Nathan Kensinger at BPL

The Brooklyn Public Library has mounted an exhibition of Park Slope photographer Nathan Kensinger's photos of Brooklyn's fading industrial waterfront.

Kensinger has a stake in what was once America's most vital waterfront -- and is now at the top of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Most Endangered” list. He grew up within view of the San Francisco Navy Yard and became fascinated early with the industrial edges of port cities.

Kensinger lives two blocks from the Gowanus Canal.

The BPL exhibition of Kensinger's photos is titled “Twilight on the Waterfront — Brooklyn’s Vanishing Industrial Heritage,” and features rare indoor photographs of the Domino Sugar Refinery and Admiral’s Row.

Ironically, the Kensinger exhibition opened the same day as the new Red Hook IKEA, and will run until August 30.

Says Kensinger, “My photographs bring you inside places you may have walked by a thousand times and always wondered about. These fenced-off factories, refineries and shipyards lining our waterfront are often beautiful and full of surprises … Many of the places in my photographs have already been torn down as the pace of development quickens.

Another inspiration for Kensinger's work: the anonymous photographers of the international Urban Exploration movement who explore tunnels, factories and military bases — the off-limits parts of cities — to document the “true history of the urban landscape.” He has befriended and explored with several guerilla documentarians.

For more information, visit http://www.kensinger.blogspot.com/

Link to the article on the Brooklyn Eagle: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=12&id=21789

More on Nathan Kensinger from the New York Times: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/have-camera-will-trespass-on-brooklyns-waterfront/

Abandoned Brooklyn

A new multimedia exhibit by photographer-filmmaker Nathan Kensinger documents his five-year exploration of Brooklyn's industrial neighborhoods.

Abandoned Brooklyn opens at the collaborative Union Docs at 322 Union Avenue in Williamsburg on Saturday, January 24th at 7 PM.

Kensinger's images of deserted train stations and empty powerhouses document a poignant transition in Brooklyn's history, as its iconic industrial past recedes before an advancing wave of luxury apartments and chainstores.

The exhibit kicks off Union Docs' new season and their Documentary Bodega screening series.

On opening night, Kensinger's film Covered Tracks, a short documentary about an abandoned homeless city underneath Manhattan, will be screened, along with another short documentary about Kensinger's photos filmed inside an abandoned Brooklyn sanitation depot.

The post on Kensinger's blog:
http://kensinger.blogspot.com/2009/01/abandoned-brooklyn.html

Saving Brooklyn's industrial heritage, from MAS:
http://www.saveindustrialbrooklyn.org/

Demolition-by-Neglect Trumps Landmarking at Former 68th Pct. House

Former 68th Pct. Hse. (Nathan Kensinger photo)

With the landmarked former 68th Precinct House at 4th Avenue and 43rd Street in Sunset Park a fast-ripening demolition-by-neglect scenario, the Daily News reports that the city Landmarks Preservation Commission has again threatened to sue the building's owner, the nonprofit Brooklyn Chinese American Association.

When the organization bought the building in 1999 for just over $200,000, it announced a plan to open a community center in the fire-damaged buidling. That didn't happen. According to Paul Mak, the organization's founder, promised grants-in-aid promised by the city never came through.

Over the past 11 years, the BCAA has racked up $70,000 in fines on the neglected historic structure.

Fast-forwarding to 2015, nearly half a century after the 68 abandoned the building in 1971 for its current home in the nondescript bunker at 333 65th Street, pictured below, we find Facebook activist Tony Giordano, of Sunset Park Restoration, lobbying the LPC and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to rescue the landmarked 1886 precinct house.

The Current 68th Pct. House

According to an email from the LPC to Adams' office, its attorney has proposed a settlement along the lines of the high-profile 2009 Windermere lawsuit, in which the BCAA would sell the building -- which it has apparently considered doing -- to a buyer financially capable of bringing it up to code.

According to the Daily News, the property, landmarked in 1983, has 29 open violations and a stop work order dating from 2009. That sounds manageable, right?

