Leaving our local Key Food this morning, for the first time we heard the spare change guy's rendition of "Bad to the Bone" and then we turned to one of our weekend rituals: Reading the The Brooklyn Paper.
Why do we love the Brooklyn Paper? Because it covers stories here way before the dailies get to them, if ever. Because of the NY Post-style headlines ("Fowl play: Fairway ducks foie gras flap" comes from today's front page). Because it's not afraid to take risks (Um, Maggie Gyllenhaal, anyone?).
Today, the big story is newly-elected Congresswoman Yvette Clarke's call for congressional hearings on the $400-million naming of the Nets arena after Barclays, the multinational bank that the paper says profited from the slave trade, froze the accounts of Holocaust victims and operated in apartheid South Africa. Last week, black leaders, including Clarke, had a sit-down with Ratner. If AY's past is any indication, the Barclays naming will proceed.
Another piece covers accusations of censorship against the Brooklyn Public Library for cutting key parts of an art exhibit about the 22-acre Yards site. The show, called "Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood" looks at the area's residents and businesses. Artist Sarah Sagarin says that controversial pieces were left out, namely a portrait of DDDB's Daniel Goldstein and a Donald O'Finn painting (image at left) of the Yards as a toilet bowl. Ratner's in talks with the library to fund the proposed arts branch near BAM.
Meanwhile, terrorists at the Tea Lounge? The paper reports - via Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn - that a law enforcement agent told a TL barista to look out for WiFi-ed terrorists. A captain at the 78th precinct said the story was "incredible" and that the officer didn't work for him. The piece reveals even graver concern of the TL-set: the harmonica player who was recently banned from the cafe. And, yes, two TL regulars actually referred to the coffee shop as their "cubicle."
