B61 defeated Bait & Tackle 29-7 in an im pressive offensive display to win the championship in the Red Hook Locals Softball League. This was the first season softball was back in Red Hook after years without any leagues while every one waited for the fields to re-open as they were shut down due to toxins in the soil. B61 had contributions throughout their lineup and got a big boost from Shawn, who pitched and hit an opposite-field home run himself. Christian also had a few clutch hits, including a bases-clearing triple down the left field line. All nine players in the start ing lineup finished with at least one hit. Clean defense from B61, which was the home team helped them hold Bait & Tackle to just one run in the first three innings. Meanwhile, B61 scored five runs in the first, then six runs in the third and they just kept tacking on more runs in the later innings (games are seven innings.) The night ended with B61 getting the champion ship trophy and popping champagne on the field. I spoke to a few of their players about the season. “Since there are only four teams and we keep on playing each other we’ve gotten to know each other well,” said Anthony Capone, the designated hitter for B61. “We’re all from the neighborhood and we all support each other but at the same time, we all want to win. It’s been nice to have a little bit more relaxed environment than the old league which was just super intense. One of the cool things is both us and Bait & Tackle couldn’t get a win early in the season and it’s been great to see the team get better over the course of the sea Thoughson.” the game looked like a lot of fun, the season has come with plenty of “Oneinjuries.of the funnier things is the injuries,” said Reeves, who also served as a designated hitter for B61. “We’ve got a player with a broken thumb but she made the play anyway. We’ve got a sprained an kle, a broken toe, and a lot of road rash from sliding on the turf. I’m not plan ning on sliding. But hey, we’re still here!” I also asked about some of his favorite moments from the season. “We came back from down nine runs in the last two innings in one game earlier in the season. I think we actually beat these guys [Bait & Tackle] 11-10 so that was a fun one that gave us some confidence.”
STAR REVUE SEPTEMBERINDEPENDENT2022JOURNALISM FREE You can still get a reasonably priced bacon egg and cheese on a roll - page 7 hookredthe
Jaimie Branch (1983-2022) by George Grella
three albums with this group on International Anthem, including last year’s FLY or DIE LIVE, a 2-LP set recorded January 2020 at Moods in Zu rich, Switzerland. Her other steady band was the duo Anteloper, which paired her with drummer Jason Nazary (both also worked with electron ics in the group), and their album Pink Dolphins was her last release before her death, coming out in June of this year. Adding an intense poignancy to her premature death, on August 19, branch had tweeted out “LONDON WE COMIN!!!!!!” to an nounce an Anteloper gig at Cafe Oto on the 29th of the month. The six exclamation points where indicative of the tremendous outward reaching energy in branch’s playing and her public personality. On record and stage, her immediate presence came through a brilliantly brassy trumpet sound, extroverted and even a touch theatrical in the way of the late Les ter Bowie and the thoughtful force of Miles Davis’ playing during his electric period. branch, like those two greats before her, was both an expres sive and thinking musician, playing only what B 61 following their final game victory over Bait and Tackle. (photo by Brian Abate)
Pioneer Works will be hosting a memorial on September 26.(continued on page 12)
Successful return of the Red Hook Bar League
By Brian Abate
Jaimie “Breezy” Branch, an important mem ber of the current under-40 generation of jazz and improvising musicians, died at her apartment in Red Hook the evening of Au gust 22, 2022, at the age of 39. The Chicago record label International Anthem issued an announce ment the following day, saying, in part, “jaimie was a daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend and teacher; she touched countless numbers of peo ple with her music and spirit, both of which are fearless, truthful and beautiful, and will live on in hearts and ears forever. jaimie’s family asks not just for your thoughts and prayers but also for your action. Show your love and support for your family and friends and anyone who may be in need — just like jaimie did for all of us.” branch (she preferred her name and song titles in lower case letters) played the trumpet, worked with electronics, sang, lead her own groups and collaborated with many other musicians across a wide range of styles, from jazz to house music to rock, back and forth and beyond. Her primary musical vehicle was the quartet Fly or Die, with herself, cellist Lester St. Louis, bassist Jason Ajemi an, and drummer Chad Taylor. She had released
I also caught up with Greg “Greggles” Fischer, the shortstop for Bait & Tackle, who played a key role in getting the league up and running. He had a couple of hits in the game, including a double down the right-field line.
“We got our butts kicked out there today, so they definitely deserved it,” Fischer said. “Maybe I drank too much before the game but what can you do? This season has been really fun. “It felt like forever for the fields to be open again. That part was frustrating but I think the season went really well and that was because it was a community effort. This was volunteer-run, including volunteer umpires. We started out with just Bait & Tackle and the Wobblies but were able to add two more teams [B61 and the Record Shop] which was awesome. They really stepped up.”
Sylvan is a teaching artist and artist in residence for Young Au diences New York, where she teaches Broadway, pop, and jazz singing as well as glee club and musical theater. “A lot of people think that you have to be in the limelight to make it, but you don’t and that’s something that people have taught me along the way,” Sylvan said. “I never went for the flash and the bang. I always wanted to be comfortable and be able to take care of my family because that’s the most important thing to me. Anything else outside of that is gravy.”
Taking a deep dive into her discogra phy and incredible career on stage, we spoke with Sylvan ahead of her show at The Bitter End in Manhattan on July 30. Count Basie's house Sylvan was surrounded by jazz music at an early age thanks to her family’s love for the genre and from living in St. Albans, Queens. For instance, Lena Horne lived on her block and the Mills Brothers and Brooke Benton were from the same area. However, she be gan her career as a classically trained singer, performing at Count Basie’s house during grade school, putting on her first concert in Bermuda at 12, singing in Los Angeles at 13, and opening up for James Brown at Yan kee Stadium at 16. Syl van later attended the Brooklyn Conserva tory of Music and Jul liard School of Music. At a critical moment during her junior year of college, Syl van found herself in an impromptu audi tion for a local show band, singing Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” which ultimately se cured her spot on the road with the band for 44 weeks. “I had never been away from home without my voice teacher or my moth er … it was an experience,” Sylvan re Sylvancalled. then started writing songs with the Fatback band and performed lead vocals on the band’s first hit song, “Money,” which became their first gold record. She won the Ed Sulli van award for outstanding artists and won Best Record of the Year for her 1995 song “Look Ahead” from Mix Magazine. Sylvan landed a Top Ten Billboard hit four years later with her dance anthem, “Just Doin’ What We Love,” which remained on the chart for 12 weeks. She quickly became one of Italy’s favorite dance recording artists with “Come Go With Me” and “Caught Up with Angels of Love.” Sylvan per formed vocals on U2’s multi-platinum album “Rattle and Hum” (1988) and sang on Charlie Karp’s final studio album “Back To You” (2019), which charted on the Roots Music Report for Blues Rock in 2020. To add to her illustrious list of acco lades, Sylvan has performed across the globe and recorded with Peabo Bryson, Pet Shop Boys, Toni Braxton, RuPaul, Lionel Richie, Ben E. King, The Weather Girls, Brandy, Natalie Cole, Jennifer Holiday, Patti LaBelle, and so many more. “This summer, I hope attendees just forget their troubles and listen and dance to the music for 90 minutes. That’s what I look forward to,” Sylvan said. “Hopefully, there’s something in the show that they can relate to—a story, a song that’ll take them back or make them remember a good time in their Currently,lives.”
Page 2 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022 FOR EDITORIAL, ADVERTISING OR EMPLOYMENT INQUIRIES, email george@redhookstar.com Editor & PublishEr George Fiala NEws NathanBrianWeiserAbate FEaturEs Erin DeGregorio CulturE Roderick Thomas ovErsEas maN Dario Muccilli roCk Kurt Gottschalk Jazz George Grella Film Dante A. Ciampaglia books Michael Quinn CartooN Marc Jackson wEbmastEr Tariq Manon kids Editor Marie Heuston dEsigN George Fiala ads George Fiala Merry Band of Contributors Michael Cobb Joe MichaelEnrightFioritoJackGraceMikeMorganNinoPantano The Red Hook Star-Revue is published every month. Founded June 2010 by George Fiala and Frank Galeano 481 Van Brunt Street, 8A Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) george@redhookstar.comwww.star-revue.com624-5568 “BestPublication”Community hookredthe STAR REVUE with thanks to these guys
Carole Sylvan has a red-hot summer following EP release by Erin DeGregorio International recording star and Queens native Carole Sylvan had a jam-packed summer complete with a new EP and gigs across New York City and Connecticut. First con ceptualized in 2021 and released on July 1, “Something Goin’ On” made it into rotation across hundreds of U.S. radio stations within a month of its re lease Tracksdate.full of timbres and tones in clude “Savin’ Up for Your Love,” an in stant soul and R&B classic; an incred ible version of the Sly and the Family Stone classic “You Can Make It If You Try”; the soulful title track “Something Goin’ On” that features the legend ary New York City outfit The Uptown Horns; and the super funky, sax-filled “Show Me” that was originally penned for a country artist. “It’s a whole new ballgame compared to the other things in my discography, which is mainly house, R&B, back ground vocals, dance tunes, and a couple of pop songs here and there,” explained Sylvan, who released the 10-song album “Love” last year, which debuted at No. 9 on Relix. “I definitely had fun throughout this process.”
