Lineup announced for Brooklyn Book Fest on Sept. 14
This year’s Brooklyn Book Festival, set for September 14, plans to branch further afield, drawing authors including Joan Didion, Pico Iyer, Thurston Moore, George Pelecanos, Terry McMillan and Dorothy Allison.
Now in its third year, the event will expand to five outdoor stages in Borough Hall Plaza and Columbus Park, plus Reading Rooms inside Borough Hall and a few blocks away at the Brooklyn Historical Society and St. Francis College auditorium. There will be themed readings, panel discussions and an outdoor literary marketplace with more than 140 booksellers, publishers and literary organizations.
“These days, Brooklyn is indeed the Creative Capital of America. We’re home to many of the world’s renowned writers and a thriving reading audience—as well as a destination for culture-seeking tourists worldwide,” Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said in a statement announcing the list of authors already confirmed for the event.
The authors thus far: Henry Alford, Jose Eduardo Agualusa, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, Moustafa Bayoumi, Mo Beasley, Paul Beatty, Ross Benjamin, Charles Bock, Philip Boehm, Mirko Bonne, Jimmy Breslin, Breyten Breytenbach, Geoff Canada, Susan Choi, Kate Christensen, Melissa Clark, Gabriel Cohen, Ta-Nahisi Coates, Celine Curiol, Frank Delaney, Stacey D’Erasmo, Joan Didion, Robert Draper, Nathan Englander, Rachel Fereshleiser, Nick Flynn, Jonathan Franzen, David Frum, Andrew Sean Greer, Ben Greenman, Philippe Grimbert, Paul Guest, Pete Hamill, Theodore Hamm, Kathryn Harrison, Matthea Harvey, A.M. Homes, Pico Iyer, Steven Jenkins, Oonya Kempadoo, Porochista Khakpour, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Lily Koppel, Jonathan Lethem, Tao Lin, Sandra Tsing Loh, Leonard Lopate, Phillip Lopate, John R. MacArthur, Ian MacKaye, John Manbeck, Alice Mattison, Patrick McGrath, Terry McMillan, Joe Meno, Thurston Moore, Arthur Nersesian, Jay Neugeboren, Fae Myenne Ng, Elizabeth Nunez, D. Nurkse, Joseph O’Neill, Ed Park, Jose Luis Peixoto, George Pelecanos, Arthur Phillips, Darryl Pinckney, Katha Pollitt, Kevin Powell, Richard Price, David Rakoff, Elizabeth Reddin, Nathaniel Rich, Simon Rich, Steven Rinella, Cristy C. Road, Carl Hancock Rux, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Esmeralda Santiago, Said Sayrafiezadeh, Ken Siegelman, Amy Shearn, Owen Sheers, Robert Silvers, Larry Smith, Patricia Smith, Amanda Stern, Manil Suri, Paco I. Taibo II, Paul Tough, Nikki Turner, Linn Ullmann, Matt Weiland, Jacob Weisberg, Sean Wilsey, Dirk Wittenborn, Naomi Wolf, Peter Wortsman, Kevin Young and Gary Younge.
There will be a Target-sponsored children’s area with readings from the likes of Mo Willems and Jane O’Connor. Other confirmed childrens authors: Raul Colon, Grace Chang, Nina Crews, Melanie Hope Greenberg, Edward Hemingway, Betsy Lewin, Ted Lewin, John Bemelmans Marciano, Chris Myers, Chris Raschka, Jon Scieszka and Marilyn Singer.
There’s a separate Youth Stoop stage, which will include panels on graphic novels, fantasy and teen glamour fiction. Confirmed youth authors: Holly Black, Susan Cooper, Deborah Gregory, Gail Carson Levine, David Levithan, Patricia MacLachlan, Sarah Mlynowski, An Na, Ariel Schrag, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Paul Valponi, Ivan Velez Jr., Cecily von Ziegesar, Brian Wood, Jacqueline Woodson and Bil Wright.
Brooklyn Book Fest is also on Facebook and MySpace.
Brooklyn Book Festival
September 14, (Sunday)
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
209 Joralemon St., map
Red Hook’s most photographed building is getting a new next door neighbor, according to the Brooklyn Paper, which reports that Manhattan’s shuttered Cheyenne Diner will soon relocate to Reed Street, map.
