In Spite of Rain, Crowds at 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival

Book lovers came out in the rain yesterday for the fifth annual Brooklyn Book Festival at Brooklyn Borough Hall and environs. There were plenty of opportunities to see your favorite authors -- more than 200 writers presented on panels, did readings and signed books (luckily, many events were inside).

Just a few examples: Salman Rushdie spoke with  novelist, poet and dancer Tishani Doshi about her new novel The Pleasure Seekers; Nobel Prize–winner Paul Krugman and economist Robin Wells spoke about the economy with Jeff Madrick and Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review of Books. Novelist Helen Simonson discussed her first book (a hit) Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, while Paul Auster conversed with John Ashbery, this year’s 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival BoBi Award winner.

 Children stayed dry and comfy under the tent in the Target Children's Area as children's book authors read to them -- some brought giant-sized books that even kids in the back could see. Teens and young adults had their own "Youth Stoop" where they could hear contemporary writers like Newbery Award winner Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me).

Piper Kerman (Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison), Darin Strauss (Half a Life), Kathryn Harrison (The Kiss), and Nelson George (City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success), spoke with Elizabeth Wurtzel (Prozac Nation) as part of the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe.

Saint Francis College, one of the major venues, was packed and books were flying off the tables. Many of the events were "sold out" in spite of the rain.

Once again, the Brooklyn Book Festival was both great fun and a great literary event.

Past Book Festival posts here.

Photos by MK Metz

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Taking In the Herman Behr Mansion in Brooklyn Heights

Tour-takers in Brooklyn Heights admire the landmark Herman Behr Mansion at Henry and Pierrepont streets in Brooklyn Heights.

There was a bit of giggling about some of the more illicit uses the mansion has been put to throughout its history.

The residence has been at various times the Palm Hotel, a bordello, the Franciscan House of Studies (and a place for monks to dry out), and a condo. Rumor has it that the top floor is haunted.

More about the mansion here and here.

Photos by MK Metz

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Brooklyn Book Festival 2010: Where to Go, What to Do

The Brooklyn Book Festival takes place today (Sunday, Sept.12, 2010) from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. This top literary event takes place at Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza (209 Joralemon Street) and at nearby sites like St. Francis College.

Some of the big names there include Salman Rushdie, Venus Williams, Sarah Silverman, Paul Krugman, Dennis Lehane, Paul Auster, Naomi Klein, Gary Shteyngart, Rosanne Cash, Pete Hamill, Russell Banks, Michael Connelly, and hundreds more. Plus children’s and young adult lit stars like Rebecca Stead, Sara Shepard, Jenny Han, and Tad Hills. 


How to get there: transportation link here.

Important to know: Book tables, author panel discussions and children's events take place right in the Plaza.  Major programs, which take place in the Brooklyn Borough Hall Courtroom and St. Francis College Auditorium, are ticketed. Free tickets will be distributed one hour before the start of the program from the Brooklyn Book Festival Information Booths.

Schedule: Here's a link to the schedule. Events occur all day. Take a look before you go! 

Afterwords: There are several after-the-fest events Sunday evening. One is a free screening of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, based on the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan. SyFy and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy will provide Orion telescopes and the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York will be on-hand to help you locate stars and planets in the night sky. Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7 p.m. More after-events here.

Photos by MK Metz

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Eight-Year-Old's YouTube Video Gets More Than 100,000 Hits - UPDATED

It all started Wednesday evening when a dad wrote to the popular web site Reddit and asked readers to view his eight-year-old son's YouTube video and leave a comment.

"He checks it constantly hoping to get views and comments," dad wrote. "He has 4 views which are all him. I was hoping some super awesome redditors would view his How to Build a Lego Snow Trooper Mini Figure and make his day," he wrote. 

 It seems that Reddit was the right place to go. As of 4:30 Thursday afternoon, 72,234 people viewed his cute little video (before the counter seemed to get stuck) and 6,913 people left comments.

If you want to watch the video and leave a comment, look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD89iqpwPXM

UPDATE: It's up to roughly 98,000 views as of 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning.
UPDATE2:  More than 102,000 views by 10 p.m. Saturday.