The City Island Theater Group is the local community theater that produc es shows year round. City Island Gold Honey is produced by honeybees from the six hive apiary of the Kheck-Gannon family on Min nieford Avenue. It is marketed by the Kaleidoscope Gallery. Apiary tours and Beekeeping lessons are available. All this in a community with less than half the number of residents that we Backhave. in 2014, before Thor Equities created the Amazon warehouse just opening on the former Rever Sugar property next to IKEA, I wrote about how Red Hook could develop, which included this: A plan for the Revere Sugar land. This is the unused land that lies between the Beard Street buildings and IKEA. It once housed a sugar business owned by friends of Fer dinand and Imelda Marcos. Revere went out of business in 1985, and the land was bought for what was then a real big number, around $40 million, by the rapacious Joe Sitt of Thor Equities. While Thor Equi ties has done real estate develop ments, they are also fond of using their vast cash horde to warehouse properties and then flip them as they become more strategically valuable. This was done most fa mously a few years back in Coney Island. When I think of Joe Sitt, I think of the Ferengi. Of course I have never met the man, who lives in Brooklyn and has properties the world over. In any case, the guy, who according to Wikipedia named his company Thor because he was a fan of Mar vel Comics, knows how to accu mulate vast fortunes. That’s good for him but bad for Red Hook. That all that land is lying unused, prob ably waiting for a good flip, is hold ing back development in our little Whattown. this newspaper is afraid of, however, is that someday some thing will happen to the property that we won’t like. It is zoned ‘as of right’ which means that who ever felt like it could open a cheesy shopping mall if they felt like it. Our wish is that a local group get together and devise a real plan that would develop the area in a way that we would like. This would prepare us properly for an upcom ing battle some day. A group of us could meet regularly, perhaps at our fantasy town hall, and do some urban planning ourselves. The Star-Revue likes to go to City Island in the Bronx – another area that is cut off from the rest of the borough and has its own charm. It has lots of Brooklyn Crab type places, and it has shore. We’d like something like that, and the land is big enough to accommodate other ideas as well.
Red Hook has two ways to market your business - print and mail. Tried and true.
or
The Island has landmarks such as the Samuel Pell Mansion on City Island Avenue, near St. Mary Star of the Sea Church. It is where Arsenic and Old Lace was filmed for TV in 1969. There are a number of old Victorian man sions located throughout City Island, mostly on the Sound side, complete with tall pointy spires and gables with gazebos, such as Delmours Point on Tier Street.
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THE RED HOOK STAR-REVUE 481 Van Brunt Street, 8A Brooklyn, NY 11231 gbrook@pipeline.com
The Snug is an Irish pub connected to the City Island Diner. While a few of the restaurants close during the winter months, most are open yearTheround.City Island Nautical Museum dis plays maritime artifacts and antiques. It is located at 190 Fordham Street and is open only on Saturday and Sunday afternoons (other times by appoint ment). Admission is five dollars and there is a small gift shop. The building was PS17 in its prior life.
From time to time over the years I have written about the possibilities of Red Hook that seem to be lim ited by the lack of any type of governing authority specific to our unique Obviouslyneighborhood.weareapart of a much bigger city, but so is City Island, for example. While it is officially part of the Bronx, you might never know it as a tourist there. Like us, it's surround ed by water, but there the similarity Hereends. is City Island as described in Wikipedia: The island is famous for its seafood restaurants; lobster[3] is a popular specialty. Over 30 eating establishments compete for busi ness, ranging from fast food (John ny's Reef), to The Lobster Box, to The Black Whale, famous for its desserts.
Well, as predicted, something did happen that many in the neighbor hood don 't seem to like. I still think that we are ill served by our City Council, our Community Board, our local business association and our Tenant Associations. And we sorely miss the Red Hook Civic Association, which at least tried to look out for the best interests of the whole neighbor Ithood.would be great if somebody would take the initiative to start an organiza tion not in their own particular inter est, but to further some sort of vision hashed out by a consensus of con cerned Red Hookers. Maybe something like what Commu nity Board Six came up with in the last century, a neighborhood plan which was our own 197A plan, something that community boards once did. It might be difficult to actually forge a consensus, but it's worth trying, and if some regular, in-person meetings could get started, if nothing else, we'd all get to know each other better... like in the old days.
Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022, Page 3
Opinion: Words by George is red hook well served by government? do we even have one....
Red Hook Pop Up Plaza: by Brian Abate Red Hook Pop Up Plaza will host an end-of-summer event on Saturday, September 17th, from 1-5 PM outside of 124 Busch St. If the weather is bad, the event will take place on Septem ber 24th instead. The event will begin with a com munity-led march against violence.
BRIEFS Bar Hopping by Brian Abate The Red Hook Market & Bar Hop on Sunday September 25th will take place from 1-6 pm. Locations include Strong Rope Brewing (185 Van Dyke St.,) Keg & Lantern (185 Beard St.,) and (Widow Jane Distill ery (218 Conniver St.) The follow ing handmade businesses will also be present: Supernature, Redsmkt, Preloved Sewciety, and Maya Candle Co. There will be food, drinks, arts & crafts, and shopping, so come out and support the local community!
Greenway Garden Party by Brian Abate The annual Greenway Garden party will take place on September 17th from 5-7:30 PM at the Naval Cem etery Landscape, a memorial mead ow and sacred grove located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The party will have music and drinks and will raise funds to continue criti cal work as the catalyst for the devel opment, establishment, and longterm stewardship of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. Councilmem bers Selvena Brooks-Powers & Car lina Rivera will be honored and Citi Bike will be celebrated too. Tickets can be purchased at the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative’s web site (brooklyngreenway.com.) There are a variety of different ticket pack ages starting at $150. It is also pos sible to make a one-time donation to support the initiative.
Larry Penner (Larry Penner is a transportation advocate, historian and writer who previously worked for the Federal Transit Administration Region 2 New York Office. This included the develop ment, review, approval and oversight for billions in capital projects and programs for the MTA, NYC Transit bus and subway, Staten Island Rail Road, Long Island and Metro North Rail Roads, MTA Bus, NICE Bus along with 30 other transit agencies in NY & NJ).
Ocky Way by Brian Abate
Page 4 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022 WINE & SPIRITS 357 Van Brunt St. ORDER ONLINE AT WetWhistleWines.com FOR PICK UP OR DELIVERY OR DOWNLOAD OUR MOBILE APP Open Seven Days 718-576-3143 Cell: 917.578.1991 Deborah Buscarello OREALTOR®ffice:718 766 7159 Email: dbuscarello@kw com Each office is independently owned and operated 1919 HYLAN BLVD STATEN ISLAND NY 10305 KELLER WILLIAMS® STATEN ISLAND "I have been a Red Hook neighbor for over 25 years" Cell: Each1919KELLEREmail:Office:917.578.1991718.766.7159dbuscarello@kw.comWILLIAMSSTATENISLANDHylanBlvd,StatenIsland,NY10305officeisindependentlyownedandoperated Advertise in this newspaper! Write george@redhookstar.comto: or call 917 652-9128
Happy Birthday President Lyndon Johnson
Red Hook Food Corp, a bodega at 603 Clinton St. has made it big time yet again thanks to Rahim Mo
LETTER
At 2:30, there will be a school sup ply giveaway and at 3, there will be free haircuts and braided ponytails (those will be first come first serve.) There will also be raffles, food, music, and Pleasemore!reach out to Melissa at meltor res@nycourts.gov or Nigel at nbell@ courtinnovation.org with any ques tions.
The late President Lyndon Johnson birthday was born on August 27, 1908. Many remember him for suc ceeding President John F. Kennedy after his assassination in Dallas, Tex as on November 22, 1963. Others re member him for his domestic Great Society Program, which included Civil Rights, Medicare, Medicaid, War on Poverty and Public Broadcasting. There was also foreign policy, most notably the Vietnam War. Few remember that the success of public transportation can be traced back to one of President Johnson's greatest accomplishments that con tinues to benefit many Americans today. On July 9th, 1964 he signed the "Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964" into law. Subsequently, this has resulted in the investment of sev eral hundred billion dollars into pub lic transportation under grants from the Federal Transit Administration (prior to 1991 known as the Urban Mass Transit Administration). Even with COVID-19, millions of Americans continue utilizing various public transportation alternatives. They include local and express bus, ferry, jitney, light rail, subway and commuter rail services. Investment in public transporta tion today contributes to economic growth, employment and a stronger economy. Dollar for dollar, it is one of the best investments we can make.
hamed, AKA General Ock (the nick name comes from the Arabic word for brother.) He is known for his wild sandwiches, he has become a TikTok star, and now, The Guardian, a well respected British publication just wrote a story about him. This adds to previous notoriety gained from pub licity from the NY Times, the NY Post and even the Red Hook Star-Revue Though it is now hard to imagine Red Hook without Mohamed, he has had a long journey to get here. He moved to New York City from Yemen when he was 10 years old and began spending time at his uncle’s deli in the late 1990s and early 2000s. How ever, following the 9/11 attacks, there were numerous hate crimes commit ted against Arabic people in the city and Mohamed said in an interview with The Guardian “People were just coming in, violating things and doing all sorts of crazy things, but God is good, thankfully nothing happened [to our deli].” In 2007, Mohamed and his brother took over their uncle’s deli and in 2020, they went viral for their TikTok videos of their unique sandwiches and they now have more than 3 mil lion followers (the account is rah_ money1.) The bodega is not only an important part of the neighborhood but a tourist attraction too, and the Ocky Way is now known all over the world. Send your items to us by emailing them to gbrook@pipeline.com, or mailing to us at the Red Hook StarRevue, 481 Van Brunt Street, Brook lyn, NY 11231.
