7 posts tagged “brooklyn”
I've been going to the same bodega on the corner for two years now, and I just tonight learned one of the proprietor's names.
My inspiration? People in the neighborhood call him Ali Baba. And while he is of Indian, Pakistani, or other descent, that surely can't be his name. Can it?
It's not.
It's Ahmed.
That's a pretty common and easy to pronounce name, so I'm intrigued why people call him Ali Baba. His answer?
"It's a nickname. People here can't say it. Ali Baba is easier."
Not so much.
To the fellow who called out to me while I walked down Nassau Avenue in Greenpoint after work this evening:
If I don't hear you -- or if I ignore you -- calling out the same
thing again, prefacing the statement or request with the phrase, "Hey,
Polish!" will probably not increase the chances of my hearing you -- or
responding.
Actually, it won't. No "probably" about it.
Brooklyn-based comic book publisher Rick Spears, who's behind Gigantic Graphic Novels, has a new book coming out soon from Image Comics: The Pirates of Coney Island.
Rick Spears, writer of the indie hit Teenagers From Mars, and hot international artist Vasilis Lolos rock this riotous, teenage romp through young love, car jacking and gang violence. In the first issue, Patch arrives in Coney Island only to get his eye sliced out by Trish, the wicked bad leader of the girl gang The Cherries. Across town, Sal, a pizza-selling bookie, meets a nasty end delivered by a monstrous shadow with a shotgun.
Who knew Coney Island could be so fun. I thought it was all about the Brooklyn Cyclones, mermaids, and gentrification!
This week's edition of Time Out New York highlights a handful of Brooklyn-centric blogs. The honorees include B61 Productions, Brooklyn Record, Brownstoner, Gowanus Lounge, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, Planet PLG, and Set Speed. I'll have to add those to my regular reads!
McCarren Park Pool
is one of north Brooklyn's bright spots. Opened in the mid-'30s, it's
one of but a handful of surviving pools in the New York area built by
the Works Progress Administration. Closed since the early '80s, the
pool has been the subject of several redevelopment proposals,
some of which have involved tearing down part or all of the edifice.
Despite its abandonment, the pool is an impressive structure and quite
beautiful in terms of decrepit urban infrastructure. And it's worth
saving.
Recently, the pool has become the epicenter of a cultural
renaissance of sorts. First, Noemie Lafrance staged her location-based
dance performance Agora. And this summer, the pool is hosting a number of parties featuring bands such as Les Savy Fav, Pretty Girls Make Graves, and the Walkmen.
To further that end, Pool Aid is organizing a video shoot at 6 p.m., Monday, July 31, to show the neighborhood and arts community's support for the pool. Members of Nada Surf, Wrens, the Redcoats Are Coming, Rana, Loser’s Lounge, Lovedown, Career Cub, Giraffes, Vibration, Boy Genius, Breakup Breakdown, Maplewood, Koester, Naked Highway, and other musical groups will help commemorate the 70th anniversary of the pool’s opening -- as well as call for community control of the pool.
I'm not sure using the pool's remains for rock concerts is the best sole use of the
complex, but I think the arts events could help foster some solid
mixed-use thinking. Regardless of whether it's economically feasible to
redo the pool as a pool, in part, a mix of arts -- music, theater,
mural art, urban sculpture -- and activities -- perhaps a skatepark,
expanded exercise and fitness trail, rock climbing wall -- could be
interesting and of benefit to all area residents.
A local cause to get involved in!
Jim Munroe, one of my
favorite Canadians, will be in Brooklyn in early August for one of
the Rooftop Films screenings. This weekend'spromising Animation Block Party is closer on the horizon, but Aug. 6's program also looks solid. Jim's four-minute short "Yoga Deathmatch" will be among more than a dozen independent shorts shown.
When I first moved to Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn, in 2004, one of my first frustrations with my new neighborhood was that there weren't any movie theaters nearby. In this age of video rentals and Netflix, when you can have a steady stream of DVDs flowing in and out of your mailbox, as well as your DVD player, you might not think that a paucity of movie theaters within easy walking distance would be a problem. Yet it is. Especially because Greenpoint was once the proud home of six movie theaters.
Six movie theaters! In less than two square miles.
Some of the structures have been torn down and replaced with other buildings. Others have been refurbished and put to other uses that still allow visitors to detect some of the original features.
