The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Harlem’s jewel, the Apollo Theater, has more than lived up to its promise as a place “where stars are born and legends are made.” It’s been the cultural centerpiece of New York for more than seven decades, not bad for a former burlesque theater. And find out which icon made his name — and held… Read More
It’s the first day of school for some freshmen at City College of New York. President Gregory H. Williams speaks to the newbees today at the gorgeous Great Hall on the Harlem campus. What else will greet the new freshmen: almost six hundred ‘grotesques’ which decorate the corners of all the classical neo-Gothic halls. The… Read More
We normally put up our new podcasts on Wednesday morning. However I am sick and completely lost my voice. I would do the podcast in sign language if I could, but well, I dont know sign language either. Either we’ll be back up with a new one on Thursday morning. Thanks for listening! -Greg
The well from which the San Gennaro Festival draws its zany carnival energy is surprisingly the church which sits its center, the birthplace of the first U.S. San Gennaro feast, at the Church of the Most Precious Blood, between Baxter and Mulberry in Little Italy. The ‘Most Precious Blood’ in this case refers not only… Read More
Every year for the past 80 years, Mulberry Street in Little Italy becomes a wacky religious carnival. Why the San Gennaro Festival — with its mixture of saintly reliquary, frozen daquaris, freak shows and clowns — isn’t considered profane and condemned by the Catholic Church is a mystery to me. All I know is that… Read More
ABOVE: Inside the main hall at the Alexander Hamilton Custom House (standing in the very spot where Fort Amsterdam stood) New Amsterdam in 1660 vs downtown Manhattan today — the Yahoo comparison[Yahoo Maps] A Seinfeld landmark — and one of Sinatra’s favorite late night spots — fades into memory[NY Times] [Gothamist] Radio Row — the… Read More
As often happens in the blogosphere, seemingly unimportant events get parceled about with declarations that don’t really mean much. For instance, the announcement yesterday that a new bowling alley was opening in Brooklyn — the first to open there in nearly 50 years! — disguises the fact that there are already a few bowling alleys… Read More
Back when New York was New Amsterdam, it was the domain of the bullheaded, pear-growing, peglegged Peter Stuyvesant, who cleaned up the city and gave us our most important street. Find out why he still matters and why he’s the king of the East Village. Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting… Read More
I wasn’t sure what kind of entry to post today, so I figured it might be interesting for some of you to read an excerpt from the letter I wrote my family and friends back home on Sept 15, 2001. (The day I got back my Internet service, which had been knocked out.) I lived… Read More
As I was threading through the city streets yesterday I stumbled upon New York’s annual Muslim Day Parade which marched down Madison Avenue with a few thousand supporters in costumes, floats and some really unusual mascot wear(see above). Depending on what you believe, the date of the parade (two days before 9/11) was either a… Read More
A homeless man’s memorial to September 11th.[Neither More Or Less] New York City future: the latest illustrations of the new World Trade Center[Gothamist] Will Queens be destroyed by a massive super-hurricane?[Queens Crap] History reprieve: the Red Hook food vendors keep on sellin’[Lost City] The castle of the Red Legged Devils … in Park Slope? [Forgotten… Read More
To get you in the mood for the weekend, every Friday we’ll be celebrating ‘FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER’, featuring an old New York nightlife haunt, from the dance halls of 19th Century Bowery, to the massive warehouse spaces of the mid-90s. Past entries can be found here . We’re going way, way, way back, to New… Read More
The world has turned its eyes to Flushing Meadows, Queens, for almost 30 years now thanks to the U.S Open, held as the sports complex called the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. It’s named after the tennis icon who won four women’s Open singles titles, three mixed doubles titles, and two women’s doubles… Read More
Come see the Wonder Wheel, the king of hot dogs, the “Freaks” in the Dreamland Sideshow, a beached whale and Donald Trump’s dad — all in one place! Its Coney Island of the 20th Century. But will it be around much longer in the 21st? Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting… Read More
While winding through the financial district in lower Manhattan on Sunday (Sept 2), I made my way down Stone Street (one of the city’s oldest paths) and found this scene outside of Ulysses bar: About 40 people, in various Colonial and period garments, were carousing in character and loudly carrying on like Revolutionary War heroes.… Read More