the project came from – what matters is whether it would provide a popular, efficient, environmentally friendly form of transportation for people who need it. Most New Yorkers recognize that Brooklyn and Queens need better interconnectivity.

I’m not a transit expert – I don’t know how best to create that interconnectivity. What I do know is that it’s the job of government to figure it out, not the job of real estate tycoons. The BQX might incidentally benefit the public, but its intended purpose is to serve capital, and it deserves rejection on that basis alone.

Is it possible that, without outside interference, an unbiased Department of Transportation would, after studying how best to meet unfulfilled transit needs in the outer boroughs, end up designing a project exactly like the one conceived by Jed Walentas and his friends? Sure. Is it likely? No. To increase our chances of getting the best possible results, we must demand a clean starting point for any city project. The alternative is public works that come with disinformation campaigns and a withering of public trust – not to mention, in all probability, a pretty lousy streetcar design in this case.

For me, the only good part of the whole BQX offensive so far has been Dawn Skeete’s catering. Visit Jam’it Bistro at 367 Columbia Street (by bike, by car, or on foot) for the best Jamaican food in South Brooklyn.

Weddings, Showers, or any Special Event. 

For your memorable moment, give your guests an unforgetable, edible thank-you.

Tweaking tradition since 1996 Steve’s authentic key lime pie 185 Van dyke street, red hook inquiry@keylime.com

*

718-858-5333

www.keylime.com Page 6 Red Hook Star-Revue

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March 2020

PRESS CLIPS The nonprofit world

An article in a recent copy of the Villager details some nonprofits that recently received grants from the New York Community Trust. The Trust is a public charity with board members chosen by public figures, including the mayor, judges and heads of institutions such as the Bar Association and Lincoln Center. The Trust was established in 1924 with the goal of connecting various charitable trusts with worthwhile causes.

One of the grants is for $700,000 to an unnamed charity that will aid at least 2200 cancer patients who need financial help to survive.

These costs include transportation, medicine, insurance premiums and co-payments. The payments will be made to “low income people of color, immigrants and working parents.”

Four groups teaching healthy food practice will receive a total of $610,000.

The Hester Street Collaborative is the recipient of a grant to “help nonprofit organizations find and negotiate affordable workspaces.”

One traditional role of government is to do things that are needed by society but are unprofitable for the private sector. The gaps are filled in by charities. While charity is laudable, philanthropists have benefited for decades from public policy designed to effect upward wealth transfers, which render government unable to

pay for social programs and create the need for private funding to fill the gap.

With our tax system hijacked by groups such as the Americans for Tax Freedom, headed by Grover Norquist, an equitable distribution of wealth becomes more and more distant.

Can’t possibly happen

One of the topics that came up in the February meeting of the Red Hook Civic Association was the need to find a temporary home for the library during its couple years of reconstruction. The library’s suggestion was for a bookmobile, which the natives feel is inadequate.

It was suggested that the old senior center, sitting unused since Sandy and which is right across the street, would be a logical place.

I’ve questioned NYCHA a few times about that building and was told the ground floor was uninhabitable for various reasons, one of which is that it remains vulnerable in a flood.

However, using it for just a year or two would be a risk worth taking.

There was another vacant NYCHA property in the neighborhood that I was told couldn’t possibly be used: the boarded-up stores on Columbia Street, across from the Red Hook West Tenant Association offices.

The buildings had structural and plumbing difficulties that couldn’t be fixed, I was told.

But once NYCHA needed a place to relocate stores from their building

BY GEORGE

around the corner from the present Senior Center – because the new power plant will be built there – they had no problem getting those boarded-up and unusable stores cleaned and fixed up. Two stores that had leases around the corner are now open in new gleaming storefronts, the pharmacy and the tax place.

Good reporting

We were excited to see Kevin Duggan’s front-page story in a recent Park Slope Courier. Titled “We Don’t Want This,” the story recounted the true story of the February 13 BQX meeting at the Miccio Center. Much of the BQX coverage has been of the powder puff variety, due in large part to the heavy lobbying paid for by the plan’s real estate backers.

He quoted community leader John McGettrick saying, “I think it’s a fiasco, a monumental potential waste of money when in fact there are far more efficient modes of transportation.”

McGettrick has been a long-suffering and lonely advocate for an express bus to Manhattan, among other sensible improvements.

does need to be addressed someday.

Duggan does not fail to mention that Miss Brown, the one BQX supporter he could find in the group happens to be on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the BQX.

Civic Association

The Red Hook Civic Association meets every month except for the summer.

To get on the meeting list, write rosemarymcgettrick@gmail.com.

Co-chairman John McGettrick is hoping for a big turnout at the March meeting, which will be at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 25. The United Parcel Service, soon to be a big part of the Red Hook community, will be there to answer questions.

Up until now, most of their communications to the neighborhood have taken the form of a very occasional email. This is the community's chance to ask questions.—George Fiala

The intrepid reporter did manage to find someone in the audience in favor of the trolley plan, saying that it’s a long walk from Red Hook East, whose tenant association is presided over by Frances Brown. In fact, the Red Hook East buildings are closer to the subway than any other place in Red Hook. The only real problem is the scary walk crossing Hamilton Avenue, which

NEW CARD DESIGN!

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March 2020, Page 7

sp a to ac be e

Red Hook as a font

by Brett Yates

If the spirit of Red Hook – its rugged industrial heritage and small-town warmth – were encapsulated as a typeface, what would it look like? Alexandre Noyer, a French illustrator and graphic designer, has an idea.

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Noyer and his girlfriend visited the neighborhood in November. “We were totally charmed by this part of Brooklyn, our walks on the street and discovering the seafront, surrounded by beautiful brick walls, bars, cafes, and docks,” he recalled. It was a pleasure, he said, to “simply drink a beer in a bar, talking with people who live there.”

He also liked the look of some of the signs, old and new, that he spotted in the area – for instance, at 162 Van Dyke Street, whose wall advertises Steve’s Key Lime Pies; on the Red Hook Lobster Pound’s brick facade; and at the Waterfront Barge Museum, whose white letters stand up straight to identify the historic Lehigh Valley Barge #79. “Typography tells a story.

It’s the first impression and visual influence before reading the message,” he explained.

The font as it would look printed ouside of Fort Defiance.

After Noyer returned home to Rennes, he created a new font. “For me, it’s what I felt of the identity of Red Hook,” he said. “I tried to imagine the font faded on a massive brick wall or totally colorful on a storefront, as though the typography had always been part of the neighborhood.”

Anyone can download the font – called “Red Hook” – for free at https:// www.dafont.com/red-hook.font.

Noyer noted that he plans to visit Red Hook again “for sure.”

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March 2020

A Star-Revue Look at the Military Fort Hamilton's Tiger Battalion is top-notch

T

he Tiger Battalion at Fort Hamilton High School – not affiliated with the nearby army base – is celebrating its 27 anniversary this year. The Tiger Battalion was the first Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) in the New York City public school system.

At Fort Hamilton High School, JROTC can be taken as an elective for one to four years. The primary focus of JROTC is for students to develop and foster citizenship, fellowship and leadership. While in the program, they become experts at group dynamics and in decision-making and role modeling. Students also wear their uniforms once a week at school (currently on Wednesdays), on special occasions and at famous city events (including the TCS New York City Marathon and Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest).

The battalion also serves the community in a variety of ways throughout the year, such as collecting canned food and toys during the holidays, cleaning beaches – and most recently – crafting Valentine’s Day cards for veterans at the VA hospital.

by Erin DeGregorio

was the only instructor, except for a substitute who knew nothing about the Army or JROTC. According to the Tiger Battalion’s records, “That semester was the toughest time for the Battalion.”

In the fall of 1995, the battalion strengthened to 165 cadets. Two years later, the battalion was designated as an “Honor Unit” – the first in New York City. Later that year, members began wearing the Gold Star, which requires battalions to have at least 960 points.

Present-day Retired Major Sang B. Lee and retired Sergeant First Class David Freeland, who are the current Senior Army Instructors, joined the instructor staff in 2014 and 2016, respectively.

Together they currently oversee a company of 100 cadets, who are mainly freshmen. Fifty cadets are assigned to each instructor, according

to SFC Freeland. Since SFC Freeland and MAJ Lee took over those roles, the battalion has continued to maintain the gold star that represents honor and distinction. In that same vein, the battalion will be going to the U.S. Army JROTC National Drill Competition for its fourth consecutive year under SFC Freeland and MAJ Lee’s leadership.

“Not many high school kids can say that they’ve competed at national levels, and most of my drill team has competed at that level and even in the brigade level,” SFC Freeland said.

“We’re pushing them outside their comfort zones right away because, when you’re at this level on these teams, you need to study and prepare.

The team commanders take pride in taking their teams to those levels and maintaining that tradition.”

This month, the Drill team will be having extra practices – both during third period and after school – to prepare for the National Drill

Competition, which will take place March 19 to 22 in Richmond, Virginia.

Looking ahead One of the biggest, most anticipated events of the year will be the Military Ball on March 13 at the Fort Hamilton Army Base. The ball is held annually to celebrate the accomplishments of the JROTC program and give special recognition to the graduating senior cadets.

Other upcoming Tiger Battalion events for the remainder of the school year include: the American Independent Youth Leadership Conference in Virginia, from April 30 to May 3; the National Physical Challenge competition (tentatively in Daytona, Florida, in May); Fleet Week; the Battalion Picnic in June; and the JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge/ Summer Camp in Massachusetts.

“We’re not only doing it for people in the community, but it also gives us and our cadets a sense of pride and purpose that we’re actually doing something good,” said multiple senior cadets during a visit to the high school in late February.

The first chain of command Lieutenant Colonel Lee C. Anderson and Master Sergeant Joseph Houghton were the first instructors in 1993, teaching and guiding 86 cadets (43 boys and 43 woman) who didn’t even have uniforms. Two years later, MSG Houghton left to teach in Delaware and LTC Anderson

STILL IN A MILITARY

MOOD?

We've got profiles on five seniors in Fort Hamilton High School's Tiger Battalion on our website!

Check it out online at star-revue.com!

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March 2020, Page 9

Eight facts about the Fort Hamilton Army Base

by Erin DeGregorio

B

rooklyn is known for many things – its famous wooden roller coaster in Coney Island, its cheesecake from Flatbush Avenue, and its one-timeWorld Series-winning baseball team, to name a few. However, what many may not know is that it is also home to the country’s fourth-oldest military installation and the city’s last active military installation for the past 26 years.

The Fort Hamilton Army Base (Bay Ridge) is a combined community that’s made up of active-duty Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard and Reserve Components members. It was named after Alexander Hamilton, one of the country’s founding fathers and the first Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, during the 1900s. The army base was built to protect the New York Harbor’s Brooklyn side, with construction completed in 1831. It successfully defended the harbor during the Revolutionary War and later functioned as an embarkation center for troops during World War I and World War II. In modern times, National Guard troops stationed at Fort Hamilton provided critical operational support

in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Fort Hamilton also became a Base Support Installation that hosted FEMA and other relief organizations, post-Hurricane Sandy.

We’ve curated a list of some other obscure facts that will surely make you want to learn more about the base – or even visit its Harbor Defense Museum.

1

It’s home to the NYC Recruiting Battalion, the Military Entrance Processing Station, the North Atlantic Division Headquarters of the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers, the 1179th Deployment Support Brigade, the 77th Regional Readiness Command and the New York Army National Guard Task Force Empire Shield.

2 3 4

During the War of 1812, the base held a British fleet at bay, saving the city from attack.

In 1839, the base became the first National Guard training camp.

The post was designated a historical landmark in the National Registry in 1971 – with surviving portions of the original fort entered into the National Register of

Historic Places in 1974.

5

Famous military tenants: Captain Robert E. Lee (engineer in charge of all the fortifications defending New York’s harbor, 1841-1846), Brevet Major Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (artillery officer, 1848-1849) and Captain Abner Doubleday (post commander in 1861).

6

7

An MTA bus used to come through the base and make a stop, pre-9/11, according to the Harbor Defense Museum Director/Curator Justin Batt.

8

On June 11, it’ll be celebrating the 195th anniversary of when its cornerstone was placed.

The U.S. Army Chaplain and Chaplain Assistant School had been there from 1962 to 1974.

An inside look at US Army recruiting

T

by Erin DeGregorio

he first step to take for those who are interested in enlisting in the United States Army – whether it’s active duty or Army Reserve – is to meet with a recruiter at their local recruiting station. Recruiters help people better understand the Army and help them figure out if it is the right fit for them.

During a meeting with a recruiter, there’s a prescreening to see if one qualifies for enlistment and an abridged version of the Army Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test (ASVAB). After the Army entrance interview, you take the ASVAB, which serves to narrow down the options among more than 150 possible Army careers. Next, you visit the nearest Military Entrance Processing Station to take the physical fitness evaluation.

If you pass, you choose your career path and then move on to basic combat training.

The Flatbush station (located at 2174 Nostrand Avenue), which conducts active duty recruiting and Army Reserve recruiting, primarily covers Flatbush and East Flatbush, but also has reach in Midwood, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and some of the Flatlands. Flatbush station commander Sergeant First Class (SFC) Francisco Disla told us seven to 10 people usually walk in every day to learn more about the Army – but some days the staff of five sees as many as twelve people. He broke down how recruiting stations operate and how

Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue

his station helps eligible recruits prepare for their next steps.

Getting to know SFC Disla: SFC Disla – who’s originally from the Dominican Republic but was raised in Brooklyn – joined the Army in 2007.

He completed two deployments and then transitioned to recruiting after coming home. He has been at the Flatbush office since August 2018.

RHSR: How do recruiting stations work in general?

SFC FD: We are always out in the community, trying to talk to young people and letting them know the opportunities that the Army could give them. We do it every single day, even on Saturdays to accommodate schedules. Showing our faces and walking around in the community gives us that type of rapport with the actual community. We also train personnel who are interested, offering them to come in and work out with us as a team. Then we help anybody who’s not quite physically there yet to meet the requirements and push them forward along the process.

RHSR: How do your recruiters interact with the neighborhoods?

SFC FD: We go to the local high schools and colleges to let students know about us, how we operate and that we’re here to provide information.

And we interact with anybody along the way too. While we’re at the schools, we make sure we can generate an appointment, so interested students

can come in, sit down and walk them along the process.

RHSR: What would you say is a day in the life at the recruiting station?

SFC FD: As I mentioned earlier, providing the information for anybody who shows interest in joining the military and coming in at six in the morning [on weekdays] for those who need the physical help to meet the processing requirements. We’re also making sure we get good rapport with the applicant, knowing more about them and how they work. We talk to the family and make sure the family is OK, showing them support that they may need when making this lifechanging decision that they are about to make.

RHSR: In terms of helping people get physically fit, do you have a gym with certain equipment or is it more like helping them with drills?

SFC FD: In the winter we go to Linked Fitness, which is right next to us. Every single recruiter here has a membership and they are allowed

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one guest. In the springtime, we go to Amersfort Park and do running drills, different exercises and circuit training. If that doesn’t work, we’ll drive to Prospect Park and run a 5K. RHSR: Do you find there are any other challenges to your job?

SFC FD: Recruiting is not always easy.

Sometimes you have to sit down and actually give that applicant [and their families] the extra time to say, "Is this the right decision for you?" It’s all about giving time because you can’t rush recruiting.

RHSR: What's fulfilling about this job?

SFC FD: Sometimes you get somebody who’s been forced to join the military by their parents or somebody who’s about to get kicked out of their house – and you do everything in your power to help them during the process.

When they call you after they’re done and say, "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to join," it really means a lot. Changing somebody’s life is always going to be my number one – that’s why I enjoy this job.

March 2020

Summit stars earn basketball scholarships

COMMUNITY DROP-INS TUESDAY MAR 3: ZERO WASTE

by Nathan Weiser Kiana Brereton and Sky Castro are the first female Summit Academy athletes to receive Division One basketball scholarships.

Castro, who started at Summit in the eighth grade, will be attending St. Peter’s College in Jersey City. Brereton, whose first year at Summit was when she was a freshman, will be going to the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark in the fall.

Head coach Dytanya Mixson calls Brereton and Castro his “twin towers.”

They rank at the top of the record books at Summit. Brereton is an elite scorer who has scored over 1,100 points in her high school career and has scored 40 points in a game. Castro is a rebounding star.

Castro and Brereton, who have been teammates on Coach Mixson’s Lady X-Men AAU team since middle school, chose their colleges for different reasons. Castro picked St. Peters partly because of its closeness to home, and Brereton’s choice was predicated on the engineering department, where she plans to major.

Castro’s long-term career goal is to play basketball professionally either in the WNBA or overseas. Being a lawyer is her second option if basketball does not work out.

Brereton wants to be a mechanical engineer.”

Coach Mixson thinks Brereton and Castro have both made vast improve-

Red Hook Star-Revue

The two scholarship winners. (photo by Nathan Weiser)

ments in their basketball abilities during high school, helping them get their scholarships.

“What I notice from Kiana is that her approach to the game is more serious,” Mixson said. “‘I am going to show that I am a D1 athlete.’ She has gotten better and better every year.”

Mixson thinks that Castro has developed her maturity over the years.

According to her longtime coach, St. Peter’s is the right school for her.

“It worked out perfect with St. Peter’s because there is no one in front of her when it comes to creating her own legacy because they are missing height,” he explained. “She will be able to come in with the opportunity of playing right away. That was a big sell with St. Peter’s.”

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Led by Castro and Brereton, Summit is set to have a memorable postseason run. In 2019, they won one playoff game as the number six seed, and this season, they are the number four seed and will look to advance further after getting a bye in the first round.

Brereton’s goal is to put Summit on the map and become the first charter school to win the PSAL AA championship.

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March 2020, Page 11

Justice Center celebrates black history

O

n February 14, the Red Hook Community Justice Center drew a packed crowd into its main courtroom for Black History Month event with a focus on voting rights. Jacqueline Renaud-Rivera and the Justice Center’s Peacemaking program organized the event, which aimed to convince young people to go to the polls.

A previous event about Harriet Tubman had inspired Renaud-Rivera, who is a senior program associate at the Justice Center, to put together the program, which featured six local judges.

“The performance shook something in me,” she said. “I thought Red Hook needed a program to be involved in Black History Month. I left Judge Dowling my information, and she contacted me and was persistent.”

Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue

by Nathan Weiser Judge Deborah Dowling, from the Kings County Supreme Court, offered a few words to start.

“I am just so elated that all of you were able to make it today,” she enthused.

“Coming to Red Hook certainly is an important event. You have a lot to be thankful for. Certainly Renaud-Rivera is one of them. We have been doing monthlong programs for 22 years in Kings County Court, and this is the first year that we will have programs in every courthouse in Kings County.”

A debate between Kayla Forbes, a 17-year-old senior at BASIS in Red Hook, and Zachary Byrd, a junior at Cristo Rey High in East Flatbush, followed. Forbes put forth the case for democratic participation, and Byrd talked about why some choose to stay home.

Byrd has worked in the Justice Center

for the last five years. “I have been in multiple programs,” he said. “I have been in Youth Court. I am now in AmeriCorps. I did a summer internship my first year here, and that is how I ended up in the Youth Impact program.” Byrd works to help youth who have committed misdemeanors.

“I learned some of the reasons that people think voting is not good,” he noted. “Personally, my belief is everyone should vote. A lot of times they put me on the opposite side because I am good at fighting no matter what side I’m on.”

