We go behind anonymous walls and find out that lots of cool things are manufactured right here in the neighborhood! Special Section Made In Red Hook Starts Page 6

The Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 The Hook’s Local Newspaper $1.00 at newstands The Star-Revue Interview with our Community Board’s Star Quarterback Keeping it Real with Craig Hammerman hen Mayor Lindsay decided in the 1960s to experiment things going on. Columbia Street was with dividing Manhattan into geographical districts, each sort of in the middle of its urban renew- Wwith their own police precincts, firehouses and other ser- al plan which took back large sections vice agencies, he envisioned community boards that would function of the community and rebuilt them as as mini-City Halls for the residents and businesses in each district. housing and commercial store fronts, In 1975, the experiment became policy and was expanded to cover which helped redefine the waterfront the entire city. 59 districts were drawn up in order to more effectively down there. And we also saw, with each deliver services to citizens and act as an interface between central new phase of housing that was devel- city government and the public. oped and each new wave of people who were either moving to the area or in- Red Hook’s Community Board 6 is located on 250 Baltic Street, be- vesting in the area, more signs that they tween Court and Clinton, and has a reputation as one of the most wanted to take back the destiny of their effective community boards in the city - this is largely due to its community. use of communication technology like Facebook and Twitter, both Craig along with some new police of- to inform citizens about the public policies that affect them, and to What types of signs? ficers at a recent ceremony at the 76th. relay messages from the man on the street to the man in City Hall. Well, one of the first things I saw was pens to have some of our most impres- Craig Hammerman has been District Manager of Community Board this whole rise in community gardening sive community gardens in the entire 6 since 1993. CB6 represents the 104,054 people (according to the down there, and Columbia Street hap- (continued on page 3) 2000 census) living in Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill, and Red Hook/Columbia Waterfront District. When Hammer- man first took on the job of Assistant District Manager in 1990, much We Get a Cool Letter! of Columbia Street was still a place where people came from other ar- eas of Brooklyn to dump broke-down washer/dryers. Last month I had the chance to sit down with Hammerman to hear about the role that he and CB6 played in the positive changes that have come to this community in the last 20 years, and to learn more about the history of the community board and the evolution of its role as a mini-City Hall since its inception in the 1970’s. Our interview follows: RHSR: What are your memories of that area. Lots of problems with street Red Hook and Columbia Waterfront life, people congregating, trafficking District during the time that you start- drugs, or just hanging out and drinking ed at CB6? publicly. It was really a very gritty and CH:It wasn’t exactly the most appealing unsettling place to be. part of our district. We had a squatters To the editor of the Red Hook Star-Revue - I took these photos last week, after one But at the same time, Columbia Street of our significant snow falls.....On January 27th, Tony, of LA Cleaners at 130 Union village at 169 Columbia Street, which was in the middle of a resurgence. Street, created these two wonderful creatures, to the delight of all of us in the neigh- was a disincentive for people to come to I think that there was a combination of borhood! All the best, Joan MacIntosh Reigning Sound, Alex Battles and

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The Red Hook Star-Revue Hook Red The Presorted Presorted Growing Up Red Hook Wonderful Wonderful Cherries by Danette Vigilante

elite Growing up, my grandparents and most of my cousins lived in the same apartment building ‘Down the Back.’ It’s the area of fitness Red Hook that’s closer to the water. Back then, it was nowhere near what it is today. As far as restaurants went, Van Brunt Street studio consisted of one pizzeria and one diner. There were no grocery stores, just corner stores and the only way you’d get a view of the yoga Statue of Liberty was by standing on a burnt-out pier. Oh, what we would’ve done to have a safe place by the water to picnic or to just chill-out and pilates relax. But, I digress. rowing What I really want to share with you has nothing to do with fine dining, the awe- someness that is Fairway or even the beautiful Valentino Park. cycling Just three small words have the ability to rush me back in time to my cousin’s apart- childcare ment building on Dikeman Street where we’d sit for hours on the stoop laughing like maniacs at my Cousin Raymond’s antics. Those three words? The Cherry Fac- rebounding tory. senior fitness There were many factories Down the Back but none like this. Right next door to where my cousins lived was what we plainly and lovingly called, “The Cherry pre/post natal Factory.” If the weather was warm enough, the Cherry Factory workers took their children’s classes lunch breaks outside. I remember thinking that their dyed red hands looked like they had been up to something more heinous than preparing cherries for shipment personal coaching all morning long. weight loss/nutrition Inside most of the refrigerators of that apartment building on Dikeman Street sat huge jars of sweet, succulent, Maraschino cherries. Such a sight was enough to send rehabilitation therapies a kid into hysterics. Imagine having available to your child-self, an innumerable amount of cherries such as these. Like most other kids, we weren’t limited to a holistic health counseling single cherry sitting on top of an ice-cream Sundae or the pathetic cherry haphaz- aerobic/functional exercise ardly tossed into a glass of soda which quickly sank to the bottom of your glass. No, that is not what we had. What we had was better than that, better than gold even. massage/thai yoga bodywork Though the building my cousins lived in burned down in a fire (thankfully, no loss of life), The Cherry Factory is still in existence on our beloved Dikeman Street. www.elitetrainingandfitness.com I’ve since learned that it is a family business which started at that location in 1960. It would be quite a few more years before I would come to know the deliciousness 718-596-0006 of what The Cherry Factory produced. I’m guessing now that I’m a grown-up, I’ll have to start referring to the factory by its proper name; Dell’s Maraschino Cherries Company. See how that would’ve been difficult for a child to say with a mouth full of cherries? Danette Vigilante is a children’s author living in New York City with one husband, two daugh- ters, Mr. Noodle, her love hog Yorkshire terrier and Daisy, a cat with a seriously bad attitude. Her newest book, The Trouble with Half a Moon, is in local bookstores and available for The Red Hook Star-Revue purchase online at Amazon and other booksellers. The News of the Hook Volume 2 No. 2, February 2011 Publisher...... Frank Galeano Associated Consulting Group Co-Publisher & Editor...... George Fiala Feature/Arts Editor...... Josie Rubio Visual Arts Editor...... Krista Dragomer Reporter...... Matt Graber Advertising Manager...... Matt Silna History Specialist...... John Burkard Gonzo Columnist and Night Owl...... John McLaughlin Representing Graphic Art Supervisor...... Greg D’Avola Cartoons...... J.W. Zeh, Vince Musacchia, Harold Shapiro Contributors...... Gene Callahan, Danette Vigilante, Stephen Slaybaugh, A.J. Herald And All Your Other Insurance Needs • Group Medical, Life, Disability, The Red Hook Star-Revue is published monthly by Frank Galeano and Other Voluntary Products and George Fiala. It circulates by mail and on newstands through- • Life, Disability, Annuities, Long Term Care, out the downtown Brooklyn area. Our mission is to be the tie that Travel Insurance/Trip Interruption binds our dynamic communities together, by providing one place • Homeowners, Renters, Auto, Business for local achievements, art and history to be celebrated, local prob- lems to be identified and solutions discussed, and also by providing Call Us For A Quote! an affordable advertising medium for local shops and institutions. Health Insurance As Low As $284 Single/ $834 Family Per Month Our offices are at 101 Union Street, where you can take an ad, buy a coffee mug, make Full Coverage Doctors, $30 Co-Pay copies or simply tell us what’s on your mind in-person, and we can be reached by phone Hospital 100%, Rx at 718 624-5568 and by email at [email protected] or [email protected]. Stephen C. Demaria We welcome letters to the editor as well as press advisories which can be mailed to: Joseph Pernice Jr. Red Hook Star-Revue, 101 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 147 Union Street 718 624-5568 - news tip line 917-652-9128 or emailed to [email protected] Brooklyn NY 11231 Tel. 212-679-9807Fax: 212-658-9662 TALK TO US online- We are on Facebook just Toll Free 800-564-2775 search for Red Hook Star-Revue If you have story ideas or ideas in general of interest, please contact us by all means and methods outlined above or stop by our office. Next issue will be out the first week of March , 2010 - Advertising and Editorial Deadline is Friday, February 25, 2011. Star-Revue Ads Work

Page 2 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 Interview with Craig Hammerman continues from page 1 District Manager Strives to Keep Community Board “Timely and Relevant,” as well as Independent district. I guess it’s sort of a side effect are different. So it’s our job to make sure of having undeveloped property; when that services are delivered in a way that you start to attract creative and energet- is responsive to what our community’s ic people, they use that property as an needs are. outlet for that creativity and nowhere So before community boards every- else in our district can you see that bet- thing was just a lot more disorganized. ter than on Columbia Street. Right. And if you wanted to get any- So how did CB6 assist people in mak- thing done, it became about who you ing these types of improvements? Were knew. It was all about old-school poli- you involved in getting the right zon- tics. You would go to an elected official ing and land use permits from the city? or an agency representative, and it all You know, when people first land in an came down to developing those kinds of area, they may not have the background relationships that were largely driven by to know the right terms to use. They politics. may not ask about “zoning” per se. So it’s important that the district manager So this democratized it. and the community board as a whole That’s right. Grass roots democracy. take in the message that people within Are you satisfied with the level of per- the community have and try to translate formance? Are community boards liv- that into some kind of an action plan. ing up to their original expected roles So when people move in and say “we’re as mini-City Halls? tired of dealing with all these undevel- I think the basic function is working, oped properties, we’re tired of dealing Leading a group of 6th graders from M.S. 447 at the Public Place brownfield in a talk but it’s not working as well as it could. on planning, remediation and sustainability back in 2009 with this level of street life, we need to I am not a protector of the status quo focus on something constructive for the by any means. The community boards consider some of these larger questions active in passing information to and community” -- it’s our job to help them were created in 1975, and in 1989 a and help make community boards more from the community? set an agenda, and from that agenda an charter revision expanded the roles of relevant and more meaningful in a 21st Correct. Because I see a district manag- action plan, something that is execut- community boards. It gave them some century city government. er’s job as being a manager, not a district able. So that might translate into the say in establishing capital and expense clerk. Too many district managers see city directing some kind of incentive budget priorities for the community, And beyond having a really informa- their jobs as being like clerks -- “Okay tive web site and social media tools, program so that we can see something and it also added on a more proactive so you gave me the information and actually get built on these properties. Or what kind of new infrastructure could element for land use and zoning. It gave such a revision create to make com- I’m going to file it away and if anybody it could mean developing some kind of community boards the opportunity to munity boards more “timely and rel- asks me about it I’ll make it available.” Block Watch program to attract police put forward proactive land use plans for evant,” as you say? That’s not good enough. You have to be attention into the area in ways that we their communities. And these were two l think one of Mayor Bloomberg’s lega- more proactive with it, you have to put weren’t able to before. In other words, really good important steps in taking cies will be the 311 system. Right now it out there, and make the connection we need to make those kinds of connec- this community board concept that was 311 captures a lot of information and for a lot of people and show them how tions between the communities and the really just a local service coordinator be- data that we used to get when we han- that information affects their daily life. agencies that serve them. fore, and adding more elements in it to dled the complaints for the district that we’re no longer privy to. So I can’t tell What else has CB6 done recently to How did community boards come make it look more like a mini-City Hall. improve its performance? you what potholes are being filled in my about? How were things different in However, since 1989, 22 years later, In 2004 we formed our own non-profit, the city without them? district that people are calling into 311. there hasn’t been any other further called Friends of CB6, and now we’re The community district boundaries were So it makes it a little more difficult for consideration of what the role of the working with other community boards drawn up in 1975. At the time the city us to figure out what improvements are community board is and how it should around the city and helping them to do didn’t have any common sets of bound- necessary that maybe should be part of be changed to make it more of a 21st the same thing. The point is to bypass aries, so if I was on Columbia Street, I a capital budget request. It’s harder for century community board. And think the limitations and trappings of city probably would have had one police rep- us to do our jobs because a lot of the in- about what the changes have been like budget and become more independent, resentative, one sanitation rep. and one formation that we used to gather is now in the last 22 years. In terms of society, seeking resources from elsewhere. Our fire rep. If you were to go ten blocks in being gathered by the mayor centrally. in terms of technology. None of that annual budget is $200,000 a year, which any direction you would have a different So looking at 311, and giving commu- has been factored into the community pays for staff salary, office space, with set of representatives. What the city did nity boards more access to the 311 data board in considering what its mission is. hardly enough left for stamps and copy back in 1975 was it created this princi- has been something I’ve personally been paper. We needed to be creative and ple of coterminality, and then realigned How has CB6 tried to adapt to the working on since the inception of 311. work beyond the limitations, so a non- its service boundaries by the different changes that have taken place in our We bring something to the table, a cer- profit as “funding arm” for the commu- agencies. So now the police boundar- society since the last charter revision? tain amount of analytical skill that no nity board was our path to that. ies actually match the community board We are one of the few community central agency can match because no- boundaries. Sanitation district 6 is a boards that has a robust website, that body knows our communities like we do. Obviously if your funding comes from uses Twitter and Facebook, that has ap- one sole source, you are completely de- comparable district to CB6. It all represents a communication chal- propriated these social media tools into pendant on that source, and if part of So this principle of coterminality gave lenge. The community board’s unique the work that we do. Most community your job is to monitor how that source the city a much more rational and effec- role in city government is to dissemi- boards don’t do that. We do it because is performing, then you are doing it with tive and efficient way of delivering ser- nate information to its community. No we believe that we need to continue one arm tied behind your back. How vices by having common local service other agency or elected official has that to reinvent ourselves to be timely and can you be critical of the mayor when chiefs that could work together. The responsibility the way we do. So when relevant, and when community boards he’s the only one funding you? It’s not a district manager chairs a district service we come by information, it’s our job to stop doing that, I think the public has a good place to be in. get it out into the community. And a cabinet, which is the group of all of the legitimate question as to whether or not lot of community boards continue to Community Board 6 has several commit- local service chiefs that provide services they should remain as they currently do things in the traditional way - they tees (ranging from Transportation to Hous- within that common geographic area. are. So we see a lot of tension between might mail it out to a few hundred peo- ing to Youth Services to Parks and Recre- So we all get together to talk about how community boards that defend their ple a month, or announce it at a couple ation) and these committees are constantly services are delivered in the district. position based on what the charter says of meetings, and maybe they might holding public meetings, where anyone can This is an example of how the com- they’re supposed to do, and the pub- even get a newspaper story. But that go to listen to - and participate in - con- munity board makes an impact on the lic that needs a more meaningful form notion of how we take that mandate of versations that directly affect their everyday daily life in the district. Since we are in of local representative government. disseminating information and how we lives and communities. For more informa- such a diverse city with so many diverse There’s a lot of tension around this. make it timely and relevant, we have to tion on these public meetings and on Com- needs, the way services are delivered And we haven’t come up with a way of constantly improve upon. munity Board 6 in general, visit www. vary from neighborhood to neighbor- resolving that tension. I’m hoping that hood. Priorities are different, and needs brooklyncb6.org. a charter revision commission might So community boards have to be more

