By Caitlin Hawke

You've been winnowing. You have piles. You are ready to sell, sell, sell. Now all you need to do is take that vendor space at this year's block party and pile it all into your radio flyer, and on May 18 wheel it on over to West 103rd Street to turn it into a pile of cash. Or split a space with your neighbor or daughter or grandson. It's the 'Great Redistribution of Matter' day in Bloomingdale, and it's coming quickly. So lock in your vendor space today by clicking on the image or button below to read all the how-tos.

Len Tredanari is no longer around to take a hose to the cars parked on W. 103rd on Yard Sale Saturday. So we still need volunteers to help in the Motor Pool as well as a host of other volunteer gigs. Speaking of Len, I dug out an old newsletter from September 2003 and excerpt of which is below. Len's bigger-than-life presence on W. 103rd is still warmly remembered by a lot of neighbors, and if you concentrate you can conjure the wafting aroma of his sausages and peppers, grilled to mouthwatering perfection and sold to benefit, you guessed it, your block association. 

Contact Bob at [email protected]or call him at (212) 662-4046.

By Caitlin Hawke

In the last edition of the Block Association newsletter, May 18 was announced as the big day.  It's the annual Block Party, and the organizers need volunteers.  There are roles aplenty, and if you are someone who has enjoyed the feeling of community you get from this blog, I know you'll also enjoy leaning in. 

Bob Aaronson, a W. 103rd St. resident and a walking, breathing saint, has agreed again to coordinate the event. If you (or your teenage or adult kid or grandkid) can take on an organizational role or if you have only an hour to spare, please get in touch with Bob and let him know how you can help. Give us a little of your time, and together we'll make a beautiful block party!

Contact Bob at [email protected] or call him at (212) 662-4046.

So, without further ado: We. Need. You! From our latest newsletter, here's how to get involved. Our operators are standing by.

Rent a Space and Turn Clutter to Cash: Click here for an application and detailed information about how to get a vendor space.  Know someone who is eager to vend? Share this blog post! Help us get the word out. Post this on Nextdoor and other email lists you belong to. The more vendors, the better the ambiance and the more deals to be made!  Which leads us to another way you can help:

Mark Your Calendar for May 18. Come Out. And Shop 'til You Drop: come to the party and support our vendors. It's the great cosmic redistribution of stuff. And it all takes place along W. 103rd Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, May 18, from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.

Advance Publicity: Basically, if  we don’t step up our efforts to publicize the event, we won’t get the vendor participation we need in order to make the day financially worthwhile. We need to start attracting vendors now. Then, just before the event, the focus shifts to attracting attendees.  The more people who come, the more the vendors sell, the happier they are, and the more likely they’ll be eager to come back next year. If you’re good with media, especially of the social variety, we need you.

Raffle Ticket Sales: The way to make money and to make for a happy winner is to start selling tickets weeks in advance of the event. That means we need to hit the streets on every evening and weekend when the forecast cooperates. If you can keep your eye on the weather, coordinate shifts, and entice people to sell, we need you.

Refreshments: To keep our visitors and vendors well fed, we always offer a variety of sweet and savory foods. If you’d be willing to coordinate this aspect of the event, we need you. Or donate food, offer to do a Costco run, make some sandwiches, bake some cookies. We need you.

Entertainment: The party is always more fun with live music. If you can lend a hand arranging performers, we need you. Or volunteer to perform!  We need you.

Activities for Kids: When kids are happy, parents are happy. We could use facepainters, magicians, jugglers, balloon artists, and/or storytellers. It's all part of the atmosphere. If you’re kid-friendly, we need you. 

Motor Pool: Making sure that  the owners of the cars parked on W. 103rd St. know that they need to move elsewhere in advance of the event is a job in itself. It requires repeatedly putting flyers under windshield wipers the entire week before the event, especially catching drivers during the alternate-side parking shifts. If you’re around during the day, we need you. 

Flyer Distributors: the best way to make sure potential vendors know about the event and shoppers know to attend is to hang flyers in building lobbies. We provide the paper, you provide the legwork. We need you.

Crew: We need folks to set up and break down. It’s always busy first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon.

​We. Need. You.

Again, our operators are standing by. Contact Bob at [email protected] or call him at (212) 662-4046.

By Caitlin Hawke

We've changed the clocks. We've seen the snow drops. Crocuses and daffodils are popping up quicker than in time-lapse photography. Next come the cherry blossoms and blooming trees of all sorts.  It's officially Spring; so bring on the rain. Or as someone I cherish quipped with regard to global warming, "March flowers bring April showers."

The diluvial photo below from last year is courtesy of neighbor Ozzie Alfonso, and I thought it was a good way to ring in the season. (Did anyone hear the thunderstorm on Friday? It took me straight to summer!)

For 10 years, Ozzie has run the Bloomingdale Aging in Place Photography group as a volunteer. The group's monthly output has been lovingly socked away into dozens of galleries that he maintains. If you click on the link in the previous sentence and then onto a theme, you can view their postings.

If you don't know about BAiP and feel like you could use some ways to bloom in place in sync with the spring season, see more here. There are nearly 80 activity groups all run by volunteers for neighbors who join BAiP. Most are full, but neighbors may express an interest in joining one once they've signed up for membership. For more about BAiP membership (it's free and for residents who live between West 96th and 110th Streets), see this link.

As BAiP looks to its 10th anniversary this fall, maybe you'll find something in there of interest to you! 

By Caitlin Hawke

First sure sign of spring: it's time for the annual meeting! Come hear what your Block Association has been up to and help recognize folks who call our neighborhood their workplace.  There will be reporting on the budget and the annual induction into the neighborhood hall of fame.

It all happens in the Marseilles community room (230 W. 103rd Street) at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 18, 2019

By Caitlin Hawke

​I love it when readers turn me on to something they've seen in the neighborhood.  That happened not too long ago when Terence Hanrahan shared that he'd encountered a young painter, Scott Benites, right outside his building and snapped a shot of Scott at work and sent it to me. You'll see Terence's photo of that painting at West End Avenue and West 102nd Street when you scroll down.

Knowing about Scott led me down a fun rabbit hole of discovery and to an appreciation of this rising artist who cites the work of Edward Hopper and Edouard Manet among his influences.

Scott kindly agreed to let me post some of his local cityscapes and to talk to me about his fondness for painting "en plein air," his training, his drive and passion for art, and, very happily, his first gallery show.

With a hat tip to Terence and gratefulness to Scott, I give you now a brief interview with the man who loves our corners bathed in a certain light: Scott Benites.  

​To see more of his work, jump over to his website: scottbenites.com.  Better yet, read on and click through for information about attending his show on March 7, 2019.

