By Jeff Hodges Riley is one of those dogs you keep on a tight leash. She attacks skateboarders and sanitation workers, stops deliverymen dead in their tracks, runs deer, and once treed a fisher cat, a cousin of the wolverine. It’s a good thing she only weighs six and half pounds. My hometown had no
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The Kallikantzaroi Who Stole Christmas
By Anastasia Kaliabakos Although winter brings wind and cold weather, it also offers immense joy and holiday cheer to the entire world. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I love to celebrate with a big family gathering each year. As our family is Greek, my mom and I prepare traditional Greek dishes, like lamb and
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Super Hero XV: A Grand Way to Pay a Bill
By Robert Kroll No one in his right mind would pay this bill. It was six years overdue, a penalty for a crime committed by a now defunct plumber. It was not clear that the “crime”—failure to file the annual steam boiler report with the Department of Buildings Boiler Division—was even committed. Many reports are
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Jersey Boy Bobby in WW II
By Robert Heide Growing up in the middle-class town of Irvington, New Jersey, a suburb of the big city of Newark during the time of the Second World War, I was often referred to as ‘Little Bobby’, a name tag I resisted as soon as I heard it. Yet, an older cousin of mine began
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Pearl Harbor Baby
By John Gilman Five years ago, on the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor I told the story in WestView News of my fathers’ experiences as the first newspaper man at the scene of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941. He had received a call from a reporter at the Honolulu Advertiser where he
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Progressives Organize to Impact Elections
By Penny Mintz While bemoaning the results of last month’s elections with one of my relatives, a woman I love dearly, she put the blame squarely on progressive Democrats. “Progressives are too much,” she said. “We need moderation.” Being one of those progressives, I cannot disagree more. I managed to maturely hold my tongue. But
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State Moves To Save Community Newspapers
By George Capsis Since 2004 more than 20% of all American papers have gone out of business, including 40% of weekly papers in New York. The principal reason for this decline is attributed to the decline in advertising. While the disappearance of local and neighborhood newspapers is an issue even here in New York City,
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New York Gregorian Chant Project
By John Davis Come Sing Chant! After months of disruptions to life as we knew it, what are your priorities now? Seize the moment? Live more healthfully, do things that matter, expand your horizons? Maybe have more balance, mindfulness, more moments to breathe? More peace? When our lives are upended, it can be a time
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Johnny!
By Robert Heide The book Johnny!, written by Michael Smith, playwright, essayist, publisher, the chief drama critic for the Village Voice during the sixties, tells the story of his tempestuous, drug fueled and ultimately tragic relationship with Johnny Dodd who was a sometime waiter as well as the chief light-board genius at the Caffe Cino
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Ballet, Now
By Dana Jean Costantino Dance class, why not! If you have never danced before or have in the past and want to get back into the groove, there is absolutely no time like the present to hit the dance floor. Ballet especially, has seen a resurgence in popularity in the recent months. Interest in everything
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A Tuscan Dream in the Village: Sogno Toscano Celebrates the Magic of Italy’s Culinary Excellence
Taking on the Pandemic with Gusto in Its Continued Romance with New York By Hannah Reimann with Caroline Benveniste As you walk into the lovely storefront on the corner of Perry Street and Waverly Place, you will be greeted by samples of Prosciutto di Parma, Robiola cheese, flavorful, sweet yellow and red cherry tomatoes and
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Through the Window
By Jeff Hodges When my father attended Columbia University he lived in an apartment you could only get into through a window. This gave him the license to say he made it into Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road because of the line that appears near the beginning of Chapter 10: “And at five o’clock
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Carbon, Nature’s Food
Abstracted from A Scientists View of Almost Everything by Mark M. Green A special love affair exists between carbon and oxygen, which shows itself with every exhale of our breath. Each carbon atom contained in what we eat and drink is sent to enzyme-driven machines in our bodies. The carbon is pried lose from whatever
