Archive | November, 2006

Bobby Comes to BHC

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Bobby (trailer), rated R,  a "retelling" of the story of Robert F. Kennedy's assasination is now playing at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema I & II.  Directed by Emilio Estevez, the film stars Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Lindsay Lohan and Elijah Wood as guests at the Ambassador Hotel on the day Kennedy was killed. The LA Times writes today about the real "characters" this movie is "reimagining". 

bobby_bigfinalposter.jpgClaudia Puig writes in USA Today: Sometimes it all works beautifully. Other times the stories feel forced or uninteresting. (Do we really need another acid trip sequence?) Estevez's film is well-intentioned, poignant and ambitious. It is so sprawling — 22 key roles amid the interwoven stories — that it's not a surprise that it occasionally feels fragmented and clunkily executed.

That said, a few noteworthy performances emerge. Stone is superb as a good-hearted hairdresser who learns her husband (Macy) is having an affair. Rodriguez (pictured above) is excellent as the busboy who holds the mortally wounded Kennedy.

 

Brooklyn Heights Cinemas I & II
70 Henry Street
718-596-7070

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Thug Nabbed in Heights Heist

department-patch-i.jpgThe police blotter in this week's Brooklyn Papers reports that an arrest has been made in a mugging that occured on Middagh and Hicks on November 7.  The thug held up the nabe resident with an air gun according to the report and demanded her bankcard and PIN. New York's Finest nabbed the 46 year old skell after the victim provided a detailed description. 

The paper also reports that $750 worth of tools and the key to the construction site they were from were stolen.  Cops estimate the robbery happend while the Henry Street site was closed between 3pm on November 3 and 7am on November 6.

Only the lowest form of life steals from a house of worship, much less one with such an honored history as Plymouth Church.  The booty robbed from the church — a bottle of juice and two sternos.  A witness told police she saw a 5 foot 1 inch black man in his mid-20s pushing a shopping cart leave the church.  He asked her for a cigarette and continued on towards Henry Street.

A gun wielding robber made off with a man's iPod and cash as he walked down Hicks Street on November 11 at 2:15am.  The lowlife approached his victim as he was near Grace Court Alley and said "gimme your money."  Police are looking for a black man, 5 foot 11 inches and 200 pounds last seen wearing a gray jacket and blue jeans.

Help put these criminals where they belong — IN JAIL.  Call the NYPD Crimestoppers 1-800-577-TIPS

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Which Way Will Dexter Go?

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Nabe blogger City Crab studies the eating habits of her dog Dexter.

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Bigger Than Borat

516750519339789x22_06jewfilm5_H184.jpgCongregation B’nai Avraham is ready to kick off their annual Brooklyn Heights Jewish Film Festival, which event creator Rabbi Simcha Weinstein tells reporters "will be bigger than Borat."

He could be right. This year's fest will feature three films appealing to a wide range of people. It begins on November 25 and ends on December 9. 

Festival films: Resisting Forces, A Cantor's Tale and the insightful post 9/11 documentary Protocols of Zion.

Admission is $5. For more information contact Levana Mandani at (718) 596-4840, ext. 18.

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Autumn in the Heights

photo via CB's Flickr photostream

 

photo via CB's Flickr photostream 

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Force is With Brigate Bocce in Win Over Chewbocce

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Powered by brilliant performances by Mrs. Fink and Qfwfq, Homer Fink's Brigate Bocce chalked up their third consecutive win today as they defeated Chewbocce 7-6, 4-7, 7- 2 in Floyd NY's bocce league.  The victory brings the team's season record to 3-4 with one more regular season game remaining.

"Do or do not, there is no try," Capo Homer Fink told reporters, in English for a change, after the game. "The lovely ladies of Chewbocce, while formidable opponents, weren't ready for this juggernaut.  Mrs. Fink, saucy vixen that she is, proved to be too much of a force of nature to be denied. Her efforts, including a four-point play, carried us to victory." Fink then scratched his head, took a sip of Piel's Real Draft (the kind of beer your first loved) and spat out this phrase in the language of his forefathers, "Ora andrò faccio l'amore appassionato fatto alla mia moglie per ricompensarlo per il suo sforzo eccezionale del bocce!"

Brigate Bocce's final game of the regular season is 12/3 against Joanie Loves Bocce.

