If Halloween is approaching, it means many things and one of them is the return of Creepshow at the Freakshow via Coney Island USA. This year’s edition is called Phantom of the Presidential Wax Museum. Per the email from CIUSA:
PHANTOM OF THE PRESIDENTIAL WAX MUSEUM is an interactive show (allow 45 minutes for the complete experience) that tours various rooms at the Coney Island Sideshows by the Seashore building generally not available to the public such as the creepy basement, back stairs, etc. Audience members will take a “tour” of the “historic” wax museum and meet Presidential and First Lady ROBOTS along the way including Lincoln, Clinton, Hillary and Laura, Nixon and finally robots Obama and McCain. Audience will also get to partake in a Presidential Shooting Gallery and fire ping pong ball rifles at Kennedy, Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. The show concludes with the funeral for an “almost” dead president with Obama and McCain robots competing to give the better funeral speech. Along the tour the audience will hear the “true” story of murder and fire that closed the famed Coney Island Presidential Wax Museum in 1971.
The show runs from October 17-31. Times are Mondays - Thursdays: 7-10 PM, Fridays: 7-11 PM, Saturdays: 4-11 PM and Sundays: 4-10 PM. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children and it’s not recommended for small children. Also, on Halloween Friday, October 31st, 6-12 PM, All Tickets are $15 and include midnight Horror Movie Party! There’s continuous admission and the “complete experience” takes about 45 minutes. Sideshows By The Seashore is located at 3006 West 12th Street off Surf Ave.
The photographer and GL Photo Pool contributor writes: “Me mums looks at the large photographic mural in the Capital One bank building at the corner of Calyer and Manhattan. I got snapped at by a security guard that I couldn’t take pictures. I took some anyway.” We do love those “you can’t take pictures” moments on public streets.
Prices are coming down at Satori in Gowanus, the building we used to call the Bunker. “Let’s take Unit A-3B, the top priced 2BR originally listed at $925,000. It’s taken a $100,000 hit. On the other hand, the mid-range 1BR Unit C-4B originally out there for $560,000 has only been trimmed to $530,000. It’s a little bit more dramatic with the studios, though. One listed at $475K has come down to $399K for its 499 square feet. That one kind of screams, ouch, and not in a very zen way.”–Curbed
The 2008 Red Hook International Film And Video Festival, which is being directed by our friend and GL Contributor Nathan Kensinger is taking place this weekend, October 11 & 12. The screenings will be happening at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist’s Coalition’s Screening Room, 499 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. The schedule rocks and we’re proud to be a sponsor of the fest. Check out the screening schedule here and go out and support this excellent film festival.
Bummed that you won’t be at the sold-out Beck/MGMT concert tonight? Shed not a tear, because Luke Temple is here to ease your sorrows. Luke Temple’s simple melodies ease a person’s sorrows, truth be told, whether or not they’re missing a kickass concert. With bittersweet earnestness, Luke stares straight into the crowd, telling tales of lost love and– well, even if not all his songs are about a lost love, they could be. See him tonight at Union Hall in Park Slope. While you’re there, you can get in a round of bocce ball. Bocce ball, eh? What do Beck and MGMT have to say about that, for $50 to see their show?
A little insider’s FYI: if you decide you want to catch Beck/MGMT tomorrow, concert organizers often reserve a few “secret” tickets for the night of. You can either call Ticketmaster at noon tomorrow, go to Mercury Lounge at noon, or go onto the Ticketmaster site –yes, at noon– if you get a sudden wind of desperation to see some wacky and legendary rock. –Katie Lee Rush
Again, this is not a Street Couch per se, but it’s a damned colorful chair and it rocks. We found it on Bergen Street in Park Slope looking like it just came out of the rental furniture showroom.
This is an absolute freaking gem. Bobster1985, who uploaded this as a vid on flickr writes:
A fascinating bit of television history, as the Brooklyn Dodgers are used as a backdrop in this Lucky Strike cigarette commercial. I couldn’t tell if this was filmed in Ebbets Field or elsewhere, perhaps some sharp-eyed Dodger expert can offer his insight. The same is true of the players - a player wearing uniform number 12 is seen tossing the ball, but a check of the Baseball Almanac doesn’t show any player with that number on the ‘56 roster. There was a first baseman named Frank Kellert who played 22 games on the 1955 Dodgers, backing up Gil Hodges, so perhaps that’s him. At the end of the commercial, a Dodger player signs autographs; he isn’t identified but he looks like shortstop Pee Wee Reese. This was made at a time when many celebrities endorsed cigarettes (including Humphrey Bogart, who eventually died of cancer). Cigarette commercials were finally banned from television in 1970. Can you believe they once had cigarette vendors wandering through the stands??
If you click on one vid today, make sure it’s this one.
