Mulberry Street, near Chinatown. By Paul Goldfinger Sept 2013. Click to enlarge.
Little Italy has been fading away for years. Yet you can still take a food tour there and visit family businesses that exist after more than one hundred years.
On Columbus Day, the Italian-American community is celebrated —-Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
SALISBURY CATHEDRAL BOYS AND GIRLS CHOIR “The Lord is my Shepherd”
When I see horseback riders I think of cowboy movies from my childhood or adult cowboy movies like “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” I remember “High Noon,” Roy Rodgers, Mexican sombreros, and Indians. I don’t think of equestrian competitions like they had in my last hometown–Chester Township. I had a neighbor on my street named Bill Horsey, and whenever I rode by his house, I whinnied, sending my sons into hysterics. As someone with a funny last name, I found humor in Bill’s dilemma. These days the “boys” are less likely to laugh out-loud at my jokes.
There was a horse-drawn wagon in Ocean Grove which we all enjoyed seeing clopping down Main Avenue. But that horse is gone now.
And finally I think of the dopey Mayor of New York City trying to put the horse-drawn carriages out of business. He lost that battle, and one quaint memory of old New York remains.
I recall taking this photo from one of those stone bridges in Central Park. The two riders were moving along briskly on a wintry day, and it seemed nostalgic even though I never rode horses except one time at Kutscher’s in the Borscht Belt where I got knocked off my mount; but that’s another story.
Here’s a song which evokes another horsey era, recalled by a Jewish guy from Minnesota—–Robert Allen Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, with “Romance in Durango.”
JUDY COLLINS: “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” From the album Christmas in New York
“Across the morning sky, all the birds are leaving
But how can they know it’s time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time
For who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?”
LEN CARIOU AND THE ZIEGFELD MALE CHORUS (with a wonderful staging of the Irving Berlin song) from the London production of Ziegfeld (about the Ziegfeld Follies—flapper era review.) Some of you may know Len Cariou from his role as the father in Blue Bloods (CBS)
Ziegfeld Folllies. Internet photo. Click to enlarge.
Ziegfeld girl. 1920’s. Internet photos (PG did not take this photo)
You saw some of Helen Levitt’s street scenes, but here is a shot from Eileen’s family album–Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.
c. 1950’s. Photographer is Dad—Bernard Harkavy. Eileen is big sister. Hope is little sister. There is some drama going on, but what is it? Re-post from Blogfinger 2013.
CHARLIE PARKER (with strings) from the Complete Master Takes album. “April in Paris”
This song was written by Vernon Duke and Yip Harburg (wouldn’t it be great to have a name like “Yip?”) for a Broadway show in 1932 called “Walk a Little Faster.” The Count Basie and his Orchestra version (1955) is the most famous (“one more time; one more once.”) The Basie version also was featured in the Mel Brooks movie “Blazing Saddles” where it is transplanted to the old west. —Paul Goldfinger, music editor @Blogfinger
Greetings from Manhattan. Walking and poetry are both rhythmic activities that I have tried, in several poems, to bring together to create a unified effect. Here is “A Couple” from my 2010 poetry collection, Brief Intervals of Harmony.