BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

Pacifer Tree, Source: Retrofresh! via flickr

One of my earliest childhood memories is observing which kids in preschool still had pacifiers and which didn’t. I don’t remember if I ever brought my pacifier to school, but I do remember seeing other kids make fun of the kids who did. I made sure not to ever do it. That was one of my earliest memories of learning about shame and conformity. It was kind of cruel, but that’s what growing up is all about.

I have no idea what to make of the pacifier tree located at the Plymouth apartment complex (48th Street off 14th Avenue). On the one hand, it looks kinda cute to see all those innocent pacifiers hang off the tree like budding flowers. On the flip side, it might be kind of sad for children to walk by their favorite and most comforting accessory, well out of arm’s reach, day after day.

According to a report in the New York Times, the pacifier tree is a rite of passage for Borough Park youngsters. Rachel Rhine, who has a view of the tree from her apartment window, described the ritual first hand.

“I see mothers picking up their little kid and the kid actually puts it on and they say: ‘O.K., say goodbye, no more. You’re a big girl now,’” Ms. Rhine said. “It’s kind of a celebration to say, ‘That’s where it goes and that’s where it stays and that’s the end of it.’”

In countries like Denmark and Sweden, hanging pacifiers in trees has been a long standing practice. According to the Times, they hang thousands of pacifiers off single trees, nearly causing the branches to break.

Apparently, the tradition started in Borough Park when a former superintendent of the Plymouth just started hanging up all the pacifiers that kids would throw out of their carriages. Unless he was a Dane or a Swede, I guess he started hanging them up for parents to collect or maybe he was just being weird. Either way, the pacifier tree is here to stay and will now likely become another annoying Brooklyn trend once someone in Park Slope sees it and says, “Like, yah, cool art, man.”

Source: Sheldon Pincus via Flickr

From the ground level, New York City is sort of an infinite space with unlimited destinations, all connected by endless streets and filled with millions of people. From the sky, the scope of the city is reduced, allowing for a single flyby to take in all its wonder in a matter of minutes. Its massive population is rendered nearly invisible under the shadows of its colossal skyscrapers.

That’s why I find these aerial movies of the city so mesmerizing. While we’ve all seen flybys of Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, it’s rare that we get to take in Southern Brooklyn’s glory from a bird’s eye view. While there isn’t much of it available on YouTube  I managed to find a couple of beautiful short film flybys for you to enjoy.

This video was uploaded by Knightmare6 and features awesome slow swooping flybys of Seagate, Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. You get great views of the beach and attractions on Coney including the Wonder Wheel and the Parachute Jump.

This video features a cool and relaxing trip over the Verrazano and Hudson River, past lower Manhattan. The clip is set to the dulcet tones of City Never Sleeps by Death Ships, what a spooky name. Thanks to Carl Tyler for uploading it.

This is a short and sweet clip of the Coney Island coastline. The shaky cam attached to the craft here really gives me a sense of hovering in the sky going along for an adventure. The video was produced by Hector Mosley of the US Army Corp of Engineers.

A warning first before playing this one. The volume is a little loud and ragged, so make sure your speakers aren’t set too high. This video is still worth watching because someone attached a Tony Hawk Helmet Cam to a Firebird Freedom RC plane and set it loose over the coast of Brighton Beach. The video is courtesy of sebasitsme, and that person did a fine job of dropping in references to famous landmarks like the Verrazano Bridge, Coney Island and Staten Island as they jet their model plane high off the coastline.

This last clip is less Brooklyn focused but really cool nonetheless. Skycamusa uploaded this beautiful footage of New York City which was amazingly taken from an RC helicopter. Set to the Chemical Brothers song Galvanize, the little RC copter scopes shots of the beautiful Coney Island shore, Astroland and my dearly departed Shea Stadium in Queens.

I hope you enjoyed this virtual trip through Brooklyn’s southern skies, and if you have any new aerial videos of the area, please share them with us.

Brooklyn Paper clued us in to the new music video created by Bensonhurst’s “ice cream girl” Maria Campanella. The video, dubbed Yo Granny’s In My Garbage, paints a broad picture of a common New York phenomenon, that being the “bottle ladies” digging through garbage cans for discarded cans and bottles.

The song features a dancing woman (Tara Lopez) pretending to be Asian and tells the tale of a witless granny who goes about digging through trash cans and drinking discarded Red Bulls. It’s a pretty crass song and video that is kind of funny, but does it go too far? Brooklyn Paper asked local community leaders for their opinion.

“The way they present it is very disrespectful,” said Steve Chung, president of the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn and a member of Bensonhurst’s Community Board 11 — though he added that he didn’t believe Campanella’s intentions were necessarily bad. “I don’t think there’s any viciousness behind it, but I’m disappointed as a human being.”

In her defense, Campanella argued that she wasn’t singling out Chinese people, despite the clothes and makeup of the main character.

“If you go in any neighborhood, they got different people doing it, American-born people, Polish people, Asian people. It’s not racial profiling,” Campanella told Brooklyn Paper. “A hat doesn’t distinguish a culture. If it’s a sunny day, anybody can wear a hat like that.”

