Mikey Palms, co-owner of the now-defunct Southpaw, just got married on Saturday night to Nicole Gunther, a source tells us. But there’s more: “I was at Southpaw’s final night on Monday and was informed by someone there that he’s going to be a father soon. So it seems that Southpaw’s transformation into a child-activity center will benefit him, surely.”

Surely? Maybe. It’s true that the Southpaw space will be subletted starting next month to New York Kids Club, an “enrichment center” with kids classes, day camps, birthday celebrations, and even rock climbing, according to some reports. The announcement led the New Yorker to pronounce Park Slope “dead.”

But Palms said he was “over” Park Slope and eager to focus his efforts on another music venue, Public Assembly in Williamsburg. So they may not be so interested in hanging out in Park Slope after all… though if they did, maybe they’ll get to skip the line and get into the kids club free?

Congrats to the happy couple–now go buy them that Cuisinart® PowerEdge™ 700 Blender off their Bed Bath & Beyond registry.

1. Don’t treat babies like babies. Allow them to “self-soothe” rather than jumping in to rock them to sleep at the first sign of crying. And explain everything you are doing to your baby (not for language learning, apparently, but because the French believe babies have been “eavesdropping in the womb” and so can understand what’s being said).

2. Set strict limits, but give kids leeway within those limits. For example, let kids wear what they want at home, but take off the princess dress before heading to the playground.

3. Be the decider. Step up and be authority figure. Don’t put up with behavior you know is wrong. Remind kids who’s in charge by using a firm tone of voice.

4. Make kids fit the rhythm of the family — not the other way around. French children are born with obligations: to allow parents to sleep through the night; to eat on a regular schedule; and to become independent enough to respectly acknowledge others and entertain themselves.

5. Don’t let sentimentality get in the way of parenting.

6. Don’t give kids so many choices. The “tyranny of choice” paradoxically is disconcerting, the French say, and can cause us to lose a basic confidence in ourselves.

7. Practice the behaviors you want kids to adopt. For example, kids will never eat on a regular schedule if they see your idea of breakfast is grabbing a yogurt while checking your email on the way out the door.

8. If you are pregnant: be calm and sensible. Nail polish and caffeinated drinks will not endanger your fetus. Don’t lecture other soon-to-be moms on their lifestyle and diet choices, either. Take the epidural.

Bonus: Correct other children, particularly those with annoyingly permissive parents. Babies “are rational creatures who will behave in certain preordained ways,” Franklin says.

“The true message of this book … is that the real advantage the French have over us isn’t what they say or do so much as the culture that surrounds them,” Franklin says. -via Ruth Franklin: No Book Will Fix What’s Wrong With American Parenting | The New Republic.

This is Alyssa Ettinger, an accomplished and creative potter who works out of  a studio in an old warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She’s using Brooklynian Local Businesses, a simple and free way to promote your local business just by uploading a photo. You can, too. To get started, just join the Brooklynian Local Businesses group on Flickr. Then click “Add” to select the photos you want to add to the group.

Your photo will show up on a Brooklynian Local Businesses Flickr badge here on Brooklynian, and obviously, also on Flickr itself. The more photos we get, the more prominently we will feature this new group on the site. So go join Brooklynian Local Businesses and start uploading!

In this video, the BBC investigates the impact of “hipster” encroachment into the Greenpoint immigrant culture of Poles and Latinos. Over the past decade, BBC says, the neighborhood has endured two separate waves of gentrification: once with the influx of “arty hipsters,” and now, with the transformation of old industrial sites into residential housing and skyrocketing rents. At one point, an $800 studio was not uncommon; but now, rents of $2,000 or more are par for the course. ”The neighborhood very drastically changed from immigrant to artistic,” says Miezko Kalita of Beata Delicatessen.

This is a scene from a “secret rock show” for Feist‘s recent album release at Church of the Intercession in Harlem. It was produced Kensington-based Mason Jar Music, a 9-person collective of musicians, producers, videographers and other creatives dedicated to “preserving analog principles in a digital age.” In these catacombs, about 100 spectators saw Leslie Feist play with  a 16-piece orchestra, members of Mountain Man (an all-girl acapella group), plus members of Broken Social Scene and Beck’s touring band. ”It was as if every last sensory detail of the evening, from the venue to the featured artist to the outfits worn by the orchestra, had been designed and expertly executed to convey a singular experience,” Lizzy Goodman writes on Fast Company Co.Create (Photo: Sasha Arutyunova).

