We had so much fun last time that were doing it again! The second CHB/CHC Karaoke Night will be held at Mirrors on Grand on Wednesday, March 25. Bring your friends and your vocal cords. We'll also be celebrating CHC's One Year Anniversary!
See you there.
Goodbye Blue Monday is an unpretentiously weird bar/café/internet hub that sits on the border of Bed Stuy and Bushwick (the management is now terming this ‘Bushstuy’). While this fact would otherwise remain unremarkable, what makes GBM worth checking out is its position in the local, national and international music scene as a go-to place to book a quick gig in New York (every musician for miles knows this). The bar hosts nightly free music of all varieties—I saw a weird progressive freejazz group, followed by a more traditional upright bass and saxophone duo, a few Tuesdays ago. The bands/shows the club books are as eclectic and eccentric as the interior decorating, which is mostly a randomly arranged mishmash of retro collectibles, thrift store furnishings and nostalgia-inducing signage (flotsam and jetsam, anyone?). I’ve seen everything from indie rock to solo acoustic singer-songwriter stuff, sad bastard to glitchy noise at GBM. Once my band even played a show there on a second outdoor stage, while a strange mixture of circus/cabaret thing happened in the front room.
Anyway, it’s nice to know that this somewhat under-the-radar little gem is right here in our neck of Brooklyn. Definitely worth stopping by, sipping a Red Stripe and watching whatever happens to be going down on stage.
Goodbye Blue Monday
1087 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 11221
They are really releasing an album but they are only sort of local. 1/2 of the group Sparkly Fin live in Clinton Hill. This half of the group is named Emily, who provides the vocals, and she decided to stay in the hood after graduating from Pratt this past May. The other half is tastefully called Joseph, who lives in Baltimore, and he provides all other instrumentation. This week (1/27/09) they are releasing their first album, High Pive.
Sparkly Fin fit nicely into the cotillion of contemporary bands who embrace the electro-acoustic spectrum with heart and soul. Their myspace page used to proclaim that sounded like "Kate Bush kissing a pinball machine." While I agree with their self-diagnosis, I will offer my own egregious (yet loving) analogy: Otis Redding making out with M. I. A. at a bris hosted for any male offspring of Thom Yorke. What I'm saying, in lay terms, is that they are very sensitive to their tone, which usually doesn't get such attention in predominantly electronic music. Also, they have an undeniably eclectic pop sensibility that contains sincerity as well as irony in a seemingly unpretentious way. This sets them apart from the ideas that usually seem to spring out of the invisible retinues that follow around many a BK band. Plain and simple, it's electro-pop music that is built to last. As a final addendum, they encourage dancing.
To celebrate the release they are going to be having an intimate performance this coming Saturday (1/31/09) at Emily's apartment on Atlantic at 10pm. Email the band for address/directions.
If you missed any of the hyperlinks:
www.sparklyfin.com www.myspace.com/adingsparklyfin sparklyfin@gmail.com
A special thanks to all who came out for CHB-CHC Karaoke Night last night! We have some talented folks in the neighborhood. Special thanks to Mirrors Owner Michelle for welcoming us!
CHC and I agreed that we need to do it again, maybe next month. Stay tuned!
We're teaming up with our pal Clinton Hill Chill to throw a neighborhood karaoke night next Wednesday. We tried to get this together before Christmas, but things were just too busy. We decided to set it up for January to give everyone something fun to do on a blustery night!
Infrequent Seams Series::A twice-monthly series of edgy, creative music, co-curated by James Ilgenfritz and Julianne Carney $8 Suggested (but we're flexible!) 8 PM - 11 PM First & Third Thursdays* www.myspace.com/infrequentseams
December 18 Nate Wooley / Dan Levin A Mown Lawn: Jacob Wick / Judith Berkson / Curtis Hasselbring / Josh Sinton / Jessie Marino
*We're taking January off, so this is your last chance to visit Le Grand Dakar on Thursdays until February!
Some really fabulous musicians this month...stop by to support local music!
I've long assumed this bar on Classon Ave was unused. However, it's sporting a new sign!
Has anyone ever been inside? What's behind that purple curtain in the window?
December EventsTillie’s of Brooklyn 248 DeKalb Avenue Brooklyn NY 11205 718 783-6140 www.tilliesofbrooklyn.com
Friday 12/5/08 8 p.m. Nico Soffiato Quartet Nico Soffiato, guitar Nick Videen, alto sax Giacomo Merega, bass Zach Mangan, drums
The music of the Nico Soffiato Quartet travels through several musical trajectories that simultaneously comforts and challenges any listener. While its roots are strongly grounded in the jazz tradition, its routes move towards complex rhythmic and harmonic structures, creating a melodic soundscape in flux with every groove. For more information and audio samples, see www.myspace.com/nicojazz.
