City Boy Tonight at Cornelia Street Cafe

Tonight, at the New York STORY Exchange - Last Show of 2015! I'll preview the intro to my new show, "City Boy." A one hour time capsule of my neighborhood in the 1960s'. The Third Avenue El came down in 1955 and significant demolition and gentrification followed. The Second Avenue subway is a year away and most of the remaining tenement walk-up buildings in Yorkville on the Upper East Side will be gone by the next generation. "City Boy" is a snapshot of street life, the good and not so good, and it's never coming back.

Your host, Nicole Ferraro with her artists: Rachel Goyette, Sandi Marx, Thomas Pryor & Adam Wade. Cornelia Street Cafe, 6pm, $9 gets you the show and a free drink.

Do you need a gift for an ageless kid? Then check out my 1960s memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." at Logos Book Store, or purchase the book online at Amazon (113 five-star reviews out of 113 posted) or Barnes & Noble. 

You can also buy "River to River ~ New York Scenes From a Bicycle" my photography portfolio online.

Repair Your Soul Tonight @ Stoops to Nuts ~ 11.21.15

Does your soul ache for repair? Look no further than Ryans Daughter tonight.Stoops to Nuts "The Beatles White Album" Show presents our best line-up ever. We're starting at 7pm and going to cows come home, Taking no prisoners, we're laying it all out. FREE SHOW!

Our artists: Walter Michael DeForest, Colin Dempsey, Joe Dettmore, Nicole Ferraro, Daniela Schiller, Supersmall, Amanda Thorpe & Adam Wade.

http://ryansdaughter.nyc/events-calendar/

Here is a link to more photos of tonight's Stoops to Nuts artists.

Happy birthday, Alison! love, Dadoots

Do you like old New York City photos and street life stories? Then check out my 1960s memoir,"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."Available at Logos Book Store and online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The book has 113 Amazon five star reviews out of 113 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

Stoops to Nuts presents "The Beatles White Album" show @ Ryan's Daughter, @ Saturday, November 21st @ 7-11pm.

Adam Wade

Stoops to Nuts proudly presents "The Beatles White Album" show at Ryan's Daughter, 350 East 85th Street, next Saturday, November 21st @ 7-11pm.

Our Stoops to Nuts artists:
Walter Michael DeForest (NYC Fringe Festival & The Moth)
Colin Dempsey (Supersmall & The Liar Show)
Joe Dettmore (Daily Show, Creative Director)
Nicole Ferraro (NYTimes & Cornelia Street Cafe)
Daniela Schiller (Supersmall & The Moth)
Supersmall ("Silent Moon")
Amanda Thorpe (Bewitching Me: The Lyrics of Yip Harburg)
Adam Wade (comedy best seller The Human Comedy & two time GrandSlam Moth winner)

"Silent Moon" Supersmall

"The Beatles White Album" show
Stoops to Nuts @ Ryans Daughter
350 E. 85th St.
Saturday, Nov 21st @ 7-11pm
Free show

Thomas Pryor, Yorkville author and historian, (I Hate the Dallas Cowboys ~ tales of a scrappy New York boyhood) presents: "The Beatles White Album" a Stoops to Nuts production. The double Lp with 30 songs came out Thanksgiving week 1968 ($5.99 at Alexanders on Lex and 59th).  My fourteen year old life at home, school and in the street was a mess. That record took me through a dark period. We'll flexibly explore it's influence with stories, songs, drinks, and showcase three terrific new records, The Human Comedy, Silent Moon and Bewitching Me: The Lyrics of Yip Harburg.

Countless walk-up tenement buildings between 72nd Street and 96th Street are coming down as the Second Avenue subway speculation drives developers to assemble sites, destroying Yorkville's unique and historic character and take away precious street light.

Colin Dempsey & Daniela Schiller

One way to keep the memories alive is to talk about them, and I'm taking photos of every local building that is part of planned and current demolition in our area. Stoops to Nuts will continue to bring the history of the neighborhood to life in pictures, words and humor until I kick the bucket.

Thank you, to The New York Times for choosing "Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts," and listing it on your Blog Roll for eight years. We will continue to keep the old NYT City Section alive.

Thank you Ryan's Daughter, Jim, Mick, Walter, for letting us play in your attic. hugs, Tommy, and the three Ryan daughters from  86th & York, my mother, Patty Ryan and her two sisters, Joan Ryan and Barbara Ryan.