Forbes, who lives in Canarsie, wanted to take part in the debate in order to combat what she perceived to be the apathy of many of her peers. “What is interesting is that I go to school out here, so I am involved with the Red Hook community more than I am

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involved in the community that I actually live in,” she said. “The Justice Center has helped me make a lot of connections. This past summer I was working in the DA’s office for a month and even worked with the NYPD. I did behind the scenes work like redacting documents and transcribing dashcam videos.”

Judge Dowling chimed in after the debate to endorse the pro-voting position. She emphasized the need to research the candidates, and that knowledge is power, and that it isn’t realistic to ask for a change from a politician if you didn’t vote. Another judge highlighted the first-of-its-kind nature of this particular Black History Month event in Red Hook and commended the organizers’ support of civic participation, including the upcoming census.

March 2020

Red Hook schools seek Imagine Schools funding

I

n December, two public schools in Red Hook, PS 676 and South Brooklyn Community High School (SBCHS), received word that they’d advanced to the second round of the Imagine Schools NYC competition.

Out of 231 applicants, 91 survived the first cut.

Imagine Schools NYC represents a public-private partnership between the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and two philanthropic funders: the Robin Hood Foundation, a Wall Street-backed charity with $431 million in total assets; and the XQ Institute, a school reform organization that operates as an arm of the “impact investment” firm Emerson Collective, founded in Palo Alto by Laurene Powell Jobs, the Apple co-founder’s widow.

Together, XQ and Robin Hood will gift $16 million to the DOE, which will match the contribution, to seed 20 new schools and 20 “reimagined” schools in New York City.

Based on test scores and other factors such as attendance, New York State flagged both PS 676 and SBCHS as underperforming schools (or “Comprehensive Support and Improvement Schools,” requiring intervention) in 2019. Both serve primarily low-income, black and brown students.

XQ’s instruction manual encourages applicants to “turn school design on its head” and to “consider how the world is changing for young people, and how education can change to prepare them better for life.” In October, the DOE opened a call for submissions: any public school could pitch a redesign plan, and any individual or group of individuals – irrespective of qualifications – could send in a proposal for a new school.

“The whole concept behind Imagine Schools is to allow a school, in a collaborative way, to come up with a big idea, and this big idea is an idea that is something we can make a reality,” Priscilla Figueroa, the principal of PS 676, said. “It allows you this opportunity to think outside the box and not worry about funding or money. If you could think of a place where students would learn and be happy while learning, what would that place be like?”

The one-time donation by XQ and Robin Hood will amount to 0.0625 percent of the DOE’s annual budget of $25.6 billion (which comes to $13.7 million per school), and the program’s grants for individual schools will top out at $500,000. That sum, however, would mean a lot to PS 676.

Going out to sea Last year, a partnership with the nonprofit PortSide New York at Atlantic Basin helped PS 676 introduced a “maritime STEAM” focus into its curriculum, and Figueroa now hopes to use the Imagine Schools initiative to facilitate its transformation into a fullfledged “harbor school” – a model used in different ways by the New York Harbor School on Governors Island, the Harbor View School on Staten Island,

Red Hook Star-Revue

by Brett Yates

and SUNY Maritime College in Throggs Neck.

Since taking over in 2017, Figueroa has reconfigured PS 676’s relationship to its surrounding neighborhood, assessing Red Hook not as a hostile urban wasteland but as a resource-rich community whose proximity to water could, if properly utilized, offer a major opportunity to students for play, study, and exploration. “There are many advantages to living in Red Hook,” she noted.

Another significant resource is the abundance of community-based organizations and nonprofits in the area.

Among its core principles, XQ emphasizes “powerful partnerships – with community and cultural institutions, business and industry, higher education, nonprofit organizations, and health and service providers – that provide support, real-world experiences, and networking opportunities for students.”

For its Imagine Schools proposal, PS 676 has teamed up with the Billion Oyster Project, Redemption Red Hook, the Red Hook Initiative, and others.

SBCHS’s team includes Hook Arts Media, the Red Hook Community Justice Center, and Kingsborough Community College.

The RETI Center, which advocates for climate-focused economic development in Brooklyn, plays an especially important role in both schools’ efforts.

Its ambitious “Blue City” project – a proposed floating village just beyond the shoreline of the Gowanus Bay Terminal – could someday provide a new waterborne campus for PS 676. Meanwhile, the RETI Center’s expertise in green workforce training has helped guide SBCHS’s Imagine Schools vision, which centers a theme of resiliency.

Transforming a school to transform a neighborhood SBCHS, as a “transfer high school” for “over-age and under-accredited students,” already employs a novel education model. The DOE operates the school in conjunction with a nonprofit, Good Shepherd Services. “The Department of Ed is bringing all their instructional knowledge, and what Good Shepherd brings is deep connections in youth development and community resources,” Good Shepherd Services director Rachel Forsyth explained.

“We exist to serve students who have had difficulty in their previous schools for many, many reasons. When the Imagine Schools opportunity came along, we’d already been talking about how to push to the next level of thinking for our school,” she recounted.

Conversations with alumni, who’ve since joined her redesign team, led Forsyth to conclude that SBCHS had to do more “to prepare its students for their next steps” after graduation.

At the same time, Forsyth had become aware that Red Hook itself also needed to prepare for an uncertain future in the age of climate change. To survive rising sea levels, the neighborhood would require a transformation of its

built environment. In Forsyth’s view, this process could serve as a source of employment – “Green New Deal jobs” – for its young residents.

“We survived Hurricane Sandy and saw a lot of people from the outside come in here and try to talk to the neighborhood about how to deal with the fact that we’re in a floodplain and this is going to happen again,” she recalled.

“When we learned about RETI being in the neighborhood, one of the thoughts was that we want our young people to be able to be trained and have the skills to be leaders in their community.”

Once SBCHS and PS 676 passed Imagine Schools’ initial screening, administrators began a three-month in-depth design process, attending workshops alongside parents, students, and partners. The applicant field will shrink again at the end of March. In late June, the winners will emerge and, after the summer, will use grants to implement their redesign plans, initially as pilot programs.

Forsyth acknowledged that the schedule has been “very fast,” with lots of deadlines. Both schools have devoted a great deal of resources to the challenge without any guarantee of reward.

The public weighs in Not all of New York City’s educators approve of the Imagine Schools initiative.

XQ and Robin Hood have both funded charter schools, whose opponents in New York have included groups like the Alliance for Quality Education and the New York Collective of Radical Educators, as well as Mayor de Blasio. The DOE will own and operate the new and redesigned schools yielded by Imagine Schools, but by giving philanthropists some say over the shape of these institutions, the program introduces a vector of private influence into otherwise straightforwardly public education.

The DOE hosted an Imagine Schools information session in Bay Ridge in February. In the audience, teachers and parents expressed their concerns.

“What’s the catch?” one man wondered. “Oftentimes, in public-private partnerships, it’s the public that ends up doing all the work, and the philanthropy wants something in return. In some cases, it’s more standardized testing or some kind of accountability practice.” DOE representatives quickly batted away the accusation.

A woman castigated the DOE for prioritizing “innovation” in select schools when it had not yet succeeded in providing “the very basic bare necessities” for all students. She spoke of the hot, overcrowded classroom where her daughter struggled to learn.

Another attendee observed that, while Imagine Schools advocated for forward-thinking methods (with a particular emphasis on culturally responsive pedagogy), it did so for the purpose of meeting a typical, uniform set of standards: “Overall, the push is to create a 21st-century, technologically literate citizenry, because that’s where the job market is.” It might be easy enough

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in “homogeneous” Finland, he said, to convince everyone to buy into the same academic goals, but it would be difficult to honor the diversity of New York without acknowledging that different students might seek different outcomes in their education.

At SBCHS, Forsyth judged the Imagine Schools initiative differently. “I don’t think they’re being prescriptive about what a school should look like. It’s more like, forget everything you know about what school is supposed to be, and what would make the most sense if you could recreate it?” she described.

While Forsyth and Figueroa credited Imagine Schools for helping to refine their plans for SBCHS and PS 676, the substance of their visions predate the initiative. Imagine Schools has offered the possibility of a means to achieve those visions, but PS 676, for instance, had begun to forge its new community partnerships “even before applying for Imagine Schools,” Figueroa clarified.

“There are different ways to make your dream come true, even if you’re not part of the Imagine process.” She pointed out that, without winning a contest, PS 676 had managed recently to open a robotics laboratory (dubbed a “STEAM Room”) and an aquarium.

“It definitely would be helpful to have the funding,” Forsyth added. “If we didn’t get it, I feel like we’ll still push ourselves to do this.”

For her, “resiliency” is more than an environmentalist buzzword – it’s a part of SBCHS students’ lives. “There’s a deep piece of this that’s also about your interpersonal resilience. Our students found their way to [SBCHS] because they have a lot of strengths and they’re committed to their own development and growth, and we need to build off what brought them here.”

In Forsyth’s view, the Imagine Schools project to find new ways to usher young people from all walks of life into the dynamic and demanding economy of the future can align with SBCHS’s longstanding commitment to the safety and emotional well-being of its students.

Her redesign team has relied on the voices of pupils and alumni to identify those intersections.

“Students are talking about basic needs,” she reported. “We need a safe place to live. We need regular food.

Some students don’t eat on a regular basis when they’re at home. Some students don’t have access to laundry. Those aren’t fancy, sexy STEM or STEAM career things – those are some basics that also will be at play in our application, because we can’t get to that other stuff if we’re not taking care of the fundamental needs of human beings.”

March 2020, Page 13

A day at the farm with apexart

R

by Brett Yates

ed Hook may be a small seaside village in Brooklyn, but thanks to local art institutions like Pioneer Works and DE-CONSTRUKT, it’s easy to catch painters, sculptors, and writers from around the world on Van Brunt Street.

Founded in 1994, apexart is a nonprofit gallery in Tribeca. Abbie Hebein, Director of Fellowships and Public Programs, lives in Red Hook, and she likes to bring visiting artists to her neighborhood.

goal is to encourage fellows to expand their comfort zone outside of their arts practice and encounter challenges, self-reflect, become bored, stimulated, overwhelmed and inspired in new ways.”

Based on recommendations from previous fellows and other trusted sources around the globe, apexart provides 13 artist fellowships a year: eight for international artists who come to New York City, and five for New Yorkers to go abroad. The program operates differently than a typical artist residency, however: specifically, it prohibits the artists from creating art for the duration of their stay.

On a Friday morning in February, I met Dhrubo Jyoti, an Indian journalist, at the Columbia Street Farm near IKEA. Jyoti had arrived from New Delhi about a week earlier, and apexart had installed them in an apartment in Manhattan.

Already they had attended Black History Month events at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights and a lecture at the National Museum of Mathematics.

They had also distributed vegetables at a foodbank in the Bronx.

“It is essential that they are not producing work or making art, promoting themselves or their practice,” Hebein clarified. “The

Hebein curates a month-long schedule of “non-art activities” for apexart’s fellows.

An average day includes three or four obligations – performances, workshops, and other opportunities for “cultural immersion.”

According to Jyoti’s official biography,

they write “narrative non-fiction” that explores “the links between caste and desire, especially queerness,” in South Asia. In person, they described themselves as a reporter who, until their current sabbatical, covered elections for the Hindustan Times, and they denied being an artist at all.

In that case, how did Jyoti end up an apexart fellow? “I don’t know,” they replied with a smile.

On Columbia Street, volunteers show up every Friday, even in the winter, to help turn household trash into fertile compost for community gardens and urban farms.

The Red Hook Initiative administers the farm, but the southern section of the lot – owned by the Parks Department – belongs to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, another nonprofit tenant, with the Department of Sanitation funding their effort to divert organic waste from the landfill.

The site managers run an impeccable operation, combining food scraps, coffee chaff, and wood chips to produce just the right proportions of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen inside each odorless, pestfree mound. Through natural biological processes, the mixture gets as hot as 160 degrees and, if carefully tended, ultimately yields a few tons of gardenercoveted “black gold.”

arduousness of composting didn’t visibly affect Jyoti. At noon, the volunteers departed, and I walked with soft-spoken Jyoti to Fairway for a bite to eat and a glimpse of the harbor.

I asked them what they thought of New York so far. Did it measure up to its reputation? “I’d been told it would be a lot colder,” they said.

A first-time visitor, Jyoti is journaling his New York City experiences at apexartjournal.blogspot.com. “The first thing that strikes one about life in NY is the extreme isolation and mechanisation. Of every activity. The second is fear,” they wrote on their second day in town. I hope Red Hook left a friendlier impression.

Before long, Jyoti was off to another activity. But they mentioned that they’d be back in the area for an evening at Books Through Bars, a program that sends free reading material to prisoners across the country from the basement of Freebird Books in the Columbia Street Waterfront District.

The next apexart fellow will be Nyadzombe Nyampenza, a photographer and conceptual artist from Zimbabwe, arriving on March 9. Be sure to say hello if you run into him at the farm.

The Columbia Street Farm is the largest composting operation in the United States that doesn’t use any fossil fuels.

Most involve heavy machinery, but apart from a bit of wind and solar energy that helps aerate the compost, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden relies here on manpower.

It requires a lot of shoveling, but some apartment-dwelling New Yorkers appear to suffer from an unfulfilled craving for yardwork and are willing to donate their sweat.

After a couple hours of labor, my arms, back, and hands all ached, but the

Page 14 Red Hook Star-Revue

www.star-revue.com

March 2020

More interim flood protection coming soon

by Brett Yates

sentially, as sandbags – that, four days before a storm, the city would connect by deploying water-inflatable Tiger Dams at intersections to form a flood wall. Public officials told community members that a second set of temporary safeguards – intended to offer the Sandy-devastated neighborhood a measure of reassurance until the completion of a permanent Integrated Flood Protection System (IFPS) – would arrive as soon as NYCEM had performed a drainage analysis at Atlantic Basin.

In 2017, New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) lined the southwestern end of Red Hook, between Conover Street and IKEA, with rows of four-foot-high HESCO barriers – wire-mesh cubes with earthfilled fabric liners that function, es-

NYCEM Executive Director of Hazard Mitigation and Recovery Heather Roiter explained that, on large-scale sites, in order to determine whether IFPMs will successfully keep their intended “dry side” dry, the agency must take a close look at drainage. Engineers have to note whether coastal outfalls – linked to catch basins on the street for the purpose of rainwater diversion – are equipped with tide gates to prevent water from flowing backward through the sewer when sea levels rise during a storm. If the nearby storm drains are likely to spit up water on the IFPMs’ “dry side” of the flood wall, NYCEM will install pumps at low points to remove the overflow.

NEWSBRIEFS

Saturday, March 7 – La Marqueta, East Harlem

Watch out for ICE

Saturday, March 14 – Moore Street Market, East Williamsburg

Two and half years have passed since the installation on Beard Street of the first phase of Red Hook’s interim flood protection measures (IFPMs).

Delays that have plagued the second phase of the project – which will address vulnerabilities in northwestern Red Hook, near Atlantic Basin – are expected to come to an end this summer.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are deploying agents to New York City.

New Yorkers can call the ActionNYC hotline at 1-800-354-0365 to receive immigration legal help.

New Yorkers who are feeling sad or anxious are not alone, and they can get connected to free, confidential mental health support by calling 1-888-NYC-WELL or texting WELL to 65173.

If you are worried you may be separated from your child because of immigration enforcement, you can plan for the future by appointing a “standby guardian” you trust. Call 311 and say ActionNYC for free, safe legal support and learn more at http://nyc.gov/ knowyourrights.

City Markets celebrate Women’s month

NYC’s Public Markets are holding special events to honor women during Women’s History Month, which is March. This series highlights the female vendors and producers that make up each market.

The day will include live music, networking, voter registration, M/WBE certification and grants and funding to start-up or expand one’s own business.

Vendors include Maryam’s Yum Yum with her red velvet waffles, Elma’s in Harlem with their fresh juices, Top Hops with tastes of local craft beer, Heroes and Villains with chicken nuggets, Mike’s Deli Italian antipasti bites, Cenkali Products with their indigenous Mexican vegan soups, Aunt Jo Jo’s with their BBQ sauce and Boba Green with their bubble tea.

The March events which take place from 2 to 5 pm are as follows:

Red Hook Star-Revue

Saturday, March 21 – Arthur Avenue Market, Arthur Avenue in the Bronx Saturday, March 28 – Jamaica Market, Jamaica, Queens

Missing rink question solved

Bush Clinton Park, over on the east side of Red Hook, became a local home of Street Soccer USA in 2016 when the local councilman obtained city money to have them build a soccer rink there.

Passing by on a recent day revealed that the rink is missing.

It turns out that the rink is brought in during the winter.

A Rec Center employee said Street Soccer has a permit to use the space in Bush Clinton Park. They don’t use the space in the winter for safety reasons because it is so cold outside.

The wind is a factor at Bush Clinton Parks since it has caused the courts to be pushed over, which is another impetus for taking the courts away.

Correcting the Double Zee error

Last year, Jim Tampakis, a local maritime business owner, told the Star-Revue that city representatives had informed Resilient Red Hook, a neighborhood advocacy group, that NYCEM would complete its work at Atlantic Basin in time for 2019’s hurricane season. In July, Roiter declared that the long-promised drainage analysis – which involved attempting to identify “an alignment where we’re following backflow prevention in the system” – had taken place. Ultimately, NYCEM had determined the area surrounding Atlantic Basin would need “at least ten pumps” to stay dry after the HESCO barriers had appeared.

Roiter acknowledged then that the actual placement of the IFPMs at Atlantic Basin might not happen right away, but Red Hook would see them before the end of the year. “We’re going through a review right now with the site owners. There’s a lot of site owners and stakeholders as part of the site,” she explained at the time.

2019 ended without any additional IFPMs in Red Hook. Before the end of the year, Resilient Red Hook had received a revised estimate for installation: spring of 2020. By January, NYCEM had pushed back the expected

that changing the name was necessary out of respect for the explorer and the state’s heritage.

The MTA Bridges and Tunnels is replacing the signs on its property slowly, under normal schedule of maintenance, to avoid incurring additional costs.

On February 5, the crews replaced a sign (adding the additional “z”) at 92nd Street near Fort Hamilton Parkway in Bay Ridge that points to an entrance ramp to the Verrazzano Bridge.

When it first opened in 1964, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, then spelled with a single ‘z’, was the longest suspension span in the world. It handles almost 70 million vehicles annually.

Pickup games

“Delays have occurred due to the maritime security requirements along the PANYNJ property. We are continuing to make progress,” Roiter stated on January 22. The project is now expect to wrap up in August.

IFPMs protect 53 sites citywide; Red Hook was the first neighborhood site to receive them. Due to holdups in the development of Red Hook’s longterm IFPS, the ones on Beard Street will likely have to outlast their intended five-year lifespan.

Locally, their efficacy remains untested thus far. For Tampakis, the “justin-time” Tiger Dams – which the city brought out for a test run under blue skies in summer 2018 – are a concern.

“There’s just a lot of moving parts, and I hope that it all works the way we’ve been told,” he commented.

Rotary Club charity drive

Project Pad, an event hosted by the Brooklyn Bridge Rotary Club, will be held at The Great Room in Carroll Gardens. The purpose is to stock up the New Horizons family homeless shelter in East New York with feminine hygiene products, which they rarely can make available for residents.

“If 100 people attend, we should reach our goal of 500 boxes,” said Jeannie Jackson, president-elect of the Rotary Club. “ The Project Pad event takes place at The Great Room, 194 Columbia Street (between Sackett and DeGraw Streets), on Wednesday, March 25, from 6-8 pm. For more info, admin@ BrooklynBridgeRotaryClub.org.

