the red hook
Liturgy Plays in Church - Wiggly Page 17
STAR REVUE
NOVEMBER 2022
FREE
INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
Cash is King
Upscale ice cream shop fined for discriminating against greenbacks. Story page 8
Barnacle King Red Hook's Homegrown Parade celebrates ten years - photos page 16
Red Hook Royalty Retires Judge Alex Calabrese says goodbye, page 7
Thanksgiving Dinner at the Diner PAGE 12
Kimberly serving up the goods at Montague Street's Happy Days
the red hook
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13,000 New Yorkers get Spidey library cards by Erin DeGregorio
L
ast month, The New York Public Library (NYPL) and Marvel Entertainment released a special, limited-edition Spider-Man library card, inspiring new and existing patrons to explore a multitude of free resources, programs, and books at the Library—including Marvel graphic novels. This dynamic collaboration marked the 60th anniversary of Spider-Man’s first comic book appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 and emphasizes the importance of reading, knowledge, and libraries to Peter Parker’s crime-fighting comic book adventures. “Marvel’s history has always been rooted in telling stories on the page. And to many people, those stories taught them the joy and power of reading, whether it was their first comic book or graphic novel at a young age or the first time they shared their passion for Marvel comics with their friends and families,” said Marvel Vice President of Licensed Publishing Sven Larsen. “With so many of our most iconic moments and characters established in New York City, we’re thrilled to work with The New York Public Library to invite even more people to dive into Marvel and find their own favorites across Spider-Man’s legacy.”
“Prior to this initiative, we were routinely issuing an average 150 to 200 cards per week. Now we’re issuing that same amount per day … and many are immediately checking out items,” Parrott said, expressing both his shock and excitement at the public’s reaction. “Not only does that show that Spider-Man is really popular, but it re-enforces the whole idea of ‘knowledge is power.’ If it takes a Spider-Man card for New Yorkers to tap into their superpowers, then we’re behind that 100 percent.”
Over 13,000 Spider-Man cards were issued system wide between Oct. 11 (when the Spider-Man card was released) and Oct. 24, according to Billy Parrott, director of NYPL’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL). Of the more than 1,000 cards that were issued at SNFL on Day One (Oct. 11), 815 of them were by brand new library cardholders. He calculated that over 2,000 cards were issued at SNFL by the end of Week One (Oct. 11-17) and over 1,000 additional cards were issued by the end of Week Two (Oct. 18-24).
Patrons of all ages have also taken to social media to show off their love for Spider-Man by taking selfies with their new cards and in front of the giant banners outside the iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and the five windows of SNFL right down the block. The cards, banners, and windows all feature images of Spider-Man and two other webslingers, Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy. “We saw kids coming in with their parents, dressed in Spider-Man costumes on Day One,” Parrott said. “This
is just one of those things that has kind of erased age barriers.” Parrott added that he hopes returning patrons who have not utilized the Library lately can see all that the Library offers. “I think once they’re here, they’ll see that maybe libraries aren’t the way they used to remember. They aren’t just books anymore,” he said. “We have citizenship classes, English conversation classes, computer classes, author events, programs for children, teens, adults, you name it. We do lots of things to meet the needs of everyday New Yorkers.” Only 150,000 Spider-Man cards have been printed for the occasion. But there is still time to “swing by” your local library to claim your special Spidey card. It is available to new and current patrons while supplies last in the 92 NYPL locations across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Other special-edition cards previously issued by NYPL include the Library’s “Knowledge Is Power” in 2018, Lou Reed in 2019, and Ezra Jack Keats’ “The Snowy Day” in 2020.
The Red Hook Star-Revue is published every month. Founded June 2010 by George Fiala and Frank Galeano with thanks to these guys
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November 2022
Opinion: Words by George
L
ast month I wrote about an idea I have about the future of this part of Brooklyn, concerned mostly with land use. I think it was kind of complicated, so let me say it again but with a little more clarity. The idea is to to balance the needs and desires of real estate developers, commercial shop owners, apartment dwellers and athletic and cultural enthusiasts in order to create a future that both enhances and protects Red Hook from becoming like Williamsburg, and bringing Williamsburg to Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and the Columbia Waterfront District. I'm basing this thinking that this is what the people of these respective neighborhoods would be happiest with.
me
So here is the summary: 1 - Allow Brooklyn Bridge Park to extend south to Hamilton Avenue. This would involve the Port Authority selling their land to private developers and using the money to a) move the containerport to Sunset Park and b) give money to the City to use to pave over the BQE, once again allowing everybody from Court Street to the water to live in the same neighborhood and enjoy the same amenities. 2 - Send the Cruise Terminal back to Manhattan. Red Hook does not gain anything from the Cruise Terminal, and neither do the passengers. The first thing most people disembarking from the Queen Mary and other ships do is to call an Uber to go to Manhattan. All the terminal does is use up a big part of our waterfront, making it off limits to all those without a ship ticket. Get rid of the Terminal and you have room for open space right by the water, and perhaps a medium size stadium where somebody like Pioneer Works can present concerts and other
cultural events, with access to us, and to others coming to Red Hook via the nearby ferry. Those people would no doubt enjoy dining at places like San Pedro and the Ice House both before and after the shows. An arena could also be used for local school sporting events and various fairs.
ning to build a logistics facility, but because somebody at UPS made a dumb decision, they ended up not doing anything. There's lots of rumors about what exactly their plans are, but telling their neighbors about what those plans hasn't been one of them.
They then proceeded to knock down historical buildings, including the Snapple facility, to create a humongous empty lot that currently stands fallow.
So instead of keeping the neighborhood waiting for whatever shoe to drop, why not be pro-active. Let the city, in combination with our community (not the Park Slope-centered community board, but us) hold town halls, work up a plan which includes low-rise housing (both affordable and market), public amenities and perhaps a hotel, and whatever else we can think of, and buy the land from UPS. If they won't sell, use public domain to take it, like what was done at Atlantic Yards.
They claimed at the time to be plan-
The whole idea of government is to
3 - Have the City buy back the UPS lot and make it part of the community again. Because of the outdated 'as-of-right' zoning regulation, the United Parcel Service paid a lot of money to buy up many acres of prime Red Hook industrial space just south of the Cruise Terminal.
create and continue a future that works best for the people it governs. Those people include regular working people, people with handicaps and other disabilities, people with businesses, people with families to bring up, people hanging out with their friends and lovers, people who work or own real estate development companies, people who work in construction, people who are architects in other words, let's create a resilient and livable future that works for the most amount of people possible. Right now we have a containerport that is necessary because it is the only one on Long Island, a cruise terminal that brings in a ship of vacationers every week or so who leave as quickly as they come, an empty lot, and a highway that cut two neighborhoods in half (Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens). These are all bad uses of land. Lets cover the highway, relocate the Containerport and Cruise Terminal, and solve UPS's problem of having to maintain a giant empty lot in an urban setting. These are all huge jobs, but a well functioning government is designed to handle huge jobs—and not just in wartime.
THERe GOES CAT STeVENS! BY MARC JACKS0N
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November 2022, Page 3
SHORT SHORTS: Community Op-Ed: Polls are now open! Vote Today in this Critical Election.
Tuesday, November 8th, is Election Day in New York City – your last chance to join millions of New Yorkers in making your voices heard and casting your ballots in these critical elections. The polls will be open from 6 am to 9 pm. If you can’t vote on Tuesday, you can also vote early in-person! Early voting polls will be open through Sunday, November 6th. Your poll site may have changed, so it’s important to check your poll site location and its hours before you vote at nycvotes.org. This year, voting is more important than ever. The outcome of these elections will affect you and your family’s future, our economy, education, healthcare, and more. And in every single race, your vote matters – from the Governor and Attorney General to your Congresspeople and state representatives. We’re deciding who will lead our state into the future, and what kind of future we want for our state. Also, four ballot proposals are on the back of your ballot, so remember to flip yours over. For more information on where and how to vote, as well as who and what issues are on the ballot, check out nycvotes.org. If you are not currently registered to vote, you can register for next year’s election on that website as well. All New Yorkers have the right to vote in their language. You may bring an interpreter to the voting booth—it can be a friend, a family member or a poll worker, but it can’t be your employer or union representative. If you run into any problems when you try to vote, call 311. Working toward a more perfect city and country is never easy. It takes all of us engaging in good faith conversation, expressing our views, and casting our ballots. See you at the polls on Tuesday. — Mayor Eric Adams
Reducing childbirth deaths Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Met Council announced their pilot of “Born in Brooklyn” baby boxes, which contain free baby supplies and post-partum resources for new parents. Made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President to
Met Council, America’s largest Jewish charity, a total of 500 post-partum families receiving care at select Brooklyn hospitals and clinics will receive “Born in Brooklyn” baby boxes. The baby boxes will come as diaper bags containing baby-friendly supplies carefully selected by the Borough President’s Maternal Health Taskforce, such as diapers, perineal spray, baby wipes, nursing pads, nipple cream, diaper changing mats, postpartum pads, burping cloths, swaddles, and City’s First Readers books. A resource one-pager will accompany the boxes, with links to helpful guides for first-time parents and city-wide services. New parents receiving care at NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull, Caribbean Women’s Health Association, Brooklyn Perinatal Network, and Brownsville Neighborhood Health Action Center will begin to receive the baby boxes this month. This pilot builds on Borough President Reynoso’s commitment to reduce crisis-level maternal morbidity rates found among Black and Brown birthing people.
Brooklyn Community Foundation Announces Finalists for $100,000 Spark Prize
Brooklyn Community Foundation, the first and only public foundation solely dedicated to Brooklyn, today announced the 20 nonprofit organizations selected as finalists for its 2022-23 Spark Prize. Now in its sixth year, the $100,000 Spark Prize has awarded a total of $3 million since its launch to nonprofit organizations that have sparked change for a fair and just Brooklyn. The 2022-23 finalists are: Arab-American Family Support Center, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, Bridge Street Development Corporation, Brownsville Community Development Corporation, Carroll Gardens Association, Envision Freedom Fund, Family Legal Care, Green City Force, HousingPlus, Jeremiah Program Brooklyn, Kings Against Violence Initiative, Mixteca Organization, Neighborhood Housing Services of Brooklyn (NHS Brooklyn), New York State Youth Leadership Council, Power of Two, READ 718, Seeds of Fortune Inc., STEM From Dance, Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center, Worker’s Justice Project The finalists were chosen by the 34-person Spark Prize Commit-
tee. The Committee will conduct interviews with finalist organizations, and then select five winners to each receive the $100,000 “no strings attached” award in January 2023. The Spark Breakfast, a celebration of the winners and finalists, will take place on March 14, 2023, at the Brooklyn Museum.
