We all know about Googamooga, right? In this blogger's opinion, the Greek Giggle Miggle was a halfway decent music fest, decent little food and wine event featuring local restaurants, and had all the charm of State Fair. The park netted some money, a lot of people lamented the crass use of the park. But my take was that the Park took a chance on raising much needed funds in a fun way. The weather crapped on the event in its second year, vendors lost tons of dough, and most folks suspect the organizers won't risk a third calamitous year. We'll see.
Now comes Nickagooga, the Nickelodeon sponsored even on the very same Nethermead - holy land to this blogger, for its being not the Long Meadow and for off the beaten path pleasantness. Once again, a week of preparations have led to scenes like this, shot by artist and pal Noel Hefele:
So then I get a bunch in the ol' girl-pants and write this:
Okay, three things. I was challenged by a commenter so I wrote this about the Nethermead being closed down again. This time to celebrate the love that is Nickelodeon. About Nick's Get Out and Play day...
I have a call into our friend at the Park to find out how much they'll be making. Anything less than a quarter million net and my stomach is prepared to launch my lunch.
Think about the cynical reality - the station most associated with obesity and commercialism of childhood is going "dark" for three hours in order to get kids to go outside. To the Nethermead, which has been made pretty un-playable for a week, a place that kids love to run around, as my own did last weekend. As if they need to be TOLD to play outside by the company that keeps them inside. In order to sell more schlock and pump up the brands of an MTV offshoot. The bands? Insipid and focus-grouped to the nth.
To which the Park's position is basically that the Park is for all sorts of things, even cynical marketing opportunities dressed as playdates, 35,000 tickets have been snapped up, kids will dig it for sure, and this makes me wonder if I'm just crotchety aesthete (ass-thete? like an athlete who has a talented posterior?) for preaching what people should and shouldn't do with their Park. And this is probably true. I don't speak for everyone, just me. If most Brooklynites think this is a good use of the space, then there it is.
Interestingly, the Park feels it got a great deal out of the Krate Kooga Nooga - a walkway got finished, cash changed hands, the organizers footed the bill for cleanup and restoration (the meadow does look pretty good, it's true). And again, there's that thing I keep coming back to...try new stuff and see what works.
Personally, I'd rather they just do benefit concerts like BRIC does for Summerstage. Or paid benefit events of some kind. I don't like that it's Nickelodeon though. And I absolutely hate that they're getting millions of dollars of marketing for such cynical pursuits.
And still I wonder, yes I wonder, who'll stop the rain? No that's John Fogerty. I mean still I wonder, yes I wonder...would their be massive protests if this thing was held on the Long Meadow? Perhaps we'll never know, as our Nethermead has been designated the commercial guinea pig.
34 comments:
Tuesday I ignored one of this fiasco's staff and was able to walk on the path past the Nethermead to the Ravine. Today, that path was blocked by a closed gate on a chain link fence. These jokers are being even more piggish and obtrusive than the Googa Gaga organizers!
Not saying that I approve of this circus, but closing off access to the site probably has everything to do with their insurance bond. (That forklift looks like it could take out quite a few citizens!) Yeah, it's a pain for parkgoers but if they're going to do events like this, well, safety first.
They COULD leave a path clear of their heavy equipment, but I'm sure they just don't want to be bothered by ordinary citizens who want to get to the other side of the park. IMO it's probably laziness combined with a sense of entitlement.
At least it is an event for children and is free!! Not like googa hipsterdom, a park filled with a bunch of beardos and overpriced food/booze.
Yea, free to those in the know. Hopefully it will be a diverse gathering of children. I woukd hate for poorer children from our neighborhood who didn't know how to get free tickets to feel left out, especially if it falls along color lines.
~jen
The Prospect Park administration is dedicated to fundraising and revenue streams. They have yet to realize any real money from GoogaMooga, Indy Theatre, or any other event, but on they go.
The only justification for shutting down the natural heart of the park for two weeks during set up, event and breakdown, is if they made enough money to fund major restoration like the woods in the northeast corner of the park. As it is they barely get the lawns back in shape before they bring the next set of heavy equipment in.
Jen,
I'm not poor and still did not get a ticket. I was too late to the game. I think you meant to say for parents that are not procrastinators.
Q I am guessing ur kids are not allowed to watch Nick Jr.?
No, I said exactly what I meant. I'm sure that parents who procrastinated will feel bad, but there's another group of people who could be left out for other reasons than procrastination. As one person posted last May about the Googa thing that he/she overheard someone say to their kid that, "the white people were having a party." So while I understand that this is reflective of many things beyond someone's control, I just hope that the turn out is diverse.