It was recently announced via many flyers outside of PS 676/Summit Academy that there is an opportunity for pickup basketball in Red Hook.

At PS 15 (71 Sullivan St.), the Patrick F. Daly School, there will be an open gym for full-court basketball every Thursday from 6:00 to 9:30 pm. There will also be an open gym for full-court basketball every Saturday from noon to 3:30 at PS 15.

On February 5, crews from MTA Bridges and Tunnels replaced the first of the 19 misspelled signs on agency property that will now feature the revised spelling of the Verrazzano Bridge’s name. They will be incorporating an additional “z” to the signs to make it read Verrazzano.

Discover what you love

New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed the legislation in October 2019 to officially change the name of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (connects Brooklyn to Staten Island) to reflect the spelling of Giovanni da Verrazzano, who, in 1524, was the first European explorer to sail into the New York Harbor.

The name was originally misspelled due to a mistake in the bridge’s construction contract. Cuomo has said

start of work to summer, citing complications involving the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which owns Atlantic Basin and leases it to the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

- FOCUSING ON TASTE, QUALITY, CRAFT AND FUN! -

Weekly Tastings 357 Van Brunt

www.star-revue.com

wetwhistlewines.com

WINE & SPIRITS Open 7 days March 2020, Page 15

Op Ed: Brooklyn has a new threat: PREDATORS continued from page 3 pose it on the grassroots level, and they picked an obscure neighborhood in the political hinterlands, Greenwood Heights (aka South Slope, South Park Slope, North Sunset Park), which is forgotten by most elected officials and relatively unfettered by zoning restrictions.

don’t have a publicly listed phone number, email address, or even a website, but he apparently lives in Haslett. On a side note, that should be enough to get any New Yorker to oppose this project, unless you actually like dealing with landlords who live in Long Island.

For all of Hertz’s data, no one has the real numbers on what this thing will do to the people who have to live with it. That’s why we need more information. New drugs require years of studies. New building concepts should too.

In closing

Transformer Dov Hertz’s MLD is essentially just a scaffold with parking. It’s like a Lego set, able to be quickly rebuilt and repurposed into a wide variety of applications. It could easily be turned into a TV station, a sweatshop, or a chemical treatment facility.

Think of it as an architectural T-1000: fluid enough to infiltrate a neighborhood, and once it’s in, it can transform into pretty much anything. It’s a sneaky, secretive way to do business, and Hertz is a sneaky, secretive man.

He wants this project and his company DHPH to fly under the radar. They

PREDATORS go by many names and come in various disguises, but at their core, they’re sneaky concepts created by sneaky men (and sneaky women, probably). Call them “multi-level distribution centers,” call them “cargo accelerators,” call them “Kathy.” No matter what the name, they’re all categorically PREDATORs, and you know them when you see them.

I quit my job in advertising to found and work for the Greenwood Heights Chamber of Commerce to define the neighborhood, promote local business, and identify potential threats.

I challenge Carlos Menchaca to do the same and actually govern for a change. The same challenge goes to Mayor Bill de Blasio – the PREDATOR is 13 blocks from his house.

This is an incredibly cynical project.

Dov Hertz is counting on New York-

ers being too divided, too outragefatigued, and too busy to care. But he picked the wrong neighborhood. He thought he’d found a neighborhood that was weak, and instead found a neighborhood that was strong because the residents care about each other and actually pay attention to what’s going on.

And in that, Greenwood Heights (or whatever you want to call it) isn’t unique. We’re all paying attention. We all see the inequities in the system, and we all care a lot. We care about New York. We care about fairness. We care about our neighborhoods, and we care about seeing a world where honesty is rewarded and dishonesty is punished. We wear our cynicism like armor over our hearts, but the armor wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t a heart worth protecting.

This isn’t just a neighborhood fight.

This isn’t about rich versus poor, transplant versus native, or any of the other, tired schisms. This is about all of us. The questions about Dov Hertz’s PREDATOR are fair, the consequences are dire, and most importantly, the battle is eminently winnable. Please join me: we can save the Gowanus

Bay waterfront, prevent traffic, and most importantly, start winning back New York for the people who live in and love our great city.

Mattjlazarus@gmail.com

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Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue

www.star-revue.com

NYC Health + Hospitals/ Gotham Health, Bedford 485 Throop Avenue

March 2020

How Pioneer Works got its blue fence

F

or better or worse, when visitors come to Red Hook’s Pioneer Works, the first work of art they see – before they even enter the building – is the blue and white fence on the west side of the property.

In 2017, Pioneer Works’ tech department invited me to hold a workshop on laser-cut stencils, and I met the organization’s founder, Dustin Yellin.

Coincidentally, the big Formula E race at Atlantic Basin was about to take place, and Dustin wanted a new artwork for the yard’s fence, whose pasteups by the street artist Swoon were deteriorating.

After I showed up him my paintings, he asked me for a design, and by the time it was ready to go, I had only five days to execute the project before the event. Happily, like Tom Sawyer, I got lots of assistance from friends and even from Formula E volunteers.

I grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where making public art can be extremely dangerous. But if you have a friendly attitude, painting on the street often means long hours working in front of a small crowd of passers-by, with coffee served by the corner resident and probably a good conversation.

Someone will stop to tell you about their own life while watching you paint.

by Vanessa Rosa

and Lisbon. People in New York looked at my tilelike paintings and asked me about Moorish art, about Morocco, if I was Muslim. And that made a lot of sense, because Portugal historically has a huge aesthetic affinity with the Islamic world. The word “azulejo” has its origin in the Arabic “azzelij” and means “small, polished stone.” Therefore, “azulejo” has nothing to do with the Portuguese word for blue, “azul,” though it looks so much like it does. The blue and white come from China, where artisans have decorated porcelain with cobalt oxide for centuries, and the Portuguese were not even the first to produce similar ceramics in Europe – the Germans and then the Dutch were.

These cultural exchanges are no simple subject.

Art and science Developing my own “tiles” was a pleasure. It inspired me to study the history of algorithmic design, which in turn brought me into debates about ethnomathematics and generative art. For millennia, many cultures around the world have turned to geometric patterns – instead of illusive figura-

tive images – to capture the harmony and beauty of the divine. It was striking to realize the complexity that these art practices have achieved: for example, the similarity between some Islamic compositions and the atomic structures of quasi-crystals.

For me, the work is also very personal. I started painting tiles after the most important person in my life, my sister, died suddenly. Painting in shades of blue, thinking of passages, patterns, portals, looking at temples around the world for inspiration – all this has become part of my process of accepting mortality, of restructuring when something so fundamental is simply no longer there. And when we paint on the street, the paintings open up unexpected possibilities and new pathways for vitality. My biggest work in the azulejo series, the one at Pioneer Works, was ultimately taken over by the garden plants. Without invitation, life had burst into the midst of all that melancholic blue.

In Rio, blue and white tiles decorate many of the old buildings. We call these Portuguese “azulejos.”

For a long time, I thought all azulejos should be blue and white, or at least a little blue, because after all, “azulejo” has the Portuguese word for blue as part of its linguistic root. Like many of my fellow countrymen, I found most of the contemporary architecture uglier than the older forms – hence, the tiles represented a certain nostalgia.

In 2011, I saw an artist decorating the background of her mural with a small stencil that mimicked an azulejo. I began to imagine paintings made of stencil-like tiles, but distorted with volume because I never liked flat shapes. But I didn’t have the patience to cut stencils, and for the level of detail I wanted, doing it freehand would be crazy.

World traveler The last few years, I have been jumping between art residencies in Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Benin, Thailand, China, the United States, and Europe.

In 2013, in Berlin, I discovered the technique of laser cutting. More typically used by industrial manufacturers, its machinery provided a way for me to incorporate azulejos into my work. Through computer-aided design, I could combine the stencils in countless ways in order to fool people’s eyes into creating perspectives that are much deeper and more dynamic than the stencil shapes. With shading to add a tridimensional effect, the patterns present too much visual information for the viewer to process, and this allows light and shadow to guide the composition.

I began to use the technique in 2015 in New York

Red Hook Star-Revue

Vanessa Rosa is an international artist who likes to spend time in Red Hook.

www.star-revue.com

March 2020, Page 17

The Grapevine TV, the hit show you’re just finding out about

I

n late 2015, I browsed through the sometimes strange, uncharted corners of YouTube (as I regularly do) – laptop on belly, fingers (middle and pointer) on mousepad, I discovered The Grapevine TV, and haven’t stopped watching since.

To see a long conversations with numerous intelligent and expressive young black people, discussing topics with such kitchen-table honesty, for me, was a dream realized. This wasn’t that watered-down, you’re-so-articulate, respectability-approved intelligence. The Grapevine TV spoke to issues with an entertaining and unfiltered, with-pulp freshness.

Each episode pushes boundaries; the panelists’ responses are thoughtful, considered, and quite often irreverent. The Grapevine TV gathers a diverse group of black folk and other people of color, showcasing “the culture” with its idiosyncrasies intact, for hundreds of thousands of viewers every month. The Brookyn-bred, independent production is steadily becoming a digital TV standard for black millennials in the US and abroad, with live shows and tapings in London, South Africa and most recently Ghana (Year of the Return). This month – March 6, 2020 – The Grapevine TV will bring their live show to Brooklyn, NY. I had the pleasure of speaking with show producer Donovan Thompson ahead of their upcoming live show.

Roderick: Thanks for taking the time out to do this interview. Tell me, how did The Grapevine TV get started?

Donovan: Thank you. Yeah, so the show began with its creator Ashley Akunna. Ashley and I actually met while we were working for AOL. I hired her. She came in to assist our Head of Video at the time, and she had so many great ideas. Long story short, she saved up her coin and started the show.

Roderick: Interesting. How did you become the producer of The Grapevine TV? Donovan: Ashley invited me as a guest panelist, and it was so incredible. After the guest spot, I was brought on as a producer. She and I worked so great together, it was natural thing.

Roderick: That’s so cool. Recently, you took The Grapevine TV to Ghana, for The Year of the Return.

Page 18 Red Hook Star-Revue

by Roderick Thomas

Let’s talk about that!

Donovan: Ghana was incredible! A lot of people knew the show. It was like a real-life Wakanda [laughs] – black people from everywhere, the US, UK, all over Africa. Hearing people call out to us in different accents was amazing.

Roderick: [laughs] Real-life Wakanda?

Donovan: Yes! There didn’t seem to be any push to erase blackness. I saw the promotion of dark skin and black culture. It was incredibly elevating for the soul, in a way that I’ve never experienced before. I felt seen as a black man, as a gay black man. I think a lot of dark-skinned people don’t experience that in the States. We got to be our black ass selves in there.

Roderick: That’s beautiful. In regard to art, I find that people tend to admire art and creatives, but not respect them. What’s your experience?

I’m really excited about this live event coming up in Brooklyn. How’d you start the live shows?

Donovan: The live shows started a little over two years ago. We did a show in Harlem about relationships, at MIST, and it sold out. From the show to the after-party, everybody was so hype. The energy in the room was so intense! We knew we had something. From there, we did London and kept selling out more shows.

Roderick: What’s next for The Grapevine?

Donovan: Touring! We’ve made a big dent digitally, and now we’re taking The Grapevine TV on the road. We’re going to be hitting different cities and universities, bringing people out of their homes for a live show.

Roderick: Awesome. What’s the theme of the upcoming Brooklyn show?

Donovan: We experience that every day. You have to believe in the work. Ashley and I believe in the work we do. I’ve learned to be resilient, because you get pushback, especially if you’re trying to push culture forward. If it can’t be danced to, or fit into certain narratives, you get ignored.

Donovan: Well, we’re tackling body image: this Instagram body we see with Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, and whoever else. We want to discuss how its affecting women, especially black women, and really understand what people think about body shaming.

Roderick: What are some obstacles you face while trying to take The Grapevine to the next level?

Roderick: That’s going to bring out all the opinions, especially in the age of Lizzo [laughs]. You’ve come a long way. What’s the legacy you want to leave behind with The Grapevine TV?

Donovan: Man! Being considered niche. Um… trying to place yourself beyond the white gaze. You step into these meetings and they’re like, where is the nearest box that we can put these negroes in?

These execs, some of who are black, think one Ava DuVernay is good enough.

Roderick: So how do you stay motivated?

Donovan: Prayer [laughs]. The community constantly reminds us to keep going. We get support from so many people, and we’re grateful.

Roderick: What makes you proud as a producer of The Grapevine TV? Donovan: Knowing that we’ve been able to give opportunities to other creators with our platform.

Seeing middle-school kids create their own Grapevine-inspired shows. Pushing culture through edutainment, and seeing the results – it’s all so satisfying.

Donovan: I want The Grapevine TV to revolutionize how we see the talk show, in the same way The Oprah Winfrey Show did. I want people to walk away from The Grapevine feeling seen.

Roderick: I think you’re well on your way. Donovan, it’s been a pleasure. I can’t wait to see you on tour!

Donovan: Thank you. This means so much.

The Grapevine TV’s live event, Thick Thighs Save Lives, A Conversation on Body Shaming, will take place in Brooklyn on March 6, 2020 at the Center for Fiction. Be sure to check out @thegrapevinetv on Instagram for more information.

Roderick Thomas is an NYC-based writer and filmmaker (Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident; email: rtroderick.thomas@gmail.com).

Roderick: You guys have been all over the world, but

www.star-revue.com

March 2020

Modern Dance with Carrie

As deep winter moves into spring, the already busy New York dance scene gets even more dizzying. Here are upcoming events I’m excited to see.

We begin the month with Joya Powell and her MOPDC (Movement of the People Dance Company). I’ve loved Joya’s work since I first saw her company about 3 years ago. A New York na�ve, a High School of Performing Arts grad, Joya and her company embrace today’s social and poli�cal issues, ques�ons of iden�ty and belonging, with sensi�vity and humor. A work-in-progress – What’s Left of Spring – will be at one of New York City’s best free dance events (March 2). Don’t miss the chance to see what they’re working on!

The rest of the month at Movement Research at Judson Church is also worth paying a�en�on to. Up-and-coming dancer/choreographer Jasmine Hearn and Anabella Lenzu are March 9. andrea haenggi & urban mosses bring Haenggi’s “ethno-choreo-botan-ography in an explora�on that began as a five-year movement-based project in Crown Heights (March 16). Finally, veteran choreographer Yoshiko Chuma performs on April 6. If you’ve never seen Chuma, don’t miss the opportunity.

Mondays at 8 Movement Research @ Judson Church, 55 Washington Square S https://movementresearch.org/events 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award winner Kimberly Bartosik /daela brings her newest work to Live Arts as part of their Live Feed Residency program. The former Merce Cunningham dancer’s always rigorous approach here creates layers of encounters. Beginning “inside of a storm of unbounded physical intensity,” through the mirror of their eyes is wild and tender. Caught “in the wake of experience,” Bartosik says the dance, performed by the exquisite Joanna Kotze, Dylan Crossman, and Burr Johnson, is an “extremely hard piece physically and emo�onally.” They are joined by three young performers, Dahlia Bartosik-Murray, Hunter Liss, and Winter Willis, leading the way into the future. If that’s not enough, the audience is invited to populate a crowd scene.. On March 5, former Brooklyn Academy of Music Execu�ve Producer Joe Melillo will host a Stay Late Conversa�on.

March 4-7 at 7:30 New York Live Arts, 219 W. 19th St. newyorklivearts.org/event/kimberly-bartosik-untitled/ That same weekend, the wonderful, in�mate Brooklyn theater, JACK shows This Is Now, and Now, and Now. Reflec�ng on our early desire to be older, and our increasing dismay at growing old, This Is Now is a humorous look at the imperfec�on of life, performed by cakeface (Ali Castro, Jade Daugherty, Ayesha Jordan, Nola Sporn Smith), an all-female, intergenera�onal ensemble. Culturebot describes them as “a group of fierce, funny, talented women.” Created by Ar�s�c Director Amanda Szeglowski.

March 4-7 at 8:00 JACK Brooklyn, 18 Putnam Ave., Clinton Hill www.jackny.org/this-is-now-and-now-and-now.html

LayeRhythm The 92Y has a long history of supporting modern dance; the Harkness Dance Festival is the biggest event of their season. Curated by Catherine Tharin, this year’s festival, which runs from February through the end of March focuses on foreign choreographers. Oona Doherty (from Belfast, Ireland), with DJ Joss Carter, brings Hope Hunt and Lazarus and the Birds of Paradise, a portrayal of the “male disadvantaged stereotype.” Tap improviser Kazu Kumagai (Sendai, Japan) shares his always charming, dynamic tapping in Good Rhythm Wonderful Life. Finally, Sara Cano (Madrid, Spain) creates a unique blend of flamenco, Spanish folklore, butoh, and Israeli folk dance in A Palo Seco.

March 6-21, �mes vary 1395 Lexington Avenue between 91st & 92nd St. Harkness Dance Fes�val www.92y.org/harkness-dance-festival At the end of the month, one of my new favorite dance events takes off.

LayeRhythm Jam is like a jazz session for dancers. Organizer Mai Le Ho (Mai Lê Grooves) matches street/club dancers, many well-known, with talented musicians, rappers, and spoken word ar�sts. Reversing the usual dancer/musicians dynamic, LayeRhythm musicians riff off the dancers, their musical riffs following the dancers’ gestures. Together they create playful, some�mes serious, even emo�onal, madeup-on-the-spot dances. Not like anything you’ve ever seen – party in a performance.

Last Tuesday of the month Nublu: 151 Avenue C www.layerhythm.org

Oona Doherty

Cakeface

Yoshiko Chuka

by Carrie Stern Red Hook Star-Revue

www.star-revue.com

March 2020, Page 19

On Film

Eurydice Looks Back: A Review of Portrait of a Lady on Fire

by Nicola Morrow “His longing eyes, impatient, backward cast / To catch a lover’s look, but look’d his last; / For, instant dying, she again descends, / While he to empty air his arm extends.” The legend of Orpheus and Eurydice recounts how Orpheus, the fabled poet and philosopher, violated Hades’ conditions for his dead lover Eurydice’s release from the underworld by turning to cast her a forbidden glance, and in so doing condemning her to Hell forever.

This tale has occupied artists – from Ovid to Monteverdi to Jerry Garcia – across millenia. In Portrait of a Lady on Fire, director Céline Sciamma presents the story anew. This is a film about looking, and about the desire which innervates the compulsion to look, to keep looking, and, sometimes, to look away.

Against the backdrop of an achingly remote aristocratic estate along the wild cliffs of Brittany in pre-Revolutionary France, an artist named Marianne (Noémie Merlant) has been commissioned to paint the portrait of a young woman named Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) for a Milanese nobleman, a stranger to whom she is unhappily betrothed.

Marianne’s mandate is not easy: Héloïse, angry and proud, refuses to sit for her portrait. So Marianne poses as her companion, observing her subject voraciously as they walk by the cliffs and sit together on the feral beach, mostly in silence, painting Héloïse secretly from memory.

Sciamma arranges composed shots illuminated by lambent candles and cracks of sunlight, largely silent save for moments of spare, symbolic dialogue, creating a series of tableaux that reflects the irreal-

ity of the world the two women share.

The climactic revelation of the film arrives not when Marianne confesses her true assignment to Héloïse, but later, when Héloïse reveals that the currents of observation flow in both directions: she is looking back at Marianne. This is the first subversion of the Orpheus myth; Eurydice, too, can choose to look. The ripening tension of mutual observation is communicated through alternating close-ups of the women, both unyielding in their intensity and grace, as they watch each other. They take turns, each glance lingering longer than the last as they verge dangerously on contact, the moments between their gazes diminished to milliseconds. Sciamma forces us to wait, breathlessly, for their eyes to finally meet.

