Blue Barn Pictures, a Dumbo-based multimedia production company recently held a HD documentary training course in which the students shot short documentaries on different artists in the Dumbo neighborhood. They have a few upcoming courses and workshops for aspiring documentary filmmakers or anyone interested in learning filmmaking techniques and skills.

HD DOCUMENTARY FIELD PRODUCTION – Friday October 2 to Sunday October 4
This 3 day intensive course covers all the essentials of documentary filmmaking. It will focus on HD Workflow, Lighting Techniques, Audio, Basic Editing in Final Cut Pro, Interview Techniques, Creative Style, and Professional Etiquette. With a small class size, students will receive personalized instruction as they team up to produce 60 second documentaries that will be screened publicly upon completion of the course. This course is sponsored by Canon and will feature Canon’s latest HDV cameras. Costs $1000.

THE FILM LIGHTING WORKSHOP – Saturday October 10 to Sunday October 11
In this 2 day hands-on workshop, students will learn all the essential skills needed for professional lighting from a seasoned director of photography. Topics covered include several different lighting styles, the 3 point lighting system, and lighting for green screen. Sponsored by Canon and Photoflex. Costs $750.

For additional information or to sign up, please contact Matt Weckel at training@bluebarnpictures.com or visit www.bluebarnpictures.com/training.

Blue Barn Pictures, Inc. is a multimedia production company providing the highest quality images to suit the needs of its clients. Blue Barn Pictures’ successful history includes producing imaging for: Canon USA, ExxonMobil, PerkinElmer, Casa Nova Pendrill, EZpass, US Federal Reserve, the Element Agency, Armani Exchange, and Worldwide Fight Services.

It’s one thing to be trapped in the office all day, it’s another thing entirely to read a tweet from Hide @DumboNYC that the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck will be visiting Dumbo and I’ll be in Midtown, seemingly miles away from my favorite snack. So I picked up the phone and called Bryan who was stationed at home, You have GOT to go check out these dumplings today. PLEASE? And call me immediately, I want a full report.

An hour or so later I got that phone call. Turns out my dearest, darling husband had to wait in line for quite a while just to get to the goods. He even overheard a guy complaining loudly about the cost ($6 for 6 dumplings), and got in line anyway. I guess dumplings are a universal weak spot!

Bryan picked up an order of the Peking Duck dumplings and the edamame filled Vegan ones as well. This is how you know you are loved, by the way: He waited until I got home to eat them. He cooked up some Brown Rice Medley from Trader Joe’s (we really love this for it’s chunky texture and nutty, sweet flavor), a big green salad from the bits and bobs left from last weeks Dumbo/Vinegar Hill CSA, and pan fried up all those luscious, gorgeous dumplings.

The dumplings were great – not at all greasy and they kept their shape beautifully. The Peking Duck dumpling was savory and chewy, a perfect bite; but the Vegan was my favorite. The wrapper was whole wheat and not at all dry, while the inside was just like a chunky edamame puree. Kind of a genius idea, don’t you think? Next time I must try the pork dumpling, because honestly, the original is always the best.

P.S. Turns out the Rickshaw Dumpling truck is in Dumbo every Monday…so get while the gettin’s good!

Book Launch, Discussion and Signing for High Glitz: The Extravagant World of Child Beauty Pageants, by Susan Anderson with Simon Doonan of Barneys.

Come celebrate powerHouse photographer Susan Anderson’s close-up look at the extravagant world of child beauty pageants. Barneys’ creative director Simon Doonan, who wrote the book’s foreword, will join the photographer for a discussion of this remarkable American subculture. A selection of Simon Doonan’s books, will also be available for signing.

Thursday, October 1, 7-9pm
powerHouse Books | powerHouse Arena
37 Main St., Brooklyn, NY 11201
(212) 604-9074

We posted on our Twitter page last week that the retail space on 76 Front Street is being prepared for two retail spaces. As of yesterday, the leases were signed to two business familiar to those who live in Dumbo:

• 72 Front Street (2,000sqft) – Journey Home is relocating from 166 Water St.
• 76 front Street (2,200sqft) – PS Bookshop is relocating from 145A Front St.