NYCHA Vote
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) announced its draft voting procedures for residents to opt into the Public Housing Preservation Trust and opened a public comment period (comments can be made until November 23.) The Trust will bring billions of dollars in comprehensive renovations to thousands of NYCHA apartments while maintaining residents’ rights (including permanently affordable rent) and keeping NYCHA properties 100 percent public. The opt-in voting process is supposed to allow residents to “decide the future of their homes,” according to NYCHA. There will be a virtual town hall on November 9, from 6-8 PM. To attend, go to on.nyc.gov/trust-townhalls. The town hall will include general information such as how to vote, and will allow those in attendance to ask questions. Comments can also be made by sending an email to public. comments@nycha.nyc.gov. For more information about the Trust, visit on.nyc.gov/preservation-trust.
Local Power Community Solar Info Session to be held
The Resilience Education Training, and Innovation (RETI) Center is excited to announce that the first Local Power solar array will be on the roof of Coffey Street Studio in Red Hook. The benefits include: 50 kW of clean renewable energy Offset; 32 metric tons of carbon emissions Eliminate other harmful air pollutants; Provides $10,315 in utility bill savings to subscribers; Over $50,000 in lifetime value to the building owners; paid internships for Roof RETI solar installation trainees Sunkeeper Solar will begin installation this spring and the first subscribers will see saving summer of 2023. Any Con Edison customer can enroll and save an estimated $100 a year on energy costs. Whether you rent or own, you receive 10% savings on your monthly electric bill, support the community, and reduce your carbon footprint. Your solar energy will come from the solar arrays RETI is helping
to build, which means that Con Ed will be producing less electricity with fossil fuels. To subscribe sign up here and join the virtual Info Session on November 17 at 6:30pm to learn more about the program. Please register for the event ahead of time. If you own a building or parking lot with 5,000 square feet or more of space and are interested in learning about how you can transform your space into a valuable asset for yourself and community, reach out to info@ reticenter.org or sign up to learn more. RETI Center is dedicated to building Local Power, and a pathway to a more sustainable, equitable economy. Local Power is an initiative by RETI Center and Solar One’s Here Comes Solar program.
Letters from Larry:
Here is one way the MTA can increase the number of NYC Transit Subway, Staten Island Railway, Long Island and Metro North Rail Road Stations that become compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity for $343 million of Fiscal Year 2022 funds under the All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP), . These funds are available to help pay for capital projects that will upgrade the accessibility of legacy rail fixed guideway public transportation systems (subway, commuter rail, light rail) for persons with disabilities, including those who use wheelchairs, by increasing the number of existing stations or facilities, such as outdoor light-rail boarding and alighting areas, that are fully accessible. FTA intends to target funding for (1) capital projects to repair, improve, modify, retrofit, or relocate infrastructure of stations or facilities for passenger use, including load-bearing members that are an essential part of the structural frame; or (2) for planning projects to develop or modify a plan for pursuing public transportation accessibility projects, assessments of accessibility, or assessments of planned modifications to stations or facilities for passenger use.—Larry Penner (Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2. )
"I have been a Red Hook neighbor for over 25 years"
Cell: 917.578.1991 Office: 718.766.7159 Email: dbuscarello@kw.com KELLER WILLIAMS STATEN ISLAND 1919 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10305 Each office is independently owned and operated
Page 4 Red Hook Star-Revue
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November 2022
Representatives from local institutions including Red Hook Justice Center, Hook Arts Media and Red Hook Arts Project appear with Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez last spring.
Local nonprofits await promised money
O
n March 22, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez announced that she was earmarking $1 million of federal money to 11 community groups from Red Hook and Gowanus. We followed up with as many of the groups that would return our calls and found out that the money has not yet been sent, and when it does arrive, it will be in four tranches over next year. The one big grant is considered a ‘project,’ by government rules. Martha Bowers of Hook Arts Media suggested that the one project could be split up among the different non-profits. It was decided to split the money depending on size of the organizations, meaning not equally divided. The funds will be administered through Pioneer Works. There be follow-ups to ensure that the money will be used as the organizations laid out in their plans. Laurel Repsha of Pioneer Works said “our collective fundraising grant has been approved in full! That said, the grant is still in its early stages so we don’t have much to report on yet.” Tiffiney Davis from Red Hook Art Project (RHAP) explained that this is how federal grants work and that it always takes time before the organizations receive the funding. “We all had to come up with a detailed plan to submit to show we will serve the Red Hook community. For RHAP, that will be through art and programs for youth, as well as helping with the move [to RHAP’s new location on Van Brunt St.]” Another organization to receive funding is Ray Hall’s Red Hook Rise, which “promotes literacy through basketball and uses basketball as a tool to get kids to want to read.” The Alex House Project is a nonprofit that was founded by Samora Coles. She said “we provided nurturing and parent education classes to young moms in Red Hook so this grant will go towards those nurturing and parent education classes as well as our program transitioning young parents towards education. It will be for parenting support and education.”
Red Hook Star-Revue
by Brian Abate
"Tiffiney Davis from the Red Hook Art Project (RHAP) explained that this is how federal grants work and that it always takes time before the organizations receive the funding." PortSide will also receive funding and look to help the community through education but in a different way.
presentation skills, their ability to discuss local issues, and teach them community service and advocacy skills.”
“Back in 2018 and 2019 we started working with P.S. 676 and teaching the kids about the waterfront, resiliency and more, using hands-on teaching,” said Carolina Salguero, who, as many in the neighborhood know, runs the red ship docked in the Atlantic Basin.
Hook Arts Media “focuses on Arts and Media education and we’ve developed a specialty in working with transfer schools,” said Heather Harvey. “These are schools for overaged and under-credited young people and we’ve actually helped open three of them. We’ve had programs with P.S. 15 since the ‘90s. We also have community-based arts and media programs in which we actually pay our participants as they learn pre-professional skills.”
Carolina Salguero from PortSide showed me her application, which included her plans to use the funding for two projects: the first is “developing elementary school curriculum with P.S. 15 with some pilot programming” and the second is “refining our high school youth resiliency (related to floods) education and community service projects and program with area high schools.” For P.S. 15, “PortSide will use a transdisciplinary model which works at the overlap between humanities, sciences, and social sciences, and PortSide stresses place-based education. PortSide will create new curriculum, deploying content from prior school programs and resources in our emuseum. For high school students, PortSide will “educate students about local historic geography and flooding and teach them about weather and hurricane forecasts. The outreach component goals are to grow students’
I also asked about a success story at Hook Arts Media. “One that really makes my heart sing, comes from our Program Digital Connections which is a bridge program which is designed to take young people from our after-school program and place them in New York City’s film industry. All of the students in that program get an internship and they’re paid by the hour and they create their own original films. One is a young man named Danny who completed his film, came out of the program, and instantly got another fellowship at DCTV and is now working on the television show New Amsterdam.”
“For us, the funding will support staffing and will make sure we can pay our teaching artists. We want to ensure that teaching artists at transfer schools who otherwise might not be able to afford to stay on, will be able to. The other big thing is ensuring continuity of staffing. A lot of times people don’t realize that so much of the structure for arts and media teaching is about not only finding well-intentioned teachers but well-intentioned teachers with the right training, pedagogy, skills, and experience. We are so proud of our teachers, they are amazing!” The last person I spoke to was Marcus Scurry who is the deputy director of the Red Hook Community Justice Center. “We have a partnership with an organization called Progress Playbook. That program comes in and facilitates entrepreneurship and workshops for participants here at the Justice Center. They teach about the basics of starting a business, owning a business, operating a business, etc. “The money from the grant will allow us to offer an advanced level of this program where we can focus on adults. They will not only learn the basics of owning a business but also focus on walking them through how to apply for an LLC [Limited Liability Company] and get all of the necessary paperwork in place to make sure they can become a thriving business. The program is called How to Start an Empire. We also plan to have an LGBTQ program with a support group, which we’re calling LGBTQ Support Group.” Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get in contact with Brother’s Dream and I did not get a response from the Red Hook Initiative despite repeated attempts in person, by email and by phone Casey Fodge of Cora Dance, another grant recipient said “unfortunately we are unable to comment at this time but we appreciate you reaching out.”
Harvey also detailed how the funding will make a difference at Hook Arts Media and for the community.
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November 2022, Page 5
Rebuilding Ukrainian sports starts in Brooklyn by Brian Abate
W
hile many New York fans were focused on the postseason for the Yankees and Mets, there were other baseball games in New York this October. The Ukrainian national team took on the NYPD team and the FDNY team in back-toback charity games at Maimonides Park in Coney Island. Money raised in the games is going towards helping rebuild many of the fields in Ukraine that have been destroyed in Russian attacks. I went to the Ukrainian team’s first game, which was against the NYPD. There were over 100 people in attendance, and most were wearing Ukrainian colors or were draped in the Ukrainian flag. Before the game,
there was a live performance of Ukrainian music. Afterward, leaders from both Ukrainian organizations and the NYPD spoke about the importance of continuing to support Ukrainian people as they fight for their freedom. After the owner of Veselka (a popular Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village) threw out the first pitch, the game got underway. Though most of the crowd was cheering on Ukraine, the NYPD got off to a strong start, as they managed to score three runs with two outs in the top of the first, aided by a couple of walks. The NYPD’s sharp defense and strong pitching held the Ukrainian team in check for the first three innings and the NYPD added to their lead with Members of the Ukrainian team draped themselves in Ukrainian flags during the pregame ceremony. (photo by Brian Abate)
flu vaccine …not the flu
8-3 victory in the seven-inning game.