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Can You Go Home Again? Exploring California in 2021
By Gordon Hughes In my very first article for WestView News (which has now become a monthly column) I explained my journey from Hollywood to the West Village. George Capsis, with his wit and charm, had convinced me to write an article about that journey, and I have been writing for him ever since. Well,
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Fall Forest-Bathing: The Call of Nature
By Lynn Pacifico It is difficult to find earth with soul left in it when living in a highly-urbanized city, so I need my forays into the woods. I signed up for a gathering in a wilderness area, after which I would stay on for three additional nights. I was excited at the chance to
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The Digital Age or The End of the World as We Know It
By Roger Paradiso Top Ten Digital nightmares I think about every day: Driverless cars. One day you will be in a driverless car— Uber, etc. I won’t. I’d rather walk. The thought that an automated moving vehicle can navigate the crazy drivers in the Village causes me to lose sleep at night. Spam. digital forms
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To Stream or Not to Stream…
By Roger Paradiso Streaming is a technology used to deliver internet content to smart TVs, computers, and mobile devices without having to download it. I am placing my films, including The Lost Village and Searching for Camelot episodes 1-3, with Global Cinema Online. As an independent filmmaker, I have been searching for a home for
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Star Power
By Keith Michael But I will find him when he lies asleep, And in his ear I’ll holla ‘Mortimer!’ Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak Nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ and give it him To keep his anger still in motion. Hotspur (Henry Percy), History of Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene
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Super Hero XIV: The Highs and Lows of Subletting in a Co-op
By Robert Kroll Here’s something co-op apartment dwellers never wanted to hear: if you are thinking of sub-letting your apartment long-term, you could be shooting yourself in the foot, financially. Of course, if you’re out of work or still suffering from the lousy pandemic-created economy, bringing in rent for your West Village apartment may seem
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NYC DJ Brenda Black Interviews AIDS Cure Researcher
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. Biology, maybe more than the other sciences, is a lot like cooking, but not many people know that. I was happily surprised when DJ Brenda Black started our interview by asking about cooking. Brenda is a popular DJ in Manhattan’s best known gay bars and clubs. She is also an excellent
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Heroes Fight Like Greeks: Remembering Oxi Day
By Anastasia Kaliabakos Nowadays, Greece is known for its beautiful islands, sandy beaches, and ancient ruins. It is one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world, and there is no one I know who doesn’t like Greek food. But Greece is so much more than those things—it is the birthplace of democracy, the
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The Campaign Against Lawless Motorcycles Begins
By Committee Against Lawless Motorcycles Just when New Yorkers were adapting to the ubiquity and legalization of electric bicycles (e-bikes), another invasion of bigger badder machines has taken our streets, bike paths, and sidewalks by storm. On June 4th, actress Lisa Banes, 65, was run down by a “scooter” in a crosswalk near Lincoln Center
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Local Progressive Group Reorganizes
By Penny Mintz When the election results were confirmed on November 3, 2016, I, for one, went into mourning. For years I wore nothing but black. And indeed, Trump’s election turned out to be more ominous than anyone imagined. We came close to nuclear conflagration in North Korea, and ongoing efforts to overthrow the government,
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The Rise of Health Drinks and Elixirs
By Dana Jean Costantino Over the last several years we have seen the interest in, and demand for, healthful drinks climb to new heights. Whether it be kombucha, matcha, juice cleanses, herbal teas and tonics, bone broth, or flavored waters, people are turning, in great numbers, to using these drinks as key parts of their
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On Writing My First Play
By Carol Yost I’d had an idea for this play since the 1970s, but it was hardly like the play I wound up writings. Still, it was inspired by what I saw when I was a secretary for tenants’ lawyers. It is my first finished play. A few months ago, during the Covid lockdown, I
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The Broadway Bubble
By Gordon Hughes There is an amazing, sometimes controversial, movement occurring on the Great White Way. Right now there are more than 125 plays and musicals running on a variety of television screens. Some are traditional TV networks. Others are streaming on outlets such as Netflix and Apple. I mention those two networks because two
