HAPPENING archive of stories ......
Angels and Accordions headlines OpenHouseNY
For the sixth year, Angels and Accordions brought Greenwood Cemetary alive.
With its unique presentation of accordions, singing, striking visuals, and creepy graveyard scenes, Angels and Accordions is a site-specific show, with the audience taken on a mile-long walking tour, punctuated by scenes of angels around different memorials.
Greenwood Cemetary is one of the most beautiful sculpture gardens in the world. With mausoleums structured from pyramids to Greek cathedrals and statues for war dead to cherished child, the stages for angels are designed by Martha Bowers of Dance Theatre Etcetera.
Martha's visions come to life within this unique venue. Angels sing from a vine covered path, bringing "Over the Rainbow" to a chilling feeling of sorrow.
Some of the simplest can be the most striking, such as an angel frozen on the steps of a grand mausoleum or reading names from an alcove in the catacombs. View these images in our online photogallery on SouthBrooklynInternet by clicking here.
As the premier event of Open House NY, Angels and Accordions has been a free event. Will it remain a free event? Probably not. But believe us, it will be worth the admission price.
View a photo gallery from this year's Angels and Accordions on SouthBrooklynInternet
Friends of the Brooklyn Bridge launches mybrooklynbridge.com
In 2008, the Brooklyn Bridge celebrated its 125th anniversary, and this monumental occasion presented the Dumbo Improvement District the opportunity to unveil a new and improved pedestrian experience on the Brooklyn side of the Bridge.
Working with Emphas!s Design and artists Linnaea Tillett & Karin Tehve, the Dumbo Improvement District undertook this great project to provide a sense of direction and place to the one million tourists who cross over the Brooklyn Bridge each year. In the past when pedestrians reached the Brooklyn end of the Bridge, they frequently turned around and returned Manhattan when confronted with uninviting entrances, poor lighting and inadequate signage. Today, pedestrians are greeted with signage welcoming them to Brooklyn and a large map highlighting attractions within walking distance.
“This Way” serves as a grand entrance point to the fine borough of Brooklyn.
©Mark D Phillips, 2008
 The Friends of the Brooklyn Bridge was formed by the Dumbo Improvement District to bring together the resources to maintain improvements made to the world's greatest bridge. The initiatives website, mybrooklynbridge.com, will be a major resource for the bridge. Share your memories of your favorite experience on the Brooklyn Bridge. Watch an 1899 movie by Thomas Edison Studios of a train travelling over the bridge, and read the history of the construction.
Contributions to Friends of the Brooklyn Bridge will be dedicated to the supplemental maintenance of this project. With donations of $150 or more, you will receive a framed image of your choice from our collection, including historical images of the bridge from our partner, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and new images by Mark D Phillips. They make great gifts.
For more details, visit mybrooklynbridge.com
THE JAIL BATTLE
According to the NY Post's Rich Calder:
Foes of City Hall's plan to reopen and expand a Brooklyn jail scored a victory yesterday when the city agreed to temporarily halt work on the $440 million project and cap the number of overnight prisoners there.
Comptroller Bill Thompson, Councilman David Yassky and civic groups cut the court-OK'd deal just days after suing the city for "secretly" and "illegally" repopulating the Brooklyn House of Detention in family-laden Boerum Hill with 31 prisoners.
The agreement runs through Dec. 18, at which time the case is to return to court. Under the deal, the jail may accept up to 50 prisoners.
NY Post - Nov 21, 2008 |
Cobble Hill has undergone an incredible transformation. Old time residents of this once working class neighborhood, inhabited by longshoremen, were stunned when a brownstone row house on Congress Street sold for more than a million dollars in 1997. "New" millionaires have discovered this quaint neighborhood, which combines proximity to Wall Street with a quiet life one cannot find in the City. Residents love the one way streets and historic mansions that make them feel as if they are living in another time.
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