Both teams used extra-base hits to score a run which resulted in a 6-1 lead for the NYPD. However, an RBI triple and an RBI ground out cut the lead to 6-3 to the delight of the crowd in Coney Island. Though the Ukrainian team made a push, the NYPD added two more runs and closed out an
A few fans chanted “Slava Ukraini,” which was a fitting end to the game.
Getting vaccinated not only protects you, it also keeps you from spreading the flu to others who can get seriously ill — including pregnant people, young children, adults 65 years and older and people with chronic health conditions. For more information, call 311 or visit nyc.gov/flu. DOH_Flu-HalfPage_BrooklynDailyEagle_9.75x7.5_V1_EN.indd 1
Page 6 Red Hook Star-Revue
The teams shook hands and they stuck around after the game to watch a fireworks show.
‘‘
“We got the
two runs in the top of the fourth. Also in the fourth, P.J. DiMartino drove a ball off the wall, just missing a home run for the NYPD.
Eric Adams Mayor Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD Commissioner
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10/10/22 11:37 AM
November 2022
Dear Red Hook Community, Over 22 years ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to be the Presiding Judge of the Red Hook Community Justice Center. While our jurisdiction covers over 230,000 people living in Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Sunset Park and Red Hook, we are located in Red Hook and have enjoyed a close relationship with the Red Hook community. Before the court opened, I introduced myself at a community meeting as the judge of the Justice Center and a woman asked if I was really a judge. Puzzled, I asked her why she didn’t believe me. She replied, well, we’ve never had a judge out here – and a partnership between court and community was born. Because, in that moment, I was stunned and embarrassed to be part of a court system that had such a disconnect between court and the community it serves and I vowed that the Justice Center would be part of the fabric of our community. I knew that, as the first multi-jurisdictional court in the country, we were going to hear Criminal, Family and Housing Court cases. And to solve problems in court and the community, we would be providing many services, court mandated or available on a walk-in basis from substance abuse treatment, mental health and trauma counseling to job training, peacemaking, youth programs, GED classes and a housing resource center which empowers NYCHA tenants. But I didn’t know that years after we opened, social justice would be at the forefront of community demands across the nation. I didn’t realize that treating people with respect and giving them a voice in court on their case – common sense to us in our court – represented such a profound shift from the traditional approach. I didn’t foresee that the Justice Center would become a model court for over 60 courts across our country and over 30 courts Star-Revue photos show Hon. Calabrese at in other countries. And that our practhe Precinct Council, at a goodbye party for tice of “treating people like people and activist Celea Cacace, at the South Brook- not case numbers,” was going to be the lyn HS with Khary Bekka, with Ben Fullerkeystone of a community court moveGoogins and his father at the NYCHA ment worldwide. farm, at the precinct council at a stop-frisk But most importantly, I didn’t know protest led by Reg Flowers, at a graduation that I would learn so much about life ceremony at the Youth Court, with Father from people living in the Red Hook housClaudio honoring Pete Morales, talking es. Living in public housing is not easy. to Carolina Sallguero at Valentino Pier, walking through the Red Hook Houses with Sara Gonzales after Hurrican Sandy.
Red Hook Star-Revue
Public housing has been chronically underfunded and neglected and infrastructure maintenance has been postponed as the funding supports only patchwork repairs. Sandy construction – while looking promising on the drawing board, makes a simple walk to the store challenging and difficult to navigate, contending with chain link fences, scaffolding, blind spots and obstructed lighting. Living in these conditions, day after day, could discourage and demoralize anyone. But what I’ve learned, is that rather than being disheartened and intimidated, the people of Red Hook are tenacious and resilient. They can and will rise above any obstacle, any barrier. They will let you know when things should be better and celebrate with you when they are. And they bring a joy and a zest for life even in the most difficult of times. So, what they have taught me, is that the joy in life itself is found in the ability to rise above obstacles and barriers, and that a “True Champion,” is a person who does that - day after day, year after year. The people of Red Hook know how to live life every day – they come together in joy and in heartache but, most importantly, they will always come together. They showed me that I don’t need to look beyond Red Hook East and Red Hook West to find everyday heroes, fighting the “good fight” for decent living conditions, and enduring construction hazards with an eye towards a better Red Hook. I have been so privileged to serve this community. I have given my best because you deserve no less. As the Presiding Judge of the Red Hook Community Justice Center since we opened on April 5, 2000, I have been honored to serve the people of Red Hook, because they are “True Champions”. While my time as the Presiding Judge has come to an end, I will forever be The photo in the middle below was taken grateful to you for making me a better at the Star-Revue's summer festival. He is judge and helping to create the Red standing with former Assembly Assistant Hook Community Justice Center, a Speaker Felix Ortiz. The photo to the left shining example of what justice should (below) was at the opening day of the 2014 Red Hook Little League baseball season look like everywhere. As partners in where he threw out one of the first balls. justice, we have made a difference in The Red Hook Star-Revue has always held the lives of people across our country Judge Calabrese to be one of the most and around the world. honorable people serving this community, Judge Alex Calabrese He truly did it because he wanted to help, not himself, but others. And he succeeded.
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November 2022, Page 7
Refusing cold cash brings hot fine
V
by Brian Abate
an Leeuwen Ice Cream, a Brooklyn based food company that describes themselves as “the nationally adored brand known for making decadent and delicious dairy and vegan ice cream with highquality, simple ingredients,” was fined $33,000 by NYC because they violated a local law requiring stores to accept actual cash, unless they install a machine that will convert cash into prepaid cards. “Cash is king, which is why the Cashless Ban Law was passed to protect the unbanked and underbanked in our city,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a statement. “We will not allow any business to take advantage of this vulnerable population or penalize customers just for wanting to use cash to pay for things. This agreement will not only ensure that those who patronize Van Leeuwen will now have the option of paying in cash but, more importantly, it sends a clear message that those who repeatedly violate this law will be held accountable.” Van Leeuwen’s website states, “We started Van Leeuwen Ice Cream in a yellow truck on the streets of NYC in 2008 with a mission to make good ice cream. The cost is $12 per pint and until now, customers had to pay with a credit card. According to DCWP Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga, Van Leeuwen had refused to follow New York City’s Cashless Ban Law since it went into effect in 2020. The city said it had “received dozens of complaints” about Van Leeuwen’s policy and decided to pursue legal action.
both cash-free concession stands as well as those that accept cash. MSG’s website states that “Reverse ATMs, which convert cash into a debit card, are also located throughout the venue for your convenience.” The Citi Field and Yankee Stadium websites say the same thing, which is why they are allowed to go cashless. I also spoke to a Yankee Stadium official, who told me that the stadium has Reverse ATMs located throughout the Stadium. I saw one of them for myself when I went to a game, and it looked fairly simple to use, although the process might make fans miss part of the game. Based on my experience, it’s a little annoying for fans who come to games and only have cash on them to find those machines, make the exchange, and then wait in line for concessions. It would also be helpful to have signs pointing out that the stadiums have machines that transfer cash into debit cards because I’m not sure how many people know about them. I never knew about them until now. Big Business has long wanted a cashless society, but, according to the Brittanica Online, there are potential drawbacks to a cashless society. First, it would largely exclude “unbanked” (mostly poor) persons, who do not use or cannot obtain a bank account. Second, it could invite serious breaches of privacy, because few purchases and sales would be anonymous.
With the DCWP ready to pursue a court order which would force the ice cream company to finally comply with the city’s Cashless Ban Law, Van Leeuwen has now decided to begin following the law at all 19 New York City locations and will pay $33,000 in civil penalties. Interestingly, a lot of sports arenas in New York City, including Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Madison Square Garden (MSG) don’t accept cash. Barclays Center’s website states that it has
Page 8 Red Hook Star-Revue
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November 2022
A plethora of local groups gets together to plan a plethora of local events by Nathan Weiser
n the middle of October, there was an art celebration at Coffey Park for two new art projects that are being displayed around the Red Hook East Houses.
I
Mardok collaborated with third grade students at PS 15 with the support of Pioneer Works. The artists, Kamuf and Schloss, and Mardok, were chosen by the community through an interview process.
people who are so knowledgable about issues in their community and want to work to do something about it,” Schloss added. “We were honored to work with them and learn from them.”
The first one is titled American Dream and was done by photographer Caroline Mardok. This project is located at 590 Clinton Street.
These artworks that have been designed for the Red Hook East Houses were supported by a program called City Artist Corps: Bridging the Divide.
The portraits are of PS 15 students and they portray the Red Hook Houses while addressing climate change. The students were placed in various positions in relation to the buildings.
ArtBridge, Red Hook Initiative, Pioneer Works and PS 15 collaborated to make sure this program reached community interests and residents.
He added that the work they were mostly concentrating on during this project was making sure that the NYHCA Houses are funded fully for repairs and upkeep.
There was one where a kid had one foot on the building in a playful pose and another where a girl’s face could be seen above the building. Mardok did six workshops of 1.5 hours each with the third grade students. The other one is the Radiance project that was done by the PTSD collective. It was led by Tony Schloss and Paul Kamuf and the diamond themed project is located at Mill and Hicks and along Centre Mall between Hicks and Bush Streets. At the art celebration in Coffey Park, RHI had snacks and a table with information about GED classes and information about the Red Hook Harvest Festival that was going to have pumpkins, music and games. Pioneer Works had a table that had different color cloth and materials so that people could add to the big community quilt that is being made to commemorate the Hurricane Sandy 10-year anniversary. People also had the option to add to the quilt with a story or photo via a QR code. There was a table at the art celebration where people had an opportunity to draw and express themselves. Some people drew flowers, trees, animals and someone wrote fully fund Red Hook Houses with a hashtag. Mz. Hunyz Mobile Kitchen provided food. Their slogan is, “Home Cooked Meals at Your Fingertips.”
The PTSD Collective stands for Paul and Tony Sign Design. It also has deeper meaning since Schloss thinks that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is relevant to the time we are in.
One piece was five different diamonds and each one represented one of the five youth organizers. Since there were five people in the group they
“A lot of people are recovering from COVID, war and all the tension in America, so it is sort of a reaction to that,” Schloss said about the name. “Calling out all the stress everybody is under these days. And trying to be a response, something positive.”
"The third piece is an homage to Sheryl NashChisholm, who passed away a year ago."
