I'm Storytelling in Hoboken Today @ Noon

Debby Schwartz

Today @ Noon, I'm telling a story at Debby Schwartz's show @ D's Soul Full House in Hoboken. 


Please come down if you are nearby in Jersey or hop over the river by PATH for a great musical and storytelling event. Hoboken's own Adam Wade leads off a terrific line-up.


Map to D's Soul Full House

Hoboken at Twilight

Manhattan from Hoboken waterfront

Kodachrome December in NYC

December opened in Kodachrome.  Warm sun, billowing clouds, a yawning moon in a blue sky.

Walking through Central Park, Columbus Circle  and following the sunset downtown thought of Stevie Wonder's Golden Lady when I measured my love for the city.  In the West Village, I watched Night Fall On Hoboken.




The next "City Stories: Stoops to Nuts" show is Tuesday, December 13th @ 6pm @ Cornelia Street Cafe.

Please come down to the Cafe for a special holiday show with gifted tellers and marvelous songsmiths: Barbara Aliprantis, Kelly Wallace Barnhill, Carl Kissin, Mary Lee Kortes, Thomas Pryor, Elizabeth Rowe & Amanda Thorpe.  Admission is $7 & that includes one free drink.

Here's a link to many pictures from the last two days and a few oldies that for some reason just fit in.

Hoboken Harbor Patrol

Not feeling too swift, Sunday morning, I tried to revive myself with a bike ride before a heavy lifting chore.

Heading west, the Puerto Rican Parade detoured me south along Park Avenue, nice and empty, worked my way over to Fifth in the low 40s and biked to 23rd St and turned towards the Hudson. Sat on my butt under an umbrella and wrote for a while at the Battery.

On the way back on the wrong side of international waters, the Hoboken Harbor Patrol skirted their boat against the New York side seawall. My concern: if the New York patrol showed up this could be a Korean incident, this could be fireworks. I was relieved when the Hoboken boat moved to the middle of the river. Those Jersey guys are rough, no need to aggravate them.

Back in Yorkville, I walked into the Zion ~ St. Mark's church for the first time (built in 1888). Watching the service, I thought about the neighborhood 122 years ago with dairy farms still skirting the upper 80s ~ that knocks me out. Here are pictures I took and a few from the church's web site with their history.

Church History from web site: http://www.zionstmarks.org/

Zion and St. Mark's originally were two separate German speaking Lutheran congregations in New York City. St. Mark's was located on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, where German immigrants had founded it in 1846 to have a home for their faith. Zion Church, organized in 1892, purchased the former German Evangelical Church of Yorkville, designed by J.F. Mahoney and built in 1888.

Both congregations grew at a rapid pace with the influx of mass immigration to the United States from Germany in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Both congregations were at the heart of German speaking neighborhoods.

In 1904, disaster struck St. Mark's from which it never really would recover. The Ladies' Aid Society (Frauenhilfsverein) had chartered a boat, the General Slocum, for its annual outing. Almost all the women and children of the parishioners went aboard that steamship to sail up the East River for a wonderful summer day outing. At Hell's Gate—not far from where Zion church is located—the boat caught fire and over 1000 parishioners perished. In 1946, St. Mark's merged with Zion after most of the remaining congregation had left the Lower East Side and moved to Yorkville.

While Yorkville continued to thrive in the first half of the last century, its German character was lost in the second half. Nowadays it is a gentrified neighborhood where people from many nations live.

Zion-St. Mark's membership declined with the end of mass immigration from Germany. However, the church still has services in German and celebrates many German cultural events throughout the year.

Zion St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church was listed on the State Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1994, and on the National Register of Historic Places on March 23, 1995.

Isis Digs Autumn in New York

My friend, Isis, the patron of magic and nature applauds autumn in New York. She loves the giant Checker taxi cabs on 5th & 14th, and tried to eat the colorful leaves on the drive in Central Park.

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Isis is a big fan of Daniel Webster and the bird's nest over Dan's right shoulder. Countless times, Isis performed the rites of all seasons at the Naumberg band shell on the Central Park Mall. Prior to 1923, Isis performed at the original caste iron band shell in the 1800s.

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Isis attended the Gary Puckett and the Union Gap concert at the bandshell in 1968, and sung along to "Woman, Woman," "Young Girl, "and "Lady Willpower."

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Lady Willpower, it's now or never. Give your love to me

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She's brunched with the Bethesda Fountain angel and her four cherubs, Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace.

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Isis digs live music, favors the Losers Lounge, and is looking forward to being at Maxwell's in Hoboken on Sunday, February 28th for a terrific celebration of Neighborhood Evolution exploring the connections between Hoboken & New York City being planned by Claudia Chopek, Debby Schwartz and me. They'll be fabulous artists, musicians & storytellers. A good time for all.

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Isis further approves New York Yankees World Championship.

Neighborhood Evolution ~ a Feb 2010 show ~ songs, art & tales from Hoboken & New York artists burrowing through their warrens

Claudia Chopek, Debby Schwartz and myself are planning a show to investigate the Hoboken ~ New York neighborhood connection. They'll be fabulous artists, musicians & storytellers to make you laugh, cry, think, feel.

The show will be in Hoboken in February 2010. As soon as we lock a date, venue and line-up, I'll let you know. I promise a great time. be well, Tommy
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the first three photos below, were taken at the Hoboken waterfront, the others are from midtown Manhattan.