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 3

News From the Streets written and collected by the Star-Revue writing staff

targeting people committing hazardous Visioning Meeting infractions on their bikes,” he said. On Wednesday evening, February 2nd, PS 27 Celebration a community workshop planning for the The Agnes Y. Humphrey School for Columbia Street Waterfront Park was Leadership (PS/MS 27) hosted its held at the Union Street Star Theater. 150th Anniversary Celebration earlier The purpose of the meeting, which was this month in the school auditorium. well attended, was to gather community The event featured music and dance input as plans are put together for a park performances by PS 27 students, inspi- on city owned land adjacent to the west rational speeches by former principal side of Columbia Street that is currently Gwendolyn Gardner and Assembly- being used by the Department of Trans- man Felix Ortiz, and a history lesson by portation as work takes place on Colum- Precinct the matriarch herself, Agnes Y. Hum- bia Street between Degraw and Kane. Bait and Tackle Hosts Benefit phrey, portrayed by teacher Cynthia The group was divided into 8 tables The owners of Red Hook Bait and Cage. Much of Ms. Cage’s presenta- as participants from the community Tackle threw a special event on January tion focused on the history of the PS put together their ideas for the pos- Report 27 building itself, which is located on 22nd to raise funds for Yahya Daghmou- sible park. Among the many sugges- Technical Burglary mi, after finding out that Yahya and his 27 Huntington Street, and the many tions were that the park be themed for A white Ford van with commercial family had lost their house in Brewer, stages of development and additions in- adults, that a grassy hill be part of it so plates was robbed while parked on Maine, burned to the ground in a fire stalled to the building as student-levels that people could see over the contain- the 200 block of Columbia Street on Christmas day. increased. When the Red Hook Houses ers to get a view of the waterfront, that were opened in 1939, enrollment at PS between Feb 3rd 9 pm and Feb 4th According to the Bangor Daily News, a the area for the bicycle path (the meet- 27 increased by 100 percent. 12 noon. Complainant states that Maine newspaper, the fire started early ing was headed by the group Brooklyn the vehicle was parked overnight. that Christmas morning. Investigators Spring Fair Waterfront Greenway which is work- Unknown perp broke the passenger determined that the fire originated in A block party/street fair is tentatively ing on creating a 14 mile bicycle path side window, entered the vehicle, the bedroom of a tenant who had been planned for April 24th by the Colum- alongside the water from the Navy Yard removed a Tom Tom brand GPS, staying in the house. The tenant, a bia Waterfront District Merchants As- south to Sunset Park) be either on the valued at $250 from the metal con- 64-year-old man, died in the blaze. sociation under the aegis of the Carroll street or the container side of the park, sole area, and removed a portable When the owners of Bait and Tackle Gardens Association. The fair, planned having shady areas to eat food and relax seat cushion from the seat. found out about this incident - Yahya, for the first two blocks of Union Street, in, and to support the merchants across Renovator Fight 38, grew up in Red Hook and was a will feature local merchants and artists the street by having seating alongside Robbery occurred on the 300 block regular at the bar - they decided to put and will include food, fun and music. Columbia Street to bring over meals. of Degraw Street on Feb. 1st at 12 the event together to help him out. The morning activities will be geared This is the first of at least three public noon. It started out as an argument “We are friends with him on Facebook,” towards children and the afternoon to- meetings to help create the plan. For between a contractor and resident. says Barry O’Meara, co-owner. “He had wards adults. For more information con- more on the Brooklyn Waterfront Gre- Resident started filming during the posted something about the fire - so tact Ash Pajoohi at 718 243-9301. enway check their website www.brook- argument and the perp grabbed a we thought, why not do something for lyngreenway.org. camera and ran away with it. Ar- him?” rested was a male aged 47. Several local businesses donated prizes $2 Heist for the event,The during Union which Street Bait and We have been serving On Hicks and Baltic Street, oc- Tackle held raffles and put 10 percent Brooklyn Businesses since 1988. curred on Feb 5th, 12 noon, victim of its earningsStar that Theater night toward the “home of the legendary Thursday Night Jam” Select Our clients include St. Ann’s was a male age 65. Age unknown “Yahya Fund.” More than $1,000 was Warehouse, Eastern Athletic male black forcibly removed $2 US raised. Some of the businesses that con- Clubs, Brooklyn Friends School, currency. While struggling, perp did tributed were Butter By Nadia, The BWAC & St. Francis College punch complainant in the face and GoodThe Fork, Red Fort Defiance,Hook Star-Revue Sonny’s, Ice Mail The Hook’s Local Newspaper Direct Marketing Services since 1988 fled in an unknown direction. House, among others. Unfortunately, Attempted Court Street Yahya couldn’t make it to the benefit df df df df df Services Include: Robbery due to lack of funds. We hope to get in • Lettershop Three males attempted to rob a contact with him and have anGeorge update Fiala101 Union • Bulk Mailing Court Street clothing store the first on his718 situation 624-5568 for our next issue. [email protected] • Non-Profit Appeal week of February. While one male Mugging101 Union down Streetin the cold, car Brooklyn,Street NY 11231 Letters stood outside as a lookout, two oth- thefts up Brooklyn, NY 11231 • Postcard Mailings ers came in the store, grabbed the Captain Jack Lewis of the 76th Precinct 718 624-5568 • Brochures & complainant as one of them said I’ve decided not to give out a Cop of the Newsletters got a gun, give me your money. The www.selectmail.com Month award for January, saying that • First Class Presort complainant screamed and released there just wasn’t enough crime. “It’s [email protected] herself and chased the young men as been a slow month,” he said. “So we’re they ran down the street. not giving it out this month. We don’t want to diminish the award.” Standing behind the podium at the Community Council meeting on February 1st, the Need an captain gave a quick run-down of crimi- Need an nal activity in the district so far this EExpertxpert PPhysiciahysiciann year. “There have been very few robber- ies, with the exception of some trouble iinn BrooklyBrooklynn?? in and around the Gowanus projects.” • Over 170 leading expert physicians As other local papers have reported, • All Specialty and Primary Care Services available there were four car thefts in Cobble • State-of-the-art diagnostic imaging and technology Hill during the last week of January. • Electronic Health Records Most were late-model Toyotas, which • Affiliations with leading hospitals in Brooklyn are notoriously easy to break into, and • Most major insurances accepted the parts are easy to sell. Another prob- lem that came up during that week was that someone was breaking into cars on Preferred Partners Clinton Street and stealing the airbags. I The captain also took the opportunity 1-866-791-0993 to reinforce the NYPD’s new tough www.brooklyndocs.com policy toward bike violations. “We’re

Page 4 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 Editorial: Grass Roots Democracy and Parks On February 2nd, the Brooklyn Water- along the way for the cyclists to rest in, front Greenway held a community plan- of which the Columbia Street Water- ning session at our Union Street office front Park is one. regarding a future park alongside Co- This newspaper would be even more lumbia Street between Degraw and Kane pleased were a group formed from peo- streets, on land that once housed some ple from around here that would be in- thriving stores. The buildings were torn terested in starting a similar planning down years ago and the land is currently venture for our waterfront. This park is used by the Department of Transporta- a sliver of land that is owned by NYC tion to store their large machinery while alongside Columbia Street. Alongside reconstructing Columbia Street. that sliver is significantly larger tract, About 70 people from the neighborhood acres and acres, that is now being leased showed up and were divided into eight to the Containerport by the Port Au- groups - each at a separate table and asked thority. In about 7 years that lease will to provide their input as to what kind of be up for renewal, and if in that time park they would be interested in having. Getting ready for the Greenway meeting inside the 101 Union Street Star Theater there is some sort of sensible alternate use plan in existence that reflects the This is similar to the process used by thing. I’m not saying here whether that as the Greenway has an active email list, desires of the Columbia Waterfront the Fix-The-Ditch meetings in which is right or wrong. What I am saying is although I would say that the turnout District, whatever that may end up be- the first meeting is used to put together that these sorts of community activities was a bit skewed towards relative new- ing - there’s at least a chance the the different scenarios desired by neighbor- serve much the same purpose. The leg- comers to our community. Columbia Waterfront District might at hood residents, and in succeeding meet- islature is presented with a plan which ings the ideas are refined down to create We look forward to the next meeting in least have an actual waterfront to go to. they are told represents the wishes of which a more refined plan is presented a consensus program that is then pre- the community which then gets voted Without such a plan, there is no chance. sented to the governmental powers for which will be that synthesis of the views And who knows if some huge real es- on for funding. We kind of like the idea expressed on that Wednesday night. funding and execution. In a way this is of grassroots lobbying, with the proviso tate operators aren’t at this very mo- This newspaper is pleased that there is like lobbyists who work for big corpora- that enough people from the communi- ment working on their own secret plan, a group that is interested in working on tions or institutions who prepare legisla- ty show up at these meetings to provide which will reflect their interests only. a new park in our neighborhood. The tion that is then voted on and adopted a true cross-section of views. We kind of The Red Hook Star-Revue will open it’s Waterfront Greenway is an organization into law by the legislature. It is a fact wish that we were told of this in time pages to publicize any group that might dedicated to building a 14 mile water- that much law is never actually writ- to publicize in our January issue - an ad form for this purpose. We also offer pro front path for bicyclists to use, stretch- ten by the legislators themselves, but by in all three papers that circulate around bono our large community space for ing from the Navy Yard to Sunset Park. lobbiest organizations. It’s easier to vote here might have been even more appro- meetings, and our laser printers for fly- Part of their plan is to build small parks on something then it is to create some- priate. A nice crowd did in fact show up ers and mailing service for direct mail.

Reader Contribution: Remembering My Dad Skinny by Mary Ann Massaro f ever there would line up just to get inside. And Skinny would show the neighborhood were a diamond there were always sales, bargains and kids a great time. Our house became Iin the rough, oh yes credit! something our of a horror movie and it was my father’s Skinny kept his old composition note- Skinny was always the famous Dracula. store in Red Hook. book under the counter with the names Skinny survived in Red Hook for 30 Many people knew of the people from the nabe who just years, watching the neighborhood of my father back couldn’t manage to pay right now, but change from its best to worst. Skinny then, but I have to somehow I don’t believe everyone’s was noted again in the NY Times for his wonder how much name really made it onto the ink. And opinion on the war on drugs. people really knew Skinny was also known for giving to the Not only was he a great business man, about the man behind the counter. but he was a great family man as well. Andrew S. Massaro was born in 1929 “Skinny survived in My mother Theresa, brothers Andy- during the Great Depression. His par- ben, Tommyboy and Jimmyboy never ents were poor Italian immigrants. It Red Hook for 30 years, had the finest things in life, but we was common back then for immigrant always had. Skinny managed to sup- men to find work on the piers and port not only himself, but his family docks, and so Skinny lot both his father watching the neighbor- without ever having to face that de- and brother while working on the hole mon on any ship. in a ship. So Skinny set off at an early hood change from its Skinny could sell just about anything, age on a mission to go out and do what- whether it was delivered by truck, or ever he had to do without ever having just happened to fall off in front of his to face the demon known as the hole in best to its worst.” store. Did he become rich and famous the ship. in the end? I do not think you should Skinny and one of his sons who is Skinny took to the streets of Brooklyn judge people by how many houses they dressed up as Santa Claus needy. Every year he had Santa Claus at an early age dropping our of school didn’t have in the end but by the count- outside his store and gave candy to the in the 6th grade. He began pitching less number of people that you left an can’t remember my name. But on those neighborhood kids. I can remember for pennies and playing craps. When he impression on while you were here. rare occasions when I run into someone saved enough money he opened a small a few years we would take a trip to P.S. Even today there are people like me who knew my fatherk, and I hear “Hey pet shop and sold pigeons. From this he 30 and give toys to the needy kids. who can’t hang an old ornament from aren’t you Skinny’s daughter?”, well, went on to his first store which opened Skinny made the NY Times for his gen- Skinny’s store without cracking a smile that’s all the fame I will ever need! on Van Brunt Street, near where Fair- erosity each year at Christmas. Skinny or shedding a tear. Skinny had the gift Mary Ann Massaro lives in Bay Ridge and way is today. was generous other times of the year of turning 50 cents into a dollar, but the works downtown, and still stops by the old also. Each year Skinny would light up Though Skinny was known for dab- heart to give away $1.50. neighborhood from time to time. bling in electronics, toys and clothing, the street for the 4th of July until 1968, And as for me, well I am not a famous he was most famous for his Christmas when he almost died when a box of fire- writer, I have never made the NY Times lights and decorations. I can remem- works exploded in his face. myself. Many people from my childhood ber Christmases past where people Halloween was another time when

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 5

Made In Red Hook

started with a conversation about as- sociations with the word, “burlesque.” by Josie Rubio Avery says. “We started thinking of all When bees in Red Hook and Governor’s Island began these attributes. If you could figure out a way to put that in a bottle, I bet it would producing odd-tasting, bright red honey, it was discovered that taste pretty good.” The result is slightly the bees were getting into the sweetener and Red Dye No. 40 spicy, and is sour and tart as well. Once they have a new concept, the at Dell’s Maraschino Cherries Company Inc. on Dikeman Street. Glassers start experimenting with the For some, the existence of the Red Hook cherry factory—in flavors. To make the bitters themselves, they start with a high-proof neutral-grain business since 1948—also was news. spirit, then add the ingredients, as well as Though many know about Steve’s Key Lime Pie and Sixpoint a little bit of water. “We use a very classic method,” Avery says. After attending to Cacao Prieto Brewery, countless businesses—from large plants to one-person the mixture and letting it rest, they then Appropriately enough, with Valentine’s operations—are tucked away in various corners of the neigh- filter, dilute and bottle the bitters. The Day around the corner, the tale of Red whole process takes under two weeks, he Hook’s new chocolate factory begins with borhood. Below are just a few interesting things made in Red says. a love story. In 1898, Estaban Santos Bittermens also is one-half of the Craft Prieto Casas sailed from his native Spain Hook, including chocolates, bent glass and silhouette portraits. Bitters Alliance, along with Scotland- to Puerto Rico en route to the United One thing that won’t be made in the area anymore, how- based Adam Elmegirab’s Boker’s Bitters; States. There he met and married Car- the alliance helps small bitters manu- men Buenaventura Peña in 1900. The ever, is red honey. Dell’s owner Arthur Mondella and the New facturers through the process of making couple moved to the Dominican Repub- York City Beekeepers Association came up with a solution to their products legal. Though making bit- lic, where they distilled rum and ran a ters for personal use is legal, some don’t sugar cane plantation. keep the bees out of the cherry syrup. The red honey flavor has realize that once bitters are bottled and Fast-forward more than a century, and been likened to cough medicine, but the curious can taste for sold, they are regulated by the govern- their descendent Daniel Preston, whose themselves at Brooklyn Kitchen, 100 Frost St., in Williamsburg, ment. Though the process takes a little father Anglicized the Prieto name after time, it’s free, Avery says. moving to the United States, has decided which is offering tastes of the red honey on February 12 from Currently, Bittermens still is a part-time to use Dominican Republic cacao to pro- gig for the couple; Avery also does gov- duce chocolates and liqueurs in Red Hook noon to 1 pm. Samples of the novelty will be for sale to benefit ernment security consulting, and Janet is for his business, called Cacao Prieto. the local beekeepers and Brooklyn Kitchen. an administrative assistant/office man- The distillery and chocolate factory are ager. But the success of Bittermens has under construction in a large space on been all word-of-mouth. “We just went sugar cane and are named for Preston’s the bitters make their way to some of the Conover Street, says Michael J. Cirino, and created a good product and made it ancestors. finest craft cocktail establishments in Cacao Prieto’s VP of Marketing. But available for people to taste,” Avery says. within the next month or two, he ex- The liqueur and chocolate factory will town, including Death + Company and pects the factory to be fully operational. be ready to open for public tours and Mayahuel on the Lower East Side. Local- ly, Jakewalk, 282 Smith Street, and Prime As of late January, bon bons were be- classes by this summer or fall. “My goal Meats, 465 Court Street, soon will have Flickinger ing produced on a smaller scale in the is to make it into a really fun experi- the cocktail bitters, as well as Dram, 177 adjacent space that housed Prieto’s bar, ence for adults and for children,” Cirino South 4th Street, in Williamsburg. Court Botanica, this past summer. (The bar is says. A street-level shop also is planned Street Grocers, 485 Court Street, will be expected to re-open its doors in April.) for Conover Street in September, says Cirino, from inside the factory, as he the first area retailer to sell Bittermens. Through April, Cacao Prieto is operating points out what will eventually be the The Glassers were living in San Francisco a pop-up chocolate shop at the Brooklyn store. The upper-level of the factory will several years ago when they happened to Ice Cream Factory at the Fulton Ferry allow tour groups to look out over the learn to make bitters by chance. No. 209 Landing Pier, serving Pop Rocks choco- chocolate and liqueur production, he says Gin was inviting local bartenders to learn late bars, as well as bon bons, including over the whir of a winnower separating about making gin and providing access to honey caramel, orange-bergamot ganache, the cacao nibs from the shells. botanicals to make bitters. The couple’s lo- hazelnut/cassia and spiced rum caramel. cal bar didn’t have any ideas, so the Glass- For Valentine’s Day, Cacao Prieto is Those who attend the red honey extrac- ers were invited to try their hand at it. offering a special gift box that includes tion at Brooklyn Kitchen on February 12 a caramel bon bon, a chocolate liqueur can stick around for the Luv Lab from 2 to The bartender, a native of Oaxaca, confection and a bon bon filled with 6 pm, for more sweet Red Hook prod- Mexico, wanted bitters that worked well raspberry ganache and jam, with a touch ucts—bon bons from Cacao Prieto. Vine with tequila, so the Xocolatl Mole was Glassworks Wine will offer wine and bubbly, and there born. (In November 2010, it was named of geranium. The gift box also is available Just around the corner from Flickinger also will be an oyster shucking lesson. by Bon Appétit as one of seven bitters at the Museum of Sex, 233 Fifth Avenue. Glassworks on Pier 41, there’s a view of every bar needs.) When the pop-up shop closes, a Cacao the Statue of Liberty, holding her torch Prieto store is tentatively slated to open Next came the Hopped Grapefruit at the aloft, looking out over Red Hook with in DUMBO. A midtown Manhattan Bittermens request of bartender Phil Ward, formerly a view to France, her country of ori- shop is expected to open in the fall. When Avery Glasser is asked how he and of Death + Company, and currently of gin. Since founder Charles Flickinger’s Mayahuel. “That was probably the most Preston, a former aerospace engineer, his wife, Janet, got into the craft cocktail interest in working with bent glass was challenging for us,” says Avery, add- came up with the idea for Cacao Prieto bitters business, he jokes, “We’re profes- sparked when he worked on the restora- ing that grapefruit itself doesn’t have as in January 2010. He then started to as- sional drinkers.” tion of her torch in the ‘80s, it seems ap- strong of a flavor as one would think. semble a team of people in the food busi- “We’re barflies, I guess,” in- propriate that Lady Liberty keeps watch The couple eventually used hops in the ness, such as Cirino, who runs a supper terjects Janet, laughing. over his business. formula to bring out the grapefruit taste. club called A Razor, A Shiny Knife, and The couple recently relo- After working with several New York The ’Elemakule Tiki flavor was named chocolatier Damion Badalamenti, who cated their Bittermens glass studios, Flickinger started working after NYC bartender Brian Miller, who crafted bon bons from the Dominican Very Small Batch Cock- on the torch while at Rambusch Deco- jokes that he’s the “old man of the cocktail Republic chocolate. tail Bitters from Boston rating, and pursued his interest in bent world,” Avery says. (The name means “old Currently, the chocolate is made using to New York, leasing a glass by working with such craftsmen as man.”) “When you’re working with tiki cacao from Preston’s family plantation small space in the Cacao Maurice Heaton, Sydney Cash, Hans drinks, you’ve got lots of fruit flavors and and from friends’ plantations in the Prieto factory. The Deutsch and John Morgan. Flickinger sweet, heavy syrups,” he says. “You need to Dominican Republic. As a side project, Glassers make bitters, opened his own bent glass business in have a bitter that’s assertive enough that it Preston also is helping farmers form a which are highly concen- Williamsburg in 1985 and moved to the can work its way through all those heavy co-op. The beans will then be shipped trated cocktail flavorings, current Red Hook space in 1990. Flick- flavors without being dominant, without to the Red Hook factory to make the in Xocolatl Mole, Hopped inger’s work is subtly present throughout taking over the drink.” The citrusy and chocolates and liqueurs and rums. The Grapefruit, ’Elemakule Tiki, Boston Bit- the city—the restoration of the glass aromatic Boston Bittahs was inspired by Don Antonio and Don Juan Salva- tahs and Burlesque Bitters. The products face of the famed Grand Central Station the couple’s move to Boston. dor rums and liqueurs (Classic, Don are handmade by the Glassers, “from start clock, sash window replacement at the Esteban, Don Daniel and Don Rafael) to finish,” says Janet. The first batch of the latest flavor, Museum of Natural History, glasswork Burlesque Bitters, is expected to be out for Robert de Niro’s Greenwich Hotel in will be distilled from cacao and organic Though the beginnings sound humble, in time for Valentine’s Day. That flavor TriBeCa, and glass cases for Saks Fifth

