Stoops to Nuts, Tomorrow @ Ryan's Daughter @ 7-11pm

Stoops to Nuts proudly presents "The Beatles White Album" show at Ryan's Daughter, 350 East 85th Street, tomorrow, 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 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.

Ray Berry Got His Wish

Dad brought home a bulletin board when I was kid to pin up my sports heroes that I cut out of magazines and newspapers. Mom made him do it after saying to me while wagging her finger real fast, "I'll kill you if you put up one more piece of friggin scotch tape on the wall we just painted." Even though Ray Berry was the enemy this is my favorite quote. Mom offered to kill me many more times, you can read about it in my memoir when you get it for Christmas. "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."

40 five star reviews for the book on Amazon

"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood" ~ My Book is Published

Melissa Miller & her St. Stephen's 4th grade outstanding writers

"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - Tales of a scrappy New York boyhood" (YBK Publishers) had a smashing release.

We celebrated at "City Stories: Stoops to Nuts," at Cornelia Street Cafe on Tuesday. Friday night,  St. Stephen of Hungary's 4th graders and I had a House Party at  Barnes and Noble on East 86th Street.

We sold 220 books at the two events and  entertained 150 guests at Barnes and Noble.

Thank you, my friends who made the effort to come to my events from far away and near. Some of you literally ran there to make it. I'll never forget your kindness.

I'm grateful to St. Stephen's Katherine Peck, Nicole McCabe, Melissa Miller and the talented Fourth grade writers. I applaud Barnes and Noble and their staff: Jody Allen, Jennifer Stark, Alicia Lauricella for inviting us and the supportive audience who cheered us on, thank you!

Barnes & Noble 150 E 86 St @10.17.14

Leslie Goshko & Michele Carlo

I need an important favor from everyone who owns a copy of my book.

If you read "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys," please say a few honest words about the book and rate it on  Barnes and Noble at this link and cut and paste your comment to  Amazon and rate it at this link. 

If my writing brings you pleasure your comments mean much to me. Speak your mind.

I've been there for many of you countless times in countless ways because I love what you do. I believe in you.

I've supported the Yorkville neighborhood and New York City with thousands of photos and a bounty of stories in my published work and all over the internet for many years.

I need your help. Please say something about the book at Barnes and Noble and Amazon at the above links.

Signing at B&N

We sold out all the books at Barnes and Noble 86th Street on Friday.  Logos Bookstore on York Avenue has a limited number of copies still for sale.

Going forward, you can buy the book online at  Amazon,  Barnes and Noble,  Abebooks and other online booksellers.

If you like, you can buy a signed copy directly from me for $17 plus postage. Email me at tommy.pryor@gmail.com to make arrangements.  My pleasure.

Thank you,  Tommy

Bootleg, Gary Wood is in, Giants 12 Washington 10!

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

I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - takes of a scrappy New York boyhood

“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”

with Mike Edison & Judy McGuire @ Arts & Seizures radio show

Photos are from B&N Friday and one from my radio appearance on the  Arts and Seizures internet radio show yesterday with  Mike Edison and  Judy McGuire and Liz Smith, their super engineer. Thank you, Mike, Judy & Liz. It was a blast and the pizza was delicious. Thank you, Jaime Nelson for connecting me with  Arts & Seizures and working hard for the book. Thank you, Frank Flaherty, for your stellar editing on 53 stories. No Frank, no book. Thank you, YBK and Otto Barz for your faith in the text.

Here's a link to yesterday's Arts & Seizures archived show.  And a  link to a public Facebook photo album.


Starting Thursday, I'm be telling my "I Hate Dallas Cowboys" stories, and selling and signing my book at the following events all around the town:

Sideshow Goshko
This Thursday, October 23rd @ 7pm @ KGB 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm)

(85 E. 4th Street, 2nd Floor)

FREE!