“The Environmental Conservation Committee is the assigned commit tee,” Zhang said. “And they haven’t decided to hold hearings on the bill yet but we’re hoping for that to hap pen as soon as possible. We need to generate sufficient public pressure and then the speaker would decide to hold a hearing.”
They also both explained that there would be no enforcement measures to make sure last-mile warehouses are hiring local workers but the goal is to make everything transparent so the community would know who’s getting hired. Zhang also stressed that this would not trigger any changes to the zoning code since zoning is determined by the cities and right now the last-mile warehouses can build as-of-right.
“There is no senate sponsor yet,” Men doza-Gaspar said. “We’re evaluating what would make the most sense for the sponsor in the senate and what gives the bill the best chance of pass “We’reing.”
indirectenvironmentalenvironmentalmechanism“Ouristhroughpolicyandanpermitforsourcesofpollutionatastatelevel.”
Mitaynes answers McGettrick on warehouses by Brian Abate
not in session until Janu ary of next year which gives us some time to figure out how to put the bill on the strongest footing possible,” Zhang said. “In the meantime, we’ll be reaching out to colleagues and set ting up meetings to try to figure out the best way to go about that.” One of the big issues in communities with last-mile warehouses is that right now there is no clarity on the environ mental impacts these facilities have on those communities. Mitaynes’ proposal attempts to get clarity on the effects of last-mile warehouses for neighborhoods that are suddenly home to these massive facilities in cluding Red Hook.
“Our mechanism is through environ mental policy and an environmental permit for indirect sources of pollu tion at a state level,” Zhang said. Additionally, last month I spoke to community leader John McGettrick, who told me some of the key factors needed for the bill to be enacted in cluding if the bill has been assigned to a committee and if so, which com mittee. Additional important ques tions include whether there will be a will be hearing held on the bill, and if so, when? Also, is there a companion bill with the same legislative compo nents and is there a senate sponsor?
Last month I wrote about Dis trict 51 Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes’ proposal for a bill that “Establishes an indirect source review” for last-mile warehouses. This month, two mem bers of Mitaynes’ team reached out to me to clarify what the proposal would “Weaccomplish.believe it’s very important to update the community on what’s go ing on around them and we want to provide transparency on the environ mental effects last-mile warehouses would cause in neighborhoods [not just in Red Hook,”] said Jenny Zhang, chief of staff for Mitaynes. She also explained that even though a few places in the proposal referred to a 12-month period, this is not a oneyear program. If the legislation is en acted, it will be permanent. However, Mitaynes’ team is giving the New York State Department of Environmen tal Conservation (DEC) one year to come up with rules and regulations. “Another aspect is that it would also provide transparency on how many local workers are getting hired at the warehouses,” said Emmitt MendozaGaspar, communications and orga nizing director for Mitaynes. One question I had was whether or not the program would affect existing last-mile warehouses as well as the new ones.
Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022, Page 5
“This would affect both new and ex isting last-mile warehouses,” Zhang said. Existing ones won’t have to go through the permitting process but they will have to report information. They would need to annually dis close traffic volume, total inbound/ outbound vehicles per day as well as types of vehicles used [is it all trucks or is some cargo moved on bikes, wa terways, or even drones,] how many workers, and if they are union or nonunion workers.”
The chef for this event is Naomi Santos, who is the executive chef at CENA.
According to parent coordinator Marie Hueston, Redemption Church and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield provided the school supplies. Backpacks, crayons and pencil cases that were filled with stationery were available to everyone in the school, and anyone that could not attend could make arrangements to pick up the supplies next week.
Page 6 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022 PS 676 welcomes inaugural class of sixth graders by Nathan Weiser PS 676 held a back to school meet and greet with teachers and staff on the first day of September where students received brand new supplies for the upcoming school year. This is the first year that PS 676 has a sixth grade in its transition to becoming New York City’s first Harbor Middle School. The sixth graders who came got to do a tour of their new school.
The school promoted this back to school event on social media. Many more people attended than when they had this event last year. The first day of school is not until September 8. Red Hook Initiative had their after school program in the school yard and interested participants got to sign up. They had books that people could take and a wheel that kids could spin.
Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, which has donated supplies in the past, also had a table. They were giving away masks and had information about an end of summer event on September 17. The end of summer event will be at 124 Bush Street. There will be food, music and resources. At 1:00 there will be a community led march against gun violence, at 2:30 there will be a school supply giveaway and at 3:00 there will be free braided ponytails and haircuts for kids.
The after school program offers many activities for middle school students including art, photojournalism and TikTok dance.
The NYC Infant Safe Sleep Initiative had information on their program that was started under Mayor de Blasio and has continued. They go to hospitals and schools and help people around the city. They aim to prevent sleep-related infant injury deaths and address long-standing disparities to promote and protect the health and well-being of the youngest and most vulnerable New Yorkers. They aim to close the black/white infant mortality gap by empowering communities.Backpacks ready to be given away. Students happy with their new backpacks
The Red Hook Community Justice Center had a table with flyers and lots of information so people can be informed about their rights. One of their flyers had information about the AmeriCorps program. Pioneer Works had a table with upcoming events that they are having. On September 14, they are having their last community lunch of the summer from 12:30 to 1:30. Pioneer Works partnered with FIG, which is a food justice program that aims to transform the food system.
Food U Desire: 301 Smith St. Turkey and cheese on a roll: $7.36 Buttered roll: $1.30. Small coffee: $1.36. Small OJ: $1.75. Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $5.10. Cobble Hill Deli: 493 Henry St. Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese: $6. Roll and butter: $2. Small coffee: $1.50. Garden Gourmet: 531 Henry St.
President Food: 247 Columbia Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $7 (grill closes at 1 PM.) Turkey and cheese on a roll: $6. Roll with butter: $1.75. Small coffee: $1. Tropicana OJ: $2. Margaret Palca: 191 Columbia Roll with butter: $2. Bacon, egg & cheese: $4.50 Turkey and cheese on a roll: $8. Roast beef on a roll: $8.50. Tropicana OJ: $2.50. Fresh squeezed OJ: $5. Coffee: $2. Carroll’s Diner: 192 Columbia Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $6 Fresh squeezed OJ: $5.95. Medium coffee: $2. Large Coffee: $2.50. Fresh turkey sandwich: $9.25. Ham+cheese
www.star-revue.com September 2022, Page 7
Black Flamingo: 281 Van Brunt Quiche: $8. Ham and cheese on a ba gel/croissant: $7. Pastries: between $3.75-$4.50. Latte: $4. Pioneer Mart: 322 Van Brunt Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese on a roll: $5.50. Roll with butter: $1.25. Small coffee: $1.50. Edward Lunch: 56 Lorraine St. Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $3.95. Ba con, egg & cheese on a hero: $5.95. But tered roll: $1. Ham and cheese on roll: $4. Turkey and cheese on a roll: $4.50 Cuban: $8. Coffee: small: $1. Medium: $1.50. Large: $1.75. 32 Oz OJ: $4.99. Bonafide: 118 Kane St. Bacon, eggs & cheese on a roll: $5.99. Bagel with butter or roll with butter: $2.99. House blend coffee: $2.29. 16 Oz Tropicana OJ: $2.75. Tropicana Pure Premium OJ: $3.29. Turkey and cheese sandwich: $7.99. Turkey and cheese sandwich with lettuce and to mato $9.49. Turkey BLT: $7.99. Red Hook Food: 603 Clinton St. Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese: $6. Buttered roll: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.50. Tropicana: $1.99.
Dial back a couple of years and you come to a world in complete disarray, as the mysterious Covid bug pretty quickly disrupted our normal way of life. In the space of a week or so in March 2020, the country went from a bus tling and booming economy to one where almost a quarter of the country wasn't able to go to work because of mandatory lockdowns, Instead of the normal productive economy producing tons of consum er goods providing profits for all kinds of companies and institutions, our government stepped in to provide the cash to keep people alive and fed and companies to stay in business until the time that a vaccine was produced in enough quantity to get things back to normal again. Lots and lots of money was pushed into the system by the Feds, popu lated by both Republicans and Demo crats, which kept everything going.
Tropic Deli: 205 Court St. Coffee: $3.49. Tropicana OJ: $2.75. Bagel with butter: $1.99. Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $5.99. Roast beff sandwich with cheese: $8.95. Turkey sandwich with cheese: $9.95.
That was pretty much to be expected, a reaction to the big quantities of cash infused into the system. It was quite annoying, especially to this paper which pretty much supports the poli cies of the Democratic party, that the Republican platform started to use this inflation as a campaign strategy against Democrats in the upcoming Soelections.wedecided to take a closer look at this inflation and price out costs of breakfast and lunch at some of our local delis and bodegas. We looked at the iconic bacon, egg and cheese on a roll and a small coffee for breakfast, and a turkey and cheese sandwich with a soda for lunch. Brian did the research, and his results are below. We found that prices did vary, sometimes because of location and quality, but sometimes not. We believe that some of our readers have to worry about prices, while others don't.