Page 6 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 Made In Red Hook

Avenue and Coach. edges to packing and shipping. neath the sofa’s seat is a shelf for stor- The showroom at the entry of the space Cantrell notes that before meeting Nate age—a practical use of space, especially Carter Kustera displays some of the late Heaton’s work, and learning about Flickinger Glassworks, for small living quarters. The prices for Carter Kustera has been a working artist as well as jewelry pieces by Cash. Shop she never really noticed bent glass. But the furnishings vary widely—from about for more than 20 years, with work shown cat Paco sometimes sits atop the jewelry now, she says, “I notice it everywhere.” $1,500 to $15,000, and most can be in two Venice Bienale Art Exhibitions display case, while the other cat, Jasper, customized. and in national and international exhibi- prowls the showroom. Also on display are Fanning’s commercial work can be seen tions. But it’s his simple profile silhou- Flickinger’s own colored enamel table- DYAD at Concrete, a restaurant and bar in ettes with clever captions that have ware pieces depicting fish, birds, vegeta- Hell’s Kitchen, and Millesime, a new captivated the attention of celebrities, as Making furniture started as a hobby for seafood brasserie from Chef Laurent well as the masses, and they have landed architect Douglas Fanning, owner of Manrique at the Carlton Hotel on 19th his work in Barney’s CO-OP stores and DYAD, Fanning’s architecture business, and Madison. He also installed the metal U2’s PopMart Tour. as well as his studio and workshop for sliding door and metal bar at National, a creating installations, furniture and light- The inspiration for his silhouettes came Thai restaurant in Fort Greene, and has ing. He started to make furnishings as an from an unlikely source: daytime talk created pivot shelves for the Diesel Jeans outlet for more personal designs, as well shows. In the early ’90s, “I was fasci- headquarters’ showroom on 19th Street as for more pragmatic reasons. “There nated by them, because of the personal in Manhattan. were things that I’ve wanted to have, but information people were willing to share couldn’t have, because they didn’t exist.,” One of Fanning’s most recent residen- in order to be on TV, no matter how he says. tial works was the transformation of a 200-square-foot terrace in Chelsea. After graduating from Columbia Univer- Working with garden designer Damion sity’s Graduate School of Architecture, Lawyer, Fanning undertook the chal- he pursued what he calls “a standard lenge of enclosing the terrace without a architecture career” for six years before roof. The result was a “Pastoral Porch,” striking out on his own. After showing an open-air steel-and-wood structure, his ideas and pieces at the International topped by boxes that hold plants. The Contemporary Furniture Fair in 2001, porch has warm cedar flooring, built-in bles, spoons and forks and other designs. his work was selected to be part of the seating and is equipped with a special Prices can range from $15 to more than furniture showroom at TROY in Soho, hose and ladder for watering the plants. $100 for larger works. Currently, Fanning is designing a beach This area is softly illuminated by Shino- house for the same clients, and is work- las and Cell-A-Brites from the lighting ing on a sculptural piece for Saks Fifth collection, most displayed as wall sconc- Avenue NY. He also teaches at Parsons es, though some can also be flush-mount School of Design and is working with ceiling pendants. City College CUNY students on the Flickinger’s enameled glass studio is Solar Decathlon Project to design an off- enclosed within the space. Also a fly fish- the-grid house. erman, he adorned the studio’s glass win- personal it was,” he says. “But the single Fanning’s office has cardboard models for dows with types of endangered trout. The ‘aha’ moment was seeing the kyron other projects, including a small model of designs are made by placing enameled graphics (text) that appeared on the TV a table that wraps around a support beam powders on the glass, then firing the glass visually showing that information.” in a home. When he designs something, and bending it with molds, says Charles’ he creates a cardboard model and “lives Kustera had been working on large-scale son, Nate Flickinger, who is helping with them for awhile,” he says, before sculptures and installations, and looking with the business until mid-February, deciding to make a finished product. for more compact and inexpensive me- when Charles returns from a trip abroad. diums. He decided on pencils and paper In the corner of DYAD’s downstairs During this time, Nate and wife Candra and began sketching profiles of the talk workshop is a cardboard model of the Cantrell also are setting up an etsy.com show guests, including their explanatory Saddle Chair, something that Fanning shop for Flickinger Glassworks so that captions. Charles’ Practical Plates collection can be created for a woman to give her husband After leaving his former Chinatown sold online. Around the showroom and in as a birthday gift. Also in the corner are studio space, Kustera has made Red the office, you’ll see Flickinger’s artwork light staffs, lighting pieces that Fanning Hook home to his studio for the past made with found objects and a sumi-e created initially while a set designer for three years. There he creates pencil and brush painting by Koho Yamamoto. Wally Cardona Quartet’s “Morphmania,” premiere at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival gouache silhouettes on paper, and in The main part of the business is restora- and he went “full-steam ahead” with the in Massachusetts in 2001. He created the other mediums as well. People interested tion of bent glass for cabinetry and dis- furnishings. DYAD began in the Gowa- poles to define and illuminate the set, in portraits usually contact Kustera di- play cases and architectural restorations: nus area before moving to Van Brunt and eventually started to offer them as rectly or through Jonathan Adler design, storefront replacements, window sashes, about three years ago. Fanning has now lighting for homes, as hanging, wall or which offers Kustera’s custom silhouettes. revolving-door glass, curio cabinets and moved the business to Centre Street in ceiling lights. The subjects are then asked to send a wall sconces. Currently, the company is Red Hook for more space, with his design profile photo of the subject, and to select Though several people work at the making some replacement bent glass tiles business upstairs and the DYAD work- a color. Some prefer to write their own DYAD space, Fanning often works and for the Bleecker Street and Columbus shop downstairs. captions, but for those who don’t know Circle subway stations. Though much of welds the metal for his pieces himself, Fanning’s clean, simple and modern what to say, Kustera will write a caption the work is repair and restoration, new though he collaborates with woodwork- designs have drawn comparisons to mid- after asking some questions about the pieces are created—such as 50-inch twist- ers and glass artists for some pieces. century modern designers such as Eero subject. ed pieces of glass that were painted with a One thing that is not currently at the Saarinen. Some have noted a minimal- “When you paint someone’s face, you powdery silver paint to stain the surface, new space is the DYAD Mobile Con- istic, Japanese aesthetic that Fanning at- find description in the character in their then coated with colored film, to hang ference Room, which Fanning and an tributes to his artist’s residency in Japan. mouth and their eyes and their expres- from a casino ceiling in Pennsylvania. intern created one summer from a cross- The first piece was a Clasp Table, with sion,” Kustera says of the necessity of the Shelves hold thousands of steel molds for section of an airplane. Outfitted with a steel clasps that holds the glass top. “It’s captions. “You can’t do that with a sil- the glass; upon closer inspection, one can serpentine bench, daybed and a fold-out one of the most classic pieces in the col- houette. My solution was to add descrip- make out the outline to see a shape for a table and grill, Fanning says, “We used to lection,” he says. The Cross Table draws tive information.” wall sconce, for example, or a ceiling light. roll it out on the street for people to see.” its inspiration from a spider—pieces of Kustera also recently did a deal with Pointing to a bent glass mold, Nate Flick- Fanning says he is in talks with a devel- metal are welded together to create the Groupon in New York and L.A., which inger notes that the glass starts off as flat, oper in Denver to use the concept to table’s legs, while a clear box suspended offers members discounts for local goods then is placed on a steel mold and fired to create dozens of these as outdoor rooms from the middle is meant to hold a favor- and services, if enough people agree to 1,000 to 1,400 degrees in one of the ovens. and sunshades. As for the conference ite book. “The book is a floating object,” purchase the deal. He’s also done por- Flickinger Glassworks started with a lone room, a friend is storing it. Fanning says he says, adding that his own Cross Table traits at big corporate events. “I’ll go out small oven, and now has a medium and a with a smile, “It’s still floating around holds Dan Flavin’s monograph, Series and and I’ll do 200 portraits in a night at an large oven to accommodate bigger pieces. Red Hook.” Progressions. event,” he says. “It’s kind of crazy.” Aside from Charles Flickinger and Joe The Ori Table is meant for people to sit He’s also done personal celebrity por- Bailey, four people work at the space, on the floor, somewhat encased by the traits, though Kustera notes he often doing everything from cutting glass and table. A sofa that Fanning has designed does those in person, since celebs often laminating glass to take off the sharp also sits in the new studio space. Under- (continued on next page)

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 7

Made In Red Hook don’t like to give out photos because of privacy issues. You can see his portrait Saxelby Chee- of Michelle Obama in Mrs. O: The Face The Hook Studio of Fashion Democracy, a book by Mary semongers Tomer about the first lady as a style icon. By the end of February, Saxelby Chee- Kustera is currently seeking a publisher semongers, which has a 120-foot-square for his coffee table book and is develop- space in Essex Street Market on the ing an iPhone app with a major media Lower East Side, will have a small storage company. “We’re doing a custom caller space in Red Hook. Though no retail ID app based on my silhouettes, so if space is planned, cheese from Saxelby you have an iPhone or an Android, you can be found at nearby Carroll Gardens take a picture of your contact or your restaurants, such as Prime Meats and contact emails it to you. That picture is Buttermilk Channel, 524 Court Street, converted into a black silhouette then says Benoit Breal, who owns the business there’s an option to add color, and in my with Anne Saxelby. handwriting, name that person and write For the past four years, the popular something fun or nasty about them, just cheese purveyors have been offering like my portraits.” Kustera also has been American farmstead cheeses from small, contacted by a Japanese fashion brand to sustainable farms in the Northeast. The provide his portrait service through its 900-square-foot Red Hook space will most successful retail outlet. allow for a larger cheese selection at the Kustera has some of his own products, in- shop and expansion of the wholesale cluding shower curtains, pet products and business. Though the cheese is technical- clothing items, available online through ly made at the farms that supply Saxelby Oré (oreoriginals.com) or for purchase Cheesemongers, the small “cheese closet” directly from Kustera. will be used for affinage, or aging and ucked away in an unassuming The studio began when Schloss had maturing of cheeses. corner of Red Hook is a world returned to New York City from Los An- The chain of events that led to Kustera’s music studio that’s recently geles and asked the owners of the Hook, success was improbable, beginning more recorded big names—Jamaican the now-closed music venue, about the than 15 years ago with a five-car-pileup. T roots reggae star Horace Andy, Grammy- possibility of opening a recording studio. The driver at fault happened to have “After a career of concep- nominated hip-hop/R&B duo Les Nu- They put him in touch with Fand, a Progressive insurance. Impressed by the bians and Blitz the Ambassador, a Ghana world music producer who also inquired way Progressive handled the case, Kus- tual work, Kustera seems musician known for his fusion of hip-hop about studio space. “We got along really tera wrote the president of the company somewhat surprised that and highlife called hip-life. well,” says Schloss, and the two recorded a letter, mentioning that he was an artist his silhouettes have had The Hook Studio, however, rarely their own sessions in the venue’s base- and things were already difficult, but he’d ment, as well as live music at the Hook. been impressed with the way Progres- the biggest and most last- records rock ’n’ roll, notes Tony Schloss, sive handled the case. The president of who started the studio with Peter Fand in Schloss had moved to L.A. in the ’90s to Progressive called him back to ask about ing impact. “It’s just the 2005. “What we tried to do as a studio to pursue a recording career. He worked with his art, and eventually asked Kustera to simple things that people put ourselves apart is we do West African the Dust Brothers and had done recording and world music and a little bit of jazz.” work with the Foo Fighters, Cat Power, do the illustrations for the company’s recognize you for,” he annual report. “We ended up winning all The Hook Studio is somewhere between Beck, Sparta and Velvet Revolver. “The these awards and that’s how I started get- says.” the modern and old-fashioned recording first album I helped make was Tenacious D, ting recognition,” he says. That led to de- studios. “Some studios are as futuristic as and I was like, ‘Wow recording is the most signing a bathroom at the John Michael possible and some are the other way— hilarious time ever,’” Schloss recalls with a Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin and an we’re sort of in the middle,” he says. laugh. “And it turned out it wasn’t.” artist-in-residency program. While straight-to-computer recordings In 2008, the studio moved to another lo- Cardinal Tank sound “icy and cold” to Schloss, the stu- cation in Red Hook. Though Schloss and It was while Kustera was at Kohler that Red Hook has been through a lot of someone suggested he send his work to dio uses old gear to “sort of warm up the Fand started the studio, Amon, trained as changes since Cardinal Engine and Boiler sound before it goes to the computer.” a West African percussionist, and Ethan Simon Doonan, Barney’s current creative Works opened its doors in 1934. The director at large and the long-time The studio’s console is from the ’70s, White, a member of Tortured Soul, will company, founded by Joe Cardinal Sr., soon take over most of the studio duties. mastermind behind the store’s popu- originally repaired ships in the 1930s and Schloss says, “And its provenance is a little lar window displays. Kustera ended up bit confused.” According to Carl, the guy Fand recently joined the Cirque du Soleil 1940s, when the area was home to bus- as a bass player, percussionist and kora doing the Barney’s windows, and when tling shipyards. Once World War II broke who sold the console to the Schloss and Barney’s developed the CO-OP brand, Fand, it was used to record Blondie’s 1980 player, and he is currently rehearsing a out, business boomed because of the new show in Montreal. they tapped Kustera for visual branding. demand for shipwork, says William Wei- version of “The Tide is High.” The board “They wanted to have a consistent look dmann, current owner of Cardinal Tank. is the same type of model used by Bruce Schloss plans to focus more on his in all their CO-OP stores—including the Once the war ended, however, ships were Swedien to mix Michael Jackson’s Bad. background in education, and he recently one on Atlantic Avenue—that sort of repaired abroad at a lower cost. Musicians also can use microphones studied educational technology in a Stan- went along with their outrageous, coura- ford University program called Learning, In 1970, Weidmann’s father purchased from the collection that Schloss and geous kind of theme,” he says. “And they Design and Technology in the School of Cardinal Tank. When Weidmann gradu- Fand have put together over the years. found that the silhouettes were cheeky Education. Currently, Schloss runs the ated from college and started working Some date back to the 1930 and 1940s. and funny, and sometimes they’re pro- RHI Radio program, a youth-produced with his father in 1972, the neighbor- “They lend a really nice sound to horns,” vocative.” As part of the visual branding, radio station with Red Hook Initiative. hood was “a depressed, wild, wild west Schloss notes. Kustera’s touch can be found throughout area,” he says, recounting robberies and Amon, a musician who goes by only one Fand also helped run a nonprofit called the store, from rugs to curtains to wall desolate streets. Some of his employees name and also runs the studio, notes, Create!, which places artists in the applications. And it was through Doonan who grew up in the Red Hook Houses “Our equipment lends itself to nice, rich, schools. “All of us, including Amon have that Kustera met Adler, known for his say their parents wouldn’t let them warm sounds.” been a part of this program and others unique home furnishings and accessories. and have taught and music production to play outside, for fear of gunfire. Since The studio is comprised of various rooms, kids,” Schloss says. As for U2’s PopMart Tour in 1997 and then, Weidmann says he has seen the including a drum room and vocal booth, 1998, Kustera’s work, along with that of neighborhood change tremendously and an amp room and a keyboard room with Amon has toured with circus composer such artists as Keith Herring and Roy Li- become revitalized. a C3 church organ, a Wurlitzer and a Sxip Shire, Then he says, he “fell into this chtenstein, was selected to be animated Cardinal Tank now specializes in repair- Rhodes. “Musicians have the ability to very small niche of playing dance music,” for the backdrop to the band’s concerts. ing and making fiberglass heating tanks maintain eye contact while still hav- and he often plays percussion with DJs, Though Kustera was fighting the flu the and boilers for residential and commer- ing their instruments isolated from each with regular gigs at Turntables on the day he saw the show at Giants Stadium, cial clients, including businesses like other, which enables the mix engineer to Hudson and Afrokinetic. Amon, who also he says it was cool for so many thousands Con Edison, hospitals and public schools. manipulate the sound of each instrument is known as Amon Drum, has played with of people to simultaneously see his work. Much of the work Cardinal Tank does is individually,” Schloss says. “We also have Subatomic Sound System, a collective After a career of conceptual work, custom fiberglass tanks, as well as steel a large ‘live room,’ where musicians can known for dub, dubstep and reggae. Kustera seems somewhat surprised that tanks, notes Wiedmann. Cardinal Tank all play together in the same room, and “We’re very lucky having these different his silhouettes have had the biggest and also does environmental spill cleanup as we record them in that older fashion, people coming through and just keeping most lasting impact. “It’s just the simple well. Like Red Hook, Cardinal Tank also capturing the sound of the whole band it alive,” Schloss says. “I think the people things that people recognize you for,” has evolved over time. playing in a room together.” that come through, they say what they he says. enjoy most is the vibe of the place. It’s very comfortable.