But take a look at these photos, taken by an urban explorer in 2011, showing the building, four years ago, in an advanced state of decay. The roof, in some places, had collapsed right through to the ground floor, leaving the long-abandoned building's interior open to the elements.

Structural collapse is not just a Building Code "violation": the Romanesque Revival brick building is no longer structurally sound. But in the game of demolition-by-neglect, whoever owns the building when it falls down wins, and the BCAA appears to be running out the clock.

The article from the Daily News.

More photos of the crumbling Precinct House from photographer Nathan Kensinger.

In 2010, the LPC sued Cobble Hill owner Jobn Quadrozzi for letting his buildings fall down.

In 2015, the shambling 68th Pct. House was sold to a developer [Commercial Observer.]

The developer is planning some yummy luxury condos [Curbed.]

Linkage

Attend a public hearing on the MTA's proposed new fare increases tomorrow night [Vincent Gentile's Blog.]

Coming to a polling place near you:  Charter Review Commission comes up with 2 proposals to amend the City Charter [NYC.Gov.]

Nathan Kensinger at Capture Brooklyn [Nathan Kensinger's Blog.]

Historic photos of the Verazzano under construction, from William Horeis Sr.

Dyker Heights' Regina Opera is performing Tosca in November -- in its 41st season.

Apparently, it wasn't just one tornado that hit the city -- it was two [Yahoo slide show.]

Should the city outlaw smoking in the parks, the beach?  [Sheepshead Bites.] Hell yeah.

Check out Urban Green Expo on September 29.

The BP well is finally pronounced dead [AP.]

Underneath Bay Ridge

Photos from Nathan Kensinger:
http://kensinger.blogspot.com/2007/06/underneath-bay-ridge.html

Prison Ship Martyrs Monument

The Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park, erected in honor of the patriots who died aboard the infamous British prison ships in Wallabout Bay during the American Revolution, is one of our country's most important historic sites.

Buried in an underground crypt at the Monument are the remains of 11,500 American captives, among them prisoners of the Battle of Brooklyn, who died under the cruelest imaginable conditions on the prison ships.

The Stanford White monument, dedicated in 1908 at an event attended by President-Elect Taft, will be 100 years old in November.

But the monument stands abandoned.

The Parks Department has promised to restore it in time for its centennial on Nov. 15 and 16, but work stopped in May with the $2.3-million restoration project $600,000 over-budget.

Veterans groups, Revolutionary War buffs and patriots are horrified.

“They don’t seem to understand [that the November centennial] is a very significant event,” said Ted General, a member of the Society of Old Brooklynites.

The article from the Brooklyn Paper:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/33/31_33_editorial.html

Photos and text from Nathan Kensinger's blog:
http://kensinger.blogspot.com/2008/11/inside-prison-ship-martyrs-monument.html

Rooftop Films Announces 2015 Grant Recipients

Rooftop Films, which will turn 20 next year, has announced the award of thirteen annual cash and service grants to alumni filmmakers.

This year's biggest cash awards are the Rooftop Films and Garbo NYC Feature Film Grants, which went to directors Kitty Green and Sebastian Silva.

Green will use her $15,000 grant to help finish her new film “Casting JonBenet,” and Silva will use his $10,000 grant to help finish his film “Demon Me.”

Rooftop Founder and Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg calls Kitty Green’s "Casting JonBenet" the type of "daring and meaningful" cinema that the organization wants to support. The sly, stylized documentary about the infamous murder of child model JonBenet Ramsey incorporates casting tapes and recreations by local people in an emotional investigation of the case and its implications.

Kitty Green's previous films include “Ukraine is Not a Brothel,” winner of a 2015 AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary; and “The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul,” winner of the Jury Award for best non-fiction short documentary at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. 

Sebastian Silva’s work includes “the Maid,” “Nasty Baby,” and “Crystal Fairy,” all of which have won numerous international awards.