In the summer of 2021, the two artists started working together with the goal of doing projects on fences in the urban environment. They did a design for a developer in Williamsburg on the waterfront but it was not able to be installed. This is their first major project. Over a series of workshops and sessions with the youth organizers they tested different methods of applying things to fences like mosaics. The two artists got to know the youth organizers and found out about the work they were doing as community organizers. The idea of diamonds as a theme for this project really started to resonate with everybody. “Diamonds are unique, are multifaceted, are forged under great pressure, are brilliant and beautiful,” Schloss said. “They mean different things to a lot of different people, so that theme resonated with everybody.”
They had jerk chicken, collard greens, rice and salad. They is a Red Hook business that has a food truck on Columbia Street and also caters.
The Radiance name for the project is in reference to the diamonds but it also has another meaning since it related to the youth organizers, who really stood out.
The shimmering facets of each mosaic diamond symbolizes the work of many dedicated individuals including the Youth Organizers at Red Hook Initiative. There were five youth organizers who worked with Schloss and Kamuf to help make this happen and make their ideas become reality.
“In working with the youth organizers, they just projected such confidence, such awareness and commitment to the community, that we saw this radiating out of them,” Schloss said. “We were really impressed by this positive and activism.”
Red Hook Star-Revue
There were three different pieces that the five youth organizers and the two artists collaborated on.
“It is not very often that we see young
made five diamonds to reflect them. The second piece is a big diamond, which is various shades, and represents individual pieces that make up the community. The third piece features and is an homage to Sheryl Nash-Chisholm, who passed away about one year ago. She worked for many, many years with the young people who came through Red Hook Initiative. “She used to work in hip hop in its early days,” Schloss said. “We wanted to memorialize Cheryl, so we used the same diamond motif to make that image.” The Radiance pieces are located at Hicks and West 9th. St and in the interior walkway of Red Hook East. This project was made possible through ArtBridge, which is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs. Schloss and Kamuf submitted the project to Rebecca Pristoop, who is the senior program manager at ArtBridge, and then she submitted to NYCHA and the construction company. NYHCA had to approve the project and then the construction company
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had to as well. The artists and youth organizers worked together to agree on the theme and the method they would use. They worked in the evenings at Red Hook Initiative and practiced making the mosaics. “We made this image of Abraham Lincoln that up close looks like different shades of gray but far away you can see the image,” Schloss said. “It is an old image from the Scientific America from like 1920 when they were experimenting with color. It helped to figure out the system for how you would build on the fence. The nest step involved the artists making it all a reality. “Then Paul and I worked for about three or four months building the work and testing different materials and shapes,” Schloss said. “Then we waited three or fourth months to get the permission and then we installed it this summer. All together it was about a year but half that time was waiting for permission.” Pristoop said that Red Hook was one of their earliest partnerships when they first started partnering with NYCHA. Their first partnership came after 2019 and that was when they started working with local artists. “The community is so vibrant and has so many wonderful resources that we decided to combine with the resources we have,” Pristoop said at the event. This is the third exhibition that ArtBridge has helped make possible in Red Hook. Last year they had one with Red Hook Art Project. “They had a collective of youth who designed art works themselves and then we had them printed on vinyl and had them on fences around Red Hook,” Pristoop said. Massah Fofana, who is an artist who works with Red Hook Art Project, created futurist collages that incorporated portraits of community members. Pristoop said many of the portraits are on Columbia Street. The other previous project that ArtBridge helped make happen was finished in September, 2020. Lifelong Red Hook resident and photographer Alden Parkinson and Japanese sculptor Harumi Ori were selected by residents of the Red Hook Houses to participate in the Bridging the Divide: Artists Residency Program.
November 2022, Page 9
Big Peach By Joe Enright One incident, in particular, played out in my head as the minutes crawled by. It seems Brother Raymond had a thing about noise that contributed to his being universally known as “Crazy Ray.” One afternoon, energized by a lunch filled with chocolate while waiting for our teacher to arrive, we were all shouting, taunting and the like (there might even have been a few “Enny” call-and-responses). Raymond stormed in from the corridor. Instant silence. But too late.
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t was Junior year Physics class in St. Augustan Diocesan High School, in a Park Slope that had seen better days and would again someday but not in 1963. I had just written a novelty song about Nicholas Piccione, our math teacher, who I actually liked. The song sprang to life after I dozed off in his class while he was fishing for us to solve an equation he’d just scribbled on the blackboard: “Z?” No! “Y?” No! “2?” No, No, No! “N?” RIGHT! Hearing my name, I awoke, bolted out of my seat, and answered, “Yes, Mr. Piccione!” Instead of smacking me or throwing his keys, like many of his Christian Brother and “lay” colleagues would, he smiled and said forcefully, “Wooh! Sit back down there, Enright!” Thereafter, some called me “Enny” to memorialize the whole N-Right calland-response thing. Ha Ha. Assholes. And so to honor this kind man, I, your typical adolescent Dick-Head, wrote, “Big Bad Peach” – with apologies, of course, to the Jimmy Dean hit record, “Big Bad John.”
“Gentlemen,” he began, in a voice cold as ice, “at times like this, it is best to simply take the miscreant closest to you and make an example of him.” Whereupon, he grabbed the blond kid sitting near the door by his jacket, telling him to stand, and then started smacking him with an open hand rapidly, on both sides of the face. Stunned at first, the blond put up his hands to ward off the blows and ducked away but Raymond pursued him and drove him back into his seat. He then turned to us: “No more sound? Do you understand?” The only thing missing was a German accent, a Gestapo trench coat, and a demand to “show me your papers, all of you Irish, Italian and Polish swine!” When I went to the classroom where Crazy Ray received visitors, there was actually a line waiting outside to see him. Since misery loves company, I was somewhat relieved. Then he opened the door and the first victim disappeared inside. I listened intently for the sounds of violence (Paul Simon’s lyrics if he went to Saint Augustine). Nothing. And no red faces coming out, either. Wow, maybe he’s mellow today! As each boy left, he would whisper to the next victim to go in. Now it’s my turn. Raymond was sitting at his desk, writing something. He looked up at me. “Yes, what do you want?”
Every day at the school you could see him arrive
“You told me to see you about my note, Brother.”
He stood six foot five and weighed one-oh-five,
“Oh, that,” he said with some annoyance. “That’s out of my hands, I sent it up to Brother Jerome. Didn’t anyone tell you?”
Big Peach And so forth. Anyway, my unkind homage fell out of my physics textbook on that October 1963 day and Charlie Duveen, sitting next to me, picked it up and started reading. He laughed and was passing it back when Brother Raymond noticed the exchange and demanded: “Step forward with that paper you are passing around!” “But, Brother…” “Shut up. How dare you pass this around in my class?!” “But, Brother, I wasn’t...” “Shut up and take your seat. I’ll deal with this when you see me in my room after school.” Uh oh. Knowing his propensity for smacking us around, I feared the worst.
Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue
“No, Brother.” “Well, I’m telling you! Get out of here and see Brother Jerome,” dismissing me with a wave of his hand as he returned to his writing. I actually thanked him as I left. Brother Jerome, a noted pugilist, was similarly disinterested in meting out corporal punishment, thankfully. He simply handed me a sealed envelope addressed to “Mr. & Mrs. Enright,” and said, “You’re suspended. Take your books home with you since you may be gone for a good long while. And make sure your parents get the envelope or you’ll never return here.” Wow! Free at last! On the subway home, I wondered what it would be like to be done with school. If I threw
the envelope away, I would get up each morning and wander the City doing whatever I wanted. Seeing a lot of movies for sure. But then as I considered the pros and cons, I realized I was only a phone call away from being exposed. I gave the envelope to my mother and explained what had happened. She read it and got nervous. “They want to see us!” she said, her lips almost trembling. this was a woman who attended Mass every single day of her life. Except for Holy Saturdays, the only day of the Liturgical Year in which Mass wasn’t held because Jesus had gone toes up on Good Friday. I always thought it should be Holy Friday and Good Saturday but that idea didn’t sit well with me mum.
failed Physics. After I wrote this piece, I took a peek on the Interweb. Nicholas Piccione passed away in December of 2020. A Brooklyn native, he forsook a career as a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry to become a math teacher for 30 years, first at St. Augustine, then moving on to Hasbrouck Heights High School. An online eulogy noted that after retiring, he dedicated thousands of hours as a volunteer tutor at Hudson County Community College, “assisting countless numbers of students, many of whom were new to the USA and had difficulties communicating in English.” The last line read, “He was known for his quick wit, a hearty chuckle, and his kind and compassionate spirit.”
And so the following day, I was to stay home (yay!) while she went to meet with Brother Peter, the Principal. “I’m not telling your father nothing so not a peep to him. As far as he’s concerned, he’d want you to be expelled and start bringing home some real money to help out.” I had forgotten all about that. A few days after graduating grammar school, I got Working Papers so I could stand at a souvenir stand inside the Stillwell Avenue subway arcade in Coney Island for a pay envelope every week, detailing all the withholdings that my boss pocketed for herself. When September rolled around, my father said he wanted me to keep working and forget high school. “I never even finished high school, it’s not that important,” he explained thoughtfully, perhaps fighting back the anger he must have felt when his father died, forcing him to quit school and become the breadwinner at age 13. My mother overheard the conversation and overruled him, arguing it would be against the law and maybe against one of the commandments too. In rebuttal, he brought up the Fourth Commandment. “Honor Thy Father overrules THAT!” he shouted. As she shouted back, “There’s a mother in there too, you know, to be honored and such!” I slipped away. Brother Peter was a gentler soul than Jerome and Raymond. And I’m sure my mother name-checked a lot of clergy she knew, including family members. I was reinstated and allowed to return to class. Under one condition: I had to apologize to Mr. Piccione. I would rather have been smacked by a gauntlet of the most sadistic Christian Brother motherfuckers. I saw him after class, handed him the note, told him I was just fooling around, and never showed it to anyone, it just fell out of my...Piccione cut me off. “This is kinda funny,” he said. “Can I keep it?” I’d like to be able to say that I was never so unkind to such a gentle soul ever again. But I’ve tried. And by the way, I learned a lot in math that year. But I
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Rest in peace, Nick, and thank you.