The new owner’s hoping for a Spring 2009 opening.
Red Hook’s already changed a lot since NewYorkology’s pre-Ikea Red Hook Guide was published earlier this summer. Here’s a roundup of news that’s hit since then:
Home/Made, an antiques/artisan craft shop has opened on Van Brunt.
The current BWAC art show contains a public planner’s dream model of Red Hook, stocked with stick pins, paper and other DIY items that invite the public to create their dream neighborhood — which on a recent weekend included calls for a rooftop pool (in a kid’s handwriting) as well as hotels and better transportation.
When Anselmo’s opens on Van Brunt, it will be Brooklyn’s fourth coal-oven pizzeria, according to Slice. (They’re also opening a bakery at 204 Van Dyke Street.)
Grindhaus is aiming for an October opening, Eater reports, and it will be a “boisterous sausage parlor.”
The fabulousness of the free NY Water Taxi to Ikea didn’t last long. In July, service was cut in half back and they switched to a hand-stamping situation that gives priority to Ikea customers. Hard to complain, except this is exactly what Ikea officials swore they would not do at least until September. So the way it runs now, you may get on a boat. Or you may not, even if you’ve just shopped at Ikea. When the boat fills up, it can be 40 minutes for your next shot.
Shea Stadium seats for sale Aug. 25, for $869 per pair
Before the Mets demolish Shea Stadium, they’ll be cleaning out the ballparkand putting things out for sale. Starting August 25 at 9 a.m., you’ll be able to buy a pair of stadium seats in orange, blue, green or red for $869.
Season-ticket holders get first dibs on their own seats prior to that date.
More Shea memorabilia — such as seat backs and 45-inch sections of bench seating from the left field picnic area — will go on sale at a later time.
Free Friday opera paired with Opera Shop discounts
Prospect Park is sure to be packed Friday night for the Met Opera's free concert, but that's not the only opera deal of offer this month.
The online branch of the Met Opera Shop is preparing to shutter for an overhaul and has extended through June 30 its deep discounts on all CDs and DVDs. Discounts range from 33 percent to 67 percent.
The Friday concert, "Met Summer Concert: Live in Prospect Park," will feature married-in-real-life soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Roberto Alagna singing Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Massenet. Ion Marin will conduct the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The 8 p.m. concert will also be broadcast live on WQXR (96.3 FM) and streamed live on www.metopera.org.
It looks like Brooklyn Industries has a pretty good new selection of T-shirt designs honoring its namesake borough. Among the choices is "Shino City" which the company says is "named for the BKI artist who created this intricate collage of Brooklyn-inspired graphics." That would be Shino Urano.
In fact, he probably had no connection to the Mercedes that was recently pulled out of the Erie Basin in preparation of the June 18 opening of the Ikea that will offer a new mile-long waterfront park and free Water Taxi service - even to people who don't intend to shop.
The neighborhood is hardly the "Red Hook Riviera" the Post called it last week, but the additions of a cruise ship terminal and a Fairway market in the past two years have at least made cab drivers less afraid to travel to the neighborhood long isolated by the lack of good public transportation.
"We are introducing Red Hook to the rest of the city," Joseph Roth, the U.S. director of public affairs for the Swedish furniture maker told NewYorkology on Wednesday during a tour of the new Erie Basin Park.
Although the Municipal Art Society and others have decried the loss of Brooklyn's working waterfront, Ikea's new park makes great efforts to celebrate what remains and actually allows the public some of the closest access short of a hidden harbor cruise.
Not only will park goers get full views of the tugboats and barges that call Erie Basin home port, but Ikea has incorporated many remains from the Todd Shipyards into the 6.5-acre park -- including four gantry cranes, a spectacularly rotted pier, the WWII-era floating dry-dock gate, tools that have been painted red and are on exhibit (including on red hook,) as well as concrete chocks that Ikea intentionally left covered with the original graffiti but added the names of ships that were repaired in the yards since the Civil War.
Video of the new park:
The grassy park will be open from dawn to dusk and it will have its own 50-cent hot dog stand. The new Water Taxi dock will offer free shuttle service to Pier 11/Wall Street daily through the summer. And yes, you can use the free Water Taxi even if you intend to bypass the store and head to the soccer field food carts, Roth said.
