Day: September 4, 2026

The idea of becoming a musician starts as a dream for a lot of people, but for Julia Sirna-Frest, it was her husband’s dream in the literal sense of the word.

“My husband woke up in the middle of the night and said, ‘You should start a Dolly Parton cover band called Doll Parts,’” Sirna-Frest said. “I thought that was a great idea.”

She did what any person who wants to start a Dolly Parton tribute band would do: She asked her friend Maggie Robinson, who was in a play with her, to join, along with her ukulele instructor, Shane Chapman.

A band was born in Brooklyn 15 years ago, in 2011. The lineup has shifted over the years, but Julia Sirna-Frest, Maggie Robinson and Shane Chapman have remained at its heart.

While there has been a huge outpouring of grief and reverence after Dolly Rebecca Parton died on Aug. 25, these musicians have been big Dolly Parton fans for more than a decade.

They are playing a special tribute show, “We Will Always Love You: A Dolly Parton Celebration with Doll Parts,” Sunday, Sept. 6, at Littlefield in Gowanus. The evening will be a chance “to celebrate and have a cathartic evening,” Sirna-Frest said.

They have played with a drummer and bass player and are adding a trumpet, trombone and bass sax to make this a true tribute.

“This show is a celebration. There’s an incredible community of people who come and sing Dolly Parton songs,” Sirna-Frest said. “We wanted to bring people together and sing Dolly Parton songs in a room together and remember why we love this woman.”

Sirna-Frest said when they started the band, she liked Dolly Parton, but didn’t know more about her than others might. “I love Dolly, but who doesn’t?” she added. “But I didn’t have more of a connection. She’s just incredible.”

They got their first gig, almost before they really had a band, after someone saw their tribute in the program of an avant-garde production of “The Magic Flute” at Target Margin Theater in Sunset Park.

“Union Hall offered us a slot. We took it and did the show,” Robinson said. “It was rough, but people liked it. We kept rehearsing it and got better and better.”

They are a tribute band that plays only Dolly Parton, but don’t try to imitate her appearance. “We don’t dress up as Dolly,” Robinson said. “None of us are Dolly.”

They see her as a wonderful songwriter who created a body of work that stands on its own.

“She was a really great songwriter,” Chapman said. “Some of our favorite songs are not the hits. Every album she put out has that great, great song.”

They always play what they call the “Big Four,” including “Islands in the Stream,” “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5.”

“Some of Dolly’s biggest songs are not really country,” Chapman added. “They transcend country. She’s just a great American songwriter.”

While she wrote more than 3,000 songs and 40 studio albums, they also see her as an exceptionally good human being who secured her place in the American songbook.

“She’s a billionaire who gave away all of her money,” Sirna-Frest said. “She’s done incredible philanthropic work. She led with full heart and compassion.”

Parton grew up the fourth of 12 children living near the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Tennessee, not far from where she would build Dollywood, her theme park complete with concert halls, a museum and memorabilia, including the coat of many colors that inspired one of her most famous songs.

“It’s a coat that her mother made for her out of patches of fabric,” Sirna-Frest said. “They grew up really poor. When you go to Dollywood, you can see the coat that the song is named after.”

Doll Parts has played around Brooklyn at the Sultan Room, Littlefield and other locations, as well as at the Los Angeles premiere of “Dumplin’,” a movie about a girl who idolizes Dolly Parton.

Robinson and Sirna-Frest met her backstage at “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” where Robinson knew someone working there.

“We hugged her and we talked to her. She said, ‘Keep playing my music, girls.’ Keep playing my music,” Sirna-Frest said. “We were so overcome with the moment that Maggie and I bowed and exited the way you would do when you met the queen. When you meet royalty, you’re not supposed to show them your back.”

Dolly Parton gives them gorgeous music and wisdom with lines such as “It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world,” Sirna-Frest said. “She sings a lot about rhinestones” and starred with Sylvester Stallone in “Rhinestone.”

They say 1970 was a particularly good year for Parton, including “I’m Wasting Your Time” and “As Long as I Love You,” which Sirna-Frest calls “heart-breaking and beautiful.”

The tribute band has had some big gigs, including the Los Angeles premiere of the 2018 movie Dumplin’.

“Somebody Googled us, listened to it and approved it,” Sirna-Frest said. “And they said we’re going to fly you out.”

