York Avenue, Sunday Morning (1939)

Armin Landeck, American, 1905-1984: “York Avenue, Sunday Morning,” 1939; drypoint. Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Hunter and Cathy Allen Collection, 2013.21.26

I found this work this morning, thought the subject was perfect as a borrow for this page.

Tricia Alexandro @ Stoops To Nuts @ Ryan's Daughter

Mark your calendar. Valentine's Day, February 14th, a special Stoops to Nuts show at Ryans Daughter, 350 E. 85th Street @ 3-6 pm. I''ll perform sections from my upcoming play, "City Boy." Our musical artists: Nina & Son (David Terhune & Nina Terhune) and Eric Vetter & his Mirth Makers.

"My Aim Is True"

Thomas Pryor presents: Stoops to Nuts Valentine Day Show

Ryans Daughter, 350 E. 85th Street

February 14th @ 3pm to 6pm

Free show

directly across the street from the sketch above ~ ball field 59 St.

Q60 Blues ~ 1967

“Love is a hurting thing” played on the transistor radio pressed to my ear as I waited for the Q60 bus. Leaning on the wall outside Eduardo’s Italian restaurant, I wasn’t in love with any particular person but totally related to Lou Rawls words in the tune. It was September 1967, the previous month my family moved from Yorkville to Sunnyside for a bunch of ridiculous reasons that had nothing to do with my life. I was 13, and spending as much time as I could back on York Avenue but I had an 11:30 pm curfew on weekend nights. My father was an amazing pain in the ass – his stone look made me beg silently, “please hit me, and get it over with.” Earlier this week, I walked from an appointment on 38th Street back to Yorkville past the New York Daily News Building, Tudor City, the Chrysler Building, and a row of old law tenements on 51th Street and Third Avenue that my grandfather saw from his third floor window across the street in the apartment he was born @ 1900.

When I reached the 59th Street Bridge I walked up the Roosevelt Island Tram platform and took pictures of the old Trolley Kiosk that sits in front of the bridge’s entrance on Second Avenue. I rode that trolley from Manhattan to Queens then back again to Manhattan with my father on its last day of service in April 1957. That’s when I became addicted to the aroma of baking bread floating over the water from the Silvercup factory in LIC. Every time I pass the bridge, the kiosk, the bus stop, a swell of mixed feelings come up and I never know which way they are going to lead. After the bridge, I took some photos of tenements on their last legs in the mid 60s on First Avenue and a couple of photos of St. Catherine’s Park and Julia Richman.

Here's a link to photos related to locations mentioned above.
"Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts" storytelling show is coming back to Ryan's Daughter @ 350 E. 85th Street. next Wednesday night, April 3rd @ 7pm. Our last show was standing room only, we plan to top it. Our amazing April 3rd artists: Tricia Alexandro, Michele Carlo, Luke Thayer, Adam Wade, Eric Vetter, Alex DeSuze and Seth Foster. I'll host and tell an old Yorkville yarn. Free Event!

Please drop by Cornelia Street Cafe in the West Village to see my photo exhibit "New York Scenes from a Bicycle," on view through March 31st. Framed work and my book, "River to River: New York Scenes from a Bicycle," are for sale at the Cafe, my prints are for sale at Thomas R. Pryor Photography - my book is available online through Amazon.

Hot Fun in the Summertime ~ NYC

It's summer in the city. The last two weeks I've snapped a 1000 pictures without breaking a sweat.  Rockaway Beach, Gramercy Park, West Village, East Village, Central Park, Carl Schurz Park. To name a few neighborhoods.  I'll put up some photos here and lead you to more at a public photo page at Facebook that you can view with or without you having a Facebook account.

Here is the link to more pix.

Hot fun in the summertime in New York City.

Yorkville Sunset Along The River

Walking along the East River in Yorkville at sunset I thought of Nick Drake's River Man, and how the whole stretch from 59th to 78th Street was brimming with fishing, nautical, recreational and commercial activity 100 years ago. The land speculation triggered by the northward growth of the East Side subway opened a period of construction that filled nearly every wooded and vacant lot in Yorkville along with the destruction of most single family homes. Tenements flew up all over, Jones Wood gone.

I still feel the pirates scheming at the rocky cove at 72nd Street where it was rumored they stored their plundered bounty. Right on top of the rocks at 72nd Street George Plimpton ran the Paris Review in his apartment for many years, and Sinatra had a penthouse across the street.

Here are a few pictures and a link to 75 photographs of the sunset along the East River, and a story about Yorkville Bread Wars.


Our next City Stories: Stoops to Nuts storytelling show is Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at the Cornelia Street Café.

Our sensational line-up: Slash Coleman, Kurt Gertsmann, Dave Lester, Susan Neuffer, Sherryl Marshall and Thomas Pryor.

Admission is $7 and includes a free drink. I guarantee a good time.