Amanda Thorpe

Joe Dettmore

Nicole Ferraro

Walter & teepee @ Ryan's

art by Joe Dettmore

"The Beatles White Album" Stoops to Nuts show

George

Ryan's Daughter 350 E. 85th St. 

Saturday, Nov 21st @ 7-11pm

Free show

Do you like old New York City photos and street life stories? Then check out my 1960s memoir,"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."Available at Logos Book Store and online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The book has 112 Amazon five star reviews out of 112 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

Days of Future Past ~ Central Park

They've cleaned Cleopatra's Needle and the King of Poland is looking fine as he did in 1957 when Dad plopped Rory and I in front of the statue for a photo. My first hard ball swings took place on the Great Lawn with the Needle keeping an eye on me. Dad even put Mom into pitch to me in the bottom of ninth. I lined one right over her head. After ducking the ball, she said, That's it!" Central Park never grows old, I do, but my memories of the park sooth my soul.

Please join us for "The Beatles White Album" Stoops to Nuts show on Saturday, November 21st @7-11pm at Ryans Daughter, 350 East 85th Street. White Album artists include: Colin Dempsey, Joe Dettmore, Nicole Ferraro, Daniela Schiller and Adam Wade.

FREE SHOW.

adamwade.com

supersmallmusic.com

Colin & Daniela are Supersmall. Their new album "Silent Moon," is excellent. I'm listening to it now, and love it.

Adam Wade is "The Human Comedy," and that's the name of his best selling brand new album. It's off the charts and selling like hot cakes.

More info soon.

more photos here

Do you like old New York City photos and street life stories? Then check out my 1960s memoir,"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."Available at Logos Book Store and online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The book has 112 Amazon five star reviews out of 112 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways 

and Checker cabs.

Praise for the book:

“Thomas R. Pryor has written a sweet, funny, loving memoir of growing up old-school in a colorful New York neighborhood. A story of sports, family, and boyhood, you’ll be able to all but taste, smell, and feel this vanished world.”
Kevin Baker, author of the novels “Dreamland,” Paradise Alley,” and “Strivers Row,” as well as other works of fiction and nonfiction


“Tommy Pryor’s New York City boyhood was nothing like mine, a few miles and a borough away, and yet in its heart, tenderness, and tough teachable moments around Dad and ball, it was the mid-century coming of age of all of us. A rousing read.”
Robert Lipsyte, former city and sports columnist, The New York Times

 
“Pryor could take a felt hat and make it funny.”
Barbara Turner-Vesselago, author of “Writing Without A Parachute: The Art of Freefall”


“Pryor burrows into the terrain of his childhood with a longing and obsessiveness so powerful it feels like you are reading a memoir about his first great love.”
Thomas Beller, author of “J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist”

The Jean Shepherd of Yorkville has a book - you should get! -Adam Wade, winner of 20 SLAMS at The Moth (18 StorySLAM victories and 2 GrandSLAM Championships) 
I've been a HUGE fan of Thomas Pryor's stories for a long time. It's so great to read so many of them in this fantastic book. Pryor pours his heart and soul into each and everyone of them. Some gut wrenching, others laugh out loud funny. And you don't have to be a NY Giants fan or a Cowboys hater to enjoy this book (though that will help). You just have to have a heart and love fun, authentic stories. Buy this book, I promise you'll enjoy it!

Dave Hill "The Goddamn Dave Hill Show" ~ WFMU radio
I wasn't alive for the New York Thomas Pryor writes about, but thanks to his brilliant, honest, and hilarious book, I feel like I was there."

Great writers are supposed to transport you to their world -Nicole Ferraro, writer, N.Y Times & Editor-in-Chief, Webby Awards
Thomas Pryor is one of those unique writers who can grab your heart and make you laugh and cry in a single sentence. The portrait he paints of growing up in New York City -- in Yorkville, specifically -- in the 60s is so vivid that you'll feel yourself there with him in every single scene, and every single memory. Great writers are supposed to transport you to their world, and Thomas Pryor does this exceptionally well. You'll walk away from this book feeling like you know intimately every butcher and bartender in town, every Sister at St. Stephens, and certainly every member of Thomas's family. Even more than that, though, this is a book about being a kid, growing up, loving people and losing them, losing people and loving them even more, and finding one's way. Basically, it's a book for anyone who's ever experienced the sheer pleasure and pain of being alive and growing up. Buy it today. It will leave you feeling enriched, touched, entertained, and eager to turn to page one all over again.

