Lauren Elder performed at Joe’s Pub on one of my favorite days of the calendar: the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Although Lauren was in the Public Theater’s and Broadway revival show of Hair, this was her biggest show to date. Here are some of the photos from this November 21, 2012 concert.
My favorite shot of the night is of an eyeline gaze between Lauren and her mother. Lauren’s mother had came all the way from California to see the show, and her glowing expression of pride was really moving. Because Joe’s Pub does not allow flash photography, I had to make do with two subjects in very different light, but I think the moment comes through.
The Crosby Connection was a literal hole-in-the-wall on Crosby Street, just south of Bleecker Street. Joey Cramarossa, the shop’s proprietor, made the freshest sandwiches, all made to order. The shop has, like just about any longtime resident in Manhattan, forced to move over the years.
I started eating at the Crosby Connection around 2001, and regularly went there for years until I moved out of Greenwich Village in 2008. I probably ate several dozen “Italian Stallion” sandwiches, among countless Meatball subs and various others. They moved around during my hiatus, installing themselves inside of Parisi Bakery, where they procured their bread, and at the now-shuttered Bleecker Street Theater. It was there that I found them in 2009, when I started working at NYU-TV, and I quickly became a regular there again. I even turned on a few co-workers to their sandwiches, but sadly, our go-to sandwich shop didn’t last much longer.
But last night…
Joey Sez: Hi World….I'm back. What have you been eating?
According to their stream of tweets in the last few days, they will start as a catering operation, in time for the holidays, and aim to operate again some time in the new year.
I miss the Italian Stallion. Both the sandwich and Joey.
As you likely know, Superstorm Sandy devastated a lot of homes and businesses throughout the American east coast. While we were lucky to not have experienced any specific damage, others in Long Island City are not so lucky. The Waterfront Crab House sustained a lot of flooding, but they were not the only businesses that suffered because of the floodwaters that came ashore. The evolving gastropub Alewife has been through a lot of changes since it opened in 2011, but it was dealt a pretty tough blow after Sandy. They managed to reopen on Election Day Tuesday, and are raising money so that they can rebound after basically rebuilding from scratch.
Their new executive chef, Gregorio Pedroza, has posted a very personal video asking everyone to support Alewife, either through patronizing it or making a donation.
Please consider donating, spending some money there, or both. Even when they were unable to open, they were taking donations for victims in the Rockaways.
Last night, I took a tour of the neighborhood with a few friends to get out of our apartments. As much as we’re thankful that we were relatively unaffected by the storm, we are getting a little stir crazy from sitting at home.
We discovered that the Waterfront Crab House, one of the oldest restaurants in Long Island City’s and one of my favorite neighborhood institutions, was closed. As its name implies, the restaurant sits near the East River and, as one would expect, it was flooded by Monday night’s storm surge and tidal flooding.
I walked by there this afternoon to see how the restaurant had fared. It’s bad!
One of the cooks took me through the dining room, which was completely dark because the restaurant does not have power, to show me the kitchen. Even in near-complete darkness, I could see that the furniture was soaked. The wood floor not only felt wet but also warped, presumably from the water damage. When we reached the kitchen, I saw all of the appliances and shelves all across the floor, as if someone tossed and ransacked the room. The flood waters had reached high enough to float everything in the kitchen and redeposit on the floor as the water retreated. We could see that the water level had reached about three-feet above the floor.
It’s truly sad to see the local crab house in such a state. But I’m encouraged by two facts. First, they rebuilt after a serious 2009 fire. Second, there were about a dozen men and women working on the restaurant, draining the water from the basement and removing the seat cushions from the dining room chairs to air dry them. They look determined to rebuild. And I really hope they do, again.
By now, the string of emergency alerts from my work sites have been trickling in and are beginning to have a pretty predictable pattern.
Here’s the order of the announcements.
CUNY announced a complete closure of its campuses, around 7:00 this morning.
Around 12:30 PM, Fordham reassures us that everyone and its facilities are unharmed, but that classes are cancelled for Wednesday. That closure directly impacts me since I teach an 8:30 class there.
Just before 1:00 PM, NYU also announced a complete closure of classes and activities, although they have established electronics charging stations, provided Internet and health care services at Kimmell and the lower level of Bobst Library.
At about 1:45 PM, Pratt Institute, where I was supposed to teach class today, has been cancelled classes for tomorrow as well. However, that is a moot point for me since I only teach there on Tuesdays.
Due to severe storm conditions, all NYC residents are being instructed to go indoors immediately and to remain indoors until further notice. Go indoors, and stay away from windows.
A year to the week after last year’s Halloween storm, we have ourselves a very serious weather event hitting the region. And this one appears to be much bigger than Hurricane Irene, which was our first real hurricane threat and a storm that stranded my mother here for several days. We managed the last two storms pretty well by sitting tight at home and even patronizing our local businesses. We were also very fortunate to not have any flooding, not losing power, and keeping our plumbing functioning normally. I hope that we have the same luck again.
By some measures, the storm has already been very disruptive, much more so than the previous two storms. All of my work sites are closed on Monday and on Tuesday, including New York University, Fordham University, Lincoln Center, CUNY, Queens College and Pratt Institute.
More local businesses around Long Island City are open now than were during Hurricane Irene. Based on a short walk around the neighborhood, I saw Cranky’s serving the rare Monday brunch, the local Korean-owned E & I Grocery was open, and we couldn’t resist the reasonably priced Sushi and Sashimi lunch special at BANY. We also noticed that
the Chinese take-out place was open, even if they had taped their windows shut.
However, the Vernon Wine and Liquor and the Cuban Madera had similarly boarded their windows, and the local laundry had been closed since Sunday evening, just before the subways stopped running.
So far, we’ve had only one storm-related mishap. The wind blew off the hatch leading to the roof of our apartment building. I was able to find the hatch cover just a few feet away. A neighbor and I removed the few remaining items on the roof and secured the hatch cover with some rope.
As the storm progresses, I’ll keep posting any updates for as long as it is possible… and worthwhile.
With the threat of afternoon showers, I took the subway instead of riding my bike to NYU today. As I was walking through Washington Square Park this morning, I saw a woman, who was walking two dogs, standing in the middle of the pedestrian path with her camera phone pointed at one of the benches. On that bench was a hawk. It was quietly perched there.
The hawk had captured the attention of those who are always a presence on the park’s west end, such as the chess players, dog walkers, and various others passersby. All of us were cautiously taking photos of it. I had snapped one with my iPhone, but since that camera has such a short focal length, I reached into my bag and pulled out my G12. That allowed me to “get closer” shots since that camera has a zoom lens.
Hawks have been making their home around the park and atop Bobst Library, although this is the first time I saw one of them in person. I’m not sure if this is one of the celebrity hawks (such as Pip or Violet).
A new favorite photo of the former Transworld Airlines terminal at JFK Airport. An awesome spectacle to see the renovated building, but I didn’t appreciate paying $10 round trip to ride the Air Train but not fly anywhere.