This consummation, which for Marianne and Héloïse precedes physical contact, happens when the two women accompany a young maid, Sophie (Luàna Bajrami), to a strange, quasi-pagan festival.

Standing together around a bonfire, the village women in attendance raise their voices in ethereal harmony, repeating a single Latin phrase – fugere non possum (“we cannot escape”) – in an overpowering crescendo as Marianne and Héloïse stare at each other across the flames, the space between them shimmering with heat.

In placing the painter and her subject opposite one another, Sciamma invents a moment of sublime equality. It is this equality, she demonstrates, that is a prerequisite for love.

But complete as this moment is, Sciamma is also concerned with what lies beyond the frame: namely, men, and the rules they enforce. The majority of the action transpires in a utopian universe apart

from the patriarchal and socioeconomic strictures that constrain our protagonists’ pasts and futures.

And while the film can certainly serve as a feminist manifesto, the absence of men is less a thesis than it is a device, helping Sciamma to draw a diagram of liberated desire.

In the film’s sole moment of pure exposition, Héloïse reads aloud the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The scene is one of Haenel’s transcendent moments; she reads hungrily, her face flushed and her elbows rooted to the table. When she reaches the tragic climax of the story, she pauses so that the three women – Héloïse, Marianne, and Sophie – can debate the central, intractable enigma of the legend, and of the film itself: why did Orpheus look? Was it a compulsive instinct, something beyond his control? Did, as Héloïse suggests, Eurydice ask him to look back?

Or, as Marianne contends, did Orpheus make the poet’s choice instead of the lover’s, preferring to crystallize his love in a single dramatic instant rather than continuing to live it out in mundane days, weeks, and years?

Flouting Ovid’s warning, and without resolving his puzzle, Marianne and Héloïse continue to look at one another. In the world Sciamma creates, unburdened by either mythic morality or social repression, to observe is to be in power, to be observed is to be desired, and the place those two meet is love.

Portrait of a Lady On Fire is playing at Village East Cinema, BAM, Cobble Hill Cinemas, Angelika Film Center, and Nitehawk Cinema.

Available For Private Events Page 20 Red Hook Star-Revue

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March 2020

Caleb's film previews - March Spring is on its way, and so are better movies. Sundance, the first major film festival of the year, has come and gone, and indie hits, like glacial streams, will slowly trickle into theaters and our hearts. But spring can also be a hostile time: beware the movie-star vanity projects and cynical nostalgia vehicles that stalk the cineplexes. Check out the highlights below:

March 4

Sorry We Missed You What it is: Acclaimed director Ken Loach turns his gaze to the gig economy, following a delivery driver and his family as they struggle to navigate life without safety nets.

Why you should see it: Loach is and always was a leftist idealogue, so viewers seeking a nuanced examination of capitalism will not enjoy his latest film. That said, audiences who share his political convictions may be moved by his passion and by his empathetic portrayal of the working class.

March 6

The Way Back What it is: Ben Affleck, an alcoholic has-been, is forced to work with others for the first time in years, and thereby regain some semblance of selfrespect. Oh wait, apologies for that typo. Ben Affleck PLAYS an alcoholic has-been forced to work with others for the first time in years, and thereby regain some semblance of self-respect.

Why you should see it: Affleck is no stranger to meta-commentary (go re-watch Gone Girl), but The CALEBS' MINI REVIEWS:

Pain and Glory

Perhaps not Pedro Almodovar’s best film, but certainly among his most moving and most personal. Antonio Banderas plays aging filmmaker Salvador Mallo. Though adored by audiences around the world, his multitude of ailments prevent him from making movies, and os he slouches, sulks, and waits around to die, until he reconnects with a series of long-forgotten collaborators and

Red Hook Star-Revue

Way Back’s familiar redemption-through-sports arc offers more uplift and less evisceration. Director Gavin O’Connor has also proven his ability to maximize the emotional impact of saccharine sports stories (go check out Warrior), though previous collaborations with Affleck did not go so well (The Accountant, oof).

First Cow What it is: A Western about the first American (and bovine) settlers in the Oregon Territory, and about how communities are built.

Why you should see it: Director and co-writer Kelly Reichardt has told the story of Western migration before, but 2010’s Meek’s Cutoff was more concerned with the violence and duplicity inherent in Manifest Destiny. First Cow promises a more hopeful look at what the West was and can be.

March 13 The Hunt

What it is: A group of working-class folks, hunted in a rural arena by wealthy coastal elites, bands together to strike back at their economic oppressors.

Why you should see it: The Hunt was scheduled for release in September of last year, but was delayed due to the school shooting in El Paso. Why Blumhouse Productions thought the 2020 primary season was a less volatile time to drop this tale of gun violence and class revolt remains a mystery.

ity, healthcare, and violence, as well as well-drawn performances from a mostly non-professional cast.

March 20

A Quiet Place: Part II What it is: A sequel to 2018’s surprise-hit horror flick A Quiet Place, in which a family must escape big nasty monsters that hunt by sound alone.

Why you should see it: John Krasinski returns as director, but not as star, which is nice, because Emily Blunt is a much more engaging performer. The first film worked best when CGI beasties remained off-screen, so whether a bigger budget will amplify or limit Krasinski’s ingenuity remains to be seen.

March 27 Mulan

What it is: This month’s live-action remake of an animated Disney musical scraps Eddie Murphy’s talking dragon and doubles down on the stylized choreography seen in Chinese martial arts movies.

Why you should see it: A less cynical moviegoer might see the promise of traditional wuxia filmmaking reframed in a Western musical context; a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the whole family.

I tend to see another lifeless husk engineered by The Mouse to please everyone, and therefore no one. - Caleb Drickey

Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always

What it is: Two teenaged cousins from rural Pennsylvania trek to New York City so that one of them may get an abortion.

Why you should see it: Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always was an audience hit at the Sundance Film Festival. Critics praised its intelligent examination of the intersections between poverty, sexual-

lovers. Almodovar balances Banderas’ morose performance with a series of vibrant co-stars, including an astounding Asier Etxeandia, and his dialogue remains as sharp and witty as it was decades ago. Banderas’ Mallo loves a patterned fabric, and so Almodovar designs the film accordingly: timelines, performances, and illnesses are layered on top of each other, creating a single, cohesive, work from a horde of disparate contributions.

Pain and Glory recently completed its run at Village East Cinema, and can be rented from Amazon Prime.

Uncut Gems

Josh and Benny Safdie’s New York is anxiety incarnate, powered by neon, amphetamines, and dissonant synths. However, the directing duo ground their best work (Good Time, Daddy Long Legs) in a complex and misguided love of family. Howie Ratner, played by Adam Sandler, has some complicated feelings about his family. His wife still fits her bat mitzvah dress, but can’t hide her (rightful) hatred of him. His loan shark brother-in-law beats him bloody, then chats about the Knicks at Passover dinner. Torn between

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comfort and suffocation, he compulsively self-destructs, having affairs and laying bets he can’t afford. The Safdies reframe Sandler’s trademark explosive petulance as the crutch of a desperate degenerate, and they surround him with kaleidoscopic visuals, a pulsing score, and a cast of non-professional actors who exude menace. Uncut Gems was the best thriller of 2019, and most likely of 2020.

Uncut Gems can be seen for a limited time on 35mm film at the Metrograph, and can be streamed on Amazon or Vudu.

March 2020, Page 21

Quinn On Books An ‘F’ Grade for an ‘A’ City Kevin Baker’s "The Fall of a Great American City: New York and the Urban Crisis of Affluence" Review by Michael Quinn

Y

ears ago, I came across a seldom-seen friend on Houston Street. Ranee was sitting on a bench in front of an American Apparel, wearing sunglasses and eating an ice cream cone, looking very self-satisfied.

We marveled at the unlikely odds of bumping into one another. “This is what makes New York an ‘A’ city,” she crowed, waving her cone around. I had no idea what she meant, but she was an unusual person whom I liked a lot, and now chance had thrown us together for a few minutes in our busy lives to watch the summer sun sink between the buildings.

As I went on my way afterward, I was left with the elated feeling that the city ruled and Ranee was one of its queens with her scepter. Still, I’d never thought of giving the city a grade before, like the health department gives restaurants. What makes New York an “A” city?

In his slim treatise, The Fall of a Great American City: New York and the Urban Crisis of Affluence, writer Kevin Baker cites some of his criteria. An awareness of its past. Being a place of opportunity, and of refuge, for all races and classes of people.

“It should not be peaceful, but it must be a place of peace,” Baker notes cryptically, as well as “a place where you see things you don’t see anywhere else, especially in our increasingly imposed, top-down society of today.”

Baker, who’s lived in New York since 1975, sees a marked decline in city life. He condemns “the systematic, wholesale transformation of New York into a reserve of the obscenely wealthy and the barely there – a place increasingly devoid of the idiosyncrasy, the complexity, the opportunity, and the roiling excitement that makes a city great.”

“Almost everything of use is gone,” Baker laments.

His list includes bakeries, butchers, cobblers, repair shops, hardware stores, dive bars, good restaurants (in terms of food and affordability), and movie theaters. Businesses that survive are mostly chains (especially banks and drugstores). Everywhere are empty storefronts, which Baker compares to the “growing, oxygen-depleted dead zones of our oceans and lakes, polluted with pesticide runoffs and smothered in runaway algae blooms.”

Political scams and “mindless development schemes that are so grandiose that they have become even more destructive than the problems they were supposed to solve” are two of the culprits fingered. Baker writes, “Selling out has become an accepted way of proceeding in New York, not just for universities and tax-exempt churches, but for all sorts of subsidized institutions that are supposed to serve at least a semi-public purpose.”

Landlords come under fire, for their greed in commercial leases, and for the headaches associated with housing. Baker also explains the practice of “‘land banking,’ where wealthy individuals from all over the planet scoop up prime real estate to hold… as an investment opportunity.” As Baker sees it, these people don’t live here, yet they’re taking up

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valuable space. (Same goes for the tourists, but at least they fulfill a function.)

He cites other grim statistics. While New York continues to be the most expensive city in the country, the Bronx remains the poorest urban county in the USA. New York has a record level of homelessness.

And, Baker writes, the opioid crisis “killed three New Yorkers a day in 2016.”

Baker wants to make it clear that he’s not simply romanticizing the city he equates with his youth.

(Things he doesn’t miss about New York in the ‘70s: cockroaches, crime, garbage.)

Obviously, Baker concedes, New York still has some pretty special things. Public parks, museums, the theater district, and “institutions of learning that are everywhere,” are at the top of his list. Grand Central Terminal gets a special shoutout.

Confusingly, Baker understands, our thoughts about the city we call home often run counter to one another. He writes, “New York today – in the aggregate – is probably a wealthier, healthier, cleaner, safer, less corrupt, and better-run city than it has ever been.” Yet at the same time, Baker complains, “almost any public service or space in the city… has been diminished, degraded, appropriated.”

Baker takes as a case study the city’s (unsuccessful) courtship of the Internet juggernaut Amazon and its plans to subsidize the company’s proposed move to Queens. “In return for its promise to bring at least 25,000 – maybe 40,000! – jobs…over the next twenty-five years…Amazon was to receive an immediate $1.8 billion in state and city subsidies and tax breaks, and another $1.2 billion when it produced the jobs,” Baker explains, noting that “the dirty little secret” is that companies like Amazon are hellbent on “removing workers – both the workers in the countless smaller retail and online companies Amazon crushes on a daily basis, and within the company itself,” as it replaces human workers with robots.

Before the city gets down on one knee in front of the next business behemoth looking to set up shop, it’s well-worth remembering, Baker points out, that “[t] he city did nothing of note, for decades, to keep the area’s old manufacturing businesses – which employed thousands of working New Yorkers – from moving out.

It also did nothing of note to aid the small businesses and artists that moved in to replace them.”

When an earlier version of The Fall of a Great American City was published online by Harper’s Magazine in 2018, it went viral. Its tone of righteous indignation (so prevalent in online writing, where everyone is encouraged to shout over all the other noise) comes across differently on the page. Even if you agree with what Baker’s saying, the way he says it might get your back up.

Yet Baker is not some hack. A 2017 Guggenheim Fellow for nonfiction, he’s also a bestselling writer of historical fiction. His novels demonstrate his deep involvement with the city’s past, especially his “City of Fire” trilogy – Dreamland, Paradise Alley, Strivers Row – which reimagines historical events in the 1900s, the 1860s, and the 1940s, respectively.

Here Baker writes from a personal, more impassioned place. But that emotionalism has created a kind of tunnel vision. He can only see things one way. And his bias (as a historical novelist especially) might be that the past was a more interesting place.

Baker’s book would have benefited from his taking a step back to fit his perspective into a larger picture that accounts for other kinds of people feeling differently, and exploring who they are and the rea-

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sons why they feel as they do.

As it is, the physicality of the book feels somewhat slight. Twenty-five of its 167 pages are given over to its sources, including articles from the New York Times and New York magazine, and blogs such as Curbed and Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York (itself a eulogy to a lost city). It feels like Baker’s skimmed off the top of a lot of his reading, instead of going deeply into a few central sources. One might be better off tracing Baker’s thinking to its roots. One of them is Jane Jacobs’s landmark work on the subject, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

One thing I’d have liked Baker to explore is how the city has changed because of the Internet. It used to be that people lived in the city, or outside the city, and something like a membrane separated the two, and you could feel the change traveling from one place to another. We all live online now. Convenience is at the touch of our fingertips. But the technology connects and isolates simultaneously.

Interesting cities require us to engage.

The places where Baker’s book most moved me were in his personal reminisces. More than the research and statistics, these stories better show what’s been lost and make us reflect on what else we stand to lose. After all, each of us who lives here has our own, deeply personal relationship with the city, what we each think of as my New York.

The larger problem, of course, is bigger than New York. As Baker understands, it’s “how to live in an America where we believe that we no longer have any ability to control the systems we live under.”

Then again, the problem is even bigger than America. “Facing our growing environmental crisis, it is clear that we need cities more than ever to survive,” Baker writes. That sounds important, but Baker doesn’t float many solutions for the problems he’s raised. Meanwhile, the water levels continue to rise.

As for my friend, Ranee, Ranee whom I seldom see?

Now I never do. Ranee got the hell out of Dodge.

She moved to Richmond, Virginia.

March 2020

STAR REVUE

MUSIC

Modern Rock Journalism The Buzz is still growing

by Jack Grace

B

uzzy Linhart passed away February 13, 2020. He was 76. Buzzy was a musician and songwriter revered among the Greenwich Village scene of the ‘60s. He was also a muse of the hit-making singer-songwriter era. Mr. Linhart once sang “Get Together” at an open mic; it blew away Jesse Colin Young who was in attendance. Linhart taught the song to Young backstage that very night, writing down the chords. “Get Together” later became a #5 Billboard hit for Jesse with his band, The Youngbloods.

In the early ‘70s, Buzzy could fill any auditorium around the New York Metro area with his loyal following; his energetic, humorous and eclectic performance style was unmatched. On September 2, 1977, the New York Times wrote, “No sooner has he hit an opening chord than his eyes roll back in his head and he begins to bob and weave like a dervish in a trance. But one once endured such overachieving regularly in the interests of hearing genuine talent, and Mr. Linhart’s talent is genuine.”

Buzzy’s career was soaring. Carly Simon released his song “The Love Is Still Growing” on her debut album. Bette Midler made“(You’ve Got To Have) Friends,” which he co-wrote with Moogy Klingman, her theme song. It appeared on Midler’s and Barry Manilow’s debut albums. “Friends” hit #40 on the Billboard chart for Midler in 1972. Midler and Simon both won Grammys for Best New Artist, Carly in ‘71 and Bette in ‘73.

Buzzy moved through a few record deals and released some phenomenally original and even some potentially radio-accessible music. But none of the records ever properly translated into major airplay.

On January 15,1972, the New York Times wrote, “The singer-instrumentalist Buzzy Linhart, appearing at Folk City this week, does almost everything well. He sings the blues, he sings folk music, he scats jazz and plays the guitar, he pounds out drum solos and plays improvisations on the vibes. Multitalented is a good description, but the old enigma of the jack-of-all-trades keeps rearing its ugly head.”

The article goes on to say how his backing band was his best and really elevated him, in contrast to “his fairly lackluster singing of one or two bland, folk-styled tunes” that he performed solo. In retrospect it’s an obnoxious and unnecessary jab. The media seemed to enjoy panning his records and talent, searching for any sign of weakness. In listening to his music today, it holds up and is as well written and recorded as any of the popular output

of that era.

The Times article concludes with these words: “Mr. Linhart just might be able to find the focus that has eluded him in the past. The talent obviously is there. The question now is whether versatility can be channeled into stardom.”

I myself had never heard of Buzzy Linhart until his former road manager, Richard Adler posted the news of his passing in a Facebook group called “NY Rocks.” I clicked on his song “Pussycats Can Go Far” and was fascinated by its laid-back, heartfelt melody, delivered with such sensitivity. Following the video, a 2006 documentary, Famous: The Buzzy Linhart Story, played on YouTube. I enjoyed the doc and was inspired to hunt for more information.

I was born in 1968. I don’t believe many of my era are aware of the talents of Buzzy Linhart. I sent a message to Woodstock festival founder Michael Lang and asked him if he had an opinion on why Buzzy did not break to a bigger audience, “Not really except that it’s generally very hard for an artist to break through. Luck can play a big part,” he replied.

would not have made it into the 21st Century without the aid of his fame and fortune. By the way, Buzzy allegedly turned Crosby and Stills on to the EEEEBE tuning that would eventually birth Mr. Stills’s song “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (Buzzy used the tuning more for his influential raga-style songs).

After Buzzy passed, the New York Times and The Washington Post both wrote excellent obituaries well worth reading. I was listening to WFUV’s Mixed Bag, and they played a lovely tribute to Buzzy and mentioned the lack of coverage of his death.

Buzzy was lucky. He made beautiful music and lived life on his own terms. I think it’s a shame that the music industry couldn’t figure out what to do with him. Yet Buzzy outlived that form of the industry.

I occasionally play with a drummer, Lee Falco (age 25), who also has played with Donald Fagen, The Lemonheads and his own band, The Restless Age. I noticed that he was Facebook friends with most of the Buzzy Linhart community. I asked if there was a connection.

I also asked Buzzy’s former road manager for ‘74’75, Richard Adler: “The music industry is mostly about luck and in retrospect Buzzy was not lucky, at least in the selling of 10,000 seats kind of way.”

He texted back: “My dad played bass in his band on some gigs in the nineties. I grew up on his music. Buzzy is incredible. So underrated. One day all of the hipsters are gonna catch on.”

Yet Buzzy recorded vibraphone on Jimi Hendrix’s album The Cry of Love. He achieved acting notoriety as the naked hitchhiker in 1974’s The Groove Tube, a movie with Chevy Chase and Richard Belzer. He was a regular on Bill Cosby’s show Cos. It appears that luck was once with Buzzy Linhart.

You can find Buzzy Linhart on Spotify, YouTube or on vinyl on Etsy and eBay and at brick-and-mortar record stores.

But after this impressive run, Buzzy essentially disappeared from the crowds and the spotlight. He was hit by a yellow cab that dragged him about 30 yards, and those injuries hampered his ability to play guitar. He developed glaucoma and bad knees; this eventually required Buzzy to use a wheelchair.

