Showing posts with label Hambone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hambone. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Everyday I Write The Book ~ Yorkville Radio Tonight @ 9pm

Tonight on "Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts" radio @ 9pm @ Centanni Broadcasting Network my guests are: Timothy J. O'Mara & Barry Stabile.

Listen here live or on archive at your convenience:



Tim is a terrific author who's just signed up with two agents to sell his book, "Sacrifice Fly," and Tim is the co-founder of the We Three Productions Reading series (16 years old and going strong at Bar 82). Tim has something on his mind and plans on bringing it to Giovanna's Restaurant tonight.





Barry Stabile is an accomplished musician and yarn spinner. He's currently part of "All Mobbed Up." The group was the house band at Cha~Cha's on the Coney Island boardwalk this past summer on Friday nights. Unfortunately, Cha~Cha's lost their lease and like hundreds of things long gone at the beach, it's gone forever. Barry grew up in Bay Ridge and he and I will have lots to say on that subject, starting with the guy who put a bullet in his friend's caboose with a hammer as the trigger, it's a long story, listen tonight and Barry will tell you all about it.

I'm in a Clay Cole and Sandy Becker mood. Thinking of Clay's Christmas shows and Sandy Becker going bananas, "Hambone, Hambone, have you heard? Momma's going to buy you a mocking bird, and if that mocking bird don't sing..."






Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Neighborhood Lore

My friend, Jon Calvert & I put on an Old Neighborhood Story, Song & Picture Show: Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts, two weeks ago with our talented friends, Myles Goldin, Saara Dutton & Amanda Thorpe.




The genesis for Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts was the thousand of hours I spent watching Sandy Becker, Chuck McCann, and Zacherly. From two years old through my early teens, these three nut jobs made me laugh, made me happy. Probably most responsible for forming my creative personality.


They invited you into their neighborhood, their house, their living room and told you stories, told you jokes, sang songs, taught things, gave kids prizes, played cartoons, tied songs to sketches with people and puppets. Behind, the silliness, they stressed the value of old places, people, games, songs, dances, language. They reinforced what my family taught me, and they showed me around the old neighborhood. My best days as a kid were when my family played together and forgot they were adults. You saw it in their eyes.

It's natural to invite you to my block, to tell you a story, sing you a song, show you pictures and give you a gift for valuing and storing your memories.

Hambone was a loony disk jockey. He wore a pith helmet with a decorative plume, a drum major's uniform, and a pair of binocular glasses. The Big Professor, introduced to Pomp and Circumstance, answered questions and gave away Golden Book Encyclopedias for the best questions. K. Lastima was a dishevelled, Spanish-speaking kid's-show host in a Panama hat. He played trivia with the kids.

Zacherly was the host of Chiller Theatre and one of the first FM disc jockeys in New York on WNEW. Chuck McCann was out of his mind and matched Sandy Becker with his own characters, tales, songs, puppets, film & history trivia, movie clips, cartoons and pictures.

Neighborhood lore was embedded in these shows, and from there it flew straight into my heart.