Tenement Museum Talk Tonight. City Room
Why Joan Jett Rocks! Super Vegan
Truman’s House Up for Sale. Casa Cara
Bklyn Designs. Brooklyn Modern
Never saw this 1978 Ramones commercial for House of Guitars. I guess Rochester was a little too far from NYC to air it, but look what we missed out on down south!
Yay! Finished kitchen!
‘Twas a few days late, but the Beacon house finally hit the market last week. It’s listed with JonCar Realty, the bloke who’s holding my real estate license. He’s the same guy I take all the pictures for. Don’t ask me why the photos look so pixelated on his website. I’ve been over that with him. Hrmph.
Anyway, the place is looking great. It got a few showing last weekend. People seemed to spend quite a bit of time there, but no offers yet. 
MLS # 287341. Blog page here. Go buy it. Right now. Please?
Wow, there are some awesome concerts coming up in Brooklyn this summer! I’m gonna have me a biz-zy schedule!
Coming up on May 19th at the Music Hall of Williamsburg….the legendary PIL! The show was originally set for Terminal 5, but they moved it to a more intimate venue because they are filming a documentary.
The Open Space Alliance is hosting the following concerts at The Williamsburg Waterfront. Tickets on sale at Ticketmaster for around $30-40.
June 20: Band of Horses
June 25: Silversun Pickups
July 2 & 5: Faith No More (benefit)
July 16: Weezer
July 23: Modest Mouse
July 29: Primus & GOGOL BORDELLO (!!!!!!!)
July 31: Nas & Damian Marley (benefit)
Celebrate Brooklyn at The Prospect Park Bandshell opens up on June 9th with Nora Jones. There’s a whole load of world music, dance and jazz. Some really good stuff, but the only band this middle-aged-I-think-I’m-still-a-teen-who-listens-to-poppy-rocky-music-woman wants to see is Sonic Youth on July 31.
Coney Island Seaside 2010 season has not been announced yet.
The current address of Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School is 1600 Avenue L. That may change if my fellow alum Shadrach Stanleigh gets his way.
Since the untimely death of Murrow’s founder and former beloved Principal, Saul Bruckner, there have been Facebook groups popping up. Stanleigh started one such group, to rename the block fronting Murrow to Saul Bruckner Place.
It’s a great idea! Even if you’ve never heard of Bruckner, chances are you know someone whose life he touched. You’re reading this blog? Bam! You’ve probably watched a Marissa Tomei movie or listened to the Beastie Boys? Bam! Murrowites. It’s the Boro of Murrow and we’re everywhere.
So, you should join the group and send a letter to your local councilperson. There is a letter on FB that you can use to cut and paste and add your own info. You can find your district council person here.
Easy stuff. And thank you.
After a grueling final week to get the Beacon home on the market, it’s finally listed on MLS. The house has never looked so good. Yesterday was the broker’s open house which had a really good turn out.
The open house was called for 12-2pm and so my schedule went something like this:
4:30am. Wake up. Cawfeeeee.
5:00am. Paint spot on kitchen wall that was spackled the day before. Paint some patches in the bathroom.
5:30am. Clean cat pee bathroom. Bleach the shit out of it.
6:30am. Shower.
7:00am. Oooh, I stink again! What can ya do?
7:15am. Clear tools and ladders from kitchen. Vacuum new white grout that was never sealed and will be gray grout by end of week.
8:00am. Take out screens and storm windows in preparation for the window cleaner.
8:30am. Cawfeeee break. Call broker to delegate refreshment duty to him.
9:00am. Window cleaner arrives. We discover that the top windows that are covered by the storm windows won’t open. He can only clean the bottoms.
9:30am. Discover the bathroom drain is leaking since I pushed the pedestal sink too hard while cleaning cat pee. Throw a sheet down and pray the contractor comes on time today.
10:00am. Clean the rest of the kitchen without water because it’s not hooked up.
10:30am. Ah, Dimas the contractor has arrived only a half hour late! Quick Dimas, leak! Backsplash! Shelf!
11:00am. Dust and clean the rest of the house with the help of Dimas and his assistant, John.
11:30am. Jon of JonCar Realty arrives with the desserts. Dunkin Donuts and Sam’s Club. Really?