Both businesses are located in the 68 Jay Street building, and the new Front Street location will probably give them more foot traffic on the corner of Washington and Front. According to the leasing director we spoke to, Journey home should be ready for move-in around November and PS Bookshop will be ready in December. Other recent 68 Jay Street retail level changes include Egg Baby signing a lease on the corner of Jay and Front St and NOS Boutique opening up a store on Jay St. Wonk, which is located at 68 Jay St is moving to its Williamsburg location on October 1.

 
Council Member David Yassky revealed in FOIL documents back in March 2009 that the School Construction Authority (SCA) may have said one thing about building a middle school in Dumbo but internally discussing their preference for the Dock St Dumbo site for a new middle school. Over the weekend, DumboNYC received a new round of documents from the office of David Yassky that there are further FOIL documents that support the evidence that the SCA coordinated with Two Trees to propose a middle school in the controversial development on Dock Street in Dumbo. Although the zoning change has already been approved, Mr. Yassky is showing further support that “what is also now clear, thanks to this astounding email, is that the developer of the Dock Street property was spewing false propaganda—is there any other kind?—about the proposed school’s amenities, which fall far short of SCA’s standards for public schools.” See David Yassky’s full statement below. On page 6-7 is an email from Bruce Barrett, SCA’s own architect who concluded that “the propsal would yield an extremely small school (compromised from our standards), with premium costs due to mixed-use with the high rise residential building. Additional costs for impact of Green design and other aspects of the shared use may arise during design.” The FOIL Documents can be downloaded here (1.4mb PDF).

The new round of documents from SCA confirm our worst suspicions—that the City did not seek out the best deal. According to one email from SCA, their in-house architect and engineer concluded in late 2007 that the proposed Dock Street middle school “would yield a very small school (compromised from our standards) with premium costs due to the mixed use with the high-rise residential building.”

I urge you to re-read that sentence and the full email— compromised from our standards and with premium costs. We know now that Dock Street did not represent the best deal for City taxpayers and the future students into the district.

What is also now clear, thanks to this astounding email, is that the developer of the Dock Street property was spewing false propaganda—is there any other kind?—about the proposed school’s amenities, which fall far short of SCA’s standards for public schools:

• The developer claimed that the Dock Street school would be a total of 45,000 square feet. But, the school will be closer to 40,000 square feet—more than 10% smaller than their pronouncements. According to the email containing the structural analysis, 5,000 to 6,000 square feet of the school floor area will be lost due the needs of the residential structure above
• As opponents of Dock Street continuously pointed out, the proximity to the high-traffic Brooklyn Bridge and the location in a manufacturing zone has serious consequences that should disqualify the site. The SCA architect agreed citing “potential safety, environmental and noise impacts” and “traffic noise and pollution and minimizing daylight and fresh air.” All of this was vehemently denied by all the project’s many proponents
• The Dock Street proposal bragged about its state-of-the-art 20-foot-high gymnasium. Again, due to structural needs, about five feet would be taken out, leaving about “15 feet of clear height.” That would only be about two feet higher than a backboard on a typical high school basketball court. According to SCA “that would “not be a gym per se” because SCA’s standard gym height is 23 to 24 feet. SCA recommended using the space not as a gym, but as a multi-purpose room

SCA knew about these issues and more since late 2007, yet did nothing to correct the record when these misrepresentations about the project were made repeatedly to the public in presentations and public hearings.
This email, seen in newly released documents from SCA, was a full year before the SCA conducted site selection for the Dock Street public school, which half-heartedly included two other sites, one of which was the proposed P.S.8 expansion.

Other emails show that SCA collaborated—and possibly colluded—with the Dock Street developer on designing a school well before it conducted the site selection process.
Instead of conducting due diligence for the best location for a public school to serve the needs of the community, SCA chose one location, Dock Street, then ignored and steamrolled over cries for due diligence.

Shame on the SCA for completing a deal for a school that is apparently not suitable for the students it is supposed to serve and far more expensive than it should be as a result of the shocking lack of due diligence for alternative sites.

As I have said all along the Dock Street School was and is a bad deal. It is tantamount to a literal and figurative robbery. I urge the Inspector General to conduct an immediate inquiry and to call on SCA for a full accounting.

