Brooklyn The Borough Posts

November 30, 2009 / / Visual Art

Brooklyn The Borough enjoyed a raucous chat with the Yost, where we found out more about his work, his move to Brooklyn, and why the mural he’s been working on for his soon-to-be born daughter features a pigeon and an everything bagel. Trust us, it will all come together.

November 26, 2009 / / Reading

Welcome to the first installment of Undusted, a series that will feature interesting but long-neglected or even forgotten pieces of writing that deserve another look. It’s writing that has aged well, even if no one has perused the curves of its S’s in a while. Like the rest of the BtheB literary posts that will constitute the section known as The Read, Undusted items may or may not have anything to do with Brooklyn.*

At any rate, the following interview with Mark Twain appeared in the New York World Sunday Magazine on November 26, 1905, and describes what Mr. Twain, aka Mr. Clemens, was thankful for on this American holiday. Click through to read it in its entirety.

November 25, 2009 / / Food

Local chef and musician Jessie Gold has been cooking for almost an entire lifetime. The Brooklyn resident has established some local celebrity and a pretty savory cooking gig at locally owned and operated Ortine in Prospect Heights. A sturdy bike, a flare for the fabulous, and a penchant for cooking make it obvious Jessie is going places. As we kick off the holiday season this weekend, and friends and family come together around their dinner tables, I thought I’d ask for some cooking help from a master, and luckily it got me some yummy perspective from this talented chef.

November 19, 2009 / / Housing
November 17, 2009 / / Reading

Last night Amy Sohn crossed Brooklyn’s psychic divider – Flatbush Avenue – into Crown Heights. At Franklin Park’s Reading Series, the Park Slope maven read from her book Prospect Park West, which has caused a stir among the swanky slope set.

After reading a passage from her novel that takes place at Southpaw – whose investors also own Franklin Park – she read a passage that references a character’s fixation on Roman Polanski, which was written and released before the 76 year-old director was jailed recently on a 30 year old charge of statutory rape. Sohn made sure the crowd knew she doesn’t share that fixation with her character. Watch the video after the jump.

November 9, 2009 / / Performance Art

Matthew Maher is a brave man. Along with three other members of the Civilians investigative theater troupe, based here in Brooklyn, Mr. Maher interviewed his parents about their marriage and subsequent divorce for a new project entitled You Better Sit Down: Tales From My Parents’ Divorce.

The show will run at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo from November 12-14 and will be filmed and edited for online release. Mr. Maher will portray his own parents’ story, as will fellow actors Caitlin Miller, Jennifer Morris and Robbie Sublett. The show, director Anne Kauffman, aims to be a unique event in the world of theater, and promises to “reveal the stories behind the statistics.” Mr. Maher tells us about it, after the jump.

November 6, 2009 / / Reading

The unofficial present-day Bard of Brooklyn stopped by Greenlight Bookstore last night to christen the borough’s newest independent bookshop. Jonathan Lethem, author of such notable Brooklyn titles as Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude, read a portion of his new Manhattan-based novel, Chronic City, to a packed house as latecomers squeezed through the door like rush-hour riders on the 4 train. Watch our exclusive video from the event after the jump.

November 3, 2009 / / Music

Over the weekend, The Long Count, an indie rock opera featuring music by The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner and visuals by artist Matthew Ritchie, played its last performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave festival. Watch our exclusive video from the BAM artist talk where the Dessner brothers explain the genesis of their first symbolic symphony.

October 21, 2009 / / Politics
October 9, 2009 / / LGBTQ

Did you know that Brooklyn is the only borough of this great city that does not have a gay pride center? On Thursday, the steps of Borough Hall played host to a collection of Brooklyn heavy hitters to talk about plans to change that.