Past Rooftop Filmmakers Fund winners include: Ana Lily Amirpour, whose “The Bad Batch" will be completed soon; Gillian Robespierre, whose “Obvious Child” became an indie hit; Jonas Carpignano, whose “Mediterranea” won a Gotham award; Lucy Walker, whose short documentary “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” won an Academy Award nomination; Jeremy Saulnier, whose “Blue Ruin” won a FIPRESCI Critics’ award;  Keith Miller, whose critically-acclaimed “Five Star” won a Tribeca Film Festival award, and Benh Zeitlin, whose “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was nominated for an Academy Award.

The Filmmakers’ Fund uses community and partner support to provide grants to filmmakers whose work has been screened at Rooftop Films. A portion of ticket sales and film submission fees is set aside and granted back to selected filmmakers as production support.  

Every year, according to Program Director Dan Nuxoll, has brought more promising applications from acclaimed Rooftop alumni and a diverse, growing talent pool. Rooftop's intent is to host a broad range of creative voices, and through its audience and partners, it is increasingly able to support film-makers.

To help Rooftop continue to provide grants for independent filmmakers, visit the Kickstarter page.

COMPLETE LIST OF 2015 ROOFTOP FILMMAKERS FUND GRANTS

Rooftop Films / Garbo NYC $15,000 Feature Film Grant:
Kitty Green, Casting JonBenet

Rooftop Films / Garbo NYC $10,000 Feature Film Grant:
Sebastian Silva, Me Demon

Rooftop Films / Brigade Marketing Festival Publicity Grant:
Anna Rose Holmer, The Fits

Rooftop Films / Technological Cinevideo Services Camera Grant:
Khalik Allah, Jamaica

Rooftop Films / Eastern Effects Equipment Grant:
Lauren Wolkstein & Chris Radcliff, The Strange Ones

Rooftop Films / Edgeworx Post-Production Grant:
Anja Marquardt, Wolf

Rooftop Films / DCTV Color Correction Feature Film Grant:
Sarah J. Christman, Swarm Season

Rooftop Films / DCTV Equipment and Services Short Film Grant:
Ryan Mauskopf, Sloof's Supershop

Rooftop Films / DCTV Equipment and Services Short Film Grant:
Nathan Kensinger, Managed Retreat

Rooftop Films / Adrienne Shelly Foundation Short Film Grant For Women:
Jennifer Reeder, All Small Bodies

Rooftop Films has also helped negotiate post-production services at Metropolis Films for alumni filmmaker Robert Greene.
Robert Greene, Kate Plays Christine

Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund Short Film Grant:
Christopher K. Walker and Michael Beach Nichols, Beast of Man
Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Market Place
Nathan Kensinger, Managed Retreat

For additional information on other grantees, visit the website.

Rooftop Films is a non-profit organization with a mission to engage and inspire New York City's diverse communities by showcasing the work of emerging filmmakers and musicians. In addition to its Summer Series, screened at outdoor venues on summer weekends citywide, Rooftop provides grants to filmmakers, teaches media literacy, trains young film-makers, rents low-cost equipment to artists and non-profits, and produces new independent films.

For more information and updates, visit the website.

Houdini's Grave

In a recent photo essay, photographer Nathan Kensinger explored Machpelah Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, the burial place of magician Harry Houdini.

Born Ehrich Weiss in 1874 in Hungary, Houdini was a Jewish American magician, escapologist, stuntman, actor and film producer who was deeply interested in spiritualism.

One of 7 children born to Rabbi Mayer (Mayo) Samuel Weiss and his wife Cecilia Steiner, Houdini immigrated with his family to the United States in 1878 at the age of 4.

Childhood friends called him "Ehrie" or "Harry".

The Weiss family settled in Appleton, Wisconsin, where Houdini's father found work as rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation. When he lost that position, Houdini's father moved with Ehrie to New York City in 1887.  They lived in a boarding house on East 79th Street while the rabbi looked for a place where he could bring the rest of the family.

Houdini went to work as a trapeze artist, "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air" at age 9. 

He emerged as a professional magician under the name "Harry Houdini", in homage to French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. "Harry" most likely derived from his childhood nickname.