David Yassky

More from past posts:
- Past Dock Street Dumbo articles
- David Yassky Presses School Authorities on Dock St School Alternatives (w/ FOIL Docs)
- Dock Street Dumbo Opposition Rally at City Hall
- CB2 Land Use Committee Member’s Open Letter About Dock St Dumbo
- Two Trees’ Land Use Counsel’s Response to CB2 Land Use Committee Member’s Open Letter
- Dock St Dumbo Protest Calls for Investigation

Note: As a forum to provide all sides of Dumbo-related issues, we’ve posted the letter in full, the content and opinions expressed in the letter do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they an endorsement against (or for) the project by DumboNYC.

The following are selected links from this past week on blogs and websites with discussion about Dumbo (and its neighboring areas):

• Vinegar Hill House ‘Best Possible Pork’, 21Sept09, Feedbag
• NOS Boutique on Jay St, 23Sept09, Brownstoner
• Sinotique Opens Showroom @ 70 John St, 21Sept09, Brooklyn
• Mikey’s Turns One in Dumbo, 21Sept09, Brownstoner
• Dumbo is the Digital District, 24Sept09, Carrot Creative
• $25mil in Brooklyn Will Buy You…, 24Sept09, Haute Living
• DUMBO Archway Beautification Complete!, 23Sept09, Inhabitat
• Wonk Review, 23Sept09, Cherrypatter
• Development Watch: 109 Gold Street, 21Sept09, Brownstoner
• Why I Love Dumbo, 22Sept09, TONY
• 15 Top Social Media Agencies, Incl 1 in Dumbo, 21Sept09, Jason Keath
• 189 Bridge Street, #13D, 22Sept09, Brownstoner
• Discover Dumbo Video, 22Sept09, ReadyToAir on YouTube
• Sixth Annual Brooklyn Pie Social, TODAY, About
• Art Fest, 24Sept09, So Elsewhere
• reBar Review, 24Sept09, whoatethebigapple
• video_dumbo 2009, 25Sept09, dvblog.org
• thatwaszen @ Dumbo Art Fest, 25Sept09, thatwaszen
• Simon Roberts: We English, 25Sept09, PDN
• At Gleason’s Gym Artists Give, 25Sept09, YourNabe

And from NBC, about the Dumbo Art Under The Bridge Festival: “Sights and sounds include streets paved with oyster shells, traffic signs hjacked by poetry, and a guy turned into a werewolf by the recession (River’s Edge, Tercet and Stir Crazy). Squint and pre-condo DUMBO lives again, a blazing hotbed of artistic expression.”

The second day of Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival drew large crowds to Dumbo. These are photos from Twitter:

“Only at the Dumbo Art Festival” (from @gregory)

“Dumbo trash. Art.” (from @georgiakral)

“Total WTF moment in dumbo” (from @dopeburger)

“Damsel in distress. Dumbo art festival. I effin love New York.” (from @TinaParol)

Camo men. (from @zoomn)

“Dumbo arts festival is full of exhibitions for kids and adults. Rock climbing on jay street. ” (from @doughremekids)

The first night of The Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival drew large crowds in Dumbo. Below are a few photos we snapped:

Look out for art on the streets: “Shape of the Tongue”

…above you…(Sean Capone’s Camera Rosetum video projection in The Archway)

…and along the sidewalk.

The line to get in the Dumbo Arts Center’s The Experience of Green exhibit was around the block.

The exhibit by Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen is brilliant.

Some interactive art on Plymouth Street

And under The Archway was mesmorizing and a comfortable place to sleep…almost.

303rd Collective exhibit at 155 Water Street.

Seemed like there were tens of thousands of people in the street. Even Pedro’s was packed and was standing room only.

…and the bizzare “Caged ex-Enron worker exhibit” at 55 Washington lobby.

For more, go to the 2009 Dumbo Art Under the Bridge Festival Flickr set.

 
The 13th annual D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge Festival® kicks off this afternoon in Dumbo Brooklyn starting at 6pm. This three day, multi-site neighborhood event will display artwork from artists of all types. For those who have never attended an art fest in Dumbo, grab a program (they’ll be around various venues or download it here or download a free iPhone app at dumbo.walkabit.com), go to the various buildings and wander around the studios, speak to the artists if you find some interesting art. Here are a few of the exhibitions (a few of these may not be part of the art festival but will be happening this weekend in Dumbo):

1) Gloves Off! At Gleason’s Gym

(Courtesy of PowerImage PR)

Female boxers of Gleason’s Gym donate proceeds of Mosaic Art to ‘Girls for Gender Equity’

Mosaic Artist Grace Baley and a group of females boxers from world famous boxing gym, Gleason’s, will take off their gloves for a special cause during the 13th annual D.U.M.B.O Art Under the Bridge Festival on September 26-27th.