Page 8 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 or two for many of our veterans. But VFW family members, and rendering aid and passes the Doughboy Statue is reminded of 5195 is involved in a much more entailed comfort when needed, involvement in the sacrifices our brave men and woman Letters to way when it comes to living up to the pur- local events and perpetuating neigh- have made. God Bless all American Armed poses of the VFW National by-laws and borhood history by dedicating historic Forces everywhere in the world. Please bring the Editor: regulations. While Matt did mention the locations and joining in celebrations, them home safely to us, These are just a few Visitation Church Petition national Org. in his story, he did not men- parades, and other important festivities of the happenings Red Hook Memorial Post The following Ten locations in Red tion the post on a grass roots level does vi- for the benefit of our neighborhood. 5195VFW’s Member’s involve themselves in Hook will have Visitation Landmark brantly support and contribute financially I’m a Life Member of VFW 5195 since day after day, in between the beers..... petitions for signatures starting this to all the National Org. veterans programs. 1968. As a neighborhood Historian, I can Regards, John J. Burkard, Life Member 42 weekend. As soon as they are filled, They supply the incentive and the manpow- attest to the wonderful help and assistance yrs Red Hook Memorial Post 5195 VFW they will be replaced. er for these programs, and readily involve always available to me in my historic en- Brooklyn, N. Y. the membership in these activities. Some of deavors just for the asking. VFW 5195 and Distribution will continue on Columbia Editors Note: The reporters don’t which are as follows: Annual Memorial Ser- their Ladies Auxillary has always responded Street and Lorraine Streets according to write the headlines, the editor does. Ms. Annette Amendola who is heading vices each May and November to perpetu- to my reqests in the spirit of community ser- up the signature collection committee. ate the memories of the countless veterans vice and comradeship. More Made in Red Hook who gave their lives in service to our nation. Hi Josie Locations so far; I just thought the headline was not reflec- While memorializing those members of our tive of the true nature or purpose of the I wanted to get in touch because as a Red Red Hook Cafe-228 Van Brunt; own post who made the supreme sacrifice Red Hook Memorial Post 5195 VFW. I Hook resident and new business owner I Waterfront Laundry-282 Van Brunt; are also included; visits to the local Veterans know Matt Graber is a talented reporter, would love to be featured in your paper! Bait & Tackle-320 Van Brunt; The hospital to bring cheer and good wishes and and anything I’ve said should not be con- After losing our jobs after our employer’s Ice House 318 Van Brunt; Jus- comfort to those who are disabled or tem- strued to mean otherwise. nevertheless, company closed, after funding unex- tin’s-254 Van Brunt, Pioneer Mar- porarily hospitalized. These visits are made I’m sure other members besides myself will pectedly lapsed, my co worker and I set ket-322 Van Brunt; Nates Phar- in conjunction with the wonderful Ladies object to being classified as nothing more up Kempton & Darrow, a range of hand- macy -376 Van Brunt; Dry Dock Auxiliary members who also run fund rais- than beer drinkers. Red Hook memorial bags which conceal laptops/ipads. Wines-442 Van Brunt; Sonny’s ing drives to donate money to the USO, Post 5195 VFW has been around for a long, The bags also work great as diaper bags Bar-253 Conover Street; VFW Post Red Cross, and other worthwhile veterans long, time. It is a neighborhood fixture and and even have camera inserts for the 5195- 325 Van Brunt. care organizations; tending to a vets family is repected by all of its neighbors. This re- pro photographer. I originally conceived John Burkard, Red Hook in need when requested, to be certain they spect was earned by hard work and setting the idea 6 years ago when traveling the do not fall into the abyss of neglect and pov- example for all. world as a fashion designer. I was tired Another View of the VFW erty as so often happens to the orphans and Dear Editor: I need to comment on the The soldier statue referred to in the article of carrying multiple bags on planes, and widows of the heroic soldiers in our armed article about the VFW Post in the Star is a 1914 Doughboy WW 1 vintage. It was worse yet, an ugly nylon laptop bag. forces who made the supreme sacrifice. In Revue for January’s 2011 edition. in Coffey Park. It had become hopelessly The original bag worked out so well addition to making contributions to many vandalized over the years and Parks Dept they were soon in demand from all of Matt Graber’s piece on the VFW Post 5195 worthwhile charities. Annual Buddy Poppy was unable to prevent these acts of desecra- my coworkers. Now it make all the TSA was nice, but just a bit short on the purpose Drive to help the Disabled veterans across tion. Red Hook Memorial 5195 VFW paid hoops a little more bearable and fash- and reason for existence of this organization. the country. Contributing to the support of for the relocation of this Statue moved to ionable! I would sincerely love for you I wish he would have spoke one of the elect- our National Home for orphans of soldiers outside the post. They also had to pay for to check them out at www.kemptondar- ed Officers of the post, he would have came killed in action. away with a much better perspective, than the redoing of the Coffey Park Plaza and re- row.com. There’ a little more info of our There are many hidden deeds that go the Stars headline implied. “ Serving Beers moval of all the marble benches and stone backgrounds there too. Fiona Kempton unseen every day. Like responding to a after serving our Country is what goes on at where the Doughboy Statue had been since call for help from a Red Hook neighbor the Red Hook VFW”? This is really sending first installed. In addition to preparing the who needs emergency medical assis- Let us hear from you! Send letters to the a poor message to our readers about a fine new site alongside the VFW Post. The ex- tance, or is in dire need of emergency Red Hook Star-Revue, 101 Union Street, VFW organization. pense was enormous, But the Statue is now Brooklyn, NY 11231 or email to editor@ transportation somewhere, officiating on view and preserved for all to witness and True, it is a place to relax and enjoy a beer redhookstar.com at funerals of member veterans or their reflect on, and graffiti free. Everyone who

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 9

Red Hook History by JJ Burkard The Hook’ that’s Not Red Hook f the title seems a little confusing, tirely different story. It is part of what The Island, also called Red Hook Island it’s because some Red Hookers made New York State excel in mov- at the time was a fifty acre island sepa- are also confused. I just thought ing goods across the state, and across rated from the mainland by a series of II would help de-confuse the poor America. It was instrumental in bring- creeks and marshlands, and complete- souls (and just possibly some of our ing the shipping industry to a place ly surrounded by water. This project readers also) with a little explanation. called Erie Basin which was the termi- started by Colonel Richards was destined A few days ago I was watching a visit- nus for all goods shipped through the to change the face of Red Hook forever, and ing couple, possibly tourists, examin- famous Erie Canal. establish the street grids as they presently ing a map of the area and discussing The Erie Canal was a marvelous en- exist. the Hooks location while sitting on the gineering feat whose construction be- The first major operation of the con- bench outside “Baked” by the bus stop gan at Syracuse New York in 1850. It struction began around 1839-1840 and on Van Brunt. One was telling the oth- made its way across the State. After was to cut down the fifty acre moun- for years to come. Did you take notice of the er, “See, there’s Red Hook “I glanced at connecting with the Hudson River, tain, fill in as much of the surround- names? Col Richards (Richards St.) William what the young lady was pointing to on paddle wheelers and barges began to ing marshlands as possible with the Beard (Beard St.) Jeremiah Williams (Pio- her tourist map. It was the hook shaped carry cargo due south ending in New removed earth (so much for preserving neer St. was formerly Williams St.). Erie Basin Breakwater which notori- York City and terminating in the Erie the historic Fort Defiance which once There’s a downside to this story however, ously stands out on any map of Brook- Basin right here in Red Hook. stood upon this very same hill). The and certainly a lesson to be learned. Both of lyn. So much so that anyone unfamiliar Though the Erie Canal construction rest of the highlands, Cobble Hill and these great companies and others that fol- with our neighborhood can easily mis- began around 1850, long before that Carroll Gardens were completed with lowed, while they did create jobs for many take the breakwater hook on the map date, enterprising businessmen were soil from these highlands in a similar people from all over the city as well as Red as the reason for Red Hook’s name. You planning for the onslaught of massive fashion until all the marshland existed Hook, failed to think about the community and I know of course (don’t you?) that shipping converging on Brooklyn, es- no more. The native Indians had some they operated out of. And Red Hook was the name Red Hook as it applies to our pecially Red Hook. Which was to be very rich fertile hunting and fishing left on its own with no help from these con- great little town, has nothing to do with the terminal in New York City? A grounds taken away from them. glomerates, in fact at their mercy, to contin- the Breakwater Hook and originated Colonel Daniel Richards who owned The Atlantic Basin was a little different. ue spiraling downward, never able to reverse long before this breakwater was ever a site on Cypress Tree Island fronting Built on very shallow shoal water, it had the trend. constructed, and long before the settlers the Buttermilk Channel was prepar- to be dredged to accommodate the vessels It was also learned that these jobs were not ever set foot on our shores. ing the beginning of his venture, con- it would be encountering. This phase of it permanent; they depended on the frequency The Breakwater itself however is an en- struction of the Atlantic Basin. was completed in 1842. It was a 40 acre pro- of the shipping or the need for the boats tective basin for ships, and the dredging soil to be repaired. was used to continue filling in the surround- Just as soon as the work was no longer in ing marshland of Red Hook. the ship repair yard, the jobs went away Mr. William Beard and his partner Mr. likewise. The increased shipping indus- Jeremiah Williams, the movers behind try brought on by WW 2 did create jobs this engineering marvel, were also aplenty for all until it was thankfully 10% off Every shrewd businessmen. Needing massive ended. But soon all of this activity was rocks for the breakwater, William Beard depleted, never to return again. Purchase with and Company would charge the ship- The lesson I speak of is the necessity of ping companies a fee to unload their commercial interests in Red Hook to this coupon! ballast at the site of the breakwater un- think outside the box. Think commu- (valid through March 15, 2011) der construction, and even had them do nity and neighborhood. There’s more to all the work. It was necessary to clear your business success than just the in- David Accardi, President the ships holds of this ballast so they side of your plant. Business and residen- could take on more cargo for the return tial can exist side by side. But only if we trip home. recognize and respect each other’s right 718 875-9856 So both the Atlantic basin, Col Daniel Rich- to exist by taking an interest in improv- ards, the Breakwater (our hook that’s not ing the neighborhood where you have 157 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 Red Hook) and Mssrs. Beard and Williams the privilege of operating your success- played a large part in shaping our waterfront ful business. Fortunately this is starting as well as being responsible for creating to happen, we can only hope and pray the strong vibrant shipping industry which the positive trend will grow to contin- lasted for well over a hundred years in Red ue. Meanwhile, remember, that hook Hook while thrusting New York State into on the map, is not Red Hook…. the leadership of this maritime phenomena

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Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 espite some of the weighty topics approached in this issue, altogether the journal does not come off heavy-handed. The humorous text-collages by Todd Colby, and other zippy bits of prose and poetry (which I have neglected here, writing about Krista Dragomer D them is another undertaking altogether) keep this winter issue from be- ArtView coming a collective dispatch from the tower of solitude. Grouped to- gether, the works seem to buoy each other. Before we close the journal, the last image we see is by Colby with these words in large adhesive letters:

THE WAY WE GET BY I REALLY Cover art by Michael Fusco, designer of Cousin Corinne’s NEED TO Reminder] LIGHTEN UP ABOUT A

The space is open. Fill in the rest. Zip back up and snowshoe your way into spring (and don’t make friends with bears). The sun will be here once again, as will the next issue of Cousin Corinne’s Reminder, thank goodness.

Alexander Binder, from his series “Between World

erve-numbed by cold, stepping over the occasional rat carcass frozen into a brown and grey sludge pile covering never-to-be- reclaimed recyclables and repeating the mantra to myself I will not drop my cellphone into the Fall Cafe toilet while negotiating gloves, scarf, a burka-like down coat, and too many layers of sweaty wool, thermal, and heat-tech away from the squat zone makes Nfor a near-ecstatic appreciation of arts that transport me to other worlds. The second issue of Cousin Corinne’s Reminder, the Brooklyn- based arts and literary biannual journal edited by Zack Zook and published in partnership with BookCourt, does just that. The journal covers a range of genres, including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, a Comix Block curated by Dean Haspiel, photography, and an inter- view with painter Amelie Mancini. Contributors include poets Priscilla Becker and Nick Flynn, jazz critic, essayist, and fiction writer Stanley Crouch, photographer Matthew Pillsbury, and graphic novelist Tim Hamilton, to name a few. I began with time travel, a (re) making of the world in David Hollander’s short fiction work “The Limits of Bioinformatics and the Problematic of Meaninglessness: A Case Study.” The narrative is a darkly humorous Cat’s Cradle-like zoom through six days (more or less) of pain, pleasure, and pills that begin it all, or at least life in the western world, with a few monks ohmmmming for good measure. Cooling the centrifugal skid marks of interstellar research with a quieter non-fiction piece by Catherine Lacey, excerpts from “We Don’t Talk About Things Like That” are articulated like an undertow. Opening with an account of her evacuation from New Orleans before Katrina, Lacey details, with an eerie, churning stillness, the ever-present forces that can move buildings, erode language, or can “come into your house and tell you where to sit.” Nathaniel Bellows, in “Plus and Minus” moves us between figure and ground, evoking marks that become negative space giving shape to the question: how do we fill the spaces that others leave behind? And Sophie Rosenblum’s “Conscientious,” a witty 6 line story about a parent leav- ing a child in the park to find her own way home, sparkles and bounces like a prize from a quarter machine. The immediacy of the comics, drawing the reader efficiently into a scene and moving them along panel to panel, is an effective means of snapping back from the layered chambers of the longer fiction works. No less efficacious in their emotional impact, however—Joan Reilly’s jour- ney into geographic and creative dislocation in “Red Hook Blues,” played out by a quirkily-drawn sloth-tagonist and her manimal friends, takes the reader through the challenges of freelance formlessness and the wear and tear of occupational uncertainty on relationships.

ritten works in this issue do not pulse with romance or wanderlust, the horizons are cinched in tighter, the struggles internal. While there are certainly relationships explored, sex and love and travel, as a whole, there is a sense of solitary questioning and an estrangement from the Wkind of life that could easily be recognized by others as accomplished or productive (or am I projecting?). In one way or another, many of the voices in the varied texts seem to wonder, as Adam Wilson’s protagonist does in “Foreign Bodies” what it might be like being real people with real names, a person “with fresh milk in the fridge.” The visual art in the journal tends to occupy themes and positions more relational than solitary. A mother giving her child a haircut in Tierney Gearon’s photographic documents of her family, classical Greek sculpture surrounded by blurs of ghostly spectators in Matthew Pillsbury’s “2010” – these works are an- chored in the complexities of social relations. Anthony Barboza’s photographs in sepia-toned black and white titled “Black Dreams/White Sheets” are compositionally minimal, each focused on a solitary figure on a bed in a small room. The arial van- tage point and photographic mise-en-scène, including chains, a tuba, robes, white powder, and other objects render the figures on the beds, at times elaborately costumed, as symbols rather than subjects. Working with images of people this way brings up questions. It seems Barboza is critiquing systems of oppression, systems which operate on just this kind of erasure of a person’s specific, unique person-ness, which leaves the viewer hovering in all-too-familiar territory. Without another element to offset the tropes Joan Reilly, from her comic “Red Hook Blues he has staged (the intimate texts that accompany Lorna Simpson’s photographs come to mind), I fear the images will too easily please the exploitative eye. Alexander Binder’s photographs offer a prism-tinted escape from the known world. Utilizing self-built lenses made from toys and other plastic materials, Binder’s images are part shadow figure, part myth. Atmospheric and mysterious, perhaps the figure is an entryway into another place (aren’t they all?), a Krista Dragomer portal to a psychedelic fantasy land. ArtView

Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 13

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It’s Not Too Early to Start Working on Your Taxes By Josie Rubio espite the recession, business open year-round, says Rizzi. “It’s no ad- has been steady, notes Nick ditional fee to help you, if you’ve done DRizzi, founder and CEO of your taxes here. We’re ready to answer Smart Tax, at his office at 588 Clinton any tax question you might have come Street. “Death and taxes,” he explains. up. Sometimes people will have another However, the business he founded in child, switch jobs or collect unemploy- 2006 is meant to make at least one of ment and if it’s going to affect them tax- life’s certainties a bit easier. wise, we’re always here to counsel them Since Rizzi opened the very first Smart if they want it.” Tax location in a smaller Red Hook What to bring. Bring in the proper pa- space, the business has become a fran- perwork, such as year-end bank state- chise with 27 current locations nation- ments, 1098s, 1099s, W2 forms, proper wide. Rizzi says he decided to open the IDs and any receipts or bookkeeping first Smart Tax in Red Hook, because logs if you own your own business. he felt the community was underserved, If you’re not sure what to bring, call Nick Rizzi, outside his store at the corner of Clinton and Hamilton Avenue and he plans to stay in the area as his ahead. If you don’t have all the proper business continues to expand. paperwork, says Rizzi, “We would give Deduction will not be able to file until the door with a nice little packet, ready Overall, Rizzi says, the basis for Smart them a checklist of what to bring back February 14 this year, Rizzi says. to take on the next year,” he says. Tax is simple; he tries to give people and make an appointment to see them Keep good records year-round. It’s never Smart Tax is open from 9 am to 8 pm Mon- better service for lower cost. Smart Tax at a later date.” too early to keep track of your records for day through Saturday and from 10 am to 4 is open year-round to ensure that cus- The time factor. If you have a fairly sim- next year, so you don’t forget that charity pm on Sunday. New customers to Smart tomers always are able to get their tax ple tax return, you can be done in about donation or business expense. Smart Tax Tax who bring a copy of the Red Hook questions answered, in a comfortable 20 minutes. Once you e-file a return, has organizers for everything form charity Star-Revue will get $25 off. 588 Clinton office environment, he says. Smart Tax you can have a direct deposit of your full to gambling losses, “We send them out Street, (718) 222-0006 also takes care of business services, such tax refund in less than two weeks. as bookkeeping and payroll. April 18. The good news for those who According to Rizzi, the cost for a typi- wait until the last minute to do their cal tax return preparation can be $75 to taxes is that the deadline is extended to $150 less than competitors. Plus, every April 18 this year. “We’ll be here wait- year, Smart Tax gives out a free gift. This ing for any stragglers,” Rizzi says. “If you year, customers receive a big, sturdy um- have a stamp on the envelope and it’s Spoil yourself in brella with the Smart Tax logo. in the mailbox and postmarked on the a fresh and mod- Below are some tips to navigating this 18th, you’re good to go.” ern salon. Expert in color, chemical tax season. No need to procrastinate, even if you service and When to do your own taxes. “Some peo- owe. People who owe money tend to organic products ple can do it themselves, especially if it’s a procrastinate, reasoning they won’t for all types of hair. simple return,” Rizzi says. The Smart Tax have to pay until the last minute, says Customized cuts for site (thesmartwaytofile.com) has ways to Rizzi. But even if you get your taxes your lifestyle and personality. e-file, as well as calculators and tips. done now, you don’t have to pay until April 18. “And you would know how Walk-ins welcome. Benefits to having taxes prepared. It’s much you owe so you would have those easy to miss something, notes Rizzi, es- two, three months to kind of get your- pecially if you’re not sure about the an- Open Tuesday - Friday 11 - 8, self together,” he says. swer to one of the questions on the form. Saturday 10:30 - 6. If a tax question does come up, from an 2011 Changes. People filing a Sched- 352 Van Brunt Street 718 935-0596 audit to a simple question, Smart Tax is ule A, Educator’s Deduction or Tuition

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Page 14 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 Nahisha McCoy’s Debut Novel Explores a Troubled Relationship, Set Partially in Red Hook Books: by Josie Rubio

ome Red Hook residents know learn from the choices she made. “When There’s also a sequel planned, called The Nahisha McCoy as the PTA sec- you look at your life, you look at your past, Monster Within. McCoy says the new book retary at P.S. 15 Patrick F. Daly and you look at all you want to change for explores the consequences of family secrets— Smiddle school, where one of her your future,” McCoy says. “You learn from something she says is particularly common three sons currently is a student. Others your past. Every mistake that you’ve been in the black community. She says there’s the know her as the Middle School Program through, every bad relationship that you’ve attitude: “What goes on in my house stays in Coordinator at Red Hook Initiative, a been through, every hurt or pain that you’ve my house, and that’s how it goes.” community-based, not-for-profit that been through makes you stronger. You’re able McCoy, who is involved in Falconworks offers support in education, employment, to look back and see what was wrong then Theater’s adult acting workshops, also is health and community development. and learn how to go forward without making developing You Showed Me into a play. “My And some might know her from other those same mistakes.” passion is theater, writing plays,” she says. community work in the area, such as the McCoy says that she started writing the book After being hired by the Red Hook Public Double Dutch program she runs for junior in 2005, when she was in a bad relationship Safety Corps, shortly after moving to Red high school students. and needed a sounding board. “You have your Hook Houses West in 1995, she says, “I fell in And when young men in the neighborhood girlfriends and they all want to tell you what love with working with the community. And see McCoy, they respectfully pull up their to do, and you know it’s from the heart, but from there, I put my hand in every aspect of baggy pants, after she shared her feelings sometimes that’s not what you want,” she the community.” about the droopy pants on her blog (nah- says. “You just want people to hear you. You McCoy worked with Americorps and her sword.blogspot.com). “I tell them I have no want to hear yourself to see how it sounds so team had a hand in bringing the Red Hook problem punching you in your butt if I’ve got you know what to do.” Community Justice Center to the area. For to see your drawers,” she says with a good- more than a year, she has been running the natured smile. “At one point, it was just a middle school after school program at Red to,” she says. “I held onto the baggage of it, joke to the kids that I knew. But it caught on “I tell them I have no prob- Hook Initiative. For about eight weeks, how- always looking for the next person to hurt like wildfire, so now when everybody sees me, lem punching you in your ever, she will be there only in the evenings, as me. So when I wrote the book, all of that just they pull up their pants.” butt if I’ve got to see your she completes her training as a 911 operator. melted away. And so I was able to see myself But McCoy also recently added the distinc- She’s preparing to graduate with a bachelor’s for who I was, accept myself and continue to tion of being a published author to her list of drawers,” she says with a degree in business administration through love again.” accomplishments, with the September 2010 Everest University’s online program. “ I’ve got McCoy’s own story has a happy ending. In release of You Showed Me by Melodrama good-natured smile. a lot of goals, and it opened up my eyes when February, she married a man she met while Publishing. Incidentally, much of the story I realized my oldest son is about to go to col- working at the New York City Housing Au- takes place in Red Hook, with references to After writing the first 80 pages of the book, lege,” she says. “I want my degree on the wall thority. She also hopes that the book conveys the B61, the Red Hook Houses and Columbia however, McCoy experienced writer’s block too, so he can’t tell me he can’t do it.” the pride she feels in the community. “Red Street. The book chronicles the story of Na- and put the project aside. She then met Writing You Showed Me, often at night, after Hook has changed completely from the time I heema and her relationship with Mike, who author Al-Saadiq Banks, after e-mailing him her boys went to bed, proved to be therapeu- moved here to now, and I’m thankful because charms her off her feet. When a few red flags about a cliffhanger at the end of one of his tic for McCoy. “Once I got that book off my I had a part in it,” she says. “I have so much about Naheema’s Prince Charming unravel novels. “From there, we developed a friend- chest, I released a part of me that I held on pride and joy in Red Hook. …Who wouldn’t into full-on disaster, Naheema stays with him, ship, and he helped me start off the book,” be proud to live here?” despite the physical and emotional toll it takes she says, adding that he kept pushing her to on the once-vibrant, self-assured woman. write. “But I had to keep stopping, because I McCoy says that women often have the ten- would go blank,” she says. “Nothing. I would dency to see the good in people—especially always hit this wall when I got to a certain when it comes to relationships. “Sometimes part.” that stops us from really seeing the person, Finally, in 2007, she rewrote the entire novel, and we put on blinders to everything else,” submitting it to Melodrama Publishing at the she says. “And that was Naheema’s problem. end of 2008. On February 18, 2009, she was She put her blinders on. When it was time for laid off from her job as a special officer with her to go, she didn’t because she kept seeing the department of health, and the next day, the good that she saw in him. But nobody else the contract for the book arrived in the mail. saw it.” When the finished book arrived this past sum- The reader, however, sometimes sees the mer, however, McCoy says she was nervous. point of view of drug-dealing Mike, the “I’m more of a background person,” she says. tragedy that led him to his path, as well as his McCoy currently is writing a book called intentions to make a better life for himself— Family Secrets, also for Melodrama Publish- and the fear that keeps him from changing. “I ing, about a young woman who is spending watch a lot of things go on in this community, her last Christmas at home before setting and what I see is a lot of guys want to get out, off for college. But family secrets start to but they don’t know how to get out, because unravel, perhaps giving the main character, that’s all they know,” McCoy says. Camille, the answers to the source of her From the first page of the novel, however, recurring nightmares and the cold treatment readers are aware of impending calamity. she’s always received from her grandmother. At the start of the book, Naheema is in jail. McCoy says she started the book this way so Naheema could reflect upon her past and Star- Hair or No Hair by Pilar Revue Ads for all your Work waxing needs call Matt at 917.318.1052 718 also haircuts & color by appt. only 624-5568 289 Van Brunt St. Red Hook Brooklyn, NY 11231 to place yours [email protected] Facebook: Hair or no hair

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 15

Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 Banjo Picker Alex Battles Cultivates Country in Brooklyn Music: By Stephen Slaybaugh hen Alex Battles left his Battles subsequently began writing songs Kings County together. “I was lonely hometown of Chesterland, of his own. “It was an exciting challenge and bored and wanted to make new WOhio (a small burg with less to try to connect with audiences through friends,” Battles says. “So I reached out than 3,000 people just east of Cleve- original material,” Alex recalls. “I think to all the bands that I thought sounded land) for New York in 1995, amongst the it was Willie Nelson who said something cool and asked if they wanted to play belongings he brought with him on the like, ‘You write these little stories, and together.” Though the festival has been train was his grandfather’s banjo, which if you do it right, you help people get held at Southpaw in Park Slope the last he had been learning to play. While he’d through something.’ I guess that’s my few years, he hopes to expand to include entertain his new friends here playing the goal with music: to try to write stories smaller venues for solo performances in instrument, it wasn’t until 2000 that he that will connect with people.” 2011. decided to give performing in public a go. While country music hasn’t usually been “I was at a show at Surf Reality and I associated with Brooklyn, Battles has had one of those ‘Hey, I can do that!’ “Alex Battles and the seen the genre’s popularity with local moments,” he tells me via email. Presum- Whisky Rebellion was musicians continue to rise in the years ably, it was a night of old-timey country since he first moved here. “There are a lot and not one of the performance art the last band to perform more bands with banjo than there were pieces or burlesque shows for which the at the venue before Lil- in 1995—a lot. There’s definitely a scene, shuttered Lower East Side venue was lie’s permanently shut but I’d need one of those charts the at- also known. Battles soon began covering torney general uses to describe organized songs by Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, its doors in 2006.” crime to get into it with you,” he says. Jerry Reed and other country venerables In addition to the Brooklyn Country Alex Battles will be performing at Ja- at open mics and the occasional gig, but Music Festival, Battles also runs an annual lopy, 315 Columbia Street, Sat 2/12 finding playing on his own lonely, he Battles and the Whisky Rebellion Johnny Cash Birthday Bash, which is in its has morphed into a loose rotation of assembled a conglomerate of like-minded released an EP in 2007. “I pulled it from seventh year and will be held this year at friends, are also working on their first musicians to back him as the Whisky Re- distribution half because I’m crazy and The Bell House. (In case you don’t have it full-length album, which they hope to bellion. Battles and the band made their half because I like it when things go out marked on your calendar, Cash’s birthday get out this year. But Alex still finds the debut the next year at Lillie’s, the popu- of print,” he says. But in the interven- is February 26.) The night will consist of time to play out, often in Red Hook at lar Red Hook watering hole that once ing years the singer has been connect- Battles, the Whisky Rebellion and a host places like Jalopy, which he calls a sec- occupied the corner of Beard and Dwight ing people through country music in of guests playing two sets of songs from the ond home even though it’s a couple miles Streets. (Alex Battles and the Whisky another capacity. In 2004, he started Cash songbook, with videos of the Man in from his residence along the Prospect Rebellion was the last band to perform the Brooklyn Country Music Festival, a Black shown in between. Expressway. He’ll be there with Aoife at the venue before Lillie’s permanently multi-day event held in September that Battles and the Whisky Rebellion, which O’Donovan on February 12. shut its doors in 2006.) brings country musicians from all over Music Bits: Union, Reigning Sound, 78 RPM Disks

Union and The Other Side at Reigning Sound at The Bell the evening will be sharing some of the diums. They’ll take turns trying to outdo the Star Theater, February 12 House, February 18 rarest records on earth. Records played each other while debating the rarity and Starting last summer, the new stage at While this past year Greg Cartwright re- at 78rpm were first made in 1901, and attributes of each record played, records 101 Union Street, home of both a news- ceived loads of attention for the reunion were the favored format until the 1950s that have for the most part never it to paper and a mailing company, has hosted of the Oblivians, the legendary-like when they were largely replaced by the the digital realm. a weekly Thursday night jam faithfully garage punk trio he was in from 1993 to 33 1/3rpm album that Columbia Re- each week. Out of these jams at least two 1998, the band that’s been his primary cords introduced in 1948 and the 45rpm bands have already formed. outlet for the last decade, the Reigning single that RCA introduced a year later. Weekly The Other Side is a modern incarnation Sound, is not to be overlooked. Indeed, Heneghan, whose collection focuses on of the well known 1970’s Carroll Gar- the first time I saw the band play live, records dating between 1925 and 1933, Music Jam dens band CHAZZ, who was talented it was blowing the Jon Spencer Blues will be joined by Pat Conte and Sherwin enough to record at the famous Record Explosion to bits as the opening act, and Dunner. Conte is considered an expert Every Thursday Night from Plant, but later broke up as modern subsequent performances over the years on ethnic records and put together The 7:30 pm - 11 pm. life caught up with some of their musi- haven’t been too shabby either. Like that Secret Museum of Mankind series for All genres cal lives. They reunited last August at of the Oblivians but with a poppier bent, Yazoo Records, a label that specializes Carroll Park for a memorable show, and the sound of the Reigning Sound is pure in releasing compilations of music taken Free Admission, have continued playing together at the Memphis (even though Asheville, North from 78s on LP and CD. Dunner, who bring your instruments Union Street location. Their repertoire Carolina is now home). Country, soul, is an employee at Yazoo, is said to have or at least your ears. is heavily influenced by the Beatles and blues and good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll are forged one of the greatest jazz record collec- the blue-eyed soul of bands such as the together into a godly ruckus highlighted tions in the world and was responsible 101 Union Street Star Theater Rascals. Their blues side shines when by Cartwright’s gritty croon and jan- for Yazoo’s Jazz the World Forgot compen- they perform Muddy Water’s classic ‘Got gly riffs that would make Sam Phillips My Mojo Working.’ Another hot cover squeal. Their last album, 2009’s Love and they perform is Mustang Sally. Curses, put the emphasis on noir cantil- lations of amore gone awry, but expect a Union is a new band formed from two rougher and tougher showing when they Port Authority employees who met the hit the Bell House stage. Rounding out other musicians at the same jam. Stan the bill are New Orleans’ Guitar Light- Kosakowski and Tommy Ramirez, who nin’ and The Sights, a Detroit mainstay both play guitar, had been seeking out with a new album out on the venerable open houses through the years perform- Bomp! subsidiary label Alive. ing their original material, but they found a permanent weekly home at the local 78rpm Record Showdown at Thursday Night Jam at 101 Union Street. Jalopy Theatre, February 20 Together with singer Greg D’Avola and Although billed like some cage match a rhythm section, Union has been play- between record collectors, this, the first ing local venues such as Rocky Sullivan’s 78rpm Record Showdown, is an exten- and IMadeanArt.com since last summer, sion of the friendly get-togethers John performing Stan’s songs exclusively. Crowd Heneghan used to host at his apartment. favorites include his songs ‘Ginger’ and ‘Tell While there will be a degree of one- Her No.’ They maintain a page on Face- upsmanship involved in the proceedings book where some other songs can be heard. and they may play Stump the Chump (a game where whoever can guess the record gets to keep it), the thrust of

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 17

Bites in the Hook Valentine’s Day Edition by Josie Rubio

Whether you’re looking forward to an evening out with a special someone or plan to curl up with a good book and some sweet treats, there’s something in the neighbor- hood for you this Valentine’s Day.

