Storytelling, Dinner & Wine on a Rooftop Terrace

This Thursday night, 7pm, how about great storytelling, dinner & wine on a rooftop terrace with a NYC skyline view? All this for $40.

New York Arts & Science September Salon

Monterrey Terrace

@175 East 96th Street
Thursday, Sept 24th @ 7-10 pm 

You must RSVP ~ register at this link: New York Arts & Science September Salon

Art and life. At times, a blissful marriage. Other times, hell. September’s featured performers will tell stories exploring the blurry line between art & life.

Kiley Edgley is a blogger and former professional quiz writer. She writes about cultural observations, weird things that happen to her, and general nonsense. Read them at her blog: kwolverine.wordpress.com

Bassey Etim is a journalist and musician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He lives in Brooklyn and runs the Community Desk at The New York Times. In 2011, Bassey released his debut novel "The God Project." His debut album "Perpetual Motion," is slated for fall 2015.

Thomas Pryor's memoir, “I Hate the Dallas Cowboys – tales of scrappy New York boyhood,” was published in 2014 (YBK). His blog: “Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts,” was chosen by The NewYork Times for their Blog Roll.

Marie Sabatino (Producer) has been writing stories since she was a little girl. and telling stories all over NYC for the past 10 years.You can find her work in publications such as, Mr. Beller's, Word Riot, Freerange Nonfiction, Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Art & other places.

"81st Street Staircase, Wave Goodbye"

If you grew up in Yorkville, odds are high you spent time hanging out under the 81st staircase at the East River.  Dangling your feet over the water, talking with friends, listening to your tunes on the radio, sharing drinks bought by an older acquaintance.

The staircase is near death. One last flight left to demolish. I'll go down there today and think about the countless Friday nights it was our place.

Here are photos from yesterday. The top one is from 2012. If you like it, a print is available for sale here.

If you enjoy my stories please  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 109 Amazon five star reviews out of 109 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.

Thursday, July 30th, I'm telling a story at Walter Michael DeForest's show at Ryan's Daughter, 350 East 85th St. @ 6pm. More info to follow.

Here's an excerpt from my memoir called, "Ripple."

My formula for a perfect Friday night in May 1970: One friend and three dollars.  One dollar was for gas, and two dollars were for two bottles of Ripple Red ($1.78) and two bags of Wise BBQ Potato Chips (20 cents).

Buddy McMahon and I left LaSalle Academy at three o’clock and took the #6 Lexington Avenue Local uptown to 23^rd Street. Then we walked east to the Sanitation Department pier at the river’s edge. Parked way in the back of the long shed, hidden between two dumpsters, was Buddy’s car, a white ‘65 Mustang convertible. Buddy slowly backed it up. I got in. His Dad was a gem letting Buddy drive illegally with his new learner’s permit. It was illegal because there was no licensed driver in the car, myself included.

“Pass me the baseball,” Buddy said.

I put my hand under my seat and found the hardball and gave it to Buddy. He stuck it in a place that kept the driver’s seat from flopping backward and forward. The broken seat, along with the bald tires and several other cosmetic and mechanical issues, made this car an affordable pleasure for a 16-year-old working part time as a Daitch Shopwell delivery boy.

            As we drove cautiously up First Avenue, I noticed the five-degree chassis alignment problem that Buddy had mentioned. It felt like we were in a parade and the car was facing the adoring crowd on the sidewalk while we motored straight up the road. It was a pain in the ass to put the rusted top up, so we left it down even though it had started to drizzle. The busted radio provided no tunes, so at red lights we’d try to idle next to someone playing our kind of music.  

On 80^th Street, we found a parking spot in front of St. Monica’s School. Buddy sprinted up the stoop of his building, and I ran home to my grandmother’s on York Avenue. We needed to get into our weekend uniforms -- pocket T-shirts (our regular purchase from Arbee’s Army & Navy store), dungaree shorts, and Converse sneakers -- and I needed to grab my radio.

Twenty minutes later, I met Buddy at 82^nd Street and First Avenue. We planted ourselves and waited for someone special. The first would-be guy we asked gave us the finger.

Then Buddy sighted a usually friendly party. “Here comes Jojo.”

We quietly cornered Jojo under a candy store awning -- like two junkies on a buy.

“Hey, Jojo, can you buy us two bottles of Ripple Red?”

Jojo looked at his watch, made a face like we were making him constipated, and said, “OK, but quick.  Give me the money.”

We snuck a peek at the transaction through the edge of the store window.

On the way down to the river we bought the potato chips at Eddie’s Market on 80^th Street. It was still drizzling. We targeted the spot below the 81st Street Staircase on the East River.  Under dry cover with our legs dangling over the water, we eased in, relishing our Friday ritual, an al fresco dinner with WNEW-FM on the radio dial.

Holiday Walkabout At Twilight

Near sunset on Father's Day, I strolled up 79th Street then walked north on Fifth Avenue. The light was other worldly. I found a puddle in front of the Met Museum doing pointillist tricks with the reflection of the tall buildings on the east side of the avenue.

The quiet street had few people and cars. It was Yorkville walk time.

If you enjoy my stories please 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 108 Amazon five star reviews out of 108 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.

Magical Summer Light

This sign always triggered my thirst

Here are photographs from around Manhattan, summer 2012. Magical summer light.

Cornelia looking toward W 4th

Bleecker & Cornelia

If you enjoy my stories please  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 108 Amazon five star reviews out of 108 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.

Down on the Corner ~ 1945

Gene's Tavern 1944

Here are photos of Gene's Tavern on the northeast corner of 84th Street and York Avenue taken in 1945. On the 84th Street wall, right above the lady with white hair crossing the street is a service memorial with the names of the Yorkville men and women who gave their lives in World War II. Look at the stores on both sides of the avenue, the barber pole and the young guys on the bike and sitting on the bumper of the car on York. And the graffiti on the wall to the left of the service memorial in the photo and in my Dad's sketch that reads, "Cameron." Dad earned a smack from his mother when she saw the graffiti and recognized Dad’s art work. If she knew it, others knew it, and the one thing she never tolerated was being embarrassed by anyone related to her by blood, marriage or politics. She gave me a smack for my 83rd Street "Teddy Ryan" graffiti 25 years later in 1969.

Robert Pryor sketch of Gene's Tavern

Gene's Tavern had a two lane bowling alley in the cellar. My father's brother, Tom, was the weekend pin boy for the place. Good tips. When Tom got too old for the job he passed it onto his younger brother, Bob, my Dad. There was a controversy over the changing of the guard on this pin boy position in 1941. They were 16 and 12 at the time, their father had just died that year, their mom worked two jobs, six days a week. Tom and Bob liked to settle things quickly. I'm saving that one for a longer story called, "Pin Boys."

1945

If you enjoy my stories please  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 108 Amazon five star reviews out of 108 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.

1943

1945

1946 

looking towards s/w corner of 85 St

looking at n/e corner of 84 Street