This weekend families are invited to visit a local celebrity. She's a dark beauty, very gracious with her admirers and especially loved by children. She hasn't done a "Got milk?" commercial yet, but she would be a natural for the campaign.
She is Aggie, the Dexter cow at the Prospect Park Zoo and the star of its Extraordinary Dairy Weekend. Tomorrow and Sunday children can pet her, feed her, watch keepers bathe her and write fan letters to which she will eventually reply. (Clearly, this cow's talents go beyond giving milk.) They can also enjoy lighthearted contests with dairy themes.
"June is Dairy Month, which is why we do it," said Mary Record, a zoo spokeswoman. "Aggie just recently turned 12, and she's one of the favorites in the domestic-animal section." Those eager to correspond with her can pick up pencils and paper in the barn, where there is a box for her letters. "We send quarterly letters written 'from Aggie' to all who include their mailing address," Ms. Record said.
Visitors who would like a more direct taste of farm life can learn how to milk a cow - not from Aggie, but from Daisy Milkers. "They're these big fake cows," Ms. Record explained. "They put water in the udders." The skill will come in handy for the Amazing Milking Race, whose object is to fill a bucket with as much "milk" as possible in two minutes. Other competitions will include sack and wheelbarrow races and Trivial Pursuit, dairy style.
The Wildlife Theater Players will also offer original tunes, including a song titled "Chewing Cud." Now that's real country music.
Extraordinary Dairy Weekend, tomorrow and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine, at the Prospect Park Zoo, 450 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, (718) 399-7339. Free with admission: $5; ages 65+, $1.25; 3 to 12, $1; under 3, free.
Rock 'n' Roll Rhymes
It's hard to turn Old Mother Goose into a spring chicken. But one man seems particularly qualified to give those rhymes a new spin, not to mention a driving beat and some comic twists. His name would seem to destine him for the job: Brady Rymer.
Mr. Rymer will demonstrate on Sunday at Joe's Pub, when he and a flock of musicians perform "Rock 'n' Roll Mother Goose," a new tune in which Mary doesn't have a little lamb, but a little band, and the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe happens to love the boogaloo. In addition to that song, from an album not yet released, his concert will offer numbers from his previous four CD's, including last year's "I Found It!" (Bumblin' Bee Records).
"I guess the music all starts off with my kids, and all the things they're up to and into, from losing a toy to chewing animal crackers," Mr. Rymer said. Indeed, every time he mentioned a song on the telephone, his 6-year-old, Daisy, would belt out a sample in the background. But while Daisy and her brother, Gus, 8, may inspire the subjects, the tunes have their roots in Mr. Rymer's career as a rocker for older audiences, when he and his former group, From Good Homes, once opened for Bob Dylan and toured with Dave Matthews.
"I was raised on the Grateful Dead and Dylan and Bruce Springsteen," said Mr. Rymer, 40, who gave up the touring life for a calmer existence on Long Island with his family. But he is still a rock artist, and the concerts he gives with his Little Band That Could are not sit-down experiences. "I actually hand out shakers to all the kids and their parents," he said.
In addition to his gig at Joe's Pub, on June 12 Mr. Rymer will perform at the store Books of Wonder with his friend the author and illustrator Dan Yaccarino. Mr. Rymer will offer musical versions of children's books, and Mr. Yaccarino will create drawings based on Mr. Rymer's music.
"I'm definitely trying to give kids a rock 'n' roll show and a full-band experience," Mr. Rymer said. The energy is just as high as at his adult shows, he added, but there are "probably a lot more smiles and giggles."
Brady Rymer, Sunday at 11 a.m. at Joe's Pub, at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, (212) 539-8770. Tickets: $12. Also June 12 at 1 p.m. at Books of Wonder, 18 West 18th Street, Flatiron district, (212) 989-3270. Free.
Where Arts Sail Forth
The surf isn't all that will pound on the Brooklyn shores tomorrow. Red Hook will be home port for hundreds of dancing feet, beating drums, rapping words and wailing jazz.
They're all part of the annual Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival, which stars the creative energies of New York's youngest artists, from 8-year-old tap dancers to adolescent poets and auteurs. The newest attraction will be the First Annual Youth Film Festival, which will include winning projects from the 2005 Urban Visionaries competition, for New York filmmakers 13 to 20 who have produced videos on social, cultural and political issues.
"One film I saw was about peer pressure in a high school setting," said Martha Bowers, the waterfront festival's executive producer. "Another was about making decisions about safe sex." The young directors will introduce many of the films, to be shown in a screening room.
Outdoors, the winners of the 2005 Urban Word N.Y.C. Teen Poetry Slam will proclaim their verse on the main stage, also the showcase for eight groups of children, including the 3 of Clubs, a circus act, and the Pee Wee Hoofers, tap artists. "They're joining up with the Berkeley Carroll Jazz Ensemble," Ms. Bowers said, referring to the Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope.
Adult artists will have their turns, too. The headliners are Bonga and the Vodou Jazz Ensemble, who will offer a percussion workshop; Rennie Harris Puremovement, which will teach a dance workshop; and the intergenerational KR3T's Dance Company, whose name is shorthand for Keep Rising to the Top - what you might call the theme of the day.
Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival, tomorrow from 1 to 5:30 p.m., rain or shine, on the Beard Street Pier, Van Brunt Street and the shore. Free. Information: (718) 287-2224 or dancetheatreetcetera.org.