"The only thing missing was a German accent, a Gestapo trench coat, and a demand to “show me your papers, all of you Irish, Italian and Polish swine!”
November 2022
New right-wing Italian government faces familiar challenges by Dario Pio Muccilli, Star-Revue overseas correspondent
I
taly’s new right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has appointed her cabinet and immediately they are faced with problem. Not from the opposition, whose divisions and confusion helps indeed Meloni’s power, but from the gas crisis and from her own allies.
Energy Crisis and the need of France Italy, like all the countries in Europe, is in the middle of an energy predicament not seen since the 1973 oil crisis. Prices are rising, creating difficulties for working class. A possible solution could be an EU-imposed price cap on gas. Big European summits are to come, and Meloni’s stance needs approval by EU partners, a task indeed difficult for a nationalist and far-right leader, even though she is widely respected as a coherent and hard-working politician. In fact she’s been very busy. The night after she was sworn into office she met France’s President Macron during an informal meeting in Rome. Franco-Italian partnership needs to be strengthened now more than ever. The two countries must unite if they want to break the opposition to gas price regulation coming from Germany and most Northern European countries.
Berlusconi’s love for Putin Of course, none of this would be necessary if the Ukrainian crisis didn’t ex-
ist, and it is exactly regarding this field that Meloni has experienced hardship with one of her cabinet allies: Il Cavaliere (the Knight, ed) Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian PM, worldwide famous for his renowned love for women and his egocentric conduct of government. In three leaked audios, Berlusconi, while addressing his party’s MPs in private, expressed admiration for Putin, stating that he’s one of the Russian president’s “five closest friends”. Moreover he blamed Zelensky for having harshly “attacked the Donbass” before Putin’s invasion, which Berlusconi stated was meant “to depose (in a few weeks, ed) the current government and replace it with another one already chosen by a minority of reasonable and good Ukrainians.” Although Forza Italia, Berlusconi’s party and member of Meloni’s Cabinet, soon reaffirmed its European and Atlantic credentials, the Knight’s words had certainly an impact, as they were said a few days before the official start of the cabinet, where Forza Italia ended up addressing the Foreign Affairs Minister. If the latter, Antonio Tajani, is a man of renowned Atlantic faith, his leader’s stance will be able to cast shadow on him and part of Meloni’s Cabinet, where the support for NATO and Ukraine has been a key point since the beginning.
To be honest, I am pretty sure that Berlusconi’s stance will not affect the Cabinet’s stability so much. I may understand that for you, my dear American readers, it’s hard to believe that, as the covering of the news by US media was rather apocalyptic, but if Italian politics was a University degree, “Phenomenology of Berlusconi” would be the hardest exam. Berlusconi is a showman before a politician, performing is his way to negotiate and no one knows what he wanted and wants to achieve through his latest broadside.
The opposition aka the masochists It may be said that nobody knows as well what the opposition wants to achieve, but this time it’s not because of their inscrutability, but because they don’t know it either. One of their hardest attacks was from a Democratic Party MP, Ms Debora Serracchiani, who denounced in the Parliament the government for allegedly advocating that women should stay one step behind men. Meloni soon replied “MP Serracchiani, does it seem to you that I stay one step behind men?” with tons of applause from the chamber. Even a member of the opposition, but from a different party, Matteo Renzi, former PM and Italia Viva’s Leader, said “attacking her, Italy’s first female PM, on women representation: It’s masochism!”
feature of Italian opposition: there were actually three different opposing forces at the elections, and now in the Parliament two of them, the Democratic Party and the Five Stars Movement, are working together to exclude the third, Renzi’s one, from having all the constitutional benefits reserved to the opposition. This attitude, with intestinal wars inside those forces who are supposed to attack Meloni rather than each other, will certainly go in favor of the Cabinet, but at the same time this will leave no excuse to that one if it fails, because It will be nobody else’s fault. The Latin sentence “homo faber fortunae suae” (“Every man is the maker of his destiny”) should now more than ever be the motto of this government, with all its pros and cons.
"Berlusconi is a showman before a politician, performing is his way to negotiate"
Indeed masochism has been a key
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November 2022, Page 11
Dan Perri: Hollywood’s Unsung Master by Dante A. Ciampaglia Dan Perri isn’t a name you see, as they say, above a movie’s title. That’s because he designed the title.
In a monumental five-decade career that began with The Exorcist, Perri created more than 200 titles for some of the biggest, most important movies ever made: A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Warriors, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Bull Durham, There Will Be Blood, All the President’s Men, Taxi Driver. Oh, and the opening crawl at the start of Star Wars movies? Yeah, he’s responsible for that, too.
Perri is one of the most underappreciated creators in movie history. But the Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, is helping change that narrative with the small but impressive retrospective, Dan Perri and the Art of the Title Sequence, on view through January 1. Good title design can often feel inevitable — it can’t be anything but this. But that sense of natural emergence betrays the work and creativity poured into each one, none the same as the last. And as the exhibition of process materials, ephemera, and video loop of title sequences demonstrates, with the exception of Saul Bass, the legendary designer of film titles like Psycho and North by Northwest, there’s no one more important to the success of title design than Dan Perri. Actually, it’s not much of a contest. Perri has clearly overtaken his old mentor. Try imagining pop culture — and movies — without his work. It’s impossible.
The 77-year-old Perri recently spoke with the StarRevue about his career, what he learned from Saul Bass, and where title design is today. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You probably hear this all the time, but I didn’t quite appreciate, until going through the exhibit, just how important you and your work are to not only movies but my life as a moviegoer.
It’s kind of you to say that. I have heard that occasionally; it always amazes me. I just don’t think about it in that way. But, certainly, you never realize how things that might have been done by one person influenced you until a day comes where you see all that work in one place. A phenomenon similar to that has happened to me quite a number of times when I’ve met people who somehow understand I did Star Wars. They stop whatever they’re doing and tell me everything that happened the day they saw it: where they were, who they were with, what theater it was, what time of day, what day of the week — all these things that are now embedded in their memory because of the experience. I was only a small part of that; I designed the first moments of the film, then the film took over and impacted them so strongly. But because my work is part of that memory and impact, it’s so important to them that they have this moment to tell the person who did the work how it affected them. It’s quite a phenomenon when it happens. You can see their eyes light up and something goes off in their head and they just have to tell you all about it. That opening crawl is indelible. But so is a lot of your work. The Warriors and that dripping graffiti logo and credits rushing at us through the subway — there’s no other way that movie can start. Your work is obviously plugged into the experience of what it means to tell a story, but it also seems very aware of what it means to watch a movie.
It’s interesting you say that. I’m certainly a big movie-
Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue
goer. I love film. I love motion and the experience of watching a film, and to get the opportunity, as I have had, of contributing to so many films, it’s just more of a thrill for me. I’m still working with new groups of people, and I’m excited about the opportunity to contribute to their film. So it just continues to go on. And that experience is so wonderful and important to me. Much of your work is optical title design, but now titles are done digitally. How do optical and digital title design differ?
Before digital came along, the only way to put something on the screen was working with an optical camera and lenses and photographing title elements and then superimposing them over backgrounds or artwork or whatever it might be. That was done optically, where this camera would photograph the title elements first, on a separate piece of film, and then combine them, which is called bipacking — where the new negative title elements physically touch each other — on this optical camera with a special attachment called an aerial head, which allows for this compositing effect to be done. So all the years of my career before digital, I was working with optical effects and I had to know what it could do. It’s only a tool with which you combine these designs and put them on film. When digital came along, it simply replaced the optical method of combining and putting designs on film. I had to learn what it could do — and it can do a lot more. So that affected my approach to imagining a title for a particular film. It’s still only a tool, but it’s a much more effective tool. I can do many more things that I can imagine that I was not able to do. But even then there were limitations when I first began working digitally. Originally, when digital was new, it was too expensive. But it has become affordable, and there are digital artists all over the world that have their own computer and that’s all they need. I speak to design classes and festivals all over the world, and students always want to know what it was like to do something optically compared to the simplicity of doing it digitally. So it has kind of circled around again, where some filmmakers want the effects that physical film brings to the work. When a director asks you to do something on film, are you working optically? Doing digital to film?
It first happened on [Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of ] Suspiria. The director had shot his film on 35mm, and he desperately wanted me to finish my design work on film, as well. So I sought out my old friends and associates in the optical world, the cameramen and lineup people and other supervisors and so on. I found that some had died, others were retired, and there was no one really working in the field because the optical effects world has vanished. But in addition to that, there were no cameras around and no special stock. Eastman Kodak had created a high-contrast black-and-white stock that was used to photograph the title elements, which you then would use to composite the title and backgrounds, and there were filters and so on that had to be used. All of it was unavailable. So I had to create a formula whereby I composited the titles digitally, but I denigrated the quality so that when the titles were superimposed over the film backgrounds we were using they were in the same world. If you put a sharp, clean digital title over this relatively soft, grainy, filmed background, it
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would just stand out and look wrong. So I devised a method to denigrate the titles and then we would composite it, and it looked like it should have looked. I’ve been asked to do that again on this film that I’m working on — it’s a big movie, out by the end of the year — and we’re facing the same situation, which is thrilling, but also frightening. We might not be able to execute it because of the lack of the necessary equipment or materials that would be necessary. So that’s a challenge that has come because of the change in the industry and digital coming along. That filmmakers come to you as a kind of old master of optical titles calls to mind your mentor Saul Bass and the way designers of your generation looked to him for inspiration. Now people are coming to you like you’re the new Saul Bass. It seems like I am, yes. I’m regarded that way by virtue of time passing and his leaving us and my work cumulatively becoming a large part of the title design world. So I guess I assume that mantle by default and nothing else. I certainly admired him and wanted to be like him, and I’m happy that I’m looked upon that way. That’s part of why I speak to so many schools and designers and motion design people — I want to share what I’ve done. I think I’m obligated to do that, to share what I know and share what I’ve done. There seems to be lots of interest in my doing that, so I’m continuing to do it. What was it that you admired about him?