12:05pm. Change out of painting clothes while the first realtor arrives. Must dress like an orthodox Jew on this hot day because I have paint all over my arms and haven’t shaved my legs in like a decade.
2:30pm. Discover a large pubic hair on white bathroom floor after last realtor leaves.
Flickr house photos
(OK, I’m kidding… a little bit). Hope you get a bidding war over it! 
Coney Boardwalk Furniture. Gothamist
Reclaimed Beam Benches. ATNY
DIY Library. Charles and Hudson
A House that Floats. Living Well in Westchester
Entire Green Neighborhoods. On the Level
Saul Bruckner, founder and former principal of Edward R Murrow High School, passed away from a heart attack over the weekend. His wife found him in the swimming pool in the backyard of their Mill Basin home.
Bruckner founded the acclaimed school in 1974. By the time I arrived as a sophmore in 1980, Murrow had already molded minds as brilliant and eccentric as Jean Michel Basquiat. Murrow was an “alternative” high school. Principal Bruckner believed students should have the freedom of choice.
I’m not sure how the school has changed since the years I left, but at the time….
1. There were no bells. Class schedules were slightly confusing. I still have dreams that I’m walking around the hallway trying to figure out which class is next.
2. Instead of grades like A, B, C, it was E for Excellent, G for Good. To this day, people look at me funny when I say “I was a straight E student in math, I don’t know what happened to me.”
3. No sports. Yeah, we had gym. But no teams. The emphasis was on music, theater and the arts. Kind of like a school full of “Glee” kids, or at the time: “Fame”.
4. “Periods” were called “bands”. A free period was “opta band”. OPTA standing for “Optional Time Activity”.
Saul Bruckner’s vision of a New York City public school didn’t work out so badly. Apart from Murrow being ranked one of the best schools in the country, it’s clear to see how much the school has shaped student’s lives. Ask most folks how they felt about their high school years, they didn’t exactly love it. Ask a former Murrowite and they always look back with a smile.
And that was all Mr. Bruckner’s doing.
There were over 700 kids in my graduating class and nearly 4000 in the entire school, yet he seemed to know everyone’s name. I was one of the students who took advantage of the freedom. In other words, I cut a lot of classes. I’d be sitting in the hallway when Saul would come up to me and say “Miss Bobb, shouldn’t you be in French class now?” Sometimes he would make me go and sometimes he would let me screw up my future interactions with French people. But he trusted that I would make the right decision on my own.
The last time I saw Saul Bruckner was in Caravelle Restaurant in Midwood (where else?). He had retired by then and he looked like an old man. He was with a group of people and I was with people who didn’t know him, so I didn’t say hello. I guess I kind of regret that now.
Funeral services are today, May 3, 2010 at 11:30 AM at Parkside Funeral Home, 2576 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn. Mrs. Bruckner will be sitting Shiva Tuesday and Wednesday at 2171 East 65th Street, Brooklyn.
At the request of Mrs. Bruckner, any donations made will be added to the Saul Bruckner Scholarship Fund. You can send that to the attention of Ellen Goldman, at Edward R. Murrow High School, 1600 Avenue L, Brooklyn, NY 11230.
I’ll leave you with some quotes I snatched from Facebook friends:
“In many ways, Saul Bruckner’s vision allowed for all of us to be part of a very special anomaly – one that I think we all have recognized and have come to cherish. And over the years, I think many of us will agree that we have carried that spirit with us.”
“Gee, I remember that early morning AP American History class. And he gave me a 99 on the final paper because there was a minor typo (and my mom typed the paper…remember those Selectrics!).”
“A standout among the academic figures with whom I studied (and that includes college, grad school and law school professors), and more than any other, a personification of the institution he frequented.”
“Sad, that a great man who helped shape my unparalleled education passed away yesterday.”
“OMG. I’m so sad. Truly a man who took education seriously. The man never forgot a name. He taught me the importance of knowing someone’s name. I didn’t even realize that till this very moment. RIP Saul. R.I.P.”
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My family lived in Rochester for a while during the 70s, and House of Guitars was the best thing about that town. Love this—thanks!
Comment by Judy — May 12, 2010 @ 9:08 am
Hey, my family moved upstate for a few years during the 70′s too! It was just Sullivan County though, about an hour + away.
Comment by RH — May 12, 2010 @ 9:29 am