Onnow.the high end is the Mex-Carroll Diner in the Columbia Waterfront Dis trict, at $8, and Court Street's Brook lyn Bread at $8.25. Of course, both of these places are sit down restaurants, a step up from a bodega in terms of cost of operation. The advantage is of course that you get to sit down inside, or actually outside as well, as both of these places have pretty attractive outside areas (not the Covid shacks on the street).
East End Coffee on Court Street across from the Chase bank is a high end cof fee purveyor that turns into a restau rant at dinnertime. You go there not for a takeout sandwhich but rather a chance to linger over a fancy coffee and Listedpastry.below are the results of our survey, which was taken during the month of August.
Tropic Deli, on Court and Wyckoff, is the outlier at $9.48. We don't actu ally recommend that you shop there, because they were not very nice to us when we asked if we could leave the Star-Revue there. We checked out some non delis as well, and found some predictable results - namely that places like De Fonte's, Black Flamingo and East One Coffee do not make a bacon breakfast sandwich their main stock in trade.
F & M Cafe: 383 Van Brunt St. Bacon, egg and cheese: $5. Turkey and cheese: $6.95. Buttered roll: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.25. Food Bazaar, Red Hook Turkey sandwich: $6.99. Chicken sandwich: $6.99. Coffee $1.50 Stop 1: 368 Van Brunt St. No Bacon, Egg and cheese. Turkey and cheese on a roll: $6. Turkey and cheese on a hero: $7.50. Small coffee: $1. No roll with butter.
But there was a large variety. On the low end was Edward's Lunch, a super fine Spanish restaurant on Lorraine Street, where you can get this break fast for just $4.95. Beating that by a nickel is a new deli on the corner of Hamilton and Clinton. Possibly that low price is because it's a brand new deli. Edward's has been gracing the neighborhood for a number of years
Not all of the places we went to of fered the bacon, egg and cheese on a roll, but of the ones that did, we found the typical price including a small cof fee to be around $6.50.
Sooner or later things started to come back, fans were back in the seats at baseball games, factories and schools restarted, and that's just exactly how government is supposed to work, both for and by the people. But of course, as demand returned, and also as fuel prices, not set in the United States, rose, prices started ris ing in all parts of the economy.
Fine Food: Union & 4th Ave. Bacon, egg and cheese: $4. Turkey and cheese: $7. Roll and butter: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.25. Bay Ridge Deli: 7506 5th Ave. Bacon, egg and cheese: $4.99. Turkey and cheese: $5.49. Roll and butter: $1.50. Small coffee: $1.50.
The Black Flamingo is a somewhat recent coffeeshop on Van Brunt, and you are paying for both atmosphere and higher quality foodstuffs, namely lattes and croissants.
DeFonte's of course is world famous for other things. For breakfast you might consider their egg and potato hero, and for lunch the Vinny special.
Turkey+cheese sandwich: $6.90 Roast beef+cheese: $6.90 Juice: $1.75 Coffee: $0.95 Caputo’s: 329 Court St. Buttered Roll: $1.15 Chocolate Chip Cookie: $0.72. Martinez Grocery: 370 Court Turkey and cheese sandwich: $5.50. Roll with butter: $1.25. Small coffee: $2. Small Tropicana OJ: $1.75. No ba con egg & cheese. East One: 384 Court St. Expresson: $3.50 Macchiato: $3.75 Cappuccino: $4.25 Latte: $4.50 Chai Latte: $4.50 Turmeric Latte: $4.50 Local Honey Latte: $5.50 Hot Cider: $4. Grilled Chicken Sandwich: Fried green tomato, dill mayo, caraway coleslaw with your choice of fries or salad: $18.
Under capitalism, there are ways to beat inflation by Brian Abate and George Fiala
Bagel or roll with butter: $1.25. Tur key, Roast Beef or Chicken sandwich with cheese on a roll: $6.99.
Forget about the price, these are bar gains no matter what you pay.
sandwich: $7. Roast beef sandwich: $9.25. Roll with butter: $1.50 Ham. Convenience: 561 Clinton Bacon, egg & cheese: $3.95
Brooklyn Bread: 412 Court St. Bacon, egg & cheese on a bagel: $6.50. Turkey and cheese on a bagel: $6.50. Bagel with Butter: $3.69. Tropicana OJ: $2.75. Fresh squeezed OJ: $6. Cof fee: $1.75.
Tropicana OJ or Snapple: $2 Fresh squeezed OJ or AJ : $4.99. Coffee: $2. Bacon, egg & cheese on a roll: $4.99.
Defonte’s: 379 Columbia St. Turkey hero with cheese (and egg plant): $10.50. Roast beef hero with cheese (and eggplant): $10.50.
Red Hook Star-Revue
“The support that we got was amaz ing,” Bekka said. “It created hope and I think that is most important. It gives an option for employment and that is most important.”
“I was experimenting to see how we would employ them and at the same time stay profitable,” Bekka said. “We were concerned with making sure the neighbors were right and giving them an opportunity.”Selling at Pride Day in Park Slope Wearing the ComeUnity T-Shirts proudly in Red Hook.
Theyvolved. ended up getting a spot to have their cart and sell at 371 Van Brunt Street at The Com munity Store. This was where they were go ing to keep the freezers for the Whenbusiness.they had this location, the kids would set up and start selling at about 5:00. They were not able to sell at this location after a while so they returned to selling at parks and other places around the neighbor Theyhood.started building more carts and they got up to a total of four. This was so that they could increase the amount of places that they could sell, but some of the new carts were not ideal since they were ComeUnityheavy.Icehas received a lot of support from the community for this grassroots business. The local stores allowed them to keep the ices in their freezers and the TA’s allowed them to keep stuff with them and build in their Hespace.came up with the name ComeUnity Ice since he wanted something catchy that “would revive the spirit of the community that had been lost.” The C and the U are capitalized since it sym bolizes seeing your neighbor.
ComeUnity has blue and pink shirts and they say ComeUnity on the front and We Got the Scoop on the back. The two youth who were working at this event were both 14.
Khary Bekka gives back to Red Hook youth by Nathan Weiser
He wants the business to grow going into the future and have the kids more involved and have them learn more about the business end. They will be pivoting to some different events after the summer ends including one at RHI and the Justice Center.
If there is an event scheduled for backto-back days where they will need the cart they will keep the cart at RHI or at the Miccio Center. He also has the op tion of keeping it in his car or a garage.
Page 8 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022 Advertise in our award winning newspaper! Write to:orgeorge@redhookstar.comcall917652-9128 STAR REVUEhookredthe
The kids have gotten a lot out of the ex perience and their mothers have told him it has lightened their burden by putting money in their kids pockets. This money has allowed the youths to pay for their eyelashes or to get their hair braided or to get sneakers. Dur ing a three or four day span, they could make $200.
Leanna Mantack found out about the opportunity to join ComeUnity through a friend. She has sold the ices and ice cream in Prospect Park and all over Red Hook, which has included Bush Clinton Park and next to the pool. She enjoyed the experience she had interacting with the community. “I got a great opportunity to learn how to work with people and I liked getting to meet new people,” Mantack said. “I would like to do it again next summer.” They started with one cart at the be ginning of the summer and it was pur chased for $3,500. They ordered this cart from Turkey Hill. The ices that ComeUnity Ice has used have been from Ices Queen, which is a wholesaler on Utica Avenue. They em ploy the youth as well. They go and buy gallons at a time from them. They get their ice cream from Jetro on Hamilton Avenue. They are a whole sale distributor for restaurants. He thanked the Scarsdale Friends Meet ing for being supportive in this effort and helping purchase half of the first “Wecart. had the idea that we were going to go out and give people opportuni ties to serve and sell affordable ices,” Bekka said. “The ice cream truck was giving an ice cream for $4 and a waffle cone for $7. We sold our cones for $1, and we had waffle cones for $2.” Someone else who was involved from the beginning was Umma Ketter. He helped with the building and con structing of the carts and setting up the pay schedules. He was in the commu nity and wanted to help the new busi Theness. first event that ComeUnity Ice went to was the Pride Day Parade on 5th Avenue on June 11. This was when they got the most business. At first people had to break into us and then after that we made some good money there,” Bekka said. “We were right next to Save on 5th on 8th Street.”
ComeUnity Ice started at the beginning of the summer and has given a refreshing opportunity for Red Hook youth to refresh the community. They have employed five Red Hook youth, three girls and two boys, over the summer. The girls were the firsts to join the mobile ice cream and ices company and then the boys joined after. They had their ices and ice cream from their cart available at the Family Day event on August 27 at Coffey Park. They were in the park for about four hours and were taking tips for anyone who wanted to give.
Jayla found out since her aunt’s boy friend told her parents and they thought this would be a good oppor tunity for her. She has liked having the support from people she knew.
ComeUnity Ice, which was started by Khary Bekka, found its employees through reaching out via Instagram and it was also through word of mouth in the projects. When they serve free events like Fam ily Day, with generous people tipping, the youth will have $30 or $40 at the end of the session cooping the refresh ing treats.