~jen
P.s. if you're going to use my name to address me, it would be kind of you to sign off with your name or a name at least. :-)
My kids watch Youtube and Mr. Rogers and musicals like Annie and Sound of Music and slow moving stories like Totoro and crap like that. Before long, I won't have control anymore. That's what I hear. It's all subjective, and frankly I have no problem with an hour of screen time. It's just me, but everything on the Nicks is just too spastic and fond of itself. When my oldest sees it (in other homes - we don't have cable) she looks like she's been bitten by a media zombie. And the music...dear god the music is dreadful and designed to make you want to buy buy buy and worship worship worship the boys in the band.
That said I don't care what your kids do and I'm not into preaching this or that system of parenting. Parenting is too damn exhausting to give anyone else a hard time. If you get through it somehow without killing them or yourself, you get an A+ in my book.
But I hate hate hate commercials. TV seriously makes me sick to my stomach. They make me so depressed about humanity - I can't even listen to Sly and the Family Stone anymore without wanting to buy a Toyota. The beautiful thing about the computer is usually you can almost totally bypass them and choose what your kids can and can't watch.
But it's not the Nicks in particular that bum me out. It's what Viacom is trying to get away with. They shouldn't get to tell our kids to go out and play and then get accolades for it. Eff them. Mr. Nick you make for yourselves and the companies who advertise billions of dollars off of defenseless kids and their even more defenseless parents. Isn't that enough? Then you have to come and hawk your wares in our park, tell our kids to stop watching TV (for a few hours), get gobs of free press (just google the thing...every media outlet is eating it up and printing their press release verbatim) and promote all your brands right in front of kids/folks who think they're getting it for FREE. C'mon y'all. What's FREE about THAT? The money they spend on this thing is chump change; the money WE spend is insane. Whoever's idea this was got promoted to the stratosphere.
It's a losing battle though. No amount of idealism can beat "Daddy I love you so much. Can I have a..."
Tickets were given out only via internet and only during a very brief window of time, effectively cutting out anyone without constant internet access (i.e, usually poorer families). Of course they may not have cable TV either so they may have no idea what this is, or even that it's happening. Hopefully once the Lakeside Center (finally) opens they will move all of this crap there.
Oh Mr. Q how dare you!
"...and slow moving stories like Totoro and crap like that."
Totoro - CRAP???? That's a masterpiece from one of Japan's acknowledged film masters! Grab your pitchforks everyone and head down to Clarkson!
-Paul G.
:)
Yep. That's the crap I've been feeding her so far. I love it AND the musicals and my cherry picked you tubed vids in her favorites folder. The word crap threw u off. My demographic loves Totoro! So leave the pitchforks in the foyer! !
from babs: "...Hopefully once the Lakeside Center (finally) opens they will move all of this crap there."
I certainly hope NOT... Lakeside is so much more than the skating rinks. The vast majority of the project's acreage is carefully restored landscaping. Planting has been going on for months and continues through the fall. In a couple of years, when the trees and shrubs have had a chance to fill out, Lakeside is going to be the Park's showcase. I think it's going to be something we will be proud to have in our neighborhood and we should everything we can to keep fundraising stunts far away.
I think the complaints about this event and GoogaMooga are hyperbolic and a bit spoilsport. That bare dirt spot featured in the Brooklyn paper has been in the Nethermeade since I've lived on this side of the park and the strips of fencing around reseeded areas post-GoogaMooga was no more than pops up in Long Meadow when needed and that constantly restricts the grassy areas of other parks in the city. As far as I could see, it didn't stop a single soccer game or anyone's fun.
I see it like this: Prospect Park is not Gramercy Park. We who are privileged to live close enough to use the park like our backyards pay no more for this privilege than folks on the UWS or in BedStuy. Most of us probably haven't even considered a membership to the Alliance. We're lucky to be able to think of this tremendous public resource as our backyard, but that doesn't mean we're entitled to have it kept the way we like all the time. I'm for any event that introduces a bunch of local, non-park users to this incredible resource. And this free event looks like it will be amazing for the folks who get to attend. No distribution system is perfect and web-based ones definitely disadvantage folks on the non-blog reading side of the digital divide. But, hell, the entire New York State health exchange about to launch 10/1 will be web-based! I'm a lot more concerned about that. And looking at the list of incredible non-profit partners involved in this Day of Play thing, I'm betting that the attendees will be quite diverse.
Moreover, I'm someone who uses the park everyday, morning and evening & I was still able to get a great workout and give my dog quality time off leash every morning this week, despite the massive set-up and equipment. I used the Nethermead to some extent every day until today & not one event worker said so much as boo about it. I watched plenty of parents doggedly troop around the temporary fencing to get their kids to school on the other side of the park. It was a little harder but not unmanageable. IMHO, the park's management and this event's organizers struck a reasonable balance b/w maintaining access and safety.
