Author Archives: dailyheights

Area Cat Sits Like Person

Posted on by dailyheights
2 Comments

fizsittinglikeaperson.jpgISA writes: “Here is my ProHo cutie, Fizzle, sitting like a person.”

“I got him from the Bay Ridge cat lady, and when she took him out of his cat carrier, he was just all over the place, like he had been struck by lightning. His habits are: sitting on keyboard, unplugging the modem, eating sugar, and competitive purring. He also likes to sit like a person. The photo is just one of many where he is sitting up and watching TV.”




UP NEXT: The Prospect Heights Penguin. SEND IN YOUR CUTIES! [email protected]

Categories: Uncategorized

ACCIDENT: PROSPECT PL. OFF UNDERHILL

Posted on by dailyheights
2 Comments

Or, why all cell phones should be banned behind the wheel (Exhibit Z/umpteen)

IMG_1107.jpg


IMG_1109.jpg

At 2:15 Monday afternoon, on Prospect Place between Vanderbilt and Underhill, SCREEEEECH, BAM!!!! It sounded like two cars jockeying for position at top speed had collided – not surprising, given the awful tendency of vehicles in this neighborhood to drag-race down our double-wide blocks. Except in this case, actually only one car had been moving when the whole thing went down. The other vehicle was just parked, quietly and legally, on the street.

A VW Passat driven by a 30s-40s-ish woman in a suit, on her way to a meeting (possibly a court date), simply drifted, going at least 25MPH, into an Econoline van sitting idle on the right side of the street.
Read more …

Categories: Accidents and Disasters

Vanderbilt Ave. is the new 5th Ave is the new Smith St.

Posted on by dailyheights
17 Comments

beast glamour shots.jpgPAUL LUKAS writes in the New York Sun: “Which Brooklyn thoroughfare will become the borough’s next restaurant row? I have a hunch it will be Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights. All the pieces are in place: a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, a commercial strip with plenty of cheap storefronts, and a paucity of decent dining options. And just as … Al Di La planted the flag on Fifth Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue has Aliseo, the quirky Italian osteria that opened last year and, like all pioneering eateries, stuck out like a sore thumb in its benighted surroundings.”

BEAST: “Beast is being called a tapas restaurant … (but) It’s more like a pub with hearty, filling fare. The problem, at least for now, is that a lot of it sounds better than it tastes … the Guinness-braised short ribs (are) singularly tasteless … salsa-topped lamb kabobs have a bit more character … But it’s rather telling that Beast’s biggest winner is the burger, a tasty half-pounder served with a potato and blue-cheese salad. And for all of Beast’s arty pretenses (the menu sections are annoyingly labeled, “Earth,” “Ocean,” and “Land and Sky”), the burger shows the place for what it is: a pleasant neighborhood hangout.”

AMORINA (“Cucina Rustica”):“It’s a fun little space … But … Amorina does not have a wood-burning oven … observers have described Amorina as a direct challenge to the much-hyped wood burning pizzeria Franny’s (but) it’s not really a natural rivalry, because the different ovens result in two very distinct kinds of pizza.”

“And, unfortunately, that distinction does not play in Amorina’s favor. The crusts are uniformly leaden – so much so that I literally ended up with a sore jaw after chewing my way through several of Amorina’s pies. Remember the basic rule about pizza crust: It should be good enough to be eaten by itself as bread. Amorina’s crust – dense to the point of being impenetrable – doesn’t come close to meeting that standard. And that’s a shame, because many of the toppings are inspired …”

Link: Next Stop, Prospect Heights [New York Sun]

PHOTOS:BEAST pre-opening glamour shots, posted on The NYC Gay Hockey Association message boards

Categories: Food and Drink (incl. Restaurants), Vanderbilt Ave.

Visit PH/FG/CH Gardens: GARDEN WALK June 5

Posted on by dailyheights
No Comments

Shelly Freierman writes in the New York Times: “…the spring season of show houses and house and garden tours has begun in New York City. This year’s sampling includes private modern art collections, shiny new kitchens, lush plantings and antiques galore.

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, FORT GREENE AND CLINTON HILL: About 15 private gardens and 6 community gardens will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District‘s annual garden walk on June 5.

Freierman says this will include: “… a stone-walled garden with grapevines, blueberries and strawberries; a terraced garden; and a landscape with the plants arranged around a raised pool. Six community gardens will also be included.”

You can get advance tickets for $10 at the Forest Floor (659 Vanderbilt Ave. at Park Place, Prospect Heights) and Hibiscus Garden Center (564 Vanderbilt Avenue at Bergen, Prospect Heights). More information: (718) 707-1277.

Link:
Spring Ambles in, Along With the Curious [New York Times]

Categories: Gardens

Nina Paley: No One Misses "TV Pollution" in Public Spaces

Posted on by dailyheights
2 Comments

TVBGpackage.jpgProspect Heights cartoonist and animator Nina Paley created the artwork and package design for TV-B-Gone, that little keychain device that turns off “virtually any television.” DAILY HEIGHTS got Nina to reflect on National TV Turnoff Week, which just ended (April 25 – May 2).

