“In some places it’s known as a tornado. In others, a cyclone. And in still others, the Idiot’s Merry-go-round. But around here they’ll always be known as screw-boys.”
-Jack Handy

North Brooklyn lucked out yesterday. The massive storm that walloped other parts of the borough, Staten Island, and Queens spared our fair neck of the woods, but still hit pretty close to home. With power outages, fallen trees, hail, debris, road closings and train delays, everybody felt the effects. Parts of Brooklyn looked like scenes from some post-apocalyptic war movie, like back when they were filming I Am Legend on the Brooklyn Bridge. The rain and squall hit Park Slope and Bedford-Stuyvesant hard, before moving into Queens where a woman actually died for chrissakes. After all this chaos and trouble, the National Weather Service still had not declared the storm an official tornado as of this morning. Awaiting an NFL style review of the tape, officials are still trying to determine whether we saw a tornado, or just a really, really, really windy thunderstorm. From Bloomberg:

“No confirmation has been made yet,” said John Murray, a weather service meteorologist in Upton, New York. “Once they go out there they will take note of the damage and come back later today and write up a summary. It will probably be early evening before a determination is made.”

Weather service radar picked up rotation among the clouds late yesterday afternoon and a trained spotter saw a funnel cloud on Staten Island at 5:33 p.m. as a system moved through the area, according to weather service records. While all of these things are indications of severe weather, there must be evidence the storm actually touched the ground for it to be declared a tornado, Murray said.

If this ever gets cleared up, we’ll let you know. The last twister scare in Brooklyn was in 2007.

In case you haven’t seen it, The New York Times has a pretty impressive collection of photos chronicling the storm and its destruction.

– Chris Boyette

Have a dog or looking to adopt one? Stop by the Dog Daze of Summer Block party tomorrow between 11am-6pm on Berry between N 1st & Grand Street. There will be beer, food, and DOGS (lots of them-even some you can take home with you!). All proceeds from the party will go to BARC, Williamsburg’s only no-kill animal shelter.

Brooklynites Jenny Slate (ex SNL-er) and Gabe Liedman are hilarious best friends who do everything comedy together as the duo Gabe & Jenny. Together, with Max Silvestri, they host Big Terrific at Cameo where they also screen their web series “Besties x Besties”. The latest, “What’s wrong with books?” starts off like a lot of the anti-comedy shorts milling about the inter-webs then lets loose once Slate hits her stride. I had to do the whole swallow-the-laughter-and-make-awkward-snorting-noises-in-the-office thing just now. Friday! Enjoy!

We’re hearing reports on the Twitters and elsewhere that there was a tornado in Park Slope. Did you see it? Lots of wind an hail here in Williamsburg!

UPDATE: Here’s some video from the slope. And a pic.

UPDATE: Yep, that looks like a tornado [via]:

UPDATE: Sign gets lodged in STONE wall by storm winds in Bushwick Brooklyn.

Image courtesey of Harry Kao

From the blog Flowing Data, the interactive designer Harry Kao has taken information from the TranStats database of commuting (did you know there was one? I didn’t!) and made these neat interactive maps that show just who’s commuting to and from your neighborhood.

I plugged in the zip 11211 and, guess what? Pretty much everyone who works here lives here too. Ok, so some people who live here work in Manhattan, and there’s some random dude (or lady!) commuting into Jersey City every day, but I guess we all gotta pay the bills somehow, right?

Anyways, check it out. And just for fun try typing in your zip and then comparing it with your parents’ or something.

(H/T)

When you were 15 and everything was important and nobody understood you, Godspeed You! Black Emperor understood you. They knew all about significant things and, like, issues. And most importantly, they rocked. And next year they are coming back to blow your mind again!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
317 Clermont Avenue at Lafayette, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
8pm doors / 9pm show / $25 general admission / Tickets on sale here
Co-presented by Wordless Music and The Blackened Music Series

Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Church of St. Paul the Apostle
405 West 59th Street at Columbus Avenue, NYC
7pm doors / 8pm show / $25 general admission / Tickets on sale here
Co-presented by Wordless Music and The Blackened Music Series

Remember back in June when we told you about Oh Land? Shortly after she played an amazing swell of songs at our Northside Festival showcase at Brooklyn Bowl to an unsuspecting crowd. Well, since then the Danish native has received rave reviews from pretty much everybody– from Nylon to Vogue, even becoming the face of M Missoni. How’s that for star power?

With her dreamy pop soundscapes and endearingly off-kilter stage presence, Oh Land is truly captivating. Howling intonations and crackling electro hooks have the power to transfix, while songs such as “Wolf & I” take you cautiously by the wrist affirming each track can be trusted. We longingly await the self-titled EP out in October on Epic Records, followed by a full-length debut in early 2011.

Luckily for you, this pretty little bird of song will be playing at Littlefield in Gowanus tomorrow night with Chicago’s Unicycle Loves You and Frances. And we wouldn’t be FREEwiliamsburg if we didn’t have a pair of tickets to giveaway to one of our favorite readers… Just comment below (using your real email address) and you’ll be entered to win a night of pure music joy.

And be sure to check out NYCtaper’s live recordings of Oh Land‘s Brooklyn Bowl performance if you need some convincing.

Proper Opossum Gourmet Cooking and Proper Opossum Massage after the jump [thanks Kevin!]
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“The building is not falling down and poses no danger.” – a quote given by motorino’s pr representative to Gothamist, after it was alleged that the neighborhood’s popular little pizza joint was tipping over.

Much like January and February, September is notoriously a dumping ground for movies that studios either have little faith in or don’t quite know how to sell to the audience. This, combined with its proximity to fall’s more awards-hungry movie season, gives it the interesting position of being a month filled with big surprises and a lot of garbage. For example, earlier this month, we had The American – a gorgeous and methodical character study marketed as a traditional thriller, as well as Going the Distance, a cinematic iron maiden marketed as a romantic comedy.

This weekend’s releases seem to confirm September’s mysterious split-personality. Find out more after the break.

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