The Dave Hill Show
Tuesday, October 28th @9pm, WFMU radio!
http://wfmu.org/playlists/GS

Lower East Side Stories
Friday, November 7 @ 7pm

Adam Wade Show
Monday, November 10th @ 7pm, Theater Under St. Mark's Place

City Stories Stoops to Nuts
Tuesday, November 11th @ 6pm, Cornelia Street Cafe

The Healing Artist - Internet Radio Show
Tuesday November 18th 6pm   Radio

We Three Productions Readings
Monday December 1st @ 7pm, @2A @ 24 Avenue A

City Stories: Stoops to Nuts
Tuesday, December 10th @ 6pm, Cornelia Street Cafe

No Name & A Bag O' Chips with your host, Eric Vetter
Friday, December 12th 7pm - Free
Otto's Shrunken Head

Barnes & Noble 150 East 86 St @ 10.17.14

Katherine Peck

B&N

St. Stephen's 4th grade writers

My pal, Rosanne Puccio

B&N

B&N

Stoops to Nuts ~ I Hate the Dallas Cowboys Book Release

My Spaldeen & Me

Preparations for a perfect summer day required a delicate dance

Yesterday, I strolled through Central Park. Resting on a bench in front of the Delacorte Theater, I turned my eyes to the center of the Great Lawn. I saw myself lying face up on the grass at 9 years old, throwing a ball up in the air as far as I could, never letting my back lose contact with the ground.

Summer 1963: “Mom, please give me a quarter, I’m dying, come on, give me a quarter, I really need a quarter, I’m on my knee, Uncle Mommy, I want a quarter!”

Mom gave me a dime and spun me toward the door out of the apartment. I’d already had six cents. Walking up 83rd Street, I went through everybody’s garbage and found five soda bottles. That made 10 cents plus my sixteen. When Murray Parker passed me the deposit money, he made a face because I didn’t buy anything from him. I had my quarter plus a penny. The quarter triggered my dilemma: three of my favorite things cost 25 cents.

My first consideration was crap. My favorite crap combo was a 16-ounce Pepsi with Yankee Doodles, three to a pack. Brilliant! That gorgeous, swirled bottle's what a grip! I never dropped it, and I dropped everything. If other kids had 12-ounce sodas you’d torture them, finishing the 16-ouncer real slow with sound effects, “Oh my God, that’s good, …Oooooh! The third Yankee Doodle was a gift. You never got three things. After the second doodle, your mouth would calm down, disappointed nothing further was going in it. Then, all of a sudden, your mouth is being stuffed for a third time with fluffy chocolate cake and cavity-causing vanilla crème. If you’re lucky, a gob of crème stays on your upper lip for a while and you don’t realize it’s there until your tongue goes out for a walk and brings it back into your mouth. The third cupcake went down your throat like a royal coach.

Occasionally, I’d ignore my stomach and consider choice number two: a balsa wood glider. They all had names' like Hornet, Mustang or Scout. The aircraft’s propeller was powered by a rubber band. In a classroom, you could make a plane out of a sheet of loose leaf and, at best, clock a kid in the noggin four or five rows away. With a propeller on your plane, you were going places. Exotic flight plans danced through my head before the first journey. Sometimes there was no second flight. The plane was fragile. This was a short life toy, like having a butterfly for a pet.

Winding the propeller up, I’d send her off. The glider sailed passed the German butcher, narrowly missing the store’s awning. Climbing to the second story it veered left, hitting a wall of wind, did two quick loops and landed on a fire escape.

The painful memory of these lost aircraft led me to door number three: a Spaldeen. A high-bouncing, reject tennis ball. You tested its quality by dropping it from shoulder height. The one you picked must have superior bounce.

In Joe’s Candy Store, Id proceed with my ritual. During a test, you developed immunity to being shooed away.

“Pick a ball and get out of here.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“They’re all good.” He grabbed one and squeezed it. “See?”

He almost smiled. This frightened me.

“Yes,” I said, “but one of them is better than all the others.”

“You just tried that one,” he said.

“Not true. I have a system. I repeat no ball.”

“I repeat: Pick a friggin’ ball!”

I found one, said, “Bye, Joe,” and left a quarter on the counter.

Working my way down my street, I joined games already in progress that moved me: Ace, King, Queen, and then some Off the Point. Finally, I’d run over to Central Park and find a perfect spot in the middle of the Great Lawn, lie on my back and toss the ball as high as possible, over, over and over again. Nothing eased loneliness like a game of catch even when it was just my Spaldeen and me.