Q&A with Scott Benites

Caitlin Hawke: Why did you pick the corner where Terence Hanrahan met up with you?
Scott Benites: I was born and raised on the Upper Westside, and I was always inspired by the cityscapes and, specifically, the architecture of this city. Last summer I planned to create a unique oil-on-canvas cityscape collection. What better source than to paint the scenes in 'plein air'. 

After doing my first plein-air painting of West 96th Street and Columbus Avenue and receiving so much positive feedback from the neighborhood, I figured I should continue to paint local sites because it was so much fun. My plan was to first paint every avenue, and then to continue down the city blocks to create a unique collection. 

Caitlin: I love the originality of that idea. It seems, though, that you have a particular fondness for positioning your easel at the southwest corner or west side of the street looking toward the northeast corner of intersections. True?
Scott: Yes, it is true. Painting from a distance allows me to draw the preliminary sketch of the buildings' perspective. From this distance, I can see the light of day play on the forms of the buildings. I can also determine the composition of the painting. I strive to capture the strong contrast of light and shadow of the block. That contrast of light adds a dramatic feeling to my work. 

Caitlin:  Do you have any special connection to this neighborhood of West 102nd and 103rd Streets near Broadway?
Scott: The entire UWS is very special to me as well as to my family who also grew up in the same neighborhood. My main subjects are Manhattan buildings from Riverside to Central Park. Every time I complete a new plein-air cityscape painting, I become completely moved and inspired to create more, as well as to connect with other artists and admirers from around the neighborhood. 

Caitlin: Can you tell me a little about yourself?  
Scott: I am a born and raised Yankee, and I have been interested in the arts since I was 16. I knew at that age that I would commit the rest of my life to the arts. During my teenage years, I participated in a MoMA afterschool program where I had my first exhibition and met mentors who guided me to the best art colleges and exposed me to the galleries and salons of Pablo Picasso and other well-known artists whose works hang at MoMA.

I credit my artistic 'discovery' to my high school graffiti friends. They inspired me in 9th grade with their black book sketches and lettering. After one of my close friends passed away at 19, my desire to pursue the arts in a more professional manner grew. 

I am 27 now, and a passion for the arts is still a burning desire for me. It was a struggle to complete my bachelor's degree; having to attend three different colleges. My burning desire is what pushed me to persevere when my financial circumstances restricted me in any way. If I was short on money, art is what set me free.

​Over the past two summers I have sold over 80 paintings. 

Caitlin: It's paying off because I understand you have your first gallery show in March. Congratulations.  How can readers come see you work?
Scott: I am excited to have my first show in the New York Art Gallery -- NYA Gallery -- in Tribeca.

Over the last five years, I’ve been desperate to exhibit my work in a New York gallery. I would send numerous emails to galleries all around Manhattan and, after two years of waiting, I received an acceptance letter from NYA Gallery. I knew it was my destiny because I’m a New Yorker and what better place to show my work then in my hometown. The grand opening for the white wall gallery at 7 Franklin Place is March 7th. Anyone is welcome to RSVP at this link.

Caitlin: I can see from your website that you paint a lot of exteriors but also note there are portraits. How would you characterize your style?
Scott: My work explores the style of realism. Most of my works reflect the four seasons of the city. You can see in my paintings how the stores change their window displays and how the figures change their attire to fit with the feeling of the seasons and temperature. Selections of my works reflect my favorite season, the Christmas holiday. 
    
Caitlin: Do you draw inspiration from any particular artists?
Scott: Many. But my top five include Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Fairfield Porter, Rackstraw Downes, and Edouard Manet. I love their painterly approach to life drawing and the form.  

Caitlin: I take it that your career as an artist is gaining momentum. What is the ideal way to balance your artistic goals with the pressure of high cost of living in NYC?  As a young NYC-based artist, what do you want to tell our policy makers to preserve your ability to remain here?
Scott: It is my burning desire to be successful as a visual artist. My artistic career has been my number one priority for the last 10 years and it's now off to a great start. My ideal way is to run my own online business, selling latex original giclée prints to my fans and supporters to fund my work and continue my collection of plein-air cityscapes. To make it, I also currently work for a museum in Soho called the Color Factory.

I'd like to sell my works to private collectors and museums. It is extremely challenging for an artist to afford living and working in NYC at my age. To be successful as a visual artist, you need to have superior skill, discipline, and the right connections and people skills. Learning essential business skills throughout the artistic curriculum is a valuable asset in a young artist's career. This is something a lot of art schools leave out. The artist is then forced to rely on a gallery to help with painting sales and logistics. Many artists have to learn this on their own the hard way.

Affordable housing for artists, I would say, would be the best thing to advocate for. 

Caitlin: If someone wanted to buy your work, where would they go?
Scott: All of the artwork that you see on my website is for sale, and available in four different sizes. Visit my website: scottbenites.com.  

Caitlin: Thanks for your time and your beautiful work depicting Bloomingdale, our neighborhood. And here's to a hugely successful show in March and to more paintings of northeast corners bathed in beautiful light.

By Caitlin Hawke

If you are a regular library goer around here, you know the Bloomingdale branch staff, the ways of reserving online, the seasonal free help with taxes, the exercise classes, the fabulous neighborhood history collection, the children's programs, and much more.

Well, brace yourself! Because that's all going away for fifteen long months while a $3 million improvement project delivers back to the community a branch that better serves the neighborhood with a new dedicated teen room that will allow teens to talk, engage in group study, use computers, or work independently without disturbing other patrons. The project also provides much-needed upgrades to the second floor restrooms and adds new drinking fountains.

BAiP's Hooray for Hollywood's last hurrah at the branch (for now) takes place on Wednesday, February 13, at 4:30 p.m. The topic is Barbara Stanwyck and all are welcome. Details about this talk by Richard Harris are here.

Even if you can't make it to Hooray for Hollywood, do get in there for one last spin this week before the end of Friday, February 15, to say your til-we-meet-agains to branch manager Yajaira Mejia and the great staff who will be flung to various other branches for the term of the project.

During renovations, the nearest branches are:

• Morningside Heights branch at 2900 Broadway between W. 113th and 114th Streets, which will hold Bloomingdale Library's local history files.
• Harry Belafonte branch at 203 West 115th Street between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards
• St. Agnes branch at 444 Amsterdam Avenue between W. 81st and 82nd Streets, which will offer 1:1 Computer Tutoring and host the Bloomingdale Library's Knitting and Sewing Circle.

​
Renovation project updates will be posted here.

To put that 15 months in perspective, if our Republic is still standing, we'll likely know the two parties' nominees for POTUS when the Bloomingdale branch is back up and running.

Time flies, neighbors, time flies.

By Caitlin Hawke

Ok, for folks who park on the street, this post might get your Irish up. It entails the eventual loss of three parking spaces on Central Park West.

That's the bad news.  But the good news is that what I am about to report is a story of grassroots efforts to increase safety and improve aesthetics of "Strangers' Gate" -- the W. 106th Street portal to Central Park.