He had no home for a period. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and re-diagnosed in recent years with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Commercial success for an artist need not be the measure for a fulfilling pursuit of the craft. But when you get older and perhaps your health deteriorates to where you cannot perform, it sure is nice for royalty checks to continue, along with the financial benefit of celebrity cameos in movies and TV shows.

I think there is a fair chance that David Crosby

Edited by Michael Cobb Red Hook Star-Revue

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March 2020, Page 23

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Page 24 Red Hook Star-Revue

A monthly political art series in Park Slope

by Stefan Zeniuk

A

s all eyes, ears, and hearts prepare for the wild months ahead leading up to November, everyone everywhere is keenly aware of the political climate (hurricane?) that we’re living through.

It’s often hard to know how to act, what to do, or how best to be helpful.

Gone is the 24-7 in-the-streets mobilization from 2017, as everyone has been forced to trudge on with their daily lives, doing the daily things we need to do.

Acme Music Hall is a small music school, located in the heart of Park Slope on the corner of 9th street and 7th Ave. They run private lessons, group classes and have a small recording studio that allows kids to learn the art of recording and production. That is, during the daytime. By night, they moonlight as a political hub, of sorts. Owners Rebecca Pronsky and Rich Bennett, both New York natives, have been involved in local politics since the presidential upset three years ago.

In 2018, Pronsky campaigned for Liuba Grechen Shirley, and Bennett campaigned for Max Rose, holding fundraisers and phone banks at the music school for both candidates during off-hours.

Throughout 2020, ACME Music Studios is hosting a monthly event called “Nevertheless We,” which is a fundraiser for Get Organized Brooklyn (GOBK), an umbrella support system for dozens of localized, specialized activist groups. On February 7, I attended their event that featured artists and activists from the GOBK working group “Welcome To The Table ‘.” This group specializes in raising funds to support immigrants and immigrant rights.

New York Times journalist Tracy Tullis read excerpts from an investigative piece of hers about immigrants being paid unlivable wages by a car wash company, and the slow move towards justice for the workers. Lucy Wainwright Roche sang songs about confronting political hostility on social media, and some other beautiful songs tackling the politically charged era we’re living through. Sarah Riggs and Omar Berrada (plus their young daughter) read poems about nomadic living, and what it means to have a homeland and a physical place of identity. Artist Megan Piontowski displayed politically witty drawings and cartoons. And finally, Rebecca Pronsky finished the night with songs about the Democratic presidential nominees.

The feeling was lively, and positive, and filled to the back of the room with people disheartened, beaten down, a little sad, but glad to be in a room with like-minded folks offering visions of hope, resistance, and energy. The event raised a good amount of money, it seemed, for Welcome to the Table, and I definitely left feeling invigorated about the upcoming fight that 2020 has brought to our doorstep.

While we’re no longer seeing the massive marches across the country, even as authoritarianism seems to be seeping into our government’s bloodstream, it’s good to know that there are hundreds, thousands, of small, localized, under-the-radar meetings like this going on daily, around the country. Their next event, “Nevertheless We Awakened,” is March 6.

For more information, visit https://www. acmehallstudios.com/events.

New York NY

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March 2020

A Worst Record Countdown

by Joe Enright

O

K, sure, you can find “worst” music countdown clips on YouTube, but they’re full of all the obvious choices, with none of the deep cosmic thoughts you’ll find here in the Star-Revue. And I can pretty much guarantee no bandwidth problems with this page. Also, this countdown is all about the record, recognizing not only the song, but the artist, the producers, the background singers, and the entire mess that produced the recordings we are honoring.

But let me be perfectly clear, as every stinking politician likes to say over and over again these days: I’m not including what Dave Barry called “ear worms’’ in his seminal 1997 study, Book of Bad Songs (used copies now available for a penny on Amazon and well worth it). Barry’s worms are record snippets that involuntarily crawl around inside your head, causing you to suddenly blurt out, “Su-Su-Sussudio,” or “Rack, rack city bitch,” or “You a stupid ho.” No. Here at the Red Hook Star-Revue we go for records that fizzled so badly, they died long before you could have possibly heard them.

OK, I had planned to count down the Top 100, but I was just told by Mike Cobb to wrap this up, so as John Lennon used to say, here are the worst Top-ermost of the Pop-er-most.

#4 – “Enter Sandman” by Pat Boone (written by James Hetfield, Kirk Ham-

mett, Lars Ulrich; produced by Michael Lloyd & Jerry Weber). It’s hard to pick one particular cut from Pat Boone’s 1997 tribute to Metal. Scratch that. No, it isn’t. It’s this one. David Siebels, Pat’s musical sidekick for decades, was the genius who developed a big band lounge-lizard arrangement for one of the most venerated recordings of the rock era. Exit Metallica’s sinister atmosphere. Enter a chick chorus and Pat’s joyous whoop, “Let’s go!”

Pat’s very long sincere liner notes explain how this fabulous project came to be and how excited he is to be introducing heavy metal to a public that knows very little about it. Oh my. But the CD sold some copies and inspired 2015’s R&B Duets in which Pat teams up with aging (or dead) soul survivors and glides into basso profundo caricatures of everything R&B never was. Sad, funny, clueless.

Take a bow, Pat Boone!

#3 – “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” by Bob Dylan (written by Felix

Mendelssohn & George Whitefield, produced by Jack Frost, aka Bob Dylan). Let’s face it, we all have guests who sometimes show up uninvited or endure other visitors we’d just as soon get rid of.

Take it from me, nothing clears out any room faster than Bob Dylan’s 2007 Christmas album. Especially the way he croaks, “Hark, the here old angels sing.” I have seen people trample each other in a bid to evacuate when that baby starts spinning on my turntable (go with the vinyl so all those nasal

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utterances can be fully appreciated by the guests).

#2 – “A Ballad for Our Time” by the Four Seasons (written by Lou Stall-

man & Sid Jacobson, produced by Bob Crewe).

This was a 1964 attempt by the Bob Crewe/Bob Gaudio powerhouse of pop to cash in on those “protest songs” they kept hearing on the radio.

They knew the Seasons had way better pipes than The Brothers Four, The Kingston Trio and all those folkie nerds. There was only one problem.

For the Seasons’ first dip into the Sea of Protest, the Bobs chose possibly the worst song ever composed, including in other star systems. Here’s a tip for all you new tunesmiths out there. Never start off a song you think is making an important social statement by having your lead singer somberly announce a capella, “This...is a ballad for our time.”

Here’s another tip. When you’re going for that Dylan kind of vibe, don’t write an answer song to “Blowin’ in the Wind” or you might pen incredibly ridiculous lines like, “Every wind has the protocol to be kicking up dust into our eyes.” And if your aim is to one-up the Minnesota troubadour with some trenchant insight, well then, don’t end your tune with this: “And who has the right to say no?

But at times it’s as though one does, as though one does.” WTF? By the way, if you just couldn’t resist tracking this song down on Spotify, as a palettecleanser try listening to the Seasons’ tribute to the poetry of Bob Dylan, “Don’t Think Twice (Why Babe-A-Why-Babe).”

Can’t you just feel the suspense bubbling up now?

But first the traditional “Honorable Mention” category: “Dominic” by Elvis Presley (the Elvis movie soundtracks are often filled with unbelievably weird things, such as this song, sung to a bull with erectile dysfunction). And, of course, let’s not forget the country-meets-paranormal train wreck “Abominable Snow Creature” by Martin Wallace, trying for a “Big Bad John” feel but getting instead unintended belly laughs. (Wallace’s 2014 website blames the US government for letting the Communists take control of the music business, thereby ruining his career.) Drumroll, if you please...

tions – such as “MacArthur Park, “which warned of the dangers of keeping cakes out in the rain.

This seven-minute magnum opus is often cited by lesser analytic minds as the worst record of all time.

OK, OK, it’s definitely Top 20 material, I’ll grant you that. But when it comes to sheer unfathomable musical judgment, “The Yard Went on Forever,” the lead single of the follow-up album, takes the cake. A soggy cake at that.

Where does one begin? Here’s a taste. The Latin phrase often repeated throughout the record, De profundis clamavi ad te Domine (from Psalm 130, “From the depths I have cried out to you oh Lord”), inspired the title of the first live album by the aptly named Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral (I think a better title would have been Help! I’ve lost my hearing!, but maybe that’s just me). The psalm is first heard after Richard Harris delivers a portentous reading of the line, “Hear them singing, all the women of Pompeii standing with the Kansas City housewives in doorways in volcanoes and tornadoes on doomsday.” When the Latin-singing choir quiets down, Harris returns to sing, “There were houses, there were hoses, there were sprinklers on the lawn. There was a frying pan, and she would cook their dreams.”

I like to think that the satirical British rockers the Bonzo Dog Band were inspired by “The Yard Went on Forever” to write “Canyons of Your Mind” that same year, particularly their spectacular ending: “And each time I hear your name (Frying pan, frying pan), Oh! How it hurts! (He’s in pain). In the wardrobe of my soul (Oh, my soul). In the section labeled ‘shirts’ (Agh) Agh! Oh!” The Bonzo guitarist Neil Innes, often called the seventh Monty Python (also a Ruttle with Eric Idle), died as 2020 dawned, just weeks before fellow Python Terry Jones joined him. Neil perfectly summed up the worldview that continues to give us records like “The Yard Went on Forever” – every time he stepped on stage with a Stratocaster, his huge Marshall amp dialed to 11, and snarled, “I’ve suffered for my music. Now it’s your turn!”

#1 – “The Yard Went on Forever”

by Richard Harris (written and produced

by Jimmy Webb). In 1968 Richard Harris, the star of stage and screen, suddenly realized all the chicks dug rock stars more than him. Solution?

Become a rock star. Enter Jimmy Webb. After cutting his chops at Motown, his pen became a hit machine: “Up, Up and Away,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” etc. Webb had just created his own production company when Richard Harris came knocking, seeking chickmagnet material. But Jimmy was depressed about his love life. So, he wrote and produced depressing songs for Harris, featuring over-the-top orchestra-

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/kegandlantern March 2020

And the winners are… racism, sexism, harassment

S

ince the late 1950s, the Grammys have represented the summit of success in the music industry. Musicians all over the world have dreamed of holding a golden gramophone. The Grammy is considered one of the big four entertainment awards, alongside the Emmy (TV), the Oscar (film), and the Tony (theater). As a child in the early 2000s, I sat in front of the television eagerly awaiting those four words: “and the winner is...”

In 2018 the Recording Academy found itself accused of practicing racial and gender inequality.

Yet unlike previous times, these recurring accusations would lead to the resignation of Recording Academy President Neil Portnow. Ironically, his stepping down in the summer of 2019 came after his ill-received comment about women needing to “step up” in the music business.

“Women who want to be at the highest levels in this industry need to step up, and we need to make sure the welcome mat is obvious for everyone,” he said.

In August 2019, Deborah Dugan became the first female CEO of the Recording Academy. Less than a year later she would file a 40-plus-page complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Dugan called out the Recording Academy board members (and others) for misuse of power, sexism, racism and sexual harassment. As of January 16, 2020, she has been placed on administrative leave – quite the welcome mat.

Grammy awards are voted on by at least 13,000 members of the Recording Academy. The votes are tallied up by Deloitte, and winners of the biggest awards, like Album of the Year are broadcast live on TV. However, Dugan alleges that certain members of the board cherrypick Grammy nominees, bypassing official rules and processes. “It’s a boy’s

Calvary Church celebrates black history

by Nathan Weiner The Calvary Baptist Church of Red Hook celebrated Black History Month with singing, acting and music on February 23.

The event was called The Church: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Kids and adults were involved, and there were three different acts with music (guitar, drums and piano).

“It was more or less looking at the church, what used to happen, comparing it to today, and thinking about how it can be better for the future tomorrow,” Deaconess Betty Moorning said.

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by Roderick Thomas club,” says Dugan. In the complaint, Deborah goes on to mention her brush with sexual harassment by Grammy lawyer Joel Katz. Dugan further discusses the longstanding issue of racial discrimination within the organization. Black artists are often thrown into R&B categories by default and shut out of the most sought-after awards.

“The issues are systemic,” Dugan observed.

Recording Academy members, of course, deny the allegations, accusing Dugan of creating a toxic work environment. Having a CEO, albeit shorttenured, slam the Grammys and the Recording Academy is particularly damning, but sadly, that’s the only unique feature in this situation.

Here are a few facts. The Grammys were created in a time where “Colored Music” was still music industry Jargon. Today, “Colored Music” has been effortlessly disguised as “Best Urban” anything. For almost a decade at least, more than 90 percent of winners in major categories have been men (2013 to 2020). Interestingly, women make up nearly half of all Best New Artist Grammy winners, yet less than 10 percent of women win in categories like the sought-after Album of the Year. Hip-hop, currently the most dominant genre in American music, has only been recognized by the Grammys since around 1990. Every year there is a firestorm of complaints and every following year, nothing happens – I am tired.

The Grammy awards, like other awards, have been losing viewership, and while they remain a career goal for many artists, their importance is waning.

The reality is that many of our musical icons never received a Grammy in their lifetime: Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Tupac, and the list goes on.

For years I’ve watched award shows miscategorize black artists like Rihanna, placing them in R&B or “Urban” categories, even if their nominated

The first act was titled “Church Yesterday.” The Brownsville Community Baptist Church Male Chorus performed a few songs At the end of the “Church Yesterday” section, Moorning observed that people don’t trust each other like they used to.

The opening of the “Church Today” section was a pleasing rendition of the song “Victory is Mine.”

In “Come as You Are” (scene one) of “Church Today,” a woman was wearing a sheet and then proclaimed to another performer that the church had too many rules.

In “Children Playing Games During Service” (scene two), a boy was playing a game on his phone and a told a woman who questioned him that his mother would get her in trouble.

The other acts during Church Today included “I Can Do That” and “Offering/Prayer.”

work was sonically pop music. What is R&B about a song like Rihanna’s “Only Girl in the World”?

Conversely, white artists like Justin Timberlake, or Justin Bieber are regularly placed in both “pop/ mainstream” and “urban” categories for their sonically rhythm and blues albums and songs.

The message that is being sent is that black culture and music are an unrestricted playground for others to consume, but the inverse is not the case.

Black culture is admired but not respected.

I can no longer put much stock into the Grammys.

“And the winner is” doesn’t mean the same thing to me anymore.

Roderick Thomas is an NYC-based writer and filmmaker (Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident; email: rtroderick.thomas@gmail.com).

"Dugan alleges that certain members of the board cherrypick Grammy nominees, bypassing official rules and processes.

“It’s a boy’s club.”"

on to, and some things have gotten better,” Deaconess Moorning said.

During the “Church Tomorrow” section, Deaconess Moorning said some words about the the future.

There was speculation that the influence of podcasts and social media in the church would rise and that church would more often be held in parks and coffee shops.

A key part of this section had youth walking down the aisle of the church, announcing their career aspiration. Some were dressed to look the part of their goal for the future. These included chief of police, movie producer, veterinarian, actor, basketball player, fashion designer and songwriter.

The closing song was “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand.” Deaconess Moorning said she hoped that people were inspired.

“Change is good, and some things we have to hold

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March 2020, Page 27

Running into what’s-their-face chance collisions with some of music’s grand poobahs

I

by Mike Morgan

know this has happened to most of us who are big city dwellers – in saloons, clubs and airport bars, on train platforms, on the high street, in greasy spoons, a few times in likely places, but more often than not in the most outlandish and unexpected of circumstances. I’m talking about what the paparazzi refer to as celebrity sightings. The paparazzi actively seek these out, but we don’t. We experience these instances usually through sheer chance. Fame in our world today is not necessarily earned or deserved. Notoriety might be more of an apt description. And for convenience’s sake, I will dedicate this article to incidents from the music world… well, mostly.

and it’s a visual. I worked in a small sandwich emporium then in Hammersmith called “The Big Cheese.”

There was nothing big about the Big Cheese – the shop was about the size of a large shoe box. But it was extremely popular and all day long we would be slicing the Gruyere, slapping the mackerel paté on the French bread, and generally satisfying the needs of an altogether hungry and pasty English clientele. It was the most exhausting job I ever had because their appetites were insatiable, their numbers endless. By closing time each day, I was done in. I would always enjoy a cig outside of the store before we locked up the Stilton in the safe for the night.

So, after that preamble, of course let me start with a story about a nonmusician famous person. This is for location purposes. My memory was tweaked when the 103-year-old film actor Kirk Douglas passed away earlier this month. For decades, Welsh Nicholas Downey (RIP) was my next-building neighbor at 85 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. One of our most well-traveled paths was from our respective apartment buildings to the local Yemeni-owned bodega around the corner on Underhill Avenue.

Nick and I once tried to calculate how much cash we had spent there over the years on smokes and beer. It was enough to put entire generations of young Arab kids through college. All we ever got in return was an annual Yemen Airlines calendar.

The Big Cheese was within spitting distance of the Hammersmith Odeon, a venerated West London concert hall and film palace. That summer, Bob Marley and the Wailers held court there for an entire week. This was when Marley was living in London, after he had been shot in Jamaica in late 1976 during the whole Michael Manley versus Edward Seaga kerfuffle.

Nick called me excitedly at work. He had been taking the dog for his daily limp when he saw Kirk Douglas with a young assistant scouting out the neighborhood. “I’m about to go down to the Yemenis to pick up a six-pack, should I say something to him?” I egged Nick on. Twenty minutes later, he was back on the line.

“Well… and?” I asked.

“I said ‘Good afternoon, Mr. Douglas.’ To which Kirk Douglas replied, ‘Good afternoon.’” And that was that.

So on to the business of the rockers.

This one happened in London, 1978,

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Puffing away on the evening Rothmans, I scoped out the traffic on the narrow street. It was always jammed up running into the circle. I first noticed the white E-Type Jaguar, perhaps the prettiest sports car ever manufactured, hard to miss since it was smack dab in front of me. I next saw the spliff, a gigantic one. Seated beside the smoker was a gorgeous blond woman, the kind that dated center forwards for Manchester United. Then I recognized the driver. It was none other than Ras Bob Marley himself on his way to the gig. For a split second our eyes met. I gave him the nod, which he politely returned.

I was about to offer him some Red Gloucester cheese on the house when the light changed and the Jag roared away into the concrete jungle.

This leads me to another London tale, involving my sister Jen. Jen has been a Londoner since late 1971. She knows many of its nooks and crannies. Jen told me of going to a music

pub in Brixton, South London to see the elder reggae singer Desmond Dekker play. No surprise that she had a Desmond Dekker sighting, but it was of a different sort. The audience was already hooting aloud for “The Israelites,” his big hit. The club had a small stage with a drawn curtain.

There was a gap, and through that Jen saw Desmond Dekker sitting at a table alone with his head between his hands. He had a half-empty bottle of Gilbey’s gin facing him. He looked altogether miserable. Desmond Dekker had probably performed “The Israelites” live thousands of times. This was a celebrity sighting of sorts, one of the tortured-artist variety.

Here’s another backstage episode. My friend Tom tells of the following. Tom is the only person I know who has personally witnessed a Chuck Berry negotiation between the duck walker himself and a couple of music promoter hustlers. It occurred at the Stony Brook campus on Long Island, and it was right before a scheduled Chuck Berry show. Tom happened upon it in a back classroom, while searching for the can. He heard quotes like this, “You are obligated by contract” from the suits, followed by a vehement “No” from Chuck. There were plenty more of those negations. Chuck Berry wasn’t going on stage until he got paid. For Tom was viewing Chuck Berry outgaming his opposition. Not too many people have seen this first hand, as well-known as it is. Tom has.