The now-legendary weekends-only Central American food carts, which are scheduled to reopen sometime soon, aren't the only reason to venture out into the rest of the neighborhood.
Here's the 2008 Red Hook summer rundown:
July 3 will see the grand opening of home/made, the new Van Brunt Street venture of tini wine bar's chef/designer Monica Byrne and metal artist Leisah Swenson. "We've collected some unique antique, artisan crafted and new contemporary items to adorn your home and your body. When home/made is not operating as a retail establishment, we will host private parties in our garden," Swenson told NewYorkology by e-mail this week. They're located at 293 Van Brunt St. between Pioneer and King (in a storefront made famous when local real estate diva Barbara Corcoran bought the building a few years ago and proclaimed Red Hook the "it" neighborhood of the season.)
If you like Red Hook, you may find Metal & Thread is one of those I-want-to-buy-everything type of stores that mixes new craftsmanship in with funky antique finds (including lots with a working waterfront theme.) The store opened in March.
Both the Liberty Sunset and Chelsea garden centers have significantly expanded since opening last year.
For more Van Brunt shopping, check out Saipua for handcrafted olive oil-based soaps and flowers, Erie Basin for vintage jewelry and Atlantis for used books and furniture. Brooklyn Farm Table is open by appointment.
Food in Red Hook
Good Fork is still the star here, (especially since 360 shuttered and a "for rent" sign remains in the window.) Quality local food with a menu that changes monthly. Dinner only, reservations a must on weekends.
Tini wine bar, at 414 Van Brunt St, directly across the street from Good Fork, catches its overflow on its comfy couches and bar stools. They serve wine, craft beer and excellent bruschettas, cheeses, pates and fondues that make a meal or snack. They also do weekend brunch. On June 18th (Ikea Day) they're pouring "Swedish Cocktails" & "Big Box Seltzers" from 5 to 11 p.m.
Gothamist has pictures from inside the former Lillie's bar across the street from Ikea. Chef Neil Ganic has reopened half the space so far -- Annabelle's, with a garden and full bar with Six Point on tap and a short menu featuring crab cakes and other seafood. There's also a stage for bands. The other side of the enterprise, La Bouillabaisse restaurant, should open soon. He told NewYorkology he'll be open 365 days a year; and for now, it's dinner only.
The website for Anselmo's Bakery says it's shooting for a July 4 opening of its new Coal Brick Oven Pizza & Bread restaurant at 354 Van Brunt. They've already got a second location in the works for 204 Van Dyke Street at Pier 41.
Ikea will have food options as well, including a 450-seat restaurant with some spectacular views. Here's NewYorkology's video of the view taken during Wednesday's press preview:
The Ikea restaurant will be open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. (that's half an hour before the store itself opens/closes.) Breakfast = 99 cents, and the regular menu is cheap as well, in part because, as the signs state, the store would like you to bus your own tables. They're big on Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce and other Swedish foods, but there's also a kids menu and American-type fare on offer. Downstairs, you can buy their foods to-go at the Swedish Foodmarket, including gummy Swedish fish and Abba-branded seafood pate.
Elsewhere, Viva serves a free margarita with every entree, DeFonte's will give you old-school sandwiches to go, Fairway has a sandwich counter and indoor/outdoor waterfront deck and Hope & Anchor is still going strong.
On July 5, the Added Value farmers market opens for the season across the street from Ikea.
The Cheyenne Diner is also schedule to move to Red Hook, but it's not here yet.
Under "coming soon," the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corp. brochure also lists Grindhaus "beer & sausage house with outdoor garden" at 275 Van Brunt.
Drinks
Six Points Craft Ales is still offering free brewery tours by appointment only. They ask you e-mail them at tours@sixpointcraftales.com. However, on June 14 the brewers will be at Carroll Gardens' Bar Vendetta from 3 to 8 p.m. with $4 dollar pints of their Apollo, Bengali Tiger, Righteous Ale and Brownstone.
Rocky Sullivan's has replaced Liberty Heights Tap Room, but they still host bands and kept the roof deck. They've added a full Irish breakfast for weekends and occasional book readings.
Brooklyn Ice House has opened in the old Pioneer bar space on Van Brunt. It's directly next door to the Bait & Tackle bar still going hipster strong.