This year, Grace and 17 female boxers from Gleason’s Gym are making her exhibit even more special by donating 100% of the proceeds to Brooklyn-based community organization, Girls for Gender Equity.
Press release here (PDF)

2) 2009 Dumbo Dance Festival

In addition to the art fest, the 2009 Dumbo Dance Festival is happening this weekend. It is a four-day marathon showcase of cutting-edge contemporary dance featuring both emerging and eminent dancemakers. The 2009 DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL, held at WHITE WAVE’s John Ryan Theater (25 Jay Street) and in Brooklyn Bridge Park, will feature over 80 companies with 400 performing artists: the grand scale of the Festival, the range of artists participating and its interdisciplinary variety distinguishes the event from its peers. Featuring the freshest and most original dancemakers, audiences will be able to enjoy up to 7 different companies in each hour of programming. For more information and schedule, go to whitewavedance.com.

3) The Lost Tenement’s Parade: You are Dumbo & Dumbo is You

Playing along the boundaries of protest and celebration, we want to invite you to join in a collective art project connecting the former and current inhabitants of Dumbo, demonstrating the complexities of the lives and people that make a neighborhood.

You are invited to take part in our open workshop. We will explore the occupation, appropriation and personalization of public space through object making and a collective performative action parade inhabiting the streets of Dumbo.

Join us on Saturday, the 26th, on Plymouth and Pearl Street
Workshop from 11 am
Parade from 3 pm – open end

Manifest your experiences of the neighborhood’s transition or visions for Dumbo:
Are you moving in? Are you moving out? Are you a veteran resident? Who makes a neighborhood? What makes a home? How do we inhabit public space? How many subjective reading of Dumbo can we share?

4) ART MOB! A flash mob of brooklyn artists

Be a part of our FLASH MOB at 4:00pm on Saturday. Meet at 5 Front Street, bring a sketchpad and pen.

Time: September 26, 2009 from 4pm to 4:15pm
Location: 5 Front Restaurant
Street: 5 Front Street

This year is BAP’s biggest yet with three exhibition locations, a kickin DUMBO Art House party at 13 Evans Street Saturday night, and live t-shirt silk screening at 5 Front both days by Cecilia Anton, Owner of LES shop LIVE FAST NYC who’s giving away one free tee both days.

We’ve put up a new comment system that will hopefully make comments more ‘reader-friendly’. For a while now, some comments were starting to get on people’s nerves, myself included. I know readers here are intelligent, funny, and passionate about the neighborhood, so I thank everyone here who participates and contributes to the discussions. (And all your emails too!). Commenting should be fun and informative. But when comments start to turn people away from commenting themselves, the site stops becoming an open forum and turns into a soap box for a handful.

The new commenting system allows you to do the following:

• Flag an inapprorpriate comment – If a comment is flagged multiple times, the comment becomes dark or not displayed. This allows the community to decide what’s inappropriate and displayed.
• Sort comments by rating, popularity, or newest/oldest.
• User registration for verified identities/profiles. This prevents commenting using someone else’s online identity. You can still register anonymously, but your comments will be consistent with your online name or handle.
• Real-time discussions: View the chatter with real-time posting and updating. With rich interactive features such as threaded replies and comment replies, your discussions never feel dull. (Ok, this one is a marketing point from Disqus.

Currently, anyone can comment without registering, allowing for easier discussions. But registering allows you to do things such as click on “like”, which increases the comment visibility by making it popular or use your Twitter account for posting. Registering also gives you a persona and as you accumulate points, your comments are more influential to the site. Eventually, we will be able to see the top commenters and can become a better online community.

As I’ve stated in the past, I’m counting on everyone to stick to comment etiquette, like a civil conversation in a person’s home:
- stay on topic
- contribute new information to the discussion
- don’t comment for the sake of commenting
- remember that nobody likes a know-it-all
- cite your sources
- be courteous
- do not feed the trolls

We’re still tweaking the site with the comments (and there are probably some bugs), so you’ll see some quirks, but for the most part, the comment system is working as far as I know, and over time, we hope this brings out better discussions for the Dumbo community. Please let me know how this is working. If you have any feedback, I’m always open to ideas. Thank you for your patience on this.
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