When Houdini died unexpectedly in 1926, he was buried at Machpelah cemetary, which has fallen upon hard times. The graves are untended and covered in weeds, and the once-beautiful 1928 cemetery office, now a pidgeon roost, is littered with discarded burial records.

The Machpelah Cemetery Association, founded in 1860, encompassed 83 burial societies.

The 19th century Jewish burial societies were established by immigrants who pooled their money to buy grave sites and pay for funerals.  Like so much of New York City these days, the burial societies, many of which now exist only on paper, have been taken over by real estate speculators.

The post from Nathan Kensinger's blog:

Stingray Sam

Rooftop Films will screen feature length film Stingray Sam on the roof at Brooklyn Tech, 29 Fort Greene Place, on Saturday, June 6 at 9 PM.

Admission is $9.

Stingray Sam, written and directed by American Astronaut's Cory McAbee, who stars in the film, is a six-episode, western-themed musical comedy set in outer space.

Sounds like my kind of movie.

Watch the trailer at:
http://stingraysam.com/trailer.html

Tickets: http://newyork.going.com/event-602737;Rooftop_Films_Stingray_Sam

Complete Rooftop Films schedule: www.rooftopfilms.com.

BIFF

You might also want to check out the Brooklyn International Film Festival (BIFF) in Brooklyn Heights: http://www.wbff.org/, as recently blogged by Nathan Kensinger:
http://kensinger.blogspot.com/2009/05/brooklyn-international-film-festival.html

There's also a kid's version of BIFF:
http://kidsfilmfest.org/

Linkage

F train changes postponed for a week [BK Southie.]

Discovering the history of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club, South Brooklyn's historic seat of Democratic patronage. [Atlantic Yards Report.]

I'ts been a bloody new year for pedestrians in Brooklyn [Streetsblog.]

Gothamist video of the Coney Island Polar Bear Swim and Ruby's protest.

The city wants to turn a South Brooklyn nature preserve into a shopping mall [Sheepshead Bites.]

Destructoporn photos of Joe Sitt's demolition of Coney Island's historic Henderson Building [Amusing the Zillion.]

An update on the Shoot the Freak lawsuit:  the eviction was illegal (but then, you knew that) [BK Southie.]

Diane Sawyer interviews Michael Grimm on World News Tonight [Staten Island Live.]

Brooklyn Ink interviews Staten Island powerbroker Guy Molinari, Michael Grimm's Republican Svengali.

MulchFest this Saturday and Sunday at Owl's Head Park. [Vinnie Gentile's Blog.]

Part 2 of Nathan Kensinger's "The Bloomberg Era", a chronicle of the mayor's experiments with the city's zeitgeist.

Gatemouth at Room 8, via Queens Crap, compares New York City mayors Michael Bloomberg and John Lindsay.

Under heavy fire from reporters at a recent press conference on the city's response to the Blizzard of 2010, Mayor Bloomberg stops answering questions and walks out.

Rudy Guiliani weighs in on Bloomberg's blizzard performance [Gothamist.]

How much did the blizzard hurt Bloomberg? [Staten Island Live]

DeBlasio:  Brooklyn got the worst of the blizzard [Brooklyn Daily Eagle.]

An elderly woman, using her gas stove to keep warm in a Lower East Side building without heat or hot water, dies when the building catches fire.

Having enabled bike riders, the city now looks to bust them [Gothamist.]

For the first time since the Vietnam War, soldiers are committing suicide at a higher rate than civilians [Rev. Manny.]

Google maps mass animal deaths around the world.

Changes at its core are altering the earth's magnetic field, causing the north pole to migrate.

Archbishop Tim Dolan thinks it's his business some New York women are choosing to have abortions.  Does he scold men for using condoms?

The sponsor of the event at which Dolan made the remarks about abortion funds crisis pregnancy centers.

Linkage

The Narrows Community Theater will produce The Curious Savage this fall [Courier.]

