Tonight, I’m going to my grammar school, St. Stephen of Hungary’s first ever all students/faculty reunion. I graduated in 1968 and soaring memories involving all my senses have welled up. Next Friday, I’m headed to Joe’s Pub to see the Loser’s Lounge Carly Simon/Linda Ronstadt tribute. The Losers Lounge is my favorite recurring NYC music… Read more »
March 19th is the Feast of St. Joseph ~ an East Side wide holiday in 1962 in Manhattan. The St. Joseph parish on 87th Street began as an orphanage on York Avenue (then known as Avenue A) and 89th Street in the 1800s. The cornerstone of the present church was blessed in 1894. My mother and… Read more »
I bet I can name every barber I’ve had back to five years old. I only remember nicknames for the first two on York Avenue because I didn’t know their real names. “Herman the German” and “Mickey Mouse” with his wife with Tourette’s syndrome. In a house dress with her wild gray hair, she sat next to you… Read more »
No Name TURNS 20 last night at The United Palace Theatre on Broadway in Washington Heights was a blast. Eric Vetter, founder of No Name, led a star filled cast of performers paying tribute to a class act, No Name & A Bag O’Chips Variety Show ~ happy 20, may the next 20 be better than the first, a tough… Read more »
Fifty years ago today, in a small New York City theater, in front of an audience of 728 people, Ed Sullivan launched The Beatles, ignited a cultural revolution and unleashed the desire to create music in countless artists. The audience of 73 million television viewers included children like Steven Tyler, Richie Sambora, Tom Petty, Nancy… Read more »
My brother, Rory, and I, agreed on two things in early 1964: we loved bacon and we were crazy cuckoo nuts over the Beatles. Every Friday night that year, Mom gave us each a dollar to “get the hell out of the house and don’t come back until the store closes.” Together, Rory, 7, and… Read more »
You can tear a building down, but you can’t erase a memory. Living Colour Been meaning to put these photographs (see below) up for several friends and their families who lived for two generations or more in these buildings at and near the southwest corner on York Avenue and 83rd Street. It made me blue… Read more »
If February plans to be the coldest month in NYC this year, fatten me up and put me in a bear cave until it hits and stays 50 degrees. I needed cash downtown this morning. Wickedly windy, I ran to the HSBC near Duane Park north of Chambers. After the bank, I jogged down Warren… Read more »
Like my father and his mother, I love my stuff. I’m no Collyer brother, my place is neat, in it’s own way. I still own my first two records, both by Dave Seville and the Chipmunks: “Witch Doctor,” in 1958, and 1959, “Alvin’s Harmonica.” The football is from 1969 and the main reason it’s still here: I… Read more »
Walking east near the 59th Street Bridge, I saw a startling shadow up ahead. A bishop’s crook, twenty feet tall, on the smooth surface of a brick wall painted white. The light pole’s reflection flickered. I fumbled for my camera but before I could pull it out the shadow slipped away along with the sunlight… Read more »