His strong graphic vision. He was able to visualize simple images in such a way and boil them down to this wonderfully clean and powerful moment, usually in silhouette or some kind of graphic interpretation. It was always just so right, so powerful. If you looked at the film and you studied it, you realized that he found just the right moment — that frame or feeling that he drew from it. And his designs were always just so economical and perfect for the moment. It was magical. I always admired that. I studied it and wanted to be like him.
You’ve said you think of yourself as a graphic designer and a filmmaker. So many of your title sequences can almost stand alone. The openings of Taxi Driver, The Warriors, Wall Street, Nashville — they’re like short films. Do you approach a title sequence with that in mind? How does your filmmaker side play with your designer side? I don’t approach it consciously with the intention of making it a sequence unto itself. But I usually will get involved with some concept that is a little story that you’re telling, whether you’re introducing the character or you’re setting the scene, the location, or the era or the particular, unique aspects of the story. You’re examining that, you’re bringing it to the viewer to allow them to get into the film, to learn more about it so by the time the story starts they know about the character or the car he drives or the house he lives in, whatever it might be. So the film benefits by having that introduction that contains the titles. That’s it. There’s a wholeness to it, a beginning, a middle and an end. I want to wrap it up so it comes to an end: the story is told, the introduction is completed, and now the film begins. Sometimes you actually fade out and then cut to the first shot or fade in, like on Raging Bull where the titles end and go to black and then
(continued on next page) November 2022
How to find yourself: Music and mental health, interview with Dylan Owen by Roderick Thomas Mental health has often been a topic discussed in hindsight. One musician is tackling the topic in a creative way with the release of his new short film and album. My interview with musician Dylan Owen below. Roderick Thomas: Glad to speak with you, how are you? Dylan Owen: Doing well, thank you!
RT: Where are you from? Dylan Owen: I’m from upstate, Orange County New York. I lived in a few different towns up there and that’s where music started for me. RT: Are you more of a filmmaker or a musician? Dylan Owen: Definitely more of a filmmaker. This is a bit different for me. I’ve never done anything like this before RT: What made you get into music? Dylan Owen: Watching my older brother playing in punk bands inspired me to get into music. I would always go to see him play in divey venues. RT: You made a short film for your song “How to find yourself ” Dylan Owen: Everything comes easily, I’m a super visual person.. Growing up I would draw a lot, I was a huge x-men fan as well. When I’m creating music I see everything RT: Have you had a moment where you’ve felt like you made it? Dylan Owen: When I was in highschool it was such a small town, I felt like having a packed coffee shop or packed bar, felt like I’d made it. It’s funny looking back, because these were really small venues, but those were formative for me. RT: Why’d you move to NYC?
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come up with the first shot. But it’s not conscious on my part. It’s more of the way I think and how I, as a storyteller — you tell a story and it ends; it doesn’t just hang there, in midair. It’s just the way I approach it naturally, and it seems to fit well with what I’m doing in servicing the film.
The movie landscape is very different today than when you started. Hollywood is dominated by franchises with established and instantly recognizable visual identities, and it sometimes seems like the title sequence is a dying art. Is that a misreading of things? It’s true, it does seem that way. Although there are probably many times as many films made now as there were years ago. But there’s so many viewpoints and so many different needs for films, niche films and different kinds of films, genre films, for different uses. And there are certainly enough new designers around
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Dylan Owen: I think it was more for personal growth for me than anything else. I don’t see NYC as really helpful industry wise. I felt stagnant in my little town. I want to expand. RT: Tell me about your upcoming EP Dylan Owen: My latest project is called Talk care of yourself, and the lead song is called “How to find yourself ” RT: What were some inspirations for this EP? Dylan Owen: At the beginning of quarantine, I moved upstate and lived in a super small town, I’d just broken up with a long term partner and I felt like I was starting my life over. I started going inward and figuring out my journey. I wanted to share something that other people could relate to. RT: Did you find it hard to create? Dylan Owen: It had been a while since I’d released music. I needed to get inspired again. And all the things that were happening around me, and in the world… how could I not create? RT: Why focus on mental health? Dylan Owen: Mental health discussions are so important. The whole point of the film is to get people to talk about mental health, and normalize mental health discussions. RT: For your short film, you worked with Emmy award winning director Brian Petchers, how did that come about? Dylan Owen: Brian and I actually set out to make this piece together, We’ve been friends for a while. He heard the music from the EP even before there were vocals on the instrumentals. RT: The film looks beautiful, very well thought out Dylan Owen: We shot this on Analog film, and worked with cinematographer, Dan Kennedy. We
that could provide designs for many films.
There was a time several years ago that, for some reason, directors started not having titles at the beginning of the film, except for the title, and all the other titles were at the end of the film. I guess the thinking was that the modern viewer has a shorter attention span because of computers and the internet and so on, they want gratification immediately. If you don’t give them something to look at, they’re going to literally change the channel or go to the next internet site or whatever it might be. They wanted to excite them immediately and constantly so that they will continue to watch the film. But that happens more on television because you have this plethora of channels and material to watch. You can easily go to the next one if you’re not satisfied instantaneously. But I work in the feature world where a person has paid money to come in and sit down and watch the movie. They’re not going to leave — they’ve already paid their money, but they might check out mentally, look at their phone, or whatever. So I’m conscious of that, and I want to give them
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wanted people to feel represented, in thoughts, and looks. We shot the video in washingtonville New York RT: Any favorite musicians? What’s inspiring you right now? Dylan Owen: The Wonder years, I love their lyrics. Their genre is different, but I just love their writing. These days, I’ve been really inspired by Ceschi Ramos. He does very interesting music, he’s so unique. RT: Any particular goals you have for the film? Dylan Owen: I just want more people to see it. My fans are super supportive. I want a wider audience to be exposed to the film and the music, and get people’s feedback. RT: Where can we find How to find yourself, the short film? Dylan: It’s currently on Vimeo, and on my youtube channel. RT: Planning to do any private screenings? Dylan: Yea I’m looking forward to doing that RT: When does the album come out? Dylan Owen: December 1st RT: What do you want your legacy to be? Dylan Owen: I want my catalog to encourage people and help people reflect on themselves and make people feel inspired. RT: Dylan, it’s been a pleasure. Dylan Owen: Thank you!
Check out Dylan Owen’s short film, How to find yourself, on Youtube Vimeo. As well as his upcoming EP, How to find yourself coming this December.
Roderick Thomas is an NYC based writer, filmmaker, (Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident, Email: rtroderick.thomas@gmail.com, Site: roderickthomas.net)
something to look at to both satisfy their need to see something changing and different but at the same time delivering more information about the story I’m telling in the titles. I’ve had to accommodate that and become aware of it. It’s part of the reality of the world I’m working in and the designs I’m creating for this specific film.
But there’s also this recurring kind of throwback where more and more people are interested in the past cinematically. More than one generation of younger people are starting to recognize and notice and appreciate what happened before them. And I’m part of that. People seem to appreciate me and what I’ve done. So I’m pleased that I’m still here and I’m able to share with them and they’re appreciating it. Dan Perri and the Art of the Title Sequence is on view at the Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave in Astoria, through January 1. Perri will be at the museum on November 13 for a discussion following a screening of Taxi Driver. Find more information online at movingimage.us.
November 2022, Page 13
Steve Keene by Blake Sandberg
Walking on the street in New York City. Occasionally I would see a painting. Maybe two or three. Paintings on wood. Bright.
He is a painter.
It’s about living and doing it.
He is proclaimed as the worlds most prolific painter. That may be true.
But when looking at the paintings you eventually notice how he paints. The fascinating nuanced latticework of lines and brushstrokes. Rhythmic. Patterns.
Colorful.
Leaning against a dumpster.
Or against a wall near an alley in the sun.
Immediately recognizable at Steve Keene paintings. I knew of him from Lakeside Lounge on Ave B. The walls of the place were covered in his work.
A few other pieces dotted the walls of other well known venues and clubs.
I think he had a show at CBGB Gallery, the lesser known entity in a much larger space next door to the famous punk club.
Once I saw an incredible Statue of Liberty piece about 6 feet tall on the street. I was on the way to a meeting with a gallery owner on Broadway. I made a mental note to return to Lady Liberty and rescue her. Parked my bike locking it directly in front of the building that housed the gallery and others.
Businesses. Likely some spacious apartments above.
Lines.
Large brushstrokes in the background.
Medium hits with a chip brush to knock out areas. Colors. Bright. Patchy.
Angles.
A hatching zig-zag background. Sometimes mosaic like.
Surfaces covered in people and objects, landscapes, buildings, faces, figures. Maybe an album cover of one of your favorite or bands. But so much more. A world of images. Staggering.
Thousands of images.
Thousands of album covers to fill all the record stores.
After my lack luster meeting with gallery owner I took the elevator down.
Prolific.
My bike was gone.
The lines are painted rapidly with the smaller brushes.
The doors opened.
I walked out… one sliver of a chain link was left - a pie shaped piece lay on the sidewalk where someone had chopped through it twice and made off with my bike. A trusty chrome silver BMX. I turned to face the doorman.
The thief that took my bike must have used a huge pair of wire cutters. The kind the army use to cut into fences in the movies. Or in this case organized bike thieves… I was pissed!
I questioned the door man.
He tried hard to pretend he knew nothing.
Probably had a $20 or maybe $50 in his pocket.
Distracted and now walking I forgot Lady Liberty resting against the wall.
Years later in an after - the - after party at a woman’s apartment.
In the living room was a massive Statue of Liberty in green and blue. Unmistakably by Steve Keene. I am not claiming it’s the same one. But I would like it if it was. Steve Keene is often portrayed as a factory of paintings. Not really an artist to some. Who snub him. But when you look at his work - really look.
You discover some very interesting approaches to painting. He describes objects and images with lines. With his brushstrokes.
He doesn’t render things out in the round much. He is a speedy worker. The work is his thing. The act.
The act of painting.
The action of painting.
Like deKooning in ways - some of the art world may not appreciate this notion.
Passionate.
Urban folk art for the folk of NYC… and beyond. They slash. They flow fast.
Describing the image in vivid simple motions. Dabs.
Short strokes.
Dashes of color.
Tightening the focus somehow. Then signed. SK
On to the next.
I have never seen an artist painting in his own retrospective. But there he was working away.