How did TV Turnoff Week go for you?
Like any other week – I don’t have TV reception at home. I do have a monitor on which I can watch DVDs, but last week I was too busy working on “Sita Sings the Blues.”

How did it come about that you did the artwork for the TV-B-Gone package?
I knew Mitch Altman, the inventor of TV-B-Gone, way back in my hometown of Urbana, Illinois. When Mitch moved to San Francisco, he sublet and then took over my beloved previous apartment, the “pentshack” on a roof in the Castro (the NYT wrote about it and made me nostalgic). Mitch brought up TV-B-Gone at least 10 years ago, and I said I wanted to do art for it if the opportunity ever arose. It finally did.

I read on “The Internet” that you had practically begged Mitch for the opportunity to illustrate the packaging. Why?
Isn’t it obvious? A device that turns off annoying televisions! TV intrudes more and more as time goes on. It’s in restaurants, bars, train stations, buses… I’m especially vulnerable to TV. For some reason, I find it extremely difficult to take my eyes off a flickering screen. And it’s bad enough if the sound is muted, but there’s no way I can shut my ears to it. In public spaces, where people socialize, TV is an overwhelming intrusion. It’s pollution, in fact.

Have you used TV-B-Gone in public? How did it go?
I’ve only used it a few times in public. Once at a bar that had about 15 screens all going at once. I turned off a few that were facing me. No one noticed! Another time, in a health club that had 3 giant screens showing sports. I turned one off, partly to impress a friend of mine who requested it. Again, no one noticed. No one misses TV in public.

How do you respond to critics who say “hey lady, just deal with it, and stop imposing your morality on me”?
No one’s said that to me. Regardless, it has nothing to do with morality. If someone litters, and I pick up their trash, am I “imposing morality”? No, I’m improving my environment, making it more liveable. I don’t give a damn how much TV people watch in their own environments. In a public environment, I want to interact with people, not TV.

TV Turnoff Week is over. Is it too late to kill your television?
It’s never too late. Although if you don’t like television, just don’t get one in the first place. Really, I don’t care how much TV people watch at home. It’s the public intrusion that bugs me. Until we can kill public televisions, we’ll just have to use TV-B-Gone.

Categories: Cartoons Comics and Animation, Television

Kofi Coming to Prospect Heights?

Posted on by dailyheights
5 Comments

MEGHAN CLYNE writes today in the New York Sun: The secretary-general, Kofi Annan, is recommending that the United Nations abandon its plans to use a proposed 35-story building, to be constructed over a neighboring city park, as temporary relocation facilities while the world body renovates its Turtle Bay headquarters.

So where are they going to put it now…?

“The only site that would fulfill U.N. requirements for both office space and conference space is “part of a larger development in downtown Brooklyn,” the report said.” Hmm…

“It consists of both office space, some of which could be occupied as is, and space that the developer would build out to accommodate conferences,” the report said.

“Some U.N. observers have speculated that the site is part of developer Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, which would bring an arena for the Nets basketball team and office, retail, and housing space to the Brooklyn Navy Yards and adjacent properties.”

Link: Secretary-General Urges United Nations To Abandon ‘Swing Space’ Plan [New York Sun]

Categories: Ratner and the Nets Stadium

Let the Stoop Saling Begin [UPDATED]

Posted on by dailyheights
1 Comment

cutie courtyard-tn.jpg
STOOP sale – Saturday, May 14th, 8am – 3pm
618 Pacific st. (btw Flatbush and 6th Ave.) – near Pacific/Atlantic stop.
Lots of ladies clothes, books, kitchen stuff, glassware, furniture, records and very fun miscellany.

Huge, multi-family stoop sale!!
Saturday, May 14, 10:00 am, at 315 St. John’s Pl. (btwn Plaza + Underhill)
Kids’ stuff, furnishings, books, clothing, toys, CDs, videos, housewares and more!

Thanks!

Thanks to Liz and Maura for the listings. Send your stoop sale info to [email protected].

Categories: Stoop Sale

Chaos in CroHo: "The Interpreter"

Posted on by dailyheights
No Comments

interpreter aftermath scene2-tn.jpgTaryn, who you may know as t-fal from the dailyheights forum, sent us pictures she took last summer after the bus explosion scene from The Interpreter (2005), which was shot on her block in Crown Heights:

“I missed the actual explosion because of work (such a loser), but I was able to capture the set crew painting soot onto the bus and street, and their efforts to make the scene look totally destroyed.”

“The next day, I shot photos of their filming of the ‘aftermath’ from my side windows. Also, they changed murals and the sign from The Black Lady Theater to read as “The Black Beauty Theater,” and the “Crown Heights Animal Clinic” (not pictured) was renamed “The Crown Heights Democratic Club.”
set crew shot4-tn.jpg

Categories: Film