Wonderful Storytelling with a Time Machine Effect! - Leslie Gosko, entertainer, storyteller, comedian, "Funniest Woman in NYC"
Heart-warming, hilarious, and wonderfully quirky, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys" has something for everyone. Thomas Pryor does a fantastic job of transporting you to 1960's New York where you feel like one of the characters in his Yorkville neighborhood. Stylistically reminiscent of Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story," this book, too, becomes an instant classic!

David Terhune - The Losers Lounge, co-founder
After reading "I Hate The Dallas Cowboys", I felt as if I had grown up with author Thomas Pryor. His stories of a childhood in New York City, punctuated by family photographs, drew me into his world and took me on a personal tour of the streets and neighborhoods of his youth. Living there were a host of vivid and eccentric characters - his parents, brother Rory, grandmother Nan, Joe from the candy store, Sister Mercedes, stewardesses Marie and Justine, and his many friends and co-conspirators with whom he shared his adventures and dreams. Mr. Pryor’s humor is gentle and infectious, his memories animated and engrossing. These essays are both historically valuable as well as entertaining in a way that befits the unique voice of New York City.

Squints & Adam Wade Make Me Laugh

Squints losing it over Wendy

My favorite kid character in a film is "Squints" in "The Sandlot." Dana Taddeo wrote about the movie in this article, I paraphrase Dana's description of two scenes:

Michael "Squints" Palledorous. No other team member's imagination ran wilder than Squints's. He famously told the story of "mean old Mr. Mertle" and his man-eating junkyard dog that was sentenced to be locked up FOREVER. He painted a picture of a colossal animal that ate people, bones and all. The dog was a mush. Wouldn't hurt a fly.

junkyard dog sentenced

The only thing the kids tolerated doing besides playing baseball was swimming at their local pool and checking out the "pool honeys," - they had no shot. That is, until Squints snaps. Watching the ultimate pool honey, lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn, Squints moans, "I come here every summer of my adult life, every summer there she is lotioning and oiling, oiling and lotioning... Smiling, smiling...  I can't take it no more, MOVE! "

Wendy Peffercorn

Squints, pushes the guys aside, makes his way to the deep end with the guys yelling "Squints you can't swim!" He dives off the board and sinks in the water to get Wendy to administer mouth-to-mouth. After absorbing a few minutes of save your life kisses from Wendy while he lays there like a dead fish, Squints gives his friends a wink and plants a passionate kiss on Wendy's lips. The guys are thrown out of the pool and banned for the rest of the summer. When asked, Squints claims "I planned it years ago."

My favorite storyteller and real character is Adam Wade. He has a new record, "The Human Comedy" - Adam and his quirky situations are funny and bittersweet. I've listened to it several times, laughing my ass off each time. Do yourself a favor, get "The Human Comedy." Adam Wade has the magical ability to cheer you up just by bringing you into his world. You're a pal along for the ride and you see and hear it all.

Adam Wade

my review:

The easiest path to my heart is through my ear. Adam Wade's well told stories are irresistible. "The Human Comedy" is a perfect record. Each tale beautifully crafted to tie you up and enjoy the ride. Wade's alchemy is an easy formula on paper but as hard to do as turning lead into gold. He mixes innocence, passion, the first smack of reality and finally, dogged hope, in his presentation, voice and words. His telling is fearless with no vain inhibition. Authentic, bittersweet, hilarious short films of his life. A good story well told is like a gorgeous face. What are you going to do, tell yourself you don’t like it? Bravo, Adam Wade.

Got a Feelin'

Feeling good today. Last night, I was part of a kick-ass show at Van Alen Institute's "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" storytelling show @Littlefield in Brooklyn. I had too much fun sharing the stage with these generous and stellar artists: Michelle Levy, T.J. Mannix, Kathleen Spellman de'Rossi and Adam Wade.

So, I'll merge my feelings into a beautiful Mamas & Papas tune.  

I love sad songs that make me feel inverse and at the same time break my heart.

If you like my work check out my memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." Available at Logos Book Store or online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The book has 104 Amazon five star reviews out of 104 total reviews posted. We're pitching a perfect game. My old world echoes TV's "The Wonder Years" ~ just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs. You can also purchase my photography portfolio, "River to River - New York Scenes From a Bicycle" on Amazon.