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Streetcars in Brooklyn, Bad Cops and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Days after BP Marty Markowitz talked streetcar champion Bob Diamond into staying in Brooklyn, the city announced the start of a five-month study to determine the feasibility of a streetcar network linking Red Hook with Downtown Brooklyn and surrounding neighborhoods. Brooklyn Eagle 

- A corrections officer posing as a cop is charged in a Fort Greene mugging.  The Local

- Ozzie's on 5th Ave. shut down by the DOH.  Brownstoner

- In a secret recording made in a police station in Brooklyn, persuasive evidence of the existence of quotas. NY Times 

- Four men are charged with cheating people by telling them they'd won the "$5 Million Princess Diana Lottery." Crain's NY

- Parents are demanding that the Dept. of Education test more than 700 school buildings for the presence of toxic PCBs.  Brooklyn Eagle


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What Happens If An Asteroid Crashes 25 Miles South of Brooklyn

A while back those crazy kids out at Sandia National Labs ("Securing a Peaceful and Free World Through Technology") worked out a complex computer simulation of an asteroid 1.4 kilometers in diameter striking the Atlantic Ocean 25 miles south of Brooklyn.

 Here's what they said would happen: Five seconds after the asteroid crashes, an "impact plume" containing superheated water, earth, and other debris blankets major portions of Long Island. (The viewpoint shown above is from a location about 100 kilometers west of New York City looking east. Long Island trails off in the distance. Click on rendering to enlarge.)

Eleven seconds after impact, Long Island, Brooklyn and the New York shoreline are engulfed in debris and superheated steam. All of Metro New York and most of New England are soon vaporized. Secondary earthquakes and flooding could affect the U.S. all the way to California.

According to Sandia, an impact of this magnitude can be expected to occur on Earth about once every 300,000 years. These projectiles are called Near Earth Objects, or NEOs.

NASA is actually quite concerned about NEOs. Several teams of astronomers worldwide are surveying the sky to find them. Statistically, NASA says, you have about one chance in 40,000 of dying as a result of a collision.

Two small asteroids flew close by on September 8th. You can see all the asteroids and other NEOs that pass nearby here and here.

A company called Spaceworks Engineering Inc (SEI), with a grant from NASA, designed an approach to deflect an asteroid or comet before it hits the Earth. It's called Modular Asteroid Deflection Mission Ejector Node, or (and we're not joking), "MADMEN."

Top illustration by Don Davis, courtesy of NASA. Two renderings by Sandia National Labs.

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Politicians As Thick As Flies On First Day of School in Brooklyn Heights

 As parents picked up their children at P.S. 8 in Brooklyn Heights after the first day of school today, politicians swarmed the gathering crowd. Jesse Strauss (shown above) handed out flyers and said his goal was a new middle school in the district. Steve Williamson and his brother (who used to teach at P.S. 8) passed out campaign literature while State Senator Daniel Squadron handed out Parent Resource Guides. Doug Biviano (whose kids attend P.S. 8) was again showing his outrage at Albany's corruption and dysfunctionalism.

Must be an election coming up!

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Bedbugs + Google = Wonderful Logo Opportunity

 A spokeswoman for Google told the Wall Street Journal Friday that bedbugs had found their way into Google's New York offices in Chelsea.

 “Like several other businesses in New York City, we’ve discovered bedbugs in a small area of our office,” the spokeswoman said.

What a wonderful opportuity to unveil the new Google logo-of-the-day!

More Brooklyn bedbug news here. 

Image by MK Metz

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Sunset From the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Beautiful sunsets we've been having recently, as seen from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

Photo by MK Metz

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West Indian American Day Parade Draws Millions to Crown Heights, Brooklyn

The 43rd annual West Indian American Day Parade snaked along Eastern Parkway from Rochester Avenue to the Brooklyn Museum in perfect weather yesterday -- one block shorter than usual (a cost-cutting move). Several estimates put more than three million in attendance at the "largest carnival parade in North America."
 
 The above is a video from CBS. 

- Nice description of this year's parade at Caribbean Life News.
- After a Tough Year, New York's Haitians Gather  NY Times 
- More at NY1.

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