Finally, I'm really, really glad Prospect Park is not a natural space to be preserved (though it's nice that it can sometimes give us a hint of the feeling of being in a setting like that). Unlike Lake Merritt in Oakland, the paths of which are absolutely slick with bird droppings due to its status as a wildlife sanctuary, OUR park is a public resource designed to be used by us human city dwellers. And we have to, I think, be willing to tolerate some uses that are different form ones we'd individually prefer. For example, I'd never want to leave my bed in the whee hours to whiz round and round a 3 mile loop wearing logo-emblazoned spandex, but I'm glad the the cyclists have such a beautiful place to gather for their kind of fun. I've personally observed large, unpermitted birthday parties and bbqs create tons of litter and damage to tree roots over the years. This makes Monday mornings in the park hellish for the entire warm season, and makes dog people like me pray for winter. But I'm into those families and friends having their good, loud, messy fun in the fresh air. At least with the major events, an entity is on the line for repairing the damage that their use causes & the park gains sorely needed resources.
To sum up this rant, I think Prospect Park's management does a bang-up job of managing this incredible resource and I'm gonna renew my damn Alliance membership TODAY.
After the Googa, not only were there bare patches of dirt (not grass) but there was a large mysterious puddle that smelled like a port-a-potty was spilled. Even better was when my kids were running in the grass, they stumbled upon nuts, bolts, and pieces of hardware that were simply left on the grass as though they belong there.
I would be 1000% supportive of these private events if they were capable of leaving the Nethermead the same way they found it. That hasn't been the case, not even once.
What's confusing is that in an effort to make money from these private events, the park ends up spending money. Makes no sense.
And regarding the tickets, you had to be in the know about it to get it. We don't have cable, so I found out through a friend about this mess. In order to find out about tickets, I had to register my e-mail address. Then I got an e-mail telling me that at 6pm I had to go through Eventbrite to get a ticket. I logged on at 6:02 and there were no tickets left.
So yeah, A LOT of people are excluded from this event. Again.
RE: moving events to Lakeside; perhaps there'll be room INSIDE the rinks during the summer. Many years ago (mid-70s) PLGNA organized a fair in the old skating rink--the space was VERY large.
Darn it Dynishal; you take all the fun out of being a cranky old man :-)
But, seriously, I don't think it's too much to ask of the Googoo Gaga organizers and their ilk to keep some sort of public path open going past their event.
I'm with Diak re cringing at the thought of something the size of Googa or this Nickgooga thing moving to Lakeside. For anyone who's been inside of there, you've got to know that's an incredible, beautifully landscaped place! Much more so than any other area in the Park right now. Even if public events are to be limited to the rinks and great plaza areas, I can't imagine Googa-size hordes being encouraged to amass there.
The limousine liberals our out in full force today. We have the trifecta: Mr. Q, MadMommaCarmen, and Ceeleedee.
Anon 5:55; I'm insulted at being left out of your limousine liberal list. OK, maybe I'm more of a sedan, or even econocar liberal, but I DID idealize the late John Lindsay for whom, IIRC, the term was coined.
The only limousine I've ever been in is a livery cab. And at this point in time I'm tapped out and couldn't afford the payments on an AMC Pacer. But thanks for the vote of confidence!
Bob I respect u too much to lump u into that category. U r like the original hipster and really give u props for ur service to this community.
Oh dear - "original hipster"? I would NOT take that as a compliment, and characterizing Carmen and Tim as "limousine liberals" is hysterically funny for anyone who knows them in person! Whatever.
Wow. What a night here on the Q blog. First, I'm honored to have earned the disdain of an anonymous coward. And then I, suppose by means of elimination Babs, I get to stay on the diss list? Gee, thanks so much for that. I like you too!
Just I don't know you personally dear...
Can anyone explain why these free events have to be ticketed via the internet? Why can't people just walk up and enter? I think that the ticketing system is another cause of animosity towards these events. Also, if it's a free event, why do the organizers not give the Alliance a few hundred (maybe a thousand?) tickets to distribute to their members?
It has to be ticketed or there would be far more people than could fit arriving to get in. It would be a fiasco. They should have given tickets to the surrounding community and the alliance- but clearly this event was not about the community that uses the park every day. It was about PR for the company's involved.
I heard someone say how much better than googamooga the people working this in the park were and that there were signs and it was so easy. I don't know what this person was talking about- i saw two signs before yesterday and they were right next to eachother at the entrance to a very small pathway. And while a few of the people seemed a little more friendly, the amount of space it took over was far more annoying than anything googamooga did.
Why do people always throw the word hipster around to describe anything they don't understand or like. It's so cheap. and really means nothing anymore. Googamooga to me feels so much more yuppy than hipster. I mean what starving artist can afford the price of those tickets? I'll tell you- one's with rich parents.
