Central Park & Sideshow Goshko

Central Park lifts my spirit. My good life continues this coming Thursday at Sideshow Goshko 8th Anniversary w/Crews, Scholl, and Pryor! Four days away, Jan 26th @ 7pm @ KGB Bar & Lit Mag. Leslie Goshko, Kambri Crews & Rory Scholl, holey moley!

The best NYC bang for the buck since they lifted prohibition ~ FREE SHOW!

Here's a link to 125 Central Park photos!

I'll Slice It Off!

I earned my first degree at P.S. 77 on the corner of 85th Street and First Avenue. My education continues next Thursday at Sideshow Goshko 8th Anniversary w/Crews, Scholl, and Pryor!

One week away,  Jan 26 @ 7pm @ KGB Bar & Lit Mag

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Here's a P.S. 77 memory.

I'm at work on Church Street in the Post Office building, its ten o'clock at night. I'm making art for a friend's birthday card and needed to use the paper cutter. My whole life I've been afraid of that device.

I went to Kindergarten at P.S. 77 on 85th Street and First Avenue. In the spring of 1960, Eisenhower was a lame duck President and the presidential campaign was kicking off.  Because of Kennedy's Catholic thing, there was a buzz in my papal favorable neighborhood about the election. Everybody's parents were taking strong sides; so of course, you did too ~ just repeating whatever you heard. I was for Kennedy, and John Cupo, a five year old, staunch Republican, was for Nixon. John and I had big mouths and we fought over anything. One day, he hit me, I hit him, but the teacher, Mrs. Brown, only saw my punch. She punished me by putting me under her desk in front of the classroom.

I was pretty angry about this and when I heard Cupo laughing at me I started yelling at him from under the desk. This led to little kicks in my ass from Mrs. Brown. She leaned under the desk and told me, "If you ever expect to get out of there, be quiet for the rest of the morning." I said, "OK."
Five minutes later, I heard Cupo and at least two other guys laughing, I assumed at me, and I went a little crazy, yelling, "stupid, fat head, dummy," and other five yr old insults.

By this point, Mrs. Brown was working my ass with her foot like a bass drum. I was immune, Cupo got my goat. I kept it up.

That's when, Mrs. Brown leaned over and said, "Thomas, say one more thing, and I'll put your arm in the paper cutter and slice it off."

Not a word. I'm still scared of paper cutters.

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 123 Amazon five star reviews out of 123 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.

Erin go Bragh! ~ TONIGHT, FREE DRINKS, FREE FOOD @ Sideshow Goshko

Tonte

"Erin Go Bragh!" Tonte here.

Tonight, We need YOU for Sideshow Goshko's Film Shoot 3/17!
Doors open 630pm @ 7pm, the funniest human bean in the field, Leslie Goshko, leads the asylum choir in chaos and story. No one gets out alive. But many leave smiling. 

723 Washington Street (bet W. 11 St. & Bank St.) Tonight, FREE DRINKS, FREE FOOD, FREE LIVE TAPING OF POPULAR TV SHOW, and my friend, Tommy Pryor, is part of Leslie Goshko's soiree in the West Village. He'll read a selection from his 1960s' NYC memoir, "I Hate The Dallas Cowboys ~ tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."

If you don't believe me, ask Charlie, he's all ears.

Charlie

If you don't believe Charlie, ask Casey, she noses.

Casey

And if you ask Sparky, she'll say nothing and lick your face.

Sparky Lyle

Tonight, We need YOU for Sideshow Goshko's Film Shoot 3/17! Doors open 630pm @ 7pm, Leslie Goshko, leads the asylum choir in chaos and story. No one gets out alive. But many leave smiling. 

723 Washington Street (bet W. 11 St. & Bank St.)

FREE BEER,  FREE WINE AND FREE FOOD!

Leslie Goshko with Michele Carlo and 3 others.

Yesterday at 9:18am · 

          

FREE BEER,  FREE WINE AND FREE FOOD!

My Yorkville Childhood in Our Town & Sideshow Goshko

Leslie @ Cornelia St Cafe

Tonight I'm heading to KGB in the East Village for Leslie Goshko's fantastic Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series featuring Tara Clancy, Cyndi Freeman and Steven Berkowitz. I'm telling a story from my new book, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood."  Leslie never fails to please the you can count on it standing room crowd. The New Yorker loves, NY Times loves it, Even my grandfather loves it, and he doesn't love anything.

It will be wunderbar! Hope you can make it.

Here's the scoop from Leslie:

Hey Gang! Happy Fall!

Well, we've made it to the time of pumpkin-spiced everything and sweater weather. So what better place to spend an evening than in the coziest, red room of them all? That's right! Your friendly KGB Bar. 

Always FREE, always at a Soviet Bar. 

Here's the GIST:

Award-winning storyteller Leslie Goshko (Huffington Post, Manhattan Monologue Slam Champion) invites some of NY’s top writers and storytellers to share true, bizarre tales about their lives. There’s a challenging trivia game and a free wine giveaway where one lucky audience member will walk away with their very own bottle of Sideshow Sauce! Tonight’s stellar lineup includes stories from:

TARA CLANCY (The Paris Review, The Moth)

THOMAS PRYOR (The New York Times, author “I Hate the Dallas Cowboys")

CYNDI FREEMAN (NY Fringe Festival award-winner, The Colbert Report, Hotsy Totsy Burlesque)

STEVEN BERKOWITZ ("Scientific American", The Moth)

* Time Out NY “Critics’ Pick”
* NY Daily News “Editor’s Pick”
* “a well-programmed night” - The New York Times

(arrive early to snag a seat, they go fast!)




