SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Sheepshead Bay was seeing stars once again this past Tuesday when Al Pacino and John Goodman returned to film a few more shots for their film You Don’t Know Jack on Batchelder Street and Avenue U. I ran out to get a few photos, but didn’t get anything more than a shot of Tony Montana himself walking away from me.

However, our good friends at Fillmore Real Estate headquarters, where the scene was being filmed, sent us a few inside photos of the stars and gave us some backstory about what’s going on there. According to Fillmore broker Howard Witz, the office has been converted into a replica of the law offices and campaign headquarters of Geoffrey Feiger (played by Danny Huston), who represented Kevorkian. Fillmore Real Estate CEO/President John Reinhardt is also making a quick cameo in the film, as an attorney going about his work.

Reinhardt was invited to lunch with the director and stars, a tale recounted on Fillmore’s blog:

On having lunch with the film’s director,  Barry Levinson (Rainman, The Natural, Sleepers, Wag The Dog…) and crew, John said: “As lunchtime was approaching, Barry and the crew were asking me for suggestions on where to eat. I let them know of all the great places in the neighborhood: Brennan and Carr, Randazzo’s, and the new pizzeria across the street, Del Corso. ”

Ultimately, he was invited to eat lunch with them. “At first, I was sitting at the table and they all seemed to be a bit stand-offish,” said John Reinhardt. “I’m assuming it was because I was the only person at the table who wasn’t in show business. After about five minutes, though, somebody mentioned the real estate market. Before I knew it, everyone was asking me for tips on home-buying. It was great!”

Witz says that filming will wrap up tomorrow, and we’ve also heard that there are signs around Michael’s Restaurant on Nostrand Avenue and Avenue P indicating a shoot there tomorrow.

Below is a collection of photos from Witz and a few of the outside by me. Don’t forget to check out Fillmore’s blog, which has a ton more photos.

[Show as slideshow]

When my owner first got me from Home Depot, she came to me with talk about redemption.

She was singing my favorite song, the classic Reggae song by Bob Marley, — with a few changed words, of course. Instead of “the merchant ships”, she said I was sold into slavery to the merchant “shops”.  She spoke to my soul and my mind, promising to free me from the retailers.

She hummed that haunting tune each day for 6 days straight. Then on the seventh day, she came with her friend to pull off the plan of redeeming me.

That day, my wheels were “made strong by the ‘and of the Almighty” and I rolled, with her help, “forward in this generation” — out of Marine Park and onto what I thought was freedom.

By next morning, I found myself on the streets of Sheepshead Bay with plastic bags being filled slowly, but surely, with discarded cans and bottles.

That’s when I realized that the real pirates were that woman and her first mate. The redemption song that she was speaking of was not one of emancipation for me, but for redemption of bottles and cans for the 5 cents deposit!

Finally, I could understand the line of the song: ‘Cause none of them can stop the time…

Now, is there any one who  can stop time and stop the cans? Will my life be all about vessels emptied of carbonation or will this song end triumphantly?

What I wouldn’t do, to stop time and not have to carry these cans. But, it’s all I ever have…these redemption songs.

Lyrics courtesy of elyrics.net.

This photo is listed as “Sunset in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn“.

Uploaded by Kibbles on Flickr in 2008, this lovely scene reminds us that the sun is soon setting on another summer.

Last week we posted a photo of a rainbow in the aftermath of the weekend’s storms and it drew a number of reader comments about how rare it is to see one in the area. So Clare, who took the original photo, set forth to show that she ain’t no one trick pony, and followed it up with another two shots she took way back in 2007. I really enjoy these photos, since I remember sitting in my backyard after rainstorms as a youngun’. With eyes as big as saucers, I’d sit and admire the rainbows for as long as they’d hang around, wondering – really – whether there actually was an end that touched the ground that I could find and play in. Of course, I realized later that it’s thoughts like this that lead small children to turn into stoners and e-heads. Maybe it’s good we don’t have rainbows frequently anymore.

New York Post is reporting that Michail Sorodsky, a “doctor” with an office on Ocean Avenue and a residence on Emmons Avenue, has been hit with the highest bail in recent memory.

Sorodsky stands accused of sexually abusing at least eight female patients and has also been operating an unlicensed practice since 1995. The bail – $11 million cash/$33 million bond – set on the 65-year-old doctor is so high that it’s stirring up a debate: is Sorodsky being made an example with abusive bails? Or is he a potential scumbag getting what he deserves?

