Celebrity Ghost Stories, Joan Osborne Visit Union Hall

Memba her?

Earlier today, I passed by Union Hall and noticed that they were shooting an episode of Bio's Celebrity Ghost Stories.

According to a production assistant on set, the space has been transformed it into an old-style Western saloon for the episode, which features singer/songwriter Joan Osborne of trippy-hit fame with her song "One Of Us" (imagine God, just a stranger on the B67 bus).

Apparently Osborne had a spooky encounter in a bar after a gig and she's in Brooklyn to relive the experience. As the story goes, she was chatting with a bartender in a Western-style establishment (I'm guessing that it was the East Village, and that absinthe was involved). Then she saw a ghost. 

A note to the crew: Keep Osborne away from that painting of the old lady by the downstairs stage. It's bound the scare the bejesus outta' anyone...

Who Gives a Shit: Has Anyone Else Seen This Monkey?

Has anyone else been following the mutation of the monkey that sits in the first floor corner apartment of the overpriced and mostly empty Richard Meier building on Eastern Parkway?  I was just going to ignore it, since at first it started showing up like any ordinary large stuffed monkey would in some millionaire's window.  But it has continued to catch my eye every day as I walk to work, mostly because the monkey's owners are constantly dressing it in some weird outfit: it's been Abe Lincoln and Batman, and has even been forced to wear a 19th century pinafore and matching cap; and now it's "become" Snoopy for a day?   Is this poor bastard going to have an identity crisis or what?  

Or maybe this is "art"?

The Old-New Servant Problem And (Maybe) Its Solution!

 Djuna Barnes (American, 1892–1982), Sketch of a woman with hat, looking right, for "The Terrorists," New York Morning Telegraph Sunday Magazine, September 30, 1917. Ink on paper, 12 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (32.4 x 21.6 cm). Djuna Barnes Papers, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries

Ah-ha!  Caught you!  You just read this headline and were rightly horrified. But this subject matter makes sense to you, Park Sloper, living as you unfortunately do among the ever-expanding universe of millionaire brownstoners in BK, and their apparently endless need for nannies and maids.

Well relax, FIPster, ‘cause this headline didn’t come from our pens, but from gifted and edgy reporter Djuna Barnes, who in 1913 wrote an article for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle about the lives of our borough's nannies way back when. The piece is about the bullshit that “the girls” (as they were called by the head of their employment agency) endured in Brooklyn households at the time, which totally proves that domestic employers were demanding assholes way back then, too!

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Damn the Man, Save the G Train!

Eliminate our G train? What does “MTA” stand for, anyway? Manhattan Transit Assholes? 

The oft-cursed agency, which always seems to be pleading penury despite endless increases in our subway fares, is now visiting a new outrage from the denizens of BK. They are threatening to eliminate G train service to five stops in Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, and Kensington. As it stands now, service at Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street, Seventh Avenue, Prospect Park-15th Street, Fort Hamilton Parkway and Church Avenue will end next winter.

Up until 2 1/2 years ago, the G line ended at Smith and 9^th Street, but was extended while the Culver Viaduct was undergoing major rehabilitation. Now that the project is nearing completion, the MTA is saying there’s not enough money to let the line remain as it is.

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[My Favorite Park Slope...]: Place to Buy Cold Cuts

I grew up on the Upper West Side. It was here that I'd visit a little vegetable and grocery store that also employed a butcher. I can still remember excitedly reaching up for the slice of bologna I was handed as I waited beside my mother for our order to be ready. It always tasted so great, and made me feel like I’d been good and deserved a treat. 

Imagine my surprise when, decades later, I was handed an even better slice as I stood among olive paste and Jacques Torres chocolates in an upscale Park Slope store. Luckily, I had grown enough to reach the counter and therefore was able to look the owner of Blue Apron Foods on Union Street in the eye as I thanked him. Turns out the bologna was a Polish kind that he gets from a secret source, and I am telling you, if you are a fan, the not-too-salty slices are worth a special trip.

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