This week's issue of Our Town newspaper ran a solid piece on my book and last Friday's book event. Thank you, Catherine Roberts!

Remembering Why I Look Up and Down

Tonight @ 7pm @ KGB - 85 E. 4th St, I'm telling a Yorkville story at Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! It's free, so put your buck two eighty up on the bar. KGB - 85 East 4th Street – tonight @ 7pm.

Here are photos at or near the Empire State Building that caught my eye on a Sunday morning. Taking the surroundings in, I thought about my time at Hunter College in the 1970s...

Nothing is more disappointing then revisiting a memory and finding out it's less then you remember. Nothing tops revisiting a memory that enhances that memory, builds on it and informs you that everything you've told friends and family about a person and what they've meant in your life is more than true. I forgot half of the treasure I took away from my time as a student with Professor Robert J. White at Hunter College in the 1970s. He taught me the classics and literature. Professor White is the coolest, smartest, funniest and warmest teacher I ever had going all the way back to Mrs. Brown in P.S. 77's kindergarten in 1960. 

Robert White is retiring this year and next to my Dad no person has had more influence on my artistic curiosity. Thank you, Professor White.

Here is a link to more photos and another link to a piece I wrote on Professor White in 2010 after I met him for first time in over 30 years.

"East River at 83rd Street Looking South"

I was about 4, and ran away from my father's hand on the drive near 83rd Street, jumped up on the railing and nearly vaulted over when I pushed myself out as far as possible to see the 59th Street bridge. Dad yanked me down and slapped my bottom. I looked up hurt and said, "Why you do that, you always push me out?" With fear in his eyes, he said, "Yeah, but when I do, I'm holding you." I said nothing and rubbed my butt. 

Thursday night, I'm telling a Yorkville story at Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! 

Leslie Goshko has a formula for a fine time please come down it's a free show, so keep your buck two ninety in your pocket or better, put it up on the bar.

Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! 

KGB

85 East 4th Street

This Thursday, May 23rd @ 7pm

Free Show!

Waiter! More river photos!

Scenes from York Avenue - Happy Birthday, Dad!

Old Timers Tavern 1962

Today, Dad would have been been 84. If he was still here I'd be whining about what a gigantic pain in the ass he is. This being true, it's strange how much the man is on my mind 11 years after he died. Each day, I miss his curiosity, talent, and love.

I'm thinking of what he'd like to do on his birthday and I'm sure he'd say let's visit York Avenue and say hi to Walter. (Walt, his best friend, is still here at 88, 89 in August). They enjoyed standing in front of their old Yorkville hang-out spots and talking about the bar, diner or restaurant that used to be there. And the conversation about place would lead to stories about the characters inhabiting those holy shrines. One thing that would drive Dad crazy today is the parking meters are gone.

Where would he lean his elbow on while watching the world walk by?

Saloon 1584 York Ave May 2013

Here are two sets of "Now and Thens" of 1584 York Avenue from 1962 when it was the Old Timers Tavern and today the same space known as The Saloon.

Below the Old Timers photos are April 1944 photographs of the same spot on York Avenue looking north towards 84th Street on the day my Uncle Tom returned from WWII.

Others in photos: my grandmother, Anne Pryor (later Rode), with her sister, Mary, and two shots of my father on the same day, he is about to turn 15. A 1960 shot of me, Rory and my cousin, Bobby on Christmas Day 1960.

Old Timers 1962

Last photo below gets back to my father being a pain in the ass. As you see from my crying reaction on my mother's lap and my grandfather's perp walk reaction to the flash bulb going off, Dad's indoor picture making caught us by surprise and it didn't matter, those flash bulbs were horrible whether you were ready or not.

When I grew up, Mom told me a story about this photo. Nan walked through the doorway into the kitchen just as Dad was taking this picture. Temporarily blinded, Nan stumbled across the linoleum into the glass front of the China Closet giving her heirlooms a good smash. Several things fell, nothing was broken, but my father still got a smack from his mother. Mom always told me this story with a big smile.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

This coming Thursday, May 23rd @ 7pm @ KGB's on East 4th Street I'm telling at Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! Please come down it's a Yorkville yarn.

1584 York Ave The Saloon

Thomas E. Pryor, April 1944 York Ave

Mary & Anne on York Ave in April 1944

Robert Pryor on York Ave in April 1944

Bob, Tom & Rory Pryor on York Ave Xmas Day 1960

Patricia & Tom Pryor & John Rode on Easter 1955

"Sideshow Goshko" Thurs, May 23rd @ KGB ~ "Trampled Under Foot"

This coming Thursday, May 23rd @ 7pm @ KGB's on East 4th Street I'm telling at Leslie Goshko Sideshow Goshko Storytelling Series w/ CREWS, PRYOR, NOVICK, & SOLOMON! My story is about abuse and love and how difficult it is to understand the difference. 

How is it we still love people after they trample us?