Thanks to neighbors' efforts, in particular to transportation advocate Peter Frishauf with help from Henry Rinehart, in mid-January Community Board 7 passed a resolution to improve access to this entrance to Central Park by opening the curb and prohibiting parking immediately outside it. Department of Transportation signage should be updated soon so that the approach will look like the photo below instead of the view in the photo above.

This will protect pedestrians who flow through Strangers' Gate, affording them better visibility of traffic on Central Park West and giving drivers a much better chance of seeing exiting and entering park goers.

I love the name of this gate and was vaguely aware that many of the park's entrances bear names. In fact, there are twenty named gates. Each honors a special population of New York City in an early nod to the fact that this vast green space was to be 'the People's Park.'  You might have been entering the park at W. 100th Street all these years and not have realized that that is Boys' Gate. Of course, anyone can go through it. But if you want to use Girls' Gate, you're going to have to go clear around to E. 102nd Street. Or you can pop down to the Dakota and enter through Women's Gate.

The key to the 20 gates is below.

The bitter irony of naming the gates for different NYC populations is that in creating Central Park, land was taken by eminent domain, and the African-American neighborhood known as Seneca Village was demolished in 1857. You won't see a Seneca Gate on the list below, but the rich history of Seneca Village is becoming better known.

The story has been told in recent plays and films, by creative writers, historians and archeologists. I will be posting more about it over the month of February. But while thinking about our newly visible Strangers' Gate, I wanted to pause and think about those who are largely invisible, those who were dispossessed of their homes, whose community was razed, and whose story was mostly lost -- all in the push to create a park that is a stranger to none of us.

Choose any of these 20 gates and enter this urban sanctuary with a thought toward Seneca Village on your way in.

By Caitlin Hawke

One of the posts I never got to last year was this charming shot. It comes from a gentleman who grew up around here and recalled, among other things, going to the Horn and Hardart automat, to the Armstead beauty salon (where Henry's was), to the TV store nearby and the candy store, Pollak's. Suba was Armstead Pharmacy back then and had a soda fountain where Mark's brother worked.

So readers may recall when the Hudes sign reappeared after the 103rd St. deli closed. Mark recalls that whenever he went into Hudes, the lady who ran it would give him half a salami sandwich.

Those were the days, my friends!

If you know someone who went to Booker T. in the early 1950s or if you know someone in the picture, email me with your stories! 

By Caitlin Hawke

Neighbors, as many of you already well know, there's been a true blue spectacle of a miracle come true. 

Our beloved West Side Rag got in there first to cover a familiar sad song and then, heroically, to amplify the message of a couple New Yorkers who'd thrown up their sashes, mad as Hades, screaming "I'm not going to take it anymore."

It all started just a few short days ago when WSRag writer Carol Tannenhauser and publisher Avi Salzman put out into the ether a melancholic story the likes of which we've read time and time before. Death by a thousand cuts of Mom & Pops gone down. This time it was Westsider Books, longtime purveyor of used books at Broadway and 81st Street, putting out the last call and walking over to the light switch to call it a day.

What ensued was just plain amazing to watch in real time. Bobby Panza, inspired by a line in Carol's article, fired up a crowdfunder page on GoFundMe. Local philanthropist Sally Martell fueled the endeavor with a jump-starting $10K donation; the Rag got in there with its great coverage (major hat tip to Avi for being the pillar of UWS communications), and then other press outlets and booklover fora amplified the message thanks to Bobby.  In what seems like a blink over $50K was raised from 818 (and counting) donors from near and far at an average donation of 64 bucks.

That's right. You heard me. A line in the sand was drawn. A few angels lofted up on their wings. And a veritable flood of good-willed neighbors and bibliofolks stopped 'taking it' and started a grassroots blaze of love for...wait for it...used books. Books! Old New York. Simple, old-time, hardworking merchants. Honest trade. City texture. Cultural color. Apparently, we, together, hold these truths to be self evident.

That 50K enables the store's owners to live another day, to bridge to the future, and to remain. For now.

Old Bloomingdaler Christopher Ming Ryan got in there like he did for Joon Fish Market (covered in Part 2 of this series) and captured it on film with Evan Fairbanks in yet another beautiful mini-documentary. (If you are an email subscriber of this blog, to see it you have to go to the blog post title above and read this post online). 

Readers, that is what I call an excellent day in the neighborhood. But we're not off the hook. Lights go out up and down Broadway every month. And if we are not putting our boots on the ground and crossing their thresholds to support them, we have no right to be perturbed.

Put down your tablets and laptops and go drop some cash at our hardware stores, cobblers, delis (if you can find them), small restaurants and specialty stores. Tell them you love them with your business. Tell our city officials that commercial storefront vacancies are intolerable and antithetical to thriving cities.

And then bask in the glory of this miracle come true. The miracle is you.


With thanks to Bobby, Sally, Avi, Carol, Chris, Evan and to the owners of the 818 feet that were put firmly down punctuating the collective cry: "no more!" My heart is full of love for you all. And to the owners and staff of Westsider Books, long may you ride.

Above I am embedding the film that Chris and Evan made. More of Chris's labors of love may be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/DisappearingNYC.

And I leave you with the "Lagniappe du jour" courtesy of Barry M.

By Caitlin Hawke

The slideshow above should start automatically.
​To navigate this photo gallery, click on the arrows or press the play button.
Note: If you are reading this in an email subscription, you may have to click on the
blog post title to view the gallery, or click here.

​The wonderful series of photos above documents a weekly outing over the past few winters to the rink in the northeast corner of Central Park.

It all started in 2015, when neighbor and BAiPer Miriam Duhan pitched the idea to me of creating a regular group of neighbors who would skate together. It was part of our TriBloomingdale Initiative in conjunction with BAiP and the 104th Street Block Association. And while lots of folks signed up, Miriam ended up skating alone or with just one other person more often than not.

We reassessed, and she soon became a regular volunteer for Hostelling International New York where each week she leads travelers through Central Park and up to the Lasker rink for an early morning skate. Above are the images that chronicle her very popular seasonal group featuring many travelers coming from warmer countries who'd never skated before.

I caught up with Miriam about her passion for skating, and we discussed her gig at the hostel (scroll down for the interview). Many neighbors don't know what a vibrant place the 103rd Street hostel is. It's a beautiful Amsterdam Avenue landmark, saved and then landmarked in 1983 thanks to neighbors' efforts after Fred Chapman and Linda Yowell, both Columbia University students, had done the research and major lift. Since 1990, the hostel has  welcome thousands of international and U.S. travelers each year. Pam Tice at the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group knows the building's story better than most and lucky for us she wrote it up here.

Miriam Duhan has lived in our area since 1989. Her children were already grown when she moved in. She got involved in her block association on 104th Street, eventually joining its board. She left the board just as BAiP was getting started and has been an active member since then, which led to the original skating idea. 