No particular place to go, indeed.

Clermont Ferrand of Les Sans Culottes adds this. His wife Margie, then a waitress down at the South Street Seaport, once served arugula to Flavor Flav, the clock-wearing clown prince of Public Enemy.

Margie exacted an autograph for Bill (Clermont), despite Flav demanding anonymity. This was in the early days of mobile phones, and Flav spent the rest of the evening yelling into his enormous one, as large as the shoe box otherwise known as the Big Cheese. “Yo cuz, this is Flav!” It wasn’t the arugula salad or the hired help that gave him away.

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There used to be a vibrant country bar in the West Village called City Limits. My old comrade and former roommate Joe was a huge country music fan. We would visit the venue occasionally on Mondays. That was the audition night when admission was gratis and the place wasn’t packed to the gills. Joe was convinced we would see the next John Prine or Merle Haggard. We never did.

Situated in the City Limits one rainy Monday evening with a Swedish woman who pronounced the word bonus as “boonus,” we were entertained by an ex-vet who had grown tired of cleaning latrines. He sang about it instead. His stuff was kind of shit-swabbing country swing. We liked him, considering him to be a real boonus. All of a sudden, there was a ruckus at the door. In the center of this pandemonium swayed a wiry, leopard skin vest-clad skeletal weasel-looking chap with a cigarette dangling from his lips, surrounded by muscle men and pretty women. Enter Keith Richards, co-captain of the Rolling Stones.

The poor bloke on stage lost it and essentially dried up. Meanwhile, Joe took it upon himself to approach Keith Richards in pursuit of some fundraising on behalf of the South African liberation cause. That effort got about as far as the first bodyguard and came to an abrupt end. Luckily, there was no bloodshed. The Swedish gal set off autograph hunting but came back complaining of no boonus.

She stormed off in a huff. The price of cheap beer immediately increased. All in all, Keith Richards had managed to spoil a perfectly agreeable evening.

So rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous can have its downside.

Let it bleed instead.

It is said that there are a million stories in the naked city. And at least this time around, I managed to find space for the Kirk Douglas one, besides those about the musicians. After all, Kirk Douglas was Spartacus.

March 2020

Getting it right at Brooklyn Native Studio

by Mike Fiorito I’m at Vox Pop, an artist lounge and cafe-bar on Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn. It’s Sunday night, open mic. It’s 2009.

Many of the performers are good.

Some, like me, are playing solo and singing for the first time in front of an audience. I’ve been playing guitar for a long time, but never carrying the load by myself with vocals and guitar.

I see someone new get up to the stage.

He doesn’t banter much at the microphone. He focuses on getting plugged in and getting the sound right.

The sound that comes out of this performer soars above the rest of us.

He looks like a modern-day Paganini, his hair flapping as he throws his head back.

The first song he plays, called “What Turns You On,” is very contemporary, but not overly artsy. It’s a very listenable song with unusual lyrics. What turns you on, she’s asking me. The song is not about sex; it’s deeper than that. What turns you on in life? The lyrics keep you guessing. Great guitar playing, but not of the noodling kind.

He’s playing what is needed. It’s economical, in service of the song. And he has an amazing vocal range, able to hit the high notes with power. And he adds sotto voce to the right parts.

That performer, Frank Miceli, stage name flezaDoza, still performs around Brooklyn, but mostly focuses his musical talents on producing other artists and helping them to develop their voice. flezaDoza, a Brooklyn native in an era of Brooklyn wannabes, operates a private recording studio, aptly named Brooklyn Native Studio, out of his home. Some people show up to flezaDoza’s studio with just a melody and lyrics. He helps them develop the song, providing guitar, bass, key-

board, drums and background vocals.

Recording nearly everyone from the Vox Pop era, flezaDoza, of course, gets me to make a visit. He treats my recording like it is gold and deserves all the attention and care he can give.

For my two-minute-and-forty-second song, flezaDoza repeats “one more take” over and over as he works with me in the studio. I’m fed up with myself and the song about four hours in, but flezaDoza keeps pushing me to produce my best. He is a perfectionist. In the end, it takes about eight hours of studio time to record. This doesn’t take into account the many hours flezaDoza cleans up the recording and adds dubs. He then presents me with various versions of the song.

I like the take of the song with his background vocals on the chorus, a bass line thudding through the song, and drums. flezaDoza is the consummate artist. He records musician-composers, ranging in styles from rap, to country folk, to pop, to punk and rock. He produces pop acts like G. Lokko and Marshall Franklin Ravel to hard rock artists like Concrete Groove.

Being a superb musician, he listens and brings his vast knowledge to any collaboration. flezaDoza may offer suggestions, but ultimately the artist has the last word. Recording with flezaDoza is like having the wild genius of Paganini at your disposal. But the final product is up to you.

Learn more about Brooklyn Native Studio at brooklynnativestudio.com.

Mike Fiorito’s most recent book, Call Me Guido, was published in 2019 by Ovunque Siamo Press. His two short story collections, Hallucinating Huxley and Freud’s Haberdashery Habit, were published by Alien Buddha Press. His website is callmeguido.com.

the red hook

THE REBIRTH OF THE COOL

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March 2020, Page 29

On Jazz Write it all down

by George Grella

When everyone is making it up on the spot, who’s the composer?

This is a question every time an album track has a composer credit, or when a musician on the bandstand announces that “this was written/composed by” so-and-so.

If you listen to jazz at all, you’ve heard one or more musicians play a tune (usually a song form of some kind, whether it’s 12-bar blues or something from George Gershwin), improvise based on the form of that tune, then bring it all back home by repeating the original material (getting back to the “head”).

Or you’ve heard a record where the musicians play an entirely free improvisation, music making preserved because it’s captured on tape or hard drive and given a composer credit even though it’s something that can never be repeated, only reproduced by playing the recording.

In between are figures like Cecil Taylor and Butch Morris who, when working with other musicians, used some combination of musical material and guidance, the musicians improvising in an aesthetic direction shaped by the leader. Who’s the composer there?

The question matters in the most basic material sense because the composer gets the copyright and the fees. But sticking only with the art, it matters because jazz has a unique relationship with the idea of the composer, and that relationship can be ambiguous.

In practice, composing has a lot to do with documentation, setting an idea in an at least semipermanent format so that it can be shared far and wide. Notating music on paper means that composer and performer can connect across time and space without ever meeting – that’s what happens every time a pianist plays a Beethoven sonata. There’s a document there, a record, a way to transmit information from one point to the next, from past to

present to future.

Here in the west, we love documentation; we need it to cement something as real and reliable. It’s all pictures-or-gtfoh, or replay confirming officially that guy scored the touchdown which we all saw

"This is all to say that Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata is no higher than Monk’s “‘Round Midnight,” nor is Monk any less a composer." him do in real time, or historians not believing Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings had children because gosh darn it Jefferson didn’t write down how many kids he begat via his slave mistress so watchagonnado? Reality in America isn’t real until it can be replayed on video, or mirrored by an official document (maybe a longform birth certificate?).

The Hemmings/Jefferson case is an egregious and acutely relevant example of why documentation matters even if it can’t show, or even obscures, the truth – some “truths” are in the hands of de facto and de jure institutions. Jazz is an oral tradition,

which is what music was for 50,000 years, globally, until the symbolic language of music rotation, and printing, developed in the west. The history of documents in music is barely a sliver on that timeline, yet the document, rather than the music itself, has come to be the thing that matters.

Since Beethoven, the primary figure in art music has been the composer. In jazz, it’s been the musician, the soloist and improviser. This is the document/oral tradition divide. There have been extraordinary composers in jazz, Duke Ellington of course but also Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus. But for decades they weren’t seen as legit, somehow not doing the noteson-paper thing in the right way. Even Gershwin, like Ellington an extraordinary composer who was essential to the sound of jazz, was not seen as a legitimate classical composer, because classical music wasn’t supposed to be bluesy or swinging or sexy.

There were issues of social status and prestige involved when the Third Stream movement started in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, people like John Lewis and Stan Kenton and Gunther Schuller trying to achieve “legit” status by using classical compositional techniques like counterpoint and fugal structures. A lot of this music is awkward, worst of all when it uses Schoenberg’s atonal 12-tone method – history has shown this to be an oddity and a dead end, but for many years the classical establishment saw atonality as the only acceptable practice, and so composers thought they had to write music like that in order to be taken seriously. Unfortunately some still do.

The earth is round but the cultural world is flat.

High culture, low culture, and in between are distinctions that have nothing to do with content and everything to do with the social status and attitudes of consumers – Mozart, who wrote some intentionally vulgar music, and Gershwin aren’t low because the people who listen to them think themselves high. They are high because their music is wonderful.

Mozart wrote sonatas, Ellington wrote songs. And as I bring up at every opportunity, it’s harder to write a song than a sonata; the latter has fairly specific structural guidelines in which a composer can fit just about anything, while the former must be an impeccable and memorable three-minute encapsulation of mood, outlook, values, and personal history. A sonata is an abstract idea that can be admired for its architecture, a song has to work, it has to tell you something, it has to mean something. And if it’s a song without words, like Ellington’s “Johnny Come Lately” or “Black and Tan Fantasy” or “The Mooche,” it takes mastery to make it work.

This is all to say that Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata is no higher than Monk’s “‘Round Midnight,” nor is Monk any less a composer. In terms of composing – writing it all out – in the jazz idiom, Monk is one of the greats. And not just a great jazz composer, a great composer.

Monk, in fact, is better seen not in the context of jazz, but in relation to Igor Stravinsky. Their methods were near identical; take a small unit of music like a phrase or a rhythm, and repeat it while opening up fascination by shifting around the pulse and accented downbeats. For the both of them, that produced music with a great physical feeling and

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March 2020

Review In Simulacrum, Zorn rethinks a composer’s role

by Stefan Zeniuk

J

ohn Zorn has been more than just a staple on New York’s creative musical landscape: he’s been a defining factor. Like an institution, flowing from one decade to the next, unchanging, yet always updating, he has been here. Flowing seamlessly between genres, linking half a dozen scenes together in a musical cauldron, he is also an artist defined by his physical location. In his early days he held court at The Kitchen, then moved to the Knitting Factory, and then to Tonic, finally opening his own venue The Stone, which has now folded into the cultural umbrella of The New School. Zorn is now the occasional master of ceremonies at New York’s newest (and deeply welcomed) avant-garde, “downtown” music hub, The Sultan Room, in Bushwick.

And on a below-freezing night in February, his presence after all these years in the New York experimental music community could be felt. As I waited on a line that snaked halfway down the street to get into the sold-out venue, the entire line shivering and huddling from the cold, I reflected on identical scenes from Zorn shows of the past 30 years. A master composer, bandleader, saxophonist, record label owner, and all-around puppet master, Zorn has that cult-of-personality that continuously regenerates fervent fans, from one generation to the next.

In one of his latest groups, however, Zorn wasn’t even playing. Simulacrum features the virtuosic power trio of John Medeski on hammond organ, Matt Hollenberg on guitar, and Kenny Grohowski on drums. While it’s Zorn’s name on the marquee, he was there only to introduce the musicians, give thanks to the venue, and warn everybody about cell phone etiquette. As he said, “This music is for you right here, right now. Not for YouTube,” setting the stage for in-the-moment musical exploration.

Removing himself from performance in the show while still visibly occupying a role in the band, Zorn has rethought the composer’s role: composer as producer. The producer, in this modern age, is

the composer, the artist. His vision for the group is complete and total, just like a classical composer dictates every nuance, dynamic marking, or tempo in a classical composition.

The music itself was a typical Zorn show, featuring multi-genre pastiches, blinding virtuosity, and quick-cut changes. While the band tends to fall into the metal genre as a whole, John Medeski’s organ constantly throws in elements of funk, ‘60s lounge, and blues. Grohowski balanced between a jazz swing feel and some of the heaviest blast beats you’ve ever heard, shaking the room from floor to ceiling. Hollenberg’s guitar playing was fine enough – juxtaposing heavy riffs and fluid, blindingly fast jazz lines that felt like merely a way to break up Medeski’s solos. Medeski and Grohowski

were the stars, until the last 20 minutes of the show, when Hollenberg dominated the room with massive metal riffs, bending the entire venue into a show-stopping crescendo of volume and metal power.

Simulacrum is a great power trio, for sure, but also falls oddly into the genre of “organ trio.” While it’s hard to stack this band up against the funkiness of Jimmy Smith or Charles Earland (or even the band’s own John Medeski from MMW), it was rather exciting to see this classic instrumentation deliver such a hard-driving, heavy, and occasionally overbearing sound – a great update as to the versatility of this simple instrumentation, and a great addition to the possibilities of what these groups have the possibility of sounding like.

Write it all down (continued from previous page) perpetual momentum. If anything, Monk might have been even better at this, because since he was working in song form, he had to encapsulate his ideas with greater brevity and stronger logic.

Monk’s example shows that jazz composing can be great composing while never having to bother with appeasing classical convention. Mingus did the same with a different style. He fiddled around with some Third Stream notions – notably with composer and saxophonist Teo Macero, who went on to produce albums like Bitches Brew with Miles Davis, which is a whole other story of composition in the 20th century – but found his genius working with a mix of blues, swing, and hard bop structured into extended, discontinuous forms. “Fables of Faubus” is the great example, the type of piece that takes abstract skill to keep together, and is not only jazz, but reaches all the way back to Jelly Roll Morton for it flavors.

A great jazz composer is a great composer, period.

You don’t have to write fourth species Baroque counterpoint like Bach to write great counterpoint,

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which is what Henry Threadgill is doing with his system that organizes his pieces around intervals that shift their relative positions in the ensemble, while the distances themselves stay constant. You can work with electronics and shards of musical ideas, like composer Steve Lampert does – Lampert’s ideas are ecumenical, but they make great material for jazz musicians like Noah Preminger, who digs deep into them on his recent album Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert. Avant-garde superstar John Zorn has, through dedicated work, become an exceptional composer of dense, neo-romantic modern music, including a wise technique where he writes out the part for one instrument and has other musicians improvise around it in that context. For something more conventional, but no less brilliant or important, there is big band leader Darcy James Argue, who crafts great, extended scores that utilize all sorts of ideas about harmony, rhythm, and form – not to mention drama and multi-media narrative – adapted from modern classical music, and it’s all nothing but jazz.

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Recommended listening: Duke Ellington, Never No Lament: The BlantonWebster Band; Duke Ellington, Early Ellington: The Original Decca Recordings; George Gershwin, Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts Gershwin; Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Infernal Machines; Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Real Enemies; Noah Preminger, Zigsaw: The Music of Steve Lampert; Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus; Charles Mingus, Oh Yeah; Thelonious Monk, Genius Of Modern Music, Volumes 1 & 2; Henry Threadgill, Easily Slip Into Another World; Henry Threadgill, In For a Penny, In For a Pound (2016 Pulitzer Prize in Music); John Zorn, The Big Gundown; John Zorn, Rimbau.

March 2020, Page 31

THINGS TO DO - MARCH The Village Mezzrow, 163 W. 10th St.

3/2 Craig Brann, Samuel Sadigursky, Ethan Herr & Nicholas Morrison, Pasquale Grasso, Ari Roland & Keith Balla; 3/3 Hilary Gardner, Steve Einerson & Noah Garabedian, Naama Gheber, Ben Paterson & Neal Miner; 3/4 Peter Mazza, Misha Tsiganov &Tamir Shmerling, Steve Ash, Chris Haney & Peter Van Nostrand; 3/5 Will Anderson, Peter Anderson & Ehud Asherie, Spike Wilner Trio; 3/6 David Hazeltine, Todd Coolman & Billy Drummond, Marc Devine, Neal Miner & Jackie Williams; 3/7 David Hazeltine, Todd Coolman & Billy Drummond; 3/8 Spike Wilner Solo Piano, Ed Laub & Linus Wyrsch, Panas Athanatos Trio; 3/9 Sheila Jordan & Cameron Brown, Pasquale Grasso Trio; 3/10 Christine Tobin, Phil Robson & Sam Bevan, Vanessa Perea Trio; 3/11 Steve Davis, Tony Davis & Peter Washington; 3/12 Steve Davis, Tony Davis & Peter Washington, Spike Wilner Trio; 3/13 Kirk Lightsey, Mark Whitfield, Santi Debriano & Victor Lewis, Ilya Lushtak Trio; 3/14 Kirk Lightsey, Mark Whitfield, Santi Debriano & Victor Lewis, Jon Davis Trio; 3/15 Spike Wilner Solo Piano, Will Sellenraad, Ben Street & Eric McPherson, John Merrill Trio; 3/16 Alan Broadbent, Don Falzone & Billy Mintz, Pasquale Grasso Trio; 3/17 Roz Corral, Bruce Barth & Paul Gill, Vanisha Gould Trio; 3/18 Russ Lossing, Cameron Brown & Eric McPherson, Steve Ash, Paul Gill & Aaron Kimmel; 3/19 Lafayette Harris, Lonnie Plaxico & Jerome Jennings, Spike Wilner Trio; 3/20 Norman Simmons, Paul West & Shoko Amano, Mathis Picard, Russell Hall & Kyle Poole; 3/21 Norman Simmons, Paul West & Shoko Amano, John Chin Trio; 3/22 Spike Wilner Solo Piano, Behn Gillece, Rick Germanson & Paul Gill, Chris Flory, Steve Ash & Lee Hudson; 3/23 Mike LeDonne & John Webber, David Wong Trio; 3/24 Libby York, John DiMartino & Paul Sikivie, Lucy Yeghiazaryan Trio; 3/25 Dan Cray, Joe Martin & Mark Ferber, Isaiah Thompson, Felix Moseholm & Anthony Hervey; 3/26 Robert Redd, Chuck Redd & Neal Miner, Spike Wilner Trio; 3/27 Ray Gallon & Peter Washington, Andrea Domenici, Fabrizio Sciacca & Andrea Niccolai; 3/28 Ray Gallon & Peter Washington, Jon Davis Trio; 3/29 David Oei Classical Salon, Hila Kulik, Tamir Shmerling & Dani Danor; 3/30 Ben Paterson, Luke Sellick & Charles Goold, Pasquale Grasso Trio; 3/31 Roseanna Vitro, Allen Franham & Sara Caswell, Joy Brown Trio

Smalls Jazz Club, 138 W 10th St.