Challenger Nicole Malliotakis jumps on State Assembly Member Janele Hyer-Spencer at a candidate forum in Bay Ridge [Brooklyn Daily Eagle.]

A weekend subway alert from BK Southie.

The Brooklyn Paper's guide to Hallowe'en.

Beehive Hairdresser catches a glimpse of Brooklyn Bridge through a time warp.

Mike McMahon is among the Democrats holding the U.S. House of Representatives down by a thread [AM NY.]

Alysia Santo writes up Bensonhurst's Reaching Out Community Services [Brooklyn Ink.]

An employee leaves the door open, and $18,000 worth of prescription drugs go missing from Lowen's Pharmacy on 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge [Brooklyn Paper.]

A Shore Road Walkathon for Dynamite Youth Center [Courier.]

A last rally for historic Coney Island on Saturday [Kinetic Carnival.]

DUMBO's L Magazine compiles a list of the 50 best Brooklyn blocks, leaving out Sheepshead Bay [Sheepshead Bites.]

Brooklyn Young Republicans president Jonathan Judge, of Kensington, recognized as a future Brooklyn leader [CNG.]

Nathan Kensinger photographs the nurses residence at the abandoned Greenpoint Hospital.

The Guggenheim releases its list of the 25 best YouTube videos [Huffpost.]

The story of Debbie Almontaser, fired as principal of New York's first Arab-themed school, is now an award-winning documentary film called Intifada NYC [FWIX.]

Grow veggies in your driveway [Inside Urban Green.]

In a newly-released survey by the Municipal Art Society, New Yorkers rated the livability of their neighborhoods [MAS.]

Did drilling contractor Halliburton knowingly use faulty cement to seal the Deepwater Horizon well [AP?]

Please don't watch this documentary about the BP oil spill -- unless you can handle the truth [Pro Publica.]

Linkage

Khadija Mahel's remains are found in Queens.

Laura Garza's remains are found in Pennsylvania.

Natalie Assee's mourning father continues to search for the driver who killed her.

Marty Golden has yet another Democratic challenger, but somehow, I don't think he's worried yet.

The city re-names Bay Ridge Parkway for the late civic activist Rosemarie O'Keefe.

Third Avenue's Home Store boosts sales by serving brunch, hosting Girl's Nite Out.

Brighton Beach Bungalows, from photographer Nathan Kensinger's blog.

Massey-Knakal pimps 103-year-old Presbyterian church in Ridgewood to developers.

Sunset Park's P.S. 172 a standout.

Iconic Brooklyn bar Freddy's falls victim to Atlantic Yards.

Queens Crap weighs in on the Arizona anti-illegal immigration law.

PlaNYC progress report in PDF.

Sandy, One Year Later

She made landfall in New Jersey with hurricane-force winds on Oct. 29, 2012, killing 117 Americans, 61 of them from New York State.

She was one of the worst natural disasters to hit the state in decades, destroying homes, businesses and critical infrastructure and displacing countless families and communities. She wiped out more than 300,000 housing units, and left 2 million utility customers without power -- including 90% of Long Island customers. Many went without power for weeks.

According to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sandy cost New York City about $19 billion. But that number doesn't begin to capture the significance of what we lost. The Breezy Point fire burned 100 homes to the ground. The city's subway system was completely under water. Beloved local landmarks, like Coney Island's newly-refurbished Cyclone, were ruined.

On Monday, New Yorkers commemorated the Superstorm's 1-year anniversary in many different ways: a "Sandy Service Day" hosted by the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund and Jersey Cares to clean up still-littered areas of New Jersey; "Light the Shore", a day of events hosted by the Staten Island Community and the 70-group Interfaith Long-Term Recovery Organization; the "Small Business Block Party", hosted by the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce and the dozens of Hylan Blvd. businesses closed by the storm that have since reopened; "Looking to the Future", a conference on building storm resilience at Monmouth University in Long Branch, N.J.; and "One Year After Sandy", a photo montage hosted by the city of Lindenhurst, N.Y. and Adopt-a-House, an NYC nonprofit that helps residents affected by the storm.