Lucky for the hostel, this idea evolved to be geared for their visitors, and from the gallery above, you can see the pure joy in that the simple act of a skate can bring.  (Don't neglect to scroll all the way down for today's lagniappe).


Interview with Miriam Duhan

Caitlin Hawke: How did you get started on the ice?
Miriam Duhan: My knees were bothering me and an orthopedist suggested that it was time for me to stop jogging.  I was very sad.  But I happened upon skating accompanying my grandchildren (at the time 4 and 7) to their skating lessons at Lasker Rink. Perfect, low impact on the knees.  I had skated as a child and from time to time throughout my life, and I always loved to do it on my birthday. So I decided to go weekly but wanted company. This eventually led to becoming an official volunteer at the hostel.  


Caitlin: There’s a series of iconic sepia photos that I am sure you know of Victorian New Yorkers skating in Central Park, with  the Dakota in the background and an otherwise little developed Central Park West. The skating area looks huge and is packed with skaters. What has changed besides the climate?
Miriam: I went to the exhibit about skating in New York at the Museum of the City of New York and apparently skating was a craze in New York in the 1800s and early 20th century.  It clearly was more reliably cold because there were a lot of places which were just flooded and used for skating, including some lawns in Central Park.  I don’t remember when the first artificially frozen rinks appeared.  I do remember the last time the Harlem Meer was frozen solid.  I think it was in 2015.  Lots of people wanted to walk or play on the Meer, but the police chased everyone off.  I saw it when I was on my way to Lasker.

In terms of a skating culture, one thing I love about being at Lasker is that a couple of schools on the east side bring the kids there every week for PE, starting in pre-k.  The teachers I spoke to said that they wanted to give the kids a lifelong skill.  The pre-k’s are the cutest to watch and the 4th graders are excellent skaters. My first year when I had no other companions, I made friends with some of the kids, and we enjoyed seeing each other every week.  (Note: with regard to youth skating, the NYT recently covered the afterschool program Figure Skating in Harlem, a program for leadership and academic development as well as skating. That article is here.)

Caitlin: When and where did you learn how to skate?
Miriam:Probably when I was in 5th grade.  There was a rink near where I lived in Roslyn Heights.  I don’t remember any lessons, it was just for fun and very popular.  There were a few times when a natural lake in Westbury froze over, and I skated there. As an adult living in Brooklyn, I skated in Prospect Park from time to time with my own kids and then on a lake in our village when I lived upstate. True, funny story: For my 30th birthday, I told my husband that what I wanted to do was go skating in Prospect Park.  We got a babysitter and went. After about ten minutes he complained that his legs were hurting so badly that we had to stop.  (I should have smelled a rat; he’d been a speed skater in high school).  So we decided to go to see my brother in Greenwich Village, and there was a surprise party for me. I have never gotten over my disappointment! I try to go skating on my birthday whenever I can.

Caitlin: What is your favorite place to skate of all time? 
Miriam: No favorite.  Anyplace I skate on my birthday makes me happy.

Caitlin: Who is your favorite person to skate with?
Miriam: Everyone!!

Caitlin: Speed or figure?
Miriam: Figure. Every year now, I fix a goal of improvement and work on it a bit every week.  This year its turning from skating forwards to skating backwards and from backwards to forwards.  I’m very careful because, like other seniors, I don’t want to fall and break a bone.  So far so good.

Caitlin: What’s your best move? Can you do any jumps?
Miriam: My feet never leave the ice. What I like to do is enjoy the music (lovely jazz in the mornings) and dance. 

Caitlin: Since you started volunteering for the hostel, and we made this into, more or less, a youth outing, though I know travelers of all ages join you. What have you learned about hostelers?
Miriam: They’re enthusiastic and adventurous.  They think skating in Central Park is very romantic – especially if there’s snow. There’s always a huge sign-up list, though not all come. There's so much going on at the hostel.  And they are really caring.  One person told me that she unexpectedly arrived in NY in the middle of the night, no place to stay, and the hostel was full.  They gave her a couch to crash on until a space opened up.

Caitlin: What’s a typical outing like?
Miriam: Many are traveling on their own, and they easily talk to each other on the walk over and during the skate time. Quite a few show up alone and leave with new companions interested in the same things to do next. There is no set end time.  People leave when they’re ready or just sit and watch for a while. I’m on the ice for about an hour and that’s enough for most people, but some stay longer. Some go back to the hostel, some stay in the park or go elsewhere. I like to find out about them, but with big groups I only get to talk to a few people.  On the ice, people with experience help and encourage newbies.  I’m not a teacher, but I check to make sure beginners have tightened their skates properly. I encourage them to just go. The brain figures it out after a couple of times around. Almost everyone does well by the end. From time to time there’s a really good skater who helps others and sometimes teaches me something. On the ice there’s lots of picture taking.  There’s also picture taking when we pass the waterfall in the park on the way over.  I should also say that the first couple of years I got to know the staff at the Lasker skating rink, and they have been so lovely to us. 

Caitlin: How do you feel during and after the skate?
Miriam: Happy and exhilarated.  (In the afternoon I usually need a nap, but I doubt that the travelers do!)

Caitlin: Has your volunteering changed how you might travel? 
Miriam: Hadn’t thought about travel skate experiences, but it’s a good idea.  I think if I was traveling alone I’d try a hostel. And I’m encouraging my grandchildren to do so. One traveled on his own to Amsterdam, stayed at a hostel and had a wonderful time. 

Caitlin: Do you have any great rinks or skating experiences on your bucket list?
Miriam: I’m thinking about visiting all the skating venues in New York. That’s as far as I’ve imagined.  

Caitlin: Last question: do you have any advice for beginners or rusty skaters?  
Miriam: Yes. Get out there, make sure your skates are snug around the ankles, hold on to the rail as long as you need it and move your feet. About two rounds is usually enough for people to start getting the feel of it. When your ankles feel tired or tense, get off the ice and take a break, then go back. Check out Youtube first.  Recently a Costa Rican told me she’d gotten advice that way. I could see her doing the things she’d been advised and pretty soon she was flying!


Readers, as a lagniappe, I am throwing in an archival 1902 video from the Library of Congress. It shows  what looks like a thousand skaters on the Lake in Central Park just at the level of the Dakota. Just look at them all!

​If you are reading this in an email subscription, you have to click on the blog post title to view the video or click here.

By Caitlin Hawke

Well, neighbors, we’re coming quickly to the end of 2018. And I don’t know about you, but it sure flew by for me. I remember last year’s polar vortex like it was yesterday. 