Photos and reviews of the concert can be found on Brooklyn Vegan and Pitchfork.

According to Goodman, the Feist concert exemplifies MJM’s “new approach to music that incorporates live performance and video but transcends both; creating experiences that bring both the Mason Jar team and the artists closer to the heart of making music and art–connecting with fans and, would you believe it, having fun.” Just this week, on Valentine’s Day, Fast Company named MJM the 6th most innovative music company in the world.

Speaking of non-traditional venues, Mason Jar Music has also produced a feature-length documentary, Josh Garrels: The Sea In Between, filmed on Mayne Island, BC. Here’s a clip:

The Brooklyn Paper just sent shockwaves through the Internet with the revelation that Brooklyn coffee shops are serving off-menu “babyccino” drinks, which are essentially tiny decaf cappuccinos–or in some cases, just cups of steamed milk and foam with a pinch of cinammon. But the Brooklyn baby brigade playing catch-up: baristas in Australia have been serving babyccinos for a decade and they are so popular that coffee shops down under list them on the menu. And kid coffee has already taken off in Manhattan, according to Brooklynian xlizellx, who works in the East Village:  ”The number of kids coming in to school in the morning with a vegan scone and a latte–It’s insane,” she says on the Brooklyn message boards.

“Freaking ridiculous,” replies NTFool. “I miss my beloved East Village of yore, in which kids coming in to school had mohawks and heroin jitters.”

Coffee shops in Park Slope, Fort Greene, and Prospect Heights have all confirmed that kids and parents alike are demanding babyccinos. The venues in question include Sit and Wonder on Washington Avenue, and sister shop Bittersweet in Fort Greene; co-owner Gemma Redwood says they started selling the $2 drink off-menu in response to customer demand. Other shops admitting to the practice include Cafe Regular in Park Slope, and Root Hill Cafe in Gowanus. But Sean Chin of Gorilla Coffee in Park Slope told the Brooklyn Paper it “annoys the hell out of me” when customers ask for it, he and seems steadfastly against making the baby drinks.

Or will it? With an insane amount of burger competition in the area, Chez Bibis may be planning to compete on price and convenience.

The constantly vigilant Here’s Park Slope took the photo below and spoke to the owners of Chez Bibis Burger Bar, including one who has a background in catering, who said everything will be “very inexpensive.” And they will serve beer alongside burgers, sandwiches, salads, and wraps.

Chez Bibis will be displaying works of local artists. So look out for the call for submissions.

Got another tip? Let us know on the Brooklyn Message Boards. Or if you’re feeling lazy, just drop us a quick note here.

Bullfighter Sidney Franklin was born Sidney Frumkin in 1903 on Jackson Place off 16th Street near Seventh Avenue. He went on to become one of the top matadors in the world, and claimed some rather famous fans, including Ernest Hemingway.

“No history of bullfighting that is ever written can be complete unless it gives him the space he is entitled to,” Hemingway said about him.

How did this happen to a Jewish kid from Park Slope? At 19, Frumkin split for Mexico after a fight with his father, a police officer. While there, he asked a famous matador to teach him the sport. His first ever fight was in Mexico City in 1923, where he wowed the crowd. And it was uphill from there.

Read more: The famous bullfighter who came from Park Slope « Ephemeral New York; via Meet Sydney Frumkin, Park Slope’s Most Famous Jewish Bullfighter, Ever | DAILY SLOPE.

Julia learned about pubic hair from a discarded Playboy; the “horror of childbirth” from an illustrated medical guide; and the amoral dangers of the Sex Pistols through the Christian parenting anti-rock book, Devil’s Disciples: The Truth About Rock Music. And in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, she learned about male anatomy through this passage:

“Francie stared at the exposed part of his body in paralyzed horror. It was wormy white contrasted with the ugly, dark sallowness of his face and hands.”

Ew.