Astoria Life: New York Minutes

Musings from the Queen of Queens, or My 6 years of living in Queens and greater NYC, where I moved to work for the water department and ended up, among other things, traveling the world and appearing on a billboard on Times Square.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Creator of the Anthora cup passes away at 87




Leslie Buck, who invented the iconic coffee cup (above), died today.

I had no idea this cup had a name (Anthora!)

Saint Vincent's will close at 8am today

Saint Vincent's will close at 8am today. Sad .......

Monday, April 19, 2010

Freakin' clowns on the N train

So .... I am on the N train going downtown at approximately 4:45 am (I work at a gym).

At the 57th Street station, I hear a "thud" against the train window.

I look up and there is a clown carrying a baseball bat. There are 3 other clowns, including a dumb chick named Ashley. I know this because the guy clowns yell "Hey, Ashley!"

Because, OF COURSE, people dressed like clowns want attention!

They were annoying and a bit menacing what with the baseball bat, golf club and the very real possibility that they were drunk. Shaeds of "A Clockwork Orange" abound!

As predicted, they got off at 14th Street - Union Square, because that's where idiots like this live and/or go to NYU.

You know you have been in New York too long when you get pissed at the sight of clowns in subways at 4:45 am.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

St Vincent's no more

It turns out that St Vincent's Hospital, the 160-year-old institution founded by 4 nuns down in Greenwich Village, will soon close its doors due to its overwhelming $1 billion debt.

The hospital has treated Civil War veterans and 9/11 survivors. It also so successfully treated the uncle of poet Edna St Vincent Millay that her parents named her after it.

There are allegedly plans to turn the hospital into condos.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

It's a family affair!

I got a pretty nice haircut from one of the twin brother barbers on my street (See "Twin barbers!" 2/28/10).

It turns out their cousin is their coworker as well.

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Wednesday, April 07, 2010

RIP: Corey Haim Dec 23, 1971 - March 10, 2010


I absolutley cannot believe that Corey Haim died March 10th at age 38. I had the biggest crush on him in high school. He collapsed due to pulmonary congestion, and an investigation as to why that happened is underway. It looks like abuse of prescription drugs.

Since then, I got addicted to the 2007-08 reality series "The Two Coreys", which I found on youtube. Ut stars Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and Feldman's skanky wife Susie (who is now divorcing him.) It starts out all lighthearted and "Odd Couple" and quickly degenerates into the 2 Coreys going to therapy to save their 24-year friendship, due to Haim's abuse of drugs.

It's tragic. Haim is nigh on HI-larious in most of the "Two Coreys" as he tells off Susie, and he is really sweet when he teaches a class to kids who are studying acting. He seems like a nice guy whose demons got the better of him.

Corey Feldman Remembers His Friend Corey Haim
The child star pens a tribute to his fallen friend
By Corey Feldman | Mar 19, 2010

Nobody made me laugh the way Corey did. Corey was that kid in class who gets you laughing and then looks totally innocent when the teacher turns around, and you get the blame.

Even before we did The Lost Boys, I'd heard about him because one of my best girl friends, whom I had a big crush on, had started dating him. I had seen him in the teen magazines, and I had been up for Lucas — a movie I wanted badly — and he'd gotten the part. I was like, ''Who is this kid moving in on my territory?'' Then one day he left me this jovial message on my answering machine: ''Hey, what's up, buddy? We're going to be doing a movie together. Let's get together, maybe hang out.''

Lost Boys was a difficult shoot. There was a lot of tension on set, a lot of yelling. The older kids — Brooke McCarter, Billy Wirth, those guys — were having these parties every night; they had tinfoil on their windows so that they could catch up on their sleep during the day. Corey, our costar Jamison Newlander, and I wanted to hang out with them, but they didn't want us around. So we stayed in the hotel, watching movies, going to the arcade, and we became great friends. Corey and I both came from broken families, and when that happens you create your own surrogate family. We had everything from our own secret handshakes to secret code words to nicknames for each other: Haimster and Feldog.

He was wild. I remember one time breaking into the gym in his apartment building after hours, and…well, it involved a sauna and a blow-up doll. That's all I can remember. Corey, even at 14, had an overabundance of testosterone. Every girl he met he would fall in love with and ask to marry him, and then within weeks they'd be broken up. He only had one girlfriend who lasted more than a year. We grew up fast, so by the time we became young adults, our demons started to rise up. When we both fell into drugs, I, initially, was the one with the more intense problem. I went through my recovery, but he decided he didn't want to grow up. I understood why: We'd never had the chance to live our childhoods.

During those dark times he would do awful, selfish things. He did a lot to hurt me. But I would look at him and know what he was going through. I know what it feels like to be on top of the world and then suddenly have nobody returning your calls. He would call me and say, ''You're my best friend. I need you.'' So if he needed a place to stay, if he needed money, I was there for him. What could I do? I loved him.

After the second season of our reality series, The Two Coreys, ended, we had a falling-out. I felt like he was never going to help himself or appreciate what I had done for him. Then, during my divorce, suddenly he was there for me. I was able to be there for him when his mom was going through cancer, and those experiences created a new bond between us.

About two weeks before he died, he spent a weekend at my house and we had a party with friends. The next morning we were all sitting around in our robes and he gave me his hand and said, ''I just want to tell you how happy I am that we're able to have this time together. I can see the world through your eyes now, and it's pretty f---ing cool.'' I don't think I'll ever miss anybody more.

Published in issue #1095 Mar 26, 2010

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On craigslist today --- so good!!!!

yanks fan wanted

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Date: 2010-04-07, 11:30AM EDT
Reply to: gigs-vcwew-1680545862@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

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Yo, I'm looking for a legit yanks fan that hates red sox fans to help a sox fan buddy from boston make good on a humiliatiing bet when he's down in nyc. so hit me up if you might be interseted

Thursday, April 01, 2010

An elephant near 34th Street



Although I have always missed the elephant walk in NYC (see above), when the circus elephants walk through the Queens Midtown Tunnel to Penn Station, I caught a bit of it anyway.

I was walking down 33rd Street by Penn Station around 1:30 pm today, when a little elephant, dressed in the decorations for the circus and a massive pair of bunny ears, being led back to Penn Station.

A little further up, I saw a clown talking with a crowd of people, and a huge easel with some splotches of paint on it next to them.

Apparently, the elephant was painting for the crowd!

Sounds like an April Fool's Joke, but it was real!!!

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