Photo by Caitlin Teal Price via featureshoot.com

We came across this awesome collection of photographs consisting of Coney Island and Brighton Beach sand lovers luxuriating in the hot summer sun.

The pictures were shot by Washington, D.C.-based photographer Caitlin Teal Price and the collection features a wide variety of sun worshipers of all shapes and sizes enjoying some heavy duty doses of vitamin D.

Not all of Price’s models are as conventionally fetching as the Uma Thurman lookalike seen above, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder…

Caitlin Teal Price via featureshoot.com

Right?

Caitlin Teal Price via featureshoot.com

RIGHT??? Seriously – bold, Speedo guy… real bold.

Great stuff, Caitlin. To see the full gallery head over to her website.

Neighbors and school community members came together Sunday at New Utrecht High School (1601 80th Street) to celebrate the Asian Lunar New Year.

The school’s auditorium was filled to the max with people of all different age who came to support the performers and celebrate the holiday. The atmosphere was fun and lively, with food available.

Young children shared the stage with active adults, performing a blend of modern dances such as the Gangnam Style Dance and more traditional dances like the Xin Jaing Tambourine Dance.

State Senator Marty Golden hosted the event. Here are some more photos of the festivities:

The Checkmate, Cancer! team.

Karafin at the 2005 PCF Walkathon

Childhood cancer is the number one cause of non-accidental deaths among children, with 12,000 diagnoses each year. Elona Karafin, a 19-year-old Bensonhurst native, has started ”Checkmate, Cancer!”, a team participating in the annual Pediatric Cancer Foundation (PCF) walkathon, in the hopes of ending this deadly disease.

When Karafin was 10 years old, she was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer. For two years, she suffered through chemotherapy and countless surgeries, but she refused to let the disease win. Since then she has been involved with various charities to help the cause.

“As a cancer survivor, I want to dedicate a portion of my life giving back to the people and institutions that save children’s lives every day,” said Karafin.

Karafin has participated on a number of PCF teams over the years, but decided to start her own, “Checkmate, Cancer!”

The team is mostly made up of college students working hard to reach their goal of at least $2,000 to donate to the PCF by late April, as well as raising awareness of the cause. So if people aren’t able to donate money then Karafin urges them to like and share their Fundly.com page on Facebook. It’s a small step that can make a big difference, Karafin said.

The Baruch College student is encouraging people to join her team to walk in the 19th annual Pediatric Center Foundation Walkathon, April 28 in Riverside Park. The event is a fun and healthy way to spend the day, with entertainment, food and lots more. Plus, it’s for a great cause to help sick kids.

The PCF is a non-profit charity with the goal to cure childhood cancer and raise money for research, equipment and patient care.

”The PCF walk made me realize how many people are out there to do good for others, not just by collecting money, but by really creating a comfortable and happy environment for young patients and their families. I may have been young, but I remember like it was yesterday how hard it was to feel comfortable in public being bald and stick thin.” Karafin said.

Karafin is also hosting a fundraising luncheon this April.

To learn more about ”Checkmate, Cancer!” and how to be a part of it click here.

Source: cheetahlip via reddit

Lately we’ve been featuring some stunning photography of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, but the one we stumbled across today might be my favorite thus far.

Cheetahlip posted this shot of the bridge on the social media sharing site Reddit and it has garnered a great deal of awe and appreciation.

Taken on December 4, 1963, the picture shows the bridge being built in the halcyon days when ambitious infrastructure projects dazzled New Yorkers on a yearly basis, and people didn’t mind having engineering feats described to them by dreamy eye-talian disco dancers.

Interestingly, the majority of the reader comments on the picture come from people lamenting the Verrazano toll hike that goes into effect on March 3. High tolls aside, it’s still nice to have a massive architectural wonder connecting New York’s greatest islands.

Check out this great Chinese New Year celebration dance video filmed on February 12 in Bensonhurst. We hope the “year of the snake” is bringing you all “the steady progress and attention to detail,” that the Chinese zodiac is promising this year.

Thanks to Troberg Stefan for uploading it.

Photo Courtesy of beforethetrailer.com

Look out webheads, the Amazing Spider-Man 2 is filming in Bensonhurst, according to a report by Before the Trailer.

The filming of the most famous Marvel super-hero kicked off at 10 a.m. and goes on ’til 2 a.m.

We’d love for any of our readers to head on down to the set somewhere around these areas.

• at 82nd Street between 14th and 16th Avenue
• at 83rd street between 14th and 16th Avenue
• at 15th avenue between 81st and 84th street
• at 16th avenue between 81st and 84th street

The film is being shot under the alias of “London Calling,” so don’t be fooled and keep your eyes peeled for Andrew Garfield springing around in some red and blue spandex and send us any pics you can sneak!

Best of luck!

The Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst (JCH) held their annual Purim Carnival this Sunday.

This year, the three-hour event was named after Comic-Con, a masquerade pop culture event that takes place every spring in New York. Appropriately dubbed “Purim Con,” the event drew in more than 450 locals that wanted to celebrate this festive Jewish holiday at the organization’s headquarters, at 7802 Bay Parkway.

Keep reading about the event, and view our photo gallery.