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Today’s Open Houses

166 clinton166 Clinton Street (map)
Town House
$3.25 Million
Broker: Corcoran  Agent: Suzanne Wolf
Open House today 11AM -  1PM

Step into this elegantly proportioned and beautifully detailed, 26' wide double duplex townhouse, in the heart of Brooklyn Heights. Currently set up as a three-bedroom-plus- study, owner's duplex with expansive, west-facing deck; three-bedroom-plus-family room rental duplex above, also with private west-facing deck; and ground floor income-producing physician's office. This easily converts back to a four-story, one family home, with or without the ground floor as a rental unit. While updating will be needed throughout, the inherent beauty and unlimited potential is readily apparent in the scale and proportion of the rooms, the original detail throughout, including magnificent hardwood floors, many with intricate patterning; original plaster ceiling moldings; fireplace mantels, and more. The location offers the charm of this historic, Brooklyn brownstone neighborhood, and the convenience of transportation, shopping, dining and all neighborhood amenities virtually around the corner. This is a home you will imagine living in for many years to come.

1134685-4.jpg175 Columbia Heights (map) 1F/1R
2BR 2 Bath
Coop
$699K
Broker: Halstead  Agent: Eli Ickovic
Open House today 12:30 PM – 2 PM 

2 apartments: studio and 1 bedroom + huge backyard are being sold together as a package on prime PROMENADE block in Brooklyn Heights. Minimal alteration work required to create a magnificent 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms brownstone floor through with 25'x48' private backyard. No investors please.

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The Aesthetic Crimes of Henry Street

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The condition of these signs on Henry Street would be deplorable anywhere, much less in a Landmark District. If this section of Henry Street is ever going to rebound (as it seems it might), aesthetic crimes such as these must be remedied.

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Forgotten Brooklyn Heights

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We snapped this panoramic photo today at 60 Henry Street, where workers are gutting a former newsstand. While we haven't heard what new business will be popping up there. we got a great shot of the sign from one of the site's past tenants – Flower Mart.

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Capote Auction Earns $242K for Charity

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The Private World of Truman Capote auction, held Thursday at Bonhams' on Madison Avenue and beamed to Los Angeles and San Francisco, pulled in $242,000 for sponsor Joanna Carson's charity work on behalf of canine epilepsy and greyhound rescue. Capote lived with Carson in her Los Angeles home for the last decade of t his life. The author and former Brooklyn Heights resident left many of his possessions to Carson after his death in 1984. 

Capote's personal copy of In Cold Blood sold for $7,000, more than 4 times its estimated sale price. 

Not every item up for bids sold, an unfinished manuscript written the day before he died, about Capote meeting the writer Willa Cather in his youth, was withdrawn from bidding at $14K less than half of the presale estimate. 

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Brooklyn Papers Gives Kosher Steak Thumbs Up

In this week's Brooklyn Papers, Tina Barry gives a positive review to Mike's Kosher Steakhouse at 72 Clark Street. The article also tells us that the restaurant is now officially Kosher, not Kosher style. 

Brooklyn Papers photoBrooklyn Papers: Almost Nana's: We ordered several appetizers, and when they arrived, our table looked like a buffet in a Catskill's resort: potato pancakes with applesauce, stuffed cabbage and yes, stuffed derma. (It's a sausage of sorts, also known as "kishka" or guts. Beef casings are filled with matzo meal, "schmaltz" chicken fat, onions and seasonings, and steamed then roasted.) Is the assortment of dishes Jewish nirvana? Almost. The potato pancake was tasty and crisp but lacked strands of the vegetable that make for a pleasing texture. The stuffed cabbage was more Italian than Eastern European; it was pleasant in its own right with lots of garlic and rich, chunky tomato sauce, but I missed the tang of my mother's version.

And the derma. The derma was good. Not as triumphant as the one I recall from Neal's wedding, but that memory is clouded in nostalgia anyway. Domgjoni's is a hefty round of meaty goodness, doused with a deeply flavored brown sauce.

The sandwiches are nothing more than fresh meat piled high between rye bread, which is as it should be in this sort of restaurant. Order the brisket and the waitress will inquire, "lean or juicy," the latter meaning fattier. Go for juicy, which is barely fatty at all. Pour on the well-seasoned beef gravy, but leave enough to dip one of the crisp onion rings.

Carnivores won't be disappointed with the oyster steak. It's a shoulder cut similar to a filet mignon with a soft texture and tenderness, but has a richer flavor. The meat arrived with a thick, crusty, grilled exterior, rare and juicy inside.

When it comes to side dishes, Domgjoni's style is on the spare side. Of course, in a kosher eatery, you're not going to get the usual creamed spinach. Here, the fresh, chopped vegetable is simply sauteed. It's fine on its own, but some garlic and a little olive oil wouldn't hurt. Fries are thick, freshly cut and only so-so.