At Family Day in Coffey Park, there was a big bounce house with a hoop, Bum ble Bees R Us had a table, NYC Ferry had a table with information, Red Hook Art Project where people could do art, the FDNY had a fire truck and Red Hook Neighborhood STAT had in formation for people. There was also a lot of food being cooked. If they are selling on their own at loca tions throughout Red Hook, they will get $100 for a session scooping. If there are two scoopers, they will split the profit and get $50. They will often work in five hour sessions and trade off and have the next youth takeover.
“We can get creative with weddings, gender reveals, baby showers, Sweet 16s and sporting events,” Bekka said. “In the winter, we will get creative to keep the kids involved with some type of Hisemployment.”visionfornext summer is to be supported with more donations and get even more of the youth involved. He would like to have more storage space so they can have four carts in the Bekkacommunity.saidthe business has taken off more than he thought it would. He then started with one kid who was dis abled who was very interested in join ing and then it was great to have an op portunity to hire more youth.
“I have enjoyed helping my commu nity, seeing people I know buy from and support me and just having a good laugh with people,” the 14-year-old Whensaid. she has sold over the summer she has gone on Van Brunt Street and right outside of the car race at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
They also went to Brooklyn Bridge Park and Prospect Park during the summer as well as selling in Coffey Park and around Red Hook with RHI being in
Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022, Page 9
Hot Bird: no oil, no fat, just bureaucracy by Joe Enright
Editor's Note: The beginning of this piece is a complete fantasy - Joe imag ing the Star-Revue as the Daily Planet. I am no Perry White, nor is Enright Clark Kent (well maybe). We barely even have an office. The fact is that I remember all the Hot Bird signs in the days of its existence, but for some rea son (maybe because I didn't have a car then) I never went. But the simple signs were some of the greatest pieces of mar keting I've ever seen. I'd do it for this paper if I could afford the wall space. When I saw the faded sign on Court Street, I thought this would be a perfect story for the former detective.
Weinberger and his Birds flew the coup. He got fed up with the City bureaucracy, complaining to the press that just to open that second chicken joint on Montague, he had to hire expeditors to navigate the maze of agencies that demanded a piece of his flesh. So four years after his grand opening, he moved the business to Charlotte, North Carolina, where “ex peditors” wasn’t a thing, but the num ber 800-Hot-Bird became just as hot. Which reminds me of another friend.
Let’s call him Joe because that’s his name. He set up a small retail business on Greenwich Street in Tribeca. In his business plan, Joe failed to take into account that his location was in the epicenter of many City enforcement agencies, particularly the Department of Consumer Affairs, whose inspec tors liked to end their day by dropping by to drop violations on him. Unlike Weinberger, he didn’t have the dough or flexibility to get out of Dodge so he soldiered on, devoting a lot of window space to his Consumer Affairs regis tration sign. He once thought of hiring an artist to paint its contents on the side of his building until an inspector told him he’d be looking at a massive fine for “Originating a Potential Ghost OneSign.”final note. A bar opened in 2010 on Clinton Avenue, a block away from Vanderbilt. Its owner, Frank Moe, named it Hot Bird, as an homage to the fondly-remembered chicken and to take advantage of a 15-year-old sign painted on a neighboring wall above the bar, facing the always busy Atlan tic Avenue. It read: The Best Bar-B-Q In New York HOT BIRD Left at Light at Vanderbilt Dial HOT BIRD For Delivery The bar became a raving success, even earning a New Yorker approval as “a fine venue for modern mating.” But the sign got painted over and the bar itself got knocked down a few years ago to build, what else, more condos. Ironically, if you search the location on Google Maps you can see a popup box referring to the small business that once sat in a small space next to the Hot Bird Bar: “Little Brother BBQ-Permanently Closed,” it says, a virtual Google Ghost Sign. In 2015, Matt Green’s I’m Just Walkin’ blog featured a photo of the same fad ed Court Street ad that started this adventure. Three years later, Mike Wein berger posted a comment about it: “I opened three Hot Birds in Charlotte... They all closed and today I live in New Orleans. Every now and again I google ‘Hot Bird’ just to see what comes up. What a wild ride my Hot Bird restau rant venture proved to be.” Hopefully, Mike will come across this piece and I’ll hook him up with George for a pow-wow on healthy chicken. Well, I’m hungry. Think I’ll grab me some oily fat rotisserie at Food Bazaar.
Above is the faded sign on Court Street that instigated this piece of journalism. (photo by George Fiala)
“Hot bird!” It was George again, bursting into the Star-Revue news “Enright!”room. he boomed. “We need to get to the bottom of this faded ghost sign I just passed on Court Street. A lot of it’s washed out, but it says to ‘Eat Healthy.’ Was that even a thing years Georgeago?” showed me the picture he’d just snapped. Not much to go on ex cept for “No Oil No Fat,” painted in light “Quitblue.gawking at my phone, we need answers, Enright!” Where to begin? Google, of course. It turns out the ad was the vestige of a once thriving business that oper ated out of storefronts in Brownstone Brooklyn thirty years ago. The princi pal owner was Mike Weinberger, the son of a Brooklyn butcher who be came a Wall Street lawyer. After a steep 1988 market nosedive, he said, “Screw this!” and opened his first shop in May 1989 on Vanderbilt Avenue. Originally called “Mike’s Chickens,” it did a brisk take-out business. Before the age of Grub Hub, success depended on cus tomers finding your phone number. So the smartest thing Mike did was change his phone number to seven easily-remembered letters (yes, folks, back then, no area code was required for local calls). And so, if you dialed H-O-T-B-I-R-D on your rotary phone, you’d soon be tasting what some re member as the best rotisserie chicken they ever ate. Next, I sent a mass email to my Con tacts list, asking if they ever sampled Mike’s chicken. After deleting the hundreds of “message failure” no tifications, I was left with a few solid leads. Barbara Auerbach recalled or dering birds based on some mouthwatering word-of-mouth in her Park Slope apartment house. Her hubby Charlie agreed, describing them as “the best game in town.” Yuk, yuk, but when I asked about ‘healthy,’ they told me to get a life. David Rubinfeld, my law enforcement partner back in the day, recalled the second Hot Bird joint on Montague Street just off Hicks in Brooklyn Heights where he picked up half a chicken with a lot of fixings on many an afternoon. But when pressed, Dave scoffed, “Healthy, shmealthy, who cares? Best chicken I ever had.” Tori Rosen remembered seeing the huge red and yellow signs for HOT BIRD painted on the sides of several buildings along Atlantic Ave nue as the 1990s wore on. “They were really popular but I never was able to reach them because I kept dialing BIG BIRD by mistake. Whatever happened to Well,them?”itseems
The office is located adjacent to Dis trict Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office and he is a strong proponent. Instead of having to go to different offices around the borough, a victim can get counseling, legal help, child care, evaluations and more all in one place.
Attorney Eric Gonzalez stopped by and talked to the tour that was put on showing what is offered on the floor. He is a strong advocate. “When I first got elected as the DA–every newly elected DA gets to have a big ask of government–for Brooklyn my ask was that we expand the Fam ily Justice Center here in Brooklyn," he Thesaid.DA announced that they are in the middle of construction of a new Family Justice Center in the building and he thinks the new Family Justice Center will open in a year and a half. Instead of sharing the floor with the DA’s office, it will have its own foot print, which will allow even more agencies to come and do the services even better.
Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022
“It often drove them back into the control of the abuser since it was so hard on their end,” Gonzalez said.
“Books are carefully chosen,” Chavez said. “One cycle is in English and one in Spanish. The bulk of our programs are in Spanish. Almost half of our cli ents are Spanish speakers, so we keep that in mind.”
Some agencies focus on particular populations like the Arab Ameri can Family Center, which focuses on working with that communities. There is the criminal legal part of the floor, which has the domestic violence and elder abuse bureau. There is the victim services unit that includes ded icated social workers.
The previous agency that she worked at did not have partner agencies at the office. She recognized that it was nec essary to have everything in one place, especially for those who do not speak English, like many clients at Brooklyn Family Justice Center. This model was started in California, and the Brooklyn location was the first in New York City. One benefit is when all services are provided at one location the speed that it takes to get help is much faster since a case manager can do a referral and a client can walk down the hall.
Brooklyn Family Justice Center - an important resource by Nathan Weiser
The pandemic disrupted this effort but recently she has been connected to a program called Emergency Hous ing Vouchers, which is through the President’s federal program for do mestic violence.
Jones has been the chairperson of VOICES, a committee formed by sur vivors that meets monthly, for two years and has been a member for three “Beingyears.connected with this office was a great support because they do con nect you with whatever you need at that moment and when you are going through the process of leaving a situa tion, what you might need today might change tomorrow,” Jones said. “You might need support, you might need a therapist, you might need a referral for an attorney to represent you, you might need information on housing.”
Doreen Jones is a domestic abuse sur vivor who spoke after the tour ended.
Chavez added that it is often compli cated and difficult to leave an abusive partner. They offer services to help in these situations like a safety plan.
Chavez added that the green section is where the civil and legal attorneys are. They will do consultations and are available to represent in family court, housing and immigration court.
This is a walk in crisis center, so be fore the pandemic they offered their services in-person, but since the pan demic they have pivoted. “When things shut down we did not skip a beat,” Chavez said. “We contin ued all of our services remotely, over the phone and by Zoom. Since August of 2021, we came back in person and have been doing a hybrid approach.” Their services are criminal justice ad vocacy. The benefit of the partnership with the Kings County District Attor ney’s office is that they don’t require a client to cooperate with the criminal case to get their services.
