This past weekend I drove the family to the Bronx Zoo to do a 5K. I say ‘do’ a 5K because the plan was for me to run the 5K and then join my wife and our baby girls to walk the 5K together, but fate (meaning oversleeping, traffic and general lateness) conspired against us…. Read more »
Finally, the calendar insists it is springtime in New York. Street blossoms just got in on the red eye. Walking through Central Park and the Upper Eastside I spied these scenes. Thomas Pryor’s blog: Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts
Got into a sparkling new cab this morning. The seats, dashboard and windows shined. Riding my finger along the metal detail on the passenger door, I thought, the only time my brother Rory and I were ever this clean was for one lone hour at a photography studio on Third Avenue in spring 1960. I repel wool…. Read more »
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 »
Let’s get some definitions out of the way first: Gentrification is integration that you don’t like. Integration is gentrification that benefits you. Filmmaker Spike Lee made news when he complained about the gentrification of Brooklyn recently, decrying the efforts of white interlopers to “bogart” black cultural enclaves like his native Fort Greene. But Lee suffers… Read more »
This month marks my 60th year as a New Yorker, and I still find new and interesting things everywhere I go in all five boroughs. To celebrate the city, to thank my friends, this month my storytelling show is free on me. I’m giving away stuff, too. “City Stories: Stoops to Nuts,” Tuesday, March 11… Read more »
For most of my time in New York, I did without a car. After being poor and having cars break down on me at record pace, I was glad to be done with the world of automobiles. I was happy to leave the driving to New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, though the MTA is poorly… Read more »
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he won’t be attending the St. Patrick’s Day Parade because the parade does not let gay organizations march under their own banners. The statement made the news, though it was not likely de Blasio’s intention to do so. He mentioned it in response to a question… Read more »