This is Kenny’s Trattoria, which our friends at Eater reported on recently. It’s the successor to one of our Burg nabe favorites, the Brick Oven Gallery which closed a couple of months ago. Well, the owner has made good on his promise to return. The new places is described as “an Italian restaurant with a menu offering homemade pasta dishes, including a homemade ravioli of the day, and several chicken, pork, beef and seafood dishes. Patrons of Brick Oven Gallery will recognize some of the dishes such as the Brooklyn Caviar, Brick Oven Shrimp, Orichietti and the same over sized salads.” It’s at 7 Withers St., between N. 9 and Union Avenue. That would be Kenny, we think, sitting in the window. We’re relieved that Brooklyn Caviar lives!
Yesterday, we noted some meetings coming up in Gowanus and Carroll Gardens about zoning and affordable housing. Well, there will be sessions in Sunset Park presented by South Brooklyn Accountable Development Initiative, which involves the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Center for Urban Pedagogy. There will be a session on “Demystifying Affordable Housing” on Tuesday, Oct. 21st and one on “Demystifying Zoning” on Tuesday, October 28th. Both will take place from 6-9pm at Marien Heim Senior Center at 4520 Fourth Avenue. Both sessions will deal with the steamy topic of rezoning Sunset Park. Both workshops will be in English and Spanish. They’re free but require an RSVP to (718) 237-2017, ext 148 or via email to dpowell@fifthave.org. Once again, we think RSVP policies for such community events run counter to the spirit of community inclusion and that anyone interested enough to attend and learn about these critical topics should be welcomed with a smile and open arms. Maybe, someday, the organizers will get it. Or not. Because we’ve railed about their RSVP policy in the past to no avail. But today, we’re feeling frisky again: Mr. Powell, tear down this RSVP Wall.
Yes, they are imagining how to Reinvent Grand Army Plaza, and our contributor Adrian Kinloch captured this great angle on the Arch and banner that’s hanging there.
This is 225 Fourth Avenue, which used to the be the home of an old SEPTA trolley car next to the Lyceum. Sadly, that was blow torched into scrap metal oblivion. Work is underway on the site however and the construction equipment is digging up a lot of concrete. The property is being developed and will be home to a new 12-story building with 40 units. No renderings of the building, which will rise above the Lyceum–a gorgeous old bath house–have surfaced. Given the other stuff rising on Fourth Avenue, we can’t wait.
This is a presentation about the big Toll Brothers development proposed for the shore of the Gowanus Canal that would require a special zoning change. The Powerpoint was created by architects Chris McVoy and John Hatheway. It’s a little hard to follow the written portions, but the visuals are quite fascinating for anyone interested in the development and what it’s visual impact would be on Gowanus and Carroll Gardens.
One of the hottest photography shows we’ve seen in Brooklyn in a while opens tomorrow, featuring pics by Jake Dobkin, Sam Horine, Luna Park and Street Stars whose work we really respect and truly admire. It’s at Factory Fresh on Flushing Avenue and is called “Quality of Life.” The show runs from October 10-31 and the opening reception is Friday night (Oct. 10) fromm 6-10PM. Factory Fresh is at 1053 Flushing (take the L to Morgan Avenue). Per the release:
Factory Fresh is proud to present the group exhibition Quality of Life, contemporary survey of urban landscape photography. Quality Of Life will examine marginalized, forgotten, and neglected spaces in New York City , as well as the graffiti, decay, residents and beauty found within.
All we can say is go, because these are all photogs who know how to capture urban landscapes. That’s one of Mr. Dobkin’s pics below.
Ride a bike and live in Prospect Heights? Well, Bicycle Station on 560 Vanderbilt Ave has been a frequent stop for bicycle enthusiasts and weekend riders on their way to Prospect Park. The shop is always swamped with young and old getting everything from a simple tire inflated to tune ups and major repairs. To the dismay of some locals Bicycle Station is now moving to 171 Park Ave at Adelphi. The new shop is too far for some residents and just right for others. Will the new location affect your ride? –E.C. Stephens
The city’s best Halloween display–and it’s fair to say this is not an overstatement–is in process on Humboldt Street. Miss Heather has checked in on the progress and even in its incomplete state it is impressive as hell.–New York Shitty
This is the way the old asphalt field at J.J. Byrne Park is looking these days. It’s a big multi-million conversion into a turf field that is next to the Terrapin Playground, which we call the Boymelpark because it’s being oh-so-sloooooowly restored by developer Shaya Boymelgreen after it was used for the construction of the adjacent Novo Park Slope condo. No word on when that will be finished, but we understand that the unfinished spot has become popular with local skateboarders. In the meantime, the Parks Department expects its new field to be done by summer. There was a great article in the Daily News about the entire situation, including the endless Boymelpark delays last month. Hey, winter’s a superb time to reopen part of a park.
From our friends at Park Slope Parents comes the following email about “Helicopter Madness!!!” over Park Slope in the wee hours: “What is the deal with the helicopters at 5am in hoovering over park slope? It is INSANE!!! Anyone have information about this?” A crime, perhaps?