"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood" book release party @ Tuesday, October 14th @ City Stories: Stoops to Nuts @ Cornelia Street Cafe - followed by a book event at Barnes & Noble, 150 E. 86 St on Friday, October 17th @ 7pm in the Yorkville neighborhood on the Upper East Side."

Book Event @ Barnes & Noble @ E. 86th St. Store @ Oct 17

Barnes & Noble confirmed, Friday, October 17th, book event at the East 86th Street Yorkville store for "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."

Today, I'm "The Sunshine Kid."

Working hard here!

Thank you, Dean Dacian for bottom photo.

Move-in Day 1957 ~ Happy Birthday, Rory!

June 20, 1957, on Rory’s first birthday we moved into apartment #4R at 517 East 83rd Street. Mom let Rory and me run straight into the apartment before my aunts and uncles brought the furniture up. I dragged my brother by his arm. At the window was a fire escape with a nest of baby pigeons. Rory squealed and said his newly learned word, “Wow!”

I felt the same way. “Mom, got to see it, birds, lots of them!” I yelled over my shoulder.

Mom came over in three strides, gave Dad a look and said, “Bob, stay here. I’m taking Tommy and Rory for ice cream.”

On the stairs, we passed Aunt Barbara and Aunt Joan carrying our kitchen table and they gave Mom and us a funny look as sweat dripped down their faces.

When we returned from the store Rory and I ran to the window. No birds.

I asked Dad, “Where they go?”

“Their mom taught them to fly and they took off.”

I said nothing but knew something fishy happened. I had a good cry, Rory saw me, and he started crying too. Rory didn’t know why he was crying; he just liked to cry when I cried.

When the furniture was in and the move was over the adults started cracking beers. The next thing I knew a group of friends and extra relatives showed up. Allie Cobert, Uncle Mickey and Uncle Lenny put on Dad’s white dress shirts and made bow ties out of the ladies kerchiefs and begin singing, “Sweet Adeline.” After the singing sung out, Dad played records on his prized RCA Victrola. Bored, I retreated to the bathroom. I sat on the toilet bowl and did some target practice with my water gun. Out the window into the airshaft, a few quick shots off mom’s bra drying on the towel rack, then up at the naked light bulb on the ceiling. That was fun. The more I shot it, the more it sizzled. I could see smoke coming off it. I kept going.

“CRACK, BOOM!”

The bulb exploded, the door flew open and a half dozen people were in the bathroom with me before I could hop off the bowl. Mom was on top of me pretty good but Barbara and Joan extracted me before Mom could figure out what to do with me.

The next day, Barbara came over the apartment to see how we were settling in. She sat in the kitchen drinking coffee with Mom. When Mom wasn’t paying attention, Barbara went to the back window by the fire escape and opened it. Then she sat back down in the kitchen like nothing happened.

Within a few minutes we heard birds, “Tweet, tweet, tweet.” Then it stopped. Two minutes later, “Tweet, Tweet, tweet.”

Mom moaned and said, "Oh, Christ, they’re back.”

I smiled. Then a big gruff voice said, “Fire Inspector, Fire Inspector!”

Mom popped out of her chair. In came Joan in my red fire hat with a big grin on her face.

Joan had gone to the roof and came down to the fourth floor fire escape waiting for Barbara to open the window to let her in. It was not the first, or last time someone came into our Yorkville apartment using something other than the front door.

Happy birthday, Brother.

My book, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood," will be published by YBK, October 2014. If you like TV's "The Wonder Years," add tenements, loitering and a subway - you'll slip seamlessly into my world.


Our next "City Stories: Stoops to Nuts, show on Tuesday, July 8th @ 6pm @ Cornelia Street Cafe is a doozy.

Our amazing artists: "The Duchess and the Fox, aka, Andrea Diaz and Joe McGinty(standout and founder of The Losers Lounge), Jennifer Barrett (Living Loud), Nicole Ferraro (NY Times) and Harry Rolnick (WSJ). We're bringing the musical side of storytelling to our show in a big way with Andrea, Joe and Jennifer merging with two of my favorite tellers in NYC, Nicole and Harry.