now
Do try this ‘From Home,’ p. 23
Chelsea
VOLUME 3, NUMBER 30
Quinn on hot
seat in debating
Passannante-Derr
and Kurland
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
More than 200 people
packed a spirited debate
for the Third City Council
District at New York
University on Thurs., April
13, hosted by Community
Media’s The Villager, Gay
City News and Chelsea Now
newspapers.
It was the first—and most
likely only—public debate in
the high-profile Democratic
primary election, pitting
10-year incumbent City
Council Speaker Christine
Quinn against challengers
Maria Passannante-Derr and
Yetta Kurland.
During the one-and-a-
Copters flights
catch flak at
Council hearing
BY ALBERT AMATEAU
Anti-noise and air-traffic
safety advocates joined elected
officials at a Tues., Aug. 25,
hearing by the City Council’s
transportation committee on
how to improve air safety in
the aftermath of the Aug. 8
helicopter crash with a pri-
vate airplane over the Hudson
River in which nine people
were killed.
The crash involving a
Liberty sightseeing helicop-
ter flying out of the 30th
St. Heliport in the Hudson
River Park provoked repeated
demands at the hearing for
banning such tourist flights
and inspired more demands
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AUGUST 27 - SEPTEMBER 9, 2009
half-hour debate, audience
members heard the candi-
dates spar over term limits,
the City Council’s so-called
“slush fund,” overdevelop-
ment, the Department of
Sanitation’s planned Spring
St. megagarage and wheth-
er Quinn—whose mayoral
ambitions are well known—
has been sufficiently engaged
with her own district.
The Third Council
District stretches from Canal
St. to around 55th St. on the
West Side, and is known by
some as “the gay seat” of the
City Council.
Continued on page 2
Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel
for closer Federal Aviation
On the waterfront
Attendees at a ceremony celebrating the long-awaited debut of Pier 64 on the Chelsea waterfront enjoyed a
Administration control over
chopper and private planes moment looking out over the Hudson River at the end of the new 500-foot public pier on Thurs., Aug. 20. See
flying lower that 1,100 feet. story and photos, page 13.
One solution proposed by
Manhattan Borough President
Scott Stringer for separate
flight altitudes—1,100 feet for
private planes and 500 feet for
Hell’s Kitchen neighbors’ fears
helicopters—prompted boos
and jeers from members of
the audience long concerned
about helicopter noise.
flamed by hookah bar’s fumes
Stringer, however, also BY SHEILA MCCLEAR from the city’s smoking ban. For college But what’s it like living above one?
proposed a moratorium on The city banned trans fat in restau- kids and twentysomethings, they’re seen Horus Too—a hookah joint from
all sightseeing flights while rants and smoking indoors—but what as an exotic alternative to smoking ciga- the operators of three similar loca-
allowing commercial, law about hookah bars? rettes. For Middle Easterners, smoking tions in the East Village—recently
enforcement and emergency Part of these establishments’ popular- a hookah is a relaxing social activity
ity certainly stems from their exemption dating back centuries. Continued on page 5
Continued on page 9
1 4 5 S I X T H AV E N U E • N Y C 1 0 0 1 3 • C O P Y R I G H T © 2 0 0 9 C O M M U N I T Y M E D I A , L L C
2 August 27 - September 9, 2009
Continued from page 1
The event was free and open to the pub-
lic on a first-come, first-served basis. The
crowd started lining up before 5 p.m., and
soon wrapped around the corner onto Mercer
St. Quinn simply managed to get more of her
supporters there earlier, and thus about an
estimated 75 percent of the audience in the
main room indeed appeared to be Quinn sup-
porters. Passannante-Derr angrily charged that
her backers had been locked out of the venue
by the strategic maneuver by Quinn. About 45
people were turned away at the door because
the space had reached its capacity based on
Fire Department safety regulations.
Quinn may have had the most supporters,
but Kurland’s sat closest to the front, all of
them wearing yellow “I <3 Yetta” T-shirts; a
strategic move on Kurland’s part, perhaps,
since signs weren’t allowed under the debate’s
ground rules.
In her opening statement, Kurland, a civil
rights attorney, noted she had represented
“thousands of people during the Republican
National Convention” in 2004, which is when
she got interested in politics.
“I think we need a breath of fresh air in City
Hall,” Kurland said. “We need someone who’s
going to stand up to the powers that be and
speak truth to power.”
Quinn listed some of her major accom-
plishments, such as “fighting successfully to
provide affordable housing at Westbeth, Penn
South and Manhattan Plaza,” going to bat for
individual tenants facing landlord problems,
and authoring citywide tenant-protection laws
s well as, “beating back the West Side stadium”
and “making sure every 4- and 5-year-old has a
[school] seat in Greenwich Village.”
Quinn said she was proud to have been
involved in “the progressive struggles that
have defined the West Side,” and, in particular,
pledged to keep pushing for same-sex mar-
riage.
PASSANNANTE-DERR GOES ON
ATTACK
Passannante-Derr, a former Community
Board 2 chairperson, on the other hand, went
on the attack in her opening statement, coming
out with guns blazing.
“This election is about an arrogant incum-
bent who has turned the City Council into
a rubber stamp for a right-wing Republican
mayor,” she charged. “A candidate who has
sold out her community—first, with a three-
district Sanitation garage, when there’s a
two-district community alternative,” and sec-
ond, with a marine waste-transfer station on
Gansevoort Peninsula, “a station that’s 50
yards from a toddler playground, a playground
where children will now ingest polluted air
from Sanitation trucks that will drive into this
park all day long,” Passannante-Derr said.
The early questions were among the eve-
ning’s toughest for Quinn, and her responses
were frequently met with some hoots of deri-
sion and hisses from the audience. The first
question asked the candidates’ position on
term limits and on their being overturned
legislatively last year in the City Council, in an
effort led by Quinn with the backing of Mayor
Bloomberg.
“It is not an issue of term limits—it is an
issue of democracy,” stated Kurland, who is
also an educator and, like Quinn, lesbian. “If
Christine Quinn (at left) and Yetta Kurland at the Aug. 20 debate held at New York University.
you tell me that you want two terms, I will lis-
ten to you, and I will respect that decision.”
Quinn said she doesn’t support term limits,
arguing that they “empower lobbyists and staff
over elected officials.” Quinn said she sup-
ported repealing term limits—which had been
approved by two voter referenda—because of
the recession.
“I think given these extraordinary times, it
was appropriate to give voters a choice,” she
said. “We face now the worst economic crisis
this city and state and country have seen since
the Great Depression.”
Wall St. provides 25 percent of the city’s
taxes, she noted.
But Passannante-Derr said the power of
incumbency makes it impossible for challeng-
ers to have a level playing field.
COUNCIL ‘SLUSH FUND’
The next question concerned the so-
called “slush fund,” under which millions
of dollars of city budget funds were stashed
under names of phony nonprofit groups.
Essentially controlled by Quinn, as the City
Council’s speaker, these funds were then
doled out to various community groups and
organizations, many in Quinn’s own district,
including Friends of the High Line and even
the Greenwich Village Little League. The
question: “Who bears responsibility for the
slush fund’s continuing until spring 2008?”
Quinn became the Council’s speaker in
January 2006.
“There is a complete disgust with the
slush-fund scandal and the fact that we are
paying for Christine Quinn’s legal fees and
the legal fees of her staff,” Passannante-Derr
said, referring to the attorney Quinn hired
after the practice came under investigation.
“The Department of Investigation’s inves-
tigation was pushed under the carpet because
of Mayor Bloomberg and because of your
power in the City Council,” Passannante-
Derr accused of Quinn. “Thank God, we
have a federal investigation going on, or we
would hear nothing of this.”
For her part, Quinn said, “We found
out a year and a half ago that there was a
very inappropriate practice going on in the
City Council,” her statement meeting some
groans of disbelief. “We believe it dates back
to at least 1995. And when we found out
that this practice was going on, we imme-
diately asked the authorities to look into it
and to investigate it. It’s a practice that never
should have gone on.”
Quinn added that, due to new proce-
dures, every budget item that gets approved
is now “vetted and trackable” online.
However, Kurland said, “One of the most
troubling things to me is that we haven’t
seen the investigation on the slush funds.
What happened?” Kurland said she was
glad Quinn acknowledged the practice was
wrong, then added: “But you must certainly
have known about it, if in 2006 you were
using those slush-fund monies for your
district.
Kurland added skeptically, “I can’t believe
that the Speaker’s Office asked the federal
department to investigate them. I think the
investigation was [already] going on.”
SPRING ST. MEGAGARAGE
Also sparking fireworks was the topic of
the city’s plan for a three-district Sanitation
garage on Spring St. in Hudson Square, a
project Quinn approved in the City Council.
Quinn said her office continues to work
with community members who oppose the
three-district garage to find an “appropriate
alternative” site for the trucks from one of
the Sanitation districts. Getting Sanitation
District 2’s garbage trucks off Gansevoort
Peninsula is required under a lawsuit settle-
ment, she noted.
In either a misstatement or just a flub in
which she could have used a G.P.S., Quinn
said, “I think we’ve all seen the [garbage]
trucks sitting around Father Demo Square
bothering people who are having fun in
the park—that’s not what we want.” Father
Demo Square is in the South Village, not
Hudson Square.
Quinn added that Community Board
4, which contains some of the proposed
alternative sites, already has many similar
municipal-type facilities.
But Passannante-Derr blasted Quinn,
charging, “This Sanitation garage will be
Christine Quinn’s legacy for selling out
the community.” Noting the neighborhood
already has many FedEx and UPS trucks,
Passannante-Derr said, “One-hundred-
twenty-eight more vehicles right in the middle
Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel
of a growing community. It will be 120-feet
tall… . We already have the second-worst air
quality in the Northeast. We already have 16
lanes feeding into the Holland Tunnel. We’re
going to have a 5,000-ton, open-ended salt
shed with airborne salt flying all over right
next to the Holland Tunnel fresh-air tower.”
Passannante-Derr said she supports the
community-alternative Hudson Rise plan,
which would only have two Sanitation dis-
tricts, plus a park on top.
Kurland said she supports Hudson Rise,
too, adding, “I think the problem with
Hudson Square typifies the problem we
have in this community with the type of
development and the way that development
is happening. This is the perfect example of
how our current councilmember can’t stand
up for us as a community and stand up for
the problems we face. It would wipe out that
community,” she said of the megagarage.
“We have a solution: Hudson Rise is an
incredible, complex solution.
“None of this development happens in
this city until our councilmember says, ‘Yes,
OK,’ and signs off on it,” Kurland added.
ON BEING COUNCIL SPEAKER
Another flashpoint question was whether
Quinn’s being Council speaker—consid-
ered to be the city’s second most- powerful
office—has benefited her district or, rather,
actually taken her focus off addressing con-
stituents’ needs.
Passannante-Derr didn’t hold back.
“Christine Quinn is an absentee coun-
cilmember who is disconnected from the
district,” she said. “She shows up for ribbon-
cutting ceremonies… . She’s in the outer
boroughs for photo ops. Sure, Stephen
DiBrienza, term-limited councilmember in
Brooklyn, gets $1 million from Christine
Quinn’s slush fund—but the Visiting
Neighbors got totally wiped out. How is
that helping us with Christine Quinn as
speaker?”
(The payments to DiBrienza’s nonprofit
group—termed a “ghost district office” by
some—in fact started under Quinn’s pre-
decessor, former Speaker Gifford Miller, in
2002. Under Quinn as speaker, DiBrienza’s
Continued on page 11

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NYC DOWN SOUTH Chelsea’s Cheyenne Diner will
become the centerpiece of recreated 1950s-era Birmingham,
WKHDWHU

Ala., town when it eventually arrives in the Deep South.
According to Patti Smith, one half of the duo that bought
WHOHYLVLRQ
the railcar-style restaurant from property owner George
 Papas, she and her husband plan to add a theater, classic car
FRPPHUFLDOV
museum, post office and sheriff’s office to go along with the
Art Deco diner. “This has gotten much bigger than it origi-
 nally started,” Smith excitedly told us of the project, which
will begin in earnest once the Cheyenne is relocated from
33rd St. and Ninth Ave. to the Heart of Dixie in the coming
)8//&216(59$725<75$,1,1* weeks. “It’s going to be amazing.” The new owners already
)$//7(506(37²'(& collected pieces of the diner’s interior including booths,
$IWHUVFKRROSURJUDPV barstools and cookware for refurbishment, and Smith said
7XHVGD\:HGQHVGD\ she’d also like to get her hands on some original recipes to
7HHQVLQJLQJFODVV)ULGD\ replicate the greasy spoon’s menu. “I want to maintain a
7HHQ$FWLQJFODVV)ULGD\ lot of that history,” she said. “I want to have some of that
same food they were famous for.” A Discovery Channel
6DWXUGD\ documentary about the move is in the works, and Smith
 also hopes to draw the attention of David Letterman, who
August 27 - September 9, 2009 3
with at least one Twitter page created to “help send a loud
and clear message to The Riese Organization that we don’t
want his TGI Friday’s in Union Sq. SAVE THE SQUARE!”
For its part, the Union Square Partnership responded that the
restaurant—whose original outpost opened on the Upper East
Side in 1965—would be a boon to business on the bustling
hub. “We are fortunate that in this difficult economy, Union
Square’s retail vacancy rate remains one of the lowest in the
city, with diverse retail options and new businesses coming
to the area,” said Jennifer Falk, the Partnership’s executive
director. “T.G.I. Friday’s will bring much-needed foot traffic
to the businesses located on the eastern side of the square,
which historically has not seen as many pedestrians as the
businesses to the south and west.” Performance preacher and
Green Party mayoral candidate Reverend Billy—a staunch
anti-consumerist who’s sparred with the Partnership over
plans to renovate Union Square’s north end pavilion for a
Danny Meyer-helmed restaurant—said there are bigger fish
(or jalapeno poppers?) to fry in regard to the square. “The
monoculture, the sea of identical details, should be resisted in
the area of this national historic landmark,” said the reverend,
aka Bill Talen. “With the Union Square Partnership hell-bent
on actually destroying the landmark itself by privatizing the
pavilion and turning into an upscale restaurant, we have big-
ger problems than T.G.I. Friday’s.”
CHELSEA ‘CHEFTESTANT’ Since one of our favorite
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 possible rescue. Smith said she has discussed salvaging the
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 and Papas) began working with the owner to save portions