The Family Justice Center also main tains relationships with Brooklyn re ligious leaders. They will share infor mation and do outreach in churches.
This Family Justice Center is made up of 30 independent agencies and their lead partner is the Kings County Dis trict Attorney, which was crucial to it's Mostformation.ofthe agencies are community based not for profit organizations that are on site once a week to everyday.
The New York Family Justice Center overall had 13,372 clients through 42,706 client visits in 2021. In that same year, in Brooklyn, they assisted 2,839 clients through 8,000 visits. They recommend that people call the NYC Hope hotline or 311. At the Family Justice Center facil ity, there is a hospitality suite with a computer lab where clients can do re search and there is a children’s room with toys where the kids can meet with social workers while their moth er is getting services.
They also have tutoring programs and the Brooklyn Jackman literacy pro gram where once a week at 5:30 they get dinner, books are handed out and there are often musicians.
“When she was going through chemo, her husband, who is a police officer, tried to strangle her and tried to throw her dog off of the balcony,” Ana Maria said. “It was at that level of duress.”
Ana Maria started meeting with Chris tina in 2019. They were able to get the sheriff's office to get him served and take away his firearm, and put her abuser on desk duty. “We were safety planning and I helped her with protection, getting him served and getting her an attor ney for her divorce and they took her case,” Ana Maria said. “She did not pay a dime for her divorce. She was also part of a support group. She en joyed it and she gained a family.”
“This will ultimately be important for the fight to end gender based violence and crimes against children and sex crimes,” Gonzalez said. “The way it is going to work is that there will be my domestic violence bureau, my special victims bureau and my crimes against children and trafficking all in one Gonzalezplace.” has been in prosecution for 25 years. He remembers having to try to get a case before a grand jury while at the same time competing to make sure that the survivor has access to needed resources. Not having access to resources back then would discour age victims and survivors from con tinuing with the process.
The Brooklyn Family Justice Center, located at Jay Street and Metrotech, offers free services for those who have suffered domestic violence.
A domestic abuse survivor named Christina told her story. Her case manager is Ana Maria. Christina was seeing a therapist through the hospi tal she was at but wanted counseling, so she came to the Center. Ana Maria added that Christina was excited to see her and she helped her get an order of protection. Christina attempted suicide three times due to what she went through.
The domestic violence bureau super visor at the District Attorney’s office, Kori Medow, spoke about how valu able the Family Justice Center is. “We are a great partner with the Fam ily Justice Center and you do not have to have a criminal case to come and get services,” Medow said. “When someone can come here and get all the resources they don’t have to trav el all over Brooklyn to go to all these organizations. It makes it a lot easier for someone if there are immigration issues, housing issues and economic issues, that they can come here in ad dition to the prosecution side and get the access and services here.” “We never push someone to go for ward on the criminal side, and if they need resources on a non-criminal is sue then that is what the Family Jus tice Center is here to help with,” Me dow Accordingsaid. to Chavez, if something happens with a client’s criminal case and they want to go into family court, they can connect them with one of their civil legal attorneys. One per son might be connected to multiple people but the case manager will co ordinate services from the commu nity side and reach out to the criminal legal Districtside.
Chavez added that an important ser vice in this area is the NYPD dedicat ed domestic violence police precinct who will work with the case manager.
The purple area is the administrative staff to end gender based and domes tic violence. Next to the administra tive offices is a food pantry that is al ways stocked so clients can take what they need until they receive benefits they are waiting for.
Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez at the Center. (photo by Nathan Weiser)
A helpful service that they offer was the ability to get her apartment locks changed immediately.
That was a big deal since the man she had arrested was determined to come to where she lived when he was dis charged. “He came out of prison af ter seeing the judge around midnight and made it to where we used to live together and tried to get in the apart ment while I was asleep,” Jones said. “He tried to get in and left me a mes sage telling me why.” She added how life saving this service was for her back in 2019. She was able to get help with her safe ty planning when she started meeting with the Family Justice Center in 2019.
Amairis Chevez, the deputy director, has been working at the Center for 15 years. She is an attorney who has spent her career working with survi vors of intimate partner violence.
“I got a case worker, which was great because that was exactly what I need ed at the time,” Jones said. “The work ers are good at evaluating your needs because you might not know what you need, you just know you need help since your emotions are all over the place.”
Sam Nitsch: I owe a lot to my engineer as well. Engineers, songwriters, compos ers, those people don’t get enough credit for helping to shape the final sound listeners will hear.
Sam Nitsch: My pleasure, thank you!
RT: So what kind of music are you listening to now?
(Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident, Email: rtroderick.thomas@gmail. com, Site: roderickthomas.net)
Sam Nitsch: My parents were classical musicians. My mom is a vocalist and my dad is a pianist. So, they exposed me and my siblings to all kinds of classical music.
RT: What happened in high school?
RT: Top five musicians of all time?
Sam Nitsch: After the pandemic, I didn’t want to be in a small apartment anymore. You look around and start assessing what is most important. I wanted to be home, so I moved back upstate.
Sam Nitsch: The album talks about how we’re consumed by social media, and the online world to the point that we struggle without it.
Sam Nitsch: I honestly don’t have lofty goals. I currently play 3-4 nights a week at local venues. Sometimes I think if I were doing tours singing the same songs all the time, I may not enjoy myself.
Check out Under the Influencer now on streaming platforms, and keep up with Sam Nitsch at, @samnitschmusic.
Roderick Thomas is an NYC based writer, filmmaker, and Host of hippie By Accident Podcast.
RT: What’s your musical origin story?
Sam Nitsch: Pretty much oldies all day.
RT: Did you change your music to connect with kids your age?
RT: What was that like?
RT: What do you want people to take away from this album?
RT: Is it true you sang backup for Josh Groban Sam Nitsch: [laughs] It’s true, in high school I did. It was a last-minute thing, my dad made the connection for that. Then I went to Berklee for music in Boston.
About Sam Nitsch: How social media has us under the influence by Roderick Thomas
Sam Nitsch: Ok, in no particular order: Beatles, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Beach Boys.
RT: Let’s hop right in. Where are you from Sam? Sam Nitsch: Rochester NY.
RT: What are your goals with music?
RT: Sam thank you so much for speak ing with me.
Sam Nitsch: I’m doing well, thank you.
Sam Nitsch: Very early, as a kid. I was doing classical music all the way up till high school.
RT: When did you know you wanted to make music?
RT: Let’s talk about your musical process, what was making Under the Influencer like?
Sam Nitsch: Very competitive, everyone wants to be seen. I get it, but at some point, it wasn’t for me. I left after two There’syears. a saying about Berklee, you don’t make it if you stay long enough to graduate [laughs].
RT: What’s the concept of Under the Influencer?
A few minutes into Sam Nitsch’s album, Under the Influencer, I was sure I wanted to speak to the man behind the mu sic. Though his sound is layered with pieces of 1960s pop and soul music, Sam’s musical origins turned out to be quite different from the pop-soul background I’d expected. Get to know Sam Nitsch . My inter view with the talented musician below: Roderick Thomas: Sam, I’m glad to be speaking with you. How are you?
RT: Smart choice there.
Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022, Page 11
RT: You’re not alone. I’ve heard other artists like Adele, and Summer Walker talk about their anxiety around tour ing. Sam Nitsch: It’s the truth.
Sam Nitsch: Well, classical music isn’t exactly top 40 radio music. Most kids my age couldn’t relate to it. Original classical music wasn’t their thing.
RT: That’s different for today.
Sam Nitsch: When you listen to classic records by the Beatles or Stevie Wonder there is a natural quality to the record ing. Autotune has a way of removing characteristics from a person’s voice.
Stevie Wonder, Beatles, all that.
Sam Nitsch: Yea, I realized I wanted people to listen to my music [laughs]. I started to experiment with more sounds. I later got into a 21 Pilots and Ed Sheeran.
Sam Nitsch: I wanted this to be natural sounding, I made sure there was no autotune or Melodyne.
Sam Nitsch: My pleasure, thank you.
Sam Nitsch: I did listen to the Beatles a lot, but that was about it mostly.
Sam Nitsch: I want people to notice our dependence on social media, and make our involvement with it more conscious and less compulsive. I mean, I do it too. I check my streams and other measurements of success, so I’m not condemning anyone. I just want us to be aware.
RT: You have such a soulful sound, did you have any other musical influences besides classical music?