Taking stock, I can measure the year in the number of blog posts I've gotten up, despite that I have such a backlog of potential posts. It puts me in a perpetual state of disappointment that I don’t have more time. Still, I looked at the log and see a grand total of 85 posts in 2018. That’s the most in one year since I started maintaining the site in April 2014. But the guilt persists, and I will try to roll out some of the treasures sitting in my desktop folder ominously marked "Blog To Do."

As I often write, our neighborhood is a very inspiring muse. Like Bob L. or John K. and so many others of you who love to “noodle” in different neighborhoods, I always enjoy a good city walk — looking for a bit of old New York. Or at least authentic New York. It’s getting harder to find, but it’s there in pockets. And those walks, no matter where, always remind me how much I love my home turf: bookended by two great parks, sleepier than the now mall-like UWS, relatively low-lying in terms of the architecture, and so luminous. Bloomingdale has it all.

Add to that the great history, and that’s what makes it so satisfying to chronicle.

Bloomingdale also has a tradition of community -- from the "Old Community" supplanted by Park West Village whose spirit truly lives on (and gave rise to the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group), to the community fostered by this Block Association with half a dozen events and four newsletters each year, to the communities that our neighboring block association and the one Bloomingdale Aging in Place has built over the last 10 years. That's just four quick examples, and there are many micro-communities in between, too.

When I reflect on what at times seems to be the electronic and political dystopia taking hold, I have to say all this community-building that has come naturally in Bloomingdale gives me quite a bit of hope going forward -- especially if new neighbors will join in, roll up sleeves and take up the tradition.

As part of my ongoing love letter to our piece of the Manhattan pie, I wanted to offer back up some of the slices from the year gone by — posts that have received great traffic from readers together with the ones I most enjoyed writing. It's far from an exhaustive list of the 2018 posts. But it's perhaps the cream.

Have a look at the links below and then perhaps you’ll write with your favorites to [email protected] or in the comments section of this post.

In any case, I appreciate that you read along throughout the year, and I send best wishes for an excellent 2019.  If you know nearby neighbors who would enjoy the blog, send them this link where they can subscribe.

And now to the Year in Blog Favorites....


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To read each post, click on the corresponding image at left or the hyperlinked text. If you are reading this post in an email subscription, it may be easier to view directly on the website.

​• Bob on Broadway: Dylan's Powerful Residency at the Beacon
Then if you want, gild the lily with a post to honor his 77th birthday here.
Yes, a bit of a stretch for the Bloomingdale catchment, but I'm counting on you to humor me. It took all I had to refrain from writing about The Public's Girl from the North Country and its superb cast including the luscious drummer in red, the boxer, and Mare Winningham -- three actors who stole the show. Look for Girl on Broadway soon.

​• Beautiful Block of Riverside Drive: Seven Beauties in Our Midst
Author Dan Wakin digs into the history of 330-337 Riverside Drive.
Pictured at left: Bennie the Bum with the sawed-off leg, not pictured!

​• Women's Suffrage & Bloomingdaler Harriot Stanton Blatch
Elizabeth Cady Stanton's remarkable daughter Harriot (a babe in arms at left) lived right here. Read more about the fight in NYC to get women the vote, including the effort to get Columbia's men to the polls.

​• Nightmare on 102nd Street
Always a blog favorite, the annual Block Association Halloween Party "Ghouls' Gallery", replete with a visitation from King George the Wee. The party is just one offering of the Block Association; for other B.A. event coverage in 2018, see this link.

​• Estelle Parsons: Triple Threat of a Neighbor
What do I love about Miss Parsons? Everything!
Her intensity and her energy are her superpowers that allow her to thieve every scene she's in. Catch her in this Bloomingdale walkabout. Probably the year's most-viewed blog post!  The lady has a legion of fans.

​​• Manfred Kirchheimer's Time Encapsulated
​What do I love about filmmaker Manny Kirchheimer? Also everything!
​A Bloomingdaler for five and a half decades, he's chronicled the city in his contemplative documentaries along with the odd fiction such as the film "Short Circuit" at left, shot entirely in our neighborhood.

​​• Throwback Thursday Spotlights 1920 Victrola Store
​Throwback Thursday: Bloomingdale Edition is the section of the blog where I feature historical pictures and tidbits. A trove of these await publication, time permitting in 2019. Emanuel Blout's Victrola store, circa 1920, was my favorite this year. Have a TBT favorite? Let me know in the comments.
You can view all TBT: BE posts here.

​​• Throwback Thursday: The Divine Tight Line & Philippe Petit
​This TBT: BE post comes in a close second place.
​Discover the neighborhood feat of the great tightrope walker Petit, high on Amsterdam Avenue. And divine as ever.

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​​• JFK Impersonator Vaughn Meader on the UWS
​JFK would have turned 101 in 2018 and in his honor this post unearths the wonderful two albums that comedian Vaughn Meader turned out before the stars fell down and the curtain closed on Camelot.

​​​• Catching Up with Hedy Campbell
​Four years and 330 posts ago, Hedy asked me to write for the blog. The idea was to pick up where the creators had left off and fill in the gaps between quarterly Block Association newsletter issues. Without breaking a sweat, Hedy has turned out the publication since 1987 -- a massive feat if ever there was one. The blog is child's play by comparison. I end the highlights of 2018 with Hedy because she is a neighborhood jewel whose efforts have helped build and sustain a community feeling now for over 30 years. It's a team effort to be sure, so this hat tip goes to all folks who value this organization.

And now is your chance to help sustain it!
​
Join us by becoming a member here.


Catch you in 2019 for more Throwbacks,
more Hyper Local Eats, more Bloomingdale,
and, yes, probably more Bob Dylan.
​Thanks for reading.

By Caitlin Hawke

Neighbors, sing the shortday blues adieu. It's the ancient tradition of marking the Winter solstice, and we're doing it with song.

Songsheets are downloadable here.

By Caitlin Hawke

A quick hat tip to neighbor Betsy Goldberg and the shareholders of the Master building in whose gallery Betsy's art will be on display until January 26. An earnest request to the door person at 310 Riverside might get you a peek at her canvases in the lobby of the Master.

For more art, don't miss Julia Spring's "Meet Your Talented Neighbors" column in the Block Association newsletter covering other artists and their various gigs.

By Caitlin Hawke

The Bloomingdale School of Music at 323 West 108th Street wants to spread the love.

These days we can all use a little love. So here’s a chance to share some music, to make some music, or to learn a bit more about how to make time for making music from author Amy Nathan.

On Thursday, December 6 at 7 p.m., a meet up and free concert will feature a range of players from beginner pianists to jazz ensemble and chamber players. A wine and cheese reception follow.

See below for details and to RSVP or to request information, please email [email protected].

By Caitlin Hawke

Spearheaded by neighbors Nancy Macagno and Pam Tice, the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group have pulled together a program "Bloomingdale Blocks" featuring the history of how block associations got started in these parts with help from the Citizens Committee for New York City. Note the groovy detail from our June 15, 1972, newsletter showing the then-directors of this BA looking like they stepped right out of the musical Hair.