“Live painting” has become a thing.
I remember it starting in venues in the late 90s. While a DJ or band played. Usually very cheesy. This is different.
This is a master of economy. Painting live.
It’s a unique approach.
His paintings may have some replication.
Maybe these are almost like prints in a way. But they are very hand painted. Paintings.
They are yours. Steve is ours.
We are lucky to have him.
The Retrospective Art show was at Chasama on the Brooklyn Waterfront.
With DJ Jonathan Toubin spinning 45s as the sun set into the bay. New book is out – The Steve Keene Art Book produced by Daniel Efram. Visit: www.stevekeene.com
But he is.
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November 2022
Thanksgiving Story
T
by Brian Abate
here are three things that I associate with Thanksgiving: family, food, and football. I love all three of them so it’s one of my favorite holidays.
My family does not have many traditions but we have always gotten together at my aunt and uncle’s house on Thanksgiving and when I was little and they lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, I would go upstairs and watch football while the adults talked downstairs. Sometimes I’d throw the football around or bring my basketball and shoot around with my cousin. It was always fun to catch up because we didn’t get to spend that much time together (except when school was over during the summer.) I also usually watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I’m still hoping that someday Charlie Brown will finally be able to kick the football. A few years ago my aunt and uncle moved from Brookline to Brooklyn. This made our commute a lot easier. My family still goes to their house for Thanksgiving. Up until 2020, we did the same thing every year, but due to the pandemic we were not able to have a big get-together that year and it has made me appreciate our family tradition more. It was great to have Thanksgiving with the family again last year. Thankfully, even when the pandemic was at its worst, there were still football games to watch and I was still able to eat some great food on Thanksgiving. My family has always had most of the traditional Thanksgiving foods like turkey, stuffing, cornbread, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (one of my favorites.) For dessert, I love apple pie. Everyone seems to have a specialty: my uncle makes the turkey and the corn bread, my aunt makes the mashed potatoes, and my grandma makes the sweet potatoes with marshmallows and the cranberry sauce. The crazy thing is when I was younger, I really only liked the turkey, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. Now I love all of it, and it’s always something I start looking forward to weeks in advance. This year, ahead of Thanksgiving George and I have decided to try out the food at different diners (George gets the Turkey Special and I try something else.) I liked the bread a lot at the Bridgeview Diner in Bay Ridge and I really liked the french fries at Happy Days Diner in Brooklyn Heights. Usually, I just get a burger when I go to a diner but I tried out a few different paninis and they were very good. Though each place was unique, I give all of them a thumbs up. Our Thanksgiving preview has been a lot of fun and I’m starting to crave my Thanksgiving meal. Thankfully, there are only a few more weeks to go until the big day arrives. I can’t wait to eat like there’s no tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving! (Note from George - I love Thanksgiving dinner, and every year at Thanksgiving I vow to cook turkey more often, and so far I haven't done it._
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November 2022, Page 15
Tenth Annual Red Hook Barnacle Parade, October 29,2022
KEG & LANTERN BREWERY BEER, FOOD & COCKTAILS
HAPPY HOUR WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY 4PM-6PM DAILY FOOD & BEER SPECIALS
Follow us @kegandlantern_brewing for new beer releases, food specials and all updates!
Bring your Chili to our 1st Annual Chili Potluck/Cookoff NOVEMBER 13th 2-5 pm Will open early for all WORLD CUP GAMES starting November 21st WEDNESDAY NIGHT TRIVIA 7 pm Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue
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November 2022
a portion of proceeds going to CASA, a mid-Atlantic organization supporting the needs of immigrant families.
NB: Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix/Liturgy
Black paint (by numbers). The highlight of Liturgy’s set at First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn Heights last July (the first time the band ever played in a church, as frontperson Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix announced from the stage) was a monumental, pounding and then-unreleased 20-minute song which, it turns out, will be the title track of their next album, due in the spring. It’s something of a return to form for the Brooklyn’s own black metal intelligentsia. After a pair of brilliant, self-released albums in 2019 and 2020 which added to their lineup some of the best of the city’s finest experimental improv and contemporary composition players, they’ve stripped back down to a super-tight four-piece and are back on Thrill Jockey. That chunk of epic is out now (digital only, via Bandcamp) as an EP with a brief and rather unlikely power ballad titled . As the Blood of God Bursts the Veins of Time oddly divides “93696” into three tracks, reasonably enough titled “93,” “36” and “696,” but on the forthcoming album (which will also be issued as a double CD) it’s all one track. There are, no doubt, some exceedingly complex reasons for all of this that will likely be laid out on Hunt-Hendrix’s YouTube channel at some point. Meanwhile, respect to a trio whose debut has three cuts, clocking in at precisely 10, 20 and 30 minutes. Eyes Like Predatory Wealth is the high concept, doomdrenched debut from Apparitions. Guitarist Andrew Dugas, drummer Grant Martin and Igor Imbu on modular synth recorded their parts separately in Brooklyn, Chicago and Houston without listening to each other’s tracks but following strictures set out by Dugas. That’s interesting enough but it matters about as much as the fact that the album’s concept and titles derive from filmmaker Matthew Barney, author Georges Bataille, painter Yves Klein and poets Arthur Rimbaud and Diane Wakoski. (These are heady times, see Horse Lords below.) What matters more is that the album crushes cohesively with passages of amped and extended beauty. It’s available as CD, cassette and download from The Garrote. The Lord finds an angel. If a meeting between ultraheavy Greg Anderson and angelic singer Petra Haden seems unlikely, the recent Devotional (vinyl, CD and download out Oct. 21 on Southern Lord) isn’t the first time they’ve met. Haden–who also sings with her sisters, all daughters of jazz legend Charlie Haden, as the Haden Triplets—has recorded with Anderson in Goatsnake (Vol. 1, released in 1999) and Sunn O))) (2000’s ØØ Void). But Devotional is their first duo project and the first time with him that her voice isn’t subsumed in the dark, atmospheric mix. Haden’s multi-tracked, wordless vocals are up front and rich, supported by her violin. Anderson (as The Lord) fills out the rest of the space with guitars and effects, and
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there’s nicely light drumming by Jade Devitt. It still grinds, if less so than their past collaborations, and in a more melodious manner: slow, ethereal and pretty much wonderful. It’s not clear if they’ll be taking it to the stage but The Lord and his frequent bandfellow Stephen O’Malley will be touring the states this winter as Shoshin (O))) Duo, stopping at Pioneer Works in Red Hook next month.
Baltimore lowlife. A sort of digital cricket chirp introduces Comradely Objects, the fifth full-length from Baltimore’s Horse Lords. A steady drum beat kicks in, then a loping guitar line weaves its way through. What could be the components of an African Highlife song, soon gives way to a low-grade tension. As the music builds and more layers are added, it begins to resemble something by minimalist composer Julius Eastman (the band released a great version of his Stay On It in 2017) with fractured, postpunk guitar. At the same time, the precision of execution brings King Crimson to mind. To say there’s no band like them, then, is obviously off the mark, but the clinical, infectious riffage is still very much their own. The album was their pandemic project and, facing an uncertain future, the Lords abandoned concerns about being able to play the album live. (Playing live might remain an issue as three-quarters of the band have since relocated to Germany.) The result is precision grooves in a neo–no wave vein. The album takes its title from a 2008 book on Russian Constructivist design, following suit by shunning artistic ego in favor of a utilitarian whole. Comradely Objects is out Nov. 4 on LP, CD and download from RVNG INTL, with
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Noisy Beast (Shake Chain Punters). Some grittier neo–no wave comes this way from London (by way of Upset the Rhythm, out Nov 18th vinyl, CD, download). Listening to Snake Chain’s self-titled debut might be more relaxed than going to see them live, as singer Kate “Meltdown” Mahony (the nickname is mine) is apparently given to crawling through the audience in a raincoat and crying (or “crying”) offstage at the start of their sets. On the album, she comes off like a desperate, three-martini Lydia Lunch backed by distorted, stomping punk and synth worthy of Suicide’s Martin Rev, with some genuine horrorshow moments thrown in. While artists aren’t often their own best critics, Mahony describes the album as being like “crying in a Catholic sex dungeon with Eastenders on,” which seems pretty apt. Her lyrics are a damn lot harder to make out, but Upset the Rhythm kindly supplied “Do we speak language or does language speak us? Is there a mouth in the middle of the desert? Do you ask how cups are designed? Would you say yes when you really mean I don’t know” from the song “Birthday,” which is more distressing than festive (in a good way). There’s precious little documentation online: a smattering of earlier tracks, a lucha-fetish (or is that homemade Dr. Doom?) promo clip for “Highly Conceptual” from the new album and a 2-year-old, 10-minute live clip which as of press time bears the single comment “Aweful.” The misspelling works.