Among dozens of other photo commemorations were The Atlantic's 2-part spread, Huffpost's "then and now" comparisons, and Nathan Kensinger's vivid shots of still-off-kilter Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Sea Gate in southern Brooklyn.

A New York Times reporter was there on Sunday when a thousand people, brought together by Facebook group Rockaway Rising, formed a human chain and stood silently on the beach watching a fireboat spouting just offshore. And children released Chinese lanterns and daisies onto the waves honoring those whose lives were taken by the storm.

On Monday, the Ellis Island historic site reopened to visitors for the first time since Sandy.

The MTA commemorated by the anniversary by offering free rides on public transit on Tuesday, which Bay Ridge Odyssey found deeply ironic, and at Staten Island's South Beach, Republican mayoral candidate Joe Lhota and Republican State Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis took a commemorative walk on the newly-reconstructed boardwalk.

More anniversary events are scheduled over the next several days. Starting on Tuesday, 300,000 “I Love New York” MetroCards will be sold as part of a statewide “Come See the Comeback” campaign.

Also on Tuesday, Governor Cuomo is touring some of the state's hardest-hit areas to assess the progress of the recovery, visiting the more than 258 downstate gas stations where back-up power capacity is being installed (Read more here).

To read about the big investments in storm resiliency made by the MTA and the Port Authority in the past year, click here, here and here.

From 6-8 PM on Wednesday, October 30, the "New York Rising" Community Reconstruction Program will meet at Parish Hall, at 74 Trinity Place in Manhattan, to develop community-driven plans to make the city's waterfront neighborhoods more resilient to the impact of climate change. All are invited. To subscribe to the email list for the NY Rising process through the New Amsterdam Market, click here, hit "Sign up for the mailing list now," follow instructions for updating your profile, and join the "NY Rising" mailing list.

In waterfront Red Hook, Sandy brought neighbors closer [Brooklyn Bureau.]

Link Roundup

Trash joins preservation-hatin', graffiti, home-delivered crack cocaine, parking tickets, cyclones, club kids, homicide hotels and eau de sewage as a signature Bay Ridge issue.

Dyker Heights Animal Health Fair June 6.

Reader John Clements, in a letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Paper, has more to say on the trash issue.

Memorial Day concert in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Nathan Kensinger explores the Williamsburg Savings Bank.

Will streetcars return to Brooklyn?

The Ringling Brothers Circus is hosting a job fair in Coney Island.

Coney Island's Dreamland Roller Rink is open for the summer.

City Council hearing on Two Trees' controversial Dock Street DUMBO project.

More on the Mayor's plan to charge homeless people to live in shelters.

Rooftop Films Go Underground

Rooftop Films, best known for showing underground films outdoors, will be taking them back underground -- into the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel at Atlantic Avenue and Court Street in Cobble Hill -- for two programs of short films on Saturday and Sunday, December 11 and 12.

Saturday, December 11 

Trapped in the Tunnel
1:00 PM, doors open
1:45 PM, presentation by Bob Diamond
2:15 PM, films begin
4:15 PM, after-party at Last Exit bar, 136 Atlantic Ave

The Films:

Road to Moloch (Robert Glickert | USA | 14 min.)
A team of reconnaissance marines on a mission encounter a blood-spattered Iraqi stumbling through the desert and follow him into the depths of an insurgent cave, where they make a horrifying discovery.

Daylight Hole (Matt Palmer | United Kingdom | 5 min.)
A soundman descends into an isolated cave, and only when it may be too late does he begin to suspect he's not alone.

Sinkhole (Eric Scherbarth | New York, NY | 13 min.)
A salesman offers to buy a mysterious landowner's smoldering abandoned coalmines but finds that there is more at stake.