David Reich, Mort Berkowitz and Jean Jaworek all will present.Details in the flyer below.

​Come on out on Tuesday and give thanks.

In the meantime, a very happy TG to you all!

By Caitlin Hawke

She turns 91 today. The great Estelle Parsons. No better way to celebrate her verve, than to watch her walk the neighborhood in the interview below.  If you are receiving this post by email subscription, you'll have to go to the blog to see this video that will, I guarantee, delight you. If you don't come away shaking your head as to why she isn't in her own starring role each and every season on Broadway, I will come shake your head for you. It's an oft-repeated truism that we need more roles for women, more roles for women older than 40, more roles written by women. And more roles for Estelle Parsons. Maybe you saw her in August Osage County or perhaps as Clyde Barrow's sister-in-law, Blanche back in the day.

Her intensity and her energy are her superpowers that allow her to thieve every scene she's in.

Below, I give you, Estelle Parsons, in her natural habitat, and a hat tip to her on her birthday!

By Caitlin Hawke

It's late on a Thursday so you'll have this throwback on Friday. But do come travel with me in time to just about two months after Black Tuesday, 1929. The new year 1930 has been rung in, it's good and cold, the Great Depression has begun. But unemployment won't peak for three more years in the city. 

And the great bellowing lung of our neighborhood, Straus Park, pays it all no heed. For here is a town square where folks of all ages come to inhale the fresh, crisp air and to entertain one another. An era before TV, the golden age of radio shines by night, but by day by golly the folks are out.

Fortunate in many ways, but in one we are not: we lack a town square. We lack that knowledge that you can fall out on a daily basis into the local pocket park and meet all your neighbors. It's why I love the yard sales that the Block Associations put on.  It's why BAiP's community-building mission is so needed.

We have forgotten how to commune in our own backyard.

The video below is extraordinary for its quality, its crystal clear sound, and the uncanny you-are-there feeling. See Straus Park -- less green, ok -- but more vibrant than you've ever seen it before. See all modes of 1930s transportation, including a rollerskater and a period pram. Get a good gander at Broadway looking north from its intersection at West End Avenue. And get a peep of the back of "Memory" -- far from the star of this movie.

It's perfection. A talkie of a time capsule. And it's yours if you click on the image above since if you are reading this in an email subscription the video won't play.

​Enjoy!

h/t to the West Side Rag comments section for bringing this beaut to the surface.

By Caitlin Hawke

Kids weren't the only tribe out in force on Wednesday evening in Bloomingdale. Photogs Ozzie Alfonso, Celia Knight (at right in candy corn scarf, I swear!), Maria Vitagliano and David Ochoa were lying in wait to capture the wee sugar-fueled neighbors.

While one or two King Georges were spotted, there were no Hillary Rodham Clintons in the ratpack, but someone needs to say "It takes a village"!  'Cause it does.

Just look at that table of goodies below. Yowza.

This was of course thanks to your Block Association vols who made it all come true.

Hat tip to child-at-heart and toothfairy accomplice Jane Hopkins (depicted above in the boa and orange witch hat), who has been the field marshal for nigh on forever -- all right, not quite that long, but you get the picture. To her team of big kids who dole out the dough. To the good folks at St. Luke's who always pitch in. To the donors who made contributions of candy, time, and dollars. And to the families who came, saw and conquered the treats and the streets.

If you are sitting on the sidelines, thankful that we have a community-building association in our midst, consider pitching in and helping the Block Association. We're looking for why-oh-ewe!  To volunteer, email us at [email protected]. To become a member, click here.

And now to our gallery: "Nightmare on 102nd Street!"  If you know someone in these pictures, send them this link and tell them to subscribe to the blog: https://www.w102-103blockassn.org/blog/nightmare-on-102nd-street.

By Caitlin Hawke

Thanks go to Celia Knight who sent the photo below of two hearty neighbors on a rainy Saturday. They  joined the Block Association team headed by Mark Schneiderman, head of the ecology committee, to weed, clean, plant bulbs and generally beautify our tree wells.

They came. They saw. They mulched. And our trees are all the better for it.

If you are interested in the state of city trees, on October 24, at 6:30 p.m., Parks & Rec is holding a street tree workshop. You'll find the flyer below.  I wanted to add a lagniappe from SNL this week, a rap ode to trees. But it truly wasn't ready for prime time. Best line: "You can agree that more trees isn't a bad thing, right though?"

#Truth

By Caitlin Hawke

The Block Association walks the talk when it comes to covering the catchment. First in the Spring, you can beautify the tree wells with annuals and get a good workout in your knees, quads and back. Then come May, you can enjoy W. 103rd Street at the ever wonderful street fair, yard sale, bazaar, fest -- or what ever you wish to call it.

As Fall rolls in, the BA goes back to the planting of bulbs and neatening of tree wells, followed in quick succession by the Halloween Parade and Solstice Caroling.

All year long on second Tuesdays at 8 p.m. you have the chance to come to the monthly board meetings which are held at 306 W. 102nd Street. You can bring your questions or just come to see how things are done and offer your help.

This weekend is your chance to give a little sugar to our trees. And I don't know about you, but after the last few weeks, I am ready to think and act locally.

The BA is calling all new neighbors, kids, green-thumbed or not. The tidying and planting will run from 10 a.m. til it's done around noon. All the info you need is below and if you still have questions, email: [email protected].

Then hold onto your hats because 0ctober 31 is blowing in quickly. That's the day we give sugar to our kids, big and small.  My observation is that the adults lean in almost as much as the young'uns. If you want to lend a hand, email Jane at [email protected].

Check out the galleries from past years like Ghoul's Gold here and Goblin It Up here. If that doesn't sell you on turning out at 6 p.m. on W. 102nd and West End, maybe the home-baked goodies or cider will.  I am resurrecting the Great Pumpkin Interview with Saxton Freymann here -- a blog favorite.

For more information, you can read the most recent edition of the BA newsletter here.

See you on the streets of the catchment!  Lagniappe from erstwhile Bloomingdaler Nina Simone below.  If you are reading this in an email subscription, you'll have to click on the blog post title to view the video.

By Caitlin Hawke

Two weeks from today, on Saturday, September 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., West 104th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue becomes the best place to be.  Our yard sale was rained out earlier this year, but our neighbors over on 104th are hard at work making offerings to weather gods and booking vendors for this annual event.

It's a great way to turn your unwanted household items into gold while someone goes off happy to give your junque a new life in a happy home. If you don't live on the block, a vendor space will set you back $60 and a space is big enough to split with a friend. All the details may be found here.

