If you’ve been wondering why you haven’t seen Paul Giamatti around Brooklyn Heights recently it may be because he’s pretty darn busy! (more…)
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SNL writer and nabe resident Simon Rich is profiled by the London Evening Standard today. His Elliot Allagash: A Novel
is published in the U.K. this week: (more…)
Happy 5th Birthday, Self-Absorbed Boomer
Flatbush Gardener photo
BHB contributor Claude Scales is celebrating 5 years of his own blog Self Absorbed Boomer today. Claude’s been an essential cog in the BHB machinery and if you haven’t read his personal take on things Brooklyn and beyond now is a good time to check out SAB.
Video Premiere (Sorta): MGMT’s “Congratulations”
Brooklyn Heights resident/ rock star Andrew Vanwyngarden’s MGMT dropped (as we believe is the vernacular) their latest video this week. It’s weird. Really weird. It’s like Dune on shrooms while watching Fraggle Rock after robotripping.
Watch it and read what Spin has to say after the jump. (more…)
H.P. Lovecraft, Master of Horror, Lived in Brooklyn Heights
Just as Ten Montague Terrace had its window to hell in Michael Winner’s 1977 The Sentinel, so an apartment at 169 Clinton Street seemed to writer H.P. Lovecraft, the 120th anniversary of whose birth was yesterday, during his residence there in 1925-26. Born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft came to New York to pursue his writing career. He lived in Flatbush during a brief, unhappy marriage, then moved to the Heights. Dan Lockwood writes in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: (more…)
London Paper Profiles Brooklyn Heights Resident Simon Rich
London Evening Standard photo
SNL writer and nabe resident Simon Rich is profiled by the London Evening Standard today. His Elliot Allagash: A Novel
is published in the U.K. this week: (more…)
Lost Cat Alert – Otis, Please Come Home!
Lost Cat Alert!! “Otis” -an all grey mature male cat from Grace Ct Alley got out an hour or so ago. Please help look for him. All help greatly appreciated. Anyone with sightings or leads on the whereabouts of Otis please call: 917 975 6718.
BHA Sponsors “Literary, Artistic and Cinematic” Walking Tour This Sunday
This coming Sunday, June 27, the Brooklyn Heights Association, as part of its continuing centennial celebration, will present a walking tour of Brooklyn Heights focusing on the neighborhood’s heritage in literature, the visual arts, and film. The tour will be led by the BHA’s newly inaugurated President, Jane McGroarty, an architect and thirty year Heights resident. From the BHA:
[It will be a] fascinating walking tour of film and television locations such as Prizzi’s Honor, Moonstruck and The Sentinel; and of places where writers and artists lived and worked in the Heights from Walt Whitman to Norman Mailer. Learn about February House – torn down to make way for the BQE – a rooming house on Middaugh Street where remarkable array of literary and musical talents lived before and during World War II, including Gypsy Rose Lee, Carson McCullers, W.H. Auden and many others.
The tour meets at 11:00 a.m. Sunday at the Montague Street entrance to the Promenade. The cost is $15 per person. Space is limited, so please make your reservations ASAP by calling The Auster Agency at 718.243.1414 or email to rsvp@austeragency.com.
Philly Phanatic a Brooklyn Heights Native
With the Yankees embroiled in a three game series with the Mets’ divisional rivals, the Phillies, and this Amazins fan uncharacteristically rooting for the Bronx Bombers, I was surprised to learn that the Philly Phanatic, the Phillies’ mascot (who, I will admit, has a lot more panache than Mr. Met), was created by Acme Mascots, a company owned by Bonnie and Wayde Erickson, and run from their Brooklyn Heights apartment. You can read all about it here (and–thanks to reader “Philly” for the link–here).
The success of the Phanatic led Great George Himself to commission Acme to design a mascot for the Yanks. They came up with a pinstriped character called “Dandy” (as in “I’m a Yankee doodle …”), who was about to make his debut when my Tampa homeboy, and then Yankee, Sweet Lou, had a run-in with the San Diego chicken, causing Steinbrenner to declare ex cathedra that mascots had no place in major league baseball. You can read the sad story of Dandy in Gothamist.
Inside Look Upstairs at Truman Capote’s House
Photo: julienne schaer
Truman Capote lived in the basement apartment of 70 Willow Street from about 1955- 1965. On April 26, the BHA hosted an event celebrating the author on the main floor of the residence. Among those reading from Capote’s work were Boerum Hill resident/Brooklyn Heights based author Peter Hedges and actress Lauren Ambrose.
Donald Brennan from Myhomebrooklyn.com sponsored the event and he’s posted a few photos of the affair by Julienne Schaer including the one above where we catch of glimpse of the home’s majestic spiral staircase.
The hidden history of 70 Willow Street is one of many stories on Homer Fink’s Hidden Brooklyn Heights Walking Tour, sponsored by MyHomeBrooklyn. Next tour is May 15. Buy tickets now at Eventbrite.
Bjork DJs for Haiti
Flickr photo via TLC Blog
New neighbor Bjork played DJ Sunday night in Bushwick to help relief efforts in Haiti:
NY Times: ‘Bjork plays a parking garage’ sounds like a dreamy Michel Gondry video pitch, but this weekend, it was a sweaty reality. Above the Auto Parts is an accurately named space: literally above an auto parts store in Bushwick, Brooklyn, it is a parking garage for much of the week that’s lately doubled as a DIY club. Bjork liked it enough to DJ a show there on Sunday night, a benefit for the Haiti relief group Partners in Health.
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