One frigid afternoon in late December, many years ago, my brother and I hopped on a train headed for Grand Central. Upon our arrival, we marveled briefly at the constellations and the narrow walkways between the high windows, before transferring to a downtown express. We couldn’t stifle our grins and the train couldn’t hurtle past […]
Food: A holiday tradition with a long history Read More »
Sweden is a place of plenty of holiday celebrations. My American friends usually say midsummer with the fertility pole and the wacky dances when I tell them about Swedish holidays, but to me — and I’d wager few Swedes would argue against this — no holiday is as anticipated as Christmas. Further, I would argue
Celebrating Christmas in Sweden Read More »
Over the years I’ve spent a whole lot of time at our two Village library branches, and as a result I sometimes end up making friends with the librarians. Lately I’ve gotten to know head librarian Emil Allakhverdov, who’s been at Hudson Park since 2017. He’s an Armenian who grew up in Ukraine, and he
Unassuming repositories of history Read More »
The New York Public Library is really bringing it all back home with its small but stunning exhibit Becoming Bohemia: Greenwich Village, 1912-1923. The tightly curated show, open until February 1, fills two rooms on the first floor of the flagship location on Fifth Avenue. If you love the Village and its history, don’t miss
A paean to the Village Read More »
New York City is known for many things, arts and culture, food, fashion, a diverse population, a fast pace, an ambitious lot of people, and perhaps nothing embodies the caldron of those elements as well as the NYC coffee house. A scene, that ranges from cozy corner spots, to drip coffee only diner counters, to
The Greatest Love of All…The Relationship Between a New Yorker and Their Coffee. Read More »
Hi there fellow musical aficionados, it’s your friendly music slut, Medea Hoar, bouncing from borough to borough to bring you the muse-ical highlights as seen by a lowlife. This month your purveyor of prose will be sharing with you her adventures in Manhattan, just a hop, skip and swim across the water from all points
MUSIC: Medea Hoar frosts electric Read More »
Simple pleasures. On Only the Void Stands Between Us (LP and download released last month by Silver Current Records), Julie Beth Napolin sings of distance and intimacy. She sings quizzically of a fire coming to burn, it seems, those who don’t deserve to survive, and she sings very directly about praying for the living
Music: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk Read More »
This is just one calendar year, which may be sufficient time in the pop music manufacturing industry to spot a trend, but is a far less meaningful span in music that wrestles with its own history—the old is constantly being renewed and incorporated with ideas from other genres—as jazz does, and that is so free
Grella on Jazz: Best Jazz Albums 2024, by George Grella Read More »
“If this hospital closes, people will die.” So declared attorney Arthur Schwartz to New York State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman during a nearly all-day Halloween hearing on the fate of Mount Sinai Beth Israel—the embattled hospital on East 16th Street and First Avenue. Schwartz, representing community advocates, urged Judge Pearlman to maintain the temporary
Fate of Beth Israel still in courts, by Phyllis Eckhaus Read More »
The Landmarks Preservation Committee has approved the design proposal for the vacant lot at 327 Bleecker Street following a public hearing on October 29, 2024. The site, located at the intersection of Christopher and Bleecker Streets in the West Village, has been empty since the previous four-story residential structure was demolished for safety reasons. The
Bleecker and Christopher rebuild approved, by Jack Tateronis Read More »