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Beethoven and the Queen Hit BHC Screen

Now playing at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema I & II is Copying Beethoven (trailer) starring Ed Harris.

copyingbeethoven_tempposter.jpgManohla Dargis writes in the New York Times: At first glance the period film “Copying Beethoven” looks as if it might be following a familiar course. To begin with, there is Ed Harris in a Beethoven wig. It’s a fine wig, but wigs are generally worrisome, particularly when atop a head that seems quintessentially modern American. Then there is the matter of the young German actress Diane Kruger, who had the misfortune to play Helen in Wolfgang Petersen’s “Troy” and looks too beautiful to play a role of any substance. That, at least, is one lesson imparted by Hollywood, where, as around the 12th century B.C., attractive women are often little more than prizes to be passed around onscreen. Happily, the film director Agnieszka Holland, whose previous features include “Europa, Europa,” is herself a woman of substance.

Helen Mirren stars as The Queen (trailer) rated PG13, also playing at BHC.

thequeen_releaseposter.jpgRoger Ebert writes in the Chicago Sun-Times: "The Queen" is told almost entirely in small scenes of personal conflict. It creates an uncanny sense that it knows what goes on backstage in the monarchy; in the movie, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and the Queen Mother have settled into a sterile domesticity cocooned by servants and civil servants. It shows Tony and Cherie Blair (Helen McCrory) in their own bourgeois domestic environment. Both households, privately, are plain-spoken to the point of bluntness, and Cherie is more left wing than her husband, less instinctively awed by the monarchy, more inclined to dump the institution.

Brooklyn Heights Cinemas I & II
70 Henry Street
718-596-7070

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Uni Sushi at Tenda Asian Bistro

SeaUrchinRoe.jpgFrom what people tell me, lots of folks live for Uni Sushi aka sea urchin roe. Feeling a little adventurous last night, I ordered a piece from Tenda Asian Bistro as it was on “special”. While I’ll leave the food writing and the full review to Mrs. Fink, I have to say that I’ve never experienced such a high level of terror over something in my mouth.  Guess it’s different roes for different folks, eh?

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Lawnmower Man of Dumbo

BHB's favorite Brooklyn journo, Gersh Kuntzman, has a piece in this week's Brooklyn Papers about a Watchtower member who is dedicated to keeping a grassy hill in DUMBO manicured to perfection. 

splashimage2.jpgBrooklyn Papers: The Lawnmower Man of DUMBO: The season is finally over for the Lawnmower Man 0f DUMBO.That’s how most people refer to Tom Combs, an elusive figure seen many summer evenings atop an old ridingmower as he cuts the grass along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.Few know who Combs is, but they all recognize hishandiwork: where once there were only overgrown weedsand erosion scars, there are now three perfect lawns, ideal for picnics or sunbathing at the gateway to the rapidly gentrifyingformer factory area.Combs has been the neighborhood’s anonymous mowing man since 1971.“It’s just a neighborly thing to do,” said Combs, now 67.That’s nice for a press release, but there’s a method tothis man’s mowing madness.Combs, a Jehovah’s Witness, moved from Oregon to thesect’s world headquarters in Brooklyn in 1958. He’sworked in the print shop cranking out the latest issues of“Awake” magazine, plus Bibles in virtually every language,but his calling has been those overgrown hills. (For full story download the PDF of this week's Brooklyn Papers)

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Pols Plea For Real Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn Papers: Pols Push for Priorities on Park Plan: A coalition of Brooklyn elected officials is demanding that state planners build the open space at the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront development before building the high-rise condos. “We urge you to proceed with park construction … and defer development,” the six officials demanded in a letter to Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, which is leading the development of the site along the DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights waterfront. The controversial 1.3-mile waterfront project combines publicly owned parkland with luxury condos and a hotel — private developments that, according to project supporters, will generate tax revenue to pay for the maintenance of lawns, public beaches and playing fields. In the letter sent this week, City Councilmen David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights) and Bill DeBlasio (D-Park Slope), Sen. Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn Heights), Borough President Markowitz, Assemblywoman Joan Millman (D-Brooklyn Heights) and Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Red Hook) asked the state to delay seeking developers until it is certain that it will really need all the revenue-generating sites that it has set aside to underwrite the project’s $15-million annual maintenance and operating budget. “We need to insure that they don’t build more than they need to,” Yassky told The Brooklyn Papers. Critics of the state’s condo-and-open-space plan called the letter a “plea for a real park.”

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