Ledo and Ix Go to Town (Emily Carmichael | Brooklyn, NY | 7:45 min.)
What if they video game characters chat and bicker like we do, wonder and dream like we do, feel boredom and dread like we do, despite being 48 pixels tall? Carmichael returns to Rooftop with another film in the Ledo and Ix series, using retro video game imagery to explore human fear. kidcandrive.com

Covered Tracks (Nathan Kensinger | New York | 12 min.)
An exploration of life and death underneath Manhattan, in a 50 block-long train tunnel that was once an underground homeless city.

Monsters Down the Hall (S. Vellie Osborn | Worcester, Massachusetts | 12 min.)
Michael is a young old man living in the projects in Worcester, Massachusetts with his hapless mother, who habitually disappears into Apt. 18E down the hall, where she warns her son not to go.  When he goes there, in his dreams, he discovers monsters.

Sunday, December 12
Tunnel of Love
1:00 PM, doors open
1:45 PM, tour of the tunnel with Bob Diamond
2:15 PM, films begin
4:15 PM, after-party at Last Exit bar, 136 Atlantic Ave.

The Films:

Mary Last Seen (Sean Durkin | New York, NY | 13 min.)
A young woman takes a strange road trip with her boyfriend.

Bugcrush (Carter Smith | Maine | 30 min.)
Ben, a small-town high school loner, is fascinated with the sinister and seductive new kid Grant.

Tub (Bobby Miller | Los Angeles, CA | 12 min.)
Paul jerks off in the shower and impregnates his bath tub.

Strates (Yohan Guignard | France & Belgium | 9 min.)
A farmer discovers a buried treasure.

Getting there:  take the 2,3, 4 or 5 to Borough Hall or the F to Bergen.

Tickets are $20 online or at the door. Tickets and information here.

For more information, call Rooftop Films at 718-417-7362 or visit the website.  Full schedule, program notes, film descriptions, venue information, and schedule of other events here.

The half-mile-long Atlantic Avenue Tunnel was built in 1844 to help prevent Long Island Rail Road trains from mowing down pedestrians and horses on their way to the Brooklyn piers -- I guess the brakes weren't too good. The tunnel was closed in the 1860's and forgotten for over 100 years -- until urban spelunker Bob Diamond rediscovered it in 1980 and The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association (BHRA) was formed in 1982.  BHRA maintains and conduct tours and events in the tunnel.

Visitors enter through a manhole in the middle of Atlantic Avenue -- just like Norton.

Bob Diamond will lead a tour, recounting the history of the tunnel, before the screening.

You must be 18 or over to attend the screening, and 21 to attend the after-party.

Traffic is blocked, but wear comfortable shoes and don't go down unless you can climb back up the 10 ft ladder.  You'll have to sign a liability waiver before entering.  The tunnel has no chairs or benches, although there will be tarps on the ground to sit on and you can bring a small cushion. There are no bathrooms down there, so take care of that beforehand.

Updates from McBrooklyn.

Bob Diamond reacts to his tours being shut down by the FDNY [Daily News.]

Link Roundup

Proposed MTA service cuts will hurt transit-starved Bay Ridge commuters.

The Daily News does Bay Ridge.

Ice skating schedule at Wollman Rink in Prospect Park.

Fifteen reasons to love Brooklyn.

Kudos for Regina Opera Company's production of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Brooklyn has a ballet company!

Photos:  1,000 turn out for annual Polar Bear Swim, a 106-year-old Coney Island tradition.

Ditmas Park's Vox Pop re-opens, with a little help from its friends.

2009 survey of news from New York City's neighborhoods.

The city's Department of Environmental Protection weighs in on hydrofracking.

Bloomberg campaign aides get 20% bonuses.

The Voice's Robbins comments on the City Council's fiesty new attitude toward the mayor.

The city's Department of Homeless Services forces homeless people to give up their pets.

TNR advocates face down NYCHA at Ravenswood in Queens.

Six outspoken commuter advocates kicked off the MTA board.

In court, the Vulcan Society asks for racial hiring quotas at the FDNY.

Newsweek muses on the intertwined future of New York City and its beleaguered middle class.

Photographer Nathan Kensinger looks back on the Bloomberg era's effect on the New York City skyline.