ZZZEL]NLGVQ\FRPRUSLHU6WGLRVFRP
How a child learns to learn
will impact his or her life forever.
Progressive Education for
Two-Year-Olds – 8th Grade
OPEN HOUSE
Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 6-8pm
RSVP to openhouse@cityandcountry.org
Visit www.cityandcountry.org
for information and application materials
146 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011
212-242-7802
used to dine at the Cheyenne. On top of that, the Alabamans
are also eyeing other endangered New York landmarks for
Jay Dee Bakery in Forest Hills, Queens, after preservationist
Michael Perlman (who helped broker the deal between her
of the nearly 60-year-old Art Deco structure. “If there’s any
way we can save it and incorporate it in this town, we’ll do
that too,” Smith said. “We’re trying to preserve the integrity of
these buildings and allow people who might not ever be able
to see these to step back in time.”
FRIDAY’S ON THE SQUARE Walmart’s long-speculated
entry into New York City, most recently via a rumored deal
to take space in Union Square, found no lack of detractors
among the Downtown set. So imagine how the arrival of chain-
restaurant T.G.I. Friday’s will be received after it was reported
that the purveyor of “Parmesan-Crusted Sicilian Quesadillas”
would be opening inside a recently purchased building on
Union Square. The Riese Organization, which just bought
34 Union Square East, announced plans to bring in both a
Friday’s and Tim Horton’s coffee shop if it can’t find another
tenant on the quick. (The property has been vacant for nearly
two years, and Riese scooped it up only after the asking price
fell by a reported 40 percent.) The move follows on the block-
buster lease of the former Virgin Megastore/Circuit City space
on Union Square South to Nordstrom Rack and Best Buy,
respectively. The backlash among Needle Park purists began
immediately after the news started trickling through the Web,
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guilty pleasures is the hit realty show “Top Chef,” wherein
talented culinarians compete for cash, prizes and the afore-
mentioned title, you can imagine our excitement in learning
that this season’s lone New York contestant hails from a
West Chelsea restaurant. Ash Fulk, 29, works as the sous
chef at Trestle on Tenth at the corner of 24th St. and 10th
Ave., a contemporary American brasserie infusing both
Swiss and French cooking styles. Fulk, the only openly gay
man on the show, didn’t make too much of a splash on the
season’s premiere episode—that is, his dishes neither shined
nor earned him an early departure from the competition.
While Fulk didn’t return a call for comment—most likely
because of a gag order on speaking to the spoiler-hungry
press—a woman answering the phone at the restaurant said
business hasn’t yet seen a boost because of the show. “He
didn’t really get the spotlight yet,” the employee said, adding
that the eatery hopes to bring in more patrons as the recog-
nition grows. At least we know who we’re rooting for!
TOWN HALL State Sen. Thomas Duane will hold a
town hall meeting on Tues., Sept. 1, to discuss a range
of topics related to the district. Some of the issues Duane
will address include the current state of the Senate in
Albany—something we’re sure he’ll have a lot to speak
about—as well as constituent questions and concerns.
Let’s just hope that no yahoos show up with Kenyan birth
certificates or picture of President Obama scribbled over
to look like Hitler. Actually, bring on the birthers! And let
Tom sort ’em out.
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4 August 27 - September 9, 2009

Commercial rent regulation bill stuck in Council limbo

BY PATRICK HEDLUND
When a real estate developer acquired
a block-long residential complex on Ninth
Ave. in Chelsea in 2007, he wasted no time
in outlining plans to clear out the longtime
mom-and-pop businesses on the ground
floor in favor of high-end retail.
Now, nearly two years after the purchase,
the first new tenant has arrived. Subway—a
fast-food chain that’s difficult to classify as
high-end even by the loosest definition of the
term—recently took over the space between
17th and 18th Sts. occupied by more than
three decades by Chelsea Liquors.
While many wouldn’t argue that a liquor
store serves some greater community good
than a sandwich shop, nearby neighbors
nonetheless mourned the loss of the familiar
face behind the counter, who started work-
ing there in 1974 and stayed until his final
days last November. Subway, on the other
hand, just earned the distinction of ranking
No. 2 for having the most stores citywide,
with 361 across the five boroughs and 151
in Manhattan alone, according to a report by
the Center for an Urban Future.
At rally held last year in support of the
string of shops on the block, Chelsea Liquors
owner Brian Rhee said that his new landlord
planned to more than double his rent—from
$2,400 to $6,000—a decision that led to his
departure less than seven months later.
“There’s two other delis [on that block]
that make sandwiches,” said Miguel Acevedo,
president of the tenant association at the
Fulton Houses, the public-housing complex
across the street from the Ninth Ave. stores.
“Subway is just competing against these
small businesses that have been there for
years.”
‘They’re going to do what-
ever it takes to protect the
landlords. Their dog-and-
pony show has run out of
dogs and ponies.’
— Steve Null,
Coalition for Fair Rents
Acevedo attended another rally outside
Chelsea Liquors last year to tout a proposal
aimed at preserving small businesses by
requiring landlords and tenants to submit
to mediation and arbitration if the two
parties can’t agree on a fair rent. The leg-
islation, introduced by Upper Manhattan
Councilmember Robert Jackson, initially
received a cool reception from some of his
Council colleagues for its possible implica-
tions on the free market. Seen as a form of
commercial rent control, the bill was sub-
sequently amended to remove the portion
calling for set rent increases that would have
been triggered if arbitration proved unsuc-
cessful.
“This is the mildest thing ever presented
to the City Council,” said Steve Null, the
director of the Coalition for Fair Rents, who
helped write similar legislation in the 1980s
that fell short of passing by one vote. With the
predetermined rent increases outlined in the
original measure excised from the new ver-
sion, Null explained that the “Small Business
Survival Act” currently only seeks to resolve
rent disputes through a third party.
“It’s common as apple pie to use arbitra-
tion,” he said. “Almost all contracts call for
arbitration mediation.”
After a lengthy hearing on the issue,
the revised proposal won over former crit-
ics like Brooklyn Councilmember David
Yassky, chairperson of the Small Business
Committee, as well as each of his four col-
leagues on the committee. The bill currently
has support from 33 councilmembers—
enough to pass—but still faces one major
roadblock at City Hall.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn has
refused to bring the bill to a vote, citing the
possible legal implications it presents as a
Chelsea Now photo by Patrick Hedlund
regulatory measure.
“If I’m not sure to a reasonable sense Councilmember Tony Avella, a mayoral
that the action the Council is taking is legal, candidate, stands outside City Council
I have to be cautious, because you don’t chambers during an Aug. 20 meeting
want to create hope you’re not sure you can to protest the proposed bill not being
sustain,” Quinn said, adding that attorneys scheduled for a vote.
continue to research the proposal.

8SS'SSP
However, advocates for the legislation
claim that Quinn is just acting as an agent
for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who would
likely veto the bill if it were adopted.
agencies to expedite inspections.
“I’m extremely anxious—almost kind of
obsessed with the idea—of finding something
that is legally doable that will bring relief to

JSV7LYP# “Quinn will never regulate the land-

lords—she’s their player,” Null charged.
“Everybody seems to get it except for Quinn
and the mayor.”
small businesspeople and their rent,” Quinn
said. “But it has to be something that I have
some sense of confidence will stand up.”
Null and Avella both scoffed at the speak-
Queens Councilmember Tony Avella, a er’s proposals, viewing them as incapable of
/MHWVIEPP]¾MTJSV
candidate for mayor, went so far as to stage preventing the continued displacement of
PIEVRMRKEFSYX.YHEMWQ
a boycott at the Council’s Aug. 20 meet- mom-and-pops.
EX6MWLSRMQKVEHIWO¯

ing in response to Quinn’s unwillingness “They’re going to do whatever it takes to
&´REM1MX^ZEL%GEHIQ]
to bring the measure up for a vote. While protect the landlords,” Null said of Quinn
KVEHIW¯
ERH
his protest ultimately failed to recruit other and Bloomberg. “Their dog-and-pony show
6ET[MXLXLI6EFFMWXIIRW
 councilmembers, the message was clear. has run out of dogs and ponies.”
8LI2I[7LYP´WMRRSZEXMZI “Obviously [Quinn’s] not even listening
EJXIVWGLSSPTVSKVEQWXLEXXYVR to her own members,” Avella said. “The real
,IFVI[7GLSSPYTWMHIHS[R estate industry and the landlords control the
ERHFEGO[EVHW legislation in this city. She’s not about to turn
;IEVIRS[EGGITXMRKRI[WXYHIRXWJSV away that money.”
*EPP6IKMWXIVFIJSVI7ITXIQFIV Quinn contended that whereas a “hous-
ERHVIGIMZIEXYMXMSRGVIHMX ing emergency” must be proven to justify res-
idential rent regulations, no similar method
*SVQSVIMRJSVQEXMSR exists for identifying a comparable situation
ERHVIKMWXVEXMSRTPIEWI in the commercial market.
GEPP(MVIGXSV%Q])MGLIR[EPH “So if you did the Small Business Survival
+SPHMRKEX Act, the legal question we’re trying to answer
.SMRYWJSVXLI,MKL,SP](E]W is without the kind of construct like that…
GEPPJSVQSVIMRJSVQEXMSR are you engaged in some level of taking of
the owner’s private property right,” Quinn
said.
The speaker did make small business
preservation a centerpiece of her State of the
City address earlier this year, unveiling ini-
tiatives to fast track the permit-application
^^^UL^ZO\SVYN
process for startups and coordinate the city
Avella believes the city’s numerous small
businesspeople—many of them operating in
the outer boroughs—will make their voices
heard come Election Day.
“They have to exercise the political power
they have,” he said.
Even Acevedo, one of Quinn’s most
ardent local supporters, differs with the
speaker on this issue.
“Maybe she should sit down with
[Councilmember] Jackson and discuss with
others how this bill can be tweaked,” he said.
“That’s the only way it’s going to happen.”
Acevedo added that he still keeps in regu-
lar contact with Rhee, who has expressed
interest in opening a new shop in the neigh-
borhood.
“If they became part of our community,
they’re family to us—there just not people
out of business,” Acevedo said. “Let’s keep
them in the community.”

Hookah bar’s smokescreen stoking neighbors’ fears
Continued from page 1
landed in the ground-floor space at 416 W.
46th St. between Ninth and 10th Aves. The
Mediterranean restaurant/bar, and its fragrant
hookah fumes, has gotten many of the residents
of the building smoking mad since opening in
April. They’re tired of the sickly sweet smell
and noise emanating from the front and back of
the space. But the tenants couldn’t have known
what they were in for, as the owner framed the
operation as a family-friendly restaurant on a
residential block when it appeared before the
local community board in the spring.
Hookah bars avoid the indoor smoking ban
because the product being puffed on doesn’t
contain tobacco and they need no special
license to operate. Sally Sarhan, a manager at
Horus Too, said that her restaurant’s hookahs
contain hardened molasses and fruit, which
can be flavored with tea, milk or wine. A
hookah costs anywhere from $15 to $40 for
“top shelf” ingredients. Some hookah propo-
nents—including a waitress at the restaurant,
according to an online review—claim it’s not
as harmful as cigarettes, and proponents also
say it aids in digestion.
‘I’m giving it a year. After
that I’ll have to leave.’
— Scott Moyer,
W. 46th St. resident
Sarhan, however, refused to wade into
the debate. “I’m not going to condone any
type of smoking,” she said. She did note that

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hookah smoking is a popular social activity
among Middle Easterners, and a social and
leisure activity for many Muslims because it
isn’t “haram”—forbidden by the Koran—like
alcohol. For them, she added, it’s like relaxing
with a beer after work with friends.
Although hookah bars are pervasive in
the East Village, only a handful operates on
the West Side. Sarhan explained that Horus
Too’s patrons are often regulars, because
“there’s a large Middle Eastern population
in this neighborhood.” As if on cue, an older
gentleman at the table next to her expertly
exhaled a thick plume of smoke scented like
sweetened incense.
But for Scott Moyer, a 14-year resident
of an apartment above the restaurant, the
problem isn’t as simple as the smell and
noise—he’s worried about the health of his


infant son. Nine months old when Horus Too
opened in April, Moyer’s son developed a


chronic cough within two months, which the
doctor agreed was due to smoke coming from
the restaurant.
“He says if it doesn’t go away I’ll have
to move,” Moyer said, adding that his son’s
cough subsided when they left town for a
month, but came back shortly after returning
August 27 - September 9, 2009 5
to the city.
Moyer now keeps his windows closed,
but said that the smoke still seeps in through
air-conditioning units. “And if you don’t get it
from the street, then you get it from the ven-
tilation system in the back [of the building],”
he said. “[The smoke] comes from both sides
no matter where you live.”
After so many years at the address, Moyer
is now considering taking a drastic step. “I’m
giving it a year,” he said. “After that I’ll have to
leave, and we’ll be priced out of New York.”
Camille Turchel, who was “born and bred
in Clinton,” bought her apartment in the same
building more than 20 years ago. She keeps her
window closed most days to avoid the smoke,
and claimed patrons often “stand outside at
midnight or 1 o’clock, talking loudly. They’re
not very good neighbors.”
Both the World Health Organization and
the American Lung Association recently
released studies on waterpipe smoking based
on hookahs using tobacco, which isn’t used
in New York’s public hookah bars. The WHO
reported that a typical hour of smoking a
waterpipe results in more than a hundred times
more smoke inhaled than from smoking a
cigarette. The organizations also recommended
that “waterpipes and waterpipe tobacco be
subjected to the same regulations as cigarettes
and other tobacco products,” and suggested
that hookah use “be prohibited in public
places consistent with bans on cigarette and
Chelsea Now photo by Patrick Hedlund
The Horus Too hookah bar on W. 46th St., which claimed to be a family-friendly
other forms of tobacco smoking.”
In a March 20 letter from Community
Mediterranean restaurant
Board 4 to the State Liquor Authority, the
board recommended denying Horus Too’s beer /VSTFSZUI
(SBEF
1SPHSFTTJWF
4DIPPM
and wine license request “unless the following 'PVOEFE
JO

conditions, as agreed to by the applicant, are
incorporated into the method of operation: "%.*44*0/
4&"40/
)"4
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$06-%