The granddaddy of them all, Sunnys, is only open a few days a week, and also hosts book readings, concerts, and plays.
LeNell's liquor store is still open at the same location and offering frequent tastings and classes. (But the Brooklyn Paper reported she's getting forced out because the building's owner
"who works for the Balucchi’s Indian restaurant chain — said he did not intend to renew her lease because he wants to use the ground floor himself.")
There's also news of a Red Hook winery, but that's not open yet.
Recreation and galleries
Valentino Park and Pier has actual water access where the local kids swim and the Red Hook Boaters offer free canoe and kayak rentals. There's also quite a view of the Statue of Liberty.
What's the Hook photo exhibition is moving through several locations in the neighborhood, documenting the swift-moving changes of the area.
While Pier Glass is infrequently open to the public (next dates are July 12 and 13 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.,) they do offer one-on-one glass blowing classes.
If you're lucky, you may also find steel horses for sale on Van Brunt.
The Waterfront Museum Barge is open with free access on Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and Wednesdays 4 to 8 p.m. On Sundays it hosts Circus Sundays at 1 and 4 p.m. through June.
Shoppers' update: Monogramouflage, Opera Shop sale
The Metropolitan Opera Shop will close its online operations June 20 "for an update." Leading up to that, you can get 33 to 67 percent discounts on all CDs and DVDs.
The Brooklyn Museum's Louis Vuitton shop is already selling out of some of its new Monogramouflage stock, but more is on the way. (The apparently hard to track down direct line for the LV shop is 718-783-1690.)
The Library Shop is offering 20 percent discounts to all Friends of the Library through June 13. Even if you're not a member, check out their exclusives page, which features a Reading Room Ceiling box, a poster map of Central Park in 1863, and replicas of the Reading Room lamps, (pictured.)
The Times Square Virgin Megastore, -- which calls itself "the largest entertainment store in the world!" -- will close in the first quarter of 2009, Reuters reports. (Previously, Feb. 1 was announced as the closing date for the Union Square megastore.) "We bought the Virgin business to wind it down to get a hold of the real estate," Vornado's executive vice president told Reuters.
Boing Boing raves about Idlewild Books a new travel bookstore north of Union Square that shelves guidebooks with travel literature related to that place.
Carefully-edited kitsch shop Mr. Pink is closing on July 31st, Racked reports.
Speaking of pink, New York's second Kira Plastinina store is under construction at 22 W. 34th St., according to Racked.
Ivanka Trump's new Madison Avenue shop carries "a well-curated collection of diamonds, black onyx and pearls" says Time Out.
A slew of stores are renovating their NYC flagships, including Saks, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman and Ralph Lauren, Women's Wear Daily reports. (via Shophound.)
Barneys is also looking at opening a store on West 13th Street, according to The Real Deal, (via Shophound.)
Artist Olafur Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls continue to take shape along the East River, targeting a spigot-starting date around the end of June.
Here's a roundup of the most recent news, views, tours and hotel packages tied to the Waterfalls project:
Brooklyn may get an extra viewing spot, the Tropolism blog reports, with renderings for a quickie park at the recently cleared Pier 1 just south of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Starting July 19, Sail NYC will start offering Waterfalls champagne cruises aboard the 1920's-style yacht Manhattan for $40.
The Seaport Inn Waterfalls package actually offers views of the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge. For $469 per night, you get a suite, a Water Taxi cruise to the Waterfalls, views of the Waterfalls during dinner at Harbour Lights Restaurant at the South Street Seaport and a free glass of wine.
NY hotel shopping packages, extra suitcase included
The Brooklyn Bridge Marriott has come up with a cute twist on those shopping packages so hot at some hotels these days. They're throwing in a suitcase.
Stay four or more nights this Summer and we'll even give you a new empty suitcase, so you can fill it with all the great shopping purchases you found in New York City's fabulous stores
Rates are from $279 to $314 and are good from June 26 through August 31, but you must book by May 30. The package includes a 21-inch wheeled American Tourister suitcase delivered to your room, free breakfast for two each morning and a New York City guidebook. However, you're probably on your own when it comes to the extra-baggage fee most airlines charge these days.
Here are a few other more traditional hotel shopping packages in NYC:
