(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings March 20–26, 2020
cross streets on the event page to
encourage their neighbors to join
them, and Stella Artois beer said
it would send a free beer to anyone
who participated.
To make sure everyone sang the
same songs in unison, singers assembled
a list of popular tunes in
a shared Google Document, which
Berney turned into a karaoke playlist
on YouTube. Singers began
the playlist at 6:30 pm, when they
crooned along to classics such as
Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New
York” and Ben E. King’s “Stand
by Me.”
Field of streams
Country artist takes show online
Photo by Rose Adams
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By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
The roofs are alive with the
sound of music!
Hundreds of Brooklynites
gathered on their rooftops and
stoops on last week for a borough
wide sing-along that featured
classic American tunes
such as “Sweet Caroline” and “I
Will Survive.”
“The idea is for folks to disconnect
from their devices and connect
with their community,” said
JJ Berney, a Park Slope resident
who organized the sing-along to
bring locals together during the
coronavirus outbreak. “In this environment
we can’t touch people
with our hands, but we can touch
people with our voices.”
Berney said he decided to start
the “Sing-alone sing-along” after
his friend in Italy told him about
how Italians took to their balconies
to play music — bringing residents
together during the country
wide lockdown.
“They found a way to release
the tension and be with people
in a way they couldn’t before,”
said Berney. “I found that pretty
powerful.”
Berney started a Facebook event
called the “Brownstone Brooklyn
COVID-19 Singalone (Singalong)”
last Thursday morning,
and it quickly gained traction.
By the sing-along’s start time at
6:30 pm, nearly 400 people had
marked themselves “attending”
and nearly 900 said they were “interested.”
Participants posted their
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One participant, who sang with
her husband and daughter from
their Bergen Street stoop, said the
event helped relieve her anxiety
from the coronavirus outbreak.
“I know that singing helps the
soul and I really needed help for
the soul right now. I wanted to
feel like I was a part of a community,”
said Elana Gartner Golden.
“Even though my neighbors didn’t
participate, we saw some of them
and it made some people smile.
We all need smiles right now. It’s
the only way we’re going to make
it through.”
Berney, who sang on his rooftop
with his family, heard about six
other households crooning around
him. He said he wasn’t surprised
by the event’s popularity, given
the widespread isolation and anxiety
the virus has caused, and said
he’s planning another sing-along
this weekend.
“We’re going to try to do it again
Saturday or Sunday night,” he said,
explaining that he’s trying to find
a way to connect participants via
a live video stream. “I would expect
the numbers of singers are
going to get larger.”
By Bill Roundy
Brooklyn Paper
Country roads/ stay at home/
in the place/ you belong/
Windsor Terrace!
A country musician from
Windsor Terrace has taken his
act from the road to the Web.
The frontman of the queer cowboy
act Paisley Fields says that
playing to the camera is a great
way to reach out, but it’s not the
same as a real show.
“It’s weird playing and not
having that audience,” said Paisley,
the band’s singer and pianist.
“Instead of applause, you’re
getting heart emojis.”
Paisley Fields had just started
a nationwide tour supporting its
catchy new honky-tonk single
“Ride Me, Cowboy,” when the
coronavirus pandemic struck. The
band’s gig at the South by Southwest
festival was canceled, and
when other venues along the way
began to shutter, the band called
off the tour and headed back to
Brooklyn, said Paisley.
“Things started getting worse
and worse. We did just three
shows of a three week tour,” he
said. “I just felt it was becoming
an unsafe situation.”
Last Friday, instead of performing
on stage, Paisley set up
a camera in his apartment and
played for an hour, streaming
the show through Facebook. He
he plans to continue playing the
online hoedowns, each Friday
at 6:30 pm.
“I’m hoping I can keep building
something,” he said .”Friday
feels like a good time — people
can feel like they’re going
out.”
Paisley said that he hopes to
make up some of the lost revenue
from his canceled gigs by
selling online tickets, albums,
and merchandise from his bandcamp
site, but that is not his primary
focus.
“I set up a ticket link, so you
can buy a ticket if you want to,”
Paisley said. “You don’t have
to — I know people are out
of work, and I want people to
come by.”
Each weekly show will have a
different theme. The concert on
March 27 will be a sing-along
show, with Paisley performing
popular cover tunes along with
his own work.
“With a sing-along … maybe
you can’t be together, but you’re
kind of connected,” he said.
And Paisley makes sure that
each concert ends before 8 pm,
he said, so his audience can still
catch “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
See Paisley Fields on Facebook
(www.facebook.com/thepaisleyfields).