Here’s an excerpt from the Post:

An allegedly phony Brooklyn doctor accused of sexually abusing patients while they were under anesthesia has the dubious distinction of having the highest bail in the land: either $11 million cash or a virtually impossible $33 million bail bond.

No exact records exist, but several experts say Michail Sorodsky’s bond is the highest they have ever heard of.

“You know what they’re basically telling him?” said one. “Screw you. You’re not getting out.”

…

His astronomical bail tops even that of such high-flying fraudsters as Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, who was tried in state court, and Ponzi king Bernard Madoff, who was charged federally. Each put up $10 million of his own cash.

Sorodsky was first charged back in late-2007, when one patient said he told her to drink a liquid that caused her to lose consciousness. When she awoke, she found Sorodsky naked and lying on top of her, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. The patient later discovered evidence that caused her to believe that she had been raped.

Attorney General Andew Cuomo’s office said Sorodsky owned and operated the Holistic Skin and Spa Clinic, located at 2701 Ocean Avenue. He was arrested and charged with numerous felonies and misdemeanors, including rape in the first degree, unlicensed practice of medicine, scheme to defraud, and numerous counts of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse and forcible touching. Before additional victims came forward, Sorodsky was arraigned in Kings County Criminal Court on Nov. 30, 2007, and his bond was originally set at $3 million.

More from the Brooklyn Eagle:

Sorodsky, of 1625 Emmons Ave., preyed on Russian-speaking residents of New York City for several years, according to the Attorney General’s Office. He advertised in Russian-language newspapers to solicit patients and portrayed himself as a medical doctor who administered special medications.

Sorodsky claimed that he guaranteed the effectiveness of his treatments and that he could completely cure many ailments, including cancer. The Attorney General’s investigation found that some of Sorodsky’s cancer patients died prematurely, since they believed in Sorodsky’s ability to cure them. According to his Web site, “Sorodsky, an outstanding scientists [sic], received his education, professional and academic experience primarily in the former Soviet Union … and graduated with a Ph.D. degree in medical science.” He then studied Eastern medicine in Tibet before emigrating to the United States in 1993, settling in Brooklyn and opening up his holistic health center, where the crimes are alleged to have occurred.

“You will experience a treatment that is quick, painless and one that goes directly to your cells,” he claims on his Web site.

Sorodsky also operated another Holistic Skin & Spa in Upstate New York. The Bed & Breakfast Sanatorium in Walton is “smack in the middle of Mother Nature’s playground,” and has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, golf course, tennis courts and football fields for patients to use, according to the Web site. “Where Mother Nature Cures,” is its motto.

According to the Attorney General’s investigation, since at least 2005, Sorodsky performed physical examinations, took patients’ blood, administered what he claimed were medications and committed acts of sexual abuse on his female patients. In addition, Sorodsky allegedly bilked patients out of thousands of dollars for these ineffective and possibly harmful “treatments.”

Congressman Anthony Weiner is hosting a Town Hall Meeting on healthcare reform this Tuesday evening, September 1, at 7:30 p.m. Kingsborough Community College is hosting the Q&A-style event, and everyone ought to come out, find out more, and voice their opinions on such an important issue to our country.

The event is free, obviously, and takes place at KCC’s Performing Arts Center, which seats 500. It’s a five minute walk from the campus’s entrance, and free parking is available behind the venue.

I’ll be there, but not as a journalist; I’m going as a resident in full support of universal healthcare. If anyone wants to meet up  before or after, e-mail me.

When: September 1 @ 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kingsborough Community College’s Performing Arts Center

Denis Hamill, columnist for the Daily News, wrote an exceptional obituary last week honoring Jacqueline Randazzo Page, who died unexpectedly on August 13.

Here’s an excerpt, but we strongly recommend you read the entire article:

Even at her wake, she was a Brooklyn character.

Jackie Randazzo Page – the lady who ruled over Randazzo’s Clam Bar on Emmons Ave. in Sheepshead Bay like Queen Neptune – lay in repose in her coffin, a thin, almost sarcastic smile on her always-Fra Diablo lips, facing a life-size floral slot machine with three 7′s in the windows and a 6-foot floral arrangement of a bright red lobster like the neon one that has reflected from the storied eatery across the night waters of Sheepshead Bay for five decades.

“My mother was my business partner and my best buddy,” said Jackie’s son Paul Randazzo, 51, who stood in the rear of the Marine Park Funeral Home, bewildered like a fighter refusing to believe he’d just been KOd. “She was 69. And I mean a young 69! My mom was good for another 20 years, and so this hasn’t hit me yet.”