Other musicians sit in with the band, giving it a fuller sound and bringing more musical chops.

“We have a drummer and bass player who are regularly gigging musicians,” Chapman said. “They marvel at how often people call us to play shows.”

Sirna-Frest now lives in Dublin, Ireland, pursuing a master’s in theater directing, still with an apartment in Bushwick, while Maggie Robinson lives in Minneapolis after 12 years in Brooklyn, and Shane remains in Gowanus.

“We fly in and we come together and we practice. We get in the room together and sing songs,” Sirna-Frest said. “We’ve been playing together for 15 years. We know each other and how to sing together.”

They sing “Heartbreak Express” as part of the “Doll Parts Heart Break” Valentine’s Day show and, as Chapman said, they “all do tons of things outside of Doll Parts.”

Chapman teaches music at Brooklyn College and Kingsborough Community College and arranges music for the band.

“Some are new to Dolly,” Chapman said of audiences. “Some have loved Dolly their whole lives.”

“It’s a warm, lovely, thrilling, exciting show,” Sirna-Frest added. “It’s because of the people who show up and sing with us.”

They feel lucky to have found, and to continue to find, and play her music, which they plan to continue doing.

“She felt like a force that would always be in the world,” said Sirna-Frest. “I think her music will continue to reverberate. We’ll be learning for the rest of our lives.”

They listened to Dolly Parton when she told them to keep playing her music, keeping the lyrics and tunes alive for their audiences. In a way, they’re still chasing the dream that started it all.

“It was a dream, which is such a Dolly thing,” Robinson said of the story behind the band’s birth. “She was a dreamer and she chased her dream.”

“We Will Always Love You: A Dolly Parton Celebration with Doll Parts” will take place Sunday, Sept. 6, at Littlefield, 635 Sackett St. in Gowanus, with doors opening at 7 p.m. and the show starting at 8 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit Littlefield’s website.

For its 59th anniversary, NYC’s legendary West Indian American Day Parade will dance down Eastern Parkway this Labor Day to celebrate all things Caribbean culture — with its biggest champions having a whole new reason to party this year.

О чем речь: NYC.gov / Office of the Mayor опубликовал официальный материал: Read press release.

Редакция BRBN обнаружила это официальное сообщение в ленте NYC Mayor’s Office. Полный русский пересказ не был создан автоматически, чтобы не опубликовать машинный английский текст на русскоязычном сайте.

Что важно знать: это официальная информация городской администрации Нью-Йорка. Для точных формулировок, дат и полного контекста откройте первоисточник на NYC.gov.

Whales have made a remarkable comeback off New York City’s coastline. In July, Staten Island-based nonprofit Gotham Whale documented the 500th individual humpback whale in the waters surrounding New York City, marking a significant milestone in whale sightings for the region.

Each whale sighting is registered in the New York City Humpback Whale Catalog (NYCHWC), and Gotham Whale has recorded 80 to 100 individual whales each year since 2018. Prior to 2018, the organization cataloged just 10 to 30 humpback whales each year.

The organization, which focuses on marine mammal research, education and advocacy in New York, collects data through partnerships with local whale-watching companies, such as the American Princess, as well as through sighting submissions from the general public. Its communications and outreach director, Chris St. Lawrence, told Brooklyn Paper that the organization maintains the largest marine mammal sightings database for the New York City region. Researchers identify individual whales by their fluke prints.

“We’re able to tell the whales apart using the patterns on the underside of their tail, known as the fluke prints, just like humans have their own fingerprint; every whale’s got their own fluke print,” St. Lawrence explained. “We don’t always see the tail; we might only see the dorsal fin — that’s the fin on the back of the body — but those are also unique as well. They have unique shapes, scratches, markings and colorations. And so, if we don’t always get that tail, we’re able to use the dorsal fin. But the tail is a little more reliable.”

The Port of New York-New Jersey is also the busiest port in the nation, and commercial vessels and increased recreational boating pose a significant threat to whales and are a leading cause of injury and death for many whale species. Many whales in the NYCHWC have propeller injuries from vessel interactions or have been victims of ship strikes. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), about 40% of humpback whales have died from either vessel strikes or fishing entanglements. New York ranks among the top states for whale mortality caused by vessel strikes. Between December 2023 and February 2024, 12 whales washed up dead in waters off New York or New Jersey.