Hours of operation will be from noon to $03-&"34
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4$)00-
'03
:063
'".*-:
midnight; no backyard use; no hookah use; no
sidewalk use, and signs will be posted request- *G
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ing quiet; French doors will be closed at 10
p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and at 11 p.m. …
"O
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on Friday and Saturdays.” …
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While a business owner is not legally obli-
gated to follow the instructions of a communi- DIJME
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ty board, Moyer said that the owners willfully …
"
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misrepresented their intentions. According to FEVDBUJPO
Moyer, when someone asked the owner at a
meeting, “No hookahs, right?” he replied, “No,
no, just good Mediterranean food.”
©$PSMFBST
NBZ
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UIF
SJHIU
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The restaurant is open until 4 a.m., despite GPS
ZPV
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ZPVS
DIJME
the owners originally telling the board they
would close at midnight. Moyer and Turchel 'PS
.PSF
*OGPSNBUJPO
DPOUBDU
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!
also said that guests frequently spill out into
the space’s back courtyard, the restaurant

offers sidewalk seating and does not consis- XXXDPSMFBSTTDIPPMPSH
tently close the front door, as requested by the
board to mitigate noise and smoke.
“They’re trying to generate a business that’s
really overflow onto the street,” said Danajean
01&/
)064&
Cicerchi, who has lived on the second floor in QN
the front of the building since 1982. She added 5)634%":
that she’d like the restaurant to follow the Open 0$50#&3
UI
agreement it made to the community board. 4 - 7pm
“We do all live in NYC and realize we have
to coexist with businesses,” said John Owens,
co-chairperson of Board 4’s Business Licenses
and Permits Committee, which oversees liquor 324 West 15th Street
license applications. “We need to figure out New York, New York 10011
how to better integrate them.”
6 August 27 - September 9, 2009

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High Line puts brakes on

improvement district plan
BY PATRICK HEDLUND
A controversial plan to tax residents and
property owners near the High Line to help
pay for the elevated park was dropped last
week after neighbors came out against the
proposal.
According to Friends of the High Line,
the nonprofit that oversees maintenance
and management of the West Chelsea green-
space, the concept of imposing taxes on
owners of buildings based on their proximity
to the park caused enough of a stir for the
organization to table the plan for the time
being.
“Friends of the High Line and the
District’s Steering Committee sought broad
community input on the idea of creating an
Improvement District to help the City’s new
High Line park,” read a statement from the
Friends. “The Steering Committee reached
out to the larger High Line community, so
that their responses would help determine
whether to move forward. Following these
public outreach efforts, it was decided
to put the proposal on hold. While many
strongly supported the concept, important
concerns were also raised.”
The proposal, modeled after the city’s
business improvement district program,
sought to raise about $1 million from vari-
ous property owners for daily upkeep of the
park running from Gansevoort to W. 30th
Sts. The plan called for levying either a 3-
or 9-cent tax per square foot for buildings
located near the High Line, with the district
running for almost 20 blocks along the
length of the former viaduct.
“Friends of the High Line has always
been a community organization, and the
members of the Steering Committee are
Value
community members first and foremost,”
t Instruction • Best
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acilities •
the Friends’ statement continued. “Friends
thentic F
of the High Line will continue to work with
the community to develop a diversified rev-
Au
enue stream for the High Line’s future, so
that the park can always be maintained and
operated at the level necessary to make it a
treasured asset to its community and to the
city as a whole.”
The news came as a relief to Daniel
Cahn, the owner of a large industrial ware-
house on W. 27th St. who would have had
to pay the higher, 9-cent tax under the origi-
nal proposal. If the Friends try to pursue a
similar plan in the future, he suggested the
group rely on input from property owners
to inform the improvement district’s funding
structure.
“Maybe a restaurant or something on
the High Line would make the most sense,”
Cahn said, also recommending advertising,
granting vendors access to the park or tax-
ing developers of new large-scale residential
buildings in the area. “I know they want to
keep it business-free, but money has to come
from somewhere.”

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the Koryodang eatery on W. 32nd St. The event was held to promote the city’s “Nine
in 09” tourism campaign aimed at encouraging New Yorkers to explore nine cultur-
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NYPD scuba divers and harbor unit officers recovering a body from the Hudson
River after the fatal midair collision on Aug. 8.
Helicopter flights catch
flak at Council hearing
Continued from page 1
helicopter flights to continue.
Abigale Trenk, president of Air Pegasus,
which operates the 30th St. Heliport, submit-
ted a statement saying that vertical separation
of aircraft in the corridor is the most vital air-
traffic issue to address in the short term. The
statement noted that while Air Pegasus runs
the heliport, it does not operate any flights. Her
statement also said that pilot education and
dissemination of flight rules and procedures
should become a priority.
Assemblymember Richard Gottfried sub-
mitted a statement that said, in part, “We do
not need sightseeing helicopter rides. Yes, tour-
ism is a very large and important part of New
York City economy and supports many people’s
livelihoods. But whatever sightseers spend on
a helicopter ride they would eagerly spend on
some other activity.”
Under the settlement of a 2008 lawsuit
by Friends of Hudson River Park, sightseeing
flights from the 30th St. Heliport will cease as of
April 1, 2010, and the number of tourist flights
from 30th St. was reduced to 25,000 flights in
the year that ended last May 31 and to 12,500
for the coming year. Matthew Washington,
deputy director of Friends, told the committee
that the lawsuit was filed to eliminate the noise
that disturbs park users. “While our suit was
not based on specific air-traffic concerns, we
hope these efforts will aid in a reduction of
potential dangers,” he said
Ken Paskar, a Lower East Side resident and a
general aviation pilot for 30 years, told the com-
mittee that the Federal Aviation Administration
has rules for flights at all altitudes, but at 1,100
feet and below, the agency does not require pri-
vate pilots or helicopter pilots to file flight plans
or be in radio contact with flight controllers.
Indeed at 1,100 feet, planes and choppers may
>Ê˜œÜ
not register on radar and radio communication
can be uncertain, so the “see and avoid” rule
governs low-altitude air traffic.
Paskar, a volunteer representative with the
F.A.A. Safety Team who testified as a private
citizen, said he believes that rules for flying in
the Hudson River corridor could be improved.
August 27 - September 9, 2009 9
Chelsea Now photo by JB Nicholas
He noted that in the Washington, D.C. area the
F.A.A. requires general aviation pilots to take a
course on “see and avoid” rules. Paskar said a
similar course should be required of pilots who
fly in the Hudson River corridor.
Congressmember Jerrold Nadler submit-
ted a statement calling on the F.A.A. to use its
authority to control airspace below 1,100 feet.
“The F.A.A. insisted to us for years that it lacked
statutory authority to regulate the airspace
below 1,100 feet in the New York City Corridor,
but we are gratified that the agency has reversed Gay,
its position and agreed it has statutory authority Str8,
to regulate this airspace,” he said.
Nadler repeated his demand that all small Bi,
aircraft be required to install a Traffic Collision Curious?
Avoidance System and a Mode C Transponder,
devices that make low-altitude aircraft aware of
each other.
Joy Held, president of the Helicopter Noise
Coalition of NYC, said sightseeing helicop-
ter flights are “utterly unnecessary, dangerous,
noisy, a serious security risk, and they cause
pollution.”
Testimony submitted by William DeCota,
aviation director of the Port Authority, noted
that the National Transportation Safety Board
is likely to make recommendations to the F.A.A.
after the review of the Aug. 8 tragedy is com-
plete. “But it will be up to the F.A.A. to imple-
ment them,” DeCota said. He also mentioned
that the F.A.A. had closed the East River flight
corridor after Corey Lidle, a former New York
Yankees player, fatally crashed his plane into an
Upper East Side building in 2006.
The Eastern Region Helicopter Council
also submitted a statement saying that copter
pilots flying out of the three ports—at 30th St.
on the Hudson, Wall St. and 34th St. on the
East River—have all gone through extensive
training. The Council statement noted that
since the first helicopter landing area in the
city was established in 1949, there was only /ÀÞʈÌÊÀiiÊUÊ
one mid-air collision, in 1983, besides the Aug.
8 accident.
Councilmember John Liu, chair of the trans- 646-731-6658
portation committee, said that neither the F.A.A.
nor the N.T.S.B. were scheduled to testify on
Tuesday, but said his committee would invite
the two agencies to subsequent hearings. 1800GayLive.com MC 7003 Ent only 18+ *Limited Free Trial Photography by Kevin E. McPherson
10 August 27 - September 9, 2009
Fulton Houses shooting
Bullets were flying in the Fulton Houses
around 5:45 p.m. on Sat., Aug. 15, leaving
one man sprawled in the street in front of
412 W. 17th St., police said.
The victim, identified by police as Prince
Harris, 29, of Sherman Ave. in the Bronx,
was hit by three shots fired by a suspect
described only as a black man with his hair
in dreadlocks and wearing a red T-shirt or
tank top. The suspect fled east on W. 18th
St. in a burgundy colored SUV, police said.
Four shell casings and a live 9 mm round
were found at the crime scene.
The block west of Ninth Ave. was
closed to parking because of filming the
next day for a scene in “Just Wright,”
starring hip-hop stars Queen Latifah and
Common, according to reports. The victim
had just parked on the block and got out of
his car when the shots were fired. He was
taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in serious
condition.
What’s in a name?
Police arrested Kelsey Steals, 19, of
Brooklyn, around 12:35 a.m. on Sun.,
Aug. 16, in connection with a purse
snatching on 29th St. between Seventh
and Eighth Aves.
The victim was walking on the south
side of the street when two men snatched
her bag, one fleeing east and the other
fleeing west, police said. Three passersby
gave chase, and one of them tackled the
suspect and held him for police.
Seminary offenses
Police arrested James Alexander, 18,
at 12:01 a.m. on Mon., Aug. 10, on
the grounds of the General Theological
Seminary for carrying a 3-ounce can of
spray paint and charged him with mis-
demeanor possession of a graffiti instru-
ment.
A member of the Seminary staff left
her office at 3:05 p.m. on Fri., Aug. 14,
without closing the door and returned 35
minutes later to find that her iPod had
been stolen from her desk, police said.
Kiss goodbye
A Brooklyn man told police that he
was at a party at Kiss and Fly, the
nightclub at 409 W. 13th St. in the
Meatpacking District, and drank two
beers at 2 a.m. on Wed., Aug. 12. He
passed out and woke up at 10:30 a.m.
at the northwest corner of the West Side
Highway and 40th St. to find his iPhone
and credit cards missing. There was an
unauthorized withdrawal of $400 from
a debit card and $300 in unauthorized
charges on a credit card, according to
police.
POLICE BLOTTER
BB shot in window
A BB fired from an unknown location hit
and put a hole in a window of the 12th floor
apartment of a 74-year-old woman at 418 W.
17th St. in the Fulton Houses on Mon., Aug.
10, police said. The shot did not penetrate
the window and apparently fell outside,
police said.
Bump and bash
A customer was walking to the rear
of the Seventh Ave. Convenience Store
at 200 Seventh Ave. at 22nd St. at 4:50
p.m. on Thurs., Aug. 13, when he acciden-
tally bumped into another customer who
grabbed a bottle from a cooler and hit the
victim in the face with it, police said. The
suspect fled south on Seventh Ave.
Drug-dealing dad
Police arrested Juan Zabala at 9:30 p.m.
on Fri., Nov. 14, on the northeast corner of
Ninth Ave. and W. 26th St. for the posses-
sion and sale of an unidentified drug. The
suspect, 28, a resident of College Point,
Queens, had his 9-year-old daughter with
him when he was arrested and was charged
with endangering the welfare of a child as
well as possessing with the intent to sell a
controlled substance. He was released on
parole pending a Nov. 9 court appearance.
Burglar busted
A resident of an apartment on 22nd St.
east of Fifth Ave. was awakened at 4:30 a.m.
on Wed., Aug. 12, by someone rummaging
through his possessions, police said. The
victim, 38, confronted the burglar, who fled
down a fire escape.
Slept through alarm
The resident of an apartment at 300 W.
21st St. at Eighth Ave. told police he and
his fiancée were asleep on Friday morn-
ing, Aug. 21, and woke up to discover
that a burglar had entered and made off
with two laptops, an iPhone, $40 and his
driver’s license.
Weekend burglary
A woman resident of an apartment
at 200 W. 15th St. at Seventh Ave. told
police that someone had entered the place
sometime between 7:30 a.m. Thurs., Aug.
20, when she left for the weekend, and 9
p.m. Sun., Aug. 23, when she returned.
The burglar made off with a necklace, ear-
rings, a bracelet and a watch with a total
value of $23,800. The victim had left her
keys with her cousin, who used the apart-
ment until Saturday evening and left the
keys with the doorman, but neither report-
ed anything suspicious, police said.
Find it in the archives
www.CHELSEANOW.com
Celluloid swipe
A supplier of electrical equipment told
police that someone had called the com-
pany on Friday evening, Aug. 21, and
asked how much electric ballast devices
were worth because he had two of them.
Two of the devices were soon discovered
missing from a film location on W. 20th
St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves.,
police said.
Bag ladies
Police arrested three women shortly
after 2 a.m. on Sun., Aug. 23, in Son
Cubano, the restaurant at 405 W. 14th
St., and charged them with stealing prop-
erty from the bags of two female patrons
of the place. Tracy Molina, 21, her sister,
Kelly Molina, 24, and Elizabeth Hervas,
23, were observed going through the bags
and throwing items on the floor, police
said. The three were charged with lar-
ceny for stealing two handbags, two cell
phones, credit cards and $540 in cash,
police said.
Club patron robbed
A visitor from North Carolina was
walking on W. 25th St. between Ninth
and 10th Aves. at 3:30 a.m. on Sun., Aug.
23, after a night at a nearby club when
two men punched him in the face, took
his wallet and cell phone, and fled, police
said.
Sweet tooth
Michael Schotter, 47, was arrested in
Whole Foods, 250 Seventh Ave., at 3:30
p.m. on Sun., Aug. 23, and charged with
trying to walk out without paying for a
pint of Haagen-Dazs strawberry ice cream
and a wrapped ciambellone, a specialty
Italian sweet bread.
Gym lockers raided
A thief with an unknown method of
operation raided three lockers in a fit-
ness club on 10th Ave. at W. 20th St on
Sunday evening, Aug. 23. The victims’
locks remained locked and unbroken, but
a watch, an iPhone and cash were removed
from the lockers, police said.
A thief broke into a patron’s locker
at the Chelsea Piers health club on 11th
Ave. at 21st St. on Sunday evening, Aug.
23. On Friday afternoon, Aug. 21, a thief
broke into a locker at the New York
Sports Club, 128 Eighth Ave., and made
off with a patron’s Gucci wallet and credit
cards, police said.
— Alber t Amateau