Cover: $5; $3 with student ID
Tuesday 12/9/08 4:30 p.m. Rolie Polie Guacamole Now a monthly feature due to popular demand, Frank Gallo and Andrew Tuzhilin bring a fresh new acoustic funk to children’s music. Appropriate for both kids and adults, suggested age range for kids is 1 – 7. Please note that strollers must be left outside due to space constraints within Tillie’s. A minder will be on-site. Cover: $5
Friday 12/12/08 8 p.m. Newxotica David Caldwell-Mason, keys Keith Drogan, vibes Eyal Maoz, guitar Andy O’Neill, drums
Newxotica plays/explores the musical world known as “'EXOTICA”, drawing inspirations from many sources, including Duke Ellington’s big band jazz, and soul, but especially the music of the great composers Martin Denny and Les Baxter.
Cover: $5; $3 with student ID
Art The Balkans
Robyn Holl December 1 2008 – January 3 2009
Robyn Holl was born in Virginia and raised in Maryland. She earned a B.A.in Painting from Pratt Institute in 2003. Recently relocated to the U.S., she lived for four years in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where she volunteered in the Film Klub (Mladi Most) and the Youth Cultural Center. She also assisted with art workshops supported by Cradle in the Pavorotti Music Center and had led workshops in the humanitarian organization, Club Novi Most. She has exhibited her work widely in Europe and in New York and showed her Senior Thesis Project at Tillie’s in 2003, “Across the Counter,” finely etched portraits of customers. That same year she received the Rose Hoffman Epstein Memorial Award from The National Arts Club in New York.
Of her finely colored abstractions, she says: “Commonly art is thought of as earnestly seeking truth; but to me uncertainty, questions, loss, and acceptance of the lack of simple answers or solutions are in some sense truths. It is necessary to continue to look, despite the idea that only uncertainty is certain. What is important for me is the act of looking for, and seeing, that which is not there. To abstract means to subtract from reality, to reduce to a subject’s essence. The process is of losing, which comes back to the reason for the search. I am searching.”
Reception Wednesday 12/3/08 7-9 p.m.
Open Mic:
Thursday 12/4
Thursday 12/18
8 p.m. sign-up
8:30 p.m. performances
Host: Nick Noir
No cover
For more information on any of the above call Patricia Mulcahy at 718 783-6140 or contact us via mail@tilliesofbrooklyn.com. Directions to the store are on the website under “Getting Here.”
This looks rather awesome. The weather is unseasonably warm, making it the perfect night to check out some local, walkable events.
936 atlantic avenue @ st. james (between washington av & grand) brooklyn, new york 11238 map
Kim is Frank White's official graphic designer and the first woman to exhibit in the gallery!
Join us for the opening reception and meet the artist.
Received this tip from a reader: have you been to sweet revenge yet? i walk by it with my dog on the daily, but have yet to have some free time and stop in. it's on franklin between lexington and greene (right across from the cupcake shop) and seems pretty cute.
I hadn't heard a thing about this place yet, so I took a stroll by on Saturday afternoon. I couldn't find it, but there were a few shuttered storefronts, one of which was likely hiding this new watering hole.
Has anyone been? The only thing I could find via a Google search was someone complaining on Brooklynian about how noisy it was at night.
UPDATE: I rode past it on the bus Tuesday night on my way to the Y and it looked super cool! I'll go this wknd and report back.
UPDATE 2: Check out the gorgeous photos of the bar from Bed-Stuy photog WordBK here!
Sorry for the delay on this -- home sick today. Blech.
October 08 Events at Tillie’s of Brooklyn
248 DeKalb Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11205
718 783-6140
Music
Friday October 3
8 p.m.
The Akaliko Group
Pascal Le Boeuf, keyboards
Kristian Baarsvick, saxophone
Dion Kerr, bass
Energetic, freewheeling new jazz with indie overtones led by Danny Wolfe, a recent graduate of the University of Miami who has played with the group at such NY venues as Pianos, the 55 Bar, and Brooklyn’s Blue Monday. See www.myspace.com/nedzflow or www.dannywolfemusic.com for more information.
Cover: $5; $3 with student ID
Friday 10/10
David Aaron’s Short Memory
8 p.m.
An excellent ensemble fronted by composer, arranger, and saxophone player David Aaaron, who has performed at the Knitting Factory, Lincoln Center, The Bottom Line, and the Apollo theater, among others. He also composes and arranges for a variety of film, theater, film and modern dance projects. See www.shortmemory.org for more details.
Cover: $5; $3 with student ID
Tuesday 10/14/08
Rolie Polie Gaucamole
4:30 p.m.