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Black Holes
Abstracted from “A Scientists View of Almost Everything” by Mark M Green To get away from the earth’s gravitational field, objects have to accelerate to a speed of about 25,000 miles per hour. This so called escape velocity, needed to overcome the gravitational field of any body, depends on that body’s mass (how much matter
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School Days
By Jeff Hodges Our daughter is a natural producer, director and performer. She says it was inevitable that she would become a teacher. She discovered her avocation after college when she began substitute teaching to make ends meet. Two years later, with a graduate degree in Education, she was a teacher in a brand new
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Google Buys St. John’s Terminal
St. John’s Terminal has gone through many iterations over the years. When WVN first started writing about possibilities, several architects had already offered ideas. We offered this rendering, hoping a development would contain a hospital: COOKFOX first showed a mega-development with air-right-transfers: Later, when the north tower was separated from the south portions, and the
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NYC Retiree Alert
By J. Taylor Basker & Jesse Kasowitz While you were enjoying the summer on the beach, sunning, swimming, or boating, the city unions sank the secure medical coverage you thought you had for life, as a retired city worker, behind your backs. Your sunscreen did not protect you from this dangerous change privatizing your Medicare.
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Little Italy has almost no public green space.
@Adrian_Benepe tweeted: Little Italy has almost no public green space. Mostly it has asphalt yards. Why would the City destroy a beloved green space that provides pollution and storm water absorption and cooling in a known urban heat island? Adrian Benepe is a Senior executive with a career in government & non-profits working on parks,
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Review of “Walk on the Wild Side: The Folk Scene, Before and After Bob Dylan”
By Anthony Paradiso On Saturday, September 18th, I went on a walking tour organized by the “Village Trip Festival.” The tour took me on a journey through the former homes of key members of the folk music revival that took place in the Village 50 years ago. Our tour guide, Jesse Rifkin, explained why the
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Sigmund Freud and the Birth of Public Relations
By Bruce Poli Edward L. Bernays Sigmund Freud, “Uncle Sigi” to Bernays In the early 1940s my mother had lunch with Edward L. Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud and uncle of Peter Bernays, her “beau” (and Freud’s great nephew). She was to be interviewed the next day as a pioneering woman advertising copywriter. Edward carefully
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When No Place Is Home
By Kieran Loughney While on an errand one sweltering summer day, I observed a woman covered in thick layers of soiled and tattered clothing crouched beneath a scaffold on 6th Avenue among brimming bags of her collected detritus. Her feet were bare except for a coating of greasy black filth. A few blocks away, an
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Superhero XIII: The Hazards and Happinesses of the Short Sublet
By Robert Kroll Those of you, and I mean both of you, who regularly follow this series of columns on the meaning and essence of the co-operative ownership of residential apartments, know that I’ve tried to point out the pitfalls, the problems and the predators of co-op living in the Village. There are probably no
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Possible Roadmap to Block a Cure for AIDS
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. According to the group US Inventor, large companies can use the Patent Trial Appeals Group (PTAB) process to challenge innovations that get in their way, and most individual inventors and smaller groups do not have half a million dollars to mount a legal defense. AIDS patients are like cash cows. A
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Notes From Away: Sentinel of Democracy
By Tom Lamia On January 6 of this year, during the course of the chaos taking place below, one can only think that the saddest vision that day was in the eyes of the bronze figure atop the Capitol dome. That figure was commissioned by the government of the United States in the early 1850s
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Sliwa for Mayor: NYC’s Guardian Angel?
By Anastasia Kaliabakos As a native New Yorker born in 2002, I have been witness to the leadership of two mayors: Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio. I remember that, in middle school, one of my teachers facilitated a debate about Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to ban the Big Gulp, which was one of the many