Baked Hearts are steering away from traditional wrapped in bacon, chicken cigars, salmon, grilled bronzini and shrimp arrangements and are highlighting kibbe, sautéed garlic shrimp and ba- and scallops over linguine. Desserts As of February 1, Baked will be of- include chocolate cake, crème brûlée fering an array of tempting Valen- unique made-to-order arrangements con-wrapped scallops. Main courses that take a twist—so icey-blue/peach include filet mignon, honey-glazed and homemade baklava. Call for tine’s Day treats, including heart- reservations. shaped sugar cookies with fondant palettes and jewel tone palettes,” says cod baked with pomegranate and decorations ($4), Linzer cookies Saipua’s Deanna Nairns. served with mashed potatoes, grilled filled with raspberry jam ($4 each), spicy brownies with cinnamon and Great Plate at ancho chile ($2.75 each), red velvet Good Fork Whoopie pies with cream cheese Though Valentine’s Day falls on a filling ($2.75 each) and devil’s food Monday this year, when many res- cupcakes with chocolate glaze and taurants tend to be closed, some are Swiss buttercream filling ($2 each, keeping their doors open and offering $24 per dozen). special menus. The Good Fork is Mini 4-inch cakes ($14) also are serving a special four-course tasting available; there’s Lil’ Angel (white menu for $75 per person. Reserva- cake with white chocolate but- tions are required, and a la carte tercream and raspberry filling), Lil’ selections will not be offered. For Devil (chocolate cake and frosting details of the tasting menu, posted with raspberry filling) and Lil’ Red closer to February 14, as well as a Velvet with cream cheese frosting. look at previous Valentine menus, THE BROOKLYN COLLECTIVE VALENTINE’S EVENT! Please join us for a special Valentine’s celebration! These cakes also are available in check the “special events” section of Shop for unique gifts for your sweetie larger sizes as well, by order only. Good Fork’s website (goodfork.com). Over 20 collections by local artists and designers Complimentary cocktails will be served throughout the evening It’s also wise to order the mini-cakes along with a special musical performance by Blanche Blanche Blanche 48 hours in advance, though Baked Romancing Lilla will have some extra mini cakes on At Lilla, the Valentine’s Day menu, Friday, February 11th 212 Columbia Street (between Union and Sackett) hand on Valentine’s Day for last- which is subject to change, is slated 7pm-11pm minute shoppers. to include an amuse bouche of Blue If you want to share Baked goods Point oysters, choice of salad (kale, with someone far away, try send- blood orange or roasted cardoons in ing the new Baked Brownie Mixes a baked gratin of kalamata olives, ($16 each), available at Baked and confit garlic, breadcrumbs and feta) Williams-Sonoma locations, as well and beet and ricotta ravioli. Entrée as online at williams-sonoma.com. choices are skate meunière, pan- The three choices include Deep and roasted with rice pilaf capers and Dark Brownie, Blondie and Peanut roasted carrots; braised beef short Butter Brownie. ribs with roasted Brussel sprouts and mashed Yukons, and Cornish hen Baked is located at 359 Van Brunt St, with cornbread and andouille stuffing Brooklyn - (718) 222-0345 ... we hear our Manicotti with braised kale. Warm bread pud- Edible Flowers ding, ricotta cheesecake and Queen is an Aphrodisiac... of Sheba (frozen chocolate mousse at Saipua cake with toasted pecans) are the Local floral shopSaipua and home/ dessert selections. Lilla is accepting made have teamed to offer a choco- reservations for 6:30 and 8:30 seat- late truffles and flower arrangement ings, and the cost is $45 per person. special. Call (718) 624-2929 or Now Taking Reservations e-mail [email protected] for more Candlelit Mazzat information. Saipua is currently Mazzat is offering a Valentine’s Can- taking orders for Valentine’s Day dlelight Dinner: an appetizer, main and will be accepting walk-in orders course, dessert and complimentary throughout the weekend before the glass of champagne and a chocolate holiday and on February 14. “We truffle for $40 per person. Appetizer choices include Brie-stuffed dates

Page 18 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 19

Miknic Takes Over Old Lido’s Space By Eric Davidson Bartender of the Month by A.J. Herold

Someone pretending to be Roaul Duke one day walks down Woodhull Street, hangs a hard left and finds himself sitting at the bar of Moon- shine. Low and behold a fine young lady with raven hair, and a smile for miles says, “ Hi I am Anney” Duke Pre- tender says, “Hi I am... well ocal Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens barflies have long lamented the demise of Lido’s, the humble haunt on the corner of Sackett and Columbia that closed here to drink” he proceeds nearly four years ago. Considering the intriguing location near a number to engulf 7 to 10 cups of wild Lof fine restaurants and other barhop-able watering holes, many speculated turkey and then the Q&A when something might move into that spot. Then, in late December, a clunky, mys- begins: terious sign went up above the door: Miknic. And so the hopes of local dry-mouths have been answered with the soft opening of the area’s latest corner gathering spot. RD: What does the term Goon- shine mean to you? The quirky moniker comes from the combination of co-partners in the biz, Miki Mos- man and Nicki Humphrey. On the coldest Friday yet this winter, Humphrey stood be- Anney: When I am here by my- hind the bar, sharing a backstory that promises to bring endless tale-telling to regulars self, and I have no guzzling goons who want to pony-up to the spiffed up bar—one of the few remnants of the old Lido’s. in front of me... Born in New Zealand, Humphrey has spent time bartending around London and RD: Who will win best picture? New York, and working on a private yacht that made trips up the Caribbean through Nova Scotia and into the Great Lakes. On one trip, she decided she missed the Big Anney: Best Picture of what? Apple too much, and told the captain to drop her off here. Since landing in New RD: Who will win the superbowl? York, she has made Manhattan her home for 17 years. She currently still tends bar Anney: Bud Light at Milano’s, 51 E. Houston St. in Nolita, where she befriended patron Mosman. The RD:Do you sparkle in the sunlight? two decided two years ago to start their own place. Both are motorcycle enthusiasts, and on a location-hunting trip, quickly fell for the dusty, long-dormant Lido space. Anney: not any more, I use to all the time, disco glitter is so yester- day “We looked all over the city,” says Humphrey. “We read up on this area a lot, really liked all the shops that were opening around here. And then when we came upon RD: What Misfits song reminds you most of your patrons? this place, we just loved it right away. Though it needed some work.” They dusted Anney: Where Eagles Dare, but well duh out the cobwebs, got rid of the gnarly beer taps, and spent many days ripping off RD: Are all men that patronize this bar leg humping dogs? the old photo-stuffed window box and other wall detritus, and scrubbing down the Anney: “my sister, my daughter, my sister, my daughter...” uniquely red/brown bricks underneath. New taps will be installed soon, and Hum- phrey says they’ll probably increase the wine selection, in addition to the usual RD: How many times have I asked you to marry me? array of libations. Anney: At least a thousand and the answer is still the same “We just want to make Miknic a cool, cozy, inviting vibe,” she says. But though RD: What time do you wake up in the morning? Lido’s had built its rep on a hipster-fueled karaoke night, Miknic won’t continue that Anney: I don’t tradition. “We know Lido had a good little group of supporters around here, and of RD: How long have you been spilling drinks at Moonshine? course we welcome everyone! We just want to separate ourselves. And I’d like to think our personalities should bring in people too!” Humphrey says with a laugh. Anney: since the summer of 2009 They’ve also added a foosball game, with a few folks already planning a league. RD: Physical Ejection of an out of order patron? There are plans to clear out the quaint backyard and perhaps project films there Anney: Buckets, Bottles, & Baseball bats seem to work best in the summer. They also have soundproofed the ceiling and are lining up a P.A. RD: Who is your bartending idol? system in order to book bands and deejays. Anney: Gerry Scott Like most of the other new spots around the area, Humphrey is looking forward RD: Have you ever been shot? to the Brooklyn Greenway project to really get going, and pump up the slowly increasing foot traffic. “But we know it’ll take a little while to get our name out Anney: not like Gerry Scott there, for people to find us,” Humphrey says. “I had a friend who wanted to come check the place out. He didn’t know this area at all, and he’d had a few cocktails The Red Hook Star-Revue The Red Hook Star-Revue Serving the Brooklyn Communities of Red Hook, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill June 2010 Serving the Brooklyn Communities of Red Hook, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill FREE No. 2, July 2010 Ikea Spillover Effect? Red Hook Not Yet a Retail Boomtown in him. He called me from Court and 2nd Place—‘Where are you guys?’” by Kevin O’Hanlon Hook, it would be most ger community, which he credits to Lateshia, who specializes in local em- likely be on a few busi- “an increase in positive commercial ployment at the Southwest Brooklyn nesses in the immedi- activity in the Industrial devel- ate neighboring area, neighborhood.” “Frankie explained that opment Corpora- particularly along Van Frankie believes it is not due to spill- tion, explained Brunt street. that Ikea is a that since many major compo- over from Ikea custom- of Ikea’s employ- Judging from the anec- nent to the cur- ers, but rather the em- ees are local, more dotal results of a recent rent upswing ployees who need to money is brought Introducing a New Community Voice informal Star-Revue and has seen into and kept in survey, businesses buy breakfast or lunch. Thank you for taking the time to pick up this, your new monthly commu- It is no secret that the Red Hook area an increase in the neighborhood. within the vicinity of Ikea seem large- Frankie believes that nity newspaper. One of our goals is to serve as a vehicle to bind together the of Brooklyn has been experiencing a business since it Lateshia grew up ly unaffected. Lee Reiter of the Mill- many disparate voices that make up our cherished Brooklyn neighborhoods. major upswing for the better part of opened. Frankie there would be more in Red Hook her bern Travel Wa- With an eye to the future grounded in the rich history of our past, we are the last decade. Many young people explained that customer spillover to entire life and sees terfront, which open to contributions from those who make up our reading audience. If there have moved to Red Hook as the rent it is not due to the neighborhood is located a few other local businesses if is a neighborhood concern you wish us to explore, or if you are interested in prices are significantly lower than in spillover from as a dramatically short blocks from there were more stores making a direct contribution as a writer or photographer, please feel free to other neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Ikea custom- changed place, Ikea, explained to go to. “ contact co-publisher George Fiala at 101 Union Street, or better yet email Manhattan. With that, there are more ers, but rather which she credits that she moved [email protected]. opportunities for successful businesses the employees to an increase in her business to to open as there is more money in the who need to buy breakfast or lunch. commercial activity. With Ikea con- Our other goal is to provide an inexpensive way for our local merchants to Red Hook five neighborhood, as well as a brand new Frankie believes that there would be tributing to local commerce, the up- spread the word about their offerings to the interested public. Co-publisher years ago because market to sell to. This creates a com- more customer spillover to other local swing that the neighborhood is expe- Frank Galeano will help plan an effective campaign and can be reached at of a new opportunity and an up-and- munity in Red Hook where a motor- businesses if there were more stores to riencing is further pushed in a positive 917-365-8295, or in-person at 104 Union Street. coming neighborhood. Although Re- cycle repair shop that has been servic- go to. With the economic opportunity direction and away from the violence iter admits that Ikea has not had any ing people for twenty-five years is just in the neighborhood expanding, this and crime that Lateshia recalls seeing identifiable impact on business, noth- as successful as the vintage clothing is perhaps a likely scenario somewhere growing up. “Although there has defi- ing negative has come from it. “A lot store just a couple of blocks away. down the line in the future. nitely been an increase in automobile of people blame the traffic only on traffic, people seem happier now”. First Block of Union Street Host to Music & Fun One major result of this shift is the Ikea, but I believe Fairway is equally project that brought an Ikea to Red to blame.” Reiter identifies Ikea as a However, others will tell you that Last month saw two events that unexpectedly brought the sounds of music to Union Hook. When the idea was first an- major component of the economic there is hardly an increase in traffic. Street between Van Brunt and Columbia. First, the corner gallery WORK hosted an nounced in 2005, it was met with upswing in Red Hook as it does bring Ikea has shuttles that take people from opening replete with the requisite white wine as well as a young rock and roll band heavy criticism from many local more people to the area, but it is not other neighborhoods to and from the who set up on the corner and filled the air with raucus, enjoyable sounds. A few weeks people. The most common complaint the sole source. If anything, Ikea raises store in an effort to help with the pre- later, their neighbor Scooter Bottega held an end-of-block party for their neighbors and was that it would bring a whole new awareness of the neighborhood itself dicted traffic jams that people worried scooter friends. Refreshments, including delicious pork sandwiches were served and two mess of traffic to the area. Many peo- and some of the stores or attractions about before the grand opening. If bands performed. ple also believed that there would be it has to offer. one is to pass by Ikea on foot, they are no spillover to other businesses in the likely to see more trucks on the streets If there is but one good byproduct of the unfortunate closing of the Union Street bus Other businesses have seen positives neighborhood and that Ikea could One of the somewhat unexpected than cars, only some of which are ac- stops, it is that a larger block festival may be possible in the future, perhaps joined by in the past cou- potentially take business away from spillovers from Ikea has been at Wa- tually going to the store. new neighbor Select Mail, who at 101 Union is resurrecting the old Star puppet theater ple years which smaller stores. terfront Laundry on Van Brunt street. in a modest way with a performing arts area planned as part of it’s ground floor. they credit to the Although the traffic jams never quite The laundromat opened at the be- After numerous protests and lawsuits Swedish furni- materialized, there is definitely an in- ginning of 2010 and has seen good led by local activists, Ikea opened up ture giant. F&M crease in traffic in the sense that more business since. This is because aside in June 2008. The impact that Ikea Bagels is located people are now coming to the neigh- from the many local residents who do has had on Red Hook can be hard just a few blocks borhood. Perhaps this kind of traf- their laundry there, Ikea employees go for the average person to see, mostly from Ikea on Van fic, which would seem like an average there as well. Frances, an employee because there is not much of one on Brunt street. Owner/Manager Frankie amount in many other areas of Brook- at the laundromat, has lived in Red the average person. If Ikea were to opened up his own business eight lyn, is more of a blessing than anything Hook her entire life. She believes that have an effect on anything in Red years ago and has since seen a stron- else. Anyone who is involved with the Ikea has helped the neighborhood by community will tell you that Red Hook attracting people from all over the is one of Brooklyn’s oldest and best- New York metropolitan area and con- kept secrets. With more and more peo- tinues to push Red Hook in a direc- The following is a description of the gallery space at the end of Union Street taken from ple coming to the neighborhood, hope- tion away from its crime-ridden repu- their web site: WORK is a former mechanic’s garage turned gallery and project space on the fully the secret can be let out, which tation of past decades. “Ikea has had Red Hook waterfront specializing in the exhibition of emerging artists working across all mediums. can really only benefit the community. a large positive impact on the area, I

Since January 2007, WORK and our artists have exchanged and imparted ideas democratically, don’t understand why anyone would Although Ikea was heavily protested Permit 84 Permit

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101 Union Street Union 101 ployees using the same laundromat

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Work is at 65 Union Street, Scooter Bottega is right next door. Presorted is that Ikea has prioritized employ- The Red Hook Star-Revue Hook Red The future is looking bright. Long Walk Home BY J.W. zEH ing residents from the neighborhood. June 2010 July 2010