March 27 at 6:30
pm. $5 suggested donation.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Call it stairwellness!
Brooklynites who have
self-quarantined to stop the
spread of the novel coronavirus
can still get fit by imitating
Borough President Eric Adams,
who took to social media Sunday
night to show off some of his own
workout routines in the spacious
foyer of Borough Hall.
The beep posted a pair of
videos on Twitter demonstrating
his fitness routine, which
included doing pull-ups while
hanging from stairs and jumping
jacks on the landing, all while
blasting rapper Jay Z’s song “As
One” through the governmental
building and ersatz exercise
emporium.
“I can’t get to the gym because
of coronavirus; all of our gyms
are closed,” Adams said in the
video, which he posted just after
11 pm. “You can still exercise
right in your own home, and this
is what I do while I’m in Borough
Hall.”
The Beep wrote: “Brooklyn!
We GOT this. During this time it
is MORE IMPORTANT THAN
EVER to take care of our bodies
and our minds. I asked you to telemeditate
with me. Now I’m asking
you to telexercise with me.”
Adams has frequently professed
the benefits of keeping fit,
eating a vegan diet, and remaining
flexible, but despite his recent
guides on how to get swole and
stay calm while confined within
your own home, the 2021 mayoral
contender has been slow to
let his staff work remotely during
the pandemic outbreak.
He reportedly forced nearly
his entire 65-member staff to
commute to Borough Hall until
March 20, when he said that he
would follow Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
directive to allow employees
to telecommute, according
to the New York Post.
A spokesman confirmed that
Adams is now letting his staff
work remotely.
“We instituted an office-wide
telecommuting policy effective
today,” Borough Hall press
secretary Jonah Allon said on
March 23.
Beep shares his
workout videos
High notes
Rooftop Brooklynites
join together in song
MUSIC
Working in
Photo by Screenshot via Twitter
House music: (Above) Elana Gartner Golden and David Golden sang with their daughter
from their Bergen Street house. (Top left) JJ Berney (right) and his family spearheaded the
March 20 “Sing-alone sing-along.”
Courtesy JJ Berney
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
You can see ’em at the online
museum!
All of Brooklyn’s museums
have shut their doors to avoid
spreading the novel coronavirus,
but you can check out many of their
exhibitions for free online.
Here are three of the most interesting
online exhibits to check
out!
Subway stories
The New York Transit Museum
offers a digitized photo exhibit
of those emergencies in “Bringing
Back the City.” The online
showcase features dramatic photos
like those of collapsed subway
stops near the Twin Towers
and workers clearing feet of
snow after the Christmas Blizzard
of 2010.
New York Transit Museum at
www.nytransitmuseum.org.
A shore thing
Take a deep dive into the history
of Brooklyn’s coastline, with
an online exhibit hosted by both
the Brooklyn Historical Society
and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The Brooklyn Waterfront History
site explores how an iconic
steam-powered ferry by inventor
Robert Fulton starting in 1814 provided
an early form of mass transit
between what is now Dumbo and
Manhattan, which transformed
Brooklyn from a sleepy waterfront
village into a bustling industrial
city.
Other portions of the sprawling
site discuss how Brooklyn became
the coffee capital of America in
the early 1900s, and its status as
a hotspot for immigrant workers
in the city during 19th and 20th
centuries.
Check out Brooklyn Waterfront
History at www.bkwaterfronthistory.
org.
Indoor disco
The Brooklyn Museum’s recently
launched exhibit on the
iconic 1970s disco club Studio 54
was shuttered before any member
of the public could step past its velvet
rope.
The organization’s curators do
not plan to put the exhibit online,
according to a spokeswoman, but
they have posted some resources for
those who want to turn their apartments
into a dance floor.
The museum’s Youtube channel
offers a lesson for all skillsets
on how to get your groove on
with a Disco Break, featuring professional
dancers Belinda Adam
and Alexandra Wood. And the exhibit
has a Spotify page, featuring
a playlist of 40 hot, hustlin’
disco tunes.
Hustle to www.brooklynmuseum.
org, www.youtube.com/user/
BrooklynMuseum, or www.instagram.
com/brooklynmuseum.
Online view
Digital Brooklyn exhibits
you can view from home
Cold comfort: An online exhibit
by the Transit Museum
shows how the city’s transit
system weathered previous
crises, such as when workers
had to clear the tracks after
heavy snowfall in 2014.
Photo by MTA New York City Transit/Marc A. Hermann
HEALTH
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