RT: What brought you back to NY?
jaimie branch, photo by Schorle, courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022 she felt she needed in the moment, leaving space, delivering absolute sin cerity and a fundamentally positive emotion, even in the most difficult subject matter. An ideal sampling of her art and ideas would be “prayer for amerikkka pt. 1 & 2” from FLY or DIE LIVE. The track starts with delicate ka limba, then glides into a funky blues. branch steps to the mike to say, and sing, that “shit is fucked up” in Amer ica, then blisters out the theme and a tight, punchy improvisation. Rhythm, a beat you can feel and dance to, was also at the front of her musicianship. She played with great rhythmic authority, swinging with a funky feeling that worked across all genres. She and Nazary also experi mented with electronic beats during her 2018 residency at Pioneer Works, which can be heard on the Tour Beats Vol. 1 EP on International Anthem. Born in Huntington, Long Island, branch grew up there and also in Chi cago. Encouraged by musicians on the Chicago scene, branch studied music at the New England Conservatory of Music, then later worked toward, but never finished, a Masters degree at Towson State University in Baltimore. There, existing problems with opiates were exacerbated by the heroin scene in the city. She returned to New York State and then to Red Hook in 2015. She was immediately an active and fast-growing pres ence on the New York City jazz scene, championed by the likes of poet Steve Dalachinsky and the nu merous musicians she came into contact with, like Nazary, bassist Luke Stewart, vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, and tenor saxo phonist James Brandon Lewis. She was also an active and notable public figure in Red Hook. She played on stage at Pioneer Works, including in the 2021 Vision Festival (An teloper’s sets were regu lar highlights of the Vi sion Festival), but would also appear there in the audience, to support her colleagues who were per forming. She played informal and im promptu gigs and jams at the Record Shop and at the San Pedro Inn. She donated her time and skills to the Red Hook Arts Project, and could often be seen simply strolling around the neighborhood, walking her dog.
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Sudden death of Red Hook's Jaimie Branch shocks the jazz world (continued from
Editor's Note: While I didn't know Jaimie except for one meeting on Van Brunt Street where she tried to tell me her ideas for music coverage we might do (kind of unfeasible because of money or the lack of it), I will always be indebtedto her for her diligence in putting together a music calendar for us each month in 2018/19, when I was working to expand the paper beyond the reaches of a local neighborhood paper, which we once again became after the pandemic gave us a good ex cuse. She would put together the local music calendar whether she was home or on the road, and I never really got a chance to thank her. You could see a sample of her work for us here: 2019-by-jaimie-branch/com/red-hook-concert-calendar-july-http://www.star-revue.
Stooges-styled stupors and stompers. One thing rock doesn’t need is more testosterone-induced posturing, but Dennis R. Sanders pulls it off using the alias Spirit in the Room while in the guise of a character named Flamingo. At least one of those three personas possesses a convincing Iggy swag ger. Flamingo (the EP, out on House core Records) is a fast blast about life in chaos with plenty of pottymouth and outrage. It sounds a bit like Nine Inch Nails at times but don’t hold that against him. The five songs simmer like a Los Angeles (the town Sanders calls home) potboiler about to boil over.
Too much paranoias. When in need of squeaky thin organ-driven new wave of late, I often turn to the endearing L.A. four-piece the Paranoyds. The fashionista four-piece (they call them selves an “eyebrow band”) is generally just the right mix of quirky, sarcastic and sick of it. Their first album, 2019’s Carnage Bargain, got some attention with the singles “Girlfriend Degree” and “Egg Salad.” The new Talk, Talk, Talk (Banquet Records) has a bigger sound which weighs down their charm at times. I’ve always thought of them as a singles band, though, and the advance track “Single Origin Experience” is eminently catchy. The hi-fi sound is a bit of a surprise, but they bridge the gap with new takes on “Freak Out” and “Sunburn” (both from the 2017 EP Eat Their Own) which hit pretty satisfactorily. Luckily, they’re not yet done being disgusted with Meanwhile,everything.onthe opposite coast, the D.C. five-piece the Paranoid Style has issued a rather more mature celebration of forgotten rock heroes. Lead singer and songwriter Elizabeth Nelson has always reminded me a bit of Chrissie Hynde, not in sound so much as in smarts and attitude, and here she and her band match the Pre tenders penchant for calling out loves and influences as well. Opening with an unlikely ode to album cover designer Barney Bubbles, For Executive Meeting (Bar / None) name checks John Prine, Silver Jews’ David Berman, Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and the Velvet Underground’s Doug Yule, as well as authors Jack Kerouac and P.G. Woderhouse. That sounds like enough to drag the album down to concept or tribute level, but Nelson doesn’t let that happen. It might be a bit adult con temporary adjacent, but sincerity saves them from the yacht.
Chicago label Corbett vs. Dempsey has done the world a great service in pulling together an alto gether unlikely compilation of tracks by Dredd Foole & the Din from 1982. Songs in Heat pairs an explosive and unrehearsed studio session by Boston singer and songwriter Dan Ireton with his friends Mission of Burma as a backing band with three live songs recorded a few months later. It’s wonderfully primal and droney, mix ing Stooges energy with Joy Division despair. And there’s more to come. The album—which also includes a pound ing, noisy, compact-at-7-minutes and almost de rigueur for the day cover of “Sister Ray”—is the first of four Dredd Foole archival releases by C vs. D.
From just a bit to the east in Las Vegas comes the supremely screwy Spring Breeding, whose new, self-released set Doing the Limbo is a no wave blast with feral synthesizers and funky riffs left out in the rain and in the midst of it singer/guitarist Tyler Gutleben manag ing to play it calm, cool and collected (cf. U.S. Maple’s Al Johnson or Iggy circa Soldier). “Bad Palindromes” alone is guaranteed to mess up your next house Meanwhile,party.
Everything old is old again. With well over 75 years of combined record ing and performance history between them, Gary Lucas (Jeff Buckley, Cap tain Beefheart and the Magic Band) and Peter Stampfel (the Fugs, the Holy Modal Rounders) represent genera tions of Weird American Songbook. Their sole release as the Du-Tels, 2000’s No Knowledge of Music Required, has made it into the digital realm (CD and download, with bonus tracks, from Don Giovanni Records) and is well worth seeking out. It’s a joyous, ridiculous, sometimes cynical collection of sing-a-longs and slices of silliness. The pairing of Stampfel’s strained and impassioned voice (plus banjo) and Lucas’s virtuosic guitar playing (plus vocals) is absolutely infectious. Origi nal tunes roast alongside chestnuts by Irving Berlin, Michelle Shocked and Joseph Spence, not to mention their takes on “Ring of Fire” and “Shortenin’ Bread.” It’s a meeting of hearts and minds and one of the best entries in either of their discographies, perfect for the waning evenings of summer.
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"Lead singer and ElizabethsongwriterNelsonhasalwaysremindedmeabitofChrissieHynde,notinsoundsomuchasinsmartsandattitude."
Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022, Page 13 redthe STAR REVUE
Writenewspaperto
A West Village landlord remembers the old people who lived in his building (artists all), and suddenly his story is colored by remnants of their New York that they carry with them in their habits and routines and preferences. You realize the psychic layers of the city we are all moving in and out of, depending on how old we are, depending on how long we’ve lived here, depending on what we remember and what we miss (and what we don’t). Our New York is shaped by the stories we read, the stories we hear from the people who’ve lived here longer than we have, and the stories we tell ourselves about what it means to be a “real” New Yorker.
Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?
Page 14 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022
Taylor, a Canadian, originally set out to repeat the experiment (and success) of his previous book Londoners. But right from the get-go, he discovers that New Yorkers are different. More open. Less guarded. They interrupt and they digress. And they often fire back with questions of their own. Plunged into the intimacy of these deep-searching conversations, Taylor forms many kinds of relationships— some fleeting, some that seem destined to last.
The material is all relayed in the first person and Taylor organizes it by theme: not by what the person does, but by what they talk about. People share their dreams, hopes, and frustrations. They praise the culture and the food. They talk about money. They talk about race and gender. They talk about feeling misunderstood— and mistreated. A blind man recounts bumping into another man, who says with annoyance, “What are you, blind or something?” The kicker is, that man turns out to be blind too. Many take a walk down memory lane. Some remember the Meatpacking Dis trict when it smelled disgusting and its streets were smeared with fat and blood.
Ideas like these shape our expectations—and our disappointments. They are also challenged by the fresh impressions from new arrivals: the exhilaration and the terror and the hope.
Ihave lived in New York City for more than 25 years—my whole adult life. I sort of wound up here. I grew up on Long Island and went to school upstate. I had no idea what to do when I graduated with my English degree. I remem ber going to a career fair at a midtown hotel and catching a glimpse of myself in the mirrored wall across from the escalators. Everyone else was wearing dark suits and I was wearing a bright blue shirt from a thrift store. I guess it seemed like a good idea when I was getting dressed that morning, but it’s not exactly how you want to stand out as a job applicant. Somehow it was the right look for publishing. I didn’t work in that industry for long, but I stayed in New York. I moved around the East Village, then to Brooklyn. I’m a real mom-and-pop shop kind of person. So many of the ones I was attached to closed. Periodically, I fantasized about liv ing somewhere else—another city. I knew this kind of gentrification was happen ing across the globe, but I reasoned that if I lived someplace new, I couldn’t miss what I hadn’t known was there. But here’s the thing. New York City has some thing like no other place in the world: its people.
Craig Taylor’s New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time (recently released in paperback) investigates what makes this city so special. Starting in 2014, Taylor spent six years having conversations with more than 180 New Yorkers (75 of them appear in the book). They include people from all walks of life: from a person who steals cars to the voice of the Brooklyn Nets. From these conversations emerges an oral history of what New York is like today.
At one point, Joe asks Taylor about the people he’s been interviewing. Taylor con fesses to remembering gestures better than faces, but it’s the images of the things people tell him, such as “the light dusting of snow” on the Statue of Liberty’s shoulders in winter—that bloom so beautifully in the reader’s mind.