Once you are done vending on 104th, don't throw the rest of it away!  Discover (and thank me later for telling you now) the fabulous freecycling (freegan) community of trashnothing.com.  Part cult, part utopia, part distribution of resources, trashnothing.com is an electronic bulletin board where you can put up "haves" or "wants" for quite literally anything.  Trim your book collection, winnow your pots and pans, give away kid items and clothes. Or post an "ask" for a crockpot, a curling iron, an electric drill. You will be amazed by how this community comes through. And it's all in the name of not letting anything go to waste ever again.  The New York City group has 64,000 members.  Read the boards to get the hang of it, sign in, and get started decluttering today!

Only catch is that everything changes hands completely free.

See you in two weeks on 104th Street!

By Caitlin Hawke

There is a season, turn, turn, turn.

From yesterday to today, there's a distinct change of air. Gone is that oppressive humidity and stratospheric heat. It could flop back, mind you. But we know now that the autumn train is unstoppable.

At this turn of season, it doesn't matter how old I get: those back-to-school butterflies and the urges for a sharp new outfit impose themselves like some annual version of a circadian rhythm. Those togs -- usually woolen, preferably plaid, always crisp -- chafed on the child's body that had been in a bathing suit and sundresses for the prior three months. But it was a rite of passage to go back-to-school shopping with my mom, the way she might have gone to San Francisco's City of Paris for her own new fall uniform with her mom. And to come out the other end of the mini-spree with something that said: "Fall, I am freshly clad for you and you alone."

The best were the patent leather Mary Janes. You don't see a lot of Mary Janes anymore. And Crocs still haven't caught on to patent leather. But Birks have.

And speaking of Birks, we won't give up the sandals just yet; summer technically still has a few weeks to wage on. With the warmer planet, high temps test their welcome, but the change of light always rats fall out. You've noticed the sun rapidly falling from its zenith, you've seen the equinox tugging down at the night shade. Yet tomatoes and stone fruits still roll in fast and furious.

It's been several warm weeks since I last posted, but I've been out there watching. The neighborhood provides endless inspiration as a muse. I promise, there's lots more coming as time permits.

For those neighbors who've been traveling or grinding away at work, you may not know that our ginkgo warrior at W. 103rd Street and West End finally came down on August 17. Bettina B. watched this from her window wistfully -- "like an old friend dying without a proper send off," she said.

Indeed.

That ginkgo's sad story will fade. Turn, turn, turn. 

Old neighbors are sort of like that, too. You miss them and feel as if they're still here. Then someone moves into their old space and you get used to the new normal. Then one day you wake up and you are in the old guard in your building surrounded by new neighbors who don't remember Positively 104th Street or Au Petit Beurre. The Movie Place. The Metro. The Olympia. La Casita or La Tacita d'Oro. And you think warmly of the neighbors who have moved or pushed on to the great unknown.

Reminds me of a lyric:

Which brings me to another thing seen recently in the neighborhood. This one, in flagrante grafitto, is courtesy of David O., taken from the terrace of a walk-up on the beautiful 300 block of W. 105th Street. Is it foolish to hope, 38 years after the tagging, that RC + MS are still going strong? Or were they just huckleberry friends back in the '80s?  If you are out there, let us know.

It's not all wistfulness about the end of summer around here, rest assured. There are great things to look forward to. The New York Film Festival fires up in a few weeks and neighbor Manny Kirchheimer will be on the slate with Dream of a City. You can buy tickets starting on September 9.

And there's the yard sale put on by the W. 104th St. Block Association fast approaching on September 29, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Vendor tables are still available, but clear your Saturday and turn out. It's always fun. Plus with all the high holy days between now and then it will be here before you know it.

And last by not least, we have a primary coming up quickly. Thursday, September 13 is the day. You can find your polling place here.

Deep in December, you'll look back on mellow September. In the meantime, follow, follow, follow this blog for more.


My lagniappe today is a newly unearthed Pete Seeger demo. A piece of perfection, scratchy vinyl and all. (For those reading in an email subscription, simply click the link to hear the recording.)

By Caitlin Hawke


Manfred Kirchheimer has lived in our neighborhood for 54 years and his days of glory seem just to be getting going. Manny is an 87-year-old independent filmmaker. His documentaries are direct, personal, and driven by an aesthetic sense that can find narrative, meditative beauty, and social commentary in the claw of a huge excavator or a klatch of coffee-drinking friends.

Manny is a documentarian who received a Guggenheim at the age of 85, and a year later, in 2017, was honored by MoMA with its first retrospective of his films. The series unfurled over nine days with two screenings of each of his films and a world premiere of his film “My Coffee with Jewish Friends.”  The MoMA reviews were great.

The retrospective was the brainchild of Jacob Perlin, a sort of guardian angel of cinema. Jake is the artistic and programming director down at the Metrograph, now in its second year.

A little digression here about the Metrograph, which if you don’t yet know it, is worth the trek to 7 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side. Yes, you have to be able to tolerate its chi-chi side with a hipster restaurant-bar, not to mention the concessions stand which you just have to see and judge for yourself.

These revenue drivers, I suppose, are part of the business model to keep it afloat in today’s real estate market. But at its heart, the Metrograph is about cinephilia, screening archive-quality 35 mm films as well as new releases on state-of-the-art digital equipment. Quirky seating was made from reclaimed pine harvested from the now-demolished Domino Sugar factory. It’s a minimalist, gallery-type setting but that doesn’t stop the two-screen movie house from conjuring up the littlest film houses in Paris’s Latin Quarter, where you slip in and fall back in time.

The Metrograph has screened several of Manny’s films. “Tall,” Manny’s documentary about the American skyscraper and architect Louis Sullivan, ran there for five weeks and kept reeling them in.

The Metrograph-MoMA-Manny bridge is Jake Perlin. Jake became a celebrator of Manny’s work a while back and Manny now refers to him as his “agent.” The Jake-Manny story began when a cult classic of Manny’s film, “Stations of the Elevated,” went out of print from 1995 to 2014. It is known as the classic graffiti documentary.  Now a precious time capsule, it was shot over three weeks in 1977, released in 1980, and is somewhat surrealistic according to Manny. It forms a diptych with “SprayMasters,” which is about four graffiti artists in their 50s. Separated from “Stations” by 28 years, “SprayMasters” (2008) combines footage left over from the former with recent interviews of the artists.

VHS copies of “Stations” have circulated for years fueling its cult status, most recently on platforms like YouTube. Like all underground cult classics, it needed to ride again, but one major hurdle blocked it: the prohibitive cost of music rights. The score included Charlie Mingus and Aretha Franklin. To rerelease it meant to cough up $30K. That’s budget enough for two or three films, the way Manny works. So Jake rose to the challenge, got the rights, and “Stations” is back in circulation.

Perlin eventually found his way to Manny’s Broadway and W. 101st Street living room to see the documentaries on real film –- projected as they were meant to be. He quickly pulled in Josh Siegel,  MoMA's film department curator and, together at Manny’s home, they screened film after film. The idea for the retrospective was hatched and the rest, as they say, is history.