Drawing on a variety of sources, here's what I've been able to learn about the long-gone movie theaters of Greenpoint. I've organized this as a walking tour of sorts, but you don't need to explore them in this order. If you're interested in following the easy-to-follow route I've mapped out, start at the Nassau Avenue subway stop on the G line.
Our first stop is a few shops east of Manhattan Avenue on the south side of Nassau Avenue. Pass two bodegas and the pizzeria, and take in what is now Princess Manor.
Nassau Theatre
88 Nassau Ave.
Screens: 1
Seats: 599
A movie theater operated here between about 1910 and 1953. It is now a catering hall.
The next stop is a little out of the way, so you might want to skip it or save it for when you have more time. Regardless, if you continue walking east on Nassau Avenue, you'll eventually reach Russell Street and McGolrick Park (formerly Winthrop Park). The park is worth some exploration in its own right because of the pavilion designed by Helmle and Huberty, a World War I memorial, and the Monitor and the Merrimac sculpture. Across from the southwestern corner of the park is a Met supermarket. It wasn't always a grocery store.
Winthrop Theater
135 Driggs Ave.
Screens: 1
Seats: 580
Between 1922 and 1959, this movie theater showed late-run movies. It featured a Wurlitzer organ Opus 599 Style 135A. In 1961, the theater became a grocery store.
Now, head back to Manhattan Avenue by heading west on Driggs. Once you reach Manhattan, take a right and walk north along the west side of the street. The rest of our stops all line Greenpoint's main drag, Manhattan Avenue.
Meserole Theatre
723 Manhattan Avenue
Screens: 1
Seats: 1,200
Luckily, this theater still remains in some shape and form. Despite a conversion into a roller skating rink and then its current incarnation as an Eckerd drug store, you can still see elements of the original auditorium from a vantage point in the back of the store. Behind the cosmetics counter, you can see the outline of the original screen on which they now project slides about sales, and the ceiling still supports a mirrored disco ball from when it was a roller rink. The pharmacy is located beneath what was once the balcony. While promoting the Batman movie in the mid-'60s, Adam West and Burt Ward made an appearance at the theater with the Batmobile.
Continue north.
RKO Greenpoint
825 Manhattan Avenue
Screens: 1
Seats: 1,673
Opening as a vaudeville theater in 1908, the Greenpoint became a full-time movie theater around 1925 and may have been the grandest of Greenpoint's theaters. In direct competition with the Meserole, the theater featured an ornate auditorium featuring ceiling murals and a proscenium arch. Three levels of boxed seats were located on either side of the stage, and there were two balconies. When RKO acquired the theater, it showed first-run double features. Music was performed on a Wurlitzer organ Opus 1113 Style E. In 1961, Jerry Lewis appeared at the theater to promote his new movie "The Ladies Man." The building has since been demolished.
Cross to the east side of Manhattan Avenue.
American Theater
910 Manhattan Avenue
Screens: 1
Seats: 592
Other names: Chopin Theater
For most of its life, this theater showed second-run movies. Advertised as a twin theater, the American had only one screen. The house charged different admissions for each film, and the staff would clear the theater of viewers between each screening. One former resident remembers the theater being replaced by a Polish theater that continued to screen movies into the '80s. The layout of the building is somewhat confusing. There were two entrances, one on Manhattan Avenue and one on the Greenpoint Avenue. There was also a billiards hall -- and later, a bingo hall -- located upstairs, and until earlier this year, a Burger King filled the old lobby area. Now Quest Diagnostics takes up the ground floor, and Club Exit, a dance club, takes up much of the old bingo hall space. Be sure to look for the sculpted Eagle perched at the peak of the building's roof on the Manhattan Avenue side.
Continue north on the west side of the street.
Midway Theater
1059 Manhattan Ave.
Screens: 1
Seats: 598
Other names: Manhattan Theatre
Located between Freeman and Eagle streets, this movie theater was active at least between 1938 and 1954.
Even though the closest movie theater, the Loews Kips Bay -- as the crow flies -- is across the East River, the ghosts of Greenpoint's cinematic past linger on and can still be seen every day.
Special thanks to CinemaTreasures.org and Greenpt.com for much of the above information. Any errors are my own.