The Red Hook Star-Revue The Red Hook Star-Revue August 2010 FREE The Hook’s Local Newspaper October 2010 FREE The Hook’s Local Newspaper What Are All Those Ice Cream Red Hook Court a Model for Trucks Doing on Sackett Street? In fact, the ice cream truck lot has the Rest of the World by Eliza Ronalds-Hannon been at that location for over 60 years, housing many different types of food ust beyond the BQE and half a The opportunity to break that cycle retributive This Month vendor trucks all year round. The lot block west of Coffey Park, the Red has proven compelling to courts all one. For in- we expand was founded around the time that JHook Center For Community Jus- over the world - and their represen- stance: In- ice cream trucks were becoming very tice announces itself with a friendly tatives have visited the Red Hook stead of send- our Arts popular on the streets of Brooklyn, wave of the banner bearing its name. Center looking to imitate its model ing a man Coverage... and were notoriously ran by organized The Center represents what is shaping - because to do so would not only im- caught using crime. A great deal has changed since up to be the most effective form of jus- prove the quality of life for residents, cocaine to those times as ownership and control tice around: deep community involve- but also save an enormous amount of jail, which Food! of the lot and its trucks has changed ment on the part of the long arm of money currently spent on criminal may very numerous times. Today, the lot is op- the law. justice procedure. In a time of tighter well push his erated as John Red Inc. after taking and tighter budget cuts, that element family into As Alex Calabrese, the sole judge pre- Music! the name of its manager and head me- is increasingly appealing. poverty, des- siding over this one-room courthouse, chanic. John Red has been involved peration, and explained it, “a community justice At the Red Hook community court, by Kevin O’Hanlon the average Brooklynite’s lifetime, the with the business for almost twenty even crime, Judge Calabrese at the Film! Local Art kind of approach decides to look at the judge doesn’t hand down sentences September 76th Precinct ice cream truck holds somewhat of a years and bought out the previous Judge Cala- f one is to walk down Sackett what brought that person to the back of jail time or probation. Instead, this Community Council meeting special place in many locals’ hearts. owner just six months ago. Today, the Street between Van Brunt and Show door - lets identify that, lets solve court seeks to marry criminal justice brese will send that man to drug treat- Surely, seeing a lot filled with these lot holds up to twenty-five trucks, half Painting! Columbia Streets, one of the first that, so that they don’t keep recycling with community need. “Conditions ment, and monitor his progress. trucks is bound to inspire curiosity of which have private owners who things that will catch their eye is Reviewed through the system.” of release” often consist of job readi- I in many people, as it is a rare event rent parking space for them while the Even in an age when diversion pro- a giant lot filled with ice cream trucks. ness training, addiction and/or trauma to witness more than one ice cream He added that such an approach cre- grams and drug treatment are some- Sculpture! One of the most familiar things from Pages 6-7 counseling, and community service. truck on the same block. continued on page 3 ates, “a better result for the defendant, what available in traditional district but most importantly for the commu- With this mission, RHCJC arrives at courts, several factors distinguish the nity, and for the court system.” a genuinely productive form of “crimi- Red Hook Center. First, it processes Books! Christened on Conover Street in 1891, deathrap for 1021 German Immigrants 13 years later nal justice,” rather than an essentially please turn to page 3 Thought! NYC’s 2Nd Biggest disaster ever Transportation Study for Red Hook Begins... Can a Monorail be the Answer? Hanging Out! Had roots Near FairwaY doCk by Matt Graber ed Hook’s past, present, and Liberty International Airport. But the he last time that the tragic demise of the General Slocum steam- future is inextricably bound to use of monorail systems as urban “peo- ship was in the news was around the time of 9/11. Up until then, transportation. As politicians ple movers” has been increasing in the the Slocum disaster was the single biggest tragedy in NYC’s his- R and transport experts consider the United States and in countries around tory. What brings the General Slocum to the attention of this T best ways to link our neighborhood the world, most notably in Japan. newspaper is the fact that the ship was built right here in Red Hook and it’s with the rest of the city, it is important christening took place right at the foot of Conover Street with much celebra- 35,000 people ride the Yui Rail ev- that as residents we inform ourselves tion and merriment. This epic event was described glowingly on page 2 of ery day in Okinawa, 12,000 ride the of the various options so that we can the April 19th editiion of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from which we excerpt: Moscow Monorail, and the Seattle actively participate in the decision Monorail, which was built in 1962 to “Red Hook Point in the neighbor- event that occasioned all the excite- process. This article looks at one par- connect Seattle Center and Westlake hood of Burtis’ shipyard, at the foot ment was the launch of the fine new ticular mode of transportation: the Center Mall, boasts a ridership of 1.5 of Conover street, wore a holiday air steamer built for the Knickerbocker monorail. Monorail has the highest ridership 12 pagEs OF aRTs yesterday afternoon and pretty much steamboat company as a companion of any monorail in the country, and million per year. Monorail systems are commonly as- all of its denizens were overflowing to the well known Grand Republic just across the Hudson is AirTrain The vast majority of “people mover” cOvERagE iNsidE!!! with enthusiasm, for it was a red letter and to assist her in carrying passen- sociated with amusement parks and Newark, linking sections of Newark please turn to page 5 day for that section. There were flags gers to and from Rockaway Beach in airports – the Walt Disney World flying everywhere in the balmy breeze the summer time. The new craft was and warm sunshine, and crowds of begun only a little over two months The Roaring 20’s are in style with The General Slocum Caught Fire and burned to the waterline on June Red Hookers jammed their way into ago, but with a large force of men was 15, 1904 - defective lifejackets were a factor in huge death toll. thethe RedRed HookHook RamblersRamblers p.p. 1414 the shipyard and spread themselves pushed thus early to the state of com- all over the neighboring docks. The continued on the back page You Can’t Get Ham on

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Drinks and Food to 11231 NY Brooklyn,

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Standard Rate Standard 101 Union Street Union 101 Standard Rate Standard

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Page 20 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 Star-Revue Restaurant Guide FORT DEFIANCE 365 Van Brunt COLUMBIA WATER- KOTOBUKI BISTRO 192 Columbia St., (347) 453-6672. Brunch, sand- St., (718) 246-7980. Japanese and Thai wiches and small plates. Open for FRONT DISTRICT cuisine, including sushi, teriyaki, pad Thai breakfast Tue; breakfast, lunch and 5 BURRO CAFE 127 Columbia St., and special maki named after area streets. dinner Mon, Wed-Sun. AE, DS, MC, V. (718) 875-5515. Mexican. Open for lunch Open for lunch Mon-Sat, dinner 7 days. AE, MC, V. Delivery available. THE GOOD FORK 391 Van Brunt and dinner Tue-Fri, brunch and dinner Sat- St., (718) 643-6636. Excellent food Sun. AE, DS, MC, V. LILLA CAFE 126 Union St., (718) 855- from Chef Sohui Kim in an unpreten- ALMA 187 Columbia St., (718) 643-5400. 5700. Seasonal fare, hormone and antibi- tious atmosphere; menu varies season- Modern Mexican fare. Open for dinner otic-free meats, bread baked on premises ally and can include pork dumplings, Mon-Fri, brunch and dinner Sat-Sun. AE, and homemade pasta from Chef Erling roast chicken, homemade gnocchi DS, MC, V. Berner. BYOB. Open for dinner Tue-Sun, and steak and eggs Korean style. lunch Thu-Fri, brunch Sat-Sun. MC, V. The dining room at Mazzat Open for dinner Tue-Sun. AE, MC, V. CALEXICO CARNE ASADA 122 Union St., (718) 488-8226. Tex-Mex bur- MAZZAT 208 Columbia St., (718) 852- HOME/MADE 293 Van Brunt St., ritos, tacos, quesadillas and more. Open 1652. Mediterranean and Middle Eastern RED HOOK (347) 223-4135. Seasonal, local and rustic/ for lunch and dinner daily. Cash only. fare, including falafel sandwiches, kibbe, BAKED 359 Van Brunt St., (718) 222- elegant cuisine, with an extensive wine Delivery available. Grade: B. bronzini, lamb shank, baklava and small 0345. Bakery serving cupcakes, cakes, list of 40 selections by the glass, and local plates. Open for lunch and dinner daily. CASELNOVA 214 Columbia St., (718) coffee, pastries, lunch items. Free wi-fi. brew and Kombucha on tap. Coffee and AE, MC, V. Delivery available. Grade: A pastry Mon-Fri 7 am-2 pm, dinner Wed-Fri 522-7500. Traditional Northern and South- Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. PETITE CREVETTE 144 Union St., (718) 5 pm to 11 pm, brunch Sat & Sun 10 am- ern Italian dishes, pizza, pasta, lunch pa- AE, DS, MC, V. Grade: A. 855-2632. Seafood, including corn-and- 4pm, dinner 4-11 pm. nini. Open for lunch and dinner Tue-Sun. THE BROOKLYN ICE HOUSE 318 Van Delivery available. AE, DS, MC, V. crab chowder, salmon burgers and ciop- Brunt St., (718) 222-1865. Burgers, barbe- HOPE & ANCHOR 347 Van Brunt St., pino, from Chef Neil Ganic. BYOB. Open FERNANDO’S FOCACCERIA cue and pulled pork sandwiches. Open for (718) 237-0276. Large menu that includes for lunch and dinner Tue-Sat. Cash only. RESTAURANT 151 Union St., (718) lunch and dinner daily. Cash only. burgers, entrees and all-day breakfast. TEEDA THAI CUISINE 218 Columbia Open for lunch and dinner Mon-Fri; 855-1545. Southern Italian fare, including St., (718) 643-2737. Thai dishes include DEFONTE’S SANDWICH SHOP 379 breakfast, lunch and dinner Sat-Sun. AE, pasta and panelle. Open for lunch and din- papaya salad, dumplings and massamun Columbia St., (718) 855-6982. Variety of DS, MC, V. ner Mon-Sat. Cash only. Grade: A. curry. Open for lunch and dinner Mon-Sat, large sandwiches, including roast beef and FULTUMMY’S potato and egg. Open for breakfast and IKEA One Beard St., (718) 246-4532. 221 Columbia St., lunch Mon-Sat. Cash only. Swedish meatballs, pasta, wraps and sand- wiches; breakfast items include eggs and (347) 725-3129. DIEGO’S RESTAURANT 116 Sullivan cinnamon buns. Open for breakfast, lunch Coffee shop with St., (718) 625-1616. Mexican and Latin and dinner daily. AE, DS, MV, V. sandwiches. Free American cuisine. Open for lunch and din- wi-fi. Open for ner Mon-Sat. AE, DS, MC, V. Grade: A. KEVIN’S 277 Van Brunt St., (718) 596- lunch and dinner 8335. Seafood, seasonal and local fare. F&M BAGELS 383 Van Brunt St., (718) Tue-Sat, lunch Open for dinner Thu-Sat, brunch Sat-Sun. Sun. Cash only. 855-2623. Bagels, sandwiches, wraps, AE, MC, V. chicken salad, breakfast plates, burgers, Delivery avail- hot entrees and more. Open for breakfast MARK’S PIZZA 326 Van Brunt St., able. and lunch daily 5 am-5 pm. AE, DS, MC, (718) 624-0690. Open for lunch and din- HOUSE OF ner daily. AE, MC, V. Delivery available. V. Delivery available. PIZZA & RED HOOK CAFÉ & GRILL 228 Van CALZONES Brunt St. (718) 643-0166 or (718) 643- 132 Union St., 0199. Bagels, pancakes, omelettes, wraps, (718) 624-9107. salads, hot sandwiches, burgers and daily Pizza, calzones specials. Open for breakfast and lunch and sandwiches. daily, Mon-Fri 5 am-5 pm, Sat-Sun 6 am-4 Open for lunch pm. Cash only. Delivery available. and dinner daily. RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND 284 Cash only. De- Van Brunt St., (646) 326-7650. Maine lob- livery available. ster rolls, Connecticut rolls and whoopie Grade: A. dinner Sun. MC, V. Delivery available. pies. Open for lunch and dinner Fri-Sun. IRO 115 Columbia St., (718) 254-8040. Grade: A. MC; V. Japanese cuisine, including sushi and Credit Card Guide ROCKY SULLIVAN’S 34 Van Dyke St., noodle dishes. Open for lunch and din- AE—American Express (718) 246-8050. Irish pub with brick-oven ner daily. AE, MC, V. Delivery available. DS—Discover pizza, sandwiches and Red Hook Lobster Grade: A. MC—MasterCard Pound feasts Fri 6-9 pm, Sat 5-8 pm. Open JAKE’S BARBECUE RESTAURANT V—Visa for lunch and dinner daily. AE, DS, MC, V. 189 Columbia St., (718) 522-4531. Kansas Grades listed are from the New York City City-style barbecue, including baby back Department of Health. Those that do not ribs. Open for lunch and dinner daily. AE, have a grade listed either have a grade pend- MC, V. Delivery available. ing or have not yet been graded. For more information, visit nyc.gov/health/restaurants.

