Sunday Night in Greenpoint: Lee Ranaldo and Steve Gunn with Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan at the Park Church Co-op

(Video courtesy The Culture Files)

Tuesday Morning in Williamsburg: CityParks Foundation Puppet Mobile presents "Bessie's Big Shot" at McCarren Park

Cowabunga! This morning lots of little kids enjoyed a terrific performance of "Bessie's Big Shot" put on by the CityParks Foundation Puppet Mobile in McCarren Park.

Unlike the previous great puppet shows put on by the group (like "Sleeping Beauty" last summer), "Bessie's Big Shot"

is an original story and production rather than one taken from Central Park's Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre.
And it's a great story of Bessie, a New York City cow who, though working a series of unsatisfying jobs (like serving lattes), has always had the dream of being a part of the circus.

With the circus coming to Brooklyn, Bessie the cow tries out for a role in the greatest show on earth.

Can Bessie lift tremendous weights like Ziegfried the strongest man on earth? Work with a monkey? Gracefully glide on the trapeze? Balance herself on a high wire?

Through funny trials and tribulations, she finally achieves her dream.

At McCarren Park, it drew a big crowd, some very young,

who seemed delighted by the skillful and entertaining show done by the expert puppet masters.

"Bessie's Big Shot" will stay in the neighborhood for another two days: tomorrow morning it will be in Cooper Park, the next day in McGolrick Park, and it will playing in parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs all summer.

We know some little people who would be grateful if you took them.

Saturday Morning in Greenpoint: Breakfast at McGolrick Park

We got the B48 bus on our corner early on this gorgeous morning and took it up Lorimer Street, Manhattan Avenue and across Nassau Avenue deep into Greenpoint to have breakfast outside at a peaceful, beautiful Msgr. McGolrick Park, which people have been telling us for years to visit more often.

This early-bird squirrel was so into munching his food, he didn't notice us.

Others were enjoying baguettes, croissants and other Frenchy stuff.

There are some huge, thick old trees lining the park, which dates to the 1890s, when it was known as Winthrop Park. It was renamed in 1941 for the Irish priest who had been pastor of St. Cecilia's for fifty years, Msgr. Edward J. McGolrick.

According to the Parks Department,

A handsome shelter pavilion was erected in the park in 1910. Designed by the architectural firm of Helmle and Huberty, the curved building of brick and limestone features an elegant wood colonnade. It is listed on the National Register and recognized as a New York City landmark.

Apparently, like a lot of us in New York, the park went through hard times in the 1970s and there was a major restoration in 1985. That included the shelter pavilion and this World War I memorial, designed by Carl Augustus Heber, to the 150 Greenpoint residents who fought in the war.

Wikipedia says,

The statue depicts a female allegorical figure, holding aloft a modified laurel, a symbol of victory, and in her right hand supporting a large palm frond, a symbol of peace. The granite pedestal is inscribed with the names of battle sites in France.

Most people seem to know that the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was built here in Greenpoint (Monitor Street is the eastern boundary of the park) and outfitted at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This 1939 sculpture by Antonio de Filippo celebrates the 1862 battle of the Monitor and Confederate Merrimac. It's pretty cool and buff.

This is tulip season. Unlike the ones we saw Monday at the Fordham Lincoln Center campus or at the Brooklyn College quad yesterday, the McGolrick Park tulips were only red: no yellows here.

After a couple of hours (thanks to the park workers who cleaned the bathrooms so assiduously) of sitting on a bench and drinking iced tea and reading the Sunday sections of the New York Times delivered today, we got back on the B48 bus. We're grateful for nice mornings like this and that old-fashioned Coca-Cola luncheonette signs still exist over real, functioning Brooklyn stores, like this one by the park at the corner of Nassau Avenue and North Henry Street.