The photo above is 525-27 Court Street before construction work started on a new seven-story building with 18 units. It will come from Henry Radusky and Bricolage Design, a firm that is not on the Top Ten list of some people in South Brooklyn in terms of the aesthetics of its buildings. That is not the point here. We got an email from a special Court Street correspondent regarding some, uh, construction issues:
The construction site at 525-27 Court St. is causing major problems to the adjoining two buildings. Various stop work orders going on but the cracks continue to grow and one of the guys on the site informed me that the building next door had sunk by 3 inches in recent times but that it was the fault of the construction site beside it (they knocked the one story store beside it, dug down a bit, hammered a bit and then nothing so really don’t think that building is to blame). The same guy did describe the ground in that area as being “like jelly” - you dig it up and the rest starts to wobble such is the amount of water in it.
So far the project has drawn 18 complaints to the Department of Buildings, the most recent being: “CALLER REPORTING STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO 519 COURT STREET DUE TO CONSTRUCTION WORK THAT IS BEING DONE AT LOCATION PROVIDED. CALLER STS THERE ARE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR CRACKS THAT ARE EXPANDING.” A Stop Work Order was issued in September but has been lifted.
The incomparable Kevin Walsh takes a trip to Coffey Street in Red Hook on Forgotten New York this week and the results, as always, are fascinating. Even if one knows the territory, Mr. Walsh brings background history into the picture that’s certain to enlighten. He starts off by writing: Coffey Street in Red Hook and your webmaster have never been close associates, but have been, shall we say, acquaintances over the years. I first laid eyes on it sometime in the Super 70s…I didn’t see it again until my sporadic bicycle scouting missions into Red Hook in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when I still lived in Bay Ridge. In those days, much of Red Hook was junkyard dog territory, if not dead dog territory. Coffey Street, in fact, remained one of the only habitable streets in the area, to my lights at least.
Well, the record’s been set for the most expensive Burg condo sale ever and one of Brooklyn’s Top Ten. The honor goes to the Edge, the waterfront development on Kent Avenue, which sold two penthouses for $5.145 million. Safe to assume the buyer didn’t work for Lehman Brothers.–Curbed
The name given to this pic by the phtoographer, valued GL Flickr Pool contributor vaduzuvunt kind of speaks for itself. We have Mary. We have a cat. And we have no further questions.
Does this matter? Really, not at all. It’s the winning submission for the Reinventing Grand Army Plaza competition and it came from a team from Nantes, France. It’s called Canopy. And, it’s lovely. Lovely, however, only gets you so far, when the issue is getting something built. Until then, we’re left with a pretty picture of what could be. We’re not being snarky and cynical, just wishing that Grand Army Plaza could be reinvented for real.
Please don’t close your eyes and go to sleep. Both of these are important subjects and there are some interesting meetings and opportunities to learn coming up. We’ve long believed that one of the reasons that development in Brooklyn has been running wild (and is often hideously out of context) is that no one pays attention to the rezoning process. It is the entire cake. Everything else is icing. To that end, here’s some stuff coming up from the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Center for Urban Pedagogy presented by the South Brooklyn Accountable Development Initiative. One is “Demystifying Affordable Housing” on Wednesday, Oct. 15th and another is “Demystifying Zoning” on Monday October 20th. (Please, please don’t click away yet.) They will explain the basics of affordable housing and zoning and “we will explore how our communities can work for accountability and increased equity in the context of the proposed Gowanus rezoning.” The Affordable Housing Session is on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 6 – 9 pm at the Fifth Avenue Committee, which is at 621 DeGraw Street (btw. 3rd and 4th avenues). The zoning session is on Monday, Oct. 20, 6 – 9 pm at Mary Star of the Sea Senior Apts., which is at 41 1st Street (btw. Hoyt & Bond). The workshops are free but you must RSVP to (718) 237-2017, ext 148; dpowell@fifthave.org. We disagree with RSVP policies for such meetings, believing that anyone interested enough to attend and learn should be free to walk in the door, but we’ve blown enough hot air about the subject in the past and aren’t in the mood to go on and on about how wrong the policy is.
Weirdo-fabulous German electonic musician Barbara Morgenstern is playing at the new Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO tonight. She’s in the U.S. to promote her upcoming album, “BM.” Other weirdo-fab artist Imogen Heap has listed Barbara as one of her favorite experimental artists. Read what she has to say about Barbara here. Tickets here. We wouldn’t forget your free download, via RCRD LBL. –Katie Lee Rush
Our far end of Court Street Carroll Gardens Special Correspondent is keeping the information flowing. We had previously reported via another important source on the far end of Court Street that Le Petite Cafe is growing. Our correspondent reports that “the expansion of Petite into George’s Pot Pourie” is moving along. George’s in not going away. It is simply moving down the street.
If Halloween is approaching, it means many things and one of them is the return of Creepshow at the Freakshow via Coney Island USA. This year’s edition is called Phantom of the Presidential Wax Museum. Per the email from CIUSA:
