Arg, matey! Pirates Festival coming to Red Hook this weekend

By Jared Foretek

Calling all Brooklyn buccaneers!

Enviromedia Mobile, a travelling nature and maritime museum in Red Hook, will throw its first ever Treasure Cove Pirates Festival on July 30 — and you won’t have to hand over a single copper piece to be there.

The festival will feature pirate theater, pirate music, pirate “edutainment,” and yes, even a pirate ship, while leaving out all the scurvy, mutiny, and rum binges.

“It’s a fantastic festival,” said Ludger Balan, the museum’s culture director. “It’s as good as any one that goes on around the country.”

Indeed, these maritime celebrations are a common occurrence in places like Northern California, Tampa, Fla., Georgia’s Tybee Island, even Wisconsin.

In what’s sure to be a highlight of the family-friendly event — beyond photo-ops with Jack Sparrow look-alikes — young aspiring sailors can meet a team of seamen who set the record for the most days at sea without seeing land (1,152 days, or three years!). Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad’s record-setting vessel, the Schooner Anne, will be anchored nearby for visits.

Kids will also be able to participate in a catch-and-release fishing tournament, make arts and crafts, and canoe with the organizers, who will all be dressed as “The Pirates of Red Hook” — a team of buccaneers who “plunder for the natural resources of the urban estuary,” said Balan.

So start practicing your “Arg, mateys!” now.

Treasure Cove Pirates Festival at IKEA/Erie Basin Park [Beard Street between Otsego and Dwight streets in Red Hook, (347) 224-5828], July 30, 11 am-5 pm. Free. For info, visit emmredhookpirates.blogspot.com.

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This cartoon festival is no child's play

By Haru Coryne

Brooklyn’s biggest animation festival features plenty of cartoons — but it’s no child’s play.

The eighth annual Animation Block Party presents nearly 100 short films over the course of three days, with love stories and war films screening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Fort Greene and Automotive HS in Greenpoint from July 29 to 31.

Just don’t expect “Looney Tunes.” The animated shorts promise to capture the full variety of filmmaking as an art form, with plenty of abstractionism to boot.

“Parents come here expecting Bugs Bunny and Mighty Mouse, and all of a sudden they get some German experimental film with nudity,” said festival founder Casey Safron.

Take, for instance, Williamsburg filmmaker Becky James “Shapes in the City.” The difficult-to-define piece runs just under five minutes and follows the “life” of a simple, geometric shape — with all the action of a dark, 1940s noir.

“There’s a murder, there’s a dance scene, there’s theft,” said James. “There’s even a circle smoking a cigarette on a corner.”

Animation Block Party at the Automotive High School [50 Bedford Ave. near N. 13th Street in Greenpoint, (718) 218-9301] and BAMcinématek [30 Lafayette Ave. between St. Felix Street and Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100], July 29-31. Free. For info, visit www.animationblock.com/summerfest2011.

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It's 'The Merry Wives of Windsor...Terrace!'

By Meredith Deliso

Hey, Shakespeare — Fuhgeddaboudit!

Brave New World Repertory’s newest site-specific production adds some much-needed “dese” and “dems” to update the Bard, Brooklyn-style.

In “The Merry Wives of Windsor (Terrace),” a free production running July 28–31, the company takes some liberties with Shakespeare’s domestic comedy, setting it in the neighborhood during the 1980s with the knight Falstaff reimagined as a low-level gangster, and the women he tries to swindle as big haired, “Real Housewives” types.

And, of course, there’s lots of Brooklynese — a bit of Clifford Odets mixed with that guy from Avon — but does it work?

“The Brooklyn accent sings with this language in a way Shakespeare probably would have been surprised by,” said company founder Claire Beckman, who stars as Mistress Ford in the play. “The cadence and music of Brooklynese plays beautifully with Shakespeare’s language.”

Still, the play did require some changes — the Thames, a body-dumping ground in the original, becomes the Gowanus Canal; and Prospect Park, Canarsie and Carroll Gardens substitute for English parks and neighborhoods. And, of course, Windsor is always referred to as Windsor Terrace.

“Our Brooklyn take on the play is a very affectionate love letter to an old Brooklyn that’s disappearing,” said Beckman (save, of course, for pubs like Farrell’s on Prospect Park West). “We set it back before the information age, when people were a little more social, out on their stoop messing in each other’s business, and Brooklyn was a little bit louder and less gentrified.”

And this being the ’80s, think big hair, shoulder pads and leggings. 

“Since we’re playing him as a mob guy, we’ve got Falstaff in a track suit, with a gold chain kind of look,” said director John Morgan.

Keeping with the theme, the play will also take place in the heart of Windsor Terrace, outdoors at Holy Name Parish’s Our Lady’s Field, right next to the little league baseball field.

“The audience will be watching the action, and right behind them is the background of Brooklyn brownstones,” said Morgan. “And we’re right on Windsor Place. You can’t be any better than that.”

“The Merry Wives of Windsor (Terrace)” at Our Lady’s Field at Holy Name Parish [130 Windsor Pl. at 16th Street in Windsor Terrace, (718) 768-3071], July 28 and 29 at 5 pm, July 30 and 31 at 3 pm. Free. For info, visit www.bravenewworldrep.org. 