Maria Passannante-Derr (at left) speaks during the debate with Christine Quinn and Yeatta Kurland.
Continued from page 2
group got more than $200,000 in 2006. Dr.
Cynthia Maurer, Visiting Neighbors’ executive
director, told Chelsea Now that the group was
still hoping for $200,000 from “the speaker’s
pot” of funding. “Bottom line,” Maurer said,
“we still haven’t seen a contract yet and the fis-
cal year started July 1. We’re running on empty,
basically. It’s scary.”)
A clearly impassioned then Quinn listed
some of her accomplishments serving her
district.
“I am incredibly proud of the work that I do
and my staff does every day for the residents of
this district,” she said. “Whether it’s standing
up with the residents on 22nd St. when they
faced a landlord who was going to take over
their home for use by his own, beating that
back… . I’m incredibly proud of when there’s
been crime in our district, the work that I’ve
been able to do with our local police officers... .
I’m proud of the work I’ve done in our Housing
Authority buildings, bringing them cameras
that helped reduce crime in those projects, and
proud of having gone door to door in those
projects, to help identify problems where ser-
vices weren’t being delivered, and enroll people
who live in the Fulton Houses in food stamps—
that’s constituent services,” she said, as her sup-
porters burst into thunderous applause.
Quinn added that park areas like Father
Demo Square and J.J. Walker ball field, which
“were in desperate need of renovations,” got
renovations under her.
“I do think the opportunity to serve our
community has been failed,” Kurland said, “I
think time and time again, as the City Council
speaker, she has to serve the interests of others
beyond our community. ... Our community
came up with a great solution to transfer the
Gansevoort transfer station so it would be out
of the way of children and people using the
Hudson River Park—in the district still, but
out of the way. That couldn’t happen because,
unfortunately, Christine Quinn has to answer
to a lot of people. And her close alliance with
the mayor, and with other forces, stops her
from actualizing that opportunity to show up
and to be a fighter for our community. ... I am
beholden to no one but the people of the Third
District.”
Passannante-Derr even blamed school over-
crowding on Quinn.
“We have children that are now going
to have to go from the Village down to 26
Broadway for middle school,” she said. “And
that is a crime. That should have been addressed
in the long-term capital plan. … We have school
overcrowding because of Christine Quinn.”
LGBT ISSUES
All three candidates said they back gay
marriage, and each expressed disapproval
of the Police Department’s bogus busts last
year of middle-aged gay tourists on prostitu-
tion charges at porn video stores in the East
Village and Chelsea.
To address similar false arrests, Quinn
said the Civilian Complaint Review Board,
as before, should have prosecutorial powers,
and she noted approvingly that the police
commissioner’s LGBT Advisory Board has
been re-established.
Kurland also supports creation of a
Committee on Police Oversight, and the three
candidates all said they back anti-bullying leg-
islation for New York City public schools.
ST. VINCENT’S HOSPITAL
On another development issue, St.
Vincent’s Hospital’s rebuilding project, all said
they favor the hospital staying in Greenwich
Village.
“We need it here,” Kurland said, though
adding of the project, “It is overly concerned
with luxury condos being developed. This is
because of the type of overdevelopment we’re
seeing in this district—without the kind of
urban planning and the care for the commu-
nity. … The problem with St. Vincent’s is that
it does not create… affordable housing—it
actually displaces the community. And it also
changes the look and feel of a very beautiful
part of the Village.”
Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel
Quinn said she was glad St. Vincent’s proj-
ect changed as it went through the Landmarks
Preservation Commission’s review, so that
four of the hospital’s existing buildings were
saved.
“The project will now make its way
through the full land-use process,” Quinn
said. “There’s more work to do—to balance
the medical needs of our district with the
preservation and residential needs of our
district…to maximize the open space in the
triangle.”
Referring to Kurland’s and Passannante-
Derr’s calls for creating new schools along
with new development, Quinn said the City
Charter should be changed so that develop-
ers “are held accountable for the services
that their buildings create the need for—not
just schools, but things like fire[fighters] and
police officers and transportation.”
Passannante-Derr said the hospital’s
construction will be the biggest challenge,
which can be addressed through “vigilance,”
monthly Community Board 2 meetings and
curtailing construction hours.
Kurland accused Quinn of backing a
development plan for the Hudson Yards that
lacks affordable housing. But Quinn said the
plan, in fact, will be an opportunity to create
affordable housing—“something we’re going
to fight to make sure that it happens, and is
permanent,” she noted.
PROSTITUTION AND YOUTH
A written audience question asked, “What
are you going to do about the huge prostitu-
tion problem in the West Village? What do
you intend doing about the unruly youth in the
West Village?”
Quinn said she was happy to see the recent
reinforcements for the Sixth Precinct, includ-
ing a mounted unit and an infusion of new
Police Academy graduates.
She said she’s “working with community
members on conversations that we can have
with judges” about prostitution, “particularly
focused on not giving johns a pass—not let-
ting them off the hook.” Quinn said she
August 27 - September 9, 2009 11
hopes to replicate Brooklyn District Attorney
Charles Hynes’s “School for Johns” program in
Manhattan, “to be a deterrent, and stop people
from coming to the Village.”
She said a program at The Door on Broome
St. put in place to help the gay and lesbian
youth frequenting the Village is working, and
that she’ll push to keep funding it.
Taking a harder line, Passannante-Derr
said, “This problem has gone on for years.
Youth come into the area, some are well
behaved, some are not. And the ones that are
not, they terrorize the community. They walk
all over the cars, they defecate, they urinate,
they have sex in the streets, and they’re detri-
mental to what’s going on in the community.
People have a right to walk on the street—but
with every right comes a responsibility: the
responsibility to act with respect for the people
in the neighborhood.”
Passannante-Derr proposed that the
Christopher St. Pier be closed an hour earlier,
at midnight.
She added that, a few years ago, she’d sug-
gested to the advocacy group FIERCE that the
gay youth use Pier 54—a blacktop pier at W.
13th St. in a less residential area—late at night,
instead of Christopher St. Pier.
“That was unacceptable to this group—and
I don’t understand why to this day,” she said.
Kurland said, “We can’t ignore that this
is, in large part, the LGBT youth. We need to
get those children into education programs,
into youth-program services. There are things
we can do without villainizing people that set
them up for success, give them opportunity,
that get them off the streets.”
LIGHTNING ROUND
Next, a “lightning round” of questions
with “yes” or “no” answers was informative,
fast-paced and entertaining.
Both Kurland and Passannante-Derr said
they opposed a seasonal restaurant in the Union
Square pavilion, but Quinn approved of it.
Both Kurland and Passannante-Derr said
they would support the Democratic nominee
for mayor, but Quinn said, “I’m not going to
make that commitment today.”
As for whether the Village and Union Square
area could absorb further New York University
expansion, Kurland said, “These are not ‘yes-
no’ questions,” while Quinn said, “I agree
with Yetta.” Passannante-Derr seemed non-
committal, but eventually said, “Probably
not…no.”
Asked if they would accept a parking
placard if elected, Quinn and Passannante-
Derr both said yes, but Kurland said, “I don’t
know—I don’t own a car,” prompting cheers
from her supporters.
They all said they would decriminalize the
use of marijuana.
Whether a police permit should be required
for a gathering of 50 people or more was
another lightning-round question, to which
Kurland and Passannante-Derr answered no,
but Quinn answered yes.
At the lightning round’s conclusion, the
energized partisan supporters erupted into
cheers, each side trying to chant the name of
their candidate louder than the others. After
the candidates’ closing statements, things
ended on a high note.
As the satisfied crowd got up out of their
seats and was starting to file out, one man
shouted out, “No third term!”
12 August 27 - September 9, 2009

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 August 27 - September 9, 2009 13

‘Tearing down the wall’ along Chelsea’s waterfront

BY PATRICK HEDLUND
Despite opening to the public back in
April, Pier 64 celebrated its official com-
ing out party on Thurs., Aug. 20, with a
cadre of local advocates and elected offi-
cials on hand to fete the new waterfront
mall that spent more than two decades in
the making.
The group gathered at the end of the
500-foot pier between 24th and 26th Sts. to
share memories of the Chelsea waterfront’s
genesis through the years from all but for-
gotten to one of the most active stretches
along the Hudson River.
Assemblymember Richard Gottfried
credited a “relentless army of community
organizers” with pushing for the revital-
ization of the West Side waterfront, which
will also see two adjacent piers open next
year along the Chelsea portion of the
5-mile Hudson River Park.
“This is as great an example of West
Side vision and West Side activism as any
one we have ever seen,” said City Council
Speaker Christine Quinn of the local effort
to create public passive space at the once
Chelsea Now photo by William Alatriste
bustling port.
The celebration was attended by State. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (at podium) speaks at the Pier 64 opening celebration joined by (from left to right) Robert
Sen. Thomas Duane, Congressmember Trentlyon, Matthew Washington, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, Doris Corrigan, Deputy
Jerrold Nadler, Manhattan Borough Mayor Robert Lieber, State Sen. Thomas Duane and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.
President Scott Stringer and Deputy
Mayor for Economic Development Robert issues related to the Hudson River Park. reserved the highest praise for Trentlyon, High Line railway. But for most of that time,
Lieber. Also joining were Connie Fishman, “So many of you have really gone beyond who helped lead the charge to redevelop residents on the Lower West Side remained
president of the Hudson River Park Trust; the community organizer mold and have the Chelsea waterfront throughout the removed “from their rightful possession of
Robert Trentlyon, founder of the Chelsea really created magic.” 1980s and ’90s. the Hudson River,” Trentlyon noted.
Waterside Park Association; John Doswell, Duane—who worked on waterfront “This is more than Hudson River Park “In fact, the lack of contact with the river
a founding chair of the Friends of Hudson issues as a community board member, adding another pier to the park,” Trentlyon made many Chelsea residents forget one of
River Park; Matthew Washington, depu- district leader, city councilmember and said in his statements. “It’s about tearing the great rivers of the world was just a few
ty director of the Friends; and longtime state senator—praised the persistence of down the wall that has kept Chelsea locked blocks away, or even forget they lived on an
community activists Ed Kirkland, Doris advocates in realizing their goal. off from its waterfront for close to two island,” he said.
Corrigan and Lee Compton. “We waited a long time, and it’s worth centuries.” But now—with the High Line reimagined
“I am really proud to be a part of this it,” he said of the project, adding, “it’s He recounted the riverside’s evolution as a popular public park and Pier 57 off
family,” said Stringer, a former Upper West spectacular, it’s beautiful, it’s amazing. We from economic engine serving the mari- 15th St. slated for redevelopment—“the wall
Side representative on the state Assembly should be very proud of ourselves.” time industry to the traffic initiatives that has fallen down, and Chelsea residents are
who previously worked with Gottfried on Many of the speakers, including Duane, included the West Side Highway and the united with the Hudson River once again.”

Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

Longtime neighborhood advocates (from left to right) Doris Corrigan, John Doswell A view of the newly opened pier, between W. 24th and W. 26th Sts. on the Chelsea
and Ed Kirkland waterfront
14 August 27 - September 9, 2009

EDITORIAL
Safer demolitions
For many of us, the vivid memories of the 9/11
attacks will always be there. As we approach the
eight-year anniversary, there are also still physical
reminders of the tragedy hovering over the World
Trade Center. The two remaining buildings that
were damaged on that day—the former Deutsche
Bank building and the City University of New
York’s Fiterman Hall—are literally the biggest
reminders.
Demolition of Fiterman began about a month
ago, and deconstruction at the plagued Deutsche
Bank building could finally resume next month.
Since two Village-area firefighters were killed bat-
tling a blaze at the Deutsche Bank building more
than two years ago, we’ve learned to be skeptical
regarding any claims about bringing this danger-
ous hulk down. But we’re pleased that preparatory
demolition work began this week.
More importantly, some of the long-overdue
safety improvements for demolition and construc-
tion projects appear to be working effectively, but
more needs to be done. There was, of course, no
need to wait for the tragic deaths of Firefighters
Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino, Jr., who
were stationed at the firehouse at Houston St. and
Sixth Ave., to begin taking safety more seriously.
Community leaders and Downtown Express, our Chelsea Now photo by Tequila Minsky

sister publication, warned about safety problems

before the deadly fire—but any time safety is
SCENE A “Star Wars”-inspired street musician playing his accordion on 20th St. and 10th Ave.

increased, it potentially saves lives.

There were many preventable reasons for the

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

firefighters’ deaths, but at the top of the list was
the broken standpipe that was never inspected or
repaired. Firefighters were sent into a “death trap”
without a water source, according to Manhattan
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who is still
investigating the case. High Line’s high costs Jane and St. Vincent’s
At Fiterman Hall, work was stopped a few weeks
ago when the standpipe failed a test. That’s the way To The Editor: To The Editor:
things are supposed to work. As a building is being Re “High Line district plan is too taxing, neighbors cry” Re “Jane Jacobs, mother of urban planning, gets her
dismantled, the standpipe must be cut repeatedly (news article, Aug. 13): ‘Way’” (photo, July 16):
and, in turn, must be tested repeatedly. The High Line stood for about 25 years with little or no What irony! All those smiling officials at the Jane Jacobs
More troubling are the cigarette butts recently maintenance. In this state it became a treasure that had to be Way dedication. Jane was all about saving the Village—yet
found at Fiterman. Smoking was prohibited at the preserved. Now it takes $3.5 million to $4.5 million a year most of these elected Village representatives are in support
Deutsche Bank building because of the flammable to maintain? Find a way to make the High Line less costly or of the massive project that will have a negative impact on our
materials, but workers typically smoked there and tear it down, but don’t raise taxes. historic district.
a cigarette started the blaze, according to investiga-
tors. Fiterman no longer has flammable materials Charlie Walker Continued on page 15
needed for the abatement of toxic materials because
demolition did not begin until the abatement in
the building was finished—another post-Deutsche
reform. Smoking may not be as hazardous there as
it was a few months ago, but it is still dangerous
IRA BLUTREICH
and is prohibited for a reason. Last year, inspectors
found cigarette butts at the Deutsche Bank build-
ing, and one of our photographers got a photo of
a construction worker smoking while working on
One World Trade Center, even though smoking is
prohibited throughout the site.
If no-smoking rules are flouted at high-profile
sites at and near the WTC, where inspectors are on
site, it seems likely that there are more violations
elsewhere around the city.
Building safety appears to be getting better,
but clearly more vigilance and enforcement are
needed. Construction work is dangerous enough.
Lax enforcement only increases the risks.

It would be funny — if it wasn’t so sad.


My brother Frank: the teacher who walked beside me
BY ALPHIE MCCOURT
My brother Frank McCourt died on July
19 this year: one month, to the day, before his
79th birthday. The world took notice. Walter
Cronkite died on July 17. My wife, Lynn,
said that Frank waited a couple of days so
that Cronkite could have his moment. Frank
McCourt? And Walter Cronkite, the most
trusted man in America? In the same breath?
Isn’t this a great country?
Frank’s early miseries are well known, as are
his teaching career, his monumental success as
a writer and his vast international popularity as
speaker and humorist. He has always been a
strong presence in my life, along with my broth-
ers, Malachy and Michael. I will never speak to
him again, nor see him. I can’t believe that. But
I will have to get used to the idea. Death comes
to, and for, everyone.
As is well known, seven children were born
to my parents. Three died and, as Malachy has
pointed out, for many years the odds were in
favor of the survivors. Three were gone and
the four of us still stood. Now the odds have
shifted.
Frank was 10 years older and, from my
boyhood, I remember him as being serious,
austere, even: disciplined, determined and with
a sense of mission. Ten years distant from any
possibility of an easy relationship with him,
I was a little bit intimidated. Until the day I
borrowed his bike, crashed it and awaited his
wrath. Wrath never came. Frank dismissed the
incident without any fuss. In our Limerick, in
the bleak harshness of the 1940s and 1950s,
no one said I love you. But Frank didn’t chide
me, or shout or threaten. No, he forbore and,
to a child reared on fire and brimstone, more
especially on the Irish Catholic version, such
forbearance, in the face of destruction and
stupidity, was nothing short of love.
In 1949 Frank left Limerick, the city of his
Continued from page 14
Jane wasn’t known just for stopping roadways. She first
came to public attention with her successful effort to keep
Robert Moses from bulldozing 14 blocks in the West Village
for a Title I slum-clearance project. As someone who worked
with her on that and other causes, I am certain that Jane
would have opposed the current Rudin-St. Vincent’s proposal.
Surely, she would have supported an alternative, less intrusive
design that would allow for a modernized hospital without
setting a precedent deleterious to historic districts.
Let it be noted that out of that Moses encounter, Jane
THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
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© 2009 Community Media, LLC
August 27 - September 9, 2009 15
Photo by Lynn McCourt
The literary brothers McCourt: Frank, Malachy and Alphie
rearing, and returned to New York, the city of 15-cent glasses of beer. But we are cheerful. eating a soft-boiled egg. One single, solitary,
his birth. We were left behind: Mam, Mike and By this time I am as tall as Frank, my oldest soft-boiled egg, with no bread, no butter, no
myself. Malachy was already away in England. brother. Out of the night and into the day we tea in sight. That was his way. Only what he
Our hearts broke when he left. walk, out of the darkness, into the light and the needed, that’s what he took. He kept the faith.
A long 10 years would elapse before I came promise of the future. Only in retrospect, and Twenty-five years later, the success of his
to New York. And, a couple of years later, in only after many years, did I see the symbolism. first book, a memoir, left him bewildered.
1961, when I was staying with Frank and his To this day I treasure it. Ever the teacher, Frank Throughout most of his adult life he had been
wife in Brooklyn, Frank and I went for a few didn’t send me or walk behind me. Nor did he “only the teacher.” “Angela’s Ashes,” a saga
beers in a bar in Downtown Manhattan. All lead. The teacher walked beside me. shot through with poverty and hunger, became
too soon it is 4 a.m., closing time, with the Eight or nine years later, when I was living the engine of his success. Now even Gourmet
dawn coming up, too late and too early to take in Dublin and attending University College, magazine was asking him to write a piece.
a subway or bus. At Frank’s suggestion we walk Dublin, Frank came over to work on a doctor- “Irony is my constant companion,” he would
across the Brooklyn Bridge. Two men, walking ate, at Trinity College. I was sharing an apart- remark as he poked fun at his status as a newly
side by side; fat or thin, tall or small, rich or ment with two friends. Frank lived elsewhere, minted big shot.
poor; there’s a magic in that. but he had a key to our apartment. One miser- Frank survived typhoid fever as a boy and
We are nowhere near drunk. It would be able rainy afternoon I came home to find him
hard to get drunk even on a succession of small in the kitchen. Standing, still in his coat, he was Continued on page 22
founded the West Village Committee. The committee exists spare,” film review, July 16) Steve Erickson writes,
today, and is on record as a strong supporter of Protect the “‘Bruno’ could have been a brilliant satire on homopho-
Village Historic District, the group that is leading the fight bia.” I think the reviewer is seeking political correctness
against the Rudin-St. Vincent’s project. and a movie that will preach to the converted. That kind
of film plays for one week at the Quad. Bruno” is a dis-
Carol Greitzer turbing and outrageously funny film about the insatiable
appetite in this country for fame. The film is doing terri-
bly in Middle America because they don’t want to see any
fags on screen, particularly gay men kissing passionately.
Cohen’s ‘Bruno’ genius Writer and star Sacha Baron Cohen is a mad genius
To The Editor: Jim Sullivan
In his review of “Bruno” (“Satire dual-edged, but
Member of the
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Newspaper Patrick Hedlund SR. MARKETING CONSULTANT
Association Mark Hassleberger Ed Gold
ARTS EDITOR Jason Sherwood Rose Hartman
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16 August 27 - September 9, 2009
Fashion designer Betsey Johnson
RAMBLING ROSE
Downtown doyenne and culture chroni-
cler Rose Hartman has documented the
world of fashion in New York and across the
globe for more than three decades. Here, she
offers her best-of picks for where to see and
be seen in and around Chelsea.
BY ROSE HARTMAN
After two glasses of my favorite Chilean
Merlot, I left the apartment to make at least one
new discovery on a sultry summer afternoon. I
headed over to “Sexy and the City,” a single
wall, salon-style hanging of 29 mostly black-
and-white photos from the 1940s through the
’90s. It features shots like Diane Arbus’s awk-
ward teenage couple photographed on a bench
and a drag queen out on the street captured by
Nan Goldin. Never fail to provoke the viewer.
On display at the Yossi Milo Gallery, 525 W.
25th St., through Aug. 28.
Elizabeth Cannon, a true independent,
designs beautifully made clothes for a demand-
ing clientele of art-world personalities in her
small London Terrace studio. Inspired by gor-
geous materials and the artist-painted fab-
rics that she commissions, Cannon handcrafts
clothing reminiscent of a gentler time. Whether
it’s a classic shift or a bronze taffeta skirt, I am
more than a little amazed by her attention to
detail.
Cannon’s latest project—costumes commis-
sioned for an upcoming opera/ballet by Trisha
Brown of the eponymous dance company—
leaves the designer little time to relax. To clear
her head, this soft-spoken couturier makes
frequent forays to neighborhood galleries. Visit
her at elizabethcannoncouture.com.
HAMPTONS-BOUND
With summer drawing to a close, I knew
it was time to check out art offerings a bit
removed from Chelsea’s Gallery District. With
my bike in tow, I boarded the Long Island
Rail Road for a brief visit to East Hampton
and Sag Harbor. Most of my picks can be
enjoyed until October (except for the Secret
Art Society’s group show, which included none
other Chelsea Hotel resident Lola Schnabel,
who displays less arrogance than her famous
father).
With its low-key ambiance, historic Sag
Harbor is perfect for meandering. Donna
Karan’s recently opened Urban Zen is an oasis
of calm filled with her classic, luxe clothing
line, books, jewelry, and Asian and African
objects. Even if you can’t afford her pricey
garments, book-signings and special events
held throughout the year make the shop and
Artist Lola Schnabel
its exquisite patio a must-see. Facing a glittery
marina, Urban Zen is located at 4 Bay St. Visit
www.urbanzen.com for more.
It was then on to the newly opened Rizzoli
Bookstore at the Empire Gallery, where art,
architecture and design texts share space with
changing exhibits. (To extend the summer, I
The ebullient Betsey
Johnson created an
installation that features
her face atop cardboard
mannequins dressed in the
designer’s fanciful fashions.
recommend picking up a copy of Eric Fischl’s
“Beach Paintings.”) The space is co-owned
by Kristen Roeder and her husband Anthony
Petrillose, who owns the boutique art-book
publisher Empire Editions. I, for one, only
hope and pray that their bookstore/gallery
Chelsea Now photos by Rose Hartman
will become a permanent addition to Sag
Harbor in the future. At 197 Madison St. until
Columbus Day.
Arriving in East Hampton, I discovered yet
another new bookstore/photo gallery. Uber-
chic Christiane Celle, who founded (and sold)
her Calypso fashion boutiques, opened Clic,
an intimate, carefully curated shop stocked
with limited-edition art books and featuring
striking photos. 23 Newtown Lane.
Another longtime favorite, the Glenn
Horowitz Bookseller, overflows with gor-
geous, limited-edition books and eclectic
exhibits. 87 Newtown Lane.
Finally, I dashed over to a private preview
of “The Art of Fashion in the Hamptons” at
Guild Hall, the town’s famed art museum.
Nine prominent fashion designers—includ-
ing Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Donna
Karan and Vera Wang—scoured the hall’s
holdings to find the perfect object for their
vignettes.
The ebullient Betsey Johnson created an
installation that features her face atop card-
board mannequins dressed in the designer’s
fanciful fashions. Enjoying drinks with a crowd
of world-famous fashion luminaries made my
departure bittersweet. Guild Hall, 187 Main
St., through Oct. 12.
rhartmanphotos@mac.com