Frank Gallo and Andrew Tuzhilin bring a fresh new sound to kids’ music (acoustic folk funk). The well-written songs are enjoyable for both kids and adults. Last year the duo opened The Green Meadow Festival for Tom Chapin. They play private schools, other festivals, and regular programs for public libraries in New York and Rhode Island. Their first appearance at Tillie’s in August was a solid hit and now they have a regular slot on the second Tuesday of the month.
Most appropriate for children from ages 1 – 7.
No cover.
Salon Series
Monday 10/6/08
7:30 p.m.
Faren Simonoff and Cheryl Paradis
Tackling College Admissions: Sanity + Strategy = Success
Paradis and Siminoff offer parents a step-by-step method of assessing their teens’ challenges in searching for the right college. The book includes teen surveys to determine which challenges parents must confront with their teens before beginning the college search.
The authors not only offer simple questionnaires that help parents assess their teens, but also hone in on the right schools and keep their own unrealistic expectations in check. When it’s time to enter the admissions race, the authors help parents:
Cheryl Paradis has more than 20 years of experience as a clinical psychologist, and is an associate professor of psychology at Marymount College. Faren Siminoff is an associate professor of history at Nassau Community College and also an attorney. Both are Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill moms who have successfully assisted their teens in navigating the college maze. They will take questions from the audience at the reading and offer advice to parents whose children are getting ready to apply to college.
No cover. Books will be for sale.
7:30 p.m.
A veteran of stage, screen and television whose film credits include “The Cotton Club,” and Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” and who appeared on Broadway in “Eubie,” “The Tap Dance Kid,” and “Ain’t Misbehavin,’” Bernard Marsh documents the long-fought and ongoing battle for equity for people of color in the theater arts in this volume. He will read from the book and take questions.
Marsh earned a B.A. in Theater and Labor Relations from SUNY and has taught tap and jazz dance for many years. Currently he also teaches “Acting as Therapy for Senior Citizens” and is a co-founder and resident director of the Living History Theater Group, under the auspices of the African Atlantic Genealogical Society. His performing, choreography and directing have been seen all over the world.
No cover. Books will be for sale.
Photographs by Bill Kontzias
10/27/08 – 11/29/08
These fifty portraits were taken over the course of the summer in front of Tillie’s. A professional photographer and Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute, Bill Kontzias was struck by the variety of the Fort Greene street scene and the store’s customers, and sought to capture “a time and space to reflect on contemporary life in the neighborhood.” As the glamorous 1940s portrait of Tillie looks out onto the cafe from her framed place high above the coffee machines, he wanted to look around and make a photographic record of what he saw as he lounged at the corner of DeKalb and Vanderbilt Avenues during the summer of 2008.
A location photographer for over 20 years, Bill has done commissions for many major publications and corporations. He apprenticed with Francesco Scavullo and Bill King and specializes in fashion photography as well as people and portraits. Scavullo once advised him: “My dear William, be a photographer. Don’t look back, don’t look forward – look around.” He offers the faces of Tillie’s faces in this spirit.
Bill Kontzias has lived in Clinton Hill for over 30 years.
Reception
Tuesday 10/28
7 –9 p.m.
Thursday 10/9/08
Thursday 10/23/08
8:00 p.m. sign-up
8:30 performance
Host: Nick Noir
All poets, writers, comedians, rappers, singers, songwriters and musicians are welcome!
No cover.
For additional information call Patricia Mulcahy at 718 783-6140 or see www.tilliesofbrooklyn.com. Directions to the store are listed on the site under “Getting Here.”
From a reader: Hey! Any ideas about which bars/restaurants will be showing the presidential debate tonight?
I suspected and then confirmed that Moe's on Lafayette will be having an Obama Party. I watched the election night coverage there four years ago and had a great time. Get there early, as it will be packed. Moe's is truly one of the most diverse places to hang out in all of NYC, so it's a great place to cheer on Obama.
Update: Le Grand Dakar on Grand is also having a party!
(If you like McCain, sorry- I have no idea where you might go to watch. Statan Staten [whoops, Freudian slip!] Island?)
Looks cool...
This month... Infrequent Seams will resume in full force tonight, beginning a First and Third Thursdays schedule at Le Grand Dakar in Brooklyn.
And, next week, on Wednesday, a group of musicians from Germany, Sweden, Taiwan, India, Scotland, Kosovo, Serbia, Mexico, Colombia, and USA, will perform. We've been working together at Art OMI, a musicians residency upstate near Hudson.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 (8:00 pm - 11 pm) Artists from Music OMI Residency present an evening of improvised and semi-composed music www.artomi.org Ivo Bol, electronics + laptop + samples Vlady Bystrov, saxophone + electronics + clarinet Ziggy Campbell, guitar + laptop + electronics Julianne Carney, violin Monika Heidemann, voice + compositions Jasna Jovicevic, soprano saxophone + flute Udo Moll, trumpet + laptop
Thursday, August 21, 2008 (8:00 - 11 PM) Infrequent Seams Series::A new twice-monthly series of edgy, creative music, co-curated by James Ilgenfritz and Julianne Carney Pete Robbins Group James Ilgenfritz / Chris Welcome / Mike Pride Ideal Bread: Josh Sinton, music of Steve Lacy
Le Grand Dakar Restaurant www.legranddakar.com 285 Grand Avenue @ Clifton Place (near Lafayette), Clinton Hill, Bklyn. G train to Classon Avenue – head north on Lafayette, turn right on Grand; C to Clinton/Washington – head north on Washington, turn right on Lafayette, right again on Grand.