3/2 Jonathan Michel Quartet, Joe Farnsworth Quartet, Ben Barnett “After-hours”; 3/3 Justin Robinson Quartet, Jon Beshay Quartet, Jon Elbaz “After-hours”; 3/4 Scott Neumann and Tom Christensen’s Spin Cycle, Michael Wang

Quintet, Andrew Kushnir “After- Hours”; 3/5 Ben Allison Quartet, Matt Marantz Quartet, Taru Alexander “After-hours”; 3/6 Rodney Jones Quartet, Frank Basile-Gary Smulyan Quintet: Boss Baritones, Philip Harper “After-Hillel Salem “After-hours”Hours”; 3/7 Rodney Jones Quartet, Frank Basile-Gary Smulyan Quintet: Boss Baritones, Brooklyn Circle “After-hours”; 3/8 Sasha Dobson Quartet, Akiko Tsuruga Quartet, Hillel Salem “After-hours”; 3/9 Ari Hoenig Trio, Joe Dyson Quintet, Sean Mason “After-hours”; 3/10 Ned Goold Quartet, Frank Lacy Group, Malik McLaurine “After-hours”; 3/11 Will Bernard Quartet, Kirk Lightsey Quartet, Inbar Paz “After-hours”; 3/12 Adam Birnbaum Quartet, Kirk Lightsey Quartet, Wallace Roney Jr. “After-hours”; 3/13 Bruce Harris Sextet, Ryan Kisor Quintet, Corey Wallace DUBtet “After-hours”; 3/14 Bruce Harris Sextet, Ryan Kisor Quintet, Mimi Jones and The Lab Session; 3/15 Zaid Nasser Quartet, Richie Vitale Quintet, David Gibson “After-hours”; 3/16 Corcoran Holt Quintet, Joel Frahm Group, Ben Barnett “After-hours”; 3/17 Lummie Spann Quintet, Frank Lacy Group, Malik McLaurine “After-hours”; 3/18 Brian Melvin Quartet, Wayne Tucker Quintet, Nick Masters “After-hours”; 3/19 Davy Mooney Quartet, Thomas Marriott Quintet, Taru Alexander “After-hours”; 3/20 George Colligan Quartet, Scatter The Atoms That Remain, Corey Wallace DUBtet “After-hours”; 3/21 George Colligan Quartet, Scatter The Atoms That Remain, Brooklyn Circle “After-hours”; 3/22 Nick Hempton Quartet, JC Stylles “Blast Off” Quartet, Hillel Salem “After-hours”; 3/23 Ari Hoenig Trio, Taber Gable Group, Sean Mason “After-hours”; 3/24 Steve Nelson Quartet, Abraham Burton Quartet, Jon Elbaz “After-hours”; 3/25 Greg Tardy Quintet, Jure Pukl ‘Broken Circles’, Neal Caine “After-hours”; 3/26 Greg Tardy Quintet, Jure Pukl ‘Broken Circles’, Palladium Plays Wayne Shorter; 3/27 Duane Eubanks Group, Kenyatta Beasley Sextet, Eric Wyatt “After-hours”; 3/28 Duane Eubanks Group, Kenyatta Beasley Sextet, Mimi Jones and The Lab Session; 3/29 Chris Byars Original Sextet, Johnny O’Neal Trio, Asaf Yuria “After-hours”; 3/30 Lucas Pino Nonet, JD Allen Trio, Ben Barnett “After-hours”

Lower East Side Drom, 85 Avenue A

3/4 Dingonek Street Band, Brass Monkeys, Hot Hand Band; 3/6 Miss Mojo, Dogs in A Pile; 3/7 Olivia K & The Parkers; 3/8 Oyku Dagdeviren; 3/10 Silver Arrow Band; 3/12 The Green Emerald, Molly, for Now; 3/13 Plaza Vieja; 3/14 The Unforgettable Fire; 3/15 Nore Davis; 3/19 Beera VeNashira; 3/20 Flow Tribe, Disco Turco; 3/21

Page 32 Red Hook Star-Revue

Ferhat Gocer; 3/22 Antonio Lizana; 3/24 Silver Arrow Band; 3/26 King Kween; 3/27 Greek Rock Story; 3/29 Elen Andujar; 3/31 Terrell “T Rex” Simon

Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St.

3/5 Nasty Cherry; 3/6 bbno$’s ‘epic tour name’ tour; 3/9 Tamino; 3/10 Bust and the Bass; 3/11 Dave Hause & the Mermaid; 3/12 Sudan Archives; 3/13 A Place to Bury Strangers; 3/17 The Narrowbacks; 3/19 Colony House; 3/25 Jose James; 3/26 Palehound; 2/37 The Frights; 3/30 Shabaka and the Ancestors; 3/31 Mihali

Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery

3/3 Airshow, The Last Real Circus Show, Ruckus; 3/4 Carrier, Annex, Abraham J. Franco, Matt Sperrazza; 3/5 The Big Chill, Ayoh; 3/6 Take Your Shoes Off; 3/7 The Uni-G Pablo Pop Up Show, Lupo & Lank; 3/8 Edalo with Xen Model and Sparkle Motion, Few With The Dye, New Myths, Andre Salvador and the Von Kings; 3/9 Danchella; 3/10 Combat Jazz, Corduroy Crush, Ari De Leo with Plush Justice, Eva Geritz, Ransom Pier, Lily Mao, Ruckus; 3/11 Rat House With with Goosey Tyson, Midnight Mitite; 3/12-15 The Colossus Festival; 3/15 Tim Holehoouse, Greg Rekus, Kanem X & The Expats, Union Fool, Maigold; 3/16 Manny Blu, Choirgirl, Sweetbreads; 3/17 Murphy’s Law; 3/18 Jus’B In The Pocket, Leo Coltrane, Bodi; 3/19 Mokra and Freeo, Don Dilego + The Touristas, Radiator King, Amanda Cross, Victoria Lyn; 3/20 Blue Lizard, The Good Folks, Fools & Fanatics, Respectable Seb; 3/21 Yourszlf, Elle Baez, And Kenn Igbi, M’Lumbo with Page Hamilton; 3/22 Kasey Anderson with Erica Blinn, Glen Matlock, Mickey Leigh’s Mutated Music; 3/23 Benefit for Ivan Julian; 3/24 Savon Bartley, Dalsy, Melody Sohayegh, Ruckus; 3/25 Christian Simeon, Taylor Raynor; 3/26 A. Charles; 3/27 Gregory McLoughlin, Midnight Drive, Alex Papp, HR & Human Rights, Green Knuckle Material; 3/28 Pan Arcadia, Early Retirement, Four Trips Ahead, Bob Dee with Petro, Neo Noir, Shaman Elect; 3/29 Hania, Skarlit, Natalie Ortega + Miranda Contreras Peterson, Meghan Fitton, Already Late, Jac with No K, Wind meets West; 3/30 Element47, The Mercury Brothers, Arctic Blonde, Notes From Underground; 3/31 Drew Angus, Harriet Manice, Taylor Pearlstein, Ruckus

Mercury Lounge, 217 E Houston

3/2 Heartbreak Hotel with Jill Peacock and Ziarra, Mind Shrine, Knyves Escobar, New Love Crowd; 3/3 Billy Raffoul, Digital Nas, Nate Dae, Leigh Paris, Lil Hazey; 3/4 Roses & Revolutions, KOPPS; 3/5 Anna Shoemaker, LITZ; 3/6 Proxima Parada; 3/7 CRAIC Fest, Hex Cougar; 3/8 Sky Pony; 3/9 NYOBS, Lorenzo Masotto, Nudity in Dance, Da Inphamus Amadeuz; 3/10 Baba Ali, Liv Warfield; 3/11 Bird Streets, Christopher the Conquered, Foxtails, Murder

Pact, Kela; 3/12 Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum, RDGLDGRN; 3/13 Diplomacy, Rare Creatures; 3/14 The Raven Age; 3/15 Will Sexton, Amy LaVere, John Snow’s Coast to Coast; 3/16 Kaile Shorr, Cyrus; 3/17 Pathology, Pyrexia; 3/18 Blanks, That One Guy; 3/19 Halsey Harkins, Celeste, Grey Watson, Vincent; 3/20 Dotan, Guns N Hoses; 3/21 White Ford Bronco, King Buffalo; 3/22 Ankur Tewari, Kayo Dot, Psalm Zero; 3/23 James Gillespie, Jam Young and Friends; 3/24 Meg Donnelly, Cal Scruby; 3/25 Jameson Rodgers, The Sherlocks; 3/26 Runaway Gin; 3/27 The Backseat Lovers, Shwayze; 3/28 The Elovaters, Brethe Carolina; 3/29 Eytan Mirsky, Tangiers, Blues Band, The US Americans; 3/30 Dylan Rockoff, Tim Riehm, Soft Glas; 3/31 BBMAK, Mighty Oaks

Park Slope Freddy’s Bar, 625 5th Ave

3/3 Binky Griptite; 3/4 The Push And Pull; 3/5 Cashank Hootenanny; 3/7 E.W. Harris; 3/8 Sarah Mucho; 3/10 Freddy DeBoe; 3/12 Home Brew Opera; 3/13 American String Conspiracy, House of Creation; 3/14 Dylan Lane Syndicate, Crazy Like Wow; 3/15 Ellen Winter; 3/17 Lee Taylor; 3/18 Thunder Meeting; 3/19 Joe Cantor And Friends; 3/20 Lola Rock’N’Rolla; 3/21 Electrical Down Afternoon, Laura Z and Little Tree, Jackie Puppet’s Bakery Bus; 3/27 Fred Thomas; 3/28 The Ray Bally Band

Barbes

3/2 Green Mambo; 3/3 Seyyah, Slavic Soul Party; 3/4 Andy Statman, The Mandingo Ambassadors; 3/5 Jason Loughlin & The String Gliders, Tsibele; 3/6 The Crooked Trio, Kill Henry Sugar, Pangari and the Socialites; 3/7 Curious, Unusual and Extraordinary, Stephen Ulruch, Bill Carney’s Jug Addicts, Banda De Los Muertos; 3/8 Future Relics, Stephane Wrembel; 3/9 Tamar Korn and Kornucopia, NYC Gaita Club; 3/10 Slavic Soul Party, The Peasant; 3/11 JP Schlegelmilch Organ Trio, The Mandingo Ambassadors; 3/12 The Pre War Ponies; 3/13 The Crooked Trio; 3/14 Stephen Ulrich, Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet; 3/15 Gyan Riley’s Elixir, Stephane Wrembel; 3/16 Raphael McGregor’s Guitarra De Aco; 3/17 The Plaza Trio, Slavic Soul Party; 3/18 Brasbrook, The Mandingo Ambassadors; 3/19 Human Time Machine; 3/20 The Crooked Trio, Regional De NY, Kaleta and Super Yamba Band; 3/21 The Erik Satie Quartet, Stpehen Ulrich, Nora Brown and Jackson Lynch, The Eastern Blokhedz; 3/22 Stephen Wrembel; 3/23 Kuye; 3/24 Sam Bardfeld Trio, Slavic Soul Party; 3/25 Brass Queens, The Mandingo Ambassadors; 3/26 Shoka Nagai’s Tokala; 3/27 The Crooked Trio, Ben Holmes & Naked Lore, Terapia & Verbena; 3/28 Stephen Ulrich, Percy Jones and MJ-12, Innov Gnawa; 3/29 Jim Campilongo and Steve Cardenas, Stephane Wrembel; 3/30 Bulla En El Barrio; 3/31 At-

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tias & Friends, Slavic Soul Party

Lizzie King’s Parlor, 75A 5th Ave 3/5 Brady-O; 3/12 Cameron Mizell and Charlie Rauh; 3/17 Ken Curtain and King’s Country; 3/19 Tim Ellis; 3/24 Megg Farrell; 3/26 Bert Jantsch; 3/29 John Mazlish; 3/31 Chris Murphy

Red Hook Sunny’s Bar, 253 Conover St.

3/4 Charlie Burnha; 3/6 The Doggy Cat; 3/7 Tone’s Bluegrass Jam; 3/8 Tamar Korn; 3/11 Smokey’s Round-Up; 3/14 Tone’s Bluegrass Jam; 3/18 Smokey’s Round-Up; 3/19 Jefferson Ham, Ryan Scott and the Kind Buds; 3/21 Tone’s Bluegrass Jam; 3/25 Smokey’s Round-Up

Williamsburg Pete’s Candy Store, 709 Lorimer St.

3/2 Abby Ahmad; 3/4 Laura Dance; 3/5 Cassidy Andrews, Rene Lopez; 3/6 The Wolff Sisters, Nic Marco, SPACER; 3/7 Bears of Alaska, Mary-Elaine Jenkins, Jennifer Hall, Emma Frank, Dor Sagi, Mary-Elaine Jenkins; 3/8 Juan Fortino & Dejha, Sam Sodomsky, Caitlin Pasko; 3/9 Federico Balducci, DM & The Experts; 3/10 The Restless Age, Ciarra Fragale, Belle-Skinner; 3/11 i, Kuhl, Josh Dion; 3/12 The Matt Howels Blues Project, The Kyle Lacy Band, Pete’s Big Salmon; 3/13 Sweet Ruth, Gabby Borges, Soft K; 3/14 Luke Tuchscherer, Anni Rossi, Fishman and Farhang, Jon Freeman, Skyjelly, Solilians, The 1865; 3/15 Lyle Brewer, Afiasco, Harvey Valdes Solo Guitar; 3/16 Ali McGuirk, Variousound Sessions; 3/17 Dream Creatures, Vlad Holiday; 3/18 Soft Yes, A Former Friend; 3/19 Aviva Oskow, Annie Veronica, The Kyle Lacy Band; 3/20 Kyle Tigges, Union Street, Dan Harpaz; 3/21 Roomful of Sky, Anna Oh, Phil Robinson, Youth Moose, Jason Anderson, Andrew Victor, And The Wiremen; 3/22 The AC Ensemble, Mike O’Malley, I Miss Driving; 3/23 Cat Evers, Ganglion Trio; 3/24 Casey Spindler, Stella Emmett, Casual Benson; 3/25 Anoche; 3/26 Sha’ar, The Krasdales, Open Kimono; 3/27 Golden Alphabet, Chris Rovik, Chris Chan; 3/28 Metagirl & The Earth Passengers, Flying Car, Lukka, @wwr_band; 3/29 Anni Rossi, Matt Scarpino, Marini, American AnymenFranky and the MoMos; 3/30 Conor MacFinn, The Winter Court, Michael Hollis; 3/31 Noah Chenfeld, Pilot Light, Cow Trio

Brooklyn Bowl, 61 Wythe St

3/2 Stop Making Sense; 3/3 Triad Brass; 3/4 Macy Gray; 3/5 The Terrapin Family Band; 3/6 The Jayhawks; 3/7 The Jayhawks, Just Outkast; 3/8 Fiona Silver; 3/10 Deadgrass; 3/11 Papadosio; 3/12 Jonathan Wilson and the Nearly Nashville Band; 3/13 The Soul Rebels; 3/14 The Soul

Rebels; 3/15 Dead Kennedys; 3/16 Underground Horns; 3/17 The Barnstorm; 3/18 Sirintip X Little Kruta, Lohai, Sean Carroll; 3/20 Antibalas; 3/21 Antibalas; 3/22 Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra; 3/25 79.5, Valipala, Jachary; 3/26 The Dirty Knobs; 3/27 Lucky Chops; 3/28 Lucky Chops; 3/29 Strange Majik, Hide & Seek, Joseph King and the Mad Crush; 3/31 Fondude, Smilen, Anna Oh

Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Ave

3/2 Aaron Waldman; 3/4 Heart Bones, Real Dominic, Alexander Orange Drink; 3/5 The Orphan The Poet, Deal Casino, SLMBR, Quiet Domino; 3/6 The Lil Smokies, Quaker City Night Hawks; 3/7 Consider The Source, Bella’s Bartok; 3/8 Sleep on it, Bearings, Between You and Me, Neverkept, The Everafter; 3/11 The Minks, Wicked Willow, Old Lady; 3/12 The Murder Capital, Jobs; 3/13 Don’t Believe In Ghosts, Hello Halo, The Nomadic; 3/14 Starcadian x Tokyo Rose, CZARINA, Primo; 3/15 Liberty Church, Discover Church Night; 3/16 Noah Reid, Matthew Barber; 3/18 Beasto Blanco, Dead Girls Acadmy, Sin Shake Sin; 3/19 Mod Sun, 7715, New Hippys, Pablo Dylan, Aye B; 3/20 Levels ‘N’ Stuff, Electro House & EDM Classics; 3/21 Graduating Life, King of Heck, Keep Score; 3/23 Drivin N Cryin, The Skills; 3/24 Haru Nemuri; 3/25 Old_Sport, Pine Louds, Griffy Jones & The Phantom Band, Tired Smile; 3/27 Love 2 Love; 3/28 Luh Kel, Random Rab, Chachuba, Aalien; 3/31 Lauren Sanderson

Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 N 6th St.

3/4 Wye ak, OHMME; 3/7 bbno$’s ‘epic tour name’ tour, Lentra; 3/8 1Team Us Tour; 3/11-12 WIRE; 3/13 Changmo, Paul Blanco, The Teskey Brothers; 3/14 Post Animal, Twen; 3/15-16 Gallant. Ro James; 3/19 Lower Dens, 3ION; 3/21 Bambara, The Wants, Shimmer; 3/22 Drama, Ric Wilson; 3/24 White Reaper, Young Guv, Buddy Crime; 3/25 Carolina Rose, Toth; 3/26 Drama, Ric Wilson; 3/27 John Moreland, SG Goodman; 3/28 Sampa The Great; 3/29 Leslie Odom Jr.; 3/31 Beach Bunny. Slow Pulp, MICHELLE

Union Pool, 484 Union Ave.

3/2 Reverend Vince Anderson and the Love Choir; 3/3 Skylar Gudasz; 3/4 Casual Male; 3/5 Control Top; 3/6 Arsun, The Values, Tabemono; 3/7 Dry Cleaning; 3/8 Jeremie Albino; 3/9 Reverend Vince Anderson and the Love Choir; 3/10 Garcia Peoples; 3/12 Sorry; 3/13 Bird Courage; 3/14 Horse Lords; 3/15 Hallelujah The Hills; 3/16 Jaleel and friends extra double groovy good time; 3/17 Dynasty Handbag; 3/18 Dynasty Handbag & Christeene; 3/23 Reverend Vince Anderson and the Love Choir; 3/25 Foster Care; 3/26 Cable Ties; 3/29 TEL; 3/30 Reverend Vince Anderson and the Love Choir

March 2020

MUSIC AND OTHER STUFF Bushwick

The Sultan Room, 234 Starr St.

