Abbi Visits the Stoop Tonight @ 9pm @ Centanni!

Tonight on Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts radio, my special guest is Abbi Crutchfield. Abbi performs stand-up and sketch comedy all over New York City and is a staple of the underground scene. She produces The Living Room Show at Postmark Cafe in Brooklyn, Positively Awesome at Cellar 58 in the Lower East Side and Ladybits, a new all-female comedy show at Cornelia St Cafe in the Village. She has been featured on VH1 and MTV as well as several national commercials.
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You can catch her many parodies on
Youtube.com/curlycomedy and her hilarious one liners daily on Twitter.com/curlycomedy
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This will be a silly show, we're playing four heavy jukebox selections from the 1950s'. Songs that stood tall and stayed in the tavern's rotation right through the sixties. Songs that ate many of my dimes.

I feel like an Isley tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaO5tTmB35A&feature=related

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Thinking of my friends today. The picture on the left was taken on July 4, 1978 in upstate New York. It was a Yorkville Road Trip, one of the best ever. We played whiffle ball on the farm's front lawn where there was a huge salt lick for the deer that we used for a foul pole. We played full contact soccer until we bled. John Cupo starred as Giorgio Chinagila throwing his body around like he was a stage dummy, John approached street tackle on the York Avenue with the same reckless insanity. Genesee Cream flowed free. In the picture from left to right, John Cupo, Yvette Baez, Denny McMahon across three laps, Joe Menesick, Buddy McMahon & me on the floor. Picture below, Buddy & me, two weeks ago. Visited my parents and brother, Rory's grave at Calverton then spent a very nice time with the McMahons.

Wrestling the Menesicks

I have many negative photographs that I am just beginning to explore. The quality is limited, but once I learn photo editing this will improve. Three negatives here, and two photos. From the top,

1964 ~Paddy MacNamara, Rory Pryor, Tommy Mac, & Mike Cacciolli on n/e corner of 83rd Street & York Avenue.

1962 ~backyard of 1616 York Avenue, Lennie & Helen Ryan with Patty Pryor. Yes, I had a backyard on York Avenue.

1967 ~ Sanita Hills Scout Camp ~ Joe & Dennis Menesick, Eddie Hauser & Artie Betz.

1961 ~Dennis & Joe Menesick, baseball in Central Park.

1961 ~ Rory pinning me to living room floor 517 E. 83rd St.

Happy Friday, Tommy

Yorkville Football 1969 ~ OLGC Rams

In 1969, Our Lady of Good Counsel sponsored a football team in a 145 pound limit league with other Manhattan & Bronx parishes. Joe Menesick & I went up to the 90s to play on the OLGC Rams. Both 15, our problem was staying under the weight limit. Our coach was Mr. San Souci and our home field was the dust bowl inside Central Park at 97th Street and Fifth Avenue. It looks exactly the same today.

Every Friday and Saturday night, we hung out on the 403 East 83rd Street stoop. Joe and I would run around the block 40 to 50 times, whatever it took to stay under 145
pounds for Sunday's game.

Someone brought a scale out and we had official weigh-ins on the sidewalk. "Now taking the scale, Joe Menesick, 84th Streeter, graduate of St. Joseph's, First Class Scout, Troop 654." We never stopped running until we topped off at 144.

Mom hated me playing football, she always worried about me getting hurt. She only came to see me play two or three times. This is one of those times. It was a cold windy day in the Bronx at Harris Field. Mom's standing on cardboard trying to keep her feet warm.

I played guard and defensive tackle ~ during that game I took my first Physics lesson. My opponent across the line was five to ten pounds lighter than me. At the beginning of the game, I thought I'd manhandle him. Wrong. He was quicker and he knew how to get low before I could. Every play, he got leverage and froze me on defense and blew by me on offense when I should have blocked him. This frustrated me. The next few weeks, I practiced working on technique especially leg position work and improved.

Mom was not a sports fan, and that split our house in two, Dad & me, Her & Rory. The picture below of her catching a ball in Central Park is the only photo I have of Mom even near a ball. Her best move was ducking. Sometimes for fun, I'd throw a ball to her to watch her spastic reaction. This was dumb on my part. Mom always got even.

The picture of Mom in a house dress with kerchief and curlers is one of my favorites. She normally would have a "I'm Gonna Kill You, Bob," look on her face when Dad took a picture of her that she thought might embarrass her. Here, she's in pensive thought and I'm sure that thought included my father doing penance for taking the picture. In the bookcase are Reader's Digest abridged book series and a white cup with a baseball signed by the entire 1960 New York Yankees team. On top of the bookcase, Poindexter the parakeet's birdcage. He's probably flying around the living room.




















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