(a little late!)
August 08 at Tillie’s of Brooklyn
248 DeKalb Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11205
718 783-6140
8/1/08
8//15/08
8/29/08
7 p.m.
No cover
7 Summer Sessions will feature the best acoustic talent in NYC showcased at Tillies of Brooklyn in fort Greene during select Friday evenings in August and September 2008. Each evening will be themed and feature several artists’ performances. Planned evenings include: New York Muse; Spoken Word and Song; Political Satire; Alt Percussion; Cupids’ Corner, Love Songs; Jazz/Folk Fusion; and Emerging NYC Poets.
Seating is first come, first serve.
Nick Noir, the host of 7 Summer Sessions, has released over 22 recordings in various genres and on different recording labels. The prolific artist / producer's most recent, released on May 6 2008, is titled The Ultimate Most Relaxing Classical Chill in the Universe, for orchestral samples & synthesizers, on Denon Records/ Savoy. Nick Noir recently completed recording 13 Sonnets (lyrics by W. Shakespeare) set to alternative folk music, available this summer on Dark Celebrity Records and on Itunes. For more information see: www.sevensessions.com or info@sevensessions.com.
Friday
8/22/08
8 p.m.
High-energy original compositions from progressive jazz band based in Melville, Long Island.
Chris Norris, sax
Andrew Ahr, guitar
Chris Davison, drums
Bob Dzieman, bass
Cover: $5; $3 with student I.D.
The Exposure Project
8/18/08 – 9/20/08
This collective composed of Ben Alper, Anastasia Cazabon, Eric Watts, and Adam Marcinek showcases a diverse array of emerging photography. Since forming in 2005, The Exposure Project has released two self-published books, hosted several exhibitions throughout the greater Boston area and created a online photography blog dedicated to expanding the discourse of contemporary photography. The Exposure Project showcases the work of its members as well as projects from numerous photographers and will release its third self-published book this August in conjunction with the show at Tillie’s. The new issue will include photographs by Ben Alper, Anastasia Cazabon, Lauren Edwards, Kate Emerson, Adam Marcinek, Fran Osborn-Blaschke, Justin James Reed and Eric Watts. In addition, Jörg Colberg (founder and editor of the Conscientious blog) has written an illuminating forward to accompany the photographs.
For more information see www.theexposureproject.com or www.theexposureproject.blogspot.com
Reception
Monday 8/18/08
7 – 9p.m.
Open Mic will be suspended until mid-September.
For more information call Patricia Mulcahy at 718 783-6140 or mail@tilliesofbrooklyn.com.
The PACC folks are nice, and they're having a little network-and-mingle event at Moe's this eveing:
What's Good? Thursdays is Moe's Happy Hour, so that means: $1 off all well drinks $5 frozen mojitos 2 for 1 on all draft beer...not including Guinness
Where?
We're Mixing it up at Moe's
80 Lafayette Ave (at the corner of So.Portland/Near Fulton Street) Brooklyn, NY 11217
(near Atlantic Terminal and the C train, and B25,26,52,38 and 41)
When?
Thursday 6:30PM until we leave!
On Friday evening, I finally met up with BK Nesto of Clinton Hill Chill. We decided to meet at Mirrors on Grand, given that I'd had yet to do more than step in and look around. The owner, Michelle, explained that the bar's name -- Mirrors -- is meant to symbolize the space being a reflection of the neighborhood. The crowd was pretty mixed and the scene was chill. Conversation flowed and four hours later, I was on my merry way home. BK Nesto is still feeling shy about sharing his identity, so we took a blurry, ambiguous photo:
We had a few good ideas, hatched over several rounds of cocktails, one being a monthly meet-and-greet for readers, maybe at Mirrors, called "Monthly Mirrors." The other was a photography show showcasing photos of the 'hood, past and present, with proceeds going to a local organization. Mostly, we just chatted about ourselves and the neighborhood.
Stay tuned for some CHB-CHC events!
Today and tomorrow, 20% off all merchandise! Also, check out SECOND Friday, next week on 7/11:
Clinton Hill Blog published from 2006 - 2010. Please enjoy these archives - a love letter to the neighborhood.
