"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

"Our Little Town, Yorkville" @ Barnes & Noble East 86 St ~ Tonight ~ Friday !

Tonight, Friday, October 17th @ 6pm at Barnes Noble, 150 East 86th Street, we're exploring "Our Little Town, Yorkville." Partnering with my Fourth Grade palsfrom St. Stephen of Hungary we are celebrating our neighborhood. The students start at 6pm, I follow the kids with my reading and book signing. Please come early to hear the children's fine essays. Through the eyes of a child memories of a place set in forever.

East

"I Hate The Dallas Cowboys: tales of a scrappy New York boyhood" ~ Thomas Pryor's Book Event @ Barnes & Noble 150 E. 86 Street

My family's lived on York Ave for 118 years. They left Sicily in 1896 and landed at 1403 Avenue A. I have the horseshoe that hung over their front door. My great grandparents went back and forth to Sicily separately a few times before staying put in 1903 with their three kids and a star boarder, their nephew, Charlie or Carlo. My Uncle Joe "Cheech" played baseball with 

Jimmy Cagney before Cagney made his acting debut at Keith's 86th Street Theatre.

My family has played, shopped, fought and gallivanted along 86th Street for a hundred years. The heart of Yorkville thumps under 86th Street near Lexington Avenue. I feel it under my feet each time I walk our boulevard and my memories rush back. 

Tomorrow Friday, October 17th @ 7pm, at the Upper Eastside Barnes & Noble, I'll read from my Yorkville memoir, "I Hate the Dallas Cowboys - tales of a scrappy New York boyhood." The book has 53 stories and it's loaded with photos of the neighborhood going back to 1906. Many images in this Facebook album are in my book. Several are tied directly to the stories you'll read. I promise to take you back to that world in sight and sound. Think TV's "The Wonder Years" just add taverns, subways and Checker cabs.

St. Stephen of Hungary School is my partner for this neighborhood celebration. Tomorrow at 6pm before I read, please come early and hear St. Stephen's Fourth Grade students read their Yorkville memories. 

If you like what you hear please buy my book. I've knocked myself out presenting hundreds of stories and pictures of old Yorkville on Facebook and other neighborhood digital meeting places including my blog, "Yorkville: Stoops to Nuts." If you enjoy my work, you will not be disappointed. Promise.

I Still Hate Dallas, But I Love My Friends

taken by Gordon Balkcom

"I Hate the Dallas Cowboys tales of a scrappy New York boyhood,"book release party last night at Cornelia Street Cafe was a blast. The crowd laughing at our stories and songs was the best audience in my seven years at the Cafe. Their eyes and ears lit up for each performer. Thank you, everyone.

I asked three artists to share the stage with me last night, Michele Carlo, Leslie Goshko and Adam Wade. Three fine writers who maintain their writing excellence while they create other art that dazzles. They inspire me. Without seeing their work, I'm not sure I would have finished my book.

taken by Gordon Balkcom

Michele paints, acts, tells stories and wrote a book with solid reviews, Fish Out Of Agua: My life on neither side of the (subway) tracks (Citadel 2010) Leslie runs a monthly storytelling show Sideshow Goshko that the NY Times, The New Yorker, and others praise, she plays piano like the Devil buying your soul, and writes for periodicals like the Huffington Post. Adam is the best storyteller in NYC and he's a wicked cartoonist and funny visual and radio actor. A few months ago, Adam shared a section of his planned book with me. Adam will be a best selling author. If you like his telling wait to read his stuff on the page. He was unable to come last night but he was in the room with us. For sure. Michele, Leslie and Adam met with me and generously shared everything they could to improve my book outreach. I'm a lucky dog with amazing friends. I never take that for granted.

Frank Flaherty the best editor in NYC and my book collaborator, thank you. It was all good. YBK Publishers and Otto Barz, thank you, for believing in the book and putting your heart into the entire process.

Thank you, Jaime Nelson and Gordon Balkcom for your promotional support and Gordon's photos here.

Thank you, Michele Pryor and Jon Calvert, for getting the show on the road last night.