…

Paul says Jackie was a big softie. But she could also be tough.

“She had big Brooklyn b—s,” he says. “She’d fight anybody – girls, guys, me! She took s–t from nobody. She’d call me in the mornings if I overslept, cursing me out, ‘Get down to the store!’ She went through three husbands because she never let anybody get over on her. If you tried to get over on her, she’d roll on the sidewalk with you. If you were loyal to her, she’d die for you. The chef and staff at Randazzo’s are as upset as the family about my mom.”

…

In the end, Jacqueline Randazzo Page, who had a heart as big as Brooklyn, couldn’t stop the bleeding of her own heart.

“The thing I’ll miss most is her calling me in the morning and screaming for me to get down to Randazzo’s,” says Paul. “Which is what I’ll be doing alone now. But as long as Randazzo’s is open for business on Emmons Ave., my mother will still be alive and kickin’ in Brooklyn.”

What started out as an informal outdoor meeting on the grounds of the Sheepshead/Nostrand Housing buildings compound has morphed into an annual reunion.

Organizers of the two-day gathering to be held this weekend, James and Stacey Leigh, are the energetic brains behind the barbeque. Anyone who has lived in the housing complex is always welcome and many who have moved out of the area (or even the state) make a trip back just to attend the reunion.

The event is an organized, but informal one held every last weekend in August. Signs and barbeque grills are usually brought out around 12 p.m. on Saturday. Many who live in the complex  lend a helping hand, bringing out food and getting things ready for all the out-of-towners.

On both days, everyone parties with a DJ, reminisces, and plays games — especially basketball. By the end of the night on Saturday things turn sober and names from the Memorial Wall are read out loud.

Here are the details for this weekend:

The 11th Annual Sheepshead-Nostrand Houses’ Old-Timer’s Day 2009 Sheepshead-Nostrand Housing Complex
Avenue V and Batchelder Street
Dolgan Park and the “Swing Park”
Saturday & Sunday, August 29 – 30, 2009
from 12 p.m. until the evening, both days

The event is planned rain or shine, although certain activities may change, due to the weather.

Check the official website for contact information and pictures of past events.

Gene Berardelli, City Council candidate for the 46th District, has gone Hollywood. The Plumb Beach Republican vying for Democratic Councilman Lew Fidler’s seat to represent Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, and Canarsie, has produced a video for NBC New York’s online video voter guide. In it, he says the overturning of term limits was a “rude wake up call” and makes his case for voters. Among the achievements he highlights are his efforts to downzone parts of Sheepshead Bay and organizing the community to make Brigham Street Park a reality.

Kudos to NBC New York for producing these video voter guides. It’s good to see that they haven’t ignored the Republican opposition altogether (we’re lookin’ at you, Courier-Life).

Other videos of interest:

Lew Fidler, City Council #46
Derek Sacerdote, City Council #46
Mark D’Ottavio, Borough President
Marty Markowitz, Borough President
Eugene Myrick, Borough President

Here at L & B Spumoni Gardens (2725 86th Street), I get dragged out in the late hours to carry cleaning supplies. While I’m lugging around buckets and mops, these late night customers come in to grab their Sicilian slices as if it’s their life-saving fix. But there are those one or two pizza snobs I hear saying things like, “This pizza sauce tastes like Prego from the bottle.”

But those people who eat the orange sherbet vanilla swirl ice cream cones and spumoni just seem to go on and on. “Mmmm, yummy.” Lick, lick, lick. “This cone is delicious.” Slather, slather, slather. “Tastes just like a Creamsicle.” Slurp, slurp, slurp.  I have to just sit there and listen to this junk all the time. Someone licks a little too hard, the cone drops to the floor. Porters roll me out with the mop and pail to clean that gunk up. People, it’s a soft-serve cone. Take it easy, will you?

L & B doesn’t feed this workhorse shopping cart even the pizza crust crumbs. I so wish I could be back at Babies-R-Us over at 8973 Bay Parkway, where those ‘preggo’ customers know what’s important in life and handle me like a baby. They love to drape me with a delicate, cotton, newborn layette — just the way a cutie, plastic shopping cart ought to be treated.

They use a code name for me in these Bensonhurst concrete “gardens” — so, just ask for Lil’ L & B. That’s ‘L’ for lavender and ‘B’ for baby. Just don’t tell them that you’re here to rescue me, or they might not bring me out of the slop room.