Cats Caught Necking, Again!

Despite multiple warnings and signs everywhere in the park, Paisley and Taylor, the heartbreaker and the make-out king, lovey dovey-ed in a no necking zone over the holiday weekend.

Their brazen indifference infuriated officials.

Stiffer penalties are under discussion:

No Boars' Head Turkey snacks for a week!

Weekly visits from "Gramps," the dog who was born old and hates cats.


My book of photography, "River to River: New York Scenes from a Bicycle." is on sale for @$12.95 @ Amazon  and YBK Publishers.

My published short stories can be found in "Have a NYC 2," and "Lost and Found: Stories from New York."

In June, I will be adding new galleries to my "for sale" print site, "Thomas R. Pryor Photography." 

Prices will be reduced on all prints so they are affordable to everyone: 

$40 for 8x10s 

$75 for 11x14s. 

New galleries will include: Yorkville, Carl Schurz Park, Coney Island, Rockaway, Central Park, Hudson River, East Village, West Village and more. Look for these changes starting June 15th.

Secret Garden on 22nd Street - There & Gone

A sunset, a smile, a tear, things we see that strike a chord. They may leave quickly but depending on our state of mind can stay in our memories forever with incomprehensible weight in our hearts. In the city there are spots that pop up, stay awhile and go away, and you're not sure why you feel so strong about them, but you do.

Two years ago, on the southwest corner of 22nd Street and Third Avenue was a dormant construction site with a blue fence and Plexiglas windows for peeking inside. I looked in and saw a secret garden. If you didn't stop, you had no idea wild flowers were putting on a show on top of the brick bats and debris left behind. It gave me comfort to take a break from my walks through the Gramercy area to stop and rest my mind on the beauty hiding from plain sight.

Recently, the garden disappeared when construction commenced. When the new building is done, I will hardly notice it and think about when nature took its course in that space giving curious pedestrians a visual reward.

The top photo appears in my book of photography, "River to River: New York Scenes from a Bicycle." On sale for @$12.95 @ Amazon & YBK Publishers.

My published short stories can be found in "Have a NYC 2," and "Lost and Found: Stories from New York."

Gramercy Park 2011

Remembering Why I Look Up and Down

Tonight @ 7pm @ KGB - 85 E. 4th St, I'm telling a Yorkville story at Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! It's free, so put your buck two eighty up on the bar. KGB - 85 East 4th Street – tonight @ 7pm.

Here are photos at or near the Empire State Building that caught my eye on a Sunday morning. Taking the surroundings in, I thought about my time at Hunter College in the 1970s...

Nothing is more disappointing then revisiting a memory and finding out it's less then you remember. Nothing tops revisiting a memory that enhances that memory, builds on it and informs you that everything you've told friends and family about a person and what they've meant in your life is more than true. I forgot half of the treasure I took away from my time as a student with Professor Robert J. White at Hunter College in the 1970s. He taught me the classics and literature. Professor White is the coolest, smartest, funniest and warmest teacher I ever had going all the way back to Mrs. Brown in P.S. 77's kindergarten in 1960. 

Robert White is retiring this year and next to my Dad no person has had more influence on my artistic curiosity. Thank you, Professor White.

Here is a link to more photos and another link to a piece I wrote on Professor White in 2010 after I met him for first time in over 30 years.

"East River at 83rd Street Looking South"

I was about 4, and ran away from my father's hand on the drive near 83rd Street, jumped up on the railing and nearly vaulted over when I pushed myself out as far as possible to see the 59th Street bridge. Dad yanked me down and slapped my bottom. I looked up hurt and said, "Why you do that, you always push me out?" With fear in his eyes, he said, "Yeah, but when I do, I'm holding you." I said nothing and rubbed my butt. 

Thursday night, I'm telling a Yorkville story at Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! 

Leslie Goshko has a formula for a fine time please come down it's a free show, so keep your buck two ninety in your pocket or better, put it up on the bar.

Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! 

KGB

85 East 4th Street

This Thursday, May 23rd @ 7pm

Free Show!

Waiter! More river photos!

Scenes from York Avenue - Happy Birthday, Dad!

Old Timers Tavern 1962

Today, Dad would have been been 84. If he was still here I'd be whining about what a gigantic pain in the ass he is. This being true, it's strange how much the man is on my mind 11 years after he died. Each day, I miss his curiosity, talent, and love.

I'm thinking of what he'd like to do on his birthday and I'm sure he'd say let's visit York Avenue and say hi to Walter. (Walt, his best friend, is still here at 88, 89 in August). They enjoyed standing in front of their old Yorkville hang-out spots and talking about the bar, diner or restaurant that used to be there. And the conversation about place would lead to stories about the characters inhabiting those holy shrines. One thing that would drive Dad crazy today is the parking meters are gone.

Where would he lean his elbow on while watching the world walk by?

Saloon 1584 York Ave May 2013

Here are two sets of "Now and Thens" of 1584 York Avenue from 1962 when it was the Old Timers Tavern and today the same space known as The Saloon.

Below the Old Timers photos are April 1944 photographs of the same spot on York Avenue looking north towards 84th Street on the day my Uncle Tom returned from WWII.

Others in photos: my grandmother, Anne Pryor (later Rode), with her sister, Mary, and two shots of my father on the same day, he is about to turn 15. A 1960 shot of me, Rory and my cousin, Bobby on Christmas Day 1960.

Old Timers 1962

Last photo below gets back to my father being a pain in the ass. As you see from my crying reaction on my mother's lap and my grandfather's perp walk reaction to the flash bulb going off, Dad's indoor picture making caught us by surprise and it didn't matter, those flash bulbs were horrible whether you were ready or not.

When I grew up, Mom told me a story about this photo. Nan walked through the doorway into the kitchen just as Dad was taking this picture. Temporarily blinded, Nan stumbled across the linoleum into the glass front of the China Closet giving her heirlooms a good smash. Several things fell, nothing was broken, but my father still got a smack from his mother. Mom always told me this story with a big smile.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

This coming Thursday, May 23rd @ 7pm @ KGB's on East 4th Street I'm telling at Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! Please come down it's a Yorkville yarn.

1584 York Ave The Saloon

Thomas E. Pryor, April 1944 York Ave

Mary & Anne on York Ave in April 1944

Robert Pryor on York Ave in April 1944

Bob, Tom & Rory Pryor on York Ave Xmas Day 1960

Patricia & Tom Pryor & John Rode on Easter 1955

"Sideshow Goshko" Thurs, May 23rd @ KGB ~ "Trampled Under Foot"

This coming Thursday, May 23rd @ 7pm @ KGB's on East 4th Street I'm telling at Leslie Goshko Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! My story is about abuse and love and how difficult it is to understand the difference. 

How is it we still love people after they trample us?