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Bueller...Buelller...

By Meredith Deliso

Don’t play hooky on this coming-of-age classic.

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” — John Hughes’s much-loved comedy about a popular high school senior who gets away with cutting school — screens at McCarren Park tonight as part of the SummerScreen outdoor film series.

The series’ theme is cool movies — and it wouldn’t be complete without this 1986 film.

The story follows a day in the life of the titular character (a baby-faced Matthew Broderick), who feigns illness to run around Chicago with his girlfriend and neurotic best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck).

It’s the perfect day — the trio takes in a game at Wrigley Field, visits the Sears Tower, browses the Art Institute of Chicago, and even assumes a central role at the Von Steuben Day Parade, where Bueller lip-syncs “Danke Schoen” and “Twist and Shout.”

The movie is great, but if it’s not enough to get you to play hooky for a few hours, there will be food from Pizza Moto, V-Spot, Bark Hog Dogs and Coolhaus, as well as brews from SixPoint.

Bueller himself couldn’t have planned a more perfect outing. 

“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” at McCarren Park ballfields (Bedford Avenue and N. 12th Street in Greenpoint, no phone), July 27, movie starts at dusk. Free. For info, visit www.thelmagazine.com.

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Your Celebrate Brooklyn Pick of the Week!

By Meredith Deliso

Celebrate Brooklyn isn’t just about music.

The outdoor festival brings the Mark Morris Dance Group to Prospect Park on July 28 for an evening of spellbinding works that honor the Fort Greene company’s 30-year history.

Joined by two other borough cultural powerhouses — the Brooklyn Philharmonic, in its first appearance under Artistic Director Alan Pierson, and the Brooklyn Interdenominational Choir — the company cherry picks from its decades-long history for a program of spellbinding original works.

Kicking things off is “Resurrection” (2002), pictured, set to Richard Rodgers’s “Slaughter on 10th Avenue” and with costumes by Isaac Mizrahi. That’s followed by “Lucky Charms” (1994), an explosive piece set to an original score by Jacques Ibert, and, lastly, one of the famed choreographer’s earliest, most-celebrated pieces, “Gloria” (1981), a walk-and-crawl duet set to the first movement of Vivaldi’s “Gloria in D.”

With Morris himself taking the baton to conduct the symphony, and the choir joining in for the echoing refrains of “Gloria,” it promises to be a powerful, moving finale that will be a highlight of the outdoor summer festival season across the city — not just in Brooklyn.

Mark Morris Dance Group at Celebrate Brooklyn at the Prospect Park band shell [Ninth Street and Prospect Park West in Park Slope, (718) 683-5600], July 28 at 8 pm. Free. For info, visit www.bricartsmedia.org.

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Catch these 'old-timers' at Jalopy

By Meredith Deliso

These musicians are old-timers — and they hardly have any wrinkles on their faces.

The twentysomething members of the Union Street Preservation Society don’t touch a track that’s younger than 60, and when writing their own string arrangements, strictly look to rag time and early Americana roots — hence calling themselves the “preservation society.”

“The type of music that we play generally tends to be antique — something to preserve,” said mandolinist Sara Bouchard.

On Sunday, the Park Slope-based band (that’s where Union Street comes in) celebrates its debut EP, “Spring to Rust,” a collection of bluegrass and proto-jazz-inspired songs, at — where else? — Jalopy, the Red Hook home of old-time tunes.

“We’re excited and honored to be doing the CD release there,” said guitarist Dave Leiberman. “There’s really no other place we would want to do it.”

At the release party, you can except the quintet’s own original mix of bluegrass, blues, country and early jazz, along with some newly favorite jazz standards, including “Some of These Days,” made popular by Ella Fitzgerald, and “Crazy Blues,” considered by many to be the first recorded blues song.

“This is universally and objectively the best kind of music,” said Leiberman. “Why wouldn’t anyone love it?”

Union Street Preservation Society at Jalopy [315 Columbia St. between Hamilton Avenue and Woodhull Street in Red Hook, (718) 395-3214], July 24 at 7:30 pm. $5. For info, visit www.jalopy.biz.

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Pig out at 3rd Ward this Saturday

By Meredith Deliso

It’s OK to pig out at this party.

On July 23, 3rd Ward’s annual, aptly named Pig Out returns, transforming the Bushwick art space into an urban pig roast.

In a season of barbecues, it’s one of the best — and it certainly doesn’t hurt that this foodie free-for-all is free.

Come hungry for the BBQ fare, manned by chef Jeremy Spector of the Brindle Room, as well as some cooking demonstrations, including chocolate sculpture and knife-sharpening. There will also be workshops in bicycle care and how to do an algae cast. That one’s just for fun.

The party will also feature DJs and live music, courtesy of the Union Street Preservation Society and Northern Bells. So you can bust a move, in addition to your gut.

Annual Pig Out at 3rd Ward [195 Morgan Ave. between Meadow and Stagg streets in Bushwick, (718) 715-4961], July 23, 2-9 pm. Free. For info, visit www.3rdward.com.

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