LENNONYC -- P.S. 29 Benefit Preview Tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 16) at Cobble Hill Cinemas

 This special P.S. 29 benefit should be a blowout: LENNONYC, featuring a talkback with film director/writer/producer Michael Epstein. Followed by a reception and all kinds of good stuff.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Opt Out of Airport Scanners, TSA Groping

Which will you chose when you travel this holiday season -- a virtual strip search where your privates will be flashed on a screen in some back room (maybe getting a dose of radiation from backscatter-type x-ray machines), or an "enhanced pat down," where a low-paid, unscreened TSA agent grabs your junk?

While you're getting felt up, other TSA employees might be stealing your unattended cell phone or expensive watch, off in a tray out of your sight.

We understand the need for security while traveling and will submit to all reasonable requests, bomb-sniffing dogs, suitcase searches, delays. We don't want to be on a plane with someone who has a bomb.

But now, we don't want to be on a plane at all. Our dignity is being shredded, our privacy lost -- and our damn phone was stolen by TSA agents.

The same ones who will be feeling you up next time you fly.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010, is National Opt Out Day.

As explained by optoutday.com: It's the day ordinary citizens stand up for their rights, stand up for liberty, and protest the federal government's desire to virtually strip us naked or submit to an "enhanced pat down" that touches people's breasts and genitals in an aggressive manner. You should never have to explain to your children, "Remember that no stranger can touch or see your private area, unless it's a government employee, then it's OK."

For more information, here's an excellent article by the non-profit Rutherford Institute.

 Photo from dontscan.us/John Wild/johnwild.info 

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

P.S. 8 Night to Celebrate Reading Tonight (Monday, Nov. 15) at Galapagos, DUMBO

P.S. 8 in Brooklyn Heights presents its second annual Night to Celebrate Reading tonight --  Monday, November 15, from 7-10 p.m. It promises to be a special evening of champagne and treats, (cash bar after) with a great line-up of New York’s literary luminaries.

The event takes place at Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street in DUMBO. (Cash or checks only for donation and book purchases.)

Participating authors include: Stacy Morrison, Falling Apart in One Piece; former editor-in-chief of Redbook, Lynn Harris, Death by Chick Lit; Miss Media; Matthew Sharpe, You Were Wrong; Jamestown; Paul ZeLinsky, Dust Devil, Rapunzel (Caldecott Winner); Phoebe Potts, Good Eggs and many more.

See Brooklyn Eagle for more details.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Erasmus Heart Attack Broadcast on PA; Subway Artists Arrested; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Shocked spectators at the Erasmus Hall High School football game Saturday heard -- over the PA system -- the athletic director brought back to life after a heart attack. NY Post

- You ever wonder what happened to those little pumpkins you put on your stoop?  WYDNKBYANM

- 200 Smith Street -- now you see it, now you don't.  PMFA

- Police arrest 20 for entering abandoned Brooklyn subway tunnel with intent to commit art. TheBrooklynInk

- A Brooklyn slumlord who owes the city thousands of dollars is collecting millions by leasing space to the government. NY Daily News

- Jewish attack on lady trying to help out chickens?  Gothamist 

- The maker of the caffeinated alcoholic drink Four Loco has agreed to stop shipments to New York state. Huff Post

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Sleepy's Montague Street Addition 'Boring' Because of Crane -- Brooklyn Heights

 The three additional floors being built on top of Sleepy's at 116 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights (Brownstoner has a rendering) are going to be "boring" because of the need for a crane -- a great, big crane, not the puny tinker toy seen in the photo above.

The architect told the Brooklyn Eagle in June that originally the added floors were going to be comprised of "jazzy" steel and concrete prefabricated modules. What is being constructed instead is a “more typical and boring” three-story addition because of the need to "bring a crane to Montague Street to install the modules coinciding with last year’s problems with cranes and crane operators citywide."

“What killed it was the insurance for the crane,” he said.  More at the Eagle.

Photo by MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Henry Street, Brooklyn Heights

 Scene of enduring sadness: a memorial to a student who fell from an eight-story dorm window last week at the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn Heights.

Story here and here.
Photo by MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Has Brooklyn Lost Its Bling?

 The price of gold is pretty high lately-- about $1,367 an ounce as of close on Friday. So you would think that jewelers and pawn shops in Downtown Brooklyn would be buying used jewelry like crazy.

According to TheBrooklynInk, however, the local market for bling is frozen. Up and down Fulton Street the “Cash 4 Gold” guys are getting desperate.

“There’s nothing left to buy,” Albert Mandaby at Contessa Jewelers told TBI. He says that anyone who needed to pawn jewelry has already done so. “They’ve sold everything,” he says.

More here. 

Photo by Covilha, Creative Commons license

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

'Theater of the Absurd,' at Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn Heights

Ever walk by the window gallery at Saint Ann's School on Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights? This month you'll see dozens of colorful 3D depictions representing "Theatre of the Absurd" and "The Five Senses."

The works consist of eyeballs, noses, etc. on sticks in front of colorful backdrops. They were created by 4th and 5th graders and M. Gingras, teacher.

The art in the window gallery is always kind of cool. Here are some more pieces created by Gingas' students.

Photos by MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Getting Naked at Brooklyn Law School; Veterans Pissed; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Friday's fire at 17th Street and 5th Ave. in Brooklyn: details from commenters.  Brownstoner

- Half-naked Diesel models in Brooklyn Law School library "shocks" BLS.  Brooklyn Eagle

- Veterans pissed at condition of Brooklyn's WWII War Memorial.  Brooklyn Paper

- NYU adjunct professors are about to go on strike. What about Polytechnic adjunct professors, whose salaries remain shrouded in mystery?  NYUNews and  Poverty in America

- Who knew that electing cretins as governors in other states might be a boon to NY's rail infrastructure? Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens

- For real? McCarren Park wins "Best Park in America" contest.  Brooklyn Eagle

- Why Facebook probably isn't launching an email service.  Fast Company 

- Why Facebook probably IS launching an email service.  Gizmoto 

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Catching Up with Love Lane Mews, Brooklyn Heights

Love Lane Mews is still behind schedule but workers can be seen scurrying about the residential development at Love Lane and College Place in Brooklyn Heights, shown above. The five adjoining buildings on the west side of College Place used to be the the Love Lane Parking Garage. (Photo here.)

In addition, the condo information center, shown here, has opened on Montague Street. Commentors on the Brownstoner blog say that two bedrooms at the block-long project will be going for $1.4 million, with parking spaces for $250,000.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, one reason complications arose was because the five adjoining buildings have different levels. All the levels have to match at the cellar level that will be common to all the buildings. In addition, they are all made from different materials.

We saw workmen inside the  roofless structure on the east side of College Place as well.

Here's what Love Lane Mews is supposed to look like when it's finished, from their web site.

Top two photos by MK Metz

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.