Man, we are gonna miss this

Marty Markowitz, a man who’s basically been a living avatar of Brooklyn in his time as borough president, is going to need a new job soon. Not because people are tired of him, but because term limit laws require that after three terms (usually two, thanks you very much City Council), BK’s booster and food lover-in-chief has to say goodbye. So he used his State of the Borough speech to trot out some celebrity pals to see if he could make it in Hollywood or as the host of a late night show. (more…)

One of the highlights of yesterday’s overall excellent Brooklyn Book Festival had to be the panel featuring Borough Prez Marty Markowitz and Brooklyn-born star Tony Danza having a Brooklyn-accent-off on the stage at Borough Hall. Danza, who was born in East New York, was there to talk about his new book, I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had, but he opened the session by dropping this two-minute long rap about lots of famous people who were born in Brooklyn. “I don’t have your name in it,” Danza told the BP, “cause Markowitz is tough to rhyme.” (more…)

Book Festival 2011 via Flickr’s Navdeep Dhillon

This year’s Brooklyn Book Festival is poised to take over our fair lit-loving borough on Sept. 23, with more than 280 national and international authors presenting over a hundred events over fourteen stages around Brooklyn. And this year is particularly star-studded: Our picks of the best of the fest include a discussion about the future of marriage and monogamy with sex columnist Dan Savage and The Atlantic‘s infamous spinster Kate Bolick, contemplating the artisanal-everything trend in Brooklyn with David Rees, who wrote a book on artisanal pencil sharpening, and, of course, Brooklyn’s own Tony Danza in conversation with everyone’s favorite Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.  A full schedule is available at the site but here are our top ten picks for the 2012 Festival (and don’t forget our book swap after party with drink specials  too!) (more…)