Thank you, Robin Hirsch, Angelo Verga, Josh Rebell, Mike, John, Alzee and the entire staff at the Cafe for letting us play in your house. Thank you, Barbara Aliprantis, for kicking me off the branch to tell rather than read.

Robert Marantz, thank you, for directing my lost soul to Barbara Turner's writing group in Vancouver 11 years ago.

Link to more photos on Facebook.

I’ll read and sign books at Barnes & Noble, 150 E. 86 St this Friday, Oct 17th@ 7pm in the Yorkville neighborhood on the Upper East Side. 

St. Stephen of Hungary's 4th grade class will join me at B&N to read their Yorkville memories. 

You can purchase the book at Barnes & Noble East 86 St., Logos Bookstore and online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble and YBK.

taken by Gordon Balkcom

Early 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

“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”

taken by Gordon Balkcom

taken by Gordon Balkcom

Father Demo Fountain

My 1960s' Yorkville Memoir ~ On Sale Today!

“I Hate the Dallas Cowboys – tales of a scrappy New York boyhood,” released today!

My book party's tonight, Tues, Oct 14th @ Cornelia Street Cafe @ 5:30pm – 8pm. My special guests: Michele Carlo, Leslie Goshko & Adam Wade. 

I’ll read and sign books at Barnes & Noble, 150 E. 86 St this Friday, Oct 17th@ 7pm in the Yorkville neighborhood on the Upper East Side. St. Stephen of Hungary's 4th grade class will join me at B&N to read their Yorkville memories. 

You can purchase the book at Barnes & Noble East 86 St., Logos Bookstore and online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble and YBK.

Early 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

“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”

Timeless Yorkville Sunset ~ 1964-2014

If you were to compare photos from tonight's Yorkville sunset on the East River with photos taken fifty years ago, few things have changed. Imagine yourself younger strolling the Drive on a warm autumn night. A timeless evening on the river.

Join me with St. Stephen of Hungary's 4th grade at "I Hate The Dallas Cowboys: tales of a scrappy New York boyhood" ~ Thomas Pryor's Book Event @ Barnes & Noble 150 E. 86 Street. We will share our ageless Yorkville memories.

"The Fuhrer Was a Terrific Dancer!"

Tommy & Eddie @ March 1994

Why Eddie mattered. When I love something intensely and a close friend loves it with equal intensity we need nothing further to achieve bliss.

Eddie and I loved the J Geils Band, the New York Giants, The Beatles, Yorkville, The Pineapple Bowl, SJU Rugby, the Beach, among other things but they all fall behind the insane number of times we watched the original Mel Brooks' "The Producers." We saw it over 75 times together and add around fifty solo screenings each.

For us, the film was a ritual of joy.

We traded lines like a Martin & Lewis routine.  Eddie was my best riff partner. I love friends who jump in, even if they sometimes jump without looking.  But Eddie waited until he had something to say - it wasn't his style to interrupt. He'd wait for the idiots (me included) to run out of hot air then Edward dropped in the line that stopped the talking and started the rolling laughter - the kind of laughing that if you walked into the room unaware you'd think we were doing Amyl-nitrate.

I miss Eddie's humor, warmth and generosity. We all miss Eddie.

**************

In honor of Edward Edgar Ekis, a few of the best:


Franz Liebkind: Not many people know it, but the Fuhrer was a terrific dancer. He could dance the pants off Churchill!  Hitler... there was a painter! He could paint an entire apartment in ONE afternoon! TWO coats!

Concierge: Who d'ya want?

Leo Bloom: I beg your pardon?

Concierge: Who d'ya want? Nobody gets in the building unless I know who they want. I'm the "concierge". My husband used to be the "concierge", but he's dead. Now I'M the "concierge".

Max Bialystock: We are seeking Franz Liebkind.

Concierge: Oh... the Kraut! He's on the top floor, apartment 23.

Max Bialystock: Thank you...

Concierge: ...But you won't find him there... he's up on the roof with his boids. He keeps boids. Dirty... disgusting... filthy... lice-ridden boids. You used to be able to sit out on the stoop like a person. Not anymore! No, sir! Boids!... You get my drift?

Leo Bloom: We... uh... get your "drift". Thank you, madam.

Concierge: I'm not a "madam"! I'm a "concierge"!