Brooklyn Children's Museum

Planet Brooklyn: Chinese New Year celebration will kick off the Year of the
Boar at Brooklyn Children's Museum on Saturday, February 10, from 12-5pm. Families can create their own lanterns, learn to play shuttlecock and other Chinese games, and meet real "dragons" from the Museum's live animal collection. And don't miss a special performance by the lion dance team from Yee's Hung Ga Kung Fu Association of Brooklyn - including a peek inside the lion's head!

145 Brooklyn Avenue

Brooklyn Museum

Celebrate Heart of Brooklyn's fifth anniversary in Brooklyn Museum's spectacular collection of ancient Egyptian masterpieces. The galleries include more than 1,000 treasures spanning 5,000 years, from pre-dynastic times through the reign of Cleopatra. See beautifully decorated coffins, a mummy, monumental stone statues, jewelry worn by the pharoahs, and a relief with the world's first-known representation of a kiss, all a part of the collection considered to be one of the finest in the world. And be sure to catch the newly opened Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism. This exhibition has over forty superb examples of nineteenth century French and American landscapes by such artists as Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet and John Singer Sargent.  read more »

In the current issue of VARIETY, Robert Hofler laments the apparent loss of gay audiences on Broadway. He suggests that changing gay lifestyles and the emergence of gay gay gay on television (Bravo, Here!, Logo, Showtime, HBO and even the networks) has lured gay men from the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd.

Silly girl. How can critics be so wise and yet so blind? Broadway has become a tourist attraction, a sterile land of corporate sponsors and product placements, national brands, family-friendly entertainments, marketing super powers and sure bets.

Gay men were drawn to the risk takers, the pioneers, the innovators, the Fosses and the Sondheims. Today's Broadway rarely sees experimentation, innovation and theatrical art. Today's Broadway is designed for expense accounts, tourists and merchandising opportunities.

Giuliani cleaned up Times Square and Broadway. In fact, Giuliani cleaned out Times Square and Broadway. Soaring rents, chain stores and chain restaurants and theaters with names like American Airlines, Ford, Nokea, Hilton and Disney have driven New York's real theater world and its gay audience off and off off Broadway.  read more »

Here are some events going on in Brooklyn:

Brooklyn Children's Museum

Grab your mittens and your magnifying glass, it's time to become a snow scientist at Brooklyn Children's Museum! The Science of Snow, Saturday, January 27 from 1-3pm, gives you an up-close look at this icy winter wonder. Learn how animals survive in the winter, and explore snowy weather strategies used by different cultures. Conduct experiments to see how salt effects ice, and investigate snowflake crystals. Make a snowy decoration to take home. Ages 6+

Please note: Due to the Museum's ongoing expansion, the Totally Tots gallery will be closed January 16, 2007. A special early learner gallery will open February 10, 2007. Please contact (718) 735-4400 x321 for additional information and questions.

145 Brooklyn Avenue

Brooklyn Museum

Come to the Brooklyn Museum to see the newly opened Ancient Egyptian Magic: Manipulating Image, Word, and Reality, a special exhibition in the galleries containing Brooklyn MuseumÂ’s world-famous collection of ancient Egyptian art. Magic presents twenty-one objects that explore how the early Egyptians addressed the unknown forces in the universe. It is also the opening weekend of The Eye of the Artist: The Work of Devorah Sperber. Sperber, a New York artist presents seven works including her eye-catching thread-spool installations recreating Da VinciÂ’s The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa that can only be fully seen by looking through an optical device. This weekend will also be your last chance to see Ron MueckÂ’s amazingly life-like figure sculptures that have been leaving thousands of visitors in awe!  read more »

During the 2006 Democratic Primary season in Brooklyn (a hotly contested fight in a place where few Republicans do well leading to the idea that through most of Brooklyn Democrats could run a sponge cake and still beat Republicans) I met a gentleman named Bill Batson.

The very first time I met him, he discussed contriversial issues that my wife and I had skirted, but had yet to publicly discuss. I rapidly became a supporter in his (ultimately unsuccessful) run for Assembly, but I also came to see him as an example of what I call a "community candidate," a political candidate who comes from a background of community activism and participation. Bill's opponents tried to portray him as a lightweight, a nobody. This was grossly unfair to a man who had served his community for years. He was the New York State Senate Democratic Leader David A. Paterson’s Director of Community Relations, the chair and Co-Founder of ACRES, (American Civil Rights Education Services), has worked at The Coalition for the Homeless, 1199 SEIU and the New York Civil Liberties Union, was campaign manager for Norman Siegel's campaign for Public Advocate, served as a mediator between a public sector union and a non-profit health care company, facilitating the end of a nine-month dispute, and has served as a member of Community Planning Board 8, co-chairing the Fire Safety committee and the special sub-committee on the Environmental Impact of Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Development. All of this he brought into politics when he decided to throw his hat into the ring. His failed bid for Assembly came because he ran as a grassroots candidate against big money and development interests. But he has not given up activism.  read more »