“A lot of whales in our catalog actually have evidence of interactions with vessels. A number of them are likely from smaller vessels,” St. Lawrence said. “We don’t have an exact number, but it’s probably around 20% of our catalog that actually shows evidence of things like propeller scars. So those would be the chop marks from propellers when they actually run over a whale.”

In order to reduce marine mammal interactions and prevent vessel strikes, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the New York Whale Awareness Act (A.8515A/S.2292B) into law on Aug. 1. The law integrates whale-safe boating education into existing state boater safety courses and vessel registration processes, equipping boaters with standard best practices and collision-prevention techniques.

The initiative aims to encourage safer navigation habits and prevent accidental injuries and deaths among local marine life, including humpback whales and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

“New York’s ocean waters are cleaner and more vibrant than they have been in decades, drawing extraordinary marine life back to our shores,” Hochul said. “However, a higher concentration of whales navigating one of the busiest regions in the country creates serious risks for both boaters and marine mammal populations. The New York Whale Awareness Act ensures that everyone enjoying our state’s waterways has the tools and knowledge needed to navigate safely, avoid dangerous collisions and protect these special creatures.”

The legislation integrates whale-safe boating education directly into vessel registration processes and existing state boater safety courses, such as “Eyes On The Water: Boating with Whales,” a free course developed by the Nature Conservancy and its partners to protect boaters and marine life. The course equips boaters with standard best practices and collision-prevention techniques and aims to encourage safer navigation habits and prevent accidental injuries and deaths among local marine life, including humpback whales and the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Carl LoBue, the ocean and fisheries director for the Nature Conservancy in New York, credits legislation such as the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act with helping bring marine mammals back to New York’s shores. Additionally, because of fishing restrictions, schools of Atlantic menhaden, marine wildlife’s favorite food, are surging in local coastal waters, attracting whales, dolphins and even bluefin tuna.

LoBue noted that vessel strikes are one of the leading causes of whale mortalities, with entanglement in commercial fishing gear being the second. While the New York Boating Safety Certificate, implemented in 2025, covers foundational maritime skills, state laws and emergency protocols, it doesn’t address how to identify when whales might be in the area or how to boat safely around them, he explained.

“What the Well Awareness Act does, it does a couple of things. One, it requires that that curriculum be included in the much larger boating safety class. It also charges the Department of Motor Vehicles to send out information when people get their boats registered, and they live in the Marine District of New York,” LoBoe explained. “They’ll get some information about safe boating with whales, and it requires DEC to put some information up on their website.”

For St. Lawrence, the New York Whale Awareness Act is an important step toward protecting whales and boaters in New York waters. He noted that, particularly during fall migration, whales sometimes swim right up to the beach, feeding on fish that also attract striped bass, which fishermen are in turn looking for.

“It can create quite literally a traffic jam, just a bunch of boats all in one place with whales swimming up in between them, and those are the kinds of places where situations can get a little bit more dangerous for boaters and whales,” St. Lawrence explained.

With more whales returning to New York’s waters, he said educating boaters about how to safely share the water with them will become increasingly important.

“A lot of fishermen and boaters might not know that they should keep a minimum distance from a whale. They might think that they might be able to swim out of the way, but we want to make sure that everybody has all of the necessary information to keep themselves safe and to keep these whales safe, because you know we have been documenting an increase of these animals in our waters, and if that continues, this is going to become an even bigger issue that we need to tackle.”

Police officers shot and killed an allegedly knife-wielding, suicidal man following an hour-long standoff on the Brooklyn Bridge early Friday morning, police sources said.

The Risk of Russian Sabotage in Europe: A Fight That Spirals Out of Control  The New York Times

Дневной снимок страницы «Новости Нью-Йорка от Нью-Йорк Таймс» за 04.09.2026. Вы можете посмотреть, как она выглядела в этот день: открыть копию за этот день.

Дневной снимок страницы «Новости Нью-Йорка amNewYork RU» за 04.09.2026. Вы можете посмотреть, как она выглядела в этот день: открыть копию за этот день.

Дневной снимок страницы «Новости CBS New York на русском» за 04.09.2026. Вы можете посмотреть, как она выглядела в этот день: открыть копию за этот день.