CHELSEA: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
A ‘clear, terse, compelling, richly enjoyable’ Odyssey
Actors, puppets, acrobatics bring long journey home to life
BY JERRY TALLMER
I can hear it now. “A stone at you will I throw.
Sophocles, it was. Or Euripides. Or maybe blind old Homer
himself. One of those ancient Greeks, issuing through the nasal
voice box of Harry Alan Jacobs, my classmate, age 15…
“A stone at you will I throw.”
“Oh dear, no,” says the day’s visiting guest teacher, Winifred
Lenihan (who some few years earlier, when starring in the
American premier of Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan,” had been
adjudged one of the most beautiful women anywhere). “Try
again, young man,” said Lenihan, a Brooklyn girl herself, in her
hot-potato theuh-tuh accent.
“A STONE at you will I throw.”
“No, no. Try again.”
“A stone at YOU will I throw.”
“Oh no. Unnecessary emphasis. Do try once more.”
“A stone at you will I THROW...”
Well, Harry, well, Miss Lenihan, well, long-lost members of
the 10th grade, Lincoln School of Teachers’ College, here’s a
breath-saving tip for all of you, all of us.
There is at hand — at 45 Bleecker Street — an inspiring
example of an Old Greek (Mr. Homer) rendered into clear terse
compelling richly enjoyable vernacular English, in many ways
a sort of astonishingly American (even New York) English,
though I don’t know if British poet-playwright Simon Armitage
intended it as such.
The opportunity is the Handcart Ensemble presentation of
Simon Armitage’s adaptation of Homer’s “Odyssey” — the life
and times of Ulysses the wanderer — by means of 11 actors
under the direction of Handcart co-founder J. Scott Reynolds,
with the assistance of a couple of puppets, some sheets, some
shadows, some lights, some acrobatics, and a very large quo-
tient of imagination, the audience’s and the cast’s interchange-
ably. Or interlockingly.
Ten years of battle at Troy, ten years of striving homeward at
sea. Here is how Odysseus himself (via Armitage) sums it up:
Nymphs have held me back.
Armies have held me back.
Witches have held me back.
Sea monsters have held me back.
The one-eyed mumbling Cyclops,
the mind-melting songs of the sirens,
the deep narcotic of the lotus flower
the prophecies of the dead,
whirlpools, clashing rocks.
No man loves his country or his family
more than me — the heart is a magnet,
it spins and finds its true north, and pulls.
It tugs…
But the heart isn’t a boat.
This heart alone won’t sail me home,
and somewhere in this mad, wild, hurling clock-
work
of islands and time and Gods, I’m lost…
None of that is “American (even New York) English,” per
se. But what about these, scattered through the play (for it is
a play — of sorts) like thumbtacks:
“She never did need telling twice” (Zeus on his clever, uppity
daughter, Athena, self-appointed guardian of Odysseus).
“It’s baby talk if you ask me. Gobbledygook language”
(Antiphus, one of Odysseus’s captains, on the drooling mut-
THEATER
THE ODYSSEY
Adapted from Homer by Simon Armitage
Directed by J. Scott Reynolds
Presented by Handcart Ensemble
September 3-19
In The Green Room Theatre at 45 Bleecker Street
For tickets, call 212-239-6200; Visit www.handcartensemble.org
terings of one-eyed Cyclops — before Odysseus pokes out that
monster’s only orb with a red-hot blazing tree branch. This
Cyclops, by the way, becomes rather more than a second cousin
— or great-grandfather — to Shakespeare’s Caliban.)
“What’s to forgive?” (Mae West-ish Circe, to another of
Odysseus’s captains, before turning that captain and others of
the shipwrecked crew into four-footed, snout-nosed pigs, so
that stranded Odysseus will have no other port of call than her
bed).
NAUSICA (a jealous serving woman) : “…I presume you
told that scheming, conniving hostess of yours to go to Hades
on a horse and cart? Or even lopped off her head with your
sword?”
ODYSSEUS: “No, it was…I judged it to be more compli-
cated than that.”
Do I hear echoes of a president named Obama? (Though
Armitage turned out this work on commission for BBC Radio
— in the pre-Obama year 2004).
“Ha! Pay up. You’re a born loser, Anthinomus.” (One of the
invidious suitors of Penelope — lonely, lovely Mrs. Odysseus at
her eternal loom — to another of that rotten crowd of worse
than swine.)
“What’s rattled your cage?” (Another or the suitors to yet
another — and more cautious — of the gang.)
“The fingerprints of the Gods are all over this.” (A suitor
sniffing trouble in the news that Telemachus, the now grown-to-
manhood son of Odysseus, has evaded a blockade and is on his
way back to Ithaca with military force to revenge his ten-years-
missing father.)
“Athena — what if they see you? You gave me this disguise
— now you’ll blow my cover.” (Secretly returned Odysseus, in
disguise as a feeble old man, to his silver-eyed protectress, who
now has suddenly made herself manifest.)
It is, as a matter of fact, toward the climax of the play — and
of the legend — that we realize Odysseus, like any great warrior
(George Patton, let’s say) is not through-and-through a nice guy.
Indeed, at climax, Odysseus emerges more and more as, on
occasion, a bully, a braggart; in short, a bit of a shit.
When nobody, none of the suitors, can bend and string the
famous bow left behind by the Odysseus who’d sailed for Sparta
twenty years earlier, and then that feeble old man steps up and
does it — sends an arrow twanging betwixt two huddled spears
— his son Telemachus, in on the game, offers congratulations to
the doddering stranger.
“And no fluke either,” says Simon Armitage’s Odysseus.
“Look, I’ll prove it again” — and sends an arrow plunk! through
the throat of the most abominable of the suitors. After that, the
slaughter.
August 27 - September 9, 2009 17
Photo by Nadia Kitirath
David D’Agostini as Odysseus; Cyclops puppet manipu-
lated by Nick Moran
“Theater,” says director Scott Reynolds, “is a very oral
medium. Also aural,” he throws in. “And the language here is
so strong and emotive, you go along for the ride.”
It was his idea, upon reading the Armitage radio play in
book form (he has never met Armitage), to turn it into a piece
for theater — mount it, that is, on an actual stage. Which also
meant cutting it from what would be four hours down to just
under two hours.
To this end “we brought on a talented dramaturge, James
Melton, the artistic director of Verse Theater Manhattan. I put a
few things back, and then we sent it for approval to Faber and
Faber, which had published the original in England.” (W.W.
Norton published it here last year.)
Reynolds agrees that its hero’s behavior “falls a bit short of
what we consider an admirable person,” but the director also
sees the hero’s redeeming virtue — and “the heart of Homer’s
epic” — to be Odysseus’s “insatiable need to be reunited with
his family and loved ones.”
But first…but first…apart from Circe and other diversions/
distractions, there’s that little seven-year stopover at the Land of
the Lotus Eaters, which sounds mighty like the Age of Leary’s
“drop out, tune in, turn on.”
Yeah, man.
Odysseus is embodied by David D’Agostini; Telemachus by
Joel Rainwater; Penelope by Elizabeth Ruelas. The other play-
ers: Jeffrey Golde, Rachael McOwen, John Michalski, Nicholas
Alexiy Moran, Jane Pejtersen, Joel Richards, Javen Tanner, and
Ryan Wood.
Reynolds, a 1996 graduate of Brigham Young University,
Provo, Utah, started the Handcart Ensemble three years later
with friends from that school. Its goal: To produce new adap-
tations, new translations, new works for theater from mainly
classical sources.
Can’t get much more classical than Home Run Homer, can
you, Winifred Lenihan?
18 August 27 - September 9, 2009

Last call, FringeNYC

Two fleeting shows worth seeing
THEATER
REVIEWS
HIS GREATNESS
Written by Daniel MacIvor
Directed by Tom Gualtieri
A 2009 New York International Fringe Festival presentation
Presented by Adam Blanshay and Lyric Productions, in associa-
tion with The Present Company
At the Cherry Lane Theater (38 Commerce Street)
Aug 27, at 3:45 p.m.; Aug 29, at Noon
For tickets ($15), visit www.fringenyc.org or call 866-468-7619.
Visit www.HisGreatnessPlay.com

BY SCOTT HARRAH
This provocative show, based on a true story about “two
days in the last years of the life of playwright Tennessee
Williams,” is one of the undisputed highlights of the 13th
Annual New York International Fringe Festival.
Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor’s brilliant script,
the stellar performances of the three cast members and
Tom Gualtieri’s tight direction create a top-notch bio-drama
about one of America’s most celebrated, controversial the-
ater icons.
“His Greatness” is not officially about Williams. The
Photo by Neilson Barnard
Broadway/Hollywood legend’s name and play titles are
never mentioned, and the lead character is simply called Tennessee Williams, sorta, center, in “His Greatness”
The Playwright (Peter Goldfarb). However, Daniel MacIvor
covers all the notorious territory about Williams’s private
life — from his alleged problems with alcohol and drugs to SCATTERED LIVES
his failed attempts at writing in his later years. Written, directed and choreographed by Yoshihisa Kuwayama
The story takes place in a Vancouver hotel room circa
A 2009 New York International Fringe Festival presentation
1980, as The Playwright prepares for the opening of a new,
updated version of an old play. “His Greatness” focuses on A presentation of Samurai Sword Soul, in association with The
the complicated symbiotic relationship between the writer Present Company
and his high-strung, devoted assistant/lover (played with
aplomb by Dan Domingues). Troubles abound when a calcu- At the Robert Moss Theater, 440 Lafayette Street, third floor
lating hustler (the superb Michael Busillo) is hired to escort Aug 28, 9:30 p.m.; Aug 29, 4:30 p.m.
the old man to the gala opening.
Goldfarb is first-rate as The Playwright — playing him For tickets ($15), visit www.fringenyc.org or
as a lovable yet sad person on a path of self-destruction. call 866-468-7619.
Dan Domingues is totally incandescent as The Assistant.
He brings down the house with his manic mannerisms as he Visit www.HisGreatnessPlay.com
delivers MacIvor’s beautifully written dialogue. When The
Photo by Motoyuki Ishibashi
Playwright complains about pain in his soul, The Assistant
quips, “That’s not your soul — it’s your hangover.” The BY SCOTT STIFFLER The Samurai storytellers of “Scattered Lives”
Assistant is the only one who can get The Playwright out They drink! They fight! They repeat that process all day
of bed and keep him sober enough to get through a radio and all night! blade meets blade, although not that of metal, lets you
interview and the opening of the play. Domingues portrays Occasionally, the good, bad and conflicted Samurai pause know in no uncertain terms that a battle is taking place.
The Assistant as a compassionate but frustrated man who long enough to experience fleeting moments of moral and The fight choreography, by writer/director Yoshihisa
tries desperately to help the egotistical, deluded author over- philosophical clarity amidst the relentless bloodshed and Kuwayama, is relentless, imaginative and effective in its
come his battle with alcoholism and drug addiction so he can power grabs. In the end, only a disembodied spirit and the implication of drawn blood and death (of which there is
maintain both his career and dignity. drunken shell of a former great fighter remain to survey much!).
“His Greatness” doesn’t solely rely on the sordid the damage and vow that their swords will only be used But along with all the violence you’d expect from a
aspects of Williams and his personal problems. There’s improve life rather than reign destruction upon the land. Samauri tale comes a thoughtful plot which sees two war-
also great detail on why critics were so fascinated with That’s the fascinatingly complex moral drawn at the end ring factions duel to the death and a drunken clown achieve
his female characters, and what he really thought of of the simple story to be found in Samurai Sword Soul’s redemption. By the time the rival clan is permanently dis-
such theatrical peers as Arthur Miller. Ultimately, how- production of “Scattered Lives” — a fine example of mini- patched in the climatic battle, only the reformed drunk and
ever, “His Greatness” is a portrait of a once-great writ- malist technique made to serve the telling of an epic tale. the ghost of the good-guy master remain on stage to con-
er’s decline and why so many people turned on him The bare, black box stage is filled only with three musi- template the way of the warrior and the responsibility that
in the end — showing exactly why the real life of cians, a nine-member cast and their swords. They swords comes with the power to take a life with relative ease. That’s
Tennessee Williams was every bit as tragic as his plays. aren’t real, though; but the well-constructed props glisten the unique, unexpected ingredient which makes “Scattered
with deadly implications and the resulting sound when Lives” more than just a series of violent encounters.