3/4 Psymon Spine, Tmbou, Laenz, Gentle Dom; 3/5 Adeline, Jypsy Jeyfree; 3/6 Strangers with Candystore; 3/7 Harrison Greenbaum, Mike Nasty, The NY Fox, DJ Jfuse, DJ Slick Vic; 3/8 Sun of Goldfinger; 3/10 The Mauskovic Dance Band, Los Cumpleanos ‘Agua’, Soul Gnawa; 3/11 Theophobia; 3/12 Fusilier, Bartees Strange, Wasabi Fox; 3/14 Kyle Forester, Ezrat, Nico Laonda, DJ Burger Klein, EBB, Flow Intimate, Rachel Torro; 3/17Matt Forker, The Nick Dunston Trio; 3/19 The Sweet Release with Nadia Kazmi, Jelly Kelly, Gorgeous, Nicole Mercedes; 3/20 Disco Tehran; 3/24 Janeane Garofalo, Jo Firestone, Sean Patton, Align Mitra; 3/25 Georgia; 3.26 Bobby Oroza with The Shacks,

DJ Set By Danny Akalepse; 3/27 Underground System, Conclave, Ensemble Entendu, J Kriv; 3/28 Now Vs Now, J Hoard, Mallow, Qasim Saqvi; 3/29 Frogbelly and Symphony, Imaginary Tricks, .375 Lover

Nick Cage, Flasyd, Retail; 3/5 Fantasy with Carol, Cutouts; 3/6 PE, Macula Dog, Gauche, DJ Montana Simone; 3/9 Erica Fears with Choked Up, Lapeche, Teenage Halloween; 3/10 The Western Den with Olivia Barton; 3/13 Radiator Hospital with Freezing Cold, Big Nothing, Quaker Wedding; 3/14 Oceanator with Bottled Up, Long Neck, Gorgeous; 3/15 The Phelias with Lina Tullgren, Kypoluxo, Bluish; 3/19 Joudy with Should’ve, Whale in Wasp; 3/20 Sleepies & Video Daughters with Godcaster, Flexi, Sunk H; 3/25 Badgewearer with 1000 yard stare, Ani Blech, Kate Mohanty; 3/26 Joanna Sternberg with Deer Scout, Awksymoron, Starla Online; 3/27 Ankle Monitor with Sub Space, High Cost, Steel Cage, Redactor; 3/28 The Natural History with Ted Leo, Sadie Dupuis

Ridgewood Nowadays, 56-06 Cooper Ave

3/6 Anthony Naples and Low Jack; 3/8 Honcho All Day; 3/13 Ron Like Hell all night; 3/14 Umfang, DJ Swisha and Kush Jones; 3/15 Bob & Shirley with Fernelly and SPG 50; 3/20 Vladimir Ivkovic; 3/21 Mantra, Doctor Jeep and Xiorro; 3/22 Mister Sunday; 3/27 Justin Carter and Lena Willikens

Trans Pecos, 915 Wyckoff Ave

3/2 Turtlenecked with Orchin, Cole Haden; 3/3 Prolaps with Moma Ready, Murderpact, Rafia, Nolife; 3/4 Bipolar with

Flatbush

Bar Chord, 1008 Cortelyou Road

3/5 Stephen Artemis Band; 3/6 Youth & Vanity; 3/7 The Fu Mos; 3/10 John Pinamonti Solo; 3/11 Jose Candelaria with Jack Marcin; 3/12 Roof Access; 3/13 Michael Louis Band; 3/14 Los Mezcladores; 3/17 Airborne Charlie; 3/19 Fox Chasers; 3/20 Tinto Frio; 3/21 Algebra & Friends; 3/24 Franglais; 3/25 Nat Myers; 3/26 Molly Tigre

Elsewhere Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd

Jonathan McReynolds; 3/16 Lauren Sanderson; 3/19 Tyler Rich; 3/20 Barbes; 3/22 K’Noup Welcomes; 3/30 David Archuleta

John T. Floore’s Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Road, Helotes, TX

3/6 Easton Corbin; 3/7 Flatland Cavalry; 3/12 Javelina Harley Davidson Bike Night; 3/13 The Texases; 3/14 Mike and the Moonpies; 3/20 Chad Cooke Band; 3/21 Parker McCollum; 3/27 Randy Rogers Band; 3/28 Jake Penrod; 3/29 Bret Mullins

entes; 3/7 Charlotte Martin; 3/8 Drew Nugent’s Midnight Society Trio; 3/10 Squirrel Flower; 3/11 Radical Face; 3/12 SHING02 & The CheeHoos; 3/13 Trace Bundy; 3/14 Echoes, Christine Havrilla & Gypsy Fuzz; 3/17 Barleyjuice; 3/18 The Dirty Knobs; 3/19 The Vllg Jam; 3/20 Lower Dens; 3/21 Carise Blanton; 3/25 The Backseat Lovers; 3/26 Tom Rush, Matt Nakoa; 3/27 CREW Love Showcase, Frazey Food; 3/28 John Moreland, The Slackers; 3/31 Michael Doucet, Leslie Odom Jr.

World Live Cafe, 3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA

3/5 Yoshi Flower; 3/6 Twiddle; 3/7 The Dirty Diamond, Lemmo; 3/10 27; 3/12 Spencer Sutherland; 3/13 Busty and the Bass; 3/14 Amanda Shires, Atmosphereless; 3/15

See your listing here, send to will.goyankees @gmail.com

3/2 The Philadelphia Moth Storyslam; 3/3 Todd Snider, Philly Rising Open Mic; 3/4 Matha Wainwright; 3/5 Red Baraat Festival of Colors, Sophie Coran; 3/6 The John Byrne Band, Viernes Cali-

Trade Winds An Exhibition of

NEDDI HELLER

A Very Awesome Purim is a genre-driven interactive musical that reimagines the most underrated Jewish holiday to make it a fun celebration for everyone. You will be introduced to a drunken king, an evil prime minister, and a clever queen who saves the entire Jewish population. The production strikes a careful balance of off-color humor, on-key parodies, and surprisingly poignant lessons about cultural acceptance.

On View February 22 - March 28, 2020 Public Reception Friday March 6, 2020 6-8pm

SHOW ELEMENTS Interactivity - In addition to the musical genre being chosen by the fans, the audience is given callouts for each character that they’re encouraged to yell out throughout the show (a la Rocky Horror Picture Show) Drinking - In Purim tradition, it’s said you’re supposed to drink until you can’t tell the difference between the good guy and the bad guy in the story Costumes - Guests are encouraged to dress to the theme (pop legends) or just dress up in general! It’s a night of being someone that you’re not Inclusivity - You do not need to be Jewish or know anything about Purim to attend this Purim party. This is a celebration for EVERYONE.

Sunny's Bar 253 Conover Street Red Hook, Brooklyn

Littlefield 635 Sackett St, Gowanus Saturday, March 7, 7 pm For more information: https://veryawesomepurim.com/

HOTD0G AND MUSTARD BY MARC JACKS0N He’S OFFEReD TO MAKE US A NiCe

H0TDOG, I THiNK WE SHOULD MAKe FRiENDS WITH DAVeS’ ROB0-

DiNNeR!

PAL!

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f0O0SHA!!

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SOUND G0OD?

WeLL, IT LeT’S SEE WHAT He’S D0ES SMeLL iNTeRESTING. MAKiNG!

WWW.MARCMAKeSCOMiCS.C0.UK

Red Hook Star-Revue

©COPYRIGHT 202O MARC JACKSON AND WEiRD0 COMiCS #12

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March 2020, Page 33

The ghosts of Conover Street (continued from back cover) drag George Thain before his bench to answer for this outrage. Of Thain’s fate, we have nothing more to report: by the following day, the press had moved on.

On Monday, September 3, 1922, two years and nine months after the onset of Prohibition, people in Red Hook started getting sick from alcohol poisoning. Within a matter of days, nine people had died, and others were going blind. On Thursday afternoon, detectives investigating the matter at Dikeman and Conover Streets suddenly heard a woman, Sigma Johnson, shriek from inside her home across the way, “I am blind!” While being rushed to the hospital, where she died in her 32nd year, Sigma told detectives she bought her booze from Jennie Johnson’s cafe at 199 Conover. In law enforcement this is called a lead.

Within hours, 50 lawmen, empowered by the District Attorney to act without search warrants, “given the dire emergency,” fanned out from the Johnson storefront and raided all the buildings up and down Conover and the side streets. Their focus was on the many “cafes” (formerly bars, liquor, candy and grocery stores) that had been selling bootlegged whiskey to the locals – a very brisk business ever since Red Hook went dry. Enforcement had been difficult for the Feds and the patrolmen they enlisted because to make an arrest, you had to be served a glass of booze (it cost a quarter or 50 cents depending on the quality). But if you were a stranger, well then, there’s the door, bub, right behind you.

This warrantless dragnet yielded results, however: Hundreds of gallons of alcohol were seized, and the fatal wood alcohol was found in Irmelinda Vitale’s cafe at 149 Conover. She, Jennie Johnson and four others were arrested. Initially charged with homicide, they eventually were convicted of a mere violation of the liquor laws after the DA realized all the witnesses had gone toes up. The fatalities on the block included Annie Morris, age 42 (mother of five children); William

Page 34 Red Hook Star-Revue

Strelitz, a longshoreman; Michael Keenan, age 40; and Theresa Martin, age 26.

These were not the only alcohol-induced fatalities that year. Take the curious case of Peter Fiore of 197 Conover, who was arrested two months earlier on July 3 for possession of alcohol and an unregistered revolver. Fiore was released and scheduled for arraignment on July 10, but his tearful wife appeared instead and told the court he died in a car crash on the Fourth of July – this according to the reporter for the Standard Union. But the Brooklyn Eagle’s courthouse correspondent had a scoop: the fatal crash was just a face-saving tale because Fiore got so drunk, he fell out of a third story window to his death on Conover Street.

He was only 29.

On the eve of World War Two, the block was starting to wear down and had been redlined by the banks. The 1940 photos taken for the City’s tax assessment records tell a mixed tale: the corner building at Coffey Street was abandoned, the glass in its windows riddled with holes. 199 Conover needed extensive clapboard repair.

189 Conover was a mess with a broken window, a boarded-up storefront, and some youngsters hanging out in front who looked to be auditioning for the Bowery Boys. 191 Conover was gone, but a dilapidated brick garage in the rear was inhabited, judging from a populated clothesline.

197 Conover Street looked outwardly well-preserved, however. And it had also remained relatively quiescent on the crime front since Fiore fell out of his window. But all that changed in September 1956 when 21-year old John Gilbert and his pal Carmine Gotti were arrested and convicted of the gunpoint robbery of a Bay Ridge gas station. Freed in March 1957 when a Bensonhurst teenager confessed to the crime, reporters asked Gilbert whether he was headed back home to Conover Street. No, he and Gotti were off to the movies in downtown Brooklyn, he smiled. Perhaps they went

to see Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man, which had just opened, about a Queens musician wrongfully convicted of robbery based on an eyewitness misidentification. Alas and alack, John’s younger brother James Gilbert wasn’t misidentified when he was arrested three years later with a Coffey Street youth for a dozen stickups committed over a 10-day span at Christmas time.

As manufacturing began to supplant homes, white-collar crime entered the mix. 189 Conover became office space for the Floyd M. Bennett Manufacturing Company in the 1950s. In 1960 the company fired workers who wanted to join the Seafarers International Union, prompting a fine by the National Labor Relations Board. By 1967, the A. G. Ship Maintenance Corporation had made 189 Conover its new office space in Red Hook and bought most of the surrounding lots. In 1978, the Waterfront Commission fined A.G. $130,000 for overcharging its customers in the Basins.

1983 photos show that almost all the Conover homes were gone. 185 Conover, the four-story corner brick building, was literally a shadow of its former self, since it had been replaced by a two-story structure. In 2005, A.G. Ship Maintenance consolidated its operations at its New Jersey location, selling its nine Conover Street lots to the Red Hook Building Company. And in December, Red Hook Building decided to pass the baton. Manufacturing is dead, at least right here. Residential is back. But years from now, as I pass the new condos, it will be hard not to wonder whether the new residents are seeing ghosts, like in those horror movies about developments built on old forgotten burial grounds.

press would sarcastically headline as: “Police Think Mrs. Finn A Dangerous Criminal!” The judge, based on the pleadings of a sympathetic probation officer, sent Mary and her child (still “clutched to her breast” in the courtroom) off to a woman’s shelter not far from the site of the Brooklyn Theatre – where a new structure later housed the Brooklyn Eagle, whose reporters somehow missed this story. But wait, there’s more: the judge who released Mary was furious! How could a pawnbroker give poor Mary Finn only two dollars for that jewelry? He issued a subpoena to have detectives drag George Thain before his bench to answer for this outrage. Of Thain’s fate, we have nothing more to report: by the following day, the press had moved on.

Four years after Seamann’s plunge, the New York press eagerly reported the sad plight of Mary Finn who lived at 187 Conover, six doors down from Henry’s widow. Mary’s husband had lost his job in the shipyards at the end of the summer, but now, on November 16, he was starting work again. Alas, the Finns’ four crumb-crushers desperately needed food, so Mary took a day job housekeeping for a Mrs. Nolan on Henry Street, a 20-minute walk away. Carrying her youngest on a cold morning, Mary laid the child on a sofa while she worked, and stole a diamond pin from Nolan’s dresser worth $150 (New York Times) or $200 (Brooklyn Citizen) – $4,600 to $6,100 in today’s coinage. She got two bucks for it at George Thain’s pawnshop on Court Street & Hamilton Avenue, money she used to buy “a warm cloak for her baby and some food for the other little ones.” Finn told Thain she would return late Saturday, once her husband was paid, to retrieve the pin.

On Monday, September 3, 1922, two years and nine months after the onset of Prohibition, people in Red Hook started getting sick from alcohol poisoning. Within a matter of days, nine people had died, and others were going blind. On Thursday afternoon, detectives investigating the matter at Dikeman and Conover Streets suddenly heard a woman, Sigma Johnson, shriek from inside her home across the way, “I am blind!” While being rushed to the hospital, where she died in her 32nd year, Sigma told detectives she bought her booze from Jennie Johnson’s cafe at 199 Conover. In law enforcement this is called a lead.

Within hours, 50 lawmen, empowered by the District Attorney to act without search warrants, “given the dire emergency,” fanned out from the Johnson storefront and raided all the buildings up and down Conover and the side streets. Their focus was on the many “cafes” (formerly bars, liquor, candy and grocery stores) that had been selling bootlegged whiskey to the locals – a very brisk business ever since Red Hook went dry. Enforcement had been difficult for the Feds and the patrolmen they enlisted because to make an arrest, you had to be served a glass of booze (it cost a quarter or 50 cents depending on the quality).

But she was arrested as she walked home, “booked and measured” while still holding her baby – an event the

But if you were a stranger, well then, there’s the door, bub, right behind you.

www.star-revue.com

March 2020

The Healthy Geezer

by Fred Cicetti

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The macula is at the center of the retina in the back of your eye. The retina transmits light from the eye to the brain. The macula allows us to perform tasks that require central vision such as reading and driving.

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Dry AMD occurs when macular cells break down, gradually blurring central vision in the affected eye. Central vision in the affected eye can be lost. Dry AMD generally affects both eyes, but vision can be lost in one eye.

The risk of getting AMD increases with age. Other risk factors include smoking, obesity, race (whites are at higher risk), a family history of AMD, and gender (women are at higher risk).

AMD is detected through a comprehensive eye exam that includes a visual acuity test, a dilated eye exam, and tonometry. Visual acuity is measured with an eye chart test. In the dilated eye exam, drops are placed in your eyes to enlarge the pupils. Then, a magnifying lens is used to examine your retina. Tonometry measures the pressure inside the eye.

You may also be asked to look at an Amsler grid. With one eye, you will stare at a black dot in the center of the grid. You may notice that the straight lines in the pattern appear wavy or are missing. These may be signs of AMD. Other tests that may be done include: •

Using special dye and camera to look at blood flow in the retina (fluorescein angiogram)

•

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•

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Once dry AMD is in the advanced stage, no treatment can prevent vision loss. However, treatment can delay and possibly prevent AMD from progressing to the advanced stage.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT) to improve vision in some patients with end-stage age-related macular degeneration.

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If you have lost some sight from AMD, don’t be afraid to use your eyes for reading, watching TV, and other routine activities. Normal use of your eyes will not damage your vision further.

Red Hook Star-Revue

www.star-revue.com

March 2020, Page 35

Conover Street ghosts may haunt condos

I

by Joe Enright

n late December 2019, the east side of Conover Street between Coffey & Dikeman Streets was sold to the Diamond Development Group (the exception is a 20foot wide strip at the corner of Coffey Street). The price tag was $8.1 million, with Diamond committing an additional $10 million via a loan from S3 Capital for “development of a condo building.” The realty press called it the highest buildable-square-foot price ever paid for a residential project in Red Hook. Given the R5 zoning in place (with no commercial overlay), these folks would need a super-duper variance and divine intervention to build anything other than four-story condos.

Most of the nine lots involved in this sale have long been vacant, aside for parked vehicles, and the four remaining structures with a total of six “dwelling units” on the northern end of the block are slated for immediate demolition. But it wasn’t always a depleted wasteland.

Old maps indicate that housing sprang up on the block a few years after the Civil War when Erie Basin, at the southern end of Conover, was completed, joining Atlantic Basin to the west a giant employment engine. The row of three- and four-story mixed brick and wood houses erected on Conover were not investment properties. They were sold to shopkeepers who lived above their storefronts: a grocery, multiple bars, candy stores, a tailor. They rented out one or two floors above them, a limit of one household per floor. All the male tenants were employed nearby in the shipyards, a short walk away, mostly as laborers and longshoremen, with some mechanics, clerks, watchmen and lightermen (who operated barges to offload cargo). The original inhabitants were all Irish and German immigrants.

The world of these Conover Street denizens was very circumscribed.

Births, weddings and deaths, as well as the suffering they caused or endured, all occurred very close to home. And based on hundreds of newspaper clippings, every human calamity befell the struggling inhabitants of this block. Murders by pistol and knives. Suicides by hanging and drowning. Lots of drownings. Madness, incapacitating work accidents, infant deaths, assaults, rapes. Below is a brief sample of the more noteworthy incidents.

On Tuesday evening December 5, 1876, Hugh O’Brien of 197 Conover Street decided to see a play at the Brooklyn Theatre, located on Johnson Street (just east of Court Street in Cadman Plaza, near where the Supreme Court building now stands).

There was a horse-drawn three-cent trolley on Van Brunt Street, a block from O’Brien’s home, that would have taken him to Hamilton Avenue and a transfer to a downtown trolley. The late-starting show was a near sellout, but young Hugh managed to buy a

cheap seat in the top balcony. About eleven o’clock, a fire broke out backstage and quickly ignited the curtains.

Smoke billowed out, up to the ceiling and engulfed the balcony. There was only one stairway down. Hugh didn’t stand a chance. He and 300 other souls perished in Brooklyn’s worst tragedy – that is, if you don’t count the departure of the Dodgers.

Superbas were out of town, so he decided to go to Coney Island instead.

He was last seen boarding the electrified Smith Street trolley heading to the shore. Eleven days later his decomposed body was found floating in the Erie Basin. Folks speculated he got three sheets to the wind at Coney Island and somehow wandered off a pier on his way home to 199 Conover.

Speaking of which, on Saturday, April 27, 1902, Henry Seamann, a ship’s blacksmith and the only citizen of Conover Street who was ever called “prosperous” by the press, decided he was going to see his favorite baseball team, the Brooklyn Superbas. They played in Washington Park along the banks of the Gowanus Canal at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street (now occupied by Whole Foods), with the ballpark extending up to 4th Avenue and 4th Street. The Superbas would abandon this notoriously smelly venue for Ebbets Field a decade later and become the Robins, the Trolley Dodgers and then simply the Dodgers. But when Henry got to 3rd Street, he was disappointed to learn that the

Four years after Seamann’s plunge, the New York press eagerly reported the sad plight of Mary Finn who lived at 187 Conover, six doors down from Henry’s widow. Mary’s husband had lost his job in the shipyards at the end of the summer, but now, on November 16, he was starting work again.

Alas, the Finns’ four crumb-crushers desperately needed food, so Mary took a day job housekeeping for a Mrs. Nolan on Henry Street, a 20-minute walk away. Carrying her youngest on a cold morning, Mary laid the child on a sofa while she worked, and stole a diamond pin from Nolan’s dresser worth $150 (New York Times) or $200 (Brooklyn Citizen) – $4,600 to $6,100 in today’s coinage. She got two bucks for it at George Thain’s pawnshop on Court Street & Hamilton Avenue, money she used to buy “a warm cloak for her baby and some food for the other little ones.” Finn told Thain she would return late Saturday, once her husband was paid, to retrieve the pin.

But she was arrested as she walked home, “booked and measured” while still holding her baby – an event the press would sarcastically headline as: “Police Think Mrs. Finn A Dangerous Criminal!” The judge, based on the pleadings of a sympathetic probation officer, sent Mary and her child (still “clutched to her breast” in the courtroom) off to a woman’s shelter not far from the site of the Brooklyn Theatre – where a new structure now housed the Brooklyn Eagle, whose reporters somehow missed this story. But wait, there’s more: the judge who released Mary was furious! How could a pawnbroker give poor Mary Finn only two dollars for that jewelry? He issued a subpoena to have detectives

(continued on page 30) Page 36 Red Hook Star-Revue

www.star-revue.com

March 2020