November 2022, Page 17
Books by Quinn Portrait of the Boob Tube as a Young Cathode Ray Review of TV Snapshots: An Archive of Everyday Life, by Lynn Spigel Review by Michael Quinn For a long stretch of years, I lived without a TV. What do you do at night?, people would ask me, more concerned than curious, as if there was only one thing you could do and one thing you needed to do it. As it turns out, there’s something else people like to do with a TV besides watch it. They like to take pictures of it. TV Snapshots: An Archive of Everyday Life, by Lynn Spigel, thoroughly and engagingly analyzes a collection of amateur snapshots, from the 1950s through the 1970s, of people posing next to their TVs, to understand why. Spigel, a professor of screen cultures at Northwestern University, has spent a decade collecting almost 5,000 photos of all kinds of people and their beloved TVs. “I have lost many bidding wars on eBay!” she laments. As an academic, Spigel is interested in the “invisible histories” pictures like these suggest: Who were these people, and what compelled the photographer to pose them by a TV? The size of Spigel’s collection makes it clear that this tradition was widespread—but how did it become so, not just for a family, but for a culture? Clearly, the emergence and relative affordability of the snapshot camera played a huge role. Spigel unpacks the relationship of these “companion technologies”—TV and camera— to examine the impact of the “everydayness” of media on people’s behavior. After all, media is the source of a lot of our ideas on how to think, act, and behave. (It makes me think of how taking a selfie was once a new thing, but once those images starting cropping up online, a kind of conformity crept in. Eventually everyone started making the same kind of sexy pout—the infamous duck lips.) Even now, entrenched as we are in our digital age, TVs are still a big part of American lives. They still take pride of place in most homes: just think of how most living rooms are set up to accommodate what’s best for them. While the size of your TV might be the most impressive thing about it now, in the beginning, just having a TV was a real status symbol. Some of the shots Spigel shares are portraits of early models: tiny, curved screens housed in huge wooden cabinets. Over time, these behemoths became like any other flat surface in the house: a place to pile all of our crap. “Bric-a-brac tells a family story,” Spigel points out. In some photos, a TV is used as a pedestal to display something meaningful, such as a framed picture or a vase full of flowers. In others, what’s significant is the mess all around the TV: a tangle of cords behind it, a jumble of toys on the floor in front of it. Spigel’s vast collection includes trick shots (such as a person standing next to a picture of themselves on the TV’s screen), glamour shots (both ladies and drag queens), and even sexy poses (a nude man lies stretched out on a couch, arms behind his head, with a copy of TV Guide over his, uh, remote control). Fascinating as it is, TV Snapshots isn’t an easy-breezy read—nor is it meant to be. Spigel is writing for other academics (debating things like what constitutes an archive versus a collection), but any reader can find value in her thought-provoking ideas about media’s influence on racism and gender roles, and especially in the photos, a kind of cultural currency that trades in kitsch, camp, and a sentimental longing for the pre-digital age. Spigel writes, “Television sets and snapshots of them are now part of a widespread analog nostalgia for nonconnected media things—things that came inside walnut cabinets, record sleeves, film cans—timeworn objects with noisy scratches, missing inserts, faded colors, flashed flashbulbs, and bent antennas searching for signals no longer in the air.” The most surprising thing TV Snapshots gave me was insight into my own ambivalent relationship with television. I grew up in a house where the TV was always on. My father, who had two working parents in the 1950s, felt he’d been raised by it and found it comforting; I found myself competing with it to be seen and heard. By the time I left home, I’d had enough of the both of them. At a certain point, friends, pitying my TV-free existence, gifted me with one. It sat untouched on a dresser. I never once turned it on. That might put me in the minority—but it puts me in some excellent company. In her memoir, Just Kids, singer Patti Smith recounts her experience moving into the Chelsea Hotel in 1969 with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe: “There was a sink and mirror, a small chest of drawers, and a portable black-and-white TV sitting on the center of a large faded doily. Robert and I had never owned a TV and it sat there, a futuristic yet obsolete talisman, with the plug dangling for our entire stay.” I’m sure there’s a picture of this somewhere, and I’ve no doubt Spigel will be the one to find it. Flip through TV Snapshots and you’ll get sucked right in.
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November 2022
Jazz by Grella Safety And Freedom
O
by George Grella
f course conservatives hate the movies and the entertainment industry that produces them: movies are, bottom line, substantial investments of capital that seek to return profits. Thy are made to sell to viewers, and so movie makers try and give the public what the producers think it wants. Thats why there’s a massive library of MCU and Star Wars movies and shows, expensive, professional, and predictable stories without meaning or drama that people eat up. We all want some sort of safety, and these movies are safe as can be.
And they are also made to appeal to the largest number of people, and the producers have figured out that it helps to have all sorts of people up there on the screen. The term from the discourse is representation, but it’s really, simply just life. Life in a big city where a movie company is located means being surrounded by all sorts of people, that is the basic fabric of life. And since there’s a large minority in America that is absolutely furious that there are people who look and think differently than they do, there is constant loud whining about this (these aren’t controversies because there’s no sides to it).
Movies, often made by smart people, have also the prime mechanism for smuggling truly left-wing, or at least leftist friendly, ideas into the minds of mass audiences. The whole capitalism—as—organized—crime thing started with and has thrived through the movies, pictures like On The Waterfront, Force of Evil, Point Blank, The Conversation, Robocop, and Michael Clayton. And don’t even get me started on the confusion over the fantastic antifascism of Starship Troopers. This month, the Criterion Channel might be smuggling a great, avant-garde message into living rooms all over America, via their new collection, “Free Jazz,” 12 films that either document the music or use it as a key dramatic element. What theses movies will show is that the things that musicians like Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra left here for us to learn may be complex, even hard to enjoy on the surface—free jazz as a means of form and structure depends on musicians, on the spot and in the moment, inventing things, whether it’s a fitting together notes and rhythms into an abstract structure (the way a sonata works), or expressing personal ideas and emotions. That’s not a song, but it comes from a similar place of sharing an idea about something through music. But in free jazz, it’s something more heroic, an existential carving of meaning from the face of the universe. Yes, complex, and in terms of style often an immediate challenge to the ears. Even listeners addicted to the quantized beats of so many contemporary popular styles have little issue with the flexible rhythms of funk playing, but what about when there’s no clear rhythm, or pulse, or even a downbeat? What if instead of homophony (melody with harmony underneath) there is multiple instruments going their own ways, all at once? That’s true personal freedom, not the popular kind where you don’t pay taxes and can park your car for free wherever you like, but the personal kind, freedom of thought and conscience.
them both—and underneath it all is the anarchy. That’s not anarchy in the sense that anything goes (not all free jazz is good and one of the most frequent reasons it fails is because the musicians don’t reign in every impulse or shape the results) but in the sense of a society without rulers, but with leaders, and devoted to a musical mutual aid. To play free in a group means listening to what everyone has to say. Living in cities makes a difference, I believe, and all the mutual aid groups in New York are philosophical cousins to free jazz. I’m sure there’s no data behind this, but I’m also sure that free jazz doesn’t have much appeal to resentful whites who vote Republican— free jazz is inherently antifascist—while it thrives in pockets in urban areas, large and small. Streaming on Criterion means those pockets will reach into every home where one of the movies is playing.
In terms of who is drawn to the music, there’s a brief and fascinating scene in the documentary Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise where Ra and the Arkestra are playing in a bar in Philadelphia, within arm’s reach of the patrons who are dressed up for a night out. The incongruity between the social scenes of the band and the bar disintegrates when you see how hard the audience is listening.
Ra was one of the absolute greats, showing the world how logical it is to mix Fletcher Henderson charts, songs from Disney films, doo-wop, and free improvisation. His whole social and political conception was about freedom from the racism of society, and those are on display in his science fiction movie, Space Is the Place. It’s an incredible movie, not necessarily, or always, good, but incredible. It mixes together blaxsploitation, Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, concert film, action, and more; there are professional actors and obvious amateurs; it is serious about its ideas but good humored, and is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It’s a visual narrative drama of Ra’s music making.
The lineup also includes exceptional documentaries likes Ornette: Made in America, Milford Graves Full Mantis, and the recent Fire Music. One of the real finds is another fiction movie, Les stances à Sophie, a 1971 French film that has a score by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. For that movie, that band cut the track “Thème De Yoyo,” with the great Fontella Bass singing, the AEC laying down the funk with the best of them and also blowing away the bar lines with explosive freedom.
What will this all mean to home viewers encountering this music for the first time? One thing is the cementing of the sophistication of these artists, their skills and thinking, even as the way they choose to be in society may be far from what the average person desires—there’s Sun Ra’s communal house, and there’s also the Art Ensemble, which had to stay at campgrounds and pitch tents during their first tour of Europe because they didn’t have the money for hotel rooms (not in the movie—many of the members of the AEC had been in the military, and trumpeter Lester Bowie recommended army training to aspiring free jazz musicians so that they would have the survival skills).
I expect that the great humanity of this music will come through, that it’s all about experiences of life, about thinking that the most beautiful thing is to express yourself sincerely and honestly, and to be thoughtful about what you want to say, and say the thing that will mean the most to the largest number of people. That’s not the predictability of a rhyme, or a song about yet another heartache and heartbreak. It’s about saying, “we’re all in this together,” and trusting that, even in the American of 2022, there’s still a good number of people who think that, rather than just ones who resentfully hate anyone different than them. There’s safety in those numbers. There’s safety, too, in freedom.
That type of freedom is appealing to many people, and free jazz is often unexpectedly compelling to people who never listen to mainstream jazz to begin with. There’s certainly an overlap in sheer sonic quality to punk and noise music—free jazz predates
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November 2022, Page 19
Marie's Craft Corner
Turn Left-Over Halloween Candy Into Thanksgiving Place Cards! by Marie Hueston
This year it seemed there were more Halloween par-
once you’re happy with the shape. Cut along the line to create your template.
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you were probably able to accumulate lots of candy. Find a new use for some of your extra candy by using it to create playful, colorful place cards for your Thanksgiving table. Here’s how:
Gather Your Materials. Small, round candy works best, such as Reese’s Pieces, Skittles or M&Ms. In addition to the candy you’ll need plain white copy paper, construction paper in fall colors, a pair of scissors, pencil, Sharpie and glue. You can use either hot glue or school glue. Create a template of a leaf on white paper. Search online for leaf outlines or you can even trace a leaf you find outside. Sketch the outline in pencil and draw over the line with Sharpie
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Use your template to create multiple place cards. Lay the template on top of your construction paper and cut around it to create a single place card. Depending on your table setting, you may choose to make all your place cards the same color, or you might want to represent all the fall colors. You can reuse the white paper template to make as many place cards as you need.
Glue candy around the edges of your leaves. On a flat surface, gather your leaves, candy and glue. Apply a small dot or short line of glue and place candy on a few pieces at a time. Continue around until all edges are lined. It’s up to you whether you want to create a repeating pattern with the colors or randomly place them. If using a hot glue gun, supervise young children. If working with school glue, it will take longer to dry completely.
Write your guests names on the place cards. You can use markers, paint pens, or glitter glue to spell out the names of your Thanksgiving guests. Your handwriting doesn’t have to be perfect—the personal touch will make your table memorable. Be sure to tell any children at the table that once the candy is glued in place it should not be removed and eaten. You might want to keep a stash of candy on hand that’s safe to eat in case anyone is tempted.
gbrook@pipeline.com
December Preview: Put aside three to four small delivery boxes, preferably all the same size, for a holiday dollhouse project.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
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November 2022