KOCH
ON FILM
“INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS” (+)
I thought this flick was based on some historical facts. It
is not. It’s a spoof. If you view it as such and don’t get super-
sensitive thinking one should be extremely careful when
engaging in a spoof that involves elements of the Holocaust,
you will enjoy this film.
Interestingly, Brad Pitt’s performance does little to height-
en the enjoyment. He portrays Lt. Aldo Raine, a Tennessee
hillbilly in charge of eight Jews. The performance of
Christoph Waltz, playing the Nazi Gestapo figure Col. Hans
Landa, is the highlight of the film. His ability to convey courtli-
ness and sympathy and then go to commit the cruelest of horrors
is simply superb.
The plot is simple. The U.S. Army authorizes Lt. Raine (Brad
Pitt) to take eight Jews with him, parachute into Germany and
then simply kill Nazis. He states that each of them owes him 100
Nazi scalps before they are through with their campaign. They
proceed to kill their share of Nazis and literally scalp them.
The Jew hunter, Col. Hans Landa, pursues Jews in occupied
France. There is an enormously touching scene showing a
French farmer giving up the Jews he had hidden in his house out
of fear that he and his three daughters would be killed. The her-
oine is a Jewish woman, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent),
who does us all proud. A fictional finale involves an apparently
successful effort to kill Hitler, Bormann, Goering and Goebbels
at a French theater. The film at that point becomes a rollicking
musical without the music. All I could do was hum “Springtime
for Hitler,” which I liked immensely.
Quentin Tarantino, writer and director, did it again.
PT said: “I didn’t really enjoy the film, although it was very
well produced and quite realistic except for the outrageous bits:
Brad Pitt as a hillbilly, Jewish soldiers trying to pass themselves
off as Italian filmmakers, and other unrealistic flights of the
filmmaker’s fancy. I just couldn’t reconcile the serious parts of
the film such as the giving up of the hidden Jews with the
comedic elements.”
1 hour, 52 minutes; Rated R.
At the Regal Union Square Stadium 14 (850 Broadway).
For screening times, call 1-800-326-3264 x628. For the Box
Office, 212-253-6266. Also at, among other places, Chelsea
Clearview Cinema (260 West 23rd Street). For screening
times, call 212-777-3456 x597. For the Box Office, call 212-
691-5519.
“DISTRICT 9” (-)
This horror/sci-fi film received kudos from the critics,
some giving it four stars. Ridiculous. Stay away.
The picture reminded me of the serials or chapters that
I watched as a child every Saturday afternoon. For one
dime I saw two films and also received a free soda and a
comic book. Of course, “District 9” cost a lot more to
make because of the technology involved.
A spaceship, unable to move from its position in the
sky, appears over Johannesburg, South Africa, in the
1980s. The alien craft is invaded by members of the
South African military and police force who find a million
or so creatures onboard that look like insects and to some
like crustaceans.
The extraterrestrials are initially treated humanely and
placed in a refugee camp known as District 9. Relations
deteriorate and they are soon viewed as social outcasts
and referred to as prawns, a slur. In an apparent allegory,
the treatment toward the aliens by the blacks and whites
of South Africa, with their history of Apartheid, becomes
brutal. A war is declared to get rid of them and they are
moved to an undesirable slum area.
I frankly thought it was all ridiculous, particularly
Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus in “Inglourious Basterds.”
so when an attempt to add a “buddy” component was
introduced. One of the aliens, Christopher Johnson (Jason
Cope), tries to help Wikus (Sharlto Copley) who was in
charge of the aliens’ care. After accidentally becoming
infected, Wilkus starts to turn into an alien and Johnson
promises to cure him.
I repeat. Stay away. This movie is an enormous waste
of time and they don’t hand out free sodas or comic
books.
1 hour, 53 minutes; Rated R .
At the Regal Union Square Stadium 14 (850 Broadway).
For screening times, call 1-800-326-3264 x628. For the Box
Office, 212-253-6266. Also at, among other places, Chelsea
Clearview Cinema (260 West 23rd Street). For screening
times, call 212-777-3456 x597. For the Box Office, call 212-
691-5519.
“LORNA’S SILENCE” (+)
I tried getting tickets for “Inglourious Basterds” on a
Friday night after my Bloomberg Radio Show, which airs
from 6:00-7:00 pm, 1130 on the AM dial. The show had sold
out by noon that day so I had to wait a few more days to see
it. After reading a blurb in the New York Post on “Lorna’s
Silence,” I decided to see it. The reviewer, who gave it four
stars, wrote: “From Belgium’s revered Dardenne brothers,
the story of a young woman who becomes involved in an
immigration scam.”
The picture is good, but far from a blockbuster. It is
a Belgian film noir that lacks the sensuality for which the
French are famous. I didn’t identify with any of the charac-
ters, but the story is interesting.
An Albanian woman, Lorna (Arta Dobroshi), fraudu-
lently acquires the right of legal Belgian residency by marry-
ing a Belgian drug addict, Claudy (Jeremie Renier). Claudy
is paid by a crime syndicate for the arrangement. Lorna
intends to divorce Claudy and marry a Russian involved in
organized crime who also wants Belgian residency. The head
of the criminal ring with whom Lorna is involved is Fabio
(Fabrizio Rongione). Fabio’s enforcement thug is Spirou
(Morgan Marianne).
Fabio, wanting to shorten the process allowing Lorna’s
marriage to the Russian, opts to kill Claudy with an over-
dose — but Lorna prefers to wait a month for the divorce to
take effect. You’ll have to see the film to find out who wins
out. The movie is well acted but lacks soul.
HS said: “The movie was well done and well acted, but it
was a real downer. Every actor was a thug or junkie, except
August 27 - September 9, 2009 19
Universal Pictures
for the one who became a psycho. The sudden ending left
the audience unaware of what befell the unsavory characters
in the film. We learned how immigration laws are circum-
vented, and how little human life means to gangsters and
musclemen. The title character had the face of a boy. You
couldn’t be sure until she stripped for action.
In French, Albanian and Russian, with English
subtitles.1hr 45minutes; Rated R (Drama); at Cinema
Village, 22 East 12th Street. For screening times, call 212-
924-3363. For the Box Office, call 212-924-3364.
SKIP IT ON DVD
The disappointing “Cheri” was out of area theaters
before we could get Ed Koch’s review into print — but
let the below serve as a warning to anyone who might
consider renting the film upon its inevitable, and unfor-
tunate, release on DVD.
“CHERI” (-)
All of what was necessary to come up with an inter-
esting and entertaining movie was available here. Instead,
those in charge produced a boring movie which was so slow,
it called up that old phrase, watching grass grow.
The movie is based on a book by the French novelist
Colette. She herself was the talk of Paris as Manohla Dargis
of The New York Times reports, having “lovers of both
sexes.” The movie concerns itself with the lives of courte-
sans — a nice word describing what today would be very
high-priced call girls (perhaps the word “mistress” would be
more accurate).
One such courtesan is Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer), who is in
her 40s or 50s. She becomes infatuated with Cheri (Rupert
Friend), now 19-years-old, the illegitimate son of another
courtesan, Charlotte (Kathy Bates), who is now retired. Lea
and Cheri have an affair for six years before he leaves her to
marry a younger woman.
The French have always touted relationships between
young men and older women. This one doesn’t work for
me. The director is Stephen Frears, who has had many
pictures that were exciting and sexual such as “Dangerous
Liaisons,” “The Grifters,” and “High Fidelity.” This movie
is not one of them.
Those wanting to immerse themselves in the feel of the
Belle Epoque period, preceding the first World War, may
want to go just to see the clothing and housing. But if you
are into sensual experiences, this is not for you.
Rated R; 95 minutes.
20 August 27 - September 9, 2009

Rooftop Films presents P-Star, under starry sky

2009 Tribeca Film Festival flick gets Brooklyn premiere
BY ELENA MANCINI
P-Star Rising is the story of a second
chance that emerged from a Harlem hous-
ing shelter, “a rose in concrete,” as director
Gabriel Noble refers to the character and
talent of child rapper P-Star (on which his
feature documentary is based).
When Noble met Priscilla “P-Star” Diaz
and her father/manager/former hip-hop
hopeful Jesse Diaz at a rapper debut dance
party in NYC, he knew immediately that
P-Star was not just a kid with a lot of spunk
— she had a story that was worth telling.
At the time, she was all of nine years old.
What struck Noble about P-Star (apart from
her tender age and the fact that she was out
at a party past midnight on a school night)
was “the aggressiveness of her flow, charis-
ma, her street smarts and her fire.” As Noble
describes it, he wanted to learn “where
that cadence was coming from.” Coupled
with P-Star’s precociousness and passion for
performing was also the consciousness of
wanting to bring forward the dream that had
seemingly eluded her father.
Five years have passed since Noble’s first
encounter with the Diaz family. During that
five year period, Noble (with the help of pro-
ducer Marjhan Tehrani) has spent four years
getting to know the family intimately and
filming them for this tour-de-force feature
Photo courtesy of Rooftop Films & the filmmaker
P-Star dancing in foreground, looming
large in background
documentary. The process of filming brought
Noble and the Diaz to form a close bond.
Noble described it as feeling like a member
of their family. The comfortable rapport
between the director and the family certainly
comes across in watching the documentary.
All of the family members seemed at ease
playing themselves. Their interactions with
FILM
P-STAR RISING
2009; 83 minutes; feature documentary
Directed by Gabriel Noble
Free; Thursday, September 3 (rain date,
September 10) Live 8:30 p.m. music perfor-
mance by P-Star; 9:00 p.m. screening, fol-
lowed by Q&A with the filmmaker
At the lawn of Ft Greene Park, North Portland
and Myrtle Avenue, Ft. Greene, Brooklyn (G
train to Fulton)
For information, www.rooftopfilms.com
one another appeared natural and candid
throughout. This sense also remained strong
in moments that highlighted character weak-
nesses, poor judgment, disappointments and
defeats.
Particularly noteworthy in this regard
was Jesse Diaz. Armed with scant resources
and cast in an emotionally challenging famil-
ial situation, this single father did not have
an easy time at bringing up two young
daughters who longed for their absentee,
crack-addled mother. Jesse’s parenting style
might be unorthodox, but his straight talk
and refusal to whitewash his checkered past
for their benefit is a testament to his love and
unwavering devotion.
As much as the story depicts the perks
and pitfalls of launching and managing a
career in the New York City hip-hop scene,
it’s even more a story about a family’s strug-
gles to fulfill a dream without present for
one another and sticking together. The Diaz
family brings its both its love for one another
and its baggage to the well documented risks
and gains of child stardom. It learns many
lessons along the way.
P-Star must learn to temper her pluck
and talent with her need to just be a kid.
Jesse must come to accept that despite his
commitment to confronting the pressures
and responsibilities that come with dual role
of manager/father, the intervention of hum-
bling realities cannot be prevented. Solsky
must learn the importance of self-expression
in a shadow role. While this is in many ways
a distinctly New York story, its disarming
authenticity and emotional rawness give
it universal appeal. Noble, whose future
projects include a documentary on gypsy
children in Romania, tells P-Star’s story with
sensitivity and respect.