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 21

Music & Arts Calendar

CHILDREN zoo Moseni, 2/4 through 3/27. Open Thu- MISC MUSEUM Bait & Tackle—320 Van Brunt St., (718) Sun noon-5 pm. Opening reception: 2/4 Bait & Tackle—320 Van Brunt St., (718) The Waterfront Museum & Showboat 797-4892, redhookbaitandtackle.com. Rolie from 6-8 pm. Artists’ Talk: 3/12 at 4 pm. 797-4892, redhookbaitandtackle.com. Rugby, Barge—290 Conover St. at Pier 44, (718) Polie Guacamole, 2/26 at 2 pm. FREE. Look North Inuit Art Gallery—275 2/5, call for time; Superbowl and Chili Cookoff, 624-4719. The last covered wooden barge of The Bell House—149 7th St., (718) 643- Conover Street, Suite 4E, (347) 721-3995, 2/6 at 6 pm; Crafternoon, knitting and crafts, its kind, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge #79 6510. The Okee Dokee Brothers and Rolie Po- looknorthny.com. New Artwork from Northwest 2/13 & 20 from 2-4 pm; Valentine’s Day Quiz: is now a floating museum. The museum’s per- lie Guacamole, 2/13 at 11 am. Walking people Alaska, art from Shishmaref and St. Lawrence Trivia for Lovers, 2/14 at 8:30 pm; Quiz Night, manent display tells the history of the Tug and $10, babies FREE. Island in the Bering Sea, on view through 2/28. 2/28 at 8:30 pm. FREE. Barge “Lighterage Era” (1860-1960) and how Call for hours. The Bell House—149 7th St., (718) 643- food and commercial goods were transported Jalopy Theatre and School of Mu- prior to today’s bridges and tunnels. Experience —315 Columbia St., (718) 395-3214. Karen The Waterfront Museum & Show- 6510. Night Out, stage show, 2/9 at 7 pm, $10; sic the exciting story of the rescue of Barge #79 K. and the Jitterbugs, family-style concert for boat Barge—290 Conover St. at Pier 44, TV Party: Best of ’90s Valentine’s Episodes, 2/9 by a clown and juggler and enjoy the captain’s ages 3 months to 5 years, jitterbugsnyc.com, (718) 624-4719. On the Waterfront: Vi- at 8 pm, free; Ooey Gooey Valentine’s Comedy “Serious Foolishness.” Displays also include 2/13 at 4 pm. Adm $5 kids, $10 adults, $20 family. sions of Red Hook by Melora Griffis Party, 2/11 at 7:30 pm, $8; Underground Rebel and Tad Wiley, 2/1 through 3/26. For direc- Bingo, 2/12 from 9 pm-2 am, $5-$15; Pre V- bells, barge models and the audio-kinetic ball CLASSES/WORKSHOPS tions to the museum, visit waterfrontmuseum. Day Dance Party, 2/13 at 7 pm, $10, $20 with machine sculpture by artist George Rhodes that 102 Commerce—102 Commerce St., org. Open Thursdays 4-8 pm, Saturdays 1-5 speed-dating; Rejection Show Valentine’s Day continuously whirls, goes loop-the-loop, plays (718) 710-1773, annamumford.com. Introduc- pm. (Also see Museum.) Opening artists’ Heartbreak Haven, 2/14 at 7 pm, $10 adv, $12 musical boxes and bounces in mid-air. Stroll in tion to Forrest Yoga, for both beginners and ex- reception: 2/11 from 6-8 pm. door; Bingo is for Lovers, 2/16 & 23 at 7 pm, $5 the waterfront garden with views of the Statue of Liberty and the many workboats and recre- perienced yogis, 2/6; Rockin’ Yoga, sweat with —65 Union St., redtin- packs; Texas State Fair, with draft beer fest, que- WORK Gallery ational vessels of the NY Harbor. Group reser- a playlist, 2/20; Upside Down!, core strength shack.com. , 2/5 so cook-off, belt buckle contest and more, 2/20 Decidedly Ambivalent vations for schools, camps & seniors available and flexibility, handstands and arm balance for through 3/12. Fri 3-7 pm, Sat & Sun noon-6 pm from 3-7 pm, FREE; Amateur Ping Pong Tourna- by appointment. For directions to the museum, all levels, 2/27; all from 2-3:30 pm. Workshops and by appointment. ment, 2/22 at 7 pm, FREE to watch, $5 to play; Opening reception: visit waterfrontmuseum.org. Open Thursdays $20 in advance, $25 at door. 2/5 from 6-10 pm. Party Like It’s 1999, ’90s dance party in the front 4-8 pm, Saturdays 1-5 pm. FREE. (Also see Brooklyn General—128 Union St., (718) lounge, 2/24 at 9 pm, FREE; Wedding Crashers Exhibitions.) 237-7753. Beginner Knitting Session H, 2/22, FILM 2011, Brooklyn Based wedding fair, 2/27 from 3/1 & 8 from 7-9 pm, $120; Project Knitting Bait & Tackle—320 Van Brunt St., (718) noon-5 pm, $30 per person, $50 per couple. MUSIC 797-4892, redhookbaitandtackle.com. Session H (beginning intermediate-advanced), Brooklyn Collective—212 Columbia St. Bait & Tackle—320 Van Brunt St., (718) , 2/2 at 8 pm; Movie Night: 2/22, 3/1 & 8 from 7-9 pm, $120; Magic Loop Groundhog Day (718) 596-6231, brooklyncollective.com. Val- 797-4892, redhookbaitandtackle.com. Tin Red Hook-themed films or movies shot in the Knitting Session A (beginning, intermediate and entine’s Day Event, more than 20 collections Roof Trio, 2/4 at 9 pm; Smitty, 2/7 at 8 pm; An- neighborhood, 2/9, 16 & 23 at 8 pm. Fundrais- advanced), 2/13 20 & 27 from 5-7 pm, $120; from local artists and designers, shop for your drea Amoro, 2/10 at 9:30 pm; Mason Porter, ing for Red Hook Summer Movies. Sewing Pajama Bottom & Zippered Pouch, sweetie with complimentary cocktails and live 2/18 at 9:30 pm; The Proud Flesh, 2/19 at 9:30 2/10, 17 & 24, 3/3 from 7-9 pm, $160; Sewing All FOOD & DRINK music, 2/11 from 7-11 pm. FREE. pm; Boom Chick, 2/25 at 9:30 pm; Rob Reddy Day Tote Bag Session C, 2/5, 12, 19 & 26 from Botta di Vino—357 Van Brunt St., (347) Rocky Sullivan’s—34 Van Dyke St., (718) Groupe, 2/27 from 3-6 pm. FREE. 9:30-11:30 am, $160; Patternmaking Workshop 689-3664. Green Blackout Blind Tasting, can- 246-8050. O’Donovan Rossa Society meeting, The Bell House—149 7th St., (718) 643- Session C, Skirt, 2/27 from 10 am-noon, $50; dlelit tasting of wrapped bottles, with acoustic 2/2 at 7:30 pm; Rocky Sullivan’s World Fa- 6510. Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Deluka Quilting Workshop Session C, 2/28, 3/7, 14 & jazz guitar, 2/4, 11, 18 & 25 from 8:30-10 pm, mous Pub Quiz with quizmaster Sean Crowley, and Infernal Devices, 2/3 at 7:30 pm, $15; 21 from 7-9 pm, $160; Spinning (beginning lev- must purchase one bottle; Express Brunch 2/3, 10, 17 & 24 at 8 pm. My So-Called Prom, ’90s-style prom with the el), 2/1, 8 & 15 from 7-9 pm, $120; Sewing Fall Saturday Seminar, 2/6, 13, 20 & 27 from 2-6 Bayside Tigers all-grunge cover sets, 2/5 at Coat (advanced), 2/9, 16 & 23, 3/2, 9 & 16 from Sugar Lounge—147 Columbia St., (718) pm, limited seating every 30 minutes, $10, 9 pm, $12 advance, $15 door, price includes 6:30-8:30 pm, $220. Registration for class must 643-2880. Comedy with Yannis Pappas, 2/10 members free; Food & Wine Pairing School, one drink, with $3 of each ticket benefiting be completed 24 hours in advance. at 9 pm. FREE. with sommelier and private chef, 2/14 & 28 the Coalition for the Homeless; Neko Case, Union Street Star Theater—101 Union Cora Dance Studio—201 Richards St. from 7-9 pm, $60 per person, members $30. with Lost in the Trees, 2/6 at 8 pm, $35 (sold Buzzer #5, (718) 858-2520. Cora Adult Well- St. (between Columbia & Van Brunt), (718) Dry Dock—424 Van Brunt St., (718) 852- out); Cottonmouth, April White and Subatomic ness Weekend, nutrition, massage, and 624-5568. Columbia Waterfront Park Visioning 3625. Tant-mieux Time!, sparkling wine from Sound System, plus dance performance from stress-reducing classes to cure your winter Meeting, with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, the Jura region of France made by Philippe Stand Up Hungry Dance Company, 2/10 at blues; 2/5: Nutrition for Optimum Immunity 2/2 from 6:30-8:30 pm. RSVP to info@brook- Bornard, plus Chateau Cambon Beaujolais and 8 pm, $10; Reigning Sound, Guitar Lightnin’ Workshop with Felicia Desrosiers at noon, lyngreenway.org with Columbia Waterfront the Latitude 50 Pinot Noir, Fri 2/4 from 5:30-8:30 and the Sights, 2/18 at 8 pm, $13 adv, $15 Alexander Technique Workshop with Christine Park in subject line for background information. pm; Berkshire Mountain Distillery, gin and rum door; Crooked Fingers, 2/19 at 7 pm, $15; Los Doempke at 1:30 pm, Yoga Workshop with Visitation Church—St. Mary’s Hall, 98 samples, Sat 2/5 from 4-7 pm; Ferreira Port and Straightjackets Rock ’n’ Roll Burlesque Spec- Jennifer Schmermund at 3 pm; 2/6: Massage Richards St., (805) 300-6913. Fundraising Broadbent Madeira with fig pinwheel cookies tacular with the world-famous Pontani Sisters, Workshop with Brandt Wagner at noon, Swing Event with Celebrity Hairstylists Francesco Car- from Baked, Thu 2/10 from 6-8:30 pm; Valentine with special guests Miss Saturn and Ruby Workshop with Jennifer Wilbanks at 1:30 pm; ta and Mimmo Rossi, 2/7 from 9 am-9 pm. Hair Champagne, Fri 2/11 from 5:30-8:30 pm; Cam- Valentine and Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents, Zumba Workshop with Sarah Folland at 3 cut, wash and blow-dry $30 & up; hair cut and pari Bitters Aperitif, Sat 2/12 from 4-7 pm. FREE 2/25 at 8 pm, $15; The Johnny Cash Birthday pm. Workshops $25 each, $60 for one day of dye $60 & up, hair cut and highlights $60 & up. classes or $100 for both days; register online at coradance.org. Everbrite Merchantile Co.—351 Van Brunt St., (718) 522-6121. Open-level yoga with Felecia Maria, bring your own mat, 2/2, 9, 16 & 23 from 7:30-8:30 pm. Donations accepted. Jalopy Theatre and School of Mu- sic—315 Columbia St., (718) 395-3214. Joe Brent Presents a Monthly Advanced Mandolin Workshop, 2/12 at noon, $25; Lap Style Blue- grass Dobro Workshop with Todd Livingston, all levels welcome, 2/13 at 1 pm, $25; Vocal Harmony Basics, with Emily Eagan, 1/20 at 1 pm, $20 ($40 or Vocal Harmony Basics and Duos and Trios); Vocal Harmony Duos and Trios, 2/20 at 3 pm, $25. EXHIBITIONS Gallery Small New York et Petit Par- is—416 Van Brunt St., (347) 782-3729, small- newyork.com. French Industrial Design, textiles and wallpapers from 1830-1930, origi- nal painted gouache designs with the stamp of Design House from the Rue St. Honore on the Right Bank, rare apprentice books from 1840, Parisian art nouveau curtains, American chil- dren’s sheet remnants from the 1920s and vin- tage wallpaper rolls from The House of Bous- sac by Pierre Frey (Paris), through 2/26. Open Thu-Sun 11 am-5 pm, Wed by appointment. Kentler International Drawing Space—353 Van Brunt St., (718) 875-2098, kentlergallery.org. Beverly Ress and Are-

Page 22 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011 Bash, featuring Alex Battles & the Whisky Re- bellion, plus Cash films from archivist Clinton McClung, 2/26 at 8 pm, $15 adv, $20 door. Star-Revue Classifieds Hope & Anchor—347 Van Brunt St., (718) 237-0276. Karaoke, Thursdays through Satur- days from 9 pm-1 am. Jalopy Theatre and School of Mu- Real Estate sic—315 Columbia St., (718) 395-3214. Hooklyn Holler!, Colonial Radio and the Whis- APTS FOR RENT: key Spitters, 2/1 at 8:30 pm, $5; Roots & Ruck- RED HOOK us, 2/2, 9, 16 & 23 at 9 pm; Miss Tess and the 2 BR New Reno. with yard + washer/ Immacolata Giocoli Roseanne Degliuomini Bon Ton Parade and Ameranouche, 2/3 at 9 dryer hookup + dishwasher + parking Lic. Real Estate Salesperson Lic. Real Estate Salesperson pm, $10; Greg Garing & His All-Stars and Doug avail $2000. and Telisha Williams, 2/4 at 9 pm, $10; The 917 569-9881 718 710-1844 Golden Specifics, 2/5 at 10:30 pm, $10; The PARK SLOPE [email protected] [email protected] Little Brothers, Mr. Omuck and the Academy 1 BR With hardwood floors. Great Light, of Ancient Blues and Mamie Minch, 2/6 at 8 by the R train $1300. Douglas Elliman Real Estate pm, $10; Tony Scherr Trio, 2/8 at 9 pm, $5; The 2 BR Great light. Dim: BR 19x9, BR 189 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Michael Winograd, Klezmer Trio and Veveritse 15x8, LR 15.5x10, Kitchen 12x11$1475. Office: 718 935-6152 Cell. 718 710-1844 Brass Band, 2/10 at 9 pm; Kings County Opry, 2 BR With a yard $1800. www.prudentialelliman.com featuring: Dick Oscar & the Ambassadors of 3 BR Brownstone, original detail, high- Love String Band, Celebrated Song Circle (with ceiling, eat-in kitchen $2400. Fran Leadon, Ken Ficara and Kerri Lowe) and Roosevelt Dime, 2/11 at 8:30 pm, $10, king- CARROLL GARDENS scountyopry.com; Alex Battles and the Dang-It 1 BR Tin ceilings, eat-in kitchen, hard- Bobbys, 2/12 at 9 pm, $10; Gene D. Plumber wood floors. Close to Degraw/Bergen and the Dixie Bee Liners, 2/13 at 8 pm, $10; Stop $1750. Rooftops, Ali Marcus and Astrograss, 2/17 at 9 3 BR Conv. to a 4BR duplex $3400. pm, $10; The Roulette Sisters and the Tough- 4 BR Duplex 2.5 baths. Good light, new cats, 2/19 at 9 pm, $10; 78 rpm Record Listen- renovation $4000. ing Party, hosted by John Heneghan, 2/20 at 7 pm, FREE; Jessy Carolina & the Hot Mess, GOWANUS 2/22 at 10:30 pm, $7; Xylophone People, 2/24 1 BR plus den, shared yard with gar- at 10:30 pm, $10; The Pines and Andy Fried- den, eat-in kitchen $1500. man and David Goodrich, 2/26 at 8 pm, call for BROOKLYN HEIGHTS cover info; Steam Powered Hour, bluegrass Doorman building units each w/ and comedy, hosted by New Yorker cartoon- washer+dryer, fitness center, indoor ist Matthew Diffee, 2/27 at 7 pm, $10; Pearly pool, landscaped roof deck:Studio Snaps and Old Sledge, 2/28 at 8 pm, $10. $1700; 1 BR $2650; 3 BR $4165. Rocky Sullivan’s—34 Van Dyke St., (718) PIZZERIA FOR SALE: 246-8050. Seanchaí and the Unity Squad, 2/5, By Luna Park, Coney Island. Fully 12, 19 & 26 at 9:30 pm; Monday Night Trad equip turnkey operation. All utilities inc Seisiun, 2/7, 14, 24 & 28 at 8 pm, FREE; Tues- 1113 sq ft $165k. day Night Trad Seisiun, 2/1, 8, 15 & 22 at 8 pm, FREE. Call for adm info not listed. COMMERCIAL PROP FOR RENT: CARROLL GARDENS , 147 Columbia St., (718) Sugar Lounge 900 sq ft $2300; 4,120 sq ft $5500; 643-2880. Karaoke Wednesdays, 2/2, 9, 16 2,250 sq ft $8900. & 23 at 8:30 pm; A Rainbow Rendezvous with Raymond, 2/3 & 17 at 9 pm; Free Music BOERUM HILL Fridays: Elisa Flynn with Jose Delhart, 2/4; 925 sq ft $2600. Corina Hernandez, 2/11; El Diablo Robotico, PARK SLOPE 2/18; George Gilmore, 2/25. Check the Sugar 1,600 sq ft $2000; 1,000 sq ft $3000; Lounge Facebook page for updates. FREE. 3,000 sq ft $7900. Sunny’s Bar, 253 Conover St., (718) 625- 8211. Smokey’s Round-up, 2/2, 9, 16 & 23 at LANDLORDS - LET US HANDLE 9:30 pm; acoustic jam every Saturday. FREE. YOUR SALES & RENTALS. Union Street Star Theater—101 Union St. (between Columbia & Van Brunt), (718) (718) 930-7999 624-5568. Thursday Night Music Jam, open to musicians and listeners; stage, PA, bass destinationrealestate.com amp, drums, mic and refreshments provided, 2/3, 10, 17 & 24 from 7-10 pm. FREE; Concert Houses for Sale Situation Wanted a truck or van if necessary, and basically kick featuring Union and The Other Side, Saturday ass -- you might even have a good time! Call Columbia Waterfront District - 3 story mixed Need your dog walked? Or your cat fed if 2/12 at 8 pm. Free admission. for a free estimate at (917) 584-0334 or email use, excellent condition, brick, 5 years old, 2 you’re out of town? Need a babysitter days or at [email protected] Customer re- family plus store + 2 apts. 900 sq ft ea. 2000 sf evenings? Wish someone else could bake the READINGS views on YELP.COM The Bell House—149 7th St., (718) 643- storefront. PS 29. R6-addl FAR avail. Galeano cookies you said you’d bring to that pot luck this 6510. Pretty Good Friends, an evening of com- RE 718 596-9545 / 917 453-3651 weekend because you just don’t have time? Flooring/Carpets edy, music and reading to celebrate Michael Would you love to have all your photographs Commercial Property Union Street Carpet & Linoleum - sales and Showalter’s new book, Mr. Funny Pants, scanned and organized on a drive? Do you service, commercial and residential. Expert 282 Van Brunt St. For Sale exclusively through with Showalter, Eugene Mirman, Reggie Watts have hours of home movies on VHS that you’d carpet installation. Eric 917 600-4281 and Kumail Nanjiani, 2/27 at 8 pm. Adm $10. Prudential Douglas Elliman. Mixed use 2-fam- like to have converted to digital files/DVDs? ily plus commercial space offered at 1.550M. Wouldn’t it be great if someone could actually Real Estate Classified ads are $8 per list- Freebird Books & Goods—123 Colum- ing per month. Neighborhood Services are bia St., (718) 643-8484. Punxsutawney Phil Call Rose Anne at 718-710-1844 or Imma at go through those hours of footage and edit it 917-569-9881 all down for you? I’m a stay-at-home mom with $10 per month or $100 the year. Display Retirement Party, with Mississippi author Mike classifieds are also available. Call Matt for Kardos, 2/5 at 3 pm. pet/babysitting/baking and editing experience Barbershop For Sale hoping to serve some of the needs of the Red details, 718 624-5568. You may email your —34 Van Dyke St., Rocky Sullivan’s Fully-equipped. Everything incl. + furniture + Hook vicinity! Please email me if interested in ads to us, or drop them in the mail. Credit (718) 246-8050. Last Wednesday Reading Se- basement access. Call for price 917-701-9902 any of the above: [email protected] Cards accepted. [email protected]; ries and Open Mic, a showcase for published 101 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 All writers and a peer review event for new and Help Wanted other line ads are $5 per listing per month. upcoming writers, with Lisa McLaughlin, 2/23 Neighborhood Freelance Writers: The Red Hook Star-Revue at 7 pm. is looking for freelance writers for both the arts Services Sunny’s Bar, 253 Conover St., (718) 625- and feature sections. We want to buttress our Ironwork 8211. Sundays at Sunny’s, with Myla Gold- special sections as well as local theater and berg, Brooklyn Brewery Brewmaster Garrett music coverage. Call George at 718 624-5568 Storefronts, Carpentry, Stairways, Escape Hatch- Oliver (reading from The Brewmaster’s or email [email protected] es, Iron Rolling Gates, and much more. Call Table) and Alden Bell (reading from his Giovanni at 718-314-2031. Giovanni Iron Work. Great opportunity! Must have Real Estate Southern Gothic novel, The Reapers Are License. Flexible hours, part time, or full time. the Angels), curated by Gabriel Cohen and Movers For more info please call Carol Ann Natale @ co-sponsored by BookCourt, with coffee and COOL HAND MOVERS Friendly local guys 646-210-0103 that can relocate your life, or just shlep your new couch from Ikea. We’ll show up on time, in

February 2011 Red Hook Star-Revue Page 23

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Page 24 Red Hook Star-Revue February 2011