I caught up with Manny a few months ago and interviewed him. How was it to have this late career recognition? “It’s absolutely wonderful to have this moment,” he told me, “and it wouldn’t have happened at 40 years old. You have to live a long time!”

Manny retired from the School of Visual Arts in 2017 after teaching there for 42 years. He has taught for much of his career at places like CCNY, Columbia, NY Institute of Technology, and Philadelphia College of Art. But his movie-making days are far from done. “Dream of a City,” a tone poem about construction and other city phenomena, will be released soon.  He is currently editing his new film, “Middle Class Money, Honey,” based on conversations with friends and acquaintances –- from millennials to octogenarians –- about earning, spending, and their relationship to money as they live in NYC.

Manny emigrated to the U.S. at the age of five. Early on, he lived in upper Manhattan, including Marble Hill and Washington Heights. After a short decade in Rego Park, he moved to the UWS in 1964 where he raised his two sons with his wife Gloria, a partner in crime when it comes to the documentary-making family trade. For example, following Manny's documentary film "We Were So Beloved," which dealt with the history of the Jewish community in which he was raised, Gloria edited and annotated the interviews and these became the book "We Were So Beloved: Autobiography of a German Jewish Community" co-authored by the couple.

Before coming to our neck of the woods, the Kirchheimers had been looking for a new place for two years. At the time, Manny was filming “Claw” on the Upper West Side. It was Gloria who found the new apartment. Manny recalled that their original rent for seven rooms was $233, including electric. Suffice it to say, they snapped it up.

I asked him how he keeps his enterprise nimble and manageable. The secret, he says, is that he stays close to home. Because financing takes years, he keeps sets and travel to a minimum. He has a devoted crew, some of whom are his former students, and shoots only on digital these days. He can film for about $5,000 before getting to the sound mixing; that costs another $3,000. He edits the films himself -- generally a one to two-year process.

He filmed “Short Circuit” -- a rare fiction in his catalogue and dating to 1973 -- in and from his W. 101st Street apartment, much of it straight out his window. From there, his camera filmed westward straight down 101st Street to the undeveloped Jersey side of the Hudson, and south down Broadway with a good look at several old-time storefronts. Like the shot at the top of this post, the images of the neighborhood are excellent. And the documentary-style footage is remarkable for both how integrated Broadway is and the degree to which people on the street engaged with one another -- something that has been completely displaced by cellphone usage. The story is also one about complexities of race relations and socioeconomics. The following description comes from the Union Docs website where the film was shown in 2014:

"In his apartment on the corner of 101st Street and Broadway, a documentary filmmaker begins to question his interactions to the white family and black workers he shares his daily existence with. Staring out his window he begins to drift and fantasize a parallel life, which turns into a complex sound and image montage of street photography depicting a long­ since vanquished Upper West Side. Full of doubt, a lifelong city resident looks at his liberalism and doesn’t like what he sees. Constructed reality and documentary fiction, an unclassifiable masterpiece of ideas and technique that by all rights should be considered a landmark, had it not been virtually impossible to see."

One of his most well-known films, “Canners,” (2017) was largely shot on the Upper West Side. It’s about the industry begat by the 5-cent deposit on soda cans and water bottles. It’s social commentary and anthropology and art, rolled into one.

I asked Manny about the retrenchment of west side cinema, dwindling into oblivion before our eyes. He fondly remembered the 1986 screening of “We Were So Beloved” at the Metro, right around the corner from his place. And he recalled Dan and Toby Talbot, their New Yorker theater having been torn down, moving to the Metro for some years. The Talbots of course went on to build the Upper West Side's taste for foreign and independent film at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. There, this past fall, one of the last films Dan chose –- not knowing it would be Lincoln Plaza Cinema’s swansong -- was Manny’s “My Coffee with Jewish Friends,” which ran until the very last day of LPC, opening shortly after Dan passed away.

I asked him to reflect on his body of work. Like children, how could Manny point to his favorite of his films? He hedged by telling me that by financial measure, the most successful so far have been “We Were So Beloved” with “Stations” incredibly only in second place. I suspect that might change with more time.

But, he softened and replied, “Claw” was his favorite. Asked why, he explained “I think I sank my heart into it and then it came out so nicely. It’s a good film.”

You can have a look at a series of Manny's film trailers here. And keep your eye open for the next chance to see these in an art house.

Right under our noses lives Manny Kirchheimer, a filmmaker who is part of the city’s history, recording it, making it, while instructing aspiring filmmakers as to the ways of observing, commenting and documenting.

Until there’s a new house or Lincoln Center picks up on Mannymania, I guess I’ll have to say “See you at the Metrograph!”

I am embedding above a very short film on Manny made by one of his SVA students, Bianca Conti. If you are reading this in your email subscription, click on the blog post title to view this directly on the blog.

 

Live in the neighborhood and enjoy these occasional blog posts? Spread the word by telling a friend or neighbor to subscribe. There's a lot more in store!

By Caitlin Hawke

A little more than three years ago, I wrote about a beautiful neighbor on this blog: Kumiko Imamura. A woman who worked as hard as anyone I've known, and always had a warm hello or good-bye and a smile.

Really, her smile started in her eyes - the smize - and then made its way across her whole face, like sun up at Sun-Chan. 

The quintessence of a hostess, she and her husband Tokishige own Sun-Chan, and Kumiko's way is to welcome you in, tuck you into her apron, make sure you have a hot cup of green tea, and take care of you while you were "hers" -- in her care at her hearth. 

If you've been to Sun-Chan, you know her hearth was, in fact, an inferno.  So this genuine hospitality was all in spite of standing long hours in the yakitori's scorching heat with constant motion around her coming from her loyal staff in a very tight space.

I wrote about her robata here and it's all still true, except it's not:

It's not true any more because tonight, I learned that we've lost this beautiful woman.

In Japanese, depending on how it's written, her name means beauty, forever, child.... To paraphrase James Joyce: She was Kumiko by name and kumiko by nature. And her loss is immense.

She weathered a terrible bout last year with the restaurant losing its gas, and she rebounded from the anguish of the saga with her arms spread wide to welcome her customers back. It's too cruel a twist that she's now gone.

In mourning, the staff and her husband Tokishige have closed the restaurant this week to bid her farewell. I understand there may be a service at the New York Buddhist Church in roughly six or seven days. If you would like details should I learn them, please leave a comment below and I'll be in touch.

I hope Tokishige and Rie and all the Sun-Chan extended restaurant family know that Kumiko is a neighbor who will be missed dearly and that Sun-Chan's community mourns alongside them all.

I won't soon forget this Queen of Queens.

With warmest thoughts of Kumiko and deep sympathies to her loved ones.