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Funny Ladies
Marvelous Marilyn, delightful Dawson, holy Toledo, Kate the Great
IN THE NOH
BY DAVID NOH
I recently caught up with two performers
who stand firmly in the glorious tradition of
hilarious broads who also really know how
to sell a song — Fannie Brice, Sophie Tucker,
Judy, Barbra, Judy Holliday, Barbara Harris,
and Bette Midler. I grew up watching Marilyn
Michaels doing her convulsive imitations of all
the famous divas on the Ed Sullivan Show, and
she has a new CD out, “Wonderful at Last,”
in which her voice sounds as fresh and clarion
clear as ever. She sings standards like “Here’s
that Rainy Day,” as well as selections from a
musical “Alice,” based on Lewis Carroll, which
she is writing with her son, Mark Wilk.
“Talk about working with your mother!”
Michaels told me in her West Side apartment,
the walls of which are covered with her skill-
fully executed paintings. “Now I see why writ-
ers become alcoholics, because it’s so hard to
work alone, sitting in front of this blank page,
making it fresh.”
One entire wall displays photos of Michaels
taken with a jaw-dropping array of celebrities,
from presidents to George Steinbrenner, with
whom she worked on an early show and who
gives her Yankee tickets when she calls. I want-
ed to hear about them all. “I performed at the
old Huntington Hartford Museum, and Bette
Davis was there. I was a big hit that night and
noticed her daughter, B.D. — horrible woman
who wrote that tell-all book about Davis before
she was even dead — walking around with a
crown on her head, acting like she was Bette
Davis and Bette was her lady-in-fuckin’-wait-
ing. Such an attitude! I just worshipped Davis
and she was sweet as could be because all of
a sudden I find myself in an elevator with her,
and in the 1960s, she still looked good, and she
said, ‘You are fan-tas-tic! What a talent!”
Joan Crawford went even further “at a
Pepsi-Cola event I did. She was very gracious,
MGM-trained, but I noticed that she dressed
very strangely. She didn’t have Adrian to dress
her, so she wore these little plastic Cinderella
shoes and I was like, ‘Those are so 1962 and no
one is here from MGM to tell her.’ I’d finished
performing, and she ran out and grabbed me,
took me by the hand, and ran me around the
dance floor introducing me to everyone. She
was doing two things — she wanted to be a part
of it and was jumping into my act, but she was
also extolling my performance. Everyone was
standing back and applauding, and of course I
got the requisite thank you note from her on the
famous blue stationary which I treasure.”
In Vegas, Michaels opened for Roger Miller,
who took her to a party to meet Judy Garland:
“I was going to see my idol and I remember
she was extremely diminutive, very thin. She
appeared to be the hostess of the party, like
something you do –– you’re the star, you
host. But she seemed to be on something and
extremely vulnerable. Speaking to me, she was
pleasant, but going through the motions with-
out really being there. It’s like it was yesterday.
I didn’t expect her to look robust but did expect
her to be present, and it was very sad.”
Photo by John Hart
Marilyn Michaels
Michaels starred in the original road com-
pany of “Funny Girl” and naturally met its
original star, Streisand: “I was in rehearsals, and
Larry Kasha, the assistant director, took me to
meet her for a night out on the town. This was
before she became a monstrous movie icon,
but she was already a huge star. We went up to
her beautiful dressing room, all done in paisley
–– she already knew how to live like a star.
“We went out with her coterie in a limo, and
she was wondering what ever happened to this
certain girl singer from the ’50s and ’60s who
had disappeared. Barbra was very aware of her,
and reading between the lines, it was as if to say
that she was never going to disappear. We went
to a screening of a Marcello Mastroianni film,
and at the end a reporter came over and wanted
to shoot us talking together. He was directing the
shot, with me, just a kid at this juncture and the
new girl on the block. He was like, ‘What’s new?
Who’s this one?’ and I could suddenly feel her
entire body go like that — how threatened she
was. I could understand it and felt for her. That’s
the nature of our business, but it was a fantastic
night and I know she had heard my just-released
first album — with all this fabulous singing. I
remember her looking at me and saying, ‘You
have nice lips.’ And I thought, ‘What a very nice
compliment.’
“She was a big movie star by the second
time I met her, at this Vegas New Year’s party.
Everybody was there, and at this point she was
just in another sphere, but I sensed that there was
a loneliness about her.”
Joan Rivers was another story: “I worked with
her, not a very gracious person. It was on her
show and she was very competitive, even though
there’s nothing to be competitive about –– I don’t
do stand-up. But anybody else who’s funny… it
was just a feeling and it was not nice.
“First of all, I’ve never had anything done to
my face, which is not to say I never will, but I
don’t understand that kind of thing — to do that
much? There is no stop sign, as with anything —
drinking, eating, sex — and it doesn’t look nor-
mal, like the children in ‘Village of the Damned,’
a science fiction person.”
Michaels is a very happy lady, personally,
these days, having recently gotten married again
to Steven Portnoff, a lawyer she met on JDate.
At first, her friends were horrified that she was
going online, but she said, “I’m like, ‘Hello!?’
You know, sit there or do something! The well
of introductions had somehow dried up, and I
was like a kid in a candy shop. I ended up meet-
ing many people who became an important part
of my life at a time when I needed supportive
friendship — a financial guy, a psychiatrist, and
now a lawyer.”
With her friends hissing, “He just wants to
get into your pants,” even coming off as a perfect
gent did not completely win her over, desperate
as she was to maintain her anonymity — which
was blown when she finally succumbed to his
request for a photo and mistakenly sent him
her headshot, before cutting off her name in
the caption. But the clincher occurred when he
wrote a letter to her describing how he’d taken
his dementia-suffering father on Father’s Day to
see her show “Catskills on Broadway,” and, at
the end of it, a lucid Dad said, “She was very
funny.”
As for Ed Sullivan, Michaels said, “He
was wonderful to me and my family, but he
had a habit of standing on the stage while you
performed, another situation of somebody
wanting so desperately to be a part of that
moment. He just wouldn’t leave, and I’d be
performing and looking over at him. It was so
fucking weird! Sometimes I want to say that to
[‘Broadway By the Year’ producer] Scott Siegel
[laughs].”
Representing the new crop of funny musi-
cal ladies is Kate Dawson, whose delightful
show, “The Asshole in My Head,” I caught at
the Triad on July 26. In it, she recounts the
travails and daily life of someone who came to
New York with Broadway dreams and, instead
of making it big, made it “a little.” It’s the story
of so many of our lives, and Dawson managed
to be both sidesplitting and poignant, while
displaying a ravishing voice which ranged
over material from “Great Big Stuff,” an ode
to materialism, especially her beloved Chanel
bag, to “The Light in the Piazza,“ all in strict,
succinct service to her universal, but individu-
ally wrought, theme.
Dawson told me, “I had been really unhap-
py in the business and stopped auditioning. I
didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I got a
regular job with real benefits and got married. I
got the book ‘The Artist’s Way,’ and did one of
the exercises — writing the morning pages —
every morning for two and a half years.
“I knew I wanted to say something and
would think, ‘Maybe I could do a show about
this,’ but as soon as I said that, I’d think, ‘Well,
that’s stupid. That doesn’t make any sense.’
This went on for weeks until I got angry and
realized no matter what my idea was, I always
had a reason not to do it. I realized that I
was talking to this asshole in my head, telling
me things I didn’t want to think about. That’s
where the title came from, and what’s interest-
ing is that, in a way, it has freed me from that
asshole. I’ve become friends with it more, but it
still gives me a hard time.
“When I was growing up, the asshole in
my head was nicer to me. But 13 years in New
August 27 - September 9, 2009 21
York made it meaner, making me hear things
I’d hear at auditions or from agents or casting
directors. That’s when it got nasty. I’d studied
opera in college, and always had more of a legit
sound than Broadway belters like Sutton Foster.
This did limit me in a period when everything
they wanted was ‘Rent’ stuff, which I don’t do
or want to — and most of those kids don’t have
a voice any more. But it was pretty hard seeing
Kelli O’Hara and Laura Benanti, the same type
as me, soar to the top. You wonder what did
you not do — maybe you need to lose weight,
go blonder, a makeover. I became very insecure
about my looks because nothing seemed good
enough.”
Dawson feels blessed to have assembled
a “dream team” around her: Director “Don
Amendolia came in while he was acting in ‘33
Variations.’ It didn’t have a directorial struc-
ture. You get so close while you’re writing it.
He said, ‘Okay, this song is not your opening,
the second one is, and we need to move these
three. It’s a very emotional show for me, and I
really had problems not crying. But he’d say,
‘Let us cry, you can’t,’ which is a hard lesson for
actors because you get such rewards for crying,
like Julianne Moore, that’s all she does and I’m
not a fan.”
The brilliant Doug Oberhamer replaced
Dawson’s original music director: “He loved
and believed in this, found the band, and is
someone who really takes charge, so organized
and such a great musician. After we did our
first show, Don said, ‘We’ve got to cut a song
–– “How Glory Goes.”’ I didn’t want to, but
Doug agreed, and now it’s one of the best parts
of the show, because when I start to sing it, my
asshole [deliciously played by Lauren “Coco”
Cohen] screams, ‘Not another ballad!’
Two free exhibits you should catch before
they end are “Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the
Inside Out” at Fashion Institute of Technology
(www3.fitnyc.edu/museum/Isabel_tole-
do) through September 26, and “Katharine
Hepburn: In Her Own Files,” at Lincoln Center
Library for the Performing Arts (nypl.org/
research/lpa/) through October 10. The first
features the genius, innovative work of the
woman who may be America’s greatest living
designer, and you can see the famous Inaugural
dress she made for Michelle Obama.
The second is a mesmerizing survey of
Hepburn’s career, culled from her personal
papers she left to the library. The emphasis is
on her stage work, with her diaries and opening
night telegrams from famous friends reflecting
Broadway’s Golden Age. I respectfully dis-
agree with curator Barbara Cohen Stratyner,
who opined at the opening that Hepburn’s
stage photographs are more telling than those
taken by Hollywood photographers, who tried
to impose the look of, say, Garbo or Ingrid
Bergman, on her. Hepburn adored being photo-
graphed, and her work with studio lensers like
Hurrell, Clarence Bull, and RKO’s marvelous
Ernest Bachrach comprise some of the most
exciting feminine images of the last century.
Contact David Noh at Inthenoh@aol.com
and check out his new blog at http://nohway.
wordpress.com/.
22 August 27 - September 9, 2009
My brother Frank: the teacher who walked beside me
Continued from page 15
endured chronic conjunctivitis. In the 1980s
he would survive cancer. Having thorough-
ly embraced and enjoyed his dozen years of
fame, he was now afflicted with melanoma.
Treatments and hospital stays would follow, all
to no avail.
During his last days, in the hospice, he lies
propped up in bed. Two or three other people
are in the room. I indicate to him that I must
leave and that I will be back tomorrow. Frank
raises his right hand, the first and second fin-
gers extended; the middle finger and the pinkie
folded back, the thumb lying flat.
Smiling as he is, this gesture means some-
thing. I can tell. The others in the room are
watching him, and they laugh when he raises his
hand. With the crinkle of a joke at the corners
of his smile he forgives the others their laughter.
Still looking directly at me, and with the same
wide smile, he moves his right hand: upward,
and slowly downward, then left to right, in a
continuous motion. Oldest to youngest, father-
less now as we have ever been, in timeless
rhythm he gives me his blessing. And without a
thought I cross myself.
The next day Malachy and I are with him in
the room. Frank’s wife, Ellen, is away, briefly,
on an errand. Frank becomes agitated. His shirt
is bothering him, and we help him remove it.
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Still he tosses. We can’t settle him, can’t seem
to relieve his discomfort. We decide to use the
emergency device to call the nurse. “Where is
it?” I ask Malachy. “It’s hanging by the side of
the bed,” Malachy answers. I look for it, without
I hadn’t seen or sensed any
angels at Frank’s bedside.
No secular spirit-guides-
for-hire, either. I doubt
that he would want them.
success, and I continue to search, while Malachy
insists. In the end, I get down on my hands and
knees. Malachy, with his busted leg encased in
the big black boot, begins the search on his side
of the bed. Neither of us can find the device.
I have a fleeting vision of Malachy, Mike and
myself, all of us under the bed searching for
the device, and the nurse arriving in. “Where is
everybody?” she would ask Frank. “Where have
your brothers gone?”
“Damned if I know,” would be his response.
“The behavior of my brothers has always been a
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mystery to me.” And he would sink back on his
pillow, resigned, as always, to our vagaries. That
was my imagining.
In the event, Malachy’s wife, Diana, had
gone to summon the nurses. Frank never had
been overweight, and now there is not an
ounce of excess. His spirit, whatever that is;
his dreamer, his inspiration, the fine tuner of all
his lives and of his brilliant articulation, all are
pulling away.
He tosses and turns from side to side. No
matter how he has been positioned in the bed,
his feet always seem to find purchase against the
rail at the foot. Now he moves his legs up and
down, as if practicing for takeoff. A distillation
is taking place, a fever without fever, as his spirit
gains its complete ascendancy. And a smelting,
as his body, reduced to its essentials, takes on a
sheen and an extraordinary beauty.
Years ago Frank told me that he was strongly
attracted to the writings of J. Krishnamurti, to
the idea that we should abandon all the grandi-
ose notions and practices of established religion,
that we should look with wonder at whatever
is before us, and that, toward everyone and
everything, we should behave in a just, loving
and compassionate manner. He didn’t say this
in so many words, but that was the message.
Be guided by justice and love. That’s the most
practical approach.
I hadn’t seen or sensed any angels at Frank’s
bedside. No secular spirit-guides-for-hire, either.
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I doubt that he would want them. Instead, I
believe, he had been getting himself into fight-
ing trim, accepting change as it came, as he
always did, shedding all excess baggage and
preparing for the trip.
Then the nurses come. With care and ten-
derness, they move him up in the bed, adjust
and plump up his pillows and settle him. Soon
he is asleep, and he will continue in sleep. There
is talk of seizure, of complications. I think I
know better. On his left side, now, and with his
left palm under his chin and his chin slightly
raised, in the thinker’s classic pose, peacefully
he sleeps.
Only days later, on Sunday afternoon, family
and friends were present at the hospice. I was
not. Having stayed with him all night, I was at
home when the call came. At a little after 3 p.m.
Frank had stopped breathing. His body had
finally wound down. It is very sad. The knowl-
edge of his absence is sometimes overwhelming.
The memory of that earlier day, that day of
exaltation, offers some consolation.
A few years ago he said to me: “We are
all we have, the brothers, the women and the
children.” Now, of course, we are one less. But
maybe, after a nice rest, and God knows he
deserves it, in another 66 years, or however
long it takes to reach retirement age, Frank will
break away from the mass of the great vibration
and, once again, lend his voice to the shunned
and the excluded.
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 August 27 - September 9, 2009 23

THE
COMPILED BY
SCOTT STIFFLER
ALIST
Scott@chelseanow.com

ART
ART
NIGHTSHIFT III
This group gallery show pulls back the curtain to reveal the talents of those
who toil during the daylight hours as arts institution staff and/or artist
assistants to big names in the established art world. By night, however, this
sub-community spends their hours maintaining disciplined studio practices
of their own. Show up and find out what they have to show for it — and
you might just end up pinpointing that moment in time when the student
becomes the master. Through October 6. Viewing Hours: Tues through Fri,
10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat, 1 to 4 p.m.; at Hudson Guild Gallery, 441 West
26th Street. Call 212-760-9837. At the closing party on Oct 6, 6 to 8 p.m.,
you can meet the artists and take in some performance art.
Image courtesy of the artist (Sara Pringle)

“Blue Tony” (2009)

Image courtesy of Rubin Museum of Art

DANCE/ART
The Enlightened One, Jewel Born (Tibet; 14th cen- DANCES FROM HOME
tury; pigments on cloth) Born in Japan, choreographer and perfor-
MANDALA: THE PERFECT CIRCLE mance artist Maureen Fleming is an American
Buddhist Cosmic Diagrams come to life in this exhibit which master of Butoh (an avant-garde movement
thoroughly transports the viewer from the 8th to the 21st developed in post-war Japan). This gallery
century — by displaying some of the oldest known mandalas installation/performance celebrates her 25
(large paintings found in the Dunhuang caves in northwest- years as a NYC artist with a retrospective
ern China) alongside virtual, computer-generated varieties. of her photography, video and live work.
This exhibition is the first of three in “The Cosmologies By the time you exit, Fleming hopes you’ll
Series” — RMA’s continuing investigation of how different have reconsidered the notion of home as
cultures visually represented the universe. Come for the the crossroads between place of origin and
mandalas and your own search for meaning; stay for the wide that ultimate dimension beyond death which
array of Himalayan art! Through January 2010; at The Rubin we’ve all got an appointment with. Plus, the
Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street (between 6th and 7th dancing is nice. On view daily from August
Avenues). $10 admission (special rates for students, seniors, 22 through September 4. At La MaMa La
artists, neighbors). Call 212-620-5000 or visit rmanyc.org. Galleria (6 East 1st Street, between Bowery
& 2nd Avenue). Admission is free; donations
Photo by Lois Greenfield
encouraged. For more information, visit mau-
Maureen Fleming: The Immortal Rose
CHARLIE reenfleming.com.
PARKER JAZZ
FEST
City Parks Foundation’s
KEEPING THE

FILM
17th edition of the
INDEPENDENT FLAME
First Run Features gets a respectful retrospective,
Charlie Parker Jazz
as the Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrates
Festival features two
thirty years of fiction and documentary films from
afternoons of free jazz
the company founded in 1979 by a group of film-
headlined by Frank
makers dedicated to (OK, obsessed) with advancing
Wess Quintet and
the distribution of independent film. The gay his-
Cedar Walton Quartet Photo by Gene Martin

Cedar Walton, performing with tory documentary “Before Stonewall” is on the bill
— all in the service of
his quartet, Aug 29 (Sept 3), as is “49 Up” (Aug 30, 31) — part of a
paying tribute to the
decades-long doc which checks in with a group of
great Charlie Parker. Also appearing are Gary
Brits every seven years. Several of the filmmakers
Bartz, José James, Aaron Parks, Papo Vazquez
MUSIC

whose works are screened will be making personal

Pirates Troubadores and the Dred Scott Trio.
appearances. August 26 through September 4 at
Free. Performances begin at 3 p.m. on Sat, Aug
the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street).
29 (at Marcus Garvey Park (124th Street and
Single Screening Tickets: $7; series Pass, for $40
Mt. Morris Park) and at 3 p.m. Sun, Aug 30 at
admits one person to five screenings. For a com-
Tompkins Square Park (E. 8th Street, between Photo courtesy of First Run Features
plete schedule, visit www.filmlinc.com.
Aves. A and B). Retro drag party, from “Before Stonewall”
24 August 27 - September 9, 2009