|
|
Kevin ArmentoKevin Armento is a playwright and journalist originally from San Diego. He moved to New York in the fall of 2008 to be in the arts capital of America, but more primarily to experience his first winter with temperatures below 70. He has questioned this decision ever since. Explosions and Leftovers
 The four members of Old Hat. — Photo courtesy of the artists Two more disparate sets would be hard to find.
Friday night at the Northeast Kingdom Den started with a folk revival trio and was followed by a quartet of rowdy self-professed misfits that would likely revel in being called immune to categorization – which they certainly are.
more »
 1,300 people showed up to this summer’s free-swap at BKLYN Yard. — Image courtesy of Score! On the eve of Thanksgiving, that most American of holidays, the spirit of commune will find its way to 3rd Ward for a free-swap. What is a free-swap? Well start with a flea market — we’ve all been to one — with its endless tables of goods, an assortment of the second-hand, the obscure, the bizarre. Now throw in a little of the coziness of a garage sale: neighbors chatting in the driveway, perusing an old record collection up for grabs, maybe sipping beer. Lastly, add some of the generosity of a Toys for Tots program, or a Goodwill. One man’s discarded coat is another man’s source of warmth for the winter months. Most have experience with these sorts of goods-dealing, but what of an event that combines all three?
more »
 Joshua Zucker Pluda’s work at 3rd Ward’s “Group Show.” — Photo courtesy of 3rd Ward website. Nothing like free booze to gather a crowd in Bushwick. I came up from the L at Morgan Ave Friday night to find myself, for the first time, distinctly not alone on the walk up to 3rd Ward. It is usually a desolate walk, one in which you find yourself quietly walled in by those abandoned buildings, and where you only occasionally meet local passersby. But on this night hoards of people were descending upon the arts complex — quite literally like several lines of ants who’ve been tipped off about a discarded piece of watermelon below a picnic table.
more »
 The L train. — Photo by Diego Cupolo In the wake of the last weekend’s disruptions, and the L’s chronic failure in general, Kevin Armento has penned a poem about that fabled line that traverses North Brooklyn.
To speak of one you daily ride
Suggests a paramour
But wrongly so, if meant to mean
The L of Brooklyn lore
more »
 Wyckoff Heights Medical Center’s ER entrance on Stanhope Street. — Photo by Kevin Armento Roughly 200 people showed up at the state Capitol in Albany Tuesday to protest the recent state regulation mandating H1N1/Swine flu vaccinations for health care professionals. The Department of Health’s issuance in August came on the heels of the flu’s quicker-than-normal spread this summer, and on the eve of the upcoming flu season.
While a strong majority of cases have remained mild, H1N1 was officially declared a pandemic in June, and has subsequently been the cause of 804 deaths in the U.S.
more »
 Grace Exhibition Space on Broadway. — Photo courtesy of the venue As script readings go, both edges of the street tend to be perilous: often, these events end up being overly author-friendly, or overly audience-friendly. The playwright (or screenwriter, or novelist) wants a substantial portion of his work performed, justly at that, wants it to be taken seriously, and wants feedback afterwards. The audience, in my experience, has come mostly to drink.
more »
 The scene outside Factory Fresh’s “Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque.” Images courtesy of the gallery. The show must go on.
This the inscription and thematic center of the new Factory Fresh exhibition, and a phrase that must travel the long way around to avoid double entendre associations in a week where "death panels" and town hall hysterics ruled the news. No, the show that must go on here is not the push for health care reform — though in the realm of freelance artistry, the subject is not irrelevant — but largely the show is art itself.
more »
 One of the Bouffon acts at 3rd Ward’s “Medicine Show.” — Photo by Kevin Armento The clowns were in town Thursday night at 3rd Ward, in various forms ranging from wigs, to extravagant suits, to animal costumes. The “Bouffon Medicine Show” offered two hours of acts featuring “the grotesque, the manipulative, and the ever-charming,” culminating in a faith-healing bit that — ah, but you’ll have to drop a coin in the cup before you can hear more.
more »
A few months ago in this column I described a 3rd Ward gig put on by Bags for the People. They called it a Sweatshop Social, and it was this writer’s first tango with a sewing machine. Since then, the good people at Bags have taught numerous needle neophytes like me how to prep the Singer and ease the peddle to create cheap, colorful, and — more importantly — non-plastic hand-bags that can be kept or distributed to shoppers for free. And now, four months later, they’ve gotten incorporated, and have their sights on a national movement.
more »
 painting the walls at Mashup. — Photo by Kevin Armento You think Bushwick, and so often your thoughts are intruded upon by words like "loft space," "gentrification," and — try as you may to fight it — "hipster."
I confess to having spent much time pondering the idea of Bushwick: what is its place in Brooklyn, in New York City? In what direction is this artistic haven headed? What will it look like ten years from now, and how many people will live here? If you view our little corner of the borough as the next frontier for the young arts crowd — or what was once the next frontier — then are we seeing a neighborhood in flux? And as this transition happens, as the store-fronts open up, and the new condos break ground, is something being lost?
more »
|
|
|
|