The most poignant one is with an old Vietnam vet named Joe, whom we meet in a series of interludes. Toothless, somewhat blind, and permanently bent into a head-butt position, Joe actually hates the city. But he’s interested in Taylor’s fasci nation and boundless enthusiasm. They fall into a habit of meeting every Sunday, and Joe, with no home of his own, sometimes spends the night, arranging his pile of bags by the door, leaving his blanket folded neatly at the edge of the daybed the next morning.
New Yorkers is a fascinating and moving portrait of individuality, resiliency, and compassion. In its pages, you may discover the kinds of people you know—maybe even the kind you are. And even in the ones most different from you, you will find something you never dreamed you’d have in common. As elevator repairman Da vid Freeman puts it, “You usually find out that most people on some level do have some kind of inner life, they have a place where they find joy. And even people whose beliefs you revile, they actually have saving graces that you don’t understand completely at first but you see…It’s like it’s odd to say, but what it is…a kind of forgiveness, where it really counts.” New Yorkers will make you glad to count your self among them.
Books by Quinn
Review of New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time, by Craig Taylor Review by Michael Quinn
No plan survives contact with reality. At the start of this summer, energized by recent listening, I started to dig into my library of books on free jazz, titles like Val Wilm er’s As Serious As Your Life, Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t by Scott Saul, Michael Heller’s Loft Jazz, and Ekkehard Jost’s important study, Free Jazz. I was jazzed. But then Bloomsbury put out a new batch of 33-1/3 books, including Computerworld by Steve Tupai Fran cis, a book on one of my all-time favorite albums by one of the most important bands ever in the history of popular music, and I got sidetracked by the seductive sonic utopias of Kraftwerk, and began reading all the books there are on them. Somehow, though, Greil Marcus drew my attention away from all that. I don’t remember how that hap pened, I think I was browsing one weekend afternoon at Freebird Books on Columbia Steet, and The Old, Weird America caught my eye. So I dipped back in to Lipstick Traces, sampled a couple of his collections, and started reading his book on The Doors. That’s when something that had been dormant in my thinking resurfaced, the connection through process of expe rience and production: take things in things, make them part of one’s personal existence, and then mine that as material for words and sounds and images and movement. It was The Doors book that did it. I don’t particularly enjoy that band; Jim Morrison’s expres sive charisma was very real, but musically they often seem to be casting about for an identity to put on and don’t have the musical chops to convincingly handle the blues, jazzy rock, stage music, Beatles-like baroque touches. Their big hits like “Light My Fire” are rhyth mically awkward, they phase the blues and Kurt Weil all wrong, it’s very white, very clunky, very suburban. “The End” is what works for me, the moment when they shed everything else and realize that they are a psychedelic stoner band with a substantial apprecia tion for beautiful inner worlds. That’s not the point though. Rather, it’s that Marcus’ book is so interesting because his experience draws together listening to the band with seeing movies, reading Leslie Fiedler, remembering family moments. An older literary anthology is titled The Critic As Artist (after the Oscar Wilde essay), and Marcus is a real art ist, responding to stimulus, taking in experience, and making something new through criticism. What this has to do with jazz is an extension of what I discussed in last month’s column, which was the effect of professional music schooling on jazz, how the music has been losing variety in the mainstream and how that makes the margins, music that can’t be folded into an institutional setting, more vital than ever. Institutions develop a consensus about what they value, and joining that institution means accepting those values. In the political economy of non-com mercial music in America, institutions that succeed are the ones that best raise money. And funding in America rewards success, regardless of quality or need (this is why the Metropolitan Opera regularly gets more grant money than any other music organization in New York City, and venues at the margins regularly vanish). Nothing breeds imitation like success, so other institutions follow the same consensus that hauls in the most money.
Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022, Page 15 Jazz by Grella
When Jazz Is Not Enough
By George Grella
What we end up with—in a culture where there’s a credentialism arms race fueled by another consensus that an advanced degree is necessary for every “pro fessional” endeavor, which in turn has engorged the administrative budgets of universities as they chase more students who they saddle with ruinous debt
Moran can fall in love with his subjects and treat them too kindly, when he’s at his best taking things apart and reassembling them. Threadgill’s latest album, Poof (Pi Recordings) is fine but nowhere near his best, but it seems to consolidate past ideas and set new transi tions in motion—that’s invaluable.
Not every Sorey composition has fully worked, but each has brought him to new classical and jazz ideas.
Greil Marcus, photo courtesy Ministerio de Cultura de la Nacion
that only the jobs that damage society, like investment banker, contracts lawyer, and management consultant, can ever satisfy—is the consensus that what makes a jazz musician is a certain set of rhythmic ideas and harmonic knowledge, scales and the Great American Songbook, and so a huge amount of new jazz that comes out expresses that consensus, and the margin get pushed away. That consensus in and of itself is not a bad thing, and in fact it’s useful. Jazz is too young to yet be fully defined, and so shifting ideas add to the pot of what the music might be. Shifting, complex meters and a post-Micheal Brecker harmonic sense, straight eighth notes and funk pulses often sound great. But when that’s most of what’s played, that’s homogeneity and not healthy for the music. Looking at the past, the movement from traditional jazz to swing to bebop to cool to hard bop to modal and beyond, massive revo lutions in the idea of just what was possible in jazz, all happened in a 40 year span—and this without the fuel of the internet’s antiphonal immediacy. Yet one huge, deleterious effect of the internet is that it actually pro duces stagnation, as influencers of all sorts chase the same thing, then each other. The stagnation in jazz is smilier to the stagnation in indie-classical music, and that is a manifestation of people seeking the safety in numbers that protects from criticism and failure.
"Marcus is a real artist, responding to stimulus, taking in experience, and making something new through criticism."
Meanwhile, Brad Mehldau has been overdoing his mainstream success to the point of putting out his ap palling take on prog-rock, Jacob’s Ladder (Nonesuch), a perfect example of safety and self-satisfaction leading to nihilism. And dozens of other musician put out albums that are polished like a telescope’s mirror and vanish into the air like a breeze. And here’s where I get back to Greil Marcus. The “Top 10” lists he put together for decades are great. That’s usually the laziest kind of writing, but in his hands he brings together the mundane, the profound, and the awful. The lists include music, of course, but also books, commercial jingles, flyers for punk shows, even the notice of the discover of the few existing photographs of Robert Johnson—anything that had an effect on him. He chronicles success and failures, the latter often more interesting. But the main thing is that it’s more than music, it’s a critical mind at work, experienced but also capricious, taking things in.
Marcus has his values, but no consensus, because that’s both a project and a process, and one that no indi vidual artist should ever think is complete.
Failure, my friends, is where it’s at. Failure is a success in and of itself because it creates invaluable lessons and creates accidents that contain revelatons. Failure, failing better, is an ethos, and that ethos connects across the simple act of making jazz to literature and poetry, fine arts, and more. The most interesting music in jazz is, still, being made by artists who are musicians but who come at their work from other contexts and ideas, including Tyshawn Sorey and his post-Morton Feldman composing, Jason Moran and his attempts to capture aesthetic and social history in music, Henry Threadgill and his continuing reinvention of contra puntal systems. These artists succeed because they are willing to fail.
Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com September 2022
At the start of each new school year, composition notebooks appear on my children’s school supply lists. By June, the notebooks are rarely filled up. Many have just a handful of pages that have been written on. No wonder I’ve accumulated a stack of partially used notebooks I feel bad throwing away. The good news is that with some decorative paper or fab ric and a little bit of glue, these note books can be transformed into useful journals or planners. What you’ll need: In addition to the notebooks, you’ll need decorative fabric or paper (either gift wrap or in dividual sheets sold at art stores work well), scissors, school glue, ruler, pen cil, and paintbrush. Measure and cut around your note book. Place the notebook in the cen ter of your paper or fabric and cut around it so that the resulting shape is large enough to cover the front and back of the notebook with about two inches to spare around the edges. Cut tabs to fold over the sides and tops of your covers. Cut the corners of your large piece of paper or fab ric to create flaps that can be folded over to cover the inside edges of your notebook’s front and back cover. Also cut out a small section in the middle of the top and bottom edges of your paper or fabric to accommodate the spine. Glue paper or fabric onto the note book’s cover. Pour school glue into a small cup or bowl and use the paint brush to apply a very thin layer to one side of the notebook then lay it onto the paper or fabric. (You can start with either the front or back cover.) Open the notebook, paint another thin layer of glue around the inside edges of the cover and fold in the flaps to secure them in place. Once you’ve finished one cover, do the same with the other cover. Cut extra pieces of paper or fabric to finish the interior. After you glue your flaps in place, there will be gaps where the original notebook interior shows through. Cut rectangular pieces of the same paper or fabric and glue them in place so the inside covers are one uni form pattern. Should you remove the used pages or leave them as is? Before claiming the notebook as your own, you’ll have to decide whether you want to keep the used pages in place or cut them out. It’s up to you! If you want to start fresh, you can carefully tear out or cut the pages with scissors. However, you might find the used pages a sweet window into the past and decide to keep them in place. In that case, start your journal on the first empty page. Share your designs with us! Send pictures of your journals to our editor at hookstar.com.george@red
October Preview: Turn black construction pa per into spooky Hal loween decorations!
by Marie Hueston
Turn old composition notebooks into decorative journals!
Marie's Craft Corner