I agree the park should be making a lot of money to justify closing a meadow and blocking paths for two weeks. I'm disturbed reading a couple comments saying the park hasn't made profits from Googa Mooga yet. But whatever. I had to name a smart and funny, cute show on Nickolodeon with amazing original songs and music - Backyardigans. Evan Lurie (of Lounge Lizards fame) does the music for Backyardigans.
So, not that it's any of my business really, but has anyone heard what the park actually receives for these events?
Anon 9:44. It IS your business. It's all of our business. The Alliance gets a big chunk of money, support and in-kind (as well as the land itself) from the City and its Parks Department, plus security from our NYPD, which we all collectively own. That fact is easy to forget sometimes, the way hierarchy and power get bandied about. That's right. It's ALL ours, to be managed and administered as WE see fit. The Alliance was created to allow private funds to flow into the park in addition to the City's woefully inadequate sums. And the Alliance is the administrator of the park, and as a separate beast from the City is able to set its own agenda and plan and fundraise in ways that it sees fit without waiting for City Hall to get on board (though its nice when it does). The Alliance is also a not-for-profit corporation, which means its books and board minutes must be transparent. I can't give you an exact number, and since there are a lot of costs that a park "renter" must cover and agree to cover if damage occurs it gets a little fuzzy. But I will give you this figure on good knowledge that after all the ins and outs and abouts - the Park nets around 75K on these relative recent kinds of events like the Goog and the Nick. If someone from the Park wants to get more specific, I'd be happy to entertain a comment here.
In reply to Tim's post and some other commenters (apologies for a long response):
- The bare spot featured in the Brooklyn Paper (with me standing in it) was several times larger after GoogaMooga and was joined by many new ones. Much of that bare spot was repaired after media pressure. Despite that, the Nethermead looks terrible. It does not look "pretty good." Its deterioration since the first GoogaMooga has been well-documented by myself and many others.
- Prospect Park has yet to make a profit on any of these megaevents, according to what I have been told by park employees. Nick's WWDoP may be the first exception but I do not know. There are significant costs associated with hosting the events and what they receive in payment is not a profit figure. Tim refers repeatedly to a source which I assume is Eric Landau, who is in charge of government and community affairs for the park. I recognize the talking points. Tim also states that the park's books are open and transparent, which is news to me since a reporter had to a file a Freedom of Information Law request simply to find out the payment amount for the first GoogaMooga. If the park's books are open I look forward to seeing them on this site. Besides some basic numbers from their annual report or those they choose to release, I have never known Prospect Park to open its books. I would like to review them!
- The park claims that the walkway repaired by Superfly (organizer of GoogaMooga) was already severely cracked prior to their 18 wheeler trucks using it. This is greatly disputed by frequent users of the park and myself. Regardless, this was simply part of the agreement by the promoter. Whether they made it a little or a lot worse, they are responsible for the repairs. If we invite people in and they break things, I don't celebrate when they put them back to the way they were.
- Prior to the first GoogaMooga, there have never been events which entailed extended periods of time where large portions of the park would be surrounded by a chain link fence and preclude access by park goers. Never. It is not in the history of the park. It is not in tradition of the park. GoogaMooga closed off the Nethermead for 12 days for two years in a row. The WWDop closed the Nethermead for a week for a six hour event. There is no price worth losing this kind of access. As I have stated elsewhere, any event which closes part of the park for a week is not "free" and "public" by any definition.
- The distribution of tickets to Nick's WWDoP, GoogaMooga and other "public" events is for all intents and purposes economically discriminatory in the worst way. You cannot get tickets by calling or texting. You cannot get them in person. You must have an internet connection and for WWDop you needed to be very lucky even then. As others have pointed out -- from commenters to Michael Powell who writes for the Times - it is absurd to call these events public. Even more astounding, the park addressed complaints about the second GoogaMooga by allowing patrons to "donate" money to the park to get "free" tickets. If you couldn't afford that, or didn't have a regular internet connection, you were out of luck. Even worse, the park touted these donations as new members and new profits. But are these the kind of long term supporters of the green space that we need? Does anyone really believe someone who came from Queens or Manhattan will be renewing again next year? Or volunteering? Or view the city parks as precious resource that we must fight to protect? I don't think so.
- The current powers that be at the park feel a need to defend the long term policy of the Bloomberg administration to use city parks as a profit center for large corporations and promoters. A policy which is clearly not preferred by likely incoming mayor Bill De Blasio. In other words, I hope that those defending these policies see the writing on the wall. The future of Prospect Park is not Sponge Bob and Foie Gras donuts.
I just heard on WNYC that the Great Gag-up won't be held again--YEA!
I hope that will also apply to lesser crap like Nickagooga.
Googa Mooga is gone! Just heard too on https://www.facebook.com/brad.lander.7
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